Kings. England, JAMES I. Spain, PHILIP

1602.

III.

March 26. Captain BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD sails from Falmouth to the north part of Virginia, with thirty-two persons; twelve of whom are to begin a Plantation. May 10, discovers land in 43° N. Lat. ; sails along the shore, to May 15, when he sees a headland in 42°; and catching great store of codfish, names it Cape Cod; and goes ashore. May 16, sails round the Cape; discovers an island in 41° 15'; May 22, lands, and calls it Martha's Vineyard; May 24, comes to another, next it, which he names Dover Cliff; and then to another, which he calls Elizabeth Island. May 31, lands on the main, and returns to Elizabeth Island. June 1, determines on a settlement here, and begins a fort. June 13, the men who were to stay, recant; and resolve for England. June 17. They all set sail; and Friday, July 23, arrive at Exmouth.a

1603.

March 24. Queen ELIZABETH dies, at. 70.b,c And

JAMES VI. of Scotland, proclaimed King of England,c and

begins the British Monarchy.

The end of the Introduction.

NEW ENGLAND

CHRONOLOGY.

PART I.

FROM

The beginning of the British Monarchy, in the accession of King JAMES, the first Monarch of Great Britain, March 24, 1602-3.

ΤΟ

The beginning of the New English Colonies in the Settlement of the First at Plymouth, December 31, 1620.

Being a brief Account of matters relating to those newly discovered Countries, while settled only by the aboriginal natives: reciting the several Voyages from England thither; with the most material Affairs, especially of Great Britain, that led the way to their settlement by English inhabitants.

A

HAT an insight is afforded us in these Annals, of the way in which our all wise GOD designs the affairs of this world to go on and how the Christian Communism of the Pilgrim Fathers, imitated from the infant Christian Church at Jerusalem, could never be permanent. As long as they were individually poor, especially in face of the horrible tyranny from which they fled; this Communism sufficed, though the individual output was necessarily stinted and scanty: but once freedom and property came to each, the inexorable laws of Political Economy working upon that reasonable Self-Interest which the blessed Creator has implanted in us as the pivot of human action, came into irresistible effect; and the explosive power of money in the dissolution of Communities founded upon false bases, became at once apparent.

Among the interesting things of PRINCE's Second Volume, there is, perhaps, nothing more instructive than the account at p. 635, of the way in which the power of wealth burst asunder, in 1632, that close spiritual Community and Organisation of the Pilgrim Church, which had lasted unshaken during thirty years of poverty and surpassing troubles.

Other instances of the natural advantage in appealing to individual selfinterest, will be found at pp. 452, 477, 478, 648.

What a true manhood is there, in this Story! and how it is, cheek by jowl, with the most consummate rascality! What a demonstration is it of the power of a Divine faith! How it verifies Lord BACON's contemporary statement, in his Essay on Atheism; Man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith [confidence]; which Human Nature, in itself, could not obtain.

It is manifest, that the enormous difficulties of the Pilgrim Fathers never could have been surmounted, but for their enjoyment of such an Assurance; their strong ecclesiastical" Discipline"; their united, untiring Effort; their wonderful physical endurance; their justice and moderation: while their Divine piety, benevolence, unselfishness, and forgivingness makes us to love them with an entire heart.

Now we must leave the Reader with the Annals themselves; to watch the conflicts with the Indians; the forming by Covenant into a "Church state;" the fishing; the trafficing for beaver, &c.; the solemn Imposition of Hands; the slow starvation, for months together, of an entire community (to each Colony, in succession, pp. 453, 646); the daring voyages of Captain STANDISH and others in open boats in terrible weather to get corn for the famishing people; the solemn Days of Thanksgiving and Fasting; the making of Wampumpeag, p. 481; the captures by the Turks, and the fights with the Dunkirkers; the wonderful destruction of the rogues of the story, and the gradual prosperity of those who do well; &c., &c. And yet, through it all, the quiet rest and peace in the full enjoyment of that Form of Worship, which they thought to be the truest and most appropriate : with the knowledge that, over the sea, BUCKINGHAM, LAUD, ŠTRATFORD, and the Bishops were active instruments, in the King's hands, to the goading of the mother country to the verge of frenzy; and were rapidly hurrying three kingdoms into a great Civil War. É. A. 1879.

AVING passed through the Seven great Periods of time, from the Creation to the beginning of the British Empire: with the discovery of that Indian shore which is soon to be the theatre of our Chronology: a new face of things appears, both to the Western parts of Europe, and the Eastern of America. For though one hundred and ten years have elapsed since the New World became known to the Old; yet neither the French, Dutch, nor English, nor any but the Spaniards, have made any effectual settlement in these new found regions: and as the gold and silver mines had drawn the Spaniards to the southern and western quarters; I cannot find, at this point of time, so much as one European family in all the vast extent of coast from Florida to Greenland.

The reason of which I take to be,

That the next year after COLUMBUS's discovery, the Pope

was pleased to give the Crown of Spain the sole title to all the lands lying above one hundred leagues west of the meridian of the Azores. The Bull was signed at Rome, May 4th, 1493a and such was then the ignorance that reigned in Europe, as scarcely any thought, but that he had a right to give them.

Within thirty years indeed, the Reformation coming on, began to open the eyes of many: yet both England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and the Netherlands were so fully engaged, for nearly four score years, with their own internal broils about religion; as well as mutual wars on this and other accounts: that they had neither power nor leisure to attend to foreign settlements.

But in 1598, France was quieted with the Edict of Nantes, in April: and by a peace, in May, with PHILIP II., King of Spain and Portugal.

Just before Queen ELIZABETH died, the disturbances in Ireland were quelled: and she expires in peace with all Princes and States in Europe; except PHILIP, King of Spain, and Archduke ALBERT, Sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands.

And King JAMES, as King of Scotland, being then in amity with all the world; upon his accession to the English Throne, the Two British Crowns become united on him: and, as King of England, he soon leaves the Dutch to defend themselves; and concludes a peace with King PHILIP and Archduke ALBERT.

So that all the Western Powers of Europe are in tranquility; except the war continued between the Dutch on the one side, and the King of Spain with the Archduke on the other.

The French and English being thus at liberty, begin to look more seriously now than ever, to the new found World. First, they send to fish and trade; then to settle: the French to Canada and Acadia: the English to South and North Virginia, Newfoundland, and Bermudas.

• See the Bull, in PURCHAS, and HARRIS.