Significant Historical Happenings By Year: 1609-11.
- -1609-
- Henry Hudson, the Dutch, and the East India Co; and the Hudson River. On September 11, 1609, Hudson & the crew of the Half Moon enter upper New York Bay. The Dutch now had a presence in America, one, however, that only continued to 1664.
- Kept ignorant of the true state of affairs, influential men speculated that a fortune1 might be made in Virginia, and on May 23rd, 1609, a charter was given to a large group of them.2 By May 15th a fleet of nine sailing ships sailed for Virginia and after three months (bad winds and bad storms) they cautionously proceed up the James River.
- Sir George Somers winters over (August, 1609 to May, 1610) on the uninhabited island of Bermuda. Sir George, age sixty-five, in his flagship, Sea Venture, on his way to Virginia in an effort to re-supply the infant colony, comes upon the island in the midst of a North Atlantic storm which scattered his fleet (it was this scene that suggested the setting of William Shakespeare's The Tempest). Most everyone in the fleet made it to Virginia, including Sir George, though he was a year late.)3
- -1610-
- February 25th, 1610: Poutrincourt sails with the La Tours for Port Royal.
- The French king, Henry the IV, is "assassinated by a fanatic named Ravaillac, a tool of the Jesuits."
- "Calentures" and "fluxes" prevalent in Virginia; of the 450 colonists, 150 die within the period of a few months. It was more than sickness that took the Virginian colonists, friction with the Indians caused bloodshed.
- June, 1610: After a two year absence the French return to Port Royal under Poutrincourt.
- On June 24th, Father Flesché baptizes a group of Micmac Indians, including, on June 24th, 1610, at Port Royal, Chief Membertou.
- July, 1610: Poutrincourt's son, a 19 year old, Biencourt, who come with the family to the new world, returns to France to secure further supplies.
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