Settlement of Quebec.

Hudson's exploring voyages.

two vessels, at the mouth of the Saguenay, on the St. Lawrence. They ascended the great river, and on the site of Quebec, near where Cartier built his fort almost seventy years before,' they planted the first permanent French settlement in the New World. The following Summer, Champlain ascended the Richelieu or Sorel river, with a war party of Indians, and discovered the beautiful lake which bears his name, in the north-eastern part of the State of New York."

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31. While the French were exploring, and making efforts at settlement in the direction of the St. Lawrence, the English were not idle. Several private enterprises were in progress, among the most important of which was that of a company of London Merchants who sent Henry Hudson, an intimate friend of Captain Smith, to search for a supposed northeastern ocean passage to India. He made two unsuccessful voyages to the regions of polar ice [1607-8], and the attempt was abandoned. Anxious to win the honor of first reaching India by the northern seas, Hudson applied to the Dutch East India Company for aid. The Amsterdam directors afforded it, and on the 4th of April, 1609, Hudson departed from Amsterdam, in command of the Half-Moon, a yacht of eighty tons. He sought a north-eastern passage, but the ice was impassable. Turning his prow, he steered across the Atlantic, and first touching the continent on the shores of Penobscot Bay, he arrived in sight of the Capes of Virginia in August, 1609.

THE HALF-MOON.

1. Verse 10, page 38.

HUDSON.

32. Proceeding northward, Hudson entered the mouths of several large rivers, and finally passed the Narrows and anchored in New York Bay. He proceeded almost sixty leagues up the river that bears his name, and took possession of the country in the name of the States General of Holland. He returned to Europe' in November 1609, and his report of the goodly land he had discovered

2. Champlain penetrated southward as far as Crown Point; perhaps south of Ticonderoga. It was at about the same time that Hudson went up the river that bears his name, as far as Waterford; so that these eminent navigators, exploring at different points, came very near meeting in the wilderness. Six years afterward, Champlain discovered Lake Huron, and there he joined some Huron Indians in an expedition against one of the Five Nations in Western New York. They had a severe battle in the neighborhood of the present village of Canandaigua. Champlain died in 16 4. 3. Verse 11, page 50.

4. Dutch mariners, following the track of the Portuguese, opened a successful traffic with Eastern Asia, about the year 1594. The various Dutch adventurers in the India trade, were united in one corporate body in 1602, with a capital of over a million of dollars, to whom was given the exclusive privilege of trading in the seas east of the Cape of Good Hope. This was the Dutch East India Company.

5. Entrance to New York Bay between Long and Staten Islands.

6. This was the title of the Government of Holland, answering, in a degree, to our Congress.

7. Hudson, while on another voyage in search of a north-west passage, discovered the great bay in the

QUESTIONS.-30. What did De Monts afterward do? What did Champlain achieve? 31. What were the English doing at this time? For what was Henry Hudson employed? What brought him to America? 22. What were the results of Hudson's voyage to America?

Results of explorations.

Reflections concerning the explorers.

set in motion those commercial measures which resulted in the founding of a Dutch empire in the New World.'

33. Now commenced the epoch of settlements. The whole Atlantic coast of North America had been thoroughly or partially explored, the general character and resources of the soil had become known, and henceforth the leading commercial nations of Western Europe-England, France, Spain and Holland-regarded the transatlantic continent, not as merely a rich garden without a wall, where depredators from every shore might come, and, without hinderance, bear away its choicest fruit, but as a land where the permanent foundations of vast colonial empires might be laid, from which parent states would receive almost unlimited tribute to national wealth and national glory.

When we contemplate these voyages across the stormy Atlantic and consider the limited geographical knowledge of the navigators, the frailty of their vessels and equipments, the vast labors and constant privations endured by them, and the dangers to which they were continually exposed, we can not but feel the highest respect and reverence for all who were thus engaged in opening the treasures of the New World to the advancing nations of Europe. Although acquisitiveness, or the desire for worldly possessions, was the chief incentive to action, and gave strength to resolution, yet it could not inspire courage to encounter the great dangers of the deep and the wilderness, nor fill the heart with faith in prophecies of success. These sentiments must have been innate; and those who braved the multitude of perils were men of true courage, and their faith came from the teachings of the science of their day. History and Song, Painting and Sculpture, have all commemorated their deeds. If Alexander the Great was thought worthy of having the granite body of Mount Athos hewn into a colossal image of himself, might not Europe and America appropriately join in the labor of fashioning some lofty summit of the Alleghanies into a huge monument to the memory of the NAVIGATORS Who lifted the vail of forgetfulness from the face of the New World ?5

northern regions, which bears his name. He was there frozen in the ice during the winter of 1610-11. While endeavoring to make his way homeward in the Spring, his crew became mutinous. They finally seized Hudson, bound his arms, and placing him and his son, and seven sick companions, in an open boat, set them adrift upon the cold waters. They were never heard of afterward. 1. Verse 6, page 57.

2. The first ships were generally of less than one hundred tons' burden. Two of the vessels of Columbus were without decks; and the one in which Frobisher sailed was of only twenty-five tons' burden.

3. Dinocrates, a celebrated architect, offered to cut Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander the Great so large that it might hold a city in its right hand, and in its left a basin of sufficient capacity to hold all the waters that poured from the mountain. 4. Note 7, page 14.

5. Verse, page 27. There has been much discussion concerning the claims of certain navigators to the honor of first discovering the continent of America. A Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, illustrated by documents from the Rolls, published in London in 1832, appears to prove conclusively that he, and not his father, was the navigator who discovered North America. A little work entitled Researches respecting Americus Vespucius, and his Voyages, prepared by Viscount Santarem, ex-prime minister of Portugal, casts just doubts upon the statements of Vespucius, concerning his command on a voyage of discovery when, he claims, he discovered South America [verse. 14, page 31] in 1499. He was doubtless an officer under Ojeda and it is quite certain that he got possession of the narratives of Ojeda and published them as his own. The most accessible works on American Discoveries, are Irving's Life of Columbus; Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella; Lives of Cabot and Hudson, in Spark's American Biography, and History of the United States by Bancroft and Hildreth.

QUESTIONS. 3. What epoch in the History of the New World now commenced? How was America regarded? What was the character of the first voyagers to America, and their ships? What reverence is due to them?

1. THE act of forming a settlement is not equivalent to the establishment of a colony or the founding of a state. It is the initiatory step toward such an end, and may, or may not exhibit permanent results. A colony becomes such only when settlements assume permanency, and organic laws, subservient to those of a parent government, are framed for the guidance of the people. It seems proper, therefore, to consider the era of settlements as distinct from that of colonial organization.

JOHN SMITH.

2. The period of settlements within the bounds of the thirteen original colonies which formed the Confederacy in the War for Independence,' extends from 1607 to 1733. For fifty years previous to the debarkation [1607] at Jamestown, fishing stations had been established at vario points on the Atlantic coast; and at St. Augustine, the Spaniards had kept a sort of military post alive.

1. Chap. V., Sec. II. 3. Verse 15, page 39. QUESTIONS.-1. What constitutes a colony? 2. What is the period of settlements in the United States?

Settlements of the colonies.

Great changes in Europe.

The reformation.

Yet the time of the appearance of the English in the James river, is the true point from which to date the inception or beginning of our great confederacy of free States.

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3. Twelve years [1607 to 1619] were spent by English adventurers in efforts to plant a permanent settlement in Virginia.' For seventeen years [1609 to 1623] Dutch traders were trafficking on the Hudson river, before a permanent settlement was established in New York. Fourteen years [1606 to 1620] were necessary to effect a permanent settlement in Massachusetts ;3 and for nine years [1620 to 1631] adventurers struggled for a foot-hold in New Hampshire. The Roman Catholics were only one year [1634-5] in laying the foundation of the Maryland colony.5 Seven years [1632 to 1639] were employed in effecting permanent settlements in Connecticut; eight years [1636 to 1643] in organizing colonial government in Rhode Island; and about fifty years [1631 to 1682] elapsed from the landing of the Swedes on South river, before Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (whose several histories of settlements are interwoven), presented colonial features. Almost sixty years [1622 to 1680] passed by before the first settlements in the Carolinas became fully-developed colonies;10 but Georgia, the youngest of the thirteen States, had the foundations of its colonial government laid when Oglethorpe, with the first company of settlers, began to build Savannah in the winter of 1733."1 The first permanent settlement within the bounds of the original colonies was in

VIRGINIA. [1607-1619.]

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4. Before the lapse of a century after the discoveries of Columbus [1492],12 a great social and political revolution had been effected in Europe. Commerce, hitherto confined to inland seas and along the coasts, was sending its ships across oceans. The art of printing had begun its wonderful work;13 and, through its instrumentality, intelligence had been generally diffused. Mind thus acting upon mind in vastly multiplied opportunities, had awakened a great moral and intellectual power, whose presence and strength had not been suspected. The Protestant Reformation11 had weakened the bonds of spiritual dominion, and allowed the moral faculties fuller play; and the shadows of-feudal institutions,15 so chilling to individual effort, were rapidly disappearing before the rising sun of the new era in the history of the world.

2. Verse 6, page 57. 6. Verse 14, page 70. 10. Verse 6, page 78.

3. Verse 13, page 63. 7. Verse 7, page 72. 11. Verse 5, page 79.

4. Verse 2, page 64. 8. Verse 4, page 73. 12. Chap. II., Sec. II.

1. Verse 30, page 57. 5. Verse 6, page 66. 9. Verse 13, page 76. 13. About the year 1450. Rude printing from engraved blocks was done before that time; but when Peter Schoeffer cast the first metal types, each letter separately, at about 1450, the art of printing truly had birth. John Faust established a printing office at Mentz, in 1442. John Guttenburg invented cut metal types, and used them in printing a Bible which was commenced in 1445, and finished in 1460. The names of these three men are usually associated as the inventors of printing.

14. Commenced by Wickliffe in England, in 1360; by Huss in Bohemia, in 1405; by Luther in Germany, in 1517. From this period until 1562, the movement was general throughout Europe. It was an effort to purge the Christian Church of great impurities, by reforming its doctrine and ritual. The Reformers protested against the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, and the title of the movement was, therefore, the Protestant Reformation. The name of Protestants was first given to Luther and others, in 1529.

15. The nature of feudal laws may be illustrated by a single example: William, the Norman Conqueror QUESTIONS.-". Can you name the time of settlement of each of the thirteen original colonies? 4. What causes had produced a revolution in society in Europe, during a century succeeding the discoveries of Columbus?

Growth of toleration.

Men ready for adventures.

Division of Virginia.

5. Freedom of thought and action expanded the area of ideas, and gave birth to those tolerant principles which lead to brotherhood of feeling. The new impulse developed nobler motives for human action than the acquisition of wealth and power, and these soon engendered healthy schemes for founding industrial empires in the New World. Aspirations for civil freedom, awakened by greater religious liberty, had begun the work, especially in England, where the Protestants were already divided into two distinct parties, called, respectively, Churchmen and Puritans. The former supported the throne and all monarchical ideas; the latter were more republican; and from their pulpits went forth doctrines inimical to kingly power. These religious differences had begun to form a basis of political parties, and finally became prime elements of colonization.

6. A long contest between England and France ceased in 1604. Soldiers, an active, restless class in England, were deprived of employment, and would soon become dangerous to the public peace. While population and general prosperity had greatly increased, there was another large class, who, by idleness and dissipation, had squandered fortunes, and had become desperate men. The soldiers needed employment, either in their own art or in equally exciting adventures; and the impoverished spendthrifts were ready for any thing which promised gain. Such were the men who stood ready to brave ocean perils and the greater dangers of the Western World, when others of enlightened minds devised new schemes for colonization. The weak and timid James the First,' who desired and maintained peace with other nations during his reign, was glad to perceive a new field for restless and adventurous men to go to, and he readily granted a liberal patent [April 20, 1606] to the first company formed after his accession to the throne, for planting settlements in Virginia. 7. The English claimed dominion over a belt of territory extending from Cape Fear, in North Carolina, to Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and indefinitely westward. This was divided into two districts. One extended from the vicinity of New York city northward to the present southern boundary of Canada, including the whole of New England, and westward of it, and was called NORTH VIRGINIA. This territory was granted to an association in the west of England, called the Plymouth Company.2 The other district extended from the mouth of the Potomac southward to Cape Fear, and was called Sourn of England, divided the land of that country into parts, called baronies, and gave them to certain of his favorites, who became masters of the conquered people on their respective estates. For these gifts, and certain privileges, the barons, or masters, were to furnish the king with a stipulated amount of money, and a stated number of men for soldiers, when required. The people had no voice in this matter, nor in any public affairs, and were made essentially slaves to the barons. Out of this state of things originated the exclusive privileges yet enjoyed by the nobility of Europe. Except in Russia, the people have been emancipated from this vassalage, and the ancient forms of feudal power have disappeared.

1. He was the sixth James of Scotland, of the house of Stuart, and son of Mary, Queen of Scotland, by Lord Darnley. The crowns of England and Scotland were united by his accession to the throne of the former kingdom, in March, 1603.

2. The chief members of the company were Thomas Hanham, Sir John and Raleigh Gilbert (sons of Sir Humphrey Gilbert), William Parker, George Popham, Sir John Popham (Lord Chief Justice of England), and Sir Fernando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth Fort.

QUESTIONS. 5. What causes produced a religious and political revolution in England favorable to colonization? 6. What classes in England needed exciting employment? Who encouraged emigration to America? What made King James favorable to emigration? 7. What territory in America did the English claim? How was it divided? and what were the boundaries!