CHAPS. BIBLIOGRAPHIES General Bibliography 753-6 XXI. The United States as a World-Power XXII. Economic Development of the United States CHAPTER I THE FIRST CENTURY OF ENGLISH COLONISATION ON none of the nations of Europe had the discovery of America an effect so great as upon England. From the trade of the Mediterranean she was wholly excluded; for that of the Baltic she competed at a disadvantage with the ports of the Netherlands and Germany. In the struggle for the commerce of the New World, England for the first time met all rivals on equal terms; and the scale was turned in her favour by internal conditions. Spain indeed had it in her power to have built up an empire beyond the Atlantic which might have ranked with Roman Gaul or British India. But that which an intervening ocean made difficult, the national life of Spain made impossible. Slave-holding became a necessity: a scanty colonial population was swamped and barbarised in its contact with inferior races; the thirst for gold strangled sober and patient industry. Most fatal weakness of all, the Spaniard underwent no such training for the work of administration as long experience of self-government had given to the Roman and the Englishman. No tradition of public morality barred the path of the self-seeking adventurer. In France England might have found a rival for the control of North America. But the bigotry of Valois kings and Guise statesmen had alienated from them the one element most fit for the task of colonisation. The wars of religion had drained her natural resources and divided her inhabitants into two hostile camps. There was in France no lack of the daring spirit of adventure or of patient commercial industry; but the two qualities were not combined. In England there was no sharp line of division between the trader and the soldier; there was a plentiful supply of men who combined the heroism of the Spanish discoverer with a capacity for sober industry. Happily too for English colonisation, dreams of El Dorado and vague cravings for a colonial empire not built up by the steady labour of centuries but won in a moment by the sword, had died away before the epoch of colonisation proper began. C. M. H. VII. 1 2 The foundation of Virginia [1577-83 VIRGINIA The discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot and the colossal projects of Sir Humphry Gilbert form but a prelude to the real history of the American colonies. Gilbert's attempt was indeed an advance on anything that had gone before. Till he came on the scene there had been nothing but voyages of exploration and quests for gold-mines. In 1577 he obtained a patent of colonisation, not binding him down in any way to a choice of site and giving him full territorial rights over all land within two hundred leagues of the spot whereon he settled. Like later proprietors, Gilbert was invested with the power of making laws, provided they were not inconsistent with those of the realm. Two obstacles, closely connected, thwarted Gilbert's efforts - the jealousy of Spain and the lack of discipline among his own men, largely due to the privateering spirit called into existence by Drake and Hawkins. That Spain should view any such attempt at colonisation with suspicion was but natural, inasmuch as what one may call the colonial literature of the time, the pamphlets in which views such as those of Gilbert found expression, teemed with denunciations of Spain and suggestions for her overthrow. Influenced in all likelihood by representations from the Court of Madrid, the Privy Council refused Gilbert permission to sail unless he bound himself over to keep the peace. Suspicion was confirmed by an alleged attack made by some of his followers on a Spanish vessel; and the prohibition was made absolute. It was disregarded. But in the very act of sailing under such conditions Gilbert was cutting away the roots of discipline. The fleet broke up (1579), and the attempt was a total failure. Four years later Gilbert made another attempt which cost him his life. This time he sailed. with all the appliances needed both for a trading station and for a permanent settlement. But the old evil soon broke out; vessels straggled and turned to piracy. Nevertheless Gilbert reached Newfoundland, took formal possession, and erected a pillar on which were engraved the arms of England. But again discipline broke down. The settlers straggled; finally Gilbert decided to return, and with his vessel, the Golden Hind, was lost on the homeward voyage. Ralegh had schemes more definite and practical than Gilbert's; with better fortune and perhaps more concentration of purpose he might have actually led the way in the work of colonisation. In his mixture of generous public spirit with aims of self-advancement, of grandiose imagination with patient application to detail, we cannot but be reminded of that striking figure which has recently been removed from English public life. But as a colonist Ralegh came somewhat before his time. He had not learnt what Englishmen had to be taught by more than a generation of sad experiences that a successful colony 1584-7] Ralegh and Grenville 3 could only be built up by a large and unproductive expenditure of capital, and must be constantly tended and reinforced by men and material. Yet it is impossible not to see that Ralegh's scheme marked a very real advance in sound views of colonisation. Having obtained a patent identical with that granted to Gilbert, Ralegh sent out two exploring vessels under Amidas and Barlow. They landed near Roanoke in North Carolina (1584). Their relations with the natives were friendly, and they brought back glowing accounts of the country, on which the gallantry of the courtier or the egotism of the Queen bestowed the name of Virginia. Next year Ralegh sent out seven ships with a hundred and eight settlers. They were under the command of Sir Richard Grenville. He was to start the colony. It was then to be left under the control of his lieutenant, Ralph Lane, a careful and courageous leader and a good soldier, as it would seem, but with no special aptitude for the civic duties of his post. The result showed that, before England could become an effective colonising power, she must shake herself free from the dreams of the gold-seeker and the methods of the privateer. Lane and Grenville quarrelled. A trumpery act of pilfering by the natives was punished with severity. After Grenville's departure, Lane, instead of striving to guide his settlers into habits of self-supporting industry, made a long and dangerous journey of exploration in search of mines and a passage to the Pacific. Squabbles with the savages culminated in an organised attack made by fifteen hundred warriors. This was however baffled by Lane's military skill and by the help of some natives who still remained friendly. In July, 1586, Grenville returned with reinforcements and fresh supplies; but it was too late. The settlers, wearied by their hardships and alarmed by the hostility of the Indians, had only a week before taken advantage of a visit from Drake's fleet and embarked for England. Grenville however left behind fifteen men, just enough to keep up communication with any future settlers. Whatever Ralegh's moral shortcomings may have been, it is impossible not to admire the tenacity of purpose with which he clung to schemes, undoubtedly of public advantage and sound in principle, though the time for their fulfilment might not yet have come. Another party numbering a hundred and fifty was sent out, better organised and fitter for civic life than their predecessors, since there were among them seventeen women. Their leader, White, was, unlike Lane, a civilian, and did not suffer himself to be drawn off by vague schemes of exploration. White soon found that his colony could not as yet be self-supporting, and in 1587 he returned to England to petition for further help. His request was not neglected, and a fleet was fitted out under the command of Grenville to assist the colony; but at the last moment the alarm of Spanish invasion diverted the expedition. Ralegh did not however abandon his colonists. But two expeditions sent to their relief failed |