Explorations in New England

WE have considered the failures of the Plymouth Company to plant settlements in America. We will now consider other attempts and failures, and the permanent establishment of a settlement in New England.

The restless Captain Smith did not long remain idle after his return from Virginia. In company with four London merchants, he fitted out two ships for the purpose of discovery and traffic in the northern regions of America. Captain Thomas Hunt commanded one of the vessels, and Smith sailed in the other. They left the Downs at the beginning of March, 1614, and first landed on the island of Mohegan, about twenty miles from the mouth of the Penobscot River, where they sought whales, but finding none Smith left the crews to engage in common fishing, while he and eight men, in a small boat, should explore the neighboring coasts and gather furs. They went up the several rivers far into the interior, and explored the whole coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. Smith constructed a map of the region; and after an absence of seven months, the vessels returned to England with cargoes of considerable value. He laid his map before Prince Charles, the heir apparent to the throne, and a man of considerable literary and artistic taste. The Prince procured from his father a confirmation of the title of New England, which Smith had given to the country, on his map; and so that region from twenty miles eastward of the Hudson River has ever since been called. As usual, crime dimmed the lustre of these achievements. Whilst Smith was exploring the coasts, Captain Hunt, an avaricious and profligate man, wishing, apparently, to impede settlements by inflaming the wrath of the Indians, so that he and a few others might enjoy the monopoly of traffic on that coast, kidnapped twenty-seven of the savages at Cape Cod, with Squanto their chief, and taking them to Spain sold them for slaves. Some of them were taken by benevolent friars, who educated them for missionaries among the tribes, but only Squanto returned to America. The effect of this crime satisfied the apparent wishes of Hunt. The next fishing vessels that came from New England brought word that the natives were greatly exasperated.

This news did not discourage Captain Smith. On his return he had an interview with the energetic and ever-hopeful Ferdinando Gorges, and inspired him with such desires to plant a settlement in New England, that the Plymouth Company asked Smith to lead a colony thither. He believed that the could allay the anger of the natives, as he had done in Virginia, and having accepted the invitation of the Company, he sailed with two ships and some emigrants in the spring of 1615. Smith's ship was shattered by a tempest and returned to port. On the 4th of July following he sailed again, in a bark of sixty tons, and was soon captured by a French squadron. While on board one of the Gallic vessels, he wrote an account of his voyage to New England, which was published the next year. After a brief captivity, he was released and returned home. Meanwhile, the Plymouth Company had made him admiral of New England; but, discouraged by ill luck, the association had again abandoned the project of planting a colony there. Smith now drops almost out of sight in history. He lived to see his friend, Prince Charles, seated on the throne of his father; and, not long afterwards (1631), the founder of the Virginia colony died at the age of fifty-one years.

Thus far English settlements in America had been attempted by private adventurers, or commercial associations, with no higher aim than the acquisition of wealth. That acquisition was denied, and full success was not obtained until better men, with more exalted motives, came to people the lands. These came to New England with families and were prepared to stay, not so much for the betterment of their temporal estates, as for the unmolested enjoyment of civil and religious freedom, which was denied them at home.

We have seen how three powerful religious parties--Roman Catholic, Anglican and Puritan--crystallized into distinct sects at about the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, all struggling for supremacy. The Puritans were fewer in numbers than either of their antagonists, but were stronger in the moral power which asserts and defends the rights of man. They boldly declared the right of private judgment in religious matters to be inalienable, and that every human being was endowed with the natural privilege of worshipping the Creator in accordance with the dictates of conscience. Upon the same platform of principles they asserted the rights of the people to the enjoyment of civil freedom. The Puritan pulpits became the tribunes of the common people, and sometimes the preachers were bold enough to promulgate the democratic doctrine, so dangerous to the royal prerogative, that the sovereign was amenable to public opinion when fairly expressed.