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1499

In May John Cabot and his son Sebastian, with three hundred men and two vessels, commenced their voyage. On the 24th of June they discovered land, which is supposed to have been a part of Labrador, and soon afterwards returned to England.

Sebastian Cabot sailed from England on another voyage of discovery. He first saw land at some point north of Newfoundland, and thence coasted along the shores of the continent in a southerly direction as far as, or near to, Albemarle Sound, whence he returned to England.

Columbus sailed on his third voyage, and on the 31st of July discovered an island which he named Trinidad. On the next day he first saw the southern continent.

Alonzo de Ojeda sailed from Spain on the 20th of May, on a voyage of discovery, and ranged the coasts of South and Central America a considerable distance beyond where Columbus had voyaged. Accompanying this expedition was Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, eminently skilled in all the sciences pertaining to navigation. By the publication of his account of the voyage it is supposed that his name came to be given to the New World.

1500 Gaspar de Cortereal, a Portuguese, explored several hundred miles of the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Thomas Aubert made a voyage from Dieppe to Newfoundland, and, proceeding thence to the river St. Lawrence, was the first to sail up that river to Canada. On his return he carried to Paris some of the natives.

Up to this time the explorations of the Spaniards had been confined to the West India islands and the coasts and islands of Southern and Central America. On the 2d of April of this year Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the North American continent, in 30 degrees 8 minutes north latitude, to which he gave the name of Florida. The Spaniards claimed Florida from this discovery, and the English the whole continent from the prior discoveries of the Cabots.

1524 John de Verazzano, on a voyage of discovery in the service of Francis I., King of France, coasted along the shores of North America between the 28th and 50th degrees of north latitude, and called the country New France.

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Jacques Cartier, under a commission from the King of France, entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence upon the day of that saint, from which circumstance the name was given to it. Proceeding thence into the great river emptying into the gulf, he ascended and explored it for three hundred leagues, and, taking possession of the country in the name of his king, called it New France. He gave the name of Montreal to a large Indian settlement which he visited.

By this time the Spaniards had discovered and conquered Mexico, Peru, and other southern countries.

California was discovered by the Spaniards under Cortez. Ferdinand de Soto, Governor of Cuba, sailed on an expedition to Florida, to explore the country and conquer the natives.

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Ferdinand de Soto, having spent nearly two years in his wanderings in the wilderness, encountering many hardships and disasters, arrived on the first of May on the banks of the Mississippi, near the site of the present city of Memphis, and was the first discoverer of that great river.

A considerable number of French Protestants, in an expedition under the command of John Ribault, commenced a settlement on the island of Port Royal, in the present State of South Carolina, but their supplies being reduced, they were forced to abandon the country.

A French expedition, under the command of René Laudonnière, arrived in Florida on the 25th of June, and built a fort at the mouth of the river St. John's, which they called Fort Caroline. This fort was captured by the Spaniards in the following year, and nearly all the French were massacred.

Don Pedro Melendez was sent by the King of Spain to drive out the French from Florida. He arrived there in August, and on the 8th of September commenced to lay the foundation of a town, which he named St. Augustine, from having seen land on the anniversary of that saint. This is the oldest town in the United States.

John Ribault sailed on a second voyage, to found a colony of French Protestants in America. Arriving off the coast of Florida, his vessels were wrecked on the rocks, and himself and his men were massacred by the Spaniards.

1568 Dominique de Gourges, commanding an expedition of three ships, sailed from France for Florida to take revenge against the Spaniards for the massacre of his countrymen. He arrived there in April, assaulted and took the Spanish forts, and murdered large numbers of the garrisons.

1580

New Mexico was discovered by Augustin Ruys, a Spanish missionary.

1584 An English expedition, sailing under a patent granted to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth, visited the southern parts of North America, north of the Spanish possessions. Upon the return home of the adventurers the queen gave to the country they had explored the name of Virginia.

1585 Sir Walter Raleigh sent another expedition to America, and planted the first English colony in the Western World. The settlement was made in Carolina, on the island of Roanoke, but it was abandoned the next year.

1587 Raleigh again attempted to found a colony in America. He sent out one hundred and fifty men and women in three vessels, with a governor and council for the government of the colony; and the company arrived on the coast of North Carolina in July. On the 18th of August a daughter of the governor gave birth to a child, which was the first English child born in America. This colony had but a short existence, and what became the fate of the colonists was never known.

1602

Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and other places on the New England coast were explored by an English expedition under the command of Bartholomew Gosnold.

1606 King James of England granted patents to two corporations to colonize that part of America which lies between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude. The southern half of that territory he granted to the London Company; the northern, to the Plymouth Company. The supreme government of the colonies that were to be settled, was vested in a council resident in England, to be named by the king, according to such laws and ordinances as should be given under his sign-manual; and the subordinate jurisdiction was committed to a council resident in America, which was also to be nominated by the king and to act conformably to his instructions.

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The first permanent English settlement in America was this year established in Virginia by the London Company, and in honor of the king was named Jamestown.

The Plymouth Company sent out a small colony, which commenced a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The settlers, however, abandoned the country in the following year and returned to England.

Hendrick Hudson, in the service of the East India Company of Holland, sailing on an expedition to discover a western passage to the East Indies, discovered and entered the river which bears his name. The next year the Dutch sent six ships to trade with the natives occupying the shores of that river.

In September, Jamestown contained between fifty and sixty houses. In that place and the surrounding country there were about five hundred colonists, who were well supplied with tools, arms, and ammunition. They commenced the manufacture of glass, so as to furnish beads and other trinkets for traffic with the Indians.

The French under Champlain explored the country south of Montreal, and discovered the lake which now bears his name. 1612 The first bricks manufactured in America were made by the Virginia colonists.

1614

The Dutch built a fort on the extremity of the island where the city of New York now stands, and another at or near the site of the present city of Albany, and called their possessions in America New Netherlands.

Captain John Smith of Virginia ranged the coasts from Cape Cod to the Penobscot, and gave to that part of the country the name of New England.

1616 Tobacco about this time began to be cultivated in Virginia by the English.

1618

A number of Danes emigrated to this country about this time, and made a settlement at the mouth of the Hudson River, to which they gave the name of Bergen. This was the first settlement in New Jersey.

1619 The people in Virginia were now so numerous that they established a provincial assembly.

Thomas Dormer, who had been sent out from England, on a fishing voyage coasted from Kennebec to Virginia, sailing between the main-land and Long Island, and was the first person who ascertained that to be an island.

1620 The first permanent settlement in New England was com/menced this year. A large number of the English Congregation at Leyden, formed of Puritans who had been driven out

१ of England by persecution, sailed from Holland in July to

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found a community in America. After a long and boisterous voyage, they anchored in the harbor of Cape Cod on the 11th of November. Before landing, all the men signed an instrument, by which they combined themselves into a body-politic, to be governed by the will of the majority, thereby establishing a republican form of government-the first of its kind formed in America. This contract was sigued by forty-one men, who with their families constituted one hundred and one personsthe whole colony that arrived in New England. After exploring the coast, they agreed upon a place of settlement, and landed, on the 22d of December, on the rock which posterity has marked in commemoration of the Pilgrims. To this settlement they gave the name of Plymouth, in memory of the hospitalities which the company had received at the English port where they stopped on their passage over from Holland.

Ninety young women were sent from England to Virginia by the London Company, and a price was fixed for each, as a charge for their transportation, of one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, to be paid by the person taking any one of them for a wife. Sixty more were sent over in the next year. The first negro slaves imported into the country were landed at Jamestown from a Dutch vessel and sold.

Fifty-five thousand pounds of tobacco were exported from Virginia this year.

The first settlements in New Hampshire were made at this time, at several places on the Piscataqua River, under a patent granted John Mason and others.

The Dutch commenced laying out a town on Manhattan Island, to which they gave the name of New Amsterdam; and the building of a fort on the Delaware River, which they called Fort Nassau.

Dissensions among the members of the London Company, and other reasons, led the king to seek a dissolution of its charter. Legal proceedings were therefore instituted to that end, and the charter was declared vacated and the Company dissolved.

Three ships and a yacht arrived at Manhattan Island from Holland, bringing a number of settlers, and one hundred head of cattle.

On the 4th of May Peter Minuit arrived at Manhattan, in the capacity of Director-General of New Netherlands. He organized a provisional government, and purchased Manhattan island from the Indians.

The use of wampum as a currency was introduced by the Plymouth colonists.

A company was formed in Sweden to encourage colonization in America; and a number of Swedes and Finns were sent over. They first landed at Cape Henlopen, and some time after pur

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chased from the_natives the land from that cape to the Falls of Delaware, and obtained peaceable possession.

The colonists of Plymouth purchased from the Plymouth Company all the lands and interests of that corporation in America for £1800, in nine equal annual payments.

The foundation of the colony of Massachusetts was laid this year. The Council for New England on the 19th of March sold to six gentlemen, residents of Dorchester in England, a belt of land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, extending three miles south of the river Charles and the Massachusetts Bay, and three miles north of every part of the Merrimac River. A few people under the government of John Endicot were first sent over to prepare for settling a colony. Endicot on his

arrival laid the foundation of Salem, the first permanent town in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Company on the 4th of March obtained a charter from King Charles I., by which the company was incorporated by the name of "The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England;" to have perpetual succession; empowered to elect forever out of the freemen of the company a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, to be newly chosen on the last Wednesday in Easter term yearly, by a majority of the company; and to make laws not repugnant to those of England. The company soon after met in London and settled a form of government for the new colony, and elected John Endicot governor for the first year. It was also agreed that every member who had advanced £50 should have two hundred acres of land assigned him, and that fifty acres apiece should be allowed the colonists who emigrated at their own charge. Several persons of considerable importance in England joined the company, who, for the unmolested enjoyment of their religion, resolved to remove to Massachusetts. In May, three ships sailed from the Isle of Wight, carrying about two hundred persons; and in June arrived at Salem. Some of the colonists being dissatisfied with that place, removed and laid the foundation of a town, which they named Charlestown. They laid out the town in two-acre lots, one of which was assigned to each inhabitant. The people at Salem commenced at once the manufacture of brick, and built the first brick-kiln established in New England.

To encourage the co-operation of capitalists in the settlement of New Netherlands, the Dutch West India Company offered to any of its members who should plant a colony of fifty adults in any part of New Netherlands, excepting on Manhattan Island, certain exclusive privileges, coupled with certain conditions, and he should be acknowledged as the feudal chief or patroon of such colony.

John Mason procured a new patent, which granted to him the territory between the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, which tract was afterward called New Hampshire.

The Massachusetts Colony was augmented by the arrival of large numbers of colonists, many of whom were of consid