84 MARYLAND MANUAL.

and St. Mary's lie on the west; and Kent, Queen Anne's,
Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Wor-
cester 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 Al-
legany and the Blue Eidge; east of these is the Piedmont
region, gently inclining towards tidewater, 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 deter-
mined to spend the remainder of his days in the New World.
He already held by charter a 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 Vir-
ginia 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. Be-
fore it had passed the great seal, Baltimore died, and the
charter was issued in 1632, to his son, Cecilius Calvert, sec-
ond Baron of Baltimore, who named his province Maryland,
in compliment to the Queen, Henrietta Maria.

The territory thus conveyed was considerably more exten-
sive than that covered by the present State of Maryland, be-
ing 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 Potomac to its
most distant source, and thence due north to the fortieth
parallel.

The privileges conveyed by the charter were the most com-
plete ever granted by an English sovereign to a subject; the
Proprietary was invested with palatinate authority, under
which were included all royal powers, both of peace and war.
The province was entirely self-governed, all laws being made