THE PALATINATE OF MARYLAND
Relations with the Indians.
On a bluff overlooking the deep and broad St. Mary's River the settlers found an Indian village, which they bought from its occupants with steel hatchets and hoes and pieces of cloth. These Indians were a tribe of Algonquins, who had been so persecuted by their terrible Iroquois neighbours, the Susquehannocks, that they were already intending to move away to some safer region; so they welcomed the white purchasers and the chance for buying steel hatchets. Leonard Calvert was as scrupulously just in his dealings with red men as William Penn in later days, and like Penn he was exceptionally favoured by the circumstances of his Indian neighbours. After the Algonquins had departed from St. Mary's, the fierce Susquehannocks to the northward were so hard pressed by their hostile kinsmen of the Five Nations, that they were only too glad to live on amicable terms with the settlers of Maryland. Thus one of the most formidable difficulties in the way of American colonization was removed at the start.
Prosperity of the settlement.
At St. Mary's, moreover, there was no Starving Time. The land had so long been cleared by the Indians for their own cornfields that Calvert's settlers at once began planting for themselves. Father White speaks with approval of two native dishes which the Indians call "pone" and "hominy," and from their squaws the English women soon learned how to bake and fry these viands to perfection. In the course of the very first autumn the Marylanders were able to export a shipload of corn to New England in exchange for a cargo of salted codfish.[130] Cattle and swine were obtained from Virginia, and soon the neighbourhood of St. Mary's was covered with thrifty and smiling farms. New colonists came quite steadily, and presently from St. Mary's the plantations spread about the shores of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. The first assembly was convened and the first laws were enacted in 1635, and when Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, died, just forty years afterward, his Maryland had grown to be a prosperous community of 20,000 souls.
Some of the more important details of this growth will form part of our story. At present we have to consider somewhat more closely the nature of this palatinate government, and the modifications which it underwent in its transfer from England to America.
Constitution of Durham: the receiver-general.
The Bishop of Durham was feudal landlord of the territory in his bishopric, and the most considerable part of his revenue came from rents.[131] Until 1660 he also received a fluctuating but not insignificant income from such feudal incidents as escheats, forfeitures, and wardships. The rents and feudal dues were collected by the bailiffs, each in his bailiwick, and were by them paid over to the receiver-general, who was superintendent of the palatinate's finances. As for Durham's share of the national taxes, Parliament simply determined the amount; the bishop's government decided how it should be raised and his constables collected it. The only taxes collected by the king's officers were the customs.
Lord lieutenant and high sheriff.