A favorable breeze soon carried them to England, and in a fortnight after leaving the coast of Holland, the Mayflower and Speedwell, freighted with the first New-England colony, left Southampton for America. They had not proceeded far before the Speedwell needed repairs, and both vessels put into the port of Dartmouth. From thence they put out into the open sea, when the captain of the Speedwell and his company, dismayed at the dangers of the enterprise, pretended that the ship was too weak and ill-provided for the service; whereupon they put back to Plymouth, dismissed the Speedwell, and those who were willing returned to London. They were thus "winnowed" a second time; and the little band of emigrants, now reduced to a hundred and one in number, and consisting of men, women and children-" a floating village"-went on board the Mayflower, hired to transport them across the Atlantic, and on the 6th of September, 1620, without any warrant or authority from their sovereign, or the promise even of his protection, they committed themselves, "their little ones, and all that they had," to the care and protection of "an overruling Providence."

Pilgrims indeed-exiles for religion-schooled in misfortune-equals in rank-poor in the estimation of this world, but rich in the love of Jesus— they went forth, "the meek champions of truth"-" the apostles of liberty"—" without a stain on the spotless garments of their renown." No effeminate nobility crowded their ranks-no well-endowed clergy quitted their cathedrals, to erect others in the wilderness. No craving governors sought wealth or rank or power, among this "little band of persecuted exiles." In the cabin of the Mayflower humanity recovered her rights: here a government was instituted on the basis of "equal and impartial justice," to promote "the general good."

Freighted with "the prospects of unborn millions"- "the forlorn hope of ransomed nations"-the Mayflower, with a thousand misgivings, pursued her adventurous march across an unknown sea, crowded almost to suffocation with women and children, supplied scantily with provisions, and for days and nights, for weeks and months, braved the ocean and the storm; sometimes delayed by calms, sometimes driven furiously before the tempest, leaping madly from billow to billow, her masts straining to their base, the ocean beating against her sides, and the ingulfing floods sweeping her decks, till, on the 9th of November, after a boisterous passage of sixty-three days, (during which only one had died,) her weatherbeaten mariners descried at a distance the wished for shore, and on the 11th, "the Pilgrims," to the number of a hundred, were safely landed "on the ice-bound rocks of Plymouth.”

No friendly voice hailed their approach-not even the savage bade them welcome. Weak and weary from a voyage unusually protracted, poorly armed, indifferently clad, worse provisioned, without shelter, without means, and without a home, among natives taught by experience to fear and distrust their unwelcome visitors; the nearest European settle. ments too far distant, had they been able, to give them succor; an ocean

on one side, boundless forests on the other; a bleak and barren coast before them, and winter approaching-such was the condition in part only of these miserable exiles, the apparent victims of immediate want, and, to all appearance, the destined prey of the savage and the elements. They were entirely ignorant of the number, the power, and temper of the numerous Indian tribes which inhabited, or rather traversed, the immense Continent that lay before them, into whose possessions they had apparently intruded, and were about to erect their habitations. The snow was about six inches in depth, and falling rapidly, and the winter-storm howling through its forests, and beating with merciless fury on the uncovered heads of women and children. What a scene! Who that has a heart within him, can but admire their fortitude, and glory in the triumph of these solitary wanderers. Compare their early, as well as their later efforts, with the baffled expectations, the deserted settlements, and the numerous adventures of other times, and how brilliant the contrast. Consider also their blighted hopes, the nature and character of the enterprise, and the struggles of many a broken heart, clinging with deathlike grasp to the loved and left beyond the sea, and find, if you can, in the annals of human wo, a parallel for scenes like these.

They received, it is true, a charter, but it was a charter of banishment. From the dark portals of the star-chamber, and in the stern text of the Act of Uniformity, "the Pilgrims" received a commission more efficient than ever passed the royal seal. No convoys or navies wafted them hither, no armies defended these infant settlements, no lords or princes espoused their interests in the councils of the mother country. Their lot was cast in quiet insignificance; they were born amid hardships, and nourished among the rocks; they were indebted for no favors, and owed no duty, except to the Lord of Hosts. They trusted (and that is the secret of their success,) in the word of God-a sure, a perfect defence against every ill, a rock that never fails to shelter us in a storm.

Before they landed, they formed themselves into a "body politic," by a solemn compact; and as this is the first, and indeed, the only instrument of the kind extant, we insert it at length :

"In the name of God-amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our king and country, a voyage, to plant the first colony in the northern part of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and form, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

The above instrument was signed by forty-one men, who, with their families, constituted the whole colony; and is the first written constitution extant based upon "equal rights," and the "general good." It was,

in fact, a patent for constitutional liberty, emanating from the whole people; and it was the first time, since "the morning stars sang together," that the people themselves had met in council, and framed a government based upon "equal rights."

Compacts had been made before—partial enfranchisements had been conceded, and the sovereign's power, in some instances, had been limited. England, however, notwithstanding her Magna Charta, was still in chains; and neither civil nor religious liberty understood or practiced in the island. "The Pilgrims" on board the Mayflower did more for human freedom than whole centuries had done before; and by one single insulated act, immortalized their memories throughout the length and breadth of our wide expanded Republic. Their example has since been imitated, and its influence has been felt on the plains of Marathon and the prairies of Mexico-among the Alps and on the Andes.

"The Pilgrims," on landing, found nothing but graves. A pestilence, as they were afterward informed, had previously swept off the greater part of its native population. A few deserted wigwams, however, were discovered, and a heap of Indian corn, much to their joy. While traversing the country, on the 8th of December the exploring party, as usual, rose at five o'clock in the morning, and had scarcely finished their prayers, when a flight of arrows, accompanied by a war-whoop, announced the approach of savages. The Indians, however, were the remnant of a tribe, who had known the English only as kidnappers, too few in numbers to create alarm. The encounter was, therefore, attended with no important results. They continued still their search, until Monday, the 11th of December, when they entered a little port, which they called Plymouth, on account of the hospitalities which the company had received at the last English town from which they had sailed; and the Mayflower was soon thereafter moored safely in its harbor. Their civil constitution had already been formed, and John Carver had been elected governor for the first year. Liberty, equality, and independent Christian worship, at once existed. Disease as well as famine soon stared them in the face. While they were wasting rapidly away with consumptions, with fevers, and other diseases incident to their exposed situation, they commenced building houses on the 9th of January, 1621, each family for itself-but owing to the weather, to sickness, and to other causes, their progress was slow and uncertain; and before spring opened, the governor, his wife, and one son, together with about half of the whole colony, were in their graves. Such was their distress, that the living were scarce able to bury the dead-much less to afford them that attention which their situation required. At one time there were but seven able to render any assistance whatever. "I have seen men," says Winslow, " stagger by reason of faintness for want of food." During the third year of their settlement their provisions were so exhausted, that when some of their old friends arrived from England in order to join them; a lobster, a piece of fish without bread or salt, with a cup of cold water, was the best and only

dish the whole colony afforded. During, however, this period of selfdenial, this agony of human suffering, their confidence in the mercies of Providence remained unshaken. In the fourth year of their settlement neat cattle were introduced, and after harvest in 1623, there was no general scarcity of food.

Although no living inhabitants could be found, the smoke of distant wigwams was frequently seen, which indicated the presence of the natives. The colony, therefore, assumed at once a military organization, and Miles Standish, a man of the greatest courage, "a devoted friend of the church which he never joined," and the best linguist in the colony, was appointed its commander-in-chief.

On the 16th of March, 1621, one Samoset, an Indian, who had learned a little English from the fishermen at Penobscot, entered the town o. Plymouth, and passing to their rendezvous, in broken accents, exclaimed: "Welcome, Englishmen !" He belonged to the Wampanoags, a nation. afterward conspicuous in the history of New-England. In the name of his tribe, he desired them to occupy the soil which there was no one alive to claim. Shortly thereafter, Massasoit, their principal sachem, visited them at Plymouth, and was received with military honors. The colony at that time consisted of fifty persons, including men, women and chil dren. A treaty of friendship was immediately concluded, and to the honor of both parties, was sacredly kept for more than fifty years. This is the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in New-England. An embassy from thence was sent to their friend and ally in July following. The embassadors performed the undertaking through forests, and on foot, and without the pride and pomp, and, perhaps, the insincerity of modern missions. It was received in like manner, and prepared the way for a trade in furs. It reminds us of the first embassy sent by the Athenians to Philip, of Macedon, of which Demosthenes was a prominent member.*

Their influence over the natives became shortly extensive, and sachems who had threatened the colony with destruction soon asked for mercy, and afterward sought its friendship. Having thus pointed out to the oppressed of other realms a sure way to an asylum of freedom on this side of the Atlantic, although it lay through perils and dangers, others followed in their wake, until, like a small "cloud no bigger at first than a man's hand," they increased and multiplied and covered the earth. Accustomed in early youth to a country life, and the innocent occupations of agricul ture, they set examples in industry and economy, patience and perseve

Demosthenes tells us, that on his mission, as joint embassador with nine others to Philip of Macedon, the daily allowance of each was equivalent, in English money, to nearly eight pence sterling. Demosthenes, we are informed, placed himself at the court of Macedon, in the most ridiculous of all lights-"the clown affecting the courtier." "And this," says Eschines, in his humorous sketch of the scene, "furnished no small merriment to the assembly." "His appearance was so ludicrous," says Mitford, in his history of Greece," that though Philip himself preserved a decent gravity, the bystanders could not refrain from laughing aloud."

rance, purity and virtue, worthy of imitation; and thus, transmitted to a grateful posterity their habits and customs, manners and constitutions, with scarcely a blot on their escutcheon. Although they endured for many years every species of hardship, and were reduced at times to the lowest stages of depression, they never allowed a desponding thought for a single moment to enter their minds, but looked forward amid surrounding gloom with an eye of faith, to that period when their sufferings and exertions should be appreciated—when they should enkindle in the wilderness the beacon-fire of pure and undefiled religion, "whose undying light should penetrate the wigwam of the heathen, and spread its benignant beams across the darkness of the habitable globe." These anticipations, to a certain extent, have since been realized; although they failed to convert the heathen, they succeeded in civilizing a world. Whatever, therefore, may be the opinion of posterity in relation to the conduct and motives of "the Pilgrims," 't is certain that " recorded honors will gather round their tombs."

nary

To trace the progress of European settlements on the Atlantic coasts, is foreign to our present purpose. Our remarks on the colonization of. the Atlantic states must, therefore, be brief. Other spirits of a kindred nature-men of religious fervor, uniting great enthusiasm with unbounding perseverance in thought, word, and deed-men of considerable fortune, and not a few of exalted rank-men of undoubted courage and extraordicheerfulness, unwilling to endure the restraints and vexations of the English law, and the severities of the English hierarchy, became active. and efficient friends of colonial enterprise, and sought for themselves and their posterity seclusion in the New World, from the supposed corruptions of the Old. The settlements increased, therefore, in number and respectability. The title to Indian lands became extinguished by purchase, and being too insignificant to receive the notice of an English Parliament, they flourished by its neglect.

In their religious ceremonies, they reduced the simplicity of Calvin to a yet plainer standard. Outcasts from England, but favorites of Heaven -the chosen emissaries of God, the sure depositories of the true faith, and the selected instruments for its further dissemination-nothing was, therefore, too hazardous for them to undertake; nothing too arduous for them to perform. Deeming the continuance of their liberty inconsistent with the exactions of prelacy, they repudiated the religion from which they had suffered so much, and prohibited episcopacy within their borders. The first settlers of New England were a body of sincere believers, desiring purity of religion, and not a colony of philosophers, who had come thither to promote toleration. Possessed of a soil which they had purchased, and of a charter they had obtained by extraordinary efforts, they sought to plant those religious doctrines only, and the forms of civil liberty, which they considered valuable. Constituting, as they did, a corporation, they assumed the right to prescribe the terms of admission into