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HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
CHAPTER I.
When we look attentively at any period of history, we usually find some
one fact striking deeper and wider roots than the rest. Concurrent events
which do not directly spring from it, are yet shaped and guided by it,
frequently to unexpected issues; and when such a cardinal fact is understood, it gives the key-note of the time. Such a fact, in the latter half of
the sixteenth century, was the rivalry between England and Spain. Originating in the peculiar mental and physical temperament of Henry VIIL,
fostered by the virtues and foibles of Elizabeth, and stimulated by unhopedfor success and the most memorable deliverance recorded in history, this
rivalry took a bolder flight as ambition and avarice allied themselves with
patriotism. On the fields and dykes of the Low Countries the English had
learned to hold their own against the first infantry of Europe; in Cadiz
harbor, in the Southern Ocean and the narrow seas, English sailors had
grown to despise the formidable Spanish navy; but there still remained the
wondrous aggrandizement of Spain in the New World, and the tide of silver
that every year flowed into the Spanish treasury from across the Atlantic.
It was but natural that England, in her new sense of freedom and mastery,
should seek to cope with her great rival on this new ground; to replace her
lost provinces on the mainland by new acquisitions in another hemisphere;
to grasp a share in the Eldorados of the West, and retrieve the lost opportunity of Henry VII.
The first attempts in this direction form no part of the special history of
Maryland, and influence the latter only by their results ; the chief of which
was the decision of the question whether the North American continent was
to be English or Spanish. The other question, whether it was to be English
or French, did not receive its answer until a century and a half later.
Nor were these first attempts encouraging. The expedition sent out by
Elizabeth under the lead of Sir Walter Raleigh had disastrously failed, and
the consequent discouragement had rendered the English mind almost torpid
upon the subject. Fifteen years passed, in which Elizabeth herself died, and
no effort was made to rekindle the former enthusiasm. At last a single voice
was heard—that of Bartholomew Gosnold, who had visited the coast in 1602—
| Title | History of Maryland - 1 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000024 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | HISTORY OF MARYLAND. CHAPTER I. When we look attentively at any period of history, we usually find some one fact striking deeper and wider roots than the rest. Concurrent events which do not directly spring from it, are yet shaped and guided by it, frequently to unexpected issues; and when such a cardinal fact is understood, it gives the key-note of the time. Such a fact, in the latter half of the sixteenth century, was the rivalry between England and Spain. Originating in the peculiar mental and physical temperament of Henry VIIL, fostered by the virtues and foibles of Elizabeth, and stimulated by unhopedfor success and the most memorable deliverance recorded in history, this rivalry took a bolder flight as ambition and avarice allied themselves with patriotism. On the fields and dykes of the Low Countries the English had learned to hold their own against the first infantry of Europe; in Cadiz harbor, in the Southern Ocean and the narrow seas, English sailors had grown to despise the formidable Spanish navy; but there still remained the wondrous aggrandizement of Spain in the New World, and the tide of silver that every year flowed into the Spanish treasury from across the Atlantic. It was but natural that England, in her new sense of freedom and mastery, should seek to cope with her great rival on this new ground; to replace her lost provinces on the mainland by new acquisitions in another hemisphere; to grasp a share in the Eldorados of the West, and retrieve the lost opportunity of Henry VII. The first attempts in this direction form no part of the special history of Maryland, and influence the latter only by their results ; the chief of which was the decision of the question whether the North American continent was to be English or Spanish. The other question, whether it was to be English or French, did not receive its answer until a century and a half later. Nor were these first attempts encouraging. The expedition sent out by Elizabeth under the lead of Sir Walter Raleigh had disastrously failed, and the consequent discouragement had rendered the English mind almost torpid upon the subject. Fifteen years passed, in which Elizabeth herself died, and no effort was made to rekindle the former enthusiasm. At last a single voice was heard—that of Bartholomew Gosnold, who had visited the coast in 1602— |
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