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in that part of the world were for the present abandoned, and lay dead for the space of twelve years next following, when they were revived again by the valiant resolution and industry of Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold and Capt. Bartholomew Gilbert, and divers other gentlemen, their associates, who in the year 1602 attempted a more exact discovery of the whole coast of Virginia. The first voyage, Capt. Gosnold in a small bark [with thirty-two men'] set sail from Dartmouth March 26, the same year a southwest course from the Azores, made his passage shorter by several degrees than ever the former adventurers found it, who had always fetched a compass round by the West Indies, and by that course fell upon Florida. But Capt. Gosnold, possibly more by the guidance of providence than any special art acquired of man, on the 14th May following made land in the lat. of 43°, where Capt. Gosnold was presently welcomed by eight of the savages in one of their shallops, who came boldly aboard them, which considered with * shew made the other conjecture some Biskiners had [been trading or fishing] there: the Captain, how well soever he liked his [doubted the1] weather, which made him soon after weigh and [stand to the southward'] into the sea; the next morning, finding himself drawing nigh a mighty headland, let fall his anchor again [within a league of1] the shore, and then himself with four men went on shore presently; marching up the highest hill next morning, they discerned the headland to be part of the main, round which were many islands in five or six hours time his company caught more codfish than they well knew what to do with. And this promontory hath ever since borne the name of Cape Cod, which he was not willing to exchange for the royal name, that Capt. Smith or some other mariner had given, the fishing which they there met with, being retained to this day. It appears by what is written by Capt. John Brierton in the same voyage, that the first hill they ascended was upon the south side of Cape Cod, for the islands thereabouts retain the same names which at that time were imposed on them: viz. Martha's or Martin's Vineyard and Elizabeth Islands, being replenished with

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' Smith's General History of Virginia, (fol. Lond. 1632,) p. 16.—н.

the blossoms of strawberries, raspberries, and gooseberries, and divers other fruits, besides several sorts of living creatures, as deer, cranes, herns, and other wild fowl, which made them call the island Martha's Vineyard; and in the same place they took up their station all the while they remained in the country. In the middle of May they sowed wheat, barley, oats, [and] peas, which sprang up eight or nine inches in fourteen days. All which considerations together with the seeming courtesies of the savages encouraged some of the company to think of tarrying there the year about. But considering how meanly they were provided, they altered the resolution, and returned back again to England, where they arrived, about the 23d July following, carrying such news as induced the aldermen [and most of the merchants'] of Bristol to raise a stock of [10001.] which was employed for furnishing [out two'] more the next year under the command of Martin Pring, or Prin, and Robert Salterne, who had been there the year before. In the year 1603 following the Capt. Gosnold made no relation, but [having run some five hundred leagues they] fell with the land [in the latitude of2] 43° on the north of Virginia, as all the country was then called. From thence they ranged the coast along till they came to a place which they named Whitson Bay. How long they tarried upon the coast, or when they returned, is not mentioned in Salterne's relation," yet it seems the report they carried home was not like that of the unbelieving spies, for it gave encouragement to the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Arundel Baron of Wardor to send forth another vessel in the year 1605, with twenty-nine stout seamen, under the command of Capt. Thomas Weymouth with intent to have them make another discovery of the coast southward of 39 degrees. But by reason of cross winds they fell to the northward of 41 by 20 minutes, where they found themselves strongly embayed by shoals, so that in the running of six leagues they should come from one hundred fathom to five, yet see no land. Then at the next throw they should have [fifteen or eighteen fathom3], which constrained them to put [back] againto sea, though the wind points were as fair as they could desire. The want of wood and water made them take the best ad

1 Smith, p. 18.-H.

Purchas's Pilgrims, (fol. Lond. 1625) iv. 1654.-H. 3 Purchas, Iv. 1659; Smith, p. 19.-H.

vantage of winds that came next to fall with the shore. On the 18th of May they cast anchor within a league of the shore, which proved an island, though at first it appeared as some high land of the main; and here they took five of the savages, as saith Capt. Smith, page 20, whom they found like all of that sort, kind till they had opportunity to do mischief, but soon after found a place fitter for the purpose, which they called Pentecost Harbor, from White Sunday, on which they discovered it. The isles there abouts in the [entrance1]

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of St. George's

It se Isles. At this time they discovered a great river in those parts, supposed to be Keunibecke, near unto Pemaquid, which they found navigable forty miles up into the country, and seven, eight, nine, or [ten] fathom deep, as Capt. Weymouth reports. It was one niain end of all the forementioned adventurers, as well as those that first discovered it, to plant the Gospel there. The whole country from Florida to Nova Francia went at first under the name of Virginia, (yet distinguished by the Northern and Southern parts): that which is now famously known by the name of Virginia, (where, since the year 1605, have several English Colonies been planted), is a country within the two Capes, where the sea runneth in two hundred miles north and south under the Deg. 37, 38, 39 of north lat., first discovered, as is generally believed, by Capt. John Smith, sometimes Governor of the country, into which there is but one entrance by sea, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly bay twenty miles broad between those two Capes, of which that on the south is called Cape Henry, that on the north Cape Charles, in honor of the two famous princes, branches of the Royal Oak. The first planting of that country was begun in the year 1606; and carried on by various changes and by sundry steps and degrees, as is described at large from the first beginning of the enterprise to the year 1627, by Capt. Smith, one of the first discoverers, and so a chief founder of the plantation from that time. That whole country, extending from the 34th to the 44th degrees of North lat. and called Virginia upon the accident mentioned before, 1 Smith, p. 20.-н.

formerly Norumbega, came afterwards to be divided into two colonies-the first and the second. The former was to the honorable City of London, as saith Capt. Smith, and such as would adventure with them, to discover and take their choice where they would, betwixt the degrees of 34 and 41: the latter was appropriated to the Cities of Bristol, Plymouth, and Exeter, and the west parts of England, and all those that would adventure and join with them; and they might take their choice any where betwixt the degrees of 38 and 44, provided there should be at least an hundred miles distance betwixt the two colonies, each of which had laws, privileges, and authority for the government, and advancing their plantations alike". After this time several attempts were made for the planting and peopling of this N. part of Virginia, called afterwards New England by Capt. Smith in the year 1614, who took a draught of it the same year. This he on his return presented to the afterwards' famous Prince Charles, of blessed memory, humbly entreating him to adopt it for his own, and make a confirmation thereof, by applying Christian names upon the several places first discovered, many of which were ever after retained; the whole country being on that reason called New England to this day. In the year 1606, Sir John Popham, who was a principal undertaker, as saith Capt. Smith, and 1607, found men and means to make the beginning of a plantation about the mouth of a great river called Kennibeck, to the northward of 43 degrees, but with what success shall be seen afterward. In the years next following, other attempts of further discovery were made by the industry and endeavors of Capt. Edward Harlow, Capt. Hobson of the Isle of Wight, Mr. John Mathews, Mr. Sturton, and especially Capt. Henry Hudson,' who searched several rivers along the coast from Delaware Bay up towards the frozen ocean; in honor of whose memory, the great river where afterward the Dutch seated themselves and laid the foundation of their Novum Belgium, was called after his name, Hudson's river; as another place, the utmost bounds of his discoveries northward, is likewise called after the

1 In the summer of 1609.-H.

manner of elder times, Hudson's streight. Probably every year's experience might add something to a fuller knowledge of the havens, rivers, and most desirable places of the country, by such as came yearly to make fish upon the coast, eastward about the island of Monheggin, Damerille Cove, Casco Bay, Cape Porpoise, [and] Accomenticus, although no colony was ever settled in any of those places till the year 1620, when New Plymouth was first planted within Cape Cod, of which more in what followeth, when there will be just occasion to mention the incredible success of those plantations of New England, that from so small and mean beginnings, did in so few years overspread so large a tract of land by the industry and diligent pains of a poor people, to which alone, next under the blessing of Almighty God, must the success of the whole business be ascribed: it being the declared intent of the adventurers and others that engaged in this design since Capt. Gosnold's voyage in the year 1602, as one Mr. Rosier,' that came along with Capt. Weymouth, doth expressly mention soon after, viz. 1605, to propagate God's holy church, by planting Christianity in these dark corners of the earth, which was the public good they aimed at, more than the advancing their own private or particular ends.

CHAP. III.

Of the situation, bounds, and rivers of New England.

New England, at the first accounted no distinct country of itself, [so] as [to be] worthy of a proper name of its own, was taken only for a part of Virginia: but is of late discovered to be a country of too large a compass any longer to lackey after any other sister, though elder than herself, and therefore deservedly accounted worthy of that adoptive name with which it is honored as one of the principal daughters of the Chief Lady of the European world, from whence she is descended. It is situate in the 315th degree of longitude, betwixt the degrees of 39 and 45 of north latitude, accounting from about Delaware Bay to the south of Nova Francia, the bounds.

'See his account of the voyage, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 125-157.—H.