The romance of American colonization; how the foundation stones of our history were laid

Front matter

Shelf.:_^-?-£

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE

Preface

The foundations of the American Commonwealth, as laid by Divine Providence, are broader and deeper than the average writer of our national history seems to have perceived. Our country is not a new England. It is a new and better Europe, dominated by that kind of Christianity which is all the purer because of freedom from political control. To the making of the nation many peoples contributed by sending their sons and daughters with varied gifts of race and temperament, as well as with faith, moral fibre, ideas, and experience.

In "The Romance of American Colonization," omitting military matters, the story from Sir Walter Raleigh to July 4, 1776, is briefly told. Less stress has been laid upon mere political enactments and the doings of kings and princes, and more upon the work of the people themselves. The purpose has rather been to show what the real builders of the nation have done.

It is not forgotten that Swiss, German, Dutch, French, Walloon, Scandinavian, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish, as well as English, helped to make our country. Christian and

5 PREFACE.

Jew, Catholic and Protestant, political and free churchmen, Puritan and Lutheran, believers and skeptics, the Indian and the Negro, have borne each his part in the making of colonial America.

If it appears in this book that to the Middle region is given an importance equal to the Eastern or Southern, that our fathers took most of their political precedents from a republic and not from a monarchy, that our general procedure is adapted from democratic rather than aristocratic communities, that our religion is continued from free rather than political churches, that the emigration of the Scotch-Irish exerted an influence second to none other, that the Catholics have been a nobly conservative force, and that in the American composite the continental as well as the insular elements have been potent leaven for freedom and righteousness, it is because the facts seem to warrant the statements made.

What a wonderful process of sifting and filtering, of being poured from vessel to vessel, was that among the nations of northern Europe, which gave us under God the mother-liquid out of which has crystallized the republic of

the United States of America !

W. E. G.

Ithaca, N.Y., June, 1898.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER

I. What is a Colony? ....

II. The Domain of the Virgin Queen .

Chapter I. What Is A Colony?

WHAT is a colony ?

Down at the roots, the idea of a colony is that of a company of people away from their old home, who are cultivating the soil. True colonists are first of all farmers. There may be sailors, soldiers, priests, political rulers ; but unless there are tillers of the soil who expect to make the new country their home, there is no true colony, A garrison, a body of traders, a governor and his staff of officers, do not make a colony. People who emigrate, but expect to stay awhile and then go back home again, will never make a settlement that will grow into a , state. A true colony begins when men make the earth on which they dwell support them.

There were not a few colonies in the ancient world. The mythology of many nations teaches that their ancestors grew out of the soil, but historyshows that they came from other countries. Asia and Europe were colonized as well as America. The story of the colonization of Korea, Japan, and India is quite well, and that of China fairly, known.

The most ancient voyage of discovery mentioned by the classic poets and myth-makers is that of the ship Argo, before the Trojan War. Under command of Jason, the Argonauts sailed to Colchis on the Euxine Sea to recover the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by a sleepless dragon. Hercules, Theseus, Castor, Pollux, and Orpheus were among the famous heroes in the crew. How they tamed the fire-breathing bulls, slew the dragon, sowed its teeth, won the fleece, and escaped the sirens is told in the lovely Grecian fairy lore. In plain prose, all this means that after a rough voyage and many adventures a band of colonists broke up the hard soil with the plough, sowed their seed, suffered many terrors, but persevered until the golden fleece, in the form of a harvest of ripe grain, covered the landscape. They succeeded in colonization and then began trade. Our American history, though real, is a much more wonderful story, and the golden fleece of our national prosperity a thousand-fold richer.

Greece was one of the first countries in Europe to be civilized, because it was nearest to the old seats of civilization in Egypt and Syria. Through the Trojan War the Greeks became acquainted with Asia and its riches. When the Hellenic states became overcrowded, colonization began by public act. The poor and the discontented, among whom there were many dangerous characters, who were yet brave and enterprising, were shipped to other lands to form Greater Greece. These led to the enterprises which lined the coast of Asia Minor with settlements that grew into rich and flourishingcities. Shut up by their mountains on the north, the Greeks were free upon the sea. Sailing in every direction, they located in the Crimea, upon the coasts of Italy, and even in France, Spain, and Africa.

The emio^rants took from their old homes fire kindled on the city hearthstone, and remembered the traditions of heroism and religion taught them by their fathers and mothers. A typical Greek city on the Mediterranean lay midway between the deep blue sea in front and the wheat fields, orchards, and groves on land, and often in rich valley or at the mouth of a river. Reared at first of wood, it became in time a orlorious mass of brick and marble.

With agriculture, industry, and commerce, there grew up a Greek world. These colonists, looking with reverence upon the mother country, still regarded themselves as Greeks. Their language was one. Their common book was Homer. Their method of government was federal. The several states were represented in the Congress called the Amphictyonic League. At the public games any Greek, from the Black Sea region to the Iberian peninsula guarded by the Pillars of Hercules, could contend with full rights. Glorious was the history of the Greek colonists during a thousand years.

The Romans developed colonial enterprises on a grand scale. From them we get the word " colony," though we must add Greek to get " colonize " and " colonization." A colony was a collection of coloiii or farmers in a new land. The root-idea of a colonist was that he was a colomis, or husbandman who tilled the soil and dwelt upon it. The words " colony," " cultivate," " cult," and " culture " have all the same root, which, back in the ancient Sanskrit tongue, is probably kal, which means to drive. As the root-idea of father is that of protector, of mother manager, and of daughter milker, so in that of colonist we have the picture of a ploughman behind his oxen turning up the soil for food.

The first Roman colonies were made up of soldiers who garrisoned the conquered or hostile territory. When Italy became overcrowded, colonies were founded for the benefit of the poor of Rome. This was a sort of ancient and permanent " Freshair Fund." When the empire required large armies to occupy its vast domain, there were great numbers of veterans, for whom it must provide. These old soldiers were not pensioned in money, as in our modern history ; for Rome was rich in land rather than in cash. So it was after our Revolutionary War, when the United States was very poor in coin, but very rich in territory. The old Continentals were paid not in gold and silver, but in land warrants. The American coloni helped largely in building up what was then called the Great West.

The Roman colony was thus a foundation for the benefit of veteran soldiers who had served out their time in the army. These colonists retained their citizenship, while receiving their lands by lot. When the empire extended from Britain to Persia and from Germany to the African deserts, colonies were very numerous. They were of various grades, but every district settled was considered an integral part of the empire. In some colonies settlers enjoyed all, but in others only a few privileges of Roman citizenship. Veterans usually settled on the soil allotted to them and married, and their children and descendants grew up, becoming citizens both of the particular state and of the empire. As a rule, the central government at Rome appointed their ablest men as colonial governors, but their tenure of office was limited, lest through personal influence they might grow too powerful. The chief feature of the Roman system, that of centraHzation, was carefully preserved in order to prevent colonies from becoming independent.

This is the system, in an improved form, which the British government has so largely copied, especially since the American Revolutionary War, which taught much wisdom. Many of the English governors sent to rule our fathers were weak, foolish, or unworthy men ; but now extreme care is taken in London to send the ablest men to Canada, India, South Africa, Australia, and other colonies. They are also moved about from country to country, so as to keep power centralized in England. The Irish-- man Sir Hercules Robinson, one of the best of Great Britain's colonial governors, of whose death in October, 1897, we read as we revise this chapter, governed well no fewer than six British colonies on four continents. Nevertheless, signs are not wanting that the idea of federation, so splendidly demonstrated in American history, will yet become the rule, and the British United States take the place of the United Kingdom and her colonies.

Grandly the Roman colonies fulfilled their mission. To-day, after more than twelve hundred years from the fall of the Roman empire, we see that some of the richest associations of history are with colonies. When St. Paul sailed from the seaport of Troas in Asia to introduce Christian civilization in

Europe, he preached the gospel first at Phihppi, which, as St. Luke, the historian of the Book of Acts, notes, was a colony,, or, as the Geneva version says, a place to which people went from Rome to live. The name of another Roman colony in Britain, on the Lind River, has descended to us in that of a city and also of Lincoln, one of the greatest of our presidents. In the geography of the Roman empire no name is more frequently found than that of Colonia, unless we except Augusta and Castra. Besides the term signifying that the place was a colony, there was some other name given from circumstances attending the settlement. Just as " castra," or camp, becomes changed into " caster " as in Lancaster, Caesarea into Jersey, Julius Caesar into Julich or Gulick, and Caesar Augustus into Saragossa, so the word " colonia " has suffered curious chancres, as we see in Enorlish " coin " and " colony " and in Cologne on the Rhine.

hi the Roman as well as in the Greek colonial system, the idea of close connection with and dependence upon the mother country was always maintained. The governing corporation of each Roman colony was dependent upon that of Rome. The idea was that the colony was always to be a part of the nation and empire.

This description separates the Roman or Greek colony entirely from that of a simple migration or wandering of a people from the old ancestral seats, into a new country or continent ; as, for example, when the Asiatic tribes that came to inhabit North America forgot their old homes. When the highlanders on the steppes of North Asia, known in history as Scythians, Huns, Turks, Tartars, or Mongols, in various ages invaded the southern countries, they also retained little or no connection with their ancestral lands. Indeed, uncivilized people, that is, people who have no writing, quickly forget their past. Whether it be the New Englanders who go down into the mountains of Kentucky, or the Normans who descend from Scandinavia into France, they forget their fathers. Illiteracy means darkness as to history. Life without letters is death. We do not, therefore, speak of the w^estward migration of the Celts as far as Ireland, the advance of the Teutonic or of the Gothic nations into western or southern Europe, as movements of colonists; for they kept no remembrance of the land they left behind.

During the middle ages, the Italians sent out bodies of men into various parts of the Mediterranean, who extended Venetian and Genoese trade and commerce in subject or neighbor lands. Various companies of Lombards, and other Italians, went also into northern Europe. They became the money-changers of the nations beyond the

Alps, introducing financial customs and enterprises. Yet these can hardly be called true colonists.

In modern times, we must award first honors of colonization to the Portuguese and Spaniards ; for the former had planted colonies, some a century old, in Brazil, Africa, and Asia, and the latter in South America, Mexico, and the West Indies, before the Englishmen obtained foothold on any continent beyond Europe. Yet, let us note at once how different these were — the Spanish and Portuguese — from the English and Dutch methods and results. The two nations of the Iberian peninsula did, indeed, lead the modern European states in replenishing and subduing newly discovered continents, yet in neither case were these enterprises begun by a movement of the people. The King of Spain, considering America as his private property, wished to establish one great empire in Europe, and another beyond the Atlantic, so that when united under his own crown, these should be grander in area and splendor than the old Roman empire itself. With this purpose in view, he sent out noblemen of high rank with princely salaries, who led their personal followers after them. So, also, did Portugal in Brazil and the East, and France in Canada and Louisiana. It was the old Roman way over again, without any improvement. The story of the early Spanish explorers in America has been already

22 THE ROMANCE OE AMERICAN COLONIZATION.

told in our previous volume, entitled " The Romance of Discovery."

In the case of the British and Dutch colonists, the spirit and method were entirely different. The people went first. The dignitaries followed afterward. The colonies which now form the United States were, for the most part, the results of movements among the English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Huguenot, Walloon, and German people, who were dissatisfied either with the kind of government under which they lived, or the religion which politicians tried to force upon them. They were not contented, for the very good reason that their consciences had been enlightened. They could not live happily under the sort of church and state which then existed. They longed for more freedom. Coming to the new continent of America, they obtained what they sought. Some, indeed, — Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, English, — without any grievances at home, were moved by love of adventure or were tempted by hopes of wealth to be got in the fisheries, the fur trade, the supposed gold mines, by rearing silkworms, or in developing the wonderful resources of the new land.

English colonization was begun by the English people. At first these pioneers who had crossed the sea were ignored or neglected by their government. Only when the colonies began to prosper

IF// AT /S A COLONY? 23

did royalty pay much attention to them. Becoming rich, they offered a tempting field for taxation and the filling of the British coffers. Then king and parliament joined in a scheme to tax the American colonists in the Roman way, which was something which men of Dutch and British descent would not stand. The ancient doctrine, first formulated by the Netherlanders and later by the English, was " No taxation without consent." They who pay the taxes must first vote them.

It was not until after the Revolutionary War that the British government fully formulated a colonial policy like that of the ancient Roman empire, but with modern improvements added because of experience with America. Such a policy, wisely carried out, has been best for both the colonists and aborigines. It often happens that the first discoverers, explorers, and settlers are little better than pirates and robbers, who take land as they please, caring nothing for the rights of inferior races already on the soil. The British colonists in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, and other parts of the world have found that all the land which they had conquered, occupied, or bought in large quantities from the natives for guns, beads, wire, shovels, a lookingglass, or a piece of red cloth was not wholly their own. These have had to yield their claims to those of the British crown. Havino- learned wisdom from her mistakes in dealing with the American colonies, Great Britain has become the mother of many nations.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the first object of a patriotic Englishman or Dutchman was to humble Spain. The monarchy that then owned America was the dominating power threatening all Europe. The two small countries which crippled and impoverished Spain became the two most successful colonizers the modern world has seen. In American history, the term " colony " has come into our speech from the Dutch. In Virginia, the Carolinas, and Massachusetts the settlements were all called " plantations," but in New Netherland " colonies."

Chapter II. The Domain Of The Virgin Queen

OIR WALTER RALEIGH led the way in awak- ^ ening the EngHsh mind to colonial enterprise and even in attempting himself to plant colonies in the region of Virginia. Although these first ventures failed, Raleigh will not be forgotten by Americans.

Woman's aid helped mightily to make America. As Isabella first encouraged Columbus, so Queen Elizabeth favored Raleigh. In 1578 she granted the first charter for English colonization on the North American continent. The name, Virginia, which she gave, though now restricted to a single state, included all the land which on July 4, 1776, became the United States of America. In this first charter the number of the councillors was thirteen, — as many as the states which formed the Union. How often does Divine Providence smite human superstition, in making great events, rich in happiness for mankind, occur on Friday, and how often is the number thirteen honored !

Although the Cabots sailed and made landfall under the Tudors, yet these rulers were not destined to plant the Germanic race or the Enghsh people in America. This honor was reserved for the worst dynasty that disgraced the throne of Great Britain. On the loth of April, 1606, King James Stuart put his signature to the patent which chartered two companies, the London and the Plymouth, bestowing on them in equal proportions the territory in America, including adjacent islands, lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude. For the first five years the people were to live together, holding common land, property, and food.

China, gold, and spice were still the lure of colonists. To show how the minds of every one, king and people, were possessed with the ideas of finding a water-route to China and of getting gold out of the soil, it was stipulated that one-fifth of the precious metal found should belong to the king. All waterways near the colony were to be explored, in order to find a short and easy way to the Pacific Ocean. Although the charter was published in England, the instructions of the king were put in a sealed box and with much mystery kept secret. They were not made public until the colonists reached Virginia.

One may wonder why Englishmen could be tempted to leave home. Their little country had then only about four millions of people, most of

THE DOMAIN OF THE VIRGIN QUEEN. 2 J

whom lived in the southern tier of counties, from which a majority of the settlers came.

In the year 1606, however, times were hard and food was dear. It was not dreamed then that England could ever support a population of nearly forty millions of souls, which is now done through improved agriculture and commerce. Furthermore, after Queen Elizabeth in 1585 took up the cause of the Dutch United States and sent an army to help the Netherlanders against Spain, there had been tens of thousands of English soldiers, with officers, contractors, and merchants, in the Low Countries, but now in 1606 the war between Holland and Spain was over. Already the peace negotiations, which were to result in a truce of eleven years, were under way. Thousands of British soldiers were thus thrown out of employment. When paid off and discharged at home, they were idlers waiting for a job. Not only had the military business, with its contracts and trade, helped to make Enoland rich, but the one hundred thousand people, mostly skilled workmen or intelligent business men, driven out of the Belgic Netherlands by Alva, had introduced those manufactures which were to make England rich. There was temporary distress, however, for the supply of breadstuffs had fallen short, because the landowners were turning their fields into sheep pastures, to raise wool in-

28 THE ROMANCE OE AMERICAN COLONIZATION.

stead of wheat. On account of this great change in agriculture, from plough land to meadow, which left harrow and hoe rusty for want of use, a large army of farm laborers found themselves with nothing to do.

So all eyes were turned to America as a continent where work was not only plenty, but gold was abundant. The common notion, as shown in the popular plays of the time in the theatre and in the books, was that the American rivers " ran down their golden sands," that nuggets were as plentiful as marbles and the yellow metal more common than red copper in England, Furthermore, lively young men believed that among the " diggings," there was " no more law than conscience and not too much of either."

In our time, Klondike explains to us the eagerness of these seventeenth-century Englishmen to try their fortunes in the American wilderness. Even the gold-hunting Spaniards, though they chased phantoms, seem, after all, not so very different from the men of to-day, who, in the hope of wealth or for love of adventure or " the danger's self to lure alone," will hazard health and life even in icy regions.

With so many men out of work and population pressing upon the food-supply, Virginia seemed " the door which God had opened to England."

The London Company had no trouble in getting young men to go out as " planters," and in this enterprise of 1606 there were neither wives nor children. It was a company of bachelors, like a military battalion. Of the one hundred and five colonists, more than half called themselves " gentlemen" ; that is, men without any manual trade or skilled employment, younger sons who had not inherited property and who were not accustomed to handle tools or do the downright hard work necessary, in all first attempts, to make the soil produce food. The others were laborers, tradesmen, and mechanics, with two surgeons and a chaplain.

On the 19th of December, 1606, three ships moored at Blackwall, London, where are now the East India docks, took on their human cargo. The largest ship was the Susan Constant of one hundred tons, Captain Christopher Newport, commander and fleet-captain ; the God-speed of forty tons. Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, commander; and the Discovery of twenty tons. Captain John Ratcliffe. The total tonnage of these three little ships w^as less than that of the Mayflower of later days and of many a canal boat of to-day. There were thirtynine men in the crews and one hundred and five colonists, of whom seventy-one were in the first, fifty-two in the second, and twenty in the third ship — one hundred and forty-four in all. Farewells and salutes being over, tlie little squadron sailed down the Thames, but when in the English Channel contrary winds detained them until New Year's Day. Then they moved westward across the Atlantic along the old route to the West Indies and up the coast into Chesapeake Bay. After a nearly four months' voyage, with their new home in sight, they opened the box of royal instructions, finding that the councillors named were Wingfield, Gosnold, Smith, Newport, Ratcliffe, Martin, and Kendell. The first three of these, and probably others, had seen military service in the armies of the Dutch republic.

Three days afterwards they landed and planted a cross, naming the place, after the Prince of Wales, Cape Henry, The other cape at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, they called Cape Charles, after the future king of that name. Anchoring the next day, they gratefully named the place Point Comfort. They sailed up the river, in the beautiful time of flowers, landing in May upon a peninsula. The name of their king was given to the river and to the town which they founded.

Knowing that they were surrounded by natives who mio^ht be hostile and rememberinor how Raleigh's colony had perished, they at once began building a fort and laying out James City. Captain John Smith, then twenty-eight years of age and a man of splendid abilities, showed himself at once a leader. China was in fancy still near. Smith and Newport, with twenty-three men, took the small boat and started on a tour of exploration up the river, going beyond the site of Richmond. Among other wonderful things seen, was a boy, ten years old, with yellow hair and light skin, who may have been a descendant of one of the Roanoke settlers. Indian tradition declared that several of the survivors had been adopted into the tribes. In later days a small band of gray-eyed savages were found on the North Carolina coast, who claimed that their ancestors were white men.

Smith's exploring party returned on the 27th of May, and found that the natives had attacked the settlers, but had been driven off by Wingfield, who had more than once shown his valor in the Netherlands. Two men had been killed and ten wounded, When, on the 15th of June, the fort was finished, the chaplain, Rev. Robert Hunt, held what was perhaps the first public worship in English held in America, and administered the communion. On the next day, Monday, Captain Newport sailed homeward in the largest ship, Susan Constant, which was loaded with timber and mineral specimens, some, no doubt, expected to contain precious metal.

Provisions had been left for three months, but life in the colony was not very happy. Disappointed in not finding gold, unused to the hard work which was necessary, surrounded by hostile savages, and divided among themselves, their many troubles were further increased by the malarious climate of the region in which they had made their settlement.

Fever was epidemic. Quinine, not discovered by the Jesuit missionaries of Peru until 1638, was unknown either as medicine, stimulant, or groceries. When autumn began, nearly one-half of the colonists had died, and many of the remainder were ill. Hardly more than a score of able-bodied men attended the sick and kept guard.

With cool weather there was improvement, especially since they were now able to dwell in log houses. They also built a church, and the energetic Captain John Smith obtained supplies of grain from the Indians. He was captured by the savages, but was released after a few weeks' imprisonment on promising to give the Indians two great guns and a grindstone. Reaching Jamestown, he found only forty men living.

Captain Newport returned from England early in January with more settlers, but within a week afterward the fort and several of the houses were destroyed by fire. On a visit to Powhatan, the Indian chief, Captains Newport and Smith obtained supplies of food and exchanged pledges of mutual friendship. An Indian lad was taken to England, while the English boy Thomas Savage stayed with Powhatan and became very useful afterwards as an interpreter. The ship, loaded with iron ore, sassafras, cedar posts, and walnut boards, sailed homeward on the loth of April.

Meanwhile the colonists began to rebuild James City. They cast their seed into the ground, hoping for generous crops, but while waiting for the corn to grow, what with fever and insufificient food, about half their number died. To the great joy of the survivors, the Pkcenix arrived with fresh provisions and seventy settlers. Sailing again on June 22, she took back a cargo of cedar wood.

Smith now began in earnest the work of exploration. He went up the Chesapeake Bay and into its tributaries. He opened trade with the natives, and on a second expedition, toward the end of July, he reached the head of the bay. Here he was entertained by a party of Iroquois warriors, whose great forest republic of five federated nations extended from the Hudson River to Niagara Falls. The map drawn by Captain John Smith has been the basis of nearly all others made since. It was even used as an authority in 1873, in settling the boundary dispute between the states of Virginia and Maryland. When elected president of the council, Smith brought order and discipHne into the settlement.

Another reinforcement of seventy colonists arrived, among whom were Francis West, the brother of Lord Delaware ; a lady, Mrs. Thomas Forest, and her maid, Ann Burras. Before the end of the year Ann was married to John Laydon, and the first wedding in Virginia was celebrated.

Better far than a batch of the average immigrants, was the reinforcement of some German and Polish mechanics, brought over to manufacture glass. These Germans were the first of a great company that have contributed powerfully to build up the industry and commerce of Virginia, — "the .mother of states and statesmen." There still stands on the east side of Timber Neck Bay, on the north side of the York River, a stone chimney, with a mighty fireplace nearly eight feet wide, built by these Germans.