scripture name of Salem. The new colonists immediately formed a church, elected a pastor, teacher, and elder, disregarding the intentions of the king. They disencumbered their public worship of every superfluous ceremony, and reduced it to the lowest standard of Calvinistic simplicity.

12. But much as we respect that noble spirit which enabled them to part with their native soil, we must condemn the persecuting spirit of the colonists themselves. Some of the colonists, retaining a high veneration for the ritual of the church of England, refused to join the colonial state establishment, and assembled separately to worship; Endicott called before him two of the principal offenders, expelled them from the colony, and sent them home in the first ships returning to England.'

13. The government of the colony was soon transferred to America, and vested in those members of the company who should reside there. John Winthrop was appointed governor, and Thomas Dudley deputy governor, with eighteen assistants. In the course of the next year, 1630, fifteen hundred persons arrived in Massachusetts from England, amongst whom were several distinguished families, some of them in easy, and others in affluent circumstances; and Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and other towns were settled.

14. The first general court, held at Charlestown, ventured to deviate from their charter in a matter of great moment: a law was passed, declaring that none should be freemen, or be entitled to any share in the government, except those who had been received as members of the church.

15. The fanatical spirit continued to increase. A minister of Salem, named Roger Williams, having conceived an aversion to the cross of St. George, a symbol in the English standard, declaimed against. it with great vehemence, as a relic of superstition; and Endicott, in a transport of zeal, cut out the cross from the ensign displayed before the governor's gate. This frivolous matter divided the colony; but the matter was at length compromised by retaining the cross in the ensigns of forts and vessels, and erasing it from the colors of the militia.

"

QUESTIONS.

What was the origin of the Plymouth colony?"

When was the settlement made?

Of how many persons did the colony at first consist?

Of how many did it consist ten years afterwards?

How many emigrants came to Massachusetts in the year 1680?

SECTION III.

Settlement of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, and North and South Carolina.

1. IN 1636, Roger Williams was banished from salem; and, accompanied by many of his hearers, the exile went south, purchased a tract of land of the natives, to which he gave the name of Providence; and a Mr. Coddington, with seventysix others, exiled from Boston, bought a fertile island on Narraganset Bay, that acquired the name of Rhode Island. Mr. Coddington embraced the sentiments of the Quakers, or Friends; he received a charter from the British parliament. in which it was ordered, that "none were ever to be molested for any difference of opinion in religious matters:" yet, the very first assembly convened under this authority, excluded Roman Catholics from voting at elections, and from every office in the government!

2. To similar causes the state of Connecticut is indebted for its origin. Mr. Hooker, a favorite minister of Massachusetts, with about one hundred families, after a fatiguing march, settled on the western side of the river Connecticut, and laid the foundation of Hartford, Springfield, and Weathersfield. Their right to this territory was disputed by the Dutch, who had settled at the mouth of the Hudson, and by the lords Say-and-Seal and Brook. The Dutch were soon expelled; and the others uniting with the colony, all were incorporated by a royal charter.

3. New Hampshire was first settled in the spring of 1623, under the patronage of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Captain John Mason, and several others, who sent over David Thompson, a Scot, Edward and William Hilton, and a number of people, furnished with the requisite supplies. One company landed at a place called Little Harbor; the others settled at Dover. Mr.Wheelwright, a clergyman, banished from Massachusetts, founded Exeter in 1638.

4. Maine was not permanently settled until 1635. Gorges obtained a grant of this territory, which remained under its own government until 1652, when its soil and jurisdiction, as far as the middle of Casco Bay, was claimed by Massa chusetts.

5. The mutual hostility of the English and Indians com menced with the first settlement; but it was not until the year 1637, that a systematic warfare was begun. The Pequods, who brought into the field more than a thousand war

riors, were exterminated in a few months by the combined troops of Massachusetts and Connecticut. In the night, the Pequods were attacked, near the head of Mistic, by the Connecticut troops and Narraganset Indians, commanded by. Captain Mason: in a few moments, five or six hundred lay gasping in their blood, or were silent in the arms of death. "The darkness of the forest," observes a New England author, the blaze of the dwellings, the ghastly looks of the dead, the groans of the dying, the shrieks of the women and.. children, and the yells of the friendly savages, presented a scene of sublimity and terror indescribably dreadful."

6. In 1643, an alliance for mutual defense was formed be tween the New England colonies, excepting Rhode Island, which Massachusetts was unwilling to admit. This alliance continued until the charters were annulled by James the Second.

7. Up to 1638, twenty-one thousand British subjects had settled in New England; and the country had begun to extend the fisheries, and to export corn and lumber to the West Indies. In 1656, the persecution of the Quakers was at its height. A number of these inoffensive people having arrived in the Massachusetts colony, from England and Barbadces, and given offense to the clergy of the established church by the novelty of their religion, were imprisoned, and by the first opportunity sent away,

8. A law was passed, which prohibited masters of ships from bringing Quakers into Massachusetts, and themselves from coming there, under a graduated penalty, rising, in case of a return from banishment to death. In consequence, several were hanged! These proceedings are still the more reprehensible and remarkable, when contrasted with a previous declaration of their government, which tendered “hospitality and succor to all christian strangers, flying from wars, famine, or the tyranny of persecution." The Anabaptists were also persecuted; many were disfranchised, and some were banished.

9. On the accession of James II., several of the New England colonies were deprived of their charters; but these, with various unimportant modifications, were restored after the revolution. Sir William Phipps, a native of Maine, who rose to wealth and power in a manner the most extraordinary, was the first governor of Massachusetts under the new charter. With a force of seven hundred men, he wrested from the French, L'Acadie, now called Nova Scotia. He af terwards made an unsuccessful attempt on Quebec, with the loss of one thousand men.

10. The new charter, whilst it curtailed the liberties, extended the territory of Massachusetts; to it were now annexed New Plymouth, Maine, and Nova Scotia, with all the country between the latter and the river St. Lawrence; also Elizabeth Islands, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. The people, however, had just reason to complain that they no longer chose their governor, under whose control was the militia, and who levied taxes without their consent, and tried capital offenses.

11. About this time the pillars of society were shaken to the foundation, in and about Salein, by imaginary witchcraft. The delusion commenced at Salem village, now Danvers, in the family of Rev. Samuel Paris. Two young girls, one a daughter of Mr. Paris, aged 9, the other a niece, aged 11, were affected with singular nervous disorders, which, as they baffled the skill of the physician, were thought to proceed from an "evil hand." The children were believed by the neighbors to be bewitched, and the belief, sanctioned by the opinion of the physician, became general throughout the vicinity.

12. The more the girls were noticed and pitied, the more singular and extravagant was their conduct. Upon the advice of the neighboring ministers, two or three private fasts were first kept; afterwards a public one in the village and other congregations; and finally, the general court appointed a fast through the colony. This course gave the occurrences a solemn aspect, and probably contributed to the public credulity, till the supposed witchcraft had extended throughout a great part of the county of Essex. The infatuation prevailed from March to October, 1692, during which time twenty persons, men and women, were executed. It was then that suspicion roused from its lethargy; condemnation ceased; the accusers were silent; those under sentence were reprieved, and afterwards pardoned.

13. In the years 1627, 38, '63, and '70, New England experienced violent earthquakes. In the year 1638, Harvard College, near Boston, the oldest seminary of learning in the United States, was founded. Four hundred pounds werc voted to it by the general court; and this sum was nearly doubled by a bequest from Mr. John Harvard, a minister of Charlestown. This institution is now the most richly endowed of all the American colleges.

14. Yale College, at New Haven, was founded in 1701, ten years after that of William and Mary, in Virginia; and Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, was founded in 1769. The first printing press established in the British colonies

was in 1639, at Cambridge, superintended by Stephen Daye; but erected chiefly at the expense of Mr. Glover, an English clergyman, who died on his passage to America.

15. Maryland, the first colony that, from its beginning, was directly governed as a province of the British empire, was founded by Sir George Calvert, baron of Baltimore in Ireland, a Roman Catholic nobleman, born in England. He first went to Virginia; but meeting an unwelcome reception there, on account of his religion, he fixed his attention to the lands north of the Potomac, and obtained a grant of them from Charles I. This country was called Maryland, in honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria.

16. The religious toleration established by the charter, the first draft of which is said to have been written by Sir George himself, is honorable to his memory. The grant was given to his eldest son, Cecilius, who succeeded to his titles; but Leonard Calvert, brother to Cecilius, ws the first governor, and made the first stand, at an island in the Potomac, which he named St. Clements, in 1633. He made several purchases of the Indians, with whom he cultivated a constant friendship, as well on the Potomac as on both shores of the Chesapeake.

17. Never did any people enjoy more happiness than the inhabitants of Maryland. Whilst Virginia harrassed all who dissented from the English church, and the northern_colo nies all who dissented from the puritans, the Roman Catholics of Maryland, a sect who in the old world never professed the doctrine of toleration, received and protected their brethren of every christian church, and its population was rapidly increased.

18. About the middle of the seventeenth century, some emigrants, chiefly from Virginia, began a settlement in the county of Albemarle; and soon afterwards, another establishment was commenced at Cape Fear, by adventurers from Massachusetts. These were held together by the laws of nature without any written code, for some time. Charles II. compelled the colonists to become subservient to his rule, and granted to Lord Clarendon and others the tract of land which now composes North and South Carolina; perfect freedom in religion was granted in the charter.

But

19. The first settlement was placed under the command of Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, who assigned his authority to Mr. Drummond. In 1671, the proprietors extended their settlements to the banks of Ashley and Cooper rivers, where Charleston now stands; and eventually this: became the separate state of South Carolina. The culture