Introductory American History Part 10

4. Why did English sailors like Drake specially hate the Spaniards? What was Drake's method of making a living? How did he come to go around the world in 1577-1580? How long was it since Magellan made his voyage?

5. What did the English think of Drake? What did the Spaniards think of him? Why did each people think as it did?

6. Why did Philip of Spain have William of Orange killed? Why did this make the conquest of the Dutch even harder?

7. Why did Philip, king of Spain, try to conquer England and make himself king of that country? How did he try to carry out his plan? Why were the English victorious in the great battle with the Armada? Where was the battle fought?

8. How did the defeat of the Armada affect Spain's war in the Netherlands? Did all of the Netherlands become independent of Spain?

9. What trade did the Dutch begin to carry on before their war with Spain ended?

10. What new people became rivals of the Spaniards and French for trade and settlements in America?

EXERCISES.

1. What parts of North America did Drake visit on his famous voyage around the world?

2. What effect did the quarrels in Europe described in Chapters 19 and 20 have upon the progress in exploring and settling America?

3. Find out whether the people of the northern Netherlands and the southern Netherlands are still separate countries to-day.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE ENGLISH PEOPLE ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA.

ENGLISH INTEREST IN AMERICA AWAKENED. Voyages like those made by Sir Francis Drake awakened a desire throughout England to learn more about the New World. Until this time even the great discoveries of Columbus and the Cabots had failed to stir the English people to take part in the exploration and settlement of the Americas. The princ.i.p.al reason was because their attention was occupied by the struggle between their monarchs and the popes to decide whether king or pope should govern the English Church. This continued until Queen Elizabeth had been on the throne some years.

Other sea-captains, hearing of Drake's success, now turned their ships toward the Americas. Many went to the West Indies, as he had done, mainly to seize the rich plunder to be found on board the ships of Spain bound homeward. Some of them explored the coast of North America, hoping to find valuable regions that had not fallen into the possession of the Spaniards.

THE NORTHWEST Pa.s.sAGE. Martin Frobisher made three voyages, the last in 1578, in search of a pa.s.sage through North America to China. He entered the bay which bears his name, and the strait which was later called after Hudson, but failed to find a pa.s.sage. Drake attempted to find the western entrance to such a pa.s.sage in 1579 as a short cut homeward when he tried to avoid his Spanish pursuers.

GILBERT. A grander scheme was planned by Humphrey Gilbert. He wished to build up another England across the sea, just as the people of Spain were building up another Spain. He planned to do this by establishing farms to which he and others might send laborers who could not find work at home. Queen Elizabeth liked this plan, and to encourage him, and to repay him for the expense of carrying the emigrants over, she promised him the land for six hundred miles on each side of his settlements.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLCOTE HALL An English Manor House of the time of Queen Elizabeth]

FAILURE OF GILBERT'S EXPEDITION. Gilbert tried twice to plant a colony in the neighborhood of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Sir Walter Raleigh, his half-brother, was one of his captains in the expedition of 1578. He would have been in the disastrous second attempt in 1583 had not Queen Elizabeth, full of forebodings of danger to her favorite, refused to let him go. As it was he sent a ship at his own cost. Gilbert took a large supply of hobby-horses and other toys with which to please the savages. Mishap, desertion, and shipwreck pursued the luckless commander.

The second expedition left Plymouth with five vessels in 1583. The ship that Raleigh sent, the best in the fleet, deserted before they were out of sight of England. One was left in Newfoundland. The wreck of the largest ship, with most of the provisions, off Cape Breton, so discouraged the crews that they prevailed upon Gilbert to abandon the plan to settle on such barren and stormy sh.o.r.es, Gilbert attempted to return on the Squirrel, the smaller of the two remaining vessels. This was a tiny vessel of scarcely ten tons burden. What was left of the little fleet voyaged homeward by the southern way, and ran into a fearful storm as it approached the Azores.

Although Gilbert was urged to go aboard the larger vessel, he refused to desert his companions, with whom he had pa.s.sed through so many storms and perils, and tried to calm the fears of all by his reply, "Do not fear, Heaven is as near by water as by land." One night the Squirrel suddenly sank. All on board were lost. Such was the sad ending of the first efforts to establish an English colony in North America.

RALEIGH Sir Walter Raleigh took up the interesting plan which his kinsman, Gilbert, had at heart. Raleigh was now at the height of his favor with Queen Elizabeth. She had made him wealthy, especially by the gift of large estates which she had taken from others. She readily promised him the same privileges in America which she had offered to Gilbert. Raleigh doubtless thought that he might increase his fortune and win glory for himself and for his country by planting English colonies in the New World. No man of the age was better fitted for the undertaking. He had shown himself a fearless soldier and an able commander in the war against Spain in the Netherlands. He had fortune, skill, and powerful friends. Like Gilbert, he was a friend of poets and scholars and a student of books; like Drake, he was a natural leader of men.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND HIS SON]

VIRGINIA. Raleigh began in 1584 by sending an expedition to explore the coast for a suitable site for a colony. His men sailed by way of the Canaries, and came upon North America in the neighborhood of Pamlico Sound, avoiding the stormy route directly across the Atlantic which Gilbert had followed. They found, therefore, instead of the bleak sh.o.r.e of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, the genial climate of North Carolina and Virginia.

They carried home glowing reports of the country. They were particularly pleased with an island in Pamlico Sound called by the Indians Roanoke Island. They noted with wonder the overhanging grape-vines loaded with fruit, the fine cedar trees which seemed to them the highest and reddest in the world, the great flocks of noisy white cranes, and the numberless deer in the forests. The Indians appeared gentle and friendly, Elizabeth was so pleased with the accounts of the country that she allowed it to be called Virginia after herself, the Virgin Queen, and made Raleigh a knight.

THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONISTS. Raleigh made several attempts to plant a colony in Virginia. The most famous one was led by John White in 1587. White had visited Virginia on an earlier voyage, and painted more than seventy pictures of Indian life, representing their dress and their manner of living. These may still be seen in the British Museum in London. His interest in the country and its Indian population made his appointment as governor seem a wise choice. Care was taken in the selection of colonists in order to secure farmers rather than gold-seekers. Twenty-five women and children were included in the colony of about one hundred and fifty persons.

ROANOKE. White and his followers settled on Roanoke Island. They found that the fort, which one of Raleigh's officers had built some years earlier, was leveled to the ground. Several huts were still standing, but they were falling to pieces. The first task was to rebuild the huts and move into them from their ships. A baby girl was born a few days after the landing, the first child born of English parents in the New World. Her father, Ananias Dare, was one of White's councilors; her mother, Eleanor Dare, was the daughter of Governor White. The baby was given the name Virginia, the name of the country which was to be her home.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF RALEIGH'S COLONIES]

THE COLONISTS IN DANGER. The little colony must have foreseen the hostility of the Indians and a scarcity of food, for before Governor White had been in America two months, he was sent back to England to obtain more provisions, White, from his own account, did not wish to leave his daughter and granddaughter.

WHITE'S SEARCH FOR AID. White returned to England in the fall of 1587 at the wrong moment to ask for aid. All England was alarmed by the rumor that a great Spanish fleet was about to land an invading army. The friends of Virginia in England were too busy protecting their own homes from the invader to give heed to the needs of the farmer colonists across the sea. White traveled through England, seeking aid for his friends and family, but was disappointed everywhere.

WHY RALEIGH GAVE NO HELP. Raleigh had by no means forgotten his colonists, but his queen and his country had the first claim on him through the long war with Spain. Twice during this period, he found time and means to prepare relief expeditions for Virginia. The queen stopped the first one just as it was ready to sail, because all the ships were needed at that moment for service in the war. A second expedition was attacked by the Spaniards and forced to return.

THE LOST COLONY. White finally secured pa.s.sage for himself on a fleet going to the West Indies, not with a fleet and relief supplies of his own, but as a pa.s.senger on another man's ship. It was the summer of 1591 when he arrived at Roanoke, four years after his departure. The colonists were not to be found. Their houses were torn down. The chests which they had evidently buried in order to hide them from the Indians had been dug up and ransacked of everything of value. White's own papers which he had left behind were strewn about. His pictures and maps were torn and rotten with the rain. His armor was almost eaten through with rust.

One trace of the fate of the settlers was left. The large letters CROATOAN were carved on a tree near the entrance to the old fort. White recalled the agreement made when he left four years before. If the colonists should find it necessary to leave Roanoke, they were to carve on a tree the name of the place to which they were going. If they were in danger or distress when they left, they were to carve a cross over the name of the place. White found no cross. The word Croatoan was the name of a small island lying south of Cape Hatteras, where Indians lived who were known to be friendly. White believed his friends to be safe among the Indians at Croatoan, but he could not go farther in search for them because the captains of the ships which brought him over refused to delay longer. They gave many excuses, but were evidently more eager to attack the Spaniards than to find a few luckless emigrants.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN INDIAN VILLAGE IN 1589 After a drawing by John White, now in the British Museum]

The fate of Raleigh's colony is one of the puzzles of history. It is believed that they took refuge with friendly Indians, and lived with them until they lost their lives in war or had adopted the ways of their protectors.

VALUE OF THE EFFORTS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH. Raleigh had failed to carry out his great plan to plant a new England in America, but he had awakened in his countrymen an interest in America, and made known the advantages of its soil and climate. The French had apparently made no greater headway. Cartier's colony on the St. Lawrence had broken up, and the Spaniards had driven the French colony from Florida. The history of Coligny's colony at Fort Caroline, Cartier's at Quebec, Gilbert's on the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Raleigh's at Roanoke, had shown how useless were attempts to settle in America which were not strongly supported by friends or by the home government. These attempts to plant colonies in America were not, however, as bad failures as they appeared. Both nations had learned much about the country and about the preparations needed for permanent settlements.

WHAT THE SPANISH HAD ACCOMPLISHED. In 1600 Spain seemed to have achieved much more than either of her rivals. The map of that time shows Spain in possession of vast territories in North and South America. The English had a small tract, Virginia, in which they had some interest but no colonists. The French regarded the St. Lawrence valley as theirs by right of discovery, but they could point to no settlements to clinch that claim.

The Spaniards, on the other hand, counted more than two hundred cities and towns which they had planted in their territories. About two hundred thousand Spaniards, farmers, miners, traders, soldiers, and n.o.bles, had either migrated from Spain to America or had been born there of emigrants since Columbus's discovery. Five million Indians had come under their rule, and most of them were living as civilized men, and called themselves Christians. One hundred and forty thousand negro slaves had been carried from Africa to the plantations and mines in Spanish America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Regions in the New World and the East claimed by the Countries of Europe after a century of exploration.]

The City of Mexico, the largest in all America, was much like the cities of Spain. Well-built houses of wood, stone, and mason-work abounded. Churches, monasteries, a university, higher schools for boys and girls, four hospitals, of which one was for Indians, and public buildings, similar to those in the cities of old Spain, already existed. Spanish life and Spanish culture had spread over a large area in the New World, and the most remarkable fact was that the Old World civilization had been bestowed on the Indian population. As Roman culture went into Spain and Gaul, so Spanish culture went into a New Spain in a new world.

THE PROSPECTS OF THE SPANISH COLONIES. But the outlook for Spain in America was not wholly bright. Her struggle with her Dutch subjects and the war with England, which grew out of that quarrel, left her completely worn out. She no longer had the people to spare for American settlements. These ceased to grow as they once had. Negroes and Indians outnumbered the Spaniards in most of them. The three races mingled together and intermarried until a new people, the Spanish American, differing in color and blood from either of the old races, was formed.

THE LATER STORY OF COLONIZATION. Spain's rivals--the Dutch, the English, and the French--were just reaching the height of their power. They had settled their most serious religious differences. Their merchants were eagerly looking about for commercial opportunities. A considerable population in each of them, but more especially in England, was discontented and ready to try its fortunes in a new world. The Spaniards had pa.s.sed by the best parts of North America as worthless. The people and the unoccupied land were both ready for the formation of colonies on a larger scale. In many ways a greater story of American colonization remains to be told. This will be the story of the Dutch, the French, and the English colonization of North America.

QUESTIONS.

1. Why had the English people not taken more interest in America before Drake's time? What finally, made the English sea-captains turn to American adventure and exploration?

2. What did Gilbert attempt to do? How many reasons can you find for his failure?

3. Why was Raleigh specially fitted to begin the task of planting English colonies in America? What part of North America did his men select for a settlement? Why did it seem a suitable place? What name was given to the country?

4. Why did Raleigh fail to help his colony at Roanoke? What did White think had happened to them? Why didn't he go in search of them?

5. Why had the French and the English been unsuccessful in their efforts to settle North America? Had they really gained anything from all their efforts?

6. What had Spain accomplished since the voyage by Columbus? Why were the prospects of Spain not so bright as they had been? What rivals were ready to begin colonies in America?

EXERCISES.

1. How much territory was Queen Elizabeth willing to give Gilbert for his plan in North America? Was there this much (twelve hundred miles) of the Atlantic coast of North America unclaimed by the French and the Spaniards?

2. Find Roanoke Island on the map.

3. Name the regions in the New World and the East claimed by the English, French, Portuguese, and Spaniards after a century of discovery and exploration (1492-1600). What parts of North America were still unknown? With the use of some map of the world to-day make a list of the colonies of the same countries now.

REVIEW.

1. Prepare a list of the men who took the chief part in discovering the New World, and give for each the name of the region he found.

2. What had the Greeks learned to do, the knowledge of which they carried into Italy? What more had the Romans learned to do, the knowledge of which they carried into Spain and Gaul and Britain? What more had the Spaniards, the French, and the English learned to do, the knowledge of which they either were already, as in the case of Spain, carrying into Spanish America, or, in the case of England and France, were prepared to carry into North America?

REFERENCES FOR TEACHERS.

The following references are given in the hope that they will be helpful to the teacher. The list is by no means exhaustive, but enough are given so that one or more books for each subject should be found in any fairly equipped school or public library. Some of these books may be a.s.signed to the brighter or more ambitious members of the cla.s.s for home readings. Extracts from others may be read to the cla.s.s directly. Still others will furnish the teacher a variety of stories or fuller statements of fact upon matters treated briefly in the text. A Bibliography of History for Schools and Libraries by Andrews, Gambrill and Tail (Longmans, 1911), will give many more references and further information regarding those that are given here.

A. ANCIENT TIMES. THE GREEK PEOPLE. (For use with chapters ii, iii, and iv.).

(a) Histories of the Greeks.

Holm, History of the Greeks, 4 volumes, is the most trustworthy history of the Greeks. Bury, A History of Greece, 2 volumes; Botsford, History of the Ancient World; Goodspeed, History of the Ancient World; Myers, Ancient History; Wolfson, Essentials in Ancient History; and West, Ancient World, have brief accounts of the Greeks.

(b) Versions of some famous old Greek stories, especially the story of Hercules and his Labors, the Search for the Golden Fleece, the Trojan War, and the Wanderings of Ulysses.

A. J. Church, Stories from Homer; C. M. Gayley, Cla.s.sical Myths; H. A. Guerber, Myths of Greece and Rome; and the same author's The Story of the Greeks; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Greece; C. H. and S. B. Harding, Stories of Greek G.o.ds, Heroes and Men; Charles Kingsley, Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales. Hawthorne, in Tanglewood Tales, has retold the story of the Search for the Golden Fleece in a specially interesting manner. Bryant's translation of the Odyssey is one of the best known versions of that story and may generally be found in public libraries.

(c) Short Biographies of some Greek Heroes. Short accounts of the lives of such heroes as Miltiades, Themistocles, Socrates, Alexander, and Demosthenes will be found in c.o.x, Lives of Greek Statesmen; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Greece; Jennie Hall, Men of Old Greece; Harding, Stories of Greek G.o.ds, Heroes and Men; E.M. Tappan, The Story of the Greek People; and Plutarch's Lives. There are several abridged editions of the latter, but those by C.E. Byles, Greek Lives from Plutarch, and Edwin Ginn, Plutarch's Lives, are best adapted to the use of schools.

(d) Various features of Greek Life, as the home, the schools, food, clothing, occupations, amus.e.m.e.nts, or government have been described in the books on Greek Life.

Among these are Blumner, Home Life of the Ancient Greeks (translated by Alice Zimmern); C.B. Gulick, The Life of the Ancient Greeks; Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece; and T.G. Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens.

(e) Descriptions of Athens and Alexandria. Descriptions of these great centers of Greek civilization will be found in any history of Greece; that in Gulick, Life of the Ancient Greeks, ch. 2, or Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens, for Athens, and in Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe, 1. pp. 187-204, for Alexandria, will serve the purpose.

(f) A description of the battle of Marathon, abridged from the History of the World by Herodotus, will be found in F.M. Fling's Source Book of Greek History. This little book gives many incidents in Greek History as the Greek writers told them.

(g) A description of the materials, methods of building, decoration of public buildings, and the uses of the temples, theaters, gymnasia, and stadia in Fowler and Wheeler's Greek Archaeology, ch. 2; and Tarbell's History of Greek Art.

(h) Some may wish to read the careful statement in Holm's History of the Greeks, Vol. I, pp. 103-121, on the Truth about the Old Greek Legends, or the same author's account, Vol. I, pp. 272-295, of Emigration to the Colonies in the Olden Day.

B. ANCIENT TIMES. THE ROMAN PEOPLE. (For use with chapters v, vi, vii, viii and ix.).

(a) Histories of the Romans.

Either Botsford, History of Rome; Pelham, Outlines of Roman History; How and Leigh, History of Rome; or Schuckburgh, History of Rome; though the last two do not cover the entire period of Roman history. Duruy, History of Rome, 8 volumes, is attractive in style and supplied with a great variety of pictures and other ill.u.s.trative matter.

Botsford, History of the Ancient World; Goodspeed, History of the Ancient World; Myers, Ancient History; Wolfson, Essentials in Ancient History; and West, Ancient World, give short accounts of the chief events in Roman history.

(b) Versions of famous old Roman stories, especially the wanderings of Aeneas, the Story of Romulus and Remus, of the Sabine Women, Horatius at the Bridge, and Cincinnatus.

A.J. Church, Stories from Virgil; C.M. Gayley, Cla.s.sical Myths; H.A. Guerber, Myths of Greece and Rome; the same author's Story of the Romans; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Rome; and Harding, City of Seven Hills. Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome, gives the story of Horatius at the Bridge, together with several other stories from early Roman history.

_(c) Versions of the German myths about Odin (Wodan), Thor, Freya, and Tyr (Tiw)._ C.M. Gayley. Cla.s.sical Myths; Guerber, Myths of Northern Lands; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of the Middle Ages; Mary E. Litchfield, The Nine Worlds; H.W. Mabie, Norse Stories; Eva March Tappan, European Hero Stories; Alice Zimmern, G.o.ds and Heroes of the North.

(d) The Story of Hermann (or the struggle between the Romans and Germans) is told by Arthur Gilman, Magna Charta Stories, pp. 139-155; and by Maude B. Dutton, Little Stories of Germany.

(e) Short Biographies of some famous Romans. Short accounts of the lives of Romulus, the Gracchi, Caesar, Cicero, and Constantine are given in Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Rome; Harding, The City of Seven Hills; and several of them in Plutarch's Lives. A simple account of the Life of Hannibal, the Carthaginian enemy of Rome, will also be found in these books.

(f) Interesting phases of Roman Life: for example, the Roman boy, country life in Italy, the Roman house, traveling, amus.e.m.e.nts, etc. See W.W. Fowler, Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero; H.W. Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans; S.B. Platner, Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome; T.G. Tucker, Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul. Many phases of Roman life are described in F.M. Crawford's Ave Roma.

(g) For descriptions of incidents in Roman history and phases of Roman life as the Greek and Roman writers told them, see Botsford, Story of Rome, and Munro, Source Book of Roman History.

C. THE MIDDLE AGES. (For use with chapters x, xi, xii, and xiii.) (a) Histories of the people of Europe in the Middle Ages. G.B. Adams, Growth of the French Nation; U.R. Burke, A History of Spain from the Earliest Times to the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic; J.R. Green, Short History of the English People; E.F. Henderson, A Short History of German; H.D. Sedgwick, A Short History of Italy.

(b) Collection of stories adapted to children of the grades: The Story of Beowulf, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Treasure of the Niebelungs, and of Roland. These stories have all been written many times, and any librarian can give the reader copies of them as told by several writers. The following is a partial list only: A.J. Church, Heroes and Romances; E.G. Crommelin, Famous Legends Adapted for Children; H.A. Guerber, Legends of the Middle Ages; Louise Maitland, Heroes of Chivalry; and Eva March Tappan, European Hero Stories; James Baldwin, The Story of Roland; Frances N. Greene, Legends of King Arthur and His Court; Florence Holbrook, Northland Heroes (Beowulf); Sidney Lanier, The Boy's King Arthur; Stevens and Allen, King Arthur Stories from Malory.

(c) Famous Men of the Middle Ages; for example, Charlemagne, King Alfred, Rollo the Viking, William the Conqueror, Frederick Barbarossa, Richard the Lion-Hearted, King John, Saint Louis of France, Marco Polo, and Gutenberg.

See A.F. Blaisdell, Stories from English History; Louise Creighton, Stories from English History; Maude B. Dutton, Little Stories of Germany; H.A. Guerber, The Story of the English; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of the Middle Ages; Harding, The Story of the Middle Ages; S.B. Harding and W.F. Harding, The Story of England; M.F. Lansing, Barbarian and n.o.ble; A.M. Mowry, First Steps in the History of England; L.N. Pitman, Stories of Old France; Eva March Tappan, European Hero Stories; H.P. Warren, Stories from English History; Bates and Coman, English History as told by the Poets. Edward Atherton, The Adventures of Marco Polo, the Great Traveler, is a convenient modernized version of Polo's own story of his travels. Marco Polo's description of j.a.pan and Java has been reprinted in Old South Leaflets, Vol. II, No. 32.

(d) Viking Tales. The interesting stories of the Northern discoveries and explorations have been told many times. Jennie Hall, Viking Tales, includes the story of Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky, and the attempt to settle in Vinland (Wineland).

(e) The Trial of Criminals in the Middle Ages--Ordeals. Other kinds of Ordeals than those described in this book will be obtained in Ogg, Source Book of Mediaeval History, pp. 196-202; Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV, No. 4. pp. 7-16; or in Thatcher and McNeal, Source Book, pp. 401-412. See Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages, pp. 79-81, for excellent explanation of mediaeval methods of trial.

_(f) Famous accounts of how the People of England won the Magna Charta_.

Use either Cheyney, Readings in English History, pp. 179-181; Kendall, Source Book of English History, pp. 72-78; Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. I, pp. 231-333; or Ogg, Source Book of Mediaeval History, pp. 297-303.

(g) Simple descriptions of Mediaeval Life. Maude B. Dutton, Little Stories of Germany; for example, the chapters on How a Page became a Knight, and A Mediaeval Town. S.B. Harding, The Story of the Middle Ages, especially the chapters describing life in castle, life in village, and life in monastery. Eva March Tappan, European Hero Stories, especially the topic, Life in Middle Ages, p. 118, the Crusades, p. 136, and Winning the Magna Charta, p. 111.