1605 - The appeal of Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia was the name given to the upper part of lands granted in 1578 to Sir Humphrey Gilbert by Queen Elizabeth and to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584. It was equivalent to current Maine and New Hampshire.

The French being very active since a few years in the region through the settling of many trading posts, the English urgently needed not to give way for fear of losing permanently an area that they considered to hold legally thanks to their Royal charter.

March 5, 1605 - Captain George Weymouth leaves Gravesend in the Thames Estuary aboard the Arcangel for an expedition which has to take him along coastal Maine. Backed by Thomas, Earl of Arundel and Earl of Southampton, it is overseen by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Its purpose is to locate places propitious to the settlement of a colony.

Among the passengers was James Rosier, a gentleman newly converted to Catholicism hired by Arundel as naturalist and recorder. He had maybe, 3 years arlier, been a part of Gosnold’s trip to New England. Rosier published on the way back a complete report of the expedition covering both plants and animals collected as well as the Natives he had met.

George Weymouth (? -c.1612) 
He studied mathematics, navigation and shipbuilding before leaving to explore coastal North America. He set sail on May 2, 1602 at the head of an expedition funded by the East India Company intending to find the mythical Northwest Passage. Confident, Queen Elizabeth had given him a letter for the Emperor of China. He reached Hudson Strait on July 26, but was not able to cross it because of bad weather and a crew mutiny. Weymouth thought it best to turn back and explored the Labrador coast before returning to England. He was back to Dartmouth on September 5. He presented, next year, to king James 1 a manuscript entitled "The Jewells of Artes" dealing with navigation, shipbuilding and fortifications.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges (1565-1647)  
Born into a prosperous family from Somerset, he chose to enter the military career and served at first against the Spaniards, in Holland. He had afterwards the opportunity to fight in France beside Henri IV in his war of accession to the throne. Knighted by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth commander of the fort of Plymouth with assignment to organize the defence of the western counties in readiness for a Spanish invasion. He was however more or less directly involved in the Earl of Essex rebellion but decided, in front of charges of treason, to testify against his former protector, at the time of his trial. This experience convinced afterward Gorges to side with the Crown but he found again the command of Plymouth only in 1603, after the accession to the throne of James 1. It is from this time that arose his interest for colonization.

May 17th, 1605 - Captain George Weymouth lands on Monhegan Island, 12 miles off the Maine coast.

This island had already been explored in 1603 by Martin Pring and one year later by Samuel de Champlain. It was then of use as seasonal post to French or Spanish fishermen for fish drying.

Its name derived from the Algonquian word Monchiggon meaning " the island towards the sea ". It was afforested and on shores grew currants, raspberries, peas, rosehips, strawberry plants and wild grapevine. As agreed, captain Weymouth made experiment the quality of soils and waters. Seeds grew with an exceptional speed.

May 30, 1605 - Captain Weymouth and 13 of his men go aboard a shallop to explore the dry land. They reach the mouth of a river that they name St Georges and anchor at a place they call Pentecost harbor when they are approached for the first time by Natives come to meet them in birch-bark canoes.

This meeting was friendly and Weymouth offered to the Indians knives, combs, mirrors, bracelets and various things which obviously seemed to interest them. They were dressed in beaver and deer pelts and wore leather sandals. None had a beard but they had on the other hand long black hair. The English were impressed by the care and skill brought to make their boats as well as by the quick-wittedness of their hosts.

June 1, 1605 - Weymouth barters again with the Natives. He gives them knives and various junk items, receiving in exchange beavers, otter or sable pelts and some tobacco.

The English built their first real contact with the Indians, exchanging words, comparing weapons and the way to use them.These good starting relations however had to worsen when Weymouth and his men seized 5 Indians. According to Rosiers, the author of the Voyage Relation, the purpose was to bring them back to England to teach them the language in order to know more about their rules, their customs and their people. The captured Indians were Manida, Skidwarres, Nahanada, Assacumet and Tisquantum (Squanto). 

June 11, 1605- Weymouth and 17 of his men sail up St George River to explore neighboring mountains (probaby Union and Camden Mountains) but hot weather obliges them to turn back. 
The country proved however almost heavenly and all showed enthusiastic in the idea that they have never seen in their journeys a so fascinating nature.

June 16, 1605 - After erecting a cross (probably on Allen's Island), Captain Weymouth decides to weigh anchor and head back to England.

July 18, 1605 - Weymouth is back to Dartmouth.

It seems, according to the testimonies, that the five Indians were treated well by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and all could return home. Nahanada accompanied in 1606 captain Hanham and his assistant Martin Pring for a trip to the Kennebec area. Skidwarres took part in the expedition organized in 1607 by George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert and brought them up to the village of Nahanada, become the leader of a hundred Indians'community, which reserved them a warm welcome.

October 30, 1605 - Sir John Zouche of Codnor, Derbyshire and Captain George Weymouth associate to create a private colony in Northern Virginia  (New England).

This principle was however opposed by John Popham who defended public colonies placed under the responsibility of great incorporated companies. The second idea prevailed.

As chief-commander, Sir John took over at his own expenses the setting of two ships with all necessary supplies and equipment as well as the recruitment of 200 men and a sum of £ 100 granted to Captain Weymouth. 

The project was not without ambition but the Guy Fawkes Plot case that broke at the end of the year brought it in the background until it was given up in favor of the Royal Charter granted on April 10, 1606, to the London and Plymouth Companies represented by Sir Thomas Gates, George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, George Popham and others.

1603 - The Great Sassafras Hunts

April 10, 1603 - Captain Martin Pring sets sail from Milford Haven for an exploratory expedition along the Maine coast. The mission aims to bring back sassafras roots, particularly valued for their medicinal virtues. The backers of the project got for it Sir Walter Raleigh's agreement whom Queen Elizabeth granted rights to exploit the resources of North America.

Two ships were equipped for what were called the " Great Sassafras Hunts "  - the Speedwell, a 60-ton vessel captained by Pring himself with 30 crewmen and the Discoverer, a 26-ton vessel captained by William Browne and Robert Salterne, carrying 13 men.

It was no coincidence for Robert Salterne to be on that journey, for he had accompanied Bartholomew Gosnold a year before and had already visited the area. He thus knew the places where grew sassafrases. It was planned, on the other hand, to get contacts with the Natives and the boats have been loaded with various supplies intended as bargaining chip, such as clothing and tools.

Martin Pring (Bristol (Devon) on 1580 - Bristol 1626) 
Nothing is known of his origins but he was undoubtedly a confirmed sailor to be chosen at 23 by Richard Hakluyt and a group of Bristol merchants to command an expedition in North Virginia (present-day Maine). His backers were mostly interested in looking for sassafras but had taken care to get on with Sir Walter Raleigh to avoid the same woes as Gosnold after his return from America the previous year.

Richard Hakluyt (Hereford, 1552 - London, 1616) 
Both diplomat, historian, writer, and geographer, he was issued from an old Welsh family established in Herefordshire since the 13th century. He studied in London then to the Christ Church in Oxford before accessing to priesthood in 1578. He started his career as chaplain in the service of Sir Edward Stafford, ambassador to the Court of France, where he published the English translation of the Second Journey of Jacques Cartier. This work drew quite particularly the attention of Secretary of State Sir Francis Walsingham who suggested to Hakluyt collecting all the possible information about the French and Spanish explorations. Impressed by the narratives of journeys in America and by the profits that could represent the fur trade, he emphasized the importance of founding English colonies in North America. His report was forwarded to Sir Walter Raleigh before being sent to Queen Elizabeth who granted him in exchange a chaplain's pulpit in Bristol cathedral. Hakluyt did not however stop showing his interest in geography and sought the friendship of great sailors such as Sir Francis Drake or Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He was also interested in the logbook of René de Laudonnière published in 1586 which told the failed story of the first French colonization of Caroline. He had a time renounced his plans due to the English-Spanish war but published, further to these various experiments, a collection tinged sometimes with imagination entitled The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation that was nothing but a vibrant plea for the colonization of Virginia. This work devoted to all the aspects of the adventure and discovery would stimulate explorers vocations among those willing to set out for America. Hakluyt found constantly involved in the search of the mythical Northwest passage to India and married even in 1589, Dugless, a cousin of Thomas Cavendish, the third English seafarer to have achieved a round-the-world journey. He happened quite naturally concerned with most settlement projects such as the East India Company in 1602 and three years later, the Virginia Company of London a major shareholder of which he became .

 Sir Walter Raleigh had introduced sassafras in 1587 next to a first colonizing attempt. Its roots were then regarded as a miracle cure against smallpox and syphilis, two reasons why they were traded at a high price (approximately 336 £ a ton). Indians drank them as a tea-like orangy-colored decoction and particularly appreciated. The craze of the Europeans for this plant dried up however quickly when they realized that it did not keep well and presented in the long run some toxicity.

May 1, 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh sends from London two ships to South Virginia in order to find any survivors of the Roanoke colony. These are respectively placed under the command of Bartholomew Gilbert and Samuel Mace.

Samuel Mace had already made the trip a year before. He had walked the dunes and found there lots of sassafrases but could not linger beyond July due to the arrival of the hurricane season. While he had identified no track of the colony, the fact, however, to organize a new journey could suggest that Raleigh had some credible information.

June, 1603 - Martin Pring enters Penobscot Bay and goes back up the river on a few miles. He explores Saco Bay and reaches the mouth of the Piscataqua River where he meets Abenakis.

There was apparently no sassafras in this area and Pring decided to sail further south towards Cape Cod.

June, 1603 - Captain Martin Pring casts anchor at the mouth of the Pamet River near Cape Cod. There grows plenty of sassafras and he makes erect, the time of harvest, a small fence not far from the present-day city of Truro. 

The coastal Indians preferred to leave places when they saw the English boats, abandoning behind a canoe on the shore.The Mayflower Pilgrims will discover the remains of this palisade some seventeen years later.

July, 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh is accused of high treason by new king James 1 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. All his rights and privileges are repealed, including those on Virginia. He will be condemned without tangible proof a few months later.

Late July, 1603 - Martin Pring sends back the Discoverer to England, loaded with sassafras.

The English had, by that time, built good neighborly relationship with the Indians, mixed with the same curiosity. Martin Pring had reached to impress by making fire a barrel or play the mandolin by one of the sailors. He had invited repeatedly the Natives to share the meal with his men and this hospitality eventually attracted towards his camp more and more Indians of the area. Pring did not however hide his pleasure to scare them with his two powerful mastiffs.

July 26, 1603 - Captain Bartholomew Gilbert follows the coast of North Carolina aboard the Elizabeth.

His journey had been organized by Sir Walter Raleigh who always sought to understand what happened to the Roanoke colony established sixteen years earlier. Persistent rumors indeed suggested that the colonists had dispersed westward into the forests located South of Chesapeake Bay and that they were certainly alive.

Gilbert had left London and made stopover in Saint Lucia, Dominica and Nevis before sailing to the North American shore. He tried to reach access to the Bay but the dreadful weather slowed down his progress and the crew might be short of foods.

July 29, 1603 - Bartholomew Gilbert is killed by Algonquian Indians from his landing on the shore of Chesapeake Bay .

He had just joined the mainland with four crew members, to find water and some food when a party of Indians (probably belonging to the Powhatan Confederation) had surprised and massacred them without mercy. This event would have been able to end prematurely the expedition but captain Samuel Mace tried to pursue researches and ventured up to the Rappahannock river. They say that he was welcomed by the local tribe but that he killed their leader and captured some Indians to bring them back to England.

Without serious evidence about the lost colony, he decided to set off to return with a load of sassafras.

The roughness of the Indians found its only justification in the fact that they were at the time in the grip of attacks from the Spaniards. On the other hand, they knew how to remember Mace's behavior and showed clearly their hostility to the English during the foundation of Jamestown in 1607.

August 8, 1603 - Captain Pring and his men prefer to abandon their camp given the pressure of the Indians.

These had tried at night to jump on board but the crew had been awakened by the barkings of both mastiffs " Fool " and "Gallant" guarding the deck. Impressed by the hounds, the Indians had quickly fled but had after that sent arrows from the shore without knowing what were their plans.

Pring described the Pamet Indians with some admiration. He found them excellent physical qualities and was surprised noticing that they showed no signs usually lent to primitive peoples. They suffered in particular no track of inbreeding and were otherwise well proportionned and strong thanks to their diet and plant knowledge. The women seemed shy whereas the men, scantily clad, display pointedly their manliness.They were all long-haired but unlike English, they were clean shaven. They apparead curious but also very unruly, what was not to help relationship with the explorers.

Late August, 1603 - Captain Samuel Mace is back in London. The results of his expedition are disastrous.

Mystery around the disappearance of the Roanoke colony seemed to thicken. No track, no serious evidence provided the theory of its moving westward. The human toll was another dramatic part, because in addition to the death of Bartholomew Gilbert and four crewmen killed by the Natives, they were only eleven survivors to reach England. Meanwhile, sponsor Sir Walter Raleigh had been jailed for a month in the Tower of London and deprived of all his rights by new King James 1.

November 8, 1603 - King of France Henri IV grants Sieur de Monts, a protestant officer from the Royal household, a territory in North American continent stretching from 40th to 56th parallels of latitude, that is from Newfoundland to present-day Philadelphia 

October 2, 1603 - The Speedwell is back in England.

The report that made captain Martin Pring of his trip to his sponsor Richard Hakluyt aroused a great interest and confirmed the economic potential of the coastal North Virginia, dear to Sir Walter Raleigh. It included such highly accurate descriptions of the topography, plants, animals and people of the area. Its narrative included besides many stories about Indians, their customs, their know-how, their songs or still their reaction to his two big mastiffs.

Martin Pring had also brought the canoe discovered on Cape Cod and three Indian prisoners who were entrusted to the governor of Plymouth Sir Ferdinando Gorges. They were certainly treated well but their capture was felt as a treachery by their tribe, already bearing the germs of troubles to come.