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commenced against the Catholics. The governor raised an armed force, seized the colonial archives, and marched against his opponents; but, in a battle fought near the site of Annapolis, his party were dispersed and himself taken prisoner. Four of his men were executed. The disturbances continued until 1660, when the upper house of the legislature was dissolved, and the entire management of affairs devolved upon the popular branch. This continued until the Restoration of Charles II., when the old order of administration was restored, the proprietor reinstated, and peace secured by a general amnesty for all offences. Emigration was renewed with considerable activity, especially among the labouring classes, who, under indentures for a term of years, had the expenses of their voyage defrayed.

When the Revolution occurred in England, the Protestants of Maryland, inspired with new courage, rose in arms, overturned the government, and substituted a provisional one. King William, who doubtless had an interest in favour of the insurgents, gave his entire sanction to their proceedings and took the government into his own hands. After a short tenure by Andros, it was directed during six

years by Nicholson, who, on the whole, gave satisfaction. The Protestants considered their wrongs as redressed, nor do we hear of any complaints from the opposite party. Under the successive administrations of Blackeston, Seymour, Corbet, and Hunt, the province continued tranquil and contented. In 1716, the inheritance having fallen to Charles, Lord Baltimore, who professed the Protestant religion, George I. was induced to restore his patent, which continued till the Revolution in the hands of the family. It was first ruled by B. Leonard Calvert, a relation of the proprietor, who was succeeded in 1732 by Samuel Ogle. The colony continuing to flourish, received a large accession of Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, who, after settling in Pennsylvania, sold their possessions and removed to this more favourable climate.

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N 1606, Sir George Popham was sent from England, by the Plymouth Company, with a hundred men, to form a colony in America. He chose a site on the Kennebec; and, with forty-five of his company, commenced a settlement, under the name of St. George. During the winter, they endured great sufferings from cold and famine; their president died, and the store-house was consumed by fire. The settlement was consequently abandoned in the following year. But for a series of unforeseen calamities, this attempt would probably have given New England a priority, in point of age, to Virginia.

No further attempt was made at colonization in this quarter, until 1614, when Captain John Smith visited it in two ships, established a lucrative trade with the Indians, and explored the interior, together with the coast from Cape Cod to the Penobscot. He named th

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country New England, and prepared a map of it, which is still extant, and is strikingly correct in all its outlines.

On his return, he succeeded in rousing a spirit of enterprise, which, for a while, promised the most flattering results. Smith sailed the following year, under the auspices of the Plymouth Company, but was driven back by storms. On a second attempt, his crew mutinied, and, while engaged in quelling this new danger, his ship was seized by French pirates, and he escaped only by means of an open boat. On his return to England, he was appointed life admiral of the colony, and obtained a charter (1620) for settling all lands between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude. Meanwhile, influences were in operation which, although apparently insignificant, were to outstrip royal patents in the march of colonization, and found a colony on the wild shores of New England, whose potency was to be realized throughout America. The Puritans, driven from their own country by religious intolerance, had settled in Holland, in 1608, and, for eleven years, lived in happiness under their pastor, John Robinson. Unable, however, to feel at home, in a country whose laws, customs, and language were entirely different from their own, these men obtained a grant of land from the London Company, and permission to emigrate. The king, however, remained hostile, and want of funds obliged them to form a partnership, on very disadvantageous terms, with some English merchants. They were thus enabled to purchase the vessels Speedwell (sixty tons) and Mayflower (a hundred and eighty-tons), the former of which sailed to Delfthaven, to take on board the brethren. The departure was a solemn and impressive scene. Kneeling on the strand, in presence of his noble-hearted followers, so soon to dare the horrors of a savage wilderness, and surrounded by thousands of spectators, the venerable Robinson dedicated their cause to God, and gave them his parting blessing. Many a tear was shed as companions, endeared by years of persecution, adversity, and affliction, parted, with but little prospect of ever again uniting. The two vessels joined at Southampton, and thence proceeded on their great western voyage; but, before they reached the Land's End, the Speedwell was obliged to put back to Dartmouth for repairs. After a second trial the captain again pronounced her unfit for the voyage, and sailed for Plymouth. These disasters and alarms, though involving the loss of much precious time, "winnowed their number of the cowardly and the lukewarm ;" and they finally set sail in one

LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

241

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vessel, (September 16, 1620,) numbering a hundred and two per

sons.

They had a tempestuous voyage, and though their destination was the mouth of the Hudson, they arrived, on the 19th of November, in view of a great promontory, which proved to be Cape Cod. The captain, it has been alleged, had received a bribe from the Dutch to avoid a place where they projected a settlement. Of this, however, the adventurers being ignorant, were comforted by the view of a goodly land, wooded to the water's edge. Whales so abounded, that had the crew possessed means and instruments, which, to their great regret, were wanting, they might have procured £4000 worth of oil. They sailed on toward their destination, but being driven back by contrary winds, determined to go ashore.. Previously, however, they sought to obviate the danger of discord by a mutual agreement, in the name of God, to combine into a body politic; framing and duly observing laws for the general good.

They landed on the 21st, but being informed that more commodious spots might be found to the north-west, in the interior of the great Bay of Massachusetts, they determined that a select party should proceed in the shallop in search of them. The boat, however, was in such disrepair that it could not sail till the end of two or three weeks; sixteen of them, therefore, resolved to make an excursion into the interior. They met no natives, but found on a hill, half-buried in the ground, several baskets filled with ears of corn,

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