indefinite charter giving him the right to plant
colonies. He sent another reconnoitring expedition in 1525, and early in
1526 he himself set out with 500 colonists and about 100 African slaves. He
touched at several places along the coast, at one time stopping long enough
to replace a wrecked ship with a new one, this being considered the first
instance of shipbuilding on the North American continent. Sailing northward
to about latitude 33deg 40', he began the construction of a town which he
called San Miguel. The exact location of this town is in dispute, some
writers holding that it was on the exact spot upon which Jamestown, Va.,
was later built; more probably, however, as Lowery contends, it was near
the mouth of the Pedee river. The employment of negro slaves here was
undoubtedly the first instance of the sort in what later became the United
States. The spot was unhealthy and fever carried off many of the colonists,
including Ayllon himself, who died on the 18th of October 1526. After the
death of their leader dissensions broke out among the colonists, some of
the slaves rebelled and escaped into the forest, and in December the town
was abandoned and the remnant of the colonists embarked for Hispaniola,
less than 150 arriving in safety.

See Woodbury Lowery, _Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the
United States_ (2 vols., New York, 1903-1905).

AYLMER, JOHN (1521-1594), English divine, was born in the year 1521 at
Aylmer Hall, Tivetshall St Mary, Norfolk. While still a boy, his precocity
was noticed by Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset, afterwards duke of Suffolk,
who sent him to Cambridge, where he seems to have become a fellow of
Queens' College. About 1541 he was made chaplain to the duke, and tutor to
his daughter, Lady Jane Grey. His first preferment was to the archdeaconry
of Stow, in the diocese of Lincoln, but his opposition in convocation to
the doctrine of transubstantiation led to his deprivation and to his flight
into Switzerland. While there he wrote a reply to John Knox's famous _Blast
against the Monstrous Regiment of Women_, under the title of _An Harborowe
for Faithfull and Trewe Subjects, &c._, and assisted John Foxe in
translating the _Acts of the Martyrs_ into Latin. On the accession of
Elizabeth he returned to England. In 1559 he resumed the Stow archdeaconry,
and in 1562 he obtained that of Lincoln. He was a member of the famous
convocation of 1562, which reformed and settled the do