Irish-American History of the United States, Volume 1 E-Book

Thomas J. Shahan

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 646

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

This is a remarkable work for a man who has always been engaged with the busy duties of a missionary priest in the United States and Ireland and yet has found time to build up in a truly historical manner and the best literary style this extensive volume. It is more remarkable because it has been done while the writer lived thousands of miles from the scene of action, and most remarkable because he was at the same time engaged on another monumental work, the lives of the Irish saints, in twelve large octavo volumes. The reader of the work before us would not suspect this from an inspection and perusal of the book. There is about it no indication of failing power on the part of the author, nor any evidence of hasty or imperfect preparation. On the contrary, we find everywhere evidences of the vigorous mind, facile pen and capacity for research of a young enthusiastic historian. The author's purpose is to set before the people of Ireland a general and complete history of the United States, showing the leading events from the beginning until the close of the nineteenth century in a summary but consecutive manner. It is most becoming that an Irishman should write a history of this country to which a stream of Irish emigrants has steadily flowed from early colonial days. These and their descendants have ever been active in the upbuilding of the country and in its defense, and their names should be written with honor on every page of its history. This has not always been done, and there are many unaccountable omissions to record race and ancestry in making the scroll. This defect the author hopes to have remedied in his history. He has gathered together a great mass of historical material, digested it and arranged it, until it has come forth on the pages of this book, interesting, instructive and true. Every statement is backed by authority and may be quoted without fear. Altogether the book is worthy of the subject and the author, and this is high praise. This is volume one out of two.

Leseprobe

Irish-American History of the United States

Volume 1

THOMAS J. SHAHAN

JOHN O'HANLON

Irish-American History of the United States Volume 1, Thomas J. Shahan/John O'Hanlon

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783988680426

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

CONTENTS:

PREFACE.. 1

CHAPTER I.5

CHAPTER II12

CHAPTER III.21

CHAPTER IV.30

CHAPTER V.40

CHAPTER VI.52

CHAPTER VII.65

CHAPTER VIII.78

CHAPTER IX.91

CHAPTER X.108

CHAPTER XI.124

CHAPTER XII145

CHAPTER XIII.156

CHAPTER XIV.166

CHAPTER XV.179

CHAPTER XVI.188

CHAPTER XVII.195

CHAPTER XVIII.201

CHAPTER XIX.210

CHAPTER XX.223

CHAPTER XXI.231

CHAPTER XXII.242

CHAPTER XXIII.253

CHAPTER XXIV.260

CHAPTER XXV.270

CHAPTER XXVI.280

CHAPTER XXVII.289

PREFACE

It is universally admitted by those well informed and capable of entertaining a rational opinion, that the United States of America now stand foremost among all civilised nations of the world, in vastness of extent, in compactness of territory, in fertility of soil, in mineral wealth, in variety and general healthfulness of climate, in geographical position, in beauty of scenery, and in many other natural advantages. Far away from the Old World, and only conjecturally known to exist by the ancients, the earlier historic life of this grand Federation seems to have hitherto baffled the researches of ethnologists and antiquaries. For the last four hundred years however, few facts of interest are unrecorded, as relating to the migrations of European settlers, the steady growth of population, the spreading of civilisation, the rivalry of rulers, races and colonies, with those vicissitudes which brought the colonists from a state of subjection, and at length resulted in obtaining their complete independence. Nor are subsequent events less interesting from a social and political point of view, not alone to the people of the United States themselves, but to every intelligent student of history however far removed, as furnishing lessons by which he can fairly estimate their gradual and upward progress under free Republican institutions, to their present unexampled condition of prosperity and power.

For Irishmen at home and abroad, the consideration of these topics has a special attraction and interest, because our countrymen had a most important share in first discovering, and afterwards in drawing attention to those distant shores. Moreover, Ireland sent thither the earliest recorded settlers from Europe. Their acts and memories have alike perished through some unknown fatality, and for want of reliable historic record.

Nevertheless, from early colonial days to the present, a stream of Irish emigrants constantly flowed westward; while the achievements of these settlers and of their descendants, known as Irish-Americans, have largely aided in shaping the destinies, and in developing the resources of the great Republic. Many of those were men of ability and renown, as likewise distinguished for their heroic and praiseworthy actions. In the general history of the American Commonwealth, and in the particular history of its several States, their names are prominent and of frequent occurrence. So far as can be ascertained, many previous unaccountable omissions to record their race and ancestry have been supplied in the present work.

Nevertheless, it seems strange, that no attempt has been hitherto made, to set before the people of Ireland, by writers or publishers, a general and complete History of the United States. Such a reproach on our country it is now desired to remove, and to place within reasonable compass accounts from the earliest known period to the commencement of the twentieth century. For several years the present writer was a resident and citizen in the trans-Atlantic Republic; moreover, he was an attentive student of its history, and an interested observer of the manners, habits, and usages of its inhabitants as also familiar with the various movements and changes taking place among parties and politicians. In this volume he has presumed to summarize the leading historic occurrences in an orderly and intelligible narrative, with the abundant materials supplied by our public Libraries in Dublin, and official documents obtained from the United States’ archives in Washington. Every chief statement of the compiler throughout, invariably sustained by authorities frequently quoted, affords facilities for further research and for more extended inquiry regarding detailed information.

As this is intended to be a compendious History, and yet sufficiently complete, to afford a fairly exact narrative of events from the earliest accounts to the present day, the chief and best authors and works on the subject have been carefully and frequently consulted. Among those authorities for the early and Colonial Days, Charlevoix, Robertson, Neal, Hutchinson, Washington Irving, Bancroft, Grahame, Parkman, John Gilmary Shea, and other standard writers, have been most used. Some of the last-named carried their narratives to the end of the American Revolution; while this stirring period of National History has been illustrated by different contemporaneous accounts and by many valuable works subsequently published. Several of these have been examined, and their statements compared very carefully by the writer, before noting the conclusions at which he arrived. In due order of narrative, and desiring to be impartial, authorities on the English and American views of international questions are respectively indicated, but chiefly in the notes appended.

For purposes of historical investigation and accuracy — not formerly attainable by writers who have treated very fully these transactions — the author has carefully examined that invaluable late publication, B. F. Stevens’ "Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives relating to America." They are taken from unpublished documents in public and private collections, while they contain much confidential and most secret intelligence, informations and correspondence of the British Government with its political agents and spies. Especially are those documents absolutely necessary for a clear understanding of diplomatic phases and secret instructions, which served to direct the civil and military movements, that produced important final results. The current opinions of persons and the intelligence obtained of contemporaneous events, as related even in good faith by previous writers, must be considerably modified by such revelations, which often conflict with the received statements of historians. The secret intelligence and frequently intercepted letters obtained by and from England, France, Holland, and Spain, particularly during the period of the American Revolutionary war, sufficiently prove how deficient, without an examination of those records, had been the resources of previous writers, to convey complete and authentic information for the instruction of their contemporaries and of posterity.

A voluminous work of exceeding great value for the student of American History is the copious and critical narrative, edited by Justin Winsor, in which special articles or chapters have been inserted by some of the most capable and well-informed writers in the United States. To these several contributions are added notices of books previously published, bearing on and requisite to elucidate the various subjects treated. 1 Nevertheless, this work does not include particulars relating immediately to the last great Civil War, nor to any succeeding events.

So important and interesting in a national and political view are the causes and events which led to that grave disruption, and as these more recent subjects have occupied so large a share of public attention and comment, the chapters embracing such a special division of our narrative have been proportionately enlarged, while various conflicting authorities have been consulted to balance the weight of evidence for many of those statements, and which are intended to be both accurate and impartial as relating to matters of fact, both generalized and in detail. During the year 1866 appeared Bartlett’s " Literature of the Rebellion," which gives a catalogue of more than six thousand books or articles relative to this civil war; and since that time, it is probable the number has been more than doubled. Besides this, during the war itself appeared a vast compilation, extending to twelve octavo volumes, by Frank Moore, styled "The Rebellion Record," and containing contemporaneous reports, narratives, correspondence and journalistic extracts; yet, unless where these are official documents, or of a confidential nature, all of these statements cannot be relied upon for historic accuracy. That publication appeared at New York from 1861 to 1868. The reports of General Lee and of his subordinates were published by the Confederate Government at Richmond in 1864; while after the war was over in 1865 and since, several Confederate publications and official documents were issued. All of those furnish materials for some future great History of that remarkable period. Much use has been made of the very interesting and elegantly written work of John W. Draper, M.D., LL.D., "History of the American Civil War" with its valuable introductory chapters to the subject proper, and which frequently contain sound political reviews regarding causes and results. An invaluable biographical work, "Abraham Lincoln: a History," written by the secretaries of that illustrious President, has been consulted with the utmost advantage, in reference to the various incidents and chief actors in the Civil War; nor have the opposite views and statements of Jefferson Davis, towards the close of his life, been withheld from the reader, when they were calculated to reflect any new light on those stirring events, in which he so prominently participated.

For details of distinguished men who figure in United States History, reference is often made to Appleton’s "Cyclopaedia of American Biography," in six closely printed double columns and large octavo volumes, published in New York. This work, and " Irish Celts," by a Member of the Michigan Bar  —  a large octavo volume and closely printed in double columns 4  —  have been frequently consulted for information regarding the race, origin and career of many historic characters, especially as serving to elucidate the note-worthy actions of Irishmen and of others claiming Irish descent. Moreover, the " Encyclopaedia Americana " in four large quarto volumes contains a great number of interesting biographies, as also of technical articles, having special relation to the intestine war extending from 1861 to 1865. As the foregoing works of reference are accessible in most of our public Libraries, and as brevity had to be attained in the succeeding pages, it was deemed quite sufficient merely to quote their ample notices, in the chief number of cases regarding individuals, many of whom were even personages of great historic renown.

Memoirs of celebrated public characters in the civil, military and naval service of the United States have been examined, with a view of discovering their personal motives, actions and influence on current events. Assiduously and attentively some of the best works of American historians, biographers, statisticians and writers on constitutional law have been studied, while exact information has been sought from every available source. A coloured Map of the United States appended to this edition, and of the most recent construction, must be found useful for general geographical and historical illustration. Various military and naval movements or positions, alluded to in the body of this work, are shown in maps specially engraved to elucidate the text; while portraits of the different Presidents, of the leading Statesmen, as also of the most distinguished military and naval Commanders, taken from approved likenesses, are introduced throughout to give additional interest and attraction to the volume.

CHAPTER I.

The Pagan Irish had remote and cherished traditions regarding some great magic Island, far away from them in the Atlantic Ocean. It was a land of enchantment for their imaginings, and in it lived an enchanted race of inhabitants. It bore a variety of names, and it was associated in their minds with vague mythological ideas.

The early Firbolgian and Fomorian colonists of Ireland — for the most part supposed to have been seafaring men — are thought to have placed their Elysium far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes they called it Oilean-na-m-Beo or Island of the Living, or Hy-na-Beatha, Island of Life. Again, it was designated Tir-na-m-Beo or Land of the Living, or Tir-na-Nog, the Land of Youth, where Genii dwelt, enjoying lives of perpetual happiness. It had a delightful climate, according to the ancient bards; while, the heroes of Irish romance dwelt there in enchanted places. Sometimes it is styled Tir-na-m-Buadha or Land of Virtues; again, it is poetically called the Land of Heroes or the Land of Victories. Always, it is idealized as a lovely region with Immortals inhabiting it, and roaming through an amber- lighted atmosphere, in an Elysium of every imaginable delight. It was called the Blessed Realm. This fairy land obtained, likewise, the name Hy-Breasail or the Island of Breasal. It was often thought to have been seen through the mist of ocean, from the mountain tops of Western Munster, Connaught and Ulster. " The Great Land " was a term applied to it, in the Irish bardic poems and stories — many of these yet untranslated and unpublished; while still around the southern, western and northern coasts of Ireland, various fireside traditions are told by the peasants regarding Hy-Breasail, as also relating to the Firbolgs, Fomorians and Tuatha-de-Danaans  — these fierce warriors of old, who have yet a fabled existence in the fairy or spirit-land of the Immortals. Hy-Breasail now dissolves, as a popular theme or vision; yet, through its mists, a more distant region reproduces the spell of an Irishman’s enchantment. Nor were such notions confined to Ireland alone, for similar superstitions had spread among other people of the Old World. For nearly four hundred years before the Birth of Christ, the ancients held a belief regarding a lost island called Atlantis or Atalantis, said to have been greater than all Lybia and Asia together, lying out in that ocean to which it probably gave name. It is alluded to in the Timaeus Dialogue of Plato. The descriptions given of its situation are vague and indefinite and are thought to have been derived from ships and mariners that had ventured out into the great Western Ocean. The Carthagenians are reported to have established colonies in and visited frequently an island, far distant from the Pillars of Hercules. Diodorus Siculus mentions a western island of great extent, as also of surpassing beauty and fertility, far away from Lybia. The recollection of this fabled land seems to have been forgotten in a measure, during the Middle Ages, as few writers have reference to it under the original name. However, islands and curious legends connected with them were still reported to have been in the remote waters of the Atlantic. How far the aboriginal myths of Ireland had influenced maritime enterprise in Christian times is unknown; but it is possible, the Greek and Latin accounts of discovery had been read in the schools, and that both sources for information were availed of to form vague conceptions of a land of Promise or a Terrestrial Paradise, which still remained unexplored, and which was destined as a future dwelling for the Saints.

It is remarkable, likewise, that the Pagans of Iceland believed in a seat of the Immortals, where the sick should be restored to health, and where the old should again grow young. Frequent intercourse took place in very remote times between Ireland and Iceland." So far as historic accounts throw light on such transactions, the Irish seem to have been the pioneers of maritime enterprise, antecedent to the Scandinavian development of shipbuilding and of sea-roving. Long before the Northman colonization of Iceland, a.d. 874, the Irish, for the sake of its productive fisheries, had reached its distant shores. With still nobler aspirations to guide them, Irish hermits had settled there, when probably it was devoid of inhabitants; and the Christian religion was found to be established, when Gardar the Dane, and of Swedish origin, was the first Northman who discovered Iceland in 863, and when the Norwegian Ingolf began the colonization of that country in 874.

The people of Iceland and the Northern races of Europe have for many remote ages preserved national documents, in which there are very curious narratives of discoveries and of navigations relating to America, long antecedent to the times of Christopher Columbus. In those ancient chronicles, reference is often made to Ireland and Irishmen, in various pages, and in relation to American maritime adventures. Those Sagas have recorded various wonderful stories regarding an extensive Western Continent and daring efforts of their hardy seamen to reach it. Even ancient Scandinavian records have applied the name " Great Ireland " to a distant Western Continent, which Columbus had not yet discovered.

Not many generations had seen the light, after the first introduction of Christianity into Erin, when the adventurous and saintly men Barind or Barinthus and Mernoc, whether by accident or with a set purpose of discovery in view, reached the distant shores of the Land of Promise — the earliest Irish and Christian designation of America. They were enabled to return once more to the island from which they had sailed, about the commencement of the sixth century. Wonderful were the rumours spread abroad, and the narratives of those navigators filled the minds of others with restless desires, to witness scenes so graphically described, and yet so vaguely portrayed. Among the many who sought information from the voyagers was one having manly courage and tenacity of will to second a lively imagination and an enterprising genius. Holy Brendan, in all our hagiological references called "The Navigator," formed a pious resolution to seek this distant land, there to spread the light of Christianity. He sailed from the coast of Kerry, with a crew of sixty religious men, in quest of the unknown Western Continent.

It is probable this adventurous mariner took his departure for the Land of Promise, from near that majestic headland, and from out that bay, now bearing his name. Both lie about seven miles northwards from Dingle, There is no mountain throughout that region of country supposed to approach in height St. Brendan’s Hill in Kerry; nor which commands so extensive a view of the Shannon, nor of its entrance to the ocean.

The merest abstract of St. Brendan’s Trans-Atlantic Voyage shall be sufficient for the purposes of this History. Before weighing anchor, and having stored provisions in his galley, we are told that the renowned abbot and navigator ordered his brethren, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to embark. When he had embarked, his mariner monks unfurled the sail, and began their voyage, steering towards the summer solstice. The wind was favourable, and they had merely to hold their sail. After a fortnight the wind fell, and they took their paddles till their strength was spent. Brendan encouraged them saying, "Fear not, for God watches over us, and He guides our bark; trim the sail and let her float; God will do what He wishes with His servants, and with His bark."

As when, many centuries subsequent, the mariners of Columbus bound on a like voyage of discovery gave away to anxiety, hope and fear, under favouring winds, transient clouds and showers; so the disciples of their resolute master Brendan must have felt nervous and uneasy, when leaving vast tracts of ocean behind them. They knew not to what part of the world their vessel bore them. Every evening they took some food; forty days had elapsed, and their provisions were nearly exhausted. But, in this great extremity, suddenly an island appeared to them, and it was crowned with towering rocks. From the midst of this isle many streams ran down to the sea. Exhausted with hunger and thirst, the monks wished, even before they found a landing place, to dip up water. Brendan said, " Beware, brethren; what you would do must lead to madness. God has not even deigned to show you the port, and yet you desire to steal a march upon His Providence. In three days, our Lord will point out a spot, where we may land, and where the wearied shall regain their strength." For three days, in consequence, they coasted around that island, and on the third day they disembarked in a small port; possibly somewhere on the eastern shores of the present trans-Atlantic Republic.

The holy man Brendan then landed on the shores of a vast territory, the extent of which was unknown; and, after along term — seven years are said to have been spent in exploration — he and his hardy mariners returned to Ireland. Strange were their adventures, indeed, as chronicled in a well-known story of the Middle Ages, "The Voyage of St. Brendan." But, this seems to have been noted down originally from oral tradition, and afterwards it was encumbered with various wild fancies. Several Latin versions of St Brendan’s voyage are still in manuscript, and many of these are ancient. Never was popular romance more eagerly read in modern times than was this composition, not alone in Ireland but throughout Europe. It was recited in the Irish language; it was sung in the Norman-French; while it has been translated into various dialects, and published in prose and poetry.

The traditions of St. Brendan’s voyage haunted the imagination of Irish navigators after his time; and a new-born zeal to spread Christianity in that distant land excited the ardour of many inmates in the monastic establishments. Several vain attempts were made by St. Colman Ua Liathain, in the sixth century, to reach the Promised Land, but he was as frequently driven back to the shores of Ireland by opposing winds and waves. In a light sea-boat this same Cormac left Columba’s monastery for a cruise in quest of the Land of Promise. After great dangers encountered he touched at the Orkney Islands, and he returned after an absence of several months to Iona. Before a south wind he sailed for fourteen days, without making land, into the northern seas. He came to a region where the ocean seemed alive with loathsome creatures, which crowded on the oars, and stung the hands of those attempting to remove them. Those were, doubtless, a harmless shoal of Medusae, so commonly seen in the still summer-sea. Again, he returned safely from this adventurous voyage. Another disciple of St Columba and his successor as Abbot of Iona, St. Baithen sailed out to seek a desert in the great ocean. He asked St. Columba’s blessing before his departure He returned however, unsuccessful in the object of his search, and having seen many great sea-monsters during his voyage. We find it stated, likewise, that one Maelduin, the sou of a Munster chief, with a number of young men, wandered for three years and seven months on the Atlantic.

There is good reason for supposing, however, that several Irish Christians had reached the trans-Atlantic shores at an early period. That they had settled there is on record, and it is even probable that they had propagated Christianity among the aboriginal inhabitants  — then chiefly composed of the tawny or Red Men of tire forest, whose origin, descent, and migrations have so often exercised, and still baffled, the researches of American ethnologists and historians.

From Ireland, the accounts of the Promised Land, and of other visionary islands in the great ocean, spread throughout Europe. The Irish navigators had early and frequent intercourse with the Northmen of Iceland and of Scandinavia; and these daring seamen were anxious to hazard their lives around the coasts of Greenland to the points indicated. Attributing the honour of a first discovery to our countrymen, and foreshadowing the Great Land as a colonial dependency, justly belonging to the country of their birth, the Northern Sagas called it, Irland-it-Mickla, or Great Ireland.

The route towards it, commencing from the north of Europe, is described in this manner. The Sagas and Eddas relate, that to the south of habitable Greenland, enormous icebergs were to be found floating. Then wild tracts and uninhabitable wastes extended. Beyond these, the country of the Scraelings lay. A region called Markland extended beyond their territory; while Vinland the Good stretched beyond the country just noticed. Icelandic records, and especially the Landnamabock, indicate the Scraelings’ land to be identified with the country of the Esquimaux; Markland with the present Labrador or Nova Scotia; Wineland or Vinland the Good with the New England States; and a tract called Huitranmanaland or Albania, denominated also the White Man’s Land, is thought to have comprised the present Southern United States. Formerly, vessels are said to have gone from Ireland, while their crews landed in this particular region. Helleland is also a denomination found, but its situation is not so easily determined. However, it has been thought identical with Newfoundland, and that it was so called from its flat stones. Centuries before the Spaniards landed in Florida, and at a very early period, Irishmen had settled in that southern portion of North America, and had introduced a civilization, the traces of which remain, Even so far back as the eighth century, a people speaking the Irish language was found there; while, according to a probable conjecture, that country lying along the eastern coast, and stretching from Chesapeake Bay to the Carolinas and Florida, had been inhabited by Irishmen. Even the Shawanese Indians, who formerly lived in Florida, had a tradition that white men anciently occupied that region, and that they were possessed of iron implements. In fact, the numerous antiquities discovered in various parts of the Eastern, Northern and Southern States prove, that a race of civilized beings were resident there, and possibly anterior to the Indians. How they have disappeared as a race now seems to be unknown. It is probable, they had been destroyed by the Red Men; or as some ethnologists have supposed, that intermarriages with native women took place, which merged the white completely in the coloured race.

That old Icelandic Scandinavian chronicle the Landnamabock relates that Ulf the Squinter, son of Hogni the White, occupied the whole of Reykianess — a south-west promontory of Iceland — which was situated between Thorskafiord and Hafrafell. He had a wife named Biorg, who was daughter to Eyvind the East-countryman. They had a son named Ari, and he was driven by a tempest to Huitranmanaland, which some called Irland-it-Mickla or Great Ireland. This region was placed in the western ocean, near to Vinland the Good, and westwards from Ireland. Ari is said to have been baptized in this newly-discovered country. If so, it must have been by Irish missionaries, and among Irish colonists. He was held there in great respect, and elected as a chief, nor would the inhabitants permit him to take his departure from among them. Besides the foregoing, many Northmen, settled in our Island and in Northern Europe, frequently sailed to those distant shores. A Northman merchant of Limerick called Rafn, and his kinsman Ari Marson, Biron or Biorn, with a person named Gudlief, besides Madoc, a prince in Wales, with Antonio Zeno, a Venetian, and others, are said to have landed there, at various times, during the Middle Ages.

The drain of emigration, which has contributed so materially to increase the wealth, progress, power and resources of the vast trans- Atlantic Republic, thus seems to have originated in Ireland, having first diffused the blessings of Religion and civilization, at a very remote time, and when darkness and paganism overspread the great Western Continent. The eagerly read " Navigatio Sancti Brendani" was found in every monastic and great public library of Europe, long before the invention of printing. This narrative of his voyage had been a received tradition in France, in the Netherlands, in Italy, in Germany and in Spain, for centuries before the birth of Columbus.

The fame of St. Brendan’s adventures even reached to Asia. We have nearly conclusive reasons for believing, that this legend was known at an early period to the Arabs. Some of the Arabian geographers describe the "Island of Sheep," with the "Island of Birds," and in words, which must have been taken from those accounts remaining, in reference to our Christian Ulysses and his Odyssey. This latter narrative exercised a greatly imaginative influence, especially on the western inhabitants of Europe.

Nebulous traditions, very generally accepted in the past, have certain truthful bearings on the real facts of history. There is sufficient reason to infer, as we have seen, that many believed in the existence of a Great Ireland extending far towards the west, even long before Columbus’ discovery of America. Assuredly, if they were only in a relative measure mistaken, we are in a fair way to see the doubtful vision of their days become a reality; for, there are few Irish families, at the present time, whose kindred have not found and formed alliances with that dream-land of the west, the United States, and whose dearest hopes are not bound with its progressive life and vigour. Those forecasts and influences, likely to be exercised on the current of modern and future civilization, are thus blended with Ireland’s early historic memorials in the past; while they are largely caused and continued by Irish emigration, especially during the latest centuries.

CHAPTER II

It is known that the Continent of North and South America had been inhabited, at a very early period; yet, by what peculiar tribes, or from what particular countries, however plausibly discussed, would seem nevertheless very uncertain. The generic races of Indians or Red Men found there, by the first European colonizers, were distinctive from those living in other parts of the world; while there are specific differences in stature, features, language, manners and customs, still known to exist among the various tribes. The aboriginal inhabitants of North America probably belong to various nations. It is generally thought, that a great majority of the early colonists crossed over from Eastern Asia through Behring’s Straits, at a very remote era. They are supposed to have arrived, at different periods. Certain writers believe, that the Phoenicians and Scythians sailed thither and settled there in times very distant from our own; but, that those ancient mariners found themselves unable to return or to communicate their adventures after they had landed.

The earlier inhabitants of America are deemed to have been those most advanced in knowledge and skill. There can be no doubt, that a civilized race had flourished — especially in the midland and southern parts of the North American Continent — at a very remote time, as proved by the remarkable pyramids, dykes, causeways, idols, temples, hieroglyphics, paintings, and sculptures, as also other monuments found in Mexico, Yucatan and Peru. Their agriculture and manufactures were considerable, while their social and civil state was remarkably well-ordered.

Curious remains of antiquity abound in a variety of places throughout the United States, but those indications afford only objects for doubtful investigation. Mounds, monuments, earthworks, stone-cased graves, stone implements, flint spear and arrowheads and rock-carvings are the chief antiquities hitherto discovered. They have been ascribed to various races and to different periods. In connexion with primitive United States history, the Red Men seem to occupy the chief claim on our consideration. Since the white colonization many works have appeared, but these are almost solely descriptive of their habits and manners. The aborigines of America have an obscure history — if indeed it can at all be investigated — yet perhaps existing monuments and antiquities may help to throw some light on their origin and race.

When the European colonists landed in the United States, the Huron and Iroquois tribes — including the Five Nations of New York —  occupied a territory adjoining the Algonquins, with whom they were constantly at war. The Cherokee Indians inhabited the region of Alabama, Georgia and Carolina. The Mobiles were near them in the south. But, as all were nomad and migratory tribes, it is now difficult to fix the extent of their respective territories in ancient times. The Indians spoke different languages or dialects, and lived under chiefs, usually selected for their bravery and wisdom. They recognised one supreme being, whom they called the Great Spirit, hut they did not worship him. They had also some idea regarding a future state. They believed, likewise, in a Bad Spirit, whom they feared, and whom they sought to propitiate by witchcraft and magic practices. The Sioux or Dacota tribes furnish the type of language and customs for a group of Indians, embracing the Iowas, the Pawnees, the Aurickarees, the Omahas, the Otoes, the Minnitarees, the Mandans, the Osages, the Kansas, the Quappas, the Winnebagoes, the Missouries, and a great circle of prairie tribes. It is not contended that these tribes can always converse understandingly together; but, so far as it has been compared by vocabularies, their language is distinctly traced through one ethnological chain. The Dakota tribes, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, seem to have inhabited a vast range of country, extending from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the western banks of the Mississippi, and even northwards from the sources of the Missouri River. The Algonquin tribes were east and north of the Mississippi, while their range of country was even still more extensive. They spread over Canada and along the Atlantic seaboard. The Illinois, in the state so named at present and their kindred people, belonged to this latter group. The course of migration of the Dakotas appears to have been from south to north; but they began to retreat, in course of time, before the north-western rush of the Algonquins. Now the Sioux or Dakotas are driven far away towards the Rocky Mountains, and various sub-divisions of their tribes have nomad tents, or they dwell in villages far beyond the western bounds of the Mississippi River.

Runic forts, tombs and inscriptions have been discovered, especially in the eastern and middle states. Those indications furnish evidence of a Scandinavian colonization. Axes, spears and arrowheads have been found in great numbers, especially in the middle, western and northern states. Numerous pre-historic monuments known as Indian mounds, rise throughout the midland districts of North America. Frequently these are of considerable height and dimensions. Several have been explored, and they were found to contain human remains of gigantic proportions. But, the great ethnological problem, as to the race and period contemporaneous with their erection, remains to be solved; nor does it seem likely, that the nomadic habits of the Red Men could bear any relation to a state of society existing when those monuments were raised to such imposing heights. The earth works and artificial mounds of Missouri are singularly interesting, as belonging to the remote builders, whose history can scarcely be investigated, at the present time. The most extensive remains are to be found probably in south-eastern Missouri, and along the western bank of the Mississippi.

It has been supposed that the mound-builders were a race of people, whose remains indicate a state of advancement in the arts and manufactures, far superior to the savage tribes who succeeded them. Some archaeologists have adopted an opinion, that the mound-builders were not an extinct people, but were the ancestors of existing tribes. Numerous wedges, chisels, hammers, and other implements have been found in the ancient mining pits of Keweenaw Point, Lake Superior, and at Isle Royal. Artistic forms of copper implements, both cast and hammered, cannot fail to impress the observer, that a race of men existed in early times, and whose origin is enveloped in mystery, but whose skill rivals that of man in historic times, assisted by all the inventions of this iron age. Recent discoveries have shown that various forms of copper implements had been deposited in their burial places by the mound-builders, with markings similar to those left by moulds in the process of casting. That these people were acquainted with the art of smelting copper, besides that of hammering it, has been inferred, on what seam to be reasonable grounds.

The legend of St. Brendan had a reflex and shadowy light to throw on geographical science, down to a comparatively late period. Through the clouds of Irish recorded traditions, and through recent historic investigations, we may now trace the facts, but slightly obscured by the vivid cross-lights of old legend-mongers.

Soon after the invention of printing, Great Ireland was set down and also the Isle of St. Brandan, on conjectural Italian charts as lying opposite to Europe and Africa. In an ocean space between the south of Ireland and the end of Guinea it was represented. There can be little doubt, that from a very distant period, the inhabitants of Ireland had entertained widely-spread ideas about the existence of a great and far- removed western continent. Some had even reached it and landed, still their adventures were unrecorded, and therefore during long ages a void continued in the history of those lost tribes. Thus, to the Genoese Columbus belongs the glory of disenchanting the ocean, and of bringing two hemispheres into contact, although historically separated from the beginning of remote time. A land of great extent was then rendered accessible to humanity. It was opened by one of the most illustrious examples of patience, intelligence, fortitude and courage ever exhibited by man. Born in 1447, in Genoa, this illustrious explorer became a mariner at the early age of fourteen. Columbus sailed to the north of Europe, where he penetrated even to the polar seas. His well cultivated mind, disciplined by a superior education, desired to be correctly informed regarding the traditions which remained, and which were even noted in chronicles, as also to ascertain that knowledge possessed by the hardy seamen of those distant shores and harbours. He received enlightenment from the Scandinavian mariners who had ventured far out on the western main, and especially concerning the shadowy far-off land, very generally known to have existed long before his time. He afterwards made a voyage, so far south as the coast of Guinea, in Africa. Versed in geometry and navigation, in history and natural science, he had excellent opportunities for studying astronomy and cosmography, in a practical manner.

Our celebrated countryman St. Virgil, Bishop of Salzburg, had many centuries before this period taught, that the earth was a globe, and his theory of the Antipodes meant its being inhabited at opposite extremes. Columbus had only believed in the sphericity of the earth, with possible islands, lying very far westwards in the great Atlantic. He had longed for the opportunity of exploring that waste of waters; and finally at his earnest suit, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain furnished him with a decked vessel called a carrack, and with two caravels or open boats. With a crew of ninety sailors and a year’s provisions, Columbus sailed from Palos, a port of Spain on the Mediterranean the 3rd of August 1492, and clearing the Straits of Gibraltar, he reached the Canary Islands on the 12th of that same month. Here he was engaged refitting and laying in stores of food and water; but, on the 6th of September, he sailed out to the west, on his celebrated voyage of discovery. The stories of St. Brendan’s voyage specially entered as important and cheering elements into the imagination and feelings of those Spanish sailors of Christopher Columbus, when they went forth to gain renown, in connexion with their discovery of America. The traditions of Scandinavian settlement were not unknown to their able and learned commandant.

With great steadfastness of purpose and presence of mind, he contrived to encourage the spirits of his crew, and to allay their fears, while so many days had elapsed before they obtained sight of land. At last, on the night of October 11th, Columbus himself perceived a light, which he deemed to be on shore, and the following day land was clearly visible. This was one of the present Bahama Islands, and afterwards it was called Guanahana. Several other islands were soon discovered, in that group distinguished as the West Indies; it being then supposed, that a continuous number of such islands reached onwards to the East Indies. Columbus spent some months in coasting among the newly-discovered lands, and in noting the particulars of his voyage. The following year, leaving a colony behind him, he resolved on returning to Spain. There he safely arrived in March, 1493, and he was received with the most distinguished honours by the court and by the Spanish nation. He then prepared a special report regarding his voyage and discoveries.

The singing birds, the green vegetation, and tropical luxuriance so greatly celebrated in the voyage of St. Brendan, are frequently mentioned in the letter which Columbus addressed to his sovereign. Again, this adventurous man returned with a considerable fleet, and 1,500 persons on board, to colonize the possessions thus secured for the crown of Spain. Afterwards, he discovered the continent of South America, in 1498; but his closing career, marked by the ingratitude of his sovereign and the treachery of those he had befriended, brought him back to Spain in irons. He died at Valladolid, on the 20th of May, 1506, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and his body was buried in the cathedral of Seville. Although from his name the great western continent has been often poetically called Columbia; yet, it has more generally received the denomination America, from one Amerigo Vespucci, latinized Americus Vespucius, a Florentine navigator, also in the service of Spain. He sailed from Cadiz, May 20th, 1497, according to his own account, when he voyaged to the coast of Paria, and even so far as the Gulf of Mexico. In reality, he did not set out until 1499, with Ojega, a Spanish officer, who had voyaged under Columbus. They sailed in a fleet of four vessels, despatched from Seville. After the death of Columbus, Vespucci published a book and chart, regarding the newly discovered Continent. He thus acquired a false celebrity, while, like many a great originator who fails in gaining the fame and merit justly due to his genius, another obtains or usurps the title, and who had little claim to such an honour. However, the first European discoverers of the great Western Hemisphere were Irishmen; although, it seems more than probable, they were not the first permanent inhabitants.

So firm was the popular belief in St. Brendan’s Land, celebrated in mediaeval romances, that various expeditions were organised for its exploration after the return of Columbus to Europe. Portuguese and Spanish accounts concur in testimony regarding this prevailing opinion and the hopes to which it gave rise.

The discovery of Columbus led to other great maritime enter- prizes and results. John Cabot and his son Sebastian, who were Venetians, had been engaged by King Henry VII. of England to adventure in discovery of a shorter passage to the East Indies, but in a north-western direction. Towards the close of June, 1497, they landed on a coast, now generally supposed to be that of Newfoundland. Sebastian Cabot at a much later period visited the coast of Brazil. In 1524, John Verazzani, a Florentine in the service of France, ranged the new Continent along its eastern coast from Florida to Newfoundland. He called this extensive but unexplored, region New France. In 1534, at the instance of King Francis I., James Cartier of St. Malo sailed westwards, landing at Newfoundland, and afterwards entering the River St. Laurence. Then he returned to give an account of his discoveries. He sailed once more from. France in 1535, and subsequently in 1540, when he explored a considerable portion of that country, now knotvn as Canada, Discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, a.d. 1513, the Spaniards were the first Europeans to colonize permanently the United States, after the discovery of America by Columbus. In 1565, they settled at St. Augustine in Florida. The earlier European adventurers were often men addicted to violent courses, and many were little better than, pirates and buccaneers. Although Catholic Missionaries left Europe with them for the purpose of spreading the Gospel among the native races, these latter had fully divined the rapacious characters and avaricious objects of their countrymen; so that the vices and immoralities of the colonists only served to excite their hatred and disgust, while leading mostly to bloodshed and reprisals.

Received historic accounts leave the central parts of America in possession of numerous tribes of savage Indians, before the French and Spaniards commenced the work of white colonization. Spain was then the greatest monarchy of the Old World, and France almost rivalled her greatness, when the maritime discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries urged both nations to extend their possessions in the New World. Christianity was thus planted in America. There, too, the Church was soon destined to extend her benign influence; although at first, in their quests for gold, the Spaniards especially were guilty of great outrages on the native tribes, who were distributed as slaves among the conquerors. Avarice and rapacity constantly thwarted missionary •work, while the adventurers were busily engaged planting colonies in various parts of the South. Great efforts were made, however, to repress their cruelties, crimes and abuses, especially by Bartholomew de Las Casas, the first priest- ordained in the New World, and by the celebrated Cardinal Ximenes, chief minister of the Emperor Charles V.

The history of those various colonies established in the New World is peculiarly interesting as to their origin, increase and extension, but we cannot here detail their several vicissitudes. It is only with the colonization of the United States we have now to treat.

When the Spaniards had succeeded in founding various colonies in Southern America, Hernando de Soto was appointed by the Emperor Charles V. of Spain as Governor over the Island of Cuba and President of Florida. This Spanish governor conceived the idea of exploring the Lower Mississippi. He passed as far north as the mouth of the Arkansas River, accompanied by 900 infantry and by 350 cavalry soldiers, in 1539. He even took the resolution of sailing up White River, crossed the Ozark Ridge, thus entering probably the south-western parts of the present Missouri. After passing the Mississippi at the lower Chickasaw bluffs, De Soto marched five days over the alluvions of that great river, and he then went to the hilly country adjoining the present St. Francis. He reached the site, called Casqui, probably a location of the Kaskasia Indians. He then pro- ceeded north-eastwardly against Capahas, probably the Quappas, on a bayou of the Mississippi. Then he returned south-west to Casqui, and next he marched south to Quiguate, probably near Black River. Hearing fresh reports of mineral wealth, he proceeded north-west to Coligoa, near the source of the St. Francis. This was his utmost northern point, at the foot of the high granitical peaks of St. Francis County, Missouri. Afterwards, he marched south, in search of a rich province called Cayas, where he probably crossed the White River valley at Tanico. He thence proceeded through a hilly country to Tula, in the fine valley of Buffalo Creek, where he found the Indians tattooed, ill-favoured and ferocious. For twenty days he there recruited, and next he passed an uninhabited region westward for five days, over the elevations of the Ozark chain. He found fertile praries beyond, inhabited by Indians, called Quipana, Pani, or Pawnees. A few days’ further march brought him to the Arkansas River, near the Neosho, which appears to have been about the present site of Fort Gibson. Thus De Soto and his companions seem to have been the earliest white explorers of Missouri.

De Soto spent the winter of 1541-42 on the plains or prairies beyond the Ozark range, and probably in the western tracts of the present state. Doubtless, Catholic missionaries accompanied him. He named the country through which he passed " Florida," as he had set out from that territory, already so called by the Spaniards. It is thought, that smelting had been carried on by the Spaniards. There is no question about De Soto having crossed the Ozark range of mountains in each direction. He left, however, in April 1542 for the Mississippi River, taking the hot springs of Arkansas on his way. It is almost certain his successor Don Luiz de Moscoso visited likewise that country west of the Ozarks, a.d. 1542. When he had reached the Mississippi, De Soto ascended the river so far as the present site of New Madrid. But this enterprising man soon afterwards died on the river, and to conceal his death from the Indians, it is said his companions buried the body of the discoverer of the Mississippi beneath its deepest waters.

Thus, it will be seen, that portion of the Mississippi River forming the eastern boundary of Missouri State was discovered by Spanish explorers. These, it is thought, were the first white men that had floated upon the Mississippi. After the death of De Soto, succeeded the disastrous retreat of Louis de Moscoso de Alvarado, with the remains of the Spanish governor’s expedition. In the year 1543, and on the 22nd of December, after many dangers and hardships, he arrived in Mexico, with only three hundred and eleven survivors. This result seems to have discouraged adventure on any large scale from the south.

So early as 1544, Catholic missionaries had entered Texas; they had also formed establishments in Florida, in New Mexico, and they had even attempted the conversion of the Indians in California, where the Carmelites and Jesuits laboured. The latter fathers had formed a -settlement on the Chesapeake or Bay of St. Mary, but they were massacred by the natives in 1571.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, several English navigators adventured to the New World. Martin Frobisher sailed with two vessels in quest of -a north-west passage to India in June 1576, and after touching the southern part of Greenland, he reached the strait which still bears his name. Returning to England, -another expedition consisting of three vessels se-t sail in May, 1577, and again having visited the Esquimaux the ships arrived home in September. A fleet of thirteen vessels was afterwards placed under his command, and leaving England in May 1578, Frobisher voyaged towards the north-west, returning in October, having failed in the objects he had in view. Having obtained letters patent from the Queen, June, 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half brother the renowned Sir Walter Raleigh put to sea; but they were obliged to return, having lost one of their ships in an engagement with a Spanish squadron. Gilbert sailed a second time from England in 1581, to form settlements in America, how r ever, he was obliged to put back with his expedition through -stress of weather. Sir Walter Raleigh had formed the scheme of exploring and colonizing the eastern coast, of America north of the Gulf of Florida. Having obtained the approbation of the Queen and her council, he fitted out two vessels at his own expense, and these sailed for North America in the month of April 1584, under the direction of his brother-in-in-law, Sir Richard Grenville. He landed in Virginia and took possession of that territory which was so named in compliment to the Queen. Other colonists soon afterwards arrived. Thus were the earliest settlements of the English begun in Virginia. They were attended, however, with great reverses. Afterwards, Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, John Smith, Henry Hudson, and some other adventurers, attempted the colonization of different regions; while the French, Dutch and Spaniards were equally busied in extending the authority of their respective governments on various parts of the Continent, during the time of James I. Especially Samuel de Champlain, who entered the St. Lawrence for the first time in 1603, and who founded Quebec in 1608, laboured assiduously duirng many subsequent years, for the interests of France. Religious zeal, not less than commercial ambition, influenced the French to colonize Canada, while the traders and missionaries of France penetrated among the Indian nations to the north and west. Their relations with those tribes, who were allied to them, became of a very friendly character; while the religious Fathers succeeded in bringing them over to embrace the Christian doctrines and practices. While engaged in exploring the country, even to the distant Mississippi, the Jesuits, with other religious orders converted great numbers of the natives to Christianity.

When Champlain returned from France to Canada in 1604, he landed at Acadia — formerly named Norimbergue — there he spent three subsequent years in explorations, and in seconding the efforts of his countrymen while founding colonies throughout New France. In the former year, he started from the French settlement of St. Croix, at the mouth of the river so named, and on the boundary line between New Brunswick and Maine. He ranged along the western coast in a pinnace, until he entered the mouth of the Penobscot River. On the 18th of June, 1605, he again set forth and explored the whole northern coast of New England so far as Cape Ann, which he called St. Louis. He then crossed to Cape Cod, which he named Cape Blanc. However, he did not attempt any settlement in these places. On the 12th of March, 1613, a small French vessel commanded by La Saussaye having forty-six sailors and colonists on board, with two Jesuits, sailed from Honfleur, and afterwards from Port Royal. After a long delay occasioned by foggy weather, the crew steering for the Penobscot entered Frenchman’s Bay, on the east side of Mount Desert, in the present State of Maine. The company went on shore, and proceeded to form a settlement, which was called St. Saviour. Hardly had they made a beginning, when a piratical expedition under the infamous Samuel Argal of Virginia bore down upon them with a superior force. An engagement ensued, the colonists were defeated, and their settlement was destroyed, The French Commandant La Saussaye, Father Masse and some others of the settlers were sent adrift in a small bark, from which they were providentially rescued by a French fishing vessel. In this they were brought to France. The other survivors, with Fathers Biard and Quentin, were carried as prisoners to Virginia.

CHAPTER III.

After the time of Columbus, the French Huguenots were the first Europeans to build a fort, a.d. 1562, in the present South Carolina. Under the guidance of John Ribaud or Ribault, they had planted a small colony at Port Royal Inlet. By direction of King Philip II. of Spain, orders were transmitted, that the Spaniards should destroy all French settlements in those territories which they claimed. Under the command of Admiral Pedro Melendez, the Spaniards marched against the French Fort Caroline, and took it by surprise. Most brutally the conquerors put the garrison to the sword, only a few escaping from that horrible massacre.

During the latter part of the sixteenth century, various futile attempts were made, especially by Sir Walter Raleigh, to colonize Virginia. The early English settlers — abusing the hospitality of the native tribes — were soon involved in war with them. Many immigrants returned again to England, while others who had settled in Roanoke Island mysteriously disappeared, nor was anything known concerning their fate. An attempt made to colonize the eastern coast of America in 1602, by Bartholomew Gosnold, likewise proved a failure; although it caused several rich men in England to form an Association, to which in 1607, King James I. issued letters-patent for colonizing and possessing the northern territory. It was called the Plymouth Company, because most of the proprietors lived in Plymouth. A London Company was likewise formed to plant the more southern territory. However, no very precise bounds were specified in the respective grants. Each colony formed was to be governed by a resident council of thirteen members nominated by the King, these having power to chose their president. Their laws were subjected to revision by the King or his council in England. It was furthermore required, that the religion recognised in the American colonies should only be that of the Protestant Establishment.

The Plymouth Company’s expeditions in 1606, 1607, and 1608, turned out to be complete failures. The London Company despatched a fleet of three small vessels in December, 1606, and under the command of Captain Christopher Newport. These carried one hundred and five colonists, and no women were among them, for it was then difficult to recruit for settlers. After a long voyage — extending nearly to four months — their vessels entered Chesapeake Bay, April 26th 1607. Sealed instructions from the Company — opened after their arrival — had named Gosnold John Smith, Wingfield, Newport, Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall members of the Council. These elected Wingfield as their President. In May, the site selected for their settlement was on King’s River, as then called; afterwards, it was known as James River, in honour of the reigning monarch of England who had favoured their enterprise. Soon afterwards, Newport, returned to England with the ships, and leaving in Virginia a party, among whom discontent and factious feelings began to prevail. The colonists were afterwards exposed to many and great perils. Several of those were idle gentlemen and vagabonds, little disposed to engage in manual labour. Their hopes were chiefly directed to discover gold, and the tillage of land was neglected, so that famine soon began to threaten them. In 1607, Jamestown was founded by Captain John Smith, who began to acquire an ascendancy, owing to his energetic and resolute character. His adventures were indeed remarkable. He made several excursions from Jamestown, and in one of these he was captured by the Indians, who led him from one village to another, until he was brought to a powerful chief named Powhatan. He was ordered for instant execution, but at that moment, the chief’s young daughter, Pocahontas, interceded for his life. This was spared, and he returned to Jamestown after an absence of seven weeks, only to find the colonists in extreme misery.

In 1608, Smith was regularly elected as President of the Council, and under his management matters were better arranged, but he soon departed for England and did not return. He left behind him four hundred and ninety colonists, but in six months only sixty remained. In June 1610, the survivors, besieged by the natives, resolved on abandoning Jamestown. In some small vessels they embarked for Newfoundland, but they met a fleet coming to their aid from England. On board was Lord De la Warr — otherwise Delaware — who had been appointed Governor of Virginia for life, under a new charter granted to the London Company. He brought a large number of colonists, together with an abundance of supplies. The departing settlers then returned, when lands were distributed amongst them and among the new arrivals. Meantime, Pocahontas had been treacherously captured by Captain Argali after the departure of Captain Smith, and he shamelessly demanded a ransom from her father. This was indignantly refused. In captivity, however, she was baptized, taking the name of Rebecca, and she married John Rolfe, one of the colonists, who took her to England. There she was presented at Court. When about returning to America, Pocahontas died suddenly, but she left a son who became the ancestor of a distinguished family in Virginia.

The condition of affairs henceforward improved; industrious pursuits began to engage the attention of the new settlers; plantations were commenced near the James River; while respectable young women were sent out from England, who became wives to the planters. However, Lord Delaware was obliged to return home, leaving Percy in command. Sir Thomas Pale soon afterwards arrived with fresh men and supplies. The latter ruled as Governor for some time, when on his departure, a.d. 1616, the arbitrary and tyrannical Captain Argali succeeded to the government. At length, so many complaints regarding him reached the Company, that he was superseded, and Sir George Yeardley was elected Governor. The colonists began to demand a constitution more in accord with their British origin, and accordingly the Company authorised the new Governor not only to form a council but to convene delegates, who with them and himself should constitute a representative assembly. Nevertheless, the Company in a new constitution controlled the representatives, by reserving to itself a negative on their decisions.

The coast of Maine had been visited by Captain George Weymouth in 1605, and he carried off five Indians by fraud and force. On returning to England, he represented how suitable that country should be for settlement. Accordingly, in 1607 the Plymouth Company sent out two ships commanded by Sir George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, son to Sir Humphry, with a crew of one hundred and twenty persons, who settled near the mouth of the Kennebec. The winter was intensely cold, and their stores were soon consumed. Next, year this settlement was abandoned, while Sir George Popham died in Maine. His nephew. Sir Francis, sent out other expeditions at his own private expense, but these were all unsuccessful. In 1617 a French vessel was wrecked near Cape Cod, and all who reached the shore, except three, were massacred by the Indians. The survivors were sent from one sachem to another in triumph. Two sank victims to disease, as a consequence of their trials and hardships. The third, supposed to have been a priest, lived longer, and he endeavoured to convert the Indians from vice, but their obdurate hearts were proof against all his appeals.

The State of New York was first founded by the Dutch, who commenced in 1614 the building of Albany on the Hudson River, having first erected in 1613 a temporary fort on Manhattan Island, the present site for the City of New York. The Dutch claimed all that coast from New Jersey to the Bay of Fundy, and it was called New Netherland on the strength of Hudson’s discoveries. The settlers kept up a friendly Intercourse with those Indians adjoining the Hudson River and commenced a trade in furs. The merchants engaged in this traffic were afterwards incorporated in 1621, under the designation of the Dutch West India Company, and with powers of government for that colony.

During the reign of James I., the laws against recusancy on the part of English and Irish Catholics coercing them to conform and adopt the Reformed worship were most tyrannically and arbitrarily enforced by fines and imprisonment. Those laws were also levelled against Protestant Independents and Separatists from the Church established by law. Those outrageous enactments were endured with courage and constancy, especially in Ireland; but they furnished a motive for seeking in more distant lands a place of refuge and of peace in securing the rights of conscience. Although the Reformation involved an extensive exercise of private judgment, yet it was not accompanied by any express recognition of that right, or of any general principle sanctioning toleration. Wherefore, the prevalence of sectarian bigotry, party and political exclusiveness in older England urged several Puritans to embark for New England, and to make it the country of their future abode. These inclined to Calvinistic dogmas and practices. Those sectaries were so called, because they refused to acknowledge the established form of worship, which they said retained too many Romish ceremonies and practices. Many of them fled to Holland, thus hoping to escape the penalties enforced for recusancy. In 1617 they sent a deputation to England offering assent to the doctrines of its established Church, although unwilling to adopt its forms of worship provided they were allowed a patent for settling in America. They failed in their efforts, notwithstanding, but afterwards some London merchants opened negociations with them, for establishing there a trading, fishing, and planting company.

The Puritan pilgrim fathers sailed from Southampton and arrived in the "May Flower" on December 25th, old style, 1620, to find the present site of Plymouth in the State of Massachusetts covered with snow. There a town was built, after the lapse of a few years, and it is the oldest in New England. The first settlers suffered incredible hardships, while half the number of one hundred and two, men, women, and children, perished during that winter and the following spring. Among these was the governor, John Carver, whom the colonists had chosen before landing. 26 During the spring, a friendly Indian named Samoset, and another called Squanto, brought a powerful chief Massasoit to them, when a treaty of friendship and alliance was formed. William Bradford was now elected governor, and in November 1621, the ship " Fortune " arrived, bringing a reinforcement of thirty-five persons, with a patent for the colony. A plentiful harvest succeeded in 1622, while other emigrants arrived during that year. A settlement was made at Wessagusset — now Weymouth, near Boston — but the misconduct of the settlers caused the Indians to conspire for their destruction. However, Massasoit gave warning of this plot in good time, and Captain Miles Standish marched from New Plymouth with eight men to Wessagusset, where he alarmed the settlers, who were now sufficiently on their guard. That settlement was soon afterwards abandoned. Gradually the number of immigrants began to increase, and within ten years about 21,000 had arrived in 198 vessels. Dissensions and religious differences next began to prevail; so that those who differed in opinion from the older settled Puritans were exposed to insults and persecution. As a consequence, several voluntarily left that colony, or were banished from it by order of the other colonists.