Monhegan, a place distant a day's sail, and five days' journey by land, toward the east, where he had learned something of the language from the crews of fishing-vessels. They gave him food and kept him all day. . . .

14. As their New Year's Day* approached, they "proceeded with their common business, from which they had been so often hindered by the savages' coming, and concluded both of military orders and of some laws and orders thought behooveful" for their present estate and condition." At the same time they re-elected Carver to be their governor. They had now completed such preparation as was to be made for severing the last tie that bound them to the scenes of their earlier life, and the Mayflower set sail on her return voyage, with scarcely more than half the crew which had navigated her to America, the rest having fallen victims to the epidemic of the winter.

15. The delay in landing her passengers and stores had been protracted by a fire, which had destroyed the roof of the storehouse; and this, with the unwillingness of the colonists to part with her while their situation remained so precarious', and the necessity of recruiting the health of her crew, had occasioned her detention through the winter, at a cost which was afterward complained of by the adventurers. She carried back not one of the emigrants, dispiriting as were the hardships which they had endured, and those they had still in prospect.

The Pilgrim Fathers.-Mrs. Hemans.

THE breaking waves dashed high on a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky their giant branches tossed,
And the heavy night hung dark the hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes, they, the true-hearted, came,—

Not with the roll of stirring drums, and the trumpet that sings of fame:

*Till 1752 the years were reckoned by the English as beginning on the 25th of March, called in the church calendar the Annunciation, or Lady-Day.

Not as the flying come, in silence and in fear,—

They shook the depths of the desert's gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard and the sea!

And the sounding aisles of the dim wood rang to the anthems of the free!
The ocean-eagle soared from his nest by the white waves' foam,
And the rocking pines of the forest roared;—this was their welcome home.

There were men with hoary hair amidst that pilgrim band;
Why had they come to wither there, away from their childhood's land?
There was woman's fearless eye, lit by her deep love's truth;

There was manhood's brow serenely high; and the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine?

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?-They sought a faith's pure shrine! Ay, call it holy ground, the soil where first they trod!

They have left unstained what there they found,-freedom to worship God!

The Landing of the Pilgrims.-Webster.

[Extract from an oration delivered on the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, at Plymouth, Dec. 22d, 1820, by Daniel Webster.]

1. LET us rejoice that we behold this day. Let us be thankful that we have lived to see the bright and happy breaking of the auspicious morn, which commences the third century of the history of New England. Auspicious', indeed-bringing happiness beyond the common allotment of Providence to men-full of present joy, and gilding with bright beams the prospect of futurity, is the dawn that awakens us to the commemoration of the landing of the Pilgrims.

2. Living at an epoch which naturally marks the progress of the history of our native land, we have come hither to celebrate the great event with which that history commenced. Forever honored be this, the place of our fathers' refuge! Forever remembered the day which saw them, weary and distressed, broken in everything but spirit, poor in all but faith and courage, at last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, and impress▾ ing this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man! . .

3. We are here, at the season of the year at which the event

took place. The imagination irresistibly and rapidly draws around us the principal features of the leading characters in the original scene. We cast our eyes abroad on the ocean, and we see where the little bark, with the interesting group upon îts deck, made its slow progress to the shore. We look around us, and behold the hills and promontories where the anxious eyes of our fathers first saw the places of habitation and of rest. We feel the cold which benumbed, and listen to the winds which pierced them. Beneath us is the Rock on which New England received the feet of the Pilgrims.

4. We seem even to behold them, as they struggle with the elements, and with toilsome efforts gain the shore. We listen to the chiefs in council; we see the unexampled exhibition of female fortitude and resignation; we hear the whisperings of youthful impatience; and we see, what a painter of our own has also represented by his pencil, chilled and shivering childhood-houseless, but for a mother's arms-couchless, but for a mother's breast-till our own blood almost freezes.

5. The mild dignity of Carver and of Bradford; the decisive and soldier-like air and manner of Standish; the devout Brewster; the enterprising Allerton; the general firmness and thoughtfulness of the whole band; their conscious joy for dangers escaped; their deep solicitude about dangers to come; their trust in Heaven; their high religious faith, full of confidence and anticipation; all of these seem to belong to this place, and to be present upon this occasion to fill us with reverence and admiration. .

6. Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely; in the full conviction, that that is the happiest society, which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceable spirit of Christianity.

Settlement of Maryland.—Grahame.

[Influenced by a desire to provide an asylum for Catholics, then persecuted in Eng. land, Sir George Calvert, a Roman Catholic nobleman, whose title was Lord Baltimore, applied for a charter to establish a colony in America. King Charles readily agreed to make the grant, but before the document received the royal seal, Calvert died. It was then issued to Cecil Calvert, son of Sir George, who, by the death of his father, inherited the title of Lord Baltimore. The province was called Maryland, in honor of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.

The following is extracted from Grahame's “Colonial History of the United States."]

1. THE first band of emigrants, consisting of about two hundred gentlemen of considerable rank and fortune, professing the Roman Catholic faith, with a number of inferior adherents, in a vessel called The Ark and the Dove, sailed from England under the command of Leonard Calvert, in November, 1633; and, after a prosperous voyage, reached the coast of Maryland, near the mouth of the river Potomac, in the beginning of the following year [1634]. The governor, as soon as he landed, erected a cross on the shore, and took possession of the country for our Saviour and for our sovereign lord the King of England.

2. Aware that the first settlement of Virginia had given umbrage to the Indians by occupying their territory without demanding their permission, he determined to imitate the wiser and juster policy that was pursued by the colonists of New England, and to unite the new with the ancient race of inhabitants by the ties of equity, good-will, and mutual advantage. The Indian chief, to whom he addressed his proposition of occupying a portion of the country, answered at first with a sullen affectation of indifference, the result most probably of aversion to the measure and of conscious inability to resist it,that he would not bid the English go, neither would he bid them stay, but that he left them to their own discretion.

3. The liberality and courtesy, however, of the governor's demeanor succeeded at length in conciliating the Indian's regard so powerfully, that he not only established a friendly league between the colonists and his own people, but persuaded the other neighboring tribes to accede to the treaty, and warmly declared, "I love the English so well, that, if they

should go about to kill me, if I had so much breath as to ask to speak, I would command my people not to revenge my death; for I know they would not do such a thing, except it were through my own fault."

4. Having purchased the rights of the aborigines at a price which gave them perfect satisfaction, the colonists obtained possession of a large district, including an Indian town, which they forthwith occupied, and distinguished by the name of St. Mary's. It was not till their numbers had undergone a considerable increase that they judged it necessary to frame a code of laws and establish their political constitution. They lived for some time in a social union, resembling the domestic regimen of a patriarchal family; and confined their attention to the providing of food and habitations for themselves and the associates by whom they expected to be reinforced.

5. The lands which were ceded to them yielded a ready increase, because they had already undergone the discipline of Indian villages; and this circumstance, as well as the proximity of Virginia, which now afforded an abundant supply of the necessaries of life, enabled the colonists of Maryland to escape the ravages of that calamity which had afflicted the infancy, and nearly proved fatal to the existence of every one of the other settlements of the English in America. So luxuriant were their crops, that, within two years after their arrival in the province, they exported ten thousand bushels of Indian corn to New England, for the purchase of salted fish and other provisions.

6. The tidings of their safe and comfortable establishment, conspiring with the uneasiness experienced by the Roman Catholics in England, induced considerable numbers of the professors of this faith to follow the original emigrants to Maryland; and no efforts of wisdom or generosity were spared by Lord Baltimore to promote the population and the happiness of the colony. The transportation of people and of necessary stores and provisions, during the first two years, cost him upward of forty thousand pounds.

7. To every emigrant he assigned fifty acres of land in abso