CHAPTER I
EARLY ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION
The definition of a colony being thus settled, at what date are we to fix the beginning of our Colonial system ? In a sense we may say that it dates from the grant by Henry VII. to the Cabots in 1498 of the lands discovered in the previous year. 1 But no attempt was made to establish effective occupation, and we must wait for more than a hundred years for the first successful English Colony. Nevertheless the importance of the Newfoundland fisheries as a nursery for seamen (attested as it is by an Act of Parliament of Edward VI.), which were the main practical result of Cabot’s efforts, helped very much in the direction of colonization. The Newfoundland trade was by far the greatest English enterprise in America in the middle of the seventeenth century. There were said to be employed 2 in it “ 270 sail of ships,” and “ twenty thousand seamen.” Raleigh’s words may be cited, 3 “ If thos should be lost, it would be the greatest blow that was ever geven to Ingland.”
Sir Clements Markham has shown that the Cabot voyages did not mark an epoch. “ Voyages of discovery preceded them, and they also followed them in quick succession. Their importance lay in their success.” 4 Nevertheless, so far as conscious effort on the part of rulers was concerned, it is not difficult to give reasons why England was late in the
1 The first land viewed would seem to have been the northern part of Cape Breton. Those who have not the inclination or leisure to pursue the very copious Cabot literature, will find a summary of the learning on the subject in the essay in Vol. III. of Winsor’s Narrative and Critical History of America.
2 Petition, Dec. 23, 1670, in Calendar of State Papers, .Colonial Series, 1669- 1674, ed. by W. Noël Sainsbury.
3 Letter to Cecil, July 20, 1594, Edwards’ Life of Raleigh, Vol. II. p. 95.
4 The Royal Navy, Vol. I. ch. xvi.
First steps towards Colonization.
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