north as the Chesapeake Bay, if not farther. | southern coast of North America. The first France, on the other hand, was not likely, of these took place on the confines of South under so intelligent and ambitious a mon- Carolina, and seems at once to have failed. arch as Francis I., to remain an inactive The second, which was on the River St. spectator of maritime discoveries made by John's in Florida, survived but a few years. the nations on both sides of her. Under In 1565, it was attacked by the Spaniards, her auspices, Verrazzani, in 1524, and Car- under Melendez, that nation claiming the tier ten years afterward, made voyages in country in right of discovery, in consesearch of new lands, so that soon she, too, quence of Ponce de Leon having landed had claims in America to prosecute. As upon it in 1512; and as religious bigotry the result of the former of those two en- was added to national jealousy in the asterprises, she claimed the coast lying to sailants, they put almost all the Huguenots the south of North Carolina, and extending, to death in the most cruel manner," not as as was truly asserted, beyond the farthest Frenchmen," they alleged, "but as Lutherpoint reached by the Cabots. Still more ans." For this atrocity the Spaniards were important were the results of Cartier's severely punished three years afterward, voyage. Having gone up the River St. when Dominic de Gourgues, a Gascon, Lawrence as far as the island on which having captured two of their forts, hanged Montreal now stands, he and Roberval his prisoners upon trees, not far from the made an ineffectual attempt to found a spot where his countrymen had suffered, colony, composed of thieves, murderers, and placed over their bodies this inscripdebtors, and other inmates of the prisons tion: "I do not this as unto 'Spaniards or in France, on the spot now occupied by mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and Quebec. Two other unsuccessful attempts murderers." at colonization in America were made by France, the one in 1598, under the Marquis de la Roche; the other in 1600, under Chauvin. At length, in 1605, a French colony was permanently established, under De Monts, a Protestant, at the place now called Annapolis, in Nova Scotia, but not until after having made an abortive attempt within the boundaries of the present State of Maine. Quebec was founded in 1608, under the conduct of Champlain, who became the father of all the French settlements in North America. From that point the French colonists penetrated farther and farther up the St. Lawrence, until at length parties of their hunters and trappers, accompanied by Jesuit missionaries, reached the great lakes, passed beyond them, and descending the Valley of the Mississippi, established themselves at Fort Du Quesne, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and various other places. Thus the greater part of the immense Central Valley of North America fell, for a time, into the hands of the French.

Nor was it only in the North that that nation sought to plant colonies. The failure of the French Protestants in all their efforts to secure for themselves mere toleration from their own government, naturally suggested the idea of expatriation, as the sole means that remained to them of procuring liberty to worship God according to his own Word. Even the Prince of Condé, though of royal blood, nobly proposed to set the example of withdrawing from France, rather than be the occasion, by remaining in it, of perpetual civil war with the obstinate partisans of Rome; and in 1562, under the auspices of the brave and good Coligny, to whom, also, the idea of expatriation was familiar, two attempts were made by the Huguenots to establish themselves on the

With a view to encourage the colonization of those parts of North America that were claimed by England, several patents were granted by the crown of that country before the close of the sixteenth century. The enterprises, however, to which these led, universally failed. The most famous was that made in North Carolina, under a patent to Sir Walter Raleigh and others; it was continued from 1584 to 1588; but even the splendid talents and energy of its chief could not save his colony from final ruin. Though the details of this unsuccessful enterprise fill many a page in the history of the United States, strange to say, we are in absolute ignorance of the fate of the few remaining colonists that were left on the banks of the Roanoke; the most probable conjecture being that they were massacred by the natives, though some affirm that they were incorporated into one of the Indian tribes. Two monuments of that memorable expedition remain to this day; first, the name of Virginia, given to the entire coast by the courtier, in honour of his royal mistress, though afterward restricted to a single province; and, next, the use of tobacco in Europe, Sir Walter having successfully laboured to make it an article of commerce between the two continents.

Some of the voyages made from England to America in that century for the mere purpose of traffic were not unprofitable to the adventurers, but it was not until the following that any attempt at colonization met with success. In this no one who loves to mark the hand of God in the affairs of men, and who has studied well the history of those times, can fail to be struck with the display it presents of the Divine wisdom and goodness. For be it observed, that England was not yet ripe for the work

the Valley of Connecticut from the Dutch, situate on an island immediately below the who, having invaded it from their province present city of Albany. Hudson being of New Netherlands, had erected the fort supposed to have been the first European called Good Hope on the right bank of the that sailed up the Delaware, the Dutch river. Three years thereafter, the colony claimed the banks of that river also. But of New-Haven was planted by two Puritan their progress as colonists in America was Nonconformists, the Rev. John Davenport slow. Though Holland was nominally a and Theophilus Eaton, who had first re- republic, yet she did not abound in the matired to Holland on account of their reli- terials proper for making good colonists. gious principles, and then left that country The country presenting but a limited scope for Boston, in 1637. Thus, with the ex- for agriculture, the people were mostly enception of Vermont, which originated in a gaged in trade or in the arts. settlement of much later date, drawn chiefly from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, we see the foundation of all the New-England States laid within twenty years from the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth.

ural advantages, the progress of the colony
was very slow. New Amsterdam, which,
in consequence of such advantages, might
have been expected even to outstrip the
mother-city, as she has since done under
the name of New-York, remained but an
inconsiderable village. The vicinity of
New-England provoked comparisons that
could not fail to make the Dutch colonists
discontented with their institutions. At
length, in 1664, the English took posses-
sion of all the Dutch colonies in North
America, which by that time, in addition
to their settlements on the Hudson, ex-
tended to the eastern part of New-Jersey,
Staten Island, and the western extremity
of Long Island, besides a detached settle-
ment on the banks of the Delaware, with
a population not exceeding in all ten thou-
sand souls. New Netherlands was granted
by Charles II. to his brother the Duke of
York, from whom the colony and its cap-
ital took the name of New-York.
voice of the people was now, for the first
time, heard in its Legislature; it began
thenceforth to advance rapidly in popula-
tion, and, notwithstanding occasional sea-
sons of trial and depression, gave early
promise of what it was one day to become.

Pursuing in the New World the same selfish principles which made the Dutch mercantile aristocracy the worst enemies of their country in the Old, the New Netherlands colonists were allowed little or no share in the government, and accordMeanwhile, Maryland, so called in hon-ingly, notwithstanding the greatest natour of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France, and wife of Charles I., had been colonized. The territory forming the present state of that name, though included in the first charter of Virginia, upon that being cancelled and the company being dissolved, reverted to the king, and he, to gratify his feelings of personal regard, bestowed the absolute proprietorship of the whole upon Sir Charles Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, and his legal heirs in succession. Never was there a more liberal charter. The statutes of the colony were to be made with the concurrence of the colonists, thus securing to the people a legislative government of their own. Sir Charles was a Roman Catholic, but his colony was founded on principles of the fullest toleration; and though he died before the charter in his favour had passed the great seal of the kingdom, yet all the royal engagements being made good to his son Cecil, who succeeded to the title and estates, the latter sent out a colony of about two hundred persons, most of whom were Roman Catholics, and many of them gentlemen, accompanied by his brother Leonard. Maryland, though subjected to many vicissitudes, proved prosperous upon the whole. Though the Roman Catholics New-Jersey was likewise granted to formed at first the decided majority, the the Duke of York, who, in 1664, handed it Protestants became by far the more nu- over to Lord Berkeley and Sir George merous body in the end, and, with shame Carteret, both proprietors of Carolina. be it said, enacted laws depriving the Ro- Difficulties, however, having arisen beman Catholics of all political influence in tween the colonists and the lords superior the colony, and tending to prevent their with regard to the quit-rents payable by increase. the former, that province was gladly surThe first colony in the State of New-rendered by the latter, upon certain conYork was that planted by the Dutch, about the year 1614, on the southern point, it is supposed, of the island where the city of New-York now stands. The illustrious English navigator Hudson, having been in the employment of the Dutch at the time of his discovering the river that bears his name, Holland claimed the country bordering upon it, and gradually formed settlements there, the first of which was

The

ditions, to the crown, and was for some time attached to New-York, within twenty years after all the Dutch possessions had fallen into the hands of the English. West Jersey was afterward purchased by a company of Friends, or Quakers, and a few years later, in 1680, William Penn, previous to his undertaking to plant a colony on a larger scale in Pennsylvania, purchased East Jersey, with the view of

making it an asylum for his persecuted, Sir George Carteret. Their grand object co-religionists. Finally, East and West was gain, yet the celebrated John Locke, Jersey being united as one province un- at once a philosopher and a Christian, was der the direct control of the crown, ob- engaged to make " Constitutions," or a tained a Legislature of its own, and enjoyed form of government, for an empire that a gradual and steady prosperity down to was to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pathe Revolution by which the colonies were cific. The result of the philosophical lawsevered from England. giver's labours was such as the world had Pennsylvania, as is indicated by its never seen the like of before. The proname, was founded by the distinguished prietors were to form a close corporation; philanthropist we have just mentioned, but the territory was to be partitioned out into he was not the first to colonize it. This counties of vast extent, each of which was was done by a mixture of Swedes, Dutch, to have an Earl or Landgrave, and two Barand English, who had for years before oc-ons or Caciques, who, as lords of manors, cupied the right bank of the Delaware, both were to have judicial authority within their above the point where Philadelphia now respective estates. Tenants of ten acres stands, and many miles below. The char-were to be attached as serfs to the soil, to ter obtained by William Penn from Charles be subject to the jurisdiction of their lords II. dates from 1681. On the 27th of Octo- without appeal, and their children were to ber in the following year, the father of the continue in the same degradation forever! new colony having landed on his vast do- The possession of at least fifty acres of main in America, immediately set about land was to be required in order to the enthe framing of a constitution, and began to joyment of the elective franchise; and of found a capital, which was destined to be- five hundred acres in order to a man's become one of the finest cities in the Western ing eligible as a member of the colonial hemisphere. The government, like that Parliament or Legislature. These "Conestablished by the Quakers in New-Jersey, stitutions," into the farther details of which was altogether popular. The people were we cannot enter, were attempted to be into have their own Legislature, whose acts, troduced, but were soon rejected in North however, were not to conflict with the just Carolina; and after a few years' struggle, claims of the proprietor, and were to be were thrown aside also in South Carolina, subject to the approval of the crown alone. which had been separated from the NorThe colony soon became prosperous. The thern province. The colonists adopted for true principles of peace, principles that themselves forms of government analoform so conspicuous a part of the Quaker gous to those of the other colonies; the doctrines, distinguished every transaction proprietary company was after a while in which the Aborigines were concerned. dissolved; the Carolinas fell under the diIt is the glory of Pennsylvania that it nev-rect control of the crown, but were gover did an act of injustice to the Indians. erned by their own legislatures. Their The territory belonging to the State of prosperity was slow, having been frequentDelaware was claimed by Penn and his ly interrupted by serious wars with the successors, as included in the domain de-native tribes, particularly the Tuscaroras, scribed in their charter, and for a time which, as it was the most powerful, was formed a part of Pennsylvania, under the for a long time also the most hostile. title of the Three Lower Counties. But Last of all the original thirteen provinthe mixed population of Swedes, Dutch, ces, in the order of time, came Georgia, and English by which it was occupied, which was settled as late as 1732, by the were never reconciled to this arrange- brave and humane Oglethorpe, The colment, and having at last obtained a gov-onists were of mixed origin, but the Engernment of its own, Delaware became a lish race predominated. Although it had separate province. difficulties to encounter almost from the

The settlement of the two Carolinas be- first, yet, notwithstanding wars with the gan with straggling emigrants from Vir-Spaniards in Florida, hostile attacks from ginia, who sought to better their fortunes the Indians, and internal divisions, Georin regions farther south, and were after- gia acquired, by degrees, a considerable ward joined by others from New-England, amount of strength. and also from Europe. At length, in 1663, Such is a brief notice of the thirteen the entire region lying between the thirty- original North American provinces, which, sixth degree of north latitude and the Riv- by the Revolution of 1775-1783, were transer St. John's in Florida, was granted to a formed into as many states. They all proprietary company in England, which touch more or less on the Atlantic, and was invested with most extraordinary pow-stretch to a greater or less distance into ers. The proprietors, eight in number, the interior. Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylwere Lord Ashley Cooper, better known vania, and North Carolina are the largest; as the Earl of Shaftesbury, Clarendon, Rhode Island and Delaware are the smallMonk, Lord Craven, Sir John Colleton, est. Lord John and Sir William Berkeley, and In 1803, the French colony of Louisiana,

now the state of that name, together with the days of fine packets, or of large and the territories since comprised in the well-appointed merchant vessels, the voyStates of Arkansas and Missouri, and an almost indefinite tract lying westward of these last two, was purchased by the United States for fifteen millions of dollars. And in 1821, the Spanish colony of Florida, comprising the peninsula which used to be called East Florida, and a narrow strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico, called West Florida, was purchased by the same government for five millions of dollars. Both purchases now form, of course, part of the great North American Republic.

CHAPTER V.

INTERIOR COLONIZATION OF THE COUNTRY.

ages had to be made in small and crowded ships. The inconveniences, to say nothing of the sickness that attended them, were but ill calculated to nerve the heart for coming trials; and as the colonists approached the coast, the boundless and solemn forests that stretched before them, the strangeness of every object that filled the scene, the absence of all tillage and cultivation, and of a village or house to give them shelter, and the uncouth and even frightful aspect of the savage inhabitants, must have damped the boldest spirits. In the case of Plymouth and some others, the settlers arrived during winter, when all nature wore her gloomiest attire. The rudest hovels were the only abodes that could be immediately prepared for AFTER the short account we have given their reception, and for weeks together of the first planting of the thirteen original there might only be a few days of such provinces, by successive arrivals of colo- weather as would permit their proceeding nists from Europe, on the seacoast and with the operations required for their comthe banks of the larger streams, we pro- fort. Not only conveniences and luxuries, ceed to say something of the progress of such as the poorest in the mother-country colonization in the interior of the country. enjoyed, but even the necessaries of life, A hundred and twenty-five years, it will were often wanting. Years had to be be observed, elapsed between the found- passed before any considerable part of the ation of the first and the last of these forest could be cleared, comfortable dwellprovinces; also, that, with the exception ings erected, and pleasant gardens plantof New-York and Delaware, which receiv- ed. Meanwhile, disease and death would ed their first European inhabitants from enter every family; dear friends and comHolland and Sweden, they were all origi-panions in the toils and cares of the enternally English; but that, eventually, these two were likewise included in English patents, and their Dutch and Swedish inhabitants merged among the English.

prise would be borne, one after another, to the grave. To these causes of depression there were often added the horrors of savage warfare, by which some of the colonies were repeatedly decimated, and during which the poor settler, for weeks and months together, could not know, on retiring to rest, whether he should not be awakened by the heart-quailing war-whoop of the savages around his house, or by finding the house itself in flames. Ah, what pen can describe the horror that fell upon many a family, in almost all the colonies, not once, but often, when aroused by false or real alarms! Who can depict the scenes in which a father, before he received the fatal blow himself, was compelled to see his wife and children fall by the tomahawk before his eyes, or be dragged into a captivity worse than death? With such depressing circumstances to try the hearts of the colonists-circumstances that can be fully understood by those only who have passed through them, or who have heard them related with the minute fidelity of an eyewitness-who can wonder that the colonists advanced but slowly?

All these colonies were of slow growth, ten, and even twenty years being required, in several instances, before they could be regarded as permanently established. That of Virginia, the earliest, was more than once on the point of being broken up. Indeed, we may well be surprised that, when the colonists that survived the ravages of disease and attacks from the Indians were still farther reduced in their number by the return of a part of them to England, the remainder did not become disheartened and abandon the country in despair. The Plymouth colonists lost, upon the very spot where they settled, half their number within six months after their arrival; and terrible, indeed, must have been the sorrows of the dreary winter of 1620-21, as endured by those desolate yet persevering exiles. But they had a firm faith in God's goodness; they looked to the future; they felt that they had a great and a glorious task to accomplish, and that, although they themselves might perish in attempting it, Still, as I have said, they gradually gainyet their children would enjoy the prom-ed strength. At the Revolution in England ised land.

Stout hearts were required for such enterprises. Few of the colonists were wealthy persons, and as those were not

of 1688, that is, eighty-one years after the first settlement of Virginia, and sixty-eight after that of Plymouth, the population of the colonies, then twelve in number, was