period made no effort to obtain their subsistence by agriculture: they employed their time in excursions into the country, in a fruitless search after the precious ores.

Jacques Cartier is said to be the navigator, who in the year 1534, gave the name of St. Lawrence to the gulf and river, from the circumstance of his entering them on the day of the festival of that Saint. In the following year, he wintered in the country, now called Canada, to which he gave the name of New France. He went as high up as a place then called Hochelaga, now Montreal. He returned in the year 1540, and began a settlement at a short distance from the spot on which the city of Quebec was afterwards built. Two years after, Mons. de Robertval, with two ships and two hundred men proceeded up the river St. Lawrence, twelve miles above the island now called the island of Orleans, built a fort, and wintered there.

In 1544, Carthagena was invaded by a company of French adventurers. This is the first act of hostility between European nations, in the new world.

Although the British nation had yet made no effort to form any establishment in America, their ships had for several years been engaged in the fishery at Newfoundland. In the year 1548, the first British statute relating to America was passed; the ob ject of it was to repress the extortions of the officers of the admiralty. who demanded a duty or part of the profits on every voyage made to Ireland, Iceland and Newfoundland.

In 1549, Charles V. of Spain, sent Lewis de Beluastro, a Dominican friar, to Florida, with orders to

reduce the natives to the Christian faith and Spanish obedience; and he and two of his followers were slain, and eaten by the savages.

The country remained unnoticed by the Europeans until the year 1562, when Jasper de Coligny, admiral of France, procured two vessels to be fitted out, under the orders of Jean Ribaud, for the ostensible purpose of discoveries on the eastern coast of the continent of North America, but perhaps with a view of securing an asylum for the protestants of France, if a continuation of ill success should destroy their cause in that kingdom. The adventurers made the land in the highest degree of northern latitude, near a cape to which they gave the name of Cape Français; it is one of the promontories of the estuary on which the town of St. Augustine now lies, and they landed on the banks of the river St. Mary, which now separates Florida from Georgia. After spending some time in reconnoitering the country, and carrying on some little trade with the natives, finding themselves in no condition to effect a settlement, they returned home, bringing to their countrymen the best account of the climate, the country and its inhabitants, which their short stay could enable them to procure.

The admiral, charmed with the report, determined on forming a settlement, that might afford him and his companions a retreat, which the circumstances of the times rendered daily more necessary. Unforeseen difficulties delayed the small fleet which he procured for this purpose till the year 1564. Five or six ships then carried as many hundred persons to begin a colony, under the orders of

Rene Laudoniere. They disembarked at the place of landing of the first expedition. They immediately commenced the building of a fort, which was called Arx Carolina, or Fort Charles, and the coun try Caroline, in honor of Charles IX. who then filled the throne of France. The colony was hardly settled, when the Spaniards, who then asserted an exclusive right to the whole continent, sent a considerable force under Admiral Don Pedro Menendez to attack it. The French, too small in number to offer any resistance, sought their safety in submis. sion; but the cruel enemy, deeming that no faith needed to be preserved with the Huguenots, disregarded the promise, under which the weaker party had been induced to yield, and treacherously put them to the sword. A few, however, escaped to the woods: they were pursued and hung to the trees, with this deriding inscription, not as Frenchmen, but as Heretics.

Far from endeavoring to avenge this outrage, the ministers of Charles VII. rejoiced at the miscarriage of a project, which indeed they had sanctioned, but which they did not relish because it had originated with the chief of the Huguenots, and the success of it might have given strength to their cause. The fanaticism of the times confirmed their resolution to manifest no resentment; an individual was to do what the nation ought to have done.

Dominique de Gourgues, a Gascon, an able and bold navigator, the known enemy of the Spaniards, on whom he had personal injuries to avenge, ardently attached to his country, fond of hazardous undertakings and of glory, sold his patrimony, built.

a few vessels, and uniting to himself some choice companions, went in pursuit of the murderers of his countrymen in America, drove them from one fort to another; vanquished them every where, hung a number of them to the trees on the sea shore, and opposing derision to derision, inscribed over them, not as Spaniards, but assassins.

Here ended this expedition. De Gourgues, either from want of provisions, or the apprehensions that the friendship of the Indians would cease, with the means of purchasing it, or that the Spaniards might arrive in numbers sufficient to overcome him, destroyed all the forts which they had erected, and sailed back to France. He was received by his countrymen with all the admiration he deserved: not so by the court; despotic and superstitious, it had every thing to fear from virtue.

Neither the French nor the Spaniards made any further attempt to transplant a colony into Caroline; this was to be the work of the English. Their first attempt was made in 1584. On the 22d of July of that year, the English flag was displayed before the shores of Carolina by Arthur Barlow and Philip Amidas. They were the commanders of two small vessels built by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had obtained from queen Elizabeth a patent, authorising him, his heirs or assigns, to take possession of such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, as were not occupied by any Christian prince. Amidas and Barlow had sailed from the Thames, and taking their route by the Canary and West India islands, had approached the continent towards the gulf of Mexico, after a passage of fifty-seven days.

A fragrant odour wafted to the adventurers, the glad tidings of the vicinity of the land, some time before they could descry it. The coast at first offered no convenient harbor, and they sailed by it for upwards of one hundred miles, without discovering any. They entered however with difficulty and caution, the first inlet which they saw, and having returned thanks to God, went ashore to take possession of the land in the name of their sovereign.

At first, they judged themselves on the continent, but taking advantage of an eminence, they discovered that the sea surrounded them. The island appeared to be seventy miles in length, and six in breadth: it lay between cape Fear and cape Hatteras, and was very low, and is concluded to be that of Ocracock, or some other near it along the coast, now in the county of Carteret. Stately cedars, pines, cypress, sassafras, and other trees of a fragrant smell, covered it; on them numerous and large clusters of grape hung in natural festoons; and the land abounded in deer, raccoons, and wild fowls. They were nearly three days on this island, without seeing any of the natives; on the third, three Indians came in a canoe from the main land; they fearlessly approached the strangers, and one of them went on board one of the vessels; he chattered much, ate, drank, and gladly accepted a shirt and a hat, which were presented him; after viewing attentively every thing on board, he went away, and in a short time returned with his canoe loaded with fish.

On the next day, a great number of Indians came in large canoes: among them was the king's brother; the English learnt from him that his name was

N. CAROLINA. 2