Capt. John Mason, a merchant of London, later known as the proprietor of New Hampshire, was at one time governor of Newfoundland, and a promoter of colonization there, which he sought to further by a tract, which was printed at Edinburgh in 1620: A briefe Discourse of the Newfoundland, with the situation, temperature and commodities thereof, inciting our nation to goe forward in that hopefull plantation begunne.1 It was reprinted in 1867 by the Bannatyne Club in David Laing's Royal Letters, etc., relating to New Scotland, which contains an account of Mason and other early promoters of the colonization of Newfoundland. A map of Newfoundland was made from Mason's surveys, and appeared in 1626 in Vaughan's Golden Fleece, and is the earliest special representation of the configuration of the coast.3 There are two other early tracts: A short discourse of the Newfoundland, contayning diverse reasons and inducements for the planting of that colony. Published for the satisfaction of all such as shall be willing to be adventurers in the said Plantation. Dublin, 1623. Richard Eburne's Plaine Pathway to Plantations . . . with certain motives for a present plantation in Newfoundland above the rest, 1624.5 Robert Hayman, "sometimes governor of the plantations there," fixed upon the country the new name of "Britaniola," in a collection of epigrams which he wrote there, and which he published in London, in 1628, as Quodlibets lately come over from New Britaniola, Old Newfound land. The Crown in 1633 published A Commission for the well gouverning of our people in habiting in Newfoundland. Beside the general histories of Canada and New France, covering the history of Newfound land, with Captain Griffeth Williams's account of the island of Newfoundland (London, 1765) and John Reeves' Hist. of the Government of Newfoundland (London, 1793), there have been three distinct monographs during the present century: Lewis Amadeus Anspach, History of the island of Newfoundland (London, 1819, 1827). The author was a magistrate and missionary of the island. Charles Pedley, History of Newfoundland to 1860 (London, 1863). Prepared from the public archives at the instance of the governor of the colony. Joseph Hatton and M. Harvey, Newfound land, the oldest British colony; its history, its present condition, and its prospects (London, 1883). To these may be added: M. F. Howley, Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland (Boston, 1888); and for travels, Sir R. H. Bonnycastle's Newfoundland in 1842 (London, 1842); J. B. Jukes' Excursions in and about Newfoundland, 1839–1840 (London, 1842); and Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg's Kanada und Neufundland nach einigen Reisen und Beobachtungen (Freiburg). As respects the neighboring Labrador, there is much to elucidate its early cartographical history in ante, Vol. IV.; and Chavanne (Polar Regions, p. 220) gives something of a bibliography. Cartwright's Journal is one of the older authorities. Cf. Henry Y. Hinde's Explorations in the interior of the Labrador peninsula, the Country of the Montagnais and Nasquapee Indians (London, 1863), and W. A. Stearns' Labrador, a sketch of its peoples, its industries, and its natural history (Boston, 1884). the Mag. Amer. Hist., Oct., 1883; Oct., 1885. As late as the middle of the last century, the representative of Lord Baltimore made claim to the territory of Avalon, and a report of the attorney and solicitor general on that claim, April 5, 1754, is among the Shelburne MSS., vol. 61, as noted in the Hist. MSS. Commission, Report V., p. 230. 1 Sabin, xi. 45,453, who quotes the title from Lowndes, adding that the tract is "so rare that we have been unable to find a copy." Laing says only three copies are known. Cf. Brit. Mus. Cat. of Eng. Books to 1640, p. 1076. The Prince Society has recently published Captain John Mason, the founder of New Hampshire, including his tract on Newfoundland, 1620, and a Memoir by C. W. Tuttle, edited by John Ward Dean (Boston, 1887). 2 Carter-Brown, ii. no. 239. 3 Howley in his Ecclesiastical Hist. of Newfoundland gives various early maps, including one found in the Vatican, dated 1556. The earlier draft of Lescarbot is given ante, Vol. IV. p. 379, where are some notes on antecedent maps. Mason's map is among the Kohl collection, no. 168. A map by Nicolas Visscher is considered the earliest with elaborate soundings on the banks. Popple (1733) and Buache (1736) made maps (North collection in Harvard Coll. lib., ii. nos. 5-7). There is a map in Charlevoix, by Bellin, which is reproduced in Shea's translation. A Pilot de Terre Neuve was published in 1784 (Harv. Coll. Atlases, no. 650). 4 Carter-Brown, ii. no. 283. 5 Carter-Brown, ii. no. 291; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., May, 1883, p. 230. It is a rare book. 6 Carter-Brown, ii. nos. 335, 336. 7 Harv. Coll. lib., 4344. 20. NOTE. The map on the preceding page is a fac-simile of that in Mason's Briefe Discourse. IN CHAPTER IV. SPANISH NORTH AMERICA. BY JUSTIN WINSOR. New the second volume of the present work the progress of Spanish exploration and settlement in North America was traced down to the withdrawal of Cortés from Mexico in 1540, and to the return of Coronado from his long and northward march in 1542. There were some intentionally brief indications given of other Spanish explorations towards New Mexico. even so late as the alleged expedition of Peñalosa in 1662; while the courseof maritime discovery along the Pacific coast was sketched in outline to the close of the eighteenth century, connecting it with the distinctively Arctic ventures, which are followed in the present volume in preceding chapters.1 It is the present purpose to pursue, in a condensed way, the general course of the succeeding history of the Spanish countries in North America down to the middle of the nineteenth century. We have seen how in 1535 Spain had sent her first viceroy to Mexico in Antonio de Mendoza. Spain was under his sway until 1550, and the story of the vice-regal period begins with eliciting our sympathy, as it continued to do, for the natives, degraded beneath inhuman burdens. They were baptized by the millions, if we may believe the figures; but it may be a question if such spiritual relief, imagined or actual, was equal in beneficence to the release of death which. came by other millions, as the record goes, through disease and inhumanity. The Spaniards indeed conquered provinces, established towns, and developed mines, and in all this the country seemed prosperous; but Benzoni, travelling through the country, tells us how their rapacious laws and the bondage of the Indians depopulated whole towns. It seemed, in fact, to matter little whether a tribe was an ally or an enemy; the scourge and the doom were as sure for each. The natives revolted only to intensify the horrors of their situation. It was death in the mines, and inhumanity worse than death in the fields. Las Casas, as we have seen,2 pleaded so vehemently that at last, by imperial cédula and by the code of the so-called new laws,3 remedies were established to prevent depopulation and horrors. The measures were not indeed so radical as Las Casas had wished, but still there was justice enough in them to prevent slavery for all but those then subjected to it under a legal title. 1 Ch. 1 and 2. 2 Vol. II. ch. 5. 3 Ante, Vol. II. p. 537. Francisco Tello de Sandoval was sent to execute these laws, and landed at Vera Cruz in March, 1544. The ordinances soon provoked opposition from the Spanish owners of encomiendas 1 and from the religious orders, which were likewise interested in preserving the old conditions. These opponents of the statutes combined to make such representations that in 1545 the laws in their obnoxious traits were revoked, notwithstanding the protests of Las Casas. In other respects the rule of Mendoza was not without success. He improved the social and external conditions of life; he subjugated and pacified distant tribes of the hostile Chichimecs in 1 The original MS. of Cortés' opinion on encomiendas is noted in Stevens, Bibl. Amer., 1885, priced at £12. 12. o. Cf. Vol. II. p. 348, for an account of this institution. Champlain's sketch in his Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico (London, 1859). The etchings of the originals in this volume were done by Mrs. C. R. Markham. Zacatecas, and crowned his conquests here and in New Galicia by opening sources of revenue in their mines. In 1547 Mexico was raised to an archbishopric, but Zumárraga as its prelate enjoyed his elevation for a few days only, before he died on June 3, 1548. Meanwhile Las Casas had made his final visit to New Spain, and returned to Europe to print his famous tracts at Seville in 1552-53, and to work on his Historia up to 1561.2 It is to the credit of Luis de Velasco, the second viceroy, that he did what he could to carry out the royal commands for ameliorating the condition of the natives.3 He saw in 1553 not only the capital city subjected to one of those great floods which occasionally devastated the town, but he 1 There were at this time about 15,000 Spaniards in America, and the policy of excluding convicts was now begun. 2 Cf. Vol. II. pp. 308, 333, 339. 3 On the Indian treatment, 1550-60, see Bancroft, Mexico, ii. ch. 27. From Idea vera et genuina of De Bry's Nona Pars (Frankfort, 1602). Cf. on the Spanish mining, Bancroft's Mexico, iii. ch. 28, on "Mines and Mining (1500-1800)," with bibliog., pp. 599-601; vi. ch. 1 (18001887); Helps' Spanish Conquest, iii. 140; and C. B. Dahlgren's Historic mines of Mexico; a review of the mines of that republic for the past three centuries. Compiled from the works of Von Humboldt, Ward, Burkart, etc. (New York, 1883). VOL. VIII.-13 |