Manhattan contained less than three hundred souls. So the Company offered to any of its members who would be at the expense of planting a colony of fifty adults in any part of New Netherland except New Amsterdam, a tract fronting sixteen miles on any navigable river and as wide as the occupants might need. The proprietor, who was required to pay the Indians for the land selected and to support a school

DUTCH COSTUMES AND ARCHITECTURE, 1600-1625.

master and minister, was invested with the control of the territory as its "Patroon'" or lord. Under this arrange ment, several wealthy Dutch merchants became patroons.

Individual settlers, while they were denied all voice in the government, were exempted from taxation for ten years, and furnished with as many "blacks" to till the soil as the Company could supply. Slavery was thus early introduced.

New France. We have spoken of New France. This

1605]

NEW FRANCE.

55

was the name given to the northern territory settled at a few points by the French, in following up after many years the discoveries of Cartier (p. 36). Port Royal, on the Bay of Fundy, was founded in 1605, the adjacent parts of what are now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick being called Acadia (see Map, p. 56).

Quebec was commenced on the St. Lawrence in 1608, by Champlain (sham-plane'), who labored hard to bring about the colonization of the country, and has been called "the Father of New France." Hearing of a beautiful lake in the south, Champlain, in company with a party of Canada Indians on the war-path against the Iroquois, penetrated to its banks and gave it his name.

REVIEW BY DATES.

Let the student prepare a CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD of the principal events in the New World up to the year 1600, according to the following

MODEL.

1492. The New World discovered by Columbus (San Salvador, Cuba, Hayti).

1497. Mainland of North America discovered by the Cabots. 1498. Mainland of South America discovered by Columbus. 1507. The New World first called AMERICA.

1512. Florida discovered by the Spaniard Ponce de Leon.

Continue the above by recording the following years, with the event that distinguishes each (the word in parentheses will suggest it):

1565 (St. Augustine). 1576 (Frobisher).

1580 (Drake).

1585 (Raleigh).

If this Record is drawn up in ink, preserved, and added to hereafter at intervals, as required, the student will have, at the end, a valuable Chronological Table of the most important events of American History, prepared by himself.

As a review, the Chronological Record may be placed on the blackboard, and the different events assigned in turn to different pupils,—each to tell what he knows about his topic without being questioned.

CHAPTER VII.

FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN NEW ENGLAND.

The Council of Plymouth.-The Plymouth Company, having failed to plant any permanent colony in North Virginia under the charter received from James I., was at length dissolved. It was succeeded by the Council of Plymouth, consisting of forty persons of wealth and rank, to whom in 1620 the same king granted the territory extending from the 40th to the 48th parallel of latitude, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

EASTERN PART OF THE GRANT TO THE COUNCIL OF PLYMOUTH.

This immense tract embraced more than a million square miles, and on the east reached from near the southern boundary of the present state of Pennsylvania to the northern extremity of the province of New Brunswick. It included,

1620]

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

57

as will be seen on the map, a portion of New France already settled by the French, as well as the flourishing Dutch colony of New Netherland. But what cared King James for that? Had not England the prior right to lands which her Cabots had discovered and taken possession of for the crown more than a century before?

The Pilgrim Fathers.-Six days after this liberal grant was made, without any knowledge of the Council or any warrant from the king, a little vessel bearing 101 emigrants, who were destined to make the first permanent settlement in New England, appeared off the coast of Cape Cod. The vessel was the Mayflower. The emigrants were "the Pilgrim Fathers,"—stout-hearted, energetic Englishmen, who sought in these western wilds freedom to worship God according to their own consciences.

For seventy years in England there had been growing up a sect that had separated from the established church,— called in derision Puritans, because they professed to follow the pure word of God. The Puritans were stiff and formal, discountenanced amusements and frivolous fashions of dress, -but were good citizens, hard-working, temperate, and moral. In these times it was common in England, as well as in other countries, for the rulers to persecute those who differed from them in religious belief, and the Puritans had suffered accordingly. A few had escaped to the Netherlands, where for twelve years they had enjoyed liberty of worship. But still looking upon themselves as "pilgrims in a strange land," and yearning for English institutions and English laws, some of these refugees, with others of their creed in England, had found the means of embarking with their wives and children for the New World.

Plymouth Colony.-The Pilgrims had meant to strike the coast near the mouth of the Hudson, but were carried farther north. After a long voyage not without its dangers and hardships, they finally anchored in a safe harbor, which

they called PLYMOUTH after the last town they had seen in Old England. December 21, 1620, must be remembered as the date of their landing. "Forefathers' Rock," on which they first stepped, now covered with a handsome canopy of granite, still preserves the memory of this event in the present town of Plymouth.

Before disembarking, the Pilgrims solemnly bound themselves to obey such laws as should be enacted, and chose a governor. Their first care was to erect shelters as soon as possible. But dreary and sad was the winter. Cold and exposure brought on fatal sickness; at one time, but seven could stand on their feet. Before summer death had carried off half the party, including Carver, the first governor.

It was well that the natives did not molest the settlers in these trying days. There seemed to be none in the immediate neighborhood, though graves, and buried corn, and standing corn-stalks were found, showing that the place had not long been uninhabited. There was a story that some years before the Indians had boasted to a Frenchman, who threatened them with the anger of God for their cruelty, that they were so numerous God could not destroy them if he would; and that shortly afterward a pestilence broke out, and almost exterminated the coast tribes.

Early History.-In the spring several Indians visited the little settlement, and a treaty was made with the Wampano'ags, the nearest tribe on the south-west, which remained in force for more than half a century. Visits were interchanged with their chief Mas-sa-soit', and a traffic with the natives was established. The formidable Narragansetts, indeed (see Map, p. 62), numbering five thousand braves, sent in a declaration of war (1622), which led the settlers to erect stout palisades around their seven dwellings and two public buildings; but the spirited answer returned frightened the natives and happily averted hostilities.

Wild-turkeys, deer, and other game, helped to keep