Cabot (kǎ'bot). CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. I. Bē'ring. The strait so called was named from its discoverer, a Dane. Plymouth (plim'uth). Păm❜licō. Rō'ǎnōke. Gosnold (gos'nold). Newport News (nus). A cape at the entrance of the James River. The name originally was Newport-Newce, Sir William Newce, the marshal of the colony, being a neighbor of Newport. Parliament (pärli-ment). The body in English government which corresponds to our Congress. The word is from the French, and means "the talking body." Powhatan (pow-hă-tǎn'). Pyrites (pi-ri'tēz). A yellow dust of no value, that looks like gold. Delaware. The old form is "de la Warr." Păt'ent. A legal paper giving special rights. The term is now used of inventions, but formerly it covered the right to plant colonies and hold land. Leyden (li'den). Delft Ha'ven. The harbor at Delft, in Holland, eight miles from Delft, and near the city of Rotterdam. Mayflower. The English Mayflower plant was the hawthorn; but the name in America was applied, very early, to the trailing arbutus, which is abundant in the woods near Plymouth. The Speedwell was also named from an English flower. Charter. A patent gave rights to hold property or to trade. A charter gave, besides, certain rights of government. Massachusetts. This was the name, as the English wrote it, of a tribe of Indians occupying the country. Harvard University, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, takes its name from John Harvard, a minister of Charlestown, who left his library and half of his property to the college, which had been determined upon two years before his death. Groton (grô'ton). Suffolk (suf'fuk) = South Folk. An Indian name, meaning "the long Gorges (gôr'jěz). The Great Harry, - the First Famous Ship of the English Navy. Built in 1512. 29. The First English Discoveries. - Each of four great nations of Europe made its separate entrance into America, and at the first occupied its separate territory; and each was looking for India. The English were very early on the ground. In 1497, but five years after the first voyage of Columbus, John Cabot, a Venetian captain, living in England, sailed out of Bristol in search of a northwest passage to India. He came upon the coast of North America near Cape Breton, and on a second voyage the next year followed south and westward nine hundred miles.1 1 Documents describing the Voyage of John Cabot in 1497 will be found in No. 9, American History Leaflets. The English at first paid little heed to these discoveries made by Cabot. They were intent on finding a way to India by the northeast; and only by repeated failures to get through the Arctic Ocean north of Asia, did they turn their attention to the Northwest Passage. During the earlier part of the sixteenth century, England was inferior in power to Spain and France, but it gathered strength, especially at sea.2 1 The south and west coast of England contains the harbors from which most of the vessels sailed, and the busiest of these was the harbor of Plymouth. Near by lived. Sir Francis Drake, who, like Balboa, had seen the Pacific from Panama, and could not rest till he had sailed upon it. So, in the autumn of 1577, Drake set sail with a fleet of five vessels. Three years later, he sailed into Plymouth har 1580. bor with a single vessel. He had visited the coast of what is now California, and, crossing the Pacific Ocean, had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and Sir Francis Drake. Born about 1545; died 1595. thus sailed round the globe. All England rang with his fame. 30. Sir Walter Raleigh and his Ventures. A great rivalry sprang up between England and Spain, which was partly com 1 The Northwest Passage has never been made by any vessel. The first party of Europeans to make the journey between Bering Strait and Baffin's Bay was Captain M'Clure's in 1852-53, which went partly by water, partly over ice. 2 See, for a spirited tale of this period, Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! mercial, partly religious, and English statesmen turned their eyes toward the New World where Spain had acquired great wealth. One of these statesmen, Sir Walter Raleigh, was occupied with great affairs in England, but he had large designs for colonizing America. Heretofore, Spaniards and Frenchmen had built forts and overrun the country, but their possession had been a military possession. Raleigh and other Sir Walter Raleigh. Born 1552. Englishmen had it in mind to occupy the land with families, to till the soil and make homes. Raleigh sent two vessels to explore, which sailed by way of the Canaries and West Indies; and coming upon the shore of what is now North Carolina, anchored in Pamlico Sound, and visited Roanoke Island. The explorers brought back glowing accounts of the land and the people, and Raleigh obtained consent from the virgin Queen Elizabeth to This name was at first name the country after her, Virginia. applied to all the country lying between the French possessions and the Spanish, and extending no one knew how far to the west. Raleigh at once laid plans for a great colony. In the spring of 1585 he sent out seven ships, which carried a hundred colonists, several of whom were men of learning and fame. The settlers got into trouble with the Indians and in a year or two returned to England, bringing with them the first tobacco The ever seen in Europe. Raleigh was not discouraged. next summer he sent out a fresh expedition, which for the first time included women. A child, named Virginia Dare, was born in the colony, the first born in Amer 1587. ica of English parentage. She was the granddaughter of John White, the governor of the colony. The Lost Colony. White returned to England for further help; he found the country engaged in a new war with Spain, and it was three years before he could get back to Virginia. When he did return, not a colonist was to be found, nor any trace of the company beyond a few letters. cut in the bark of a tree. Raleigh sent vessel after vessel in vain search for the lost colony. He himself fell into trouble at home, and at last could do nothing more in Virginia. He said, "I shall yet live to see it an English nation." But he did not live to see this. He was a victim of the troublous times which were coming upon England, and was 1618. put to death by King James I. He intended his colony to bear the name of Raleigh, and that name was afterwards given to the capital of the State formed from the |