History of the United States to 1820, is more soberly and accurately done, but is rather dull reading.

Most of the good lives of Columbus are voluminous. That by Markham combines brevity, accuracy, clearness, and readability.

One of the best of the older works on Spanish America is Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America. In addition to the story of the conquest it treats the problem of the Indian and negro.

Moses, The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America, gives a good account of the system of government.

Bourne, Spain in America, contains an excellent summary of the whole subject indicated by the title.

Richman, The Spanish Conquerors, is a briefer summary. It is one of the fifty volumes of The Chronicles of America, edited by Allen Johnson. This series, like The American Nation, is the product of a group of scholars. Each volume gives a complete treatment of a topic. While the style is rather popular, the series as a whole maintains a high level of accuracy and trustworthiness.

First Efforts of France and England. Bourne, Channing, Fiske, and Winsor, in the works cited above, deal with the French and English efforts of the sixteenth century. The standard history of the activities of the French for the period is Parkman, Pioneers of New France. See also Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac; Wood, Elizabethan Sea-Dogs; and Munro, Crusaders of New France.

Beer, The Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660, analyzes the economic background of the English attempts at colonization, and marks out the lines within which most recent studies of British expansion and colonial administration have been carried on. An older study of value is Seeley, The Growth of English Policy.

The Planting of Virginia. In addition to Channing and Winsor, the following general accounts of the English colonies become important with the beginnings of Virginia :

Doyle, The English in America, is the standard English treatise on the subject. Volume I deals with Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas; Tyler, England in America, brings the narrative to 1652;

Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, is a most careful and critical account of institutional history;

Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, tells the story of the southern colonies with the writer's characteristic charm; Johnston, Pioneers of the Old South, covers similar ground.

A recent scholarly political history of seventeenth-century Virginia is Wertenbaker, Virginia under the Stuarts. Three books of great merit, dealing with particular phases of the history of that colony, all by Bruce, are: The Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century; The Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century; and Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century.

CHAPTER II

PURITAN COLONIZATION

THE PILGRIMS AND PLYMOUTH

The love of adventure, the hope of gain, and the desire for political and religious liberty have been the mainsprings of emigration from the Old World to the New. While the Virginia Company was vainly seeking profits on the banks of the James River, other Englishmen, self-exiled for conscience' sake, were making homes on the shores of Cape Cod Bay.

Back of the beginnings of New England is the religious history of the mother land. The Anglican Church, which had separated from the Roman under Henry VIII, took definite form under Elizabeth (1558-1603). As then established it was a compromise and included both Catholic and Protestant elements. Extremists on both sides were therefore dissatisfied; Catholics were offended by the departure from the old faith, while Protestants were displeased by the retention of what they termed the vestiges of Romanism.

The discontented Protestants, called "Puritans," did not agree among themselves. The Nonconformists believed in one national church, and were content to remain within the establishment, departing from its practices, so far as they dared, in the direction of "purer" forms of worship. They desired more preaching and simpler ceremonies. Some of them (the Presbyterians) wished to substitute Calvin's plan of church government for the episcopal system. There were other Puritans whose dissent was so decided that they withdrew from the Anglican communion. Desiring the separation of church and state and congregational control in religious matters, they were called "Independents," or "Separatists."

Under Elizabeth the Catholics were persecuted, for the plots on behalf of Mary of Scotland brought all English Catholics

under suspicion of disloyalty. James I, on the contrary, as the son of a Catholic, was leniently disposed towards them, but disliked the Nonconformists extremely. He feared that their agitation for changes in the Church would end in the curtailment of his prerogative. He therefore formed a close alliance with the Anglican party, and put his view in the epigrammatic form, "no bishop, no king." The King had good reason to fear the Puritans, for in truth they were the heart of the political group which stood for the rights of Parliament.

The Separatists were objects of the King's particular displeasure. One congregation of them, to escape his persecution, left their home at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire and fled to Holland. For several years they dwelt in Leyden, where they enjoyed religious liberty; but as their livelihood could be won only by labor as wage-earners, and their surroundings were nonEnglish, they became discontented. They desired a new home where they might maintain an English community and become independent in worldly estate.

When they heard of the particular plantations in Virginia, they planned to settle in that colony, and their application for lands was promptly granted when Sandys and his liberal friends gained control of the Virginia Company. Sandys's father, the broadminded Archbishop of York, owned the house in which the Scrooby congregation had held its meetings before removing to Holland, and Elder Brewster, one of the representatives of the Pilgrims in their negotiations, had been the steward of a manor belonging to the Sandys family.

On the voyage the vessel, the famous "Mayflower," ran out of her course, and near the end of the year 1620 landed her passengers on the shores of Cape Cod Bay. Winter being at hand, the company decided to remain. After some days spent in seeking a proper site, a point on the west side of the bay, already known as Plymouth, was chosen. This region was beyond the bounds of the Virginia Company, and by planting their settlement on lands for which they had no grant the Pilgrims became "squatThey proceeded by an act of "squatter sovereignty" to set up a government. Before landing the men drew up the "Mayflower Compact," forming a "civil body politic," each member of which pledged himself to submit to the will of the majority.

The Mayflower Compact was not an assertion of independence, but arose from necessity, since for the time being there was no other means of preserving order. Nor can the Compact properly be called a constitution, as it did not provide a plan of government. This was left to evolve as needed. At first public business was carried on by a "general meeting" of the men. This assembly determined what was for the good of the colony and dealt with offenders, exercising both legislative and judicial functions. For executive duties it chose a governor and one or more "assistants."

It was not long before the general meeting became impracticable, as settlement scattered more and more widely. Then it was decided that each community should send delegates to the "General Court," which took the place of the original general meeting, and hold its own "town meeting" for local business. Each "town" also had its church, the members of each congregation choosing their own pastor and transacting all business. relating to ecclesiastical affairs.

Plymouth colony thus became a little republic. For that age it was remarkably democratic in spirit. The Pilgrims were plain people of the yeoman class. A few were superior to the rest in social rank, according to the standards of the time, and a few others were non-members of the congregations who in one way or other had strayed into the company of the Pilgrims. Some of these formed a disturbing element. Two were finally banished and one was hung for murder, but until charged with their offenses they were allowed a voice in the general meeting. The democracy of Congregationalism tended distinctly towards democracy in government. Not until 1660 did the colony adopt a property qualification for voting; still later it added the requirement of church membership.

The Leyden congregation was so poor that the money for the removal to America had to be borrowed from capitalists in London. To meet this debt the men of the colony established fishing stations and posts for trading with the Indians on the coast of Massachusetts and Maine and in the valley of the Connecticut River. For sustenance they relied upon the produce of their fields and fisheries.

Conditions of life were hard in the Plymouth colony. In

spite of an unusually mild winter half of the original group died the first season. The soil was unproductive; wealth and numbers increased but slowly. The first settlers numbered about one hundred, and others came from Leyden a little later; but that source of immigration was soon drained. Thereafter Plymouth grew chiefly by an overflow from Massachusetts Bay. In effect Massachusetts gradually absorbed the smaller colony. Although a land patent was obtained from the New England Council (the successor of the Plymouth Company of 1606), all efforts to secure a royal charter failed, and Plymouth was finally (1691) incorporated with its neighbor. While shortlived as a distinct commonwealth, it made a memorable contribution to American life. For practice of the Christian virtues and for devotion to the principles of political liberty history offers few parallels to the peasants who founded the "Pilgrim Republic."

MASSACHUSETTS BAY

The Massachusetts Bay colony, which became by far the most populous and powerful of the New England communities, was not founded until Plymouth was nearly a decade old. It owed its origin to the discord between the Puritan party and the King James I held an exalted notion of the royal powers. In the quaint phrase of an American historian of the eighteenth century (Stith), "he had been bred up under . . . one of the brightest geniuses and most accomplished scholars of that age, who had given him Greek and Latin in great waste and profusion, but it was not in his power to give him good sense." In his own opinion he was responsible to God alone for his conduct as ruler. Parliament, he thought, should provide funds without meddling with the way in which the government was carried on. He could not avoid applying to Parliament for funds, however, and the House of Commons, the stronghold of Puritanism, would not grant money unless the King would enforce the laws against Catholics and treat Nonconformists leniently. Because of the friction which came with every effort to deal with Parliament, James summoned it as seldom as possible; in the twenty-two years of his reign there were but eight sessions.

Under Charles I, who came to the throne in 1625, the situa