In the meantime Virginia, as we have already said in the account of that state, having asserted its adherence to Charles II. on the execution of his father, parliament sent out commissioners to enforce the obedience of the colonies bordering on the Chesapeake to the commonwealth, the troublesome Clayborne being one of these very commissioners. Maryland, which had, though Catholic, already given in her allegiance to the commonwealth, of course was not included among the disaffected, and Virginia, as we already know, yielded without a blow being struck. The opportunity, however, was too good to be lost. Clayborne, glad of any plea to carry arms into Maryland, again put forth his claims to Kent Island, and Virginia, which had never relished so fine a portion of her territory being taken from her, revived also her claims to jurisdiction beyond the Potomac; whilst Charles II., angry with Lord Baltimore for his adhesion to the party of the commonwealth and for his religious toleration, appointed Sir William Davenant, the dramatist, governor in place of Stone, the deputy of Lord Baltimore. Again anarchy prevailed; Clayborne and his commissioners assumed authority; the governor Stone and his officers were deposed, and only reinstated on their submission. As to Sir William Davenant, he set sail with a body of refugee loyalists from France, but being met shortly after by the parliamentary fleet, was taken prisoner and earned to London, where he owed his liberation to the friendly mediation of Milton, then in high favour with the republican party. On the dissolution of the Long Parliament, from which Clayborne and the commissioners had derived their power, Stone reasserted the full authority of the proprietary, which alarming the commission then in Virginia, Clayborne appeared once more in Maryland, and by the help of the Puritans of Ann Arundel county again compelled Stone to resign. One William Fuller was appointed governor, and a new council and assembly convened. The spirit of religious asperity and bigotry prevailed; and imitating Cromwell’s measures in England, all were disfranchised by the assembly who differed from them in religious opinion; Catholics were excluded not only from participation in government, but were declared not entitled to the protection of the laws of Maryland.

In January of the following year, Stone, receiving a reprimand from Lord Baltimore for so easily yielding to Clayborne and his party, appeared in arms with, a considerable force, and marched to “Mr. Preston’s house on the Patuxent,” where the records of the colony were kept, which he seized, and so proceeded on to Providence, as Ann Arundel was now called, where he found the Puritan party fully prepared for their reception. On March 25th a battle was fought, the Catholics advancing with the cry of “Hey for St. Mary’s!” which was the seat of the Catholic government, and the Puritans, whose numbers were inferior to those of their enemies, shouting, “In the name of God, fall on! God is our strength!”

The Catholics were completely defeated, about fifty were killed or wounded, and the rest taken prisoners; of the Puritans but very few fell. “God did appear wonderful in the field and in the hearts of his people; all confessing him to be the only worker of this victory and deliverance,” wrote the Puritan Leonard Strong.

Stone and his officers were tried by court-martial, and he and ten others condemned to death. His life, however, was spared by the prayers of the enemies’ own soldiers and by the petitions of the women, says Mrs. Stone, in her letter to Lord Baltimore on this sad occasion; four, however, were shot in cold blood, “which, by all relations that ever I did hear of,” says she, “the like barbarous act was never done among Christians.” The Puritan party was now dominant throughout the province. In this miserable state of affairs, Cromwell was appealed to, that he “would condescend to settle the country by declaring his determinate will.” But Cromwell, though still acknowledging Lord Baltimore’s claim, was unwilling to dispute the act of his own political party. Josiah Fendall, who, with the approbation of Cromwell, was appointed governor by Lord Baltimore, was immediately arrested by the Puritan party, and thus Maryland lay for nearly two years the prey of two contending factions.

On the death of Cromwell, in 1658, the republican party, uncertain of the turn which affairs might take in England, agreed to a compromise, and the government of the province was surrendered to Fendall. The terms, however, of their resignation show their power in the colony. These were, the possession of their arms, an indemnity for arrears, confirmation of the acts and orders of the late Puritan assemblies, and, strange enough, they especially demanded that the proprietary should maintain the act of toleration by which they had gained a settlement in the colony, but which they had so signally disregarded while themselves in power.

The dissensions in the colony being thus adjusted by compromise, a circumstance occurred which proved that the democratic leaven had leavened the whole lump. On the 12th of March, 1660, the very day before the burgesses of Virginia asserted their right to independent legislation, the representatives of Maryland met in the house of one Robert Slye, and declared themselves a lawful assembly independent of any other power, refusing even to acknowledge the rights of the upper house; and Fendall, on this occasion acting in the spirit of Berkeley in Virginia, bowed to the supremacy of the people; and the supreme people, hoping thus to secure a long tranquillity, passed an act making it felony to disturb the order which they had established. Nor was the order disturbed. On the Restoration, Lord Baltimore’s claims were fully confirmed, and Philip Calvert was appointed governor. Fendall was tried for treason, and found guilty, but with that clemency which had on former occasions been evinced by Lord Baltimore, a general pardon was proclaimed to him and all other political offenders, and mercy and peace once more restored to Maryland their wonted blessings.

Spite of all her internal sorrows and dissensions, Maryland had grown and prospered. In 1660 her population amounted to about 10,000; a strong patriotic sentiment was alive in the hearts of all—Maryland was their country, the country and the home of their children.

CHAPTER VI.
COLONISATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

The early unsuccessful attempts of the Plymouth company to obtain a settlement in what was then called North Virginia, have already been related. In the first instance, in 1606, the Spaniards captured the vessel which they had sent out; in the second, the hardships of a severe winter, with a few trying though by no means extraordinary casualties, discouraged the colonists so far that Popham, their president, being dead, and Gilbert having by the decease of his brother become heir to his property, they determined to return to England with what speed they could, and accordingly the ships, which the following year visited the infant colony with supplies, carried them back. Returned thus to England, they reported very unfavourably of the country, and exaggerated their own sufferings to furnish an excuse for their want of courage and perseverance. The Plymouth company, though much dissatisfied, especially as the American fisheries and fur trade were now carried on with great success, many ships annually visiting those northern coasts, and occasionally even wintering there, were unable, after these failures, to excite any further public interest in their schemes.

In 1614 Captain John Smith, whom we have known already so favourably in Virginia, and who had long asserted, with a sagacity unusual in that age, that colonisation was the true policy of England, entered this abandoned field of enterprise, and with two ships, the private venture of himself and four merchants of London, set sail for the northern coast of the lands included in the Virginia patent. “Captain John Smith,” says the early chronicle of Charlestown, in Massachusetts, “having made a discovery of some parts of America, lighted, amongst other places, upon the opening betwixt Cape Cod and Cape Ann, situate in 71° of west longitude and 42° 20′ of north latitude; where by sounding and making up he fell in amongst the islands, and advanced up into the Massachusetts Bay, till he came up into the river between Mishawum, afterwards called Charlestown, and Shawmutt, afterwards called Boston, and having made discovery of the land, rivers, coves, and creeks in the said bay, and also taken some observations of the manners, dispositions, and sundry customs of the numerous Indians, or nations inhabiting the same, he returned to England, where on his arrival he presented a map of the Massachusetts Bay to the king; and the prince, afterwards King Charles I., called the river Charles River.” The name of New England, which Smith gave to the country, was also confirmed by the monarch, but the northern promontory of Massachusetts Bay, which he had called Tragabigzanda, in remembrance of the Turkish lady whose slave he had been at Constantinople, was changed by Prince Charles into Cape Ann, from regard to his mother, and by this appellation it is still known; the name of the Three Turks’ Heads which he gave to three islands at the entrance of the Bay, has also been changed, and a cluster of islands which he had called after himself is now known as the Isle of Shoals.