CHAPTER XVIII.
Maryland and North Carolina.
CAPTAIN John Smith was the first white man to explore the Chesapeake. In 1621 William Clayborne, an English surveyor, was sent out by the London Company to make a map of the country around the bay. By the second charter of Virginia that province included all of the present State of Maryland. To explore and occupy the country was an enterprise of the highest importance to the Virginians. In May of 1631 Clayborne was authorized to survey the country as far north as the forty-first degree of latitude, and to establish a trade with the Indians. In the spring of 1632 he began his important work.
First Posts in Maryland.
2. The enterprise was attended with success. A trading-post was established on Kent Island, and another near Havre de Grace. The Chesapeake was explored and a trade opened with the natives. The limits of Virginia were about to be extended to the borders of New Netherland. But, in the mean time, religious persecutions were preparing the way for the foundation of a new State in the wilderness. Sir George Calvert, a Catholic nobleman of Yorkshire, better known by his title of Lord Baltimore, was destined to become the founder.
3. In 1629 he made a visit to Virginia. The general assembly offered him citizenship, but required such an oath of allegiance as no honest Catholic could take. Lord Baltimore thereupon left the narrow-minded legislators; returned to London; drew up a charter for a new State on the Chesapeake, and induced King Charles to sign it.
4. The provisions of the charter were ample. No preference was given to any particular religion. The lives and property of the colonists were carefully guarded. Arbitrary taxation was forbidden. The power of making the laws was conceded to the freemen of the colony.