VOYAGE OF HAWKINS.

315

the Dainty passed into the South Sea on the 29th March, and, having captured four Spanish vessels in Valparaiso Bay, proceeded along the coast to the northward. In May he was brought to action by some Spanish vessels sent from Callao by the Spanish Viceroy, the Marquis de Canete, but repulsed the squadron. On the 20th June the Dainty was attacked, near Cape St. Francisco, by two large ships and a small bark, and, after making a gallant fight for two days, was captured. According to Figueroa, in his 'Life of Don Garcia de Mendoza, Marquis of Canete,' the Spanish loss was twenty-eight killed and twenty-two wounded, and that of the English, who numbered, according to Hawkins, seventy-five men, twenty-seven killed and seventeen wounded. Hawkins (who was wounded) and his men were carried to Panama, and thence to Lima, but were released in 1596. A poetical version of this famous voyage, composed by William Ridley, is preserved in the British Museum, and Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' says of this great navigator :

'And Hawkins not behind the best of those before.'

After this event a long period elapsed before the English undertook enterprises to the South Seas. Not that they were cowed by the superiority at sea of the fleets of France and Spain, for the latter country never regained the sovereignty of the seas, and France scarcely dared to contest what the sailors of the Commonwealth claimed as the successors of the Elizabethan seamen:

'E'en in those troubled times when dreadful Blake
Awed angry nations with the British name.'

CHAPTER XV.

Foundation of the English Colonial Empire-Sir Humphry Gilbert's Voyage to America, and Death-The Voyages of Captains Amadas and Barlow, and of Sir Richard Grenville, who colonises Roanoke Island-Removal of the Colonists by Sir Walter Raleigh, and recolonisation by White-Raleigh's attempt to colonise Guiana in South America-Voyages of Englishmen to the Gulf of MexicoUnsuccessful attempts to colonise Virginia and New England by Captains Gosnold, Pringe, and Mace-Permanent establishment of British Colonists in Virginia, North Carolina, and New Jersey Constitution of the Hudson's Bay Company-The sailing of the May Flower for Massachusetts-The Settlement of the Bermudas, of Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton-Renewed attempts by the English, under Sir Walter Raleigh and others, to colonise Guiana-The Colonisation of Barbadoes, the West Indies, and Honduras.

THERE is no prouder page in the history of England than that on which is inscribed the history of the foundation of her colonies. The page is written with the blood of her children, freely shed in the conflict with treacherous Indians and settlers of other nations, though their most cruel enemies were the wild and unaccustomed seas traversed by the emigrants in unsuitable and crowded ships, and the forces of nature arrayed against them, to cope with which they had little experience, and few of the adjuncts now considered indispensable in founding a new colony. But the record is a noble one, as will appear in the following pages, which give a necessarily

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meagre account of the repeated efforts to plant settlements where the graves of previous colonists warned the new comers of the perils in store for them.

It was not until nearly fifty years after the French had settled in Canada, that England commenced that work of colonising which, more than anything, has raised her prestige among nations, until now, with onesixth of the globe, she has attained a grandeur such as Rome never acquired, and as the mother of many nations, her island story must ever fill one of the largest chapters in the history of the human race. As Thomson says:

'Lo! swarming southward on rejoicing suns,
Gay colonies extend: the calm retreat
Of undeserved distress, the better home
Of those whom bigots chase from foreign lands.
Nor built on rapine, servitude, and woe,
And in their turn some petty tyrant's prey;

But, bound by social Freedom, firm they rise.'

In Queen Elizabeth's reign the Newfoundland fisheries were very extensive, and one Parkhurst writes that in the year 1578, there were about fifty English sail employed on that coast, besides 100 Spanish, and fifty Portuguese, and he adds, 'the English, whose ships were larger and better equipped, exercised a certain authority over other nations.' Within twenty years of that date,' says Harris (vol. ii. p. 198), 'there were no less than 200 English fishing-vessels, having on board upwards of 8000 seamen.' The first to obtain a patent from Elizabeth to colonise America, was Sir Humphry Gilbert, 'a devout gentleman and a philosopher,' who, on his mother's side, was a half-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh. By this patent, Sir Humphry and his heirs were granted leave not only to discover, but to plant and settle in any of these northern countries,

not in the possession of any Christian prince, with authority to govern such colonies.' His first voyage was unsuccessful, and was attended with the loss of one of his ships; but in 1583 he succeeded, with the assistance of men of rank and substance, in fitting out the following five vessels, manned with 260 men, including the colonists, among whom were shipwrights, masons, carpenters, and other artificers: the Delight (or George), of 120 tons, Captain Winter, in which Sir Humphry embarked; the bark Raleigh (fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh), 200 tons, Captain Butler; the Golden Hind, 40 tons, Captain Edward Hayes; the Swallow, 40 tons, Captain Maurice Brown; and the Squirrel, 10 tons, Captain William Andrews.

The squadron sailed on the 11th June, and, with the exception of the Raleigh, which returned to England, arrived at St. John's on the 3rd August, where they found thirty-six vessels of different nations, so considerable was the fishing trade even at that early date. Sir Humphry took possession of the harbour of St. John, and 200 leagues every way,' in the name of Queen Elizabeth, and, on the 20th August, sailed from the harbour with the Delight, Golden Hind, and Squirrel, into which he had shifted his flag for the purposes of discovery. On the 29th, being off Cape Breton, the Delight struck, and went to pieces, when Captain Brown, who now commanded her, and nearly 100 people perished; the remainder of the crew, numbering sixteen souls, got out to sea in a boat, which, after being driven before the wind for six days and nights, during which the survivors had neither food nor water, was cast on the coast of Newfoundland, whence they were taken to England by a French ship. Sir Humphry now determined to return to England, intending to undertake a second

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319

voyage in the following spring; but, on the 9th September, the Squirrel, which the gallant leader of the expedition refused to leave, foundered with all on board. The tiny craft was utterly unfitted to cope with the waves of the Atlantic, which yearly, as we know, overwhelms ships and steamers of the largest tonnage. The sea broke

'Now on the beak,

Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin.'

The Golden Hind alone arrived in safety at Falmouth on 22nd September.

The following lines commemorate the death of this seaman, who has the distinction of having planted our first colonies in America:

Eastward from Campobello

Sir Humphry Gilbert sailed;
Three days, or more, he seaward bore,
Then, alas! the land-wind failed.

'Alas! the land-wind failed,

And ice-cold grew the night;

And never more, on sea or shore,
Should Sir Humphry see the light.

'He sat upon the deck;

The Book was in his hand;
"Do not fear! heaven is as near,"

He said, "by water as by land."'

Sir Walter Raleigh, after the death of his half-brother, Sir Humphry Gilbert, procured the renewal to himself of his patent, under date 25th March, 1584, and, to carry its provisions into execution, selected Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. These two experienced seamen sailed from England on the following 27th April, and, passing the Canaries on the 10th June, proceeded to the West Indies, whence, crossing the Gulf of Mexico,