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BOOK II.

THE NEW ENGLAND STATES.

CHAPTER I.

Attempts of the Plymouth Company to colonize the Northern Coasts of America.— Popham establishes a Colony at Fort Saint George.—Sufferings and Return of the Colonists.-Captain Smith's Voyage and Survey of the Country-which is named New England.—His ineffectual Attempt to conduct a Colony thither.The Company relinquish the Design of colonizing New England.-History and Character of the Puritans.-Rise of the Brownists or Independents.-A Congregation of Independents retire to Holland-they resolve to settle in America-their Negotiation with King James-they arrive in Massachusetts-and found New Plymouth.-Hardships—and Virtue of the Colonists.-Their civil Institutions.— Community of Property.—Increase of civil and ecclesiastical Tyranny in England.-Project of a new Colony in Massachusetts.-Salem built.-Charter of Massachusetts Bay obtained from Charles the First by an Association of Puritans. -Embarkation of the Emigrants-Arrival at Salem.-Their ecclesiastical Institutions.-Two persons banished from the Colony for Schism.-Intolerance of some of the Puritans.

I.

WHEN James the First of England gave his sanction to the CHA P. project of colonizing the vast district of North America which was comprehended at that time under the name of Virginia, 1606. he made a partition of the territory between two trading companies, and established the residence of the one at London, and of the other at Plymouth. If the object of this partition was to diminish the inconvenience of monopoly, and diffuse the benefit of colonial relations more extensively in England, the means were ill adapted to the end; and eventually the operation of this act of policy was far from corresponding with its design. The resources of the adventurers who had already prepared to undertake the enterprise of colonization, were divided so unequally, and yet so much to the disadvantage of all parties, that even the more powerful com

11.

1606.

BOOK pany was barely enabled to maintain a feeble and precarious settlement in Virginia; while the weaker, without ability to accomplish the purpose of its institution, obtained little more than the privilege of debarring the rest of the world from attempting it. We have seen that the southern colony, though promoted by a corporation which reckoned among its members some of the richest and most considerable persons in the state, and enjoyed the advantage of being situated in a town which then engrossed almost all the commercial wealth of England, even with the aid of these favourable circumstances, made but slow and laborious advances to a secure establishment. The Plymouth company possessing much narrower resources, and a less advantageous situation, its efforts were proportionally feeble and inadequate.

Attempts

Plymouth

The most conspicuous members of the Plymouth company of the were Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England, Sir Ferdicompany nando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth fort, and Sir John Gilthe northbert, nephew of that distinguished adventurer, who has already ern coasts engaged our notice as the first patentee of queen Elizabeth, of Ame and the earliest leader of emigrants to America. Animated

to colonize

rica.

estab

by the zeal of these men, and especially of Popham, who assumed the principal direction of their measures, the Plymouth company, shortly after their association, despatched a small vessel to inspect their territories; but soon received the mortifying intelligence that it had been attacked and captured by the Spaniards, who still pretended a right to exclude every other people from the navigation of the American seas. The chief justice and his friends, however, were too much bent on the prosecution of their purpose to be deterred by this disaster. At his own expense, Popham equipped and despatched another vessel to resume the survey; and having received a favourable report of the appearance of the country, he availed himself of the impression produced by the tidings to raise a sufficient

May, supply of men and money for the formation of a colony. 1607. Under the command of his brother, Henry Popham, and of Popham Raleigh Gilbert, brother of Sir John, a hundred emigrants, emlishes a barking in two vessels, repaired to the territory of what was colony at still called Northern Virginia; and, landing in autumn, took George-possession of a piece of ground near the river Sagahadoc, where

Fort St.

they built a strong hold called Fort Saint George. The dis

I.

1607,

and return

trict where they established themselves was rocky and barren, CHA P. and their provisions so scanty, that they were obliged, soon after their arrival, to send back all but forty-five of their number. The winter proved extremely severe, and confined this small remnant to their miserable dwelling, and a helpless contemplation of the dreary waste that surrounded them. Disease, the offspring of scarcity and hardship, augmented the general sufferings gloom; and before the return of spring, several of the adven- of the coturers, and among others their president, Henry Popham, had lonists. sunk into the grave. With the spring, arrived a vessel laden with supplies from England; but the intelligence that accompanied these supplies more than counterbalanced the satisfaction they afforded; for the colonists were now informed of the deaths of Chief Justice Popham and Sir John Gilbert, the most powerful of their patrons, and most active of their benefactors. Their resolution was completely subdued by so many misfortunes: and, unanimously exclaiming against longer continuance in those dismal scenes, they forsook the settlement and returned to England, which they filled with the most disheartening accounts of the soil and climate of Northern Virginia. 1 The American historians have been careful to note that this disastrous expedition originated with the judge, who (odious and despicable in every part of his professional career) had, three years before, presided, with the most scandalous injustice, at the trial of Raleigh, and condemned to the death of a traitor, the man to whom both England and America had been so greatly beholden.

The miscarriage of this colonial adventure, and the evil re-port that was raised against the land, deterred the Plymouth company for some time from any farther attempt to plant a settlement in Northern Virginia, and produced an impression on the minds of the people of England very unfavourable to emigration to that territory. For several years, the operations of the company were confined to a few fishing voyages to Cape Cod, and a traffic in peltry and oil with the natives. At length their prospects were cheered by a gleam of better fortune; and the introduction of Captain Smith into their service seemed to

Smith's History of Virginia, New England, &c. Stith's Hist. of Virginia. Neal's Hist. of New England. Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachusetts.

1608.

II.

1614.

Captain
Smith's

voyage and

BOOK betoken more vigorous and successful enterprise. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and some other leading members of the Plymouth Company, justly appreciating the merit of this eminent man, were fain to engage his valuable services, which the London Company had so unworthily neglected. Six years after the abandonment of the settlement of Sagahadoc, two vessels were despatched, under the command of Captain Smith and Captain Hunt, on a voyage of trade and discovery to the survey of Plymouth company's territories. Smith, having concluded the coun- his traffic with the natives, left his crew engaged in fishing, and, accompanied by only eight men, travelled into the interior of the country, surveyed its condition, explored with care and diligence the whole coast, from Cape Cod to Penobscot, and composed a map, in which its features were accurately delineated. On his return to England, he presented his map, with an account of his travels and observations, to Prince Charles, who was so much pleased with the description of the country, that he bestowed on it the name of New England, which it has ever since retained.

try

which is

named New England.

The successful voyage of Captain Smith, and the favourable account that he gave of the territory, though they contributed not a little to stimulate the vigour of commercial adventure, could not overcome the general aversion to a permanent settlement in this region, which the misfortunes of the first colonists had created in England. The impediments to a colonial establishment in this quarter of America, besides, were greatly increased by the conduct of Hunt, who had been associated with Smith in the late voyage. That sordid and profligate man, unwilling that the benefit of the existing narrow traffic with the company's territories, which was exclusively shared by himself and a few others who were aware of its advantages, should be more generally diffused by the formation of a colony, resolved to defeat the design by embroiling his countrymen with the natives; and for this purpose, having enticed a number of these people on board his ship, he set sail with them for Malaga, where he had been ordered to touch on his homeward voyage, and sold them for slaves to the Spaniards. The company, indignant at his wickedness, instantly dismissed him from their service: but his mischievous purpose was accomplished; and the next vessel that returned

. I.

attempt to

thither.

from New England brought intelligence of the vindictive hos- CHA P. tilities of the savages. Undismayed by all these difficulties and dangers, Smith determined to make an effort for the colonization of the northern territory; and having communicated a portion of his own resolute hope and spirit to some of the leading patentees, he was enabled, by their assistance, to equip a 1615. small squadron, and set sail at the head of a body of emigrants for New England. Thus far could energy prevail: but in a His instruggle with fate, farther advancement was impracticable; effectual and Smith, who had now accomplished all that man could do, conduct a was destined to experience that all was unavailing. The colony voyage was one uninterrupted scene of disaster. After encountering a violent tempest, by which the vessels had nearly perished, and escaping more than once from the attacks of pirates, Smith was made prisoner by the commander of a French fleet, who mistook or pretended to mistake him for Captain Argal, and charged him with the guilt of the piratical enterprise which Argal had conducted in the preceding year against Port Royal.1 On this unjust charge, Smith was separated from his crew, and detained long in captivity. It was happy for himself and for mankind that he lived to return to his country, and write the history of his travels, instead of reaching New England; where his blood would probably have stained the land which his genius and virtue had contributed to illustrate. Several years afterwards, the Plymouth company having discovered that an Indian named Squanto, one of the persons kidnapped by Hunt, had escaped from the Spaniards, and found his way to Britain, acquitted themselves to his satisfaction of the injury he had suffered, loaded him with kindness, and sent him back to New England, along with a small expedition commanded by one Dormer, who was instructed to avail himself of Squanto's assistance in regaining the friendship of the Indians. But although Squanto earnestly laboured to mollify his abused countrymen, and assured them that Hunt's treachery had been condemned and punished in England, they refused to be pacified, and watching a favourable opportunity, attacked and dangerously wounded Dormer and several of his party, who, escaping with difficulty

1 B. i. chap. ii. unte.

1619.

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