XIV.

CHAP. reduced to a single dollar; a penny roll served him for his first dinner. In one of the two printing-offices of the 1724. city he sought and obtained employment. Afterward he went to London, where he spent a year and a half in the same business; then returned, but every thing that could be of avail to him he had carefully marked and treasured up. In truth he never lost a moment; nothing escaped his notice, whether in the natural or political world. His wonderful combination of diligence, keen observation, and practical wisdom, fitted him to trace the current of human affairs, as well as deduce laws from the phenomena of nature.

His experiments in electricity, the discovery of its identity with lightning, and the invention of the lightning-rod, made his name famous in the universities and courts of the Old World; while his "Poor Richard's Almanac," with its aphorisms of worldly wisdom, penetrated every nook and corner of his native land, and by its silent influence did much to inculcate the virtues of industry and economy.

"The first native of America, who wrote the English language with classic taste and elegance," his influence was impressed upon the literature of the land. He established the first American periodical magazine, conducted a newspaper, and wrote popular pamphlets on topics of public interest.

Pennsylvania seems to have been the chosen home of 1750. the Germans. In the autumn of one year came twenty ships to Philadelphia, with twelve thousand German emigrants on board. The two following years brought each nearly as many. The Rev. Henry M. Muhlenburg, whose influence was exerted for fifty years in laying the foundation of the Lutheran church in America, had already com1742. menced his labors. The Swedish churches on the Delaware

sympathized in doctrine with the Lutheran, but in time the former, more inclined to adopt the English language, united with the Episcopal church.

CHAPTER XV.

COLONIZATION OF THE CAROLINAS.

The first Settlers.-Grants to Royal Favorites.-The "Grand Model."-Settlement at Cape Fear River.-Sir John Yeamans.-Emigrants under Sayle. The Huguenots.-The People Independent.-Rice.-Churchmen and Dissenters.-Manufactures prohibited.-War between England and Spain.-Failure to Capture St. Augustine.-The ruin of the Appalachees.-Indian Wars.—German Emigrants.-The People repudiate the Authority of the Proprietaries.

XV.

We have now to speak of the permanent settlement of CHAP. the land, which the chivalric Sir Walter Raleigh endeavored to colonize; and to which the noble Coligny 1622. sent his countrymen to found a Protestant State, and where they perished by the hand of Spanish violence. That vast region, extending from the southern border of Virginia to the northern border of Florida, was represented as a "delightsome land" by the adventurers who had explored it. Thither, during the space of forty years, emigrants had gone from Virginia. These were Dissenters, a term which now began to be applied to all Protestants not attached to the Church of England. This Church, established by law in Virginia, exercised great illiberality toward those who would not conform to its ceremonies; and many Dissenters, greatly annoyed by the collectors of tythes, emigrated further south. Among them was a company of Presbyterians who settled on the Chowan. Berkeley, governor of Virginia, assumed jurisdiction over them by appointing one of their number,

1653.

XV.

CHAP. William Drummond, governor. Drummond was a Scotchman by birth, a devoted advocate of popular liberty, the 1653. same who afterward, as has been related, returned to Virginia, and was put to death by Berkeley for the part he took in Bacon's attempt to vindicate the rights of the 1676. people.

Charles II., who gave away vast regions with as much coolness as if they really belonged to him, granted to eight of his favorites a charter and certain privileges, to 1663. repay them for their loyalty in restoring him to the throne of his father. This grant was of the territory extending from the present southern line of Virginia to the St. Johns, in Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many of these proprietaries were men of influence in their day. Among these were the Earl of Clarendon, who was prime minister; Sir Ashley Cooper, better known as the Earl of Shaftesbury; General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, who took an active part in the restoration of Charles; Sir William Berkeley, whom we have met in Virginia history; and Sir George Carteret, a proprietary of New Jersey. They professed to have "a pious zeal for the spread of the gospel," but their conduct has led the world to believe that they desired more to enrich themselves by means of a vast land speculation.

The labor of framing a government for their empire in the New World they intrusted to Shaftesbury, and the celebrated philosopher, John Locke. Their joint production by pre-eminence was named the "Grand Model" or "Fundamental Constitutions." In it the right to rule was assumed to belong only to those of noble blood; and therefore its principles were pronounced immortal. It made provision for Earls, Barons, and Squires, in whose hands, under various forms, should be the entire administration of affairs; while the people were to be attached to the soil as tenants. Those who owned fifty acres of land had the privilege of voting, and were termed freemen; but