ors.

been absorbed among the Creeks and countries having caught the spirit of disChoctas; and, indeed, it is certain, that tant adventure in quest of gold, these soon not only straggling individuals, but also entered into competition with the nation large portions of tribes, have united with whose sovereign had won the title of Most other tribes, and so exist in a commingled Catholic Majesty; and as all Christendom at state with them. It has happened that an that day bowed its neck to the spiritual doentire conquered tribe has been compelled minion of the Vicar of Christ, as the Bishop to submit to absorption among the conquer- of Rome claimed to be, they could not be And, finally, the MOBILIAN or MUSK- refused a portion from the "holy father," HOGEE CHOCTA tribes, taken as a whole, on showing that they were entitled to it. have decidedly increased, it is believed, On the ground that Spain could not justly within the last twenty-five years. They, appropriate to herself any part of the Amerwith the Cherokees, and the remains of ican Continent which she had not actually several tribes of the Algonquin race, are discovered, by coasting along it, by markalmost all collected together, in the district ing its boundaries, and by landing upon it, of country assigned to them by the Gen- they created for themselves a chance of eral Government, west of the States of Ar- obtaining no inconsiderable share. kansas and Missouri. Respecting this plan, as well as touching the general policy of the government of the United States towards the Indians, I shall speak fully in another place.

It is difficult to estimate, with anything like absolute precision, the number of Indians that now remain as the descendants of the tribes which once occupied the country of which we have spoken. Without pretending to reckon those who have sought refuge with tribes far in the West, we may safely put it down at one hundred and fifteen or twenty thousand souls. Of what is doing to save them from physical and moral ruin, I shall speak hereafter.

The most plausible opinion respecting the origin of the Aborigines of America is, that they are of the Mongolian race; and that they came to America from Asia, either by way of the Polynesian world,* or by Behring's Straits, or by the Aleutian Islands, Mednoi Island, and the Behring group. Facts well attested prove this to have been practicable. That the resemblance between the Aborigines of America and the Mongolian race is most striking, every one will testify who has seen both. "Universally and substantially," says the American traveller, Ledyard, respecting the Mongolians, "they resemble the Aborigines of America."

England was the first to follow in the career of discovery. Under her auspices, the continent itself was first discovered,* June 24, 1497, by the Cabots, John and Sebastian, father and son, the latter of whom was a native of that country, and the former a merchant adventurer from Venice, but at the time residing in England, and engaged in the service of Henry VII. By this event, a very large and important part of the coast of North America was secured to a country which, within less than half a century, was to begin to throw off the shackles of Rome, and to become, in due time, the most powerful of all Protestant kingdoms. He who "hath made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation," had resolved in this manner to prepare a place to which, in ages then drawing near, those who should be persecuted for Christ's sake might flee and find protection, and thus found a great Protestant empire. And yet how near, if we may so speak, was this mighty plan to being defeated? A Spanish discoverer, a year or two before, was diverted, by some apparently trivial circumstance, from directing his course from Cuba to the very coast which the Cabots afterward sailed along. Had he done so, how different, in some momentous respects, might have been the state of the world at this day! We have here another illustration of the littleness of causes with which the very greatest of human events are often connected, and of that superintending Providence which rules in all things.

Spain, however, far from at once relinquishing her pretensions to a country thus discovered by England, insisted on claiming a large part of it, and for a long time extended the name of the comparatively insignificant peninsula of Florida, with which she was compelled to be contented at last, over the whole tract reaching as far

*Columbus had not at that epoch touched the continent, but had only discovered the West India Islands.

north as the Chesapeake Bay, if not farther. | southern coast of North America. The first France, on the other hand, was not likely, of these took place on the confines of South under so intelligent and ambitious a mon- Carolina, and seems at once to have failed. arch as Francis I., to remain an inactive The second, which was on the River St. spectator of maritime discoveries made by John's in Florida, survived but a few years. the nations on both sides of her. Under In 1565, it was attacked by the Spaniards, her auspices, Verrazzani, in 1524, and Car- under Melendez, that nation claiming the tier ten years afterward, made voyages in country in right of discovery, in consesearch of new lands, so that soon she, too, quence of Ponce de Leon having landed had claims in America to prosecute. As upon it in 1512; and as religious bigotry the result of the former of those two en- was added to national jealousy in the asterprises, she claimed the coast lying to sailants, they put almost all the Huguenots the south of North Carolina, and extending, to death in the most cruel manner, “not as as was truly asserted, beyond the farthest Frenchmen," they alleged, "but as Lutherpoint reached by the Cabots. Still more ans." For this atrocity the Spaniards were important were the results of Cartier's severely punished three years afterward, voyage. Having gone up the River St. when Dominic de Gourgues, a Gascon, Lawrence as far as the island on which having captured two of their forts, hanged Montreal now stands, he and Roberval his prisoners upon trees, not far from the made an ineffectual attempt to found a spot where his countrymen had suffered, colony, composed of thieves, murderers, and placed over their bodies this inscripdebtors, and other inmates of the prisons tion: "I do not this as unto Spaniards or in France, on the spot now occupied by mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and Quebec. Two other unsuccessful attempts murderers." at colonization in America were made by France, the one in 1598, under the Marquis de la Roche; the other in 1600, under Chauvin. At length, in 1605, a French colony was permanently established, under De Monts, a Protestant, at the place now called Annapolis, in Nova Scotia, but not un-led, universally failed. The most famous til after having made an abortive attempt within the boundaries of the present State of Maine. Quebec was founded in 1608, under the conduct of Champlain, who became the father of all the French settlements in North America. From that point the French colonists penetrated farther and farther up the St. Lawrence, until at length parties of their hunters and trappers, accompanied by Jesuit missionaries, reached the great lakes, passed beyond them, and descending the Valley of the Mississippi, established themselves at Fort Du Quesne, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and various other places. Thus the greater part of the immense Central Valley of North America fell, for a time, into the hands of the French.

Nor was it only in the North that that na- | tion sought to plant colonies. The failure of the French Protestants in all their efforts to secure for themselves mere toleration from their own government, naturally suggested the idea of expatriation, as the sole means that remained to them of procuring liberty to worship God according to his own Word. Even the Prince of Condé, though of royal blood, nobly proposed to set the example of withdrawing from France, rather than be the occasion, by remaining in it, of perpetual civil war with the obstinate partisans of Rome; and in 1562, under the auspices of the brave and good Coligny, to whom, also, the idea of expatriation was familiar, two attempts were made by the Huguenots to establish themselves on the

With a view to encourage the colonization of those parts of North America that were claimed by England, several patents were granted by the crown of that country before the close of the sixteenth century. The enterprises, however, to which these

was that made in North Carolina, under a patent to Sir Walter Raleigh and others; it was continued from 1584 to 1588; but even the splendid talents and energy of its chief could not save his colony from final ruin. Though the details of this unsuccessful enterprise fill many a page in the history of the United States, strange to say, we are in absolute ignorance of the fate of the few remaining colonists that were left on the banks of the Roanoke; the most probable conjecture being that they were massacred by the natives, though some affirm that they were incorporated into one of the Indian tribes. Two monuments of that memorable expedition remain to this day; first, the name of Virginia, given to the entire coast by the courtier, in honour of his royal mistress, though afterward restricted to a single province; and, next, the use of tobacco in Europe, Sir Walter having successfully laboured to make it an article of commerce between the two continents.

Some of the voyages made from England to America in that century for the mere purpose of traffic were not unprofitable to the adventurers, but it was not until the following that any attempt at colonization met with success. In this no one who loves to mark the hand of God in the affairs of men, and who has studied well the history of those times, can fail to be struck with the display it presents of the Divine wisdom and goodness. For be it observed, that England was not yet ripe for the work

the Valley of Connecticut from the Dutch, | situate on an island immediately below the who, having invaded it from their province present city of Albany. Hudson being of New Netherlands, had erected the fort supposed to have been the first European called Good Hope on the right bank of the that sailed up the Delaware, the Dutch river. Three years thereafter, the colony claimed the banks of that river also. But of New-Haven was planted by two Puritan their progress as colonists in America was Nonconformists, the Rev. John Davenport slow. Though Holland was nominally a and Theophilus Eaton, who had first re- republic, yet she did not abound in the matired to Holland on account of their reli- terials proper for making good colonists. gious principles, and then left that country The country presenting but a limited scope for Boston, in 1637. Thus, with the ex- for agriculture, the people were mostly enception of Vermont, which originated in a gaged in trade or in the arts. settlement of much later date, drawn chiefly from Massachusetts and NewHampshire, we see the foundation of all the New-England States laid within twenty years from the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth.

Pursuing in the New World the same selfish principles which made the Dutch mercantile aristocracy the worst enemies of their country in the Old, the New Netherlands colonists were allowed little or no share in the government, and accord

Meanwhile, Maryland, so called in hon-ingly, notwithstanding the greatest natour of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France, and wife of Charles I., had been colonized. The territory forming the present state of that name, though included in the first charter of Virginia, upon that being cancelled and the company being dissolved, reverted to the king, and he, to gratify his feelings of personal regard, bestowed the absolute proprietorship of the whole upon Sir Charles Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, and his legal heirs in succession. Never was there a more liberal charter. The statutes of the colony were to be made with the concurrence of the colonists, thus securing to the people a legislative government of their own. Sir Charles was a Roman Catholic, but his colony was founded on principles of the fullest toleration; and though he died before the charter in his favour had passed the great seal of the kingdom, yet all the royal engagements being made good to his son Cecil, who succeeded to the title and estates, the latter sent out a colony of about two hundred persons, most of whom were Roman Catholics, and many of them gentlemen, accompanied by his brother Leonard. Maryland, though subjected to many vicissitudes, proved prosperous upon the whole. Though the Roman Catholics formed at first the decided majority, the Protestants became by far the more numerous body in the end, and, with shame be it said, enacted laws depriving the Roman Catholics of all political influence in the colony, and tending to prevent their increase.

ural advantages, the progress of the colony was very slow. New Amsterdam, which, in consequence of such advantages, might have been expected even to outstrip the mother-city, as she has since done under the name of New-York, remained but an inconsiderable village. The vicinity of New-England provoked comparisons that could not fail to make the Dutch colonists discontented with their institutions. At length, in 1664, the English took possession of all the Dutch colonies in North America, which by that time, in addition to their settlements on the Hudson, extended to the eastern part of New-Jersey, Staten Island, and the western extremity of Long Island, besides a detached settlement on the banks of the Delaware, with a population not exceeding in all ten thousand souls. New Netherlands was granted by Charles II. to his brother the Duke of York, from whom the colony and its capital took the name of New-York. The voice of the people was now, for the first time, heard in its Legislature; it began thenceforth to advance rapidly in population, and, notwithstanding occasional seasons of trial and depression, gave early promise of what it was one day to become.

The first colony in the State of NewYork was that planted by the Dutch, about the year 1614, on the southern point, it is supposed, of the island where the city of New-York now stands. The illustrious English navigator Hudson, having been in the employment of the Dutch at the time of his discovering the river that bears his name, Holland claimed the country bordering upon it, and gradually formed settlements there, the first of which was

New-Jersey was likewise granted to the Duke of York, who, in 1664, handed it over to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, both proprietors of Carolina. Difficulties, however, having arisen between the colonists and the lords superior with regard to the quit-rents payable by the former, that province was gladly surrendered by the latter, upon certain conditions, to the crown, and was for some time attached to New-York, within twenty years after all the Dutch possessions had fallen into the hands of the English. West Jersey was afterward purchased by a company of Friends, or Quakers, and a few years later, in 1680, William Penn, previous to his undertaking to plant a colony on a larger scale in Pennsylvania, purchased East Jersey, with the view of

making it an asylum for his persecuted co-religionists. Finally, East and West Jersey being united as one province under the direct control of the crown, obtained a Legislature of its own, and enjoyed a gradual and steady prosperity down to the Revolution by which the colonies were severed from England.

or a

Sir George Carteret. Their grand object was gain, yet the celebrated John Locke, at once a philosopher and a Christian, was engaged to make "Constitutions," form of government, for an empire that was to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The result of the philosophical lawgiver's labours was such as the world had Pennsylvania, as is indicated by its never seen the like of before. The proname, was founded by the distinguished prietors were to form a close corporation; philanthropist we have just mentioned, but the territory was to be partitioned out into he was not the first to colonize it. This counties of vast extent, each of which was was done by a mixture of Swedes, Dutch, to have an Earl or Landgrave, and two Barand English, who had for years before oc-ons or Caciques, who, as lords of manors, cupied the right bank of the Delaware, both were to have judicial authority within their above the point where Philadelphia now respective estates. Tenants of ten acres stands, and many miles below. The char- were to be attached as serfs to the soil, to ter obtained by William Penn from Charles be subject to the jurisdiction of their lords II. dates from 1681. On the 27th of Octo-without appeal, and their children were to ber in the following year, the father of the continue in the same degradation forever! new colony having landed on his vast do- The possession of at least fifty acres of main in America, immediately set about land was to be required in order to the enthe framing of a constitution, and began to joyment of the elective franchise; and of found a capital, which was destined to be- five hundred acres in order to a man's become one of the finest cities in the Western ing eligible as a member of the colonial hemisphere. The government, like that Parliament or Legislature. These "Conestablished by the Quakers in New-Jersey, stitutions," into the farther details of which was altogether popular. The people were we cannot enter, were attempted to be into have their own Legislature, whose acts, troduced, but were soon rejected in North however, were not to conflict with the just Carolina; and after a few years' struggle, claims of the proprietor, and were to be were thrown aside also in South Carolina, subject to the approval of the crown alone. which had been separated from the NorThe colony soon became prosperous. The thern province. The colonists adopted for true principles of peace, principles that themselves forms of government analoform so conspicuous a part of the Quaker gous to those of the other colonies; the doctrines, distinguished every transaction proprietary company was after a while in which the Aborigines were concerned. dissolved; the Carolinas fell under the diIt is the glory of Pennsylvania that it nev- [rect control of the crown, but were gover did an act of injustice to the Indians. erned by their own legislatures. Their The territory belonging to the State of prosperity was slow, having been frequentDelaware was claimed by Penn and his ly interrupted by serious wars with the successors, as included in the domain de-native tribes, particularly the Tuscaroras, scribed in their charter, and for a time which, as it was the most powerful, was formed a part of Pennsylvania, under the | for a long time also the most hostile. title of the Three Lower Counties. But Last of all the original thirteen provinthe mixed population of Swedes, Dutch, ces, in the order of time, came Georgia, and English by which it was occupied, which was settled as late as 1732, by the were never reconciled to this arrange- brave and humane Oglethorpe. The colment, and having at last obtained a gov-onists were of mixed origin, but the Engernment of its own, Delaware became a separate province.

lish race predominated. Although it had difficulties to encounter almost from the first, yet, notwithstanding wars with the Spaniards in Florida, hostile attacks from the Indians, and internal divisions, Georgia acquired, by degrees, a considerable amount of strength.

The settlement of the two Carolinas began with straggling emigrants from Virginia, who sought to better their fortunes in regions farther south, and were afterward joined by others from New-England, and also from Europe. At length, in 1663, Such is a brief notice of the thirteen the entire region lying between the thirty- original North American provinces, which, sixth degree of north latitude and the Riv-by the Revolution of 1775-1783, were transer St. John's in Florida, was granted to a formed into as many states. They all proprietary company in England, which touch more or less on the Atlantic, and was invested with most extraordinary pow-stretch to a greater or less distance into ers. The proprietors, eight in number, the interior. Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylwere Lord Ashley Cooper, better known vania, and North Carolina are the largest; as the Earl of Shaftesbury, Clarendon, Rhode Island and Delaware are the smallMonk, Lord Craven, Sir John Colleton, est. Lord John and Sir William Berkeley, and

In 1803, the French colony of Louisiana,