A compendious history of New England, from the discovery by Europeans to the First General Congress of the Anglo-American Colonies

Front matter

A COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FROM THE DISCOVERY BY EUROPEANS TO THE JFirst (Scntral doitgrcss at tljc 2higla=3.merttan Colonies BY JOHN GORHAM PALFREY IN FOUR VOLUMES Vol. I BOSTON JAMES K. OSGOOD AND COMFANY Copyright, 1S73, By John Gorham Palfrey. Copyright, 1SS3, By John Carver Palfrey. Cam&ribge : PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, UNIVERSITY PRESS. TO M. A. P. IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE HAPPINESS OF FIFTY YEARS J. G. P Camduttig?, Massachusetts; 1873, March 11.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. The first two volumes of this work were pub lished seven years ago. The first three volumes appeared last August, under the title of "A Com pendious History of the First Century of New England." The fourth volume, now first issued, completes the execution of my plan. I do not propose to extend the work beyond the period al ready surveyed in these four volumes. The last chapter of the book is not embraced in the title, and does not pretend to be so much as a compendious history of the time therein treated. But the reader may find it convenient as a slight summary of the events which immediately preceded the War of Independence. Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1873, March.

Preface

TO THE FIRST TWO VOLUMES. Of the periods of past New England history each consisting of eighty-six years, the third has lately closed. In the year 1602 the Englishman Bartholomew Gosnold built a house on land now belonging to Massachusetts, and in the spring of 1603 the family of Stuart came to the throne of Great Britain. On the 19th of April, 1689, the im prisonment, by the people, of the Royal Governor, marked the First Revolution in New England. On the 19th of April, 1775, the Second Revolution was inaugurated by the fight at Lexington and Concord. On the 19th of April, 1861, at the open ing of the Third Revolution, which was to rescue the country from the domination of the Slave Power, Massachusetts troops fought their way through a city of Maryland to the relief of the National Capital.

Through the first two of these periods, and through more than half of the third, the English inhabitants of New England continued to be a remarkably homogeneous people. Since the year

PREFACE.

. 1830, there has been a large immigration, — chiefly of Irish, and, next in number to them, of Germans. Down to that time the population consisted, with very few exceptions, of the descendants of twenty-one thousand Puritan Englishmen, who had come over before the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640. Through six gener ations, this peculiar people, singularly sequestered from foreign influences, was forming a distinct character by its own discipline, and working out its own problems within an isolated sphere. The economical progress of New England has been marvellous. Massachusetts, of which the recent statistics have been more carefully collected than those of any other of the six States, presents a sufficient example. The soil of Massachusetts is barren, and she has no natural staple commodity of great value in the markets of the world.

Yet at the present time, two centuries and a third from the date of her foundation, her taxable property — exclusive of property belonging to institutions of religion, education, and benevolence — amounts to a thousand millions of dollars. Equally divided, it would afford more than eight hundred and eighty dollars each to every man, woman, and child with in her borders. From the reserved fruits of the labor of seven generations " she could give a dol-

PREFACE.

. V lar to each individual of the thousand millions of the inhabitants of the earth, and still have all her schools, meeting-houses, town-houses, alms-houses, gaols, and literary, benevolent, and scientific institutions left as nest-eggs to begin the world anew." The value of the registered products of the labor of her people for the year ending June 1, 1855, — undoubtedly falling far short of the actual amount, — was two hundred and ninety-five millions eight hundred and twenty thousand six hundred and eighty-one dollars. New England, in the political relations which through her brief history she has sustained, has not been inactive nor unimportant. In her primitive weakness she kept her lands for the mother country against Dutch plotters on one border and French on the other. From the massacre at Schenectady in 1690 to the fall of Quebec in 1759, her men and money upheld the British empire in America against the encroachments of the rival monarchy.

Her seemingly Quixotic, but magnificently successful enterprise against the French post of Louis burgh, in 1745, was not only the single event creditable to the arms of England in the war of the Austrian succession, but it gave peace to Eu rope. Adopting for the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the basis of the status ante bellum, England bought

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. VI back with the retrocession of Louisburgh to France the conquests which the more fortunate arms of her enemy had been wresting from her on the other side of the water. In 1757, during the last inter colonial war, nearly one third part of the effective men of Massachusetts were in the field, and taxes on real estate in Boston amounted to two third parts of the rents. In 1759, the General Court of that colony excused themselves to Governor Pow nall for not being more liberal by referring to the fact that the military service of the preceding year had cost a million of dollars.* But such are not the greatest benefactions for which England is indebted to the community that bears her name. To the Puritans the Tory his torian Hume ascribed the liberty of England. But the Puritans never struck decisively for English freedom, till Independency obtained the control of the Parliament and the army in 1645 ; and it was the pens of learned ministers living in New Eng land that in Old England raised Independency to that position of command.

It was Hooter of Con necticut, and Cotton, and Shepard, and Allen, and Norton, and Mather, of Massachusetts, that organ ized the victories of Fairfax and Cromwell. In * Minot, Continuation of the History of the Province of Massa chusetts Bay, ii 37, 49.

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. VII former times this relation was understood, however now forgotten. " We may look for England in England, and find nothing but New England." " The Scots at Newcastle, to whom the Bang re tired for safeguard, had a brave occasion to show faith and loyalty ; but they kept their wont, and sold their master, as Judas did his to the Jews, to the race of New England, the Independent sal vages." * These words of the Tory bishop Hacket present, with his own coloring, a specimen of a class of facts familiar to his contemporaries, though they have since slipped out of the histories. The preparation for separate national existence had nowhere in the colonies an earlier date than in New England ; and on her soil the War of American Independence began. Of the Conti nental troops and militia registered in the war office as having served in that contest, the States of New England, then four in number, furnished no fewer than 147,704, while only 71,140 were sent to the field by the six States south of the Potomac.

Massachusetts alone contributed 83,092 men, or about twelve thousand more than the aggregate contributions of the six Southern States. So, alike in time and in efficiency, the people of New Eng land were leaders in that movement which has * Scrinia Reserata, etc., 78, 203.

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. lately issued in the deliverance of the United States of America from the unspeakable curse of slavery ; and to the armies and fleets that overthrew the despotism of the Slave Power she supplied not fewer than three eighth parts of a million of fight ing men.* It is to the first of the three periods of the past history of New England that the present work relates. It tells the primitive story of a vast tribe of men, numbering at the present time, it is likely, some nine or ten millions. Exactness in such an estimate is not attainable, but it would probably be coming somewhere near the truth to divide the present white population of the United States into three equal parts, — one, belonging to the New * The figures, as stated in reports of the Adjutant-Generals of the several States, are as follows ; namely, — Massachusetts 155,234 Maine 71,500 Connecticut 54,468 Vermont 34,555 New Hampshire 33,258 Rhode Island 24,278 373,293 But the tables of the Adjutant -Generals of Connecticut and New Hampshire are brought down no further than to April, 1865, and those of the Adjutant-General of Maine include nothing of that year.

PREFACE.

. IX England stock ; another, the posterity of English men who settled in the other Atlantic colonies ; and a third, consisting of the aggregate of Irish, Scotch, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Spanish, and other immigrants, and their descendants. Accord ing to the United States Census of 1860, the New England State* had in that year 3,135,283 inhabitants, of which number 469,338 were of foreign birth. On the other hand, not much fewer than a million of natives of New England, — often persons not inconsiderable in respect to activity, property, or influence, — were supposed to be living in other parts of the Union, at the beginning of the late civil war. The New England race has contributed largely to the population of the great State of New York, and makes a majority in some of the new States further west.

Considerable num bers of them are dispersed in distant parts of the world, where commerce or other business invites enterprise, though they do not often establish them selves for life in foreign countries. I presume there is one third of the white people of these United States, wherever now residing, of whom no in dividual can peruse these volumes without reading the history of his own progenitors. Boston, Massachusetts ; November 4, 1865. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Chapter I. Early Explorations

PAC1 The Cabots and Cortereal 2 Verazzano, Gomez, and Gilbert 3 Raleigh, Gosnold, and Pring 4 Waymouth and Gorges 5 The London Colony 6 The Plymouth Colony 6 Abortive Expedition to the Kennebec 7 Captain John Smith 8 His First Voyage to Virginia 10 Founding of Jamestown 10 Smith's Adventures in Virginia 11 His Return to England 15 His " General History " and " True Travels " 15 His First Voyage to North Virginia 15 The Country named New England 16 Visits of Vines and Dermer 17

Chapter II

geography and natural history. Mountains, Rivers, andCliuiate 20 Soil, Minerals, and Forests 22 Fishes and Birds 24 Reptiles, Insects, and Quadrupeds CONTENTS.

Chapter III Aboriginal Inhabitants

pAM Physical Conformation of the American Indian 27 Wide Diffusion of the Algonquin Race 28 The Etetchemins and Abenaquis 29 Other New-England Tribes 29 Clothing, Dwellings, and Food 30 Manufactures and Utensils 33 Domestic Relations 34 Property and Trade 35 Mental Capacity 36 Government 38 Language 39 Religion 41 Social Relations 44

Chapter IV. Origin Of Plymouth Colony

Puritans and Nonconformists in England 47 Separatists and Brownists 48 Congregation at Scrooby 48 Emigration to Holland 49 Removal to Leyden 50 Scheme for another Removal 51 Negotiation with the Virginia Company 54 Wincob's Patent 55 Terms of the Agreement with English Partners 55 Embarkation at Delft Haven 57 Departure from Southampton 58 Return of the Speedwell 58 Final Departure of the Mayflower 58 Passengers by the Mayflower 59 Arrival at Cape Cod Q0

Chapter V. First Year At Plymooth

The Compact for Government 61 John Carver elected Governor 61 CONTENTS. XIII PAGE Explorations of the Country 62 Landing at Plymouth 64 First Winter at Plymouth 65 Military Organization 6S Visit of Samoset 6f> Treaty with Massasoit 67 Death of Carver 69 Bradford chosen Governor 6'J Sickness and Mortality 70 Expeditions into the Interior " 1 Indian Conspiracy against Massasoit 71 Arrival of the Fortune 72 Patent from the Council for New England 73 Departure of the Fortune 73

Chapter VI. Early Progress Of Plymouth

Weston's Plantation at Wessagussett 75 Visit of Winslow to Massasoit 76 Shipwreck of Weston 76 Grants of the Council for New England 77 Arrival of Robert Gorges 78 New Patent to John Pierce 79 Scarcity of Food 79 Arrival of the Ann and Little James 82 Improved Prospects 83 John Robinson 84 Arrival of John Lyford 84 Emancipation from the Adventurers 85 Neighboring Settlements 87 Thomas Morton of Merry Mount 87 French and D utch Colonies 89

Chapter VII. Origin Of Massachusetts Colony

English Politics 92 John White, of Dorchester CONTENTS. PAQB Settlement at Cape Ann 94 Settlement at Naumkeag (Salem) 96 Charter of Massachusetts 98 Higginson's Account of the Settlements 99 Organization of a Church at Salem 101 Expulsion of Churchmen 103 Increase of Immigration 104 Plan for a Transfer of the Charter to New England 105 John Winthrop chosen Governor 106 The Massachusetts Company 106 Departure and Voyage of the Arbella 110

Chapter VIII. Organization Of Massachusetts

Arrival of Winthrop and his Company 113 Sickness and Deaths at Salem 114 Church at Charlestown 115 Courts of Assistants 115 Epidemic Sickness at Charlestown 116 Settlement and General Court at Shawmut (Boston) 116 Plantations in Massachusetts 118 Sickness and Famine 119 Annual Election 120 Religious Test for Freemen 121 Disaffection at Watertown 124 Further Immigration 127 Boston the Capital Town 128 Early Relations with the Natives 129 Scanty Harvest 131 Complaints in England against the Colony 132

Chapter IX. Massachusetts And Plymouth

Renewal of Immigration 134 John Cotton 135 Order in Council relating to New England 136 Deputies from the Towns CONTENTS. XV PAOS Governor Winthrop superseded 139 Slow Growth of Plymouth 141 New Patent for Plymouth 142 Pecuniary Embarrassments 143 New Settlements 144 French and Dutch Plantations 145 Plymouth Factory on the Connecticut 146 Legislation of Plymouth 147

Chapter X. Massachusetts And Providence

Condition of Massachusetts after Four Years 148 The Freemen, Magistrates, and Clergy 149 Dangers to the Colony 150 Proceedings of the General Court 155 Dissolution of the Council for New England 158 The Charter endangered 159 Roger Williams and the Salem Church 161 Banishment of Williams 165 Settlement of Providence 166

CHAPTER XL MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT.

Governor Haynes 170 Municipal System of New England 172 Sir Henry Vane and Hugh Peter 173 Vane elected Governor of Massachusetts 175 Magistrates for Life 176 Project of a Code of Laws 177 Project for a Settlement in Connecticut 178 Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone 179 Dorchester and Watertown Plantations 181 Emigration from Newtown to Connecticut 182 Primitive Administration in Connecticut 183 The Pequot War 184 Captain John Mason 1"6 Attack on the Pequot Fort 188 Conclusion of the War CONTENTS.

Chapter XII. The Antinomian Faction

pA0J. Mrs. Ann Hutchinson *95 John Wheelwright 193 Disaffection of Governor Vane 199 Restoration of Winthrop 201 Departure of Vane * 203 Synod at Cambridge 205 Punishment of Antinomian Disturbers 206 Mrs. Hutchinson's Trial 2U7 Excommunication and Banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson 209

Chapter XIII. Rhode Island And The Eastern Settlements

Emigration of Antinomians to Aquetnet 211 Dissensions in the New Colony 212 Eastern Settlements 214 Hansard Knollys, John Underhill and Thomas Larkham . . . 216 Death of John Mason 218 Annexation of the Piscataqua Settlements to Massachusetts . 219 Gorgeana 221 Settlement of Pejepscot 222 The Lygonia or Plough Patent 223 George Cleaves and Richard Vines 224

Chapter XIV. New Haven, Connecticut, And Plymouth

Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport 225 Settlement of Quinnipiack (New Haven) 226 Organization of the Government 228 Milford and Guilford 229 Eaton chosen Governor of New Haven Colony 23] Frame of Government in Connecticut 233 Settlement of Fairfield and Stratford 234 Saybrook, Springfield, and Southampton 235 Edward Winslow in England 237 John Norton and Charles Chauncy at Plymouth 240 Early Legislation of Plymouth CONTENTS. XVII PAGE Election of Deputies 242 Boundaries 243 Transfer of the Patent to the Freemen 244 Death of Brewster 245

Chapter XV. Massachusetts And The Confederation

Founding of Harvard College 247 Legislation and Elections in Massachusetts 249 Question about the Number of Deputies 250 Winthrop's Letter to the Commissioners for Plantations 252 Election of Governor Bellingham 254 Organization of Four Counties 256 Two Houses of Legislature 257 Scheme for a Colonial Confederacy 259 Objects of the Confederation 261 Articles of Confederation 263

Chapter I. Primitive Government And Laws

Conditions of the Franchise 271 Annual Elections 272 Magistrates and Deputies 273 Organization of Towns 274 Administration of Justice 276 Legal Code of Massachusetts 279 Cotton's " Abstract of the Laws of New England " 279 ■ The Body of Liberties " 280 Obligation of Religious Observances 283 b CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Religion, Education, And Social Life

pA(]g Independency in New England 285 Organization of Churches 286 Order of Worship 288 Books and Education 289 Military Organization 291 Employments 292 Roads and D wellings 29o Furniture and Dress 297 Diet 298 Amusements 299 Language 300

Chapter III. First Period Of The Confederacy

The Narragansett Indians 302 Samuel Gorton and his Company 304 Settlement at Shawomet ( Warwick) 306 Miantonomo and Uncas 307 Surrender and Imprisonment of the Party at Shawomet .... 310 Their Conviction for Blasphemy 311 Cession of the Narragansett Country to the King 312 Resentment of the Narragansetts 313 Strength of the Confederacy 314 Dutch and French Colonies , 315 Internal Politics of Massachusetts 317 Relations to the Mother Country 319 Conflict of Authority in Boston Harbor 320

Chapter IV. Congregationalism And Missionary Action

Presbytery and Independency 322 The Westminster Assembly 323 Presbyterian Cabal in Massachusetts 325 Mission of Edward Winslow to England 327 Cambridge Synod and Platform CONTENTS. XIX PAGE Constitution of Congregationalism 331 Undertaking to Evangelize the Natives 333 John Eliot and Thomas Mayhew 334 Society for Propagating the Gospel 33t Dispute with French Adventurers 33C New Netherland 33'i

Chapter V. The Narragansett Country

Winslow and Gorton in England 339 " Simplicitie's Defence" and " Hypocrisie Unmasked " 341 Return of Gorton from England 342 Gorton's Company at Warwick 343 Patent of Providence Plantations 344 Organization of a Government 346 Alarm from the Narragansett Indians 347 Preparations of the Confederacy for War 348 Treaty of Peace 349

Chapter VI. Last Years Of Winthrop

Dispute between Massachusetts and Connecticut 352 Proposed Revision of the Articles of Confederation 354 Impost levied at Boston 355 ass Proposed Change of Representation in Massachusetts 356 Administration of Governor Dudley 357 Arraignrnent and Acquittal of Winthrop 359 Institution of Common Schools .- 361 Death of Thomas Hooker 361 Death of Governor Winthrop 362

Chapter VII. Massachusetts And The Confederacy

Relations to New Netherland 364 Dissension between Massachusetts and the Confederacy 369 Declaration of War against Ninigret CONTENTS. XX PAGE Dissent of Massachusetts 372 Expedition against Ninigret 374 Missionary Operations 37o Missionary Services of John Eliot 377 The May hews, Father and Sou 378 Contributions to Harvard College 380 Arrangements for a History of New England 380

Chapter VIII. Southern New England

Coddington's Commission as Governor of Rhode Island. . . . 381 Rhode Island Baptists 382 Treatment of John Clarke in Massachusetts 383 Williams and Clarke in England 386 Revocation of Coddington's Commission 387 Dissensions in Providence Plantations 389 Restoration of the former Government 390 Affairs of Plymouth 392 Return of John Winthrop the younger from England 394 Plantation in the Pequot Country 395 Rapid increase of Connecticut 396 John Winthrop the younger elected Governor 397 New Haven Colony 398 Laws of New Haven 399

Chapter IX. Last Years Of The Founders

Administration of Governor Endicott 400 Enlargement of Massachusetts 401 Annexation of Maine and Lygonia to Massachusetts 402 Cromwell's Plans for Ireland and for Jamaica 404 Prosperity of New England 405 Relations with Cromwell 406 Coinage of Money 407 Death of several eminent Founders HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND.

BOOK I. THE SETTLEMENT.

Chapter I. Early Explorations

The name New England has at different times been used to designate regions of very different extent. At an early period of the English colonization it denoted only the settlements within and near to Boston harbor. Fifty years later, it was given by a royal decree to the whole tract of coun try stretching along the border of the Atlantic Ocean from the peninsula of Nova Scotia to Del aware Bay. In present use, the name stands for the six States of the American Union that lie furthest to the northeast ; namely, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. These States cover about two third parts of what may be regarded as a great peninsula, which is joined to the continent by a narrow isthmus between the River St. Lawrence and the upper waters of Hudson's River, and which would be VOL. i. EAHLY EXPLORATIONS. converted into an island if the isthmus were de pressed only one hundred and forty feet more.

New England extends through six degrees of lati tude, about midway between the equator and the north pole, and from the sixty-seventh degree of west longitude to the seventy-fourth. It is probable that New England was visited by Europeans before the voyage of Columbus to the West Indies. There is reason to believe, that, as early as about the end of the tenth century, some adventurous navigators from Iceland landed on the American shore ; and there are circumstances pointing to the country about Massachusetts Bay and Narragansett Bay as the region which they visited. But their voyages, if repeated, were after no long time discontinued ; and for five centuries more this country remained unknown to the East ern world. Five years had passed after the first voyage of Columbus to the West Indies, when John Cabot and his son Sebastian, mariners of Bristol in Eng land, on a voyage expected by them to termi- 1497 nate at the eastern coast of Asia, were June 24. arrestec] by the American shore of Labrador or Newfoundland.

Changing their course towards the southwest, they sailed in that direction as far as the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude, and probably saw the headlands of Maine and Massachusetts. Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, followed in 1500-1501. nearly the same track. The Florentine SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 3 Verrazzano, in the service of King Francis the First of France, discovered what is now called Hudson's River, and for several days anchored his vessel in Narragansett Bay. The Spaniard, Stephen Gomez, in quest of the 1525 Northwest passage, for the Emperor Charles the Fifth, is believed to have sailed near to Cape Cod, and through Long Island Sound. The fishing grounds of America had now at tracted attention and enterprise. Hundreds of French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish fishing vessels met on the banks of Newfoundland.

At length, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the spirit of maritime adventure, so vigorously developed at that time in England, prompted a project for establishing a colony on the continent of America. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, received from the Queen a patent em powering him to discover, possess, and govern all remote heathen and barbarous countries not occu pied by any Christian people. With two hundred and sixty men, embarked in five vessels, he reached the harbor of St. Johns in Newfoundland, and, in the name of the sovereign of England, 1583 took formal possession of the country for ag' " two hundred leagues around. Sickness broke out among his men. Some died. Many deserted. In search of provisions, or for further dis covery, he put to sea again. In a storm the little vessel which conveyed him went to the bottom with all her company.

Another sept. 9. of his vessels had been wrecked before. The rest of the five now returned to England. Raleigh obtained a renewal to himself of Gil bert's patent. He was disabled from using it by his recently frustrated attempts to found a colony on the Roanoke; but, with his consent, the Earl of Southampton fitted out a small vessel, under the command of Bartholomew Gosnold, for explora tion in "the north part of Virginia." Gosnold 1602 sailed from Falmouth with a company of March 26. thirty-two persons, of whom eight were sea men, and twenty were to become planters. His voyage across the ocean occupied seven weeks. He looked into Massachusetts Bay, and landed on the extremity of Cape Cod, to which promontory he gave that name on account of the great quan- May 14. D tities of codfish there taken by his people.

On a little island called by the natives Cuttyhunk, and belonging to the group now known as the Elizabeth Islands, he made arrangements for a permanent occupation, and built a palisadsed house. But the supply of provisions was scanty. Some demonstrations of the natives were alarm ing. The men became dispirited and mutinous, and in five weeks after coming within sight June 18. , , , ° ° of land, the whole party sailed again for England. The intelligence they carried back did not prove to be discouraging. A voyage made to the 1603. easter'y Parta of New England by Martin Pring, in the service of some merchants SIR FERDINANDO GORGES. 5 and others of Bristol, was only for trading purposes; but Lord Southampton, still intent on a settlement, and perceiving the necessity of further information in order to the maturing of his plans, sent out Captain George Waymouth, with 1605 a single vessel, to discover and explore.

March3:l- He made land at the Island of Nantucket, and sailed some fifty or sixty miles up one of the rivers of Maine. Here, in absurd disregard ay of the interests as well as of the honor of his employers, he kidnapped five of the natives, whom he presently conveyed to his own country. He had scarcely left New England, when it was visited by a party of Frenchmen, who came in quest of a place of settlement more convenient than that on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, where they had first thought of planting. In their ex amination of the coast of Maine and Massa chusetts, disasters overtook them. The * lest*; 1606. weather was stormy. They lost some of their number in attacks from the savages, and a vessel by shipwreck. And the enterprise was abandoned. The last of this series of abortive undertakings to establish a European colony in New England was projected on a large scale.

Among the per sons connected with it, Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England, was the most considerable, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges was one of the most active. Gorges was a Somersetshire man, who had been concerned in the conspiracy of the Earl of Essex, and had afterwards been induced to testify against him, thereby bringing upon himself the lasting dislike of an important portion of the English people. At the accession of King James, Gorges was made Governor of Plymouth, and was residing there when Captain Waymouth returned from his visit to Maine. The active mind of Gorges became intent on plans for colonization in that country. He communi cated rfis zeal to Chief Justice Popham, with whom he seems to have been connected by marriage ; and a company was formed by them of gentlemen, merchants, and others, in the west of England.

At the same time another company was organized in London, for the purpose of renewing the hitherto frustrated attempts to colonize Virginia. The two associations combined their plans, and 1606. obtained from the King a patent in which April 10 .^gy were distinguished from each other as the First and the Second Colony. The First, or London Colony, was authorized to make settlements on the American coast, and fifty miles in land, between the thirty-fourth and the forty-first degrees of north latitude ; to the Second, or Plym outh Colony, was accorded the same privilege be tween the thirty-eighth degree of latitude and the forty-fifth. Neither colony might plant within a hundred miles of a settlement of the other. Both alike had power to expel intruders, to coin money, to impose taxes and duties for their own occasions for twenty-one years, and for seven years to import FORT ST. GEORGE. 7 goods from other parts of the British dominions, free of duty.

Both were to pay to the King one fifth part of the products of gold and silver mines, and one fifteenth part of whatever copper should be found. Both colonies were to be under the supervision of a council, called the Council of Vir ginia, consisting of thirteen members, to be appointed from time to time by the Crown, and to exercise their authority agreeably to royal instructions. The settlers of each colony were to be gov erned for the King, and according to his directions, by a council of his appointment residing on the spot. A little more than a year after obtaining then incorporation, the Plymouth Colony de- 1607, spatched three ships to the American coast, May 31' with a hundred passengers, to make a settlement. Landing by the mouth of the River ° J Aug. 8. Kennebec, they formally inaugurated their enterprise with prayers, a sermon, and a reading of the patent and of the ordinances under which it had been decreed by the authorities at home that they should live.

With idle ostentation members of the company were invested with the titles of President, Admiral, Master of the Ord nance, Commander of the Forces, Marshal, Secre tary, and Governor of the Fort. No settlement was made. Before the autumn, one half of the party became discouraged, and re turned to England with the ships that had brought them. Fortv-five persons held out through the winter. The President fell sick and died, and news came of the death of the brother of the Ad miral, an event which required his presence in Eng land. In the spring, the last of the company went home, and still New England remained uncolo nized. Six years more passed, when the country was visited by a person whose name, though it rather owes its place in history to his exploits elsewhere, connects itself with New England by reason of the important contribution made by him to the knowledge of its geography.

John Smith, a native of Lincolnshire, and now near thirty-five years of age, had already passed through a series of ad ventures of a character the most extraordinary, and of which many of the incidents that are re corded are not to be received without caution. Running away from his home while yet 1592. ° J J a boy, he took service in the Netherlands. About the time when he came of age he set off to enlist in the Imperial army, then fighting the Turks in Hungary. Before he got to France he was robbed of all his money and effects, and was saved by a peasant's kindness from freezing to death. In the Mediterranean, having been thrown over board by a company of pilgrims, who imputed to him, as a heretic, the disaster of a storm which had arisen, he scarcely saved his life by swimming to an island.