no permanent Settlements were attempted until the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, when, under a patent granted in the year
1584 to Sir Walter Raleigh, some small footing was effected
in that part of America which now forms the State of North
Carolina, and the whole Country comprising, so far as
regions not actually explored can have been so comprehended,
the entire extent of the present United States, was on the
favourable report of the Adventurers, called Virginia, in
reference, as historians observe, to its having been planted in the
reign of a virgin Queen. It was not, however, until after the
failure of many attempts to colonize the southern part of the
Continent, and after the destruction, by the natives, or by
disease and famine, of several Companies of emigrants, that a
Colony even in that quarter could be said to be firmly established.
This event takes its date from the arrival of Lord Delaware,
in the year 1610, with three ships containing necessary
supplies, just in time to bring back to their seat on James River
the feeble remnant of the last despairing Colony, who were
embarked for England with the resolution of wholly
abandoning a Country in which they had met with nothing but
disasters. About this period was commenced the settlement of
the second or Northern Colony, which, under the name of
New-England, comprehended all that part of the Continent
northward of what is now called Delaware Bay.
In the year 1631 (b) George Lord Baltimore obtained
from King Charles the first a grant of that part of North
(b)
Sir George Calvert created Baron of Baltimore in Ireland by King
James I. about the year 1623. Previous to this he had obtained a Grant
of AVALON, being part of Newfoundland and made a settlement there at
a place called Ferryland. In his second visit to that Colony, there being
then a War with France, he had occasion, it is not known with what force,
to perform some considerable services in recovering above twenty sail of
English ships which had been taken by a French squadron, and in
capturing several of the enemy's fishing ships on the Coast. He continued the
plantation until his death; but in the mean time finding the climate
unfavourable, and the place exposed to the attacks of the French, he turned
his attention to the more inviting shores of the Chesapeak, of which he is
stated to have obtained some knowledge by a personal visit to Virginia.
He had been Secretary of State to King James; was a favourite
Counsellor of his Successor Charles I.; and finally availed himself of a
deservedly high degree of credit and favor with the latter to obtain a second
Grant, exceeding all former ones in distinctions and privileges. As to
Avalon, the successor of Lord George (Cecilius) upon his father's death,
sent thither Captain William Hill to manage it as his Deputy, and that
Gentlemen lived several years at Ferryland; but, in 1638, the Marquis
of Hamilton, the Earl of Pembroke, Sir David Kirk, and others on a
suggestion that Lord Baltimore had deserted that plantation, procured a
Grant of the whole of Newfoundland, and dispossessed the aforesaid
Deputy even of the Mansion House (built by his Lordship) in which he
resided. But at the restoration of King Charles II. Sir George Calvert's
patent was, on a full hearing by Commissioners appointed for that purpose,
determined to be in force and not annulled by the subsequent Grant.
Cecilius was accordingly reinstated in his right, and continued as has been
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