CHAPTERXX.—HISTORY.

CHAPTERXX.—HISTORY.DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION.ITis a singular fact that the science and energy of Italian navigators opened the new world to Europe, though adventurers from other countries derived the benefit of their discoveries, and established colonies on its shores. Columbus, Cabot, Verazzani, and Americo Vespucci, were all Italians; and though the latter gave his name to a hemisphere, he acquired no particular advantage for himself or his native country.The exploits of Columbus had excited a spirit of enterprise among the English merchants, and a commission was granted by HenryVII.to John Cabot and his three sons, giving them full liberty to sail to all parts of the east, west and north; to discover countries of the heathen; to occupy all countries they could subdue, and set up the king’s banners in them; to exercise jurisdiction over them, and pay to the king one fifth part of all their gains. A small fleet was thus equipped, with about three hundred men. Cabot sailed north-west a few weeks, till his course was arrested by icebergs; he then steered south, subsequently changed his course, and again resumed it, till further prosecution of the voyage was finally abandoned in consequence of a mutiny which broke out on board. It is doubtful whether he ever landed in the new world. From this voyage, the English derived their claims to the territory which they subsequently acquired in this continent. For a period of sixty successive years, the English monarchs gave themselves no further trouble about the progress of discoveries in America.During this time, France and Spain were on the alert. In a voyage patronized by FrancisI., the Florentine navigator Verazzano discovered and described with considerable accuracy the coast of Florida. In a second voyage, undertaken in the following year, he landed with some of his crew, was killed by the savages, and devoured in the presence of his companions. This melancholy event for a time damped the spirit of discovery, and it was not till after a lapse of ten years that any other French expedition was fitted out to America. In 1534, Jacques Cartier was supplied with two ships under the direction of the vice-admiral of France, and discovered the Baye des Chaleurs and the gulf ofSt.Lawrence. In the following spring a larger expedition was equipped under the same direction, and they proceeded direct to Newfoundland. They sailed up the river of Canada three hundred leagues, formed alliances with the natives, built a fort, and wintered in the country. This colony was afterwards broken up, and for fifty years the French made no effort to establish themselves in Canada.To trace the course of Spanish discovery—in the year 1528, Pamphilo de Narvaez received from CharlesV.of Spain, a grant of all the lands extending from the river of Palms to the cape of Florida, with a commission to conquer and govern all the provinces within these limits. Landingat Florida, he marched to Apalache, and lost many of his troops in encounters with the natives. Being forced to direct his course towards the sea, and sailing to the westward, he was lost in a violent storm, and the enterprise frustrated. Calamitous as was the issue of this expedition, it did not deter others from pursuing the same course. In May, 1539, Fernando de Soto sailed from Havana on an exploring expedition, and landed on the western coast of Florida. Of nine hundred men engaged in this voyage, but three hundred and eleven survived it; the remainder perished in battles with the natives. Poverty and ruin involved all who were concerned in it. Soto died at the confluence of the Guacoya and Mississippi; and to prevent the Indians from obtaining a knowledge of his death, his body was deposited in a hollowed oak and sunk in the river.About the year 1562, a party of Huguenots, under the command of Ribault, sailed with a view of colonizing Florida. After a favorable voyage, he arrived at the entrance of a river which he called May, from the month in which he reached the coast. Here he erected a fort, and then sailed for France to bring out a reinforcement. Two years afterwards a fresh expedition was fitted out, under M. René Laudonniere, who arrived in the river May in the latter part of June. He proved incompetent to manage the affairs of the new colony, and he was on the point of leaving for Europe, when a new expedition under the command of Ribault entered the river. That officer superseded Laudonniere only, however, to experience more melancholy disasters. Scarcely a week had passed after his arrival, when eight Spanish ships were seen in the river. After a variety of misfortunes which befell Laudonniere, he escaped with some of his followers in a French shallop, and finally reached in a miserable condition the port of Bristol. A more tragic end awaited Ribault. His vessels were dashed to pieces during a storm, and their crews with great difficulty succeeded in reaching the shore. They directed their steps towards the fort, and found it to their great surprise in the hands of their inveterate enemies, the Spaniards. It was determined to open a parley, and the Spanish commander pledged his honor that they should be unharmed. Notwithstanding this pledge they were inhumanly massacred, and their dead bodies treated with the most shocking indignities. A number of the mangled limbs of the victims were then suspended to a tree, to which was attached the following inscription: ‘Not because they are Frenchmen, but because they are heretics and enemies of God.’This outrage was fully avenged by Dominique de Gourgues, who devoted himself and his fortune to effect a signal retribution. Finding means to equip three small vessels, he crossed the Atlantic, sailed along the coast of Florida, and landed at a river about fifteen leagues distant from the May. The Spaniards to the number of four hundred were well stationed in different fortresses; they were all slain or taken captive. The surviving prisoners were led away, and were hung on the boughs of the same trees from which the Frenchmen had before been suspended. Gourgues attached to them the retaliatory label—‘I do not this as to Spaniards, nor as to mariners, but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers.’ Thus terminated the attempts of the French Protestants to colonize Florida.In 1578, Sir Walter Raleigh, in conjunction with his half-brother and kindred spirit, Sir Humphry Gilbert, projected the establishment of a colony in that quarter of America which the Cabots had visited in the reign ofHenryVII.; and a patent for this purpose was procured without difficulty in favor of Gilbert, from Elizabeth. As this is the first charter to a colony granted by the crown of England, the articles in it merit particular attention, as they unfold the ideas of that age with respect to the nature of such settlements. Elizabeth authorizes him to discover and take possession of all remote and barbarous lands, unoccupied by any Christian prince or people; invests in him the full right of property in the soil of those countries whereof he shall take possession; empowers him, his heirs and assigns, to dispose of whatever portion of those lands he shall judge meet, to persons settled there, in fee simple, according to the laws of England; and ordains, that all the lands granted to Gilbert shall hold of the crown of England by homage, on payment of the fifth part of the gold or silver ore found there. The charter also gave Gilbert, his heirs and assigns, full power to convict, punish, pardon, govern, and rule, by their good discretion and policy, as well in causes capital or criminal as civil, both marine and other, all persons who shall, from time to time, settle within the said countries; and declared, that all who settled there should have and enjoy all the privileges of free denizens and natives of England, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. And, finally, it prohibited all persons from attempting to settle within two hundred leagues of any place which Sir Humphry Gilbert, or his associates, shall have occupied during the space of six years.Invested with these extraordinary powers, Gilbert began to collect associates, and to prepare for embarkation. The first equipment, however, of Sir Humphry, may be said to have failed, even before it set out. Being composed in a great measure of ‘voluntary men of diverse dispositions,’ there was a great falling off when it came to the point, and Sir Humphry was at last obliged to set out with only a few of his own tried friends. He encountered the most adverse weather, and was obliged to return, ‘with the loss of a tall ship, and, more to his grief, of a valiant gentleman, Miles Morgan.’ This was a severe blow, as Sir Humphry had embarked a large portion of his property in this undertaking. However, his determination continued unshaken; and by the aid of Sir George Peckham, Sir Walter Raleigh, and other persons of distinction, he was enabled to equip another expedition, with which, in the year 1583, he again put to sea.On the30thof July, Gilbert discovered land in about fifty-one degrees north latitude; but, finding nothing but bare rocks, he shaped his course to the southward, and on the3dof August arrived atSt.John’s harbor, at Newfoundland. There were at that time in the harbor thirty-six vessels, belonging to various nations, and they refused him entrance; but, on sending his boat with the assurance that he had no ill design, and that he had a commission from queen Elizabeth, they submitted, and he sailed into the port. Having pitched his tent on shore in sight of all the shipping, and being attended by his own people, he summoned the merchants and masters of vessels to be present at the ceremony of his taking possession of the island. When assembled his commission was read and interpreted to the foreigners. A turf and twig was then delivered to him; and proclamation was immediately made, that, by virtue of his commission from the queen, he took possession of the harbor ofSt.John, and two hundred leagues every way around it, for the crown of England.This formal possession, in consequence of the discovery by the Cabots, is considered the foundation of the right and title of the crown of England to the territory of Newfoundland, and to the fishery on its banks. Gilbert, intending to bring the southern parts of the country within his patent, the term of which had now nearly expired, hastened to make further discoveries before his return to England. He therefore embarked fromSt.John’s harbor with his little fleet, and sailed for the isle of Sable by the way of cape Breton. After spending eight days in the navigation from cape Race towards cape Breton, the ship Admiral was cast away on some shoals before any discovery of land, and nearly one hundred persons perished; among these was Stephen Parmenius Budeius, a learned Hungarian, who had accompanied the adventurers, to record their discoveries and exploits. Two days after this disaster, no land yet appearing, the waters being shallow, the coast unknown, the navigation dangerous, and the provisions scanty, it was resolved to return to England. Changing their course accordingly, they passed in sight of cape Race on the2dof September; but when they had sailed more than three hundred leagues on their way home, the frigate, commanded by Sir Humphry Gilbert himself, foundered in a violent storm, at midnight, and every soul on board perished.VIRGINIA, FROM ITS SETTLEMENT TO 1756.Terrible as was the fate of Gilbert and his associates, the ardor of Raleigh was not daunted, nor his energies depressed. High in favor with Elizabeth, he found no difficulty in procuring a patent similar to that which had been granted to his unfortunate brother. Prompt in the execution, as intrepid in the projection of his plans, he speedily equipped two small vessels, under Amadas and Barlow, to obtain further information of the coasts, the soil, and the inhabitants of the regions he designed to colonize. Approaching America by the gulf of Florida, they touched first at the island of Ocakoke, which runs parallel to the greater part of North Carolina, and then at Roanoke, near the mouth of Albemarle sound. In both they had some intercourse with the natives, whom they found to be savages, with all the characteristic qualities of uncivilized life—bravery, aversion to labor, hospitality, a propensity to admire and a willingness to exchange their rude productions for English commodities, especially for iron, or any of the useful metals of which they were destitute. After spending a few weeks in this traffic, and in visiting some parts of the adjacent continent, Amadas and Barlow returned to England, and gave a most fervid description of the country they had been sent to explore.Delighted with the prospect of possessing a territory so far superior to any hitherto visited by her subjects, Elizabeth was pleased to honor both the newly discovered country and herself, by bestowing upon it the title of Virginia.These favorable circumstances not only encouraged the enterprising spirit of Raleigh, but, by their effect on public opinion, assisted him in his arrangements to form a permanent settlement; and he was soon enabled to dispatch seven ships, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, one of the most valorous spirits of the age, with Ralph Lane, as governor of the colony, accompanied by Heriot, a mathematician of celebrity, and some other men of science. Sailing from Plymouth on the9thof April,they proceeded to Virginia by the way of the West Indies, and, having narrowly escaped shipwreck at cape Fear, anchored at Wocokon, on the26thof June. From this island Grenville went to the continent, accompanied by several gentlemen, and discovered various Indian towns. He then proceeded to cape Hatteras, where he was visited by Granganimo, the prince seen by Amadas and Barlow the preceding year; and having viewed the island of Roanoke, he embarked for England, leaving one hundred and seven persons under the government ofMr.Lane, to form a plantation, and to commence the first English colony ever planted in America.The chief employment of this party, during their year’s residence in the new world, consisted in obtaining a more correct and extensive knowledge of the country; a pursuit in which the persevering abilities of Heriot were exercised with peculiar advantage. His unremitting endeavors to instruct the savages, and diligent inquiries into their habits and character, by adding to the stock of human knowledge, rendered the expedition not wholly unproductive of benefit to mankind. He endeavored to avail himself of the admiration expressed by the savages for the guns, the clock, the telescopes, and other implements that attested the superiority of the colonists, in order to lead their minds to the great source of all sense and science. But, unfortunately, the majority of the colonists were much less distinguished by piety or prudence, than by a vehement impatience to acquire sudden wealth; their first pursuit was gold; and, eagerly listening to the agreeable fictions of the natives, the adventurers consumed their time, and endured amazing hardships, in pursuit of a phantom, to the utter neglect of the means of providing for their future subsistence. The stock of provisions brought from England was exhausted; and the colony, reduced to the utmost distress, was preparing to disperse into different districts of the country in quest of food, when Sir Francis Drake appeared with his fleet, returning from a successful expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies. A scheme which he formed, of furnishing Lane and his associates with such supplies as might enable them to remain with comfort in their station, was disappointed by a sudden storm, in which the vessel he had destined for their service was dashed to pieces; and as he could not supply them with another, at their joint request, as they were worn out with fatigue and famine, he carried them home to England.Had the Virginia adventurers, however, remained but a little time longer at their plantation, they would have received supplies from home; for, a few days after their departure, a ship, sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to their relief, arrived at Hatteras, and made diligent search for them, but, not finding them, returned to England. Within a few days after this ship had left the coast, Sir Richard Grenville arrived at Virginia with three new vessels laden with provisions. Searching in vain for the colony that he planted, but yet unwilling to lose possession of the country, he left fifty of his crew to keep possession of the island of Roanoke, and returned to England. This was, indeed, but an inauspicious commencement for English attempts at transatlantic colonization; but, though its immediate results did not realize the high expectations which had been formed, its consequences were indirectly very beneficial. It gave Heriot opportunity to describe its soil, climate, productions, and the manners of its inhabitants, with a degree of accuracy which merits no inconsiderable praise, when compared with the childish and marvellous tales published by several of the early visitants of the new world.Another consequence of this abortive colony is important enough to entitle it to a place in history. Lane and his associates, by their constant intercourse with the Indians, had acquired a relish for their favorite enjoyment of smoking tobacco; to the use of which, the credulity of that people not only ascribed a thousand imaginary virtues, but their superstition considered the plant itself as a gracious gift of the gods, for the solace of human kind, and the most acceptable offering which man can present to heaven. They brought with them a specimen of this new commodity to England, and taught their countrymen the method of using it; which Raleigh and some young men of fashion fondly adopted. From its being deemed a fashionable acquirement, and from the favorable opinion of its salutary qualities entertained by several physicians, the practice of smoking spread rapidly among the English; and by a singular caprice of the human species, no less inexplicable than unexampled, it has become almost as universal as the demands of those appetites originally implanted in our nature.Virginian Colony.Amidst all the discouraging circumstances with which the settlement of Virginia was attended, Raleigh still remained devotedly attached to the object; and early in the year 1587, equipped another company of adventurers, incorporated by the title of the Borough of Raleigh, in Virginia. John White was constituted governor, in whom, with a council of twelve persons, the legislative power was vested. They were directed to plant at the bay of Chesapeak, and to erect a fort there. This expedition sailed from Plymouth on the8thof May, and about the16thof July fell in with the Virginian coast. Arriving at Hatteras on the22dof July, the governor, with a select party, proceeded to Roanoke, and landed at that part of the island where the men were left the year preceding; but discovered no signs of them, excepting the bones of one man, who had been slain by the savages. The next day the governor and several of his company went to the north end of the island, where Lane had erected his fort, and had built several decent dwelling houses, hoping to obtain some intelligence of his fellow countrymen; but, on coming to the place, and finding the fort razed, and all the houses, though standing unhurt, overgrown with weedsand vines, and deer feeding within them, they returned, in despair of ever seeing the objects of their research alive. Orders were given the same day for the repair of the houses, and for the erection of new cottages; and all the colony, consisting of one hundred and seventeen persons, soon after landed, and commenced a second plantation.Before the close of the month of August, the governor was compelled to sail to England for supplies; but war in Europe interfered with the expectation of the colonists, and it was not till 1590 that another expedition reached Virginia. They beheld a scene similarly dreadful with that which had been before presented. The houses were demolished, though still surrounded by a palisade, and a great part of the stores was found buried in the earth; but, as no trace was ever found of this unfortunate colony, there is every reason to apprehend that they must have miserably perished. Thus after a period of one hundred and six years from the time that Cabot discovered North America, in the service of HenryVII., not a single Englishman remained in the new world.In the last year of Elizabeth a new impulse was given to the spirit of emigration by Bartholomew Gosnold. He sailed in a small bark from Falmouth, steering directly west, and was the first Englishman who came in a direct course to this part of America. He anchored at a point which he called cape Cod. Attempting a settlement on an island which they named Elizabeth, they built a fort and storehouse, but shortly abandoned their design and returned to England. Two vessels were afterwards fitted out by the merchants of Bristol, to examine the discoveries of Gosnold, and ascertain the correctness of his statements. They were also subsequently confirmed by a similar expedition equipped and despatched by lord Arundel.An association of able and influential men was now formed to attempt a settlement, and a petition for leave was favorably received by king James. But as the extent as well as value of the American continent began now to be better known, a grant of the whole of such a vast region to any one body of men, however respectable, appeared to him an act of impolitic and profuse liberality. For this reason he divided that portion of North America, which stretches from the thirty-fourth to the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, into two districts nearly equal; the one called the first or south colony of Virginia, the other, the second or north colony. He authorized Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, Richard Hakluyt, and their associates, mostly resident in London, to settle any part of the former which they should choose, and vested in them a right of property to the land extending along the coast fifty miles on each side of the place of their first habitation, and reaching into the interior country a hundred miles. The latter district he allotted, as the place of settlement to sundry knights, gentlemen, and merchants of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England, with a similar grant of territory. The supreme government of the colonies that were to be settled, was vested in a council, resident in England, named by the king, with laws and ordinances given under his sign manual; and the subordinate jurisdiction was committed to a council, resident in America, which was also nominated by the king and to act conformably to his instructions.The charter, while it thus restricted the emigrants in the important article of internal regulation, secured to them and their descendants all therights of denizens, in the same manner as if they had remained or had been born in England; and granted them the privilege of holding their lands in America by the freest and least burdensome tenure. The king permitted whatever was necessary for the sustenance or commerce of the new colonies to be exported from England, during the space of seven years, without paying any duty; and, as a farther incitement to industry, he granted them liberty of trade with other nations; and appropriated the duty to be levied on foreign commodities, as a fund for the benefit of the colonies, for the period of twenty-one years. He also granted them liberty of coining for their own use, of repelling enemies, and of detaining ships that should trade there without their permission.We may regard the colonies of North and South Virginia, or Virginia and New England, as they were subsequently denominated, as forming, from this period, the subject of two distinct and continuous histories; that of the former, being earliest in point of time, will continue to occupy our attention during the remainder of this division.The proprietors of the royal patent lost no time in carrying their plans into effect. It cannot, however, be said, that they commenced their operations on a scale at all worthy of the magnitude of the undertaking, as their fleet consisted only of three ships, conveying one hundred emigrants; and, although some persons of rank were among the number of proprietors, their pecuniary resources were but scanty. The charge of this embarkation was committed to Christopher Newport, already famous for his skill in western navigation. He sailed from the Thames on the20thof December, 1606, having, in a sealed box, the royal instructions, and the names of the intended colonial council, with orders not to break the seal till twenty-four hours after the expedition had effected a landing; to which singular policy, may be attributed the dissensions which soon commenced among the leaders, and which continued to distract them during a voyage long and disastrous.Captain Newport had designed to land at Roanoke; but fortunately, being driven by a storm to the northward, he stood into the spacious bay of Chesapeak, that grand reservoir into which are poured almost countless tributaries, which not only fertilize the country through which they flow, but open to it a commercial intercourse which can scarcely be said to be surpassed in any portion of the globe. The promontory on the south of the bay was named cape Henry, in honor of the prince of Wales; and that on the north, cape Charles, after the then duke of York. At night the box, containing the sealed instructions, was opened, in which Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall, were constituted the council of government, with power to elect a president from among their number. The adventurers were employed in seeking a place for settlement until the thirteenth of May, when they took possession of a peninsula, on the north side of the river Powhatan, called by the emigrants James river, about forty miles from its mouth.To make room for their projected town, they commenced clearing away the forest, which had for centuries afforded shelter and food to the natives. The members of the council, while they adhered to their orders in the choice of their president, on the most frivolous pretences excluded from a seat, among them, the individual, who was probably of all others the bestfitted for the office, captainSmith,98though nominated by the same instrument from which they derived their authority. His superior talents, and the fame he had previously acquired in war, excited their envy, while possibly they induced him to assume, that a greater deference was due to his opinion than his coadjutors were willing to admit. At length, however, by the prudent exhortations ofMr.Hunt, their chaplain, the animosities which had arisen were composed, Smith was admitted into the council, and they all turned their undivided attention to the government of the colony. In honor of their monarch, they called the town, the erection of which they now commenced, Jamestown. Thus was formed the first permanent colony of the English in America.The vicinity of the settlement was a vast wilderness, though a luxuriant one, inhabited by a race of Indian savages, possessing both the virtues and the vices peculiar to their state. At first, they treated the colonists with kindness; but misunderstandings, from various causes, ere long interrupted the peace, and annoyed the proceedings of the English. Nor was the hostility of the natives the only occasion of discomfort; the extreme heat of the summer, and the intense cold of the succeeding winter, were alike fatal to the colonists. From May to September, fifty persons died, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, a member of the council. The storehouse at Jamestown accidentally taking fire, the town, thatched with reeds, burned with such violence, that the fortifications, arms, apparel, bedding, and a great quantity of private goods and provision, were consumed.These distresses naturally led them to reflect upon their situation; and having become sensible of their injustice to Smith, his personal talents and activity were, in their adversity, appealed to with that regard and deference which, in prosperous times, are yielded only to vested authority and official station. From some unaccountable jealousy on the part of the governor, the fort had been left in an unprotected state, but, by the advice of Smith, it was now put into a state to defend them against the attacks of the Indians. To procure provisions and explore the country, he made frequent and distant excursions into the wilderness. In one of these, he seized an Indian idol, made with skins stuffed with moss, for the redemption of which as much corn was brought him as he required. Some tribes he gained by caresses and presents, and procured from them a supply of provisions; others he attacked with open force, and defeating them on every occasion, whatever their superiority in numbers might be, compelled them to impart to him some portion of their winter stores. As the recompense of all his toils and dangers, he saw abundance and contentmentre-established in the colony, and hoped that he should be able to maintain them in that happy state, until the arrival of ships from England in the spring. But in the midst of his energetic measures, while exploring the source of the river Chickahominy, he was surprised and attacked by a party of Indians. He defended himself bravely until his companions were killed, when he took to flight; but running incautiously, he sunk up to his shoulders in a swamp, and was taken prisoner.The exulting savages conducted him in triumph through several towns to Werowocomoco, where Powhatan, their king, resided in state, with a strong guard of Indians around him. When the prisoner entered the apartment of the sovereign, all the people gave a shout. The queen of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands; and another person brought a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them. Having feasted him in their best manner, they held a long consultation, at the conclusion of which, two great stones were brought before Powhatan. Smith had now reason to consider his career as drawing to a close; by the united efforts of the attendants, he was forcibly dragged, his head laid upon one of the stones, and the mighty club upraised, a few blows from which were to terminate his existence. But a very unexpected interposition now took place. Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, was seized with emotions of tender pity, and ran up to her father, pathetically pleading for the life of the stranger. When all entreaties were lost on that stern and savage potentate, she hastened to Smith, snatched his head in her arms, and laid her own on his, declaring that the first blow must fall upon her. The heart even of a savage father was at last melted, and Powhatan granted to his favorite daughter the life of Smith.It appears at first to have been the intention of the savage monarch to have detained the captive, and employed him in manufacturing utensils and ornaments for his majesty’s use; but from some cause he speedily changed his mind, and in two days after his deliverance, sent him, to his high gratification, with a guard of twelve of his trusty followers, to Jamestown, upon condition that he should remit two culverins and a millstone as his ransom.After an absence of seven weeks, Smith arrived barely in time to save the colony from being abandoned. His associates, reduced to the number of thirty-eight, impatient of farther stay in a country where they had met with so many discouragements, were preparing to return to England; and it was not without the utmost difficulty, and alternately employing persuasion, remonstrance, and even violent interference, that Smith prevailed with them to relinquish their design. Pocahontas, persevering in her generous designs, continued to supply the colony with provisions till a vessel arrived from England with supplies. Having preserved the settlement during the winter by his active exertions and his careful management, Smith embraced the earliest opportunity, in the following summer, to explore the extensive and multifarious ramifications of the Chesapeak.In an open barge, with fourteen persons, and but a scanty stock of provisions, he traversed the whole of that vast extent of water, from cape Henry, where it meets the ocean, to the river Susquehannah; trading with some tribes of Indians, and fighting with others. He discovered and named many small islands, creeks, and inlets; sailed up many of thegreat rivers; and explored the inland parts of the country. During this enterprise, the Susquehannah Indians visited him, and made him presents. At this early period they had hatchets, and utensils of iron and brass, which, by their own account, originally came from the French of Canada. After sailing about three thousand miles, Smith returned to Jamestown. Having made careful observations during this excursion of discovery, he drew a map of Chesapeak bay, with its tributary rivers, annexing to it a description of the countries, and of the nations inhabiting them, and sent it to the council in England.The superior abilities of Smith had now been so manifestly subservient to the general welfare, that they had silenced, at least, the malignity of envy and faction; and although it was comparatively a short period since he had been so unjustly calumniated, and deprived of his seat at the council-board, immediately after his return from his voyage, he was, by the election of the council and the request of the settlers, invested with the government, and received letters-patent to be president of the colony. The wisdom of his administration inspired confidence, its vigor commanded obedience, and the military exercises, which he obliged all to perform, struck the Indians with astonishment, and inspired them with awe.Under the administration of president Smith, the colony continued to prosper; as far as it could prosper, under the circumstances of its organization. Its elements, however, were not of the best description, and the number of ‘poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving men, libertines and such like,’ is represented to have been ten times more fit to spoil a commonwealth than either to begin or maintain one. They were lazy, avaricious, and disappointed. The Indians too became suspicious and troublesome; and the company in England were unjustly discontented with the management of captain Smith. A new charter was therefore treated for by the company of South Virginia, and obtained; and among the new proprietors were many of the most wealthy and influential commoners and peers of the land. Lord Delaware was appointed governor of Virginia for life, though he did not accompany the expedition, which was immediately fitted out. A fleet of nine vessels sailed for the colony, one of which was wrecked at the Bermudas, and one lost in a violent storm. On board of this fleet were five hundred emigrants; chiefly young and licentious, indigent and haughty, who soon involved the colony in anarchy and confusion.A systematic design was now meditated against the whole colony by the sovereign of the country; but it was providentially discovered and frustrated. Pocahontas, the tutelary friend of Virginia, though but a child of thirteen years of age, went in a very dark and dreary night to Jamestown, and, at the hazard of her life, disclosed to the president a plot of her father to kill him and all the English. This timely notice put the colony on its guard; and some favorable occurrences soon after contributed still farther towards its preservation. An Indian, apparently dead through the effect of a charcoal fire in a close room, was, on the application of vinegar and aqua vitæ by the president, reanimated. This supposed miracle, with an explosion of powder, which killed two or three Indians and scorched and wounded others, excited such astonishment, mingled with such admiration of English power and art, that Powhatan and his people came to them with presents of peace; and the whole country during the remainder of Smith’s administration, was entirely free frommolestation, and the colonists pursued their plans of improvement, both in agriculture and in some of the manufactures, with tolerable success. Unhappily, however, the president, while exerting himself with his usual energy in the concerns of the settlement, received a dangerous wound from the accidental explosion of a quantity of gunpowder. Completely disabled by this misfortune, and destitute of surgical aid, he was compelled to resign his command, and take his departure (and it was a final one) for England.The departure of Smith was in every respect inauspicious for the colony. It was the signal for a general revolt among the Indians. Many of the colonists were slain, their provisions were wasted by imprudence, and they were threatened with absolute starvation. There numbers were reduced from five hundred to about sixty, in the course of half a year. In this extremity they received unexpected relief from Sir Thomas Gates and the party which had been wrecked the year before at Bermudas, and who had been enabled to build two small vessels, and succeed in reaching Virginia. It was determined to abandon the colony, and sail for Newfoundland, and every thing was prepared for embarkation, when lord Delaware, with three ships and a hundred and fifty men, arrived at the mouth of the river. By the energetic discipline of this nobleman, the affairs of the colony were soon restored to order. He erected forts, allotted to each man his respective duty, and appointed the necessary officers to enforce obedience to his commands. His health not permitting him to remain in office, he returned to England, leaving about two hundred people in health and tranquillity.Not long after his departure, Sir Thomas Dale arrived at Virginia with three ships and three hundred emigrants. Other additions to the colony were made within a short interval. New settlements were commenced farther up the river, and a town was built, and called Henrico, in honor of prince Henry. In 1612, application was made to the king by the patentees for a new charter, with increased privileges, and it was accordingly granted.It was in the year following the grant of the new charter, that the marriage of Pocahontas, the famed daughter of Powhatan, was celebrated; an alliance which secured peace to Virginia many years. Having been carefully instructed in the Christian religion, it was not long before she renounced the idolatry of her country, made profession of Christianity, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca. In some measure connected with this event, by the influence so powerful an alliance was calculated to have upon the minds of the natives in the vicinity, was the treaty which Sir Thomas Dale effected with the Chickahominy tribe of Indians, a bold and free people, who now voluntarily relinquished their name, for that of Tassantessus, or Englishmen; and solemnly engaged to be faithful subjects to king James.During the interval of tranquillity procured by the alliance with Powhatan, an important change was made in the state of the colony. Hitherto no right of private property in land had been established. The fields that were cleared had been cultivated by the joint labor of the colonists; their product was carried to the common storehouses, and distributed weekly to every family, according to its number and exigencies. However suitable such an arrangement might have been deemed for the commencement of a colony, experience proved that it was decidedly opposed to its progressin a more advanced state. In order to remedy this, Sir Thomas Dale divided a considerable portion of the land into small lots, and granted one of these to each individual in full property. From the moment that industry had the certain prospect of a recompense, it advanced rapidly. The articles of primary necessity were cultivated with so much attention as secured the means of subsistence; and such schemes of improvement were formed as prepared the way for the introduction of opulence into the colony.The increased industry of the colonists was not long before it found a new and somewhat singular channel—the cultivation of tobacco; indeed so inconsiderately and exclusively were their energies directed to that object at this time, that the most fatal consequences were rendered almost inevitable. The land which ought to have been reserved for raising provisions, and even the streets of Jamestown, were planted with tobacco. Various regulations were framed to restrain this ill-directed activity; but, from eagerness for present gain, the planters disregarded every admonition. Tobacco, however, had many trials to pass through before it reached its present established station. King James declared himself its open enemy, and drew against it his royal pen. In the work which he entitled ‘Counterblast to Tobacco,’ he poured the most bitter reproaches on this ‘vile and nauseous weed.’ He followed it up by a proclamation to restrain the disorderly trading in tobacco, as tending to a general and new corruption of both men’s bodies and minds. Yet tobacco, like other proscribed objects, throve under persecution, and achieved a final triumph over all its enemies.Financially, the colony was now in a flourishing state; politically, it was badly administered. Its president was captain Argal, a rigid master, and absurd tyrant. One of his edicts is worth quoting: it ordered ‘That every person should go to church on Sundays and holidays, or be kept confined the night succeeding the offence, and be a slave to the colony for the following week; for the second offence, a slave for a month; and for the third, a year and a day.’ From the representations made to him of the misrule of this man, lord Delaware embarked a second time for America; but died on the voyage, in or near the bay which bears his name. His death was the signal for renewed outrages on the part of the colonial tyrant, and the office of captain-general was transferred toMr.Yeardley. He arrived in April, and immediately convoked a colonial assembly, which met at Jamestown on the19thof June, and was the first representative legislature which assembled in the transatlantic states.The full tide of prosperity was now enjoyed by the colony. Its numbers greatly increased, and its settlements became widely extended. At peace with the Indians, it reposed in perfect security, and realized the happiness its fortunate situation and favorable prospects afforded, without suspecting the sudden and terrible reverse of fortune it was doomed to experience. Opechankanough, the successor of Powhatan, had adopted with ardor all the early enmity of his native tribe against the settlers; and he formed one of those dreadful schemes, so frequent in Indian annals, of exterminating the whole race at one blow. Such was the fidelity of his people, and so deep the power of savage dissimulation, that this dire scheme was matured without the slightest intimation reaching the English, who neither attended to the movements of the Indians, nor suspectedtheir machinations; and though surrounded by a people whom they might have known from experience to be both artful and vindictive, they neglected those precautions for their own safety that were requisite in such circumstances.All the tribes in the vicinity of the English settlements were successively gained, except those on the eastern shore, from whom, on account of their peculiar attachment to their new neighbors, every circumstance that might discover what they intended was carefully concealed. To each tribe its station was allotted, and the part it was to act prescribed. On the morning of the day consecrated to vengeance, each was at the place of rendezvous appointed; and at mid-day, the moment they had previously fixed for this execrable deed, the Indians, raising a universal yell, rushed at once on the English in all their scattered settlements, butchering men, women, and children, with undistinguishing fury, and every aggravation of brutal outrage and savage cruelty. In one hour, three hundred and forty-seven persons were cut off, almost without knowing by whose hands they fell. Indeed, the universal destruction of the colonists was prevented only by the consequences of an event, which perhaps appeared but of little importance in the colony at the time when it took place—the conversion of an Indian to the Christian faith. On the night before the massacre, this man was made privy to it by his own brother; but as soon as his brother left him he revealed the dreadful secret to an English gentleman in whose house he was residing, who immediately carried the tidings to Jamestown, and communicated them to some of the nearest settlers, scarcely in time to prevent the last hour of the perfidious truce from being the last hour of their lives.A bloody and exterminating war followed, in which the English were victorious, but by which they were much reduced in numbers. Famine came in the train of battle, and made additional devastation. A writ ofquo warrantowas issued against the company, under whose rule these calamities had been suffered. It was brought to trial in the court of king’s bench, and their charter was vacated. A new commission was issued for the government of Virginia, in which the republican tendencies of the previous government were duly restrained.CharlesI.on the demise of his predecessor reduced the colony under the immediate direction of the crown, appointing a governor and council, and ordering all patents and processes to issue in his own name. His first appointment of governor elevated Sir George Yeardley to that office, but he died early, and was succeeded by the despotic Sir John Harvey, who managed to make himself perfectly odious to the people whom he was sent to govern. The public mind became finally so much excited, that even the despotic Charles thought it prudent to recall his minion, and Sir William Berkeley was appointed to succeed him.Sir William was as eminent, as his predecessor had been deficient, in all popular virtues; and he was the bearer of instructions which directed him to restore the colonial assembly, and invite it to enact a body of laws for the province. Thus unexpectedly the colonists were restored to their old system of freedom, and the consequence was universal gratitude and joy. The king became universally popular, and during the civil wars, the colony continued faithful to the royal cause.The next incident of great interest in the history of Virginia, is therebellion consequent on the passage of the navigation act; by which the plan of monopolizing to England the commerce of the colonies was perfected and reduced into a complete system.This oppressive system excited great indignation in Virginia, where the extensive commerce and pre-eminent loyalty of the people rendered the pressure of the burden more severe, and the infliction of it more exasperating. The excitement became general, and was worked up to such a pitch, that nothing was wanting to precipitate the people into the most desperate acts, but some leader qualified to unite and to direct their operations. Such a leader they found in Nathaniel Bacon. He was a lawyer, educated in London, and was appointed a member of the council a short time after his emigration to Virginia. Young, bold, ambitious, with an engaging address, and commanding eloquence, he harangued the colonists upon their grievances; inflamed their resentment against their rulers; declaimed particularly against the languor with which the war, then existing with the Indians, had been conducted; and such was the effect of his representations, that he was elected general by the people. To give some color of legitimacy to the authority he had acquired, and perhaps expecting to precipitate matters to the extremity which his interest required that they should speedily reach, he applied to the governor for an official confirmation of the popular election, and offered instantly to march against the common enemy. This Sir William Berkeley firmly refused, and issued a proclamation commanding the dispersion of the insurgents. Bacon had advanced too far to recede; and he hastened, at the head of six hundred armed followers, to Jamestown, surrounded the house where the governor and council were assembled, and repeated his demand.Intimidated by the threats of the enraged multitude, the council hastily prepared a commission, and, by their entreaties, prevailed on the governor to sign it. Bacon and his troops then began their march against the Indians; but no sooner were the council relieved from their fears, than they declared the commission void, and proclaimed Bacon a rebel. Enraged at this conduct, he instantly returned, with all his forces, to Jamestown. The aged governor, unsupported, and almost abandoned, fled precipitately to Accomack, on the eastern shore of the colony; collecting those who were well affected towards his administration, he began to oppose the insurgents, and several skirmishes were fought, with various success. A party of the insurgents burned Jamestown, laid waste those districts of the colony which adhered to the old administration, and confiscated the property of the loyalists. The governor, in retaliation, seized the estates of many of the insurgents, and executed several of their leaders. In the midst of these calamities Bacon sickened and died. Destitute of a leader to conduct and animate them, their sanguine hopes of success subsided; all began to desire an accommodation; and after a brief negotiation with the governor they laid down their arms, on obtaining a promise of general pardon.On hearing of the disturbances in Virginia, Charles despatched, though with no great haste, a fleet with some troops for its pacification. These did not arrive, however, till they might well have been dispensed with. With them came colonel Jeffreys, appointed to recall and replace Sir William Berkeley in the government of the colony. This brave and benevolent man did not long survive his dismissal, and may justly be said to have lived and died in the service of Virginia.A succession of weak and tyrannical rulers followed the recall of Sir William Berkeley. Notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances under which it labored, the colony continued to increase. Tobacco grew in demand in Europe, and its cultivation gave constant employment to the planters. The situation of the colony, removed alike from the French in Canada, and the Spaniards in Florida, saved it from their hostile incursions, and procured for it a comparative repose.MASSACHUSETTS.In the order of time, the settlement of the northern states followed next after that of Virginia. In the year 1614, captain Smith explored the coast with much care between Penobscot and cape Cod. He presented a chart and description of it to Charles, prince of Wales, who was so well pleased with the country that he called itNew England; a name which has since been applied to the provinces east of the Hudson.In 1620, that country began to be colonized by a body of Puritans; who had been first driven to Holland, by the mad intolerance of the English government, and afterwards determined to emigrate to America. They applied to the Virginia company for a patent, and it was not unwilling to favor their views. They solicited full freedom of conscience, but this the king declined granting under the great seal: he promised, however, not to molest them, so long as they behaved themselves peaceably.The first band of these Puritans, consisting of one hundred and one persons, reached cape Cod at break of day on the9thof November, 1620. Observing that they were beyond the limits of the company’s patent, they had no powers of government derived from authority; and, therefore, even before landing, they formed themselves into a ‘civil body politic, under the crown of England, for the purpose of framing just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices,’ to which they promised all due submission and obedience. Forty-one persons signed this contract. It contained the elements of those forms of government peculiar to the new world. Under this system, John Carver was, by general consent, chosen their first governor, ‘confiding,’ as the electors say, ‘in his prudence, that he would not adventure upon any matter of moment without the consent of the rest, or, at least, advice of such as were known to be the wisest among them.’Government being thus established, sixteen men, well armed, with a few others, were sent on shore the same day, to fetch wood and make discoveries; but they returned at night without having found any person or habitation. The company, having rested during the Sabbath, disembarked on Monday, the13thof November; and soon after proceeded to explore the interior of the country. In their researches they discovered heaps of earth, one of which they dug open, but, finding within implements of war, they concluded these were Indian graves; and therefore, replacing what they had taken out, they left them inviolate. In different heaps of sand they also found baskets of corn, a large quantity of which they carried away in a great kettle, found at the ruins of an Indian house. This providential discovery gave them seed for a future harvest, and preserved the infant colony from famine. On the6thof December the shallop was sent out with several of the principal men, to sail round the bay in searchof a place for settlement. During their researches, part of the company travelled along the shore, where they were surprised by a flight of arrows from a party of Indians; but, on the discharge of the English muskets, the Indians instantly disappeared. The shallop, after imminent hazard from the loss of its rudder and mast in a storm, and from shoals, which it narrowly escaped, reached a small island on the night of the8th; here the company reposed themselves, grateful for their preservation during the week; and on this island they kept the Sabbath. The day following they sounded the harbor, and found it fit for shipping; went on shore, and explored the adjacent land, where they saw various corn-fields and brooks; and, judging the situation to be convenient for a settlement, they returned with the welcome intelligence to the ship.On the23d, as many of the company as could, with convenience, went on shore, and felled, and carried timber to the spot appropriated for the erection of a building for common use. On the25th, they commenced the erection of the first house. A platform for their ordnance demanding the earliest attention, they formed one upon a hill, which commanded an extensive prospect of the plain beneath, of the expanding bay, and of the distant ocean. They divided their whole company into nineteen families; measured out the ground; and assigned to every person by lot half a pole in breadth, and three poles in length, for houses and gardens. In grateful remembrance of the Christian friends whom they found at the last town they left in their native country, they called their settlement Plymouth. Thus was founded the first British town of New England.The climate was found much more severe than the colonists had anticipated; and they had arrived when winter was nearly one-third advanced. They had every thing to do, and in this season could do very little, even of what was indispensable. Their shelter was wretched; their sufferings were intense; their dangers were not small, and were rendered painful by an absolute uncertainty of their extent. All these evils they encountered with resolution, and sustained with fortitude. To each other they were kind: to the savages they were just: they loved the truth of the gospel; embraced it in its purity; and obeyed it with an excellence of life, which added a new wreath to the character of man.Among the attempts at forming settlements at this time was one of a character as peculiar as it was undesirable. Captain Wollaston began a plantation, which he named after himself. One Morton, of Furnival’s inn, was of this company. He was not left in command, but contrived to make himself chief, changed the name of mount Wollaston to Merry mount, set all the servants free, erected a may-pole, and lived a life of dissipation, until all the stock intended for trade was consumed. He was charged with furnishing the Indians with guns and ammunition, and teaching them the use of them. At length, he made himself so obnoxious to the planters in all parts, that, at their general desire, the people of New Plymouth seized him by an armed force, and confined him, until they had opportunity of sending him to England.The time was now at hand, when the causes which had induced the voluntary exile of the Leyden congregation, should produce an effect far more extensive. Applications to the Plymouth company from Puritan congregations were now becoming frequent; and, in the year 1628, the council of Plymouth sold to Sir Henry Roswell and others, their heirs andassociates, that part of New England which lies between two boundaries, one three miles north of the Merrimac, and the other three miles south of Charles river, from the Atlantic to the South sea. The same yearMr.Endicot, one of the patentees, came to New England, and planted himself, with a small colony, in Naumkeag, now Salem. The following year they were joined by about two hundred others, making three hundred in the whole, one hundred of whom, however, removed the same year, and settled themselves, with the consent ofMr.Endicot, governor of the colony, at Mishawum, now Charlestown. The second Salem company brought with them a considerable number of cattle, horses, sheep, and goats; which after a little period, became so numerous as to supply all the wants of the inhabitants. Powers of government were granted to these colonists by CharlesI., which constituted them a corporation, by the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, with power to elect annually a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants; four great and general courts were to be held every year, to consist of the governor, or, in his absence, the deputy governor, the assistants, or at least six of them, and the freemen of the company.The arbitrary proceedings of the British court, in affairs both of church and state, continued without any abatement, and induced many gentlemen of wealth and distinction to join the Plymouth company, and remove to New England. In 1629, many persons of this character, and among them the distinguished names of Isaac Johnson, John Winthrop, Thomas Dudley, and Sir Richard Saltonstall, proposed to the company to remove with their families, on condition that the charter and government should be transferred to New England. To this the company assented, and in the course of the next year, John Winthrop, who had been chosen governor, with about one thousand five hundred persons, embarked. The fleet consisted of ten sail, one of which was of three hundred and fifty tons, and, from lady Arabella Johnson, who sailed in her, was called the Arabella. Among the passengers were a number of eminent non-conformist ministers. The most highly esteemed wasMr.Wilson, the son of a dignitary of the church, who, by his connexions and talents, might have aspired to its highest honors, but chose to renounce all, in order to suffer with those whom he accounted the people of God. But the circumstance which threw a greater lustre on the colony than any other, was the arrival ofMr.John Cotton, the most esteemed of all the Puritan ministers in England. Becoming an object of the persecuting fury of Laud, he left Boston in disguise, and spent some time in London, seeking a proper opportunity to emigrate. There went out with himMr.Hooker andMr.Stone, who were esteemed to make a glorious triumvirate, and were received in New England with the utmost exultation.Mr.Cotton was appointed to preach at Boston, now the principal town in Massachusetts bay, and was mainly employed in drawing up the ecclesiastical constitution of the colony.On the arrival of the principal ships of the fleet at Charlestown, the governor and several of the patentees, having viewed the bottom of the bay of Massachusetts, and pitched down on the north side of Charles river, took lodgings in the great house built there the preceding year, and the rest of the company erected cottages, booths, and tents, about the town hill. Their place of assembling for divine service was under a tree.When the fleet had safely arrived, a day of thanksgiving was kept in all the plantations. Early attention was paid to the great object of the enterprise. On the30thof July, a day of solemn prayer and fasting was kept at Charlestown, when governor Winthrop, deputy governor Dudley, andMr.Wilson, first entered into church covenant; and at this time was laid the foundation of the church of Charlestown, and of the first church in Boston. On the27thof August, the congregation kept a fast, and choseMr.Wilson their teacher. ‘We used imposition of hands,’ says governor Winthrop, ‘but with this protestation by all, that it was only a sign of election and confirmation, not of any intent thatMr.Wilson should renounce the ministry he received in England.’The colony was now gaining strength from its numbers and organization; but it had also its trials to contend with, not the least of which was the sickness arising from the severity of the climate, or, more truly, from the means of counteracting the injurious tendencies of the climate not being yet properly understood. Among those who fell an early sacrifice, none were lamented more than lady Arabella Johnson and her husband, who had left the abodes of abundance and of social comfort for the American wilderness, purely from religious principle. As soon as the severity of the winter was abated sufficiently to admit of assemblies being convened, the colonists proceeded to enact laws for their internal regulation. It has been before observed, that those who so resolutely ventured to cross the ocean, and to brave the hardships attendant on clearing the American forests, sought rather to establish churches, than to found a kingdom; it will naturally be supposed, therefore, that their legislation partook largely of an ecclesiastical character. Indeed, the history of this colony presents more matter for the ecclesiastical than the civil historian. At the very first court of election a law was passed, enacting that none should hereafter be admitted freemen, or be entitled to any share in the government, or be capable of being chosen magistrates, or even of serving as jurymen but such as had been or should hereafter be received into the church as members. ‘This was a most extraordinary order or law,’ says Hutchinson, ‘and yet it continued in force until the dissolution of the government, it being repealed in appearance only after the restoration of king CharlesII.Had they been deprived of their civil privileges in England by an act of parliament, unless they would join in communion with the churches there, it might very well have been the first in the roll of grievances. But such were the requisites to qualify for church-membership here, that the grievance was abundantly greater.’The baneful influence of the erroneous principles of the union of the civil and ecclesiastical power, soon became apparent in the persecution of the most liberally minded man in the colony, Roger Williams. It is true that he enthusiastically supported some tenets which were deemed heterodox, and occasioned considerable excitement by inveighing against the use of the cross in the national flag. In consequence of the spread of his opinion, some of the troops would not act till the relic of popery, as they considered it, was cut out of the banner, while others would not serve under any flag from which it was erased. At length a compromise was entered into, by which it was agreed that the obnoxious emblem should be omitted from the banners of the militia, while it was retained in those of the forts. This, however, was only one of the errors chargedagainst Williams; it is said that he maintained that no female should go abroad unless veiled; that unregenerate men ought neither to pray nor to take oaths; that, indeed, oaths had better be altogether omitted; that the churches of New England should not acknowledge or communicate with the hierarchy from which they had separated; that infants should not be subjects of baptism; that the magistrate should confine his authority wholly to temporal affairs; and that James or Charles of England had no right at all to grant away the lands of the Indians without their consent. For the zealous propagation of these sentiments, he was deemed worthy of banishment from the colony of Massachusetts. The order of the court was, that he should be transported to England; but he escaped the limits of their jurisdiction, repaired to the Narraganset country, and became the founder of a new colony.During the year 1635, no less than three thousand persons arrived in New England. Among them was Henry Vane, a young man of noble family, animated with a devotion to the cause of religion and liberty, which induced him to relinquish all his hopes in England, and settle in an infant colony which as yet afforded little more than a bare subsistence to its inhabitants: he was naturally received in New England with high regard and admiration, and was instantly complimented with the freedom of the colony. Enforcing his claims to respect by the address and ability which he showed in conducting business, he was elected governor in the year subsequent to his arrival, by the universal consent of the colonists, and with the highest expectations of an advantageous administration. These hopes, we shall find in the sequel, were by no means realized. He entered too deeply into polemical theology, to allow him to devote the energies of his mind to the civil and political duties which afforded so abundant a field for their exercise.A brief period elapsed after the expulsion of Roger Williams, before the repose of the colony was again interrupted by religious dissensions. The Puritans had transported, with their other religious practices, that of assembling one evening in the week to converse over the discourses of the preceding Sabbath; a proceeding well calculated to keep alive that zeal which arises from the vigorous exercise of private judgment, but not to promote the subserviency requisite to a quiet submission to the uniformity of authorized opinions. These meetings had been originally confined to the brethren; butMrs.Hutchinson, a lady of respectable station in life, of considerable native talent, and of affable manners, deemed it desirable that the sisters should also exercise a similar privilege. Unfortunately, it was not long before this lady and her associates discovered that there would be much more propriety in their instructing their ministers than in the reverse process, which had hitherto prevailed. They adopted that most convenient dogma, that good works are no evidence of being a true Christian, or one of the elect; and that the only testimony to a state of justification, was the overpowering assurance of the mind, produced by the immediate influence of the divine Spirit.The disturbance occasioned by the propagation of these offensive sentiments, was aggravated by the circumstance of the governor,Mr.Vane, being their decided advocate. Vehement discussions and bitter accusations abounded; but the antinomian party, though most zealous, were least numerous; and at the annual election,Mr.Vane was displaced byMr.Winthrop,by a very decided majority. After various measures had been resorted to, in order to bring the dissentients within the pale of orthodoxy, a synod was called, which determined that the sentiments ofMrs.Hutchinson and her followers were grievously erroneous, and, as they still refused submission, the favorite measure of banishment was had recourse to. Another accession was thus made to the ‘alluvies,’ as Mather terms it, of Rhode Island; but not finding that land of liberty perfectly to her tasteMrs.Hutchinson removed to a Dutch plantation, where, not long after, she was basely murdered, with many of her family, by the Indians.It does not fall within our plan to follow out the details of the ecclesiastical persecutions that disfigure the early history of New England. Although themselves fugitives from the terrors of persecution, the Puritans entertained no particular toleration for the tenets of those who came to different conclusions. They whipped, banished, and imprisoned Anabaptists, Quakers and others, whose obstinacy was equal to their own, and whose power was unfortunately less. Like many other enthusiasts, they entertained a strong predilection for the phraseology and manners of the Hebrews, whose laws they ill understood. Lying, drunkenness and dancing were punished with public whipping; and for a man to have long hair was considered an abomination, and inconsistent with the care of the soul.A more important subject than religious wrangling, is the union formed by the New England colonists, for mutual defence against the savages, and for security against the claims and encroachments of the Dutch. This union, or confederation, was formed in 1643, by the name of The United Colonies of New England. It had been proposed by the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, as early as 1638, but was not finally completed until five years after. This confederacy, which continued about forty years, constituted an interesting portion of the political history of New England. It consisted of the colonies of Massachusetts, New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. By the articles of confederation, as they were called, these colonies entered into a firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity, for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare. Each colony was to retain its own peculiar jurisdiction and government; and no other plantation or colony was to be received as a confederate, nor any two of the confederates to be united into one jurisdiction, without the consent of the rest. The affairs of the united colonies were to be managed by a legislature, to consist of two persons, styled commissioners, chosen from each colony. The commissioners were to meet annually in the colonies, in succession, and when met, to choose a president, and the determination of any six to be binding on all.This confederacy, which was declaredtobe perpetual, continued without any essential alteration, until the New England colonies were deprived of their charter by the arbitrary proceedings of JamesII.This union evidently served as the basis of the great confederacy afterwards formed between the thirteen states of America. An examination of the two systems will prove a similarity not only in names, but in general principles.At the termination of the first half century from the arrival of the emigrants at Plymouth, the New England colonies were calculated to containone hundred and twenty towns, and as many thousand inhabitants; of whom sixteen thousand were capable of bearing arms. The habits of industry and economy, which had been formed in less happy times, continued to prevail, and gave a competency to those who had nothing, and wealth to those who had a competency. The wilderness receded before these hardy and persevering laborers, and its savage inhabitants found their game dispersed, and their favorite haunts invaded. This was the natural consequence of the sales of land, which they were at all times ready to make to the whites. But this result the Indians did not foresee; and when they felt it in all its force, the strongest passions were awakened which could animate the savage breast. A leader only was wanting to concentrate and direct their exertions, and Philip, of Pokanoket, sachem of a tribe residing within the boundaries of Plymouth and Rhode Island, assumed that station. His father was the friend, but he had ever been the enemy, of the whites; and he exerted all the arts of intrigue, of which he was master, to induce the Indians, in all parts of New England, to unite their efforts for their destruction. He succeeded in forming a confederacy, able to send into action more than three thousand warriors.

DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION.

ITis a singular fact that the science and energy of Italian navigators opened the new world to Europe, though adventurers from other countries derived the benefit of their discoveries, and established colonies on its shores. Columbus, Cabot, Verazzani, and Americo Vespucci, were all Italians; and though the latter gave his name to a hemisphere, he acquired no particular advantage for himself or his native country.

The exploits of Columbus had excited a spirit of enterprise among the English merchants, and a commission was granted by HenryVII.to John Cabot and his three sons, giving them full liberty to sail to all parts of the east, west and north; to discover countries of the heathen; to occupy all countries they could subdue, and set up the king’s banners in them; to exercise jurisdiction over them, and pay to the king one fifth part of all their gains. A small fleet was thus equipped, with about three hundred men. Cabot sailed north-west a few weeks, till his course was arrested by icebergs; he then steered south, subsequently changed his course, and again resumed it, till further prosecution of the voyage was finally abandoned in consequence of a mutiny which broke out on board. It is doubtful whether he ever landed in the new world. From this voyage, the English derived their claims to the territory which they subsequently acquired in this continent. For a period of sixty successive years, the English monarchs gave themselves no further trouble about the progress of discoveries in America.

During this time, France and Spain were on the alert. In a voyage patronized by FrancisI., the Florentine navigator Verazzano discovered and described with considerable accuracy the coast of Florida. In a second voyage, undertaken in the following year, he landed with some of his crew, was killed by the savages, and devoured in the presence of his companions. This melancholy event for a time damped the spirit of discovery, and it was not till after a lapse of ten years that any other French expedition was fitted out to America. In 1534, Jacques Cartier was supplied with two ships under the direction of the vice-admiral of France, and discovered the Baye des Chaleurs and the gulf ofSt.Lawrence. In the following spring a larger expedition was equipped under the same direction, and they proceeded direct to Newfoundland. They sailed up the river of Canada three hundred leagues, formed alliances with the natives, built a fort, and wintered in the country. This colony was afterwards broken up, and for fifty years the French made no effort to establish themselves in Canada.

To trace the course of Spanish discovery—in the year 1528, Pamphilo de Narvaez received from CharlesV.of Spain, a grant of all the lands extending from the river of Palms to the cape of Florida, with a commission to conquer and govern all the provinces within these limits. Landingat Florida, he marched to Apalache, and lost many of his troops in encounters with the natives. Being forced to direct his course towards the sea, and sailing to the westward, he was lost in a violent storm, and the enterprise frustrated. Calamitous as was the issue of this expedition, it did not deter others from pursuing the same course. In May, 1539, Fernando de Soto sailed from Havana on an exploring expedition, and landed on the western coast of Florida. Of nine hundred men engaged in this voyage, but three hundred and eleven survived it; the remainder perished in battles with the natives. Poverty and ruin involved all who were concerned in it. Soto died at the confluence of the Guacoya and Mississippi; and to prevent the Indians from obtaining a knowledge of his death, his body was deposited in a hollowed oak and sunk in the river.

About the year 1562, a party of Huguenots, under the command of Ribault, sailed with a view of colonizing Florida. After a favorable voyage, he arrived at the entrance of a river which he called May, from the month in which he reached the coast. Here he erected a fort, and then sailed for France to bring out a reinforcement. Two years afterwards a fresh expedition was fitted out, under M. René Laudonniere, who arrived in the river May in the latter part of June. He proved incompetent to manage the affairs of the new colony, and he was on the point of leaving for Europe, when a new expedition under the command of Ribault entered the river. That officer superseded Laudonniere only, however, to experience more melancholy disasters. Scarcely a week had passed after his arrival, when eight Spanish ships were seen in the river. After a variety of misfortunes which befell Laudonniere, he escaped with some of his followers in a French shallop, and finally reached in a miserable condition the port of Bristol. A more tragic end awaited Ribault. His vessels were dashed to pieces during a storm, and their crews with great difficulty succeeded in reaching the shore. They directed their steps towards the fort, and found it to their great surprise in the hands of their inveterate enemies, the Spaniards. It was determined to open a parley, and the Spanish commander pledged his honor that they should be unharmed. Notwithstanding this pledge they were inhumanly massacred, and their dead bodies treated with the most shocking indignities. A number of the mangled limbs of the victims were then suspended to a tree, to which was attached the following inscription: ‘Not because they are Frenchmen, but because they are heretics and enemies of God.’

This outrage was fully avenged by Dominique de Gourgues, who devoted himself and his fortune to effect a signal retribution. Finding means to equip three small vessels, he crossed the Atlantic, sailed along the coast of Florida, and landed at a river about fifteen leagues distant from the May. The Spaniards to the number of four hundred were well stationed in different fortresses; they were all slain or taken captive. The surviving prisoners were led away, and were hung on the boughs of the same trees from which the Frenchmen had before been suspended. Gourgues attached to them the retaliatory label—‘I do not this as to Spaniards, nor as to mariners, but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers.’ Thus terminated the attempts of the French Protestants to colonize Florida.

In 1578, Sir Walter Raleigh, in conjunction with his half-brother and kindred spirit, Sir Humphry Gilbert, projected the establishment of a colony in that quarter of America which the Cabots had visited in the reign ofHenryVII.; and a patent for this purpose was procured without difficulty in favor of Gilbert, from Elizabeth. As this is the first charter to a colony granted by the crown of England, the articles in it merit particular attention, as they unfold the ideas of that age with respect to the nature of such settlements. Elizabeth authorizes him to discover and take possession of all remote and barbarous lands, unoccupied by any Christian prince or people; invests in him the full right of property in the soil of those countries whereof he shall take possession; empowers him, his heirs and assigns, to dispose of whatever portion of those lands he shall judge meet, to persons settled there, in fee simple, according to the laws of England; and ordains, that all the lands granted to Gilbert shall hold of the crown of England by homage, on payment of the fifth part of the gold or silver ore found there. The charter also gave Gilbert, his heirs and assigns, full power to convict, punish, pardon, govern, and rule, by their good discretion and policy, as well in causes capital or criminal as civil, both marine and other, all persons who shall, from time to time, settle within the said countries; and declared, that all who settled there should have and enjoy all the privileges of free denizens and natives of England, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. And, finally, it prohibited all persons from attempting to settle within two hundred leagues of any place which Sir Humphry Gilbert, or his associates, shall have occupied during the space of six years.

Invested with these extraordinary powers, Gilbert began to collect associates, and to prepare for embarkation. The first equipment, however, of Sir Humphry, may be said to have failed, even before it set out. Being composed in a great measure of ‘voluntary men of diverse dispositions,’ there was a great falling off when it came to the point, and Sir Humphry was at last obliged to set out with only a few of his own tried friends. He encountered the most adverse weather, and was obliged to return, ‘with the loss of a tall ship, and, more to his grief, of a valiant gentleman, Miles Morgan.’ This was a severe blow, as Sir Humphry had embarked a large portion of his property in this undertaking. However, his determination continued unshaken; and by the aid of Sir George Peckham, Sir Walter Raleigh, and other persons of distinction, he was enabled to equip another expedition, with which, in the year 1583, he again put to sea.

On the30thof July, Gilbert discovered land in about fifty-one degrees north latitude; but, finding nothing but bare rocks, he shaped his course to the southward, and on the3dof August arrived atSt.John’s harbor, at Newfoundland. There were at that time in the harbor thirty-six vessels, belonging to various nations, and they refused him entrance; but, on sending his boat with the assurance that he had no ill design, and that he had a commission from queen Elizabeth, they submitted, and he sailed into the port. Having pitched his tent on shore in sight of all the shipping, and being attended by his own people, he summoned the merchants and masters of vessels to be present at the ceremony of his taking possession of the island. When assembled his commission was read and interpreted to the foreigners. A turf and twig was then delivered to him; and proclamation was immediately made, that, by virtue of his commission from the queen, he took possession of the harbor ofSt.John, and two hundred leagues every way around it, for the crown of England.

This formal possession, in consequence of the discovery by the Cabots, is considered the foundation of the right and title of the crown of England to the territory of Newfoundland, and to the fishery on its banks. Gilbert, intending to bring the southern parts of the country within his patent, the term of which had now nearly expired, hastened to make further discoveries before his return to England. He therefore embarked fromSt.John’s harbor with his little fleet, and sailed for the isle of Sable by the way of cape Breton. After spending eight days in the navigation from cape Race towards cape Breton, the ship Admiral was cast away on some shoals before any discovery of land, and nearly one hundred persons perished; among these was Stephen Parmenius Budeius, a learned Hungarian, who had accompanied the adventurers, to record their discoveries and exploits. Two days after this disaster, no land yet appearing, the waters being shallow, the coast unknown, the navigation dangerous, and the provisions scanty, it was resolved to return to England. Changing their course accordingly, they passed in sight of cape Race on the2dof September; but when they had sailed more than three hundred leagues on their way home, the frigate, commanded by Sir Humphry Gilbert himself, foundered in a violent storm, at midnight, and every soul on board perished.

VIRGINIA, FROM ITS SETTLEMENT TO 1756.

Terrible as was the fate of Gilbert and his associates, the ardor of Raleigh was not daunted, nor his energies depressed. High in favor with Elizabeth, he found no difficulty in procuring a patent similar to that which had been granted to his unfortunate brother. Prompt in the execution, as intrepid in the projection of his plans, he speedily equipped two small vessels, under Amadas and Barlow, to obtain further information of the coasts, the soil, and the inhabitants of the regions he designed to colonize. Approaching America by the gulf of Florida, they touched first at the island of Ocakoke, which runs parallel to the greater part of North Carolina, and then at Roanoke, near the mouth of Albemarle sound. In both they had some intercourse with the natives, whom they found to be savages, with all the characteristic qualities of uncivilized life—bravery, aversion to labor, hospitality, a propensity to admire and a willingness to exchange their rude productions for English commodities, especially for iron, or any of the useful metals of which they were destitute. After spending a few weeks in this traffic, and in visiting some parts of the adjacent continent, Amadas and Barlow returned to England, and gave a most fervid description of the country they had been sent to explore.

Delighted with the prospect of possessing a territory so far superior to any hitherto visited by her subjects, Elizabeth was pleased to honor both the newly discovered country and herself, by bestowing upon it the title of Virginia.

These favorable circumstances not only encouraged the enterprising spirit of Raleigh, but, by their effect on public opinion, assisted him in his arrangements to form a permanent settlement; and he was soon enabled to dispatch seven ships, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, one of the most valorous spirits of the age, with Ralph Lane, as governor of the colony, accompanied by Heriot, a mathematician of celebrity, and some other men of science. Sailing from Plymouth on the9thof April,they proceeded to Virginia by the way of the West Indies, and, having narrowly escaped shipwreck at cape Fear, anchored at Wocokon, on the26thof June. From this island Grenville went to the continent, accompanied by several gentlemen, and discovered various Indian towns. He then proceeded to cape Hatteras, where he was visited by Granganimo, the prince seen by Amadas and Barlow the preceding year; and having viewed the island of Roanoke, he embarked for England, leaving one hundred and seven persons under the government ofMr.Lane, to form a plantation, and to commence the first English colony ever planted in America.

The chief employment of this party, during their year’s residence in the new world, consisted in obtaining a more correct and extensive knowledge of the country; a pursuit in which the persevering abilities of Heriot were exercised with peculiar advantage. His unremitting endeavors to instruct the savages, and diligent inquiries into their habits and character, by adding to the stock of human knowledge, rendered the expedition not wholly unproductive of benefit to mankind. He endeavored to avail himself of the admiration expressed by the savages for the guns, the clock, the telescopes, and other implements that attested the superiority of the colonists, in order to lead their minds to the great source of all sense and science. But, unfortunately, the majority of the colonists were much less distinguished by piety or prudence, than by a vehement impatience to acquire sudden wealth; their first pursuit was gold; and, eagerly listening to the agreeable fictions of the natives, the adventurers consumed their time, and endured amazing hardships, in pursuit of a phantom, to the utter neglect of the means of providing for their future subsistence. The stock of provisions brought from England was exhausted; and the colony, reduced to the utmost distress, was preparing to disperse into different districts of the country in quest of food, when Sir Francis Drake appeared with his fleet, returning from a successful expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies. A scheme which he formed, of furnishing Lane and his associates with such supplies as might enable them to remain with comfort in their station, was disappointed by a sudden storm, in which the vessel he had destined for their service was dashed to pieces; and as he could not supply them with another, at their joint request, as they were worn out with fatigue and famine, he carried them home to England.

Had the Virginia adventurers, however, remained but a little time longer at their plantation, they would have received supplies from home; for, a few days after their departure, a ship, sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to their relief, arrived at Hatteras, and made diligent search for them, but, not finding them, returned to England. Within a few days after this ship had left the coast, Sir Richard Grenville arrived at Virginia with three new vessels laden with provisions. Searching in vain for the colony that he planted, but yet unwilling to lose possession of the country, he left fifty of his crew to keep possession of the island of Roanoke, and returned to England. This was, indeed, but an inauspicious commencement for English attempts at transatlantic colonization; but, though its immediate results did not realize the high expectations which had been formed, its consequences were indirectly very beneficial. It gave Heriot opportunity to describe its soil, climate, productions, and the manners of its inhabitants, with a degree of accuracy which merits no inconsiderable praise, when compared with the childish and marvellous tales published by several of the early visitants of the new world.

Another consequence of this abortive colony is important enough to entitle it to a place in history. Lane and his associates, by their constant intercourse with the Indians, had acquired a relish for their favorite enjoyment of smoking tobacco; to the use of which, the credulity of that people not only ascribed a thousand imaginary virtues, but their superstition considered the plant itself as a gracious gift of the gods, for the solace of human kind, and the most acceptable offering which man can present to heaven. They brought with them a specimen of this new commodity to England, and taught their countrymen the method of using it; which Raleigh and some young men of fashion fondly adopted. From its being deemed a fashionable acquirement, and from the favorable opinion of its salutary qualities entertained by several physicians, the practice of smoking spread rapidly among the English; and by a singular caprice of the human species, no less inexplicable than unexampled, it has become almost as universal as the demands of those appetites originally implanted in our nature.

Virginian Colony.

Virginian Colony.

Amidst all the discouraging circumstances with which the settlement of Virginia was attended, Raleigh still remained devotedly attached to the object; and early in the year 1587, equipped another company of adventurers, incorporated by the title of the Borough of Raleigh, in Virginia. John White was constituted governor, in whom, with a council of twelve persons, the legislative power was vested. They were directed to plant at the bay of Chesapeak, and to erect a fort there. This expedition sailed from Plymouth on the8thof May, and about the16thof July fell in with the Virginian coast. Arriving at Hatteras on the22dof July, the governor, with a select party, proceeded to Roanoke, and landed at that part of the island where the men were left the year preceding; but discovered no signs of them, excepting the bones of one man, who had been slain by the savages. The next day the governor and several of his company went to the north end of the island, where Lane had erected his fort, and had built several decent dwelling houses, hoping to obtain some intelligence of his fellow countrymen; but, on coming to the place, and finding the fort razed, and all the houses, though standing unhurt, overgrown with weedsand vines, and deer feeding within them, they returned, in despair of ever seeing the objects of their research alive. Orders were given the same day for the repair of the houses, and for the erection of new cottages; and all the colony, consisting of one hundred and seventeen persons, soon after landed, and commenced a second plantation.

Before the close of the month of August, the governor was compelled to sail to England for supplies; but war in Europe interfered with the expectation of the colonists, and it was not till 1590 that another expedition reached Virginia. They beheld a scene similarly dreadful with that which had been before presented. The houses were demolished, though still surrounded by a palisade, and a great part of the stores was found buried in the earth; but, as no trace was ever found of this unfortunate colony, there is every reason to apprehend that they must have miserably perished. Thus after a period of one hundred and six years from the time that Cabot discovered North America, in the service of HenryVII., not a single Englishman remained in the new world.

In the last year of Elizabeth a new impulse was given to the spirit of emigration by Bartholomew Gosnold. He sailed in a small bark from Falmouth, steering directly west, and was the first Englishman who came in a direct course to this part of America. He anchored at a point which he called cape Cod. Attempting a settlement on an island which they named Elizabeth, they built a fort and storehouse, but shortly abandoned their design and returned to England. Two vessels were afterwards fitted out by the merchants of Bristol, to examine the discoveries of Gosnold, and ascertain the correctness of his statements. They were also subsequently confirmed by a similar expedition equipped and despatched by lord Arundel.

An association of able and influential men was now formed to attempt a settlement, and a petition for leave was favorably received by king James. But as the extent as well as value of the American continent began now to be better known, a grant of the whole of such a vast region to any one body of men, however respectable, appeared to him an act of impolitic and profuse liberality. For this reason he divided that portion of North America, which stretches from the thirty-fourth to the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, into two districts nearly equal; the one called the first or south colony of Virginia, the other, the second or north colony. He authorized Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, Richard Hakluyt, and their associates, mostly resident in London, to settle any part of the former which they should choose, and vested in them a right of property to the land extending along the coast fifty miles on each side of the place of their first habitation, and reaching into the interior country a hundred miles. The latter district he allotted, as the place of settlement to sundry knights, gentlemen, and merchants of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England, with a similar grant of territory. The supreme government of the colonies that were to be settled, was vested in a council, resident in England, named by the king, with laws and ordinances given under his sign manual; and the subordinate jurisdiction was committed to a council, resident in America, which was also nominated by the king and to act conformably to his instructions.

The charter, while it thus restricted the emigrants in the important article of internal regulation, secured to them and their descendants all therights of denizens, in the same manner as if they had remained or had been born in England; and granted them the privilege of holding their lands in America by the freest and least burdensome tenure. The king permitted whatever was necessary for the sustenance or commerce of the new colonies to be exported from England, during the space of seven years, without paying any duty; and, as a farther incitement to industry, he granted them liberty of trade with other nations; and appropriated the duty to be levied on foreign commodities, as a fund for the benefit of the colonies, for the period of twenty-one years. He also granted them liberty of coining for their own use, of repelling enemies, and of detaining ships that should trade there without their permission.

We may regard the colonies of North and South Virginia, or Virginia and New England, as they were subsequently denominated, as forming, from this period, the subject of two distinct and continuous histories; that of the former, being earliest in point of time, will continue to occupy our attention during the remainder of this division.

The proprietors of the royal patent lost no time in carrying their plans into effect. It cannot, however, be said, that they commenced their operations on a scale at all worthy of the magnitude of the undertaking, as their fleet consisted only of three ships, conveying one hundred emigrants; and, although some persons of rank were among the number of proprietors, their pecuniary resources were but scanty. The charge of this embarkation was committed to Christopher Newport, already famous for his skill in western navigation. He sailed from the Thames on the20thof December, 1606, having, in a sealed box, the royal instructions, and the names of the intended colonial council, with orders not to break the seal till twenty-four hours after the expedition had effected a landing; to which singular policy, may be attributed the dissensions which soon commenced among the leaders, and which continued to distract them during a voyage long and disastrous.

Captain Newport had designed to land at Roanoke; but fortunately, being driven by a storm to the northward, he stood into the spacious bay of Chesapeak, that grand reservoir into which are poured almost countless tributaries, which not only fertilize the country through which they flow, but open to it a commercial intercourse which can scarcely be said to be surpassed in any portion of the globe. The promontory on the south of the bay was named cape Henry, in honor of the prince of Wales; and that on the north, cape Charles, after the then duke of York. At night the box, containing the sealed instructions, was opened, in which Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall, were constituted the council of government, with power to elect a president from among their number. The adventurers were employed in seeking a place for settlement until the thirteenth of May, when they took possession of a peninsula, on the north side of the river Powhatan, called by the emigrants James river, about forty miles from its mouth.

To make room for their projected town, they commenced clearing away the forest, which had for centuries afforded shelter and food to the natives. The members of the council, while they adhered to their orders in the choice of their president, on the most frivolous pretences excluded from a seat, among them, the individual, who was probably of all others the bestfitted for the office, captainSmith,98though nominated by the same instrument from which they derived their authority. His superior talents, and the fame he had previously acquired in war, excited their envy, while possibly they induced him to assume, that a greater deference was due to his opinion than his coadjutors were willing to admit. At length, however, by the prudent exhortations ofMr.Hunt, their chaplain, the animosities which had arisen were composed, Smith was admitted into the council, and they all turned their undivided attention to the government of the colony. In honor of their monarch, they called the town, the erection of which they now commenced, Jamestown. Thus was formed the first permanent colony of the English in America.

The vicinity of the settlement was a vast wilderness, though a luxuriant one, inhabited by a race of Indian savages, possessing both the virtues and the vices peculiar to their state. At first, they treated the colonists with kindness; but misunderstandings, from various causes, ere long interrupted the peace, and annoyed the proceedings of the English. Nor was the hostility of the natives the only occasion of discomfort; the extreme heat of the summer, and the intense cold of the succeeding winter, were alike fatal to the colonists. From May to September, fifty persons died, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, a member of the council. The storehouse at Jamestown accidentally taking fire, the town, thatched with reeds, burned with such violence, that the fortifications, arms, apparel, bedding, and a great quantity of private goods and provision, were consumed.

These distresses naturally led them to reflect upon their situation; and having become sensible of their injustice to Smith, his personal talents and activity were, in their adversity, appealed to with that regard and deference which, in prosperous times, are yielded only to vested authority and official station. From some unaccountable jealousy on the part of the governor, the fort had been left in an unprotected state, but, by the advice of Smith, it was now put into a state to defend them against the attacks of the Indians. To procure provisions and explore the country, he made frequent and distant excursions into the wilderness. In one of these, he seized an Indian idol, made with skins stuffed with moss, for the redemption of which as much corn was brought him as he required. Some tribes he gained by caresses and presents, and procured from them a supply of provisions; others he attacked with open force, and defeating them on every occasion, whatever their superiority in numbers might be, compelled them to impart to him some portion of their winter stores. As the recompense of all his toils and dangers, he saw abundance and contentmentre-established in the colony, and hoped that he should be able to maintain them in that happy state, until the arrival of ships from England in the spring. But in the midst of his energetic measures, while exploring the source of the river Chickahominy, he was surprised and attacked by a party of Indians. He defended himself bravely until his companions were killed, when he took to flight; but running incautiously, he sunk up to his shoulders in a swamp, and was taken prisoner.

The exulting savages conducted him in triumph through several towns to Werowocomoco, where Powhatan, their king, resided in state, with a strong guard of Indians around him. When the prisoner entered the apartment of the sovereign, all the people gave a shout. The queen of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands; and another person brought a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them. Having feasted him in their best manner, they held a long consultation, at the conclusion of which, two great stones were brought before Powhatan. Smith had now reason to consider his career as drawing to a close; by the united efforts of the attendants, he was forcibly dragged, his head laid upon one of the stones, and the mighty club upraised, a few blows from which were to terminate his existence. But a very unexpected interposition now took place. Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, was seized with emotions of tender pity, and ran up to her father, pathetically pleading for the life of the stranger. When all entreaties were lost on that stern and savage potentate, she hastened to Smith, snatched his head in her arms, and laid her own on his, declaring that the first blow must fall upon her. The heart even of a savage father was at last melted, and Powhatan granted to his favorite daughter the life of Smith.

It appears at first to have been the intention of the savage monarch to have detained the captive, and employed him in manufacturing utensils and ornaments for his majesty’s use; but from some cause he speedily changed his mind, and in two days after his deliverance, sent him, to his high gratification, with a guard of twelve of his trusty followers, to Jamestown, upon condition that he should remit two culverins and a millstone as his ransom.

After an absence of seven weeks, Smith arrived barely in time to save the colony from being abandoned. His associates, reduced to the number of thirty-eight, impatient of farther stay in a country where they had met with so many discouragements, were preparing to return to England; and it was not without the utmost difficulty, and alternately employing persuasion, remonstrance, and even violent interference, that Smith prevailed with them to relinquish their design. Pocahontas, persevering in her generous designs, continued to supply the colony with provisions till a vessel arrived from England with supplies. Having preserved the settlement during the winter by his active exertions and his careful management, Smith embraced the earliest opportunity, in the following summer, to explore the extensive and multifarious ramifications of the Chesapeak.

In an open barge, with fourteen persons, and but a scanty stock of provisions, he traversed the whole of that vast extent of water, from cape Henry, where it meets the ocean, to the river Susquehannah; trading with some tribes of Indians, and fighting with others. He discovered and named many small islands, creeks, and inlets; sailed up many of thegreat rivers; and explored the inland parts of the country. During this enterprise, the Susquehannah Indians visited him, and made him presents. At this early period they had hatchets, and utensils of iron and brass, which, by their own account, originally came from the French of Canada. After sailing about three thousand miles, Smith returned to Jamestown. Having made careful observations during this excursion of discovery, he drew a map of Chesapeak bay, with its tributary rivers, annexing to it a description of the countries, and of the nations inhabiting them, and sent it to the council in England.

The superior abilities of Smith had now been so manifestly subservient to the general welfare, that they had silenced, at least, the malignity of envy and faction; and although it was comparatively a short period since he had been so unjustly calumniated, and deprived of his seat at the council-board, immediately after his return from his voyage, he was, by the election of the council and the request of the settlers, invested with the government, and received letters-patent to be president of the colony. The wisdom of his administration inspired confidence, its vigor commanded obedience, and the military exercises, which he obliged all to perform, struck the Indians with astonishment, and inspired them with awe.

Under the administration of president Smith, the colony continued to prosper; as far as it could prosper, under the circumstances of its organization. Its elements, however, were not of the best description, and the number of ‘poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving men, libertines and such like,’ is represented to have been ten times more fit to spoil a commonwealth than either to begin or maintain one. They were lazy, avaricious, and disappointed. The Indians too became suspicious and troublesome; and the company in England were unjustly discontented with the management of captain Smith. A new charter was therefore treated for by the company of South Virginia, and obtained; and among the new proprietors were many of the most wealthy and influential commoners and peers of the land. Lord Delaware was appointed governor of Virginia for life, though he did not accompany the expedition, which was immediately fitted out. A fleet of nine vessels sailed for the colony, one of which was wrecked at the Bermudas, and one lost in a violent storm. On board of this fleet were five hundred emigrants; chiefly young and licentious, indigent and haughty, who soon involved the colony in anarchy and confusion.

A systematic design was now meditated against the whole colony by the sovereign of the country; but it was providentially discovered and frustrated. Pocahontas, the tutelary friend of Virginia, though but a child of thirteen years of age, went in a very dark and dreary night to Jamestown, and, at the hazard of her life, disclosed to the president a plot of her father to kill him and all the English. This timely notice put the colony on its guard; and some favorable occurrences soon after contributed still farther towards its preservation. An Indian, apparently dead through the effect of a charcoal fire in a close room, was, on the application of vinegar and aqua vitæ by the president, reanimated. This supposed miracle, with an explosion of powder, which killed two or three Indians and scorched and wounded others, excited such astonishment, mingled with such admiration of English power and art, that Powhatan and his people came to them with presents of peace; and the whole country during the remainder of Smith’s administration, was entirely free frommolestation, and the colonists pursued their plans of improvement, both in agriculture and in some of the manufactures, with tolerable success. Unhappily, however, the president, while exerting himself with his usual energy in the concerns of the settlement, received a dangerous wound from the accidental explosion of a quantity of gunpowder. Completely disabled by this misfortune, and destitute of surgical aid, he was compelled to resign his command, and take his departure (and it was a final one) for England.

The departure of Smith was in every respect inauspicious for the colony. It was the signal for a general revolt among the Indians. Many of the colonists were slain, their provisions were wasted by imprudence, and they were threatened with absolute starvation. There numbers were reduced from five hundred to about sixty, in the course of half a year. In this extremity they received unexpected relief from Sir Thomas Gates and the party which had been wrecked the year before at Bermudas, and who had been enabled to build two small vessels, and succeed in reaching Virginia. It was determined to abandon the colony, and sail for Newfoundland, and every thing was prepared for embarkation, when lord Delaware, with three ships and a hundred and fifty men, arrived at the mouth of the river. By the energetic discipline of this nobleman, the affairs of the colony were soon restored to order. He erected forts, allotted to each man his respective duty, and appointed the necessary officers to enforce obedience to his commands. His health not permitting him to remain in office, he returned to England, leaving about two hundred people in health and tranquillity.

Not long after his departure, Sir Thomas Dale arrived at Virginia with three ships and three hundred emigrants. Other additions to the colony were made within a short interval. New settlements were commenced farther up the river, and a town was built, and called Henrico, in honor of prince Henry. In 1612, application was made to the king by the patentees for a new charter, with increased privileges, and it was accordingly granted.

It was in the year following the grant of the new charter, that the marriage of Pocahontas, the famed daughter of Powhatan, was celebrated; an alliance which secured peace to Virginia many years. Having been carefully instructed in the Christian religion, it was not long before she renounced the idolatry of her country, made profession of Christianity, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca. In some measure connected with this event, by the influence so powerful an alliance was calculated to have upon the minds of the natives in the vicinity, was the treaty which Sir Thomas Dale effected with the Chickahominy tribe of Indians, a bold and free people, who now voluntarily relinquished their name, for that of Tassantessus, or Englishmen; and solemnly engaged to be faithful subjects to king James.

During the interval of tranquillity procured by the alliance with Powhatan, an important change was made in the state of the colony. Hitherto no right of private property in land had been established. The fields that were cleared had been cultivated by the joint labor of the colonists; their product was carried to the common storehouses, and distributed weekly to every family, according to its number and exigencies. However suitable such an arrangement might have been deemed for the commencement of a colony, experience proved that it was decidedly opposed to its progressin a more advanced state. In order to remedy this, Sir Thomas Dale divided a considerable portion of the land into small lots, and granted one of these to each individual in full property. From the moment that industry had the certain prospect of a recompense, it advanced rapidly. The articles of primary necessity were cultivated with so much attention as secured the means of subsistence; and such schemes of improvement were formed as prepared the way for the introduction of opulence into the colony.

The increased industry of the colonists was not long before it found a new and somewhat singular channel—the cultivation of tobacco; indeed so inconsiderately and exclusively were their energies directed to that object at this time, that the most fatal consequences were rendered almost inevitable. The land which ought to have been reserved for raising provisions, and even the streets of Jamestown, were planted with tobacco. Various regulations were framed to restrain this ill-directed activity; but, from eagerness for present gain, the planters disregarded every admonition. Tobacco, however, had many trials to pass through before it reached its present established station. King James declared himself its open enemy, and drew against it his royal pen. In the work which he entitled ‘Counterblast to Tobacco,’ he poured the most bitter reproaches on this ‘vile and nauseous weed.’ He followed it up by a proclamation to restrain the disorderly trading in tobacco, as tending to a general and new corruption of both men’s bodies and minds. Yet tobacco, like other proscribed objects, throve under persecution, and achieved a final triumph over all its enemies.

Financially, the colony was now in a flourishing state; politically, it was badly administered. Its president was captain Argal, a rigid master, and absurd tyrant. One of his edicts is worth quoting: it ordered ‘That every person should go to church on Sundays and holidays, or be kept confined the night succeeding the offence, and be a slave to the colony for the following week; for the second offence, a slave for a month; and for the third, a year and a day.’ From the representations made to him of the misrule of this man, lord Delaware embarked a second time for America; but died on the voyage, in or near the bay which bears his name. His death was the signal for renewed outrages on the part of the colonial tyrant, and the office of captain-general was transferred toMr.Yeardley. He arrived in April, and immediately convoked a colonial assembly, which met at Jamestown on the19thof June, and was the first representative legislature which assembled in the transatlantic states.

The full tide of prosperity was now enjoyed by the colony. Its numbers greatly increased, and its settlements became widely extended. At peace with the Indians, it reposed in perfect security, and realized the happiness its fortunate situation and favorable prospects afforded, without suspecting the sudden and terrible reverse of fortune it was doomed to experience. Opechankanough, the successor of Powhatan, had adopted with ardor all the early enmity of his native tribe against the settlers; and he formed one of those dreadful schemes, so frequent in Indian annals, of exterminating the whole race at one blow. Such was the fidelity of his people, and so deep the power of savage dissimulation, that this dire scheme was matured without the slightest intimation reaching the English, who neither attended to the movements of the Indians, nor suspectedtheir machinations; and though surrounded by a people whom they might have known from experience to be both artful and vindictive, they neglected those precautions for their own safety that were requisite in such circumstances.

All the tribes in the vicinity of the English settlements were successively gained, except those on the eastern shore, from whom, on account of their peculiar attachment to their new neighbors, every circumstance that might discover what they intended was carefully concealed. To each tribe its station was allotted, and the part it was to act prescribed. On the morning of the day consecrated to vengeance, each was at the place of rendezvous appointed; and at mid-day, the moment they had previously fixed for this execrable deed, the Indians, raising a universal yell, rushed at once on the English in all their scattered settlements, butchering men, women, and children, with undistinguishing fury, and every aggravation of brutal outrage and savage cruelty. In one hour, three hundred and forty-seven persons were cut off, almost without knowing by whose hands they fell. Indeed, the universal destruction of the colonists was prevented only by the consequences of an event, which perhaps appeared but of little importance in the colony at the time when it took place—the conversion of an Indian to the Christian faith. On the night before the massacre, this man was made privy to it by his own brother; but as soon as his brother left him he revealed the dreadful secret to an English gentleman in whose house he was residing, who immediately carried the tidings to Jamestown, and communicated them to some of the nearest settlers, scarcely in time to prevent the last hour of the perfidious truce from being the last hour of their lives.

A bloody and exterminating war followed, in which the English were victorious, but by which they were much reduced in numbers. Famine came in the train of battle, and made additional devastation. A writ ofquo warrantowas issued against the company, under whose rule these calamities had been suffered. It was brought to trial in the court of king’s bench, and their charter was vacated. A new commission was issued for the government of Virginia, in which the republican tendencies of the previous government were duly restrained.

CharlesI.on the demise of his predecessor reduced the colony under the immediate direction of the crown, appointing a governor and council, and ordering all patents and processes to issue in his own name. His first appointment of governor elevated Sir George Yeardley to that office, but he died early, and was succeeded by the despotic Sir John Harvey, who managed to make himself perfectly odious to the people whom he was sent to govern. The public mind became finally so much excited, that even the despotic Charles thought it prudent to recall his minion, and Sir William Berkeley was appointed to succeed him.

Sir William was as eminent, as his predecessor had been deficient, in all popular virtues; and he was the bearer of instructions which directed him to restore the colonial assembly, and invite it to enact a body of laws for the province. Thus unexpectedly the colonists were restored to their old system of freedom, and the consequence was universal gratitude and joy. The king became universally popular, and during the civil wars, the colony continued faithful to the royal cause.

The next incident of great interest in the history of Virginia, is therebellion consequent on the passage of the navigation act; by which the plan of monopolizing to England the commerce of the colonies was perfected and reduced into a complete system.

This oppressive system excited great indignation in Virginia, where the extensive commerce and pre-eminent loyalty of the people rendered the pressure of the burden more severe, and the infliction of it more exasperating. The excitement became general, and was worked up to such a pitch, that nothing was wanting to precipitate the people into the most desperate acts, but some leader qualified to unite and to direct their operations. Such a leader they found in Nathaniel Bacon. He was a lawyer, educated in London, and was appointed a member of the council a short time after his emigration to Virginia. Young, bold, ambitious, with an engaging address, and commanding eloquence, he harangued the colonists upon their grievances; inflamed their resentment against their rulers; declaimed particularly against the languor with which the war, then existing with the Indians, had been conducted; and such was the effect of his representations, that he was elected general by the people. To give some color of legitimacy to the authority he had acquired, and perhaps expecting to precipitate matters to the extremity which his interest required that they should speedily reach, he applied to the governor for an official confirmation of the popular election, and offered instantly to march against the common enemy. This Sir William Berkeley firmly refused, and issued a proclamation commanding the dispersion of the insurgents. Bacon had advanced too far to recede; and he hastened, at the head of six hundred armed followers, to Jamestown, surrounded the house where the governor and council were assembled, and repeated his demand.

Intimidated by the threats of the enraged multitude, the council hastily prepared a commission, and, by their entreaties, prevailed on the governor to sign it. Bacon and his troops then began their march against the Indians; but no sooner were the council relieved from their fears, than they declared the commission void, and proclaimed Bacon a rebel. Enraged at this conduct, he instantly returned, with all his forces, to Jamestown. The aged governor, unsupported, and almost abandoned, fled precipitately to Accomack, on the eastern shore of the colony; collecting those who were well affected towards his administration, he began to oppose the insurgents, and several skirmishes were fought, with various success. A party of the insurgents burned Jamestown, laid waste those districts of the colony which adhered to the old administration, and confiscated the property of the loyalists. The governor, in retaliation, seized the estates of many of the insurgents, and executed several of their leaders. In the midst of these calamities Bacon sickened and died. Destitute of a leader to conduct and animate them, their sanguine hopes of success subsided; all began to desire an accommodation; and after a brief negotiation with the governor they laid down their arms, on obtaining a promise of general pardon.

On hearing of the disturbances in Virginia, Charles despatched, though with no great haste, a fleet with some troops for its pacification. These did not arrive, however, till they might well have been dispensed with. With them came colonel Jeffreys, appointed to recall and replace Sir William Berkeley in the government of the colony. This brave and benevolent man did not long survive his dismissal, and may justly be said to have lived and died in the service of Virginia.

A succession of weak and tyrannical rulers followed the recall of Sir William Berkeley. Notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances under which it labored, the colony continued to increase. Tobacco grew in demand in Europe, and its cultivation gave constant employment to the planters. The situation of the colony, removed alike from the French in Canada, and the Spaniards in Florida, saved it from their hostile incursions, and procured for it a comparative repose.

MASSACHUSETTS.

In the order of time, the settlement of the northern states followed next after that of Virginia. In the year 1614, captain Smith explored the coast with much care between Penobscot and cape Cod. He presented a chart and description of it to Charles, prince of Wales, who was so well pleased with the country that he called itNew England; a name which has since been applied to the provinces east of the Hudson.

In 1620, that country began to be colonized by a body of Puritans; who had been first driven to Holland, by the mad intolerance of the English government, and afterwards determined to emigrate to America. They applied to the Virginia company for a patent, and it was not unwilling to favor their views. They solicited full freedom of conscience, but this the king declined granting under the great seal: he promised, however, not to molest them, so long as they behaved themselves peaceably.

The first band of these Puritans, consisting of one hundred and one persons, reached cape Cod at break of day on the9thof November, 1620. Observing that they were beyond the limits of the company’s patent, they had no powers of government derived from authority; and, therefore, even before landing, they formed themselves into a ‘civil body politic, under the crown of England, for the purpose of framing just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices,’ to which they promised all due submission and obedience. Forty-one persons signed this contract. It contained the elements of those forms of government peculiar to the new world. Under this system, John Carver was, by general consent, chosen their first governor, ‘confiding,’ as the electors say, ‘in his prudence, that he would not adventure upon any matter of moment without the consent of the rest, or, at least, advice of such as were known to be the wisest among them.’

Government being thus established, sixteen men, well armed, with a few others, were sent on shore the same day, to fetch wood and make discoveries; but they returned at night without having found any person or habitation. The company, having rested during the Sabbath, disembarked on Monday, the13thof November; and soon after proceeded to explore the interior of the country. In their researches they discovered heaps of earth, one of which they dug open, but, finding within implements of war, they concluded these were Indian graves; and therefore, replacing what they had taken out, they left them inviolate. In different heaps of sand they also found baskets of corn, a large quantity of which they carried away in a great kettle, found at the ruins of an Indian house. This providential discovery gave them seed for a future harvest, and preserved the infant colony from famine. On the6thof December the shallop was sent out with several of the principal men, to sail round the bay in searchof a place for settlement. During their researches, part of the company travelled along the shore, where they were surprised by a flight of arrows from a party of Indians; but, on the discharge of the English muskets, the Indians instantly disappeared. The shallop, after imminent hazard from the loss of its rudder and mast in a storm, and from shoals, which it narrowly escaped, reached a small island on the night of the8th; here the company reposed themselves, grateful for their preservation during the week; and on this island they kept the Sabbath. The day following they sounded the harbor, and found it fit for shipping; went on shore, and explored the adjacent land, where they saw various corn-fields and brooks; and, judging the situation to be convenient for a settlement, they returned with the welcome intelligence to the ship.

On the23d, as many of the company as could, with convenience, went on shore, and felled, and carried timber to the spot appropriated for the erection of a building for common use. On the25th, they commenced the erection of the first house. A platform for their ordnance demanding the earliest attention, they formed one upon a hill, which commanded an extensive prospect of the plain beneath, of the expanding bay, and of the distant ocean. They divided their whole company into nineteen families; measured out the ground; and assigned to every person by lot half a pole in breadth, and three poles in length, for houses and gardens. In grateful remembrance of the Christian friends whom they found at the last town they left in their native country, they called their settlement Plymouth. Thus was founded the first British town of New England.

The climate was found much more severe than the colonists had anticipated; and they had arrived when winter was nearly one-third advanced. They had every thing to do, and in this season could do very little, even of what was indispensable. Their shelter was wretched; their sufferings were intense; their dangers were not small, and were rendered painful by an absolute uncertainty of their extent. All these evils they encountered with resolution, and sustained with fortitude. To each other they were kind: to the savages they were just: they loved the truth of the gospel; embraced it in its purity; and obeyed it with an excellence of life, which added a new wreath to the character of man.

Among the attempts at forming settlements at this time was one of a character as peculiar as it was undesirable. Captain Wollaston began a plantation, which he named after himself. One Morton, of Furnival’s inn, was of this company. He was not left in command, but contrived to make himself chief, changed the name of mount Wollaston to Merry mount, set all the servants free, erected a may-pole, and lived a life of dissipation, until all the stock intended for trade was consumed. He was charged with furnishing the Indians with guns and ammunition, and teaching them the use of them. At length, he made himself so obnoxious to the planters in all parts, that, at their general desire, the people of New Plymouth seized him by an armed force, and confined him, until they had opportunity of sending him to England.

The time was now at hand, when the causes which had induced the voluntary exile of the Leyden congregation, should produce an effect far more extensive. Applications to the Plymouth company from Puritan congregations were now becoming frequent; and, in the year 1628, the council of Plymouth sold to Sir Henry Roswell and others, their heirs andassociates, that part of New England which lies between two boundaries, one three miles north of the Merrimac, and the other three miles south of Charles river, from the Atlantic to the South sea. The same yearMr.Endicot, one of the patentees, came to New England, and planted himself, with a small colony, in Naumkeag, now Salem. The following year they were joined by about two hundred others, making three hundred in the whole, one hundred of whom, however, removed the same year, and settled themselves, with the consent ofMr.Endicot, governor of the colony, at Mishawum, now Charlestown. The second Salem company brought with them a considerable number of cattle, horses, sheep, and goats; which after a little period, became so numerous as to supply all the wants of the inhabitants. Powers of government were granted to these colonists by CharlesI., which constituted them a corporation, by the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, with power to elect annually a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants; four great and general courts were to be held every year, to consist of the governor, or, in his absence, the deputy governor, the assistants, or at least six of them, and the freemen of the company.

The arbitrary proceedings of the British court, in affairs both of church and state, continued without any abatement, and induced many gentlemen of wealth and distinction to join the Plymouth company, and remove to New England. In 1629, many persons of this character, and among them the distinguished names of Isaac Johnson, John Winthrop, Thomas Dudley, and Sir Richard Saltonstall, proposed to the company to remove with their families, on condition that the charter and government should be transferred to New England. To this the company assented, and in the course of the next year, John Winthrop, who had been chosen governor, with about one thousand five hundred persons, embarked. The fleet consisted of ten sail, one of which was of three hundred and fifty tons, and, from lady Arabella Johnson, who sailed in her, was called the Arabella. Among the passengers were a number of eminent non-conformist ministers. The most highly esteemed wasMr.Wilson, the son of a dignitary of the church, who, by his connexions and talents, might have aspired to its highest honors, but chose to renounce all, in order to suffer with those whom he accounted the people of God. But the circumstance which threw a greater lustre on the colony than any other, was the arrival ofMr.John Cotton, the most esteemed of all the Puritan ministers in England. Becoming an object of the persecuting fury of Laud, he left Boston in disguise, and spent some time in London, seeking a proper opportunity to emigrate. There went out with himMr.Hooker andMr.Stone, who were esteemed to make a glorious triumvirate, and were received in New England with the utmost exultation.Mr.Cotton was appointed to preach at Boston, now the principal town in Massachusetts bay, and was mainly employed in drawing up the ecclesiastical constitution of the colony.

On the arrival of the principal ships of the fleet at Charlestown, the governor and several of the patentees, having viewed the bottom of the bay of Massachusetts, and pitched down on the north side of Charles river, took lodgings in the great house built there the preceding year, and the rest of the company erected cottages, booths, and tents, about the town hill. Their place of assembling for divine service was under a tree.When the fleet had safely arrived, a day of thanksgiving was kept in all the plantations. Early attention was paid to the great object of the enterprise. On the30thof July, a day of solemn prayer and fasting was kept at Charlestown, when governor Winthrop, deputy governor Dudley, andMr.Wilson, first entered into church covenant; and at this time was laid the foundation of the church of Charlestown, and of the first church in Boston. On the27thof August, the congregation kept a fast, and choseMr.Wilson their teacher. ‘We used imposition of hands,’ says governor Winthrop, ‘but with this protestation by all, that it was only a sign of election and confirmation, not of any intent thatMr.Wilson should renounce the ministry he received in England.’

The colony was now gaining strength from its numbers and organization; but it had also its trials to contend with, not the least of which was the sickness arising from the severity of the climate, or, more truly, from the means of counteracting the injurious tendencies of the climate not being yet properly understood. Among those who fell an early sacrifice, none were lamented more than lady Arabella Johnson and her husband, who had left the abodes of abundance and of social comfort for the American wilderness, purely from religious principle. As soon as the severity of the winter was abated sufficiently to admit of assemblies being convened, the colonists proceeded to enact laws for their internal regulation. It has been before observed, that those who so resolutely ventured to cross the ocean, and to brave the hardships attendant on clearing the American forests, sought rather to establish churches, than to found a kingdom; it will naturally be supposed, therefore, that their legislation partook largely of an ecclesiastical character. Indeed, the history of this colony presents more matter for the ecclesiastical than the civil historian. At the very first court of election a law was passed, enacting that none should hereafter be admitted freemen, or be entitled to any share in the government, or be capable of being chosen magistrates, or even of serving as jurymen but such as had been or should hereafter be received into the church as members. ‘This was a most extraordinary order or law,’ says Hutchinson, ‘and yet it continued in force until the dissolution of the government, it being repealed in appearance only after the restoration of king CharlesII.Had they been deprived of their civil privileges in England by an act of parliament, unless they would join in communion with the churches there, it might very well have been the first in the roll of grievances. But such were the requisites to qualify for church-membership here, that the grievance was abundantly greater.’

The baneful influence of the erroneous principles of the union of the civil and ecclesiastical power, soon became apparent in the persecution of the most liberally minded man in the colony, Roger Williams. It is true that he enthusiastically supported some tenets which were deemed heterodox, and occasioned considerable excitement by inveighing against the use of the cross in the national flag. In consequence of the spread of his opinion, some of the troops would not act till the relic of popery, as they considered it, was cut out of the banner, while others would not serve under any flag from which it was erased. At length a compromise was entered into, by which it was agreed that the obnoxious emblem should be omitted from the banners of the militia, while it was retained in those of the forts. This, however, was only one of the errors chargedagainst Williams; it is said that he maintained that no female should go abroad unless veiled; that unregenerate men ought neither to pray nor to take oaths; that, indeed, oaths had better be altogether omitted; that the churches of New England should not acknowledge or communicate with the hierarchy from which they had separated; that infants should not be subjects of baptism; that the magistrate should confine his authority wholly to temporal affairs; and that James or Charles of England had no right at all to grant away the lands of the Indians without their consent. For the zealous propagation of these sentiments, he was deemed worthy of banishment from the colony of Massachusetts. The order of the court was, that he should be transported to England; but he escaped the limits of their jurisdiction, repaired to the Narraganset country, and became the founder of a new colony.

During the year 1635, no less than three thousand persons arrived in New England. Among them was Henry Vane, a young man of noble family, animated with a devotion to the cause of religion and liberty, which induced him to relinquish all his hopes in England, and settle in an infant colony which as yet afforded little more than a bare subsistence to its inhabitants: he was naturally received in New England with high regard and admiration, and was instantly complimented with the freedom of the colony. Enforcing his claims to respect by the address and ability which he showed in conducting business, he was elected governor in the year subsequent to his arrival, by the universal consent of the colonists, and with the highest expectations of an advantageous administration. These hopes, we shall find in the sequel, were by no means realized. He entered too deeply into polemical theology, to allow him to devote the energies of his mind to the civil and political duties which afforded so abundant a field for their exercise.

A brief period elapsed after the expulsion of Roger Williams, before the repose of the colony was again interrupted by religious dissensions. The Puritans had transported, with their other religious practices, that of assembling one evening in the week to converse over the discourses of the preceding Sabbath; a proceeding well calculated to keep alive that zeal which arises from the vigorous exercise of private judgment, but not to promote the subserviency requisite to a quiet submission to the uniformity of authorized opinions. These meetings had been originally confined to the brethren; butMrs.Hutchinson, a lady of respectable station in life, of considerable native talent, and of affable manners, deemed it desirable that the sisters should also exercise a similar privilege. Unfortunately, it was not long before this lady and her associates discovered that there would be much more propriety in their instructing their ministers than in the reverse process, which had hitherto prevailed. They adopted that most convenient dogma, that good works are no evidence of being a true Christian, or one of the elect; and that the only testimony to a state of justification, was the overpowering assurance of the mind, produced by the immediate influence of the divine Spirit.

The disturbance occasioned by the propagation of these offensive sentiments, was aggravated by the circumstance of the governor,Mr.Vane, being their decided advocate. Vehement discussions and bitter accusations abounded; but the antinomian party, though most zealous, were least numerous; and at the annual election,Mr.Vane was displaced byMr.Winthrop,by a very decided majority. After various measures had been resorted to, in order to bring the dissentients within the pale of orthodoxy, a synod was called, which determined that the sentiments ofMrs.Hutchinson and her followers were grievously erroneous, and, as they still refused submission, the favorite measure of banishment was had recourse to. Another accession was thus made to the ‘alluvies,’ as Mather terms it, of Rhode Island; but not finding that land of liberty perfectly to her tasteMrs.Hutchinson removed to a Dutch plantation, where, not long after, she was basely murdered, with many of her family, by the Indians.

It does not fall within our plan to follow out the details of the ecclesiastical persecutions that disfigure the early history of New England. Although themselves fugitives from the terrors of persecution, the Puritans entertained no particular toleration for the tenets of those who came to different conclusions. They whipped, banished, and imprisoned Anabaptists, Quakers and others, whose obstinacy was equal to their own, and whose power was unfortunately less. Like many other enthusiasts, they entertained a strong predilection for the phraseology and manners of the Hebrews, whose laws they ill understood. Lying, drunkenness and dancing were punished with public whipping; and for a man to have long hair was considered an abomination, and inconsistent with the care of the soul.

A more important subject than religious wrangling, is the union formed by the New England colonists, for mutual defence against the savages, and for security against the claims and encroachments of the Dutch. This union, or confederation, was formed in 1643, by the name of The United Colonies of New England. It had been proposed by the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, as early as 1638, but was not finally completed until five years after. This confederacy, which continued about forty years, constituted an interesting portion of the political history of New England. It consisted of the colonies of Massachusetts, New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. By the articles of confederation, as they were called, these colonies entered into a firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity, for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare. Each colony was to retain its own peculiar jurisdiction and government; and no other plantation or colony was to be received as a confederate, nor any two of the confederates to be united into one jurisdiction, without the consent of the rest. The affairs of the united colonies were to be managed by a legislature, to consist of two persons, styled commissioners, chosen from each colony. The commissioners were to meet annually in the colonies, in succession, and when met, to choose a president, and the determination of any six to be binding on all.This confederacy, which was declaredtobe perpetual, continued without any essential alteration, until the New England colonies were deprived of their charter by the arbitrary proceedings of JamesII.This union evidently served as the basis of the great confederacy afterwards formed between the thirteen states of America. An examination of the two systems will prove a similarity not only in names, but in general principles.

At the termination of the first half century from the arrival of the emigrants at Plymouth, the New England colonies were calculated to containone hundred and twenty towns, and as many thousand inhabitants; of whom sixteen thousand were capable of bearing arms. The habits of industry and economy, which had been formed in less happy times, continued to prevail, and gave a competency to those who had nothing, and wealth to those who had a competency. The wilderness receded before these hardy and persevering laborers, and its savage inhabitants found their game dispersed, and their favorite haunts invaded. This was the natural consequence of the sales of land, which they were at all times ready to make to the whites. But this result the Indians did not foresee; and when they felt it in all its force, the strongest passions were awakened which could animate the savage breast. A leader only was wanting to concentrate and direct their exertions, and Philip, of Pokanoket, sachem of a tribe residing within the boundaries of Plymouth and Rhode Island, assumed that station. His father was the friend, but he had ever been the enemy, of the whites; and he exerted all the arts of intrigue, of which he was master, to induce the Indians, in all parts of New England, to unite their efforts for their destruction. He succeeded in forming a confederacy, able to send into action more than three thousand warriors.

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