The abundance of these birds is mentioned in the Relations of Maryland, 1634, p. 22, and 1635, p. 23. The Labadists with whose travels the Hon. {113} H. C. Murphy has enriched our literature, found the geese in 1679–80 so plentiful and noisy as to prevent their sleeping, and the ducks filling the sky like a cloud.—Long Island Hist. Coll., I, pp. 195, 204.
Note 20, page [43].
Alsop makes no allusion to the cultivation of maize, yet the Labadists less than twenty years after describe it at length as the principal grain crop of Maryland.—Ib., p. 216.
Note 21, page [45].
Considering the facts of history, this picture is sadly overdrawn, Maryland having had its full share of civil war.
Note 22, page [46].
The fifth monarchy men were a set of religionists who arose during the Puritan rule in England. They believed in a fifth universal monarchy of which Christ was to be the head, under whom they, his saints, were to possess the earth. In 1660 they caused an outbreak in London, in which many were killed and others tried and executed. Their leader was one Venner. The Adamites, a gnostic sect, who pretended that regenerated man should go naked like Adam and Eve in their state of innocence, were revived during the Puritan rule in England; and in our time in December, 1867, we have seen the same theory held and practiced in Newark, N. J.
Note 23, page [46].
In the provisional act, passed in the first assembly, March 19, 1638, and entitled “An Act ordaining certain laws for the government of this province,” the twelfth section required that “every person planting tobacco shall plant and tend two acres of corn.” A special act was introduced the same session and read twice, but not passed. A new law was passed, however, Oct. 23, 1640, renewed Aug. 1, 1642, April 21, 1649, Oct. 20, 1654, April 12, 1662, and made perpetual in 1676. These acts imposed a fine of fifty pounds of tobacco for every half acre the offender fell short, besides fifty pounds of the same current leaf as constables’ fees. It was to this persistent enforcement of the cultivation of cereals that Maryland so soon became the granary of New England. {114}