During the next two years he made several voyages, but all the while he remembered the injustice done to him. He finally succeeded, however, in proving to his friends that he was worthy of their confidence.
III.—The Beginning of the American Revolution.
When John Paul visited his brother in Virginia, America was not much like what it is now. Most of the country was an unexplored wilderness, and there was no United States as we know it to-day.
Some large settlements, known as colonies, had been made in that part of the country which lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany Mountains.
Most of the people who lived in these colonies were English, and their governors were appointed by the king of England.
Each governor, with the help of a few men whom he chose from the people, would make laws for the colony.
Not all the laws were made in this way. Sometimes the king, without caring for the wishes of the colonists, would make laws to suit himself.
Up to this time the people had been obedient and loyal to their king. But when George the Third came to the throne of England, he caused the people a great deal of trouble.
He sent orders to the governors that the colonists should trade with no other country than his own.
All their goods should be bought in England, and, to pay for them, they must send to the same country all the corn, cotton, and tobacco which they had to sell. The colonists wished to build factories and weave their own cloth, but the king would not allow this.