USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the colonial period. 1492-1692 v. I > Part 2
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Spain having established a Colony in the parts visited by Columbus, England prepared to imitate her example ; and four years after the discovery of the continent by Cabot, a patent was granted to Richard Warde, Thomas Mar. 19 Ashchurste, and John Thomas, merchants of Bristol, and 1500-01. John Fernandus, Francis Fernandus, and John Gunsolus, " borne in the isle of Surreys, under the obeysance of the Kyng of Portugale," authorizing them, at their own expense, to explore the " Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Sas," and take possession of all regions found, " hereto-
1 That a voyage was undertaken in 1498, seems evident, not only from the numerous references of early writers, but also from items furnished by Mr. Biddle, Mem., 85, from the Account of the King's Privy Purse Expenses, from which it appears that a ship was " prest," Mar. 22, 1498, to go " towards the
new Islande." Sce aiso the notice of Cortereal's voyage, in ibid., 235-6.
2 Fitz Geffrey's Poem on the death of Sir F. Drake, in N E. Gen. Reg., 1. 129.
3 See Biddle's Mem., 40. 218, for particulars respecting these docu- ments; and comp. Lediard's Naval Hist. Eng., 1. 84.
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PATENT FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA.
CHAP. fore unknown to Christians," in the name of England. I. The King's subjects, male and female, were permitted to accompany them as planters; to the patentees powers of government were granted; and they were authorized to frame laws, and enforce their execution.1
One voyage at least seems to have been made under this grant, when the holders, dissatisfied with its provisions, Dec. 9. surrendered it to the King; and late in the ensuing ycar 1502. a second patent was issued to Ashehurste, Gunsolus, and Francis Fernandus, with Hugh Elliott, whose name does not appear in the first;" but it is only from fragmentary and incidental allusions that we learn that any use was made of this patent ;3 and for more than half a century, we have accounts of but few voyages on the part of the English for discovery in the New World,4 though the claims of the crown were still maintained.5
While Spain and England were thus augmenting their fame by brilliant achievements in the career of adventure, Portugal and France were provoked to follow. The Por- tuguese, upon the first discovery of America, claimed the country by virtue of a bull from Eugene IV .; 6 but by a May 4. second and later bull, from Alexander VI.," the right to 1493. 1444. the soil within certain limits was vested in Ferdinand and Isabella, and Portugal was prohibited from encroaching upon these bounds ; but dissatisfied with the edict of par- tition, and breaking over the prohibition, private adven- 1500. turers fitted out voyages, and Gaspar de Cortereal made discoveries at Newfoundland and Labrador.8
1 Biddle's Mem., 222, 306-14.
2 Rymer's Fodera, 13. 37; Led- iard, 1. 91 ; Biddle's Mem., 224.
3 See Biddle's Mem., 226, 230, notes.
4 For an account of these voyages, see Hakluyt, Purchas, Harris, Holmes, &c.
5 Stat. at Large, 2 and 3 Ed. VI., chap. 6.
6 Bozman's Maryland, 1. 14, note.
7 Eden's Decades, 167-174, ed. 1535 ; Hazard, 1. 3.
8 Paesi Novo Mondo, &c. lib. vi., c. 35 ; Eden's Decades, 317 ; Bid- dle's Mem., 235; Charlevoix, 1. 4; Purchas, 1. 915.
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FRENCH VOYAGES.
France, however, paid little attention to Papal restric- CHAP. tions ; and that nation, prompt to seek her own aggran-
I. dizement, and envious of the fame which her neighbors were enjoying, sent vessels and prosecuted discoveries over twenty degrees of latitude on the Atlantic seaboard, of which the most prominent were made by Verrazani, and 1521-5. Cartier.1 But fifty years after the discovery of America 1534-49. by Columbus, the only Colonies permanently planted in the New World, were those in the West Indies, and in South America. The harsher climate of the North, coupled with the perils and dangers besetting a wilderness region clad with snow nearly one-half the year, proved effectual dis- couragements to all who aspired to be founders of Colo- nies. Avarice could reap no golden harvest from the ice- bergs of the frigid zone. Commerce found no fragrant spices or luscious fruits to tempt the luxurious. No
" Groves, whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind, HIung amiable,"
adorned the coast. Only the hardier and more frugal gained a comfortable subsistence from the fisheries at the Banks.2 Hence, while the sunny South was the theater of exciting events, the more frigid North remained, except in the fishing season, the same region of desolation and barbarism as when first visited by Cabot in 1497.
During the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, although some progress was made in navigation and . commerce, little, comparatively, was done by the English to promote the discovery or settlement of America ; nor was it until after the accession of Elizabeth, "The Restorer
1 Hakluyt, 3. 250-90 ; Purchas, 1. 931; 4. 1605; L'Escarbot, 3-4, ed. 1612; Champlain, 1. 9-12, ed. 1632 ; Charlevoix, 1. 5-33. The car- liest authenticated French voyage to
America was made in 1504. See Charlevoix, 1. 5.
2 For an elaborate article upon the Fisheries, see U. S. Sen. Doc., 22, for 1851-2, p. 182, et seq.
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RIVALRY OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH.
CHAP. of Naval Glory, and the Queen of the Northern Seas," I. whose vigorous mind and masculine energy were destined to exert a powerful influence upon the fortunes of her king- dom, and who ascended the throne at a period of profound domestic tranquillity and external prosperity, and in an age noted for great men and great events, that a fresh impulse was given to maritime adventure ; and, under the auspices of Sir Francis Drake, the renowned circumnavigator of the globe, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert,' of Compton, in Devonshire,-conspicuous for his military services in France and Ireland,-with his half-brother, the gallant but unfor- tunate Sir Walter Raleigh, who were among the most emi- nent noblemen of the realm, the spirit of enterprise, which had long been slumbering in inactivity, was awakened to a new life, attended with happier results. France, too, who had never relinquished her attempts at settlement, continued her voyages, and upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, and in the region of Canada, had commenced a lucrative trade in furs; and the sails of her vessels, engaged in the fisheries, whitened the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador. But after the lapse of another half-century, and one hundred years from the discovery of Cabot, all knowledge of the interior and its geography and resources was exceedingly limited; the best charts extant were but rude sketches of the coasts and harbors; few had been bold enough to penetrate a land clothed with gloomy for- ests, and filled with warlike savages ; and in all New Eng- land, and the country to the North towards the pole, not a white family was settled, not a white child had been born .?
1 Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the author of the celebrated " Discourse to prove a passage to the North- west " to India, published in 1576; and in 1578, he received a patent for discovering and possessing lands in America; but his voyages ended disastrously, though discoveries were
made and possession was taken in customary form, of lands afterwards covered by the claims of the French. See Hakluyt, 3. 32, et seq. ; Led- iard, 1. 193-6.
2 Prince, N. E. Chron., pt. 1., p. 1. ed. 1736.
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GOSNOLD'S VOYAGE.
Such was the aspect of affairs at the opening of the sev- CHAP. enteenth century. By neither the English nor the French I. had permanent settlements been made in New England, or to the North. But the thirst for discovery was now fully enkindled ; the idea of colonization was more seriously entertained ; and England, having humbled Spain, van- quished her Armada, and established her supremacy as MISTRESS OF THE SEAS, was eager still farther to demon- strate her prowess by conquering the physical obstacles which had hitherto thwarted her success; and drawing out of past failures lessons of wisdom for the guidance of the future, her plans were conceived more maturely, and executed more skilfully. France, likewise, had powerful motives to prompt the continuance of her efforts. Unwill- ing to acknowledge her maritime inferiority to any other nation, and anxious to maintain her claims to the region over which her flag had so often floated, she was not to be outdone in voyages of discovery, or attempts at colonization. Hence the opening of the seventeenth century witnessed a succession of voyages on the part of both nations, attended with results of a more determinate character. The first ENGLISH voyage resulted in the discovery of Massachusetts.1
One year wanting two days before Queen Elizabeth died," Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, an experienced navi- wator, who is said to have already crossed the Atlantic by the usual route of the Canaries and the West Indies, set out to sail to America by a Westerly course, which, as he conceived, would not only be more direct, but which would shorten the distance several hundred leagues. Fur- nished, principally at the cost of Henry, Earl of Southamp-
1602.
1 The shores of Massachusetts may have been, and doubtless were, seen before this time; but the discovery of Gosnold is the first we are able to authenticate by that species of evi-
dence which rises above mere con- jecture or strong probability.
2 Brereton, in 3 M. II. Coll., 8. 85, says: " Friday, Mar. 25;" but Archer, in ibid., 72, says the 26th.
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MASSACHUSETTS DISCOVERED.
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CHAP. ton - the friend and patron of Shakspeare-with a small m bark, the Concord, of Dartmouth, and thirty-two men,- I. eight of whom were mariners, twelve planters, and twelve adventurers, - he sailed from Falmouth,1 and steering West by the compass, after a passage of forty-nine days2 land May 14. was discovered, in latitude 43º 30' North, either upon the coast of New Hampshire, or in the vicinity of the Eastern shores of Mainc.3 Standing along until noon, and anchor- ing near "Savage Rock," a " Basque shallop," containing eight men, visited their bark, who were at first supposed to be " Christians distressed," but who proved to be Indi- May 15. ans, ready for trade. On the following day, in latitude 42º North, a "mighty headland " was discovered, which, from the quantity of cod-fish caught in its vicinity, was called "Cape Cod,"-a name still retained, and which, says Mather, "I suppose it will never lose till shoals of cod-fish be seen swimming upon the tops of its highest hills."" At this place the voyagers landed, and traversed the country throughout a whole day ; so that Cape Cod is entitled to the honor, not only of being the first spot upon which the first known English discoverer of Massachusetts set foot, but of being the spot where the May-flower moored, which brought over the first colony permanently planted in the State.
May 16. The next day Point Care was discovered, now known as "Sandy Point," the extreme southerly land in Barn- May 21. stable county ; on the 21st, " Martha's Vineyard," now May 21. " No-man's-land," was seen; on the 24th, "Dover Cliff," May 25. now " Gay Head," was discovered; and on the 25th,
1 Smith, Gen. Hist., p. 16, ed. 1626, says the vessel sailed from Dartmouth ; but Archer, Brereton, and Strachey, say from Falmouth. 2 The Richmond edit. of Smith's Gen. Hist., mistakes in saying land
was discovered May 11; the orig- inal edition says the 14th. 3 Strachey, in 4 M. H. Coll., 1. 224. 4 Mather, Magnalia.
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THE COUNTRY EXPLORED.
" Giosnold's Hope," now "Buzzard's Bay," and " Eliza- CHAP. 1. beth Isle," " now " Cutty-hunk, " in the western part~ of which, near a pond of fresh water, two miles in cir- cumference, Capt. Gosnold, and eleven men who promised to tarry with him, decided to make their plantation-the vessel May 28. to be returned to England by Capt. Bartholomew Gilbert.2
Several visits were made from this point to the adjacent Mar islands, in the course of which many of the Indians, but 30, 31. few of their houses were seen; and a trip was made by Gosnold to the main-land, with whose " fair fields," " fragrant flowers," "fertile meadows," "stately groves," " pleasant brooks," and " beauteous rivers," he was highly delighted. At the mouth of one of these rivers lay "Hap's Hill," in what is now Dartmouth ; and upon the banks of the other the city of New Bedford is built.3 Nearly three weeks were spent in erecting a fort and store-house, and in lading the vessel with sassafras, the panacea of the age; but a controversy arising between the planters and their com- panions, and provisions falling short, 4 with the fear of other disasters, the design of a settlement was relinquished, and, Jun. 16. leaving the island with "many true sorrowful eyes," they bore for England, and after a passage of five weeks, " came July 20. to anchor before Exmouth," having suffered none from sick- ness during their absence, but returning " much fatter," . says one of the narrators, "and in better health than when we went out." 5
1 Sec 3 M. H. Coll., 8. 76 .;
¿ Go-nold, in his Letter to his Father, Kiys: "As touching the plice where we were most resident, It is the latitude of 41 degrees and one-third part." 3 M.H. Coll., S. 70. " In giving these localities, we follow Belknap, in his Am. Biog., and Drake, Hist. Boston, who cor- reets some errors in the account of the former.
+ At their return, they " had not one cake of bread, nor any drink,
but a little vinegar left." 3 M. H. Coll .. 8. 71.
5 The authorities for this Voyage are, Gosnold, Archer, and Brero- ton's Relations, as in Purchas, vol. 4, and in 3 M. H. Coll., 8. 69-123 ; Strachey, in 4 M. H. Coll., 1. 223- 81, and in N. Y. Hist. Coll .; Smith's Gen. Hist., 1. 16-18; Harris, 1. 816; Lediard, 1. 382, &c. The foundation of Gosnold's storehouse is said to be yet visible. Thorn- ton's Landing at Cape Ann, 21.
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PRING'S VOYAGE.
CHAP. I. This discovery of Gosnold, and his favorable and inviting description of the country, were incentives to further enter- prise ; and by the persuasion of Robert Aldsworth, and Mr. Richard Hakluyt1 -the latter the learned and efficient advo- cate of Western Colonization, - and with the leave of Sir Walter Raleigh, who held the patent of Virginia, within whose bounds Massachusetts lay, the mayor and aldermen, and several of the wealthiest merchants of Bris- tol, raised by subscription a stock of £1000, and fitted out two vessels for America :- the Speedwell, of fifty tons, with a crew of thirty men and boys, commanded by Martin Pring ; and the Discoverer, of twenty-six tons, with a crew of thirteen men and boys, commanded by William Browne; - the expedition being accompanied by Robert Salterne, who had attended Gosnold the year before, and who was appointed Supercargo, or principal agent.2
The adventurers were equipped for a voyage of eight months, and furnished with clothing, hardware, and trinkets to trade with the natives ; and with good auguries of suc- Apr. 10. cess they sailed from Milford Haven a few days after the 1603. death of the Queen. In twenty-eight days land was discov- ered, in latitude 43° 30' north, among the Fox Islands, in the mouth of the Penobscot Bay; 3 and ranging the coast to the south-west, and passing the islands of Casco Bay, the Saco, Kennebunk, York, and Piscataqua rivers, - the last of which they examined, - they sailed by Cape Ann, crossed Massachusetts Bay, and rounding Cape Cod, came to a har- bor called " Whitson Bay," -now Edgarton, or Oldtown, in the Vineyard Islands, - from whence, and from the main-land in the vicinity, they commenced lading with sassafras, the principal object of their voyage.
1 There is a tract by Hakluyt, dated 1575, advocating a plantation " in 40 and 42 degrees of latitude." See 3 M. H. Coll., 8. 104-14.
2 Salterne's Account, as in Smith, Gen. Hist., 18, ed. 1626.
8 Williamson's Maine, 1. 186.
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FRENCH VOYAGES-DE MONTS' PATENT.
In July the bark sailed for England; and in August, CHAP. appearances of hostility from the Indians being discovered, J. Pring also left the coast, taking with him, among other curi- osities, a birch canoe as a specimen of aboriginal ingenuity ; and after an absence of less than six months safely arrived Oct. 2. in King Road, near Bristol.1
Contemporary with the voyage of Gosnold, as the French 1602. had long prosecuted discoveries at the North, a fourth enterprise was projected by that nation :- a company of merchants was organized at Rouen, after the death of Chau- vin, by De Chaste, Gov. of Dieppe, to develop the resources of Canada; and an expedition was fitted out under the Sieur de Pont Grave, an able navigator and a wealthy mer- chant of St. Malo, who, taking with him Samuel Champlain of St. Onge-a captain in the navy, who had shortly before returned from the West Indies - sailed for Tadoussac, and 1603. pushed boldly up the St. Lawrence to the Sault Saint Louis, at Montreal .? On his return, he found that De Chaste was dead, and that Henry IV. had granted to Pierre de Gast, Nov. 8. Sieur de Monts-a gentleman of his bed-chamber and a 1603. Calvinist- a patent of the American Territory, embracing the discoveries of Gosnold and Pring, and extending from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of North latitude, appointing him licutenant-general of the region, with power to colonize and rule it at his discretion, and to subdue and Christianize its native inhabitants ; and soon after the mon- arch vested in De Monts the exclusive right to the com- merce in peltry in Acadia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence .? In the following spring, De Monts, taking Champlain as Mar. 7. his pilot, and accompanied by his friend Jean de Biencourt, 1604.
1 Salterne's Relation, in Purchas, 5. 1654-6, and in Smith's Gen. Hist., 18; Harris's Voy., 1. 816; Lediard, 399. Comp. also, Belknap, Prince, Williamson, and Holmes. 2 Champlain, Voy., 1. 38-41, ed.
1632; Charlevoix, 1. 172, ed 1744, 12mo.
3 L'Escarbot, 432, et seq., ed. 1612; Hazard, 1. 45-8; Charlevoix, 1. 173-4. This monopoly was after- wards revoked. Champlain, 1. 45.
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WEYMOUTH'S VOYAGE.
CHAP. Sieur de Poutrincourt, and a number of adventurers, both I. Protestant and Catholic, embarked in several vessels1 and visited the parts embraced in his patent; and at Port Royal-now Annapolis-Poutrincourt took up his resi- dence under a grant from De Monts, which was confirmed by the King ; and the Colony established by him continued to exist until broken up by Argall in 1613.2
The tidings of this grant and of the accompanying voy- ages produced in England some sensation ; and, to follow up the discovery of Gosnold, and to secure the advantages of primitive discovery and continual claim, the Earl of Southampton, his brother-in-law Lord Arundel of Wardour, and other gentlemen, despatched the Archangel, under Capt. George Weymouth, with twenty-eight men, ostensibly to discover the long-sought Northwest passage; and leav- Mar. 31 ing Dartmouth the last of March, in about six weeks 1605. land was discovered near Cape Cod. Sailing thence north- ward fifty leagues, the vessel anchored at St. George's Island, or Monhegan; and after remaining in the country several weeks, trading with the natives, and exploring the Penobscot or the Kennebec3-which is described in glow- ing terms, and preferred to the finest streams of the Old World-Capt. Weymouth prepared for his return to Eng- land. But alas for the weakness and cupidity of man! Notwithstanding the " sole intent of the honorable setters forth of this discovery " is affirmed to have been, " not a little present private profit, but a public good, and true zeal of promulgating God's holy church, by planting Chris- tianity," before leaving the shores five savages were seized by stratagem, and hurried into bondage -three of them being delivered to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of
1 Champlain, 1. 43, says : " Plu- 1. 179-83; Council's Relat., in 2 sieurs vaisseaux ;" Charlevoix, 1. 174, M. II. Coli., 9. 5. says four vessels ; and L'Escarbot, 3 Most authorities say the former river, but some the latter. 447, speaks of but two.
9 Champlain, 1. 42-8; Charlevoix,
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KING JAMES'S FIRST PATENT.
Plymouth, in whose hands they remained three years. CHAP. This treacherous act generated among the natives a hatred I- of the English name, and revenge and cruelties were the natural result; though in the popular language of the day it was termed " an accident, which must be acknowledged the means, under God, of putting on foot and giving life to all our plantations."1
The discoveries of Gosnold, Pring, and Weymouth, the descriptions of voyagers and fishermen, the sight of the natives carried across the Atlantic, the claims of France, the conceived profits of commercial and mineral wealth, and the desire to occupy and control regions so "bountifully blessed by nature," all had their weight in exciting still farther the attention of the English, and in inspiring suc- cessful adventurers, enterprising merchants, illustrious no- blemen, wealthy gentlemen, and prelates of the National Church, as well as humble artisans, with renewed ardor to prosecute voyages to America, and to plant new nations
" Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine."
Twenty years had passed since Raleigh's attempt to 1606. colonize Virginia, and his grant being void by reason of his attainder, and all former patents having reverted to the crown, several gentlemen, at the instance of Henry, Earl of Southampton, Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth, and Richard Hakluyt, Prebendary of St. Augus- tine, petitioned King James for a grant for two plantations on the Atlantic coast. This request was promptly complied with; and, that the advantages of trade might be shared alike by the inhabitants of the East and of the West of
1 Gorges, in 3 M. II. Coll., 6. 51. 8. 125-57; Strachey, in 4 M. H. The authorities for the voyage of Coll., 1. 228-30 ; Smith, Gen. Hist., Weymouth, are Purchas, 4. 1659; 18-20; Harris, 1. 817; Lediard, 405-6. Rosier's Relat., in 3 M. HI. Coll.,
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KING JAMES'S FIRST PATENT.
CHAP. England, and the colonies established might "mutually I. strengthen each other," by letters patent covering and Apr. 10.
1606. conflicting with the claims of France, all that part of the North American continent stretching from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of North latitude, with the islands within one hundred miles of the coast, was divided into two nearly equal districts ; the Southern, called the First Colony, being granted to the London Company or Council ; and the Northern, called the Second Colony, to the Ply- mouth Company or Council. Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Edward Maira Wingfield, and their associates, composed the First Colony, and were authorized to settle the Southern District-a right of prop- erty being vested in them to the lands extending along the coast fifty miles on each side of the place of their first habi- tation, and into the interior one hundred miles.
The Northern District was allotted to Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, George Popham, and their associates, knights, gentlemen and merchants, of Exe- ter, Plymouth, and other towns of the West of England, with similar privileges, and a like grant of territorial sovereignty and domain. The First Company - by far the most opulent-was permitted to begin its plantation at any place below the forty-first degree of North latitude; and the Second Company-which was much the poorer of the two-anywhere above the thirty-eighth degree ;- and the intermediate space was left open to both, though to prevent interference, it was stipulated that the Colony last planted should not begin a settlement within one hundred miles of that first planted.
The Government of these Colonies was vested, First, in a Council of thirteen, resident in England, approved by and removeable at the pleasure of the King, who were to have paramount jurisdiction according to laws given under his sign-manual; and Second, in two subordinate
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KING JAMES'S FIRST PATENT.
Councils, each of thirteen members, resident in America, CHAP. and nominated by the King, who were to rule and manage I. the internal affairs of each Colony agreeably to his instruc- 1600. tions. The charter conceded to all the colonists the rights of citizens of the realm, and the privilege of holding their lands by the freest and least burdensome tenure ; all things necessary for their subsistence and commerce were to be free of duty for seven years ; and all duties levied on foreign commodities for twenty-one years were to constitute a fund for their particular benefit. Authority was also given to coin money, and expel intruders as occasion required.1
We have given at length an abstract of this charter, because of its bearings upon the history of New England. That it was liberal for the age, may possibly be true; yet its provisions were the product of but a limited experience, and the instrument itself contained exceptionable features, for by it, " the most ancient colonists were placed under the regimen of a three-fold jurisdiction ; they were sub- ject equally to the personal power of their sovereign, to the distant regulations of a commercial company, and to the immediate government of a president and council, without tasting the pleasures of suffrage, or enjoying the importance of self-legislation.""
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