HISTORICAL SKETCH. 89

of England as his sovereign, paying him, in lieu of all ser-
vices or taxes, two Indian arrows yearly, and the fifth of alt
gold or silver that might be found.

Cecilius fitted out two small vessels, the Ark and Dove, in
which the first band of colonists set sail on November 20,
1633. These consisted of about twenty gentlemen of good
families, all or most of whom were Catholics, and about two
hundred laborers, craftsmen and servants, most of them Prot-
estants. Baltimore's younger brother, Leonard Calvert, was-
governor and head of the expedition, assisted by two coun-
cillors, Jerome Hawley and Thomas Cornwaieys. Careful in-
structions for their guidance were drawn up by Baltimore, in
which he charged them to observe strict impartiality, and to~
give the Protestants no cause of offence.

The Ark and Dove after a tedious and stormy passage,
reached at last their destination, and the colonists landed
upon an island at the mouth of the Potomac, where they cele-
brated divine service and planted a cross on March 25, 1634.

The natives received them in the most friendly manner, and
were quite willing that they should settle among them. So-
they bought from the King of Yaocomicos a tract of land a
few miles up the Potomac, where there was a good harbor,
and there laid out the plan of a city, which they called St.
Mary's.

A powerful party in Virginia was bitterly hostile to the"
settlement of Maryland. One of the leaders was William
Claiborne, who had established a trading post on Kent
Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, where, as the agent of a Lon-
don firm of merchants, he dealt with the Indians for beaver
skins. Baltimore was desirious of making a friend of Clai-
borne, and instructed Leonard, while notifying him that his-
island was within the province of Maryland, to make amicable
overtures to him. Claiborne, however, preferred to remain
an enemy.

A vessel of Claiborne's having been seized by the Maryland
authorities for trading in Maryland waters without a license,
he dispatched a shallop with an armed party to St. Mary's to
make reprisals. Calvert sent out a force in two pinnaces to
meet them, and a battle was fought on the Pocomoke river,
in which there was some bloodshed on both sides, and Clai-
borne's vessel surrendered. Claiborne soon after went to
England, and his London principals sent out an agent, who
took possession of their property on Kent Island and acknowl-
edged the jurisdiction of Maryland. Some disaffection still
remaining on the island, Governor Calvert sailed with a small
force, when all the residents peacefully submitted and were
confirmed in their holdings of land.