her subjects free rein in their efforts to break down the Spanish colonial and commercial system. Maritime exploits like those of Hawkins and Drake led naturally to attempts at colonization, and in 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh made the first advance. After some preliminary investigation, Raleigh sent out an expedition of seven ships, with two hundred colonists, to "Virginia", and the colony was planted on Roanoke Island, in territory claimed, though not occupied, by Spain. But life in the wilderness proved so unattractive that in the following year all but fifteen returned to England. In 1587, Raleigh sent out another group of colonists. Then came the war with Spain, during the first part of which no Englishmen had any time for attention to the little Roanoke settlement. It was not until 1591 that a relief expedition could be started, and when this reached Virginia, the leaders could find, as the barest trace of the unfortunate colony, nothing but the word "Croatoan" carved upon a tree.

THE SPANISH ARMADA

Unsuccessful as it was, this attempt to violate the Spanish claim was another goad to Philip, already infuriated over the commercial situation. Then, when Elizabeth ordered the execution of Mary Stuart, Philip decided that there was nothing left but the appeal to force. He was right. The only way that his commercial structure could be saved was to subject England to his rule; then, and only then, could Philip put a stop to her continued attacks. If he won, he would save his own empire, and deal a crushing blow to Protestantism. If he failed, he knew that the days of Spanish greatness would be numbered.

When the war finally came, it found Elizabeth in a truly enviable position, with the united support of the whole nation behind her. Every merchant was aware of the advantages to be derived from Spanish defeat. Parliament, which represented both the merchants and the country gentry, was in full sympathy with the queen. The nobles, including even the Catholics, gave their support, because they resented Philip's threat to English independence.

The most spectacular part of the war came in the beginning. Philip planned to overwhelm England with a single, crushing blow, and to that end he organized his famous Armada. He mobilized a fleet of a hundred and thirty vessels, with a total force of thirty thousand men. Over half these were soldiers, and the fleet carried

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the entire equipment for a great military campaign. It was the aim of the Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia-a general, not an admiral, by the way-to effect the conquest of the British Isles.

The story of the British defense is well known. Elizabeth called upon her seamen, who had the most at stake. For chief in command she selected Lord Howard of Effingham, and he had as vice-admirals both Hawkins and Drake. The English navy was not large enough to engage in open battle with the whole Spanish force, but the defensive operations were planned and executed with thoroughgoing effectiveness. The English vessels were smaller, more seaworthy, and much better handled than the Spanish, while the English artillery and marksmanship were far superior. As a result of the efficiency of the English, and of the effectiveness of the unfavorable winds and storms, the Spaniards were hopelessly beaten, while the English lost not a single ship, and only sixty men.

The defeat of the Armada may well be listed among the decisive achievements of history. The Spanish loss in men and in ships could easily have been made good, but the defeat destroyed the morale of the Spanish seamen. That could not be restored. As a result, Spanish sea power was broken. By 1591, the English had seized over eight hundred Spanish ships, and by 1596 they actually captured Cadiz itself. Of course the defeat did not mark the end of the Spanish navy, nor the end of the Spanish empire, but it did mark the end of Spanish expansion. Thenceforth the history of Spain is one of decline. As for England, her victory opened the way to colonial and commercial greatness. The Raleigh experiment had revealed the nature of the former obstacles. In order to establish a colony a nation needed control of the sea, to keep the new settlement properly supplied until it could take care of itself. Thus the defeat of the Armada, by enabling England to build up her navy, freed the colonies of the seventeenth century from the menace of Spanish interference. And because it encouraged the English merchants to undertake colonial ventures, the defeat of the Armada proved to be one of the most important episodes in the early history of the United States.

CHAPTER III

THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA AND

MARYLAND

It was not until the reign of James I that Englishmen were able to establish their first permanent colony in America. By that time a number of English joint stock companies were investigating or developing commercial possibilities in various parts of the world, and the profits of the most famous of them, the East India Company, were reputed to run as high as one hundred per cent. In view of their extraordinary success in the East, a field supposed to be reserved for the Spanish and Portuguese, it seems surprising that Englishmen had made no concerted effort either to oust the Spaniards from their American holdings, or to build up new colonies there of their own. Naturally the war had tended to discourage colonization in America, and perhaps the unfortunate end of the Raleigh experiment at Roanoke helped to turn companies away from the western world. Or again, perhaps the English merchants were getting all they wanted from America, during the war, in the shape of Spanish plunder. Peace was not made until 1604, and it may be more than a mere accident that the first two English companies organized to exploit America were chartered just two years later. By putting a stop to the plundering of Spanish treasure ships, the end of the war closed the easiest road to American wealth, but once it was closed, enterprising speculators and merchants could try colonization.

The organization of the London and Plymouth Companies was not greatly different in principle from that of the other joint stock companies which had preceded them. They were business enterprises, pure and simple, created to start new settlements with the primary object of making money.

THE JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT

To the London Company the king's charter granted the territory between the thirty-fourth and the forty-first degrees of latitude, and to the Plymouth that between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth, with

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27

the provision that in the region where the grants overlapped, there must be a gap of at least a hundred miles between the settlements of the two companies. With the grants of land the Companies received authority "to deduce a Colony . . . into that Part of America." In addition to granting the land, the crown made what seemed to be ample provision for the government of the colonies to be founded under this charter. Each colony was to have a council of thirteen members to govern in accordance with royal orders; the members of these bodies were to be appointed by the king's authority, and were removable by royal instruction. In addition, there was created the "Council of Virginia", in England, to have general oversight of the two colonies.

According to English law of that time, no subject could leave the realm without the king's consent; the charter therefore conferred upon the two companies full authority to take out colonists. These settlers, and their descendants, were to "have and enjoy all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities, within any of our other Dominions, to all Intents and Purposes, as if they had been abiding and born, within this our Realm of England, or any other of our said Dominions."

This first charter did not confer even a semblance of self-government upon the prospective settlers. The councils were created by, and subject to the king. The various rights referred to in the preceding paragraph were only those which were in existence in 1606, not those which were secured later. At that time, there was comparatively little self-government or democracy in England. Again, the companies and the councils were created by act of the king, not of Parliament, and at that time Parliament had no voice in them. It was not until after the Civil War that Parliament began to extend its activity into colonial matters. But these circumstances did not disturb the early Virginia pioneers, because they were not interested in political science, either theoretical or practical.

The first settlers arrived in Virginia in 1607, and very unwisely decided to make their homes at the mouth of the James River. Here a combination of brackish water and malarial mosquitoes soon brought on sickness. It was partly this unfavorable location, and partly a combination of circumstances which neither the Company nor the colonists could control, that account for the hardships of the early years. The first settlers were of all kinds, gentlemen, artisans, and laborers, on the whole a good average lot of Englishmen.

Their environment, however, was anything but average. Any group of civilized human beings, no matter how intelligent and able they may be, will find it difficult to adjust themselves to life in a wilderness. They were three thousand miles away from their base of supplies, and that meant about two months. Because they could not begin to raise their food at once, they had to import it from England. Some of the supplies which the Company bought spoiled in transit, while some were bad when they started. Contractors cheated the Company unmercifully. The colonists did not succeed in raising even maize until 1609. Two years is a long time to depend upon imported food, when it had to be brought in under those conditions.

In the course of a few months, the health of the colony was almost hopelessly bad. Poor food, combined with disease, probably malaria, left the men weak and discouraged. At one time during that desolate first year only six well persons could be found in the colony. According to reports, they were so badly off that "some of them would eat their fish raw, rather than they would go a stones cast to fetch wood and dresse it." In 1610, Sir Thomas Gates described the situation. as follows: "Cast up this reckoning together: want of government, store of idlenesse, their expectations frustrated by traitors, their market spoyled by the Mariners, our nets broken, the deere chased, our boats lost, our hogs killed, our trade with the Indians forbidden, some of our men fled, some murthered, and most, by drinking of the brackish water of James fort weakened, and endaungered, famine and sicknesse by all these meanes increased. . . . Above all, having neither Ruler, nor Preacher, they neither feared God nor man, which provoked the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and pulled downe his judgements upon them."

In addition to all these reasons for discouragement, the very system on which the colony was founded made success almost impossible. The aim of the Company was dividends, to be derived from the labor of the settlers. The colonists were not independent farmers, but merely the servants of the Company. With the Company as the sole land owner, it is not surprising that the men were lazy. And, because whatever they made went to enrich the Company, instead of themselves, they could see no incentive to work. The greatest stimulus to activity, the opportunity for private gain, was conspicuously absent. Whenever anything goes badly with civilized man, be it famine, earthquake, or indigestion, he is inclined to blame the government.