COLONISING ATTEMPTS IN GUIANA 87 Wiapoco was therefore abandoned after Leigh's death in 1606, and a French expedition that tried to settle there in the following year met with like disaster. The mishap to the reinforcements sent out by Sir Oliph Leigh led to the first attempt to found an English settlement in the Antilles. When the Olive Branch found it impossible to reach the Wiapoco, the intending settlers under Nicholas St John proceeded before the wind to St Lucia in the Windward Islands, and arranged to remain there on land purchased from the native Caribs. The crew carried off the ship, and some sixty-seven Englishmen were left behind. In a short while the Caribs became hostile, and attacked and destroyed the settlement. Only a few survivors escaped to the Spanish plantations on the mainland.1 Garbled accounts of this unfortunate attempt which made the colonists land in Barbados on their way to St Lucia have given rise to the legend that the English annexation of that island took place twenty years before its real date, and the error has been repeated by most historians of the British West Indies.2 The second English attempt to settle in the Lesser Antilles was made in 1609 when certain merchants sent out some 200 miscellaneous emigrants from the City of London to establish a colony in the island of Grenada. But like the unfortunate settlers of St Lucia they were attacked by the Caribs who had been stirred up against them by the Spanish governor of Trinidad. Leigh's colony in Guiana was planned on a very small scale without influential patronage, and lasted only a short time, but the next attempt was more ambitious, and though it was ultimately unsuccessful, it had so direct a connection with later events as to be of greater importance. Robert Harcourt was probably first interested in Guiana through Sir Walter Raleigh, and he was successful in securing the patronage of Prince Henry for a colonising project there in 1609. He took out to the Wiapoco, in addition to a small force of men who intended to settle and commence planting, a cargo of merchandise to trade with the Indians for cotton, dyestuffs and tobacco. He sent out exploring parties into the interior, and formally annexed the whole of Guiana between the Amazon and the Orinoco in the name of King James. His plan was to follow the example of the Dutch and establish a system of trading posts among the Indian tribes based upon a firmly established settlement on the Wiapoco estuary, but his resources were insufficient to send out the constant reinforcements necessary for so ambitious a project. He succeeded in obtaining from the Crown a patent granting proprietary rights over all that part of South America between the Amazon and the Essequibo. It was closely modelled on the Virginia 1 Nicholl, J., An Houre Glasse of Indian News (London, 1607). * See Williamson, J. A., Caribbee Islands under the Proprietary Patents, pp. 15-18. Ibid. pp. 18-19.. • Williamson, Guiana, p. 46. See also Edmundson, G., in E.H.R. xvi, 640-75, xviii, 642-63, XIX, 1-45. charter of 1612 and Guy's Newfoundland patent of 1610 and conferred similar privileges.1 But he could not attract subscribers to a joint-stock company to work the patent, and after 1618 his activities in Guiana ceased for several years. It is impossible to speak of other minor enterprises in Guiana. The evidence is fragmentary in the extreme, and what we have is difficult of interpretation owing to the intermingling of English and Dutch in the ventures. It is clear, however, that what was going on in Guiana closely resembled what was happening simultaneously along the coast of Norumbega. History has concerned itself almost wholly with the activities of the organised chartered companies in Virginia, the Somers Islands and the East Indies, not only because they succeeded in their task, but also because they have left written records of their doings that are easily accessible. The contemporary efforts of private individuals or small groups to found Plantations or to find profitable and unrestricted trade have been passed over because of the obscurity of each particular venture. In the aggregate, however, they were of importance in furthering expansion and adding to the national stock of capital. Moreover it was in these minor ventures of James I's reign that the individualist character of English colonisation was fully displayed. The time was one of transition in maritime adventure as in many other things. In the reign of Henry VIII small ship-owning firms found their profits in rank piracy; under Elizabeth they became privateers, and by legalised attacks on Spanish and Portuguese shipping procured cargoes of the tropical products that were being demanded in Europe in everincreasing quantities. But under James I opportunities for privateering under the English flag ceased, and piracy became a very risky pursuit. Merchants and men had to find new employment: the smuggling trade with the Spanish colonies would yield the coveted commodities, especially tobacco, but it might involve those who engaged in it in serious trouble with the Government and was subject to cut-throat competition by the Dutch. The fisheries and fur trade of the North American coast were less profitable, and all the greater oversea trades were closely restricted to the regulated companies. Hence arose on the one hand the long battles for "free trade" that filled the reign, and on the other the search by obscure experimenters for opportunities to make a profit in unoccupied tropical regions. Between the abandonment of Sagadahoc in 1609 and the arrival of the Mayflower Pilgrims in 1620 there was no attempt to found a colony on the shores of North Virginia, but public interest in the region steadily increased. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others sent out frequent expeditions to trade for furs and sassafras and to exploit the newly discovered fisheries off the coast. The time was one of rapid improvement in commercial and industrial processes, and this 1 Pat. Roll, 11 Jac. p. 9. JOHN SMITH'S DESCRIPTION OF NEW ENGLAND 89 provided markets for new imports. The Dutch had begun to use train oil for the manufacture of soap in place of tallow, and the process was imitated by English soap-boilers. There arose a brisk demand, and the whaling grounds that John Davis had been unable to exploit in the 'nineties now began to attract interest. The Muscovy Company still held the monopoly of the northern seas and under the leadership of Sir Francis Cherry it tried to develop a profitable trade of walrus hunting and whaling from Cherry Island in Davis Straits. In 1612 it made very considerable gains, which induced other competitors to try for whales elsewhere. In 1614 Captain John Smith, who had remained in England since his return from James Town, was employed by two London merchants to hunt for whales off the American coast. Smith was still keenly interested in colonisation and he determined to make use of the opportunity to search for a likely place for a settlement. His whaling was unsuccessful; but he secured a valuable cargo of fish near the harbour of Monhegan where he found many west-country fishermen practising the ordinary English method of dry-curing. He also did some valuable exploring work which he used after his return for the preparation of a map showing the whole of the coast of North Virginia. This, the first map accessible to the general public, he published in 1616 to illustrate his book1 setting forth the advantages of the coast for English colonisation. He called the region "New England", and his book excited so much interest and was so widely circulated, especially among those engaged in the fishing industry in the west of England, that the name almost at once displaced the earlier names of Norumbega and North Virginia and came into universal use. Smith painted the country in glowing colours. "Of all the four parts of the world that I have yet seen not inhabited, could I have means to transport a colony, I would rather live [there] than anywhere....New England is great enough to make many kingdoms and countries, were it all inhabited."2 His book greatly encouraged the growth of the new fishery and aroused the moribund Plymouth Company to new activity. It employed him to undertake a new voyage under the resounding title of "Admiral of New England", and he tried three times to return. A series of unfortunate chances intervened, and Smith never visited New England again, but his work was well done, and it had important results. The most elaborate attempt at colonisation with the exception of the Virginia and Somers Islands Companies took place in Newfoundland. From Parkhurst's time onwards some of the fishing merchants were always attracted by the idea of permanently occupying the island and excluding fishermen of other nations from its harbours. But the majority were opposed to this and preferred to 1 Smith, J., A Description of New England (1616). See Smith, J., Works (ed. Arber, E.), II, 9372 Ibid. 1, cxxxiv. continue the old system of annual voyages so as to retain the detailed management of the trade in the English ports. Thus began a long conflict of policy that was not fully settled until well on in the nineteenth century. It was the desire of the Government to encourage the Newfoundland fishery, for the 9000 or more fishermen who were engaged in it provided two-thirds of the crews required to man the ships of the Royal Navy, but there was a recurrent vacillation of opinion as to the best means of securing the desired end. The restoration of peace in 1604 opened the valuable Spanish markets to English fish, and full advantage could be taken of the opportunity, for the long war, heavy taxation and the constant impressment of fishermen to man the Indies fleets had almost destroyed the fishing industry of Spain and Portugal.1 Hence there was only a short interval between the Treaty of London and the first serious attempt at a Newfoundland colony. The most active of the promoters came from Bristol and were led by John Guy, and some who had been associated with Hakluyt in promoting Carleill's scheme in 1583. Sir Francis Bacon was the principal sponsor of the project in official circles, and he was more closely associated with it than with any other colonial enterprise. The scheme was first propounded in 1607 by certain western merchants who had been interested in Peckham's schemes, and at length in 1610 the new Company received a charter of incorporation as "The Treasurer and company of Adventurers and Planters of the city of London and Bristol for the colony or plantation of Newfoundland”. Complete authority was given for the government of the colony, but with the important reservation that complete liberty was guaranteed to those resorting to the island for fishing. The arrangements for the government of the Company and colony were carefully drawn and offer interesting points of comparison with the Virginia charter of 1609, but it was in this reservation that the seeds of future happenings lay. The Government is said to have provided a considerable proportion of the capital of the Company, but this is improbable. Guy himself went out to Newfoundland as the first governor, and built his settlement in a well-chosen situation at Cupid's or Cuper's Cove on the Bay of Conception, but from the first he met with undisguised hostility from the bulk of the fishing merchants. They refused to recognise his authority or that of his successor, Captain John Mason, a naval officer who was appointed for his experience with fishery disputes in Scotland. Faced by constant difficulties the Company proceeded to the usual course of harming out some of its grant to 1 See Brown, V. L., "Spanish Claims in the Newfoundland Fisheries,” Report of the Canadian Historical Association (1925), p. 67. 2 Carr, C. T., Select Charters of Trading Companies (Selden Soc. Publications), XXVIII, 51-62. * Prowse asserts this, Hist. of Newfoundland, p. 93. Guy stated in the House of Commons in 1621 "that the plantation of the Newfoundland never had penny help, but from the adventurers' purses". C.J. 1, 654. ཧ།་ RALEIGH'S LAST EXPEDITION 91 other venturers, and its first assignee, Sir William Vaughan, took out a party of Welsh emigrants in 1617. But they proved hopelessly incompetent, and later Vaughan in his turn disposed of portions of his grant to Lord Falkland and to Sir George Calvert. The Company, however, still persevered with its enterprise. In 1618 the western fishing merchants presented bitter complaints of the settlers' proceedings as damaging the fishery, and when Parliament met again in 1620 after six years' intermission they carried their grievances into the House of Commons with consequences that will be considered in a subsequent chapter.1 The fourteen years between the Treaty of London in 1604 and the outbreak of the war in Germany in 1618 were for England an interlude of comparative calm in international affairs. Some general interest in the establishment of the new English colonies oversea was aroused from time to time, but they were in the main the concern of particular groups and aroused no controversy on a national scale. The minds of Englishmen were engrossed with their domestic disputes and comparatively little attention was bestowed on external events. The quarrel with Spain that had occupied men's thoughts for fifty years slept for a time, and the new struggle with France and the Dutch had not yet begun. But in 1617 there came a belated epilogue to the Elizabethan war which also heralded the opening of a new chapter wherein colonial affairs became a matter of national concern. Guiana saw both the events that closed the old epoch and those that began the new. Sir Walter Raleigh during his prime had been one of the foremost among the anti-Spanish party, and his release in 1616 from a close confinement that had lasted since 1604 was generally regarded as a sign that the policy of association with Spain was weakening. Even while he was in prison he had done his best to urge his friends to continue attempts against the Indies. The Earl of Southampton had joined him in 1609-10 in financing Sir Thomas Roe for a voyage to the Amazon with the intention of founding an English colony there.2 Roe himself stayed nearly a year in Guiana and sent out two other expeditions between 1611 and 1614 to the Amazon delta where his colonists were associated with Dutch adventurers. Some of his men were still there in 1617 and sending home cargoes of tobacco. During the momentary ascendancy of the antiSpanish party in the Privy Council Raleigh was able to organise an expedition to explore the Orinoco in search for a rich gold mine of which he had heard during his previous visit. No obstacles were put in his way by the Government, which tacitly accepted his plea that he was aiming only at territory not in effective Spanish occupation. On the face of it this was a proper adherence to the principle 1 Vide infra, p. 148. Williamson, J. A., 148 English in Guiana, p. 53 n., quoting Tanner MSS, 168, f. 2. * Carew to Roe, April 1617, St. Pap. Dom., Jas. I, xcv, no. 22. |