COLONIAL HISTORY.-CONTINUED.

MINOR SOUTHERN COLONIES.

CAP

CHAPTER XXVI.

MARYLAND.

APTAIN JOHN SMITH was the first white man to explore the Chesapeake and its tributaries. After him, in 1631, William Clayborne, a resolute and daring English surveyor, was sent out by the London Company to make a map of the country about the head-waters of the bay. By the second charter of Virginia the territory of that province had been extended on the north to the forty-first parallel of latitude. All of the present State of Maryland was included in this enlargement, which also embraced the whole of Delaware and the greater part of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The ambition of Virginia was greatly excited by the possession of this vast domain; to explore and occupy it was an enterprise of the highest importance.

Clayborne was a member of the council of Virginia, and secretary of state in that colony. In May of 1631 he received a royal commission authorizing him to discover the sources of the Chesapeake Bay, to survey the country as far as the forty-first degree of latitude, to establish a trade with the Indians, and to exercise the right of government over the companions of his voyage. This commission was confirmed by Governor Harvey of Virginia, and in the spring of the following year Clayborne began his important and arduous work. The members of the London Company were already gathering imaginary riches from the immense furtrade of the Potomac and the Susquehanna.

The enterprise of Clayborne was attended with success. A tradingpost was established on Kent Island, and another at the head of the bay, in the vicinity of Havre de Grace. The many rivers that fall into the Chesapeake were again explored and a trade opened with the natives. The limits of Virginia were about to be extended to the borders of New Netherland. But in the mean time, a train of circumstances had been

prepared in England by which the destiny of several American provinces was completely changed. As in many other instances, religious persecution again contributed to lay the foundation of a new State in the wilderness. And Sir George Calvert, of Yorkshire, was the man who was destined to become the founder. Born in 1580; educated at Oxford; a man of much travel and vast experience; an ardent and devoted Cath

LORD BALTIMORE.

olic; a friend of humanity; honored with knighthood, and afterward with an Irish peerage and the title of LORD BALTIMORE, -he now in middle life turned aside from the dignities of rank and affluence to devote the energies of his life to the welfare of the oppressed. For the Catholics of England, as well as the dissenting Protestants, were afflicted with many and bitter persecutions.

Lord Baltimore's first American enterprise was the planting of a Catholic colony

in Newfoundland. King James, who was not unfriendly to the Roman Church, had granted him a patent for the southern promontory of the island; and here, in 1623, a refuge was established for distressed Catholics. But in such a place no colony could be successful. The district was narrow, cheerless, desolate. Profitable industry was impossible. French ships hovered around the coast and captured the English fishingboats. It became evident that the settlement must be removed, and Lord Baltimore wisely turned his attention to the sunny country of the Chesapeake.

In 1629 he made a visit to Virginia. The general assembly offered him citizenship on condition that he would take an oath of allegiance; but the oath was of such a sort as no honest Catholic could subscribe to.

In vain did Sir George plead for toleration; the assembly was inexorable. It was on the part of the Virginians a short-sighted and ruinous policy. For the London Company had already been dissolved; the king might therefore rightfully regrant that vast territory north of the Potomac which by the terms of the second charter had been given to Virginia. Lord Baltimore left the narrow-minded legislators, returned to London, himself drew up a charter for a new State on the Chesapeake, and easily induced his friend, King Charles I., to sign it. The Virginians had saved their religion and lost a province.

The territory embraced by the new patent was bounded by the ocean, by the fortieth parallel of latitude, by a line drawn due south from that parallel to the most western fountain of the Potomac, by the river itself from its source to the bay, and by a line running due east from the mouth of the river to the Atlantic. The domain included the whole of the present States of Maryland and Delaware and a large part of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Here it was the purpose of the magnanimous proprietor to establish an asylum for all the afflicted of his own faith, and to plant a State on the broad basis of religious toleration and popular liberty. The provisions of the charter were the most liberal and ample which had ever received the sanction of the English government. Christianity was declared to be the religion of the State, but no preference was given to any sect or creed. The lives and property of the colonists were carefully guarded. Free trade was declared to be the law of the province, and arbitrary taxation was forbidden. The rights of the proprietor extended only to the free appointment of the officers of his government. The power of making and amending the laws was conceded to the freemen of the colony or their representatives.

One calamity darkened the prospect. Before the liberal patent could receive the seal of State Sir George Calvert died. His title and estates descended to his son Cecil; and to him, on the 20th of June, 1632, the charter which had been intended for his noble father was finally issued. In honor of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France and wife of Charles I., the name of MARYLAND was conferred on the new province. Independence of Virginia was guaranteed in the constitution of the colony, and no danger was to be anticipated from the feeble forces of New Netherland. It only remained for the younger Lord Baltimore to raise a company of cmigrants and carry out his father's benevolent designs. The work went forward slowly, and it was not until November of 1633 that a colony numbering two hundred persons could be collected. Meanwhile, Cecil Calvert had abandoned the idea of coming in person to America, and had appointed his brother Leonard to accompany the col

onists to their destination, and to act as deputy-governor of the new province.

In March of the following year the immigrants arrived at Old Point Comfort. Leonard Calvert bore a letter from King Charles to Governor Harvey of Virginia, commanding him to receive the newcomers with courtesy and favor. The order was complied with; but the Virginians could look only with intense jealousy on a movement which must soon deprive them of the rich fur-trade of the Chesapeake. The colonists proceeded up the bay and entered the Potomac. At the mouth of Piscataway Creek, nearly opposite Mount Vernon, the pinnace was moored, and a cross was set up on an island. On the present site of Fort Washington there was an Indian village whose inhabitants came out to meet the English. A conference was held, and the sachem of the nation told Leonard Calvert in words of dubious meaning that he and his colony might stay or go just as they pleased. Considering this answer as a menace, and deeming it imprudent to plant his first settlement so far up the river, Calvert again embarked with his companions, and dropped down stream to the mouth of the St. Mary's, within fifteen miles of the bay. Ascending the estuary for about ten miles, he came to an Indian town. The natives had been beaten in battle by the Susquehannas, and were on the eve of migrating into the interior. The village was already half deserted. With the consent of the Red men, the English moved into the vacant huts. The rest of the town was purchased, with the adjacent territory, the Indians promising to give possession at the opening of the spring. The name of ST. MARY'S was given to this the oldest colony of Maryland, and the name of the river was changed to St. George's.

Calvert treated the natives with great liberality. The consequence was that the settlers had peace and plenty. The Indian women taught the wives of the English how to make corn-bread, and the friendly warriors instructed the colonists in the mysteries of hunting. Game was abundant. The lands adjacent to the village were already under cultiva

tion.

The settlers had little to do but to plant their gardens and fields and wait for the coming harvest. There was neither anxiety nor want. The dream of Sir George Calvert was realized. Within six months the colony of St. Mary's had grown into greater prosperity than the settlement at Jamestown had reached in as many years. Best of all, the pledge of civil liberty and religious toleration was redeemed to the letter. Two years before the founding of Rhode Island the Catholics of the Chesapeake had emancipated the human conscience, built an asylum for the distressed, and laid the foundations of a free State.

Within less than a year after the founding of St. Mary's the free

men were convened in a general assembly. In February of 1635 the work of colonial legislation was first begun. The records of this and several succeeding sessions were destroyed in the rebellion of 1645, and not much is known concerning the character of the earliest laws. But it is certain that the province was involved in difficulty. For Clayborne still stood his ground on Kent Island, and openly resisted Lord Baltimore's authority. His settlement on the island was almost as strong as the colony at St. Mary's; and Clayborne, unscrupulous as to the right, and confident in his power, resolved to appeal to arms. In 1637 a bloody skirmish occurred on the banks of the river Wicomico, on the eastern shore of the bay. Several lives were lost, but the insurgents were defeated. Calvert's forces proceeded to Kent Island, overpowered the settlement, and executed one or two persons who had participated in the rebellion.

Clayborne, in the mean time, had escaped into Virginia. The assembly of Maryland demanded the fugitive; but the governor refused, and sent the prisoner to England for trial. The legislators of St. Mary's charged the absent criminal with murder and piracy, tried him, condemned him and confiscated his estates. Clayborne, who was safe in England, appealed to the king. The cause was heard by a committee of Parliament, and it was decided that the commission of Clayborne, which was only a license to trade in the Chesapeake, had been annulled by the dissolution of the London Company, and that the charter of Lord Baltimore was valid against all opposing claimants. Clayborne, however, was allowed to go at large.

In 1639 a regular representative government was established in Maryland. Hitherto a system of popular democracy had prevailed in the province; each freeman had been allowed a vote in determining the laws. With the growth of the colony it was deemed expedient to substitute the more convenient method of representation. When the delegates came together, a declaration of rights was adopted, and the prerogative of the proprietor more clearly defined. All the broad and liberal principles of the colonial patent were reaffirmed. The powers of the assembly were made coextensive with those of the House of Commons in England. The rights of citizenship were declared to be identical with those of English subjects in the mother country.

The Indians of Maryland and Virginia had now grown jealous of foreign encroachments. Vague rumors of the English Revolution had been borne to the Red men, and they believed themselves able to expel the intruders from the country. In 1642 hostilities were begun on the Potomac, and for two years the province was involved in war. But the