|
24 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY CHAPTER II DISCOVERY OF AMERICA An Account of the Early Explorers and the First Settlements Made in America Columbus discovered America and landed on October 12, 1492. The country was named after Americus Vespucius, who discovered South America seven years later, and North America itself had been discovered five hundred years prior to Columbus' discovery. Yet Columbus was given credit for the discovery, as it was his voyage, followed up, which settled the country. Toward the close of the ninth century Naddod, a Norwegian, while attempting to reach the Faroe Islands, 200 miles northwest of the British Isles, was driven by storm to Iceland, and he found the land had already been visited by the Irish. The Norsemen made a settlement there in 875 by Ingolf. The colonization at Iceland was carried in a southwesterly direction, through Greenland to the New Continent. Notwithstanding these Icelandic explorations westward, one hundred and twenty-five years elapsed when Lief, a Norwegian, the son of Eric the Red, in one of his voyages landed on the American coast, between Boston and New York, in the year t,000. He called the new land Vinland, on account of the grapes growing there, and he was naturally delighted with the fruitfulness of the soil and the mildness of the climate as compared with Iceland and Greenland. Later a settlement was made here, and when the white people came to Rhode Island in 1638 they discovered a tower of unhewn stone made from gravel of the soil around, and oyster-shell lime. It was circular in form, 23 feet in diameter and 24 feet high. The Narragansett Indians knew nothing of its origin. The Icelandic chronicles state that besides Lief the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefne visited the point and settled here with his wife Gudrida, and that a son was born to them, Snorre Thorbrandsson. These historic chronicles seem to have been written in Greenland as early as the twelfth century and partly by descendants of settlers born in Vinland, so others besides Snorre were born there. The care with which the genealogical tables are kept was so great that that f of Thorfinn Karlsefne, whose son Snorre Thorbrandsson, was born in America, has been brought down from 10w, the date of Snorre's birth, to the present. and Lossing states this geneological tree shows that Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, was a descendant of this first known white child born on American soil. The Icelandic history also shows that explorers erected three AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 25 boundary pillars on the eastern shore of Baffin's Bay, bearing a date of 1135. When these were found in 1824 there were also discovered the ruins of a number of buildings, showing there had been a settlement there, and the records further show frequent fishing trips to this and other localities along Baffin's Bay. At this time Iceland was an important place. It had in I too a population of 50,000 people, had a government and records, and poets and writers, and was farther advanced in literature at that time than any European nation.* Ships from Bistol, England, kept up a constant trade with Iceland, and Christopher Columbus himself, in a work on "The Five Habitable Zones of the Earth," says that in the month of February, 1477, he visited Iceland, "where the sea was not at that time covered with ice, and which had been resorted to by many traders from Bristol." Columbus, in the same work, mentions a more southern island, Frislanda, a name which was not on the maps published in 1436 by Andrea Bianco, or those in 1457 and 147o published by Fra Mauro. The island is dwelt upon at length in the travels of the brothers Zeni, of Venice, in 1388 to 1404. But Columbus could not have been acquainted with the travels of the Zeni brothers, as they were unknown to Zeni's own Venetian family until 1558, when they were first published, fifty-two years after the death of Columbus. Therefore Columbus knew there was land southwest of Iceland. He could easily have reached this land by taking the beaten track to Iceland, and then southwest, but his genius told him he could find it by taking a westerly course from Spain, which he did, and became the discoverer of a new world. The landing of Columbus was on what is now San Salvador, latitude 24 north, longitude 76 west, one of the Bahamas, about 300 miles east of the Florida coast. On this trip he cruised south as far as 20 degrees north latitude and discovered Cuba and San Domingo. In March, 1493, he returned to Spain with plants, birds, animals and Indians of the new world, and his journey overland from Palos to Barcelona, to meet Ferdinand and Isabella, was the march of a conqueror. At Barcelona the throne of the rulers was erected in a public square and Columbus vas received with royal honors. The counselors of Spain believed it advisable to keep the wonderful discovery quiet, as Columbus reported fabulous wealth in the new world. That same year he returned again to America, taking with him several horses, a bull and some cows, the first European animals taken to the new world. He made two other voyages. In 1498 he discovered the Orinoco, on the north coast of South America. On his third voyage he was returned to Spain in chains, owing to misrepresentations made to Queen Isabella. Matters were easily explained and he made his fourth and last trip, in 1502, but on his return in 1504 the Queen was dead, and his enemies were in power, and he who had given Spain a new nation and a glory that would last for all time, died in poverty and obscurity at Valladolid on the 10th of May, 1506. In the meantime Americus Vespucius in 1499 visited the Orinoco, one year after Columbus had discovered it, and returning gave a glowing account of the new world and it was named America. * Encyclopaedia Britannica. 26 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Immediately after the first discovery of Columbus, Spain made settlements in the islands of the West Indies and reduced the Indians to Slavery, and Spanish cruelty and wrong broke the spirit and lowered the standard of the Indians. The Spanish colonists married the Indian women, and from this union came the mixed race of the West Indies. The Pope recognized the discoveries of Spain, and by an edict granted Spain the ownership of the new world ; that there might be no future doubt of what Spain owned he gave them control of "the whole region westward, beyond an imaginary line 30o miles west of the Azores." Notwithstanding Spain made no public announcement of the discoveries of Columbus, the most extravagant stories drifted through Europe of the fabulous wealth of a new world, and Sebastian Cabot, of Bristol, England, on March 16, 1497, was granted a commission of discovery by Henry VIII. Bristol was the port which years previous had done most of the trading with Iceland, and when Cabot started, he took the well-known route toward the northweSt, and on July 3, 1497, discovered the rugged coast of Labrador. He skirted along the coast southward, past Newfoundland, touched at several points, and returning to England announced the discovery of what was undoubtedly a new continent. The next year, 1498, he fitted out another expedition, and, like Columbus, his main object was to discover a passage to India. Again he reached Labrador, and cruised north, but the ice stopped his progress, and he abandoned his search for a northwest passage, and went south, exploring the coast from Labrador to North Carolina. On March 27, 1512, Ponce de Leon landed in Florida, and took possession in the name of the King of Spain—the first appearance of Spain on United States soil. Years later, in 1539, Ferdinand de Soto landed in Florida with six hundred men, all warriors, and proceeded inland through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, crossing the Mississippi river somewhere below Memphis in May, 1541, taking possession of the land he passed over, and the land beyond that river in the name of the King of Spain. During the entire trip he had much trouble with the Indians, men died of sickness, and when he reached Florida on September 20, 1543, of the six hundred men who started but sixty returned, but they had made a trip of three thousand miles, through an unbroken wilderness, wandering on and on in a vain search for the fabulous gold they dreamed was somewhere in the interior. In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, went up the St. Lawrence river with his ships as far as where Quebec now stands, and learning the Huron (Wyandotte) King had hiS capital at a point called Hochelaga he paid him a visit. The Wyandotte King entertained his guest with the greatest hospitality and showed by every means possible that the visitors were welcome. Cartier remained the guest of the King for several days and climbed the large mountain, saw the magnificent St. Lawrence stretching above and below him, the rich country as far as the eye could see in every direction, and he named it Mont Real, which is its name today, the Metropolis of Canada with a population of half a million. Cartier returned the King's hospitality by a dinner on board his vessel in which he made him a prisoner AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 27 and took him to France, exhibiting him to that civilized nation as one of the barbarion curiosities of the new world. In 1542 Cartier returned to the St. Lawrence, and had intended taking the King back with him, but the unfortunate savage, pining for his home and people, had died of a broken heart. On Cartier's arriving at Quebec with a force of men to make a settlement, he found the Indians so unfriendly that he was compelled to build a fort at Quebec for his protection. This was the first experience of the Wyandotte Indians with the newer and higher order of civilization. Practically the same thing occurred in South Carolina. D'Ayllon, a French navigator, who had founded a colony at San Domingo, started for the Bermudas to capture a few slaves to work the Domingo sugar and tobacco plantations. Bad weather drove him to the coast of South Carolina where he was furnished water and provisions by the natives, and treated with the greatest hospitality. He entertained them in return on his boats, showed them over the vessels, and when a hundred savages were below fastened down the hatches, and sailed for San Domingo. One vessel was lost, and on the other the savages stubbornly refused food, and nearly all died of starvation. A few years later D'Allyon returned for more slaves. He landed on the same coast, and was again hospitably received by the ignorant natives. They gave him feasts and banquets, and arranged a magnificent feast at their capitol, thirty miles from the ( ?) for the feast, and when in the wilderness, miles from help, they were led into an ambush, and the entire party massacred. Thus early were the Indians learning the higher order of civilization. Cortoreal of Portugal obtained a permit from King John to make discoveries. He reached Canada, captured fifty natives, took them back to Portugal and sold them for slaves. The investment was so profitable that he immediately started for a second cargo, but he was never heard of afterward. In 1523, Francis I, of France, sent out John Verrazini with four vessels to make discoveries. In March of 1524 he reached the Cape Fear river in North Carolina, and explored the coast, anchoring in Delaware Bay and New York harbor, and landed where New York now is. He treated the Indians to liquor, and not being used to it, many became very drunk, from which fact the Indians then called the place Manna-ha-ta, "place of drunkenness." He continued his trip north and named Canada New France. The entire coast had now been discovered; Spain had Florida and the southern part of the United States and beyond the Mississippi ; England from the Carolinas north, and France had Canada, all this within half a century after Columbus' great discovery. Settlements had been established by the Spanish and French in the West Indies and by the Portugese in Newfoundland, but no permanent settlement had yet been made in the United States. The era had now arrived when John Calvin in England, Martin Luther in Germany, and the Huguenots in France were bitter in their opposition to the Catholic church, and Admiral Coligny, the advisor of the weak Charles IX of France, decided to establish a place of refuge for the Protestants in 28 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY the new world. The King granted him a commission for that purpose, and on February 28, 1562, a squadron under command of John Ribault sailed for America. The fleet first touched near the harbor of St. Augustine, Florida, sailed north past the St. John's river to Port Royal, the southeastern part of South Carolina, where they established their colony, calling it Carolina, in honor of Charles of France. The colony did not prosper and additional settlers were sent. In the meantime Philip II of Spain, who claimed the territory by virtue of Columbus' discovery, and the edict of the Pope giving Spain everything west of the Azores, was highly incensed at this invasion of his territory, and sent Pedro Menendez to Florida as governor with strict instructions to drive out the French and establish a Spanish colony. He had a strong force and landed at St. Augustine, founding a town there, the first in the United States, and proclaimed the King of Spain as monarch of all of North America. Ribault, learning of the landing of Menendez, started down the coast to attack him, but his ships were wrecked, many of his men drowned, and those who reached the shore were either killed, or were murdered by the Spaniards. In the meantime Menendez marched overland to Port Royal surprised the settlement, and murdered all of them, about nine hundred in number. He erected a cross on the site of the wholesale butchery and on it placed an inscription that these men were slain, "not because they were Frenchmen but Lutherans." And being in a particularly pious frame of mind he laid the foundation for a church to commemorate the deed. When Charles of France learned of the murder of his subjects, matters at home were in such shape that he could not avenge the insult, but a wealthy Frenchman, Dominic de Gourges, fitted out a ship at his own expense, and landed at Port Royal with 150 warriors, captured the 200 men left in charge there, and hanged the whole party, he, too, erecting a cross with the inscription : "I do not this as unto Spaniards or Moors, but unto traitors, robbers and murderers." His force was too small to risk an attack on Ft. Augustine, and being in danger of being attacked by the Spaniards at any moment, he had no time to even lay the foundation of a church, but sailed immediately for home, leaving the placarded Spaniards hanging to the trees as an object lesson to the Indians of the new and higher order of civilization. From 1579 to 1585 settlements were made by the English in Virginia and North Carolina, but they were not. permanent. In 1585 Sir Richard Grenville landed at the island of Roanoke in Albemarle Sound. He treated the Indians very badly and they returned the compliment with interest. He was finally compelled to return to England, which he did, leaving fifteen men in charge. Two years later, in 1587, John White went over with reinforcements, and found the colony abandoned, the men having been murdered by the Indians. White re-established the colony, and reversed the policy of Grenville. treating the Indians kindly and cultivating their friendship. He induced Manteo, their chief, to become a Christian, and baptized him. White further pleased the Indians, and their chief by investing him with the title of Lord AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 29 of Roanoke, with great formality and display, followed by a feast to the Indians and presents. This was the first—as well as the last—peerage ever created in America.; When White returned to England he left behind his daughter, Eleanor Pare, wife of Lieutenant Dare, one of his officers. On August 18, 1587, there was born to Lieutenant and Mrs. Dare, a daughter, and she was named Virginia Dare, the first English child born in what is now the United States. In 1589 White again started for America but was driven back by the Spaniards; however in 1590 he returned to the colony only to find it abandoned and all traces of the colonists lost, and it was not until eighty years later the English learned that their lost kindred had been adopted by the Hatteras tribe, and become amalgamated with the children of the wilderness.* In April, 1607, a settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia, composed almost entirely of English "gentlemen" whose profligate lives had left them in destitute circumstances in England, and who only came to America in a spirit of adventure, and the hope of realizing a fortune in the new world without work. The colony was an absolute failure, dependent on the Indians for the necessaries of life. Capt. John Smith, a man of great force, later took charge of the colony and endeavored to instill a spirit of industry into the men. He urged the cultivation of the soil, but at the end of two years the two hundred settlers had only forty acres under cultivation, and but for the Indians would have starved. It was not until June, 1610, on the arrival of Lord De La Warr, with a different class of colonists, that a permanent and lasting settlement was established in Virginia. In 1613 the Dutch from Holland settled in New York City, calling it New Amsterdam, honestly buying the land from the Indians for $24. On December 22, 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, with forty-three men and their families. In 1629 a colony was founded in New Hampshire ; in 1633 in Connecticut ; in 1634 in Maryland ; in 1636 in Rhode Island; and in 1638 in Delaware, all by the English. In 1623 the Swedes founded a colony in New Jersey. This settled the entire coast; New England being English; New York, Holland; New Jersey, Sweden; Delaware, Maryland and the Carolinas, English ; Georgia and Florida, Spanish. The Dutch claimed New Jersey as their territory, and forced the Swedes to acknowledge their claims. But in 1682, when William Penn. made his settlement in Pennylvania, the Swedes preferred English rule to that of Holland, and in time they came under the control of the English. Still later the English took possession of New Amsterdam calling it New York, which gave them the entire coast, excepting Florida and Southern Georgia. The French were in undisturbed possession of Canada. While the English were colonizing and securing possession of the coast line, the French, through Canada, were exploring the interior, passing through the state of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, establishing forts and trading posts, exploring the Mississippi, and by virtue of * Ellis.—People's Standard History of the United States. 30 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY their discoveries, all the land west of the Alleghenies and north 0f the Ohio river was under the control of the French; and beyond the Mississippi France owned all the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains; Spain owned Texas and all west of the Rockies up to the northern boundaries of California. In 1763, after a 1png war between England and France, the American colonies being English assisting the mother country, France was driven from the United States and Canada, all east of the Mississippi being ceded to England; all her possessions west of the Mississippi being ceded to Spain, and in this treaty Spain ceded Florida to England. In 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary war, England secretly ceded Florida to Spain, and the United States bought it in 1819. In 1801 Spain ceded her territory beyond the Mississippi to France, and in 1803, Napoleon needing money, and to prevent England ever securing it, sold it to the United States. The war with Mexico gave the United States all west of the Rocky Mountains, that part west of the Rockies and north of California being claimed by the United States by right of the discoveries of Lewis and Clarke, a claim disputed, but conceded later by England and Spain in the settlement of the northern boundary between the United States and Canada. When Spain first discovered America she claimed the entire continent, north and west to the Pacific ocean. The rulers of England in granting charters, followed the same liberal policy, and their charters were for land between certain degrees of latitude on the coast, extending to the Pacific ocean owing to their ignorance of American geography, or to carelessness, some of the boundaries as defined in the several colonial charters, overlapped, which subsequently led to disputes between the states and these were only settled by the final cession of the disputed territory to the general government. |