a cape,

Cod.

the shore, they the next day discovered a head 1602. land in the latitude of forty two degrees, where they May 15. came to anchor; and, taking a great number of cod Anchor at at this place, they called it Cape Cod. On the which they day following they coasted the land southerly; and, call Cape in attempting to double a point, came suddenly into shoal water, and called the place Point Care.' Point Care. While at anchor here, they were visited by the natives. In surveying the coast, they discovered breakers off a point of land, which they named Gilbert's Point; and, passing it on the nineteenth Gilbert's of May, anchored about a league to the westward Point. of it. On the twenty first they discovered an island, which they called Martha's Vineyard. Com- Martha's ing to anchor, two days afterward, at the north- Vineyard. west part of this island, they were visited the next morning by thirteen of the natives, with whom they had a friendly traffic. On the twenty fourth they discovered another island, which they called Dover Cliff; and the next day came to anchor, a Dover quarter of a mile from the shore, in a large bay, which they called Gosnold's Hope. * On the Gosnold's northern side of it was the main; and on the Hope. southern, four leagues distant, was a large island, which, in honour of the queen, they called Elizabeth.s A little to the northward of this island 42 deg. 20 was a small one, which they called Hill's Hap; and min.

4

others had a few things of European fabric; and "these with a piece of chalke described the coast thereabouts, and could name Placentia of the Newfoundland; they spake divers Christian words." Purchas. Their vessel is supposed to have belonged to some unfortunate fishermen of Biscay, wrecked on the coast.

1 Supposed by Dr. Belknap to be Malebarre, or Sandy Point, forming the southeastern extremity of the county of Barnstable in Massachusetts. Belknap Biog. ii. 110.

2 Not that, which now bears that name; but a small island, now called No-Man's Land. Ibid. 111.

3 Gay Head. Belknap.

4 Buzzard's Bay. Belknap. The narrator in Purchas says, it is "one of the stateliest sounds that ever I was in."

5 The westernmost of the islands, which now bear the name of Elizabeth's Islands. Its Indian name is Cuttyhunk. Belknap.

Cliff.

Elizabeth

Island in

Here they Build a fort

and house.

1602. on the opposite northern shore a similar elevation, which they called Hap's Hill. On the twenty eighth they consulted together upon a fit place for a plantation; and concluded to settle on the wes tern part of Elizabeth Island. In this island there is a pond of fresh water, two miles in circumference, in the centre of which is a small rocky islet; and here they began to erect a fort and store house. While the men were occupied in this work, Gosnold crossed the bay in his vessel; went on shore; trafficked amicably with the natives; and, having discovered the mouths of two rivers,' returned in five days to the island. In nineteen days the fort and store house were finished; but discontents arising among those who were to have remained in the country, it was concluded, after deliberate consultation, to relinquish the design of a settlement; and the whole company returned to England.3

June 18.
All return

to England.

i Öne was that, near which lay Hap's Hill; and the other that, on the banks of which the town of New Bedford is now built. Coll. Hist. Soc. iv. 234. The two harbours of Apooneganset and Pascamanset. Belk.

2 "The 13th beganne some of our companie that before vowed to stay, to make revolt; whereupon the planters diminishing, all was given

over." Purchas

3 Purchas, i. 755; v. 1646-1653. Hubbard MS. N. Eng. p. 9. Ma ther Magnal. book i. p. 3. Belknap Biog. ii. 100-122, where the errors in his own first account of Gosnold [in Amer. Bieg. i. 231-239.] are corrected. Harris Voy. i. 816. Smith Virg. 16-18. Josselyn Voy. 152, 157, 243. Prince Chron. Introd. 104. Univ. Hist. xxxix. 269, 270. Brit. Emp. i. 254. In 1797 the Reverend Dr. Belknap with several other gentlemen went to the spot, which was selected by Gosnold's company on Elizabeth Island, and "had the supreme satisfaction to find the cellar of Gosnold's store house; the stones of which were evidently taken from the neighhouring beach; the rocks of the islet being less moveable, and lying in ledges." Belknap Biog. ii. 115. In a map, entitled, "The South part of New England, as it is planted this yeare, 1634," inserted in the first edition of Wood's New England Prospect, I find a place near Narraganset Bay, named Old Plymouth; and in the same map the Plymouth, settled in 1620, is denominated New Plymouth. It hence appears, that Gosnold's ephemeral settlement (though not correctly placed in this map) was kept some time in remembrance in New England; for the name of " Old Plymouth" was doubtless intended to distinguish it. Hutchinson [Hist. Mas. i. 1.], speaking of Gosnold's settlement, observes: "This I suppose is what Josselyn, and no other author, calls the first colony of New Plymouth, for he says it was begun in 1602, and near Narraganset Bay." Josselyn's ac

sends the

for the Vir

Sir Walter Ralegh, not abandoning all hope of Ralegh the Virginian colony, made one effort more for its fifth time discovery and relief. Having purchased and fitted to search out a bark, he sent, on that benevolent enterprise, ginian coSamuel Mace, an able mariner of Weymouth, who lony; sailed from Weymouth in March; fell on the American coast in about the thirty fourth degree of north latitude; spent a month there; proceeded along the coast; but returned home without any but withthorough attempt to effect the purpose of this out success,

Pring.

The discovery, made by Gosnold, was an incite- Voyage of ment to farther adventures. By the persuasion of Martin Mr. Richard Hakluyt, and with the leave of Sir Walter Ralegh, the mayor and aldermen, and some of the most considerable merchants of Bristol, raised a stock of a thousand pounds, and fitted out a ship of about fifty tons, called the Speedwell, and a bark of twenty six tons, called the Discoverer, under the command of Martin Pring, for the fuller discovery of the northern parts of Virginia. The ship, carrying thirty men and boys, the April 1. bark thirteeen men and a boy, both victualed Sails. for eight months, sailed on the tenth of April from Milford Haven. In the beginning of June they fell in with the American coast between the forty third and forty fourth degrees of north latitude, among a multitude of islands, in the mouth of Penobscot Bay. Ranging the coast to the fouthwest, and passing the Saco, Kennebunk, York, and

count [Voy. 157] is: "At the further end of Narraganset Bay by the mouth of the river on the south side thereof, was old Plymouth plantation anno 1602.”

1 Purchas, v. 1653. This was the fifth time that Ralegh sent, at his own charges, to the succour of the colony, left in Virginia in 1587. "At this last time, to avoid all excuse, hee bought a barke, and hired all the companie for wages by the moneth;" but they "fell fortie leagues to the southwestward of Hataraske, in 34 degrees or thereabout; and having there spent a moneth, when they came along the coast to seeke the people, they

U

Lands his

men at a

harbour,

call Whit

2

1603. Piscataqua rivers, they procceded into the Bay of Massachusetts. Going on shore,' but not finding any sassafras, the collection of which was the chief object of their voyage, they sailed into a large sound, and coasted along the north side of it; but, not satisfied in their expectation, they sailed over it, and came to anchor on the north side. Here they landed at an excellent harbour in a bay, which, in honour of the Mayor of Bristol, they which they called Whitson Bay. Having built a hut, and enclosed it with a barricade, some of them kept constant guard in it, while others were employed in where they collecting sassafras in the woods. They were visited by the natives, whom they treated with kindAfter remaining here seven weeks, the bark was dispatched, well freighted with sassafras, for England. Some alarming appearances of hostility on the part of the Indians, soon after the departure of the bark, accelerated the lading and departure of the ship, which sailed from the coast on the ninth of August.

son Bay ;

erect and

fortify a

hut.

May 10.

sails for Virginia.

ness. +

While Pring was employed in this voyage, BarB. Gilbert tholomew Gilbert went on a farther discovery to the southern part of Virginia; intending also to search for the lost English colony. Sailing from Plymouth on the tenth of May in a bark of fifty tons by the way of the West Indies, he on the twenty third of July saw land in about the fortieth

did it not, pretending that the extremitie of weather, and losse of some principal ground-tackle, forced and feared them from searching the Port of Hataraske, to which they were sent." Ibid.

1 At a place, named the year before, by Gosnold's men, Savage Rock. 2 It is called in Purchas a "great gulf;" which, according to Belknap, was the Vineyard Sound.

3 The haven, described in the journal inserted in Purchas," must have been that of Edgar-Town, generally called Old-Town." Note of Peleg Coffin, Esq. in Belknap Biog. ii. 128. The place where the voyagers cast anchor is said in Purchas to be "in the latitude of 41 degrees and odde minutes."

4 One of their birch canoes was carried home to Bristol, as a curious specimen of their ingenuity.

5 Purchas, v. 1654-1656. Belknap Biog. ii. 123-133. Smith Virg. 18. Beverly, 17. Stith, 32. Prince 6. Brit. Emp.i. Intred. 21.

degree of latitude. Adverse winds preventing him 1603. from reaching Chesepeak Bay, at which he aimed, he came to anchor on the twenty ninth about a mile from the shore, and landed with four of his principal men; but every one of them was killed. by the natives. The rest of the crew, intimidated by this disaster, weighed anchor, and returned to England.'

Patent of

40 to 46

Henry IV of France granted to Pierre du Gast, Nov. 3. Sieur de Monts, a gentleman of his bed chamber, De Monts a patent of the American territory from the fortieth for the territory from to the forty sixth degree of north latitude, constituting him lieutenant general of that portion of the deg. N. lat. country, with power to colonize and to rule it, and to subdue and Christianize its native inhabitants. The king soon after granted him and his associates an exclusive right to the commerce of peltry, in Acadie and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.3

Samuel Champlain of Brouage in France sailed up the St. Lawrence; anchored at Tadoussac; and made discoveries in the neighbouring territory.* Two hundred ships were at this period annually State of engaged in the Newfoundland fishery, and employ- Newfounded at least ten thousand men, s

1 Purchas, v. 1656-1658. Prince, 10. Stith, 33.

2 Hazard Coll. i. 45-48, where the patent is inserted entire, in the original French. An English translation of it is in Purchas, v. 1619, 1620; in Harris Voy. i. 813; and in Churchill Voy. viii. 796-798. In the last of these places it is introductory to L'Escarbot's Description of New France, an English translation of which is inserted ibid. 796-917. De Monts was a Calvinist; but the king allowed him and his people the exercise of his religion in America. On his part he engaged to people the country, and to establish the Catholic religion among the natives. Charlevoix Nouv. France, i. 111, 112. The country, described in the patent of De Monts, is there called Acadie; but this name was afterward restricted to what is now called Nova Scotia. "Cadia, pars Continentis, triangularis est formæ qui duo sinus exiguo terræ spatio disjuncti, hanc Provinciam penè Insulam efficiunt." Laët, cited by Charlevoix, ibid. "Acadie, depuis le Cap le Sable jusqu' a Camceaux, & c'est ce que les Anglois ont d'abord nommé Nouvelle Ecosse." Ibid.

3 Chalmers, i. 82, from L'Escarbot.

4 Charlevoix Nouv. France, i. 111. Harris Voy. i. 811. Univ. Hist. xxxix. 410. Bee nap Biog. i. 41, 322.

5 Biog. Britan. AERT, from Josiah Child's Discourse on Trade.

land fishe

ry.