1493—October 12, Christopher Columbus discovered land belonging the Western Hemisphere—one of the Bahama Islands. He touches at Cuba and Hayti before his return. 1497—John Cabot, master of an English vessel, and his son Sebastian, touched at Newfoundland in June, and soon after explored the coast of Labrador.
1498—Columbus, on his third voyage, discovers the American Continent, near the mouth of the Orinoco river, in South America.
—Sebastian Cabot, in a second voyage, first of Europeans, explores our Atlantic coast as far south as Maryland.
1499—Amerigo Vespucci, or Americus Vespucius, a Florentine merchant, conducts a vessel to the coast of South America. Returning to Europe he publishes a book, claiming to have first discovered the continent, and it receives his name, America.
1500—Columbus is sent to Spain in chains by a Spanish officer whom the jealousy of Ferdinand, the Spanish King, placed over him. Treated with injustice and neglect, he died at Valladolid, Spain, in 1506.
1512—Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard in search of the “Fountain of Youth,” discovers Florida, near St. Augustine.
1524—John Verrazani, a Florentine, commanding a French vessel, touches the coast near Wilmington, North Carolina,[152] and explores it north to Nova Scotia. He wrote a narrative describing the country and the Indians.
1535—James Cartier, a French navigator, discovers the St. Lawrence.
1541—He builds a Fort at Quebec, but soon abandons it.
—De Soto, a Spaniard, discovers the Mississippi. He traveled, with six hundred men, through Georgia and Alabama, and fought a bloody battle with the Indians near Mobile. These Indians had a walled town of several thousand inhabitants. Thence he traveled west to the Mississippi and Red Rivers. He died at the mouth of the Red river, May 21, 1542.
1553—Persecution of the English Puritans commences.
1562—French Huguenots attempt a settlement in Florida. They gave the name Carolina to the coast on the north. The first colony is discouraged, and returns. In the year 1564 another Huguenot colony is founded on the River May.
1565—Melendez, a Spaniard, founds St. Augustine, September 8th, with five hundred colonists. It was the first permanent settlement in the United States.
—Melendez destroys the French colony.
1567—The Chevalier Gouges (French) attacks St. Augustine, and puts to death two hundred Spaniards in retaliation.
1578—The first English settlement contemplated. Queen Elizabeth grants a patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert “to such remote, heathen, and barbarous lands as he should find in North America.” He makes two attempts to plant a colony—in 1579 and in 1583—fails in each, and perishes with his vessel, September 23, 1583.
1584—Sir Walter Raleigh receives a similar patent, and sends two vessels to the shores of Pamlico Sound. Queen Elizabeth names the country Virginia.
1585—Raleigh sends a colony to Roanoke Island, but it is unfortunate, and returns home.
1587—He sends another colony, but the Spanish Armada[153] threatening England, he could not send it supplies for some time, and when visited, later, no trace of it could be found. Discouraged, he gives up his patent to a London company of merchants, who content themselves to trade with the Indians.
1602—Bartholomew Gosnold visits New England.
1603—Henry IV., King of France, grants Acadia (Nova Scotia) to Sieur de Monts, who founds a colony on the Bay of Fundy, at Port Royal in 1605.
1606—James I., King of England, establishes the London and Plymouth companies for settling North America.
1607—The Plymouth company land a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec river. It is unfortunate, and returns to England.
—The London company send out an expedition, which, accidentally discovering Chesapeake Bay, enter, and found a colony on James River, at Jamestown. The romantic Captain John Smith was one of the colonists. This was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
1608—Smith seeking, by orders from the London company, a passage to the Pacific ocean, up the Chickahominy, is taken prisoner by the Indians, condemned to death, and saved by Pocahontas.
—Quebec founded by the French under Champlain.
—The English Puritans, persecuted in England, take refuge in Holland.
1609—Lord Delaware is appointed Governor of Virginia, which receives a new charter, and a considerable accession of numbers.
—Part of the expedition, however, was shipwrecked, and the colony, embracing a large unruly and indolent element, is near perishing. Pocahontas repeatedly saves them from the Indians. Hudson river and Lake Champlain discovered.
1610—Lord Delaware, having been delayed, arrives (after the[154] discouraged colonists had embarked to return to England) with supplies, and saves the settlement.
1613—Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, an Englishman.
—The Dutch erect a fort at New York.
1615—They build Fort Orange, near Albany.
1619—The first General Assembly elected by the people is called in Virginia, by Governor Yeardley. Eleven boroughs, or towns, were each represented by two Burgesses, or citizens. It was the dawn of civil liberty in Virginia, and a germ of the future republic.
1620—Convicts are sent to Virginia, and negro slaves introduced.
—September 6th, the Puritans, discontented in Holland, set sail in the Mayflower, from Plymouth, England, for America, under the auspices of the “Plymouth Company.”
—December 21st they land on Plymouth Rock, and, amid great hardships, found a religious colony.
—James I. grants a charter to the Grand Council of Plymouth for governing New England.
1621—A district called Mariana granted to John Mason.
—Plymouth colony makes a treaty with Massasoit.
—Cotton first planted in Virginia.
1622—Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason obtain a charter of Maine and New Hampshire. They plant a colony on the Piscataqua river.
—An Indian conspiracy nearly proves fatal to the Virginia colony. March 22d, at noon, an attack is made on all the settlements, and in an hour nearly a fourth part of the colony is massacred. The colonists, in a bloody war, thoroughly chastise the Indians.
1624—Virginia becomes a royal province, but stoutly maintains its legislative authority.
1625—Death of Robinson, the distinguished Puritan divine, in Holland.
[155]
1629—Massachusetts colony patented, and settlement made at Salem, by John Endicott.
—Charlestown, Mass., founded.
—The Dutch colonize the west side of Delaware river.
1630—Patent of Carolina made to Sir Robert Heath.
1631—Massachusetts General Court confines the privilege of voting to church members.
—Clayborne plants a colony on Kent Island.
—The Dutch erect a trading fort at Hartford.
1632—Maryland granted to Lord Baltimore.
1633—Connecticut colony founded.
1636—Roger Williams founds Providence.
1637—Pequod war in Connecticut.
1638—Rhode Island settled by followers of Anne Hutchinson.
—Harvard college founded.
—Swedes and Finns settle Delaware.
—Colony of New Haven founded. Persecution in Massachusetts.
1640—Montreal, Canada, founded.
1641—New Hampshire united to Massachusetts.
1643—The germ of the American union is planted by a confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven. It was for mutual protection and support, and was kept alive about forty years.
1645—Clayborne causes an insurrection in Maryland.
—The Mohawks mediate between the Dutch and Algonquins.
—Witchcraft superstition commences.
1646—John Elliott becomes a missionary to the Indians.
1649—The Mohawk war on the French settlements and Jesuits.
1650—Common School laws passed in Connecticut.
1651—English “Navigation Act” forbids colonists to trade with any country but England, and restricts trade among the colonies. Thus the English make all the[156] profits. English merchants set the price of purchases and sales.
1651—Persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts.
—Proprietary government subverted in Maryland.
1657—Elliott translates the Bible into the Indian language.
1662—Winthrop obtains a liberal charter for Hartford and New Haven.
1663—Carolina granted to a company of Noblemen.
1664—The Dutch conquer the Swedes on the Delaware.
New York ............