MURDEROUS REVENGE.

79

sea before his fleet was overtaken by a severe storm which destroyed every vessel, though the men mostly were saved. Menendez saw that his opportunity had arrived, and despite the arduous nature of the attempt, led his men across the country towards the French settlement, which he knew was in a defenceless condition. A sudden attack and a short fight made him master of the destinies of the French, and he massacred all who were unable to escape to the woods or the sea. Over the remains of the Frenchmen Menendez placed the inscription, "Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." He returned to Spain the next year in triumph, but with the loss of his fortune.

This disaster did not close the attempts of the French to establish a colony in Florida. The court did not make any effort to revenge the loss of its citizens, but Dominic de Gourgues, a gentleman of Gascony, sold his property, and, by the aid of his friends, fitted out a fleet of three vessels, on which he embarked one hundred and fifty men with the purpose of destroying the Spaniards. De Gourgues captured the Spanish forts near the mouth of the St. Matheo, and hanged his prisoners, placing over them the inscription, "Not as Spaniards or mariners, but as traitors, robbers and assassins." Too weak to risk an attack from the Spaniards at St. Augustine, De Gourgues hastily sailed for home in May, 1568; and with his butchery closed the efforts of the French to possess themselves of the Floridas or Carolinas.*

*Mr. Parkman, in his "Pioneers of France in the New World," treats the subject of this chapter.

CHAPTER V.

ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.

HE efforts of the

THE

English to plant col

onies in America were

to be continued

for more than a

century, and in time they resulted in making the new land essentially English. The first name which presents

itself to our

THE MAYFLOWER.

notice is that of

the gallant Sir

Martin Frobisher, who fitted out an expedition to discover a northwest passage to China, under the patronage of the Earl of Warwick, and was the first Englishman to make this attempt. He did not succeed, but he left his name on "Frobisher's Strait." His expedition left England June 8th, 1576, being bidden Godspeed by Queen Elizabeth, who waved her hand towards the vessels as they passed Greenwich. Fro

SIR FRANCÍS DRAKE.

81

bisher discovered in the New World something that he considered gold, and the queen lent him a vessel for a second voyage, which he made in 1578, but without greater success than he had on the first occasion. He accompanied Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies in 1585, and in 1588 battled bravely against the Spanish Armada at home, but did not visit America again.

British progress in naval domination was accel

erated by the irregular expeditions of Sir Francis Drake, who appears to us now as little better than a pirate, but who by his voyage around the world, and his raids on the ships of Spain, had exceedingly

excited the spirit of adventure and the cupidity of his countrymen. Two step-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, courtiers of Queen Elizabeth and true Protestants, appear next among the venturous discoverers.

Gilbert had obtained a patent in 1578, authorizing him to make a plantation in Amer ica, when Raleigh returned from assisting Admiral Coligni and the Huguenots in France, and the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands; and the two

put to sea, but were obliged to re

turn without having made land.

In 1583, another expe

dition set out. Raleigh was

prevented from accom

panying it,

but sub

scribed the

very generous sum of two thousand pounds towards its expenses. It was no more successful than the

former venture.

Newfoundland was reached and

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

83

taken possession of in the name of the queen, but on the return voyage Gilbert went down with one of the vessels.*

Raleigh was not daunted, and having himself obtained another patent, in 1584 sent out two vessels, which, under the command of Sir Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow, touched on the coast of North Carolina, named the land "Virginia," after the virgin queen, and returned to England. In 1585, 1586 and 1587, Raleigh sent out colonies, a town called Raleigh, on Roanoke Island, being founded by John White in the last mentioned year. The colonists all disappeared in a manner not now known, and with the colony perished the first child of English parents ever born on American soil, Virginia Dare, granddaughter of John White, the Governor of the settle

ment.

The era of colonization in America is coincident with the Stuart dynasty (1603-1727), though the abortive efforts of Raleigh had occurred in the reign. of Elizabeth, and though the colonization of Georgia was not begun by Oglethorpe until 1733. As the reign of Elizabeth was closing, Bartholomew Gosnold, one of those who had accompanied Raleigh to Virginia, was placed by the Earl of Southampton in command of an expedition to plant a colony in "Virginia." He sailed directly west, starting March 26th, 1602, and in seven weeks reached Massachusetts Bay, making land probably not far from Nahant. He visited and named Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and anchoring at the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, began his colony on an island that is now known by its * See Longfellow's "Sir Humphrey Gilbert."