This book covers a period of a little more than three-quarters of a century.  It begins with the first attempt at English colonization in America, in 1576, and ends with the year 1652, when the supremacy of Parliament was recognized throughout the English colonies.  The original motive of colonization is found in English rivalry with the Spanish power; and the first chapter of this work tells how this motive influenced Gilbert and Raleigh in their endeavors to plant colonies in Newfoundland and North Carolina.  Though unfortunate in permanent result, these expeditions familiarized the people of England with the country of Virginia—­a name given by Queen Elizabeth to all the region from Canada to Florida—­and stimulated the successful settlement at Jamestown in the early part of the seventeenth century.  With the charter of 1609 Virginia was severed from North Virginia, to which Captain Smith soon gave the name of “New England”; and the story thereafter is of two streams of English emigration—­one to Virginia and the other to New England.  Thence arose the Southern and Northern colonies of English America, which, more than a century beyond the period of this book, united to form the great republic of the United States.

The most interesting period in the history of any country is the formative period; and through the mass of recently published original material on America the opportunity to tell its story well has been of late years greatly increased.  In the preparation of this work I have endeavored to consult the original sources, and to admit secondary testimony only in matters of detail.  I beg to express my indebtedness to the authorities of the Harvard College Library and the Virginia Library for their courtesy in giving me special facilities for the verification of my authorities.

Lyon Gardiner Tyler.

ENGLAND IN AMERICA

CHAPTER I

GENESIS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION

(1492-1579)

Up to the last third of the sixteenth century American history was the history of Spanish conquest, settlement, and exploration.  Except for the feeble Portuguese settlements in Brazil and at the mouth of the La Plata, from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, around the eastern and western coasts of South America, and northward to the Gulf of California, all was Spanish—­main-land and islands alike.  The subject of this volume is the bold assertion of England to a rivalry in European waters and on American coasts.