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VI.

CHAP. fowl; the forests were nimble with game; the woods rustled with covies of quails and wild turkies, while they rung with the merry notes of the singing-birds; and hogs, swarming like vermin, ran at large in troops. It was "the best poor man's country in the world." "If a happy peace be settled in poor England," it had been said, "then they in Virginia shall be as happy a people as any under heaven.” But plenty encouraged indolence. No domestic manufactures were established; every thing was imported from England. The chief branch of industry, for the purpose of exchanges, was tobacco planting; and the spirit of invention was enfeebled by the uniformity of pursuit.

ii. M. Hist. Coll. v. ix. p. 116,

CHAPTER VII.

COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND.

VII.

THE limits of Virginia, by its second charter, CHAP. extended two hundred miles north of Old Point Comfort; and therefore included all the soil, which 1609. subsequently formed the state of Maryland. It was long before the country towards the head of the Chesapeake was explored; settlements in Accomack were extended; and commerce was begun with the tribes which Smith had been the first to visit. Porey, the secretary of the colony, "made a dis- 1621. covery into the great bay," as far as the river Patuxent, which he ascended; but his voyage probably extended no further to the north. The English settlement of a hundred men, which he is represented to have found already established,' was rather a consequence of his voyage; and seems to have been on the eastern shore, perhaps within the limits of Virginia. The hope "of a very good trade of furs," animated the adventurers; and if the plantations advanced but slowly, there is yet evidence, that commerce with the Indians was earnestly pursued under the sanction of the colonial government.3

2

1 Chalmers, p. 206.

3 Relation of Maryland, p. 4; 2 Purchas, v. iv. p. 1784; Smith, Smith's History of Virginia, v. ii. v. ii. p. 61-64. p. 63 and 95.

CHAP.

VII.

to

An attempt was made to obtain a monopoly of this commerce' by William Clayborne, whose resolute and enterprizing spirit was destined to exert a powerful and long continued influence. His first 1621. appearance in America was as a surveyor, sent by the London company to make a map of the country. At the fall of the corporation, he had been appointed 1624. by King James a member of the council; and, on 1625. the accession of Charles, was continued in office, and, in repeated commissions, was nominated secre1627, tary of state.1 At the same time, he received 1629. authority from the governors of Virginia to discover the source of the bay of the Chesapeake, and, indeed, any part of that province, from the thirtyfourth to the forty-first degree of latitude. It was, therefore, natural, that he should become familiar with the opportunities for traffic, which the country afforded; and the jurisdiction and the settlement of Virginia seemed about to extend to the forty-first parallel of latitude, which was then the boundary of New-England. Upon his favorable representation, a company was formed in England for trading with 1631. the natives; and, through the agency of Sir William Alexander, the Scottish proprietary of Nova Scotia, a royal license was issued, sanctioning the commerce, and conferring on Clayborne powers of government over those, who should make themselves the com

May

16.

1632. panions of his voyages.

Mar.

8. mands of his sovereign,

1 Rel. of Maryland, 1635, p. 10.
2 Hening, v. p. 116.
3 Hazard, v. i. p. 189.

Harvey enforced the comand confirmed the license

4 Ibid, p. 234 and 239.

5 Papers in Chalmers, p. 227. 6 Chalmers, p. 227, 228.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF SIR GEORGE CALVERT.

255

VII.

by a colonial commission. The Dutch plantations CHAP. were esteemed to border upon Virginia. After long experience as a surveyor, and after years employed in discoveries, Clayborne, now acting under the royal license, formed establishments, not only on Kent Island, in the heart of Maryland, but also near the mouth of the Susquehannah. Thus the colony of Virginia anticipated the extension of its commerce and its limits; and, as mistress of all the vast and commodious waters of the Chesapeake, and of the soil on both sides of the Potomac, indulged the hope of obtaining the most brilliant commercial success, and rising into powerful opulence, without the competition of a rival.

It was the peculiar fortune of the United States, that they were severally colonized by men, in origin, religious faith and purposes, as various, as the climes which are included within their limits. Before Virginia could complete its settlements and confirm its claims to jurisdiction over the country north of the Potomac, a new government was erected, on a foundation as extraordinary, as its results were benevolent. Sir George Calvert had early become interested in colonial establishments in America. A native of Yorkshire, educated at Oxford, with a mind 1580. enlarged by extensive travel, on his entrance into life befriended by Sir Robert Cecil, advanced to the honors of knighthood, and at length employed as one

1 Chalmers, p. 228, 229.

2 Hazard, v. i. p. 430; Relation of Maryland, p. 34; Thurloe, v. v. p. 486; Hazard, v. i. p. 630; Mary

land Papers, in Chalmers, p. 233.
3 Fuller's Worthies, p. 201.
4 Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses,
p. 522, 523.

2

CHAP. of the two secretaries of state,' he not only secured VII. the consideration of his patron and his sovereign, 1619. but the good opinion of the world. He was chosen 1621. by an immense majority to represent in parliament

his native county of Yorkshire. His knowledge of business, his industry, and his fidelity are acknowledged by all historians. He lived in an age, when religious controversy still continued to be active, and when the increasing divisions among protestants were spreading a general alarm. His mind sought relief from controversy in the bosom of the Roman Catholic church; and preferring the avowal of his 1624. opinions to the emoluments of office, he resigned his place and made an open profession of his conversion. King James was never bitter against the catholics, who respected his pretensions as a monarch; Calvert retained his place in the privy council, and was advanced to the dignity of an Irish peerage. He had, from early life, shared in the general enthusiasm of England in favor of American plantations; he had been a member of the great company for Virginia; and, while he was secretary of state, he had obtained a special patent for the southern promontory of Newfoundland. How zealous he was in selecting suitable emigrants, how earnest to promote habits of domestic order and economical industry, how lavishly he expended his estate in advancing the interests of his settlement on the rugged shores of Avalon, is related by those who have written of

1 Stow, edition of 1631, p. 1031. 2 Winwood, v. ii. p. 58, and v. iii. p. 318 and 337.

3 Debates of 1620 and 1621, v. i. p. 175.

4 Whitbourne's Newfoundland,

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