Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/northsouthameric21broW ODD BOOK STORE 75 Madison St. Worcester, Mass. lOBTff ilB win AMERICA FIRST DISCOVERY TO THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION. GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY DISCOVERIES BY THE NORTHMEN, SPANIARDS, PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, ENGLISH, DUTCH, ETC., ETC.: WITH THE IB SUFFERINGS AND PRIVATIONS IN FOUNDING COLONIES, THEIR NUMEROUS AND BLOODY WARS WITH THE INDIANS, A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF ALL THE VARIOUS REV- OLUTIONS IN THE SEVERAL COLONIES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INDE- PENDENT REPUBLICS, WITH THEIR SUBSEQUENT HISTORY; BEING THE GREAT EXPERIMENT OF THE WORLD. BY HENRY BROWNELL, A. M. TWO VOLUMES, ROYAL OCTAVO. VOL. II. THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE SEVERAL PROVINCES : THEIR COLONIAL GOVERNMENT: RESISTANCE TO ENGLAND. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. HIS- TORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CANADA. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, ETC., ETC. BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL PLATE ENGRAVINGS, BY THE FIRST ARTISTS IN AMERICA AND EUROPE. PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY BY HURLBUT, WILLIAMS & COMPANY, AMERICAN SUBSCRIPTION PUBLISHING HOUSE fiartforb, €onn. t 1863. ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OP CONGRESS IN THE TEAR 1860, 'BY HURLBUT, KELLOGG, CO. INTRODUCTION. The present volume contains a view of one of the grand- est demonstrations of human energy which has ever marked the history of any people. This is, the long series of enter- prises, hardships, and labors, carried on with unflagging energy for more than two hundred years by the Anglo-Saxon race of England, and which has resulted in the trans- plantation of their laws, civilization and polity, into a new half of the world ; and the erection upon the fairest and best territory of North America, of two vast empires, the United States and the North American Colonial dominions of the crown of Great Britain. The progress of these two commonwealths — for such they may be called, notwithstanding the subdivisions which exist more especially in the British portion of the continent — has hitherto been in the main an unbroken career of pros- perity. The early days of all the separate colonies were afflicted with the evils and hardships which must necessa- rily vex the pioneers of a civilized race, thrown amidst for- ests, wild beasts, savages and foemen ; but the sufferings and struggles of a hardy youth have given them a strength and solidity of character, which have ever since been their best reliance. A phenomenon hitherto never seen in the world's his- tory, has marked that of the Anglo-Americans. The new people brought learning and religion with them, and founded iv INTRODUCTION. their state, not merely as a trading post or a farm, but with all the fair and full lineaments of an empire ; with church, schools, laws, morals, and society, all matured and adjusted with a wisdom far greater than its possessors were conscious of. As the material growth of their community went on, therefore, its mind and morals kept pace ; and its internal health, and the strength of its contexture, maintains a right proportion to the rapid growth of its territory, population, and wealth. There is every reason to hope that the same Divine power which has thus far watched over the progress of the Anglo- American race, will continue to grant its protection ; and that the career, of which the following pages present a his- tory, is to continue until they shall reach a far loftier station among the nations of the earth, than even that high one to which they have already ascended. CONTENDS, THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. EARLY VOYAGES AND ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION. CHAPTER I. PA31 Sebastian Cabot— His Youth— His First Voyage, and Discovery of North America ; His Second Voy- age, and Futile Attempt at Colonization ; Obscure Interval in his Life ; he serves in Spain ; His Expedition under Henry VIII. ; Appointed Grand Pilot of Spain ; His Expedition to South Amer- ica; His Return to England, Services, Old Age, and Death, * 17 CHAPTER II. The " Dominus Vobiscum "—Failure and Misfortune ; Improvement of the English Marine; Martin Frobisher— His Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage; Diminutive Equipments of the Early Discoverers ; Supposed Discovery of Gold Ore ; Second Expedition of Frobisher ; Surveys ; Con- test with the Esquimaux; His Third Expedition; its Failure, 22 CHAPTER III. English Enterprise; Drake; Sir Humphrey Gilbert; His First Attempt to Colonize America; Sir Walter Raleigh ; Sir Humphrey Sails for America ; Shipwrecks and Misfortunes ; the Return Voy- age ; Tempests ; Loss of Sir Humphrey and his Crew, \ . . . 26 CHAPTER IV. The Patent of Raleigh ; he Dispatches Amidas and Barlow to Carolina— their Report ; the Country named Virginia; Voyages of Davis, &c; Second Expedition of Raleigh, under Lane; Settlement at Roanoke ; Folly and Cruelty of the English ; the Iudians ; Massacre by the English ; Failure and Return of the Expedition, 29 CHAPTER V. Small Settlement planted by Grenville at Roanoke Destroyed b/"the Indians ; Third Expedition of Raleigh ; First English Child in America ; Loss and Supposed Destruction of the Roanoke Colony J Misfortunes of Raleigh; Tardiness and Ill-fortune of English Enterprise; Reflections, 32 THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. CHAPTER I. Memoir of Captain John Smith ; His Youthful Adventures and Services ; he turns Hermit ; His Ad- ventures in France ; he is flung Overboard ; Sea-flght ; Travels in Italy ; His Campaign against the Turks ; Siege of Regall ; the Three Turks' Heads ; Smith sent a Slave to Tartary— his Wonderful Escape; Subsequent Adventures; Returns to England, 30 CHAPTER II. Virginian Colonization Revived; Patent of James L; Ill-assorted Company of Settlers; the Expedi- tion Sails for America; Accidentally enters James River ; Ill-treatment of Smith ; Intercourse with the Indians; Jamestown Founded; Excursion of Smith and Newport; Powhatan; the Indians of Virginia, 48 CHAPTER III. Trial and Vindication of Smith ; Famine and Terrible Mortality ; Smith, by his Exertions, supports the Colony ; Treachery of his Associates ; Dealings with the Indians ; Idle and Miserable Colonists, 46 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. FAO* Expedition and Capture of Smith— his Strange Adventures among the Indians ; Conjurations performed over him ; he is Carried to Powhatan ; His Life Saved by Pocahontas ; Strange Masquerade of Po wd at an ; Release and Return of Smith, 40 CHAPTER V. Privations of the Colonists ; Relieved by Pocahontas ; Arrival of Newport from England ; Intercourse and Traffic with Powhatan; Blue Beads for Crown Jewels; Imaginary Gold Mine; Smith's Voyage in the Chesapeake ; Interviews with numerous Native Tribes ; Sting-ray Point; His Return, 52 CHAPTER VI. Smith made President ; he Resumes the Survey ; the Susquehannas ; Adventures with the Indians ; Remarkable Feat of Survey ; Return to Jamestown ; Arrival of Newport; Absurd Instructions of the English Company ; the Coronation of Powhatan ; Unsuccessful Attempt of Newport to find the South Sea, 55 CHAPTER VII. Plot against Smith; His Letter to the Company; His Efforts to Support the Colony; Expedition to Surprise Powhatan ; Artful Speeches, and Mutual Treachery ; the English again Saved by Pocahontas, 59 CHAPTER VIII. The Plot at Pamunkey— Defeated by the Daring and Energy of Smith ; the Colony Supplied ; Smith Poisoned ; His Unscrupulous Policy ; His Fight with the King of Paspahegh ; " Pretty Accidents" among the Indians, 61 CHAPTER IX. Idleness of the Settlers ; Eloquent Speech and Vigorous Policy of Smith ; the New Virginia Company ; Unjust Assumption of Power; Smith Deposed; Great Expedition dispatched from England — Ill- fortune; Arrival of Numerous Immigrants; Anarchy; Smith Reassumes the Presidency, 64 . CHAPTER X. Futile Attempts at Founding New Settlements ; Folly and Obstinacy of ihe Colonists ; Smith terribly Injured; He Returns to England; His Services to the Colony; Awful Suffering and Mortality after his Departure, 67 CHAPTER XI. Memoir of Smith, continued and concluded; His Voyage to New England, and Surveys; His Second Expedition; His Adventures among the Pirates— his Escape; His Great Exertions for the Settle- ment of New England ; Interesting Interview between Smith and Pocahontas in England ; Last Years of Smith ; His Death ; His Character and Achievements, 69 CHAPTER XII. Arrival of Gates; Miserable Condition of the Colony; Jamestown Deserted; Arrival of Lord Dela- ware — of Sir Thomas Dale; Exertions of the Company; Increased Immigration; the Culture of Tobacco introduced, and Eagerly Pursued ; Tyranny of Argall— his Displacement ; Great Accession of Immigrants; Wives purchased with Tobacco; Liberal Concessions to the Colonists, T7 CHAPTER XIII. Wyatt Governor ; Negro Slavery introduced ; Death of Powhatan and Succession of Opechancanough ; Plot Devised by the Latter ; Terrible Massacre of the English ; Depression of the Colony ; Usurpa- tion of the Patent by James I. ; Prudent Policy toward the Colonists, 80 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. Unsuccessful Attempts of the Plymouth Company to Settle New England ; Persecution of the Non- • conformists ; Retreat of Robinson's Congregation to Holland— their High Character— their Resolu- tion to Plant t. Colony— their Loyalty and Courage — Departure from Delft Haven, 83 CHAPTER II. Stormy Voyage of the Pilgrims to America; they Arrive at Cape Cod— are Compelled to Disembark —Institute a Republic ; their Simple Constitution ; Carver elected Governor; Absence of Personal Ambition among the Puritan Settlers, 86 CHAPTER III. Dreary Appearance of New England ; Exploring Party ; Strange Injustice to the Indians ; The Voyage to Plymouth Harbour; Skirmish with the Savages; Settlement of Plymouth Founded; Great Suf- fering and Mortality among the Pilgrims, , _ 88 CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER IV. P AO a The Indians of Now England— thinned by Pestilence ; the Pequots, Narragansetts, and other Tribes ; Extraordinary Opinions of the English concerning them ; Bigoted Accounts of the Ancient Histo- rians, etc., 91 CHAPTER V. Samoset— " Welcome, Englishmen;" the Visit of Massasoit; Treaty and Alliance; Mortality among the Colonists; Death of Governor Carver; Duel, and it3 Punishment; Visit to Massasoit — to lyan- ough ; Affecting Incident, 95 CHAPTER VI. Arrival of the Fortune; Challenge from Canonicus— his Superstitious Dread; Plymouth Fortified; Weston's Colony at Weymouth— its Miserable Condition; Massasoit 111— cured by the English; Dangerous Plot Revealed, 98 CHAPTER VII. Expedition of Standish to Weymouth ; Daring Policy ; Slaughter of the Conspiring Indians ; the Col- ony of Weston Broken up ; Privations and Sufferings at Plymouth— Drought— Seasonable Supply of Rain; Additional Arrival, 101 CHAPTER VIII. New Settlements Founded ; New Hampshire and Maine ; Endicott's Company ; the Revellers of Merry Mount— Broken up by the Puritans ; Settlement of Massachusetts ; Foundation of Boston ; Great Emigration ; Mortality and Suffering, Jo4 CHAPTER IS. Character of the Founders of Massachusetts; Regulations for Public Morality— for Apparel, etc.; Amusing Penalties ; Intolerance in Religion; Commencement of Persecution, 107 CHAPTER X Rev. Roger Williams; His Liberal Opinions; he is Persecuted by the Authorities of Massachusetts; Expelled from that Province ; takes Refuge in the Wilderness ; Founds Providence Plantations and the State of Rhode Island, 109 CHAPTER XI. Settlement of Connecticut by Plymouth— by Massachusetts; Hardships of the Colonists; Foundation of Hartford,etc ; Emigration under Hooker— New Haven Founded; Commencement of the Pequot War; Influence of Roger Williams, 112 CHAPTER XII. The Pequot War, continued; the Attack on Wethersfleld ; Expedition under Mason; Surprise and Storming of the Pequot Fort— Terrible Slaughter and Conflagration ; Final Defeat and Destruction of the Tribe; Barbarous Exultation of the Eai ly Historians ; Reflections, 114 THE SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. CHAPTER I. Sir George Calvert— his Schemes for Settlements in America— he Obtains the Grant of Maryland- Founds a Colony there; Settlement of St. Mary's; Relations with the Indians; Expulsion of Clay- borne ; Discontent and Insurrection ; Protestant Settlers ; Act for the Toleration of all Christian Sects, lib CHAPTER II. Arbitrary System of Lord Baltimore; Disaffection of the Protestant Settlers ; Interference of the Vir- ginia Commissioners; Affairs in England; Triumph of the Protestants; Repeal of Toleration; Civil War; Victory of the Protestants; Fendall's Insurrection— his Success and Final Ruin ; Toler- ation Restored, 121 VIRGINIA — CONTINUED. CHAPTER I. Reign of Charles I— his Views of Virginia ; Yeardley, Governor— West— Harvey— his Deposition by the People— he is Supported by the Crown ; Wyatt ; Sir William Berkeley, Governor ; Loyalty of the Colony; Persecution of Dissenters; Second Indian Conspiracy and Massacre ; Opechanoanough a Prisoner— his Speech— Murdered by a Soldier ; Reduction of the Indians ; Triumph of the Puri- tans in England ; Royalist Emigration to Virginia ; Loyalty of the Province, 124 4 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. PAGB Act for the Redaction of Virginia ; the Navigation Act ; Moderation of the Parliament ; Submission of the Province ; Bennett, Governor— Diggs— Mathews ; Jealousy of the Assembly against Foreign Interference ; Freedom and Prosperity of Virginia under the Commonwealth ; Death of Cromwell ; Berkeley, Governor ; Restoration of Charles II. ; its HI Effect on the Province, 127 NEW ENGLAND — CONTINUED. CHAPTER t. Inimical Measures adopted in England ; Spirit of Massachusetts— Threat of Revolt ; the English Rev- olution; Industry and Prosperity of New England— its Independence; New Hampshire Annexed to Massachusetts ; Formation of the New England Confederacy, « 130 CHAPTER II. Uncas and Miantonimo; Defeat and Death of the Latter; Discredit to the English; Rhode Island — its Liberties Guaranteed by the Parliament ; Letter to Sir Henry Vane ; Remarkable Freedom En- joyed there; Maine Annexed by Massachusetts, 133 CHAPTER III. Opposition to the Massachusetts Authorities ; Parliamentary Encroachment Resisted and Relinquished ; New England Favoured by Cromwell ; Bigoted and Intolerant Laws of Massachusetts; Persecution of Baptists; the Quakers— Persecution of them— Four Executed— their Courage and Fortitude; Apologists for the Hangings; Reflections, 136 CHAPTER IV. Education in Massachusetts; Harvard College; Restoration of Charles II.; Oppressive Enactments concerning Commerce; Attitude of the Colonies; Winthrop, the Younger; Connecticut obtains a Charter— her Freedom and Prosperity, 141 CHAPTER V. The Charter of Rhode Island ; Civil and Religious Liberty; Careless and Extensive Grants of Charles II.; the Attitude of Massachusetts— Distrust of the Restoration; Requisitions of Charles II.; Ap- pointment of a Commission ; Alarm of the Colony, 143 CHAPTER VI. Remonstrance of Massachusetts ; Doings of the Commissioners— their Disputes with the Authorities— their Discomfiture and Return to England ; Successful Resistance of Massachusetts ; Inertness of the Crown ; Prosperity and Trade of the Province, 145 CHAPTER VII. Condition of the New England Indians— Conversion of some of them— their Numbers and Strength ; the Pokanokets ; Metacomet, or King Philip— his Grievances— Dissimulation— Scheme for the De- struction of the English ; Captain Church— his Character, etc.— he Disconcerts an Intrigue of Philip, 147 CHAPTER VIII. Commencement of Philip's War; Exploit of Church; Retreat of the Indians; Philip Rouses the Tribes ; Destruction of Towns, etc ; the Attack on Hadley— Repulsed by Goffe ; Great Losses of the English; Springfield Burned, 150 CHAPTER IX. Philip's War, continued ; Destruction of the Narragansett Fort— Terrible Massacre ; Malignant Exul- tation of the Early Historians; Indian Successes; Capture and Death of Canonchet— his Heroism and Magnanimity ; Diplomacy of Church, 153 CHAPTER X. Philip's War, continued ; Successful Campaign of Church; Defeat and Capture of the Savages; Phil- ip's Despair— he Retreats to Mount Hope— is Defeated and Slain— Barbarous Exposure of his Re- mains—his Character, 15* CHAPTER XI. Philip's War, concluded; Capture of Annawon and his Warriors, by Church; Romantic Incidents; Summary of the War; Philip's Son; Barbarous Policy of the Victors; Murderous Advice; the Character of the Puritans ; Reflections, 15b CHAPTER XII. Renewed Interference of the Crown in Massachusetts; Severance of Now Hampshire— Attempt to Tyrannize there— its Failure; Action of Massachusetts; Proceedings against its Charter; Vain Op- position and Remonstrance; the Charter Annulled, 161 CONTENTS. 9 Ik SETTLEMENT OF THE CAROLINAS. paoi Failure to Plant Colonies in the South ; Emigration from Virginia to North Carolina— from Barbadoes to South Carolina ; the Patent of Charles II. ; Legislation of Locke and Shaftesbury ; Cumbrous System of Government; Discontent of the Settlers ; Insurrection in North Carolina ; Sothel deposed by the People; Charleston Founded; Constitution of Locke Relinquished, 164 VIRGINIA — CONTINUED. CHAPTER I. Retrograde Movements in Virginia ; Revival of Intolerance and Oppression ; Grant of Virginia to Culpepper and Arlington; Popular Discontent; Indian War; Murder of the Chiefs; Insurrection under Bacon; Triumph of the People, 168 CHAPTER ix. The Popular Assembly ; Measures of Reform ; Opposition and Treachery of Berkeley ; Civil War ; Triumph of the Insurgents ; Jamestown Burned ; Death of Bacon— his Character ; Ruin of the Pop- ular Cause; Numerous Executions; Death of Berkeley; Administration of Culpepper, etc., 170 THE SETTLEMENT OF DELAWARE. The First Dutch Colony in Delaware— its Destruction; Swedes and Finns under Minuit; Conquest of the Swedish Settlements by the Dutch, under Stuyvesant; Delaware under the Duke of York — under Penn; Disputes with Maryland concerning Boundaries; Separation of Delaware from Pennsylvania, 174 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY Conquest by the English; Nichols, Berkeley, and Carteret; Emigration from New England; Sale of West New Jersey to the Quakers ; Fenwick, Byllinge, and Penn ; Quaker Settlements ; Remarkably Free Constitution; Friendly Dealings with the Indians; Usurpation of Andros— its Defeat; East New Jersey, 176 THE SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER I. William Penn— his Youth— he turns Quaker— is Expelled from College and Home— Imprisoned for his Opinions— Severity of his Father— Fresh Imprisonment— Exertions in Behalf of his Sect— ho Engages in the Settlement of New Jersey, 179 CHAPTER XI. f Penn obtains from Charles II. the Grant of Pennsylvania— his Admirable Proclamation to the Set- tlers—he Repairs to America— Gains Possession of Delaware— Honourable Dealings with the In- dians—their Attachment to him ; the Great Treaty, 181 CHAPTER III,. Liberal Legislation of Pennsylvania; Penn Founds Philadelphia— its Rapid Increase; Formation of a Constitution ; Great Emigration from Europe ; Growth of the Province ; Penn returns to England ; His Subsequent Career, 184 THE NORTHERN COLONIES — CONTINUED. CHAPTER I. Sir Edmund Andros Commissioned by the Duke of York— his Attempts to Extend his Authority over Connecticut; Thomas Dongas ; Union of the Colonies under a Royal Governor ; Andros appointed Governor-general ; Oppression in the Colonies ; Proceedings against Connecticut and Rhode Island ; Andros's Visit to Connecticut ; Preservation of the Charter ; the Northern Provinces forced to Sub- mission; Doings in New England upon the Occurrence of the Revolution of 1688, 187 CHAPTER II. New York Subsequent to the Revolution of 1688 ; Assumption of Authority by Jacob Leisler— Oppo- sition by the Council; Indian Incursions; Arrival of Sloughter as Governor; Trial and Execution of Leisler and Milbourne; Colonel Fletcher— his Futile Attempt to Enforce Authority in Connecti- cut; Church Difficulties; Bellamont's Peaceable Administration; Captain Kidd, the Pirate, 191 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. I AOS Now Charter of Massachusetts ; Trials for Witchcraft in Salem ; First Execution ; Parris and his Family; Court of Examination at Salem; Cotton Mather; Arrival of Phipps; Numerous Execu- tions; Confessions; Cruelties Inflicted; Change in Public Opinion, 194 CHAPTER IV. Coctroversy Concerning Revenue ; Suspected Negro Revolt in New York— Mock-trials of the Accused — Barbarous Punishments ; Connecticut — the Saybrook Platform ; Massachusetts — Burning of Deer- field— Difficulties between the Governors and Assemblies; New Hampshire — Attack on Cocneco — Eastern Indian War; Rhode Island— its Commercial Prosperity; New Jersey—Opposition to Arbi- trary Taxation— Scotch Immigration— Prosperity of the Colony— its Union with New York, 197 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES CONTINUED. CHAPTER I. Charter of the Colony of Georgia; First Arrival of Colonists; Settlement of Savannah; Indian Nego- tiations; Mary Musgrove; Cession of Indian Claims; Character of Immigrants to Georgia; Traffic ia Negroes Prohibited ; Frederica Founded ; War with Spain, 203 CHAPTER II. Oglethorpe's Expedition against St. Augustine— Siege of the Town— Failure and Return of the Ex- pedition ; Spanish Invasion in 1742 ; Defence of Frederica ; Stratagem of Oglethorpe ; Thomas Bosomworth— hie Intrigues with the Indians— Litigation with the Colony ; Georgia a Royal Province, 203 CHAPTER III. South Carolina— Religious Controversies— Archdale's Administration— Moore's Expedition against St. Augustine— Invasion of Indian Territory— French Fleet on the Coast— Culiure of Rice — Indian Conspiracy — Revolt against the Proprietors — the Charter declared Forfeit — South Carolina a Royal Province ; North Carolina — Political Disturbances — a Prosperous Anarchy — Separation from South Carolina, 209 CHAPTER IV. Virginia under Royal Governors— State of the Colony— Church Controversies; Pennsylvania a Royal Province — the Proprietor Reinstated— Policy of Penn ; Delaware— Death of Penn— his Successors ; Maryland— its Catholic Population— Government of the Association— Oppressive Enactments- ~the Proprietors Restored, • 212 INDIAN WARS, ETC CHAPTER I. Commencement of the Cherokee War— Treaty at Fort St. George — Siege of that Fort— Murder of Hostages— Montgomery's Campaign— Destruction of the Lower Cherokee Settlements— Retreat- Massacre of the Garrison of Fort Loudon— the Towns of the Middle Cherokees destroyed by the Forces under Grant, 214 CHAPTER II. English Occupation of the Western Trading Posts; Conspiracy of the North-western Tribes, under Pontiac; Destruction of the English Forts; Taking of Michillimackinac; Siege of Detroit; Lose at Bloody-run ; Close of the War ; Massacre of the Canestoga Indians, 219 EUROPEAN COLONIAL POLICY. Spanish and English Restrictions upon Trade and Commerce ; Contraband Traffic ; the «* Assiento" Treaty ; the Slave-trade — its General Popularity— Causes which lead to the Abolition of Slavery — Manner of Procuring Negroes from Africa— Profit of the Trade— Numbers brought over— English Law upon the Subject of Slavery ; Introduction of White Apprentices, or " Redemptioners,"....* 22S THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. CHAPTER X. General Rights of Colonies ; Early Causes of Complaint in America ; Arbitrary Custom Laws ; Illegal Conduct of English Officials ; Acts in Regulation of Trade ; Expenses of the Late Wars in Amer- ica; the " Sugar-act ;" Opposition and Remonstrance in the Colonies, . , ., 227 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER II. PAG* The Stamp Act— Argument in the House of Commons— Passage of the Bill— its Effect in the Colonies ; Resolutions in the Virginia Assembly ; Patrick Henry ; Proceedings in Massachusetts— Popular Tumults— Resignation of the Stamp Officers, 230 CHAPTER III. Session of the First American Congress— Moderate Tone of its Proceedings— Concurrence of the Sep- arate Colonies; the Stamp Act Nugatory; the English Ministry; Debate in Parliament; Speech of Pitt Examination of Franklin ; Repeal of the Stamp Act, 234 CHAPTER IV. Interval of Quiet ; New Taxes on Importations ; Non-importation Agreement ; Circular of Massacnu- setts ; Riots at Boston ; Assemblies Dissolved ; Troops Ordered to Boston ; Measures of the British Government; Fatal Encounter between the Troops and Populace at Boston; Concessions of Parliament, 238 CHAPTER V. Party Spirit in the Colonies ; Whig and Tory ; the Regulators of North Carolina ; Hutchinson, Gov- ernor of Massachusetts ; Destruction of the Gaspee ; System of Political Communication between the Colonies ; Tea dispatched to America by the East India Company ; Refusal of the Colonists to Receive it ; Violent Proceedings at Boston— Closure of the Port ; Extension of Canada, 242 CHAPTER VI. Gage, Governor of Massachusetts— Military Preparations— Minute-men ; Distress in Boston— Sympa- thy of other Towns; Convention Proposed by Virginia— Delegates Chosen by the Colonies; the Continental Congress— Resolutions and Declaration Adopted ; Violent Measures of Parliament,. 246 CHAPTER VII. Warlike Preparations in Massachusetts; Troops dispatched to Seize Military Stores; First B'ood Shed at Lexington ; Disastrous Retreat of the British to Boston ; Proceedings in the Neighbouring Colonies ; Boston Besieged by the Provincials ; Concurrence of the Southern Colonies ; Second Session of Congress ; Appointment of Officers ; Seizure of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, 249 CHAPTER VIII. Condition of the British Army in Boston; Battle of Bunker Hill; Washington at the Camp; Con- gressional Proceedings ; the Indian Tribes ; Joseph Brant ; Military Preparations in the Separate Colonies, 253 CHAPTER IX. Vacillating Policy of England ; Provisions by Congress for Carrying on the War ; Naval Operations ; Expedition against Canada ; Siege of Fort St. John ; Allen's Attempt upon Montreal ; the City Oc- cupied by Montgomery ; March towards Quebec, 25? CHAPTER X. Arnold's Expedition against Quebec— Passage of the Wilderness— Failure of Provisions— Defection of Enos, with his Command — Arrival at the Canadian Settlements— Proclamations— Arnold at the Heights of Abraham— Union with Montgomery— Attack on Quebec— Death of Montgomery— Mor« gan's Rifle Corps — American Forces drawn off, 260 CHAPTER XI. Warlike Preparations in England ; German Mercenaries ; Proceedings of Congress— Enlistments- Issue of Bills— Defences in New York ; Condition of the British in Boston ; Occupation of Dor- chester Heights ; Evacuation of the City ; Hopkins' Cruise among the Bahamas ; Affairs at the South; Attack upon Charleston ; Retreat of the American Troops from Canada, 263 CHAPTER XII. State of Feeling in the Colonies ; Paine's Writings ; Debates in Congress ; the Declaration of Inde- pendence—its Effect upon the People ; the British at Staten Island ; Proclamation of General and of Admiral Howe, 26"* CHAPTER XIII. Landing of 3he British on Long Island ; Battle of Brooklyn ; the American Forces Driven from Long Island ; Occupation of New York by the British ; Washington's Encampment at Harlem Heights— at White Plains, Storming of Fort Washington; the Retreat through New Jersey; Capture of General Lee; Condition of Prisoners; Lake Champlain— Destruction of the American Vessels; Generosity of Carleton; Rhode Island Seized by the British, 270 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. . PAQE Congress at Baltimore; Army Organization ; Powers Conferred upon Washington; Passage of the Delaware, and Recovery of Trenton ; Battle of Princeton ; End of the Campaign ; Marauding Par- ties; Negotiation with European Powers; Foreign Officers in the American Service, 274 CHAPTER XV. Expeditions against Peekskill and Danbury ; British Plan of Campaign ; Howe's Departure from New York ; Burgoyne's Army— his Proclamation ; Siege of Ticondoroga ; Retreat of St. Clair ; Burgoyne on the Hudson; Siege of Fort Schuyler; Battle of Bennington; Indian Warfare, 278 CHAPTER XVI. Battles at Behmus' Heights; Burgoyne's Retreat to Saratoga— his Surrender ; Detention of Prisoners; Expedition from Now York up the Hudson; Howe's March upon Philadelphia; Battle at Brandy- wine Creek ; British Occupation of Philadelphia ; Battle of Germantown ; Reduction of Forts Mif- flin and Mercer; Winter-quarters at Valley Forge, 281 CHAPTER XVII. Difficulties of Congress ; Articles of Confederation ; Recommendations to the States ; Intrigues against Washington; Treaties with France; British Commissioners in America; Evacuation of Philadel- phia ; Battle of Monmouth ; Arrival of a French Fleet ; Attempt on Newport ; Winter-quarters ; Marauding Expeditions; Destruction of Wyoming, 285 CHAPTER XVIII. Invasion of Georgia ; Occupation of Savannah ; British Division under Prevost ; Lincoln in Command at the South ; Defeat of Ashe at Briar Creek ; Attack on Charleston ; Sullivan's Campaign against the Iroquois ; Naval Operations of France and England ; Attempt at a Recovery of Savannah ; Fur- ther Naval Proceedings— Paul Jones; Condition of the American Army, 290 CHAPTER XIX. Siege of Charleston— Surrender of the City ; South Carolina Occupied by the British ; Tarleton's Le- gion—his Victory at Waxhaws ; Cornwallie in Command ; Defeat of the Americans at Camden ; Guerilla Operations of Sumpter and Marion; Invasion of North Carolina; Ferguson's Defeat at King's Mountain, 294 CHAPTER XX. Northern Operations ; Springfield Burned ; Arrival of the French Fleet and Forces— Blockade at New- port ; Treason of Arnold ; Trial and Execution of Major Andre ; Causes of Arnold's Defection ; In- dian Ravages— Invasion of the Mohawk Valley by Johnson and Brant, 298 CHAPTER XXI. Revolt of the Pennsylvania Troops ; Arnold's Expedition into Virginia ; Greene in Command of the Southern Army ; Morgan's Detachment— Battle of Cowpens— Pursuit of Morgan by Cornwallis— Passage of the Catawba— Retreat into Virginia— Battle of Guilford Court-house; Greene's March into South Carolina ; Cornwallis in Virginia ; Battle at Hobkirk's Hill ; Seizure of British Forts by Marion and Lee, . 301 CHAPTER XXII. War between England and Holland ; Seizure and Plunder of St. Eustatius ; the Armed Neutrality ; Recovery of West Florida by Spain ; Continental Currency ; Plan for the Recovery of New York ; Virginia Ravaged by Phillips and Cornwallis ; Encampments at Yorktown and Gloucester Point ; Washington's March Southward ; Attack on New London and Groton ; Campaign iu South Caro- lina; Battle near Eutaw Springs, «. 305 CHAPTBR XXIII. French Fleet in the Chesapeake ; Siege of Yorktown ; Surrender of Cornwallis ; Winter-quarters ; Proceedings in the English Parliament ; Negotiations for Peace ; Terms of Treaty ; Cessation of Hostilities ; Disaffection in the Continental Army ; Evacuation of New York ; Position of the United States, 309 THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER I. Position of the Union at the Conclusion of Peace ; Existing Difficulties with Great Britain ; Weakness of Congress ; Local Disturbances— Shay's Rebellion ; Convention for Enlarging Congressional Pow- ers—Opposing Interests of the States ; the Present Constitution— Federal Legislature— Powers of Congress— Restrictions— Limit of State Powers— the Executive — the Judiciary— Mutual Guarantees —Amendments,. 313 CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTER II. piQi Ratification of the Constitution by the States ; Washington Elected President ; the First Congress— Provisions for Revenue — Formation of a Cabinet— Power of Removal from Office ; Washington's Tour through New England ; Second Session of Congress— Debate respecting the Public Debt — Foreign Liabilities— Public Certificates— Assumption of State Debts— the Public Debt Funded — Miscellaneous Enactments; Constitution Ratified by Rhode Island, 319 CHAPTER III. Indian Negotiations— the Creeks— the North-western Tribes ; Harmar's Unsuccessful Campaign ; Third Session of Congress — the Excise Law — a National Bank; Settlement of Kentucky — its Admission to the Union; Admission of Vermont; Site of the Federal Capitol ; the North-western Indians— St. Clair's Expedition— his Disastrous Defeat; Political Parties; the Census, 323 CHAPTER IV. Washington's Second Term— his Disinclination to Office; the French Revolution— its Political Influ- ence in the United States; Arrival of Genet, as Minister of the French Republic— his Proceedings at Charleston ; Neutral Position of the United States ; Commercial Restrictions by France and Eng- land ; Impressment of American Seamen ; Retirement of Jefferson; Algerine Depredations, 327 CHAPTER V. American Politics ; Debate in Congress upon Foreign Relations ; Further Aggressions of England : Commission of Jay as Ambassador Extraordinary to Great Britain; Relief of Immigrants from St. Domingo; the Neutrality Laws; Resistance to the Excise — Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania — its Forcible Suppression— Opinions of the Republican Party, 331 CHAPTER VI. General Wayne's Campaign against the North-western Indians; Defeat of the Confederate Tribes at the Miami Rapids; Naturalization Laws; the Democratic Clubs; Hamilton's Resignation; the British Treaty— its Ratification— Popular Indignation ; Randolph's Resignation, 335 CHAPTER VII. Indian Treaty at Fort Greenville; Treaties with Algiers and Spain— the Mississippi Opened to Amer- can Trade; Debate in Congress upon Jay's British Treaty; Tennessee Admitted into the Union; French Proceedings in Respect to the Treaty; American Ministers to France; Washington's Re- tirement from Office — Slanders upon his Character; John Adams Elected President, 339 CHAPTER VIII. Treatment of United States' Ambassadors in Fiance; Hostile Preparations in America; New Em- bassy—Refusal of the Directory to Receive the American Ministers; Negotiations with Talleyrand ; Extravaga.it Demands and Injurious Decrees of tho Directory ; Return of the Ambassadors ; Action of Congress— Military Preparations— Alien and Sedition Laws— Land-tax, etc., 341 CHAPTER IX. Pacific Movements in France; Mission of Murray; Naval Engagements; Death of Washington ; Na- poleon First Consul ; Treaty with France ; First Session of Congress at Washington ; Presidential Election— Jefferson President, and Burr Vice-president; Party Removal from Office; Economical Reforms; Ohio Admitted into the Union; Transfer of Louisiana to the United States, 345 CHAPTER X. American Fleet in the Mediterranean; Expedition of Eaton and (lamet against Tripoli; Treaty con- cluded; Jeftcrson's Reelection; Burr's Duel with Hamilton— his Western Enterprise— his Trial,... 349 CHAPTER XI. English Aggressions; Failure of Negotiation ; Attack on the Frigate Chesapeake; Embargo; Non- intercouree Act ; Abolition of the Slave-trade ; John Randolph; West Florida; Concessions of Napoleon; British Cruisers— the Little Belt ; Tccumseh— Elskwatawa— Battle of Tippecanoe ; East Florida; Declaration of War, 353 CHAPTER 3CII. Riots at Baltimore ; Hull's Invasion of Canada ; Repeal of the Orders in Council— Impressment ; Na- val Operations ; Madison's Reelection; North-western Campaign— Defeat of Winchester ; Attack on York ; the British on Lake Champlain, 360 CHAPTER XIII. Waval Affairs— Perry's Victory on Lake Erie ; Harrison's Canadian Campaign ; the Niagara Frontiei ; the Creek War— Jackson's Campaign ; Negotiations for Peace ; Brown's Invasion of Canada— Battlo of Bridgewater ; Occupation of the Chesapeake— Battle of Bladensburgh— Seizure of Washington —Destruction of Public Buildings— Attack on Baltimore, 368- 14 CONTENTS. CHiPTER XIV. PAGE. Operations on the Coast of Maine ; Attack on Pittsburgh — Battle of Lake Champlain ; Naval Affairs — Lafitte ; Negotiation at Ghent ; the Hartford Convention ; Treaty of Peace ; Jackson's Defence of New Orleans — Battle of January 8 ; Naval Engagements, 376 CHAPTER XV. War with Algiers ; Tariff— National Bank ; Monroe, President ; Jackson's Seminole Campaign ; Cession of Florida by Spain ; Admission of Missouri — the Compromise ; Monroe's Second Term ; Administra- tion of John Quincy Adams ; Election of Andrew Jackson ; the Tariff; Nullification in South Carolina; the United States' Bank ; Indian Removals ; Black Hawk ; the Cherokees, 381 CHiPTER XVI. The Seminole War ; Early History of the Florida Indians ; War of 1818 ; Indian Treaty of 1823— of 1832 ; Refusal of the Seminoles to Remove ; Destruction of Dade's Detachment ; Military Operations of Gen- erals Scott and Jessup ; Unsatisfactory Results of Negotiation ; Expeditions of Colonels Taylor and Harney; Gradual Cessation of Hostilities; Recent Difficulties, 389 CHAPTER XVII. Administration of Van Buren — Financial Pressure — the Sub-treasury — Canadian Revolt — the North- eastern Boundary — the Affair of the Amistad ; Harrison and Tyler — Bankrupt Law — Preemption — the Veto Power — Tariff ; Admission of Texas, 395 CHAPTER XVIII. Texas as a Spanish Province — Grant to Moses Austin — Colonization — Difficulties of the Settlers ; Revolu- tion in Mexico — Bustamente — First Revolutionary Movements in Texas — Santa Anna's Presidency — his Usurpation ; Second Texan Campaign — Success of the Patriots — Invasion by Santa Anna — Battle of San Jacinto — Independence Established, 400 CHiPTER XIX. Administration of James K. Polk ; Annexation of Texas ; the North-western Boundary ; Discovery and History of the Territory of Oregon ; Voyage of Juan de Fuca — Discovery of the Columbia-Trading Es- tablishments — Journey of Lewis and Clarke — Astoria — Destruction of the Tonquin ; War with Great Britain — Boundary Treaties — Settlement of the Country, 408 CHAPTER XX. Alteration in the Tariff; Acquisition of California— Early History of that Province — the Jesuit Missions in the Peninsula — the Dominicans ; Upper California— the Franciscan Missionary Establishment — the Mexican Revolution— Attempts at Colonization, 413 CHAPTER XXI. Exploration of New California — Colonel Fremont's Survey of the South Pass — Overland Expedition of 1843-4— the Great Salt Lake— Return Route— Terrible Passage of the Sierra Nevada— Captain Sutter's Settlement — Subsequent Expeditions of Fremont; the Gold Discoveries in California 418 CHAPTER XXII. The Mormons ; Administrations of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore — Admission of California into th« Union — Debate upon the Slavery Question — the Compromise — Expeditions of Narcisso Lopez ; Statis- tics ; Franklin Pierce President— Japan— the Nebraska Question, 425 CHAPTER XXIII. Administration of James Buchanan— Republican Party— Know Nothings — Growth of Slavery question— Dred Scott decision— Kansas troubles— Utah War— William Walker's invasions of California and Nic- aragua—Walker shot— Financial Panic of 1857 — California Overland Mail— Revival of 1858 — Treaty with Paraguay— Cuba— San Juan— Prince of Wales in America— Japanese embassy— John Brown- Nominating Conventions, 1860 — Election of Lincoln and Hamlin — Secession ; Confederate States of America— Growth of the Union, 433 CHAPTER XXIV. Canada— Statistical description of, 441 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. (Sarin flojrajges auXr Utajrfs at Cokui^afiou. CHAPTER lo SEBASTIAN CABOT: HIS YOUTH: HIS FIRST VOYAGE, AND DISCOV- ERY OF NORTH AMERICA. HIS SECOND VOYAGE, AND FUTILE ATTEMPT AT COLONIZATION. — OBSCURE INTERVAL IN HIS LIFE. — HE SERVES IN SPAIN. — HIS EXPEDITION UNDER HENRY VIII. — APPOINTED GRAND PILOT OF SPAIN. HIS EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AMERICA. — HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND, SERVICES, OLD AGE, AND DEATH. England, the first to discover the American continent, was, strangely enough, the last to plant her colonies on its shores. Be- tween a solitary brilliant effort of early enterprise and those late and feeble endeavours destined to eventuate in such mighty results, there was destined to intervene the barren interregnum of nearly a century of torpidity and ignorance, of imprudence and disaster. The scanty resources of her marine, and the lives of her most enterprising dis- coverers, for ages, were lavished in futile efforts to reach the shores of India by passing to the north of Asia, or in yet more hopeless attempts at the North-west Passage. After briefly describing the particulars of her first memorable achievement, and the unimportant movements in the same direction by which it was succeeded, we may pass, with little interruption, to the tardy and unprosperous beginning 18 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. of an empire, whose rise and progress are utterly without a parallel in the history of the world. That achievement, indeed, as in the more remarkable instance of ColuYnbus, and in that of Magellan, of Yespucius, of Yerrazano, and of Hudson* was mainly- due to the genius and enterprise of one who, if not of foreign birth, was of foreign origin and education, seeking, in a strange land, the means of displaying his genius and courage in effecting grand discoveries. Sebastian Cabot, the son of an emi- nent Yenetian merchant, was born at Bristol in England, about the year 1477. Being removed to Yenice at the early age of four, he there received, for the age, an excellent education, and became espe- cially imbued with the taste for maritime enterprise. Keturning to England yet a youth, his ambition, like that of others of his family, was strongly kindled by tidings of the grand discovery of Columbus, then the chief event of the day. "By this fame and report," he says, "there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing." An ambition so laudable has seldom been gratified at such an early age; and a more "notable thing" than the young adventurer proba- bly dreamed of, was destined, while he was yet a boy, to immortalize his name. Henry VII., whose far-sighted policy had looked with immediate favour on the scheme of Columbus, and who had narrowly missed the first claim to America, in March, 1496, at the instance of John Cabot, granted to him and his three sons — Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius — a patent "to sail to all parts, country s, and seas, of the East, of the West, and of the North, to seek and find out whatsoever isles, countries, regions, or provinces of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they may be, and in what part of the world soever they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians." The main object of this expedition was the enterprising attempt, so often since repeated, first from ignorance of climate and geography, and latterly from sheer English hardihood and perseverance, to find a North-west passage to the shores of India. Sebastian, though as yet only a youth of nineteen, was entrusted with the command of the expedition, which consisted of five ships, and in the spring of 1497, accompanied by his father, took his departure from the port of Bristol. After stopping at Iceland, they held on to the westward, and on the 24th of June, beheld the land stretching before them, being portions of the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. Little exultation seems to have been awakened by THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 19 this momentous discovery of a continent. "After certayne dayes," says Sebastian, "I found that the land ranne toward the North, which was to mee a great displeasure, * * not thinking to find any other land than Cathay " (China). He entered, however, it would seem, one of the channels which lead into Hudson's Bay, and thought himself (like Hudson, a century later) fairly in the desired track ; but after keeping westward for several days, the crews, discouraged by the length of the voyage and the failure of provi- sion, insisted on return. Compelled to yield, he put about, and after coasting along shore for some way to the southward, made his way to England. Not long afterwards, John Cabot expired. In the spring of 1498, Sebastian, anxious to found a colony, took with him three hundred men, and again set sail for the region he had discovered. These unfortunate people he landed on the bleak and inhospitable coast of Labrador, that they might form a settlement there, and then with the squadron renewed his search for the North- west Passage. The particulars of this unsuccessful attempt are not recorded; but on his return to the station, he found that the settlers had suffered miserably from cold and exposure, though, in that high northern latitude, "the dayes were very longe, and in a manner without nyght." A number had already perished, and the rest, refusing to remain any longer in these inclement regions, were taken on board, and carried back to England. In the return voyage, he coasted along the Atlantic sea-board of North America as far as Florida. From this time until the year 1512, very little is known of the career of Cabot; though, it is said, deprived of the aid of the crown, he fitted out vessels at his own charges, and made "great discoveries," in a more southerly direction. In that year we find him employed by Ferdinand of Spain, and, not long after, a member of the Council of the Indies. He was also entrusted with the command of a fresh expedition to seek the Westerly Passage; but this project failing, from the death of his patron, in 1516, he returned to England, where he was received with favour by Henry VIII. From that country he made a fresh expedition to the north-west, attaining the sixty- seventh degree of north latitude, and making fresh surveys in Hud- son's Bay; but from the severity of the season, the mutinous dispo- sition of his crews, and the timidity of Sir Thomas Pert, who com- manded under him, ("whose faint heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect,") was compelled to return to England, his purpose 20 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. anaecomplished. In 1518, he was recalled to Spain by Charles V v then on the throne of that country, and received the honourable and responsible appointment of Chief Pilot. In April of 1526, he set forth, with three ships, on a voyage to the Pacific by the strait of Magellan; but, through mutiny and ship- wreck, his project was disconcerted, and he devoted himself to inland exploration. He passed up the La Plata and the Paraguay, and, during an absence of five years, added materially to a knowledge of the geography of those regions, as well as of their natural wealth and resources. In 1531, he returned to Spain, and resumed his office of Chief Pilot, being then fifty-three years of age. Despite his many misfortunes, his reputation as a discoverer and navigator was great. "He is so valiant a man," says a contemporary, "and so well practiced in all things pertaining to navigations and the science of cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in all Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he is preferred above all other Pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither without his license, and is therefore called Pilote Maggioro, (that is, Grand Pilot.)" "I found him," says another, "a very gentle and courteous person, who entertained mee friendly, and showed mee many things, and among other a large mappe of the world" — at that time, doubtless, a great curiosity, and which certainly would be none the less such now. The learned and enterprising seem to have found delight in his society, and as, with increasing age, he gradually relinquished his more active occupations, a serene tranquillity, relieved from mo- notony by the interest of his office f rewarded the more arduous achievements of his youth and manhood. "After this," he writes, "I made many other voyages, which I now pretermit, and waxing olde, I give myself to rest from such travels, because there are now many young and lustie pilots and mariners of good experience, by whose forwardness I do rejoyce in the fruit of my labors and rest in the charge of this office as you see." Aged as the discoverer was when he wrote this letter, his work was far from finished; the promotion of English enterprise and the "building up of a marine mightier than the world has ever seen, being reserved as the crowning laurel of his long and useful life. In 1548, being then seventy years old, he revisited his native country, where he met with much favour from the young king, Edward VI. It has been said that he was appointed to the office of Grand Pilot of Eng- land — an office which, in the unprosperous condition of foreign THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 21 commerce, must, at this time, have been almost a sinecure. lie cer- tainly received a handsome pension. His reputation for maritime skill, (as well perhaps as the jealousy of the Spanish court,) ia evinced in a formal demand made by Charles V., that "Sebastian Cabote, Grand Pilot of the Emperor's Indies, then in England, might be sent over to Spain, as a very necessary man for the Emperor, whose servant he was and had a pension of him." This peremptory recall was, however, disregarded. His arrival in London gave a fresh stimulus to the almost decayed spirit of English enterprise. The chief men of that port, we are told, began "first of all to deal and consult diligently" with the aged pilot ; and by his advice three vessels were fitted out for an expedi- tion to the north-east. This little squadron, which sailed in May, 1553, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, was regarded with a curiosity which indicates the infancy of maritime enterprise in the nation whose exploits in that direction have since been utterly unapproachable by those of any other. As it floated down the Thames, says old Hakluyt, "being come neere to Greenwich (where the court then lay) presently on the news thereof, the courtiers came running out, and the common people flockt together, standing very thick upon the shoare ; the privie counsell, they lookt out at the win- dows of the court, and the rest ranne up to the toppes of the towers." This expedition resulted in the destruction of Sir Hugh and most of his people, who perished on the dreary coast of Lapland; but one of the vessels, commanded " by Eichard Chancellor, succeeded in pushing her way far eastward through the Arctic seas, and laid the foundation of a prosperous commerce between England and Eussia. We find Cabot, in extreme old age, still the active patron of English enterprise and commerce; which, by his vigorous and intel- ligent direction, was gradually placed on a substantial and lucrative basis. A pleasant description of his demeanour is given by one of the company of a small vessel, which, with his friends (when eighty years old) he visited at Gravesend. "They went on shore," says the narrator, "giving to our mariners right liberal rewards; and the good olde gentleman, master Cabota, gave to the poor most liberall almes, wishing them to pray for the good fortune and prosperous success of the Search- Thrift, our pinesse. And then at the signe of the Christopher, hee and his friends banketed, and made mee, and them that w r ere in the company great cheere; and so very joy that he had to see the towardness of our intended discovery, he entered into the 22 AMERICA tLLUSTEATED. dance himselfe, among the rest of the young and lusty company; which being ended, hee and his friends departed, most gently com- mending us to the governance of Almighty God? The most elaborate description could hardly present a more agreeable picture of hale, cheerful, and benevolent old age, than is suggested by this little incident, thus casually recorded. After the accession of Mary, this aged and useful servant of the crown spent the brief remainder of his days in neglect and obscurity. It mattered little to him, however, for his work was done. "On his death-bed, says an eye-witness, 'he spake flightily ' of a certain divine revelation (which he might disclose to no man) for the infallible ascertainment of the longitude. With his last thoughts thus amused by visions so suited to his mind and his past life, the Discoverer of North America died calmly — it is supposed in the city of London; but the date of his death, and the place where his remains are laid, have long been lost even to tradition." C i/ii> 2? i£ i i o THE "DOMINUS VOBISCUM:" FAILURE AND MISFORTUNE. — IMPROVEMENT OF THE ENGLISH MARINE. — MARTIN FRO- BISHER: HIS VOYAGE IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. — DIMINUTIVE EQUIPMENTS OF THE EARLY DISCOV- ERERS. SUPPOSED DISCOVERY OF GOLD ORE. SECOND EXPEDITION OF FROBISHER. — SURYEYS. CONTEST WITH THE ESQUIMAUX. — HIS THIRD EXPEDITION. — ITS FAILURE. The voyage of Cabot, under Henry VIII., in 1517, in search of a North-west Passage, is the only one made by the English, in that direction, for ten years, of which any record has survived. In 1527, two ships, the " Dominus Vobiscum" ("the Lord be with you") and another were dispatched by the same sovereign to the northern coasts of America. "Divers cunning men," one being a canon oi St. Paul's, went on this expedition, which, however, one of the vessels being wrecked, resulted in nothing of importance. The fact, indeed, that a letter, describing the voyage, was forwarded home THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 23 from the harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland, would seem to indi- cate that some intercourse already existed with those parts — probably by fishing vessels, which, in emulation of the early Bretons, may have resorted thither. Nine years afterwards, (1536,) another voyage was made in the same direction by a company of adventurers, many of whom were young lawyers from the Inns of Court, and gentlemen of good family. They were reduced to a wretched condition, and even, it is said, resorted to cannibalism, devouring one another; at last, obtaining by stratagem, at Newfoundland, a French ship, well fur- nished with supplies, they made their way home, whither they were soon followed (in the ship they had left) by the French crew, clam- orous for redress. It would appear, from laws passed not long after for the protection of the fisheries at Newfoundland, that this branch of national industry had already made a fair beginning; and only a few years later, from thirty to fifty English vessels, it is said, came annually to that region. The fate of Willoughby, in seeking a north-east passage, in 1553, and the success of his officer, Chancellor, in discovering a sea-route to Russia, and opening a lucrative commerce with that empire, have already been mentioned. The English marine, under the auspices of Cabot, rapidly increased in extent, and the English mariners in skill and boldness; and the brilliant reign of Elizabeth, so fertile in every department of greatness, was illustrated by numerous naval exploits, both in war and attempted discovery. The attention of the learned and enterprising was revived to the scheme of effecting a North-west Passage — an undertaking, in the language of Martin Frobisher, "the only thing of the world, yet left undone, whereby a notable mind might become fortunate and famous." For fifteen years, that navigator, afterwards so famous in almost every sea, vainly sought the means of pursuing his grand design; and it was not until 1576, that by the favour of the Earl of War- wick, he was enabled to fit out a little flotilla of three vessels, the largest of which was only thirty-five tons, and the smallest but ten. With this slender equipment, on the 19th of June, 1576, he sailed from Yarmouth on his long-cherished enterprise. "In reviewing the history of these early expeditions, the most casual reader must be struck with the humble and insignificant means with which the grand- est enterprises were attempted and often accomplished. Columbus, amid the storms of a most tempestuous winter, made his way back to 24 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Europe, after his great discovery, in an open caravel ; Hudson, with only ten men, undertook 1 to find a passage to India by way of the north pole;' and the good Sir Humphrey Gilbert, after voyaging safely to Newfoundland in his little Squirrel, (of only ten tons,) was finally whelmed in a tremendous gale beneath the ' pyramid-like 1 seas of the Atlantic." On the 11th of July, this little squadron came to the southern extremity of Greenland, and, keeping to the westward, on the 18th of August again made land on some part, it is probable, of the coast of Labrador. Here the voyagers fell in with parties of Esquimaux, who came off to the vessels in their seal-skin boats; and five of the crew, who too rashly went ashore with them, were carried off, and could not be recovered. This land was named by Frobisher "Meta Incognita." One of his little vessels was swallowed up by the sea, and another deserted him; yet he pressed on, and made considerable surveys in those dreary regions. On his return to England, certain bits of glittering stone which he had found there were confidently pronounced by the English goldsmiths to be no other than gold ore. The announcement of this fancied discovery of the precious metal stimulated the nation to fresh enterprise, and even relaxed the strings of the royal purse (in general most reluctantly unloosed) to a slight disbursement. With a ship of an hundred and eighty tons, furnished by the queen, and called the Ayde (Aid), and with two smaller ves- sels, on the 26th of May, 1577, he again set forth in quest of gold mines and the North-west Passage. He passed Friesland, and thence, stretching over to Labrador, sailed up the straits which still bears his name, and which he sup- posed to be a channel dividing Asia and America. A plenty of the glittering trash which had deluded him was found, and stowed aboard the ship; and for thirty leagues he made his way up the strait, con- fident^ supposing that it led to the Indian ocean. In some boats of the Esquimaux, various European articles were found, probably belonging to the mariners who had been lost on the preceding voy- age. To recover these or to revenge their death, he engaged in hostilities with the savages, who fought with much desperation, flinging themselves, when mortally wounded, into the sea. A num- ber of them having been slain, the rest took refuge among the cliffs, all the men of the party making their escape. "Two women," says the journal of the voyage, "not being so apt to escape as the men were, the one being olde, the other encombred with a yong childe, THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 25 wc tooke. The olde wretch, whom divers of our Saylers supposed to be eyther the Divell or a witch, had her buskins plucked off, to see if she were cloven-footed, and for her ougly hewe and deformitie, we let her goe; the yong woman and the childe we brought away." All attempts to recover the lost mariners proved fruitless, and on the 21st of August, ice having begun to form around the ships, Fro- bisher perceived the danger of attempting to remain or proceed. Accordingly, he put about, and with his vessels freighted with two hundred tons of shining earth, returned to England. Wonderful to state, the fallacy of the imagined El Dorado was not yet discovered. The ore was pronounced genuine by men of science, and, as usual where the thirst for gold is fairly awakened, men flocked in crowds to join a fresh expedition. Fifteen ships, with preparations for a settlement, were fitted out, and, under com- mand of Frobisher, on the 31st of May, 1578, again sailed for the land of imagined treasure. After encountering much danger from storms and icebergs, the fleet entered a great strait leading westward, probably the chief entrance to Hudson's Bay. Finding that he was not in the passage he had formerly entered, in the region of imagined gold, Frobisher put about; but was so long in getting to the desired locality that winter almost set in before he arrived there; his sailors and colonists, disheartened by the length of the voyage, clamoured for return; one ship, laden with supplies, deserted; and, compelled to abandon his plans for colonization and discovery, the admiral, freighting his ships with the supposed treasure, returned to England By this time, its worthlessness had been fairly discovered; and though he eagerly besought the means at least for continuing his attempts at the North-west Passage, the public and the crown, dis- uutiraged by their losses and misfortunes, refused to lend him further assistance. The remainder of his life was passed in naval warfare and adventure, which perpetuate his name as a bold leader and skil- ful navigator. He died in 1694, of a wound which he received in an expedition to the French coast. 26 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. C 3j2> 3? 33 5^ «E 2> Jo ENGLISH ENTERPRISE. DRAKE. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT HIS FIRST ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE AMERICA. SIR WAL- TER RALEIGH. SIR HUMPHREY SAILS FOR AMERICA SHIPWRECKS AND MISFORTUNES. THE RETURN VOYAGE. — TEMPESTS. — LOSS OF SIR HUMPHREY AND HIS CREW. England, in the midst of continued loss and misfortune by her attempts at discovery, at mining, and at colonization in the New World, was now fairly embarked in her grand career of naval enter- prise — the wealth and renown acquired by her daring mariners in their half-chivalrous, half-piratical expeditions against the Spaniards of America serving to keep alive the national interest in that region, and a knowledge of the Western Continent being incidentally but materially promoted by their cruises. At the same time that Fro- bisher was making his unsuccessful voyages in search of gold and of the North-west Passage, Francis Drake, a mariner of similar and yet greater renown, after his memorable passage of the straits of Magellan, was engaged in a survey of the western coast of North America, in the course of which he touched on the shores of Oregon, which he named New Albion. The example of enterpise, stimulated by motives purer and more honourable than those of either, was not long in presenting itself. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a man of high character and amiable temper, both a soldier and a civilian, had interested himself much in the daring but futile voyages of his countrymen in search of a North-west Pass- age. He had even written a treatise, founded on the testimony and opinion of "many learned men and painfull travellers," "to proove by experience of sundrie men's travels the opening of some part of this North-west Passage; whereby good hope remaineth of the rest." No words could have phrased more effectual!}' that expectant longing, which now for three centuries has beset men of courage, of enter- prise and inquiry, to solve the grand problem — "the one thing yet left undone upon the earth whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate" — of a communication between the two oceans. That terrible problem, whose final solution we have just witnessed, / THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 27 will ever remain burdened with the saddest associations, both ancient and modern, of heroic courage and indefatigable perseverance doomed to repeated suffering, disappointment, and destruction. In the year 1578 he obtained from Elizabeth a patent, conferring sole jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, over a very extensive territory in America, not precisely located, on condition that he should plant a colony there within six years. His half-brother, the famous Sir Walter Ealeigh, then twenty-six years of age, his imagin- ation fired by the narratives of Columbus, of Cortes, and of other famous pioneers of the New World, also engaged in the enterprise. This expedition, delayed and weakened by various misfortunes, finally sailed with only two vessels, one of which was captured by the Spaniards; the crew of the other returned without effecting any thing in the way of settlement. An interval of several years elapsed, during which Ealeigh rose high in the royal favour; and in 1583, the brothers renewed their enterprise, Sir Humphrey, in person, commanding the expedition. The queen, to express her favour, at his departure bestowed on him an anchor of gold, with a great pearl set in it, which, during the remainder of his life, he wore, with allowable complacency, on his breast. The fleet consisted of five sail, the largest of which, the Raleigh, was furnished by the famous man after whom it was named. There vere two hundred and sixty men on board, including mechanics and mineralogists; and a learned Hungarian, named Parmenius, was taken as the chronologer of the expedition. There was also provided, says one of the commanders, "Musike in great variety; not omitting the least toyes, as Morris-dancers, hobby-horse, and the like conceits, to delight the savage people, whom we intended to win by all faire meanes possible." Soon after their departure, the Ealeigh, on account of an infectious disease, put back; and Sir Humphrey, with the remainder of the fleet, kept on to Newfoundland. At St. John's Harbour, at that island, he summoned the Spanish and Portuguese fishermen to wit- ness the ceremony of taking possession in the name of the English sovereign — an operation which he performed by digging a turf, and setting up a pillar, to which the arms of England were affixed. Silver ore, as it was supposed, was discovered, and was taken aboard the vessels, one of which was abandoned, while with the remainder Sir Humphrey pursued his voyage along the coast towards the south. On his way, the largest ship remaining, with the ore, was wrecked, 28 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. and a hundred souls perished, including the Hungarian. Return was now considered necessary, and in the midst of terrible storms and tempests, the prows were turned homeward. "Sir Humphrey- had chosen to sail in a little tender, called the Squirrel, a mere cockle- shell in size — ' too small to pass through the ocean sea at that season of the year.' In vain did the officers of the Hinde, the larger vessel, entreat him, in this dangerous weather, to shift his flag aboard their ship. He came on board, for a convivial meeting, but returned to his slender craft, saying, ' I will not desert my little company, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils.' "The weather grew heavier and heavier; the oldest sailors de- claring that they had never seen such seas — 'breaking very high,' says a spectator, 'and pyramid-wise' — the very worst sea that is known. Lights were burned at night, and the little Squirrel, for a long time, was seen gallantly contending with the waves, which almost ingulphed her. Once she came so near that they of the Hinde could see Sir Humphrey sitting by the mainmast, with a book in his hand, reading. He looked up, and cried cheerily, 'We are as neere to Heaven by sea as by land.' But the seas broke over her more heavily; about midnight, all at once, the lights were extinguished; and in the morning nothing was seen of the good Sir Humphrey or his little ship. She had doubtless been whelmed by the toppling down of some huge pyramid of water. Such was the melancholy but honourable end of one of the worthiest and most persevering patrons of English enterprise. He perished in the pursuance of his own exalted maxim : ' That he is not worthy to live at all, who, for fear or danger of death, shunneth his country's service or his own honor; for death is inevitable and fame immortal.'"* * Discoverers, &c, of America. THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 29 CHAPTER IV. THE PATENT OF RALEIGH. — HE DISPATCHES AMID AS AND BARLOW TO CAROLINA: THEIR REPORT. — THE COUNTRY NAMED VIRGINIA. — VOYAGES OF DAVIS, ETC. — SECOND EX- PEDITION OF RALEIGH, UNDER LANE. — SETTLEMENT AT ROANOKE. — FOLLY AND CRUELTY OF THE ENGLISH. — THE INDIANS. — MASSACRE BY THE ENGLISH. — FAILURE AND RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION. Ealeigh, whose enterprising spirit was disma} r ed neither by the loss of his brother, nor the wreck and failure of the late expedition, immediately resolved to renew the attempt, and secure to himself the glory of the first founder of an English settlement in America. To one so high in the queen's favour, letters patent, of the most liberal nature, were readily issued, granting him power to colonize, with almost unlimited personal jurisdiction, "such remote, heathen, and barbarous lands as are not actually possessed by any Christians, or inhabited by any Christian people." No particular region was spe- cified as the subject of this indefinite grant; but, warned by the fate of former enterprises, he had resolved to plant his settlement in the milder regions of the south. The very year after the loss of Sir Humphrey, on the 27th of April, 1584, he dispatched two vessels, well provided with men and supplies, under two experienced cap- tains, Amidas and Barlow, to the American coast. Taking the circuitous route of the Canaries and the West Indies, (which, strange to say, for many years was considered the only prac- ticable track,) after a voyage of two months, they arrived off the shores of Carolina. For more than a hundred miles they sailed along the coast, seeking a harbour, and on the 13th of July, entered Ocracoke Inlet. Here they landed on an island, delighted with the softness of the climate and the beauty of the vegetation, and took formal possession of the country in the name of Elizabeth. The natives, at first shy and timid, proved gentle and friendly, and on the island of Eoanoke the voyagers were entertained with much hospitality at the residence of the chief. After making some brief survey of the coast, they returned to England, where the glowing description which they gave of the beauties of the region, encouraged so AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. the projector, and revived fresh enterprise in the nation. In honour of his patroness, Raleigh bestowed on the newly discovered region, the name of Virginia — a name, like that of Florida and of Louis- iana, originally applied to a tract far more extensive than even the broad and beautiful state by which it is now borne. A fresh stimulus, at this time, was given to the North- Western enter prise, and the voyages of Davis, in 1585, 6, 7, though unsuccessful in accomplishing their design, added greatly to the geographical knowl- edge of the dreary seas and coasts in that direction. The voyages and discoveries of the famous Henry Hudson, resulting in his own de- struction, but in the eternal commemoration of his name, occurred a few years later. (See "The Dutch in America.") The year after the return of his pioneer-vessels, (1585,) Raleigh, then in the full tide of court favour and increasing wealth, fitted out a fresh expedition, of seven vessels, with an hundred and eight col- onists, under command of Ralph (afterwards Sir Ralph) Lane, des- tined for the shores of Carolina. His friend, Sir Richard Grenville, one of the bravest and choicest spirits of the age, commanded the fleet, which, on the 9th of April, set sail from Plymouth. Taking the usual circuitous route, it passed through Ocracoke Inlet to the island of Roanoke; and Grenville, with Lane and others, made a tour of exploration. They were well entertained by the natives whom they encountered — in return for which, as usual with the European adventurers, provoked by slight injury, they took cruel and indiscriminate revenge. "At Aquascogoe," says Sir Ralph, "the Indians stole a Silver Cup, wherefore we burnt the towne, and spoyled their corne," &c., &c. What an exceedingly low standard of morality, of policy, of common decency even, do acts like these, recorded a hundred times by their authors with the most naive un- consciousness, exhibit ! The settlers, under Lane, left on the island of Roanoke, at first were all enjoyment at the serenity of the climate and beauty of the country. "It is the goodliest soil," says their governor, "under the cope of heaven ; the most pleasing territory of the world ; the con- tinent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and well peopled and towned, though savagely." The native culture of tobacco, of maize, and the potato, was observed with much interest; an interest which would have been redoubled, could the visitors have foreseen the vast magnitude and importance which the production of these articles was destined one day to assume. THE ENGLISH 1 N AMERICA. 31 A more particular observation of the Indians than had hitherto been made, was taken by the colonists, who describe them as gener- ally a feeble, inoffensive race, dwelling in small villages, and forming tribes of no great separate importance. Master Heriot, who espe- cially devoted himself to the subject, travelled among them, and endeavoured to indoctrinate them with some idea of Christianity. They manifested much reverence for the Bible which he displayed to them, kissing it and hugging it to their breasts, and doubtless con- sidering it "a great medicine." They had a species of belief in the Divine Existence and the immortality of the soul; and the traveller tells a pleasant story of one of them who had been buried for dead, but was afterwards exhumed and revived. According to the Indians, the recovered patient "showed that although his body had laine dead in the grave, yet his soule lived, and had travailed far in a long broad way, on both sides whereof grewe more sweete, fayre, and delicate trees and fruits than ever he had seene before; at length he came to the most brave and fayre houses, neere which he met his Father, that was dead long agoe, who gave him charge to goe backe to shew his friends what good there was to doe, to injoy the pleasures of that place ; which when hee had done, hee should come again." Allured by fanciful and perhaps misunderstood tales concerning great treasures at the source of the Eoanoke, Lane, with a number of his people, ascended its rapid stream. Their provisions were soon exhausted, yet they pressed on, "seeing they had yet a dog, that, being boyled with saxafras leaves, would richly feede them in their return," but accomplished nothing of their object, and returned disappointed. A most outrageous deed was presently perpetrated. The neighboring Indians, it is said, jealous of the intrusion of the strangers, had conspired against them, and Lane, with others, desir- ing an interview with King \Vingina, the principal chief of that region, treacherously attacked and massacred him and his attendanta In June, 1586, the famous Sir Francis Drake, with a fleet of twenty- three ships, came to anchor off the island ; and, though that ener- getic commander did every thing in his power to encourage the colonists, and to furnish them with all necessary supplies, yet, desponding of success, they desired to return to their homes. Ac cordingly, he took them aboard his fleet, and carried them to Eng- land — the principal result of their American sojourn being the introduction to that country of the custom of smoking tobacco, which they had learned of the Indians. Yol IY.— 31 32 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. L H> ii P T E H Vo SMALL SETTLEMENT PLANTED BY GRENYILLE AT ROANOKE DE- STROYED BY THE INDIANS. THIRD EXPEDITION OF RALEIGH. FIRST ENGLISH CHILD IN AMERICA- — LOSS AND SUP POSED DESTRUCTION OF THE ROANOKE COLONY. MISFORTUNES OF RALEIGH. — TARDINESS AND ILL- FORTUNE OF EN GLISH ENTERPRISE. — REFLECTIONS. Only a few days after the hasty and ill-advised departure of Lane and his people, a vessel, dispatched by Raleigh, with abundant sup- plies, arrived at the deserted settlement; and soon afterwards, Gren- ville, with three more ships, also well supplied, came to the same place. He left fifteen men on the island; but the next comers found there only the ruins of their fort and dwellings, amid which human bones, the evidence of Indian hostility, lay bleaching. Raleigh, on learning of the desertion of his settlement, with inde- fatigable industry, set to work afresh; and in April, 1587, dispatched another expedition, with especial provision for the cultivation of the land, and with a number of women, that the comforts of a home might be early established. In July, the fleet arrived at Roanoke, where the sad evidences of the destruction of Grenville's men were ob- served; and, though the projector had ordered that the new settle- ment should be founded on Chesapeake Bay, yet, on account of the impatience of the naval commander, the governor, White, and his people disembarked on the island. Indian hostilities were soon renewed in the murder of one of the settlers — and the latter, attack- ing a party of the natives by night, found too late that they belonged to a friendly tribe. On the 18th of August, 1587, Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parents in the United States, was ushered into a brief and ill-fated being. White, by the urgent request of the colonists, consisting, at his departure, of an hundred and eighteen persons, of whom seventeen were women, and two children, returned to England in one of the vessels, to provide further supplies. But the momentous events just then occurring in the equipment and defeat of the Spanish Armada, retarded the desired assistance; and Raleigh, who had expended THE ENGLSH IN AMEEICA. 33 forty thousand pounds of his estate in the vain attempt to colonize "Virginia, was compelled to relinquish the enterprise to others — as- signing certain of his rights to a company of London merchants Such delay, however, occurred, in fitting out a fresh expedition, that it was not until 1590 that White returned to Eoanoke; but the settlers had disappeared; and though Ealeigh, it is said, sent to search for them on five several occasions, no trace of the fate of this lost colony has ever been found. Probably, like the former, it perished from Indian hostility. Strangely enough, all the efforts of one of the most intelligent, wealthy, and persevering men of England to effect a settlement in America proved ineffectual. Sir Walter Ealeigh, besides his re- peated efforts in behalf of Virginian colonization, had aided the north- west voyages, destined to end in results alike futile, and, in his old age, broken down by imprisonment and suffering, headed an equally fruitless expedition to the Orinoco and the tropical coasts of Gui- ana. Whatever his errors as a courtier and a favourite, history will do him justice as a statesman, a soldier, a mariner, a discoverer, and a founder of colonization — the most brilliant character of a remarkable age; and America, in especial, will always look back with reverence and affection on the earliest and most persevering promoter of her welfare — a man whose faults were those of the time, whose virtues were his own; and who, in addition to the shining attributes of a head to plan and a hand to execute, possessed the more endearing quality of a heart to feel and to commiserate. Such repeated loss and mortality had now made men wary ol undertaking American colonization. "All hopes of Virginia thus abandoned," says a later adventurer, "it lay dead and obscured from 1590 to this year 1602." In March of that year Bartholomew Gosnold, under the advice of Ealeigh, tried the experiment of sailing directly to America, instead of taking the circuitous route of the Canaries and West Indies. Singular to relate, the experiment succeeded; and after a voyage of seven weeks, in a small vessel, the navigator came to Massachusetts. He landed on Cape Cod, and on the Vineyard islands, and having freighted his little bark with sassafras obtained by traffic from the Indians, returned in J une to England. Enterprise, stimulated by his success, was renewed, in the diminutive vessels of the day, and much of the eastern sea-board was surveyed. Such voyages, familiarizing navigators with the coast and the most desira- ble localities, prepared the way for fresh attempts at settlement. 34 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. While her rivals, long ere this time, had succeeded in gaining a permanent footing on the shores of the New World, and had con- quered or founded wealthy empires in the south, England, her claims and her endeavours chiefly confined to the more barren and incle- ment regions of the north, had as yet reaped nothing but loss and misfortune from her enterprise in the New World. Not a single spot on that vast continent now mostly peopled by her children, was the settled habitation of an Englishman. " In reviewing the history of American colonization, the mind is at first struck with the won- derful brilliancy and rapidity of Spanish discovery and conquest during the first century of their career; an impression naturally fol- lowed by the reflection that in the end no substantial advantage has accrued to the nation whose enterprise laid open the pathway to the New World, and whose valour and genius were the first to avail themselves of its tempting opportunities. Extermination of the native inhabitants, bigoted exclusion of foreigners, and, in the end, outrageous oppression of her own dependencies, have marked ; almost without exception, the colonial administration of Spain, and have finally resulted in its nearly complete annihilation. Her once numer- ous provinces, alienated by mismanagement and tyranny, have found, in republican anarchy, a questionable relief from parental misrule; while that beautiful island, almost the solitary jewel in her crown, and only proving, by its exception, the general rule of her losses, is held by a tenure so insecure as hardly to deserve the name of possession. "For an hundred and ten years, the rival nations of France and England hardly took a step in the same direction, or, if they did, under circumstances of such gross ignorance and infatuation, as were almost certain to preclude the possibility of success. The various and widely-severed colonies of France, founded, through a century of misfortunes and discouragements, by ardent and indefatigable servants of the crown, have, with one or two insignificant exceptions, slipped from her hands — not from any want of loyalty or national affection in the provincial inhabitants, but from the feebleness of the French marine, ever unable to compete with that of her haughty rival, and quite inefficient for the protection and retention of dis- tant colonies. "England, the last to enter on the noble enterprise of peopling the New Hemisphere, but finally bringing to the task a spirit of progress, a love of freedom, and a strength of principle, unknown to THE ENGLISH I ft AMERICA. So her predecessors, has founded, amid disastrous and unpromising beginnings, an empire mightier and more enduring than all or any of its compeers ; lost, indeed, for the most part, to her private aggrand- izement, but not to the honour of her name or the best interests of mankind ; an empire already prosperous beyond all example in his- tory, and destined, it is probable, at no distant day, to unite under its genial protection every league of that vast continent stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the tropical forests of Darien to the eternal snows of the Arctic Circle."* * Discoverers, &c, of America. THE SETTLEMENT OE VIRGINIA. CHAPTER 1« MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.— HIS YOUTHFUL ADVEN- TURES AND SERVICES. — HE TURNS HERMIT. — HIS ADVEN- TURES IN FRANCE. — HE IS FLUNG OVERBOARD. — SEA- FIGHT. — TRAVELS IN ITALY. — HIS CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE TURKS. — SIEGE OF REG ALL. — THE THREE TURKS' HEADS. — SMITH SENT A SLAVE TO TAR- TARY: HIS WONDERFUL ESCAPE. — SUBSEQUENT ADVENTURES.— RETURNS TO ENGLAND. No account of American, and still less of Virginian colonization, would be complete without some memoir of that remarkable man to whoso unwearied personal exertions the foundation of an English commonwealth in this country is almost entirely due. Eomance would hardly venture to imagine adventures more marvellous, or courage more chivalrous than his ; and when to a temper the most sprightly, adventurous, and enterprising of his day, were added the unsurpassed qualities of judgment, of perseverance, of fortitude, and of forbearance, the result could hardly fail to be a character of no ordinary greatness, and the work of his life a work destined in some manner to affect the interests of mankind. His extraordinary career, fortunately detailed, in good part, with modest quaintness, by his own pen, will ever remain the delight of youth, and the admiration of the historical reader. Captain John Smith, incomparably the greatest and most famous of English adventurers in America, was born of a good family at Willoughby, Lincolnshire, in 1579. His mind, from childhood, set on adventure and travel, at the age of thirteen, he secretly sold his books and satchel, and was about going off to sea, when interrupted by the death of his father. His guardians apprenticed him to a merchant of Lynn, whom, in consequence of refusal to gratify his THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 37 taste lor the sea, he speedily quitted, and with his young patron, the son of Lord Willoughby, went into France. Thence he repaired to the Netherlands, then engaged in their struggle against Spanish tyranny; 4 and served some three or four }^ears under Captain Dux- bury — an Englishman, commanding, it would seem, in the service of Prince Maurice. He sailed to Scotland, but was shipwrecked at Holy Isle, and finding no chance of preferment at the Scottish court, again betook himself to Willoughb} 7 . Here, by one of those freaks common to ardent and imaginative youth, he chose to turn hermit — though rather after the fashion of Friar Tuck than the recluse of Warkworth. In a great wood, far from the town, he built himself a shelter of boughs, where, without bedding, or any of the conveni- ences of civilized life, he made his abode. In the curt language of his narrative, (which, like Caesar's, runs in the third person,) "His studie was Machiavills Art of Warre, and Marcus Aurelius ; his exer- cise a good horse, with his lance and ring; his food was thought to be more of venison than anything else; * * * Long these pleasures could not content him, but hee returned againe to the Low Coun- tries" — intending to make his way to the east of Germany, then distracted with Turkish warfare, and fight on the side of Christen dom. At this time he was only nineteen. Taking ship for France, he was despoiled of all his baggage by four sharpers, and, selling his cloak to pay for his passage, landing in Picardy, went in pursuit of them. Eeduced to great distress and poverty, "wandering from port to port to finde some man of warre, he spent that he had, and in a Forest, neere dead with griefe and cold, a rich Farmer found him by a faire Fountaine under a tree. This kinde Pesant releeved him againe, to his content." Not long after, passing through a forest, he fell in with Cursell, one of his despoilers. "His piercing injuries had so small patience, as without any word they both drew, and in a short time Cursell fell to the ground, when from an old ruinated Tower the inhabitants seeing them, were satisfied, when they heard Cursell confesse what had formerly passed." We next find the youthful adventurer enjoying the hospitality of a noble earl (who had known him in England) at his chateau in Brittany; whence, apparently better supplied, he travelled over much of France, surveying fortresses and other nota- ble objects of examination. At Marseilles, by ill-fortune, he embarked on board a vessel freighted with u a route of pilgrims, of divers nations," going to 3S AMEBIC A ILLUSTRATED. Home, and put to sea. Compelled by tempests, the ship anchored under the Isle of St. Mary, off Nice, where the "inhumane Provin- cialls," concluding that Smith, in his double capacity of Englishman and heretic was their Jonah, set upon him, "hourely cursing him," he tells us, "not onely for a Huguenoit but his Nation they swore were all Pyrats, and so vildly railed on his dread sovereigne Queen e Elizabeth, and that they never should have faire weather as long as hee was aboard them ; their disputations grew to that passion" (stim- ulated, perhaps, by the liberal use of a staff, with which the gallant Captain requited their assaults) "that they threw him overboard, yet God brought him to that little Isle, where was no inhabitants but a few kine and goats." With his customary good-luck, however, next morning he was taken on board of the Britaine, a French ship, and handsomely entertained by the captain. Sailing to Alexandria, the ship discharged her freight, and thence passed over to the northern coasts. Meeting with a large Venetian argosy, the French captain hailed her, and was answered by a shot which lost him a man. A naval battle, contested with great fury, and lasting for some hours, with all the horrors of broadsides, boarding, danger of conflagration, &c, ensued ; but after the argosy had lost twenty men and was ready to sink, she yielded. All was now active exertion in stopping her leaks and transferring her cargo to the victor. "The Silkes, Vel- vets, Cloth of Gold, and Tissue, Pyasters, Chicqueenes, and Sultanies, (which is gold and silver,) they unloaded in four and twenty houres, was wonderfull, whereof having sufficient, and tired with toile, they cast her off with her company, with as much good merchandize as would have fraughted another Britaine, that was but two hundred Tunnes, shee foure or five hundred." As a reward for his valour in this desperate engagement, Smith received five hundred chic- queenes "and a little box God sent him" (he piously adds) "worth neere as much more." Landing in Piedmont, he travelled through much of Italy, spent some time in surveying the rugged and picturesque coast of Albania and Dalmatia, and, eager for a chance to fight against the Turks, finally made his way to Gratz, in Syria, where was the court of the Archduke Ferdinand, of Austria. No time could have been more propitious to his hopes. The memorable war with the Great Turk, Mahomet II., was then in full contest, and the young adventurer, introduced by some of his countrymen to the high officers of the imperial service, soon found an ample field for the display of his THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 39 courage and military genius. At the siege of Olympcha, soon after he joined the army, by an ingenious system of telegraphic fires, he concerted a plan with the garrison, by which the Turks, with great slaughter, were compelled to raise the siege. He now received the command of two hundred and fifty men in the regiment of the famous Earl Meldritch, and executed other ingenious devices against the enemy, which, in his biography, are quaintly titled "An excel- lent stratagem by Smith; another not much worse;" "A pretty stratagem of fire- works by Smith," &c, &c. One of these con- trivances, at the siege of Stowlle-Wesenburg, (1601,) consisted of a great number of bombs or grenades, prepared with all manner of explosive and combustible materials, which, by means of great slings, he flung into the thickest of the besieged. "At midnight, upon the alarum," he says, "it was a feareful sight to behold the short flaming course of their flight in the aire, but presently after their fall, the lamentable noise of the miserably slaughtered Turhes was most wonderful to heare." This town, which the latter had held for nearly sixty years, was finally taken by storm, "with such a mer- cilesse execution as was most pitifull to behold." Soon after they were again defeated with the loss of six thousand men, in a battle on the plains of Girke, and Smith, half of whose regiment was cut to pieces, as he says, "had his horse slaine under him and himself sore wounded; but he was not long unmounted, for there was choice enough of horses that wanted masters." The Christian army, seventeen thousand strong, under Prince Moyses and Earl Meldritch, laid siege to Eegall, a strong and almost impregnable town in the mountains of Transylvania, garrisoned by a large force of "Turks, Tartars, Bandittoes, Eennegadoes, and such like." The work of making trenches and batteries went on but slowly, and the Turks, jeering at their enemies, would ask if their artillery was in pawn, and complain that they were growing fat for want of exercise. A message presently arrived from the fort, that "to delight the Ladies, who did long to see some court-like pastime, the Lord Tusbashaw did defie any captain that had the com- mand of a company that durst combate with him for his Head." So many of the Christian officers were eager to undertake the duel, that the matter was decided by lot, and the peril and honour of the adventure fell to our young friend Smith. At a given signal, the adversaries, in full view of both armies — "the Eampiers all beset with faire Dames" — tilted against each other with equal courage 40 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. and fur}^ but with better advantage to the Christian, who ran hid enemy through helmet and brain, and nimbly alighting, cut off his head, which he presented to the Prince General. One Grualgro, "the vowed friend" of the fallen chief, resolved to avenge his fall or share his fate ; and a second encounter, the next day, came off, with equal success to Smith, who unhorsed his enemy and speedily possessed himself of his head. Unsatisfied with his unusual good fortune and renown, the young champion, in turn, sent a courteous message that the ladies might have the heads of their two servants, and his own besides, if any Turk of proper degree would come and take them. This audacious challenge, ac- cepted by one Bonny Mulgro, had nearly proved the death of our hero, who, by a blow of his opponent's battle-axe, lost his own and was nearly unhorsed. The Turks set up a tremendous shout of applause from the ramparts, yet Smith, to use his own language, "what by the readinesse of his horse, and his judgment and dexter- ltie in such a businesse, beyond all men's expectation, by God's assistance, not onely avoided the Turkeys violence, but having drawne his Faulcheon, pierced the Turlce so under the Culets, thorow backe and body, that, although he alighted from his horse, hee stood not long ere hee lost his head, as the rest had done." Great rejoicing took place in the Christian army, and Smith was complimented and exalted to the skies. The town, after a desperate defence, was taken by storm, and the Turks entrenched themselves in the castle. "The Earle, remembering his father's death, battered it with all the ord- nance in the towne, and the next day took it; all he found could bear Armes he put to the sword, and set their heads upon stakes round about the walls, as they had used the Christians when they tooke it." This was certainly rather an indifferent school for the cultivation of humanity or refinement ; yet Smith seems never to have become infected with the cruelty of the age, or to have en- gaged in these sanguinary scenes with any motive beyond that of the renown to be acquired by gallant deeds of arms, and the idea, in his day not altogether groundless, that a blow struck in behalf of Christendom against the invading ranks of the infidels, was a meritorious work. Sigismund of Transylvania, on repairing to the army, was so pleased with this last exploit of the young soldier, that "with great honour he gave him three TurJces 1 Heads in a Shield for his Armes. by patent under his hand and seale, with an oathe ever to weare THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 41 tliem in his Colours, his picture in Gould, and three hundred Ducats yeerely for a pension." This patent was afterwards admitted and recorded in the Herald's College of England. Fortune finally turned against the Christians, whose army, in the terrible battle of Rotenton, overwhelmed by superior numbers, was almost entirely cut to pieces. " In this bloudy field," says our author, "neere 30,000 lay, some headlesse, armelesse, and leglesse, all cut and mangled ; where breathing their last, they gave this knowledge to the world, that for the lives of so few, the Crym-Tartar never paid dearer." Among the victims were a number of adventurous Eng- lishmen, fighting for renown, who all "did what men could doe, and when they could do no more, left there their bodies in testimonie of their mindes. * * * But Smith" (continues that gentleman) "among the slaughtered dead bodies and many a gasp- ing soule, with toile and wounds lay groaning among the rest." Captured and cured of his wounds, he was sold with many more as a slave at Axapolis; and his purchaser, a certain Bashaw Bogall, sent him on to Constantinople as a present to his young mistress, with the assurance that he was a Bohemian lord, the trophy of his personal prowess. The lady, like most whom the gallant captain encountered, at once experienced a tender interest for his welfare; and fearing lest he should be sold out of the family, dispatched him, with a letter of recommendation, to her brother, the Bashaw of Nalbritz, in Tartary, near the sea of Azof. This kindly manoeuvre, however, served him nothing; for the ferocious Turk, apprehending the true state of the case, took all imaginable pains in persecuting him. With his head and beard shaved "so bare as his hand," a great iron ring rivetted about his neck, and a rough garment of hair and hide, the unfortunate Smith underwent a slavery, "so bad, a dog could hardly have lived to endure," and was finally made thresher at a lonely grange of his master, more than a league from the house. The result, in his own brief language, was, that "the Bashaw, as he used often to visit his granges, visited him, and took occasion so to beat, spurne, and revile him, that, forgetting all reason, he beat out the Tymour's braines with his threshing-bat, for they have no flaiies; and seeing his estate could be no worse than it was, clothed himself in his clothes, hid his body under the straw, filled his knapsacke with corne, mounted his horse, and ranne into the desart at all adventure." For some days he wandered in the wilderness, but finally, lighting upon the high road from Tartary to Eussia, 42 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. made his way, after a journey of sixteen days, to Ecopolis, a Kussian post on the Don. Here he was kindly received, and on his return to Transylvania, " glutted with content and neere drowned with joy," great rejoicing took place at his escape and the manner of it, both so characteristic of his temper. At Prague, whither he repaired, Sigismund presented him with fifteen hundred ducats, equipped with which he travelled through Germany, France, and Spain, viewing notable places and adding to his extensive information. In a French ship he sailed to Africa, meaning to take part in the civil wars in Morocco; "but by reason of the uncertaintie, and the perfidious, treacherous, bloudy murthers rather than warre, among those per- fidious, barbarous Moores" changed his purpose. Passing an evening aboard the ship, a gale of wind compelled her to run to sea, and the captain's taste for adventure was presently gratified by "a brave sea- fight," lasting for two days, with a couple of Spanish men-of-war. They were finally beaten off, with a loss, it was supposed, of a hun- dred men. In an action so desperate, the services of Smith, it may well be supposed, were not without an opportunity for their full appreciation. Not long after (1604) he returned to England. VIRGINIAN COLONIZATION REVIVED. — PATENT OF JAMES I. ILL- ASSORTED COMPANY OF SETTLERS. — THE EXPEDITION SAILS FOR AMERICA. — ACCIDENTALLY ENTERS JAMES RIVER. — ILL TREATMENT OF SMITH. — INTERCOURSE WITH THE INDIANS. — JAMESTOWN FOUNDED. — EXCURSION OF SMITH AND NEWPORT. — POWHATAN. — THE INDIANS OF VIRGINIA. Soon after the return of Smith, he became acquainted with Captain Gosnold, whose voyage has already been mentioned; and the scheme of Virginian colonization was again revived. Sir Ferdinand Gorges, Sir John Popham, chief justice of England, and other persons of rank and influence, were persuaded to take an interest in their plan ; and thus in April, 1606, the king (James I.) was induced to issue letters patent to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers and others, granting them all the territory on the eastern sea-board of North THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 48 America, between thirty-four and forty-five degrees north latitude. Two companies, one of Londoners and the other of gentlemen, &c, from the West of England, were formed, the first to colonize the southern and the latter the northern portion of the grant; but with a strict proviso, dictated by the foolish jealousy of James, that a hundred miles of wilderness should intervene between their re- spective settlements. As the first of these only succeeded in their design, our account will be restricted chiefly to their operations. On the 19th of December, 1606, three small vessels, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, and carrying an hundred and five colonists, sailed from Blackwall for Virginia. Forty-eight of this number were enrolled as gentlemen, and twelve as labourers — an ominous proportion for the prosperity of 1 the projected settle- ment. Gosnold and Smith, Edward Wingfield, a merchant, George Percy, and the Kev. Eobert Hunt, were the principal persons of the expedition. Delayed by contrary winds, the little fleet, bearing the germ of the American commonwealth, was six weeks in sight of England; and when it finally got to sea, took the old circuitous route of the Cana- ries and West Indies. By the folly of James, sealed instructions, in a box not to be opened till their arrival, had been provided, nam- ing the authorities of the colony. Dissension thus sprung up early in the voyage, and at the Canaries, Smith, accused, by the absurd jealousy of some, of conspiring to make himself "king of Virginia," was put in confinement. They steered for Eoanoke, but by a piece of excellent disappointment, were carried by a storm past the place of their destination, and entered Chesapeake Bay. Naming the headlands Cape Henry and Cape Charles, in honour of the king's sons, they sailed up the James River about forty miles, and went on shore, delighted with all they saw. " We passed through excellent ground," says one of them, "full of flowers of divers kinds and colours, and as goodly trees as I have seen, as cedar, cypress, and other kinds; going a little further we came to a little plat of ground, full of fine and beautiful strawberries, four times bigger and better than ours of England." "Heaven and earth," says the enthusiastic Smith, "seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man's commodious and delightful habitation." The very day of their arrival, the settlers perceived certain hostile savages, "creeping on all foures, from the hils like Beares," but put them to flight by a discharge of muskets. At Point Comfort, 44 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. however, and other places, they were kindly received by the natives, who gave them corn-bread, pipes and tobacco, and held a dance in honour of them. The chief of the Rappakannas, who, with a con- siderable attendance, came to meet them, "entertained us," says the journal, "in so modest a proud fashion, as though he had been a prince of civill government, holding his countenance without any laughter or any such ill behaviour. He caused his mat to be spread on the ground, where he sat down with great majesty, taking a pipe of tobacco, the rest of his company standing around him." Having made considerable survey of the shores of the river, the little colony of Englishmen chose for the site of their settlement a peninsula on the northern bank, and called it Jamestown, in honour of the sovereign. It was now an hundred and nine years since Cabot, sailing by these shores, had conferred on England the con- ventional right to so great a part of the North American continent; yet this was the first successful attempt of that nation to plant a colony in the Western Hemisphere. That it did not speedily share the fate of its predecessors, is almost entirely due to the admirable courage, sagacity, and patience of a man greatly wronged and abused, in its very inception. On opening the sealed box, it was found that a council of seven, including Wingfield, Gosnold, Newport, and Smith, were appointed to govern the colony; but the last, the only reliable man of the whole company, by the paltry jealousy of his associates, was set aside; "the Councell was sworne, Mr. Wingfield was chosen Presi- dent, and an Oration made, why Captaine Smith was not admitted of the Councell as the rest." His zeal for the promotion of the scheme unquenched by this unworthy treatment, the excluded coun- cillor set forth with Newport on an expedition of further survey. In the course of this voyage, much was learned concerning the Indians of the adjoining regions. Of forty-three native tribes, dwell- ing between the mountains and the sea, about thirty, numbering, it is said, eight thousand souls, were under the rule of a powerful chief- tain, named Wahunsonacock, but whose customary title, derived, like that of a European grandee, from his principal residence, was Powhatan. The names of Tuscaloosa, Quigaltanqui, and those of many other native American chiefs, identical with their towns or principalities, indicate the prevalence of the usage. His residence of Powhatan was at the Falls of James River, at the site of Rich- mond, and that of Werowocomoco on the north side of York River. THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 45 Ascending the first-named stream, after a voyage of six days, the explorers came to the falls, where they were courteously received by the great chief just mentioned — "of personage," says Smith, u a tall, well proportioned man, with a sower looke, his head some what gray, his beard so thinne it seemeth none at all, his age neere sixtie; of a very able and hardy body to endure any labor. * * * It is strange," he presently proceeds, "to see with what great feare and adoration all these people doe obey this Powhatan. For at his feete they present whatsoever he commandeth, and at the least frowne of his brow, their greatest spirits will tremble with feare ; and no mar- vell, for he is very tyrannous and terrible in punishing such as offend him. * * Yet when he listeth, his will is a law and must be obeyed ; not onely as a king, but halfe as a God they esteeme him." The Indians of Virginia, dwelling in a milder clime, and on a more fertile soil, seem to have possessed more of the comforts of life than those of New England. They lived by the chase, by fishing, and, to a considerable extent, by plantation. Their clothing was of furs, but they were very hardy and able to endure cold. Their children, from infancy, they used to wash in the rivers, "and by paintings and ointments so tanne their skinnes, that after a yeare or two no weather will hurte them." The customary passion of sav- ages for personal picturing, seems, indeed, to have had full sway, the favourite colour being red. " Many other formes of painting they use, but he is the most gallant that is the most monstrous to behold." They were a warlike people, and were often engaged in feud with their neighbours. Smith gives a curious account of a great sham- fight, which Powhatan's warriors, at Mattapanient, once performed for his diversion. Two parties, each of a hundred, approached each other in warlike array, "all duly keeping their orders, yet leaping and singing after their accustomed tune, which they only vse in Warres. Vpon the first flight of arrowes, they gave such horrible shouts and schreeches, as so many infernall hell-hounds could not have made them more terrible. When they had spent their arrowes, they joyned together prettily, charging and retiring, every ranke seconding the other. As they got advantage, they catched their enemies by the hayre of the head, and down came he that was taken. His enemy with his wooden sword seemed to beate out his braines, and still they crept to the rear to maintain the skirmish. * * * All their actions, voyces, and gestures, both in charging and retiring, 46 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. were so strained to the height of their qualitie and nature, that the strangeness thereof made it seeme very delightfull." Little that is definite seems to have been ascertained concerning their religious belief — the uncouth ceremonies of the Powwow, and the manifestations of a savage taste being directly construed into an explicit Satanism. ''Their chief God they worship," says the captain, "is the Devill. Him they call Okee, and serve him more of feare than love. They say they have conferrence with him, and fashion themselves as neare to his shape as they can imagine. In their Temples they have his imnge evill-favoredly carved, in such manner as the deformitie may well suit with such a God. * * Upon the top of certain red sandy hils in the woodes, there are three great houses filled with Images of their Kinges and Devills, and Tombes of their predecessors. This place they count so holy as none but the Priests and Kings dare come into them." Their reli- gious ceremonies were sufficiently fantastic and barbarous. Their chief priest, horrid in a head-dress of the skins of snakes and other reptiles, made invocations before the circle of worshippers "with broken sentences, by starts and strange passions, and at every pause the rest give a short groane" — probably the Indian "ugh," denoting assent. "And in this lamentable ignorance," he continues, "doe these poore Soules sacrifice themselves to the Devill, not knowing their Creator; and we had not language sufficient, so plainly to ex- press it as to make them understand it, which God grant they may." GHicAPTiSH 111 TRIAL* AND VINDICATION OF SMITH. — FAMINE AND TERRIBL MORTALITY. — SMITH, BY HIS EXERTIONS, SUPPORTS THE COLONY. TREACHERY OF HIS ASSOCIATES. — DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS. — IDLE AND MISERABLE COLONISTS. While the party of survey was absent, an attack had been made by the Indians on the colonists, one of whom was killed, and many others were wounded, and Jamestown was therefore fortified with palisades and artillery. Captain Smith, on his return, to silence the slanders of his enemies, demanded a public trial ; in which his inno- THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 47 cence and the malice of his detractors was so apparent, that he was restored to his seat in the Council, and Wingfleld was adjudged to pay him damages in goods to the value of two hundred pounds, which, however, Smith put into the store-house, for the public use. On the 15th of June, Newport, with the vessels, returned to Eng- land. His departure was the signal for immediate distress and privation. The company, with wretched improvidence, had neg- lected to supply sufficient stores for a colony just landed in the wilderness, and even during the stay of the fleet, many of the unfor- tunate settlers had been reduced for support to biscuits pilfered by the sailors from the ship-stores, and sparingly dealt out to the hungry applicants "for saxefras, furres, or love." A regular famine at once set in, a daily pint of wheat or barley, all alive with insects, being the only allowance. "Had we been as free," says one of them, " from all sinnes as gluttony and drunkenness, we might have been canonized as saints ; but our President would never have been ad- mitted, for ingrossing to his private, Oatemeale, Sacke, Oyle, Aquavitce, Beefe, Egges, and what not but the Kettell. * * Our drinke was water, our lodginges Castles in the Ayre." During the summer, fifty of the company, of whom Gosnold was one, had died from the diseases incident to a change of climate and aggravated by privation and exposure. Wingfield, with a cowardly and treacherous policy, attempted to seize the pinnace and desert the settlement, "which," proceeds the old narrator, "so moved our dead Spirits as we deposed him." When this famine and distress was at its height, the neighbouring Indians, who heretofore had refused to impart their store, suddenly changing their resolution, brought abundant supplies of fruits and provision — a seasonable relief, ascribed by the colonists to the direct interposition of God. The council was now reduced to three, consisting of Katcliffe, the nominal president, Martin, and Smith; but the two first, "of weake judgment in dangers and lesse industry in peace," shifted the entire management and care of the colony on the shoulders of their sturdy associate. Those shoulders were amply strong enough to bear it With the greatest diligence, he set to work to supply the wants of the settlers, and to provide them with shelter against the winter. " By his owne example, good words, and faire promises, he set some to mow, others to binde thatch, some to build houses, others to thatch, alwayes bearing the greatest taske for his owne share, so that, in short time, he provided most of them lodgings, neglecting any Vol. IV.— 32 48 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. for himselfe" This labour accomplished, and the people beginning to suffer again from want of food, he set forth in a boat, with five or six others, to gain supplies by traffic with the more distant In- dians. The latter, however, with rade inhospitality, "scorned him," he says, "as a famished man, and would in derision offer him a handfull of corne, a peece of bread, for their swords and muskets, and such like proportions also for their apparell." These uncivil taunts brought on hostilities, and the captain, in a skirmish, got possession of their Okee or god, to ransom which, they were fain to load the English boat with plenty of corn, turkeys, and venison. Smith, in return, gave them beads, copper, and hatchets, and a friendship was struck up with that curious suddenness which seems alike to distinguish savage enmity or amity. In spite of Smith's unwearied exertions, to supply the settlers with food, we are told, "yet what he carefully provided, the rest carelesly spent. * * * The Spaniard never more greedily desired gold than he victuall, nor his Souldiers more to abandon the country than he to keepe it." Of the ill-assorted com- pany, he says, there were "many meerely projecting, verball and idle contemplators, and those so devoted to pure idlenesse, that though they had lived in Yirginia two or three years, lordly, neces- sitie itselfe could not compell them to passe the Peninsula or the Palisadoes of lames Towne. * * Our ingenious Verbalists were no lesse plague to us in Yirginia than the Locusts to the Egyp- tians." Because they did not find Taverns and Alehouses at every turn, he says, nor feather beds and down pillows, they thought of nothing but present comfort and speedy return. Wingfield and others seized the pinnace, and would have fled to England, but Smith by force of arms compelled them to remain, and one of the malcontents was killed in the attempt. THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 49 CHAPTER I?. EXPEDITION AND CAPTURE OP SMITH: HIS STRANGE ADVENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS. — CONJURATIONS PERFORMED OVER HIM. — HE IS CARRIED TO POWHATAN. — HIS LIFE SAVED BY POCAHONTAS — STRANGE MASQUERADE OF POWHATAN. — RELEASE AND RETURN OF SMITH. Proceeding up the Chickahominy, Captain Smith at last procured by traffic such abundant supplies of provision, that the empty stom- achs of the mutineers no longer cried out for return to England. In another expedition, in the same direction, he experienced that memorable adventure, the rival of romance and the brightest orna- ment of American colonial history. Having left his canoe, with two companions, on the bank of a stream, he struck off twenty miles further into the wilderness to reach its head waters. The crew of his barge, which he had left further down the river, were attacked by a great body of warriors, under Opechancanough, king of Pamunkey, the brother of Powhatan. Only one of them, however, was captured, who, after having been compelled to inform the savages of the route taken by Captain Smith, was barbarously put to death. His two companions, sleeping by their canoe, were the next victims, and finally the whole force, two hundred strong, came up with Smith himself. Binding his guide before him, as a shield against their arrows, the captain fought with equal coolness and desperation. He killed three of the enemy and wounded many more; but finally, getting fast in a morass, became so benumbed with cold, that, rather than freeze, he threw away his deadly weapons, and yielded himself prisoner. The Indians drew him out, and chafed his benumbed limbs before a fire. His presence of mind unfailing, he pulled forth a little compass, set in ivory, which he gave the chief. "At the sight of this strange little engine, with its trembling vibrations, apparently instinct with life, the wonder of his captors knew no bounds; and Smith, taking advantage of their interest, began forthwith to enchain with philosophy the attention of his savage auditors." To use his own words, " when he demonstrated by that Globe-like Iewell, the roundnesse of the earth and skies, the spheare of the Sunne, 50 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. Moone, and Starres, and how the Sunne did chase the night round about the world continually; the greatnesse of the Sea and Land, the diversitie of Nations, varietie of complexions, and how we were to them Antipodes, and many such-like matters, they stood as all amazed with admiration." Having tried his nerve by tying him to a tree, and all making ready to shoot at him, they led him in triumph to Orapaks, a town a few miles from Powhatan, where a hideous war-dance was per- formed about him, and where, from the overweening hospitality of his hosts, he began to fear that he was to be fattened for sacrifice. Fully appreciating his valour, they made him great offers if he would assist them in an intended attack on Jamestown ; but Smith, having written a note to his friends, warning them of the danger, and de- siring certain articles, persuaded the Indians to take it thither, and leave it in sight of the colonists. To their utter amazement, they found in the same spot, on the following day, the very articles that Smith had promised them, and all, in wonder, concluded, "that either he coulde divine or the paper could speake." He was next taken to Pamunkey, where such strange and fantas- tical conjurations were enacted over him, that he felt, he says, as if translated to the infernal regions. This mystical ceremony lasted for three days; after which, the tribe entertained him with much kindness. They had procured a bag of gunpowder, which they were carefully keeping to plant the next spring, supposing it to be a species of seed. At last he was taken to Werowocomoco, where Powhatan, "with more than two hundred of his grim courtiers, dressed in their greatest braveries, n was awaiting him. As he entered, the whole court rose, in respect for their valiant captive, and gave a great shout. He was served in the most honourable man- ner, the Indian queen of Appamatuck waiting on mm in person. What followed cannot be better given than in his own language or that of some one who heard it from his own lips. "Having feasted him in the best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held; but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan ; then as many as could lay d hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon layd his head, and being ready with their clubs to beate out his braines, Pocahontas, the King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her arms, and layd her owne upon his to save him from death ; whereat the Emperour was contented he should live." THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 51 "In all history there is no incident more dramatic and touching. After the lapse of more than two centuries, familiarized, but unhack- neyed by repetition, it still remains the most charming and pic- turesque scene in the whole range of American annals. Its heroine, 'the darling of history' (then only a child of ten) still warmly lives in the love and remembrance of a whole people, and stands, the redeeming spirit of her race to hallow it with a kinder memory than that of warfare and revenge." This memorable transaction, moreover, is of great interest as one of those comparatively rare incidents where the feelings and passions bring about an event of high historical importance. Certainly this was such, for the entire weight of the colony, for a long time afterwards, rested on the brave heart, the sagacious head, and the manly arm of Smith. Had he been removed, especially in this critical juncture, the settlers, without doubt, would immediately have abandoned the idea of preserving the colony, and have made their way homeward with all practicable speed. The generosity of the chief did not stop half way. The release of his captive was resolved on, and was communicated in a fashion characteristic enough. "Two dayes after," the captain tells us, " Powhatan having disguised himself in the most fearefullest manner he could, caused Capt. Smith to be brought forth to a great house in the woodes, and there upon a mat by the fire to be left alone" (another experiment on his nerves). "Not long after from behinde a mat that divided the house, was made the most dolefullest noyse he ever heard ; then Powhatan, more like a devill than a man, with some two hundred more as blacke as himself, came unto him and told him now they were friends, and presently he should goe to lames Towne, to send him two great gunnes and a gryndstone, for which he would give him the country of Capahowosick, and for ever esteeme him as his son Nantaquoud" In a memorial, many years afterwards addressed to the queen in behalf of Pocahontas, Smith, recapitulating the kindnesses which he had received from the House of Powhatan, especially commemorates that of this son, whom he describes as "the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a Salvage." Accordingly he was dispatched to the settlement with an escort of twelve guides, and was received with great rejoicing; but the messengers, finding two cannons and a millstone "somewhat too heavy," were fain to return with presents better fitted for their transportation. 52 AMEEICA ILLUS TE ATED. CHAPTER 7. PRIVATIONS OF THE COLONISTS. — RELIEVED BY POCAHON- TAS. — ARRIVAL OF NEWPORT FROM ENGLAND. — INTER- COURSE AND TRAFFIC WITH POWHATAN. — BLUE BEADS FOR CROWN JEWELS. — IMAGINARY GOLD MINE. SMITH'S VOYAGE IN THE CHESAPEAKE. — INTER- VIEWS WITH NUMEROUS NATIVE TRIBES. — STING- RAY POINT. — HIS RETURN. During the six weeks' captivity of Smith, the miserable little rem- nant of the colony, by quarrels and improvidence, was all in confu- sion, and he was again compelled to use force to keep a number from deserting in the pinnace. The malcontents next hatched up a ridiculous scheme for his execution on account of the loss of his companions, saying that, by the Levitical law, he was responsible for their lives: "but he quickly tooke such order with such Lawyers that he layd them by the heels," (i. e. in prison) "till he sent some of them prisoners for England." The colony, indeed, would have perished of hunger, but for the generosity of Pocahontas, (and per- haps Powhatan,) who with her attendants carried food to Jamestown every four or five days. Through her influence many other Indians brought provision as presents, or, if they sold it, made the captain fix his own price, "so had he inchanted these poore soules, being their prisoner." Of two ships, dispatched by the company, with a reinforcement of a hundred men, to Virginia, one only under Newport reached her destination, in the latter part of the year 1607. A brisk traffic was now carried on with the Indians; and at the request of Powhatan, Smith and Newport made him a visit. "With many pretty dis- courses to renew their old acquaintance," says the original narrative, "this great King and our Captaine passed their time. * * Three or foure days more we spent in feasting, dauncing, and trading, wherein Powhatan carried himself so proudly, yet discreetly, (in his salvage manner) as made us all admire his naturall gifts." Newport, however, proved no match for him at a bargain, and the colonists would have received but a pitiful supply of provision for their goods, but for the astuteness of Smith, who contrived, as if by accident, to THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 53 display before the chief several flashy ornaments. The fancy of his majesty was wonderfully struck with certain blue beads. "A long time he importunately desired them, but Smith seemed so much the more to affect them, as being composed of a most rare substance of the colour of the skyes, and not to be worne but by the greatest kings in the world. This made him halfe madde to be the owner of sucn strange Iewells; so that ere we departed," says the narrator, "for a pound or two of blew beades, he brought over my king for 2 or 300 Bushells of corne ; yet parted good friends." Other royal families were supplied with crown jewels at similar rates, and the blue beads were held in such veneration that none, except of the blood-royal, were permitted to wear them. After their return, a fresh misfortune befell the colony in the sup- posed discovery of a bed of gold — which probably was yellow mica or iron pyrites — and to the gathering of which the foolish colonists, with great eagerness, betook themselves, despite the passionate re- monstrances of Smith. "Never," he says, "anything did more tor- ment him than to see all necessary business neglected to fraught such a drunken ship" (Newport's) "with so much gilded durt." In the spring of 1608, the other vessel, the Phoenix, which had been blown by a tempest to the West Indies, arrived with abundant supplies of provisions. She was dispatched home with a load of cedar, the first fruit reaped by England from the natural wealth of the vast region she was attempting to occupy. Under the active management of Smith, the colonists now set themselves busily to work at building and planting, and the colony, though somewhat menaced by the dubious conduct of the Indians, kept in check only by the resolute conduct of the same energetic leader, began to stand on a basis of rational prosperity. On the 2d of June, the indefatigable captain, with fourteen companions, set forth in a barge on a voyage of discovery, and especially for the purpose of exploring Chesapeake Bay. "Some visions of a South Sea to be attained and a new channel opened to the wealthy regions of India, may have mingled, it is probable, with the more practical intention of reducing these great waters and their shores within the limits of geography." In the course of this survey along the eastern shore, many Indians were encountered, at first timid or hostile, and finally friendly and confiding. After a fortnight of incessant labour and exposure, at the mouth of the Patapsco, his crew strongly petitioned for return. The weather had been stormy and disastrous, their 54 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. shirts had been taken to make sails, and several of them were sick. With much regret, their leader consented, and on the 16th of June discovered the river Potomac, which he ascended for thirty miles. Here, we are told, probably with extraordinary exaggeration, the voyagers found "all the woods layd with ambuscadoes to the number of three or foure thousand Salvages,(!) so strangely paynted, grimed, and disguised, shouting, yelling, and crying, as so many spirits from hell could not have showed more terrible." In spite of this vehe- ment demonstration, they presently entered into friendly intercourse with the English. On their return the latter were liberally supplied with game by the Indians whom they encountered, and found fish so plenty that they attempted to catch them with a frying-pan; but found that instrument better suited for their disposal out of the water than in it. At the mouth of the Kappahanock, at Sting-Kay Point, (the name of which still commemorates the incident,) the gallant captain, having speared a fish with his sword, and taking it off "(not knowing her condition) " was grievously stung; and such alarming symptoms ensued that, concluding his end was at hand, he gave directions for his funeral, and had his grave prepared in an island hard by; yet by means of "a precious oyle" applied by Russell the surgeon, recov- ered so far that he had his revenge of the fish by eating a piece of it for his supper. On the 21st of July the expedition returned tc Jamestown, having made extensive surveys, and acquired much knowledge of the tribes inhabiting the shores of the Chesapeake. THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 55 CHAPTER 7 1. 8M1TH MADE PRESIDENT. — HE RESUMES THE SURVEY. — THE SUSQUEH ANNAS. — ADVENTURES WITH THE INDIANS REMARKABLE FEAT OF SURVEY. — RETURN TO JAMES- TOWN. — ARRIVAL OF NEWPORT. ABSURD INSTRUC- TIONS OF THE ENGLISH COMPANY. — THE CORONATION OF POWHATAN. — UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT OF NEWPORT TO FIND THE SOUTH SEA. While Smith was absent, the colony, as a matter of course, had fallen into miserable disorder and anarchy. "The silly President," Ratcliffe, had so ill-treated the colonists, especially those last arrived, that, in the words of the old chronicler, "had we not arrived, they had strangely tormented him with revenge : but the good Newes of our Discovery, and the good hope we had, by the Salvages' relation, that our Bay stretched into the South Sea (!) or somewhat neare it, appeased their fury." Ratcliffe was forthwith deposed from office, and Smith elected in his place — "the place which, from the first, had been due to his superior judgment and experience, and which had been amply earned by his untiring devotion to the service of the colony." Fonder of enterprise than of ease or official dignity, at the end of three days, having appointed a discreet deputy to fill his place, the new president, with twelve companions, resumed his expedition of survey. He first cruised to the Patapsco, having a friendly inter- view on the way with a party of the powerful tribe of Massawomecs, from the north; and on the river Tockwogh, hearing of another tribe, called the Susquehannas, of giant-like stature, sent an invita- tion to them to come and meet him. Accordingly, sixty warriors, of herculean frame, soon presented themselves before him. "Such great and well proportioned men," he says, " are seldome seene, for they seemed like Giants to the English, yet seemed of a honest and simple disposition, with much adoe restrained from adoring us as gods. * * * For their language, it may well beseeme their pro- portions, sounding from them as a voyce in a vault. * The picture of the greatest of them is signified in the Mappe, the calfe of whose leg was three-quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of his limbs 56 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. so answerable to that proportion, that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld." These splendid savages were fittingly dressed in the skins of wolves and bears, so worn as much to resemble the natural ferocious appearance of the animals. Their veneration for Smith, whose reputation had doubtless pre- ceded him, was almost unbounded. "There seems to have been a natural dignity, kindness, and manhood in his demeanor, which invariably was sufficient to overawe or conciliate the rudest tribes which he encountered." "Our order," says the journal of the voy- age, "was daily to have prayer, with a Psalme, at which s^olemnitie the poor Salvages much wondred; our Prayers being done, a while they were busied with a consultation till they had contrived their businesse. Then they began in a most passionate manner to hold vp their handes to the Sanne, with a most fearefull Song, then embracing our Captain e, they began to adore him in like manner; though he rebuked them, yet they proceeded till their Song was finished; which done, with a most strange furious action and a hell- ish voyce, began an Oration of their loves; that ended, with a great painted Beares skin they covered him; then one ready with a great chayne of white Beades, weighing at least six or seaven poundes, hung it about his necke, the others had 18 mantles, made of divers kinds of skinnes, sowed together; all these, with many other toyes. they layed at his feete, stroking their ceremonious hands about his necke, to be their Governour and Protector." Passing up the Eappahannock, the voyagers were attacked by hostile savages, who, "accommodating themselves with branches/' showered volleys of arrows on their barge. One of these, being wounded, was taken by the English, and was asked why his people showed such enmity to peaceful strangers — to which, says the nar- rative, "the poore Salvage mildly answered that they heard we were a people come from under the world to take their world from them. * '* Then we asked him what was beyond the mountains, he answered the Sunne ; but of anything els he knew nothing, because the woodes were not burnt." In the course of this protracted expedition, Smith completed the survey of the shores of Chesapeake Bay, of which he made an ac- curate chart, and acquired much other useful information. A brief but interesting account of the country and the various tribes encoun- tered, was also drawn up, and on the 7th of September, after an absence of three months, (excepting the short visit in July, when he THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 57 was made president,) and a voyage of some three thousand miles, he returned to Jamestown with his little craft deeply laden with provisions. Three days after he was formally invested with his office and title. Sickness had prevailed, and many more of the unfortunate settlers had perished in his absence. Captain Newport soon arrived again, bringing seventy additional colonists, some of them persons of consideration. Two English- women, a Mrs. Forrest and maid, were the first females who came to the colony, and there were also eight Poles or Germans, sent to make tar, jjlass, and potash. The English company, irritated and disappointed in the failure of their extravagant expectations, had ordered the unfortunate captain "not to returne without a lumpe of golde, a certaintie of the South Sea, or one of the lost companie sent out by Sir Walter Kaleigh." Accordingly, he had brought a great barge, built in separate pieces, which was to be carried over the mountains of the West, (the Blue Kidge,) and thence launched into some river flowing into the Pacific ! "If he had burnt her to ashes," writes Smith, indignantly remonstrating with the company, "one might have carried her in a bag (but as she is, five hundred cannot) to a navigable place above the Falls. And for him at that time to find in the South Sea a Mine of Golde, or any of them sent by Sir Walter Raleigh! at our Consultation I told them was as likely as the rest." To propitiate Powhatan, and thus secure a free passage to the Pacific and the gold mine, these gentlemen had dispatched to him certain royalties, consisting of a basin and ewer, a bed and furniture, a chair of state, a suit of scarlet, a cloak and a crown — the latter purporting to be a present from his fellow-sovereign, the king of England. Smith, after vainly protesting against these absurdities, finding the new-comers resolute to prosecute their plan, did his best to aid them. He posted, with only four attendants, to Werowoco- moco, where, in the absence of Powhatan, Pocahontas, with thirty of her maidens, entertained him with a quaint masquerade and a feast, "of all the Salvage dainties they could devise," and treated him with the highest honour and affection. The chief, on his arrival, being invited to proceed to Jamestown and be invested with his regalia, " was taken with a sudden fit of dignity or suspicion," and to the courteous urgency of Smith, replied, "If your king have sent me Presents, I also am a King, and this is my land ; eight days I will stay to receive them. Your Father" (Newport) "is to come to 58 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. me, not I to him, nor yet to your fort, neither will I bite at such a bait. * * As for any salt water beyond the mountains, the Relations you have had from my people are false," and sitting down, he began to draw maps, on the ground, of all the adjacent regions. Smith and Newport, to humour his obstinacy, accordingly, with the presents and a guard of fifty men, repaired to Werowocomoco. The solemn coronation of Powhatan, which took place the day after their arrival, is described with much dry humour in the old narrative. His majesty seems to have had some conception of the humbug of the thing, or perhaps a strong distrust of the English, or a dread of necromancy. His furniture having been properly set up, we are told, "his scarlet Cloke and Apparell were with much adoe put on him, being perswaded by Namontack* they would not hurt him; but a foule trouble there was to make him kneele to receive his Crowne, he neither knowing the maiesty nor meaning of a Crowne nor bending of the knee, endured so many perswasions, examples, and instructions as tyred them all; at last, by leaning hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, and three, having the Crowne in their hands, put it on his head, when, by the warning of a Pistoll, the Boats were prepared with such a volley of shot, that the King started up in a horrible feare, till he saw that all was well." This august ceremony accomplished, Newport, despite the warn- ings of the king, with one hundred and twenty men, in "his great five-peeced barge," set forth to ascend the James River in quest of his lump of gold and the South Sea. The boat was stopped by the Falls, and the company, after getting by land about forty miles far- ther, and suffering much from toil and exposure, were compelled to return to Jamestown. On their arrival, Captain Smith set them at work at various useful occupations, such as cutting down trees and hewing timber, taking the lead himself, and making labour pleasant by good-nature and merriment. * Newport, on his former visit, had presented Powhatan with a boy named Salvage, and the chief, in return, had given him " Namontack, his trustie servant, and one of a wirewd, subtile capacitie." THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 59 CHAPTER TIL PLOT AGAINST SMITH. — HIS LETTER TO THE COMPANY. HIS EFFORTS TO SUPPORT THE COLONY. — EXPEDITION TO SUR- PRISE POWHATAN. — ARTFUL SPEECHES, AND MUTUAL TREACHERY. — THE ENGLISH AGAIN SAVED BY POCAHONTAS. To meet the scarcity of provisions, which again menaced the colony, Smith again ascended the Chickahominy, and brought back a great store of corn. Newport and RatclifFe, in his absence, had plotted to depose him; but, we are told, "their homes were so much too short to effect it, as they themselves more narrowly escaped- a greater mischiefe." He finally dispatched home a ship freighted with the products of the country, and in a letter to the company, besought a supply of mechanics and labourers. Complaining of the misrep- resentations of Newport, he adds, "Now that you should know I have made you as great a discovery as he, for a lesse charge than he spendeth you every meale, I have sent you this Mappe of the Bav and Rivers, with an annexed Relation of the Countries and Nations that inhabit them, as you may see." They had complained that they were kept in ignorance of the country, to which he stiffly replies, "I desire but to know what either you or these here doe know, but what I have learned to tell you, at the continuall hazard of my life." In the ensuing winter, scarcity again prevailed, and the president, by repeated excursions among the Indians, sleeping, with his attend- ants, in the snow, gained a scanty and precarious supply. The colony at length being in danger of starvation, he came to the rash and unscrupulous resolution of seizing the stores of Powhatan and making prisoner of that chief himself. On the 29th of December, he set forth up the river, with three boats and forty-six volunteers, and on his way dispatched Mr. Sicklemore, ("a very valiant, honest, and painefuli Souldier,") with two more, on an unsuccessful search for the lost colony of Raleigh. Arriving at W erowocomoco, he was well entertained by Powhatan, who, however, was well apprized of his hostile intention, having been informed of it by the Germans, who had been sent to build him a house. Much parley ensued, each professing much friendship, and endeavouring to take the other at a 60 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. disadvantage, and Powhatan made a set speech, " expostulating the difference between Peace and Warre." "Captaine Smith," he said, "you may understand that, having seene the death of all my people thrice, and not any one living of those three generations but myselfe, I know the difference of Peace and Warre better than any in my country. But now I am old, and ere long must die. * * * Think you I am so simple as not to know it is better to eate good meate, lye well, and sleep quietly with my women and children, laugh and be merry with you, have copper, hatchets, or what I want, being your friend ; than be forced to flye from all, to lye cold in the woods, feede upon Acornes, rootes, and such trash, and be so hunted by you that I can neither rest, eate, nor sleepe ; but my tyred men must watch, and if a twig but breake, every one cry eth, * there commeth Captaine Smith then must I fly I know not whither, and thus with miserable feare end my miserable life." He then endeavoured to persuade the English to lay aside their arms, intending to surprise them ; and on their refusal, heaving a deep sigh, "breathed his mind once more," in art- ful persuasions to the same effect, and reminded Smith how he had always called him his father. "I call you father, indeed," said his guest, "and as a father you shall see I will love you; but the small care you have of such a childe, caused my men to perswade me to looke to myselfe." Meanwhile, he privately sent for his soldiers at the boats to land quickly and surprise the chief; but the latter, forewarned of their movements, retreated into the woods, and his warriors, in great number, closed around the house. But Smith, rushing among them with sword and target, made good his exit, and Powhatan, says the narrative, "to excuse his flight and the sudden coming of this multi- tude, sent our Captaine a great bracelet and a chaine of pearl, by an ancient Oratour," — who had charge, with plausible explanations, to smooth the affair over. The captain had purchased a quantity of corn, which the Indians carried to his barge, and prepared to pass the night in the village. Powhatan, "bursting with desire to have his head," meanwhile, laid a deep plot for the destruction of the intruders. "Notwithstanding," continues the old narrative, "the eternall all seeing God did prevent him, and by a strange meanes. For Poca- hontas, his dearest iewell and daughter, in that darke night came through the irksome woodes, and told our Captaine great cheare should be sent us by and by ; but Powhatan and all the power he THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 61 could make would after come kill us all, if they that bicught it could not kill us with our owne weapons when we were at supper. Therefore, if we would live, shee wished us presently to be gone. Such things as she delighted in he would have given her; but with the .teares running downe her cheekes, she said she durst not be seene to have any, for if Powhatan should know it, she were but dead; so shee ranne away by herselfe as she came." In the evening, according to the plot, a number of savages, bear- ing great platters of venison and other refreshments, came to the quarters of the English. With much civility, they requested the latter to put out the matches of their guns, alleging that the smoke made them sick; but the intended victims only redoubled their pre- cautions against surprise, and Powhatan, who sent messenger after messenger to learn the state of affairs, at length despaired of finding them off their guard, and relinquished his design. The next morn- ing the uninvited visitors took their departure. " It certainly cannot be regretted that this attempt of Smith to seize the person and property of the chief who had formerly spared his life should have been unsuccessful." CHAPTER VIII. THE PLOT AT PAMUNKEY: DEFEATED BY THE DARING AND ENERGY OP SMITH. — THE COLONY SUPPLIED. SMITH POISONED. — HIS UNSCRUPULOUS POLICY. — HIS FIGHT WITH THE KING OF PASPAHEGH. — "PRETTY AC- CIDENTS" AMONG THE INDIANS. At Pamunkey, the seat of Opechancanough, whither they next repaired, liberal entertainment was provided for the English, and a plot for their destruction was again concerted. At the house of that chief, Smith, with only fifteen companions, was finally sur- rounded by a force of seven hundred armed warriors; his host, "with a strained cheerfulnesse," holding him engaged in talk the while. On seeing his situation, the captain, in a stirring little speech, exhorted his people "to fight like men and not die like sheepe," and then, teiiing his treacherous host, "I see your plot to murder me, 62 AMEBIC A ILLUSTRATED. but I feare it not," defied him to single combat. Besides bis life, he offered to stake on the issue any amount of copper against the same value in corn — "and our Game," he said, "shall be, the Conquerour take all." But the chief, declining this handsome proposal, endeav- oured to induce his guest to venture forth, on pretence of bestowing on him a rich present, thirty of the savages lying in ambush behind a great log to shoot him. Apprized of this design, the incensed captain, "in a rage snatched the king by his long locke in the middest of his men," clapped a pistol to his breast, and led him forth before the multitude of his warriors. The chief then "bestowed his presents in good sadnesse," his people, fearing for his life, making no resistance; and Smith "still holding the King by the hayre," addressed the assembled savages with stern reproaches. "If you shoote but one Arrow," he concluded, "to shed one drop of bloud of any of my men, or steale the leaste of these Beades and Copper which I spurne here before me with my foote; you shall see I will not cease revenge (if once I begin) so long as I can heare to find one of your Nation that will not deny the name of Pamaunk. I am not now at Eassaweak, half drowned with myre, where you tooke me prisoner. You promised to fraught my ship ere I departed, and so you shall, or I will loade her with your dead carcasses." This "angry parle," however, he ended more mildly, offering the release of their chief and his own friendship, if they would fulfil their agreements. Struck, it would seem, with equal awe and admiration, the Indians laid aside their weapons, and began to bring in great store of provisions, and sin- gularly enough, yet, from repeated experience, not improbably, they appear to have fulfilled their agreement with real cordiality. Meanwhile, affairs at Jamestown had gone ill, Scrivener, the deputy, with ten others, having been drowned, on a stormy day, in a boat. The life of the messenger sent with the disastrous tidings to Werowocomoco, was only saved by the compassion of Pocahontas, who contrived to hide him from the executioners. The contest of their wits was presently renewed between Smith and Powhatan, the former endeavouring to surprise that chief and seize his store of provisions, (a plan again defeated by "those damned Dutchmen," says the indignant narrator,) and the latter leaving no means untried to take the life of his redoubted foe. His people not daring to attack the English openly, an attempt was made to poison them, which, however, only had the effect to make Smith and some others disa THE SETTLEMENT OF 7IKGINIA. 63 greeably but not dangerously sick. " IVecuttanow, a stout young fellow, knowing he was suspected of bringing this present of poyson, with fortie or fiftie of his chiefe companions, (seeing the President with but a few men at Potauncok,) so proudly braved it,- as though he expected to incounter a revenge. — Which the President perceiv- ing, in the midst of his company did not onely beate, but spurne him like a dogge, as scorning to doe him any worse mischiefe." The company finally returned to Jamestown with five hundred bushels of corn, obtained by long foraging and traffic among the various tribes. A portion, we regret to say, was wrested by violence from its possessors, and it is to be lamented that Smith, who cer- tainly had a generous and compassionate heart, should have suffered considerations of policy or reprisal to commit him in acts which doubtless leave a shade upon his memory. The old chronicler of the expedition, however, seems to have viewed the matter in a very dif- ferent light, and even takes much pains to exculpate the party from the charge of blameable moderation, which, he fears, "the blind world's ignorant censure " might impute to them. " These temporizing proceedings," he says, "to some may seem too charitable, to such a daily daring, trecherous people; to others not pleasing that we washed not the ground with their blouds, nor showed such strange inventions in mangling, murdering, ransacking, and destroying (as did the Spanyards) the simple bodies of such ignorant soules." The dread of starvation removed by this abundant supply, Smith set the colonists at work at various useful occupations, keeping a table of their merits or demerits, and strictly enforcing the required tasks — "for there was no excuse could prevaile to deceive him." Fresh troubles with the savages, excited by the Germans, soon broke out, and Smith, incautiously travelling alone, with no weapon but bis sword, again had occasion to show all his manhood in defending his head. An ambuscade of forty warriors had been prepared to intercept him. "By the way he incountred the King of Paspahegh, a most stout strong Salvage, whose perswasions not being able to perswade him to his Ambush, seeing him onely armed but with a faucheon" (falchion) " attempted to have shot him, but the President prevented his shooting by grapling with him, and the Salvage as well prevented his drawing his faucheon, and perforce bore him into the Kiver to have drowned him. Long they struggled in the water, till the President got such a hold on his throat, he had neare stran- gled the King;' but having drawne his faucheon to cut off his head, Vol. IV.— 33 64 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. seeing how pitifully lie begged bis life, he led him prisoner to lames Tovvne and put him in chaynes." Encounters with the hostile tribe, resulting in a more sanguinary manner, were finally ended by treaty. The Indians had been eager, by theft or under-handed dealings, to procure arms and ammunition; but it so happened that in drying a quantity of gun-powder on a piece of armour over the fire, it exploded, to their terrible injury, so that by "this and many such pretty Accidents," we are told, they took a wholesome distrust of the dangerous commodity, and adopted an attitude of con- ciliation toward the colonists. C obil! liuL »£ 2^ 5! o IDLENESS OF THE SETTLERS. — ELOQUENT SPEECH AND VIGOROUS POLICY OF SMITH. THE NEW VIRGINIA COMPANY. — UNJUST ASSUMPTION OF POWER. — SMITH DEPOSED. — GREAT EX- PEDITION DISPATCHED FROM ENGLAND: ILL-FORTUNE. ARRIVAL OF NUMEROUS IMMIGRANTS. ANARCHY. — SMITH REASSUMES THE PRESIDENCY. By the energy of their brave and industrious president, the Vir ginian colonists had been amply supplied with food and shelter; and additional buildings and more extended agriculture betokened the prosperity of the settlement. Destruction of their store, by rotting and the rats, renewed former privations, and reawakened the old mutinous and discontented spirit. By the assistance of the In- dians, and by fishing and gathering the natural products of the country, a number of the more industrious continued to keep the settlement from starvation. "But such was the strange condition of some 150, that had they not been forced, nolens volens, to gather and prepare their victuall, they would all have starved or eaten one another." "These distracted Gluttonous Loyterers" would fain have sold to the Indians every utensil of labour or defence, for a pittance of corn, and omitted no means of cunning and mutinous demeanour to compel the president to break up the settlement and return to England. Out of patience at their ill-behaviour, he finally resorted to severe measures. In a summary manner he punished the chief ringleader, THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 65 "one Dyer, a most crafty fellow and his ancient Maligner," and made a speech of severe admonition, evidently carefully modelled on his favourite classics, to the rest. "Fellow-soldiers," he said, "I did little think any so false to report, or so many to be so simple as to be perswaded, that I either intend to starve you, or that Powhatan at this present hath corne for himselfe, much lesse for yon; or that [ would not have it, if I knew where it were to be had. Neithei did T thinke any so malitious as I now see a great many ; yet it shall not so passionate me but I will doe my best for my most maligner. But dream no longer of this vaine hope from Powhatan, nor that I will longer forbeare to force you from your Idlenesse, and pnnish you if you rayle. But if I find any more runners for Newfoundland with the Pinnace, let them assuredly looke to arive at the Gallows. "You cannot deny but that by the hazard of my life many a time I have sav^d yours, when (might your own wills have prevailed) you would nave starved. But I protest by that God that made me, since necessitie hath not power to force you to gather for yourselves those fruites the earth doth yeeld, you shall not onely gather for your selves, but for those that are sicke. As yet, I never had more from the store than the worst of you ; and all my English extraor- dinary provision that I have, you shall see me divide it among the sicke. "And this Salvage trash you so scornefully repine at, being put in your mouths, your stomachs can digest it. If you would have better, you should have brought it; and therefore I will take a course that you shall provide what is to be had. The sicke shall not starve, but share equally of all our labors, and he that gathereth not every day as much as I doe, the next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he amend his condi- tions or starve." This stern and summary policy had the required effect, and the colonists set to work collecting the natural fruits of the country with such diligence that their condition was speedily improved. In the spring of 1609, Captain Samuel Argall (afterwards governor) arrived in a vessel well loaded with supplies, which the settlers converted their own use, restitution being afterwards made. This arrival Drought tidings of an important character. Disappointed and irritated by what they considered the inexcusa- ble neglect of their agents in failing to discover a gold mine or a passage to the Pacific, the Virginia Company visited the whole 66 AMEKICA ILLUSTRATED. weight of their displeasure on the head of Captain Smith. "His necessarily firm and rigorous rule had made him many enemies; and the bluntness and plain-spoken truth of his communications had shocked the dignity of the authorities at home. They resolved to depose him from the command of the colony, which his almost un- aided exertions had so repeatedly preserved from destruction, and the true value of which their short-sighted rapacity prevented them from appreciating." To gratify persons of wealth and influence who had joined the company, in May, 1609, a new charter was obtained, granting abso- lute power of control over Virginia to the patentees, and unjustly depriving the colonists of even the shadow of self-government. Lord Delaware was appointed captain-general, and a host of inferior offi- cers, with high-sounding titles, were also created for the benefit of the poverty-stricken colony. In the same month, nine ships, com- manded by Newport, and carrying five hundred people, under command of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, sailed from England, leaving Delaware to follow with fresh recruits. These three dignitaries, by a singular piece of folly, all embarked in the same ship, with all their papers, and a great part of the provisions. In the latter part of July, this vessel, "in the tayle of a Hericano " (hurricane) was driven from the squadron and wrecked on the Bermudas. An- other foundered at sea, and the rest, in most miserable plight, and without any general commander, arrived finally at Jamestown. Their arrival was the signal for fresh disorders. Most of the new emigrants, it would seem, were in a manner the refuse of the com- munity — "much fitter to spoil a commonwealth than to raise or maintain one." In "this lewd company," it is said, were "many unruly Gallants, packed thither by their friends to escape ill-desti- nies" — broken down gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, and decayed serving- men. Smith having been deposed by the authorities, and their officers having been shipwrecked on the Bermudas, there was no regular government, and the people soon fell into a state of an- archy, setting up and pulling down their authorities almost daily, and modelling the government after their changeable caprice and fancy. In this strait, the more sensible entreated Smith to resume the command; seeing that no one had yet arrived to displace him. He consented with reluctance, and a vigorous exertion of his wonted authority soon reduced these unruly spirits to something like order and obedience. THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 67 CHAPTER X. PUTILE ATTEMPTS AT FOUNDING NEW SETTLEMENTS. — FOLLT AND OBSTINACY OF THE COLONISTS. — SMITH TERRIBLY INJURED. — HE RETURNS TO ENGLAND. — HIS SER- VICES TO THE COLONY. — AWFUL SUFFERING AND MORTALITY AFTER HIS DEPARTURE. Jamestown being overcrowded, it was now thought best to plant other settlements, and a hundred and twenty men, under Martin, attempted to found a colony at ISTansemond; but from the inefficiency of their commander and the hostility of the Indians, the scheme proved a complete failure. A like number, under Captain "West, proceeded to the Falls of James Kiver, where they pitched upon a spot exposed to inundations and other inconveniences. To provide them a better locality, Smith agreed with Powhatan for the purchase of his town of the same name, hard by, with its fort and all the houses: "but both this excellent place and those good conditions did these furies refuse, contemning both him, his kinde care and authoritie." To persuade them to reason, he repaired thither with only five companions, but was compelled by their violence to betake himself to his barge, where, for nine days, he waited, hoping to find them more sensible, and much troubled at hearing the continual complaints of their violence and injustice made by the neighbouring Indians. He finally sailed down the river, but was presently re- called by news that the savages had attacked them and killed a number. Hastening back, he found them submissive enough, and removed them to the quarters he had selected, at Powhatan, where, indeed, they did not long remain, resuming, with strange obstinacy, their ill-chosen position. The captain, as he returned, met with terrible injury from the explosion of a bag of gun-powder, which caught fire while he was asleep, burning him severely, and setting fire to his clothes. He jumped overboard to quench them, and was with difficulty saved from drowning. Carried in this wretched condition, for a hundred miles, to Jamestown, without the aid of surgery, he was laid pros- trate on a bed of sickness, and some of the malcontents, it is said, " seeing the President unable to stand, and neere bereft of his senses 68 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. Dy reason of his torment, plotted to murder him in his bed. But his heart did faile him that should have given fire to that merci- lesse pistoll." The president, his active and energetic career tnus lamentably arrested, and knowing that the arrival of any of the delayed officials would at once supplant his authority, now resolved to proceed to England for surgical aid. Early in the autumn of 1609, he set sail, leaving at Jamestown and the other Virginia posts four hundred and ninety people, well supplied with arms, provision,, and the means of cultivation and improvement. "It is almost impossible to over-estimate the services of this remark- able man in laying the foundation of the American empire. The brilliant feats of arms which he so often performed, and the deadly perils which he so often encountered, are little in comparison with the untiring zeal, the ever-watchful foresight, and the sagacious policy, by which, for years, he sustained, on his single arm, the entire weight of the existence of the colony. Incompetency of his employers, mutiny among his followers, the hostility of powerful tribes, sickness, privations, and famine itself, were all remedied or conquered by his almost unaided exertions. "Rude and violent as he often was toward the offending natives, no white man, perhaps, ever so far conciliated the favour and gained the respect of the Indian race. His very name, long after, -was a spell of power among them, and had he remained in Virginia a few years longer, the memorable massacre which, in 1622, proved an almost fatal blow to the settlements in that country, would, it is probable, never have been perpetrated. The wretched condition of the colony, immediately after his departure, may be given in the rude but graphic language of one who shared its misfortunes. "'Now we all found the losse of Captaine Smith, yea, his greatest maligners could now curse his losse; as for corne, provision, and contribution from the Salvages, we had nothing but mortall wounds, with clubs and arrows; as for our Hogs, Hens, Goates, Sheepe, Horse, or what lived, our commanders, officers, and the Salvages daily consumed them, (some small proportion sometimes we tasted,) till all was devoured; then swords, arms, pieces, or anything wo traded with the Salvages, whose cruell fingers were so oft im- brewed in our blouds, that, what by their crueltie, our Governour's indiscretion and the losse of our ships, of five hundred, within six moneths after Captaine Smith's departure, there remained not past THE SETTLEMENT OF VIEGINIA. G9 sixtie men, women, and children, most miserable and poore crea- tures; and those were preserved, for the most part, by rootes, herbes, walnuts, acornes, now and then a little fish; they that had starch, in such extremities made no small use of it; yea, even the very skinnes of our Horses. Nay, so great was our famine, that a Salvage we slew and buried, the poorer sort tooke him up againe "and eate him, and so did divers one another, boyled and stewed with rootes and herbes; and one amongst the rest did kille his wife, powdered" (pickled) "her, and had eaten part of her before it was knowne, for which hee was executed as hee well deserved * * This was that time, which still to this day we call 'the starving time'; it were too vile to say, and scarce to bee beleeved what we endured; but the occasion was oure own, for want of providence, industrie, and government/ "Such are the trials, sufferings, and privations, amid which, too often, the foundation of a commonwealth in the wilderness must be laid — misfortunes at times hardly avoidable, but, as in the present case, infinitely aggravated by the want of a firm, sagacious, and resolute Head."* tj JtnL JmL 2? r ? £ !][ o MEMOIR OF SMITH, CONTINUED AND CONCLUDED. — HIS VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND AND SURVEYS. HIS SECOND EXPEDITION. HIS ADVENTURES AMONG THE PIRATES: HIS ESCAPE. HIS GREAT EXERTIONS FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. INTERESTING INTERVIEW BETWEEN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS IN ENGLAND. LAST YEARS OF SMITH. HIS DEATH. — HIS CHAR- ACTER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. Having given a brief account of the early adventures of Captain Smith, (whose life, more nearly than that of any other man, seems to connect the fortunes of the Old World with the New,) having remarked to what admirable purpose his training in the rough school of war, of travel, and of adversity served in his career as a colonist, * Discoverers, &c, of America. 70 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. it may not be amiss to give a few particulars of the remainder of his active and useful life — especially as that life, to its end, was mainly and unweariedly devoted to the task of promoting American dis- covery and colonization. In March of 1614, we again find him, in company with some merchants of London, fitting out an expedition to New England, in two vessels, one of which he commanded in person. By the last of April, he arrived at the island of Manhegin, on the coast of Maine, where he built seven boats, and made an unsuccessful attempt at whale-fishing. The crews, with much better success, were therefore set to work at catching and curing cod, while Smith, with eight men, in a small boat, surveyed and mapped out the coast, from Penobscot to Cape Cod. In his chart, he had mostly given the original Indian names, but, with a natural desire to com- memorate his own adventures, had inserted a few others drawn from that fertile source. Cape Ann was called Cape Tragabigzanda, in honour of his young mistress of Constantinople, and the Isles of Shoals were laid down as "The 3 Turkes' Heads." At his request, however, Prince (afterwards king) Charles, changed most of these names to those of English localities, which are still retained. Having procured by traffic an immense quantity of beaver and other furs from the Indians, (with whom, also, he had two fights,) in August he returned to England, leaving his consort, Captain Thomas Hunt, to continue the fishing and carry the cargo to Spain. That scoundrel, at his departure, in the words of Smith, "betraied foure and t wen tie of those poore Salvages aboord his Ship, and most dishonestly and inhumanely, for their kind treatment of me and all our men, carried them with him to Maligo" (Malaga), "and there for a little private gaine sold those silly Salvages for rials of eight; but this vilde act kept him ever after from any more imploiment to those parts." To this cruel »nd treacherous act, as to those of a similar nature, committed by the French in their voyages to Canada, may be attributed much of the hostility experienced by later comers in settling the country. At Plymouth, to which Smith next came, he found the people still "interested in the dead patent of this unregarded countrey" (New England), and was easily induced to undertake a voyage for the company of that port, rejecting, with honourable promptitude, the proposals of the Virginia Company, who would now gladly have availed themselves of his services. In March, 1615, he sailed for America with two small vessels, on a voyage which was but one THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 71 series of misfortunes. His ship being wrecked and dismasted, he was compelled to put back, and in June, in a little vessel of only sixty tons, resumed the enterprise. Falling in with an English pirate of thirty-six guns, he defied her so bravely with only four, that the crew were amazed until they recognized Smith, with whom some of them had served years before, probably in the Eastern wars. They begged him to take the command of their ship (which they had seized at Tunis,) but he declined the offer, and pursued his voy- age. Near Fayal, he had a fight with two French pirates, whom he compelled his crew to resist, threatening to blow up the vessel rather than yield, as long as there was a charge of powder left aboard. Escaping from this danger, at Flores he was captured by four French men-of-war, the commander of which, despite his commission under the Great Seal of England, plundered his little vessel, and* then dis- missed her, reserving Smith, as a precaution against his revenge, as a prisoner. During the whole summer, these rovers cruised ^about, capturing and plundering many vessels, keeping Smith a prisoner in the cabin, when they took any English vessels, but gladly avail- ing themselves of his courage and seamanship in their fights with the Spaniards. The very different light in which the worthy captain regarded these several transactions, may best be inferred from his own de- scription of the capture of two prizes of the different nations. "The next wee tooke," he says (in a journal, which, with a particular description of New England, he wrote aboard the Frenchman), "was a small Englishman of Poole, from New found land: the great Cabben at this present was my Prison, from whence I could see them pillage these poore men of all they had and halfe their fishe; when hee was gone thev sold his poore clothes at the Main Mast by an outcry," (auction), " which scarce gave each man seven pence a peece." Mark the change in his tone in narrating the capture of a rich Spanish Galleon — "a West Indies man of warre, a forenoone wee fought with her and then tooke her, with one thousand, one Hundred Hides, fiftie chests of Cutchanele, fourteene coffers of wedges of Silver, eight thousand Rialls of Eight, and six coffers of the king of Spaine's treasure, besides the good pillage and rich Coffers of many rich Passen* gers. Two moneths they kept me in this manner to manage their fights against the Spaniards and bee a prisoner when they tooke any English." The very imperfect tone of public morality at this age is sufficiently evinced in the complacency with which Smith — justly 72 AMEEICA ILLUSTE ATED. regarded as an uncommonly honest and upright man — views these Bcenes of piratical plunder — always provided that the subject of them were not an Englishman. His captors promised him ten thousand crowns as the reward of his skill and valour; yet when they arrived at Rochelle, knowing his determined character, and dreading his vengeance, still kept him prisoner. In a terrible storm, however, which drove them all under hatches, (and which, that same night, destroyed the ship, with half her company), he made his escape in a small boat, and, after being driven to sea and enduring great peril and suffering, was found, half dead, by some Fowlers, on an oozy island, and was brought ashore and kindly relieved. Returning home, he published a book on New England, which he had written to beguile the weariness of his captivity, and, with extraordinary activity, travelling through, the west of England, dis- tributed seven thousand copies of it among people of note and influ- ence. "But all," he says, "availed no more than to hew rocks with Oyster shells." He received, however, an abundance of promises of aid in the enterprise of settling that country, and was invested by the Plymouth company with the title of "Admiral of New England." These encouragements all ended in words, no active steps being taken for the furtherance of the object which he had so much at heart. A most interesting interview between Smith and Pocahontas, about this time, is recorded. That noble-hearted princess, despite the great affection which her father bore to her, had incurred his displeasure by her repeated acts of kindness in behalf of the English, and was living exiled from his court, under the protection of Japazaws, chief of the Potomacs. That treacherous dignitary, bribed by a copper kettle, entrapped her on board the vessel of Captain Argall, who, notwithstanding her tears and lamentations, made her prisoner, and took her to Jamestown — informing her father that she could be ran- somed only by the delivery of numerous arms, &c, which his people had stolen from the English. "This vnwelcome newes," says the chronicler, "much troubled Powhatan, because hee loved both hia daughter and our commodities well." After an alternation of war and negotiation, the matter was at last happily settled in a manner more agreeable than either. "Long before this," continues the narrative, "Master Iohn Rolfe. an honest Gentleman and of good behavior, had beene in love with Pocahontas, and she with him, which resolution Sir Thomas Dale THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 73 well approved; the bruit (report) of this mariage soon came to the knowledge of Powhatan, a thing acceptable unto him, as appeared by his sudden consent, for within ten daies, he sent Ojpachisco, an old Yncle of hers, and two of his sons, to see the manner of the mariage, and to doe in that behalfe what they were requested, for the confirmation thereof, as his deputie; which was accordingly done about the first of Aprill," (1613), "and ever since we have had friendly trade and commerce" (intercourse) " with Powhatan himselfe, as all his subjects." In 1616, the Lady Rebecca (as she was now christened), with her husband and child, accompanied Sir Thomas to England. She had learned English, and adopted Christianity, and "was become," says the narrator, with unconscious national satire, "very formall and civill after our English manner." Captain Smith, on learning of her arrival, lost no time in commending her to the attention of per- sons of influence, and, in a studied memorial to the queen, recapitu- lated the many services rendered by Pocahontas to himself and to the Virginian colony, and besought her favour for the interesting stranger. "During the time of two or three yeeres, she, next under God," he says, "was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from death, famine, and utter confusion, which', if in those days it had once been dissolved, Virginia might have laine as it was at our first arrivall to this day." Unhappily, on account of the ridiculous jealousy of James L, (who, it is said, exhibited much indignation against Rolfe, for having pre- sumed, being a subject, to intermarry with the blood-royal) the captain, when he went to see her, fearing, by too great familiarity, to prejudice her interest at court, thought best to salute her with ceremonious gravity. At this strange reception, her affectionate heart was at once grieved and indignant. With a species of Indian sul- lenness, and "without any word," he says, "she turned about, ob- scured her face, as not seeming well-contented. In that humour," he continues, "her husband, with divers others, we all left her two or three houres," (how could he!) "repenting myself to have writ shee could speake English. * * But not long after she began to talke, and remembered mee well what courtesies shee had done; saying, 'You did promise Powhatan what was yours should bee his, and he the like to you ; you called him father, being in his land a stranger, and by the same reason so must I doe you ;' which though I would have excused, that I durst not allow of that title, n AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. because she was a King's daughter, with a well set countenance she said, 1 Were you not afraid to come into my father's countrie and cause feare in him and all his people (but mee), and feare you here I should call you father? I tell you then I will, and you shall call mee childe, and so I will bee for ever and ever your countryman.' " This prudent conduct of Smith and her other friends, it would seem, allayed the absurd jealousy of James; for, he continues, "it pleased both the King and Queene's maiesty honorably to esteeme ner, accompanied by that honorable Lady, the Lady Be la Warre, and that honorable Lord, her husband, and divers other persons of good quality, both publikely at the maskes and otherwise, to her great satisfaction and content, which doubtless she would have de- served, had she ever lived to arrive in Virginia." She died at Gravesend, on her way home, in the following year, at the age of twenty- two, leaving a son, from whom a numerous race of descend- ants have been derived. "Among them was the celebrated John Randolph of Roanoke — justly prouder of his descent from the old imperial race of Powhatan, illustrated by the more gentle heroism of his daughter, than he could have been of the noblest derivation from European ancestry." In 1617, Captain Smith had been assured by the Plymouth Com- pany that he should be sent out, with a fleet of twenty ships, to found a colony in New England; but this promise never was ful- filled, though he was unwearied in his exertions to incite his coun- trymen to American enterprise. When, in 1622, news came of the terrible massacre devised by Opechancanough, (see chapter XIII.) he proposed to the Virginia Company that if they would but allow him an hundred and thirty men, "to imploy onely in ranging the Countries and tormenting" (harassing) "the Salvages," their whole territory should be kept in peace and security; but they rejected the offer, as involving a necessity for too great expense. Another terrible massacre, a few years later, was the result of this short- sighted policy. In the following year, we find the captain before a royal commis- sion, giving his evidence and opinion concerning the unfortunate colony with much shrewdness, candour, and charity. Of the last few years of his life little is known. He lived, it is believed, in quiet repose in the city of London, employed chiefly in writing and pub- lishing. He was engaged on a "History of the Sea," when, in 1631, 4eath closed a career in which utility and romance were perhaps THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 75 more closely and continuously united than in any other of which a record has survived. "In the whole history of adventure, discovery, and exploration, there are few names more honourable or more deservedly famous than that of Captain John Smith. To us he has always appeared (to his very name and title) the finest and most perfect exemplar of a bold Englishman that ever figured on the stage of the world. In his character, bravery, fortitude, sagacity, and sound common sense were so happily tempered and united as to command instinctive respect; while the tolerably-infused tincture of impetuosity, preju- dice, and self-will, seems only to lend a piquancy to his worthier traits, and more finely to set off the national characteristics. His love of enterprise and his daring, chivalrous spirit, were tempered with a judgment, moderation, and humanity, which, in so rough a career, have never been surpassed. The cutter-off of Turks' heads, the desperate Indian fighter, and the sworn foe to the Spaniard is all compassion and sympathy when the 'Silly Salvages' are kidnap- ped by his treacherous countryman, or when the 1 poore clothes ' of 'a small Englishman' are sold by outcry at the main-mast of a pirate. "In early youth, his grand passion was for fighting and renown, no matter on what field, so that a man of honour might engage. In maturer years, the noble passion for founding nations and spreading civilization took a yet firmer possession of his soul. 'Who,' he ex- claims in his manly address to the idlers of England, 'who can desire more content that hath small means, or only his merit, to advance his fortunes, than to tread and plant that ground he hath purchased by the hazard of his life; if hee have but the taste of vertue and magnanimitie, what to such a mind can bee more pleas- ant than planting and building a foundation for his posterity, got from the rude earth by God's blessing and his owne industry, with- out prejudice to any; if hee have any graine of faith or zeale in Eeligion, what can hee doe lesse hurtfull to any or more agreeable to God, than to seeke to convert those poore Salvages to know Christ and humanity, whose labors, with discretion, will triply reward thy charge and paine ; what so truly sutes with honor and honesty as the discovering things vnknowne, erecting Townes, peo- pling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching vertue and gaine to our native mother Country ; to find imploiment for those that are idle, because they know not what to doe; so farre from wronging any, as to cause posterity to re- 76 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED member them, and remembering thee, ever honor that remembrance with praise.' "The full merits of Smith, as the earliest and most indefatigable promoter of the colonization of New England, have never been ade- quately appreciated. By his personal exertions in the survey, delin- eation, and description of that neglected region, and by the continual publications which, at great pains and expense, he industriously cir- culated in England, he awakened the public interest in an enterprise which, otherwise, for many years might have been slighted and deferred. He lived to see the foundations of a great nation firmly laid, both at the south and the north, and, though like many other great projectors and labourers in the same field of action, he reaped no personal advantage (but rather much loss) from his exertion and enterprise, he continued, to the day of his death, to regard the two colonies with the fond partiality of a parent, and to do all he could for their advancement. 'By that acquaintance I have with them,' he writes, 'I call them my Children, for they have beene my Wife, my Hawks, Hounds, my Cards, my Dice, and in totall, my best content, as indifferent to my heart as my left hand to my right. And not- withstanding all those miracles of disasters which have crossed both them and me, yet, were there not an Englishman remaining (as, God be thanked, notwithstanding the massacre, there are some thousands); I would yet begin againe with as small meanes as I did at first, not that I have any secret encouragement, (I protest) more than lament- able experience,' &c. "It only remains to add that, although, so far as we are informed, never married, the gallant captain was, and deservedly, a general favourite with the ladies. There seems to have been a certain man- hood and kindliness in his very look, which, almost at a glance, conciliated to him the good-will of the fairer and weaker portion of humanity. These favours, so flattering to the natural vanity of man, he bears worthily, and with no offence to the givers, ever speaking with the utmost modesty and gratitude of the kindness he had so often experienced at their hands. His acknowledgment to the sex (introduced in his dedication to the Duchess of Richmond) reminds us of the celebrated eulogy pronounced by Ledyard. 'I confesse,' he writes, 'my hand, though able to wield a weapon among the Barbarous, yet well may tremble in handling a pen before so many Judicious * * Yet my comfort is, that heretofore honorable and vertuous Ladies, and comparable but among them selves, have offered THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 77 me rescue and protection in my greatest dangers ; even in forraine parts I have felt reliefe from that sex. — The beauteous Lady Traga- bigzanda, when I was a slave to the Turkes, did all she could to secure me ' (?,'. e. make me secure). 1 When I overcame the Bashaw of Nalbritz, in Tartaria, the charitable Lady Callamata supplied my necessities. In the vtmost of many extremities that biessed Poka- hontas, the great King's daughter of Virginia, oft saved my life. When I escaped the crueltie of Pirats and most furious stormes, a long time alone in a small Boat at Sea, and driven ashore in France, the good Lady Madam Chanoyes bountifully assisted me.' n * C 2nf> jtb <3? 32 I! 2« o ARRIVAL OF GATES. — MISERABLE CONDITION OF THE COLON!, JAMESTOWN DESERTED. ARRIVAL OF LORD DELAWARE: OF SIR THOMAS DALE. EXERTIONS OF THE COMPANY. — INCREASED IMMIGRATION. — THE CULTURE OF TOBACCO INTRODUCED, AND EAGERLY PURSUED. TYRANNY OF ARGALL: HIS DISPLACEMENT. GREAT ACCESSION OF IMMIGRANTS. — WIVES PURCHASED WITH TOBACCO. — LIBERAL CONCESSIONS TO THE COLONISTS. The lamentable condition of the Virginian colony, after the de- parture of Smith, has been described. Thirty of the settlers, seizing a ship, had turned pirates, and the greater part of the remainder perished of famine, disease or Indian hostility. When Sir Thomas Gates and his companions, who had been wrecked on Bermuda, arrived at Virginia in vessels of their own construction, (May 24th, 1610,) out of four hundred and ninety, whom Smith had left, only sixty remained, and those in a condition of such misery that their end was almost at hand. There seemed no alternative but to sail with, all speed for Newfoundland, and there seek assistance from the fishermen; and, accordingly, early in June, (resisting the miserable desire of the settlers to fire their deserted dwellings,) Gates, with his people and the relics of the Virginian colony, proceeded down the river. * Discoverers, &c, of America. 78 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. The very next morning (June 10th, 1610) they learned that Lord Delaware had arrived on the coast with supplies, and, putting about, returned with all speed to Jamestown. The new governor, a man of high character and good judgment, by his wholesome rule, and by the supplies which he brought, soon restored comparative com- fort to the little colony, which, at this time, including the company of Gates and his own emigrants, did not exceed two hundred souls ; but on account of illness, was compelled, the same year, to quit Virginia, leaving the administration in the hands of Mr. Percy. In May of the next year, (1611,) Sir Thomas Dale, dispatched thither with fresh supplies, arrived, and assumed the government. Sir Thomas Gates, who had also repaired to England, by his urgent representations, excited the company to fresh exertions, and in August of the same year, with six ships, bearing three hun- dred more emigrants and a hundred cattle, he arrived at Jamestown, and assumed the office of governor. The colony now numbered seven hundred. In 1612, by a fresh patent, the Bermudas and all other islands within three hundred leagues of Virginia, were included in that province, and lotteries were authorized for the benefit of the com- pany. The prosperity of the colony improved, and its peaceful relations with the Indians seemed secured by the marriage of Eolfe and Pocahontas, which took place about this time — a propitious event, resulting in the alliance not only of Powhatan and his people, but of the Chickahominies and other tribes. In the account of Acadia, mention has been made of the atrocious and piratical expedition from Virginia, under Captain Samuel Ar- gall, destroying the little colony of Port Royal, the first settlement of the French in North America. That unprincipled commander, on his return, also entered the harbour of Manhattan (New York), and enforced a show of submission from the little colony of Hol- landers inhabiting the island of that name. In 1614, Sir Thomas, appointing Dale as governor, returned to England; and the latter, two years afterwards, leaving in turn George Yeardley as deputy, followed the example. By far the most memorable fact in this stage of the colony's progress, is the commencement of the culture of tobacco, the use of which, adopted from the Indians, had been intro- duced into England. With such industry did the prospect of a profitable reward for labour inspire the colonists, that the very streets of Jamestown were planted with tobacco. THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 79 In 1617, the office of deputy-governor was conferred by the com- pany on that rash and unscrupulous man, Samuel Argall; and the death of Lord Delaware — who, embarking with a considerable com- pany, the same year, for Virginia, died on the voyage — 'left his natural tyranny and arrogance without a check. The colonists, ere Jung, were, in effect, completely enslaved by their arbitrary governor, who used his office only as a means for his private aggrandizement, and their very lives were in danger from his fury. But on the report of these excesses reaching England, the culprit, after a spirited con test between the different factions in the company, was displaced, and Yeardley, whose mild and benevolent temper had made him popular with the settlers, was appointed to the command. His just and considerate rule soon restored quiet. The company, desirous to avoid such abuses for the future, had checked the authority of the governor by that of the council, and actually admitted the colonists to a species of self-government. The governor, with the council, and certain representatives of the people, were permitted to enact some laws, which, however, were not to be valid, unless ratified by the corporation at home. The officers of the company, and in especial, Sir Edwm Sandys, the treasurer, sup- ported by the liberal party, now used great exertions for the increase of the colony and the extension of its liberties. In 1619, there were only six hundred settlers in Virginia, and during a single year that energetic officer dispatched thither more than twelve hundred addi- tional emigrants. An hundred and fifty young women, of good character, were shipped to the province, and were married with great readiness — the husbands paying the company each an hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco or more, for the expense of their trans- portation. By 1621, three thousand five hundred emigrants had reached Virginia; and, in the same year, with liberality and fore- sight, rare indeed for the age, the company made an ordinance conferring on that province a settled and, in a manner, independent government. The governor and council, indeed, were to be ap- pointed by the company, but a legislative assembly was to be chosen by the people, with power to enact laws, subject to the approval of the company — those emanating from London, in like manner, to be valid only on ratification by the assembly. Courts of law, strictly following those of England, were required to be instituted, and the great blessing of civil liberty — as great, perhaps, as that enjoyed by Englishmen at home — was secured to the first American colony. This Vol IV.—34 80 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. magnanimous concession, due to the generous efforts of Southamp- ton, Sandys, and others of the liberal party, was one of the first and most important fruits of that spirit of progress at that time just beginning to make itself felt in the English councils. C jth 2P £ iil tX! J i J • WT ATT GOVERNOR. NEGRO SLATERT INTRODUCED. DEATH OF POWHATAN AND SUCCESSION OF P E C H A N C A N U G H. PLOT DEVISED BY THE LATTER. TERRIBLE MASSACRE OF THE ENGLISH. DEPRESSION OF THE COLONY. USURPATION OF THE PATENT BY JAMES I. PRU- DENT POLICY TOWARD THE COLONISTS. Sir Francis Wyatt, bearing the invaluable gift of a constitution, arrived in Virginia, as governor, in 1621. The year previous, un- happily, had been distinguished by the first introduction of slavery into the colony — a Dutch vessel having entered the James River, and brought twenty negroes for sale. For a long time, indeed, this nefarious traffic made little progress — being principally carried on by the people who commenced it, and being rather connived at than favoured by the government of the province. The agricultural progress of Virginia had been grievously retarded by unsuccessful efforts at the production of wine and silk — articles of luxury, the least suited to a new territory and a sparse population. The profitable culture of tobacco, and its sudden importance as the staple of Virginian agriculture, have been noticed; and that of cotton, first commenced as an experiment, in 1621, marks an era in the history of American agriculture vastly more important yet. King Powhatan, who, after the English alliance of his daughter, had been the firm friend of the colonists, died full of years, in 1618, the year after the death of Pocahontas. Opechancanough, his younger brother, succeeded him in the government of thirty tribes which he had ruled. Apprehensions of Indian hostility, from a long interval of peace, had gradually died out, and the settlers, eager for the cultivation of tobacco, continually pushed their plantations further into the wilderness and more remote from mutual aid. So completely THE SETTLEMENT OF VIKGINIA. 81 was apprehension allayed, that fire-arms, to famish which to the savages had formerly been denounced as an offence worthy of death, were now freely supplied them for hunting and fowling. It is not easy to arrive at the causes which induced the Indian population, apparently so friendly and confiding, to resolve on an indiscriminate massacre of the English. Doubtless, like all other native tribes, they were jealous of continual intrusions on their ancient domain. It is said, also, that Opechancanough was mortally offended by the killing of one of his favourite councillors, called "Jack of the Feather." He may also have remembered, with deep vindictiveness, how r Captain Smith, many years before, had held him "by the hayre of his head" before his assembled warriors. Certainly, with almost incredible secrecy and concert, he and his people plotted the destruction of the whites. On the 22d of March, 1622, about noon, the Indians, who, up to the last moment, maintained the ap- pearance of cordiality and friendship, suddenly and simultaneously fell on the English settlements in every quarter. In a single hour, three hundred and forty-seven of the colonists, including six of the council, were massacred; and Jamestown, with some adjoining plan- tations, was saved only by the timely warning of an Indian who wished to rescue an English friend from the intended extermination. The savages, who seem to have manifested extraordinary ferocity, in many instances, rose from the very tables which had been spread for their dinners, to murder their unsuspecting hosts. "Neither yet,'\says the old chronicler, "did these beasts spare those among the rest well knowne unto them, from whom they had daily received many benefits, but spitefully also massacred them without any re- morse or pitie; being in this more fell than Lions and Dragons, which (as Histories record) have preserved their Benefactors; such is the force of good deeds, though done to cruell Beasts, to take humanitie upon them; but these miscreants put on a more unnatur- all brutishnesse than beasts," &c. Great discouragement fell on the afflicted colony. The plantations were reduced to a tenth of their number. Sickness prevailed, and the planters were compelled to direct their attention from agriculture to w r ar with the enemy. The mother-country, with honourable promptitude, contributed liberally to the aid and comfort of the unfortunate settlers. The company, which had expended great sums in planting and sustaining the colony, but which had reaped no profit from its enter • 32 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. prise, was now of importance chiefly as the theatre of debate between the liberal and arbitrary factions. To suppress the former, soon became an object of royal jealousy, and, in 1622, the king made an unsuccessful attempt to control the election of a treasurer. In the following year, after the pretence of legal investigation, the patent was declared forfeited, and the king resumed the authority into his own hands. This transaction, though committed under the guise of law, cannot be regarded otherwise than as a piece of royal usurpa- tion, dictated by jealousy at the republican tendencies of the majority of the company. The foreign government of Virginia was now placed in the hands of a committee of partisans of the court, which was invested with the same powers as the late Virginia Company. This change, however, brought no immediate disadvantage to the colonists, whose liberties were, though not expressly, suffered to remain on the same footing as before. Sir Francis Wyatt was con- rirrned in the office of governor. Having thus described the tardy and unprosperous settlement of Virginia, and the final dissolution of the company to whose efforts its existence as a colony was due, we leave, for the present, the ensuing particulars of its early history, to relate that of the common- wealth next founded on these shores — a commonwealth whose hon- our, to all time, will be, that it was founded on principle rather than on profit, and from its very inception, preferred liberty, though with exile and suffering, to unjust restraint, though sweetened with the comforts of country and of home. THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. C3SAPTER 1 * UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY TO SETTLE NEW ENGLAND. — PERSECUTION OF THE NON-CON- FORMISTS. — RETREAT OF ROBINSON'S CONGREGATION TO HOLLAND: THEIR HIGH CHARACTER: THEIR RESOLU- TION TO PLANT A COLONY: THEIR LOYALTY AND COURAGE: DEPARTURE FROM DELFT HAVEN. The patent issued by James I. for the formation of two com- panies to settle North America has been mentioned, and the planta- tion of a colony in Virginia by the first of them described. The other, of weaker resources and less enterprise, experienced in their attempts to settle New England only a succession of miserable fail- ures. Their first vessel, in 1606, was captured by the Spaniards. In the following year, two others, bearing forty-five emigrants, were again dispatched thither, and, in August, came to the mouth of the Kennebec. A small village, slightly fortified, was built, and, in the beginning of winter, the ships returned. The season proved exceed- ingly severe; part of their provisions were lost by a fire; their governor, George Popham, died; and when, the next year, the vessels returned with supplies, the colonists had become so discour- aged as to resolve on forsaking the plantation. Thus, the first attempt at a settlement in New England was nipped in the bud. The discouragement caused by this ill-success was in some measure allayed by the enterprise and exertions of Smith, who, in 1614, surveyed and mapped out a great portion of the coast of Northern Virginia, on which he first bestowed the title of New England. The crime of his partner, Hunt, in kidnapping a number of the Indians, and selling them as slaves in Spain, has been men- tioned, as well as the strenuous but unavailing exertions of Smith, for years afterwards, to effect the colonization of these neglected 84 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. regions. Great schemes, indeed, were formed, and lavish promises were made by the Plymouth Company ; and the honourable title of "Admiral of New England," bestowed, in perpetuity, on Smith, seemed to indicate a confidence in great ultimate success. All, how- ever, vanished in mere words, though the company, in 1620, pro- cured from the king a renewal of their patent, with such almost unlimited powers of government and extent of territory as had never before been conferred by the crown on any subject or association. The settlement of New England was due to a spirit more earnest and an aim more honourable than even those by which its warmest promoters had hitherto been actuated. The persecution of non-conformists, commenced in the reign of Elizabeth, was carried, under that of James I., to such an unen- durable extreme, that a voluntary exile from England seemed at last the only resource of the aggrieved party. Even this forlorn alternative, under the despotic rule of the Ilouse of Stewart, was denied them; and great suffering and long separation were endured by those who sought to fly the country. In 1608, the congregation of the Rev. John Robinson, an eminent preacher of the Independent Church, after several unsuccessful attempts, attended with ill-usage and separation, contrived to get clear of England. They settled at Leyden, under the more humane and liberal government of Holland, and during a protracted residence at that city, by their good conduct, gained universal respect. "These English," said the magistrates, "have lived amongst us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against any of them." Their church, which, at the end of that time, numbered three hundred communicants, was of a strictly independent government; and, to their honour, a provision of their creed declared a doctrine rare, and, indeed, almost unheard of at the day — that ecclesiastical censure should involve no temporal penalty. Their cause and their doctrines, defended by the learning and eloquence of their pastor, were viewed with general respect and sympathy. "Wedded to industry, no less by necessity than principle, they had learned mechanical arts, and honestly, though hardly, supported their families. They never, indeed, became in any way assimilated with the Dutch in language or in manners, and ever cherished an affectionate feeling for the land from which they had been so rudely driven. The dissoluteness of manners prevalent among certain classes of the community in which they were settled, filled them with THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 85 apprehension for the morals of their children; and it was at last con- sidered advisable by them to seek a permanent asylum and a national home, even if it could only be found in some yet untrodden wilder- ness. It was proposed by the more enterprising, that they should seek "some of those unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitfull and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civill inhabitants, where there are only salvage and brutish people, which range up and down little otherwise than the wild beasts." To this scheme the more timid of the company opposed many objections, and especially the cruelty of the savages, and their hor- rible treatment of their prisoners. " It was answered," says Bradford,* "that all great and honorable actions were accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answer- able courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate, and the difficulties were many, but not invincible. It might be that some of the things feared might never befall them; others, by providence, care, and the use of good means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by patience and fortitude, might either be borne or overcome." This noble reply appears to have silenced the objectors; for, after several days passed in prayer and humiliation, it was resolved that the little congregation of exiles should seek a final home, whether for life or death, in the American wilderness. On learning their determination, the Dutch, who held their cour- age and virtue in high esteem, were anxiously desirous that the proposed settlement should be made in the name of their own nation, and made handsome offers to that end; but the love of country pre- vailed, and it was resolved that wherever the company might found a state, it should be but one more province for the crown, to which, in despite of its wanton oppression, they were still blindly, but loyally attached. The most eligible spot, if permission could be obtained to remove thither, seemed some uninhabited part of that vast and indefinite tract, then known as Virginia. Through the influence of Sandys, permission to settle was obtained from the Vir- ginia Company, and through that of the tolerant Archbishop Usher, a sort of tacit connivance at their scheme was wrung from the king. On the most hard and exhorbitant terms, absorbing the labours and profits of the projected colony for seven years, the requisite means were obtained from a company of London merchants. A little ship, * Second governor of Plymouth colony. 86 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. called tlie Speedwell, of sixty tons, had been purchased, and another the May-Flower, of one hundred and eighty, had been hired in Eng- land. The first of these was brought to Delft Haven, a port a little south of Ley den, whither, on the 21st of July, 1622, a portion of the congregation, who were to sail, accompanied by most of the remainder, repaired. "So they left that pleasant and goodly city, which had been their resting place near twelve years. But they knew they were Pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits. * * * The next day, the wind being fair, they went on board, and their friends with them; when, truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting; to see what sighs, and sobs, and prayers did sound amongst them ; what tears did gush from every eye and pithy speeches pierced' each other's heart; that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectators, could not refrain from tears." Their pastor, Kobinson, who, with a portion of his people, remained, "falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them, with most fervent prayers, to the Lord and his blessing; and then, with mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leaves of one another, which proved to be their last leave to many of them."* C ti^L 3? S J Jo TORM Y VOYAGE OF THE PILGRIMS TO AMERICA. — THE! ARRIVE AT CAPE COD: ARE COMPELLED TO DISEMBARK: INSTITUTE A REPUBLIC. — THEIR SIMPLE CONSTITUTION. — CARVER ELECTED GOVERNOR. — ABSENCE OF PER- SONAL AMBITION AMONG THE PURITAN SETTLERS. The May-Flower and the Speedwell, carrying an hundred and twenty passengers, on the 5th of August, 1620, sailed from South- ampton in company. Compelled, by a leak in the latter, they put back into Dartmouth, whence, on the 21st, they again took their departure. After getting a hundred leagues to sea, they were again obliged, through the timidity of her captain and some of the com- * Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony. THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 87 pan j, to return to Plymouth. Here they disembarked the few who were too fearful to see the adventure to an end, and on the 6th of September, the remainder, one hundred and one in number, going aboard the May-Flower, bade their final farewell to England. The weather, for a time pleasant, at length, with the approach of winter, became adverse, bringing "many contrary winds and fierce storms, with which their ship was shrewdly shaken." The May-Flower began to leak, and one of her main beams bent and cracked. Despite these discouragements, it was resolved to hold on. One of the pas- sengers, by good fortune, had taken among his effects a large screw, " by means of which the said beam was brought into his place again. And so," continues the pilgrim journalist, "after many boisterous stormes, in which they could make no sail, but were forced to lie at hull for many days together, after long beating at sea, they fell in with the land called Cape Cod; the which being made and certainly known to be it, they were not a little joyful." On the 10th of November, after a weary passage of sixty-three days, the ship doubled the extremity of Cape Cod, and anchored in a good harbour, on which Provincetown now stands. It had been agreed that the pilgrims should be landed somewhere in the neigh- bourhood of the Hudson, but the captain of the May-Flower, bribed, it is said, by the Dutch, who were jealous of intrusion on their ter- ritories, pleading the low state of the provision as an excuse, insisted on landing them immediately. Being compelled to comply, and finding themselves without the limits of the Yirginia Company's jurisdiction, and thus destitute of a government, they at once set to work to construct one; and, on the very day after their arrival, (November 11th,) with a reservation of allegiance to the crown, pro- ceeded to erect a democracy in its simplest and most explicit sense. All the men of the company, forty-one in number, signed the fol- lowing brief but comprehensive instrument: "In the name of God, amen; we, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honoi of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine our- selves together, into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due obedience and submission." S3 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Such was the plain and simple form of the first written constitu- tion, emanating from the popular will, ever adopted in America. It may be regarded as the basis of that vast superstructure of freedom which has since been gradually reared in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. John Carver, a gentleman of high integrity and amiable char- acter, and one of the chief promoters of the enterprise, was forthwith chosen governor — an office which, in the present juncture of affairs, could have offered little temptation to ambition. "In the early his- tory of New England, it may be remarked, we do not find, as in that of nearly all other European settlements, the name of any one man greatly conspicuous above his companions, or exclusively iden- tified with the foundation of the commonwealth. The names of Cortes and Pizarro, of Cham plain and Penn and Smith, are each inseparably associated with the history of the countries whose desti- nies, for good or evil, they had so large a share in shaping; while, in the less ambitious annals of Puritan colonization, the memories of Carver, Bradford, and Winslow — of Endicott and Winthrop — of Standish, Mason, and Church, with those of many other associate wor- thies, are fused and blended with the common history of the country. "The cause of this distinction is not difficult to define. Principle, rather than personal ambition, whether of the more selfish or gener- ous kind, was the main spring and prompting motive of the actors who figured in those once neglected scenes of enterprise; and all thought of private advancement or renown was for the time merged in a spirit of community, such as only the strong prompting of reli- gious enthusiasm can maintain." C iIkE 3? £j 2> J J© DREARY APPEARANCE OF NEW ENGLAND. — EXPLORING PARTY. STRANGE INJUSTICE TO THE INDIANS. THE VOYAGE TO PLYMOUTH HARBOUR. SKIRMISH WITH THE SAVAGES. — SETTLEMENT OF PLYMOUTH FOUNDED. — GREAT SUF- FERING AND MORTALITY AMONG THE PILGRIMS. Urged by the impatience of the master of the May-Flower, the little band of exiles busied themselves in finding a place for immedi- ate disembarkation and settlement. Nothing could have been more TIIE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 89 dreary or desolate than the appearance of the county they had touched on — of a stern and sombre character in the pleasantest sea- son, and now doubly severe in the gloom of an approaching winter. "Which way soever," says one of them, "they turned their eyes (save upward to the Heaven) they conld have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand for them to look upon with a weather-beaten face; and the whole country being full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and Salvage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. * * * May and ought not the children of these fathers rightly to say, 'Our fathers were Englishmen, which came over this great ocean and were ready to perish in this wilderness. But they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice and looked on their adversity.' And let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good, and his mer- cies endure forever." On the loth, sixteen volunteers were permitted to go on shore, under command of Captain Miles Standish, who had served in the wars of Holland, and who was the only soldier by profession in the whole company. This redoubtable warrior (the Mr. Greatheart of the Progress of these Pilgrims) was a man little in stature, but re- markably strong and active, and of the most fiery and resolute courage. The company marched inland for ten miles, following a party of Indians, whom they could not overtake. Weary and thirsty, they came at last to a spring, where, says one, "we sat us down and drank our first New England water, with as much delight as ever we drank drink in all our lives." They found and examined an Indian grave, carefully replacing the articles deposited there, "think- ing it would be odious unto them to ransack their sepulchres." From a subterranean store-house, however, which they discovered, they thought fit to carry off a supply of provisions, among which were "six and thirty goodly ears of corn, some yellow and some red, and others mixed with blue, which was a very goodly sight." Eepara- tion was afterwards made to the owners, and, it is said, that the grain thus obtained, preserved for seed, eventually secured the colony from famine. In other expeditions of survey, both store- houses and wigwams were "ransacked," and the simple wealth of the absent Indians unjustly appropriated — though, with the saving clause of intended restitution. "Some of the best things wee tooke" 90 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. remarks the narrator, with that happy unconsciousness of impiopri- etj which, almost throughout our colonial history, marks the record of violence, of fraud, or of spoliation committed on the natives. The adjoining regions having been partially explored, at a con- sultation, it was thought best by some, for the convenience of fishing and other advantages, to settle on Cape Cod; but the pilot, Mr. Coppin, suggesting that there was a good harbour on the western side of the bay, it was resolved to examine it. On the 6th of Decem- ber, a bitter cold day, Carver, Winslow, Bradford, Standish, and fourteen more, embarked in the shallop, and followed the coast south- ward. The spray, falling on their clothes, froze instantly, "and made them many times like coats of iron." On the morning of the second day of their voyage, while at prayers on the shore, they were assailed with arrows by a party of savages. Muskets were discharged in return, but no serious result seems to have ensued on either side. The Indians finally retreated, leaving, among other trophies, eighteen arrows, " headed with brass, some with harts' horns, and others with eagles' claws." "The cry of our enemies," says one of the pilgrims, "was dreadful. Their note was after this manner, l woach, woach, ha ha hach ivoach? " This peculiar succession of sounds has descended to our own day, as the war-whoop of certain native tribes. All that day, the voyagers sailed swiftly, with a fair wind, along the coast; but toward night, the weather grew heavier, and the rudder breaking from its hinges, they had much ado to scud before the wind, steering with oars. "The seas were grown so great that we were much troubled and in great danger; and night grew on. Anon, Master Coppin bade us be of good cheer, he saw the harbour. As we drew near, the gale being stiff, and we bearing great sail to get in, split our mast into three pieces, and were like to have cast away our shallop. Yet, by God's mercy, recovering ourselves, we had the flood with us, and struck into the harbour." This harbour, already surveyed and named by Captain John Smith, was that of Plymouth. The location appeared so favourable that it was resolved to plant the settlement there, and, accordingly, the party of survey having returned to Cape Cod, on the 16th, the ship, with all her company (except one who had died at sea, and four who had died at the cape), came into the harbour. " On the 22 d of December, 1620, a day for ever memorable in the annals of America, the little band of Pilgrims landed on that rock, now, like the Stone of Mecca, the object of enthusiastic pilgrimage to their THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 91 descendants." A site was selected for the town, and timber being cut, nineteen houses, with all possible dispatch, were erected: but, so severe was the season, and so great the unavoidable exposure, (especially in wading on the shallows, to and from their barge,) that, before the end of February, twenty-five more of them had perished of disease and privation. CHAPTER IV THE INDIANS OP NEW ENGLAND: THINNED BY PESTILENCE — THE PEQUOTS, NARR AGANSETTS, AND OTHER TRIBES. EXTRAORDINARY OPINIONS OF THE ENGLISH CON- CERNING THEM. — BIGOTED ACCOUNTS OP THE ANCIENT HISTORIANS, ETC. By a desolating pestilence, which, not long before their arrival, had swept New England, the country around Plymouth had been, in great measure, denuded of its original inhabitants. Many powerful tribes had been almost annihilated, and others reduced to a fraction of their original numbers. The most considerable nations yet sur- viving, were those of the Pequots and Narragansetts, often at war with each other, and with other neighbouring tribes. The former, whose chief stronghold was on a commanding eminence in Groton, in the east of Connecticut, numbered, says Koger Williams, thirty thousand souls. This, undoubtedly, is an excessive exaggeration. The latter, a noble and magnanimous people, dwelt in the state of Rhode Island, where, it is said, they numbered five thousand war- riors. The Pokanokets, a confederacy of smaller tribes, including the Wampanoags, Pocassets, Sogkonates, and many others, dwelt in Eastern Massachusetts, and on the upper waters of Narragansett Bay. Before the ravages of the pestilence, they are said to have comprised three thousand warriors ; but afterwards only five hun- dred. The Massachusetts, dwelling around the Bay of that name, had formerly been a great people, but, from the same cause, were reduced to a mere remnant. These tribes mostly acknowledged the supremacy of Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, whose chief seat was at Mount Hope, near the present town of Bristol. The Paw- 92 AMEBIC A ILLUSTKATED. tuckets, who, we are told, had also numbered three thousand war riors, had been almost completely exterminated. Many small clans, mostly dwelling in the westward of Connecticut and Massachusetts, are not included in this estimate. All these tribes, except the Pequots and Narragansetts, were tributary to the Mohawks, inhabiting the east of New York, one of the fiercest and most powerful of the celebrated Five Nations. "Two old Mohawks," says Dr. Trumbull, "every year or two might be seen issuing their orders, and collecting their tribute, with as much authority and haughtiness as a Eoman dictator." Any disobedience of their commands was speedily punished by an avenging war-party, which cut off the offenders without mercy. The Mohawks, it is said, would sometimes pursue their victims into the houses of the English, yelling, "We are come! we are come to suck your blood," and slaying them on the very hearth-stone. This powerful league, however, long at mortal feud with the French of Canada, regarded the English, as rivals of the latter, with complacency, and never offered any molestation to their persons or property. "It was now just a century since the Conquest of Mexico, by Cortes, had first brought the races of Europe into direct collision with those of the Western Continent. In that interval, the Inform- ation had arisen, had spread, and had produced perhaps its finest fruit in the little band of self-devoted exiles* who sought in the wil- derness a foothold for civil and religious freedom. As a matter of course, the world was more enlightened, yet, strange to say, hardly a step had yet been taken in the direction of the fairest and no- blest result to which enlightenment can tend — the acknowledgment of the universal humanity and brotherhood of all mankind. Our pious forefathers, like the Spaniards of the century before, still * Some idea of the noble spirit of tolerance which distinguished the first exiled Puritans may be gathered from the farewell address, of their pastor, breathing senti- ments infinitely in advance of his age, and even, in some degree, of our own. " I charge you," he says, "before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has more truth yet to break out of his Holy Word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no further than the instruments of their reformation. — Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their time, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. — I beseech you, remember it — 'tis an article of your church covenant — that you be ready to receive whatever truth is made known to you from the written word of God." \ THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 93 regarded the dwellers of the New World as the direet offspring or certainly the direct worshippers of Satan, and as enjoying all the familiarity to which his most favoured proteges could be entitled. Nothing is more strange than to read the opinions and conclusions on this subject of the men of that age — men otherwise just, saga- cious, and, for their day, liberal in the extreme." According to one of the early historians of New England, the aborigines, on learning of the arrival of the pilgrims, took extraor- dinary pains to exorcise the advent of Christianity. "They got," he says, "all the powaws of the country, who, for three days together, in a horid and devilish manner, did curse and execrate them with their conjurations, which assembly and service they held in a dark and dismal swamp. Behold how Satan labored to hinder the gospel from coming into New England." In his "Good News from New England," Governor Winslow, with a sort of ludicrous reiteration, dwells on the same point. "Another power they worship," he informs us, "whom they call Hobbamoclc, and to the northward of us Hobbamoqui; this, as far as we can con- ceive, is the devil. * This Hobbamoch appears in sundry forms unto them, as in the shape of a man, a deer, a fawn, an eagle, &c, but most ordinarily a snake. He appears not to all, but the chiefest and most judicious among them; though all of them strive to attain to that hellish height of honor. * * The paniesses are men of great courage and wisdom, and to these the devil appear- eth more familiarly than to others, and, as we conceive, maketh cov- enant with them to preserve them from death by wounds with arrows, knives, hatchets, &c. * And to the end that they may have store of these, they train up the most forward and likeliest boys, from their childhood, in great hardness, and make them abstain from dainty meat, observing divers orders prescribed, to the end that, when they are of age, the devil may appear to them. * * Also they beat their shins with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes, stumps, and brambles, to make them hardy and acceptable to the devil, that in time he may appear to them." Hear the reverend William Hubbard, the painful historian of New England, only a few years before the commencement of the eighteenth century. He concludes a dissertation on the origin of the Indians in the following lucid and summary manner: "Mr. Mede's opinion about the passage of the natives into this remote region, carryes the greatest probability of truth with it; of whose conjecture it may be AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. said, in a sense, as sometimes of Achithopell's counsell in those dayes, that itt was as the oracle of God. His conceitt is, that when the devill was putt out of his throne in the other parts of the world, and that the mouth of all his oracles was stopt in Europe, Asia, and Afri- ca, hee seduced a company of silly wretches to follow his conduct" (guidance) "into this unknowne part of the world, where hee might lye hid, and not be disturbed in the idolatrous and abominable, or rather diabolicall service hee expected from those his followers; for here are no footsteps of any religion before the English came, but meerely diabolicall * * and so uncouth, as if it were framed and devised by the devill himselfe, and 'tis transacted by them they used to call pawwowes, by some kind of familiarity with Satan, to whom they used to resort for counsell in all kinde of evills, both corporall and civill." "To opinions such as these, the result of ignorance and prejudice, must doubtless be attributed a large measure of that cruel and un- charitable spirit, which dictated not only the wrongs and massacres committed on the natives, but the still more unpleasing exultation over their sufferings and extermination, which glows with an infer- nal light in the pages of the chronicles of the day, and especially in those of the reverend historians, Hubbard and Mather. "Continually on the alert against the assaults of the infernal enemy, our fathers saw his finger in witchcraft, in Indian warfare, and in many another anno} T ance, the result of natural causes. Anger and hatred were thus aroused — hatred, indeed, of an imaginary foe, but still hatred, bitter, personal, and vindictive to a degree which we can hardly conceive, and which found its gratification in ven- geance on the supposed agents of the invisible Tormentor. "It could hardly, perhaps, be expected that men engaged in the deadly terrors of savage warfare should have much sympathy for their vanquished enemies — especially when regarded as children of the devil; yet the daring ferocity of the Indian-fighters, occasionally relieved by a touch of good feeling and humanity, is far more agree- able to contemplate than the venomous spirit exhibited by the hon- ourable and reverend recorders of their deeds, whose minds, imbued with the wretched notion of Satanic agency, seem actually to revel in the torment, destruction, and assured damnation of their unfortu- nate foes. In this particular, we perceive a superstition strangely variant from that of the Spaniard, who, while slaying and tormenting the miserable bodies of the aborigines, was ever anxious, even at the THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 95 stake or the gallows, that their souls might escape the eternal penalty, and be admitted to the same heaven which he expected to enjoy in person."* CHAPTER ?. 8AM0SET: "WELCOME, ENGLISHMEN." — THE VISIT OF MASSA- SOIT. — TREATY AND ALLIANCE. MORTALITY AMONG THE COLONISTS. DEATH OF GOVERNOR CARVER. — DUEL, AND ITS PUNISHMENT. VISIT TO MASSASOIT: TO IYAN- OUGH. — AFFECTING INCIDENT. The first Indian with whom the settlers of Plymouth had any communication, was one Samoset, a sagamore or petty chief, who had learned a little English from the traders of Manhegin, and who, on the 16th of March, 1621, entered the little settlement, and saluted the pilgrims with the ever-memorable words, " Welcome, Englishmen." A friendly intercourse, by his means, was immediately established with the neighbouring Indians, who heretofore had held cautiously aloof. One whom he brought on a subsequent visit, was Squanto, the only surviving native of Patuxet, the country around Plymouth. He was one of the twenty-four whom "that wicked varlet Hunt" had kidnapped, and, having been at London, and learned English, he proved of great value as an interpreter. He brought information that Massasoit, the greatest sachem of the adjoining regions, with many of his subjects, was close at hand. That chief, attended by sixty men, presently appeared on the hill above Plymouth, and Edward Winslow, with the interpreters, was sent to meet him. "We sent to the king," says the old historian, "a pair of knives, with a copper chain and a jewel at it. To Quadequina" (his brother) " we sent likewise a knife, and a jewel to hang in his ear, and withal a pot of strong waters." In compliance with a friendly invitation, Massasoit, leaving Winslow as a hostage, descended the hill, and, with twenty attendants, came to one of the houses, where prepara* tion had been made to receive him. * Discoverers, &c., of America. Yol. IT.— 35 9G AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Governor Carver, with, the sound of drum and trumpet, presently entered, and the two dignitaries were soon in convivial and political harmony. "After salutations, our governor kissing his hand, the king kissed him, and so they sat down. The governor called for some strong waters, and drank to him, and he drank a great draught," &c, &c. An interview thus propitiously commenced, soon ripened into treaty and alliance — alliance faithfully observed by both parties for more than fifty years; and the sachem (influenced, it is to be feared, a trifle overmuch by the vigorous draught he had imbibed) "acknowledged himself content to become the subject of our sover- eign lord, the king aforesaid, his heirs and successors; and gave unto them all the lands adjacent to them and to their heirs forever. * * All which the king seemed to like well, and it was applauded of his followers. All the while he sat by the governor, he trembled with fear. In his person he is a very lusty man, in his best years, of an able body, grave of countenance and spare of speech; in his attire, little or nothing differing from the rest of his followers, only in a great chain of white bone beads about his neck; and at it, behind his neck, hangs a little bag of tobacco, which he drank and gave us to drink," (i. e. smoke.) Under the instruction of Squanto and Samoset, the English, with the coming on of spring, applied themselves to fishing and to the agriculture suitable to the country. Twenty acres of Indian corn were planted. Thirteen more of the colonists died during March, reducing them to half of their original number, and the May-Flower, half of whose crew was also dead, on the fifth of April, sailed for England. On the following day, died good Governor Carver, who, while toiling in the unwonted heat of an American sun, had received a mortal coup de soleil. 11 His care and pains were so great for the common good, as therewith, it is thought, he oppressed himself and shortened his days." Such is the brief but honourable epitaph of the first New England executive. William Bradford, a young man, but ardent and energetic, was elected to succeed him. Under his rule the first punishment was inflicted in the colony. Two servants of Mr. Hopkins, for fighting a duel, with sword and dagger, were adjudged, by general vote, to be tied, neck and heels together, and so to remain twenty-four hours; but the judges, moved by the ex cruciating tortures of the culprits (both of whom had been woundeo in their duello) released them within an hour, on promise of bettei carriage for the future. THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 97 Winslow and Hopkins, setting forth, in July, on a visit to Massa- soit, passed through many fields well cleared and ready for cultiva- tion, but depopulated by the pestilence, numerous skeletons still bleaching on the ground. Massasoit, though friendly and hospitable, was ill-prepared for the reception of company, the royal larder, it seems, just then, being wofully unsupplied. Two fish, which the poor king caught with his own hands, were all the refreshment he could offer them. Agreements for traffic were made, and the chief, turning to his assembled subjects, made a long oration, "the meaning whereof," says Winslow, "was, as far as we could learn, thus, 'Was not he, Massasoyt, commander of the country round about them? Was not such a town his and the people of it? and should they not bring their skins unto us?' To which they answered, they were his, and would be at peace with us, and bring their skins to us. After this manner he named at least thirty places, and their answer was as aforesaid to every one; so that, as it was delightful, it was tedious unto us. This being ended, he lighted tobacco for us, and fell to discoursing of England and of the King's Majesty, marvelling that he would live without a wife." After a friendly sojourn of some days, the envoys returned, leaving the chief "both grieved and ashamed that he could no better entertain them." A party of the English, searching for a lost child, (who was found, and well cared for by the Indians,) put into Cummaquid, (Barn- stable,) the seat of the sachem Iyanough, "a man not exceeding twenty-six years of age, but very personable, gentle, courteous, and fair conditioned; indeed, not like a savage, saving for his attire. His entertainment was answerable to his parts, and his cheer plenti- ful and various. One thing," proceeds the narrator, "was very grievous to us at this place. There was an old woman, whom we judged to be no less than a hundred years old, which came to see us, because she never saw English; yet could not behold us without breaking out into great passion," (emotion,) "weeping and crying excessively. We demanding the reason of it, they told us she had three sons, who, when Master Hunt was in these parts, went aboard his ship to trade with him, and he carried them captives into Spain, (for Tisquantum, " (Squanto) " was at that time carried away also,) by which means she was deprived of the comfort of her children in her old age. We told them we were sorry that any Englishman should give them that offence, that Hunt was a bad man, and that all the English that heard it condemned him for the same; but for 93 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. us, we would not offer them any such injury, though it would gain us all the skins in the country. So we gave her some small trifles, which somewhat appeased her." CHAPTER ?L ARRIVAL OF THE FORTUNE. — CHALLENGE FROM CAN0NICU8: HIS SUPERSTITIOUS DREAD. — PLYMOUTH FORTIFIED. — WESTON'S COLONY AT WEYMOUTH: ITS MISERABLE CON- DITION. MASSASOIT ILL: CURED BY THE ENGLISH. — DANGEROUS PLOT REVEALED. A small vessel, called the Fortune, in November, 1621, arrived at Plymouth, bringing thirty-five additional emigrants — not enough, indeed, to replace those who had already perished of privation and exposure — and bringing neither arms nor provision to the weak and hungry colonists. That the settlement, in its infancy, was not speedily cut off, was due only to the friendliness of Massasoit and other chiefs, and to the courageous attitude of the few Englishmen who remained alive. By the energy and promptitude of Standish, a germ of native hostility was suppressed, and many petty chieftains even subscribed their marks to an acknowledgment of allegiance to the king of England. One Hobbamock, a noted paniese or warrior of Massasoit, came to live with the English, and during the rest of his life, was faithful to their service. Canonicus, the great sachem of the Narragansetts, who, at one time, had sent a friendly message to the colonists, for some unknown reason — perhaps the arrival of the additional emigrants — changing his policy, assumed an attitude of open hostility. He sent a mes- senger to Plymouth, who, without any explanation, presented "a bundle of new arrows, lapped in a rattlesnake's skin." The English, amazed at this odd present, were informed by Squanto, "that it im- ported enmity, and was no better than a challenge." On hearing this, the governor, with much spirit, drawing forth the arrows, stuffed the skin, in turn, with powder and shot, and sent it back, adding a bold message of defiance. The hostile chief, his superstition awakened by the mysterious contents of the skin, declined taking THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 99 up the gauntlet he had so hastily thrown down — "insomuch as he would net once touch the powder and shot, nor suffer it to stay in his house or country. Whereupon, the messenger refusing it, an- other took it up; and having been posted from place to place a long time, at length it came whole back again." Vigilance being thus awakened among the colonists, they fortified the town, and under the direction of Standish, observed strict rules of discipline. Squanto also thought proper to do his part, by informing his countrymen that the English had the plague buried in their store-house, and could let it loose on the whole country, if they had a mind. In the summer of 1622, two vessels were dispatched from Eng- land by a Mr. Weston, which landed at Wessagusset (Weymouth) some fifty or sixty idle and profligate emigrants. By their shiftless- ness, and the encroachments of the neighbouring savages, (who soon saw of what stuff they were made,) they were reduced ere long to a woeful condition. In March of the same spring, a messenger was dispatched to Plymouth with "a pitiful narration of their lamentable and weak estate, and of the Indians' carriages," (demeanour,) "whose boldness increased abundantly, insomuch that the victuals they got, they would take out of their pots, and eat before their faces; yea, if in anything they gainsaid them, they were ready to hold a knife at their breasts; that, to give them content, they had hanged one of them, that stole the Indians corn, and yet they regarded it not; that one of their company was turned salvage; that their people had mostly forsaken the town, and made their rendezvous where they got their victual, because they would not take the pains to bring it home ; that they had sold their clothes for corn, and were ready to starve both with cold and hunger also, because they could not endure to get victuals by reason of their nakedness." These disagreeable tidings of Indian hostility were presently alarmingly confirmed. News arriving that Massasoit was mortally ill, Winslow, with Hobbamock and another companion, was dis- patched to his assistance, with such simple remedies as the poverty of the colony could afford. The goodness of the chief and the at- tachment of his followers was evidenced by the grief of Hobbamock, who, on the way, "manifesting a troubled spirit, brake forth into these speeches: Neen womasu sagamus! Neen womasu sagamusl &c. — 'My loving sachem, my loving sachem! Many have I known, but never any like thee.' And turning him to me" (Winslow) "said, whilst I lived I should never see his like among the Indians; 100 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. saying he was no liar, he was not bloody and cruel, like other In- dians; in anger and passion he was soon reclaimed; easy to be reconciled toward such as had offended him; ruled by reason in such measure that he would not scorn the advice of mean" (humble) "men; and that he governed his men better with few strokes than others did with many; truly loving where he loved; yea, he feared we had not a faithful friend left among the Indians; showing how he oft times restrained their malice, &c, continuing a long speech, with such signs of lamentation and unfeigned sorrow, as it would have made the hardest heart relent." Arriving at Pokanoket, the visitors, with difficulty, forced their way into the king's house, which was so crowded with Indians, that, although the latter did their best to make a passage, it was no easy matter. This assembly was performing incantations for his relief, "making such a hellish noise," says Winslow, "as it distempered us that were well, and therefore unlike to ease him that was sick." His sight was quite gone, but on hearing who had come, he put forth his hand, and took that of the Englishman. "Then he said twice, though very inwardly," (faintly,) "Keen Winsnow? which is to say, 'Art thou Winslow'? I answered Ahhe, that is yes. Then he doubled these words, Matta neen wonchanet namen, Winsnowl that is to say, 'Oh, Winslow, I shall never see thee again.'" Despite the unfavourable circumstances, his guest contrived to get down his throat a "confection of many comfortable conserves," which wrought so effectually that the patient soon began to mend apace. The other sick in his village was also physicked and tended by the good Wins- low; and Massasoit, finding himself recovering, "broke forth into the following speeches, 'Now I see the English are my friends and love me; and whilst I live, I will never forget this kindness they have showed me.' " In gratitude, he revealed a formidable plot among the Massachusetts and other tribes, which he had lately been solicited to join, for the destruction of the two settlements of Plymouth and Wessagusset. Followed by the blessings of the whole village, the Englishmen returned, lodging on their way, at Mattapoiset, with the sachem Caunbitant, whose attitude had been dubious, and whom they wished to conciliate. "By the way," says our old traveller, "I had much conference with him, so likewise at his house, he being a notable politician, yet full of merry jests and squibs, and never better pleased than when the like are returned again upon him." The people of THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 101 this town Winslow endeavoured to impress with the truths of reli- gion, and especially of the ten commandments; "all which they hearkened unto with great attention; and liked well of; only the seventh commandment they excepted against, thinking there were many inconveniences in it." CHiAPTEH v I Ii EXPEDITION OF STANDISH TO WEYMOUTH. — DARING POLICY. — SLAUGHTER OF THE CONSPIRING INDIANS. — THE COL- ONY OF WESTON BROKEN UP. — PRIVATIONS AND SUF- FERINGS AT PLYMOUTH: DROUGHT: SEASONABLE SUPPLY OF RAIN. ADDITIONAL ARRIVAL. The information given by Massasoit being confirmed by further evidence, it was resolved, with extraordinary boldness, to take the offensive, and strike a deadly blow at the heads of the conspiracy. Captain Standish, with only eight companions, set forth for Wessa- gusset, to protect the people there, and especially to get the head of one of the chief conspirators — " Wittawamut, a notable insulting villain, who had formerly imbued his hands in the blood of French and English, and had oft boasted of his own valor and derided their weakness, especially because, as he said, they died crying, making sour faces, more like children than men." The captain, on arriving there, warned the settlers of their danger, and collected them within the town. An Indian spy, who presently entered, under pretence of trading in furs, reported to his people that, though he spoke smoothly, "he saw by his eyes that he was angry in his heart." Seeing their plot discovered, the conspiring chiefs made no attempt to conceal their enmity. " One Pecksuot, who was a paniese, being a man of notable spirit," told Hobbamock, who had come with the party, that they had heard that Standish was come to kill them — "tell him," he said, "we know it, but fear him not, neither will we shun him; but let him begin when he dare, he shall not take us at unawares." One or two at a time, the savages would present themselves, whet- ting their knives before the captain's face, and making other men- 102 AMEBIC A ILLUSTRATED. acing gestures. u Amongst the rest, Wittawamut bragged of the excellency of his knife. On the end of the handle was pictured a woman's face, 'but,' said he, 'I have another at home that hath killed both French and English, and that hath a man's face on it; and by and by these two must marry.' Further he said of that knife he there had, Hannaim namen, hannaim michen, matta cuts, that is to say, 'By and by it should see, and by and by it should eat, but not speak ' * * These things the captain observed, yet bare with patience for the present. "On the next day, seeing he could not get many together at once, and this Pecksuot and Wittawamut being both together, with an- other man, and a youth of some eighteen years of age (which was brother to Wittawamut, and, villain-like, trod in his steps) and hav- ing about as many of his own company in a room with them, gave the word to his men, and the door having been fast shut, began himself with Pecksuot, and snatching his own knife from his neck, though with much struggling, killed him therewith, (the point whereof he had made as sharp as a needle and ground the back also to an edge.) Wittawamut and the other man the rest killed, and took the youth, whom the captain caused to be hanged. But it is incredible how many wounds these two pineses" (panieses) "received before they died, not making any fearful noise, but catching at their weapons and striving to the last." Three more were killed by the same party, and in a fight in the woods (in which Hobbamock took an active part) the Indians were defeated and put to flight. The news of these successes was received with much joy at Ply- mouth, and the head of Wittawamut, a grisly token of vengeance, was affixed to the fort at that place. The worthy Kobinson, indeed, received the account of this sanguinary (though perhaps necessary) affair, with great grief and mortification. "Would," he writes la- mentingly to his exiled people, "that you had converted some of them before you killed any." Weston's colony, which had proved so miserably unfitted for the country, was now completely broken up; a part of the settlers pro- ceeding to Manhegin, and the rest accompanying Standish to Ply- mouth. They might probably have remained in security where they were ; for such an impression did this fierce and energetic conduct make on the hostile savages, that, for fifty years they made no further attempts against the English. The summer of 1623 brought grievous famine and distress, the THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 103 colonists being compelled to search the woods for nuts and the sea sands for clams, as their only sustenance. Once, it is said, a pint of corn being the entire stock of provisions in the town, it was divided, giving five kernels to each — an incident since commemorated, by a similar division at the entertainments of their descendants, in the same venerated spot. A long drought also threatened the destruc- tion of the crops, to secure which all their little store of com had been planted. These sufferings they bore with extraordinary forti- tude and cheerfulness; and finally set aside a day of fasting and humiliation, and prayer for relief to God, "if our continuance there might any way stand with his glory and our good" — a sublime and touching sentiment. Toward the close of the day, clouds gathered, "and on the next morning," says the narrator, with quaint eloquence, "distilled such soft, sweet, and moderate showers of rain, continuing some fourteen days and mixed with such seasonable weather, as it were hard to say whether our withered corn, or our drooping affec- tions, were most quickened and revived; such was the bounty and goodness of our God." The Indians were greatly surprised at this unlooked-for result, and especially, according to Winslow, at "the difference between their conjuration, and our invocation to God for rain; theirs being mixed with such storms and tempests, as sometimes, instead of doing them good, it layeth the corn flat on the ground, to their prejudice; but ours in so gentle and seasonable a manner, as they had never ob- served the like." The harvest proved plentiful, and all fear of starvation was allayed. In July and August of the same summer, two ships, with sixty additional settlers, arrived. In a letter sent by those who yet remained, was the following prophetic and consoling sentiment: "Let it not be grievous to you that you have been the instruments to break the ice for others who come after you with less difficulty; the honor shall be yours to the world's end: we bear you always in our breasts, and our hearty affection is toward you all, as are the hearts of hundreds more who never saw your faces." 104 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. CHAPTER Till. NEW SETTLEMENTS FOUNDED: NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE — ENDICOTT'S COMPANY. — THE REVELLERS OF MERRY MOUNT: BROKEN UP BY THE PURITANS. — SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. — FOUNDATION OF BOSTON. — GREAT EMIGRATION. — MORTALITY AND SUFFERING. The progress of the Plymouth colony was slow, but sure, and although the original settlement, at the end of ten years, numbered but three hundred souls, at an early da} r , it began to send offshoots into the adjoining regions. In 1625, their admirable pastor, Eobin- son, died at Leyden, having been prevented from emigrating by an adverse influence in England. The remainder of his congregation, as soon as practicable, joined their brethren in America. Enterprise, directed to the same region, was revived in the mother-country. New patents were issued to Gorges and other projectors, and settle- ments, as early as 1623, were made on the banks of the Piscataqua. Portsmouth and Dover were settled, and the foundation of New Hampshire was thus permanently laid. That of Maine was not long in succeeding, the temporary trading and fishing stations on its coast being gradually converted to permanent occupation. Eoger Conant, a man of extraordinary courage and perseverance, with only three companions, laid the foundation of a settlement at Naumkeag (now Salem) near Cape Ann. Preparations for a Puritan emigration, on an extensive scale, were made in England ; and in the summer of 1628, John Endicott, a man of brave and religious, but rugged and bigoted nature, with about a hundred companions, arrived at the diminutive outpost of Salem. The vigorous and practical spirit of Puritanism, as well as its more gloomy and ascetic qualifications, were not long in making their demonstration. " A small settlement, named Mount Wollaston, (Quincy), had fallen into the hands of one Thomas Morton, described as 'a petty fogging attorney of Furnival's Inn,' who, with a crew of dissolute compan- ions, lived there in much excess and licentiousness. He changed the name of the place to Merry Mount (' as if this jollity could have lasted always ') and, besides selling fire-arms to the Indians, kept a haunt for all the idle serving men and lewd companions in the coun- try. Thus they lived for some time, 'vainly quaffing and drinking THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 105 both wine and strong liquors in great excess (as some have reported, ten pound's worth in a morning) setting up a May-pole, drinking and dancing about it, and frisking about it like so many fairies, or furies rather — yea, and worse practices. * * * The said Morton, likewise, to show his poetry, composed sundry rhymes and verses, some tending to lasciviousness, and others to the detrac- tion and scandal of some persons' names, which he affixed to his idle or idol May-pole.' " These dissolute courses received their first check from 'that worthy gentleman, Mr. John Endicott,' who, soon after the founda- tion of his settlement, paid them a visit, cut down their May-pole, read them a terrible lecture, and once more changed the name of their abode, calling it Mount Dagon. The whole community was finally broken up by a small force dispatched from Plymouth, under Captain Standish. This party seized Morton, and 'demolished his house, that it might no longer be a roost for such unclean birds.' The culprit was sent over seas. 'Notwithstanding, in England he got free again, and wrote an infamous and scurrilous book against many of the godly and chief men of the country, full of lies and slanders, and full fraught with profane calumnies against their names and persons and the ways of God. 1 Returning imprudently to Bos- ton, he was imprisoned 'for the aforesaid book and other things,' and finally ' being grown old in wickedness, at last ended his life in Piscataqua.' "* Many persons of wealth and eminence of the Puritan party having formed the design of emigration, a charter, in 1629, was obtained from the king for the formation of a new company, under the title of the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." In the latter part of June, that same year, two hundred more emigrants, dispatched by this corporation, arrived at Salem, and a new settlement was founded at Charlestown. During the months of June and July, 1630, eleven ships, bearing a great number of emigrants, arrived in Massachusetts Bay. At this time, the only person living on the peninsula of Shawmut (the site of the present city of Boston) was an Episcopal clergyman, the Rev. William Black- stone, who, on account of ecclesiastical scruples, had quitted Eng- land, and betaken himself to the American wilderness. He had built a cottage and planted an orchard. The new comers first settled at Charlestown, where a small colony had already been estab- * Discoverers, &e., of America. LOG AMEEICA ILLTJSTEATED. lished; but, on the invitation of Mr. Blackstone, and attracted by the natural advantages of the place, their governor, the celebrated John Winthrop, with other persons of distinction, removed thither. The principal place of the plantation was, accordingly, erected on that admirable locality, which, in all the wide region of which it is the metropolis, could hardly find a rival, in beauty or convenience. In the course of the year, five more vessels, with more emigrants, making the number fifteen hundred, arrived. Buildings were erected with all possible dispatch, but such were the numbers, that proper shelter for all was unobtainable. Before December, two hun- dred had died of disease occasioned by their hardships, and more than a hundred had retreated to England. These sufferings were endured with much fortitude by the survivors. "We here enjoy God and Jesus Christ," wrote Winthrop (who had lost a son) to his wife, "and is not this enough? I would not have altered my course, though I had foreseen all these afflictions. I never had more peace of mind." Despite these discouragements, the spirit of enterprise was fairly awakened in the Puritan party, and during the next few years, such numbers continued to flock to the new colony, that an Order in Council was issued by the king to restrain the emigration. Nevertheless, for a long time, great numbers of the persecuted faction resorted to Massachusetts — the year 1685 being especially memorable for the arrival of a large company, among whom were the afterwards celebrated Hugh Peters (chaplain to Cromwell) and Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Yane, who, the year after his arrival, was elected gov- ernor. It is said that Hampden, Cromwell, and Pym, (three names the most formidable in the great revolution,) had also embarked, but, by an order of court, were constrained to remain, to the de- struction of the power and the person that withheld them. THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 107 C E A P T L R IX CHARACTER OF THE FOUNDERS OF MASSACHUSETTS. — REGU- LATIONS FOR PUBLIC MORALITY: FOR APPAREL, ETC. — AMUSING PENALTIES. INTOLERANCE IN RELIGION. — COMMENCEMENT OF PERSECUTION. "The wealth and importance of this new community were com- mensurate with the growing power of the Puritan party. That party, originally so humble and depressed, was already beginning to uplift its voice in the councils of the English nation, and to pro- voke fresh and suicidal efforts of that arbitrary power, which was destined, ere long, to fall, with such terrible circumstances, before it. Accordingly, the men who now transferred their fortunes to the ISTew World, though aiming, as earnestly as their predecessors, at the foundation of a religious commonwealth, brought with them somewhat of that insolence which is always the handmaid of new prosperity. ' Their characters,' says the candid and judicious Baylies, 'were more elevated, but their dispositions were less kindly, and their tempers more austere, sour, and domineering than those of their Plymouth brethren. They had brought themselves to a positive con- viction of their own evangelical purity and perfect godliness, and therefore they tolerated not even the slightest difference in theolo- gical opinions.' They were composed, in short, of that stuff which, according to circumstances, makes a martyr or a persecutor; and, unfortunately for their reputation, the latter had opportunity for development. This, however, can hardly be laid at the door of their faith. Having power to persecute, they persecuted ; and where is the religious community, which, having such power, ever forbore to use it? Until, indeed, aroused by opposition (which did not occur for many years, the arbitrary and intolerant spirit of the author- ities, for the most part, lay dormant, only indulging itself in muni- cipal regulations and fantastic penalties, rather fitted to provoke mirth than indignation."* Though the sweeping generalities and searching particulars of a "Maine Law," never suggested themselves to the legislation of our forefathers, acts for the restraint of intemperance were not wanting. * Discoverers, &c, of America. 108 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. As early as 1634, we find a traveller complaining that if a gentleman went into either of the two public houses in Boston, he was followed by an officer appointed for the purpose, who watched his potations narrowly, and when of opinion that he had enough, would counter- mand his orders, and cutoff all further supply — "beyond which/' says our author, bitterly, "he could not get one drop!" Another ordinance enjoined on all constables to keep special watch over all "common coasters, unprofitable fowlers, and tobacco takers." But when the clergy began to use the inhibited weed, the severity of this provision was relaxed. Vanity in dress was severely repre- hended, especially "immoderate great sleeves, slash apparel, and long-wigs." Any one who should "give offence to his neighbor by the excessive length of his hair," might be arraigned before the General Court, and compelled to remove the obnoxious surplusage. No regular system of law, common or statute, being adopted at first, sentences of punishment were framed according to the ingenious fancy of the court. These sentences, gravely perpetuated in the records, sound oddly enough to modern jurisprudence. Josias Plaistowe, for stealing, is fined, and doomed thereafter to be called Josias, "and not Mr. as he formerly used to be." "Mrs. Cornish, found suspicious of incontinency," is (probably in default of suffi- cient evidence for conviction) "seriously admonished to take heed." Mr. Robert Shorthose, who had thought proper to swear by the blood of God, is adjudged to have his tongue put in a cleft stick, and so to remain for half an hour. Edward Palmer, who had made a new pair of stocks for the town, for presenting the extortionate bill of two pounds and upward, is sentenced to pay a fine of five, and for one hour personally to test the efficacy of his own handiwork — a salutary warning to all public creditors. Nothing seems to have been more sharply repressed than any question of the authority of the court. In 1632, according to the record, "Thomas Knower was set in the bilboes for threatening ye court, that if he should be pun- ished, he would have it tried in England, whether he was lawfully punished or no." Religious conformity, at first not enforced to a sanguinary extreme, was a regular part of the political system. All persons, under pain of a fine, were compelled to attend meeting. Mr. Painter, it seems, "on a sudden turned Anabaptist," and would not have his child baptised, "Whereupon," says Governor Winthrop, with delightful discrimination between an opinion and the expression of it, "because THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. |()9 be was very poor, so as no other but corporal punishment could be fastened on him, he was ordered to be whipped, not for his opinion, but for reproaching the Lord's Ordinance. He endured his punish- ment with much obstinacy, and said, boastingly, that God had mar- vellously assisted him." Hugh Bretts, for heresy, was ordered to be gone out of the jurisdiction, "and not return again, on pain of being hanged." By a piece of intolerance, quite as unjustifiable as any which the Puritans themselves had endured in England, restraint was laid on the consciences of the Indians, who, under penalty of five pounds, were forbidden to worship the devil, or to practice any of the religious rites of their forefathers. It was ordered, moreover, at a later day, that if any negro slaves should take refuge among them, as many Indians should be "captivated" in their place. REV. ROGER WILLIAMS. — HIS LIBERAL OPINIONS. — HE IS PERSECUTED BY THE AUTHORITIES OP MASSACHUSETTS. — EXPELLED FROM THAT PROVINCE. — TAKES REFUGE IN THE WILDERNESS. — FOUNDS PROVIDENCE PLANTA- TIONS AND THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND. Intolerance in the province of Massachusetts, ere long, was the exciting cause of fresh schemes of colonization. Koger Williams, a clergyman of liberal opinions in religion and enlightened views in politics, in 1681, attracted by the expectation of tolerance in the newly-peopled wilderness, made his way . to Boston. He was first settled at Salem, but on account of the illiberal hostility of the Massa- chusetts authorities, who had some idea of his sentiments, removed to Plymouth, where he was appointed assistant minister, and by his piety and eloquence, became much endeared to the people. From benevolent motives, he took much pains to learn the language and manners and to conciliate the affections of the neighbouring Indians. "God was pleased," he says, "to give me a painful, patient spirit, to lodge with them in their filthy, smoky holes, even while I lived in Plymouth and Salem, to gain their tongue." Massasoit and the two great sachems of the Narragansetts (Canonicus and his nephew Mi- 110 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. antonimo) accorded him their friendship — that of the latter eventu- ally proving of no small moment to the prosperity and even the existence of the New England colonies. He resided two years in Plymouth, and then moved again to Salem, followed by a considera- ble number of his congregation. There (August, 1684) he was regularly installed as pastor, and by his liberal preaching speedily revived the prejudice and hostility of the authorities. In that day, it was considered a startling novelty to declare that a man was the proper guardian of his own religious belief, and that the state had no right to intermeddle with it. In reading the terrible history of martyrdom, three reigns before this, we do not find many objections raised to the practice of burning men alive, abstractly considered — but the question was debated with intense earnestness as to what shade of opinion was fittest to be re- pressed by the flames. Probably a good many tenets might have been enumerated, which nearly all parties in the English Church would have united in denouncing as worthy of punishment. Yet, doubtless, it was well for mankind that martyrdoms, though on points ostensibly the most trifling and immaterial, should have been bravely undergone ; for, if it had once been established that death and suffering would make men belie the faith that was in them, self-will and error, and consequent misfortune to the race, would have found the means for their eternal perpetuation. To the end of time, the only rule would have been that of the naturally violent, self-willed, and cruel. But then, and long after, it was considered allowable, by nearly all sects of Christians, to repress opinions of some sort by the strong arm of the law. It was, therefore, to the no small annoyance of the Massa- chusetts magistrates, as a reflection on their systematic intolerance, that the preacher boldly announced "that no human power had the right to intermeddle in matters of conscience ; and that neither church, nor state, nor bishop, nor priest, nor king, may prescribe the smallest iota of religious faith. For this, he maintained, a man is responsible to God alone." Especially he deprecated the unjust laws compelling universal attendance at meeting and a compulsory support of the clergy, affirming that the civil power "extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward estates of men," and maintaining that with their belief "the civil magistrate may not intermeddle, even to stop a church from apostacy and heresy." He had frequently been censured by the authorities or vexatiously summoned before them ; and on the promulgation of these incendiary JA'Vm^ JP ©IT o THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. Ill doctrines, as they were considered, immediate steps were taken to bring him to justice. Salem, which supported him, was disfranchised, and in July, 1635, the audacious minister was put regularly on trial, for his "dangerous opinions." After a protracted debate, he and his congregation were allowed "time to consider these things till the next General Court, and then, either to give satisfaction, or expect the sentence." At the next sitting, in October, as he still refused to recant, a resolution was passed that, whereas the offender "hath broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates, and yet maintaineth the same without any retractation," his sentence should be banishment from the colony Suffered to remain for a time, many people "taken with an appre- hension of his godliness," resorted to him. In alarm at this evidence of his popularity, the court dispatched a vessel to seize and transport him over seas. Informed of this design, in the dead of winter, (January, 1636) he left his family, and took refuge in the forest, where, passing from one Indian hut to another, he found a miserable subsistence. "These ravens," he says quaintly, "fed me in the wilderness." At Mount Hope, where the aged Massasoit was still residing, he was kindly received, and ob- tained from that chief a grant of land on the Seekonk river. Thither a number of his friends, in the spring, betook themselves from Salem, and commenced a plantation. A letter, however, presently came from Winslow, the governor of Plymouth, advising him that he had settled within the jurisdiction of that colony, and requesting him, for fear of offence to their powerful neighbour, Massachusetts, to remove yet a little farther. The fields already planted, and the partly-built dwelling were abandoned, and with five comrades ho passed down Seekonk river in a canoe, in quest of a home yet deeper in the wilderness. As they paddled toward its mouth, an Indian on ,the high western bank saluted them with the friendly cry, "What cheer, Netop,* what cheer I" Espying a fair spring and a fertile country, the exiled preacher and his companions landed, and founded the new colony of "Providence Plantations," on the site of the pop- ulous and wealthy city which yet commemorates the name. To the honour of this little asssociation of free spirits, they resolved that the majority should govern in civil matters and in none other, and the settlement speedily became, what Williams had earnestly desired it should — "a shelter for persons distressed in conscience." * Friend. Vol. IY.— 36 112 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. By his influence with the Narragansett sachems, land and the per- mission to settle had been obtained; and this influence, two years after the foundation of Providence, was again exerted in behalf of a large number of persons, expelled from Massachusetts as heretics, but "lovingly entertained" at the new colony of religious freedom. On very moderate terms he procured for them a grant of the beauti- ful island of Khode Island, which has since given its name to the entire state, and a very flourishing settlement soon sprang up there. "It was not price or money," he writes, many years afterwards, "that could have purchased Rhode Island. It was obtained by love; by the love and favor which that honorable gentleman Sir Henry Vane and myself had with the great sachem Miantonimo, about the league which I procured between the Massachusetts English and the Nar- ragansetts, in the Pequot war." (That war, with the causes which originated it, and the important influence of Williams, in behalf of the English, will presently be recounted.) SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT BY PLYMOUTH: BY MASSACHU- SETTS. HARDSHIPS OF THE COLONISTS. FOUNDATION OP HARTFORD, ETC. EMIGRATION UNDER HOOKER: NEW HAVEN FOUNDED. COMMENCEMENT OF THE PEQUOT WAR. INFLUENCE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. A settlement on the fertile banks of the Connecticut river had been projected at an early day, and the flourishing commonwealth of Massachusetts had been urged to undertake it; but the authorities of that province, deterred by many opposing circumstances, especially the dread of Indian hostility, had deferred or neglected it. With more courage and enterprise, the little colony of Plymouth undertook the task. Thence, in October of 1633, William Holmes sailed for the Connecticut in a vessel, carrying the frame of a house, and a small number of men, to establish a trading post, and perhaps a plantation. Passing up that river, he was warned off by the Dutch, who had a small fort at what is now known as Hartford, but sailed on, and built his house a few miles above, a little below the junction of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers. THE SETTLEMENT OF N E W ENGLAND. 113 The example thus set, emigration from Massachusetts rapidly fol- lowed. In October, 1635, a company of sixty — men, women, and children — took up their march westward from Massachusetts. These people, their supplies cut off by the freezing of the river, suffered great hardships, and numbers betook themselves to the coast. In May, the next year, a much larger emigration occurred — a hundred colonists, under the Rev. Thomas Hooker, a divine eminent for his eloquence and piety, proceeding overland in the same direction. A numerous drove of cattle, the milk of which sustained them on the way, was driven before them. Small settlements had already been made at Hartford, Wethersfleld, and Windsor, and a form of gov- ernment had been instituted at an early day. By the end of the year 1636, about eight hundred settlers had made their way to the banks of the Connecticut. Not long afterwards (April, 1638) a new colony of Puritans was founded at New Haven, under the two friends, Theophilus Eaton, and the Rev. John Davenport, the former of whom, until his death, for twent}^ years held by election the office of governor. Villages and plantations, springing from this source, spread rapidly along the shores of Long Island Sound. An Indian war, the first in New England, almost immediately after the foundation of the settlements on the Connecticut, menaced their destruction. To avenge certain murders committed, years before, by the Pequots, Massachusetts had dispatched an expedition by sea, which committed wanton and indis- criminate reprisals. Hostilities thus precipitated, a murderous war- fare ensued. Cotton Mather, indeed, sees fit to ascribe the whole matter, as usual, to the direct intervention of the enemy. "Two colonies of churches," he says, "being thus brought forth, and a third conceived, within the bounds of New England, it was time for the devil to take the alarum, and make some attempt in opposition to the possession which the Lord Jesus Christ was going to have of these utmost parts of the earth. These parts were then covered with nations of barbarous mdians and infidels, in whom the prince of the power of the air did ivork as a spirit; nor could it be expected that nations of wretches, whose whole religion was the most explicit sort of devil- worship should not be acted by the devil to engage in some early and bloody action, for the extinction of a plantation so contrary to his interests, as that of New England was." Whatever the cause, the whole weight of Indian hostility and resentment fell on the feeble settlements of Connecticut. The Pe- 114 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. quots kept constant watch to surprise all stragglers, and frequently put their captives to death with the most cruel torments. A small fort had been erected by the English at Saybrook, near the mouth of the river, and the little garrison, under their governor, Gardiner, held out against the besieging savages with much resolution. Sas- sacus, the principal sachem of the hostile tribe, now used every ex- ertion to gain the alliance of his old enemies, the Narragansetts, sending ambassadors to Canonicus and Miantonimo, urging every motive of policy and self-preservation for the relinquishment of their feud and uniting their arms against the common enemy. This piece of diplomacy was defeated by the agency of Eoger Williams, whose influence with those great sachems has been already mentioned, and who, at the request of the Massachusetts authorities, promptly set forth in his canoe, and made his way, in a dangerous storm, to the Narragansett court. There he stayed for three days, countervailing by his persuasions the arguments of the Pequot ambassadors, whose hands were still reeking with the blood of his countrymen, and "from whom he nightly looked for their bloody knives at his throat also." These persuasions, combined with ancient enmity, outweighed the influence of the Pequots, and Canonicus entered into league with the English. C 5k1> 3? Tj <£ 2^ J $ o THE PEQUOT WAR, CONTINUED. — THE ATTACK ON WETHERS- FIELD. — EXPEDITION UNDER MASON. — SURPRISE AND STORM- ING OF THE PEQUOT FORT: TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER AND CONFLAGRATION. — FINAL DEFEAT AND DESTRUCTION OF THE TRIBE. — BARBAROUS EXULTATION OF THE EARLY HISTORIANS. — REFLECTIONS. In April, 1637, the Pequots attacked the little town of Wethers- field, and killed nine of the settlers. The English now saw the necessity for immediate and energetic action. Ninety men were speedily equipped, and put under the command of Captain John Mason, an active soldier, and a party of seventy Mohegan Indians, headed by the notorious Uncas, (then in revolt against his chief and THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 115 kinsman, Sassacus,) were persuaded to join the expedition. Letters, entreating aid, were dispatched to Massachusetts. Early in May, the allied force proceeded down the river, and at Saybrook, set sail for the country of the Narragansetts, intending to take the enemy by surprise. Though apprized that a force from Massachusetts was on the way to join him, Mason, fearing lest the Pequots should learn of his design, resolved to strike a blow without delay. Strengthened by a considerable force of native allies, he marched westward from the Narragansett country, with great secrecy, and on the 5th of June, a little before daylight, came to "Pequot Hill," (in the present town of Groton,) on which the strongest fort of the enemy was situated. The barking of a dog gave the first alarm to the unsuspecting garrison, who, though taken by surprise, and startled from profound slumber, hastily snatched their rude weapons, and fought with much courage. Mason, wearied at the length of the contest, at last cried, "We must burn them!" and snatching up a brand, set fire to the matting in one of the wigwams. The whole village was composed of the driest and most combustible materials, and the flames, urged by a strong wind, spread swiftly through the fort. The warriors continued to shoot until their bowstrings were snapped by the heat, and then mostly perished in the flames, or were shot down, in at- tempting to escape over the palisades. Women, children, and old people met the same terrible fate. It seems certain that at least four hundred perished, and possibly many more. "It was supposed," says Dr. Increase Mather, "that no less than 500 or 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day." The reverend gentle- man, it would seem, took an especial comfort in considering the future torment of the enemy; for elsewhere, he tells of "two and twenty Indian captains, slain all of them and brought down to hell in one day," and of a certain chief, who sneered at the religion of the English, "and withal, added a hideous blasphemy, immediately upon which a bullet took him in the head, and dashed out his brains, sending his cursed soul in a moment amongst the devils and blas- phemers in hell forever." — Prevalency of Prayer, page 7. Perhaps we cannot better arrive at a knowledge of the state of pub- lic sentiment in that day, and, indeed, for half a century afterward, than by perusing a few more of these precious extracts from the old New England historians. "It was a fearful sight," says Mr. Morton, (New England's Memo- 116 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. rial,) "to see tbem thus frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same; and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands," &c. The Pequots from other villages, on hearing the disastrous tidings, hastened in numbers to the scene, and their very natural anguish is mocked by Cotton Mather in a strain of satire as dull as it is wicked. "When they came to see the ashes of their friends" he says, "mingled with the ashes of the fort, and the bodies of their countrymen so terribly barbikew'd, where the English had been doing a good morning's work, they howl'd, they roar'd, they stamp'd, they tore their hair; and though they did not swear (for they knew not how) yet they cursed, and were the pictures of so many devils in desparation." Is not the feeling which prompted this truly diabolical sentence identical with that which animates the red warrior when beholding his foe consuming at the stake or run- ning the gauntlet through innumerable blows? Separated into small bodies, the Pequots were speedily cut off, in detail, by the victors. Closely pursued by their allied enemies, a portion retreated westward, and finally, in a swamp at Fairfield, after a brave defence, were completely routed. Most of the warriors were slain, and the women and children were made slaves, a portion being shipped to the West Indies.. Sassacus, and a small body of his warriors, took refuge among the Mohawks, but were put to death by that inimical tribe. Several hundred of the broken nation, on one occasion, were taken by the English in the Narragansett country. "The men among them," says the Eeverend William Holland, "to the number of 30, were turned presently into Charon's ferry boat, under the command of Skipper Gallop, who dispatched them a little without the harbour." "Twas found," says Eeverend Cotton Mather, "the quickest way to feed the fishes with em." The women and children were enslaved. Thus thinned by massacre and transportation, the forlorn relics of the tribe thereafter remained in entire subjection to the victors. "In reading accounts like these, it seems hard to determine which is the savage and which the child of civilization — and the hasty conclusion would be, that, except in the possession of fire-arms to defeat the Indians, and of letters to record their destruction, the authors and approvers of such deeds were but little in advance of the unhappy race, whose extermination left room for their own THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 117 increase and prosperity. But until our own day is free from the disgrace of scenes parallel in cruelty, enacted by those who have had the advantage of two centuries of civilization, it ill becomes us to question with too great severity the deeds of men struggling for existence, in the wilderness, not only with a savage foe, but with all those hardships and uncertainties which render the heart of man fierce, callous, and unscrupulous in the means of self-preservation. The most disagreeable part of the whole business, as we have re- marked before, is the fiendish exultation of the learned historians, who, sitting in their arm-chairs at Boston and Ipswich, record with godless sneers and chuckles, the defeat and sufferings of the savage patriots of the soil. "These gentlemen, possessed with a happy conviction of their own righteousness, appear to have thought that the Lord, as a mat- ter of course, was on their side, and that only the Adversary or his agents could be arrayed against them. A long course of ecclesias- tical dictation had made them as infallible, in their 'conceit,' as so many popes ; and a constant handling of Jewish scriptures had sup- plied them with a vast number of historical texts, all susceptible of excellent application in behalf of their position. These were the wars of the Lord; the extirpation of the uncircumcised occupants of the Promised Land ; crusades against Edomites, Philistines, and Og, king of Bashan; and any severity toward the vanquished, or any elation at their defeat, might find an easy precedent in the extermin- ating policy of priests and prophets, and the paeans of victory chanted over their fallen foes."* Discoverers, &c, of America. THE SETTLEMENT OE MARYLAND. C liui) (i^j u2 il^i it a SIR GEORGE CALVERT: HIS SCHEMES FOR SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA: HE OBTAINS THE GRANT OF MARYLAND: POUNDS A COLONY THERE. — SETTLEMENT OF ST. MARY'S. RELATIONS WITH THE INDIANS. EXPULSION OF CLAYBORNE. — DISCONTENT AND INSURRECTION. — PROTESTANT SETTLERS. — ACT FOR THE TOLERATION OF ALL CHRISTIAN SECTS. Sir George Calvert, a secretary of state under James L, having conscientiously become a Catholic, and finding, in the adoption of this proscribed faith, an insuperable bar to political ambition at home, had, from an early da} 7- , directed his exertions to the enter- prise of peopling and governing new regions in America. He had made strenuous and protracted, but unavailing endeavours to found a permanent and prosperous settlement on- the rugged shores of New- foundland; and, finally, turned his attention to the milder and more fertile regions of Virginia. His desire to plant a colony there being thwarted by the prejudice of the authorities against his faith, he returned to England, where his court-favour, despite this obstacle, being good, he obtained from the crown the grant of an extensive region northward of the southern bank of the Potomac, and extend- ing to the fortieth degree of north latitude. Over this wide tract, almost unlimited personal jurisdiction was conferred on him, with some reservation in favour of self-government oy the settlers; and the title of Lord Baltimore, which he received at the same time, was an additional proof of the royal favour. In honour of the queen, Henrietta Maria, he bestowed on the region of his projected colony the name of Maryland. Before the final ratifi- cation of the charter, he died, but his rights were confirmed to his son Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, who devoted himself with THE SETTLEMENT OE MARYLAND. 119 much energy to the completion of his father's plan. In November, 1633, he dispatched his brother, Leonard Calvert, with about two hundred emigrants, mostly Catholics, in two vessels, the Ark and Dove, to found the projected settlement. This company first touched at Point Comfort, in Virginia, where, though with no sinceie cor- diality, they were courteously received by the authorities; and in March of the following year, proceeded to the Potomac. Intercourse, generally friendly, was established with the natives inhabiting its shores; and, on the St. Mary's, at an Indian town, called Yoacomoco, (afterwards St. Mary's,) it was resolved to plant a settle- ment. The chief received the emigrants with extraordinary kindness and hospitality, and for hatchets, hoes, and other European articles, they obtained not only a large tract of land, but half of the village itself, with the corn growing adjacent, and were thus at once pro- vided with comfortable shelter. This peaceful and friendly intercourse with the native inhabitants continued for nearly ten years, when it was interrupted by hostilities. These, after a continuance of two years, were ended by treaty, and a long interval of peace succeeded. Only a few years after the establishment of the new colony, its tranquillity was disturbed by a species of civil warfare. Captain William Clayborne, who had planted a trading establishment on Kent Island, opposite to the settlements of Lord Baltimore, and who had expended large sums on the enterprise, was summoned by the proprietary to yield it up, as lying within the limits of his patent. Despite forcible remonstrance, both from Yirginia and the English government, Baltimore resolved to enforce this obnoxious claim by an appeal to arms. After a number of hostile encounters, the plant- ation on the isle of Kent was carried by a night assault., and its tenants were made prisoners or put to flight. On the complaint of Clayborne, the king (July, 1638) strongly reprehended these violent proceedings, but, on account of the liberal political opinions of the injured party, the Commissioners of Plantations decided that, "con- cerning the violences and wrongs by the said Clayborne and the rest complained of, they found no cause at all to relieve them,"&c. Founded, as the new colony was, by a sect persecuted in England, it did not imitate the example of other settlements originating in a similar cause, but allowed free liberty of conscience and of worship to all, at least of the Christian faith. The overbearing claims of the proprietor to almost complete personal jurisdiction, however, occa- sioned much discontent and uneasiness, and, in 1645, excited an 120 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. actual insurrection, by which Calvert, the governor, was compelled to retreat into Virginia. The government of the proprietor, a year or two afterwards, was reinstated — an amnesty being granted for all political offences. In 1G49, the year of the king's execution, the people, taking advantage of the success of the revolutionary party in England, wrung from Lord Baltimore an act by which some portion of legislative power was secured to their deputies. To increase the population of his province, that nobleman now began to invite Protestant settlers, both from New England and Virginia. The former, strongly prejudiced, declined the invitation, but from the latter, on account of the arbitrary spirit of the author- ities, great numbers migrated to Maryland. In 1649, the Catholic assembly, to their honour, passed a statute, explicitly declaring (what had always been matter of custom in the province) perfect freedom in matters of Christian faith. "Whereas the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion," proclaims this liberal enact- ment, "hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths where it has been practised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and amity among the inhabitants, no person within this province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for his or her reli- gion, in the free exercise thereof." The object sought in the explicit enactment of this statute was, doubtless, as well to attract and con ciliate Protestant emigration, as for self-protection in event of the Catholics themselves falling into the minority. THE SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 121 ARBITRARY SYSTEM OF LORD BALTIMORE. DIS AFFECTION OF THE PROTESTANT SETTLERS. — INTERFERENCE OF THE VIRGINIA COMMISSIONERS. — AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND. — TRIUMPH OF THE PROTESTANTS. — REPEAL OF TOLERA- TION. CIVIL WAR. VICTORY OF THE PROTESTANTS. FENDALL'S INSURRECTION: HIS SUCCESS AND FINAL RUIN. TOLERATION RESTORED. The Virginian settlers, imbued with a spirit of political liberty, were surprised and grieved, ere long, at being required to take an oath of allegiance to Lord Baltimore, couched in terms of such arro- gance, as appeared to them "far too high for him, and strangely unsuitable to the present liberty which God hath given to English subjects." The proprietor sternly rejected any modification of the obnoxious form, and ordered Stone, his governor, to enforce forfeit- ure and banishment against all who should fail within three months to comply with his requisition. But that functionary thought it imprudent to carry out such an arbitrary ordinance, and, accord- ingly, deferred its execution. A commission had been appointed to reduce Virginia under the parliamentary rule, and it so happened that Bennet and Clayborne, both at enmity with the proprietary, had the principal control of its transactions. The former being made governor, and the latter sec- retary of Virginia, they speedily found occasion to interfere in the affairs of Maryland. After considerable debate with Stone, they so far modified their demands as only to claim the nomination of most of the colonial officers. Baltimore, exceedingly indignant, sought redress from the revolutionary party, which he had endeavoured by all means to conciliate; and it is supposed that he obtained some secret promise of countenance from the Protector; for, in 1654, he sent word to his governor to resist the proceedings of the commis- sion at all hazards, to displace their officers, and to expel from the province all who would not take the disputed oath of allegiance. Stone, accordingly, feeling confident, it would seem, in the support of some high authority, proceeded, with much impetuosity, to put these obnoxious instructions into force. 122 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Three months of negotiation ensued, when the commission, re solving to carry matters with a high hand, set forth for Maryland, and issued a proclamation deposing him, and declaring Cromwell the head of the government. With a strong force of Protestants, they advanced against the governor, who, on his part, could gather but a comparatively small and timid levy of the opposite sect and faction. In despair of success, he resigned his authority into the hands of the two commissioners, who, thereupon, appointed ten others, to adminis- ter affairs in the several departments. By an edict, the same sum- mer, they deprived the Catholics of their elective franchise; and the next assembly, strongly Protestant, repealed the act for universal toleration, so far as the obnoxious religion was concerned. Though this bigoted act was not carried to the extreme of actual persecution, it naturally produced great resentment in the minds of the aggrieved sect. To be thus excluded, at least by the law, from the province they had founded, and to see their religion, a refuge for which had induced them to undertake their exile, proscribed by aliens, was more than human patience could endure. The Catholics and others attached to the house of Baltimore, rallied around the governor, and soon presented a formidable attitude. They seized on the public records at Patuxent, reduced a considerable tract of country to submission, and advanced upon the chief station of the Protestant party, at Providence, in Anne Arundel. Overawed at these formidable demonstrations, the latter made overtures of peace, and even of submission, but receiving no answer, resolved to fight the quarrel out. In March, 1655, the Catholic force, two hundred and fifty strong, sailed up the Severn and disembarked. Their ene- mies, less than half that number, made a desperate stand against them, and battle was joined with cries of " Hey for St. Mary !" and "God is our strength!" After a sharp but brief contest, victory fell to the weaker but more valiant party of Puritans; Stone, with his chief officers, being made captive, and all the rest of his force except five being killed or made prisoners. Baggage, artillery, and a store of beads and relics, and similar " trash wherein they trusted," also fell into the hands of the victors. The life of the defeated leader was hardly saved from the vengeance of his enemies, and four of the chief per- sons of his party were tried by a council of war, and were executed. "Not long after these events, Josias Fendall, an active partisan of the Baltimore faction, rallying the Catholics, raised a counter-insur rection, which was suppressed, not without difficulty. The proprie- THE SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 123 tary, pleased with his exertions, now appointed him governor, and he gfined possession of the district of St. Mary's. By March, 1658, by bis policy and address, he contrived to have the authority of Baltimore and of himself acknowledged throughout the province. Keligious freedom, and the relinquishment of the obnoxious claims of the proprietary, were among the conditions on which this agree- ment was founded. When, in March, 1660, tidings of the Eestoration of Charles IL, came to Maryland, the assembly, supposing that Baltimore, on ac- count of his intrigues with the revolutionary party, would be a mark for the royal displeasure, hastily and prematurely disowned his authority, substituting their own, in the king's name. But the proprietor, easily making his peace at court, was fully reinstated in his privileges, and speedily sent out his brother, Philip Calvert, as governor. Fendall, who had been implicated in the proceedings of the assembly, was tried and convicted of high treason, but was suf- fered to escape with comparatively slight punishment. For a sub- sequent insurrectionary movement, he was fined, imprisoned, and banished from the colony. The population of the province, at this time, (1660,) has been variously estimated at from eight to twelve thousand. The Quakers, who had experienced such persecution in other colonies (see New England, &c.) resorted there in considerable numbers, and were tolerated in the exercise of their worship. VIRGINIA, CONTINUED. CHAPTER I o 4KIGN OF CHARLES I.: HIS VIEWS OF VIRGINIA. YEARDLEI, JOVERNOR: WEST: HARVEY: HIS DEPOSITION BY THE PEOPLE: HE IS SUPPORTED BY THE CROWN. WYATT. SIR WIL- LIAM BERKELEY, GOVERNOR. LOYALTY OF THE COL- ONY. — PERSECUTION OF DISSENTERS. SECOND INDIAN CONSPIRACY AND MASSACRE. OPECH ANC ANOUGH A PRISONER: HIS SPEECH: MURDERED BY A SOLDIER. REDUCTION OF THE INDIANS. TRIUMPH OF THE PURITANS IN ENGLAND. ROYALIST EMIGRATION TO VIRGINIA. LOYALTY OF THE PROVINCE. The main object of Charles I., from the time of his accession to the throne, in governing Virginia, seems to have been to derive as great a pecuniary profit from it as possible. Sufficiently arbitrary in his domestic policy, he probably regarded any republican spirit in this weak and distant colony as too inconsiderable to deserve his attention; while, continually seeking the means of supporting a government without the necessity of resorting to parliament for supplies, his only anxiety was to derive as large a revenue as pos- sible from the importation of tobacco. When Wyatt, in 1626, returned to England, Sir George Yeardley, the author, as it were, of Virginia's political freedom, was appointed governor. Under his just and equal administration, the province prospered and increased greatly in numbers; as many as a thousand emigrants arriving in a single year. He died in 1627, leaving a high character, and a memory revered by the people. Francis West was elected his successor, as governor, by the council, which, in such case, was authorized to fill the vacancy. John Harvey, who, soon after, was VIRGINIA. 125 appointed by the king to that office, and who arrived in Virginia in 1629, appears, by his sj^stem of favouritism, to have excited much discontent in the province, which, nevertheless, by its popular form of government, enjoyed a good share of prosperity and freedom. A remarkable order and steadiness seems to have characterized its early legislation. The cession to Lord Baltimore of a large tract, which the Virgin- ians had always been accustomed to consider as lying within their own jurisdiction, created no little alarm and uneasiness. Harvey, however, who was a strong partisan of the crown, when Clayborne, defeated and outlawed in Maryland, took refuge in Virginia, so far from taking advantage of the opportunity to exert an influence over the sister province, sent the fugitive a prisoner to England. The people, and the majority of the council, indignant at this act, sum- marily deposed the governor, appointing Captain John West in his place, till the king's pleasure could be known. Supported by the royal favour, however, he rcassumed his office, which he continued to hold until 1639, when he was replaced by Sir Francis Wyatt. Two years afterwards, (February, 1642,) Sir William Berkeley, in turn appointed to that office, arrived in Virginia, where, by his cor- dial agreement with the legislature, many improvements were made in the civil code, and important acts were passed for the benefit of the colony. To a province like Virginia, alike prosperous and loyal, the triumph of the popular and Puritan party in England brought no satisfaction. On the contrary, to mark its attachment to the estab- lished church, the colonial government even went to the length of instituting a religious persecution (the first in Virginia) in its behalf — an especial order being issued in 1643, by the council, for the banishment of non-conformists, and the silencing of all except Epis- copal preaching. Hostility with the Indians, long confined to sudden forays and petty skirmishes, in the next year ripened to a general war. Re- membering the sanguinary success of their former attempt, the savages, with profound secrecy, again concerted a simultaneous attack on the intruders. On the 18th of April, 1644, the frontier settlements were assaulted, and some three hundred of the colonists fell victims; but the assailants, losing heart, their design only com- menced, returned to the forests, where their enemies were not long in pursuing them. In this war, Opechancanough, so long the terror 126 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. of the whites, was made prisoner. lie was now in extreme old age, being unable to raise his eyelids, which, when he desired to see, were opened by his attendants. Being brought before the governor, a spectacle for the eager curiosity of the crowd, he said, haughtily, "Had Sir William Berkeley fallen into my hands, I would not have exposed him thus to the gaze of my people.'' A ruffianly soldier, to avenge, it is said, some former grievance, extinguished, by a cow- ardly murder, the feeble spark of life yet lingering in his frame. These successes were followed up with much vigour, repeated incur- sions being made against the Indians; and, in 1646, peace was concluded with Necotowanee, their chief, (the successor of Opechan- canough,) on terms of submission and cession of territory. This difficulty, (the last with the natives in their immediate vicin- ity,) thus overcome, the Virginian settlements continued to increase and prosper. In the winter of 1648, more than thirty vessels, at one time, were trading in their ports. The number of colonists had risen to twenty thousand; and the triumph of the Puritans in England, compelling the opposite party to exile, brought about an emigration of numerous loyalists and cavaliers, some of them men of distinction. The loyalty of the province, confirmed by this means, stood firm for the House of Stuart. Immediately after the execu- tion of Charles, the government of Virginia had recognized his son, and the latter, from his retreat in Berda, had sent to Berkeley a new commission; and that officer, in 1651, wrote to the king, with ardent expressions of attachment and fidelity, and even hinting the advisa- bility of his taking refuge in his American colonies. It was deemed possible, by the over-sanguine cavaliers, that this little province, the last to submit to the commonwealth, might make a successful stand for royalty against the entire power of England. VIRGINIA. 127 C JhE c/\j 3? Y <£ 3^ J J*' o ACT FOR THE REDUCTION OF VIRGINIA. — THE NAVIGATIOS ACT. — MODERATION OF THE PARLIAMENT. SUBMISSION OF THE PROVINCE. — BENNETT, GOVERNOR: DIGGS: MATHEWS. JEALOUSY OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST FOREIGN IN- TERFERENCE. — FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY OF VIR- GINIA UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH. — DEATH OF CROMWELL. — BERKELEY, GOVERNOR. RE- STORATION OF CHARLES II. — ITS ILL EFFECT ON THE PROVINCE. The Parliament, triumphant over its enemies at home, at last turned its attention to the refractory province of Virginia. The council of state was empowered to reduce it to obedience; and the "Navigation Act," passed in 1651, deprived it, nominally, at least, in common with the other English colonies, of foreign trade, except that carried on by English vessels. Considering the bold front of opposition which Virginia had exhibited to the popular government of England, the measures adopted were characterized by singular moderation and leniency. Two of the three commissioners, appointed for the reduction of the province, were Virginians; and they had charge to use all mild and persuasive means before resorting to force. The liberties of the colony were amply secured, in case of peace, and the Virginians, not feeling called on to contend for the claims of a dethroned monarch to the extreme of actual resistance, on learning the moderate nature of the parliamentary commission, laid aside all thought of resistance. Full power of self-government, and equal privileges with Englishmen at home, were provided for the colony ; but the influence of the dominant party, and the submission or assent of the colonists, were sufficiently evinced in the election of Eichard Bennett, a strong revolutionist, by the burgesses, to the office of governor. On his retirement, in 1655, Edward Diggs received the same office at the hands of the assembly — Cromwell, during his tenure of power, never interfering with the right exer- cised by the Virginians of choosing their own officers. In 1658, an old planter, named Samuel Mathews, described as one who "kept a good house, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Vol. IV.— 37 128 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Virginia," was chosen to the same post. Becoming, ere long, in- volved in a dispute with the assembly, he announced his intention of referring the matters in issue to the decision of the Protector. Alarmed at the prospect of dependence on a foreign authority, that body proceeded to make a bold and startling declaration of the pop- ular sovereignty, and actually deposed Mathews, whom they had lately elected. Having thus vindicated their dignity, they forthwith reinstated him in office, while he submitted to their requirements with a readiness which sufficiently shows that, whatever the tem- porary disagreement, no serious ill-feeling had existed between the executive and legislative powers. The spirit of public liberty, by this bold demonstration, gained a great accession of strength and firmness. On the death of the Protector, the assembly of burgesses, after private deliberation, resolved to acknowledge his son, Richard Cromwell, as the head of the English government; and when, by his resignation and the death of their governor, (1660,) the destinies of Virginia seemed fallen entirely in their hands, they resolved that the supreme power should be lodged in their own body, and that all writs should issue in its name, "until there shall arrive from England a commission, which the assembly itself shall judge to be lawful." The prospect of the Restoration was hailed with joy by Virginia, and the election of Sir William Berkeley to the office of governor, was an earnest of its renewed loj'alty. That faithful adherent to the House of Stuart, in accepting the office, however, expressly acknowledged the authority of the assembly, of which, he said, he was but a servant, and waited eagerly for news of the reerection of the monarchy. During the civil wars, the parliamentary government, and the Protectorate, Virginia had been steadily gaining, by precedent, for- tifications to her system of self-government. Commerce was free, (for the Navigation Act soon became a dead letter,) and religious toleration (except to the Quakers, a sect at that time almost univer- sally proscribed) was fully established. Universal suffrage of free- men prevailed, and in consequence of the fertility of the soil, and the high price commanded by the staple production, tobacco, re- markable prosperity prevailed. These advantages, unalloyed by any act of oppression by the home government, had rendered the province one of the most desirable places of residence in America. The elevation of Charles II. to the throne of his fathers, marked by VIRGINIA. 129 the northern colonies with such gloomy forebodings, was received with exultation by Virginia. Berkeley at once reassumed his official functions, under the royal authority, and, in the king's name, sum- moned an assembly, which, from its loyalist composition, clearly indicated the prevalent sympathy of the colony. With strange indifference to the blessings the country had enjoyed under self- government, the dominant party at once proceeded to pass acts of an arbitrary and intolerant nature. Suffrage was restricted to free- holders and householders, the English Church was exclusively rees- tablished, and the persecution of dissenters, which had before compelled them to seek refuge in other colonies, was renewed. The •assembly, like the Long Parliament, made its sitting, in a manner, perpetual, the members retaining their seats for more than ten years, and, finally, dissolving only when compelled by necessity The restoration of arbitrary power was systematically pursued. The reerection of the monarchy, to which Virginia had looked with such sanguine hope, was presently the means of inflicting great evil on the colony. The provisions of the Navigation Act, restrict- ing all commerce to the parent-country, had been evaded or disre- garded at an early day by the American provinces, and had latterly fallen into complete disuse. This obnoxious statute was now reen- acted with increased strictness, and enforced with practical rigour — the influence of the London merchants, who derived great profits from the monopoly, proving sufficient to outweigh all the complaints and remonstrances of the colonists. In vain did Berkeley, deputed by the Virginians, repair to court, and urge on the ear of the king, with all the influence which his ancient loyalty could command, the disastrous effects produced on the province by this arbitrary restriction of its growing intercourse with European nations, and complain that the disloyal colonies of New England were suffered to set the act in question at nought, while the faithful province of Virginia was forced to a strict compliance. His remonstrances availed nothing, and thus the first fruit which Virginia reaped from the Eestoration, long cherished with such ardent expectation, was the infliction of a monopoly calculated greatly to retard her progress and impair her prosperity. NEW ENGLAND, CONTINUED. C 2m1> JmL 3? 'J' <£ 2> o INIMICAL MEASURES ADOPTED IN ENGLAND. — SPIRIT 0? MASSACHUSETTS: THREAT OP REVOLT. THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION. — INDUSTRY AND PROSPERITY OF NEW ENGLAND: ITS INDEPENDENCE. — NEW HAMPSHIRE ANNEXED TO MASSACHUSETTS. FORMATION OF THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY. The first blow aimed by the English crown at the growing spirit of mingled freedom and intolerance in New England, was the appointment of a commission, consisting of the Archbishop of Can- terbury and others, with full power to establish a government there, both ecclesiastical and civil, and to revoke any charter, the provisions of which might seem to infringe on the royal prerogative. (April, 1634.) The news of this invidious ordinance awakened universal alarm and indignation. A general spirit of resistance was evinced, and hasty provision was made for the fortification and defence of Massachusetts. All the clergy of the province, assembled at Boston, unanimously agreed to resist the imposition of a foreign governor. " We ought," they declared, "to defend our lawful possessions, if we are able; if not, to avoid and protract." A fresh intrigue, directed against the peace of the new commonwealth, was that of the Ply- mouth Company, which surrendered its charter into the king's hands, its members hoping to obtain extensive private grants, and using all their influence to get that of the Massachusetts Company revoked. Legal proceedings were commenced against the latter, but the death of Mason, the patentee of New Hampshire, and the prime mover of these inimical proceedings, prevented them from being carried to the extreme. NEW ENGLAND. 131 The council, in 1638, demanded of Winthrop, that the patent should be given up; but the authorities, in reply, urged strong demonstrances against the projected arbitrary enforcement. It was backed, indeed, by a judgment from the Court of King's Bench, but such judgment had been obtained by the intrigues of their enemies, and doubtless owed its origin to royal dictation or influence. They concluded their reply with an implied threat of independence in case matters were forced to an extremity. "If the patent be taken from us," they declare, 11 the common people will conceive that his majesty hath cast them off, and that hereby they are freed from their subjection and allegiance, and therefore will be ready to confederate themselves under a new government, for their necessary safety and subsistence, which will be of dangerous example unto other planta- tions, and perilous to ourselves, of incurring his majesty's dis- pleasure." This covert menace of revolution, it may be imagined, was encouraged by the growing power and influence of the Puritan party in England, where, indeed, the authority of the sovereign was already beginning to find sufficient employment in suppressing the popular movement, without crossing the ocean to seek a sparsely- peopled wilderness. In fact, numbers, who, in the day of persecu- tion, had sought refuge in America, now hastened back to England to take their share in the extraordinary events which were there begin- ning to transpire. "By the year 1640, the tide of emigration, which, for many years, had flowed steadily to New England, gradually ceased. The ascendency of the Puritan party in England soon removed the grievous wrongs and disabilities under which that numerous body had once laboured, and the temptation to share the success of the triumphant faction at home was greater than that to retreat into the wilderness which had been its refuge when weak and persecuted by its destined victims." More than twenty thousand emigrants, however, before the year 1640, had arrived in New England, and by their extraordinary industry and enterprise, prosperity and comfort had been developed to a degree which, considering the asperity of the climate and country, seemed hardly possible. Little more than ten years had elapsed since the foundation of the Massachusetts colony, yet in that interval, says Mr. Bancroft, fifty towns and villages had been planted, and nearly as many churches had been built; and for- eign commerce, in furs, timber, grain, and fish, had already been established on a permanent base. Nay, the manufacture of cotton 132 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. (the staple being supplied from Barbadoes) had already made a commencement. As a matter of course, the Long Parliament, the Puritan and revolutionary element of which was so greatly in the ascendant, looked with warm sympathy to the New England colonists; but the latter seem to have avoided, at first, any decided commitment of themselves either to the political or ecclesiastical strife which at this time raged in England. From this distracted condition of the mother-country, and the favour of the dominant party, they came to possess, what they enjoyed for nearly twenty years, the blessings of actual independence and self-government. This, however, must be understood in the restricted sense of partial suffrage, and of the entirely preponderate influence of "the church" over that of "the people." The most important political event of 1642, was the an- nexation to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts of the neighbouring settlements of New Hampshire, which, it was claimed, fell within the patent of the former, and the inhabitants of which, by their own action, confirmed the claim, and were admitted, on equal terms with the Massachusetts people, as an integral portion of that province. As early as 1637, immediately after the dangers of the Pequot war had shown the necessity of union, a confederacy of the New England colonies had been proposed, and in the following year had again been discussed, but on account of the jealousy of Connecticut, had been deferred. The latter province, however, wishing assist- ance against the encroachments of the Dutch, at length renewed the negotiation; and in 1643, the states of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, formed a union for mutual aid and protection — "the first germ of that mighty confederacy which now numbers more millions than its original did thousands, and which, from a bleak corner of New England, has extended, for twenty degrees of latitude, over the thousand leagues of mountain, forest, and prarie, that divide the two oceans." The chief objects of this alliance were protection against hostile savages, resistance to Dutch and French encroachment, and the fortification of the degree of civil and religious liberty which the several colonies had obtained or permitted. Two commissioners from each colony (none but church members being eligible to the office) were to manage the affairs of the federal government, and to have the control of peace and war, of making public improvements, and, generally, of any matters which might properly pertain to the NEW ENGLAND. 133 government of a confederation. These powers, apparently so exten- sive, were held in check by the dependence of this central authority on the separate states for the means of carrying its enactments into effect. Neither the people of New Hampshire, nor those of Ehode Island or of Providence Plantations, although they desired it, were admitted to this league, which, indeed, was doubtless more harmo nious than it could have been, had opinions more liberal in politics, or more tolerant in religion, been permitted to mingle in its councils. UNCAS AND MIANTONIMO. — DEFEAT AND DEATH OF THE LATTER DISCREDIT TO THE ENGLISH. RHODE ISLAND: ITS LIBER- TIES GUARANTEED BY THE PARLIAMENT. LETTER TO SIR HENRY VANE. REMARKABLE FREEDOM ENJOYED THERE. MAINE ANNEXED BY MASSACHUSETTS. A tragedy, purely native in its origin and execution, but in which the English authorities contrived to play a very discreditable part, was enacted in 1643. Miantonimo, the ISTarragansett sachem, accused by Uncas, the Mohegan, of hostility to the colonies, had been compelled to appear in an ignominious manner at Boston, and had met with much humiliation at the hands of the English. To revenge himself on his accuser, despite a peace, guarantied by the latter, with a thousand warriors he attacked the hostile tribe. De- feated by the superior strategy of his rival, and taken prisoner, he was conducted to Hartford, where Uncas, with a moderation which might seem surprising, but for the result which he probably consid- ered as certain, referred the destiny of his captive to the Commis- sioners of the Confederacy. These, acting under advice and counsel of the clergy, so far from interposing in behalf of mercy, and actu- ated, doubtless, by jealousy of the tribe of the defeated chief, decided that he might lawfully be put to death, and delivered him into the hands of the victor. The latter, with his brother, Wawequa, and other Indians, and accompanied by two white men, led his prisoner along a solitary pathway, in which, at a silent signal from Uncas, Wawequa, stepping up behind, sunk his tomahawk in the brain of 134 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. the victim. The revengeful chief, it is said, cut a morsel of flesh from the shoulder of his enemy, and ate it, saying that it was "the sweetest meat he ever eat; it made his heart strong." The tribe of the fallen chief, who were warmly attached to him, lamented deeply over his unhappy fate, and complained with bitterness that large quantities of wampum, which they had sent to the Mohegans as a ransom for his life, had been retained, while the life of their leader, which it should have purchased, was treacherously taken. His brother, Pessacus, who succeeded to the command, took signal revenge on the enemy, and, but for the interposition of the English, would doubtless have inflicted on Uncas the same fate as that which the latter had wreaked on the chief of the Narragansetts. While the other New England provinces, secure in union, and holding their political existence and possession of their territories either by royal charter, or purchase from the original grantees, pre- sented an almost unassailable front to foreign interference, Ehode Island, whose only tenure of possession was that derived from the native chieftains, had cause alike to dread the ambition and en- croachment of her powerful neighbours, and acts of usurpation on the part of the government at home. To place on a more secure basis the state he had founded, Williams, in 1643, sailed for Eng- land, and pleaded the cause of freedom before the parliamentary authorities. By the influence of Sir Henry Yane, who was now a member of the council for the government of America, and by the reputation which his own exertions had already acquired for him, a charter, insuring extraordinary freedom of civil government, was granted to Ehode Island by the parliament. On his return, he was welcomed with enthusiastic gratitude by the citizens, and the people of Providence, in an eloquent letter of thanks to Sir Henry Yane, expressed their acknowledgment of his continual kindness and pro- tection. "From the first beginning," declares this admirably- written document, "you have been a noble and true friend to an outcast and despised people; we have ever reaped the sweet fruits of your constant loving kindness and favor. We have long been free from the iron yoke of wolvish bishops; we have sitten dry from the streams of blood, spilt by the wars in our native country. We have not felt the new chains of the presbyterian tyrants, nor in this colony have we been consumed by the over-zealous fire of the (so called) godly Christian magistrates. We have not known what an excise means; we have almost forgotten what tithes are. We have long NEW ENGLAND. 135 drank of the cup of as great liberties as any people that we can hear of, under the whole heaven. When we are gone, our posterity and children after us shall read in our town records your loving kindness to us, and our real endeavor after peace and righteousness." A more honourable testimonial, or one more gratifying to a pure and benevolent mind, has seldom been offered by a state to its benefactor. The good people of Ehode Island, in possession of their coveted privileges, did not abuse them. Our liberty, they had boasted, shall not degenerate into an anarchy. Nor was this an idle vaunt. Al- though a very great diversity of creeds, some wild and fanatical enough, it is said, had taken refuge in the asylum from American persecution, and, though perfect freedom of debate prevailed, and was sometimes exercised stormily enough, the legislation of the little state was characterized by singular good sense and impartiality. Williams, who made another voyage to England to repel a menaced assault on its franchises, ever fostered the popular spirit, and despite the earnest wishes of the assembly, refused to obtain or accept from the English authorities the appointment of himself as governor — his wise prescience dreading any unnecessary commitment of the affairs of the state to a foreign, even though a friendly power. In Maine, disputes arising between the agents of rival patentees, and no settlement of the question being issued from England, the inhabitants of several towns, by their own action, erected an inde- pendent government, and Massachusetts, ever willing to extend its influence, whether by force or invitation, over its neighbours, decided that the territory in question came within her own jurisdic- tion. Commissioners were dispatched there, and the whole country was speedily, with the consent of its inhabitants, brought under the government of the more powerful province. This summary change, however, appears to have been generally satisfactory to the residents. 136 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. G 1^3) JmL Oj till 5 J J o OPPOSITION TO THE MASSACHUSETTS AUTHORITIES. PARLIA MENTARY ENCROACHMENT RESISTED AND RELINQUISHED. NEW ENGLAND FAVOURED BY CROMWELL. BIGOTED AND INTOLERANT LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS. PERSECUTION OF BAPTISTS. THE QUAKERS: PERSECUTION OF THEM: FOUR EXECUTED: THEIR COURAGE AND FORTITUDE. — APOLOGISTS FOR THE HANGINGS. REFLECTIONS. The authorities of Massachusetts, in close league with the clergy, the elders, and the more intolerant church party, were not long in awaking a spirit of opposition among the partisans of a more liberal and tolerant policy. At an early day, indeed, that party had shown much jealousy of any thing like a prescriptive government or dicta- tion in elections, and when it had been proposed that the office of governor should be held for life, it was forthwith resolved by the deputies, that no magisterial office should be held for more than a year. A direct collision between the two parties had occurred in 1645, on a question of small moment in itself, but involving the legal extent of the authority of the magistrates. A small majority of the deputies to the general court held that, from the assumption of power by these authorities, the liberty of the people was in dan- ger; the rest, and, of course, nearly all the magistrates themselves, resolved that "authority was overmuch slighted," and that there was danger of "a mere democracy." The popular party, by the enactment of a law on the point in question, obtained a nominal triumph, but the magistrates, the governor (Winthrop) and the clergy retained their ascendency in the government, and circum- stances favouring their purpose, were even enabled to extend their actual power. In November, 1646, at an assembly of the general court of Mas- sachusetts, a firm stand was made by the government of that colony against threatened encroachments by the parliament on its inde- pendence. A vehement and eloquent remonstrance was forwarded to England, where Winslow, their agent, and Sir Henry Yane, who, despite some unkind usage, was still a fast friend of the liberty of the colonies, exerted all their influence against the anticipated dan- NEW ENGLAND. 137 ger. The parliament, possessed of the true circumstances, confirmed their liberties and refused to listen to appeals from their justice. When, a few years afterwards, the supreme power became vested in Cromwell, as Protector, that great man, with a natural sympathy both for their virtues and their errors, looked with uncommon favour on the rugged colonists of New England. He favoured their commerce, allowed them full independence of self-government, and was even willing to extend their political power by a gift of the rich island of Jamaica, which had been wrested by him from the Spaniards. The Protectorate, without doubt, was the golden age of New England liberty. The Massachusetts authorities, hardened by their triumph over the popular party, and provoked by opposition, ere long, by their sanguinary persecutions, inflicted on New England the darkest stain which her character had ever sustained. Sharp laws against both infidelity and heresy were enacted — the penalty of death being denounced against such as should deny the infallability of any part of the Bible — anabaptism being made a penal offence — and absence from meeting being punishable by fine. Had the whole community been entirely united in opinion, these bigoted laws might have remained simply an expression of the intolerance of those who contrived them. But a strong party in favour of full liberty of conscience already existed in New England, and in Plymouth, the proposition was even made for toleration to all, "without exception against Turk, Jew, Papist, Arian,," &c, &c. The opponents of this plan contrived, by protracting, to defeat it; but it was evidently popular with the citizens, for, writes Winslow to Winthrop, "You would have admired to see how sweet this car- rion relished to the palate of most of them." — (Bancroft.) The magnates, the elders, the clergy, and the church generally, it would seem, were of opinion, that the sharp arm of the law should be used to restrain all dissent from their own views. Clarke, of Rhode Island, a Baptist, having attempted to preach at Lynn, was seized, and compelled to attend the Congregational meeting, where, says Mr. Bancroft, "he expressed his aversion by a harmless inde- corum, which yet would have been without excuse, had his presence been voluntary." Heavy fines and severe whippings were used to repress the spread of the dreaded heresy. (1651.) An obstacle to conformity far more formidable, and one irrepressi- ble by persecution, was soon found in the fanatical courage of the 138 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. then rapidly increasing sect of Quakers — a sect, in external demean- our and popular consideration, almost the reverse of that which bears the title in our own day. An enthusiastic and purely self- abnegating zeal for their faith, caused them voluntarily and gratui- tously to expose themselves to the extremest dangers of persecution; and at the time we write of, they were pretty generally proscribed throughout the Christian world. Two women of this persuasion, arriving at Boston in 1656, were seized at once, kept in close con- finement for five weeks, and then, their books having been burned by the hangman, were expelled from the province. One of them, Mary Fisher, soon after, set forth alone to deliver a message to the Great Turk, an errand which she actually performed at Adrianople — the sanctity attached to her supposed insanity, protecting her from any wrong or insult. Many others of the obnoxious sect were sent back to England, or otherwise banished; and when, the next year, some of them returned, imprisonment and whipping were freely resorted to. Fines were imposed upon any who should attend the Quaker meetings or entertain any of the Quakers ; and loss of ears and boring the tongue with a hot iron were provided for the obstinate. As a natural consequence, a people so fearless, and even so enam- oured, as it were, of persecution, soon flocked in numbers to Massa- chusetts; and the general court of that province, with a rash and cruel persistance in their policy of exclusion, enacted that death should be the penalty of returning from banishment. This san- guinary decree, precipitated by the turbulent and eccentric demean- our of some of the proscribed zealots, was, in 1659, carried into execution on the persons of Mary Dyer, who had returned, and of Stephenson and Robinson, who had come, as voluntary martyrs, to shame, with their blood, the cruelty of the authorities. At the place of execution the woman was reprieved, but answered with spirit, " Let me perish with my brethren, unless you will annul your wicked law." She was sent out of the colony, but, returning, also perished by the hands of the hangman. William Leddra, who was offered his life, on condition of promising to keep away, refused the proffer, and was also hanged. At the very time of his trial, Christison, also banished on pain of death, boldly returned, and entered the court; he was adjudged to die, but told his persecutors, truly enough, that for every one they hanged, five more would come to glut them with bloodshed. Awed, it would seem, by the determination of the sufferers, and NEW ENGLAND. 139 3 r ielding to popular opinion, which was shocked at these craelties, the magistrates finally paused in their sanguinary career. The life of Christison was spared, and he, with many others, was released from prison. A royal order, not long after, prohibited the repetition of these extreme atrocities, though the minor devices of persecution were still freely resorted to. It is extraordinary what pains have been taken by many of our writers to clear the skirts of their ancestors of the stain attaching to the most undeniable persecution on record. "It was in self-de- fence," thus the ablest and most accurate of American historians commences an elaborate apology for these transactions, "that Puri- tanism in America began those transient persecutions of which the excesses shall find in me no apologist." Not to dwell on the several inconsistencies, and even the contradictions in terms involved in this affirmation, it may be said confidently, that such a plea could be admissible, even on the odious ground of necessity, only where some natural right of the oppressors was in danger of infringement. Though the Quakers, or some of them, indeed railed at the worship of the Puritans, and even denied their right to self-government, surely it cannot be pretended that the principle of freedom was in any way endangered by the mere denunciation of a feeble few, then almost universally proscribed, and utterly destitute of political influence. But the argument evidently is, that, by retiring from the rest of the civilized world, and erecting a commonwealth by themselves, the Puritans had acquired a species of claim, if opposed, to infringe the natural right of others; that, having established a certain order of things, they were entitled to use, or, at least, were excusable in using, for its maintainance, means at which the natural sense of right in man revolts. It has been as seduously attempted to shift the blame from the shoulders of the persecutors to those of their victims. "But for them." (the Quakers,) says the same authority, "the country had been guiltless of blood!" The same may be said of the sufferers under any martyrdom, nay, under any crime or oppression. But for Prynne and his fellows, the mutilators of Charles would have had a sinecure; but for Servetus, the black cloak of Geneva might have remained uncrimsoned with the smoking blood of vivo-crema- tion; but for Joan Boucher, the memory of Cranmer had descended to us that of a martyr only, and not a relentless woman-burner; but for Cranmer himself, Eome had been spared her archest deed of 140 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. combined treachery and cruelty. No persecution, of course, can exist without its legitimate prey. That prey is, almost invariably, a small, but brave and stubborn minority, which, by its unbending opposition, inflames to madness the pride, the self-will, the passion of loDg-accustomed power. But methinks it rather hard that those who bravely surrendered their lives, in defiance of a wicked law, should have the dishonour of the transaction laid at their door, and be accused, at this day, of shaming with their blood the posterity of their murderers. Nor is it fair to assume that the Quakers used any greater measure of provocation to their oppressors than has often been customary even with the most undeniable martyrs. The spirit of man, when sought to be crushed by superior physical power, will at least assert itself in bold and defiant words; and whatever the extravagances committed by some wrong-headed zealots among them, the demean- our of the victims, at least on their trial, seems to have been charac- terized by remarkable dignity and decency. The plain fact — so plain that its assertion is almost superfluous — seems to be, that the early rulers of Massachusetts were men of extraordinary force of character, bigoted, self-willed, and unusually disposed to tyrannize. They had resolved to have their own way, at whatever cost, even to the shedding of blood. The people against whom their cruel and tyrannical laws were directed, were few in number, but pos- sessed by a spirit of daring, enthusiasm, and stubbornness, such as the world has seldom witnessed. They resolved that these sanguin- ary statutes, whose existence proclaimed them felons, by the very shame and horror of their execution should be annulled; and in laying down their lives in accomplishment of this purpose, they certainly earned as fairly the crown of martyrdom as any of the multitudes who, for conscience, for independence, for fame, or for sal- vation, had trodden the same thorny path before them. NEW ENGLAND. 141 f CHAPTER 17. EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. HARVARD COLLEGE. — RE- STORATION OF CHARLES II. OPPRESSIVE ENACTMENTS CON- CERNING COMMERCE. ATTITUDE OF THE COLONIES. WINTHROP, THE YOUNGER. — CONNECTICUT OBTAINS A CHARTER: HER FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY. With our forefathers, in nearly all the New England states, edu- cation, from the first, was a subject of solicitous care. Provision was made that all children in Massachusetts should at least learn to read and write, and schools of a higher character were not long in succeeding. Only a few years after the arrival of the Puritans in Massachusetts, John Harvard, dying there, by the bequest of his library and of half his estate, founded that admirable university which still commemorates his name, and which has exercised such extraordinary influence, from the first, in promoting the intelligence and refining the manners of New England. Fostered by the care of the state, and at times assisted by the neighbouring provinces, it enjoyed a continually increasing prosperity and usefulness. The restoration of Charles II. to the throne of England was the signal for a renewal of those more obnoxious claims of sovereignty over the American colonies, which had either been relinquished or suffered to fall into disuse by the government of the commonwealth. The Navigation Act (the child of that government indeed, but, in its original, not designed rigidly to fetter their commerce) was reen- acted, with new and oppressive provisions; a monopoly being secured to English merchants, English ships, and English navigators, in the entire foreign intercourse of those provinces. The exporta- tion of a long list of articles, including tobacco, sugar, cotton, and other produce, was prohibited excepting to England; and ere long the importation of any European goods, except those supplied by English merchants, was in like manner made illegal. Commercial intercourse between the northern and southern colonies was bur- dened with oppressive duties; and, by degrees, the very manufacture of articles which might compete with that of the home country in foreign trade, or even in furnishing their own supplies, was also for bidden. Such was the oppressive system, the commencement of 142 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. which signalized to the colonists the restoration of English mon archy, and which, finally pursued to an extreme incompatible with their growing strength and spirit of independence, resulted in the loss to England of the most splendid provinces ever founded by the enterprise of her sons, or reared into greatness by their genius and industry. While Massachusetts, both its political and moral prepossessions shocked by the prospect of the elevation of a character like that of the new king to the sovereignty of England, waited, with a species of sullen expectancy, the event of the change, and even meditated opposition, in case a royal governor should be sent to rule over it; the other New England colonies, weaker in numbers, and less deter- mined in spirit, proclaimed the new sovereign with alacrity, and hastened to conciliate his favour. Winthrop the } r ounger, a man of high character, and of most engaging address, was dispatched to London on the part of Connecticut, to obtain from the king a patent of that province for the hardy adventurers who, as yet, held it only by native conquest and purchase, and by the assignment of the representatives of the Earl of Warwick. Aided by some court influence, this emissary obtained an audience with Charles, who was so agreeably impressed with his character and demeanour, that he granted an ample charter to the petitioners. Hartford and New Haven were connected in one colony, and this vast patent extended westward across the entire continent, including in its limits the already numerous and prosperous settlements of the Dutch on the banks of the Hudson. By the same liberal instrument, complete independence, excepting the reservation of allegiance to the crown, was secured to the colonists. All power, both civil and criminal, judicial and executive, elective and legislative, was lodged in their own hands — a constitution more completely independent in effect, could hardly have been framed by the most ardent lover of liberty. Winthrop, after this successful result of his mission, returned to the province, where, in gratitude for his services, the office of chief magistrate, for fourteen years, by annual election, was conferred on him. Under these favourable auspices, the colony of Connecticut commenced a career of continual increase, of rational prosperity, and of tranquil happiness. The care for popular education, which has always characterized her legislation, was manifested at an early day Common schools always existed, and the higher wants of the intel- lect, by the beginning of the next century, were provided for in the NEW ENGLAND. 143 foundation of an institution, the modesty and humbleness of whose origin contrast strongly with the strength and prosperity of its subsequent career — the college of Yale. New England, said Mr. Webster, contained in its system three institutions which alone would have sufficed to make it free — the Town Meeting, the Congregational Church, and the Common School — institutions which still flourish in a nearer approach to perfection, the independent form of church government being confined to no shade of belief, in its privileges or its support. The peace and pros- perity of Connecticut, founded on domestic harmony and freedom from foreign interference, remained for a century, uninterrupted by any serious disturbance. CHAPTER ¥. THE CHARTER OF RHODE ISLAND. — CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIB- ERTY. — CARELESS AND EXTENSIVE GRANTS OF CHARLES II. — THE ATTITUDE OF MASSACHUSETTS: DISTRUST OF THE RESTORATION. REQUISITIONS OF CHARLES II. — APPOINTMENT OF A COM- MISSION. — ALARM OF THE COLONY. Roger Williams, having visited England, and obtained the sanction of parliament to the existence of the infant state he had founded, in 1652 returned to ISew England, leaving, as his agent, John Clarke, a man of great worth and indefatigable patience. This efficient emissary obtained from the crown, on the Restoration, the permission, earnestly besought by the colonists of Rhode Island, "to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand, and best be maintained with a full liberty of religious concernments." Powers of self-government, as ample as those granted to Connecticut, were secured to the little province, and, to gratify the benevolent request of the petitioners, it was expressly provided, that "no person within the said colony, at any time here- f«fter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference of opinion in matters of religion ; every person may at all times freely and fully enjoy his own judgment and Yol. IT. — 38 144 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. conscience in matters of religious concernment." Under this ancient charter, which has been in existence to our own day, Rhode Island enjoyed uncommon political blessings, both civil and religious. Its first benefit was the protection of that feeble colony against the am- bitious encroachments of Massachusetts, which was desirous of extending its jurisdiction over its weaker neighbours, and which was effectually checked by this direct action of the crown. Rhode Island, at the time of this foundation of her political existence, num- bered only between two and three thousand souls. An extraordinary mixture of liberality and carelessness charac- terized the king's whole management of his North American prov- inces. To his brother James, and to several favourites and courtiers, he gave immense grants of territory, comprising nearly all the best part of the North American continent — that to William Penn, laying the foundation of a commonwealth of peace, being almost the only one whose origin was of a purer nature than mere personal rapacity or ambition. Until it was absolutely certain that the commonwealth was at an end, and that the House of Stuart was reinstated on the throne, Massachusetts hesitated to commit itself to any decided recognition of sovereignty. But when, in the fall of 1661, the news of that event arrived, the general court, knowing that the province would be readily exposed to odium with the new government, hastened to prepare addresses to the crown and parliament. They stated plainly the religious scruples which had induced the Puritans to quit their country, averring that they were " true men, fearing God and the King," and praying that Charles, himself so lately in exile, would feel a sympathy for men suffering the same misfortune. The agent of the province was instructed to make what interest he could with the court and parliament, and, especially, to resist the allowance of appeals from the colonial government to that of England. Upon this point, however, the new government seemed resolved to insist ; and the general court, in view of a probable collision, with much boldness, published a declaration of rights, claiming for the province the entire power of appointing all its officers, of exercising all powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, and the right of resisting any infringement of its liberties, as theretofore enjoyed. Little more than a nominal allegiance to the crown was acknowledged; and when, in 1661, the Eestoration was publicly proclaimed, it was done with much coldness and apathy. NEW ENGLAND. 145 Messengers were dispatched to England to sustain the interests of the province, with instructions to persuade the king of its loyalty, and to parry, if possible, any attempt upon its liberties. They were only in a measure successful. The charter was confirmed, but the king demanded, with some reason, that the laws should be adminis- • tered in his name, that the oath of allegiance should be taken, that the Church of England should be tolerated; and that none, except a property restriction, should be continued on the elective franchise. The latter of these demands, striking more closely than any other at the religious government and the prejudices of the colonists, ex- cited the greatest discontent; and a stricter censorship was held over all except the established religion. Stimulated by rumours, partly true and partly false, of .the dis- loyal spirit of the province, (it was even rumoured that Goffe and Whalley, who had lately come over, and were in hiding, had raised an army against the crown,) the English sovereign proceeded to appoint a commission of four persons to investigate matters in New England, and to use a very discretionary authority in settling its affairs. On the news of this obnoxious measure reaching Boston, hasty measures were adopted for precaution and defence. The safety of the charter, and restraint upon the landing of soldiers, were especially provided for ; and in view of the impending trials of the Commonwealth, a day of solemn prayer and fasting was appointed. CHAPTER VI. REMONSTRANCE OP MASSACHUSETTS DOINGS OF THE COMMIS- SIONERS: THEIR DISPUTES WITH THE AUTHORITIES: THEIR DISCOMFITURE AND RETURN TO ENGLAND. — SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS. — INERTNESS OF THE CROWN. — PROSPERITY AND TRADE OF THE PROVINCE. The fleet, dispatched from England for the reduction of Man- hattan and other Dutch settlements (see "New Netherlands") in July, 1664, arrived at Boston, bearing the commissioners. The general court, promptly assembled, in token of their loyalty, agreed 146 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. to levy a force in assistance of the expedition; and, while the fleet was busied at Manhattan, prepared a forcible and eloquent remon- strance, addressed to the king. Eeciting the privileges of their charter, the sacrifices they had made to obtain it, and the liberties they had enjoyed under it; they foretold the trouble and ruin which any persistance in controlling the affairs of the colony 'would occa- sion. "God knows," they say, "our greatest ambition is to live a quiet life, in a corner of the world." Any thing but their liberties, they declared, they were willing to offer in testimony of their loyalty. Meanwhile, the commissioners, not caring to make themselves unne- cessarily odious, had busied themselves, in harmony with the colonists, in settling certain matters in Connecticut and Ehode Island — the "du- tifulness and obedience" of which former, they averred, was "set off with the more lustre by the contrary deportment of Massachusetts." Plymouth, which was promised a separate charter, if it would sub- mit the nomination of its governor to the commissioners, protested much loyalty, but declined the intermeddling proposition. These gentlemen, returning to Boston, demanded that all the men should be assembled to hear the king's message ; but their requisi- tion was refused, though they denounced as traitors those who opposed the proceeding. The Massachusetts authorities refused to state directly whether they would obey the commission or not; and the members of it, to try their power, gave notice that they would hold a court for the trial of a cause to which the colony was a party. But the general court, by sound of trumpet, and proclamation of a herald, forbade all persons to take part in their proceedings. Foiled in this point, the visitors proceeded to intermeddle in the affairs of Maine and New Hampshire. The court, with equal promptitude and fearlessness, met them by an order to the inhabitants of the latter to forbear obeying or abetting them, at their peril. In Maine, indeed, they set up a royal government; but not long after their departure, Massachusetts, by force of arms, reestablished its authority there. They finally returned to England in much wrath and disap- pointment, without having accomplished any permanent alteration in the condition of the provinces. The king, in very natural displeasure, now summoned (1666) some of the chief persons of Massachusetts to appear before him, and answer for the doings of that refractory province. The general court, which met to consider this demand, after protracted prayer, refused compliance, declaring that they had already expressed their NEW ENGLAND. 147 views in writing, "so that the ablest person among us could not declare our case more fully." In all this peremptory resistance, and almost defiance of the authority of the crown, there was no lack of patriotic feeling, or of affection for the mother-country; for very effective assistance, in provisions and materials, was rendered to the English navy, in the contest with France, commencing at this time; and whether from fear or negligence, the king, immersed in sensuality, took no active measures to vindicate his claims. After much discussion in the council, it was considered that the refractory colony was too strong to meddle with ; that it might, at a moment's warning, throw off its allegiance ; and that the safest policy was to overlook its transgres- sions, and wait a more favourable opportunity for enforcing the obnoxious claims. Meanwhile, the province, left to its own management, by the enterprise and industry for which its people have ever been distin- guished, prospered in an extraordinary degree. Foreign commerce (for the Navigation Act was set at naught) sprung up with surprising rapidity; fish and furs were exported in quantities; and lumber, which, by the then recent invention of saw-mills, was prepared with unaccustomed ease from the almost exhaustless forests of Maine and New Hampshire, had already assumed high importance as an article of traffic. CHAPTER ¥11. CONDITION OF THE NEW ENGLAND INDIANS: CONVERSION OF SOME OF THEM: THEIR NUMBERS AND STRENGTH. THE POKANOKETS. MET ACOMET, OR KING PHILIP: HIS GRIEVANCES: DISSIMULATION: SCHEME FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENGLISH. CAPTAIN CHURCH: HIS CHARACTER, ETC.: HE DIS- CONCERTS AN INTRIGUE OF PHILIP. Though liable to the imputation of blame, for too persistent en- croachment, even under the guise of purchase, upon the domains of the native tribes adjoining them, the English colonists, to their credit, were sincerely desirous of civilizing and converting their 148 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED Indian neighbours. Many of the latter, by the praiseworthy pams of their white friends, had learned to read and write, and one of them even graduated at the university of Cambridge. The mission ary labours of the admirable John Eliot and of the two Mayhews, had been crowned with much success in their conversion. The for- mer, with wonderful patience and diligence, had even prepared and published, for their benefit, a translation of the Bible, in the Indian tongue. The race for whose salvation this pious and laborious monument of learning was erected, has passed entirely away. The Bible may still be found on the shelf of an ancient library, but no man living is able to peruse it. Around Boston, and on the cape and its adjoining islands, villages of "praying Indians" had been established, and friendship with the settlers had been thus confirmed and strengthened. But the powerful tribe of the Narragansetts, and that of the Pokanokets, at this time (1675) nearly as numerous, still clung, with a jealous fidelity, to the religion of their fathers. In 1675, the number of Indians in New England was roughly computed at fifty thousand. Unprincipled traders had supplied them with fire-arms, which they had learned to use with deadly accuracy, and the possession of which gave them a dangerous con- sciousness of power. Confined, in a good measure, by the continual extension of the English settlements, to peninsulas and necks of land on the coast, many of the tribes began to suffer from insufficient room to procure their customary subsistence. On the death of Massasoit, the earliest and firmest friend of the English, his son, Wamsutta, or, as he was called by the latter, Alex- ander, succeeded him in the sway of the Pokanokets. Only a few months after his accession, on some vague suspicion, he was seized by a party of English, and carried prisoner into Plymouth, where, in a few days, he died of a fever, brought on by anger and irritation. His brother, Metacomet, more commonly known as the famous King Philip, succeeded to the throne, and, from profound policy, main- tained an appearance of great friendship for the whites. For nine years, with extraordinary dissimulation, though cherishing feelings of revenge for the death of his brother, and the encroachments on his territory, he maintained the appearance of amity. Some disputes, indeed,- caused by the latter grievance, as early as 1671, had occur- red; and Philip, strangely enough, subscribed a set of articles, yielding almost every point in question, and, in a manner, "deliver- ing himself, body and soul, into the hands of the Plymouth author- NEW ENGLAND. 149 ities. His motive, doubtless, was to blind bis enemies as to tbe extent and dangerous nature of tbe conspiracy be was meditating. His plan was nothing less tban tbe complete extermination of tbe whites, and in its prosecution be displayed a policy, courage, and perseverance, wbicb, in a savage, have never been surpassed. To knit the clans of New England, immemonally dissevered by tra- ditional feud and enmity, into a confederacy against a foe so terrible as the English, might well have seemed to the most sanguine a hope- less task ; yet such was the object to which Philip bent all his policy and energy, and in which, to a great extent, he succeeded." Argu- ment, persuasion, and menace, were each, in turn, applied with the utmost adroitness. In the spring of 1675, he sent six ambassadors to Awashonks, queen of the Sogkonates, demanding, on pain of his own vengeance, and of exposure (by an artful device) to the resentment of the Eng- lish themselves, that the tribe should join his league. A solemn dance was appointed, to decide the question, and Awashonks, that the opposite party might not be unrepresented, sent for her neigh- bour, Captain Benjamin Church, the only white man in her domains. This celebrated man, one of the most famous Indian fighters in New England history, had just settled in the wilderness of Sogkonatet "He was a man of undaunted courage, of a sagacity fitted to cope with the wiliest tactics of Indian warfare, and, withal, of a kindly and generous disposition, which, except when engaged in immediate hostilities, seem to have secured for him the respect and attachment of the wild tribes which he so often encountered. His narrative,* written in his old age, by his son, from his own notes and dictation, is one of the choicest fragments of original history in our possession. As a literary performance, it is just respectable; but for vividness of detail and strength of expression, it is something more, and may well be entitled to rank with such rude but stirring productions as the 'True Conquest' of Bernal Diaz, and the 'True Adventures' of Captain John Smith." On his arrival, a grand council was held, at which the six Warn- panoags appeared in great state, making, says Church, "a formidable appearance, with their faces painted, and their hair trimmed back in comb fashion, with their powder-horns and shot-bags at their backs, which among that nation is the posture and figure of preparedness for war." A fierce discussion ensued, and a privy counsellor, named * "The Entertaining History of King Philip's War." 150 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Little Eyes, attempted to draw Church aside, xo privately dispatch him, but was prevented by others. The Englishman, with great coldness, advised Awashonks, "to knock those six Mount Hopes* on the head, and shelter herself under the protection of the English Upon which, the Mount Hopes were for the present dumb." He then sharply rebuked them, as faithless wretches, thirsting for the blood of their neighbours, and assured them, that if they would have war, he should prove a sharp thorn in their sides. The queen and her people, overmastered by his eloquence and energy, dismissed the embassy, and, for a time, observed neutrality, if not fidelity. COMMENCEMENT OF PHILIP'S WAR. — EXPLOIT OF CHURCH — RETREAT OF THE INDIANS. PHILIP ROUSES THE TRIBES. — DESTRUCTION OF TOWNS, ETC. THE ATTACK ON HADLEY: REPULSED BY GOFFE. GREAT LOSSES OF THE ENGLISH. SPRINGFIELD BURNED. It was soon evident that Philip was preparing for active war. He sent all the women and children of his tribe into the Narragansett country, and held a great dance, lasting for several weeks, with all the warriors of his neighbourhood. The first blow was struck on the 24th of June, in an attack on the little town of Swansey. Nine of the settlers were killed, and the rest fled, while the Indians fired . their deserted dwellings. Soldiers were sent from Massachusetts, and Church, with a company from Plymouth, hastened to the fron- tier. Philip was compelled to flee, but only to ravage the country in other remote spots. Church, with only nineteen men, holding on in pursuit, at last, on the site of the present town of Tiverton, fell in with three hundred of the enemy. "The hill," he tells us, "seemed to move, being covered over with Indians, with their bright guns glittering in the sun, and running in a circumference with a design to surround them." From a place of vantage, the English defended themselves with much courage and desperation till taken off by a vessel which came to their aid, covering their * So called, from Mount Hope, the favourite seat of Philip. NEW ENGLAND. 151 embarkation with her fire. When all were on board but Church, that daring man, who- had left his hat and cutlass by a spring, de- clared he would never leave them as trophies for the enemy. Load- ing his gun with his last charge of powder, he went back, and brought them off, amid a shower of bullets, some of which grazed his person. The English forces, at last uniting, after some indecisive engage- ments, compelled Philip and his warriors to take refuge in a great swamp at Pocasset; their camp, consisting of a hundred new wig- wams, being deserted. A great number of Indians, who had sur- rendered under fair promises, were treacherously transported as slaves — a piece of perfidious cruelty against which Church vainly remonstrated. That active officer, if permitted, could at this time, probably, by a close pursuit of the Indians, have ended the war, but he was continually thwarted and embarrassed by the inactivity and obstinacy of his superiors. Defeated, with a loss of thirty warriors, in another engagement, Philip fled westward, and excited the remoter tribes to warfare. Numbers of the English were killed, and several flourishing villages on the frontier were burned. In Brookfield, however, a small force, under Captain Wheeler, besieged in a building, held out for two days against several hundred savages, who, after losing, it is said, eighty of their number, were compelled by the arrival of reinforce- ments to raise the siege. "From this time, an almost continual suc- cession of Indian attacks and massacres occurred, and town after town was laid in ashes. Aided by the continually exciting causes of enmity, developed by war with a foe so indefinite as 'the Indians,' Philip had succeeded in awaking a general hostility among the numerous tribes of the frontier. It was supposed that he was present at many of the scenes of midnight assault and massacre which, at that time, filled New England with alarm; but it is certain that he was seldom recognised. Once, it is said, he was seen at a successful attack, riding on a black horse, leaping fences, and exulting in the scene of destruction ; and again, that he once ordered an arm-chair to be brought forth, that he might enjoy at his ease the conflagra- tion of a village." On the 1st of September, a simultaneous attack was made on Hadley and Deerfield, the latter of which was mostly destroyed. The people of Hadley assembled at their meeting-house, armed as usual; but, taken by surprise at the unexpected assault of the savages, would probably have been overwhelmed, but for an unexpected 152 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. assistance. An old man, with long white hair, dressed in the fash- ion of a former day, suddenly appeared, and assumed the command. By his courage and skillful strategy, he put the enemy to flight, and then disappeared as suddenly and mysteriously as he came. Many of the people supposed him to be an angel, providentially sent to their aid; but he was, in reality, Major-General Goffe, one of the regicide judges, who, with his companion, Whalley, had been con- cealed for ten years in the cellar of Mr. Russell, minister of the town. "There are few incidents in history more striking than that of the old soldier, so long immured in this dismal habitation, roused once more by the clash of arms and the discharge of musketry, to mingle, for the last time, in the half-forgotten scenes of combat, and then shrinking back for ever into the gloom and twilight of his subter- ranean abode." Thirty-six men, dispatched to the relief of Northfield, (where a number of the people had been slain,) were mostly cut off by an am- buscade, and a hundred more, consisting of the finest young men in the country, marching to Deerfield, under Captain Lathrop, sur- rounded by an overwhelming force of the enemy, after a desperate defence, were all killed, except seven or eight. Thirty houses were burned at Springfield, together with "the brave library" of Eev. Pelatiah Glover, which had once been carried to a place of safety — "but the said minister, a great student, and an helluo librorum, being impatient for want of his books, brought them back, to his great sorrow, for a bonfire for the proud insulting enemy. Of all the mis- chiefs," continues Eev. Mr. Hubbard, ("Indian Wars,") "done by the said enemy before that day, the burning of this said town of Springfield did more than any other discover the said actors to be the children of the devil, full of all subtlety and malice," &c, &c. The sympathy of the learned and studious may well travel back a couple of centuries, to condole with the unfortunate scholar, widowed of his library — his loss irreparable — bookless — in the American wilderness. NEW ENGLAND. 153 PHILIP'S W A R , CONTINUED. — DESTRUCTION OP THE JSAE- R AG AN SETT FORT: TERRIBLE MASSACRE. MALIGNANT EXULTATION OP THE EARLY HISTORIANS. INDIAN SUC- CESSES. — CAPTURE AND DEATH OP CANONCHET: HIS HEROISM AND MAGNANIMITY. — DIPLOMACY OF CHURCH. At Hatfield, in October, the garrison and town's people beat off a body of seven or eight hundred savages who attacked the place ; and during the beginning of the ensuing winter, little was done by either party, the Indians suffering greatly from want and exposure. Philip and his warriors, it was supposed, had taken refuge with the Narragansetts. The English now resolved to crush this latter tribe, as the most easily accessible, on account of the shelter they had afforded to the enemy. Five hundred soldiers, under command of Josias Window, governor of Plymouth, were dispatched against the devoted tribe, and on the afternoon of December 19th, a bitter win- ter's day, after a forced march, arrived at their principal fort. It was built on a plateau of elevated ground in a great swamp, and the only access to it was by the trunk of a large tree, lying in the water. Across this bridge of peril, the assailants, with much loss, made their way, and after a desperate battle within, lasting for some hours, firing the fort, renewed the terrible tragedy of Groton. Seven hundred of the Narragansett warriors are said to have fallen in the fight, and nearly half that number afterwards perished of their wounds. "The number of old men, women, and children," says Rev. Mr. Hubbard, "that perished either by fire, or that were starved with cold and hunger, none could tell." "They were ready," he narrates, in a strain of disgusting levity, "to dress their dinner, but our sudden and unexpected assault put them beside that work, making their cook-rooms too hot for them at that time when they and their mitchen fried together : And probably some of them eat their suppers in a colder place that night, most of their provisions as well as huts being consumed by fire, and those that were left alive forced to hide themselves in a cedar swamp, not far off, where they had nothing to defend them from the cold but boughs of spruce and pine trees!" 154 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. The defeated nation did not fall unavenged, eighty of the English being slain outright, and an hundred and fifty wounded, many of whom perished on the return march, rendered terrible by the sever- ity of the season, and the want of proper supplies. Canonchet, (the son of Mian to ni mo,) the brave young sachem of the Narragansetts, with the relics of his force, took refuge in the west, where, in con- cert with Philip, he planned schemes of vengeful reprisal. Lan- caster and Medfield (the latter only twenty miles from Boston) were burned, and nearly a hundred of the settlers were killed or carried off. Portions of Providence and We v mouth were also destroved, and two companies, each of fifty men, were successively "swallowed up" by the victorious enemy. The first check to this spirited renewal of the war, was the cap- ture of the brave Canonchet, who, having raised a force of many hundred men, to ensure provision for their support, had ventured eastward with a few warriors, to procure seed for plantation. He was shot at Stonington, having "refused to purchase his life by pro- curing the submission of his injured tribe; and met his death with the highest courage and fortitude — a true patriot, and a hero, whose soul, to judge from his brief sayings, was cast in an almost class- ical mould." "This," says Mr. Hubbard, "was the confusion" (confounding) "of a damned wretch, that had often opened his mouth to blas- pheme the name of the living God, and those that make profession thereof. He was told at large of his breach of faith, and how he had boasted that he would not deliver up a Wampanoag nor the paring of a Wampanoag } s nail, that he would burn the English alive in their houses; to which he replied, others ivere as forward for the war as himself, and he desired to hear no more thereof. And when he was told his sentence was to die, he said, he liked it well, that he should die before his heart was soft, or he had spoken anything unworthy of him- self He told the English before they put him to death, that the Icilling him would not end the war; but it was a considerable step thereunto." In the spring of 1676, the war continued to rage, several desperate actions being fought, with alternate success — part of Plymouth and other towns being burned, and great loss resulting to both parties. The Indians, indeed, suffered grievously from cold and hunger; and a force of cavalry, from Connecticut, aided by a body of Mohegans, was very effectually employed against them. Two hundred were NEW ENGLAND. 155 made, prisoners on one occasion; five or six hundred surrendered on it doubtful promise of mercy; and many migrated to tne west. Philip and his people still held out, and kept the settlements in continual dread of attack. His final defeat and destruction was due to the energy of Captain (afterwards colonel) Church, who had per- formed active service during the war, and who, immediately on recovering from his wounds, devoted himself to the task of bringing it to an end. The Sogkonates, at this time, were in alliance with Philip, and to detach them from the hostile league, with only a single companion the captain boldly ventured into their country. He narrowly escaped with his life from the vengeance of some of them, but, by his persuasions and arguments, at last so completely won the confi- dence of the tribe, that the chief warrior rose, and placed himself and all the rest at his disposal, saying, "We will help }-ou to Philip's head, ere the Indian corn be ripe." With an extraordinary savage pantomime, the clan performed the ceremony of swearing allegiance to their new commander, and the desertion of these allies, we are told, "broke Philip's heart as soon as he understood it, so as he never rejoiced after, or had success in any of his designs." CHAPTER X PHILIP'S WAR, CONTINUED, SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN OP CHURCH. DEFEAT AND CAPTURE OF THE SAVAGES. PHILIP'S DESPAIR: HE RETREATS TO MOUNT HOPE: IS DEFEATED AND SLAIN: BARBAROUS EXPOSURE OF HIS REMAINS: HIS CHARACTER. With an English force, and a considerable number of Indian war- riors, Church, in June, 1676, commenced an active campaign against the enemy, scouring the woods in all directions, and killing or making prisoners of great numbers of the hostile savages. "In the midst of this uncompromising warfare, we find him exhibiting a humanity and good faith uncommon at the time, using every exer- tion to prevent torture and cruelty, and vehemently protesting against any ill usage of the natives who surrendered. Once he fell 156 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. in with Little. Eves, (who would have killed him at Awashonk's dance,) and his Indians wished him to be revenged. 'But the Cap- tain told them it was not Englishmen's fashion to seek revenge/ and took especial care for his safety and protection." The finest of his captives he selected for his own service, and, singular to state, such was the fascination of his manner, and his acquaintance with the Indian character, that he generallj' converted these recruits into devoted followers. Pursuing the enemy into the Narragansett's country, "he came to Taunton river, over which the Indians had felled a large tree for the purpose of crossing. On the stump, at the opposite side, sat a solitary warrior. Church quietly raised his gun, but was prevented from firing by the suggestion that it was a friend. The Indian, aroused by the noise, looked up. It was Philip himself, musing drearily, no doubt, on the fallen fortunes of his race. Ere a gun could again be levelled, he sprang up, and bounded like a deer into the forest." Closelj' following his track, the English at last came up with the relics of the enemy, who were posted in a swamp. The latter, after a sharp skirmish, were defeated, and an hundred and seventy-three, including women and children, were taken captive. Philip and most of his warriors escaped, but his wife and child were among the prisoners. The latter described his condition as forlorn in the extreme, and said, that after this last misfortune, he was quite inconsolable. "The unhappy sachem, after seeing his followers, one after an- other, fall before the English, or desert his failing cause, had betaken himself, like some wild animal hard driven by the hunters, to his ancient haunt, the former residence of his father, the friendly Mas- sasoit. " In all the pleasant region washed by the circling Narragan- sett, there is no spot more beautiful than that miniature mountain, the home of the old sachems of the Wampanoags. But with what feelings the last of their number, a fugitive before inveterate foes and recreant followers, looked on the pleasant habitation of his fathers, may more easily be imagined than described. Still, he sternly rejected all proposals for peace, and even slew one of his own followers, who had ventured to speak of treaty with the Eng- lish. The brother of this victim, naturally enraged and alienated from his cause, at once deserted to the enemy, and gave the informa- tion which led to his final ruin. "A few brave warriors yet remained faithful to him, and with N E W ENGLAND. 157 these and then* women and children, he had taken refuge in a swamp hard by the mountain, on a little spot of rising ground. In that troubled night, the last of his life, the sachem, we are told, had dreamed of his betrayal,* and awaking early, was recounting the vision to his companions, when the foe came suddenly upon him. His old enemy, Church, who was familiar with the ground, coming np quietly in the darkness of night, had posted his followers, both English and Indian, so as, if possible, to prevent any from escaping. The result was almost immediate. After several volleys had been rapidly fired, Philip, attempting to gain a secure position, came in range of an ambush, and was instantly shot through the heart by one Alderman, an Indian under Church's command. He fell on his face with his gun under him, and died without a struggle. (August 12, 1676.)"f Most of the warriors, under old Annawon, Philip's chief captain, made their escape. The body of the unfortunate sachem was drawn from the swamp, a spectacle of exultation for "the army;" and Church, following the barbarous fashion of the time, declared "that, forasmuch as he had caused many an Englishman's body to be unburied and to rot above ground, no one of his bones should be buried." "This Agag" says Cotton Mather, spitefully enough, " was now cut into quarters, which were then hanged up, while his head was carried in triumph to Plymouth, where it arrived on the very day that the church there was keeping a solemn thanksgiving to God. God sent 'em the head of a leviathan for a thanksgiving feast." The festivity of the modern observance of the same name, it is certain, could hardly be enhanced by the arrival of a human head, even though it were that of a brave and inveterate foe. "The ghastly relic was long exposed in that town, an object of mingled horror and satisfaction to the citizens ; and when the flesh was fallen away, and the dry jaw could be rattled with the skull, a ^rave historian records with satisfaction his odious trifling with the remains, which, in their life-time, he would not have dared to ap- proach 'for all below the moon.' The only reward allotted to the victors was a bounty of thirty shillings on the head of every slain Indian; and Church, with some reason, complains that Philip's was * Mr. Hubbard, for a wonder, does not fully adopt this account, but dismisses it parenthetically, " (whether the devil appeared to him in a dream that night, as he did unto Saul (!) foreboding his tragical end, it matters not,") &c., &c. + Discoverers, &c, of America. 153 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. rated no higher than the rest. The sinewy right hand of the sachem, much scarred by the bursting of a pistol, was given to Alderman, l to show to such gentlemen as would bestow gratuities upon him ; and accordingly he got many a penny by it.'* "Thus died Philip of Pokanoket, the last sachem of the Wampa- noags, the originator and the head of that terrible confederacy which so long kept New England in dread and consternation, and which, at one time, seemed almost to threaten its entire destruction. He was, undoubtedly, a man far superior to the generality of his race, in boldness, sagacity, and policy; his powers of persuasion were extra- ordinary; and the terrifying results of his enmity sufficiently evinced the ambitious nature of his scheme, and the genius with which it was conducted. The division and barbarous exposure of his remains entailed disgrace, not on him, but on the authors of the profanation; his sufferings and the injuries of his family have awakened in suc- ceeding generations somewhat of that sympathy which is always due to misfortune; and though the defeated leader of a ruined confed- eration, his name, more than that of any other of the Indian race, has always excited the interest, if not the admiration of mankind."! PHILIP'S WAR, CONCLUDED. CAPTURE OF ANNAWOK AND HIS WARRIORS, BY CHURCH. ROMANTIC INCIDENTS. SUMMARY OP THE WAR. PHILIP'S SON. BARBAROUS POLICY OF THE VICTORS. MURDEROUS ADVICE. THE CHARACTER OF THE PURITANS. REFLECTIONS. Church, with a small force, followed closely on the track of Annawon and the few warriors whom death and desertion had yet left to maintain the ruined cause of the Pokanokets; and, after long and wearisome pursuit, at length learned from a captive the place of his retreat. In his eagerness to surprise the foe (who never camped two nights in the same place), with only half a dozen friendly In- dians, he set forth, with extraordinary boldness, on the adventure. * "Church's "Entertaining History." f Discoverers, &c , of America. NEW ENGLAND. 159 The bivouac of the fugitives was in a place of remarkable security and difficulty of access, yet the captain, with his allies, lowering themselves by bushes over the face of a precipitous rock, took the enemy, mostly sleeping, by surprise, and secured their guns, which were all stacked together at the head of Annawon. That redoubted warrior, his weapons lost, surrendered, and the rest followed his example, Church promising to use all his influence in behalf of their lives. "I am come to sup with you," he said, pleasantly, to Anna- won, and the latter bidding his women prepare a meal, the two cap- tains feasted together in perfect harmony. Did these limits allow, it would be pleasing to dwell on the romantic incidents of this most wonderful surprise; how the whole company, wearied with pursuit and flight, were soon wrapped in slumber, all but the two leaders, who lay looking at each other by the glimmering light of the embers ; how Annawon arose and dis- appeared in the darkness, but ere long returned, bearing a powder- horn, a scarlet blanket, and two splendid belts of wampum, the regalia of the unfortunate Philip; how he solemnly invested Church with these royalties, as the victor over the last of the hostile tribe; and how, in the words of the captain, u they spent the remainder of the night in discourse, and Annawon gave an account of what mighty success he had formerly in wars against many nations of Indians, when he served Asuhmequin," (Massasoit,) "Philip's father." This exploit ended Philip's war — a war which, though it lasted only a year and a half, seemed almost to threaten the destruction of New England. Thirteen towns had been laid in ashes, and many others partially destroyed, six hundred dwellings, in all, being burned by the enemy. Six hundred Englishmen had lost their lives, and the prosperity of the whole country had been grievously checked and retarded. But if misfortune was experienced by the victors, utter ruin and almost annihilation awaited the vanquished. In war, in conflagration, by starvation and cold, such vast numbers had perished, that the effective force of the hostile tribes was com- pletely broken, and many of them were nearly extinguished. With the great number of prisoners, and the almost equally numerous portion, who surrendered on the promise or in the hope of mercy, a cruel and barbarous policy was adopted. The chief warriors were put to death; among them, Annawon, whose life Church vainly endeavoured to save, as well from good faith and humanity, as for the value of his services in future warfare. The rest, with the Vol. IV.— 39 160 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. women and cliildren, were made slaves, most of them being trans- ported and sold in the West Indies. "In regard to the son of Philip, (a child only nine years old,) the authorities seem to have been greatly exercised in spirit. There were so many nice precedents for his execution to be found in Scripture, and security, as well as vengeance, would be satisfied by the destruction of the whole house of their dreaded enemy. Nothing can better show the venomous spirit of the times, or the depraving influence of a barbarous theology, than the following extract from a letter, written by Eev. Increase Mather, the minister of Boston, to his friend, Mr. Cotton: 'If it had not been out of my mind, when I was writing, I should have said something about Philip's son. It is necessary that some effectual course should be taken about him. He makes me think of Iladad, who was a little child when his father (the chief sachem of the Edomites) was killed by Joab, and had not others fled away with him, I am apt to think, that David would have taken a course that Hadad should never have proved a scourge to the next generation.' More humane counsels, however, prevailed, and the poor child was only shipped as a slave to Bermuda! "Incidents, such as these, commonly suppressed by popular writers, are not uselessly recalled, in obtaining a just view of the spirit of the past. With all honour to the truly-great and respectable quali- ties of our New England ancestors — to their courage, their con- stancy, their morality, and their devotion — it is useless to disguise the fact that, in the grand essentials of charity and humanity, they were no wise in advance of their age, and in the less essential, but not less desirable articles of amenity and magnanimity, most de- cidedly behind it. But a certain infusion of disagreeable qualities seems almost an inseparable constituent of that earnestness, which alone can successfully contend with great obstacles, either human or natural — with civil tyranny and religious persecution — with the privations and dangers of the wilderness, and the unsparing enmity of its savage inhabitants. "The communities, founded by men thus strongly but imperfectly moulded, have, with the genial influence of time, and by the admira- ble elements of freedom contained in their origin, gradually grown into a commonwealth, freer from the errors which disgraced their founders than any other on the face of the earth. Their prejudice has become principle, their superstition has refined into religion; and their very bigotry has softened down to liberality. While NEW ENGLAND. 161 enjoying the results of this ameliorating process, their descendants may well be charitable to those whose footsteps not only broke through the tangled recesses of the actual forest, but who, in tread- ing pathways through the moral wilderness, occasionally stum- bled, or left behind them a track too rugged or too tortuous to be followed."* RENEWED INTERFERENCE OF THE CROWN IN MASSACHU- SETTS. — SEVERANCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: ATTEMPT TO TYRANNIZE THERE: ITS FAILURE. — ACTION OF MAS- SACHUSETTS. — PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ITS CHARTER. — VAIN OPPOSITION AND REMONSTRANCE. — THE CHARTER ANNULLED. The English government, gaining courage from the gradual estab- lishment of arbitrary power at home, and still desirous to curb the growing spirit of independence in Massachusetts, in 1676, dis- patched thither Edward Kandolph as its special agent. This func- tionary was coldly received by the provincial authorities, who again explicitly denied the right of the crown or the parliament to inter- meddle with its government. Returning, after a sojourn of only six weeks, to England, he excited the jealousy and inflamed the cupidity of the court by very exaggerated accounts of its wealth and population. By a decision of the privy council, the claim of Mas- sachusetts, certainly rather untenable, to jurisdiction over Maine and New Hampshire, was set aside. Nevertheless, by purchase from the heirs of the patentee (Gorges) she speedily again got possession of great part of the former province; and, whereas it had formerly been considered an integral part of her dominion, it was now gov- erned as a mere colony of Massachusetts, the officers being appointed by those of that state. This change naturally led to much discon- tent, the manifestation of which, however, was forcibly suppressed by the new claimant of sovereignty. In New Hampshire, severed from Massachusetts, a direct royal * Discoverers, &c., of America. 162 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. government was set up, the offices of president, &c., being filled b/ the act of the crown. A popular assembly was allowed, which, at its first meeting (1680), took occasion to assert the independence of the province, declaring that no law or ordinance should be valid unless "made by the assembly and approved by the people." The patentee, at issue with the colonists on matters of title, procured for himself the authority of appointing a governor. Cranfield, the per- son selected, a man of rapacious and arbitrary disposition, hastened to the infant colony, in strong hopes of making a fortune at the expense of its inhabitants. Disappointed in his expectations, he committed a thousand rash and tyrannical acts, continually inter- fering in matters beyond his authority, both civil and religious, and striving, on false and impudent pretexts, to wring money from the slenderly-filled purses of the settlers. To these exactions the assem- bly and people opposed as determined a resistance — a resistance which the latter finally carried to the extreme of openly maltreating his officers; and, with his hopes of plunder and profit almost quite ungratified, he returned to England, bearing a malicious report of the condition of the province. In view of the prospective danger to the liberties of Massachusetts, a general synod of all the churches was convoked, while the general court, by some formal enactments, in testimony of its loyalty, sought to avert the royal displeasure. The king's arms were put up on the court-house, and two or three acts in support of the royal dignity were passed; and, though the Navigation Act was expressly de- clared illegal and not binding, the general court, by an act of its own, rendered its provisions valid and effective. The king, who certainly exhibited considerable moderation, twice again dispatched a message of remonstrance to Massachusetts on its opposition to the home-government, and it was evident that extreme measures would finally be resorted to. The province, in 1682, dispatched agents to England to defend its interests ; and, if possible, to bribe the king into protecting them. Their mission was in vain; and that the charter was in danger, was evident from the systematic warfare against civic corporations then being waged by the court in England. Great agitation pervaded the province. Maine was surrendered, but it. was resolved to hold the charter as long as possible. Legal proceedings were commenced against its holders in the English courts; and the judges, in those times, being generally mere creatures of the crown, only one issue could be looked for. The NEW ENGLAND. 163 king, at this juncture, once more suggested the wis lorn of a direct submission, promising, on that condition, his favour, and as little infringement on their charter as might consist with the right of his government. Judging from the fate of the civic corporations in England, (for even London had been compelled to succumb before the royal power,) the prospect of successful resistance in the courts of law appeared entirely hopeless. The governor and magistrates accordingly resolved at last to try the effect of an unqualified sub- mission, and throw themselves on the king's forbearance. A proposal that agents, to receive the royal commands, should be dis- patched to England, was sent in to the house of deputies; but that more popular body, after an animated debate of a fortnight, refused, by their own act, to sanction the surrender of their liberties. The successful opposition of former times was recalled, and it was even urged as a matter of religion not voluntarily to put the state into the hands of a power inimical to its professed faith. With extraor- dinary firmness and spirit, they resolved to make no voluntary sacrifice, and only to fall, as a body politic, before the pressure, of superior power. The latter result must have been foreseen. Ke- monstrance to the king proved fruitless; and in June, 1684, the English judges, then, as from the earliest times, mere agents to effect the pleasure of the crown, declared the charter forfeited. Thus, for a time, fell the independence of Massachusetts — an independence, it must be owned, at times, ungraciously asserted and arbitrarily exer- cised; but of which the main defects lay in the fact that it was an independence rather in name than in fact; the authority of the magistrates, and the overshadowing influence of the church, consti- tuting a species of mingled aristocracy and theocracy sufficiently repugnant to more enlightened ideas of freedom. Yet, doubtless, even this imperfect form of liberty and self-government was in the highest degree useful in training the minds of the colonists to a jealousy of foreign power, and fostering the germ of a firmer and more liberal national spirit. SETTLEMENT OF THE CAEOLINAS. FAILURE TO PLANT COLONIES IN THE SOUTH. — EMIGRATION FROM VIRGINIA TO NORTH CAROLINA: FROM BARBADOES TO SOUTH CAROLINA. — THE PATENT OF CHARLES II. — LEGISLATION OF LOCKE AND SHAFTESBURY. — CUM- BROUS SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. — DISCONTENT OF THE SETTLERS. — INSURRECTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. — SOTHEL DEPOSED BY THE PEO- PLE. — CHARLESTON FOUNDED. — CON- STITUTION OF LOCKE RELINQUISHED. The first attempt of the English to found a settlement in America had been made in the mild regions lying south of Virginia. The disastrous failure of that attempt (Raleigh's), combined with the diffi- culty of access and a dread of Spanish cruelty, had retarded any further effort in the same direction ; and while the bleaker and less fertile provinces of the north were rapidly filling up with continued emigration, no enterprise was directed to the rich soil and genial climate of the south. Sir Robert Heath, in 1630, indeed, obtained of Charles L a patent for the foundation of a colony there ; but this instrument, from his failure to effect a settlement, became forfeited. Colonists from Virginia, between the years 1640 and 1650, suffer- ing from religious intolerance, took refuge beyond the borders of that province, and formed settlements on the northern shores of Albemarle Sound — since known as North Carolina. By the fertility of the soil and the mildness of the winters, they soon lived in ease, their cattle and swine finding subsistence in the natural products of the country; and their numbers were yearly increased by fresh emigration. Some adventurers from Massachusetts, in 1661, made an attempt to found a settlement near Cape Fear; but the experi- ment proved unsuccessful. Their places were, however, supplied by a party of emigrants from Barbadoes, who proceeded to the same SETTLEMENT OF THE CAEOLINAS. \§§ region, and planted a colony there, selecting as their governor Sir John Yeomans, one of their number. Among the lavish grants which distinguished the administration of Charles II., was one, in 1663, to the Duke of Albemarle (Gen Monk), Lord Ashley Cooper (afterwards the famous Earl of Shaftes- bury), to Berkely, the governor of Virginia, and others, conveying to them all Carolina, from the thirty-sixth degree of latitude to the river San Matheo. The patentees, desirous to people their vast ter- ritory, gave much encouragement to those who had already settled there, assuring them of considerable political privileges; and Berkely, bringing additional emigrants from Virginia to North Carolina, settled them under the popular rule of Drummond. By a fresh patent, issued in 1665, the proprietors, their claims extended westward across the entire continent, were empowered to create titles and to institute orders of nobility. This singular priv- ilege was granted, in order that an elaborate constitution, devised by Shaftesbury and the celebrated Locke, might be carried into effect. By this extraordinary instrument, the fruit, doubtless, of painful ingenuity and labour, a system of government was set up, entirely without a precedent in the history of legislation. Its main feature was a hereditary landed aristocracy, dependent on property alone for its right to rule. The territory was divided into counties, of four hundred and eighty thousand acres each, in each of which were to be appointed one landgrave, or earl, and two caciques, or barons. All power was lodged in the holders of real estate, and the proprietors were always to continue exactly eight in number, neither more nor less. With a childish minuteness, the details of pedigree, of fashion, and ceremony, were made the especial province of one of these dignitaries. Such was the constitution, carefully elaborated by the most philosophical mind of the age, which yet, from the unfamiliarity of its author with the practical workings of political machinery, and the needs of a new country, never took practical effect, and soon lapsed into neglect and abrogation. The colonists at Albemarle, who had already adopted a simple code of laws for their own government, received with much disgust the aristocratic and complicated system which the proprietors had devised; and the latter, not to increase the popular discontent, did not press the immediate adoption of all its particulars. They in- sisted, however, on establishing a provisional government, but with- out success ; for the people, dissatisfied, imprisoned their collector 166 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. and other officers, seized the public funds, and took all the functions of government into their own hands. Their chief leader, who pro- ceeded to England to defend their cause, was there tried for treason, and was acquitted only by the eloquence and influence of Shaftes- bury, who considered the insurrection as rather a dispute among the colonists themselves than a revolution against the home gov- ernment. The better to carry out their obnoxious constitution, the proprie- tors next sent out Seth Sothel, one of their own number, as gov- ernor. This man, corrupt and greedy, for six years mismanaged the affairs of the province, enriching himself by bribes and extortion. At the end of that time the people put him under arrest, and the assembly tried him and banished him from the province. The pro- prietors, however ill pleased at the independence of that body, could not deny the justice of the sentence. They approved the measure, and appointed Philip Ludwell as his successor. In 1670, they dispatched a body of emigrants, under William Sayle, to Port Royal, in South Carolina. In the following year, dissatisfied with the situation, he removed the settlement to the neck of land lying between the rivers Ashley and Cooper, where he founded a settlement named Charleston, in honour of the king, and since known as one of the fairest and wealthiest of southern cities. At his death, which occurred not long after, Sir John Yeomans, already, for some years, governor at Cape Fear, was appointed in his place; and the new settlement gradually absorbed into itself the colonists from that region. A separate government thus established over the two colonies, the names of North and South Carolina came into common usage. Yeomans, accused of converting his office into an instrument for his own profit, was replaced by West, under whose popular rule the colony continued to increase and prosper. The proprietors, indeed, reaped no fruits from their enterprise, having expended large sums without getting any return. Dutch emigrants, both from New York and the mother-country, attracted by the mildness of the climate and the political freedom enjoyed by the settlers, resorted to South Carolina; and the oppression of the French Protestants, under Louis XIY., also induced numbers of the persecuted sect to take refuge there. In 1686, James Colleton, a brother of one of the proprietors, was appointed governor, with the title of landgrave. Popular discon- SETTLEMENT OF THE CAEOL1N AS. 167 tent, especially at the elaborate and aristocratic system devised by Locke, was not long in making its demonstration; and the new governor was soon involved in disputes with the colonists. An assembly, elected expressly to resist him, met in 1687; and three years afterwards, an act was passed for his banishment from the province. The English revolution of 1688 had saved the proprie- tors from a seizure of their charter by the crown. On learning these news, they sent out Ludwell to examine the affairs of Caro- lina,' and to report grievances. Such was the discontent manifested toward the constitution, that it was thought wisest to relinquish it; and, accordingly, in 1693, the whole cumbrous system, with its child's-play at nobility, and its attempt to create institutions which can be made respectable only by long usage and national association, was entirely abrogated and done away. VIRGINIA, CONTINUED. CHAPTER 1. RETROGRADE MOVEMENTS IN VIRGINIA. — REVIVAL OF INTOL- ERANCE AND OPPRESSION. — GRANT OF VIRGINIA TO CUL- PEPPER AND ARLINGTON.' — POPULAR DISCONTENT. — INDIAN WAR. — MURDER OF THE CHIEFS. — INSURREC- TION UNDER BACON. — TRIUMPH OF THE PEOPLE. The unfavourable effect of the Kestoration on Virginia has been mentioned. The renewal and enforcement of the Navigation Act fettered her rapidly increasing commerce, and the triumph of roy- alty at home was followed by that of tyranny and intolerance in the provincial government. The great number of servants, or slaves, in effect, for a term of years, who had been brought from England, even after their emancipation, constituted an inferior and uneducated class, easily kept down by an aristocracy of masters and slaveholders, whose power in the state was continually on the increase. There seems to have been even a systematic desire among the government party to keep a portion of the colonists in depend- ent ignorance. Berkeley thanks God that free-schools or printing presses were unknown in Virginia, and says he hopes there will be none this hundred years; "for learning," he sagely remarks, "has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing hath divulged them," &c. Negro slavery, by this time considerably on the increase, was absolute, the control of the master being almost unfettered by any law of restraint. The Episcopal church was established as the religion of the state ; and persecution of dissenters, especially of Baptists and Quakers, was revived. The assembly of burgesses appropriated extortionate sums for their own pay, as legislators, and, by refusing, for many years, to dissolve, set up a species of prescriptive government, little VIKGINI A. 169 short of actual usurpation. The fruit of trie royal triumph, in the domestic economy of "Virginia, was, in short, as accurately summed up by an elegant historian — "a political revolution, opposed to the principles of popular liberty and the progress of humanity. An assembly continuing for an indefinite period at the pleasure of the governor, and decreeing to its members extravagant and burden- some emoluments ; a royal governor, whose salary was established by a permanent system of taxation ; a constituency restricted and diminished ; religious liberty taken away almost as soon as it had been won; arbitrary taxation in the counties by irresponsible magistrates; a hostility to popular education and to the press; — these were the changes which, in about ten years, were effected in a province that had begun to enjoy the benefits of a virtual independ- ence and a gradually ameliorating legislation." Fresh misfortune awaited the colony in the rash liberality of Charles, who, in 1673, bestowed on Lord Culpepper and the Earl of Arlington, (the latter connected with him by a discreditable tie,) the entire control of Virginia for a term of thirty-one years. The assembly, on learning the news, fearing for the safety of their estates, dispatched agents to remonstrate with the crown, and to endeavour to obtain a charter for the colonial government; but their efforts, after a year's trial, proved ineffectual. The oppression to which the people of Virginia, after the restora- tion of loyal and aristocratic power, were subjected, at last drove them into open resistance. Discontented gatherings and a tendency to revolt had prevailed for some time; and, considering that the outrageous taxes levied by their rulers swallowed up nearly all their earnings and profits, it is remarkable how long they endured the usurpation of the authorities. An Indian war was the first cause of insurrection. Hostilities were carried on with the Susquehannahs and other tribes, both in Virginia and Maryland, and on one occa- sion, six chiefs, presenting themselves to treat of peace, were mur- dered by the enraged settlers. Berkeley, irascible, cruel, and tyran- nical, was not without feelings of honor. On hearing of the crime, he exclaimed, " If they had killed my father, and my mother, and all my friends, yet if they had come to treat of peace, they ought to have gone in peaca " The savages, their passions inflamed to madness at this piece of cruelty and ill faith, renewed hostilities with much fury, attacking the English plantations in Virginia, and wreaking a tenfold revenge 170 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. for the loss of their chiefs. The movement spread, and the people — their lives, by the insufficiency of the government, constantly ex- posed — demanded the permission to carry on the war themselves. But Berkeley, ever despising the popular opinion, and his interest, it is said, being enlisted in behalf of peace by a monopoly of the beaver-trade, which he held, stubbornly refused his consent. A general insurrection was the result. Under Nathaniel Bacon, an English planter, of wealth and influence, of high courage and inde- pendence, five hundred men assembled in arms, resolved on a cam- paign against the enemy. Berkeley, enraged, proclaimed them rebels, and was levying forces to suppress the movement, when a fresh and formidable insurrection of the people, who demanded the immediate dissolution of the assembly, compelled him to desist, and return to Jamestown. With almost the entire force of the people arrayed against them, the governor and the aristocracy were com- pelled to yield. The assembly, which had so long sat an incubus on the province, was dissolved, and on the election of a new one, Bacon (successful in his Indian campaign) and a majority of his partisans were returned as members. The successful leader ac- knowledged his error in acting without a commission, and, to the universal joy of the people, was appointed commander-in-chief. C 3? 'Jf 3E J 3»o THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY. — MEASURES OF REFORM. — OPPOSITION AND TREACHERY OF BERKELEY. — CIVIL WAR. — TRIUMPH OF THE INSURGENTS. — JAMESTOWN BURNED. — DEATH OF BA- CON: HIS CHARACTER. — RUIN OF THE POPULAR CAUSE. — NUMEROUS EXECUTIONS* — DEATH OF BERKELEY. — ADMINISTRATION OF CULPEPPER, ETC. The new assembly, with a rational and moderate zeal for reform, proceeded to pass many salutary acts, restricting the magistrates in their arbitrary and extortionate course, providing for the purity of elections, curtailing exorbitant fees and salaries, taking precautions against the spread of intemperance, and finally, by a general am- nesty, extinguishing, it was hoped, the seeds of civil conflagration, VIRGINIA. 171 The demeanour of the governor was dubious, and Bacon, leaving Jamestown, presently returned, at the head of five hundred deter- mined men, in whose presence resistance was in vain. Berkeley advanced to meet them, and, baring his breast, exclaimed, "A fair mark — shoot!" but Bacon told him that not a hair of his head or any man's should be hurt; and the passionate old governor, yielding to necessity, issued the required commission for war against the In- dians, and, with the council and assembly, even dispatched to Eng- land high commendations of the loyalty and patriotism of his rival. How insincere were his intentions is evident from the fact that, just as the province was regaining confidence, and Bacon com- mencing a campaign against the enemy, he repaired to Gloucester county, and again proclaimed him a traitor. The latter, in turn, summoned a convention of the principal persons of the colony at Wil- liamsburgh, when all present took oath to maintain the Indian war, and, if necessary, to support their leader against the governor him- self. The latter was endeavouring to levy an army on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, and, on the advice of Drummond, who had been governor of North Carolina, the governor's term having ex- pired, his retreat was held as an abdication, and a convention of the people was summoned for the settlement of the government. By the promise of plunder, and of freedom to the servants of his oppo- nents, Berkeley gathered, in Accomack, a large force, of the baser sort, with which, transported in fifteen vessels, he sailed for James- town. Landing, he fell on his knees, returning thanks to God, and forthwith again proclaimed Bacon and his followers traitors. The latter, after having made a successful expedition against the Indians, had disbanded his troops; but, on learning these tidings, with a small, but trusty body of followers, at once marched upon the capital. The ignoble forces of the governor showed more dis- position for plunder than fighting; and he was compelled to evacu- ate Jamestown by night, and take refuge, with his people, aboard the fleet. Bacon entered the deserted town the next day, and, as it was doubtful how long he could retain possession, it was resolved to burn it. This was accordingly done, some of his chief adherents firing their own houses, and the little capital, for seventy years the chief, nay, almost the only town in Virginia, was laid in ashes. The half-ruined church, still standing, is all that attests to the passing yoyager the former existence of the earliest of American settlements. After further and signal successes, the career of the insurgents 172 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. was brought to a sudden end by the untimely death of their gallant leader, who, on the 1st of October, 1676, perished of a disease con- tracted by exposure to the damp nights of that unhealthy region. His memory, if tarnished by some errors, will always be held in high respect, as that of the first leader in the cause of American independence. He was, it seems, brave in the field, eloquent in council, magnanimous, honourable. The liberal and moderate legis- lation of the party which he headed bears witness to his talent for government. The enthusiastic affection of his friends and followers evinces his amiable nature. That he was forced into insurrection and continued civil warfare was, doubtless, the fruit of the tyranny of the ascendant faction, and the ill faith of the arbitrary governor at its head. With Bacon expired the hope and success of the revolutionary party. Without a leader of talent or influence sufficient to combine them, the isolated and disorganized sections of that party were, in turn, defeated, and severally suppressed by the loyalists. Berkeley was restored to power, and, by frequent and merciless executions, evinced the natural cruelty of his disposition, and the tyrannical sentiment of the cause which he headed. Drummond, and more than twenty others, were hanged ; and nothing but a remonstrance from the assembly finally availed to stay the hand of the execu- tioner. Charles II. learned with much indignation of the sanguinary proceedings of his governor, and said that the old fool had taken more lives in the wilderness of Virginia than himself had for the murder of his father. In a proclamation, he severely censured these atrocities, and when Berkeley, not long after, returned to England, public opinion condemned him with equal severity. His death, which took place soon after his arrival, was probably hastened by a sense of the condemnation of the sovereign and the people. As usual on the suppression of any popular movement, the futile insurrection in Virginia only entailed fresh evils on the country, being made the pretext for refusing it a charter, and continuing its dependence on the crown. All the late acts of the reformed assem- bly were repealed, and all the ancient grievances and oppressions were reinstated. No printing was allowed, and freedom of speech was curtailed by grievous penalties. Excessive and arbitrary taxes were levied by the authorities, and the condition of the people, especially the poorer classes, was again that of subjection and oppression. VIRGINIA. 173 Not long after the departure of Berkeley, Lord Culpepper, one of the two patentees of Virginia, a man of grasping and avaricious nature, obtained from the crown an appointment as governor of that province for life. He arrived in 1680, desirous of nothing but of turning his office to profitable account. His salary was doubled, and, to the great grief of the planters, he had a law passed for levy- ing a perpetual export duty of two shillings on every hogshead of tobacco. After remaining in Virginia but a few months, just long enough to look out for his pecuniary interests, he took his departure for England. The misery of the province, consequent on its late disturbed condition, on the restriction of commerce, and the low price of its staple product, tobacco, produced disorder. Eiot and insubordination prevailed, and were suppressed by executions. Cul- pepper returned for a few months to reap all possible advantages from his patent, at the expense of the suffering colonists. In 1684, the obnoxious grant was annulled, and the government of Virginia was resumed by the crown. Effingham, the first royal governor, used his office only as a means of procuring petty emolu- ments, and thus rendered himself contemptible in the eyes of the people. The accession of James II., in the following year, and the ill-fated rebellion of Monmouth, increased the population of Vir- ginia, by a number of convicts, who, on the suppression of that movement, were bestowed by the king on his favourites, and by them, with shameless venality, were sold into slavery in America. Under the arbitrary rule of the new sovereign, scarcely a shadow of self-government was allowed to the people of Virginia. A feel- ing of resistance being manifested in the assembly, that body was dissolved; but the people, a spirit of liberty reawakened, assumed an attitude so insurrectionary, that the governor, destitute of a force adequate to suppress it, was compelled to temporize, and to forego any attempts at renewed oppression. THE SETTLEMENT OF DELAWARE. THE FIRST DUTCH COLONY IN DELAWARE: ITS DESTRUCTION. SWEDES AND FINNS UNDER MINUIT. — CONQUEST OF THE SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS BY THE DUTCH, UNDER STUY VESANT. DELAWARE UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK: UNDER PENN. — DISPUTES WITH MARYLAND CON- CERNING BOUNDARIES. — SEPARATION OF DELAWARE FROM PENNSYLVANIA. The disastrous attempt of the Dutch, under De Yriez, in 1631, to found a settlement in Delaware, has been described. ("Dutch in America.") The unfortunate little colony left by that navigator near the site of Lewistown, numbering only thirty -four souls, was cut off by the Indians to avenge the death of a chief, whose life haa been sacrificed to the implacable sulkiness of the governor, Gillis Osset. De Yriez, returning from Holland the next year, found nc relics of the settlement, except the bones of his countrymen, which lay bleaching on the shore. The next enterprise in the same direction was that of a small body of Swedes and Finns, who, in 1638, under Minuit, (some time gov- ernor of the Dutch at Manhattan, and afterwards in the service of Christina of Sweden,) landed near Cape Henlopen, purchased lana of the natives, and built a fort not far from the present site of Wil- mington. Attracted by tidings of the mildness and fertility of New Sweden, for so the country was called, Swedish and Finnish emi- grants hastened in numbers to the province. A new fort was built on an island below Philadelphia. The claims of 'the Dutch were resisted, and English adventurers were not allowed to settle. The building of Fort Casimir, by the former people, and its treacherous seizure by Risingh, the Swedish governor, have been described in their appropriate place, as well as the conquest of New Sweden by Peter Stuyvesant, the doughty governor of the New Netherlands. The Dutch company, stimulated by aggression, and fearing little from the distracted and feebly-governed kingdom of Sweden, had THE SETTLEMENT OF DELAWARE. 175 ordered their officer, " to revenge their wrong, to drive the Swedes from the river, or compel their submission." Accordingly, in Sep- tember, 1655, with a force of six hundred men, Stuyvesant sailed up the Delaware, on an avowed errand of conquest. Before a force, comparatively so formidable, the feeble colonies of Sweden, after a national existence of only seventeen years, were speedily compelled to succumb. The forts were reduced ; a portion of the Swedes were sent to Europe, and the remainder, on taking the oath of allegiance, were suffered to remain. Many of their descendants are still living in Delaware. On the conquest of the New Netherlands by the English, in 1664, the Dutch and Swedish settlements of Delaware came under the authority of the Duke of York. Disputes respecting boundaries soon arose. Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland, had claimed all the region on the west side of the Delaware as included in his grant; and incursions had been made from that province for the purpose, of repelling settlers from the disputed territory. Wil- liam Fenn, the grant of Pennsylvania obtained, desirous of extend- ing his coast line, (it was "more for love of the water," he said, "than of the land,") procured from the duke a cession of all the land for twelve miles around Newcastle, and all lying between that and the sea. On his arrival in America, (1682,) solemn possession of the territory was given to him by the duke's agent, at that town, and Penn addressed a multitude of his new subjects — Swedes, Dutch, and English — who had assembled to witness the ceremony, promising to all freedom, both civil and religious, and recommending virtue, religion, and sobriety of life. The claim of Baltimore, still asserted, was for some time the sub- ject of negotiation — the two proprietors at first exhibiting a polite, and afterwards a rather acrimonious pertinacity in maintaining their respective pretensions; but, in 1685, it was decided invalid by the Lords of Trade and the Plantations; and the boundary of the rival patentees was fixed by a pacific agreement. The three counties which Penn called his "Territories," and which now constitute the state of Delaware, for twenty years sent their delegates to the gen- eral assembly of Pennsylvania; but, in 1703, dissatisfied with the action of that body, procured permission to act by a legislature of their own; the proprietor, however, retaining his claims, and the same governor exercising executive functions over both Pennsyl- vania and Delaware. Vol IY.— 40 THE SETTLEMENT OE IEW JERSEY. CONQUEST BY THE ENGLISH. — NICHOLS, BERKELEY, AND CAR- TERET. — EMIGRATION FROM NEW ENGLAND. — SALE OF WEST NEW JERSEY TO THE QUAKERS. — FEN WICK, BYLLINGE, AND PENN. — QUAKER SETTLEMENTS. — REMARKABLY FREE CONSTITUTION. — FRIENDLY DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS. — USURPATION OF ANDROS: ITS DEFEAT. — EAST NEW JERSEY. After the conquest of the New Netherlands by the English, in 1664, Nichols, the first governor, encouraged the emigration of his countrymen from the adjoining settlements of New England and Long Island into the regions south of Manhattan ; and settlements were made at Elizabethtown, Newark, and other localities. The Duke of York, the patentee of the whole country, in the very year of the conquest, assigned to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret the territories lying between the Hudson and the Delaware. In compliment to the latter, who, during the civil contests in England, had held the island of Jersey for the royal party, the country received its present name. Philip Carteret, appointed governor by the new proprietors, came over the next year, and selected Elizabethtown as the capital of the province. By offering favourable terms, he induced many to emi- grate thither from New England, and the population of the colony continued to increase. A question concerning the titles issued by Nichols, combined with other causes of discontent, in 1672, excited a popular movement against the governor, which, however, was finally quieted by concessions from the proprietors. Berkeley, disappointed in his expectation of profitable returns, in 1674, for the inconsiderable sum of a thousand pounds, sold his share of New Jersey to the Quakers, who were eager for an oppor- tunity to purchase in the New World a refuge for their proscribed THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY. ^77 faith and persons. The assignment was made to John Fenwick in trust for Edward Byllinge, whose affairs were embarrassed. A dis- pute between these two was settled by the intervention of William Penn; and, in 1675, the former, with a large company of Friends, sailed for the Delaware. At a place which he called Salem, near Elsingburg, he established a settlement, and, by agreement with Sir George Carteret, the western portion of the province — thenceforward called West New Jersey — was set off and separated as the share of the new proprietors. Penn and two others, being made the assigns of Byllinge, as trustees for his creditors, divided the country into , one hundred shares, which they set up for sale. All the purchasers made vigorous efforts to promote the growth of the province ; and, in 1677, a large number of emigrants, mostly Quakers, came over and settled in and around Burlington. The constitution, which, under the benevolent auspices of Quaker- ism, was adopted the same year, was of a nature extraordinarily liberal and democratic, considering the age. Perfect freedom of conscience and religion; universal suffrage by ballot; universal eligibility to office; strict accountability of representatives to their constituents; direct election of justices, &c, by the people; extraor- dinary privileges of jury ; non-imprisonment for debt, and prohibi- tion of slavery; such were the grand principles on which rested the earliest legislation of the Friends in the Old or the New World. Lands were purchased of the Indians, whose rights were especially protected by law, and the chiefs, gathered in council at Burlington, pledged a perpetual league and friendship with the peaceful comers. "You are our brothers," they said, "and we will live like brothers with you. We will have a broad path for you and us to walk in. If an Englishman falls asleep in this path, the Indian shall pass him by, and say, 1 He is an Englishman ; he is asleep ; let him alone.' The path shall be plain ; there shall not be in it a stump to hurt the feet." The tranquillity of this happy province was first disturbed by the violent interference of Andros, the governor of the Duke of Ycrk, who forcibly exacted customs of ships trading to the new colony, levied taxes on the inhabitants, and carried matters with a high hand when resisted. On the remonstrance of the people, most forci- bly and eloquently set forth, the duke consented to refer the matter of jurisdiction to an impartial commission. By this the claims of his governor were pronounced illegal, and the liberties of New 178 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. Jersey were fully confirmed. An attempt of Byllinge, as propri etor, to assume undue rights, was resisted with equal success, and the Quakers, by advice of Penn, amending their constitution, elected a governor for themselves. In 1682, East New Jersey was purchased by Penn and a number of others, from the heirs of Carteret. Robert Barclay, conspicuous for his defence of the Quakers, was appointed governor, and strong inducements to emigration were held forth. The cruelties enacted at this time against the Presbyterians of Scotland, caused numbers of that persecuted people to avail themselves of the opportunity for a refuge across the Atlantic. Their coming contributed materially to the well-being of the country — industry, endurance, and piety, being distinguishing traits in their character ; and the two Jerseys, not many years afterwards reunited under a single government, owed much of their prosperity to the elements of virtue in the per- secuted sects by which they were peopled. THE SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER 1 WILLIAM PENN: HIS YOUTH: HE TURNS QUAKER: IS EXPELLED FROM COLLEGE AND HOME: IMPRISONED FOR HIS OPINIONS: SEVERITY OF HIS FATHER: FRESH IMPRISONMENT: EXER- TIONS IN BEHALF OF HIS SECT: HE ENGAGES IN THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY. William Penn, son of the distinguished admiral of the same name, was born at London on the 14th of October, 1644. At the early age of fifteen, he was placed at the University of Oxford, where, being of a temperament naturally religious and enthusiastic, he became deeply impressed by the teachings of Loe, a prominent member of the then almost universally persecuted sect of Quakers. For implication with this obnoxious community, and for resistance to the college authorities, (it has even been said that Penn and his friends tore the surplices of the students over their heads, when an order for the wearing of those garments had been issued,) he and several of his associates were expelled. His father, a man loyal, choleric, and prejudiced, unable to reclaim him by persuasion or argument from his eccentric views, turned him out of doors ; but, afterwards, a partial reconciliation being effected, supplied him with the means for foreign travel, hoping, probably, that change of scene and adventure might dissipate his fantastic notions. Turning aside from his journey, the youth engaged in the study of theology at Saumur; whence he returned to England, and commenced that of the law at Lincoln's Inn. Distinguished by purity of life rather than by asceticism of manners, he made a figure corresponding with his social position; was esteemed a young gentleman of fashion^ skilled in courtly and even martial accomplishments. On coming of age, he was dispatched by his father to Ireland, to ISO AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. take charge of his estates there, and falling in with his Quaker friend, Loe, at a meeting in Cork, all his old impressions readily revived. Imprisoned for attending the proscribed assemblies, but finally released through the favour of the lord-lieutenant, he returned home, where his father, grieved to the soul, used every exertion to change his persuasion. The old admiral, who now probably began to respect the stuff his son was made of, at last even offered to com- promise matters so far as to agree that William might wear his hat any where except in presence of himself, of the king, and the king's brother — but even these easy terms of capitulation were refused, and he was again driven from the paternal roof. lie now became openly a preacher of the persecuted sect, which he defended in several publications — an offence for which he was committed to the Tower, and kept close prisoner for some months. In this, as well as his other difficulties, his judges seem to have been entirely at a loss for the motives which could induce a youth of fortune and family to connect himself with a cause so ignominious from the poverty, and so dangerous from the persecution which attended it. Discharged from prison, he returned to Ireland, where he busied himself in comforting his imprisoned brethren, and in procuring their release. lie was again committed for public preach- ing, his trial creating no little excitement; but his father paid the fine which the young Quaker, from motives of principle, had refused to settle, and thus procured his discharge. A complete reconcilia- tion took place, the brave and magnanimous old seaman finally appreciating the traits of courage, of honour, and of independence which his son inherited, though displayed in a field of action so dif- ferent from his own. "Son William," he said on his death-bed, "if you and your friends keep to your plain way of living and preach- ing, you will make an end of the priests." By the death of his father, Penn came into possession of an estate of fifteen hundred pounds a year, and, in 1672, was married to a woman in every way worthy of him — one distinguished by beauty, intelligence, principle, and sweetness of temper. He continued to preach and to write in behalf of the oppressed sect whose cause he had espoused; and the productions of his pen, characterized by simplicity, eloquence, and sound argument, laid a strong hold on public sentiment. His first action in regard to settlements in the New World, was in 1676, when, having served as arbitrator between Byllinge and THE SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 181 Fen wick, lie became one of the trustees of the former proprietor in Western New Jersey. He drew up a plan of government for that province. Religious toleration, trial by jury, and non-imprisonment for debt, were its main constitutional features. In the following y ear, large numbers of Quakers resorted there from England, and the province soon became a favourite refuge for that oppressed peo- ple. Penn, whose efforts were still unwearied in behalf of his suf- fering brethren, continued, with all his energy, to defend their cause at home, and to aid them in their emigration to the land of freedom and toleration. C In!) JmL

JmL 3? E x & »}/ J J o SESSION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS: MODERATE TONE OF ITS PROCEEDINGS: CONCURRENCE OF THE SEPARATE COLONIES. THE STAMP ACT NUGATORY. THE ENG- LISH MINISTRY. DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. SPEECH OF PITT. EXAMINATION OF FRANKLIN. REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. On the 7th of October, 1765, the first American congress assem- bled at New York. A regular delegation was present from six of the colonies, viz: Massachusetts, Khode Island, Connecticut, Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina: New York, Delaware, and THE AMEEIC AN REVOLUTION. 235 New Jersey were also represented, although not by a regular ap- pointment of their houses of assembly. The legislature of North Carolina, not having been in session, could make no delegation, but the cooperation of this colony, as well as that of New Hampshire, could be depended upon, in the work to be accomplished. The assent of Georgia was obtained during the session. It was agreed that the votes should be taken by colonies, neither claiming preeminence by virtue of superior extent or population. The congress sat about three weeks, during which time a declaration of rights, and petitions and memorials to the king and parliament, were drawn up, debated, and finally agreed to, nearly unanimously. All question of proposed admission to representation in the English parliament was abandoned as impracticable, and the colonies, without menace or unseemly violence, recapitulated the claims so often urged, that, by natural right, by magna charta, and their own private charters, the right of taxation, as well as that of the management of all internal government, w,as vested in their own houses of assem- bly. The infringement of the right of trial by jury, in the extension of admiralty jurisdiction, by the provisions of the sugar act, was also animadverted upon. The spirit of the resolutions and memorials adopted by congress, met with a hearty response from the people. The New York mer- chants agreed to discontinue all importation from England until the repeal of the obnoxious act. Their example was followed exten- sively in many of the other colonies, and plans were set on foot for the encouragement and support of domestic manufactures, and for devising substitutes for articles of luxury, comfort, or necessity, hitherto imported from the old country. Several of the colonial legislatures commented upon and approved the doings of the con- gress of deputies, and those few members who had stood aloof from or opposed the proceedings, received tokens of marked displeasure from their fellow-members and constituents. All attempts to enforce the stamp act (which was to go into oper- ation on the 1st of November) proved utterly vain. Business was conducted without the use df the stamps, in defiance of the restrict- ive provisions of the law, and where this could not be done in safety, as in some of the courts, various evasions were resorted to, and suits were continued or referred to arbitrament. As yet, all efforts pointed simply to the repeal of the law, and a modification of the obnoxious features of the provisions for the levy of customs. 236 AMEBIC A ILLUSTRATED. News of these proceedings, and of the turn of public affairs in America, reached England during the administration of Rocking- ham. Grenville and his companions in the cabinet, who might have felt bound to make use of every expedient, violent or politic, for the maintenance of an act so deliberately framed, and passed with so little opposition as the one in question, were out of office, and the new incumbents were in a position to look dispassionately at the consequences of persistance in carrying out the arbitrary principles recently adopted. The question was, indeed, argued rather as one of policy than of right, for the great majority in par- liament, and in the cabinet, had hitherto looked upon the power of the former to lay and enforce discretionary taxes as beyond dispute. It was easy to point to the gross inequality of representation in England, where populous towns and districts had no share in the electoral privilege, for precedents. The colonies of the continental nations of Europe presumed to make no question as to the right and power of the home governments to impose burdens far heavier, and of a far more arbitrary and oppressive character, than those now complained of ; and it would be to the last degree humiliating to England, if, while deaf to the respectful entreaties of the provinces, she should be swayed from her course by the first threats of forcible opposition. In December, (1765,) parliament met, and the whole subject was reconsidered and debated at length. No determinate conclusion was arrived at during the short session, and an adjournment for a few weeks gave opportunity for the transmission of further intelligence from the seat of disturbance. It became matter of notoriety that, in America, the power of parliament was universally questioned, often defied, and that people began to speak "in the most familiar manner" of the possibility of open rupture, and the probable con- sequences of war with the parent-country. At the January session, the aged William Pitt was present, and, notwithstanding his infirm health, took an open stand in opposition to the Grenville schemes of taxation — and to all direct taxation of the colonies by parliament — arguing the questions at issue with his usual power and perspicuity. He pointed out the sophistry of the supporters of the measures under examination ; in reply to invec- tives, he uttered the most biting sarcasms; and, in plain terms, free from technicalities, he maintained the rights of the colonies, and approved their opposition. "I rejoice," said, he, "that America has THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 237 resisted. If its millions of inhabitants had submitted, taxes would soon have been laid on Ireland; and if ever this nation should have a tyrant for its king, six millions of freemen, so dead to all the feel- ings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." That America could effectually resist the power of England, he thought grossly improbable. "In a good cause, on a sound bottom," he proceeded, "the force of this, country can crush America to atoms." * * "The will of parliament, properly signified, must for ever keep the colonies dependent upon the sovereign kingdom of Great Britain. But, on this ground of the stamp act, when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it. In such a cause your success would be haz- ardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man ; she would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitu- tion along with her."* He coupled these strong denunciations of the proposed direct taxation with complete approval of the exercise of jurisdiction by parliament over all matters of trade and the regulation of manufac- tures, claiming to perceive "a plain distinction between taxes levied for the purposes of raising revenue, and duties imposed for the regu- lation of trade for the accommodation of the subject, although, in the consequences, some revenue may accidentally arise from the latter." A large majority, both of the commons and of the house of lords, still favoured the English claims in their broadest extent, and a resolution was prepared, declaring that the powers of the king and parliament, in legislating for the colonies, were absolutely without limit. When the question of the stamp act was brought directly before the house of lords, those opposed to repeal, prevailed by a small majority. In the other house, the motion to repeal was con sidered, rather as a question of present policy, than as a test of future rights and powers. Benjamin Franklin, at this time one of the most prominent among the public supporters of freedom in America, underwent a long examination at the bar of the house. His clear and lucid exposition of the American claims, his accurate statistical knowledge, and his acquaintance with the character, spirit, and local politics of the colonies, enabled him to throw much light upon the question, and appear to have produced a powerful effect. He positively insisted that the enforcement of the stamp act was * Bancroft. t 238 AMEBIC A ILLUSTRATED. physically impossible. "Suppose," said he, "a military force sent into America ; they will find nobody in arms. What are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion: they may, indeed, make one." "When the attempt was made to remove all distinction between direct taxes and imposts on importations, by the suggestion that these were often articles necessary for life; he replied, "The people may refuse commodities, of which the duty makes a part of the price; but an internal tax is forced from them without their consent." And again: "I do not know a single article imported into the northern colonies, but what they can either do without or make themselves."* The repeal — coupled, however, with the declaration before referred to, that parliament still retained absolute power in this as in all other colonial legislation — was carried by a very decided majority. The house of lords reluctantly concurred, and the bill received the royal assent on the 18th of March, 1766. The result gave great satisfac- tion to the commercial portion of the inhabitants of England; and the receipt of the intelligence in America was a signal for universal acclamation and rejoicing. CHAPTER 17. INTERVAL OF QUIET. — NEW TAXES ON IMPORTATIONS. — NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT. — CIRCULAR OF MAS- SACHUSETTS. — RIOTS AT BOSTON. — ASSEMBLIES DIS- SOLVED. — TROOPS ORDERED TO BOSTON. — MEASURES OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. — FATAL ENCOUN- TER BETWEEN THE TROOPS AND POPULACE AT BOSTON. — CONCESSIONS OF PARLIAMENT. A SHORT period of comparative repose ensued upon the settlement of the stamp question. Those who had suffered in the popular dis- turbances in New York and Massachusetts, were indemnified for their losses by the acts of the general assemblies. In the latter colony, however, this concession to the royalists was accompanied * Bancroft. THE AMEEICAN EEVOLUTION. 239 by a general act of amnesty for the protection of the individual rioters. The " sugar act," somewhat modified during the late session of parliament, still remained a bone of contention. Under the Pitt administration, which succeeded that of Kocking- ham, Townshend, Grenville's staunchcst supporter, held the office of chancellor of the exchequer. In this capacity, he introduced and carried through a new system of duties for the colonies, by which imposts were laid upon various articles hitherto exempt. A portion of these were of British production, as paints, paper, glass, &c. A specific duty of three pence a pound was laid on tea. The bill was, avowedly, for the sole purpose of obtaining revenue by indirect or external taxation. This and other odious measures, previously passed, respecting the maintenance of a standing army, and the quartering of troops upon the inhabitants during their removal from place to place, stirred up all former ill feelings. The ground was now generally taken by political agitators in America, that a tax on importations, if for revenue purposes merely, was no more defensible than a direct tax. In October, 1767, a movement was commenced at Boston, at a public meeting, for the encouragement of native manufactures, ana the organization of a system of non-importation from England. A more important step was taken at the session of the general assem- bly for Massachusetts, in the year succeeding ; a circular-letter being, by a vote of the house, prepared, and dispatched to all the othei colonial legislatures, urging the necessity for union in support of the rights of the provinces. Foremost in these popular proceedings, were two men of widely different character, age, and worldly condition. Samuel Adams, the poor but uncompromising patriot, whose bold, energetic and able disquisitions upon American rights and policy had already gained him wide celebrity, and John Hancock, who possessed youth, fortune, and an ardent temperament. A small vessel belonging to the latter was seized, in the month of June, 1768, as having been engaged in smuggling wines from Madeira. This gave occasion for an outbreak, and the commissioners of revenue — officers recentl}' appointed by parliament, for the superintendence of customs, &c. — were forced to seek protection from the mob in one of the forts of the harbour. The assembly of Massachusetts was required by the governor, Bernard, to rescind the circular before mentioned, and, upon refusal Vol. IV.— 44 240 AMEBIC A ILLUSTEATED. by a large vote, was dissolved. A favourable reception of the rebel- lious message, produced similar results in Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia. The New York assembly, proving refractory upon the question of quartering British troops, was also dismissed by the governor. In Massachusetts, the inhabitants of the several towns, unable to speak through legal representatives, elected delegates to a convention, whose proceedings, if unaccompanied with legitimate authority, might, at least, show to the world the true sentiments of the people. For enforcing the revenue laws, as well as for the preservation of order in the turbulent city of Boston, General Gage, commander-in- chief of the British forces in America, ordered thither two regiments of regulars from Halifax. He had received previous instructions to this effect from government, but it was not then supposed that so large a force would be necessary to effect the purpose. The author- ities refused to provide quarters for the troops, alleging that there was accommodation for them at the regular barracks; but Gage was determined to quarter them within the town, and accordingly a portion encamped on the common, and most of the others took possession of the state-house. Cannon were planted in front, and an ostentatious display of military force served to enrage and em bitter the feelings of the inhabitants. Accommodations for the soldiery could only be procured by an appropriation of the army funds, which was accordingly made, and full accounts of the fractious spirit of the colony were forwarded to England. The news excited a great degree of public indignation; parliament proceeded to pass resolutions of censure against the colo- nies, and — a matter of graver importance — voted instructions to the respective governors, for the seizure and transportation to England, for trial, of the leaders in disloyalty. The legislature of Virginia, at the session in May, 1769, remon- strated against this infringement of the rights of persons, which, although sanctioned by an ancient law respecting treasons committed abroad, was opposed to all principles of liberty and justice. Eeso- lutions upon this topic, embracing also a general proclamation of colonial rights, were transmitted to the other colonies. The conse- quence was a speedy dissolution of the assembly by the governor, Lord Botetourt. The non-importation agreement was, shortly after this, extensively adopted, both in Virginia and other of the south- ern provinces. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 241 The Massashusetts legislature, at the same period, refused posi- tively to appropriate funds for the army expenses. [Requisition was made for the removal of the troops, and upon the governor's re- sponse that this was beyond the pale of his authority, all legislative business was stayed, with the exception of indignant discussion of the public wrongs. In March of the following year, the mutual hatred between the citizens of Boston and the hired soldiery quar- tered among them, aggravated by insults and injuries on either side, broke out in open hostilities. On the evening of the 5th of the month, a small body of soldiers, commanded by a Captain Preston, was attacked by a mob, and, without orders from their officer, fired upon the crowd, in self-defence. Four persons were killed by the discharge, and a number were wounded. The rage of the citizens, at this occurrence, was so great, that it was deemed advisable to remove the troops from the town to the barracks at Castle William. This being effected, those who had perished in the riot were buried with great ceremony, the whole population taking part in the exercises of the occasion, as if in commemoration of some national calamity. The soldiers implicated in the alleged massacre were indicted for murder. They received a fair and impartial trial, being ably defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy, both of whom were known as ardent advocates of the popular cause. Conclusive evidence was found against two only of the accused; these were convicted of man- slaughter, and received but a light punishment. In New York, the temporary ascendency of the " moderate party" resulted in submission to the requisitions of the quartering act, but the same state of feeling existed there as in Boston between the troops and the populace. Some concession was made by parliament, in 1770, to the demands of the colonies and the petitions of the English merchants. The duties on articles of British produce, &c, included in the list of com- modities taxable under the regulations introduced by Townshend, were all removed, on motion of Lord North, with the exception of that on tea. This was retained simply as an assertion of principle ; for, while parliament evidently desired to conciliate and assist the American colonies, it was plain that the great majority of the people of England and their representatives still retained all their former ideas respecting the sovereign power of the home government. 242 AMERICA ILL US T BATED. CHAPTER Y. PARTY SPIRIT IN THE COLONIES. — WHIG AND TORT. — THE REGUI ATORS OF NORTH CAROLINA. HUTCHINSON, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS. DESTRUCTION OF THE GASPEE. SYSTEM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE COLONIES. TEA DISPATCHED TO AMERICA BY THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. REFUSAL OF THE COLONISTS TO RECEIVE IT. — VIOLENT PRO- CEEDINGS AT BOSTON: CLOSURE OF THE PORT. — EXTENSION OF CANADA. The bitterness of party spirit, by this time, throughout the colo- nies, was added to that of jealousy and resistance to oppression. The loyalists, under the name of tories, and the whigs, who constituted the popular party, looked upon each other with distrust and indig- nation. Between neighbours and former friends, and between members of the same family, a strife was engendered, rancorous in proportion to the depth of either party's convictions. The names of whig and tory were applied, at this period, to two parties in the Carolinas ; the first, self-styled regulators, who origin- ally organized themselves as a party for the summary punishment of criminals, in a country where the population was sparse, and the course of justice tardy; the second, their opponents, known also by other titles. In North Carolina, those calling themselves " regu- lators," consisted of ignorant inhabitants of the more barren dis- tricts, and were simply combined to resist all civil authority. The difficulties which arose from the existence of such a party, resulted in actual, though brief, civil war. In May, 1771, "Governor Tryon. at the head of a body of volunteers, marched into the disaffected counties. The regulators assembled in arms, and an action was fought at Alamance, on the Haw, near the head-waters of Cape Fear river, in which some two hundred were left dead upon the field. Out of a large number taken prisoners, six were executed for high treason."* The good-will of this turbulent faction was concil- iated by a subsequent governor, Joseph Martin. In the north, causes of discontent with English authority were * Hildreth's History of the United States. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 243 multiplied, notwithstanding the concessions of parliament. Hutch- inson, upon receiving the appointment of governor of Massachusetts, in 1771, was made independent of the colony by the settlement upon him of a large salary to be paid by the crown. This gave great dis- satisfaction, inasmuch as the governor and colony were no longer bound by a common interest. The measure, it is true, had been provoked by a neglect 6n the part of the assembly to make the usual appropriation for the governor's salary. Fulfilment of the non-importation agreement had been gradually relaxed in most of the colonies, except in regard to the one article of tea, which, being alone retained of that list made out for revenue purposes merely, stood as a representative of all the rest. The old regulations of trade, as provided for in the "sugar act," were still enforced, and a number of vessels, armed for the revenue service, were employed on the coast. One of these, named the Gaspee, had become particularly obnoxious to the people of Rhode Island. She interfered most inconveniently in their smuggling transactions ; and her officers, moreover, in carrying out their instructions, had, by arrogance and arbitrary conduct, excited popular ill-will. While stationed in Narragansett Bay, this vessel, by a stratagem, was decoyed upon a shoal, and, as she lay aground, was attacked and burned by a party from Providence, on the night of June 10th, 1772. Great efforts were made to secure the punishment of the perpetrators of this act of violence, but they were so shielded by the favour of the people, that no conclusive evidence could be obtained against them, although they were identified by common report. The appointment of a special court for their trial, and the offer of a large reward for evidence, alike failed to bring the offenders to punishment. Agitation of political questions, throughout this period, was con- tinually kept up by private associations and corresponding' commit- tees of different towns and districts. This movement, originating in New England, led to a more general system of union, in conse- quence of action by the Virginia legislature. A copy of the pro- ceedings in the Massachusetts assembly, in which the controversy with the governor also involved general discussion of grievances, having been forwarded to that body, a committee was regularly appointed to inquire into the questions at issue, and to communicate thereupon with the other colonies. The assembly was, in conse- quence, dissolved by the governor, but the committee proceeded, 244 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. notwithstanding, to fulfil their instructions. This example was followed by the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hamp- shire, Khode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Such an organ ization proved of inestimable service at the commencement of the contest upon which the country was about to enter. A publication, by Doctor Franklin, then agent for Massachusetts, as well as for several other of the colonies, in England, of certain letters written by Hutchinson and other loyalists, excited great indignation. These letters, which were never intended to meet the public eye, spoke contemptuously of the popular party, and recommended stringent measures for coercion. Opportunity was not long wanting for open demonstration of the true state of feeling in the colonies. As already mentioned, the agreement to import no tea had been generally observed, and the East India Company, receiving no orders from American merchants, made the necessary arrangements for carrying on the trade by their own agents. Consignees were appointed in the more important sea- ports, and a number of vessels were freighted and dispatched. In New York and Philadelphia, these agents, alarmed at the threats of the people, thought it the part of safety not to enter upon the duties of their appointment, and the vessels were obliged to return to England with their cargoes. In Boston the consignees refused to resign their agency, and in the midst of the excitement attendant upon their contumacy, several vessels arrived loaded with tea. A considerable body of citizens stationed themselves as a watch, to preclude the possibility of a secret landing, and the captain and consignees were notified that the only safe course for them to pur- sue, was immediately to comply with the popular demand, that the tea be sent back to England. But upon application at the custom- house, no clearance could be effected without a landing of the cargo, and the governor refused a permit to pass the defensive works of the castle. The citizens held repeated mass meetings, in which the question was fully discussed, and nearly unanimous resolutions were adopted to resist to the last extremity all attempts at landing the tea. They were in session (December 16th, 1773) when the definitive reply of the governor, respecting a pass, was received. "A violent commo- tion instantly ensued. A person disguised after the manner of the Indians, who was in the gallery, shouted at this juncture the cry of war: the meeting was dissolved in the twinkling of an eye. The THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 245 multitude rushed in mass to Griffin's wharf. About twenty persons, also disguised as Indians, then made their appearance; all either masters of ships, carpenters, or caulkers. They went on board the ships laden with tea. In less than two hours, three hundred and forty chests were staved, and emptied in the sea. They were not interrupted: the surrounding multitude on shore served them as a safe guard. The affair was conducted without tumult: no damage was done to the ships, or to any other effects whatever."* The consequence of these acts of violence was the immediate passage, by parliament, of the act known as the "Boston port bill," by which the port was closed against all importations, the custom- house being removed to Salem. This restriction was not to be removed until full compensation should be made for the damage done by the populace. On motion of North, a further enactment passed, by a very large majority, for giving the appointment of all civil and judicial officers in Massachusetts directly to the crown. It was also enacted that, at any future prosecution for "homicide or other capital offence" committed in support of lawful authority, the governor might send the accused out of the colony for trial, either to another province, or to England, if it appeared to him necessary so to afford security against popular prejudice. In anticipation of the possible result of such violent measures, acts were passed for the further regulation of government in Canada, the bounds of which province were extended "so as to embrace the territory situated between the lakes, the river Ohio, and the Mississippi. " * Otis' Botta. 246 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. CHAPTER YL GAGE, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: MILITARY PREPARA- TIONS: MINUTE-MEN. DISTRESS IN BOSTON: SYMPATHY OF OTHER TOWNS. CONTENTION PROPOSED BY VIRGINIA: DEL- EGATES CHOSEN BY THE COLONIES. — THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS: RESOLUTIONS AND DECLARATION ADOPTED. VIOLENT MEASURES OF PARLIAMENT. In May, 1774, General Gage, having received the appointment of governor of Massachusetts, in place of Hutchinson, arrived in Boston. He was, personally, held in much greater esteem than his predecessor, and met with a suitable reception, notwithstanding the general state of disorder and indignation at the speedy enforcement of the port bill, which was to go into operation on the 1st of June. A number of regiments of regulars were concentrated at the town for the purpose of overawing the inhabitants, and, under the direc- tions of the general, defensive works were erected on the neck by which the peninsula of Boston is connected with the main land. These precautions were by no means premature or unnecessary, for, every where throughout the colony, appearances grew more and more ominous. The new officers, of royal appointment, were im- peded in the exercise of their duties, by threats or violence; the organization and training of the militia was carried on with great zeal and perseverance ; meetings were every where held, and reso- lutions were passed breathing the spirit of the most determined resistance. At a general meeting of Massachusetts delegates, at Salem, of which Hancock was president, "They enrolled twelve thousand of the militia, whom they called minute-men; that is, sol- diers that must hold themselves in readiness to march at a minute's notice." Directions were openly and boldly given for the storing of provisions, the collection of ammunition, &c, as if the country were already involved in civil war. The city of Boston necessarily suffered severely from the total cutting off of its commercial resources. The most hearty sympathy \vas expressed by the towns of Massachusetts, and by the other col- onies, both in the form of resolutions of encouragement, and, more substantially, by subscriptions for the relief of the poor. At Salem THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 247 and Marblehead, the merchants proffered the use of their warehouses to the Boston importers, and the inhabitants of the former made public profession of their determination not to take advantage of the position in which they were placed, to enrich themselves at the expense of those who had exposed their property and personal safety for the general good. In the neighbouring colonies, the same state of affairs existed as in Massachusetts. Not only were the people busily engaged in pre- paring arms and ammunition, but, in several instances, they vio- lently plundered the public stores. The legislative assemblies generally responded to the exigency of the occasion, by resolutions of sympathy and encouragement. In Virginia, it was resolved, that attempts to coerce one colony to submit to measures which all had expressed a common interest in opposing, were to be resisted by the others, and it was recommended that an annual convention should be held by deputies from all the colonies, to take counsel for the general good. In accordance with this proposal, all the colonies except Georgia made choice of delegates, in number from two to seven, according to the population of each, who were to convene at Philadelphia. At the same time, resolutions to cease all commerce with Great Britain were renewed. Agreements to that effect were signed by immense numbers, and those who did not readily concur with the proposal, were effectually overawed by a threat of the publica- tion of their names. A time was fixed for the agreement to go into operation. The state of public feeling was also demonstrated by acts of violence committed upon the persons of obnoxious tories, many of whom were " tarred and feathered," or otherwise so perse- cuted as to be obliged to place themselves under the protection of the authorities at the fortified posts. The continental congress met at Philadelphia, on the 5th of Sep- tember, 1774. All were present except the deputies from South Carolina, who arrived on the 14th. Of the fifty-three delegates to this convention, nearly all were men of property and high standing in society: many of them — as Patrick Henry of Virginia, Samuel and John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and others — were already celebrated for eloquence, legal attainments, or for an active share in the first patriotic movements. It was no assembly of reckless political adventurers, but consisted of men who truly represented the intelligent portion of the community, and who 248 AMEBIC A ILLUSTEATED. felt that their own good fame, their lives, property, and personal safety depended upon the performance of their duty to their con- stituents, in a manner as prudent and cautious, as firm and uncom- promising. It was agreed that each colony should have but one vote, and the proceedings of the assembly were only to be made public so far as permitted by its own resolutions. The session was held with closed doors. The first proceedings were the adoption of resolutions expressive of approval of those passed by the Massachusetts convention; a declaration of rights, accompanied by a specific enumeration of the instances in which these had been infringed by the British govern- ment ; and a more efficient organization of the system of non-im- portation, which was to go into general operation on the 1st of the ensuing December, and to which was appended an agreement not to export goods to England or its dependencies, if, at a future period, redress should not have been obtained for injuries already commit- ted. Incidentally to this agreement, the importation of slaves was condemned, and was prohibited by the articles of compact. A petition to the king, and addresses, letters, and memorials to the people of Great Britain, and of the northern American provinces, were subsequently prepared, debated, and adopted. An unavailing communication had been previously addressed to General Gage, remonstrating against the military operations at Boston. Congress adjourned in the latter part of October, after providing for a future meeting, to take place in the following year. During the winter, the colonies had opportunity to express their separate opinion upon the doings of Congress, either by their assem- blies or by popular conventions. The acts passed generally met with hearty approval and concurrence. The sect of Quakers, at their yearly meeting, carrying out their principles of peace, con- demned every thing that should tend to bring down upon the coun- try the calamities of war; but, on the other hand, the eloquence and ardour of New England divines, especially of the Congregational societies, were lent, with little scruple or concealment, to the popular cause. The association for non-intercourse with England experi- enced more opposition in New York than elsewhere : the tories of that colony, by reason of wealth, influence, and numbers, occupied a more independent position than in either of the other provinces, and the self-interest of the large number of those dependent upon the commerce of New York, strengthened their opposition. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 249 The parliament of Great Britain, upon receipt of intelligence con- cerning the American congress and the disorderly state of affairs in America, determined on violent coercive measures. The concil- iatory and moderate policy of the elder Pitt was rejected; Franklin and the other colonial agents were refused a hearing; and, as a pun- ishment to the colonies for their resistance to authority and refusal to import goods from Great Britain, all other foreign trade, except that to the British West Indies, was absolutely prohibited, as was also the prosecution of the fisheries on the banks. A large military and naval reinforcement was also ordered to America. A provision was, indeed, made for the exemption from taxation of any colony which should, by its own act, appropriate a "sufficient" sum for the necessary expenses of government and defence. In the new restric- tions upon trade, exceptions were introduced in favour of New York and North Carolina, these being considered the most loyal and amenable of the colonies. The acts were passed in both houses by large majorities, notwithstanding the able argument of eloquent opponents, and a crowd of petitions from merchants, manufacturers, and inhabitants of other colonies, whose interests were directly de- pendent upon prosperous commerce with America. CHAPTEE 711. WARLIKE PREPARATIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS. TROO S DIS- PATCHED TO SEIZE MILITARY STORES. FIRST BLOOD SHED AT LEXINGTON. — DISASTROUS RETREAT OF THE BRITISH TO BOSTON. — PROCEEDINGS IN THE NEIGHBOURING COLONIES. — BOSTON BESIEGED BY THE PROVINCIALS. — CONCUR- RENCE OF THE SOUTHERN COLONIES. — SECOND SESSION OF CONGRESS. APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS. — SEIZURE OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA. The inhabitants of Massachusetts, denounced as rebels by the late acts of parliament, cut off from all sources of former prosperity, and insulted by the presence of overbearing military officials and sol- diery, were now ready for any extremity. It was with no small difficulty that supplies could be procured for the troops at Boston, 250 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. and the commanding officer heard, with, alarm, of the unceasing pre- parations for war that were going on in all the neighbouring dis- tricts. The precarious position of the inhabitants of Boston excited universal concern, and various plans were suggested for their relief. Among others, it is said to have been seriously proposed, that "a valuation should be made of the houses and furniture belonging to the inhabitants, that the city should then be fired, and that all the losses should be reimbursed from the public treasure." The pro- vincial congress of Massachusetts ordered the procurement of large quantities of ammunition and arms, which, as fast as they could be collected, were privately stored at different depots in the country towns. Cannon, balls, &c, were smuggled out of Boston, over the fortified neck, in manure-carts, and various other devices were suc- cessfully resorted to for deceiving the guard. General Gage, having now nearly three thousand men under his immediate command, thought that the time had arrived for a forcible check upon the movements of the rebels. He had learned that arms and ammunition, belonging to the provincials, were collected in large quantities at Concord, about eighteen miles from Boston. These he determined to seize, and, having taken every precaution to pre- vent intelligence of the movement from being known, he dispatched several companies of grenadiers and light infantr}^, numbering about eight hundred men, upon this service, on the night of April 18th, (1775.) Doctor Joseph Warren, one of the most prominent of the Boston patriots, had, by some means, become acquainted with the intended attack, and sent messengers forthwith to spread the news through the country. Early on the following morning the troops, commanded by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Smith, entered Lexington, a few miles from Concord. A company of provincial militia, to the number of little more than seventy, was under arms upon the green, near the meeting-house. Major Pitcairn, leader of the van-guard, called out, " Disperse, rebels! lay down your arms and disperse." The order not being obeyed, he immediately discharged a pistol, and, waving his sword, gave the command to fire. Several fell at the first volley, and, although the militia immediately retreated, they were fired upon in the act of dispersing. Eight were killed. The troops then marched on to Concord. At that town the min- ute-men endeavoured to keep possession of a bridge, but were charged and driven from their position. The object of the expedi* it/ siam THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 251 tion was accomplished, by the destruction of a quantity of ammuni- tion and provisions, and the spiking and dismounting of two pieces of artillery. By this time the whole country was up in arms, and, as the troops commenced their retreat, they were exposed to a gall- ing and destructive fire from places of concealment on either side of the road, while a large and constantly increasing force of the provin- cials hung upon their rear. To protect the retreat, General Gage had, fortunately for the expedition, sent on a reinforcement of sixteen companies, who met the first detachment at Lexington. Wearied by their long night march and the fatigues of the morning, and with their ammunition nearly spent, the whole of the first detachment, it was thought, might have perished or fallen into the enemies' hands but for the aid thus opportunely afforded. After resting and recruiting their strength, the whole army marched towards Boston. Harassed throughout the entire distance by an irregular but deadly fire from concealed marksmen, the worn-out troops reached Charlestown about sunset. They had sustained a loss, in killed and wounded, of not far from three hundred men : the provincials lost less than one-third of that number. What added to the difficulty of the march, was the intense heat of the weather, and a high wind, which raised clouds of dust. The first blood had now been shed; the country was actually involved in war ; and Massachusetts called upon the other colonies for assistance. Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, made response by raising troops and commissioning officers. In anticipation of this more regular levy, a large army of volunteers had collected and encamped around Boston. Generals Ward and Thomas received the highest commission under the provision of the Massachusetts provincial legislature. The volunteers from Connec- ticut were commanded by General Putnam, an old soldier, and a true man of the times. There was no difficulty, at this period, in procuring men : more, indeed, flocked in than could be supported, and upon the arrival of the regular provincial forces, great num- bers of the volunteers disbanded and returned home. The universal indignation was increased by reports of British cruelties during the brief period of hostilities. These stories, it is said, the leaders of the people "never failed to propagate and exaggerate, in every place, repeating them with words of extreme vehemence, and painting them in the most vivid colours/' thereby producing "an 252 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. incredible fermentation, and a frantic rage in the minds of the inhabitants." The middle and southern colonies, as soon as the news of the opening of the campaign in the north could reach them, generally gave expression to the popular feeling of sympathy with the patriots, and of their conviction that the questions in dispute were of com- mon interest. Military organizations, associations for purposes of defence, and seizures of public stores and funds for the popular cause, were the order of the day. On the 10th of May, (1775,) in accordance with former provisions, the continental congress assembled, the second time, at Philadelphia. Peyton Eandolph, of Virginia, who had presided at the first meeting, was reelected ; but upon his departure to attend the meeting of the Virginia assembly, his place was taken by Thomas Jefferson. The first proceedings were to prepare a further petition to the king, and addresses to the inhabitants of Great Britain and the American col- onies. It was then voted, that war had been commenced by England, and that active measures should be taken for defence ; but, at the same time, a nominal allegiance was professed to the parent-country. Continental officers were next chosen — the office of commander- in-chief being bestowed upon George Washington, one of the mem- bers from Virginia; Artemas Ward, Philip Schuyler, Israel Putnam, and Charles Lee, were chosen major-generals; Horatio Gates re- ceived the appointment of adjutant-general. The two officers last mentioned had both held commissions in the British service. These proceedings occupied some time, and, meanwhile, important scenes were enacting at the seat of war. On the very day that con- gress assembled, a bold and successful adventure was achieved by a volunteer force of the u Green Mountain Boys," commanded by Ethan Allen, one of the most active and enterprising of the popular leaders at the north. At Crown Point and Ticonderoga, fortified posts upon Lake Champlain, on the Canadian frontier, it was known that there was great store of artillery and ammunition, and a design was formed simultaneously in Connecticut and Vermont to accomplish its seizure. Colonel Benedict Arnold, of New Haven, at the time connected with the besieging army at Boston, was commissioned by the former. He is described as having been "possessed by nature of an extraordinary force of genius, a restless character, and an intrepidity bordering upon prodigy." Finding that Allen had already raised a force for the same object, Arnold joined the expedition as a subordinate. TIIE AMERICAN EE-VOLUTION. 253 The garrisons at the forts were grossly insufficient in numbers for their defence, and were, moreover, taken completely by surprise. When the commander of Ticonderoga, roused from sleep, and sum- moned by Allen to surrender, "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," was informed that he was "prisoner of America, he was much confused, and repeated, several times, 4 What does this mean?' " About two hundred and twenty pieces of artillery, with a great quantity of ammunition, and a number of howitzers and mortars, were secured at these two posts. Proceeding down the Sorel in a schooner, Arnold surprised and captured a British corvette which lay at Fort St. John. The captured fortresses on Champlain were garrisoned and put under his command. CHAPTER VIII. CONDITION OF THE BRITISH ARMY I N BOSTON. — BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. WASHINGTON AT THE CAMP. CON- GRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. THE INDIAN TRIBES. — JOSEPH BRANT. — MILITARY PREPARATIONS IN THE SEPARATE COLONIES. Early in June, the British forces in Boston had been increased by fresh arrivals of troops, under Generals Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, to more than ten thousand disciplined soldiers. It was with great difficulty that supplies of provisions could be procured for so large an army, beleaguered as was the town by a superior, although undisciplined force of the provincials. General Gage, therefore, first issued a proclamation of free pardon to all who would lay aside their attitude of rebellion, and submit to the royal author- ity, excepting, however, the prime movers of sedition, John Han- cock and Samuel Adams. He then formed a plan to penetrate the enemies 1 lines, and open a free communication with the country. The intended movement became known to the American com- manders, and orders were immediately given for the erection of fortifications on Bunker hill, an elevation commanding the neck. Colonel William Prescott, with a body of one thousand men, was commissioned upon this service, on the night of the 16th of June. 254 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Mistaking his point of destination, this officer commenced operations at Breed's hill, a position nearer to the town, and overlooking Charlestown, at that time a place of considerable size. Labouring with great diligence and silence, the provincials had thrown up, before day-break, a low earthen redoubt in the form of a square, sufficiently substantial to afford some protection for the troops. As soon as these operations were discovered from the harbour, a tremendous fire was opened upon the works from the men-of-war which lay at anchor, from the city artillery, and from floating bat- teries. Notwithstanding the storm of shells and balls, the provincials continued their labour, and carried a trench and embankment from the redoubt down the north-eastern slope of the hill, nearly to the water's edge. A reinforcement of several companies had, meanwhile, been thrown into the intrench ment. As the height commanded the city, it was absolutely necessary to prevent the establishment of a battery there, in order to maintain possession of Boston ; Gage, there- fore, determined upon an immediate attempt to storm the redoubt. Three thousand men were transported from the city to the foot of the hill, in boats. Major-General Howe and General Pigot were in command. The most exposed point was the interval between the trench and M3^stic river, at the north-east : this was partially defended by a temporary breast- work of hay and fencing stuff. " The troops of Massachusetts occupied Charlestown, the redoubt, and part of the trench ; those of Connecticut, commanded by Captain Nolton, and those of New Hampshire, under Colonel Starke, the rest of the trench." Generals Putnam and Warren were both present, and assisting in the directions of the defence. The troops were very scantily furnished with ammunition, and very few had bayonets. Towards the middle of the afternoon, the arrangements for attack being perfected, the regulars marched up the hill ; their officers were surprised at the silence from within the redoubt, for the provincials reserved their fire until a very near approach of the enemy. When the word was at last given, so heavy and destructive was the dis- charge, that the British fell back in disorder, and retreated to the foot of the hill. A second charge, to which the troops were, with diffi- culty, marshalled, resulted in a similar disaster. The number of officers who fell in these two first attempts is astonishing. "General Howe remained for some time alone upon the field of battle; all the officers who surrounded him were killed or wounded." The town of Charlestown had been fired by order of Gage, at the ^RRIA^TF; (OF WASHINGTON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 255 time of the first repulse, and, consisting chiefly of wooden buildings, was soon reduced to ashes. The scene had new become one of intense interest. Every hill and house-top from which a view of the field could be obtained, was thronged with spectators. General Clinton, who had witnessed the second charge from Cop's hill, a neighbouring height, hastened up, with additional forces. The col- umns were again formed, and marched up to the redoubt, suffering little from the slackened fire of the provincials, whose powder was now nearly spent. At the same time, the lateral trench was swept by several pieces of artillery, which the British had succeeded in posting at its extremity. From three several quarters, the regulars poured into the enclosed space of the redoubt, from which the Americans were driven at the point of the bayonet, defending themselves lustily with their muskets clubbed. Their retreat was effected, with little further loss, across Charlestown neck, although the passage was exposed to a heavy fire from the floating batteries, and from one of the armed vessels. The English immediately fortified Bunker hill, to secure command of the neck for the future. In this battle more than one- third of the entire British force were either killed or wounded. The loss of the provincials a little ex- ceeded four hundred and fifty. Doctor Joseph Warren, recently commissioned as a general officer, perished during the retreat. He was shot down, it is said, by an English officer, who borrowed a musket from a private for the purpose. The provincial congress of Massachusetts had, ere this, declared the colony absolved from all allegiance to Gage, who, in the resolution, was pronounced "a public enemy." After communication with the continental congress, a provisional government was organized, con- sisting of town deputies and a council. It was, indeed, plain to all that there was no choice between a sanguinary contest and a humil- iating submission. In England, the popular feeling, where net affected by the personal interest of commerce, was most decidedly inimical to the rebellious colonies, who had presumed to defy the power and question the authority of the British government, and the coercive measures adopted met with general approbation. It is true that there were not a few who foresaw the possible consequences of the war, and deprecated the violence that might cause the loss of England's most valuable foreign possession ; others, of yet more lib- eral sentiments, felt and expressed a noble sympathy with their Yol. IY.— 45 256 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. transatlantic brethren throughout the long and arduous struggle upon which they had now entered. About the 1st of July, General Washington arrived at the camp, near Boston, and assumed command. The presence of an experi- enced commander-in-chief was absolutely requisite in the existing state of the army. About fourteen thousand men, new to the disci- pline of a camp, and very insufficiently provided with necessary accommodations, stores, and ammunition, were posted so as to guard the approaches to the city: this line extended over a space of not far from twelve miles. Washington's head-quarters were at Cambridge. Generals Ward and Lee were stationed at Roxbury and Prospect hill. The latter position had been fortified by the provincials im- mediately subsequent to the battle at Breed's hill. The more important congressional proceedings during the months of June and July, in addition to those already briefly mentioned, were the issue of bills of credit, redeemable by apportionment among the colonies, to the amount of three millions of dollars; the establish- ment of a post-office S3 T stem (at the head of which was Benjamin Franklin); and the commission of emissaries to treat with the Indian tribes. These, and various minor arrangements, being concluded, congress adjourned until September. The attempt to gain over the powerful confederacy of the Six Nations, proved a signal failure, except so far as related to the tribe of the Oneidas, over whom Mr. Kirkland, a missionary, had great influence. The munificence and crafty policy of the English Indian agent, Sir William Johnson, had for many years secured the admiration and affection of the rest of the Iroquois; and, upon his death, they proved equally loyal to his son-in-law and successor, Guy Johnson. Their most celebrated chief, Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, who had been brought up and edu- cated under Sir William's patronage, received a commission in the British service, and took, as we shall have occasion to notice, an important part in border hostilities. The character of Brant has been generally mistaken by historians, and it is only by the research of modern writers that his abilities and good qualities have been brought to light, and the popular slanders, which pronounced him a monster of cruelty, refuted. The spirit which actuated the general congress was also evinced in the separate colonies, either by popular movements, or the action of the provincial assemblies. The authority of the royal governors was, in many instances, set at naught: troops were raised, and THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 257 colonial bills were issued to defray the expense of their maintenance. As heretofore, the greatest conflict of public opinion was in New York, where the loyalists were enabled to make a stronger stand than elsewhere. The members for New York, at the late session of congress, were chosen, not by the assembly, but by a self-organized provincial congress elected by the people at large. CHAPTER 1 X ^ f ACILLATING POLICY OF ENGLAND. — PROVISIONS BY CONGRESS FOR CARRYING ON THE WAR, NAVAL OPERATIONS. EXPE- DITION AGAINST CANADA. — SIEGE OF FORT ST. JOHN. ALLEN'S ATTEMPT UPON MONTREAL. — THE CITY OCCU- PIED BY MONTGOMERY. — MARCH TOWARDS QUEBEC. There is much wisdom in the criticism of Botta, upon the gen- eral policy of the British government during these early hostilities. In speaking of Gage, he says: "He arrived in America accompanied with general affection : he left it abhorred ; perhaps less through his own fault than that of the ministers, who, in place of rigorous decrees, should have sent powerful armies; or instead of armies, conciliatory conditions, consonant with the opinions of Americans. But men commonly know neither how to exert all their force, nor to surmount the shame of descending to an accommodation: hence delays, hesitations, and half measures, so often prove the ruin of enterprises." — ( Otis' Translation!) The whole proceedings of the British military and naval forces at this time were calculated rather to annoy and enrage, than to over- awe. There were many cruisers busied upon the coast in hinder- ing the American commerce, and in procuring supplies for the beleaguered garrison at Boston. The sea-port towns suffered from their depredations ; and, in one especial instance, the action of the provincials in preventing the procurance of provisions, &c, by a British vessel, was punished by bombardment. This was at Fal- mouth, afterwards Portland, which was destroyed in the month of October (1775). Congress was at this time in session, having come together early 258 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. in the preceding month. Delegates from all the original thirteen colonies were present ; Georgia had elected deputies since the last meeting. The principal attention of this body was necessarily directed to the maintenance of the army, the difficulty of procuring ammunition and military stores being very great. Privileges of trade were granted to vessels in which gun-powder should be im- ported, and ships were dispatched to distant foreign ports, even to the coast of Guinea, for the purchase of this grand desideratum of modern warfare. The three New England colonies, at an early period in the war, commenced retaliations upon British commerce, for the injuries com- mitted at sea. The first step taken by the Massachusetts assembly, was to direct the arming of several vessels to protect the sea-coast. From this they proceeded to authorize private adventure, by the issue of letters-of-marque, and the allowance of reprisals. Courts of admiralty were also instituted to decide prize claims. The priva- teers thus commissioned were, however, restricted to the seizure of vessels containing supplies for "the soldiers who made war against the Americans." The general congress adopted, soon after, substantially the same course. A fleet of thirteen vessels was ordered to be fitted out in the northern and middle colonies. Continental courts of admiralty were also created, and the public vessels received a general com- mission to "capture all those which should attempt to lend assist- ance to the enemy, in any mode whatever." It is singular to observe the manner in which congress, previous to the declaration of independence, while adopting every measure of open hostility, still aimed at a nominal distinction between rebellion against the British government and the resistance of illegal demands — still pro- fessing loyalty to the king, but denouncing his civil and military officials in the colonies as public enemies. In the autumn of 1775, a plan was consummated for the invasion of Canada. It was supposed that the French inhabitants of that province would rejoice at an opportunity for successful resistance to an authority always galling to their national pride, ; and recently rendered more odious by the arbitrary provisions of the "Quebec act." The regular force at this time stationed in Canada was very small, and the opportunity seemed peculiarly favourable for a bold and unexpected offensive demonstration. Information had also been received by congress, that, with the opening of spring, the THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 259 British government "was to make a grand effort in this province; that numerous forces, arms, and munitions, would be poured into it, in order to attack the colonies in the back: an operation which, if not seasonably prevented, might have fatal consequences." A detachment of three thousand men, from New York and New England, under command of General Schuyler, was ordered to pen etrate Canada by the route of Lake Champlain, passing down the Sorel to the St. Lawrence. Brigadier-Generals Montgomery and Wooster held subordinate commands; but, upon the detention of Schuyler at Albany, by sickness, the direction of the expedition devolved upon the former. General Carleton, governor of Canada, receiving intimation of the approach of the enemy, endeavoured to secure the entrance of the Sorel, by dispatching thither several armed vessels ; but the Ameri- cans were in advance of the movement. Montgomery entered the river, and, landing his forces, laid siege to Fort St. John, which commanded the passage, and was garrisoned by a considerable force. Advance parties were sent, by land, into the neighbouring Canadian districts, to circulate a proclamation of the Americans, setting forth the object of the invasion, and calling upon the inhabitants to join in driving the British garrisons from the country. Many, accordingly, enlisted, and the scouting parties were gener- ally received with kindness and hospitality. Arms and provisions were also furnished by the Canadians. Colonel Ethan Allen and Major Brown, in command of one of these advanced detachments, undertook the bold enterprise of an assault upon Montreal. Brown was unable to pass the river in time to cooperate with Allen, and the latter, at the head of a very small party, was overpowered by a superior force, under command of Governor Carleton. He was sent to England in irons. Carleton next endeavoured to relieve Fort St. John, but, on his way thither, he met with so warm a reception from troops posted upon the liver-bank, that a retreat was ordered. The fort surren- dered on the 3d of November. A number of pieces of artillery fell into the hands of the Americans, and a considerable supply of shells and balls, but the provisions and powder of the garrison were nearly spent. Upon the approach of the invading forces, Carl etc n fled from Mon treal, which was untenable against a superior force, and Montgomery entered the city, without opposition, on the 13th. He took great 260 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. pains to conciliate the inhabitants, and succeeded in raising a body of volunteers to supply, in some measure, the diminution of his forces, by the return home of those whose term of service had ex- pired. A necessary supply of warm clothing was also procured to protect the troops from the severity of the approaching winter. The establishment of garrisons at the captured posts, together with the defection alluded to, had reduced the effective force of the invaders to about three hundred men; but, with this handful of troops, Mont- gomery commenced his march towards Quebec, exposed to the rigours of a Canadian winter. CHAPTER ARNOLD'S EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC: PASSAGE OF THB WILDERNESS: FAILURE OF PROVISIONS: DEFECTION OF ENOS, WITH HIS COMMAND: ARRIVAL AT THE CANADIAN SET- TLEMENTS: PROCLAMATIONS: ARNOLD AT THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM: UNION WITH MONTGOMERY: ATTACK ON QUEBEC: DEATH OF MONTGOMERY: MORGAN'S RIFLE CORPS. AMERICAN FORCES DRAWN OFF. In accordance with the plan of the campaign, while Montgomery seized upon Montreal, Quebec was to be attacked from a most unex- pected quarter. Fourteen companies, amounting to about eleven hundred men, were put under command of Colonel Arnold, in the month of September, with instructions to force a passage through the wilderness, by proceeding up the Kennebec river, in Maine, thence across the mountains to the head waters of the Chaudiere, and down that stream to its entry into the St. Lawrence, near Quebec. To estimate the difficulties of such an undertaking, it must be considered that the whole route lay through an uninhabited country; that every natural obstacle of a rough, uncultivated region, must be overcome; that no provisions could be procured on the way; and that all supplies, arms, and camp furniture, must be transported by hand around the portages, or unnavigable places on the rivers, and over the highlands to be passed before reaching the Chaudiere. As the detachment approached the sources of the Kennebec, the THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 261 supply of provisions was nearly exhausted. The soldiers, worn out by exposure, hardship, and toil, and compelled to resort to crude and unnatural aliment, suffered much from sickness. Colonel Enos, being in command of one division of the army, was ordered to select the sick and unserviceable, who were to be sent back to Boston. This officer accordingly withdrew his entire command — a species of desertion, which was afterwards excused upon a trial by court-mar- tial, on the ground that provision for the sustenance of the whole body could not by possibility have been procured. Before reaching the Chaudiere, the scant remains of food were divided among the soldiers, and, at a distance of thirty miles from any settlement, the whole store was exhausted. A small scouting party, led by Arnold in person, succeeded in procuring a sufficient quantity of provision to recruit the strength of their companions, and enable them to continue their march. Upon reaching the Can- adian settlements, after more than a month spent in the wilderness, Arnold issued proclamations, drawn up by the commander-in-chief of the American army, disclaiming all hostile intent towards the people of Canada, and exhorting them to join as brothers in a cause of common interest. The Americans were hospitably received and entertained; and, pursuing their march, they arrived, on the 9th of November, at Point Levy, nearly opposite the Canadian capital, on the right bank of the St. Lawrence. Unfortunately for the success of the expedi- tion, no boats could be procured for the transportation of the army across the river. "It is easy to imagine the stupor of surprise which seized the inhabitants of Quebec, at the apparition of these troops. They could not comprehend by what way, or in what mode, they had trans- ported themselves into this region. This enterprise appeared to them not merely marvellous, but miraculous; and if Arnold, in this first moment, had been able to cross the river, and fall upon Quebec, he would have taken it without difficulty."* Opportunity was given, by the delay thus occasioned, for strength- ening the defences, and for organizing the citizen-soldiery. On the night of the 13th of November, Arnold crossed the river, and ascended the heights at the spot memorable as the scene of the decisive en- gagement between the French and English in tlu late war. The American general had hoped to come upon the city by surprise, but * Otis' Botta. 262 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. he ascertained, upon a nearer approach, that the garrisc n was undei arms and on the alert. His own ardent feelings impelled him to an immediate assault, but he abandoned the rash design upon consid- eration of the unserviceable condition of the arms of his troops, and their very scanty stock of ammunition. He drew off his forces, and retired to Point au Tremble, twenty miles from the city, there to await the arrival of Montgomery. The two detachments met on the 1st of December. United, they formed a body of less than one thousand men, but with these the commanding officer determined to attack the capital. Carleton had, in the mean time, made his way to the anticipated scene of conflict, and so disposed his available force of regulars and of the provincial militia, as to constitute an adequate garrison. Arriving at Quebec, on the 5th, Montgomery summoned the city to surrender, but the demand was treated with contempt, and the bearer of the flag was fired upon. For several days, the general then attempted to produce an impression by playing upon the city with a few pieces of artillery, planted behind an embankment of ice. The weather now became intensely cold, and frequent and heavy falls of snow added to the discomfort and suffering of the invaders. The small-pox, moreover, broke out among them, and spread, in spite of all practicable precautions. Every day the chances of suc- cess were diminishing, and it was decided to assault the city without further delay. The little army, in two divisions, led by Montgom- ery and Arnold, made the attack before day-light, on the 31st of December. The garrison had obtained intimation of the design, and preparations were completed for the reception of the enemy. Mont- gomery was killed, at the first discharge of artillery, and his division fell back. Arnold entered the city from the opposite quarter, march- ing at the head of his troops. Upon approaching a barricade, de- fended by two pieces of artillery, he received a severe wound in the leg from a musket-ball, which entirely disabled \im. The barricade was forced by the exertions of the intrepid and active Morgan, com- mander of the rifle corps; but further defences appeared, well guarded. A heavy fire, opened upon their front and rear, compelled the little band of assailants to disperse, and seek shelter in the build- ings. Some three hundred of them fell into the hands of the enemy. The remainder of the army of invasion was drawn off, and encamped a few miles from the city. THE AMERICA N EE VOLUTION. 263 C 3f3j JmL c/iL To !£ 3R( tXj J Jo STATE OF FEELING IN THE COLONIES. — PAINE'S WRITINGS — DEBATES IN CONGRESS. — THE DECLARATION OF INDE- PENDENCE: ITS EFFECT UPON THE PEOPLE. — THE BRITISH AT STATEN ISLAND. — PROCLAMATION OF GENERAL AND OF ADMIRAL HOWE. The formation of independent systems of government in the sep- arate colonies, familiarized the minds of the American people with the idea of a permanent disconnection with the British government. While the thought of state sovereignty was flattering to the pride of the provincials, it was evident that, without some established political connection, no great national object could be obtained. Long before the revolution, it is said that the chiefs and orators of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, advised the adoption, by the colonies, of a federal union similar to their own, proving, from their individ- ual experience, the practicability of union for all purposes of common interest, without infringement of the rights of each distinct tribe. In the winter of 1776, a work, entitled " Common Sense, 11 written by Thomas Paine, an Englishman, residing in Pennsylvania, made its appearance. By shrewd reasoning, logical argument, and popu- lar declamation, the author endeavoured to establish the practica- bility, and even necessity, of American independence, at the same time that he excited the feelings of the people, by a vivid represent- ation of the disgrace and misery that must follow close upon submis- sion to England. The book was extensively circulated, and exercised, beyond question, a most powerful influence. The late action of parliament, in the employment of Hessian mer- cenaries to serve in America, and the enlistment of the Indian border tribes in favour of the royal cause, produced a storm of popular indignation. The petition of congress had been spurned with dis- dain; no measures but those of force had met with favour in England; and it was now plain that nothing was left to the colonies but an open declaration to the world of their determination to sunder for ever all ties with a government whose protection had only been extended for selfish ends. "At this epoch," says an early writer, "America was found in a V 268 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. strange situation, and actually unheard of till then. The war she had carried on with so much vigour, now, for more than a year, was directed against a king to whom she incessantly renewed her pro- testations of obedience; and the same men who committed all the acts of rebellion, would by no means be called rebels. In all the tribunals justice was still administered in the name of the king; and in the churches prayers were continually repeated for the pre- servation and happiness of that prince, whose authority was not only entirely rejected, but also fought against with incredible obstinacy." The first step taken by congress in furtherance of the popular cause, was a recommendation to such of the colonies as had not already adopted a provisional, independent, civil government, to proceed to the establishment of "such governments as, according to the opinion of the representatives of the people, should be most conducive to the happiness of their constituents, and of America in general." This proposal was generally acted upon, and, in many instances, the congressional delegates were formally invested by the colonial assemblies with power to act upon the anticipated question. A motion in favour of American independence was made in con- gress on the 7th of June, and, on the following day, was debated with great ability and eloquence. Eichard Henry Lee, of Virginia, who advocated the motion, and John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, who argued in opposition, were the principal speakers. The decision of the question was postponed until July, that full opportunity might be given to the members to receive instructions from their constituents. On the 4th of July, 1776, that memorable instrument, known as the "Declaration of Independence," was signed by delegates from the thirteen original colonies, thenceforth the United States of America. It was understood to have been principally drawn up by Thomas Jefferson, who, with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Eoger Sherman, and Philip Livingston, had been appointed to pre- pare it, previous to the late adjournment. The preamble commences: "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent regard to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." Then follow a THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 269 declaration of rights, natural and political, a forcible recapitulation of wrongs inflicted by the British government, with a reference to the neglect or contempt with which all petitions for redress had been received, and, in conclusion, it is boldly asserted, "that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." The sense of personal responsibility felt by the fifty-five members who signed the document, is expressed in the closing words: "And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour." In all the principal cities, the intelligence of this act of congress was received with the most extravagant expressions of joy. The exultation of the army was boundless, and the populace, mad with excitement, celebrated the event with noisy demonstrations. Eoyal statues and insignia were every where thrown down and destroyed. At New York, an image of George III., formed, by a felicitous propriet}^, of lead, was converted into musket-balls. The condition of all acknowledged or suspected tories was lamentable, and to correct and moderate the excesses committed upon this class of inhabitants, congress took the matter in hand, instituting commit- tees to exert a constraining power over those who were suspected of favouring the enemy. "The most obnoxious tories had already emigrated; and, for the present, the new governments contented themselves with admonitions, fines, recognizances to keep the peace, and prohibitions to go beyond certain limits."* The recommencement of hostilities was followed by a long suc- cession of most disheartening reverses. The British forces had already effected a landing upon Staten Island, where they encamped and opened communications with the loyalists in the adjoining prov- inces. Strengthened by arrivals from England, and by the return northward of the troops embarked under Sir Peter Parker, for the southern expedition, to a force of more than twenty thousand men, General Howe prepared for a descent upon New York. An attempt to open negotiations with congress, and with the commander-in-chief of the American army, had previously failed, from the refusal of the British officials to treat otherwise than as with private individuals. * Hildreth. 270 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. The result of an interview, afterwards brought about, between Gen- eral and Admiral Howe, and deputies commissioned by congress, was only to convince the former that no terms would be listened to which they were empowered to grant. The two brothers Howe were commissioned by the king to gram discretionary pardon to all in the colonies who would consent to renew their allegiance. Proclamations were issued in accordance with this commission, calling upon all loyal subjects to separate themselves from the rebels, and representing to the malcontents the desperate condition to which further resistance must reduce them, while, on the other hand, submission would ensure present safety, and the royal promise for a future redress of all gr^vances. CHAPTER XII I. LANDING OF THE BRITISH ON LONG ISLAND. — BATTLE OP BROOKLYN. — THE AMERICAN FORCES DRIYEN FROM LONG ISLAND. OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK BY THE BRITISH. WASHINGTON'S ENCAMPMENT AT HARLEM HEIGHTS: AT WHITE PLAINS. STORMING OF FORT WASHING- TON. — THE RETREAT THROUGH NEW JERSEY. — CAPTURE OF GENERAL LEE. CONDITION OF PRISONERS. LAKE CHAMPLAIN: DESTRUC- TION OF THE AMERICAN VESSELS. GEN- EROSITY OF CARLETON. RHODE ISLAND SEIZED BY THE BRITISH. Anticipating an attack by way of Long Island, General Wash- ington posted a force of about nine thousand men, under General Putnam, at Brooklyn. The approach to the American camp from the point where the British were expected to land, was by four roads, two leading over the intervening hills, and the others, less direct, deviating in opposite directions, one along the western shore, the other eastward. These avenues, owing to some misapprehension or bad management, were insufficiently guarded. The British having landed on the 22d of August (1776), com- menced their march towards Brooklyn, on the night of the 26th Upon the first intelligence of their approach, two divisions of the THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 271 American army, under Sullivan and Stirling, were dispatched to repel the advance over the hills and by the western road. The opposing forces were already engaged, when the Americans were thrown into confusion by an attack in the rear — Clinton, with the most efficient portion of his troops, having made a detour for that purpose, by the unguarded eastern approach. Stirling's division, by hard fighting, mostly regained the camp, but that of Sullivan was destroyed or compelled to surrender. Both these generals were made prisoners, together with not far from one thousand of their men. A heavy loss was also sustained in killed and wounded. On the night of the 29 th, the American troops effected a retreat across the East river, to New York, leaving the enemy in possession of Long Island. The main force of the continentals was now en- camped at the heights of Harlem, or within the city of New York. The British had control of the surrounding waters, the defences erected upon the Hudson having proved insufficient to prevent a passage up the river. Under protection of a heavy fire from the shipping, a landing upon the island was effected by General Howe on the 15th of September. The troops drawn up in opposition, fled in the most cowardly manner, and an evacuation of the city was rendered absolutely necessary. The Americans sustained severe loss in artillery and stores, which, upon their hasty retreat, were abandoned to the enemy. Washington's forces, securely posted upon the heights of Harlem, awaited the movements of the British. The latter kept possession of the North river, and made advances down the northern shore of the Sound. It became necessary to occupy a position further north, to avoid being cut off from supplies, and a new camp was formed, accordingly, at White Plains. The enemy gained a further advan- tage in a partial engagement on the 28th of October, in which a detachment of between one and two thousand Americans was driven from its position near the main camp, with great loss. Forts Washington and Lee, which were intended to command the passage of the Hudson, being situated upon opposite banks of the river, a few miles above New York, were the nest objects of attack. They had been strongly garrisoned, when the main body of the American army moved northward. The first of these was taken by storm, not without severe loss on the part of the assailants, and two thousand prisoners were secured. Fort Lee was soon after hastily evacuated ; the artillery of both strongholds, to- Yol. IV— 46 272 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. gether with a great amount of valuable stores, was lost to the Americans. This was in the middle of November: the continental army, reduced by these losses, by desertion, and by the expiration of the terms of enlistment, to between three and four thousand men, was driven from post to post in New Jersey. Slowly retiring before a greatly superior force, "Washington occupied in succession the towns of Newark, Brunswick, Princeton, Sterling, and Trenton. His troops, disheartened by defeat, and worn out by marching and ex- posure, were in a condition of miserable destitution, while the pur- suers were well supplied with the necessaries and conveniences of a campaign. Lord Cornwallis, with an overwhelming force, continued to press upon the retreating army, and, on the 2d of December, Washington transported his troops across the Delaware, taking the usual precau- tions to arrest the progress of the pursuers by the destruction of bridges and the removal of boats. The British took possession of Trenton and the adjoining country, but neglected to push their advantage by an immediate passage of the river. Washington, anxious to recruit his forces, had issued orders to other divisions of the army to join him with all expedition. General Lee, from a spirit of insubordination or self-sufficiency, was dilatory in obeying the order. Avoiding the British army, by a detour, he occupied the highlands at the westward, apparently in hopes of effecting some bold manoeuvre on his own account. Exposing him- self carelessly, with an insufficient guard, he was betrayed by tories, and fell into the hands of the enemy. The refusal of the British authorities to consider him a prisoner of war, on the ground that, having been an officer in the English service, he was only to be looked upon as a traitor, led to retaliation upon prisoners in the hands of the Americans. Exchanges were impeded, and a sense of mutual injury led to lamentable results. Of the American prisoners in New York, it is said that, "they were shut up in churches, and in other places, exposed to all the inclemencies of the air. They were not allowed sufficient nourish- ment ; their fare was scanted, even of coarse bread, and certain ali- ments which excited disgust. The sick were confined with the healthy, both equally a prey to the most shocking defect of cleanli- ness. * * A confined and impure air engendered mortal diseases more than fifteen hundred of these unfortunate men perished in a THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 273 few weeks." Lee was afterwards exchanged for General Prescott, who was surprised and captured at his quarters, on Khode Island, by a small party of Americans. During the autumn of 1776, and the early portion of the ensuing winter, fortune seemed to frown upon the American cause in every quarter. At the north, the possession of Lake Cham plain was an object of eager contention. Both parties busied themselves in the construction of vessels, for which the British, under Carleton, had far greater facilities than the Americans. The little squadron of the latter, commanded by Arnold, was defeated on the 6th and 7th of October. One of the vessels was taken, and the others were de- stroyed, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. The Americans, however, still held Fort Ticonderoga. The British, having possession of the lake, made no further attempt upon the American fortifications, but mostly retired to Montreal, a garrison being left at Isle au Noix. It is pleasing to revert to acts of kindness and generosity in the midst of scenes calculated to arouse every bad passion in the minds of men. Such are recorded of Carleton, of whom it is said, that "prior to his retreat, from the singular courtesy and humanity of his character, he sent to their homes the American officers who had fallen into his power, adminis- tering generously to all their wants. He exercised the same humanity towards the common soldiers. 1 The greater part were almost naked: he caused them to be completely clothed, and set them at liberty, after having taken their oath that they would not serve against the armies of the king." — (Botta.) Early in December, the British secured another important position in New England. A fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, with large forces of English and Hessians, commanded by General Clinton, entered Narragansett Bay. The island of Rhode Island, with those of Con- anicut and Prudence, were occupied without resistance; the ex- cellent harbour of Newport afforded admirable facilities for future operations by sea; and, as the entrance to the bay was commanded, the American squadron, under Commodore Hopkins, together with a number of private armed vessels, was prevented from putting to pea, and rendered, for the time, useless. So dark were the prospects of the patriots, at this crisis, that many among the most sanguine were discouraged ; and, of the wavering, and of those who, at heart, favoured the royal cause, great numbers availed themselves of the offers proclaimed by the Howes, by ac- 274 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. knowledging allegiance to the king, and the acceptance of a British protection. Allen and Galloway, former members of the continental congress, from Pennsylvania, were among the number of those who thus avowed their disapproval of the revolution, or their distrust in the ability of its advocates to carry out the great design. CHAPTER XI CONGRESS AT BALTIMORE. — ARMY ORGANIZATION. — P0WER8 CONFERRED UPON WASHINGTON. — PASSAGE OP THE DELA- WARE, AND RECOVERY OP TRENTON. — BATTLE OP PRINCE- TON. — END OF THE CAMPAIGN. — MARAUDING PARTIES — NEGOTIATION WITH EUROPEAN POWERS. — FOR- EIGN OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN SERVICE. Congress, being in session at Philadelphia when the continental army was driven across the Delaware, found itself in too dangerous proximity to the British army, and an adjournment to Baltimore Speedily followed the establishment of the latter at Trenton. The details of military organization necessarily occupied almost the un- divided attention of this body. The straits to which the continental army was reduced, by the diminution of its numbers, consequent upon the expiration of terms of enlistment, rendered the establish- ment of a more permanent force a matter of pressing necessity. This measure had, all along, been vehemently urged by Washington, who had fully experienced the difficulty of preserving discipline in an army whose materials were subject to constant change. Pro- vision, therefore, was made for the enlistment, by apportionment among the provinces, of troops to serve during the war, or for a period of three years. The first, in addition to a present bounty in money, were to receive each one hundred acres of public land on retiring from service. Absolute discretionary powers were, at the same time, bestowed upon the commander-in-chief, for the six months succeeding, "to call into service the militia of the several states ; to form such magazines of provisions, and in such places as he should think proper; to dis- place and appoint all officers under the rank of brigadier-general, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 275 and to fill up all vacancies in every other department in the Amer- ican armies; to take, wherever he might be, whatever he might want for the use of the army, if the inhabitants would not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for the same; to arrest and confine per- sons who refused to take the continental currency, or were otherwise disaffected to the American cause; returning to the states of which they were citizens their names and the nature of their offences, with the proofs to substantiate them." Very large additional issues of paper money had been made during the session, and the most stringent regulations soon followed to enforce its receipt. Never were the powers of a dictator more worthily bestowed than in this instance. General Washington exhibited, in the melancholy state of affairs consequent upon the capture of New York, an energy corresponding to the requirements of his position. The army had been reinforced by the arrival of Lee's division, under Sullivan, and by the militia from the adjoining counties. Thus strengthened, he determined to enter at once upon offensive operations. The enemy's force being widely extended along the left bank of the Delaware, a division of fifteen hundred men, mostly Hessians, under Ealle, constituted the entire army of occupation at Trenton. On the night of December 25th, Washington crossed the river, with ( twenty-five hundred men, nine miles above the city. The cold was severe, and the stream being blocked with floating ice, nearly the whole night was consumed in the business of transportation. At four o'clock, on the following morning, the army was put in motion, in two divisions — one following the river, the other proceed- ing by the Pennington road, further to the left. Although it proved impracticable, from the state of the roads, and the difficulty of a night march — rendered doubly arduous by an inclement wintry storm — to arrive before day, the surprise was no less complete. The Hessians were overpowered, and driven in on all sides ; their retreat was cut off in the direction of Princeton; their commander was slain ; and two- thirds of the whole force surrendered at discre- tion. The remainder escaped by the Bordentown road. The Amer- cans recrossed the river, with their prisoners, having sustained but a trifling loss — only about ten, in killed and wounded. A few days subsequent, Washington having again occupied Tren- ton, a powerful army, under Cornwallis, approached the town from the direction of Princeton. One-half of the American forces were undisciplined militia, and all were ill prepared for the hardships of a 276 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. winter campaign. A general engagement would have been hazard- ous in the extreme, and, at a council of the American officers, it was concluded to make an attempt at turning the enemies' flank. Precautions were taken to leave the impression that active prepara- tions were in process for intrenchment, while the main army (on the night of January 2d, 1777,) silently defiled upon the Allentown road, towards Princeton. At the latter place, three British regiments, left in the rear by Cornwallis, were encountered. One of these, after some hard fight- ing, pushed on towards Trenton: the other two, having sustained considerable loss, retreated to Brunswick. Some three hundred prisoners were taken by the Americans. The British, at Trenton, deceived by the continuance through the night of the patrol within the American lines, and by the camp-fires, which had been replenished before the march commenced, had no intimation of the state of affairs until they heard the sound of artil- lery in their rear. Cornwallis immediately marched for Brunswick to protect his military stores at that place, and Washington, still anxious to avoid a general engagement, moved towards Morristown, where he established the army in winter-quarters. Nearly the whole of New Jersey was thus recovered from the enemy, and detachments were quartered at different points to retain possession. Through the remainder of the winter and spring, neither army was engaged in any general military operation. The British army was stationed at Amboy and Brunswick, suffering no small inconvenience from failure of provisions. Frightful outrages were committed by small marauding parties of soldiery. The Hessians, in particular, were stigmatized as monsters of cruelty. A bloody retaliation was not slow to follow, and many of the loyalists of New Jersey, even such as had held aloof from all share in political controversy, and could be accused of no overt act of opposition to the patriots, too often were compelled to suffer for wrongs in which they had no share. While the national forces were thus in comparative repose, the calamities of a state of war were still widely felt. Privateers scoured the sea, and their crews and commanders, growing bolder by experience, pushed their adventures in waters where, at first, it was deemed rashness to intrude. Prizes taken by American vessels were disposed of without trouble in France. Old national feelings of jealousy and antipathy caused the government of that THE AMEBIC AN KEVOLUTION. 277 country to wink at irregularities which, operated only to the injury of her rival. Congress had not failed, ere this, to commission ambassadors to various European courts, to solicit political aid and acknowledgment of the independence of the states. Those who filled this important office at the court of France, were Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee. The favour with which the American claims were regarded in that quarter was manifest, and had been substantially shown, even before the declaration of independence, by an ingenious and secret operation for furnishing military supplies to the colonies. These had been forwarded to islands in the West Indies, as by private adventure, thence to be dispatched for the use of the colonies. France, however, was not as yet prepared to enter into open contro- versy with England, by an acknowledgment of the independent existence of the American republic. Many military officers, from France and other European nations, were anxious to procure commissions in the American service. Many were sent over through the agency of Mr. Deane, in the ex- pectation of receiving high commissions. Some of these proved worthy of the confidence placed in them, particularly those em- ployed in the engineer department ; others, although doubtless men of capacity and competent military education, were entirely unfitted to deal with a soldiery of the character of the continental army. Among those whose services were accepted, the most celebrated, were the German Baron de Kalb, the Polish officers Kosciusko and Pulaski, and the young Marquis de la Fayette. The latter came over from France at his own expense, and volunteered to serve without pay. He was made major-general, and became the intimate friend and companion of the commander-in-chief. Gov. Trumbull. — Pre-eminent in the roll of our ps triots and statesmen stands the name of JoncJlian Trumbull. His position as governor of the state during the war, united with that rare combination of powers which made him second only to Washington in executive abilities, not second even to him in the maturity of his wisdom and the depth of his moral nature, and greatly his superior in intellectual culture, constituted him the principal character in our colony and state during the period occupied by his administration. It is true of Trumbull, as of Washington, that the perfect symmetry of his character has induced many to lose sight of the vast scale on which it was constructed, and the eleva- tion with which it towers above the level of other public men of that day. The term "Brother Jonathan" was frequently applied by Washington to Governor Trumbull. When he wanted honest counsel and wise, he would say, " Let us consult Brother Jona- than." Such was the origin of the name as applied to the nation. — Hollister's History of Connecticut 278 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. CHAPTER X'V, EXPEDITIONS AGAINST PEEKSKILL AND D AN B U R Y. — BRITISH PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. HOWE'S DEPARTURE PROM NEW YORK. — BURGOYNE'S ARMY: HIS PROCLAMATION. — SIEGE OP TICONDEROGA. RETREAT OF ST. CLAIR. BURGOYNE ON THE HUDSON. — SIEGE OF FORT SCHUYLER. — BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. — INDIAN WARFARE. The spring of 1777 passed by without any important operation on the part of either of the main contending armies. The English succeeded in destroying large quantities of American stores at Peeks- jrill, on the Hudson, and at Danbury, in the western part of Con- necticut. The latter expedition was intrusted to governor, then General Try on, with a detachment of no less than two thousand men. His retreat was not accomplished without loss, the militia of the vicinity, under Arnold and Wooster, harassing him by repeated attacks. Wooster received a fatal wound in one of these encounters. The bravery of Arnold, on this occasion, was highly commended, and rewarded by promotion. On the other hand, a small force from Connecticut, crossing over to Long Island, proceeded to Sag-harbour, destroyed British stores and vessels, and took nearly a hundred prisoners. The important events of the summer and autumn, transpiring in different portions of the country, and connected with distinct mili tary operations, must be examined without reference to the date of their occurrence. The British plan of campaign was, that Howe's army should engage the attention of the main body of the continent- als, threatening Philadelphia and other important towns in the middle states, while a powerful force, under Burgoyne, was to invade New England, seizing and occupying the military posts on Cham- plain and the Hudson, effecting a junction with the forces at New York, and cutting off communication between the north and south. Howe, after various manoeuvres, intended to bring about a gen- eral engagement — the result of which could hardly be doubtful, considering the difference in numbers and equipments between the opposing forces — crossed over to Staten Island, embarked with six- THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 279 teen thousand men, and made sail, in the month of July, without any intimation of his destination having transpired. In Canada, Burgoyne, who had received the chief command »f the army of the north, commenced preparations in May. He was enabled to marshal a fine army of seven thousand regulars, British and Germans, an artillery corps of five hundred, and seven hundred Canadians, destined for the various duties of rangers, woodmen, &c. In addition to this, a grand meeting of the Iroquois Indians was called, and their services were secured by additional promises of reward and protection. A flaming proclamation was next issued, for the encouragement of the New England loyalists, and the intim- idation of the rebels. He promised protection to those who should "quietly pursue their occupations," and full pay for all that should be furnished for the army; the contumacious were threatened with the " thousands of Indians that were under his direction," and whose fury was to be let loose upon those who should take part against the king. Passing the lake, Burgoyne laid siege to Ticonderoga, at the com- mencement of the month of July. The garrison, under St. Clair, was entirely insufficient for the protection of the fort. It numbered, including militia, about three thousand men, but the works were very extensive, and the troops were ill provided with arms. A retreat was effected on the night of the 5th, but the Americans were unable to gain sufficient time upon the enemy. The baggage and stores were dispatched up Wood Creek, towards Skeenesborough, now Whitehall, which place was appointed for general rendezvous. A bridge and other obstructions were soon removed by the British, and free passage was opened to the creek. The boats containing the stores were pursued and captured. The army, retreating in the same direction by land, was hotly pursued by a detachment of the enemy, under General Fraser. The rear division was overtaken, on the 7th of July, and complete^ routed. The main body, led by St. Clair, reached General Schuy- ler's head-quarters, at Fort Edward, on the Hudson river, after a toilsome march over rough roads through the wilderness. Notwithstanding every effort made to delay and obstruct the advance of the enemy, by blocking up the forest- roads, and choking the channel of the narrow creek which connects with the southern extremity of Lake Champlain, Burgoyne penetrated to the Hudson, before the close of the month. Evacuating Fort Edward, on the 280 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. approach of the British, General Schuyler retreated to Saratoga, thence to Stillwater, and, the enemy continuing to press onward, he finally encamped near the mouth of the Mohawk. These disasters, at the north, were popularly attributed to incompe- tency on the part of the commanding officers, who were accordingly superseded by Generals Gates, Arnold, and Lincoln. Reinforcements, includiDg the body of riflemen, under the redoubted Morgan, were also ordered, in all haste, to the seat of war at the north. Before proceeding down the river, Burgoyne was desirous of col- lecting stores and provisions at his camp on the Hudson, by the route laid open from the head of Lake Champlain. Meanwhile, two excursions were planned and attempted at the west and east. Gen- eral Barry St. Leger, with several companies of regulars, and a large body of Indians, under command of Joseph Brant, early in August, besieged Fort Schuyler, an important military post, situated near the head-waters of the Mohawk. General Herkimer, with nearly a thousand of the provincial militia, endeavoured to relieve the fort, but fell into an ambuscade prepared by Brant with his followers and an English detachment. A bloody but indecisive engagement ensued, known as the "battle of Oriskany." Herkimer was killed, together with several hundred of his followers. The enemy's loss was probably about the same ; and, although no communication was opened with the fort, the commandant, Willett, was enabled to make a sally, and to plunder the British encampment of stores and provisions. A detachment, principally Hessians, under Colonel Baum, was also dispatched by Burgoyne, to procure cattle and other plunder in the eastern settlements. The seizure of stores accumulated at Benning- ton, was the special object of the expedition. Colonel Stark, having command of the militia in that quarter, learning the approach of the enemy, made every effort to prepare for resistance. Baum, finding himself opposed by a superior force, halted near the town, and commenced throwing up intrenchments. On the 16th of August, he was attacked, and utterly defeated by the pro- vincials. Reinforcements arrived simultaneously on either side — Colonel Warner making his appearance with a regiment of conti- nental troops, from Manchester, at the same time that a strong force, under Colonel Breyman, sent to support Baum's division, was en- gaged with the American militia. The Americans maintained their advantage; the British effected a retreat at nightfall, having sustained THE AMEBIC A.N REVOLUTION. 281 a loss of about eight hundred in killed and prisoners. A most sea- sonable supply of arms and artillery fell into the hands of the pro- vincials. Of the latter, only about sixty were killed or wounded. A few days later, Arnold relieved Fort Schuyler, and seized upon the tents and stores of the besieging army, abandoned in hasty retreat. Many of the Iroquois allies of the English became dis- heartened at these reverses, and drew off. Generally, however, they were proof against the efforts of agents in behalf of the Americans to secure their services, or promises of neutrality. Outrages com- mitted by the savages on the march, their cruelty to prisoners, and their ferocious manner of warfare, excited universal indignation against Burgoyne, who was considered responsible for all the enor- mities committed. We are informed that he used what influence he possessed over the chiefs, to induce conformity with the rules of civilized warfare; but what would previous exhortation or threats avail, in the midst of the dangers and excitement of actual conflict? The check given to the British at Bennington and Fort Schuyler, gave great encouragement to the Americans ; and it was now seen that the provincial militia, under brave and energetic commanders, was a more effective force than it had generally been considered. CHAPTER XV lo BATTLES AT BEHMUS' HEIGHTS. — BURGO YNE'S RETREAT TO SARATOGA: HIS SURRENDER. — DETENTION OF PRISONERS. — EXPEDITION FROM NEW YORK UP THE HUDSON. HOWE'S MARCH UPON PHILADELPHIA. — BATTLE AT BR AND TWINE CREEK. — BRITISH OCCUPATION OF PHILADELPHIA. BATTLE OF GERM ANTOWN. — REDUCTION OF FORTS MIFFLIN AND MERCER. — WINTER-QUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE Burgoyne, having procured provisions for a month's campaign, crossed the Hudson, and continued his progress southward. The American army, numbering about six thousand men, and com- manded by General Gates, lay encamped upon Behmus' heights, on the west bank of the river. The place presented natural facilities 282 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. for defence, of which due advantage had been taken in the disposi- tion of the camp, and the formation of batteries and intrenchments. On the 19th of September, an indecisive battle was fought, in which, although the British remained masters of the field, at night- tall, the j sustained much the heaviest loss, the number of killed and wounded on either side being, respectively, less than three hundred and over five hundred. Two days previous to this event, communication with Canada had been cut off, by the surprise and capture of the British forts on Lake George, so that nothing but brilliant success could now enable Burgoyne to maintain himself in the enemy's country. He anxiously awaited promised reinforce- ments from New York. On the 7th of October, the British troops again offered battle. The American forces had been increased by new recruits, and, exhil- erated by the remembrance of recent successes, and the reputed destitution of the enemy, they fought with courage and impetuosity. Arnold exhibited his usual energy and bravery. The enemy were driven back to their camp, and a portion of their intrenchments was forced and held by a Massachusetts regiment, under Colonel Brooks. Burgoyne drew off his forces during the night, and took up a new position, which he held during the day ensuing. On the 9th, he retreated to Saratoga. He was here, in a manner, surrounded by the Americans, who had occupied the only passes by which a retreat northward could be effected, and who pressed upon him in his position, the British camp being within reach of their artillery. Provisions could no longer be procured, and the supply on hand was nearly expended. Communications were therefore opened, and a capitulation was agreed upon, by the terms of which the whole British army, to the number of more than five thousand men, be- came prisoners-of-war. It was agreed that they should be allowed to leave the country, but that none of them should serve further in the war, unless made subjects of exchange for American prisoners. All their artillery, arms, and munitions of war, fell into the hands of the Americans. Upon various pretexts, a compliance with the agreement for the embarkation of these prisoners, was delayed and evaded by congress. Burgoyne was permitted to sail for England, but his army was detained, a resolution being passed that no further action should be taken upon the premises, until the Saratoga convention should be expressly ratified by the British government, and a notification to THE AMERICAN EEVOLUTION. 283 that effect be forwarded to the American congress. The result was, that none of these prisoners obtained their liberty except by regular exchange. The forces dispatched by Clinton, from New York, to force a passage up the Hudson, and cooperate with Burgoyne, although unable to effect the main purpose of the expedition, did much mis- chief to the Americans. Obstacles to navigation, in the shape of huge chains, sunken impediments, &c, were successfully overcome, and the forts on the Highlands were stormed or abandoned. All the artillery at these important strongholds became prize to the enemy. A great amount of damage was wantonly inflicted upon the settlements near the river. Not content with plunder, the in- vaders burned and destroyed every thing within their reach. We will now revert to the operations of the main continental army, guided by Washington in person. Towards the close of August (1777), Admiral Howe entered the Chesapeake, and disem- barked the entire force on board his fleet at Elk Ferry, the nearest available landing to the city of Philadelphia, which was now obvi- ously the object of attack. Upon the first intimation of the enemy's approach, Washington had marched to intercept his advance, and had taken up his quarters at Wilmington, on Brandywine creek, in the direct route from Elk Ferry to Philadelphia. He had collected a fbrce of fifteen thousand men ; that of the British was superior in numbers, and in far better condition for service. On the 11th of September, the American army, having taken a new position on the left bank of the creek, was attacked by the enemy. Cornwallis, by a circuit, and by passage of the creek a con- siderable distance up the stream, succeeded in turning the American flank. Sullivan's division, in that quarter, was driven in, and, at the same time, a division, under Kniphausen, crossed the shallow river, and fell upon the central division of Washington's army. The latter was defeated, with a loss of not far from twelve hundred men. That of the enemy was reported to be six hundred. A retreat was effected to Chester, and thence, passing through Philadelphia, the army marched to Germantown, where an encampment was formed. In the action on the Brandywine, several foreign officers distin- guished themselves. La Fayette was wounded in the engage ment. The services of Count Pulaski were rewarded by immediate promotion. On the 16th, Washington crossed the Schuylkill, and endeavoured 284 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. to check the advance of the enemy. A violent rain storm came on just as the armies were engaging, by which the arms and ammuni- tion of the Americans were rendered unserviceable : they, therefore, retreated, and encamped on the left bank of the river, some distance above Philadelphia. A portion of the army, under Wayne, endeav- oured to gain the enemy's rear; but, on the night of the 20th, the position of its encampment became known to the British commander, and it was attacked and driven off with heavy loss. A few days later, Howe crossed the Schuylkill farther down, and entered Philadelphia without opposition. Congress, having extended and enlarged the dictatorial powers confided to the commander-in- chief, and, having passed laws rendering it a capital offence for resi- dents in the vicinity of towns occupied by the enemy to furnish them with provisions, &c, had adjourned to Lancaster. The princi- pal British camp was formed at Germantown. Communication was not yet opened between the city and the tide- waters of the bay, strong fortifications and obstructions having been planted by the Americans at the entrance of the Schuylkill from the Delaware. While a portion of the enemy's force was detached to make an attempt upon these works, and to protect the transport- ation of stores, by land, from Chester, Washington undertook to surprise the main body at Germantown. The very circumstances that enabled him to come upon the enemy unperceived, proved dis- astrous for the success of the enterprise. The morning of the 4th of October, when the attack was made, was unusually dark and foggy. The American troops, after a long and toilsome march, fell upon the British camp about sunrise. All, for a time, was confu- sion, in which the assailants gained a temporary advantage. The British soon rallied, and availed themselves of the protection afforded by the buildings to form, and to pour a heavy fire upon their oppo- nents. The Americans were driven off, with a loss of more than a thousand men ; that of the British was less than two-thirds of that number. It now became all important for the army of occupation at Phila- delphia, to reduce the forts by which it was cut off from the fleet in the Delaware. The first attempt was made upon Fort Mercer, on Red bank, which was defended by troops from Ehode Island, under Greene. The storming party consisted of twelve hundred Hessians, led by Count Donop. A complete repulse, with the loss of four hundred of the assailants, including the commanding officer, demon- THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 285 gtrated the necessity for more deliberate and systematic approaches. Batteries were erected to play upon Fort Mifflin, situated upon a low mud-flat, which was reduced, after a brave defence of several days. The ships-of-war were now enabled to bring their guns to bear with effect upon Fort Mercer, and its evacuation soon followed. Thus, on the 16th of November, the British secured complete com- mand of the approaches to Philadelphia by water. Washington soon after retired with his army to a strong position at Yalley Forge, on the right bank of the Schuylkill, twenty miles above Philadelphia. Here he established winter-quarters for the troops, consisting of regularly arranged rows of cabins. The greatest destitution and misery existed in the army, most of the men being ill supplied with clothing — especially shoes — and provisions were often to be procured only by forcible seizure. The supply was very irregular, and, at times, the condition of the camp fell little short of actual famine. CHAPTER X Y 1 1. DIFFICULTIES OF CONGRESS. — ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. — RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE STATES. — INTRIGUES AGAINST WASHINGTON. — TREATIES WITH FRANCE. — BRITISH COM- MISSIONERS IN AMERICA. — EVACUATION OF PHILA- DELPHIA. — BATTLE OF MONMOUTH- 4 — ARRI Y AL OF A FRENCH FLEET. — ATTEMPT ON NEWPORT.-- WINTER-QUARTERS. — MARAUDING EXPEDI- TIONS. — DESTRUCTION OF WYOMING. It were difficult to conceive a more embarrassing position than that of the continental congress at this juncture. The army was reduced in numbers, dispirited, discouraged, and in a condition of physical want and suffering. The immense issue of paper money, amounting already to thirty or forty millions, had necessarily induced so rapid a depreciation in its value, that it was not available for purchases, at a higher rate than twenty-five per cent, upon its nominal value ; and yet there appeared no resource for government, other than continued issues. Loans could be effected but slowly, 286 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. and to amounts miserably insufficient for the exigencies of the occa sion. The numerous laws and regulations for fixing and establishing the prices of goods, for rendering distinction between gold and con- tinental bills a penal offence, and for the preventing of "forestalling and engrossing," (viz: the buying up and retention of necessaries on speculation,) were exceedingly difficult to enforce, and were generally evaded, or made a handle for the gratification of private enmity. Congress had already submitted a series of "Articles of Confeder- ation " to the separate states, which were subjects of long and vex- atious dispute; a great hesitation being felt at the relinquishment of individual sovereignty, in exchange for the benefits and perma- nency of a centralized government. It was now earnestly recom- mended that available funds should be raised by the states, resort being had for this purpose to direct taxation, to meet the expenses of the coming year ; that stringent provisions — the arbitrary nature of which was acknowledged and lamented — should be enforced against forestallers and engrossers, by seizure of the accumulated property ; to be paid for at specified rates in continental money, and for general regulation of trade; and that the property of absent loyalists be confiscated for public purposes. The series of disasters which had befallen the main army, had given rise to doubts in the minds of many, as to the vigour and capacity of the commander-in-chief. Occasion was taken by those among the officers of the army and leading politicians, who were jealous of his ascendancy, to conspire for effecting his removal from office. This movement failed to affect the general popularity of Washington, or to shake the confidence of congress in his abilities or patriotism. The close of January, 1778, was marked by the conclusion of two separate treaties with France. No event since the commencement of the war had given such strength to the patriotic cause as this. The independence of the states was acknowledged, and a treaty for trade and commerce negotiated. Still more important were the provisions of the second treaty, which contained stipulations for mutual defence, in anticipation of the course which England, if con- sistent in her plans, must necessarily adopt. News of the negotiation of these treaties, was brought over to America in the spring, about the same time that intelligence was transmitted of a willingness on the part of the British government THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 287 to effect a reconciliation with the colonies, by the renunciation of all claims to impose taxes, &c. The three commissioners, deputed to conduct negotiations for this purpose, after a vain address to congress, in which the most liberal offers were made in behalf of the crown, resorted to every species of intrigue to bring about their ends. Manifestoes, calculated to excite prejudice against the French, appeals to the separate states, slurs upon the motives and principles of the leading patriots, and even the more reprehensible course of attempting the integrity of individuals- by the offer of bribes; all resulted in signal failure. The treaties were ratified by congress, and no proposal for any thing short of absolute independence was longer entertained. In parliament it was now openly advocated that submission to the necessities of the case, by an acknowledgment of American inde- pendence, would only be a timely anticipation of an inevitable result. National pride, and a jealousy of French interference prevailed, however, against every argument founded upon policy or right: the British minister was recalled from Paris, and the attention of government was devoted to the detail of warlike operations. Sir "William Howe, recalled at his own request, was superseded in the chief command by Sir Henry Clinton. Orders were given for an abandonment of the positions at and near Philadelphia, and a con- centration of forces at New York. The evacuation of Philadelphia was effected on the 18th of June, the principal stores and baggage of the army having been for- warded to New York by sea. The American forces were immedi- ately put in motion, to harass the enemy in the rear, and to watch for a favourable opportunity for a general engagement. Such an occasion presented itself, in the estimation of Washington, on the 28th, the enemy being encamped near Monmouth court-house. At the council in which an attack was decided upon, General Lee, then , second in command, had opposed the plan. He was now intrusted with the command of the advance. Early in the morning, upon the first movement of the British, who were about to take up their line of march towards New York, Lee received orders from his superior to open the attack. Coming up with the main army, Washington met the advance in full retreat, and pressed upon by the enemy. In the heat of the moment, he addressed Lee with terms of reproach, which rankled in the remembrance of that proud and eccentric officer, but which did not Yol. IV.— 47 288 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. prevent him from lending his utmost exertions, at the time, in car- rying out the orders of the commander-in-chief. During the remainder of the action, which lasted until nightfall, neither party obtained any decisive advantage. The British sus- tained the heavier loss, their killed and wounded amounting to about three hundred men; that of the Americans, probably, fell short of two hundred. The former continued their retreat during the night, and pushed on unmolested to the Navesink highlands, where they occupied an unassailable position. It does not appear that General Lee was guilty of any dereliction from duty in this engagement: his retreat, at the commencement, was before a supe- rior force,' the British having assumed an offensive attitude with remarkable promptitude and good order, and his own position being unfavourable from the nature of the ground. In consequence of two disrespectful letters, subsequently written to "Washington, re- specting the affair, as well as for alleged disobedience of orders, and an unnecessary retreat, he was tried by a court-martial, and suspended from command for the term of one year. He took no further part in the war. Early in July, a powerful French fleet, commanded by Count D'Estaing, arrived on the coast, bringing over the French ambassa- dor, Gerard, and about four thousand troops. Washington's army had, by this time, moved towards the Hudson, and, to cooperate with the French fleet in a proposed attack upon New York, now crossed over to White Plains. The British forces had removed from ISTavesink to the city. The larger French men-of-war, from their great draught of water, could not be safely taken into New York harbour, and it was determined to commence operations by an attempt at the recovery of Newport, still in the possession of the British, and protected by a force of six thousand men. A violent storm disconcerted the arrangements for a joint attack by land and sea. D'Estaing, in endeavouring to engage the English fleet, suffered so much injury m his shipping, that he was compelled to sail for Boston to repair damages. The American forces, under Sullivan, which had landed on Rhode Island, and advanced towards Newport, were compelled to abandon the attempt. In this retreat, they were pursued and attacked by the enemy, whom they repulsed, not without consider- able loss on both sides. The remaining events of the year, although replete with local THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 289 interest, were of little importance, as connected with the result of the war. The French fleet, on the approach of winter, sailed for the West Indies, and the main continental army went into win- ter-quarters for the season, in New Jersey and the western portion of Connecticut, their line extending across the Hudson at West Point. The head-quarters of the commander-in-chief was at Middlebrook. At no period of the war were evidences given of more bitter and relentless enmity between the patriots and loyalists, than during the summer and autumn of 1778. The predatory excursions of the British troops were also marked by unusual ferocity and needless cruelty. Not content with plunder, they generally glutted their malice by wanton destruction of all that they were unable to re- move. In the month of July, a party of about three hundred tories and regulars, with a still larger number of Indians, under command of Colonel John Butler, marched into Pennsylvania from western New York, and ravaged the beautiful valley of Wyoming. It has been usually reported that Joseph Brant headed the Indians in this excursion. This seems to be an error: it is true, that throughout no small portion of the war, he and his warriors were a terror to the north-western frontier. He was faithful to the last to the cause which he had espoused, and his name came to be coupled with every tale of Indian violence and outrage. From all that we can learn, Brant was of a more humane disposition than many of his white associates, even among those who held high positions in the army. At Wyoming, although the destruction of the settlement was principally effected by the ferocious and uncontrollable horde of Indians, the most revolting instances of blood-thirsty cruelty occur- red in combat between the whites. In addition to the party strife between whig and tory, this community had been long distracted by bitter enmity between two distinct classes of settlers, holding their estates, respectively, under the conflicting grants of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Opportunity was taken at the time of this inva- sion for the revenge of old family and clannish quarrels. Upon a reoccupation of Philadelphia, the severe and sanguinary enactments against those who should assist the enemy, were enforced against some of the prominent tories. Two Quakers, convicted of treason under the laws lately enacted, were executed. 290 AMEBIC A ILLUSTEATED. L IS A P T ci/\j 2P 'J' 3? T <£ R tXl !X1 J 3» a WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. — SEIZURE AND PLUN- DER OF ST. EUSTATIUS. — THE ARMED NEUTRALITY. RECOV- ERY OF WEST FLORIDA BY SPAIN. — CONTINENTAL CUR- RENCY. — PLAN FOR THE RECOVERY OF NEW YORK. — VIRGINIA RAVAGED BY PHILLIPS AND CORNWALLIS. ENCAMPMENTS AT Y0RKT0WN AND GLOUCESTER POINT. — WASHINGTON'S MARCH SOUTHWARD. — ATTACK ON NEW LONDON AND GR0T0N. — CAMPAIGN IN SOUTH CAROLINA. — BAT- TLE NEAR EUTAW SPRINGS. Beyond the limits of the United States, during the winter and spring, important events had transpired, at which, although con- nected with the difficulties between England and her colonies, we can barely glance. During the autumn of 1780, the British govern- ment obtained information of a correspondence between the United States and Holland relative to a commercial treaty. An arrogant demand upon the latter for explanation or atonement, not receiving the attention required, was soon followed by a declaration of war. The opportunity presented for the acquisition of an enormous booty, was too tempting to be resisted, and, doubtless, occasioned this pre- cipitancy of action. The Dutch possessions in the West Indies were seized by a fleet, under Rodney, in the month of February, 1781. At the island of St. Eustatius, an immense number of ships and an accu- mulation of merchandise, valued at fifteen millions of dollars, were taken as lawful prize. This island had been one of the principal places of deposit for goods intended to be shipped to the United States. England was thus involved in war with France and Holland. Her claim of the right to interfere with the commerce of neutral nations, had also caused the formation of a coalition by the principal 806 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. northern powers of Europe, known as the "Armed Neutrality," for the purpose of mutual protection in their commercial rights against the injurious assumptions of Great Britain. Spain, besides uniting her powerful fleet to that of France, for operation against the common enemy, took the occasion to recover the settlements of West Florida from the British. This was effected in the spring of 1781, by a force from Louisiana, under Galvez, the Spanish governor, with the cooperation of a fleet from Havana. An important change, introduced by congress during the summer of this year, in the conduct of financial operations, by which the government refused to deal further with the depreciated paper cur- rency, rendered this entirely worthless. Much of the paper was taken up by individual states — by which it was to be redeemed according to the provisions accompanying its issue — at an enormous depreciation, as an equivalent for taxes, but an immense amount remained upon the hands of private holders. Various schemes for replacing it, at its market value, by a "new tenor" of bills, bearing interest, proved failures, as nothing, at this period, could sustain the value of any public issue, either by the union, or by states in their separate capacity. Nearly all of the latter had pursued a course similar to that of the confederation, in this respect, and their paper had experienced a steady and hopeless decline in value. At the opening of the campaign of 1781, extensive preparations were made by the United States for a systematic effort at the recov- ery of New York. For this purpose, forces were gradually concen- trated in that vicinity; but the events of the spring and summer gave a new aspect to the campaign, and changed the scene of action. The British forces, under Phillips, in Virginia, greatly outnum- bered any which, at that time, could be brought to oppose them. The only effective American troops in this quarter, were La Fayette's continentals. Phillips, with little opposition, sent detachments up the James and Appamattox rivers, and plundered and destroyed property to the amount of millions. Joined by the forces of Corn- wallis, in the month of May, and by troops sent round from New York, the army of invasion amounted to about eight thousand men : that of the Americans, in Virginia, including raw recruits and militia, little exceeded three thousand. A little later, the Pennsyl- vania regiments, under Wayne, effected a junction with La Fayette's army, increasing it to about four thousand. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 307 Oornwallis, after destroying a valuable collection of arms and stores at the armory on the James river, in Fluvanna, and driving the state legislature precipitately from Charlottesville, then the place of session, moved with his whole army towards the coast. He had received instructions to this effect from Clinton, who, having ob- tained intimation of the intended attack upon New York, desired to dispose the Yirginia division where it could be made available in case of necessity. Early in August, a position was accordingly taken at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, on either side of York river, at its debouchement into Chesapeake bay. Every effort was made to strengthen and fortify these posts: a considerable naval force was also at hand in the river and bay, to cooperate in any future movement. The northern army, under Washington, was joined by the French forces, so long stationed at Newport, in the month of July. While preparations were actively going on to prosecute the siege of New York, information was received that a powerful French fleet from the West Indies, commanded by Count de Grasse, was momentarily expected in the Chesapeake. Determined to seize so favourable an opportunity for the annihilation of the army of Cornwallis, Wash- ington abandoned, for the time, his designs against New York, and hastened to put the main army en route for the south. He was care- ful to conceal this change of operations from the enemy, and so suc- cessfully was the movement planned and conducted, that Clinton had no intimation of the new turn of affairs until the army was safe from interception or pursuit. Advantage was now taken of the withdrawal of the continental and French armies, for an expedition into Connecticut. The traitor Arnold, to whom the command was intrusted, shaped his course for New London. On the morning of September 6th, a fleet of twenty- four sail was seen off the harbour. About sixteen hundred troops were landed, in two divisions, one led by Arnold in person, on the New London side, the other by Colonel Eyre, at Groton. Fort Griswold, on the heights at the latter place, was garrisoned by one hundred and sixty volunteers, commanded by Colonel Ledyard. With the expectation of receiving an immediate rein- forcement of militia, it was determined to defend the post. This expectation proved vain; the fort was carried by storm, and most of the garrison, in accordance with the cruel usage of war, were cut to pieces for defending an untenable position. An eye-wit 808 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. ness* thus describes the catastrophe: "Colonel Ledyard, seeing the enemy within the fort, gave orders to cease firing, and to throw- down our arms, as the fort had surrendered. We did so, but they continued firing in platoons upon those who were retreating to the magazine and barrack-rooms for safety. At this moment, the rene- gado colonel commanding, cried out, 'Who commands this garri- son?' Colonel Ledyard, who was standing near me, answered, 'I did, sir, but you do now,' at the same time stepping forward, handing him his sword, with point towards himself." The narrator was, at this moment, wounded by a bayonet thrust; he continues: " The first person I saw afterwards, was my brave commander, a corpse by my side, having been run through the body with his own sword by the savage renegado. Never was a scene of more brutal, wanton carnage than now took place. The enemy were still firing on us by platoons, and in the barrack-rooms. * * All this time the bayonet was freely used, even on those who were helplessly wounded, and in the agonies of death." Those of the wounded who escaped the general massacre, were treated with great brutality and neglect. Arnold's division met with similar success in the attack upon New London. The town was plundered, and, at the same time, set on fire, and reduced to ashes. Nothing further was attempted: the country adjacent presented little temptation to the marauders, and they immediately reembarked, and set sail for New York with their booty and a number of prisoners. While these events were taking place at the north, General Greene had been actively engaged in preparing for the renewal of hostilities in Carolina. Towards the close of August, having procured rein- forcements of militia, and a supply of horses for his cavalry corps, he left his quarters among the hills of the Santee, and marched in pursuit of the enemy, then under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart. An indecisive and bloody battle was fought, on the 8th of September, in the neighbourhood of Eutaw Springs. The Amer- ican forces rather exceeded those of the enemy in point of numbers, amounting to more than two thousand men. After this engagement, Greene drew off his forces to his former place of encampment, at the Santee hills; the British moved towards Charleston. The latter, although so frequently victorious through- out these southern campaigns, and although favoured by a large party among the inhabitants, had failed to gain any important * Stephen Hempstead. » 9 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION. 309 advantage by their conquests. It was comparatively easy to over- run the country, and to inflict incalculable injury upon the property of the scattered population ; but they always left enemies in their rear, and the obstinacy of the Anglo Saxon disposition, duly inher- ited by the Americans, and losing nothing of its force by translation to the New World, continually strengthened the antagonistic spirit of the people. The operations of Stewart were thenceforth confined to the vicinity of Charleston. C liil) jth 2P Y 33 tX! iX! 3> 2! I! FRENCH FLEET IN THE CHESAPEAKE. — SIEGE OF Y0RKT0WN — SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS. — WINTER-QUARTERS. — PROCEEDINGS IN THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. NEGO- TIATIONS FOR PEACE. — TERMS OF TREATY. — CESSA- TION OF HOSTILITIES. — DISAFFECTION IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY. — EVACUATION OF NEW YORK — POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES. About the 1st of September, 1781, after a long series of manoeu- vres, in which he wisely avoided any general engagement with the British fleet, the Count de Grasse brought twenty-four ships of the line safely into the Chesapeake, thus securing complete possession of the bay, and precluding all possibility of Cornwallis' effecting a retreat by sea. The fleet was soon after joined by the French squadron from Newport, commanded by Du Barras. The American army, concentrated for the purpose of laying siege to Yorktown, including continentals, militia, the French previously stationed at Newport, and those newly landed by De Grasse, amounted to sixteen thousand men. That of Cornwallis did not exceed eight thousand. After detaching a force to hold in check the British at Gloucester Point, Washington entered vigorously upon the systematic prosecution of the siege. The first works were thrown up on the night of the 6th of October: three days after- wards, they were so far completed that heavy artillery was planted, and brought to bear, at a distance of but six hundred yards from the British line. A second parallel was commenced on the night of the 11th, at an intermediate distance between the first and the enemy's 310 AMEBIC A ILLUSTKATED. position. The work could not be safely carried on, in consequence of a heavy fire from two advanced redoubts, which were, therefore, stormed, and connected with the second line of fortifications. This service was accomplished by two distinct detachments, one Ameri- can, the other French — the efforts of either were thus stimulated by an ardent spirit of emulation. The Americans, being well supplied with battering artillery, now opened so heavy a fire upon the British fortifications as to disable many of the guns, and effect breaches in the works. Yorktown was no longer tenable, and Cornwallis, on the evening of October 16th, endeavoured to escape by crossing to Gloucester Point. Failing in the attempt to transport his troops over the river, in consequence of a severe storm, he had no resource but a capitulation. Proposals to this effect were made on the day following, and the terms were speedily arranged. The whole British army, more than seven thousand men, became prisoners of war; the naval force surrendered to the French admiral. This victory was the crowning event of the war. Although hos- tilities still lingered throughout the succeeding year, prior to the conclusion of negotiations for peace, they involved no extensive military operations. A partisan warfare still desolated some of the southern and western districts, and the frontier was, from time to time, harassed by incursions of the savages. The main French and continental armies went into winter-quarters in November. Greene, with the remains of the southern army, took a station in the neigh- bourhood of Charleston, to restrain foraging expeditions of the enemy. The tone adopted by the British ministry at the winter session of parliament, 1781-2, gave no token of any probable concessions to the American demands. In the house of commons, after repeated failures, a motion passed, at the close of February, calling for the adoption of measures which should put an end to hostilities. A change in the cabinet, at this juncture, favoured the projects of the friends of peace. Negotiations were speedily opened with Adams, the American minister at Holland, and with Franklin, then in France, for a pacific arrangement. With these ministers were associated John Jay of New York, and Henry Laurens of South Carolina. Mr. Eichard Oswald conducted the preliminary arrangements in behalf of Great Britain: Franklin and Jay, in the absence of the other commissioners, opened the negotiation at Paris in the month of April, 1782. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 311 Jealousy of secret influence unfavourable to the interests of the United States, on the part of the French minister, induced the American commissioners to depart from their instructions requiring that he should take part in their negotiations, and a provisional treaty was signed, without his intervention, at the close of the fol- lowing autumn. This great delay resulted from the difficulty of settling questions of boundary, of the privileges of fishery on the northern coast, and of the rights of tory refugees. In favour of the latter, the American commissioners would agree to nothing farther than a proposed recommendation from congress to the states, that confiscations should cease, that restitution should be made for former seizures, and certain personal privileges, as to right of residence, should be conceded. The former customs relative to the Newfound- land fisheries were substantially confirmed; and, respecting bound- ary, the states retained their former territory, extending westward to the Mississippi, and southward to latitude thirty-one — leaving Spain in possession of the wilderness at the west, and of the mouth of the great river. England retained the Canadas: toward the north- west the extent of the American claims remained still unascertained. The treaty was not made definitive until September of the follow- ing year, its conclusion being contingent upon an establishment of peace between France and England, by virtue of the former treaty of alliance between France and the United States. At the first opening of pacific negotiation in April, ministers from all the belli- gerent nations of Europe had met for the purpose of concluding arrangements for a general peace. These were settled in the spring of 1783, and, upon the transmission of the intelligence to America, a formal proclamation was made by congress, of a termination of hostilities. During the spring of 1782, an alarming disaffection exhibited itself among some portions of the continental army, arising from an anticipated failure in payment of their arrearages. This feeling ex- tended to many of the officers, and, but for the firmness and wisdom of the commander-in-chief, might have led to lamentable results. The army was disbanded, by order of congress, in the month of November ; and, within a few weeks, an evacuation of New York and its adjacent strongholds was completed by the British. On Christmas day, in the following month, General Washington appeared before congress, in session at Annapolis, and tendered a resignation of his commission as commander-in-chief. 312 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. The war was now at an end; the United States, acknowledged independent by the nations of Europe, were free to adopt a form of government of their own choosing, untrammelled by the restrictions of ancient customs or the claims of hereditary right. But the posi- tion of the country, if no longer critical, was embarrassing in the extreme. The burden of an enormous debt, the poverty consequent upon the expenditure of little short of two hundred millions of dollars in carrying on the war, the failure of public credit, the exist- ence of sectional jealousies, the great territorial extent of the coun- try, the mixture of races — all combined to oppose obstacles to the establishment of a new and complicated scheme of government. Bishop Seabury. — As soon as peace was restored, the clergy of Connecticut and those of New York held a private meeting in that city, and chose the Rev. Dr. Learning bishop of the diocese of Connecticut. Dr. Learning did not accept the place assigned him ; and, on the 21st of April, 1783, a second vote resulted in the unanimous choice of Dr. Sea- bury. A letter was immediately addressed to the archbishop of York, reiterating the old request that an American bishop might be consecrated. " The person," say they, " whom we have prevailed upon to offer himself to your grace is the Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury, who has been the society's worthy missionary for many years. He was born and edu- cated in Connecticut ; he is every way qualified for the episcopal office, and for the discharge of those duties peculiar to it in the present trying and dangerous times." The archbishop of York raising objections, he repaired to Scotland, where, on the 14th of November, 1784, the ceremonial took place at Aberdeen, under the direction of Robert Kilgour, bishop of Aberdeen, Primus, with the assistance of Arthur Petrie, of Ross and Moray, and John Skinner, coadjutor of Bishop Kilgour. It was an occasion of the deep- est interest, and called forth many warm congratulations and fervent prayers. Thus, by the kindly aid of Scotland, after a struggle of so many years, the victory over English exclusiveness was won, and Connecticut, let us rather say the western world, had, at last, a bishop. Hastening homeward, with a heart buoyant as the wave that floated and the wind that wafted him, Bishop Seabury repaired immediately to New London, and, on the 3d of August, 1785, entered upon the discharge of his high and responsible duties. Nobly did this great and good man lay wide and deep the walls that were to stand around the dio- cese of Connecticut and Rhode Island. Brave without any ostentatious show of moral courage, modest without the least abatement of self-possession or firmness, with all tho lofty zeal of a martyr tempered with the forbearance that is the fruit only of Christian charity ; discreet in counsel, with a hand that never trembled in executing his ripe pur- poses ; never advancing faster than he could fortify his progress, Bishop Seabury had no superior, probably no equal, among the episcopal dignitaries of his generation. — Hollisier's History of Connecticut THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER lo POSITION OF THE UNION AT THE CONCLUSION OF PEACE.™ EXISTING DIFFICULTIES WITH GREAT BRITAIN. — WEAKNESS OF CONGRESS. — LOCAL DISTURBANCES: SHAY'S REBELLION. — CONVENTION FOR ENLARGING CONGRESSIONAL POWERS: OPPOSING INTERESTS OF THE STATES. — THE PRESENT CONSTITUTION: FEDERAL LEGISLATURE: POWERS OF CONGRESS: RESTRICTIONS: LIMIT OF STATE POW- ERS: THE EXECUTIYE: THE JUDICIARY: MU- TUAL GUARANTEES: AMENDMENTS. For several years immediately following the establishment of American independence, the affairs of the country remained in con- fusion, from the incapacity of congress, under the old articles of con- federation, to bind the states by its dealings with foreign powers. ^Restrictions upon commerce, which the congress had no power to mitigate by treaty, retarded the development of the national re- sources. The West India trade, so lucrative before the war, even under the old "sugar act," was now cut off. The mouth of the Mississippi was closed, by Spain, to all entrance or egress of Amer- ican vessels, leaving the growing settlements of the west without the means for disposing of their produce. Great Britain could hardly be expected to look with favour upon the confederation, and in defiance of the provisions of the treaty, she maintained possession of the strongholds on the western lakes. The reason given for this retention, was a non-compliance, on the part of the Union, with provisions securing to British subjects the right to recover debts contracted before the war. Many minor points of dispute also remained unsettled. With respect to the losses sus- tained by the loyalists, in consequence of confiscations, the recom- 814 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. mendation of congress had as little effect upon the action of the states in this as in most other particulars. A great number of these claims to indemnity were subsequently examined and partially sat- isfied by act of parliament. The weakness of congress was made repeatedly the subject of earnest exhortation to the states and the people. Unless its powers could be enlarged, and a willingness be induced, on the part of the states, to abandon some portion of their sovereignty for the sake of greater centralization of power, there seemed but faint prospects of future prosperity. At the commencement of the year 1786, an effort was made to bring about a convention from the states, for the pur- pose of establishing a general commercial system, but the attempt fell through for want of full representation. Those members who attended, earnestly recommended a meeting of delegates from all the states, to alter and amend the articles of confederation, so as to define, confirm and enlarge the jurisdiction of the central government. This proposal received the sanction of congress in the month of February of the following year. If the power of congress was fast becoming a nullity, since a change of circumstances had diminished the respect paid to its decrees and recommendations during the dangers of actual war, the state authorities experienced nearly equal difficulties in carrying on the necessary operations of government. The people were in a con- dition of great destitution and distress. Scarce able to procure the necessaries of life, they were continually called upon to provide funds for public purposes, and, as these were collected by direct taxation, the burden, if in reality no greater than that attached to imposts, was more severely felt by the individual. Nothing was more natural than that they should attribute their suffering and poverty to mal-administration of state affairs, nor that a popular cry should be raised for impolitic or impracticable schemes of amendment. In the autumn of 1786, this feeling broke out into open rebellion in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The most extensive and dangerous outbreak occurred in the latter state. One Daniel Shays, who had held office in the continental army, headed the movement, and, before any effective steps were taken to suppress it, collected an armed body of malcontents, about a thousand in number. The immediate object appeared to be the obstruction of the sessions of the courts. A greatly superior force of militia was called out, and put under command of General Lincoln. The rebellion was quelled THE UNITED STATES. 815 with very little bloodshed, and those concerned in it, in accordance with good policy, were treated with lenity. The convention, for the purpose of remodelling the powers of con gress, met at Philadelphia on the 14th of May, 1787. Delegates were present, or arrived soon after the opening of the assembly, from eleven states, Ehode Island and New Hampshire having alone neg- lected to make choice of members. The number commissioned by each state, was about the same as that of its representatives in congress. Washington was chosen president, on motion of Eobert Morris — a distinguished financier, to whom the management of the monetary affairs of government had been principally entrusted for several years, during the period of greatest difficulties, before an 4 d subsequent to the close of the war. Among the members of the convention, were many who had taken part in most of the great political movements from the com- mencement of the contest with England. Franklin, Eutledge, Sher- man, Livingston, Gerry, and others of the early patriots, were present; the existing congress was largely represented; and the general character of those assembled, was marked by zeal, earnest- ness, and ability. The proceedings were not made public for a period of more than thirty years. It was wisely concluded that harmony of feeling would be promoted by the promulgation of the results arrived at, unaccom- panied by discussions in which the opposing interests of the different states were set forth and enlarged upon. It was found easier to pre- pare an entirely new constitution, than to alter and amend the old articles of confederation so as to meet the exigencies of the times. Various plans were framed and rejected, and it was not until the middle of September, that a scheme was completed which the con- vention was willing to send forth to the people for ratification. The claims of the smaller states to equal representation with the larger, the commercial interests of the north as opposed to those of agriculture in the south, the apportionment of representatives, the modes of election, the character of the two proposed legislative bodies, the authority and duties of the executive, the general limita- tion of congressional powers, the formation of a judiciary department, and many minor details, gave rise to long, and, frequently, to excited debate. Prominent among the vexed questions of the day, were those growing out of a difference of opinion and interest with respect to fne institution of slavery. Upon this topic, while some northern 316 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. members — especially Gouverneur Morris — inveighed against the sys- tem with extreme warmth, those from the southern states supported its interests with less heat, but greater determination. The Constitution of the United States, as it at present exists, (with the exception of a few amendments, chiefly relative to the rights of persons, to the manner of choosing president and vice-president, and to the release of the separate states from liability to be sued in the federal courts by citizens of any other state or foreign nation,) was signed on the 17th of September, 1787, by thirty-eight members of the convention, representing twelve of the original states. New Hampshire had chosen delegates during the session ; Khode Island alone took no share in the proceedings. By the provisions of this instrument, all legislation is committed to a senate and house of representatives. The first consists of two members from each state — their election to be made by the legisla- ture. They are chosen for six years, but are so classified that one- third of the whole number are elected every second year. The second is composed of members chosen for two years, by the people, in proportion to the population, (originally one for every thirty thousand, with a provision securing to each state at least one repre- sentative,) in computing which, three-fifths of all slaves are included. The word slave is avoided by circumlocution. As an offset to this concession to the slave-holding states, direct taxes are decreed to be apportioned in the same manner. Bills, in order to become laws, must pass both houses, and receive the signature of the president; or, in case of his refusal, must be reconsidered and approved by a two-thirds vote in each house. The house of representatives has the privilege of originating all revenue bills. Provisions are made, for an annual session on the first Mon- day in December, for the conduct of proceedings, trial of impeach- ments, rules relative to adjournment, discipline of members, supply of vacancies, census returns, and other details; after which the gen- eral powers of the federal legislature are enumerated substantially as follows: Congress is empowered to levy uniform taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to regulate foreign commerce, and commerce between the states; to coin money, and provide punishments for counterfeiting* to establish a post-office system; to make regulations respecting copy- rights and patents; to create inferior federal courts, and pass laws for the punishment of offences on the high seas ; to declare war, THE UNITED STATES. 317 and to raise and support armies and a navy; to provide for requisi- tions upon the militia in case of public necessity; to exercise juris- diction over the district occupied as the seat of government; and, generally, to provide for the common welfare and defence. Finally: "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other pow- ers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." Congress was restrained from prohibiting the importation of slaves prior to the year 1808. There exist, moreover, general restrictions forbidding the suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus, except in times of public danger, the passage of ex post facto laws, the imposi- tion of export duties, the requisition of duties, clearances, or entries, in commerce between the states, the draught of public funds except to meet regular appropriations, and the grant of any title of nobility. By section X., "No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility." The power to levy imposts is confined to provisions of absolute necessity for the execution of inspection laws. States are also prohibited from maintaining armed vessels or a standing army, and from engaging in hostilities, except in cases of invasion or imminent danger. The executive power is vested in a president, who, together with a vice-president, is chosen for four years, by electors from all the states, equal in number to the entire representation in both houses of congress. These electors meet in their several states, and forward returns of their ballotings to the federal seat of government. The votes for president and vice-president are taken separately. If no candidate has a majority of all the electoral votes, in the case of president, the house of representatives, voting by states, elects to that office one of the three candidates who have received the greatest number of votes. On failure to elect a vice-president, the senate makes choice from the two highest numbers on the list. The vice-president, virtute officii, is president of the senate, and upon the death or disability of the president, he succeeds to his duties and responsibilities. In case of further lapse, congress has power to declare upon what officer the presidency shall devolve. 318 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. The president is commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, including the militia, when in service of the Union. He may grant reprieves or pardons for offences against the laws of the United States. With the concurrence of two-thirds of the senate, he is empowered to make treaties; and all public ministers, judges of the supreme court, and other officials of the United States, whose appointment is not otherwise provided for, are chosen by the senate upon his nomination. He may fill vacancies in the senate, occurring during recess, for one term only. He is generally charged with the execution of the laws, the commission of officers, and the reception of foreign ambassadors. The judicial power of the United States is vested in one supreme court, and in courts established by act of congress. The judges of both hold office during good behaviour. Their jurisdiction extends to all cases in law or equity arising under the constitution, or the laws of the United States, &c. ; to cases affecting foreign ministers ; to matters of admiralty; to cases where the United States is a party; to controversies between different states, between citizens of different states, or those claiming under grants of different states, and between citizens and foreign states, citizens or subjects. The original juris- diction of the supreme court is confined to cases affecting foreign ministers, and cases where a state is a party. A republican government is guaranteed to each state, and the United States is pledged to protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence. Each state is bound to give full faith to the public acts of the others, and to accord equal privileges with its own citizens to all citizens of the United States. Fugitives from justice are to be delivered up, on requisition of the executive of the state where the crime has been committed: those "held to ser- vice or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another," shall be restored "on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due." Amendments to the constitution are to be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of congress, or by a convention called on application of two-thirds of the states ; to be ratified by the legislatures of three- fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, according to the decision of congress. In conclusion — debts of the old confederation are assumed ; the United States constitution and laws are declared supreme; and an oath to support the constitu- tion is required of public officers, either in the service of the Union THE UNITED STATES. 319 or of individual states. The original establishment of the constitution was contingent upon its ratification by nine states, upon which event it was to be binding "upon the states so ratifying the same." C <{> jth 3? 3S J» 1> » RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE STATES. — WASH- INGTON ELECTED PRESIDENT. — THE FIRST CONGRESS: PRO- VISIONS FOR REVENUE: FORMATION OF A CABINET: POWER OF REMOVAL FROM OFFICE. — WASHINGTON'S TOUR THROUGH NEW ENGLAND. — SECOND SESSION OF CONGRESS: DEBATE RESPECTING THE PUBLIC DEBT: FOREIGN LIABILITIES: PUBLIC CERTIFI- CATES: ASSUMPTION OF STATE DEBTS: THE PUBLIC DEBT FUNDED: MISCELLANEOUS ENACTMENTS- — CONSTITUTION RATI- FIED BY RHODE ISLAND. The new constitution, upon its reference by congress to conven- tions of the separate states, gave rise to great discussion and dispute. Two political parties were formed, taking issue upon the subject of its adoption; those in favour of the measure received the title of federalists. However great might be the disapproval of some of the details of the new system, by individual states, sections or parties, it was altogether outweighed by a perception of its general import- ance. This is sufficiently manifest from the circumstance that it received unconditional ratification in eleven states before the close of the following summer. North Carolina appended conditions to an acceptance; and Rhode Island, as she had taken no share in the constitutional convention, still continued recusant. Upon a meeting of the presidential electors, George Washington was unanimously elected first president of the United States. In accordance with the original provisions of the constitution, the recip- ient of the next highest number of votes, John Adams, was elected to the office of vice-president. Some delay occurring in the arrival of a quorum of members to the first congress (the city of New York being the place of session), Yol. IV— 49 820 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. the president was not inaugurated until the 30th of April, 1789: the fourth of the month preceding had been appointed for this pur- pose. In the full flush of success and popularity, with all eyes turned upon him as the man whose firmness and political integrity fitted him no less for civil office than for military command, he felt great reluctance at entering upon this new sphere of duties. Immediately upon organization of congress, the business of provi- sion for the expenses of government, and for the payment or funding of the public debt, was opened. It was readily perceived that the most available method of raising revenue was by the imposition of customs upon importations. A tonnage duty upon foreign vessels was at the same time proposed and carried, not without great oppo- sition from the purely agricultural states, who were jealous of a pro- vision which would directly protect and encourage the interests of the commercial portion of the Union, at the same time producing, as the} r conceived, an injurious effect upon the price of freights. An attempt to draw a distinction between those European nations who had previously entered into commercial arrangements with the United States, and those who had refused so to do, by extending superior privileges to the commerce of the former, was approved in the house, but defeated in the senate. The operations of government were next systematized by the reg- ular organization of distinct departments for the management of the treasury, of state affairs, foreign and domestic, and of war; an arrangement analagous to the regular European cabinet system. The first incumbents of these offices were Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and General Henry Knox. John Jay, Franklin's former colleague in diplomacy at the French court, was chosen chief-justice. An important prerogative, upon a point in respect to which the con- stitution was silent, after much debate, was secured to the president. This consisted in the power to remove from office, without action of the senate, either of the heads of department, and other officials whose appointment was by presidential nomination. Upon the adjournment of congress, towards the close of September, the president undertook an excursion through the New England states. It is said that when he first forsook the retirement of private life to enter upon the duties of his office, his "progress from his seat of Mount Vernon to Philadelphia was a triumphant procession, such as few conquerors have known." Throughout this northern tour the popular expression of admiration and gratitude was carried to an THE UNITED STATES. 321 extent still greater. This enthusiastic reception must have been the more grateful to Washington from the consciousness that it was sim- ply a tribute to the acknowledged worth of his character and the value of his public services. He had never mingled with the people upon terms of familiarity: of a reserved and dignified demeanour, he had never courted popularity by any of the arts of a demagogue, nor was he gifted with that versatility which has enabled other great men to secure unbounded personal attachment by accommodating themselves to every class of people into whose society they might be thrown. The second session of congress was held in the month of January, 1790. During the recess, North Carolina had ratified the federal constitution, and, in common with the other states, had ceded to the Union her claims upon a great extent of western territory The secretary of the treasury, Mr. Hamilton, on the opening of congress, made a written report upon the state of the public debt. Long and vehement discussions ensued, and the subject was from time to time postponed and resumed throughout a period of six months. Little opposition was made to provisions for .the full pay- ment of foreign debts, amounting to about twelve millions of dollars; but when the questions arose respecting the funding of the depreci- ated certificates of debt held against the federal government, and the assumption of liabilities incurred by the separate states in carrying on the war, a vast variety of opinion was^found to exist. A large party was opposed to the redemption of the public securi- ties at a rate above their marketable value, being what the holders had, for the most part, paid for them, and which was now less than one-sixth of their nominal value. The principal expenses of the war had been defrayed by the issue of paper money to the amount of two hundred millions, or thereabout, and the subsequent redemp- tion of the major portion of it, at the rate of forty for one. It was claimed that the speculators who now claimed by public certificates deserved no better terms than those who held the old continental currency, originally forced upon its holders by penal enactments. The idea was also enlarged upon that the existence of a great funded debt would render the central government too powerful for the interests and sovereignty of the states, by making its support a matter of pecuniary interest to so large a portion of the population. The party styling itself republican, in opposition to the federalists, strongly maintained this ground of objection. The same argument 322 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. was urged against the assumption of state debts. This clause of the proposed financial arrangement was rejected upon the first trial in the house, but was afterwards carried, as we are led to believe, by a somewhat corrupt political bargain. The votes of two members were changed by a promised arrangement respecting the location of the future seat of government, which was fixed for ten years at Phil- adelphia, and thenceforth at some spot upon the Potomac — arrange- ments to be made by the president for a commission to decide upon the precise spot. According to the bill, as formerly enacted, a loan was to be effected for the payment of the foreign debt in fall ; the domestic debt was to be funded by the receipt of subscriptions in certificates at their nominal value, and in old Continental bills at the rate of one hun- dred for one ! Certificates for arrearages of interest were to be re- newed by others bearing three per cent, interest; those for the principal being entitled to six per cent. The debts of the individual states were specifically assumed, to the amount of twenty-one millions five hundred thousand dollars ; for which a loan was to be opened, receivable in state certificates for debts incurred to meet the expenses of the war, or directly issued for services during hostilities. In pursuance of constitutional provisions, congress, at this session, passed laws regulating the naturalization of foreigners, the grant of patents and copy-rights, the duties and privileges of seamen, and the manner of trading and negotiating with the Indian tribes. Provi- sions were also made for establishing regular diplomatic intercourse with foreign nations. Various crimes against the United States were defined, and punishments affixed to their commission. A small standing army was organized, and specific appropriations were made to meet all necessary civil and military expenses of the current year. In the month of May, Rhode Island had finally ratified the consti- tution, and representatives from that state took their seats in congress during the session. THE UNITED STATES. 323 CHAPTER 1 1 1 INDIAN NEGOTIATIONS: THE CREEKS: THE N R T H- W E S T E R H TRIBES. — H ARM AR'S UNSUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN. — THIRD SESSION OF CONGRESS: THE EXCISE LAW: A NATIONAL BANK. SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY: ITS ADMISSION TO THE UNION. — ADMISSION OF VERMONT. — SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITOL. THE NORTH-WEST- ERN INDIANS: ST. CLAIR'S EXPEDITION: HIS DISASTROUS DEFEAT. — POLITICAL PARTIES. — THE CENSUS. Eakly attempts were made, under authority of the federal gov- ernment, to effect amicable arrangements with the great Indian tribes of the west and south, by which the continued disputes between them and the frontier settlers might be set at rest. Friendly relations were established with the Creeks; their principal chief, M'Gillivray, a half- breed, with several of his tribe, was escorted to New York, the temporary capital, for the purpose of concluding terms of treaty. The president held a personal conference with these wild warriors, who departed highly satisfied with presents, promised annuities, and guaranties of possession in their lands. The concessions accorded to the Indians by this arrangement gave great dissatisfaction to some of the inhabitants of Georgia. With the north-western tribes no arrangements could be made. Stimulated by British agents, they claimed exclusive right to all their old territories north of the Ohio. They still retained former feelings of hostility, and cherished hopes of revenge for the destruc- tion of their towns on the Miami, Old and New Chilicothe, Peccaway, Willis' Towns, &c., laid waste by an expedition under General Clarke nine years previous. In the autumn of 1790, more than a thousand men, under Geaeral Harmar, were dispatched upon an Indian cam- paign in the north-western territory. In every skirmish with the natives, the latter had the advantage from their superior knowledge of the country. They avoided any general engagement, but, by laying ambuscades for detached parties, succeeded in cutting off a large number of the whites. The expedition was signally unsuccessful. At the third session of congress, in December, 1791, one of the 324 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. earliest subjects of debate was a proposition to increase the revenue by additional duties upon spirituous liquors, and by the establish- ment of an excise upon those of domestic manufacture. A bill for this purpose finally passed — not without very violent opposition. Another, and more important source of contention, was the institution of a national bank. This was strenuously opposed, both upon grounds of public policy, and the alleged defect of constitutional power in congress for the organization of such an establishment. The measure was carried, in spite of all opposition: a bank was chartered, with a capital of ten millions of dollars, one-fifth of which was to be subscribed for by the United States. Private stockholders had the privilege of paying three-fourths of their subscriptions in United States' stocks. The only further proceedings of importance during the session, were the adoption of resolutions for an increase of the army, in anticipation of an Indian war, and the admission of two new states into the Union. The settlement of Kentucky had been commenced, not long before the breaking out of the revolutionary war, by the bold and enterprising pioneer, Daniel Boone, who, with a few asso- ciates, allured by the fertility and beauty of the country, had ven- tured to brave the dangers of an isolated position in the remote wilderness. Indian traders, in early times, reported of this country, that "No Indians dwelt there, but the various tribes made it their hunting-ground, and in their encounters, waged such fierce and desperate battles, that the whole region was known among them by the name of 'The Dark and Bloody Ground.'" Kentucky had increased so fast in population, that it was judged expedient, both by the inhabitants and by the legislature of Vir- ginia, in the territory of which state it was included, that the former should be set off as a separate state. A convention, called for the consideration of the question, had fixed upon the 1st of June, 1792, as the period for the commencement of the new organization, contingent upon the action of congress. The assent of the latter was given, prospectively. Between Vermont and New York, a contention of some standing had existed. The latter claimed jurisdiction over the former, as included within her own territory ; Vermont resisted, and organized a separate government. An accommodation was effected at the time of which we are now speaking, and Vermont was admitted as a new state on the 18th of February (1791). THE UNITED STATES. 325 The president, in the course of the spring, made an excursion inrough some of the southern states, and, on his route, made selection — in accordance with provisions before mentioned — of a site for the federal capital. A city was laid out, for this purpose, upon a grand scale, and much speculative enterprise was displayed in the purchase of lands and erection of buildings. The increase of the city, and, consequently, of the value of property within its extensive limits, have fallen far short of the sanguine expectations of its founders. Great commercial facilities can alone build up large cities in a new country. During the summer of this year, several attempts were made to check the depredations of the Indians on the Ohio, but nothing was accomplished farther than the destruction of a few villages and corn- fields. Expeditions on so small a scale only served to irritate the savages, and to render the condition of the frontier more unsafe. Upon the conclusion of peace with Great Britain, a considerable portion of the Iroquois retired into Canada, where lands were appro- priated to their use on Grand river; those remaining within the limits of the United States, by solemn treaty, at Fort Stanwix, ceded their claims in eastern New York. The noted Seneca chief and orator, Red-Jacket, strenuously opposed this treaty, but was over- ruled by the influence of his superior in age and authority, O'Bail, or Corn-Planter. The Six Nations continued in communication with the western tribes, and were generally inimical to the Amer- ican settlers. In the autumn of 1791, General Arthur St. Clair, with more than two thousand men, marched from Fort Washington, the site of the present city of Cincinnati, into the Indian territory. Having estab- lished and garrisoned two forts, on his route, he encamped fifteen miles from the Indian towns, on the Miami, on the 3d of November. The movements of the army had been slow, and the confederate tribes of the west — Hurons, Potawatomies, Ottawas, Chippewas, Mia- mies, Delawares, Shawanees, Iroquois, and others — under the guid- ance of Michikinaqua (Little Turtle), and, as is supposed, of Joseph Brant, had full opportunity to collect their warriors and form their plans for defence. "Before the rising of the sun, on the following day (November 4th), the savages fell upon the camp of the whites. Never was a more decisive victory obtained. In vain did the American general and his officers exert themselves to maintain order, and to rally the 326 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. bewildered troops. The Indians, firing from covert, thinned the ranks, and picked off the officers by a continuous and murderous discharge. A disorderly retreat was the result: artillery, baggage, and no small portion of the arms of the militia, fell into tne hands of the exultant pursuers. Fort Jefferson was nearly thirty miles dis- tant, and thither the defeated army directed its flight. The Indians followed close upon the fugitives, cutting down and destroying at will, until, as is reported, one of their chiefs called out to them ' to stop, as they had killed enough.' "The temptation offered by the plunder to be obtained at the camp, induced the Indians to return, and the remnant of the invading army reached Fort Jefferson about sun-set. The loss, in this battle, on the part of the whites, was no less than eight hundred and ninety- four in killed, wounded, and missing. Thirty-eight officers and five hundred and ninety-three non-commissioned officers and privates were slain or missing. The Indians lost but few of their men — judging from a comparison of the different accounts, not much over fifty."* Upon the coming together of congress, in October of 1791, the condition of Indian affairs was brought before that body, and repre- sentations of the necessity for an increase in the army were urged Party spirit, at this time, was growing more virulent; the republicans, at the head of whom stood Secretary J efferson, eyed the movements of the federalists with great suspicion, continually discovering or imagining a tendency towards a monarchical system in all their plans and operations. Of Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, and leader of the federal party, an English writer observes: "Each step, indeed, which this minister took, seemed in the traces of British policy; and, however salutary or requisite they may have been, he certainly showed little caution in the manner of adopting, success- ively, the several parts of machinery belonging to a monarchical government." A strong effort was made at this session, to increase the number of members in the house of representatives, by including in the computation of population the fractional remainder which existed in each state after a division by thirty thousand. The bill passed both houses, but, being sent back with objections, by the president, was reconsidered and lost. The census returns of the first enumeration of the population, exhibited a total of 3,921,326, of which nearly eeven hundred thousand were slaves. * Indian Races of America. THE UNITED STATES. 327 CHAPTER 17. WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM: HIS DISINCLINATION TO OFFICE — THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: ITS POLITICAL INFLUENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. ARRIVAL OF GENET, AS MIN- ISTER OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC: HIS PROCEEDINGS AT CHARLESTON. — NEUTRAL POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES. — COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS BY FRANCE AND ENGLAND. — IMPRESSMENT OF AMERICAN SEAMEN. — RETIREMENT OF JEFFERSON. — ALGERINE DEPREDATIONS. At the election of president and vice-president, for the term com- mencing in March, 1793, Washington was reelected without a shadow of opposition. He felt great disinclination to continue longer in office, and only consented to comply with the wishes of the electors and the people, for the purpose of calming the turbulence of the great political parties. His high character and popularity could not shield him entirely from the animadversions of those of the republican party who suspected him of aristocratic predilections. It is said that, on one occasion, subsequent to his reelection, in an out- break of feeling, excited by some personal attack, he declared, "that he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of resigning his office, and that was every moment since; that by God he had rather be in his grave than in his present situation ; that he had rather be on his farm than be made emperor of the world ; and yet that they were charging him with wanting to be a king." In opposition to Adams, the candidate for vice-president, the republicans set up George Clinton: the federalists obtained the larger vote. This defeat aggravated the rancour of some of the leading liberals, and it was with difficulty that the influence of the president could calm unseemly strife between the opposing heads of departments. At this period, a new and important element in the political con- troversy of America, arose from a difference in feeling and sympathy excited by the stormy events of the French revolution. It became a matter of deep interest to inquire how far the United States should 328 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. allow themselves to be implicated in the general agitation which threatened Europe. One of the first questions to be decided was, what force did a treaty, concluded with the king of France, possess upon the overthrow of his government, and under the rule of the republic. Popular enthusiasm was strongly aroused in favour of the revolution, a feeling not to be effectually damped by intelligence of the blood-thirsty fanaticism which was exhibited by too many of its supporters. The arrival at Charleston (in the month of April, 1793) of Genet, the first ambassador commissioned by the republic to negotiate with the United States, rendered some decisive action imperative. After consultation with the cabinet, in which views diametrically opposite were entertained by the leaders of the opposite parties, the president issued a proclamation of neutrality, expressly forbidding citizens of the United States to fit out vessels for the purpose of lend- ing aid to either of the belligerent nations, or in any other manner to take share in hostilities so long as this neutral position should be maintained. The French minister was enthusiastically received at Charleston, where he spent some time in the preparation of two cruisers, to the commanders of which he filled out commissions, under authority of the republic, to prey upon British commerce. After this high- handed proceeding, Genet travelled by land to Philadelphia, wel- comed at every town, on his passage, by the most flattering exhibition of popular feeling. His conduct at Charleston, after a cabinet consultation, was declared illegal by government; the service of American citizens, under French commissions, was pronounced a public offence ; and restitution was ordered of prizes taken in Amer- ican waters. So far was the French minister encouraged by the sympathy of the powerful republican party, that, in many instances, he set at nought the claims and decisions distinctly made by the American government. His reception by the president was courteous, but the avowed neutrality of the United States was carefully guarded in all diplomatic intercourse. Disinclination to break with an old and powerful ally, the force of national antipathies and predilections, and the influence of the popular feeling, checked that exertion of execu- tive power which the occasion seemed to require. Privateers were fitted out at various ports in the United States ; numerous prizes were brought in openly, and condemned by the decisions of the THE UNITED STATES. 329 French consuls, acting under powers granted by Genet, on behalf of his own government. In one case, a British vessel, the Little Sarah, seized by the French frigate in which Genet had first come over from France, was fitted out as a privateer at Philadelphia, and, after being rechristened, the Little Democrat, proceeded to sea, notwithstanding a promise, virtual or expressed, on the part of that minister, that she should remain until the claims of those interested in the vessel could be adjusted. The government moderately, but firmly, persisted in maintaining a neutral position, and in respecting the rights of Great Britain. Toward the close of the summer, guaranty of indemnity was formally announced for all losses by British owners from previous illegal seizures within the waters of the United States, the distance thence- forth protected being fixed at one league from shore, and including, of course, all bays and harbours within the federal jurisdiction. The French government, at the same time, was required to give up all prizes already illegally taken, and a direct requisition was made for a recall of the arrogant Genet. The violence and insolence of this official had greatly diminished the popular favour which greeted him on his first arrival. The wiser and more far-sighted politicians looked upon him as a danger- ous man; his course of conduct tended to involve the states in unnecessary difficulties with England; and he was, undoubtedly, engaged in machinations for the organization of expeditions against the Spanish possessions in Louisiana and Florida. Any movement towards the effecting of a free exit from the Mississippi met with great favour from the settlers on the western waters. To add to other difficulties in maintaining a position of neutrality, the commerce of the states began to suffer severely from the effect of regulations instituted both by France and England respecting the rights of neutrals to carry on trade with the enemy. By the law of nations, supplies destined for a blockaded port may be liable to seizure; but the declaration that all the ports of an enemy are in a state of blockade, affords but a shallow excuse for the plunder of a neutral nation. Against Great Britain another cause of complaint existed, if of less political importance than this interference with trade, yet of a nature to excite far greater bitterness of private ani- mosity. This was the continual impressment of British seamen, serving on board of American vessels, and — either through error or 530 AMERICA ILLUSTE ATED. pretended mistake — the seizure of Americans, by the same arbitrary and summary powers. It is fully established that many citizens of the states were subjected to this indignity and outrage. Shortly after the coming together of congress in December, 1793, Jefferson retired from office, and was succeeded as secretary of state by Eandolph, former attorney-general. A report upon the com- mercial relations of the United States, carefully prepared by the retiring secretary, and exhibiting his political views respecting the policy to be pursued towards France and England, was submitted to the consideration of congress. This document urged a discrimi- nation in favour of France, and met with the more favourable reception in consideration of both real and fancied aggressions on the part of England. Among other grounds of dissatisfaction the continuance of Indian disturbances at the north-west was prominent, these being attributed to the influence of British emissaries, encour- aged by the Canadian governors. The first important action of congress related to the means to be adopted for opposing a check upon the depredations of piratical cruisers from Algiers and other portions of the Barbary states, by which the navigation of the Mediterranean was rendered unsafe, and for the release of prisoners taken by the pirates, and still held in captivity. A considerable sum of money was appropriated for the purpose of purchasing terms of treaty, while, at the same time, in anticipation of a failure in this attempt, congress ordered the prepar- ation of a naval armament adequate to enforce the claims of the United States. THE UNITED STATES. 331 CHAPTER V. AMERICAN POLITICS. DEBATE IN CONGRESS UPON FOBEIGN RELATIONS. FURTHER AGGRESSIONS OP ENGLAND. — COM- MISSION OF JAY AS AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY TO GREAT BRITAIN. RELIEF OF IMMIGRANTS FROM ST. DOMINGO. THE NEUTRALITY LAWS. RESISTANCE TO THE EXCISE: REBELLION IN WESTERN PENN- SYLVANIA: ITS FORCIBLE SUPPRESSION: OPIN- IONS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. The introduction, by Mr. Madison, of resolutions in support of the views entertained in Jefferson's report, gave rise to lengthy and vehement discussion. The two great parties had taken issue upon the subject of the policy to be pursued towards France and England: the sympathy of the democratic republicans was exclusively extended towards the former nation, while the federalists, questioning the sta- bility and good faith of the new republic, were anxious to avoid serious collision with the government of Great Britain. Smith, of South Carolina, took the lead of the opposition, and argued at length upon the futility as well as injustice of any attempt at governing the foreign policy of England by a discriminating scale of duties and tonnage. The resolutions, by virtue of which the commerce of nations under no commercial treaty with the United States was to be subjected to restrictions or burdens not extended to others, passed by a small majority. They were avowedly aimed at the trade with England. "Of the efficacy of these commercial restrictions," says Mr. Hildreth, "as a means of coercing Great Brit- ain, Madison and his party entertained very extravagant ideas, of which they had afterward ample opportunity to be cured. What, indeed, could be more extravagant than the statement that Great Britain imported necessaries from us, and we only luxuries from her, repeated over and over again by the representatives of a state whose chief export was tobacco, and whose imports were principally cloth- ing, tools, and other manufactured articles of daily use and necessity? In all these commercial struggles, nothing is more certain than that the richest party can endure the longest, and is sure to triumph in the end." 332 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. The measures adopted against Great Britain were rendered still more popular upon the arrival of intelligence that orders had been issued by the admiralty in November previous, by which neutral trade with French colonies was as arbitrarily dealt with as that with France direct. It was also reported that the British governor of Lower Canada, Lord Dorchester, at an Indian council, had delivered an address breathing a hostile spirit towards the United States. The anticipated danger was met by appropriations — on rather a small scale, considering the supposed necessities of the case — for for- tifying various sea-ports, and for organization and training of the militia. A temporary embargo was also decided upon. So strong was the hostile feeling, that a motion was made, and warmly urged, for the sequestration of debts due to British creditors, for the pur- pose of applying them to indemnify those who had sustained losses by seizure of property under the obnoxious laws restraining neutral trade. It was also proposed that all trade with Great Britain should cease until reparation should be made for these illegal seizures, and until an evacuation of the western military posts should be ordered. The English ministry, on the other hand, seemed to incline to pacific and conciliatory measures, being "too fully and deeply occu- pied with treasons at home, and the menace of invasion from abroad, to answer this waspishness of America in a similar tone. On the contrary, the last obnoxious order of the admiralty was recalled, and the federal party were able to rally, and entertain hopes of avoiding a rupture." Washington was anxious to preserve peaceable relations with Great Britain, and, foreseeing the possible results of heated and angry debate in congress, with the recurrence of successive hostile enactments passed upon the spur of the occasion, and insufficiently digested, he fixed upon a plan to set the matter temporarily at rest. In the month of April, 1794, he proposed to the senate the appoint ment of a minister extraordinary, empowered to negotiate for the settlement of all existing difficulties with England, and nominated, for this mission, Chief-Justice Jay. The nomination was confirmed by a very close vote. These were times of great political excitement. Every arrivaj from Europe brought news replete with interest, and having a bear- ing upon American politics more direct than we can well appreciate at the present time. The more violent of the republican party imi~ itated the French organization of political clubs, and in the midst THE UNITED STATES. 333 of the " Reign of Terror," were so far blinded by party zeal as to rejoice over intelligence of proceedings which, if brought nearer home, would have excited unmingled horror and disgust. Others, more moderate, yet with equal sympathy for a nation involved like our own, in a strife between the people and their hereditary tyrants, lamented over the violence which by reaction must eventually pre- judice the cause of liberty and of equal rights. In anticipation of conquest by the English, the French officials at St. Domingo had issued a proclamation by which the slaves on that island were set free. The country became generally unsafe for whites, and many, abandoning all their effects, sailed for the United States. A bill introduced for the relief of these unfortunate immi- grants called forth much argument upon the constitutional limits of the power of congress. No authority can be discovered in the con- stitution for any appropriation for mere purposes of charity, except by a forced implication under the general provisions for foreign intercourse. The measure was, notwithstanding, carried, by virtue of its popularity, and has formed a precedent acted upon at a much later period, upon the occasion of the famine in Ireland. Fifteen thousand dollars were appropriated for the relief of the French immigrants. Another act, passed at this session, of great present interest, was called forth by the continued efforts of French agents to organize expeditions against the Spanish possessions of Louisiana. The anxiety of the western settlers to obtain possession of the Mississippi rendered it an easy matter to collect adventurers upon such an enter- prise, if winked at by government. A bill to restrain American citizens from engaging in hostilities with friendly nations passed both houses early in June. A fine of one thousand dollars and three years' imprisonment were made the penalty for entrance into foreign military service by any persons within the jurisdiction of the United States. This provision was specially aimed at those who should unlawfully enlist recruits ; the penalty awarded against those whom they had seduced from allegiance being remitted upon conviction of the former, consequent on their information. The equipment of vessels, and the organization of expeditions within the United States, for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against any country at peace with the confederation, subjected the offender to a still heavier fine, with the same term of imprisonment. To secure promptitude in the suppression of such unlawful enter- 334 AMEBIC A ILLUSTRATED. prise, the president was expressly authorized to exert his powers as commander-in-chief of the military forces of the United States, and in case of necessity to call out the militia. A serious civil disturbance took place in western Pennsylvania during the summer. The law imposing excise duties on spirituous liquors of domestic manufacture had been, from the first, particularly obnoxious in this section of the country, the difficulty of getting grain to market rendering its consumption for purposes of distil- lation a matter of great convenience and profit. Process being issued against certain distillers who had neglected to conform to the provisions of the act, the civil officials were resisted, and the rioters, adopting an offensive attitude, assailed the house of the inspector. The spirit of insurrection rapidly spread throughout the western counties, and the people, inflamed by the speeches and influence of demagogues, set the laws at defiance, maltreated its officers, and held public meetings for organizing a regular system of resistance. The mails were intercepted to cut off communication with the seat of government, and the friends of order and obedience to the laws were completely overawed in all the disaffected districts. The leaders of this insurrection became the more insolent and exacting from the mild measures at first resorted to for allaying the tumult, and the president found it necessary to exert his constitu- tional powers for the support of the laws. A requisition was made for fifteen thousand militia, from Pennsylvania and the adjoining states: an overpowering force was marched into the western counties, and every symptom of rebellion speedily disappeared. Those who had taken the most active part in the outbreak made their escape : many arrests were made, but great leniency was exhibited towards the few found guilty upon trial. It was the opinion of the republican party in general, that this demonstration was uncalled for by the exigency of the circumstances. Jefferson, in a letter, says of the doings of the rebels: " We know of none which, according to the definitions of the law, have been any thing more than riotous. * * The information of our militia returned from the westward is uniform, that, though the people there let them pass quietly, they were objects of their laughter, not of their fear ; that one thousand men could have cut off their whole force in a thousand places of the Alleghany; that their detestation of the excise law is universal, and has now associated to it a detestation ot THE UNITED STATES. 335 the government; and that separation, which, perhaps, was a very distant and problematical event, is now near, and certain, and deter- mined in the mind of every man." CHAPTER J I. GENERAL WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE NORTH-WESTERN INDIANS. — DEFEAT OF THE CONFEDERATE TRIBES AT THE MIAMI RAPIDS. — NATURALIZATION LAWS. — THE DEMO- CRATIC CLUBS. — HAMILTON'S RESIGNATION. — THE BRITISH TREATY: ITS RATIFICATION: POPULAR IN- DIGNATION. — RANDOLPH'S RESIGNATION The north-western Indians, unmolested by any important military expedition since their signal victory over St. Clair, had grown con- tinually more insolent and exacting in their demands. The progress of western settlements was impeded by savage inroads: the natives considered all white emigrants from the east as encroachers, and, rendered confident by late successes, seemed rather to court hostili- ties. It finally became essential to oppose a forcible check to their ravages. To guard against the possibility of a second defeat, the campaign of 1794 was preceded by the fortification of military posts at Greenville, on the Miami, and at the spot rendered memora- ble by St. Clair's defeat. The latter was named Fort Eecovery. The preceding winter and spring were occupied in these works, and in the collection of an army, the command of which was be- stowed upon General Wayne. On the 30th of June, 1794, the strength of the position at Fort Eecovery was tested by a fierce attack on the part of the Indians, assisted by a number of whites — English or Canadians. The place was successfully defended, al- though not without heavy loss. In the month of August active operations were commenced. "When the army was once put in motion, important and decisive events rapidly succeeded. The march was directed into the heart of the Indian settlements on the Miami, now called Maumee, a river emptying into the western extremity of Lake Erie. Where the beautiful stream Au Glaise empties into the river, a fort was imme- Yol. IV.— 50 336 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. diately erected, and named Fort Defiance. From this post General Wayne sent emissaries to invite the hostile nations to negotiation, but the pride and rancour of the Indians prevented any favourable results. Little Turtle, indeed, seemed to forebode the impending storm, and advised the acceptance of the terms offered. 'The Americans,' said he, 'are now led by a chief who never sleeps: the night and the day are alike to him. * Think well of it. There is something whispers me it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace."'* "Wayne was commonly called by the Indians the "Black Snake:" another soubriquet, bestowed upon him by his own followers, was that of "Mad Anthony." The American camp was posted in the midst of such extensive and highly cultivated fields of corn as excited the admiration and astonishment of the invaders. The country "presented for miles the appearance of a single village, and rich corn-fields spread on either side." The Indians had retreated down the river from their settlement, upon the advance of the army, and had taken up a position in the immediate vicinity of a British fort, near the Miami rapids. This was one of those posts retained by Great Britain in defiance of former treaties, and constituted, as was generally be- lieved, a depot where the Indians could procure arms and counsel, if not direct assistance. General Wayne attacked the enemy in their position, on the 20th of August. The Indians fought bravely : skilled in the use of fire- arms, and somewhat familiar with the tactics of modern warfare, they were far different opponents from what they had been in earlier times. Their array, however, was broken by a charge of bayonets, and an entire rout ensued. The powerful confederacy was, for the time, annihilated; and the Americans, retracing their steps, spent some time in laying waste the fields and settlements of the wretched savages. Garrisons were posted at the forts within the Indian dis- tricts, and the army retired to Greenville for winter-quarters. The more important proceedings of congress, at the winter session of 1794-5, related to the naturalization laws — which were estab- lished as at present, requiring five years' residence in the United States, a declaration of intention three years previous to the final application, and one years' residence in the state where the petition is granted; — and the establishment of a system for the appropria- tion of surplus revenue for the reduction of the national debt. * Indian Races of America. THE UNITED STATES. 337 A lengthy and excited debate arose early in the session, upon the question as to what action should be taken in reply to certain re- marks in a message of the president, relative to the democratic clubs. In adverting to the circumstances attendant upon the excise tumults, "Washington alluded to these associations, as "self-created societies," whose influence had been perniciously extended in oppo sition to the power and authority of government. The senate concurred in this denunciation ; the house of representatives com- promised the matter in dispute by a general resolution, condemning the action of individuals or societies, which should have resulted in misrepresentations of the proceedings of government, or have coun- tenanced resistance to lawful authority. It was at this session that Alexander Hamilton resigned his office as secretary of the treasury, and General Knox that of secretary of war. Oliver Wolcott, an officer connected with the treasury depart- ment, succeeded the former ; the place of the latter was occupied by Timothy Pickering, former post-master general. It is said that the principal motive for retirement, on the part of both these distin- guished officials, was pecuniary necessity, the pay awarded for their public services being grossly inadequate. A special session of the senate was called early in June, 1795, to deliberate upon a treaty recently arranged between Jay, the Ameri- can ambassador extraordinary, and the British minister, Lord Gren- ville. Great Britain, it was found, would consent to few concessions; the most objectionable of her claims were still insisted upon, or left open ; and the commercial privileges yielded to America were gen- erally accompanied by onerous restrictions or conditions. She agreed to give up possession of the western posts upon security for payment of debts due to British subjects before the revolution. A reciprocal agreement provided for indemnity in all cases of illegal seizures. With respect to freedom of commerce, the right to trade with the British West Indies was restricted to vessels not exceeding seventy tons measurement, a privilege counterbalanced by a prohibition of any exportation of articles similar to those produced in those colo- nies, from America to Europe. A wide discretion was still claimed respecting the right to seize supplies destined for any country with which England should be engaged in hostilities. Such articles as were not clearly "contraband of war," were, it is true, to be paid for if seized. No indemnity could be procured for those who had suf- fered loss from the abduction of slaves by the British during the- 338 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. war; and the right to impress subjects of the king, if found on board American vessels, was insisted upon, and remained undecided. Goods belonging to an enemy were still claimed by England to be liable to seizure on board the vessels of a neutral. The treaty was approved by a two-thirds vote of the senate, (ob- jection being taken to the article relating to the West India trade, upon which action was suspended,) and received the ratification of the president on the 14th day of August, notwithstanding a storm of popular indignation, which had broken out upon its publication. The terms agreed upon fell so far short of the expectations or wishes of the people, that meetings were every where held, and violent denunciatory resolutions passed. A memorial accompanied the rat- ification, protesting against the claim, enforced by recent orders of admiralty, respecting the indiscriminate seizure of provisions which might be destined for the relief of an enemy. At this time, certain private communications between Mr. Ed- mund Eandolph, the secretary of state, and Fauchet, the successor of Genet as ambassador from France, having come to the knowledge of the British government by an intercepted dispatch, had been made known to the president. The tendency of these disclosures was to reflect upon the secretary an imputation of double-dealing, and of some unwarrantable propositions. He accordingly resigned his office, at the same time entering into an elaborate defence of his conduct, and indignantly denying the validity of conclusions adopted by his political opponents. A discussion of the merits of the case is en- tirely beyond our limits, and it may, indeed, be doubted whether we have means for arriving at a determinate opinion respecting the affair. THE UNITED STATES. 339 CHAPTER YIL INDIAN TREATY AT FORT GREENVILLE. — TREATIES WITH ALGIERS AND SPAIN: THE MISSISSIPPI OPENED TO AMERICAN TRADE. — DEBATE IN CONGRESS UPON JAY'S BRITISH TREATY. — TENNESSEE ADMITTED INTO THE UNION. — FRENCH PROCEEDINGS IN RESPECT TO THE TREATY. — AMERICAN MINISTERS TO FRANCE. WASHINGTON'S RETIREMENT FROM OF- FICE: SLANDERS UPON HIS CHARACTER. — JOHN ADAMS ELECTED PRESIDENT. The Indians of the north-west, finally convinced of the superior power of the United States, and learning that their old allies, the British, were about to evacuate the western military posts, expressed a willingness to treat pacifically. A great meeting was brought about at Fort Greenville at the beginning of August, 1795, at which General Wayne, on behalf of the United States, entered into a defi- nite agreement with the principal chiefs respecting future bounda- ries, &c. The Indians gave up all claim to an immense tract included in the present state of Ohio, together with other lands farther west. Before the next session of congress very important treaties were also negotiated with the Dey of Algiers, and with the Spanish gov- ernment. In common with several European nations, the United States submitted to the disgraceful imposition of a heavy tribute, in order to secure safety for her commerce from the attacks of the Algerine corsairs, and for the release of prisoners still held in cap- tivity, victims of former piracies. With Spain more honourable arrangements were established. The boundaries of her provinces of Florida and Louisiana were assigned, and free navigation through- out the Mississippi was secured to the citizens of the United States. These several treaties having been ratified by the senate and president, together with that concluded with Great Britain, were brought before the house of representatives, at its winter session, for the purpose of such action being taken, and such appropriations made, as should give them full effect. Those relating to Indian affairs, Algiers, and Spain, were readily disposed of: the English treaty called forth all the fury of the opposition. A previous refusal 340 AMEBIC A ILLUSTEATED. by the president, on grounds of public policy, upon a call from the house, to lay before that body the diplomatic correspondence, &c, relative to this treaty, had a tendency to aggravate party violence. The question was debated from April 15th, 1796, until the close of the month. The whole effect of treaties ; whether they became binding when ratified, or whether concurrence of the house by necessary appropriations was requisite before the national faith could be considered pledged; and an application of general principles to this particular treaty, formed abundant theme for argument and declamation. A compromise was finally effected, by a passage of the appropriations, as being a matter of present expediency, without any decision of the general position in dispute. On the 1st of June, just at the close of the session, the state of Tennessee was admitted into the Union. The population of that ter- ritory already amounted to about eighty thousand, including negroes. The conclusion of Jay's British treaty excited great dissatisfaction in France. The Directory, indignant that America should have yielded to the British claims respecting the seizure of French prop- erty on board neutral vessels, declared that France was no longer bound by the stipulations of her former treaty with the United States, and, on the 2d of July, 1796, an order was promulgated, "authorizing the ships-of-war of the republic to treat neutral vessels in the same manner in which they suffered themselves to be treated by the English." Great numbers of American vessels were seized and confiscated under this decree. Mr. Monroe, minister to France, at this period was a member of the republican party, and, as such, warmly fa- voured the interests of that nation. He had met with an enthusiastic reception, and, through him, a formal exchange of flags had been effected between France and the United States, as a token of mutual respect and amity. With the intention of adopting a stronger tone towards the government of the republic, Washington appointed Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina, in place of Monroe. The new envoy sailed for France in September. As the period of his second term of office approached, President Washington, in a farewell address, announced his determination to retire from public life. This valedictory was issued in the month of September, 1796. Throughout his administration his conduct had been marked by firmness and integrity; but his leaning towards the principles of the federalists was an unpardonable sin in the THE UNITED STATES. 341 opinion of too many of the opposition. Every species of abuse had been heaped upon him by ranters in the republican party ; ambitious personal views, disregard for popular rights, a tyrannical disposition, and even peculations upon the public funds, were attributed to him. The grossest misrepresentations reflecting upon his character were circulated; his enemies did not even scruple at the publication of forged letters for the purpose of alienating the affection and respect of the people from their former idol. Time has exposed these falsehoods, and the vituperation of polit- ical opponents is forgotten. The acrimony of party zeal has ceased to blind men's minds to the true character of Washington ; no man in public life has left behind him a more unblemished reputation, and few have attained equal eminence as a commander and a statesman. At the second presidential election, the great political parties put forward, as their respective candidates, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Seventy votes were necessary to a choice; Adams re- ceived seventy-one, and the republican candidate sixty-nine by virtue of which he entered upon the office of vice-president. The inaugu- ration took place in the 9th of March, 1797. Washington retired to his estate at Mount Yernon, where he passed the remainder of his life. CHAPTER 7 ill. TREATMENT OF UNITED STATES' AMBASSADORS IN FRANCE. — HOSTILE PREPARATIONS IN AMERICA. — NEW EMBASSY: RB- PUSAL OF THE DIRECTORY TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN MINISTERS. — NEGOTIATIONS WITH TALLEYRAND. — EXTRAVAGANT DEMANDS AND INJURIOUS DECREES OF THE DIRECTORY. RETURN OF THE AMBASSADORS. — ACTION OF CONGRESS: MILITARY PREPARATIONS: ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS: LAND-TAX, ETC. The administration of Mr. Adams opened with serious and per- plexing difficulties connected with our relations towards France. Soon after the inauguration, dispatches arrived from Pinckney, setting forth the injurious reception that he had met with on the 342 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. part of the Directory. Monroe, upon presentation of his own letters of recall, and those relative to the new appointment, was notified that France would receive no other ambassador from the United States until redress should be made for the grievances before com- plained of as connected with the British treaty. The retiring minister, at his last audience, was dismissed by the president, Barras, in a speech as flattering to him as insulting to his country. Pinckney could not even obtain a necessary protection for continuing in tne country until further orders from home. He was compelled to leave France, and proceeded, accordingly, to Holland. The late astonishing successes which had attended her arms upon the continent, caused the existing government of France to under- value the importance of preserving friendly relations with the American republic ; and the tone adopted by the Directory was of a character calculated to strengthen the federal party in the states. New and offensive decrees relative to American commerce speedily followed. President Adams, in a forcible address to congress, set forth the conduct of the French government, as opposed to all rules of na- tional courtesy and right: he recommended the formation of a naval force, with other measures for defence of the commerce of the country, and inveighed against the interference of France with the internal politics of the United States, exhibited in various endeav- ours to influence the elections, and alienate the people from the government. After long debate in the house, appropriations were made, and loans authorized for the purpose of carrying out the views of the president, and arrangements were made for a draught of militia from the several states in case of emergency. A new embassy was commissioned, consisting of three persons — Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry — to make a further attempt at the opening of pacific negotiations. The envoys proceeded to France, and arrived in Paris early in October, 1797. The Directory refused to receive them, but an irregular negotiation was commenced through the intervention of some agents of Talleyrand, then minister for foreign affairs, and protracted, without important issue, until April of the following year. During this period, the American ambassa- dors were officially authorized to remain at the capital, and, from time to time, held interviews with Talleyrand or his creatures. The point most insisted on by the latter, was the necessity for THE UNITED STATES. 343 opening the way to a complete arrangement, by a douceur or bribe of about two hundred and forty thousand dollars, for the benefit of the minister and directory, and the effecting a loan to the French government of a further sum. This rapacious scheme was urged with the most unblushing effrontery. "The main point," said the Frenchmen, "is ft font dz V argent— il faut beaucoup d 'argent.' 1 Some- thing in hand, at least, they urged, should be paid them, until the matter could be finally arranged. In vain did the envoys protest that they possessed no shadow of authority for such proceedings or undertakings; the matter was again and again reverted to, and suggestions, unworthy of any but the most venal and cor- rupt, were made respecting the manner in which it might be brought about. The demands of the Directory, as finally communicated by Tal- leyrand, could not be listened to for a moment. If granted, they would necessarily involve the United States in an immediate war, for not only was the loan insisted upon, but also an annulment of the late treaty with Great Britain. Desirous to terrify, or force compliance with their unreasonable demands, the government had, during the winter, greatly extended the grounds upon which Amer- ican vessels were held liable to seizure. It was declared that all produce of any dependency of Great Britain, without regard to existing ownership, should be lawful prize, if found on board a neutral vessel. After experiencing every slight and indignity, two of the Ameri- can commissioners, Marshall and Pinckney, returned to the states; Gerry, through whom, individually, many of the previous commu- nications had been made by Talleyrand, and with whom, as being the only republican on the commission, it was intimated that farther negotiations might be continued, remained at Paris. This treatment of the United States' ambassadors could not fail to weaken the influence of the Gallican party in America. The out- rageous demands of France, and the character of the late commercial decrees, could not be sustained by the most ardent of her adherents on this side the water. Congress being in session, April, 1798, dis- patches containing a history of the negotiation were brought up for consideration. The most active measures were at once taken to prepare for contingent hostilities, and to furnish present protection to American shipping. Large sums were appropriated for the pur- chase of munitions of war, for the increase of the naval force, and 344 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. for fortifications. A new cabinet department was created for the management of naval affairs. A succession of important and decisive measures were passed during the spring and summer. Without a direct declaration of war with France, orders were issued for a cessation of all commercial intercourse with that country ; former treaties were declared to be of no further effect ; the capture of any armed French vessels was authorized, if by private adventure, and directed, on the part of the United States' navy. The latter was greatly increased, and large appropriations were made for building new vessels and enlisting a corps of marines. Powers were bestowed upon the president, to enlist an army of ten thousand men, in case of urgent necessity, and to immediately appoint military officers, and make arrangements for the enrolment and training of volunteers, in anticipation of such contingency. He also received discretionary authority to order from the country any foreigner who should be suspected of dangerous designs against government; and, in case of hostilities, to banish or arrest all per- sons belonging to the nation against which war should be declared. To meet the heavy expense of these defensive measures, a tax was laid upon slaves and real estate. As a check upon the violence of the more turbulent portion of the opposition, and a restraint upon foreign intrigue, an act was passed defining and affixing punishment to seditious or treasonable conspiracies for opposing the authority of government, and to the issuing of any libel upon congress, the executive, or the measures of government, as well as any false and malicious publication, having a tendency to excite domestic disaf- fection, or to aid or encourage the designs of any hostile nation. These acts met with a very strong opposition in congress ; but the federal party was in a decided majority, and generally succeeded in carrying the measures introduced by its leaders. The office of commander-in-chief of the provisional army was be- stowed upon Washington: his acceptance was conditional that his services should be required only in case of emergency. THE UNITED STATES. 345 PACIFIC MOVEMENTS IN FRANCE. — MISSION OF MURRAY. - NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. — DEATH OF WASHINGTON. — NAPO- LEON FIRST CONSUL. — TREATY WITH FRANCE. — FIRST SESSION OF CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON. — PRESI- DENTIAL ELECTION: JEFFERSON PRESIDENT, AND BURR VICE-PRESIDENT. — PARTY REMOVAL FROM OFFICE. — ECONOMICAL REFORMS. — OHIO AD- MITTED INTO THE UNION. — TRANSFER OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES. The Directory, finding all efforts to involve the United States in war with England likely to prove futile, and learning by experi- ence, that in naval operations the retaliatory measures lately adopted in America, would tell severely upon French commerce, adopted a more pacific and conciliatory course. Shortly before the departure of Gerry, which took place in August, 1798, Talleyrand communi- cated to him the willingness of government to receive a minister from the United States, if choice should be made of one free from prejudice against the interests of France; and, at the same time, renounced all the more objectionable preliminaries to negotiations, before so pertinaciously urged. About the same time, decrees were passed for securing American vessels against unauthorized seizures by French privateers. In answer to these overtures, the senate, upon nomination of President Adams, in February of 1799, appointed Mr. Murray, min- ister at the Hague, jointly with Judge Marshall and Patrick Henry, to undertake a new mission to France, a condition being annexed that intimation must be given by that nation of a favourable reception before they should enter the French territory. General Davie, of North Carolina, took the place of Henry, who declined serving on account of bodily infirmities. These negotiations were slowly perfected, and, in the interim, many encounters took place at sea, between private armed vessels of the two nations. Those employed in the American merchant ser- vice, generally availed themselves of the permission accorded by congress to carry arms, and the spirit of privateering, perhaps to 346 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. be considered a national predilection, was gratified by the seizure of many prizes. In February, 1799, an action was fought at sea, near the island of St. Kitt's, between the United States frigate Con- stellation, and the French frigate L'Insurgente, in which the latter after a severe contest, was captured, and sent a prize to America. Upon communication through Talleyrand, of the readiness of the government to receive American envoys, Marshall and Davie were directed, by the president, to embark forthwith, notwithstanding vehement objections from a portion of the cabinet, grounded upon the uncertainty of affairs in France, consequential upon a recent change in the Directory. The death of General "Washington, which occurred on the 14th of December, 1799, silenced, for a brief period, the clamour of party contention, and all, except a few among the most violent and pre- judiced of his former opponents, united to honour his memory by public testimonials of respect and gratitude. The new revolution of affairs in France, and the elevation of Na- poleon to the office of First Consul, occurring at this epoch, augured favourably for the establishment of permanent peace with France. Meanwhile, the national pride of the United States was farther gratified by intelligence of the prowess of the Constellation in an- other engagement with the French frigate La Vengeance, a vessel of greatly superior force. Although the latter escaped, in conse- quence of the loss of a mast by the Constellation, she was so much damaged that she was condemned upon arrival at port. The loss of men on board the French vessel was four times greater than that suffered by the Americans, amounting to about one hundred and sixty in killed and wounded. The engagement took place in Feb- ruary, 1800. The United States' ambassadors were received by the First Consul, with distinguished consideration, in the ensuing month of March. Talleyrand was still at the head of the department for foreign affairs, but a special commission, in which he had no sha^e, was appointed to treat on the part of the French government. Bound down by stringent instructions, the envoys could enter into no conclusive arrangement, but a temporary convention was agreed upon, that, until the negotiation could be completed and a new treaty entered into, the ships of either nation were to be safe from seizure under the late unreasonable decrees. Provision was also made for reconveyance of prizes not already THE UNITED STATES. 347 condemned, and of captured national vessels, and preliminary agree- ments were arranged for the future discharge of private claims against either government. These results were not arrived at before the month of October of the same year. They afterwards formed the basis for the conclusion of a satisfactory treaty. When congress came together in November, the public buildings at Washington were sufficiently advanced to serve the purposes designed, and the session was held accordingly at the new capitol. The approaching presidential election was the all-absorbing topic of interest, inasmuch as a grand trial of strength was expected between the two political parties. President Adams had lost popularity by the strong measures adopted in anticipation of war with France, his course not appearing j ustifled by the subsequent turn of events. The respective candidates for the offices of president and vice- president, were Adams and Pinckney, on the side of the federals; while Jefferson, and the talented but intriguing and unprincipled Colonel Aaron Burr, stood forth as representatives of the republicans. The latter were successful, but as they received an equal number of votes, by the existing constitutional regulation, selection devolved upon the house of representatives. The votes were taken by states, and it was not until after thirty-five divisions, that either candidate could secure a majority. The contest terminated at the thirty-sixth balloting, on the 17th of February, 1801. Jefferson obtained the majority, and was declared president accordingly. Burr entered upon the office of vice-president. With the accession of Jefferson commenced that system of removal from office of political opponents to the administration, which, with a greater or less degree of personal favoritism, has been the estab- lished policy upon every succeeding revolution of parties. The changes arbitrarily introduced by the new president were mostly such as were absolutely essential for the establishment of a necessary unanimity in the departments, and a cordial cooperation in the new principles of government. The displacement of certain federal in- cumbents of inferior offices, gave occasion for great complaint, as being uncalled for, and the result of mere party prejudice. With our present experience of what may result from a retaliatory spirit, we must look upon these removals by Jefferson as being conducted with distinguished moderation. The introduction of economical reform in the expenses of government received the first attention of the new administration* 348 AMEEICA ILLl STEATED. The navy was reduced, and its place, to a certain extent, supplied by gun-boats, built for harbour defence — the inefficiency of which, after- wards demonstrated, gave occasion for much ridicule. In respect to matters more particularly within the cognizance of a landsman and one unacquainted with the practical conduct of military affairs, the economical policy of Jefferson was wisely and judiciously enforced. The obnoxious excise laws, and the land-tax, were repealed, by means of which a great number of petty but expensive offices were annulled; additional federal courts, created under the former admin- istration, were done away with; and provision was made for the reduction and eventual payment of the public debt — the existence of which was supposed to give undue influence to the treasury department. In 1802, the state of Ohio, whither a great influx of emigrants had poured since the partial extinguishment of the Indian title, was admitted into the Union by act of congress, and commenced its separate existence as a sovereign state early in the following spring. The transfer of the immense territory of Louisiana from Spain to France, and the negotiation through which its purchase was effected, by the United States in 1803, have been already detailed in that portion of this work devoted to the French settlements in America. No event could have been of greater importance to our western states and territories than this. The possession by any foreign nation of the outlet to the main channel of communication to this vast region, must have caused continual conflict of interest, and endangered the preservation of friendly relations between the parties concerned. Experience had shown that the binding force of treaties "vas insuffi- cient to secure our citizens in their stipulated rights, while the mouth of the Mississippi was commanded by the agents of European powers. THE UNITED STATES. 349 C H» A P T E H X<> AMERICAN FLEET IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. EXPEDITION 0? EATON AND HAMET AGAINST TRIPOLI. — TREATY CONCLUDED. — JEFFERSON'S REELECTION. — BURR'S DUEL WITH B AM- ILT0N:HIS WESTERN ENTERPRISE: HIS TRIAL. The most interesting events, connected with foreign affairs, during the first term of Jefferson's presidency, are those relating to difficul- ties still existing with the Barbary states. That the maritime nations of Europe, and the United States in pursuance of their example, should have so long submitted to the degradation of purchasing peace from the piratical barbarians of northern Africa, seems utterly unaccountable, particularly as such concessions only aggravated their insolence, and encouraged them, from time to time, to increase their demands. An American frigate, commanded by Bainbridge, in the autumn of the year 1800, was compelled by the Dey of Algiers to serve as a transport for the transmission of presents, &c, to Constantinople ; the remonstrances of the captain were met by the most arrogant and insolent expressions of superiority. The state of Tripoli, in the year following this event, commenced open hostilities against American commerce — the reigning prince having become dissatisfied with the terms upon which his favour had been bought. In the summer of 1802 a squadron under com- mand of Commodore Morris was dispatched against the belligerent nation. A partial blockade and some unimportant captures were the only advantages gained during this season. During the summer of the following year a larger naval force under Commodore Preble arrived in the Mediterranean, and pro- ceeded to blockade the harbour of Tripoli. The frigate Philadelphia, commanded by Bainbridge, arrived first at the station. Unfortu- nately, while in pursuit of a Tripolitan vessel, she struck upon a rock. Yain efforts were made to lighten and^fceave her off, during which operation she was surrounded by gun-boats of the enemy. The frigate heeled so far that her guns were useless, and she became a prize to the Tripolitans. They got her off safely, and took her into 350 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. the harbour, making prisoners of all on board. The officers alone were exempted from a condition of slavery. This capture gave occasion for a brilliant exploit. Lieutenant Decatur, with a small vessel recently taken from the enemy, and manned by volunteers from the American frigate Enterprise, then lying at Syracuse, undertook to destroy the Philadelphia. On the night of February 16th, 1804, the Tripolitan crew on board the frigate were hailed in their own language from a small craft, appar- ently of their nation, whose approach was regarded without suspicion. Under the excuse that she had lost her anchors, the stranger was permitted to come alongside and make fast to the ship. Her true character was immediately ascertained: the Americans, rushing on board, in the confusion attendant upon the first alarm, drove the crew overboard, fired the vessel, and effected a safe retreat. An achievement of a still more remarkable and romantic character was accomplished in the following year by William Eaton, Consul for the United States at Tunis. Jessuf, the Bashaw of Tripoli, was a younger brother; he had driven Hamet, the rightful incumbent of the throne, into exile; and with the latter, Eaton, by authority from the United States, entered into correspondence for the purpose of planning a land expedition from Egypt into Tripoli, and expelling the usurper. A little band of Arabs, Tripolitan refugees of Hamet's party, and Christian adventurers, numbering in all only about four hundred men, set out from the vicinity of Alexandria, early in the spring of 1805. The passage of the intervening desert was not completed until the latter part of April, the march being attended with extreme suffering and destitution. The invaders arriving at Derne, with the cooperation of American vessels lying in the harbour, took forcible possession of the town, and held it against the main Tripolitan force, by which they were attacked a fortnight later. While thus in the full tide of success, the hopes of Hamet and his enterprising ally were crushed by the conclusion of a treaty between the United States and Tripoli, by which Jessuf was left in undisturbed possession of his sovereignty. A large sum was paid for the ransom of captives remaining in the power of the bashaw, after the accom- plishment of an equal exchange for those prisoners taken by the Americans. Prior to the conclusion of these events, a new presidential election in the United States, had resulted in Jefferson's continuance in office THE UNITED STATES. 351 lor a second term. George Clinton of New York was chosen vice- president in place of Burr. The latter, in the summer of 1804, en- raged against Hamilton on account of influence brought to bear against him as candidate for the office of governor of New York, sought a quarrel with his political opponent, whicL resulted in a duel. Hamilton fell mortally wounded at the first fire. The cir- cumstance that Burr was the aggressor, as well as the challenging party, with a general suspicion of his previous integrity and good faith, aroused such public indignation that he was obliged to leave the state. Politically dead in the United States, he turned his atten- tion thenceforth to deeper and more desperate intrigues, to which, a little anticipating the order of events, we may here advert. In concert with one Blennerhasset, an Irishman of considerable property, who had established himself upon an island in the Ohio river near Marietta, Burr, it would appear, formed magnificent schemes for revolutionizing the western country, and the establish- ment of a separate government, as well as for an invasion of the Spanish province of Mexico. By personal interviews with leading men who were supposed to be disaffected towards the administration, by mysterious letters, calculated to arouse cupidity and excite indefi- nite hopes, and by negotiations through agents in whom he placed very variant degrees of confidence, he succeeded in exciting a state of feverish anticipation of some great, but indeterminate political change, about to take place. Being a man of consummate abilities, and of a remarkably pleasing address, he acquired great influence over those with* whom he held familiar intercourse, and while he could mould inferior minds to his own views, he was always able to conceal his own true purposes, Perhaps no political intrigue ever occupied such universal attention, as the one of which we are speaking, without its purport eventually becoming more clearly apparent. When Burr first began to collect forces, it was under the guise of procuring emigrants to occupy a tract on the Ouachita, in Louis- iana, to which he had purchased a doubtful claim. In December, 1806, with about one hundred men — who were probably as much in the dark as to the true destination and purposes of the expedition as the public at large — he passed down the Ohio in a number of covered flat-boats. The agents of government were on the alert, and his projects were by this time universally canvassed, and entered more or less into the political controversies of the day. Vol. IT.— 51 352 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. At Natchez, Burr submitted to the requisitions of the territorial civil authorities, and the charges against him were investigated by the intervention of a grand jury at Washington, the capital of the Mississippi territory. Nothing could be established by any direct evidence, and he was acquitted. Meanwhile, General Wil- kinson, the military commander at New Orleans, to whom Burr had previously made many overtures, had arbitrarily arrested several of the agents commissioned by the latter, and was enforcing a species of martial law, in anticipation of the expected invasion or revolution. Further conduct of the expedition was unsafe, and Burr, dis- missing his followers, attempted to make his escape into Florida He was arrested near the Tombigbee river, and taken prisoner to Eichmond, where he was bailed, upon the charge of violating the neutrality law, by enlisting forces to invade a peaceful nation. He was subsequently indicted by a grand jury for high treason in levy- ing war against the United States. The trial, after much delay in vexatious preliminaries, took place in August, 1807, Chief- Justice Marshall presiding. Sufficient evidence could not be obtained to sustain the charge, and a verdict of acquittal followed. The same result attended the trial upon the charge of a violation of the neu- trality act. All concerned were held amenable to the provisions of the latter law in any district where an overt act, falling within its prohibi- tions, should have been committed. Held to bail in Ohio, upon the same accusation, Burr and Blennerhasset both forfeited their bonds. The former soon after sailed for Europe, and passed many years in fruitless endeavours to carry out schemes of personal aggrandize- ment in France and England. He returned to spend the latter years of his life in the obscure practice of law in his own state. THE UNITED STATES. 353 CHAPTER tX! a BNGLISH AGGRESSIONS. — FAILURE OF NEGOTIATION. — ATTACK ON THE FRIGATE CHESAPEAKE. — EMBARGO. NON-INTER- COURSE ACT. — ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. — JOHN RANDOLPH. — WEST FLORIDA. — CONCESSIONS OF NAPO- LEON. — BRITISH CRUISERS: THE LITTLE BELT. — TECUMSEH: ELSKWATAWA: BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. — EAST FLORIDA. — DECLARATION OF WAR. Throughout the closing term of Jefferson's administration, the disturbed state of affairs in Europe was disastrously felt in America ; in carrying out schemes of mutual aggression, the two great belliger- ent powers were utterly regardless of the rights and interests of neutral nations. "It was in vain that the government of the United States expostulated with them. To England it denied having sub- mitted to the decrees of the French ruler; and to the latter it rep- resented the indefeasible rights of neutrals. 'Join with me in bringing England to reason,' was the reply of Bonaparte, who was blind to all objects and reasons, except that of humbling his arch- enemy. America was, in consequence, left to choose which of the belligerents she should take for foes, since both at once might prove too powerful for her, and neutrality, persevered in, only exposed her vessels to capture, without retaliation — to the disadvantages, in fact, without the advantages of war." "The great powers of the land and sea, unable to measure their strength, since each was predom- inant on its own element, came to vent their blows on America."* When, by the Berlin decree, of November, 1806, the emperor, in retaliation for a similar assumption in respect to France, had pronounced Great Britain to be in a state of blockade, and the gov- ernment of the latter had extended her former decree to all the dependencies and allies of France, the commerce of the United States was, in effect, annihilated. There were not, however, want- ing causes for a strong discrimination, in the minds of the Ameri- cans, between the spirit and motives which actuated the several aggressing nations. The conduct of the naval officers in the British service, generally * Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 354 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. insolent and overbearing towards the American marine, had been growing more and more intolerable. The impressment of seamen from United States 7 merchant vessels continued and increased, not- withstanding the remonstrances of government, and a representa- tion of the fact, that many American citizens were thus enslaved for foreign service. In hopes to effect some modification in the former treaty, by' which these illegal seizures might be checked, and the commerce of America be freed from the more oppressive restrictions, Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney were commissioned as ambassadors to Eng- land in 1806. They arranged a treaty accordingly, but, as nothing was yielded by the British government respecting the more import- ant points of controversy, the president, without communicating with the senate, refused to ratify. While attempts at negotiation failed, the course pursued by the English cruisers, in carrying out their instructions to watch the American coast, assumed an appearance more than ever offensive. A direct attack upon a national vessel, finally called for some deci- sive action. The Chesapeake, an American frigate, was dispatched in the month of June, 1807, to the Mediterranean. Just without the capes of the Chesapeake, she was hailed by the Leopard, an English man-of-war. Upon heaving to, a boat soon came along- side, and a message was delivered from the captain of the Leopard, demanding permission to search for certain deserters, known or sus- pected to be on board the American vessel. Specific orders to this effect had been given by the British Admiral Berkeley. The demand not being complied with, the Leopard, having taken a favourable position, without further parley, first fired two succes- sive single shots, the first, across the bows of the Chesapeake, and then poured in several broadsides, by which three men were killed, a number wounded, and much damage was done to the vessel. The commander, Barron, his ship not being ready for action, was unable to resist, and therefore struck his flag. Several officers from the Leopard then came on board; the crew of the Chesapeake were examined, and four were taken away prisoners, as deserters from the British service. One of them was afterwards hanged for de- sertion; the three others (coloured men) proved to be American citizens. The Chesapeake immediately returned to Norfolk. President Jefferson promptly issued a proclamation, ordering all British armed vessels to leave the waters of the United States, and THE UNITED STATES. 355 prohibiting further intercourse with them. Demand was made upon the British government for redress, and for future guarantee that American vessels should be no longer searched for purposes of impressment. The attack on the Chesapeake — being totally inex- cusable, although similar acts had been previously committed, on several occasions, by British vessels — was at once disavowed, and full reparation was tendered ; but upon the other point, no concession whatever was made. New and more stringent orders instead, were issued for the siezure of British mariners in foreign service; and, in case such should be known to be on board national vessels of a neutral, precise instructions were given to make report thereof to the British admiralty. Congress was called together at an earlier day than the regular commencement of the session, and, after much discussion, a general embargo was laid (December, 1807), to continue indefinitely, by which American vessels were prohibited from leaving port. The enforcement of this system, however necessary, occasioned great commercial distress, and gave much dissatisfaction in New England. The embargo was, to a certain extent, evaded by the more adven- turous; but the retaliatory decrees of France and England had been extended to such an extreme of exclusion, that no vessel trading to Europe or the West Indies could be safe from seizure. The prospect of an amicable arrangement appeared less than ever. Throughout the year 1808, nothing was heard but complaints of the oppressive embargo. At the winter session of congress, in 1808-9, the whole subject was debated, and, in place of the embaigo, a prohibition of intercourse with France and England was concluded upon — trade with other countries of Europe being left open. A pro- vision was also appended, giving the president power to suspend this restriction as to either nation which should conform to the requisitions of the United States, by a withdrawal of the obnoxious edicts or orders in council. This change was accomplished just before the close of Jefferson's administration. In accordance with the example of Washington, he haa declined being a candidate for a third presidential term. The republican party, retaining their ascendancy, elected James Madison, late secretary of state, to the office of president: Clinton was again chosen vice-president. One very important event, not noticed in the order of its occur- rence, was the passage, by congress, of an act prohibiting the intro- duction of slaves after the 1st of January, 1808 — the constitutional 356 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. limit within which no restraining law could be enacted, upon this subject, other than the imposition of a specified duty upon all im- ported. Severe penalties were affixed to the direct importation of slaves, attaching, although in less degree, to the buyer who should be cognizant of the illegal introduction ; and the transportation of slaves by sea from one port to another in the United States, was regulated and restrained. Slaves thenceforth imported, were to be seized, and to "remain subject to any regulation or disposal, not contrary to the provisions of this act, which might be made by the respective states and territories." In the debate upon this subject, a prominent part was taken, in behalf of the slave-holding interest, by John Eandolph, a young member from Yirginia, whose remarkable talents and brilliant ora- tory might have given him a position of great eminence, but for a singular vein of misanthropic eccentricity which pervaded his whole character, and for an unparalleled degree of habitual insolence and assumption. Belonging originally to the republican party, he was of the number of those who seceded from the principles adopted by the administration, and during Jefferson's closing term, headed a powerful opposition to the measures adopted in retaliation for Brit- ish aggression. The first communications opened with Great Britain, after Madi- son's inauguration, gave promise of a speedy settlement of difficulties. Mr. Erskine, the British minister, over-stepping the limits of his instructions from Secretary Canning, stipulated on behalf of his government, that the odious commercial orders in council should be withdrawn, as to United States' vessels, upon revocation of the non-intercourse act. The president, in conformity with the powers expressly conferred upon him, suspended the act accordingly. Several preliminary conditions, upon which he had received spe- cial instructions, were entirely neglected by Erskine in this nego- tiation. The most important of these related to a matter long in dispute, viz: whether, in time of war, a neutral could carry on a trade with one of the belligerent parties, of a character prohibited by such nation in time of peace. Erskine's stipulations were, therefore, disavowed, and non-inter- course was reestablished. Provisions were made by the British government in favour of such vessels as might have availed them- selves of the temporary removal of restrictions. Mutual recrimina tions in respect to this affair, aggravated the hostile dispositions of THE UNITED STATES. 357 the two governments. On the one hand, it was suggested that the. United States had been cognizant of the true nature of the instruc- tions given to the British ambassador, while, on the other, the refusal of the ministry to ratify the arrangement concluded, was looked upon as "an act of capricious hostility." Mr. Jackson, successor to Mr. Erskine, upon a renewal of negotiation, conducted the corres- pondence in a manner so offensive, that his recall was demanded, and all diplomatic intercourse, for the time, was suspended. During the autumn of 1810, the settlers in that portion of West Florida bordering on the Mississippi, following the example of other Spanish American colonies, took advantage of the embarrassed position of the home government to rebel against the Spanish au- thorities. This district was soon after occupied by the United States, under claim of title, by virtue of former treaties of transfer. Upon the expiration of the non-intercourse act, in 1810, propositions were made by the United States to France and England for a re- moval of the onerous restrictions upon trade. To either nation which should comply with this requisition, the inducement of exclu- sive commercial intercourse was held out. Napoleon, willing to yield a point in his rigid continental system, for the purpose of securing the friendship of the United States, and — a matter still more to his taste — of involving them in war with England, gave notice, through his ministers, that American vessels should be free from the operation of the sweeping decrees of Berlin and Milan. Commerce was at once opened with France ; but the British gov- ernment, affecting to consider the suspension of the French decrees as irregular, temporary, and illusive, declined yielding to the re- quirements of the United States. On the contrary, national jealousy being aroused by the prospect of an advantageous trade between this country and France, renewed vigilance was exercised, and a more rigorous search instituted by the numerous British cruisers on the American coast. The sloop-of-war Little Belt, commanded by Captain Bingham, while engaged in this service, fell in with the American frigate Pres- ident, under Commodore -Rodgers. The English vessel at first bore down upon the American, until discovering that the latter was of greater force, and that her signals were not answered, she stood away. Pursued by the President, she hove to, and both vessels hailed, as appears, nearly simultaneously. Neither replied except by a second hail. Upon this some shots were fired — accounts being 358 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. contradictory as to which vessel commenced — soon succeeded bj a general cannonade on either side, in which the Little Belt was nearly disabled, and lost more than thirty of her crew in killed and wounded, Such discrepancy prevails in the accounts given of this transaction, that we are somewhat at a loss in forming conclusions respecting its merits. At a special session of congress, in the autumn of 1811, the presi- dent set forth, in a message to that body, the futility of all attempts at negotiation with Great Britain, the enormous injury to American commerce effected by her exclusive system, the vast number of ves- sels in the United States' merchant service which had fallen a prey to her cruisers, and the generally aggressive and ungenerous policy pursued by her government. "With this evidence," proceeded the address, "of hostile inflexibility, in trampling upon rights which no independent nation can relinquish, congress will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armour and an attitude de- manded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations." This call was responded to, by a decided majority, in a similar spirit. Appropriations were made, and loans authorized, for the enlargement of the army, for fortifications, and the accumulation of military stores. The navy was ordered to be increased, and pro- visions were made for organizing a militia force. The existence of serious disturbances at the north-west, attributed, in some measure, to British influence over the Indian tribes, added to the hostile feel- ing entertained towards Great Britain. A new confederacy had been long forming in that quarter, under the direction, and through the intrigues of the celebrated Tecumseh and his brother Elskwatawa, or the Prophet. The former, at this period, was engaged in gaining over the tribes of the southern states to unite in a magnificent enterprise for the recovery of the entire valley of the Mississippi from the whites. The pro- phet was established on the Tippecanoe, a tributary of the Wa- bash, where a horde of his followers encamped about him, and kept the country in terror by their depredations. To check these ravages, Governor Harrison, with a force of about nine hundred men, regulars, militia, and volunteers, marched up the Wabash from Fort Harrison, at the close of October (1811). He encamped on the 5th of November, within nine miles of the prophet's town, and attempted to negotiate with the Indian chief. THE UNITED STATES. 359 The latter proposed a truce, for the purpose of a conference to take place on the day following. This pacific overture was merely in- tended to disarm suspicion. On the following morning, a little before day-break — the time always selected by the Indians, for a surprise — the whole force under command of the prophet, fell upon the American encampment. Fortunately, due precautions had been taken for a timely alarm, and for the preservation of order in case of a night attack. Although the Indians fought with astonishing fury and determination, they were finally driven off and dispersed, not without a loss, on the part of the whites, of one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded. The American troops immediately proceeded to the Indian settlement, and accomplished its entire destruction. Certain disclosures, communicated to congress by a message of the president, in March, 1812, relative to the secret agency of one John Henry, who, several years previous, had been commissioned by the governor of Canada to attempt negotiation with the New England federalists, excited great indignation among the war party. It would appear that for a time undue importance was attached to this affair. The president paid a large sum of money from the secret service fund, to secure the correspondence between Henry and his employer. The principal matter of the communications related to the extent to which the anti-war party might be willing to push their opposition, and the possibility or probability of a secession from the Union by the com- mercial states of the north, in the event of their political defeat. In the month of April, an important accession to the southern in- terest resulted from the admission of the new state of Louisiana, including that portion of West Florida already occupied by the United States. The Spanish possessions in East Florida were en- dangered, at the same period, by an outbreak encouraged and pro- moted by the American general, Matthews. A strong party in congress — even a majority in the house — was in favour of taking forcible possession of this territory; but a bill for that purpose was lost in the senate. A prospect of speedy hostilities with America, gave rise to a strong opposition in the British parliament, to the measures of government; and strenuous exertions were made to effect a compliance with the principal requisitions of the United States. These movements on the part of the friends of peace and of the rights of neutrals, it has been said, might have terminated in such concession as would have 360 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. satisfied the latter, if patience had been a little farther extended. At the close of May, 1812, recent intelligence having been received from England, and no prospect appearing of a disposition on the part of government to yield the questions in dispute, President Madison sent in a message recommending immediate declaration of war. The senate promptly concurred with the recommendation ; in the house, the question, after about a fortnight's consideration, resulted in the same conclusion. The debate was conducted with closed doors. On the 18th of June, war was formally declared with Great Britain. To this act most strenuous opposition was made by the federal party. In those portions of the United States most depend- ant upon commerce, a violent outcry was raised against a measure, which, although specially called for by foreign aggressions upon their rights and interest, threatened to increase their present diffi- culties, while it imposed upon the country at large an enormous burden of additional expense. C 2kE (A> J o ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES K. POLK. — ANNEXATION OF TEXAS THE NORTH-WESTERN BOUNDARY. DISCOYERY AND HIS- TORY OF THE TERRITORY OF OREGON. VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA: DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA: TRADING ESTABLISHMENTS: JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND CLARKE: ASTORIA: DESTRUCTION OF THE TONQUIN: WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN: BOUNDARY TREATIES: SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. In the month of March, 1845, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, succeeded to the presidency, George M. Dallas being vice-president. At the congressional session, commencing December 1st, 1845, vari- ous acts were passed, the influence of which upon the future destinies of the country is incalculable. Among the first of these, was the final joint resolution, by virtue of which Texas became one of the United States, and the burden of maintaining her independence was assumed by the confederacy. Hostilities with Mexico followed, con- nected with which, are most matters of interest occurring throughout this administration. An account of all the material events of the war has been already given, under the title of Mexico. In the summer of 1846, the vexed question respecting conflicting claims of the United States and Great Britain to jurisdiction in the territory of Oregon was finally set at rest. The forty-ninth parallel was fixed as our northern boundary, extending westward to the channel between Vancouver's island and the main, thence through the straits of Fuca to the Pacific. Free navigation of the channel and straits, and of the north branch of the Columbia to the ocean, was secured to subjects or citizens of either nation. A brief account of the discovery, settlement, and previous history of this extensive and valuable territory, in the present connection, may not appear unprofitable or out of place. In early times it was commonly supposed that a free communica- tion existed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in latitude no farther north than the northern limits of the territory of Oregon. Vague reports, corroborative of this theory, were given by advent- urous mariners, whom chance or the desire of exploration threw THE UNITED STATES. upon the north-western coast. The most remarkable of these early narratives is that of Juan de Fuca, a Cephalonian pilot, who sailed under a commission from the governor of Mexico, upon a northern voyage of discovery, in 1592. Five years previous, this celebrated navigator, while on a voyage from Manilla to the Spanish provinces in America, was captured near the coast, by the bucaniers under Cavendish. The vessel in which he sailed was fired, but not entirely destroyed, and the crew were set on shore upon the peninsula of Old California. Regaining pos- session of their abandoned craft, they managed to refit her and to continue their voyage, with the loss of all their effects. The Mexican governor took Juan de Fuca under his patronage, and availed himself of his experience in nautical affairs, in the pros- ecution of exploration at the north. The first voyage was unsuc- cessful, nothing being seen of the reported "straits of Anian," through which it was believed a passage might be effected 10 the Atlantic. The second expedition is chronicled as follows by Purchas, upon the authority of Michael Lock the elder : "He followed his course, in that voyage, west and north-west in the South Sea, all along the coast of Nova Spania, and California, and the Indies, now called North America, (all which voyage he sig- nified to me in a great map, and a sea-card of my own, which I laid before him,) until he came to the latitude of forty-seven degrees; and that there, finding that the land trended north and north-east, with a broad inlet of sea between forty-seven and forty-eight degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometimes north-west, and north-east, and north, and also east and south-eastward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sailing; and that, at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the north-west coast thereof, a great head-land or island, with an exceeding high pinnacle, or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon. "Also he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on land, clad in beast's skins; and that the land is very fruitful, and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania. i: And also he said that he, being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide enough every where, and to be about thirty or forty leagues 410 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. wide in the mouth of the straits where he entered, he thought he had now well discharged his office; and that, not being armed to re- sist the force of the savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail, and returned homewards again towards Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapuko, Anno 1592, hoping to be rewarded by the viceroy for his service done in the said voyage."* The true name of this navigator is said to have been Apostolos Yalerianos, but the inlet, of which, if not the discoverer, he was the first authentic explorer, has ever since borne his more popular ap- pellation. The straits of Juan de Fuca were not again entered or noticed for nearly two centuries from the time of the Greek pilot. In 1787, the account above given, which had been long discredited, was in part corroborated, and its errors were pointed out, by the re- port of Captain Berkeley, an Englishman, commanding a vessel in the service of the Austrian East India Company. Twelve years before this period, August 15, 1775, Bruno Heceta. commander of an exploring expedition fitted out from San Bias, dis- covered the mouth of the Columbia river; but he failed to notice the entrance of the straits. Captain Cook, during his last voyage, in the year 1778, just previous to his second and fatal visit to the Sandwich Islands, made an unsuccessful examination of the coast, in search after the reported inlet. Within a few years from this time a valuable traffic in furs, to be used in the China trade, was opened with the natives of the north- west coast. Two vessels, the Felice and the Iphigenia, sailed upon this enterprise from Macao in 1788, under Portuguese colours, but subject to the general management of John Meares, a British lieu- tenant. Before the departure of these vessels from the coast, the Columbia and Washington, fitted out at Boston, in the United States, upon similar service, entered ISTootka sound. In 1792, the first of these, under command of Captain Gray, passed up the river discovered by Heceta. It has ever since borne the name of the vessel, and to Gray must be ascribed the honour of being the first to prove its ex- istence, as this was only conjectured by the first discoverer, from the strong current setting out of the bay. Conflicting claims respecting exclusive rights upon the north-west- coast, by virtue of discovery and occupation, were long maintained by different European powers ; and after the cession by Spain to the United States of the immense territory then called Louisiana, the * Greenhow's History of Oregon and California. THE UNITED STATES. 411 latter power became involved in a similar controversy with Great Britain. During the year subsequent to this event, 1804, a party of thirty or forty men, under command of Captains Lewis and Clarke, was despatched by the United States' government upon a journey of overland exploration from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The adventurers passed the winter near the Mandan villages, far up the Missouri, and in the spring of 1805 pursued their voyage up the river in canoes and "periogues." Deriving their principal sup- port from the game brought in by their hunters, they slowly worked their way against the current, and passed the great falls or rapids of the Missouri in the month of July. At this point they were obliged to build light canoes in which to continue their voyage. Entering the Jefferson fork, about the close of the month, they kept on their course until the river, no longer navigable, had dwindled to a brook, and on the 12th of August its utmost source was discovered. Passing the dividing ridge, the advanced party reached "a hand- some bold creek of clear cold water, running to the westward." After enduring the utmost hardships in the dangerous passage of the mountains, the travellers struck the Kooskooskee, and resumed their journey by water. They reached the mouth of the Columbia early in November. Nothing was heard from the expedition until its return to St. Louis on the 23d of September, 1806. The account published by the leaders of the expedition is replete with interest, and marked by an agreeable simplicity of style. Great interest was excited throughout the United States by the long-expected report, and plans were soon after set on foot for the formation of a permanent establishment, for trading purposes, upon the Pacific coast. A company, styled the Pacific Fur Company, was formed under the auspices of John Jacob Astor, of New York, in 1810, and vessels were at once fitted out upon the enterprise. The settlement of Astoria at Point George, on the south bank of the Co- lumbia, was commenced during the summer of 1811. This under- taking, at first prosperous, resulted in misfortune. The Tonquin, the first vessel sent out, while engaged in trade near the straits of Fuca, was plundered by the Indians, and blown up. All on board perished, with the exception of an Indian interpreter, who, after a captivity of two years, made his way to Astoria, and gave the first intelligence of the disaster. The war between Great Britain and the United States breaking out at this period, the resident partners of the American Company 412 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. effected a sale of the whole establishment and stores to the British North-west Company. The occupants under this transfer continued to carry on the trade in furs after the reestablishment of the authority of the United States over that portion of the north-west territory. "By the treaty of 1818, the territories west of the Kocky moun- tains, claimed by the United States or Great Britain, were to J 0e jointly occupied by citizens of either country, for a period of ten years. Upon the expiration of this term (in 1828), the arrangement was renewed, and indefinitely extended; one year's notice to be given by either government prior to any future assertion of sole sovereignty. "As the attention of the United States became aroused by the progress of emigration to Oregon, the necessity for some definitive settlement of the boundary question began to be universally felt. Subsequent to the explorations and surveys under Colonel Fremont, elsewhere narrated, great numbers of settlers, during the summers of 1843 and 1844, pursued the overland route, and settled in the Wil- lamet valley. The number of American emigrants in Oregon at the close of the latter year, is computed at more than three thousand, and great sympathy was felt for them throughout the Union, in con- sideration of the hardships they had endured, and the uncertainty of their position while the right of jurisdiction over the country re- mained unsettled."* After the final settlement of the boundary question, in 1846, as before mentioned, emigration received a new impetus. Although lying m a high latitude, the climate of the territory of Oregon is by no means severe. Owing to its situation upon the western shore of a large continent, like the countries of western Europe, it is subject- to no such extremes of temperature as those felt in the New England states. The soil is extremely fertile, and the surface of the country is beautifully diversified with mountains, plains, hills, and streams. The population, as exhibited in the census returns of 1850, numbered thirteen thousand three hundred and twenty -three. * Discoverers, &c, of America. THE UNITED STATES, 413 ALTERATION IN THE TARIFF. ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA: EARLY HISTORY OF THAT PROVINCE: THE JESUIT MISSIONS IN THE PENINSULA: THE DOMINICANS. — UPPER CALI- FORNIA: THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONARY ESTABLISH- MENT: THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION: ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION. A little before the close of the session of congress, in the summer of 1846, the views of the political party then in the ascendency, respecting duties on importations, were carried out by revision and alteration of the tariff of 1842. Material reduction was made in the protective duties established by the former bill. Upon the conclusion of peace with Mexico, the acquisition of California gave a new direction to speculative enterprise throughout the Union' — especially at the extreme west and upon the sea-board. The existence of a gold deposit in the bed of the American fork of the Sacramento, was first discovered in the spring of 1848. "From this period every thing connected with the California settlements took a new aspect. The villages which had sprung up since the acquisition of the country by the United States, were mostly de- serted; the crops were left ungathered; the crews of the vessels lying in port deserted ; labour could be procured only at the most exorbitant prices ; in short, nearly the whole male population had hurried to the mines, and, regardless of hardship, fatigue, exposure, and sickness, were engaged in the all-absorbing pursuit of gold." An unexampled increase of population, within the short period of two years, converted a wilderness, uninhabited save by roving sav- ages and the occupants of a few small towns or trading-posts, into an important and prosperous state. The history of its settlement is more like a tale of romance than a record of realities. Throughout the continuance of Spanish or Mexican dominion over the Californias, those provinces were looked upon as of little im- portance, and chiefly interesting as a field for missionary enterprise. The peninsula of Old California was discovered, in 1534, by Grijalva, sailing upon a voyage of discovery under commission from Cortez. 414 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED The gulf which separates it from the main was soon after explored, and at different times unsuccessful attempts were made to plant col- onies at several locations. The peninsula was barren and mountain- ous, and nothing was imagined of the undeveloped wealth and resources of the country farther north. In California, as in many other portions of America, the pioneers of settlement and civilization were the fraternity of Jesuits. These indefatigable propagandists of the faith commenced operations upon either shore of the Grulf of California, towards the close of the sev- enteenth century. Upon the main, a settlement was founded by the learned and zealous Father Kuhn — before his departure for America a professor of mathematics at Ingoldstadt. Father Salvatierra, also a member of the order, at the same time established the missionary station of Loreto at the bay of San Dionisio, upon the peninsula. He took with him six soldiers as a slight protection against attack on the part of the natives. The Indians had little reason to look with favour upon any further encroachment upon their territory. For a long period the coast had seldom been visited, except by those engaged in the pearl fishery, in the pursuit of which occupation it had been the common custom to compel the service of the natives, great numbers of whom had per- ished in this dangerous avocation. Salvatierra and his associates in the missionary work made great and finally successful exertions to procure from the home government the enactment of laws for the protection of their adopted people from this species of slavery. At San Dionisio a chapel was erected to " Our Lady of Loreto," and the good father made use of all means in his power to excite the interest, arouse the curiosity, and conciliate the good-will of his an- ticipated proselytes. He met at first with very unfavourable returns : the Indians, after plundering him of his horse and goats, finally col- lected in force, and attempted the destruction of the establishment. They were driven off by the fire-arms of the soldiers. The efforts of Salvatierra and Kuhn were worthily seconded by Fathers Ugarte and Francisco Piccolo. The latter, in the autumn of 1699, two years from the formation of the first Jesuit settlement, founded the mission of San Xavier, on the Pacific coast. From this station, as well as that at San Dionisio, the missionaries extended their operations among the natives by making long journeys on horseback throughout a great extent of the peninsula, acquainting themselves with the resources and geography of the country, preach- THE UNITED STATES. 415 ing to the Indians in their own language, and endeavouring by every means to gain their confidence and good-will. Ugarte came over from Mexico in 1701. " He took up his abode with the Indians, without a single companion, among the mountains south-west of Loreto, and, by the force of example and rewards, stimulated his wild associates to shake off their natural sloth, and aid him in erecting dwellings and a chapel for public worship. He was of a robust frame and hardy constitution, and was always fore- most to undertake the labour and drudgery attendant upon the form- ation of the settlement. His greatest trouble, at first, was from an unconquerable tendency on the part of his auditors to jeer and laugh at his religious exercises, but the infliction of summary chastisement upon the strongest and most contumacious among them, speedily quelled their levity. "This excellent and energetic ecclesiastic did not confine himself to a care for the souls of his flock; he taught them the cultivation of the soil; he introduced the domestic animals of Europe; and even brought over a weaver to teach the arts of spinning and manufacturing the wool obtained from his sheep. Slowly but steadily the missions continued to prosper; the fickle-minded aborigines were subdued and restrained by force or kindness as occasion required; and the general tenor of the lives of those engaged in the work of the mis- sions, gave evidence that their motives were pure, and that they had the interests of their proselytes at heart."* The difficulties encountered by these pioneers of civilization were increased by the conduct of too many of those who accompanied them from Mexico, or who afterwards came over to engage in secular employment at the stations. "The land was so barren," says Green- how, "that it scarcely yielded the means of sustaining life to the most industrious agriculturalist, for which reason the settlements were all located near the sea, in order that the necessary food might be procured by fishing; and the persons employed in their service, being drawn from the most miserable classes in Mexico, were always indolent and insubordinate, and generally preferred loitering on the shore, in search of pearls, to engaging in the regular labours required for the support of settlers in a new region." The grand order of the Jesuits having gradually fallen into sus- picion with the great powers of Europe, its members were subjected to persecution and banishment in the territories, successively, of * Discoverers, &c., of America. Yol. IV.— 55 416 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. Portugal, France, and Spain. In the year 1767, they were expelled from California, and the country becoming a Mexican province, the missionaries were superseded by Franciscans, and the civil authority of Mexico was extended over the settlements. The missionary sta- tions on the peninsula were, at this time, sixteen in number. Domin- ican friars took the place of the Jesuits, and, pursuing a far different policy towards the natives from that carried out by their predeces- sors, soon destroyed the confidence of the inhabitants, and frustrated the plans for their improvement, before so promising. The Indians of Old California are, at the present day, few in number, and still in the condition of the savage. Turning their attention from the barren mountains of the penin- sula to the extensive and fertile region of Upper or New California, the Franciscans, with the aid and countenance of the Marquis de Croix, viceroy of Mexico, founded a settlement at San Diego, in 1769. From this station, a party was shortly after sent to explore and take formal possession of the country further north. They proceeded by land as far as the harbour of San Francisco, upon - which they bestowed its present appellation, and returned to make report at San Diego, in January of the following year. This exploring party had been specially commissioned to establish a settlement upon the bay of Monterey, but upon the journey they failed to recognise that locality from its description by early voy- agers. A few months subsequent to their return, the service was accomplished by another expedition, under direction of Father Junipero Serra. A portion of the adventurers proceeded by sea, the voyage — from San Diego to Monterey — occupying no less than forty-six days; another party made the journey in a less space of time, by land, and were found by the voyagers, engaged in building and other preparations for a settlement. "On the 31st of May," says Serra, "by the favour of God, after rather a painful voyage of a month and a half, the packet San Antonio, commanded by Don Juan Perez, arrived and anchored in this horrible port of Monterey, which is unaltered in any degree from what it was when visited by the expedition of Don Sebastian Viscayno, in the year 1603." The missions in Upper California received special patronage from the Spanish crown, and a large fund was raised for their support, in Mexico, by voluntary contributions of the pious. Many valuable legacies were also funded for this purpose, and the temporal affairs of the enterprise were, for a series of years, in a prosperous condi- THE UNITED STATES. 417 tion. The spiritual progress of the Indians was, however, by no means in conformity with the great apparent success of the missions. The influence and authority of the ecclesiastics was established throughout the line of coast — their head-quarters being at San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco, and San Gabriel — but their influ- ence appears to have availed little towards the actual improvement or civilization of the natives. The church acquired extensive titles to the more valuable lands, and, instead of favouring the immigra- tion of whites, threw obstacles in the way of colonization by civil- ians. The clergy, content with a nominal or outward compliance with the forms of their church, preferred to retain their undivided supremacy over the natives, and feared the consequence of the introduction of free settlers. They did not attain this commanding position without first en- during great hardships and suffering, and exposing themselves to continual personal danger. Their property, in the early days of the missions, was pilfered by the natives on every occasion, and, from time to time, they were forced to resort to the "secular arm" in defending their lives against hostile attacks. Upon one occasion, a large body of Indians fell upon the settlement at San Diego, and, after a hard struggle, were driven off by the handful of whites there in occupation. They shortly after sued for peace, and begged the Spanish surgeon to visit and assist those of their number who had been wounded in the conflict. This aid was cheerfully and readily afforded. Upon the general overthrow of the old order of things, at the period of the Mexican revolution, the privileges and powers of the Californian hierarchy were curtailed, and its resources in Mexico cut off by sequestration of the sums appropriated for the salaries of the priesthood. Measures were also taken to effect an emancipation of the natives, but so completely incompetent did they appear to the management of property, and so much disposed to return to the savage life of their forefathers, that it was judged expedient, for the time, to allow matters to continue much in their old position. The church in California was, at this period, so amply endowed by monopolies, and the acquisition of real estate, that it was no longer dependent upon supplies from abroad. A movement was afterwards set on foot in Mexico, for the fur- therance of colonization in California by the entire removal of the missionaries, and a sequestration of their lands and effects. A law 418 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. was actually passed for this purpose, in the Mexican congress, and great numbers of emigrants, allured by the favourable offers of govern- ment, were soon en route for the land of promise. All their expecta- tions failed upon the attainment of Santa Anna to political supremacy. His regard for the interests of the church, or his policy of securing the favour of so powerful a portion of the community, induced him to take immediate steps for the protection of the property and priv- ileges of the Californian priesthood, and, in consequence, to check the progress of immigration. CHAPTER XXI, EXPLORATION OP NEW CALIFORNIA: COLONEL FREMONT'S SURVEY OF THE SOUTH PASS: OTERL AND EXPEDITION OF 1843-4: THE GREAT SALT LAKE: RETURN ROUTE: TERRIBLE PASSAGE OF THE SIERRA NET AD A: CAPTAIN SUTTER'S SETTLEMENT: SUBSEQUENT EXPEDITIONS OF FREMONT. THE GOLD DISCOVERIES IN CALIFORNIA. The adventurous expedition of Lewis and Clarke first gave to the world any satisfactory account of the character of the wilderness intervening between the western settlements of the United States and the Pacific sea-board. Before the accomplishment of their remarka- ble journey, all that was known of that territory was gathered from the Indians, and from the white traders, or trappers, who had pene- trated the country in different directions, and at different times. A long interval elapsed between this first achievement and the undertaking of any systematic survey of a practicable route for emi- grants. In 1842, the services of the Hon. John. Charles Fremont, who was at that time commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States' corps of topographical engineers, were called into requisition for this purpose. He had been previously engaged in the prosecu- tion of surveys in the north-western territory, and his instructions, at the time of which we are now speaking, were to make an exam- ination of the country, and to report upon an advisable route from the frontier settlements of Missouri to the Great South Pass — then THE UNITED STATES. 419 considered the most practicable, if not the only available passage through the Rocky mountains. "With a company of twenty-five men, principally Canadian or Creole voyageurs, under the guidance of Christopher Carson — then familiarly and extensively known at the west, and now of world- wide celebrity, as " Kit Carson " — Fremont took his departure from a post a few miles above the mouth of the Kansas river, on the 10th of June. The party was provided with eight carts, drawn by mules, for the transportation of camp-equipage, surveying instru- ments, &c, and four oxen were taken for provision. The men were all mounted, and well provided with arms. The line of march lay north-westerly from the Kansas to the Platte, a distance exceeding three hundred miles, which was trav- ersed in sixteen days. Following the course of the South Fork, the party reached Fort St. Vrain, at the eastern foot of the Rocky mountains, on the 10th of July, one month from the day of depart- ure. They arrived at the South Pass near the middle of August, and entered at once upon the principal business of the expedition. By accurate astronomical observations, the true position of this important passage was laid down; scientific investigations of the geological formation of the country were made ; and a correct sur- vey of the whole locality was carefully prepared. The information brought back by the expedition, and widely disseminated through the press, by act of congress, was of inestimable value to those embarking upon the adventure of overland emigration to the shores of the Pacific. The exploring expedition, under Commander Wilkes, returned, as before mentioned, in the month of June (1842). In addition to an accurate survey of the north-western coast, expeditions inland had been undertaken by those connected with the enterprise, both in Oregon and California; and it was considered desirable to connect the results of these observations with those established by the ex- ploration of the South Pass. Colonel Fremont was again commis- sioned by government as commander of the expedition proposed. The Great South Pass lies immediately in the direct line of travel from Missouri to the Columbia river; but it was hoped that a route might be opened further south, which would present less formid- able obstacles as a general thoroughfare. The party collected for this service consisted, in all, of forty men, numbers of whom had shared with Fremont the fatigues and hardships of the preceding 420 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED year. They set out upon their perilous journey on the 29th of May, 1843. " A detour through the mountains brought them upon the waters of the Bear river, which they followed to its debouchement into the Great Salt Lake. In a frail boat of inflated India-rubber cloth, a partial survey was effected of this remarkable phenomenon of nature, concerning which the only knowledge before obtained had been from the wild reports of the Indians, and hunters who had occa- sionally visited it. Little did the adventurous explorers dream of the change that a few years would bring about upon those remote and desolate shores. The party left their camp by the lake on the 12th of September, and, proceeding northward, reached the plains of the Columbia on the 18th, ' in sight of the famous Three Buttes, a well-known land-mark in the country, distant about forty-five miles.'