14

Advantages of History.

than half a dozen person's able to defend themselves;* from the bosom of uncounted tribes of savages; from feebleness, poverty, and contempt, she has risen in might, and numbers, and resources, till she may bid defiance to invasion from any power by land or sea. Her virtues, her industry, her frugality, her piety, and valor, in the hands of God, have been the means of this unexampled prosperity. Her soil is not the most fertile, her climate is forbidding, yet her wealth is greater, and her population more numerous, than any other portion of the United States. There is much truth in the remark of a European writer; "Were not the cold climate of New England supplied with good laws and discipline, the barrenness of that country would never have brought people to it, nor have advanced it in consideration and formidableness above the other English plantations, exceeding it much in fertility and other inviting qualities."

America was discovered by Columbus in 1492. The news rapidly spread through Europe, and every maritime power, from the Baltic to the Adriatic sea, rushed forth to gaze on the amazing curiosity, a NEW WORLD, or to seize a portion for themselves. Among these the English, ever forward in daring enterprifes, took a conspicuous part. In 1496, John Cabot, with two ships, sailed from England, having a commission from Henry VII, to discover unknown lands, and annex them to the British government. Directing his course for China, he fell in with Labrador, and coasted N. to lat. 67. The next year he made a second voyage, and discovered Newfoundland and New England, traversing the coast to Florida.

* MATHER'S Magnalia,

A

Thus was New England discovered in the summer of 1497; but no attempt for a permanent settlement was made for more than a century after. long night of obscurity covered this part of the American coast. The people of England were living at ease in the land of their nativity; the church was not prepared to fly for rest into this wilderness;" or the guilt of the natives had not ripened them for those judgments, which finally swept them away in war and pestilence, to make room for the holy pilgrims, who were the fathers of New England.

New England, now the north eastern grand division of the United States of America, lies in the form of a quarter of a circle around the great bay, or part of the Atlantic Ocean, which sets up to the north west between Cape Cod and Cape Sable.* It contains the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, including Maine, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and Connecticut ; and is situated between 41° and 48 north latitude, and 1° 30′ and 10° 15' east longitude from Philadelphia. Its extreme length from the north east corner of Maine, to the south west corner of Connecticut, is about 626 miles; its breadth is very unequal, from fifty to two hundred miles. It contains about 72,000 square miles

New England is bounded north, by Lower Canada; east, by the British province of New Brunswick and the Atlantic Ocean; south, by the same Ocean and Long Island sound; and west, by the state of New York. Its west line begins at the mouth of Byram river, which empties into Long Island sound, at the south west corner of Connecti

16

Discovery of New England,

cut, north lat. 41°, and runs a little to the east of north till it strikes the 45th degree of lat. it then curves to the north east along the highlands, till it reaches about the 48th degree of north latitude.

. In 1605, Capt. Weymouth, in search of a passage to India, discovered the Penobscot or the Kennebec river, and carried thence five of the natives to England. Three of these, viz. Manida, Sketwarroes, and Tasquantum, were placed in the family of Ferdinando Gorges. They were docile and intelligent. Their account of the country gave a new impulse to the spirit of enterprise. Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Juftice of King's Bench, with other noblemen and knights, styled the Plymouth Company, obtained a patent of North Virginia, of which the country, afterwards called New England, was a part.

This company, in 1606, sent out Henry Chalong and Captain Prynne in two ships, for further discoveries in the country whence the savages had been brought, two of whom were on board with Chalong; but he was taken by the Spaniards, and carried to Spain. Prynne surveyed the coast, its rivers and harbours, and carried home such an account as produced a determination to send over a colony.

Accordingly, more than a hundred adventurers sailed from Plymouth in two ships, May 31, 1607, who, after falling in with the island of Monhigan, landed at the mouth of the Kennebec, then called the Sagadahoc, Aug. 11. The spot selected for a residence was on Parker's Island; they raised a fortification, and called it Fort St. George. They

Its first settlement.

17

had brought two natives with them, who procured them a cordial welcome from different tribes. The emperor Bashaba at Penobscot, to whom the sachems west, as far as Naumkeeg, acknowledged subjection, sent his son to visit the president of the English colony, and to open a trade for furs. In December, the ships sailed for England, leaving 45 persons; but their hard fare, the severity of a Kennebec winter, the burning of their store, and the death of their president, Popham, so discouraged them, that with the next vessel, which arrived, they all returned to England. So rose and fell the first colony on this coast, within the compass of a year.

The Norridgewog Indians have this tradition; that this company engaged a number of Indians, who had come to trade with them, to draw a cannon by a long rope, that the moment they were ranged in a strait line, the white people discharged the piece, which killed and wounded a number. Their story is, that the indignation of the natives. for this barbarous treachery, compelled the com. pany to embark to save their own lives..

From this time till 1620, no settlement was madeon these shores; but while the Plymouth compa ny were discouraged, Sir John Popham, and someothers, carried on the fisheries, which produced considerable profit..

In April 1614, Capt. John Smith, with two ships, commenced a voyage of discovery to the northern coasts of America; he first made the Island of Monhigan, then computed to be în latitude 43 30, where he built seven boats, in one of which, with eight men, he ranged the coast from Penobscot to

'Cape Cod, entered and surveyed what is now called Massachusetts Bay, and made his observations on other parts of the coast. He discovered the Isles of Shoals, and called them Smith's Isles. The whole country, he found was peopled by various tribes of Indians. After his return to England, he wrought these surveys and observations into a map, which he presented to Charles Prince of Wales, (afterwards King Charles I.) with a requeft that he would give a name to this newly explored country. Accordingly he gave his own name to the river, which divides Boston from Charlestown, and to the whole country, that of NEW ENGLAND.

When he sailed for England, he left Capt. Hunt behind to complete his cargo of fish, which he was to sell in Spain. Hunt, destitute of justice and humanity, decoyed 24 Indians on board, carried them to Spain, where he sold them for slaves. This outrage on the laws of hospitality was long resented by the inhabitants of the country.

About this period the emperor of Penobscot, with his family, was destroyed by the Tarratenes, a tribe east of the Penobscot, upon which a contest for the sovereignty rose among the Sachems, and a bloody war raged through the empire. Immediately a terrible pestilence followed. By these two calamities were destroyed nineteen twentieths of the natives on the shores of Massachusetts. This disease was probably the yellow fever, the bodies of the people being "exceeding yellow, both before and after they died.”* Another circumstance is mentioned, which coincides with this opinion; for

GOOKIN