HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

"POWHATAN Held this state & fashion when Capt.' Smith was
delivered to him prisoner. 1607"
The Council of Powhatan. From Smith's "General History,"

[1614-1619]

The year 1614 was distinguished by the marriage of Pocahontas, daughter
of the native chief Powhatan, to the English colonist Rolfe. With him
she visited England, dying there a few years later. The alliance secured
the valuable friendship of Powhatan and his subjects--only till
Powhatan's death, however. Thenceforth savage hostilities occurred at
frequent intervals. In 1622 they were peculiarly severe, over three
hundred settlers losing their lives through them. Another outbreak took
place about 1650, this time more quickly suppressed. We shall see in a
later chapter how Bacon's Rebellion was occasioned by Indian troubles.

As James I. broke with Parliament, a majority of the Virginia
shareholders proved Liberals, and they wrought with signal purpose and
effect to realize their ideas in their colony. To this political
complexion of the Virginia Company not only Virginia itself, but, in a
way, all America is indebted for a start toward free institutions.
During the governorship of George Yeardley, was summoned an assembly of
burgesses, consisting of two representatives, elected by the
inhabitants, from each of the eleven boroughs or districts which the
colony had by this time come to embrace. It met on June 10, 1619, the
earliest legislative body in the New World. This was the dawn of another
new era in the colony's history.

Pocahantas

[1622-1625]

In 1622 arrived Sir Thomas Wyatt, bringing a written constitution from
the Company, which confirmed to the colony representative government and
trial by jury. The assembly was given authority to make laws, subject
only to the Governor's veto. This enlargement of political rights was
due to the growth of the sentiment of popular liberty in England. In the
meetings of the London Company debates were frequent and spirited
between the court faction and the supporters of the political rights of
the colonists. James I., dissatisfied with the authority which he had
himself granted, appointed a commission to inquire into the Company's
management, and also into the circumstances of the colony. A change was
recommended, the courts decided as the king wished, and the Company was
dissolved, The colony, while still allowed to govern itself by means of
its popular assembly, was thus brought directly under the supervision of
the Crown. Charles I., coming to the throne in 1625, gave heed to the
affairs of the colony only so far as necessary to secure for himself the
profits of the tobacco trade, It was doubtless owing to his indifference
that the colony continued to enjoy civil freedom. He again appointed
Yeardley Governor, a choice agreeable to the people; and in 1628, by
asking that the assembly be called in order to vote him a monopoly of
the coveted trade, he explicitly recognized the legitimacy and authority
of that body.

[1642]

Yeardley was succeeded by Harvey, who rendered himself unpopular by
defending in all land disputes the claims arising under royal grant
against those based upon occupancy. Difficulties of this sort pervaded
all colonial history.

In 1639 Wyatt held the office, succeeded in 1642 by Berkeley, during
whose administration the colony attained its highest prosperity.
Virginians now possessed constitutional rights and privileges in even a
higher degree than Englishmen in the northern colonies. The colonists
were most loyal to the king, and were let alone. They were also attached
to the Church of England, ever manifesting toward those of a different
faith the spirit of intolerance characteristic of the age.

[1650]

During the civil war in England, Virginia, of course, sided with the
king. When Cromwell had assumed the reins of government he sent an
expedition to require the submission of the colony. An agreement was
made by which the authority of Parliament was acknowledged, while the
colony in return was left unmolested in the management of its own
affairs.

Signature of Berkeley.

CHAPTER V.

PILGRIM AND PURITAN AT THE NORTH

[1612]

The Pilgrims who settled New England were Independents, peculiar in
their ecclesiastical tenet that the single congregation of godly
persons, however few or humble, regularly organized for Christ's work,
is of right, by divine appointment, the highest ecclesiastical authority
on earth. A church of this order existed in London by 1568; another,
possibly more than one, the "Brownists," by 1580. Barrowe and Greenwood
began a third in 1588, which, its founders being executed, went exiled
to Amsterdam in 1593, subsequently uniting with the Presbyterians there.
These churches, though independent, were not strictly democratic, like
those next to be named.

Soon after 1600 John Smyth gathered a church at Gainsborough in
Lincolnshire, England, which persecution likewise drove to Amsterdam.
Here Smyth seceded and founded a Baptist church, which, returning to
London in 1611 or 1612, became the first church of its kind known to
have existed in England. From Smyth's church at Gainsborough sprang one
at Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, and this, too, exiled like its parent,
crossed to Holland, finding home in Leyden in 1607 and 1608. Of this
church John Robinson was pastor, and from its bosom came the Plymouth
Colony to New England.

Plymouth Harbor, England.

Harbor of Provincetown, Cape Cod, where the Pilgrims landed.

[1620]

This little band set out for America with a patent from the Virginia
Company, according to James I.'s charter of 1606, but actually began
here as labor-share holders in a sub-corporation of a new organization,
the Plymouth Company, chartered in 1620. Launching in the Mayflower from
Plymouth, where they had paused in their way hither from Holland, they
arrived off the coast of Cape Cod in 1620, December 11th Old Style,
December 21st New Style, and began a settlement, to which they gave the
name Plymouth. Before landing they had formed themselves into a
political body, a government of the people with "just and equal laws."

The Life of the Colony at Cape Cod.

They based their civil authority upon this Mayflower compact,
practically ignoring England. Carver was the first governor, Bradford
the second. The colony was named Plymouth in memory of hospitalities
which its members had received at Plymouth, England, the name having no
connection with the "Plymouth" of the Plymouth Company. The members of
the Plymouth Company had none but a mercantile interest in the
adventure, merely fitting out the colonists and bearing the expense of
the passage for all but the first. On the other hand, the stock was not
all retained in England. Shares were allotted to the Pilgrims as well,
one to each emigrant with or without means, and one for every 10 pounds
invested.

Plymouth early made a treaty with Massasoit, the chief of the
neighboring Wampanoags, the peace lasting with benign effects to both
parties for fifty years, or till the outbreak of Philip's War, discussed
in a later chapter. The first winter in Plymouth was one of dreadful
hardships, of famine, disease and death, which spring relieved but in
part. Yet Plymouth grew, surely if slowly. It acquired rights on the
Kennebec, on the Connecticut, at Cape Ann. It was at first a pure
democracy, its laws all made in mass-meetings of the entire body of
male inhabitants; nor was it till 1639 that increase of numbers forced
resort to the principle of representation. In 1643 the population was
about three thousand.

Signatures to Plymouth Patent.
/In witnes whereof the said President & Counsell haue to the one pt of
this pute Indenture sett their seales* And to th'other pt hereof the
said John Peirce in the name of himself and his said Associate haue sett
to his seale geven the day and yeeres first aboue written/

[1626-1630]

Between 1620 and 1630 there were isolated settlers along the whole New
England coast. White, a minister from Dorchester, England, founded a
colony near Cape Ann, which removed to Salem in 1626. The Plymouth
Company granted them a patent, which Endicott, in charge of more
emigrants, brought over in 1628. It gave title to all land between the
Merrimac and Charles Rivers, also to all within three miles beyond each.
These men formed the nucleus of the colony to which in 1629 Charles I.
granted a royal charter, styling the proprietors "the Governor and
Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." Boston was made the
capital. Soon more emigrants came, and Charlestown was settled.

Site of First Church and Governor Bradford's House at Plymouth.

It was a momentous step when the government of this colony was
transferred to New England. Winthrop was chosen Governor, others of the
Company elected to minor offices, and they, with no fewer than one
thousand new colonists, sailed for this side the Atlantic. In
Massachusetts, therefore, a trading company did not beget, as elsewhere,
but literally became a political state. Many of the Massachusetts men,
in contrast with those of Plymouth, had enjoyed high consideration at
home. Yet democracy prevailed here too. The Governor and his eighteen
assistants were chosen by the freemen, and were both legislature and
court. As population increased and scattered in towns, these chose
deputies to represent them, and a lower house element was added to the
General Court, though assistants and deputies did not sit separately
till 1644.

Governor Winthrop.

[1631]

At this time Massachusetts had a population of about 15,000. To all New
England 21,200 emigrants came between 1628 and 1643, the total white
population at the latter date being about 24,000.

First Church in Salem.

So early as 1631 this colony decreed to admit none as freemen who were
not also church members. Thus Church and State were made one, the
government a theocracy. The Massachusetts settlers, though in many
things less extreme than the Pilgrims, were decided Puritans, sincere
but formal, precise, narrow, and very superstitious. They did not,
however, on coming hither, affect or wish to separate from the Church of
England, earnestly as they deprecated retaining the sign of the cross in
baptism, the surplice, marriage with ring, and kneeling at communion.
Yet soon they in effect became Separatists as well as Puritans, building
independent churches, like those at Plymouth, and repudiating episcopacy
utterly.

Seal of Massachusetts Bay Company.

[1635]

Much as these Puritans professed and tried to exalt reason in certain
matters, in civil and religious affairs, where they took the Old
Testament as affording literal and minute directions for all sorts of
human actions for all time, they could allow little liberty of opinion.
This was apparent when into this theocratic state came Roger Williams,
afterward the founder of Rhode Island. Born in London, England, about
1607, of good family, he was placed by his patron, Coke, at the Charter
House School. From there he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1631
he arrived in Boston. Somewhat finical in his political, moral, and
religious ideas, he found it impossible, having separated from the
Church of England, in which he had been reared, to harmonize here with
those still favoring that communion. At Salem he was invited by a little
company of Separatists to become their teacher. His views soon offended
the authorities. He declared that the king's patent could confer no
title to lands possessed by Indians. He denied the right of magistrates
to punish heresy, or to enforce attendance upon religious services. "The
magistrate's power," he said, "extends only to the bodies, goods, and
outward state of men."

Alarmed at his bold utterances, the General Court of Massachusetts,
September 2, 1635, decreed his banishment for "new and dangerous
opinions, against the authority of magistrates." His fate was not,
therefore, merely because of his religious views. The exile sought
refuge at Seekonk, but this being within the Plymouth jurisdiction, he,
on Governor Winslow's admonition, moved farther into the wilderness,
settling at Providence. He purchased land of the natives, and, joined by
others, set up a pure democracy, instituting as a part thereof the
"lively experiment," for which ages had waited, of perfect liberty in
matters of religious belief. Not for the first time in history, but more
clearly, earnestly, and consistently than it had ever been done before,
he maintained for every man the right of absolute freedom in matters of
conscience, for all forms of faith equal toleration.

Roger Williams' House at Salem.

[1638]

Edward Winslow.

Some friends of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson established a colony on Aquidneck,
the Indian name for Rhode Island. Williams went to England and secured
from Parliament a patent which united that plantation with his in one
government. Charles II.'s charter of 1663 added Warwick to the first two
settlements, renewing and enlarging the patent, and giving freest scope
for government according to Williams' ideas. Mrs. Hutchinson, a woman of
rare intellect and eloquence, who maintained the right of private
judgment and pretended to an infallible inner light of revelation, was,
like Williams, a victim of Puritan intolerance. She and her followers
were banished, and some of them, returning, put to death, 1659-60. She
came to Providence, then went to Aquidneck, where her husband died in
1642. She next settled near Hurl Gate, within the Dutch limits, where
herself and almost her entire family were butchered by the Indians in
1643.

In 1633 the Dutch erected a fort where Hartford now is, but some English
emigrants from Plymouth Colony, in defiance of a threatened cannonade,
sailed past and built a trading-house at Windsor, where, joined by
colonists, from about Boston, they soon effected a settlement.
Wethersfield and Hartford were presently founded. In 1630 the Plymouth
Company had granted Connecticut to the Earl of Warwick, who turned it
over to Lord Brooke, Lord Say-and-Seal, and others. Winthrop the
Younger, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, commissioned by
these last, built a fort at Saybrook. Till the expiration of his
commission the towns immediately upon the Connecticut were under the
government of Massachusetts. Their population in 1643 was three
thousand. A convention of these towns met at Hartford, January 14, 1639,
and formed a constitution, like that of Massachusetts Bay, thoroughly
republican in nature. Connecticut breathed a freer spirit than either
Massachusetts or New Haven, being in this respect the peer of Plymouth.
At Hartford Roger Williams was always welcome.

Meantime, in 1638, having touched at Boston the year before, Davenport,
Eaton, and others from London began planting at New Haven. The Bible was
adopted as their guide in both civil and religious affairs, and a
government organized in which only church members could vote or be
elected to the General Court. The colony flourished, branching out into
several towns. In 1643 it numbered twenty five hundred inhabitants.

As early as 1622, Mason and Gorges were granted land partly in what is
now Maine, partly in what is now New Hampshire; and in 1623 Dover and
Portsmouth were settled. Wheelwright, a brother-in-law of Mrs.
Hutchinson, with others, purchased of the natives the southeast part of
New Hampshire, between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and in 1638
Exeter was founded. In the same year with Wheelwright's purchase, Mason
obtained from the council of the Plymouth Company a patent to this same
section, and the tract was called New Hampshire. These conflicting
claims paved the way for future controversies and lawsuits. The settlers
here were not Puritans, nor were they obliged to be church members in
order to be deputies or freemen.

The settlement of Maine goes back to 1626, when the Plymouth Company
granted lands there both to Alexander and to Gorges. In 1639 Gorges
secured a royal charter to re-enforce his claim. Large freedom, civil
and religious, was allowed. For many years the Maine settlements were
small and scattered, made up mostly of such as came to hunt and fish for
a season only.

[1650]

From 1643 to 1684 Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven
formed a confederation under the style of the United Colonies of New
England. Maine, Providence, and Rhode Island sought membership, but were
refused as being civilly and religiously out of harmony with the
colonies named. Connecticut, offensive to the Dutch, and exposed to
hostilities from them, was the most earnest for the union, while at the
same time the most conservative as to its form. It was a loose league,
leaving each colony independent save as to war and peace, Indian
affairs, alliances and boundaries. Questions pertaining to these were to
be settled by a commission of two delegates from each of the four
colonies, meeting yearly, voting man by man, six out of the eight votes
being necessary to bind.

The confederacy settled a boundary dispute between New Haven and New
Netherland in 1650. It received and disbursed moneys, amounting some
years to 600 pounds, for the propagation of the gospel in New England,
sent over by the society which Parliament incorporated for that purpose
in 1649. It was also of more or less service in securing united action
against the savages in Philip's War. The union was, however, of little
immediate service, useful rather as an example for the far future. Its
failure was due partly to the distance of the colonies apart, and to the
strength of the instinct for local self-government, a distinguishing
political trait of New England till our day. Its main weakness, however,
was the overbearing power and manner of Massachusetts, especially after
her assumption of Maine in 1652. In 1653 the Plymouth, New Haven, and
Connecticut commissioners earnestly wished war with New Netherland, but
Massachusetts proudly forbade--a plain violation of the articles. After
this there was not much heart in the alliance. The last meeting of the
commissioners occurred at Hartford, September 5, 1684.

CHAPTER VI.

BALTIMORE AND HIS MARYLAND

[1630]

Maryland Shilling.

The very year that witnessed the landing of the Pilgrims records the
beginning of another attempt to colonize the New World. While Secretary
of State, having been appointed in 1619, Sir George Calvert, a member of
the Virginia Company from 1609 until its dissolution in 1624, determined
to plant a colony for himself. In the memorable year 1620 he bought of
Lord Vaughan the patent to the south-eastern peninsula of Newfoundland,
the next he sent colonists thither with a generous supply of money for
their support. In 1623 King James gave him a patent, making him
proprietary of this region. In 1625 Calvert boldly declared himself a
Catholic, and resigned his office of Secretary. Spite of this he was
soon afterwards ennobled, and his new title of Lord Baltimore is the
name by which he is best known. Visiting his little settlement in 1627
he quickly came to the conclusion that the severity of the climate would
make its failure certain. He therefore gave up this enterprise, but
determined to repeat the attempt on the more favorable soil of Virginia.
Confident of the goodwill of Charles I., to whom he had written for a
grant of land there, he did not await a reply, but sailed for Virginia,
where he arrived in 1629. In 1632 the king issued a patent granting to
Baltimore and his heirs a territory north and east of the Potomac,
comprising what we now call Maryland, all Delaware, and a part of
Pennsylvania. The name Maryland was given it by the king in, honor of
his queen, Henrietta Maria. But before this charter had received royal
signature Lord Baltimore had breathed his last, and his son Cecil
succeeded to his honors and possessions.

Henrietta Maria.

The Maryland charter made the proprietary the absolute lord of the soil.
He was merely to acknowledge fealty by the delivery of two Indian arrows
yearly to the king at Windsor. He could make laws with the consent of
the citizens, declare war or peace, appoint officers of government; in
fact, in most respects he had regal power. The colonists were, however,
to remain English subjects, with all the privileges of such. If they
were not represented in Parliament, neither were they taxed by the
Crown. If the proprietary made laws for them, these must not be contrary
to the laws of England. And they were to enjoy freedom of trade, not
only with England but with foreign countries.

[1634-1635]

This charter, as will be readily seen, could not please the Virginians,
since the entire territory conveyed by it was part of the grant of 1609
to the London Company for Virginia. But as this and subsequent charters
had been annulled in 1624, the new colony was held by the Privy Council
to have the law on its side, and Lord Baltimore was left to make his
preparations undisturbed. He fitted out two vessels, the Ark and the
Dove, and sent them on their voyage of colonization. They went by the
way of the West Indies, arriving off Point Comfort in 1634. Sailing up
the Potomac, they landed on the island of St. Clement's, and took formal
possession of their new home. Calvert explored a river, now called the
St. Mary's, a tributary of the Potomac, and being pleased with the spot
began a settlement. He gained the friendship of the natives by
purchasing the land and by treating them justly and humanely.

Supposed Portrait of William Clayborne.

Clayborne's Trading Post on Kent Island.

The proprietary was a Catholic, yet, whether or not by an agreement
between him and the king, as Gardiner supposes, did not use either his
influence or his authority to distress adherents of the Church of
England. The two creeds stood practically upon an equality. But if
religious troubles were avoided, difficulties of another sort were not
slow in arising. About the year 1631, Clayborne, who had been secretary
of the Virginia colony, had chosen Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay as a
station for trading with the Indians. This post was in the very midst of
Maryland, and Calvert notified Clayborne that he should consider it a
part of that province. Clayborne at once showed himself a bitter enemy.
The Indians became suspicious and unfriendly, Clayborne, so it was
believed, being the instigator of this temper. An armed vessel was sent
out, with orders from Clayborne to seize ships of the St. Mary's
settlement. A fight took place, Clayborne fleeing to Virginia. Calvert
demanded that he should be given up. This was refused, and in 1637 he
went to England. A committee of the Privy Council decided that Kent
Island belonged to Maryland.

[1638]

In 1635 the first Maryland assembly met, consisting of the freemen of
the colony and the governor, Leonard Calvert, the proprietary's brother,
who was presiding officer. Lord Baltimore repudiated its acts, on the
ground that they were not proposed by him, as the charter directed. The
assembly which gathered in 1638 retaliated, rejecting the laws brought
forward by the proprietary.

[1639]

For a time the colony was without laws except the common law of England.
But Baltimore was too wise and conciliatory to allow such a state of
affairs to continue. He gave authority to the governor to assent to the
acts of the assembly, which he himself might or might not confirm.

Fight between Clayborne and the St. Mary's Ship.

Accordingly in 1639 the assembly met and passed various acts, mostly
relating to civil affairs. One, however, was specially noteworthy, as
giving to the "Holy Church" "her rights and liberties," meaning by this
the Church of Rome, for, as Gardiner says, the title was never applied
to the Church of England. It was at the same time expressly enacted that
all the Christian inhabitants should be in the enjoyment of every right
and privilege as free as the natural-born subjects of England. If Roger
Williams was the first to proclaim absolute religious liberty, Lord
Baltimore was hardly behind him in putting this into practice. As has
been neatly said, "The Ark and the Dove were names of happy omen: the
one saved from the general wreck the germs of political liberty, and the
other bore the olive-branch of religious peace."

[1646]

During the civil war in England the affairs of Maryland were in a very
disturbed condition. Clayborne, Maryland's evil genius, seized the
opportunity to foment an insurrection, possessed himself once more of
Kent Island, and compelled the governor to flee to Virginia. Returning
in 1646, Calvert was fortunate enough to recover the reins of
government, but the following year witnessed the close of his
administration and his short though useful and eventful life. Few men
intrusted with almost absolute authority have exercised it with so much
firmness and at the same time with so much ability, discretion, and
uprightness.

[1650]

His successor, Greene, a Catholic, was not likely to find favor with the
Puritan Parliament of England, and Baltimore, in 1648, to conciliate the
ruling powers and to refute the charge that Maryland was only a retreat
for Romanists, removed the governor and appointed instead one who was a
Protestant and a firm supporter of Parliament. The council was also
changed so as to place the Catholics in the minority. The oath of the
new governor restrained him from molesting any person, especially if of
the Roman Catholic persuasion, on account of religious profession. The
way was thus opened for the Act of Toleration passed in 1649. This law,
after specifying certain speeches against the Trinity, the Virgin, or
the saints as punishable offences, declared that equal privileges should
be enjoyed by Christians of all creeds. Whatever the motives of
Baltimore, his policy was certainly wise and commendable.

A new and troublesome element was now introduced into the colony. Some
Puritans who had not been tolerated among the stanch Church-of-England
inhabitants of Virginia were invited by Governor Stone to Maryland.
Their home here, which they named Providence, is now known as Annapolis.
The new-comers objected to the oath of fidelity, refused to send
burgesses to the assembly, and were ready to overthrow the government
whose protection they were enjoying. Opportunity soon offered.
Parliament had already in 1652 brought Virginia to submission. Maryland
was now accused of disloyalty, and when we notice among the
commissioners appointed by the Council of State, the name of Clayborne,
it is not difficult to understand who was the author of this charge. The
governor was removed, but being popular and not averse to compromise,
was quickly restored. Then came the accession of Cromwell to power as
Protector of England. Parliament was dissolved. The authority of its
commissioners of course ceased. Baltimore seized this opportunity to
regain his position as proprietary. He bade Stone to require the oath of
fidelity to the proprietary from those who occupied lands, and to issue
all writs in his name. He maintained that the province now stood in the
same relations to the Protectorate which it had borne to the royalist
government of Charles I.

Oliver Cromwell.

So thought Cromwell, but not so Clayborne or the Maryland Puritans. They
deposed Stone, and put in power Fuller, who was in sympathy with their
designs. There resulted a reversal of the acts of former assemblies, and
legislation hostile to the Catholics. The new assembly, from which
Catholics were carefully excluded by disfranchisement, at once repealed
the Act of Toleration. Protection was withdrawn from those who professed
the popish religion, and they were forbidden the exercise of that faith
in the province. Severe penalties were threatened against "prelacy" and
"licentiousness" thus restricting the benefits of their "Act concerning
Religion" to the Puritan element now in power. The authority of the
proprietary himself was disputed, and colonists were invited to take
lands without his knowledge or consent.

[1656]

Baltimore adopted vigorous measures. By his orders Stone made a forcible
attempt to regain control of the province, but was defeated at
Providence and taken prisoner. His life was spared, but four of his men
were condemned and executed. Baltimore again invoked the powerful
intervention of Cromwell, and again were the enemies of Maryland sternly
rebuked for their interference in the affairs of that province, and told
in plain language to leave matters as they had found them. In 1656,
after an inquiry by the Commissioners of Trade, the claims of Baltimore
were admitted to be just, and he promptly sent his brother Philip to be
a member of the council and secretary of the province. The legislation
of the usurping Puritans was set aside, religious toleration once more
had full sway, and a general pardon was proclaimed to those who had
taken part in the late disturbances.

In the meantime, Fendall, who had been appointed governor by Baltimore,
plotted to make himself independent of his master, and, with the
connivance of the assembly, proceeded to usurp the authority which was
lawfully vested in the proprietary. But the attempt was a miserable
failure. Philip Calvert was immediately made governor by the now
all-powerful proprietary, who had the favor and support of Charles II.,
just coming to the throne. Peace and prosperity came back to the colony
so sorely and frequently vexed by civil dissensions. The laws were just
and liberal, encouraging the advent of settlers of whatever creed, while
the rule of the Calverts was wise and benign, such as to merit the
respect and admiration of posterity. In 1643 Virginia and Maryland
together had less than twenty thousand inhabitants. In 1660 Maryland
alone, according to Fuller, had eight thousand. Chalmers thinks there
were no fewer than twelve thousand at this date.

CHAPTER VII.

NEW NETHERLAND

[1609]

While the French explorer, Champlain, was sailing along the shores of
the lake which bears his name, another equally adventurous spirit, Henry
Hudson, was on his way to the western world. Hoping to open a passage to
India by a voyage to the north, Hudson, an English navigator, offered in
1609 to sail under the authority of the Dutch East India Company. Driven
back by ice and fog from a northeast course, he turned northwest.
Searching up and down near the parallel of 40 degrees, he entered the
mouth of the great river which perpetuates his name. He found the
country inviting to the eye, and occupied by natives friendly in
disposition. The subsequent career of this bold mariner has a mournful
interest. He never returned to Holland, but, touching at Dartmouth, was
restrained by the English authorities, and forbidden longer to employ
his skill and experience for the benefit of the Dutch. Again entering
the English service and sent once more to discover the northwest
passage, he sailed into the waters of the bay which still bears his
name, where cold and hunger transformed the silent discontent of his
crew into open mutiny, and they left the fearless navigator to perish
amid the icebergs of the frozen north.

Seal of New Amsterdam.

[1614-1618]

Hudson had sent to Holland a report of the Great River and the country
bordering it, rich in fur-bearing animals, and it had excited eager
interest. Private individuals sent expeditions thither and carried on a
profitable trade with the natives. A few Dutch were here when, in 1613,
Captain Argall sailed from Virginia against the French at Port Royal,
Acadia, now Annapolis in Nova Scotia, who were encroaching upon the
English possessions on the coast of Maine. He compelled them to
surrender. On his return, he visited the Dutch traders of Manhattan
Island, and forced them also, as it had been discovered by Cabot in
1497, to acknowledge the sovereignty of England over this entire region.

Seal of New Netherland.

It was in 1614 that the Dutch States-General, in the charter given to a
company of merchants, named the Hudson Valley New Netherland. To
facilitate trade this company made a treaty with the Five Nations and
subordinate tribes, memorable as the first compact formed between the
whites and the savages. In it the Indians were regarded as possessing
equal rights and privileges with their white brethren. The treaty was
renewed in 1645, and continued in force till the English occupation,
1664. In 1618, the charter of the New Netherland Company having expired,
the Dutch West India Company was offered a limited incorporation, but it
was not until 1621 that it received its charter, and it was two years
later that it was completely organized and approved by the
States-General. By this company were sent out Mey, as Director, to the
Delaware or South River, and Tienpont to the Hudson or North River. Four
miles below Philadelphia Fort Nassau was erected, and where Albany now
stands was begun the trading-post called Fort Orange.

[1626]

In 1626 Tienpont's successor, Peter Minuit, a German, born at Wesel, was
appointed Director-General of New Netherland. He bought of the Indians,
for the sum of twenty-four dollars, the entire island of Manhattan, and
a fort called New Amsterdam was built. The State of New York dates its
beginning from this transaction.

Earliest Picture of New Amsterdam.

By their usually honest dealing with the natives the Dutch settlers
gained the friendship of the Five Nations, whose good-will was partly on
this account transferred to the English colonists later. The Dutch were
not only friendly to the red men, but tried to open social and
commercial relations with the Plymouth colonists as well. Governor
Bradford replied, mildly urging the Dutch to "clear their title" to a
territory which the English claimed by right of discovery.

[1630-1633]

De Vries.

The present State of Delaware soon became the scene of attempts at
settlement. De Vries began, in 1632, a colony on the banks of the
Delaware, but it was quickly laid waste by the savages, who had been
needlessly provoked by the insolence of the commander left in charge of
the colony. In 1633 Minuit was succeeded by Van Twiller, and a fort was
erected at Hartford, though the English claimed this country as theirs.
Emigrants from the Plymouth colony began the settlement of Windsor, in
spite of the protests of the Dutch. Long Island was invaded by
enterprising New Englanders, regardless of the claim of New Netherland
thereto.

Costumes of Swedes.

This "irrepressible conflict" between two races was by no means abated
by the introduction of a third. As early as 1626, Gustavus Adolphus,
King of Sweden and the hero of the Thirty Years' War, had entertained
the idea of establishing colonies in America, and in pursuance of that
object had encouraged the formation of a company, not only for trading
purposes but also to secure a refuge for the "oppressed of all
Christendom." To Usselinx, an Antwerp merchant, the originator of the
Dutch West India Company, belongs the honor of first suggesting to the
king this enterprise. The glorious death of Gustavus on the victorious
field of Lutzen in 1632 deferred the execution of a purpose which had
not been forgotten even in the midst of that long and arduous campaign.
But a few days before he fell, the Protestant hero had spoken of the
colonial prospect as "the jewel of his kingdom."

[1638]

In 1638 Minuit, who had already figured as governor of New Netherland,
having offered his services to Sweden, was intrusted with the leadership
of the first Swedish colony to America. After a few days' stay at
Jamestown the new-comers finally reached their wished-for destination on
the west shore of the Delaware Bay and River. Proceeding up the latter,
one of their first acts was to build a fort on a little stream about two
miles from its junction with the Delaware, which they named Fort
Christina, in honor of the young queen of Sweden. Near this spot stands
the present city of Wilmington. The country from Cape Henlopen to the
falls at Trenton received the title of New Sweden.

[1650]

It was in this very year that Kieft came to supersede Van Twiller, who
had given just cause for complaint by his eagerness to enrich himself at
the expense of the West India Company. During the administration of
Kieft occurred the long and doubtful conflict with the natives detailed
in the succeeding chapter. Arbitrary and exacting, he drove the Indians
to extremities, and involved the Dutch settlements in a war which for a
time threatened their destruction. Not till 1645 was peace
re-established, and in 1647 the unpopular governor was recalled. In 1647
not more than three hundred fighting men remained in the whole province.
Its total population was between fifteen hundred and two thousand. In
1652 New Amsterdam had a population of seven or eight hundred. In 1664
Stuyvesant put the number in the province at ten thousand, about fifteen
hundred of whom were in New Amsterdam.