Mansel, St. Croix, and Port Royal, with their Ships, warlike stores, cattle, provisions, &c. and carried them to James Town in Virginia.

In the year 1614, Captain John Smith sailed to North Virginia, with two ships and forty-five men. In April he arrived at the Island of Monahigan, in N. lat. 43 deg. 30 min. and attempted whale-fishing, which proving abortive, he despatched most of his men in seven boats, who where very fortunate in taking a large quantity of fish of different kinds. During the absence of the boats, the captain himself, with only eight men, coasted in a small vessel from Penobscot to Cape Cod, and from thence returned to Monahigan. In this voyage he found two French ships in Massachusetts Bay, who for six weeks had carried on a very advantageous trade with the natives. In July Captain Smith sailed for England in one of his vessels, leaving the other under Captain Hunt, with orders to prepare for a trading voyage to Spain. Instead of obeying these instructions, Hunt treacherously inveigled twenty-seven Indians, (one of whom was Squanto, afterwards so friendly to the English) on board his vessel, and carried them to Malaga, where he sold them to be slaves for life, at the rate of twenty pounds per head.

Between the years 1614 and 1620, great exertions were made by the Plymouth Company to colonize New England; but every attempt proved ineffectual, though at the same time a lucrative trade was carried on with the native Indians. In the latter year, a part of Mr. Robinson's congregation, who, with their pastor, had long resolved on removing to America, sailed from Holland for that country, and established a colony at Plymouth in Massachusetts. At this time commenced the settlement of New England.-A further account of the early emigrations to that country, and the progress of the adventurers, will be given in the history of New England.

C

In the year 1627, a colony of Swedes landed in America, and purchased from the natives all the land from Cape Henlopen, at the mouth of Delaware Bay, to the falls on the Delaware on both sides of that river, a distance of more than 70 miles. On this river, which they named New Swedeland Stream, they formed settlements, and built several forts.

In March, 1628, Sir Henry Roswell, and others, purchased from the New England council a considerable tract of land, lying round Massachusetts Bay.

Four months after, Captain Endicot, his wife, and several other persons, arrived in the country, and settled at Naumkeag; now the flourishing town of Salem, fifteen miles from Boston. This was the first English settlement made in Massachusetts.

In the year 1633, Lord Baltimore, a Roman catholic nobleman, obtained from King Charles I. a grant of land on the Bay of Chesapeak, one hundred and forty miles in length, and one hundred and thirty in breadth. In a short time after this, the severity of the English laws against Roman Catholics, compelled a number of them with Lord Baltimore at their head, to take refuge in his lordship's new possession; which, in honour of Charles's Queen, Henrietta Maria, they called Maryland.

In 1630, the council of the Plymouth Company, made the first grant of Connecticut to Robert Earl of Warwick; who, the year following, transferred his grant to Lord Brook, Lord Say and Sele, and several others. These patentees afterwards made several grants to different persons, in consequence of which Mr. Fenwick, in 1634, formed a settlement at the mouth of Connecticut River, thirty-seven miles from the present city of Hartford. Here he built a fort, and called the place Saybrook, which name it still retains. In October of the following year, a considerable number of persons came from Massachusetts Bay, and established themselves at Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, on the same river. Thus commenced the English settlement of Connecticut.

Rhode Island was first settled from the province of Massachusetts; and this settlement arose from religious persecution. Mr. Roger Williams, a clergyman, who had fixed at Salem in 1630, differing in opinion with some of his brethren, was charged with holding dangerous sentiments, and unjustly banished from the colony. In 1635, Mr. Williams, accompanied by twenty other persons, fixed at the Indian town of Mooshausick, near the head of Narraganset-bay, and called the place Providence, the name which it still bears. From this small beginning has arisen the present interesting state of Rhode Island.

New Jersey was in part settled by Dutch emigrants from New York, as early as the year 1615. Twelve years afterwards, a number of Swedes and Finns settled on both sides the River Delaware, and with the Dutch kept possession of the country for many years. In 1664, James Duke of York, brother to King Charles II. obtained a grant of what is now called New Jersey, which then formed a part of the extensive territory named New Netherlands.

In the year 1662, the Earl of Clarendon and seven other persons, obtained from Charles II. nearly the whole of the present states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 1664, the king granted them a new charter, enlarging their boundaries, and investing them with power to form a code of laws for their new possession. In 1667, an endeavour to establish a settlement in this country proved wholly unsuccessful; and no further attempt was made until two years afterwards, when William Sayle was appointed first governor, and established a colony on a neck of land between Ashley and Cooper Rivers, the very spot where Charleston now stands. Thus commenced the settlement of Carolina.

In 1681, William Penn, son of the celebrated Admiral Penn, obtained a grant of Pennsylvania from Charles II. The year following, he embarked with a colony from England, which he fixed at Chester, fifteen miles from Philadelphia, where the first assembly in the province of

с 2

Pennsylvania was held on the 4th of December, 1682. Mr. Penn officiated as governor for nearly two years, and was succeeded by Thomas Lloyd, as president. Thus William Penn, a Quaker by profession, had the distinguished honour of laying the foundation of the present populous and very flourishing state of Pennsylvania.

The government of Carolina, as vested in the original proprietors, continued for fifty years from its establishment in 1669. During this period, the colonists were continually involved in disputes and dissensions of so serious a nature, that in 1719 the British Parliament took the province under its own direction; and in 1728, the proprietors, with the exception of Lord Granville, received £22,500 for the property and legal authority of the country. His Lordship's share, which formed a part of the present state of North Carolina, amounted to one eighth of the whole territory originally granted, and remained vested in his family until the revolution in 1776 separated the British Colonies from the mother country. In 1729, the extensive region conveyed by the royal charter to Lord Clarendon and his partners, was divided into North and South Carolina; which remained separate governments under the crown until they became independent states.

In 1732, a number of humane and public spirited individuals in Great Britain, formed a plan for establishing a colony between the Rivers Savannah and Altamaha, with a view to the relief of many poor people of Britain and Ireland, and for better securing the possession of Carolina. Having procured a patent from George II. who was friendly to the plan, in honour of the King, they named the province Georgia. In November of that year, General Oglethorpe, with 114 persons, sailed for Georgia, and landed at a place called Yamacraw. In traversing the country, they found an agreeable spot of ground, upon an elevated situation, near the banks of a navigable river. Here they laid the foundation of a town, which, from the Indian name of the river, they called

Savannah. From this period may be dated the settlement of Georgia.

That portion of country called Vermont, before the revolutionary war, was claimed by the adjoining states of New Hampshire and New York. But the Green Mountain Boys, as the martial inhabitants were then called, wishing it to become an independent state, took a most active part in the war; and from the year 1777 may be considered as possessing a separate jurisdiction and distinct government. But it was not until 1791 that their claim of independence was allowed by congress, when they were admitted, a fourteenth state, into the Union.

That extensive region lying north-west of the river Ohio, within the limits of the United States, and containing 411,000 square miles, equal to 220,000,000 of acres, was, by an act of congress passed in 1797, erected into one district, for the purpose of temporary government; but subject to division when circumstances should render it necessary. It has since been divided into states and territories: a description of each will be found under their respective heads.

Having thus given a compendious narrative of the first discoveries and progressive settlement of North America in chronological order, the following recapitulation is added, whereby the reader may comprehend the whole at one view :—