ages, the people raised a small volunteer force without authority from the governor, and put it under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon, a young Englishman of good family and liberal education, who had lately come to Virginia. As Bacon marched against the Indians, Berkeley proclaimed him a rebel, and started with a small force in pursuit of him. This conduct aroused the whole country to rebellion, and the governor was obliged not only to retreat, but to issue writs for a general election, and to promise a redress of grievances. Bacon was elected to the new assembly, and under his lead an eloquent memorial was sent to the king, recounting the oppressions under which his faithful subjects in Virginia had suffered. Once more Bacon marched against the savages, when in the midst of a brilliant campaign he learned that Berkeley had again proclaimed him a rebel. Leaving his work on the frontier, he instantly marched upon Jamestown and took possession of the government, while Berkeley fled in dismay. A third time, after settling affairs at the capital, did Bacon set forth to overwhelm the Indians, and no sooner had he got out of sight than Berkeley came forward and resumed the administration of the colony. Again Bacon returned to Jamestown, captured the score of houses of which the capital consisted, and burned them to the ground, that the town might no longer afford a shelter to the tyrant. A few days afterward he was seized with a malarial fever, and died, and the rebellion forthwith collapsed for want of a leader. Twenty-two of his principal followers were tried by court martial, and hanged as soon as sentence was pronounced. Charles II. deemed it prudent to disavow this cruel conduct of Berkeley. The too zealous governor was recalled in disgrace, but the Virginians gained nothing by the rebellion. Their eloquent memorial passed unheeded. From Bacon's death to the Declaration of Independence was just a hundred years; and for all that time the political history of Virginia is mainly the story of a protracted brawl between the governors appointed by the crown and the assemblies chosen by the people. Under such influences were the Virginians educated for the great part which they played in the American Revolution.

§ 4. THE DUTCH IN NEW NETHERLAND.

Founding of New Netherland. The year 1609 is an interesting year to the student of American history. The summer of 1609 witnessed that fatal victory of Champlain over the Mohawks, which set the strongest Indian power on the continent in deadly hostility to the French. At the same moment John Smith, on the upper waters of the Chesapeake, was holding friendly parley with a host of the same formidable savages in their bark canoes. The first Frenchman ever seen by these tawny lords of the New York wilderness came as an enemy, the first Englishman as a friend. It was in 1609 that Spain, after a fruitless struggle of more than forty years, consented to the independence of the Netherlands, so that the maritime energies of the Dutch were set free for the work of colonization in East and West. It was also in 1609 that Spain, by banishing a million of her most intelligent and industrious citizens on account of their Moorish origin, inflicted upon herself such a terrible wound that she was no longer able to compete with the other colonizing nations of Europe. It was now England, France, and Holland that were foremost in the race for colonial empire; and curiously enough, it was in this same eventful year that the Dutch came to North America and interposed themselves between the French and the English, in the commanding region ruled by the Iroquois. In the summer of 1609 the great English sailor Henry Hudson, then in the service of the Dutch East India Company, sailed along the American coast in his little ship the Half-Moon, entered the noble river which bears his name, and ascended it as far as the head of tide-water at the site of Albany. He was looking for a northwest passage to India; what he found was the finest commercial and military situation on the Atlantic coast of North America, and the most direct avenue to the fur trade of the interior. By 1614 the Dutch had begun to settle on the island of Manhattan, on the southern end of which a small town soon grew up, which they called New Amsterdam. As their object was trade rather than agriculture, their posts were soon established along the Hudson

river and toward the valley of the Mohawk, in the line of travel marked out by the traffic in peltries. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was established, to superintend the colonization of New Netherland. To encourage the founding of permanent estates, it was provided, that any member of the Company who should bring fifty settlers thither should be entitled to an estate with sixteen miles frontage on the Hudson river. This allowed room for about ten such estates on each bank between New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, which stood on the site of Albany. The right of holding manorial courts and other feudal privileges were attached to these grants; and thus was created the class of patroons the Schuylers, Van Rensselaers, Courtlandts, and others whose position was very much like that of a European nobility, as it was based upon landlordship and upon the exercise. of a local territorial jurisdiction. The patroons brought many colonists with them, they acquired immense fortunes by trade, and their descendants have to this day continued to form a conspicuous and important element in New York society.

The colony founded by the Dutch in 1614 remained in their hands for just fifty years, and at the end of this period the population had reached about 8000. Of this number, about 1500 were inhabitants of New Amsterdam, a town which in those days was already cosmopolitan. The Dutch pursued a policy of toleration, and hence, in that cruel age of religious turmoil, they drew settlers from almost every country in Europe. It is said that in 1640 eighteen different languages were spoken on Manhattan Island.

Its Overthrow. - The Dutch were fortunate enough to win the friendship of the powerful Iroquois, but with the Algonquins of Connecticut and Long Island their relations were far from peaceful. In 1643-45 there was a terrible war with these tribes, which at times seemed even to threaten the existence of the Dutch colony. These wars were partly due to the wretched misgovernment of the colony. There was no self-government here, as in Virginia. The settlers could neither make their own laws nor assess their own taxes. Ordinarily the governor, who was

appointed by the West India Company, exercised supreme power; though occasionally he found it necessary to consult with an advisory board of from eight to twelve men who were chosen by the settlers. The fifth governor, William Kieft (1638-47) was a foolish tyrant who nearly ruined the colony. Under his successor, the famous Peter Stuyvesant, who was also a tyrant, but a sensible one, things went on more prosperously. During his administration the population and wealth of the colony were more than doubled. In 1637 a small party of Swedes had taken possession of the mouth of the Delaware river and made settlements there; in 1655 Stuyvesant overcame and annexed this little colony. But it was soon the turn of the Dutch themselves to be swallowed up by a greater power. From its geographical relations with the interior, the Hudson river was the most commanding military position in North America, and the English had no mind to leave it in the hands of their rivals the Dutch. They got possession of New Amsterdam by an act of high-handed treachery quite characteristic of King Charles II. In the summer of 1664, at a time of profound peace between England and Holland, he fitted out a secret expedition, under command of Col. Richard Nichols, and sent it over to New Amsterdam to demand the surrender of the colony. Stuyvesant, taken by surprise, had only 250 soldiers. wherewith to defend the town against 1000 English veterans aided by the 90 guns of the fleet. The people, moreover, were weary of Stuyvesant's arrogant rule, and ready to lend a willing ear to the offer of English liberties. Accordingly, in spite of the governor's rage, the town was surrendered. New Netherland passed without a blow into the hands of the English, and became the proprietary domain of the king's brother, the Duke of York. He sold the portion between the Hudson and Delaware — or, as they were often called, the North and South-rivers to Sir George Carteret, who had won distinction as governor of the island of Jersey. In honour of Carteret this new domain was called New Jersey, while the rest of New Netherland was called New York, in honour of the duke. The region between the Delaware river and Mary

land, which has since become the state of Delaware, remained for some time an appendage of New York.

$ 5. THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND.

Earliest Ventures. The country now known as New England, together with the region west of it and as far south as the Delaware river, was for some time called "North Virginia." The first attempt to found a colony here was made by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602. He discovered and named Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and the Elizabeth islands, and built a house on the little islet of Cuttyhunk, but want of provisions drove him back to England. Further unsuccessful attempts were made by Martin Pring in 1603, and by George Waymouth in 1606. We have already seen how the London and Plymouth Companies for the colonization of North America were incorporated in 1606. In the following year- the same which saw the building of Jamestownan expedition was made to "North Virginia," under the auspices of the Plymouth Company. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a gentleman of Somersetshire, and Sir John Popham, chief justice of the King's Bench, were the persons chiefly interested in this enterprise. The settlers built some huts near the mouth of the Kennebeck river and spent the winter of 1607-8 there, half-frozen and halfstarved. Next spring they returned home and reported that the country was too cold to be habitable by Englishmen.

In the spring of 1614 the famous John Smith came over with two ships, and explored the coast very minutely from the mouth of the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He made an interesting map of the coast and named the country New England, and at his instance the king's second son, afterward Charles I., gave names to more than thirty places on the map; of these Cape Ann, Charles River, and Plymouth still remain as originally given. Next year Smith started with a second expedition, but was defeated and taken prisoner by a French squadron. In 1616 Gorges sent out a party which stayed all winter by the river Saco. In June, 1620, one of Smith's captains, named Dermer, landed at Plymouth and pronounced it a good place for a settlement, if only fifty or more