6 MARYLAND MANUAL.

more, Harford and Cecil form the northern tier; Howard,
Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Calvert,
Charles and St. Mary's lie on the west; and Kent, Queen
Anne's, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset
and Worcester on the east side of the bay. Of these
twenty-three, seven do not lie on navigable waters.

Maryland presents a great variety of configuration, soil
and climate. The four most westerly counties extend
through the systems of mountain ranges known as the
Allegany and the Blue Ridge; east of these is the Pied-
mont region, gently inclining towards tide-water, and on
both sides of the bay lies the Coastal Plain.

The foundation of Maryland is primarily due to George
Calvert, first Baron of Baltimore. When that nobleman,
who had been a trusted councillor of James I, and had
held the office of Principal Secretary of State, became a
convert to the. Roman Catholic faith, he retired from public
life and determined to spend the remainder of his days in
the New World. He already held by charter & considerable
part of the Island of Newfoundland, called the province of
Avalon; and to it he removed with his family in 1628.
But after about a year's sojourn in this bleak region, the
extreme severity of the long winters, and the evident
impossibility of making Avalon more than a fishing station,
determined Baltimore to seek a home in some more genial
clime; and he asked the King, Charles I, for a grant of
land north of the Potomac, within the territory that had
previously been granted to the Virginia Company, but
which now, by the legal forfeiture of their charter, was
again in the King's hands.

His request was granted, and the charter made out.
Before it had passed the great seal, Baltimore died, and the
charter was issued in 1632, to his son, Cecilius Calvert,
second Baron of Baltimore, who named his province
Maryland, in compliment to the Queen, Henrietta Maria.

The territory thus conveyed was considerably more
extensive than that covered by the present State of Mary-
land, being bounded on the north by the fortieth parallel of
north latitude, on the east by the Delaware bay and river,
and the Atlantic ocean, on the south by a line drawn from
the mouth of the Potomac river eastward to the ocean, and
on the west by the farther or right-hand bank of the Poto-