the first season proved a terrible ordeal. Just as the first summer

The Julian calendar was used throughout Europe for many centuries. This was based on the supposition that the year was 365 days long, and therefore it made every year 365 days except the fourth or "leap year" which contained 366 days. During the sixteenth century time was found to have been incorrectly kept, and the reckoning to be ten days behind the correct time. The Gregorian calendar, named in honor of Pope Gregory XIII., who ordered the reform, was adopted. Ten was added to the commonly accepted day of the month, and it was agreed that in the future the years that are divisible by 100 should not be leap years unless they are divisible by 400. Thus Dec. 11th, 1620, Old Style, becomes Dec. 21st, 1620, New Style, by adding the necessary ten days. The year 1600 was divisible by 400, and therefore that year was a leap year by the new calendar. The year 1500 was not divisible by 400, that should not have year been of 366 days, and therefore during the century before it the error was only nine days. Oct. 12th, 1492, O. S., is Oct. 21st, 1492, N. S. Feb. 11th, 1732, O. S., becomes Feb. 22d, 1732, N. S., inasmuch as the error was increased one day by the year 1700, and eleven days should be added.

proved a fatal one to the settlers at Jamestown, so during these winter months one half of the Plymouth colony perished. Among those who died was John Carver, the governor, and his responsible position then came to William Bradford, who held the office most of the time until his death, thirtyseven years afterwards.

William Brewster, the elder, was another man of great importance in the infant colony, and to him much of the success of Plymouth was due. The colonists were much disturbed by fears of the Indians, but no attack was made upon the settlement during its earlier years. This was partly due to the fact that a pestilence had recently caused the death of very many of the neighboring Indians, but perhaps even more to the dread that they had of Myles Standish, who had command of the military forces. With such men as

Bradford, Brewster, Standish, and Dr. Fuller, it was almost certain that the colony would succeed.

CHAPTER VIII.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

56. The Later Puritans. The body of Puritan Non-Conformists in England grew rapidly during the years that the Pilgrims spent in Holland. The struggle that they had begun with the king and the Church of England increased as the years went by. It was natural that the Puritans, opposed as they were to the religious

supremacy of the king, should object to the civil despotism which King James was exercising. When Charles I. succeeded his father in 1625 the contest had become a civil one to a great extent, and in a few years it resulted in a civil war. Then the Puritans had a double reason for forming a colony in America, — to provide a home where they might worship as they pleased, and also to obtain a place of refuge in case the king should be victorious in the struggle.

establish a fishing colony

Endicott's Charter begins as follows: "CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD King of England Scotland ffrannce and Ireland Defender of the faith &c.; To all to whome these present shall come Greetinge; WHEREASS our most deare and royall ffather kinge James of blessed memory... hath given and graunted unto the Councill established at Plymouth in the County of Devon for the plantinge... of newe England in America,. that parte of America lyeinge and beinge in breadth from forty degrees of northerly latitude... to forty-eight degrees of the said northerly latitude. and Whereass the said Councill... haue by theire deeds. . . graunted . . . to (several men, including John Endicott)

all

Governor Winthrop.

(From a painting in the State House at
Boston, attributed to Vai.dyke.)

57. The Fishing Station. In 1623, an attempt was made to at Cape Ann, the site of the present city of Gloucester. After a struggle. between Plymouth fishermen and others from Dorchester, England, a little settlement was started, over which Roger Conant was made governor in 1625. The Rev. John White, of Dorchester, a Non-Conforming Puritan, was deeply interested in this colony, and hoped that something besides mere money gain might come from it. This experiment proved a failure, as the land. was found unsuitable for cultivation, but Conant was unwilling to abandon the attempt to form a colony, and, in 1626, with at least fourteen companions, he removed to Naumkeag and made a settlement there. Mr. White wrote him encouragingly, and promised to send supplies and reinforcements, if he would hold the place. This Conant agreed to do, and the

all that parte of newe England... which lies... betweene a greate river their comonly called. ... merriemack and a certaine other river there, called Charles River, being in the bottom of a certen bay there comonly called Massachusetts, . Now Knowe that ye we... doe graunte and confirme, unto the said (gentlemen) . . . all the said parte of newe England in America.

little colony waited patiently two years for the promised aid.

58. The Salem Immigration. In 1628, White fulfilled his promise, and a new company was formed, which purchased land from the

Council of Plymouth ( 36). This grant extended from three miles south of the Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimac. September 13th, 1628, Gov. John Endicott, accompanied by about one hundred people, landed at Naumkeag, which, the next year, received the name of Salem. Cordially welcomed by Conant and his followers, Endicott soon had his settlement under way, and the Massachusetts Bay colony was fairly begun.

is

59. The Massachusetts Bay Company. The Dorchester Company prospered during the year 1628, and early in the next year a royal charter was obtained from King Charles. "The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" was established, and jurisdiction was granted to this trading company over the land previously purchased from the Council of Plymouth. In the spring of 1629, a fleet sailed from England carrying two hundred settlers for the little colony at Naumkeag, among them being Rev. John Higginson and Rev. John Skelton, the first ministers of the Salem Church. This company landed during the latter portion of June, and more than doubled the number of the settlement at Salem as well as of a smaller one at Charlestown.

60. Settlement of Boston. - In the au

tumn of 1629, the Massachusetts Bay

Salem First Church. When, in July, 1629, the little settlement at Salem organized the first Protestant church in America by electing their pastor and teacher, the meeting was probably held in the open air. Where meetings were held during the next few years not known, but in 1634 it was decided to build a meeting-house. This proved to be a building 25 by 20 feet, with a gallery at one end. In this church it is supposed that Roger Williams and Hugh Peters preached. The building was not finished for some years, and for a while oiled paper was used in place of glass in the windows. Four other buildings have been used by this church society since the time of this small and unpretending edifice, but the old church still stands, a monument to the heroism of those Puritans who were willing to exchange the cathedrals of England for such structures as this.

Company took an unheard of step in deciding to move their head

quarters from England to the colony. They voted that the com

During the summer of 1630,

pany should be bodily transferred to New England, and that they should bring the charter with them. seventeen vessels sailed from different ports of England, most of them coming to Salem or Charlestown. From ten to fifteen hundred persons arrived during this year, and among them was the new governor, John Winthrop. Some of the party settled in Salem, some in Charlestown, and others in various places in the vicinity. The peninsula of Shawmut, as the Indians had named it, presented a very suitable place for a settlement, and Winthrop chose it for his headquarters. In September this village was given the name of Boston, in memory of the town in England from which some of the settlers had come. Boston was made the capital of the colony, and has always continued to be the leading town.

Governor Winthrop was born in 1588. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony decided to remove the colony and to carry the charter and all things necessary for the government to America, Governor Craddock resigned and the Company chose John Winthrop in his place. He arrived in 1630, and after a short stay in Salem and Charlestown he chose Trimount for his home, and, calling it Boston, he made it the seat of government. With the exception of one or two short intervals, Winthrop remained governor of Massachusetts Bay until his death in 1649. He exercised a marked influence upon the colony, and his death was greatly lamented. His son, also named John, was one of the settlers of New Haven, and afterwards its governor.

61. The First Years. At last the Puritans had a home, where they might worship as they pleased, and where they could rule as seemed to them best. At first all the freemen were in the habit of meeting and making their own laws. Soon the numbers became too many and the settlements too scattered for a common meeting, so that representatives were elected to the General Court, who should carry out the will of the voters. Only members of the Puritan Church were admitted as freemen and allowed the right to vote. The method of voting was by ballot, the first use of which was in Salem, in August, 1629, when the church met to elect their ministers. The population grew rapidly, many

Church and State. The first town meeting held in New England, that might properly be called by that name, was the meeting at Salem when the people chose the pastor of the church. At the present day, when church matters and governmental affairs are kept entirely distinct, it seems very strange to think of the church electing townofficers. One of the earliest records of the church of Salem contains a notice of the election of a neat-herd, or an officer to take care of the cattle of the town. Church and town remained identical for some time, until the General Court passed laws establishing the towns and defining their powers and duties.

coming from England each year, until in 1649 there were perhaps. twenty thousand people in the colony.

CHAPTER IX.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

62. Mason and Gorges. A few years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and while the fishing colony was making a settlement at Cape Ann, two other colonies were begun. The Council of Plymouth was unsuccessful in its attempts at colonization (¶ 36), and soon began to divide its possessions among the members of the company. Sir Ferdinando Gorges. and John Mason obtained a grant from the Council conveying to them the land between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers. In 1623, two fishing hamlets were started at Dover and Portsmouth, -the first important settlements in New Hampshire.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges should be remembered as one of the most earnest and most persistent colonizers of America. He was especially influential in the formation of the Virginia Company in 1606. The next year he sent the ill-fated " Popham Colony" to the coast of Maine. Captain John Smith was in his service when, in his attempt in 1615 to form a colony, he fell into the hands of French pirates. The Council of Plymouth, established in 1620, found in Gorges their most enthusiastic member. After the sepa ration between Mason and Gorges, in 1635, the latter retained a strong inter

The leading settlement was at Saco, where the first court was organized in 1636. Massachusetts Bay, under her charter, however, laid claim to New Somersetshire, and in 1656 the heirs of Gorges were defeated, and Maine was placed under the control of Massachusetts.

63. New Hampshire and Maine. The est in his colony of New Somersetshire. partnership lasted but a few years, when Mason and Gorges separated and divided their lands between themselves. Mason obtained a grant of the land between. the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and named his colony New Hampshire, from his home in England. After his death. the few towns came under the protection of Massachusetts Bay, and for a time remained a part of that colony. Later New Hampshire had a separate government for a few years, and finally in 1691 was made a royal colony (191), remaining so until the Revolution. Gorges obtained the rest of the original grant, and at first called it New Somersetshire. Afterwards it was called Maine, and passing soon under the control of Massachusetts, it so remained until 1820 (447).