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1603.]

ATTAINDER OF RALEIGH.

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charge of high treason, James I. found in Sir John Popham membered now chiefly for the part he took in the trial of End of RaRaleigh, and for following his example in attempting to leigh's found a colony on the North American coast- -a chief jus- enterprises tice base enough to bend the law to the will of a tyrannical master.

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Signature of Queen Elizabeth.

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Signature of Sir Walter Raleigh.

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GOSNOLD'S EXPEDITION. - PATENT GRANTED TO LONDON AND PLYMOUTH COMPANIES. -A COLONY SETS OUT FOR VIRGINIA. - DISCORD ON SHIPBOARD.. THE BUILDING OF JAMESTOWN. - NEWPORT'S EXPLORATION OF THE RIVER.-GOVERNORSHIP OF EDWARD WINGFIELD. -DISCONTENT AND SUFFERING AMONG THE COLONISTS.THE INDIAN CHIEF POWHATAN. - ACCOUNTS OF SMITH'S CAPTURE BY THE SAVAGES.- - DISCREPANCIES IN SMITH'S OWN STORY.- RETURN OF NEWPORT FROM ENGLAND. CORONATION OF POWHATAN. SERVICES OF SMITH TO THE COLONY. THE NEW CHARTER. - EXPEDITION OF GATES AND SOMERS. THE TEMPEST AND THE SHIPWRECK. OPPORTUNE COMING OF LORD DE LA WARRE.-CODE OF LAWS FOR THE COLONY. ADMINISTRATION OF GATES AND DALE. - CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO. MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS. - SANDYS AND YEARDLEY.-THE COLONY FIRMLY ESTABLISHED. - WHITE AND BLACK SLAVERY. THE FIRST AMERICAN LEGISLATURE.

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BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD sailed from Falmouth, England, on the 25th of March, 1602, in a small vessel called the Concord - Bartholomew Gilbert being his second in command-sent, not by Raleigh, nor going with Raleigh's consent, but by the Earl of Southampton.1 He

1 The letter from Raleigh to Cecil, referred to in the previous chapter, shows that the presumption that this voyage was made with his consent (see Bancroft, Palfrey, and others), is erroneous. He asks that Gilbert's "sarse phrase "be seized, "because I have a patint that all shipps and goods are confiscate that shall trade ther without my leve." That he had given such leave, has hitherto been assumed, because Brereton (see Purchas's Pilgrims and Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. viii., Third Series), addresses his narrative of the voyage to Sir Walter Raleigh. Brereton's own words, however, make it plain that he did so only as a matter of courtesy.

1602.]

GOSNOLD'S EXPEDITION.

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Voyage of

mew Gosnold. 1602.

took with him thirty-two persons, of whom twenty were to remain and found a colony somewhere on the northern coast of Virginia, as the whole country was then called, from the thirty- Bartholo fourth to the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. His purpose was to go by a direct northwest course, avoiding the usual circuitous route by the Canaries and the West India Islands; but contrary winds drove him southward to one of the Azores, whence he steered nearly due west, arriving on the coast of New England at about 40° of latitude, on the 14th of May.

At a point which he called Savage Rock, not far, probably, from Cape Ann, if not the Cape itself, the Concord was boarded by a party of Indians in a Biscay shallop, carrying both sails and oars; their leader, and one or two others, were partially clothed in European garments, which, as well as the boat, they had obtained from Biscay fishermen ; nor was this the only evidence of frequent intercourse with such visitors, for it is said, "they spoke divers Christian words, and seemed to understand more than we, for want of language, could comprehend." 1 Finding at this place no good harbor, they stood southward, crossed Massachusetts Bay, and the next morning dropped anchor, within a league from the shore, under the lea of a great promontory.

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On this breezy point, jutting out into the Atlantic, which a voyager along the coast of the United States can hardly escape hitting, either in fair weather or foul, stands to-day the picturesque village of Provincetown, half buried always in sand, and at the proper season com1 The Relation of Captain Gosnold's Voyage, by Gabriel Archer, in Purchas, vol. iv.

pletely covered over with drying cod-fish. Gosnold and his people at first called this promontory Shoal Hope, but presently changed the name to Cape Cod. Champlain called it Cap Blanc (Cape White), four years later, because of the aspect which its sands gave it;1 and in 1614 Captain John Smith named it Cape James; but the name Cape Cod it has never lost. The captain and some of his companions landed, and found pease, strawberries, and whortleberries, as yet unripe; the woods were cypress, birch, witch-hazel, and beech-products which the visitor to the extremity of Cape Cod will now hardly find, by the most diligent search.

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Doubling the headland, they sailed for six days along the outer coast of the cape, "the back side" as it is now called, — which the Northmen, it is supposed, had discovered six hundred years before, and named Wonder-strands. Certain points now known as dangerous shoals, but which were then peninsulas of firm

Gosnold sails past Cape Cod.

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their birch canoes, others ran along the beaches "admiring" the strangers; the pipes of those who boarded the ship, it was observed, were "steeled with copper," and one of these Indians wore a breastplate of that

metal a foot in length and half a foot in breadth.

Crossing the Vineyard Sound, they came "amongst many fair islands," on one of which they landed. It was full of woods and fruit-bearing bushes, with such an incredible store of vines running

1 Voyages du Sieur de Champlain.

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