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Some question being made as to his vouchers, he offered his resignation, which was accepted, and Sir Edwin Sandys took his place.

1619, MAY 20.—Thomas Dermer, who had been sent out from England, by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, on a fishing voyage, coasted from the Kennebec to Virginia, passing through Long Island Sound.

He was probably the first navigator to do this. On his way he stopped at Manhattan, and claimed that territory as being English. The Dutch traders there replied they were the first to occupy it.

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1619, JUNE 19. The representatives, two in number, from each of the eleven incorporations and plantations of Virginia, acting as burgesses, assembled at Jamestown in the church, being called together by the governor.

Before this the settlement had been ruled by authority derived from the crown. This origin of the house of burgesses in Virginia was the inauguration of the principle of representation on this continent. Among the proceedings of the house, measures were taken towards the education of the Indians, and the erection of a "university or college." The governor and council met with the burgesses. There is no record extant of its proceedings.

In the election of the first representative body in Virginia, the divison of the population were cities, hundreds, and plantations. Eventually they became counties and parishes.

In 1656 it was ordered that all the counties not yet laid out into parishes should be so laid out.

1619. THE London Company sent to the colony in Virginia, among other colonists, one hundred and fifty persons skilled in the manufacture of iron.

The design was to erect three iron-works. Works for smelting the ore were erected on Falling Creek, a branch of the James, not far from Jamestown. Among the colonists were ninety young women, 66 pure and uncorrupt," who were

sold as wives to the planters, their price being one hundred pounds of tobacco. By the king's special order, a hundred “jail birds" from the prisons were also sent over, to be sold as servants. In August of this year twenty negroes, brought to Jamestown by a Dutch trading-vessel, were sold as slaves.

1620.- BEFORE this date, salt-making was begun at Cape Charles, in Virginia.

Having from some cause ceased this year, the work was begun again, and it was ordered to be made "in abundance, and after the manner of those hotter climates, which may prove a great helpe to enrich the plantation." To supply the demand of the "great fishing," on the coast, was one of the motives.

1620. A VINEYARD was planted in Virginia by the London Company.

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1620. THE states of Holland chartered the West India Company, and granted it the power to govern their possessions in America.

There were never any well-defined boundaries to the Netherlands. Its interests were confided to the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company.

1620.THE cattle of the colony in Virginia had increased to about five hundred.

A declaration of the State of Virginia speaks of these as "much bigger of body than the breed from which they came; the horses also more beautiful and fuller of courage."

1620, MAY 17.

At a meeting of the London Company, held in London, many fresh accessions of persons of distinction were made for the Virginia enterprise.

The treasurer, Sir Edwin Sandys, resigned his position, and made a statement of the condition of affairs. A hundred and fifty persons had been sent out to erect three iron-works; instructions had been given for making cordage, of both hemp and flax, and particularly of silk grass, which was a native plant growing in great abundance, from which it had been found by experiment that the best cordage in the world could be made. That, to establish this industry, every family was ordered to set out one hundred of the plants, and the governor five thousand. Pitch, tar, pot and soap ashes, were also to be made, together with timber for lumber and ship-building. The culture of the mulberry-tree and the raising of silk were also strongly recommended, and the king had for the second time furnished a supply of silkworm eggs from his own store. Grapes were also recommended for culture, and a supply of cuttings had been sent out. Salt works were also to be built, and those which had fallen into disuse, restored. In May of the same year, the burgesses, the first representative assembly which ever met in America, made appropriations for the establishment of salt works at Cape Charles, on the eastern shore, and an iron-work at Falling Creek, in Jamestown River.

1620, AUGUST 5.- The Plymouth colonists set sail from Southampton, England, for this country.

This expedition was brought about chiefly by the exertions of Robert Cushman, who had since 1617 been trying, in the interests of a congregation of non-conformists, exiled at Leyden, to gain leave and sufficient funds for them to emigrate to this country. After three efforts he finally succeeded, by making concessions to the "Merchant Adventurers" of London, in securing the two vessels Mayflower and Speedwell. The latter proving unseaworthy, he remained behind at Plymouth, where the vessel had put in, and followed the first colonists in the Fortune, which vessel reached New Plymouth November 9, 1621. On December 12, he preached in the "common house" the first sermon in America, which was afterwards printed. His text was, "On the sin and danger of self-love." He soon returned to England, and published there a pamphlet appealing for aid for the Plymouth colony; he remained in England as agent for the settlers until 1625, when, having procured a charter for the settlement at Cape Ann, he decided to start for this country and take up his permanent residence, but died before his preparations were completed.

1620, NOVEMBER 3.- The Plymouth Company was superseded by a new charter, called the "Great Patent."

It was superseded at its own request. The new charter granted by King James

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THE COMPACT IN THE MAYFLOWER, NOVEMBER 21, 1620.

incorporated as a council established at Plymouth, an association of forty persons, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing New England, in America. They were given exclusive jurisdiction, with the right of a settlement and traffic of the country between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, extending from sea to sea, with the exception of such places as were actually occupied by any other Christian prince or people.

1620, NOVEMBER 9. - The Mayflower from England, bringing permanent settlers to New England, arrived, and the next day cast anchor in Provincetown harbor, Cape Cod.

After sending a boat's crew to explore the coast, and receiving their report, the company agreed to land at Plymouth, and did so. The 22d day of December is generally celebrated as the anniversary of their landing, though some of them remained on board the ship after this date. The port of Plymouth, as a fit landing-place, had been marked on John Smith's map of New England, and was there called Plymouth.

1620, NOVEMBER 21.-The Pilgrims, in the cabin of the Mayflower, drew up the following compact:

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign lord, King James, &c., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof."

The Pilgrims had come over under an agreement with the London Company, and expected to land in Virginia. Finding themselves out of the jurisdiction of the Company, they made the above agreement. By their arrangement with the London Company, ten pounds in money was to be equal, in the division, to the personal service of an able-bodied emigrant, and the whole property was to remain a joint stock for seven years, and then to be divided. John Carver was elected their first governor.

1621, MARCH 22.-Massasoit, the sachem of the Wampanoags, made a treaty of peace with the colony of Plymouth.

Until his death he was consistently the friend of the colonists.

1621, OCTOBER.- Sir Francis Wyatt, the new governor for Virginia, arrived at Jamestown.

He came with nine vessels and nearly seven hundred people, and brought a written constitution for the colony, which had been granted them by the Virginia Company, and a special ordinance confirming the privilege of a general assembly. The constitution was modelled after that of the mother country. The governor and council, appointed by the Company, together with the delegates chosen by the people, sat together as a general assembly, and enacted the local laws, and their separate assent was required for their passage. The Company

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