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Cornell University Library 1993.IX.
EXPEDITION
OF
Captain SAMUEL ARGALL,
Afterwards Governor of Virginia, Knight, &c.
T O
THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS IN ACADIA
AND
MANHATTAN ISLAND,
a.d. 16 13.
BY THE EDITOR.ARGALL’S EXPEDITION.
The earliest indication of a permanent settlement within
the present limits of New-York has been generally traced by
historical writers to the alleged erection of a fort near Albany,
in 1614. On a small alluvial island, one hundred and fifty miles
above the mouth of the river, the foundations not only of a
flourishing city, but of a great commonwealth, are supposed to
have been laid by a few Dutch adventurers whose only aim
was a gainful traffic with the natives of the country. Such a
settlement was indeed made, but there seems to have been an
error in regarding it as prior to all others. It is known that the
Dutch visited the river the year after its discovery, and that
they continued to frequent it from year to year for the purposes
of trade, until it was found necessary to erect forts for their
protection. What their establishments were before the build-
ing of the forts, is not stated by any of the Dutch writers with-
in our knowledge ; but undoubted though incidental authority
enables us to form a corect idea of the state of things on Man-
hattan Island in 1613, or four years after the discovery of the
river. We refer to the accounts of the expedition of Captain
Samuel Argali against the French colonists of Acadia, who, as
he was returning to Virginia, made a passing visit to the Dutch
on “ Manhattas Isle.”
The following brief notice of this event is taken from an
English publication, containing a description of the country
granted by Charles I. to Sir Edmund Ployden, under the name
of “ the Province of New Albion,” in 1634, embracing an exten-
sive territory north of Maryland.*
“ Then Virginia being granted, settled, and all that part now
called Maryland, New Albion, and New Scotland, (Nova-Sco-
tia,) being part of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale, and Sir Samuel
Argali, Captains and Counsellors of Virginia, hearing of divers
aliens and intruders, and traders without license, with a vessel
and forty soldiers, landed at a place called Mount Desert in
Nova-Scotia, near St. John’s river, or Tweed, possessed by the
'French ; there killed some French, took away their guns and
* Entitled, •* A Description of the Province of New Albion ; and a direc-
tion for adventurers with small stock, to get two for one, and good land free-
ly ; and for gentlemen and all servants, labourers, and artificers to live plen-
tifully,” &c. “ Printed in the year 1648.” Reprinted at Washington, D. C.
•by P. Force, 1837.Argyll’s expedition.
835
dismantled the Fort, and in their return landed at Manhatas
Isle in Hudson's river, where they found four houses built., and
a pretended Dutch governor under the West India Company of
Amsterdam share or part, who kept trading boats and truck-
ing with the Indians ; but the said Knights told him their com-
mission was to expel him and all alien intruders on his Majes-
ty’s dominion and territories ; this being part of Virginia, and
this river an English discovery of Hudson, an Englishman.
The Dutchman contented them for their charge and voyage,
and by his letter sent to Virginia and recorded, submitted him-
self, company and plantation to his Majesty, and to the Go-
vernor and government of Virginia ; but the next pretended
Dutch Governor, in maps and printed cards (charts), calling
this part New-Netherlands, failing in paying of customs at his
return to Plymouth in England, was there with his beaver
goods and person attached to his damage £1500. Where-
upon, at the suit of the Governor and Council of Virginia, his
now Majesty, by his embassador in Holland, complaining of
the said aliens’ intrusion on such his territories and domains,,
the said Lords, the States of Holland, by their public instru-
ment declared, that they did not avow, nor would protect them,
being a private party of the Amsterdam West India Companyr
but left them to his Majesty’s will and mercy ; whereupon three
several orders from the council table and commissions have
been granted for the expelling and removing them thence, of
which they taking notice, and knowing their weakness and
want of victuals, have offered to sell the same for £2500.
And lastly, taking advantage of our present war and distraction,
now ask £5000, and have lately offered many affronts and
damages to his Majesty’s subjects in New England; and in
general endanger all his Majesty’s adjoining countries most
wickedly, feloniously, and traitorously, and contrary to the marine
and admiral laws of all Christians, sell by wholesale guns,,
powder, shot and ammunition to the Indians, instructing them
in the use of our fights and arms ; insomuch as two thousand
Indians by them armed, Mohacks, Raritans, and some of Long
Isle, with their own guns so sold them, fall into war with the
Dutch, destroyed all their scattering farms and boors, forcing ;
them all to retire to their upper fort, forty leagues up that river,
and to Manhatas ; for all or most retreating to Manhatas, it is
now a pretty town of trade, having more English than
Dutch
It will be noticed that the date of Argali’s expedition is not
The writer, Beauchamp Plantagenet, Esq,, (as he is styled,) was one of a
company formed for the purpose of planting a colony in the province of New
Albion, and as the grant to Ployden covered the greater part of New-Nether-
lands, his animosity to the Dutch is easily explained. See a copy of this grant.
in Hazard’s State Papers, i. 160—170.386
argall’s expedition.
given by this author, but he states the circumstances attend-
ing the visit to our river more particularly than any other
English writer of that period. The officer whom he styles
“ a pretended Dutch governor,” was without doubt the Opper-
koopman, or superintendent of the trade on the river ; * and
the company called “the West India Company of Amster-
dam,” was the association of merchants afterwards incorpora-
ted under that name. No mention is made of any fort upon
the island, and as none was erected before 1614 or 1615, this
circumstance of itself would render it probable that Argali’s
visit was made at a prior date.
As the expedition was fitted out from the Virginia colony,
for the purpose of vindicating the English title to the country,
it would be natural to look to that quarter for a particular ac-
count of it. But there seems to have been a studied conceal-
ment on the part of the early writers upon the affairs of that
colony in relation to this matter, which can only be explained
on the ground that the wanton and destructive attack in a time
of profound peace, without notice of any kind, on the infant set-
tlements of the French colonists in Acadia, was viewed as at
least impolitic, and likely to lead to serious consequences be-
tween the two governments, if openly proclaimed or justified.
For this, or some other reason, only incidental or meagre no-
tices of the expedition occur in the Virginia writers. Purchas
has the following reference to the enterprise without date :—
“ Captain Argali’s northward discoveries towards Sacadehoc,
and beyond to Port Royal, Sancta Crux, and thereabout, may
not be concealed; in which his adventures, if he had brought
home no commodity to the colony, (which yet he did very
much, both of apparel, victuals, and many other necessaries,) the
honour which he hath done unto our nation by displanting the
French, then beginning to seat and fortify within our limits,
and taking of their ship and pinnace, which he brought to James-
town, would have been reward enough for his pains, and will
ever speak loud his honor and approved valour.”!
In another place the same author describes more at length
the controversies with the French in respect to their title to the
country, but nothing is said of the visit of Argali to our river.!
Smith, whose history of Virginia was published about the same
period, is equally unsatisfactory ; he says—
“ Sir Thomas Dale, understanding there was a plantation of
Frenchmen in the north part of Virginia, about the degrees of
45, sent Captain Argali to Port Royal and Sancta Crux, where
* Hendrick Christiaens is the first commander on tlie river mentioned by the
Dutch writers. See above, p. 299.	'
t Pilgrims, 1. ix. c. 10.
j Ibid. I. ix. c. 19argall’s expedition.
337
finding the Frenchmen abroad, dispersed in the woods, surpris-
ed their ship and pinnace, which was but newly come from
France, wherein was much good apparel and other provision,
which he brought to Jamestown, but the men escaped and liv-
ed among the savages of those countries.”*
This is the only notice Smith takes of the expedition, and it
will be seen that he is mistaken in supposing the French colo-
nists to have escaped, as several of them were carried to Vir-
ginia. It may be likewise inferred from his statement, that the
enterprise was undertaken during the administration of Sir
Thomas Dale, as governor of Virginia, which would bring it
within the year 1614 ; but this is equally erroneous, as the
most conclusive evidence exists that it took place in the pre-
ceding year, under the administration of Sir Thomas Gates.
Smith had no connexion at that time with the Virginia colony,
having left it several years before, and this portion of his his-
tory is compiled from the statements of others, instead of being
the result of his own observation and knowledge, as is the case
with the earlier part of it. It is remarked by a careful writer,
that Smith is “ an unquestionable authority for what is related,
whilst he staid in the country,” although “ vastly confused and
perplexed;” but “the latter part of his history * * * is liable
to some suspicion. No doubt is entertained of his integrity,
but being himself absent in those times upon other projects,
he depended upon others for his account of things ”t
The work from which subsequent historians seem to have
chiefly taken their accounts of Argali’s visit to the Hudson, is
Heylin’s Cosmography, published in 1652,—a work of great
learning and of high reputation at that period. After mentioning
the discovery of the river and its subsequent occupation by the
Dutch, he adds—“ But they were hardly warm in their new
habitations, when Sir Samuel Argali, governor of Virginia, spe-
cially so called, (having dispossessed the French of that part
of Canada, now called Nova-Scotia, An. 1613,) disputed the
possession with them ; alleging that Hudson, under whose sale
they claimed that country, being an Englishman, could not
alienate or dismember it, (being but a part or province of Vir-
ginia,) from the crown thereof. Hereupon the Dutch gover-
nor submits himself and his plantation to his Majesty of Eng-
land, and the governor of Virginia, for and under him. But a
new governor being sent from Amsterdam, in the year next
following, not only failed in paying the conditioned tributes, hut
began to fortify himself and entitle those of Amsterdam to a
just propriety.”!
* General Hist, of Virginia. Richmond edit. ii. 18*
fStith, Hist, of Virginia, Introd. iv. Williamsburg, 1747.
iBook 4th, part 2d, p. 3. Stith, pp. 132-3, appears to have drawn his ac-
count of the expedition from Smith and Heylin.
43338
argall’s Expedition.
Several errors occur in this extract that have been repeat-
ed by many succeeding writers. Argali was not governor of
Virginia before 1617, nor did he receive the honour of knight-
hood until a still later period. The idea of a sale of the coun-
try by Hudson to his Dutch employers, is too absurd to require
contradiction.
Argali made several voyages to the colony in command of
a ship belonging to the Virginia Company. It appears from a
letter addressed by him to a friend in England, dated June,
1613, that he had arrived in the preceding year ; and in the
spring of that year, he was employed in exploring the eastern
side of Chesapeake bay in a shallop. During this time, his
ship was left to be got ready for a fishing voyage, and on his
return, May 12, 1613, he completed his preparations, and at
the date of his letter was about sailing on his intended voy-
age. He says,
“ Thus having put my ship in hand to be fitted for an intend-
ed fishing voyage, I left that business to be followed by my
master, with a ginge (gang) of men, and my lieutenant forti-
fied on shore, with another ginge to fell timber and cleave planks,
to build a fishing boat; my ensign, with another ginge, was
employed in the frigate* for getting of fish at Cape Charles,
and transporting it to Henry’s town, for the relief of such men
as were there ; and myself, with a fourth ginge, departed out of
the river in my shallop, the first of May, for to discover the
east side of our bay, which I found to have many small rivers
in it, and very good harbours for boats and barges, but not for
ships of any great burthen. * * * So having discovered along
the shore, some forty leagues northward, I returned again to
my ship the 12th May, and hasted forward my business left
in hand at my departure ; and fitted up my ship, and built my
fishing boat, and made ready to take the first opportunity of the
wind for my fishing voyage, of which I beseech God of his
mercy to bless us.”t
A contemporary French author, Champlain, (the founder of
Quebec,) states that the English of Virginia were accustomed
at that period to pursue the cod fishery sixteen leagues from
the island of Monts Deserts,% and that a party arrived there
for that purpose in the year 1613, commanded by Samuel Ar-
gali, who being overtaken by a storm were driven on shore
• Small light vessels were then termed frigates, the present use of the word
being of more recent origin.
f Pilgrims, 1. ix. c. 9.
j A large and lofty island on the coast of Maine, a few miles east of Pen-
obscot bay, still called Mount Desert. It is well settled and contains two
towns, named Eden and Mount Desert.ARGALl/s EXPEDITION.
339
near Pemptegoet.* Here they were told by the Indians that
a French ship was at the island of Monts Deserts, whereup-
on Argali, being in want of provisions, and his men in a shat-
tered, half-naked condition, resolved after ascertaining the
strength of the intruders to attack them. The French seeing
a ship approaching under full sail, and discovering it to be an
armed Englishman, without being aware that t$n others were
following, prepared to defend themselves. After a short resist-
ance, being overpowered by a superior force, the French yield-
ed, with the loss of a Jesuit father, Gilbert du Thet, who was
killed by a musket ball. Several others were wounded, and
all but five were made prisoners. The English then took pos-
session of the French ship, and plundered it of whatever they
could find, not excepting the commission from the king of
France which the commander, La Saussaye, had in his ca
bin.
Such is the statement of Champlain. Another French wri-
ter of the same period, Lescarbot, relates the affair in a man-
ner less favourable to his countrymen. He says that the French
vessel having recently arrived at Pemptegoet, information was
given by the natives to some Englishmen who happened to be
on the coast, and that the latter going to ascertain whether it
was friend or foe, Gilbert du Thet, the Jesuit, on discovering
them, cried out, “Arm, arm; it is the English /” and there-
upon opened a fire upon them, which was vigorously re-
turned, and with such effect that the English, having killed
three persons, (of which number was Gilbert du Thet,) and
wounded five, boarded the ship, and having plundered it, land-
ed upon the island, where they met with no resistance. The
French commander who was on shore at the time of the at-
tack, had fled with fourteen of his men to a remote part of the
island, but the next day came and surrendered himself on re
ceiving an assurance of safety. On being required to show the
commission under which he sailed, he failed to produce it, and
the English therefore adjudged him to be a pirate, and caused
his effects to be distributed among the soldiers. The English
captain, continues Lescarbot, was named Samuel Argali, and
his lieutenant, William Turnel. Having put the greater part
of the prisoners on board a fishing vessel, and -set them at liber-
ty, Argali returned to Virginia, taking with him three Jesuit
priests, and fifteen other persons, among whom are named leCa-
fitainede marine, CharlesFleuri d’Abbeville, and M. La Motte.f
* The French name for the Penobscot. Champlain, Voyages de la Nou-
velle France, 105. (Ed. 1632.)
t Hist, de la Nouvelle France, par Marc Lescarbot, Avocat en Parlement,
et temoin oculaire d'une partie des choses ici recitees, Paris, 1618.1. v. c. 13.
This writer was no friend of the 3esuits.340
argall’s expedition.
The party thus summarily dispersed by Argali, had left
France for the purpose of establishing a colony within the
limits of Acadia, under the auspices of the Jesuits, at the ex-
pense of Madame de Guercheville, a wealthy French lady,
who was zealous for the conversion of the American natives to
Christianity. They had arrived at La Heve, a port in Nova-
Scotia, on the 16th of May, 1613, and proceeded from thence
to Port Royal, where they took on board two Jesuit missiona-
ries who had incurred the displeasure of Biencourt, the go-
vernor of that colony. Leaving Port Royal, they went to the
island of Monts Deserts, where they resolved to fix their settle-
ment. The pilot conducted them to the east end of the island,
where they set up a cross, celebrated mass, and named the
place St. Sauveur. Scarcely, says Champlain, had they be-
gun to provide themselves with accommodations in this retreat,
and to clear the land for the purpose of improvement, when the
English came, and frustrated their benevolent designs in the
manner already described. “ The cross around which the faith-
ful had gathered was thrown down,”* and the liberal supplies
which they had brought from France for the intended colony,,
the offerings of pious zeal, were plundered, and carried away to
minister to the wants of the English heretics in Virginia.,
The success of Argali, and the relief afforded by the booty
he brought home to a starving colony, stimulated the authorities
of Virginia to a fresh enterprise against their French neigh-
bours, under the pretext of defending the English title to the
country founded on the discovery of the Cabots. The settle-
ments of St. Croix and Port Royal were commenced before the
English had planted a single permanent colony in any part of
the new world, although more than a century had elapsed since
the discovery on which they based their claims to the whole
North American continent north of Florida. To follow up the
plunder and destruction of St. Sauveur by an immediate attack
upon those places, was the policy of the Virginia government,
and an armed expedition, consisting of three vessels, command-
ed by Argali, sailed forthwith for Acadia. Touching at the
scene of their late outrage on the island of Monts Deserts, they
set up there a cross bearing the name of the king of Great
Britain, instead of the one erected by the Jesuits; and then
sailed to St. Croix, where they destroyed all the remains of a
former settlement. Crossing the bay of Fundy, they next land-
ed at Port Royal, (now Annapolis, Nova-Scotia,) and finding
the town deserted, the governor being absent, and the peo-
ple at work several miles from the fort, they met with no re-
sistance in pillaging and stripping the place of whatever it con-
* Bancroft, i. 148.argall’s expedition.
341
tained, loading their ships with the spoil, and destroying what
they could not carry away. The settlement had existed eight
or nine years, and had cost its founders more than one hun-
dred thousand crowns in money, beside the labour and anxiety
that necessarily attended their efforts to plant civilization upon
a desolate coast.
At the time of its destruction, Port Royal was under the go-
vernment of Charles de Biencourt, as vice-admiral and lieu-
tenant-general of New-France, whose unkindness to the Jesuit
missionaries excited their enmity to such a degree that they
were accused of having piloted the English expedition on this
occasion. The charge is denied by Champlain, but countenan-
ced by Lescarbot, who publishes at length the formal complaint
of the Sieur de Poutrincourt, (one of the founders of the colo-
ny and the father of Biencourt,) addressed to a French admi-
ralty court, in which he distinctly charges Biart, one of the
priests who accompanied Captain Argali to Virginia, with hav-
ing plotted the destruction of Port Royal. This document is
dated July 18, 1614 ; and an answer wTas put in by the accus-
ed two years after. Without entering into the merits of the
controversy, it is sufficient for our purpose to refer to it as es-
tablishing the dates of the events described by the complain-
ant. Poutrincourt says, that he left Rochelle on the last day
of the preceding December, [1613,] in a vessel of seventy tons
or thereabout, for Port Royal, where he arrived on the seven-
teenth of March, and was informed by his son Biencourt, the
lieutenant-general of New-France, that the governor of Vir-
ginia had sent thither a ship of two or three hundred tons,
another of one hundred tons or thereabout, and a large bark,
with a number of men, who, on the day of the feast of Allsaints
last, [the 1st of November, 1613,] landed, and under the guid-
ance of the said Biart, plundered the habitations of himself and.
the other French people who abode there, &c.*
In was on his return from the last expedition, that Argali is-
stated by the English writers to have visited the Dutch settle-
ment at the mouth of the ^Hudson ; and as, according to both
Champlain and Lescarbot, he left Port Royal on the ninth of
November, he probably arrived here during the same month..
The three vessels composing the expedition sailed together
from Port Royal, but a violent storm soon after dispersed them
the bark was never again heard from ; the ship containing
the Jesuits arrived in England by the way of the Azores,
Lescarbot, lv. c. 14. Champlain says the English compelled an Indian to
act as their guide, the French declining the service.!, iii. c. 1. Charlevoix, him-
self a jesuit, does not allude to the charges against Biart, but on the other hand
describes him as a model of apostolic sanctity, healing the sick by miraculous^
power, &c. Noun. France, L 134.342
argall’s expedition.
while Argali reached Virginia in safety. It is not improbable
that the latter was compelled to make our harbour by stress of
weather, and unexpectedly discovered the small establishment
of the Dutch merchants upon Manhattan Island. Unable to re-
sist a large armed ship, it is not strange that Hendrick Chris-
tiaens, or whoever had the direction of affairs, endeavoured to
propitiate the insolent and rapacious Englishman, flushed with
conquests made in time of peace, over infant colonies yet strug-
gling into existence, and promised all that was desired of him.*
It is said that the former, not only “ submitted himself and co-
lony to the King of England, and to the governor of Virginia
under him,” but agreed also to pay an annual tribute as an ac-
knowledgment of the English title. But information having
been sent to Holland, after the departure of Argali, another su-
perintendent arrived the following year, who refused to pay
the tribute, and “ also began to fortify and put himself into a
posture of defence and it is added, that “ the claim of the
English being either wholly waived for the present, or but
faintly pursued, they [the Dutch] the same year made a firm
settlement, which soon became very flourishing and populous.”t
It thus indisputably appears, that, in 1613, four years only
after the discovery of the river by Hudson, a few houses had
been erected on Manhattan Island, the germ of the present city
of New-York. Alarmed by the threats of their English visitors
in that year, the JMtch merchants took immediate measures to
protect their tradfe by building forts, both at that place, and on
Gastle Island, near Albany, in 1614 or 1615, as already relat-
ed. A few years later, in 1623, the sites of the forts appeared
to have been changed. Fort Amsterdam was then erected near
the ground now known a sthe Battery, on the southern extremity
of Manhattan Island; and Fort Orange was built on the main
land, within the limits of the present city of Albany. Notwith-
standing the formidable pretensions of the English colonists of
Virginia, no subsequent attempt was made from that quarter to
reduce the Dutch settlements under their jurisdiction; but a
commercial intercourse sprang up between the two colonies,
that .proved equally advantageous to both.
Editor.
* During the short time that Captain Argali was Deputy-Governor of Virginia,
he contrived by fraud and extortion to amass considerable wealth, at the ex-
pense of the colony, and rendered his government generally odious by tyran-
nical and oppressive conduct. Stith. 150.
t Stith. 133.