The Settlement of Virginia. In December, 16°6, the London Company sent out from London three small vessels, the Goodspeed (or Godspeed), the Discovery (or Discoverer), and the Sarah Constant (or Susan Constant). These ships were commanded by Christopher Newport, who was an experienced seaman. The three vessels left England for Virginia with 120 prospective settlers, of whom sixteen died on the voyage.

The experiences of Gilbert and Raleigh demonstrated to the English people that colonization was too great a task for individuals to attempt alone. The government, however, was not willing to undertake this enterprise; therefore, English settlement was promoted by means of joint-stock companies.

More than a century passed after Cabot explored the coast of North America before the English made a permanent settlement in the New World. Their rulers were concerned with domestic affairs, and felt that their country was financially unable to promote settlements across the Atlantic.

The Settlement of Virginia. In December, 1606, the London Company sent out from London three small vessels, the Goodspeed (or Godspeed), the Discovery (or Discoverer), and the Sarah Constant (or Susan Constant). These ships were commanded by Christopher Newport, who was an experienced seaman. The three vessels left England for Virginia with 120 prospective settlers, of whom sixteen died on the voyage.

The experiences of Gilbert and Raleigh demonstrated to the English people that colonization was too great a task for individuals to attempt alone. The government, however, was not willing to undertake this enterprise; therefore, English settlement was promoted by means of joint-stock companies. Such companies, composed of merchant adventurers, had already been organized in England and in Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark.

Why the English Settled in America. More than a century passed after Cabot explored the coast of North America before the English made a permanent settlement in the New World. Their rulers were concerned with domestic affairs, and felt that their country was financially unable to promote settlements across the Atlantic.

After America had been discovered and explored by the European nations, it was considered by several of the most ambitious ones as worthy of being settled and claimed as a part of their empires. In this unit we shall see how an advanced civilization was transplanted to a primitive environment. The English, as rivals of powerful Spain, were interested in obtaining new lands and greater natural resources.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed across the Atlantic in search of the northwest passage. In 1583 he made a second attempt and reached Newfoundland, where he selected a site for a colony, and claimed the island for England. On the return voyage he was lost at sea.

From the settlements in Canada, the French fur traders, missionaries and explorers pushed on through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River, building a chain of forts from the St. Lawrence through the Mississippi Valley to New Orleans, which was founded in 1718. By these activities the French laid a foundation for an empire in America, built on the fur trade. This vast area they held for about a century and a half, but in 1763 they were forced to yield most of it to the English.

In 1562 Jean Ribaut came to explore the coast of Florida and to find a place of settlement for French Huguenots. Ribaut landed at the St. Johns River and then went north to Port Royal harbor (now Paris Island, S. C.), where he built Fort Charles for the protection of the thirty men left there. The men soon abandoned the place, and in a boat built by themselves returned to Europe. In 1564, Ren6 de Laudonni6re brought over a larger group of Huguenot colonists, who built Fort Caroline, on the St. Johns River.