England in America, 1580-1652 Part 12

[Footnote 6: _Md. Archives_, V., 164-168.]

[Footnote 7: Ibid., III., 29.]

[Footnote 8: Neill, _Founders of Maryland_, 51.]

[Footnote 9: _Md. Archives_ III., 37.]

[Footnote 10: Browne, _George and Cecilius Calvert_, 69.]

[Footnote 11: _Md. Archives_, V., 187.]

[Footnote 12: _Md. Archives_, III., 42-93.]

[Footnote 13: White, _Relation_ (Force, _Tracts_, IV., No. xii.).]

[Footnote 14: _Md. Archives_, I., 119, IV., 38.]

[Footnote 15: _Calvert Papers_ (Md. Hist. Soc., _Fund Publications_, No. 35), 166, 216, 217; _Md. Archives_, III., 227.]

[Footnote 16: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 179.]

[Footnote 17: _Md. Archives_, IV., 246-249.]

[Footnote 18: Neill, _Founders of Maryland_, 75; _Md. Archives_, III., 165, 177.]

[Footnote 19: Bozman, _Maryland_, II., 293.]

[Footnote 20: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 321.]

[Footnote 21: Bozman, _Maryland_, II., 296.]

[Footnote 22: _Md. Archives_, IV., 281, 435, 458, 459.]

[Footnote 23: Hazard, _State Papers_, I., 493.]

[Footnote 24: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 340.]

[Footnote 25: _Md. Archives_, III., 164, 180, 187.]

[Footnote 26: _Md. Archives_, III., 211, 214.]

[Footnote 27: Ibid., I., 244-247.]

[Footnote 28: Ibid., III., 201.]

[Footnote 29: _Md. Archives_, I., 261, 287.]

[Footnote 30: Ibid., III., 196.]

[Footnote 31: Ibid., I., 305.]

[Footnote 32: Neill, _Terra Mariae_, 88.]

[Footnote 33: Bozman, _Maryland_, II., 672.]

[Footnote 34: _Md. Archives_, III., 259.]

[Footnote 35: _Md. Archives_, III., 265.]

[Footnote 36: Ibid., 271-277.]

[Footnote 37: Hammond, _Leah and Rachel_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No.

xiv.).]

CHAPTER IX

FOUNDING OF PLYMOUTH

(1608-1630)

After the disastrous failure of the Popham colony in 1608 the Plymouth Company for several years was inactive. Its members were lacking in enthusiastic co-operation, and therefore did not attract, like the London Company, the money and energy of the nation. After Sir John Popham's death, in 1607, his son Francis Popham was chiefly instrumental in sending out several vessels, which, though despatched for trade, served to keep up interest in the northern sh.o.r.es of America.

That coast threatened to be lost to Englishmen, for the French, in 1603, began to make settlements in Nova Scotia and in Mount Desert Island, near the mouth of the Pen.o.bscot, while their s.h.i.+ps sailed southward along the New England sh.o.r.es. The Dutch, too, explored the Hudson (1609) and prepared the way for a colony there. It was, therefore, a great service to England when Captain Argall, under the authority of Sir Thomas Dale, in 1613, dislodged the French at Mount Desert, Port Royal, and St. Croix.

Shortly after Argall's visit John Smith sailed, in 1614, for the northern coast, with two s.h.i.+ps fitted out by some private adventurers.

While the s.h.i.+ps were taking a freight of fish, Smith, with a view to colonization, ranged the neighboring coast, collecting furs from the natives, taking notes of the sh.o.r.es and the islands, and making soundings of the water. Smith drew a map of the country, and was the first to call it "New England" instead of North Virginia, Norumbega, or Canada. This map he submitted to Prince Charles, who gave names to some thirty points on the coast. Only Plymouth, Charles River, and Cape Ann have permanently kept the names thus fastened upon them.

Boston, Hull, Cambridge, and some others were subsequently adopted, but applied to localities different from those to which Prince Charles affixed them.

While he was absent one day Thomas Hunt, master of one of his vessels, kidnapped twenty-four savages, and, setting sail, carried them to Spain, where he sold most of them. The outrage soured the Indians in New England, but of the captives, one, named Squanto or Tisquantum, was carried to England, and his later friendliness worked to the benefit of subsequent English colonization.[1]

In 1615 Captain Smith entered into the service of the Plymouth Company and was complimented with the t.i.tle of "Admiral of New England." With great difficulty they provided two s.h.i.+ps and despatched them to effect a settlement, but the result was the old story of misfortune. The s.h.i.+p in which Smith sailed was captured by the French, and Smith himself was detained in captivity for some time. Captain Dormer, with the other vessel, proceeded on his voyage to New England, but did not attempt anything beyond securing a cargo of furs.

Smith tried to stir up interest in another expedition, and travelled about England in 1616, distributing his maps and other writings, but he says "all availed no more than to hew rocks with oyster-sh.e.l.ls."

Smith's connection with the American coast then ceased altogether; but his plans of colonization were not without fruit, since his literary works, making known the advantages of New England, kept the attention of the public fastened upon that region.[2]

At this time the most prominent member of the Plymouth Company was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, son of Edward Gorges, of Worcesters.h.i.+re, born about 1566. He served at Sluys in 1587, was knighted by Ess.e.x before Rouen, in October, 1591, and in 1593 was made governor of the port of Plymouth in England, which office he still held. Despite the ill-fortune attending past efforts, he continued to send out vessels under color of fis.h.i.+ng and trade, which ranged the coast of New England and brought news of a calamity to the natives unexpectedly favorable to future colonization. In 1616-1617 the country from Pen.o.bscot River to Narragansett Bay was almost left "void of inhabitants" by a pestilence which swept away entire villages of Indians. This information, together with the better knowledge due to Gorges of the value of the fisheries, caused a revival of interest regarding New England among the members of the Plymouth Company.[3]

Under the name of "the Council for New England," they obtained from the king in 1620 a new charter,[4] granting to them all the territory in North America extending "in breadth from forty degrees of northerly lat.i.tude, from the equinoctial line, to forty-eight degrees of the said northerly lat.i.tude, and in length by all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main-land from sea to sea." In the new grant the number of grantees was limited to forty, and all other persons enjoying rights in the company's lands stood in the position of their tenants.

Thus, like the Plymouth Company, the new company proved defective in co-operative power, and the first actual settlement of New England was due to an influence little fancied by any of its members.

Religious opinions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were great political forces. The Christian church of Europe, before the days of Luther, held the view that the pope of Rome was the only infallible interpreter of the Holy Scriptures, and against this doctrine Luther led a revolt denominated Protestantism, which insisted upon the right of private judgment. Nevertheless, when the reformed churches came to adopt articles and canons of their own they generally discarded this fundamental difference, and, affirming infallibility in themselves, enlisted the civil power in support of their doctrines.

Hence, in 1559, Queen Elizabeth caused her Parliament to pa.s.s two famous statutes, the Act of Supremacy, which required all clergymen and office-holders to renounce the spiritual as well as temporal jurisdiction of all foreign princes and prelates; and the Act of Uniformity, which forbade any minister from using any other liturgy or service than that established by Parliament.[5]

These acts, though directed originally against the Roman Catholics, were resented by many zealous English clergymen who, during the reign of Queen Mary, had taken refuge in Switzerland and Germany, and learned while there the spiritual and political doctrines of John Calvin. These English refugees were the first Puritans, and in the beginning the large majority had no desire of separating from the church of which the sovereign was the head, but thought to reform it from within, according to their own views of ecclesiastical policy.