USA > Maryland > A sketch of the history of Maryland during the three first years after its settlement : to which is prefixed, a copious introduction > Part 26
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NOTE (E) p. 56.
Letter from Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Sir George Peckham, taken from IIa- zard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 32.
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Sir George, I departed from Plymouth on the eleventh of June with five saile, and on the thirteenth the Barke Rawley ran from me in faire and cleere wea- ther, having a large winde. I pray you solicit my brother Rawley to make them an Example of all Knaves. On the third of August wee arrived at a port called Saint John's, and will put to the Seas from thence (God willing) so soon as our ships will be ready. Of the Newfoundland I will say nothing, until my next Letter. Be of good cheere, for if there were no better Expectation, it were a very rich demaynes, the country being very good, and full of sorts of victuall, as fish, both of the fresh-water and Sea-fish, Deere, Pheasants, Par- tridges, Swannes, and divers Fowles. I am in haste, you shall by every Mes- senger heare more at large. On the fifth of August, I entred here in the right of the crown of England, and have engraven the armes of England; divers Spaniards, Portugals, and other Strangers, witnessing the same. I can stay , no longer; fare you well with my good Lady ; and be of good cheere, for I have comforted my selfe, answerable to all my hopes.
From Saint John's, in the Newfoundland, the 8th of August, 1583.
Your's wholly to command, No Man more,
HUM. GILBERT.
NOTE (F) p. 63.
As a supplement to the complimentary contest between the queen and Sir Walter, noticed in the text, may be read a letter which he wrote to Sir Robert
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Cecil, (with a view, without doubt, of having it shown to the queen,) during his short imprisonment, for having incurred her displeasure on an interesting occasion many years after his first introduction at court : " My heart was ne- ver broke till this day, that I hear the queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed so many years, with so great love and desire, in so many jour- neys, and am now left behind her in a dark prison all alone. I, that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks like a nymph, sometimes sitting in the shade like a goddess, sometimes singing like an an- gel, sometimes playing like Orpheus ; behold the sorrow of this world! once amiss hath bereaved me of all. All these times past, the loves, the sighs, the sorrows, the desires, cannot they weigh down one frail misfortune ? Can not one drop of gall be hid in so great heaps of sweetness ? I may then conclude, Spes et fortuna, valete." It is to be remarked, (adds Hume, Hist. of Eng. ch. 44, noie (S), that this nymph, Venus, goddess, angel, was then about sixty.
The imprisonment, alluded to in the above letter, seems to be explained by an anecdote, mentioned by Sir Walter's biographer, in his life prefixed to his History of the World, (3d edition, 1687,) as occurring about the year 1595 : " Sir Walter having now deserted his naval employ, and become again a cour- tier, it was not long before he was seized with the idle court-disease of love, the unfortunate occasion of the worst action of his whole life. For in the year 1595, I find him under a cloud, banished the court, and his mistress's favour withdrawn, for devirginating a maid of honour. But why for this one action he should lie under the imputation of an atheist, and from a single crime get the denomination of a debauch, is the logic of none but the vulgar. But, to stop the mouth of fame, which is always open on such occasions, and to wipe out the infamy of the fact, he was shortly after married to the object of his love, the deflowered lady. Having, therefore, obtained his liberty, (for, for this actim he was imprisoned some months,) and finding all things with an unpleasant aspect, he followed his genius of discovering new places, and trac- ing nature in her more retired and hidden parts, thinking that absence, and a fortunate voyage, might reinvest him in his mistress's thoughts, and merit a new esteem." He set out, in the same year, it seems, on a voyage to Guiana, (for, by this time, he had assigned away all his right to the territories of Vir- ginia,) and on his return, as he had conjectured, appears to have been some- what reinstated in the queen's favour, being again employed in her service.
NOTE (G) p. 126.
It is not unworthy of notice, that king James had, in a few years after this pe- riod, (between the years 1608 and 1612) another opportunity of exercising his ta- lents for the arts of peace, in planting English colonies in the province of Ulster in Ireland, upon those extensive demesnes forfeited by the rebellion and flight of the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel. Similar attempts had been made in the reign of his predecessor Elizabeth, on the forfeiture of the estate of the curl of
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Desmond in Munster; but, as Leland observes, "In those plantations the Irish and English had been mixed together, from a fond imagination, that the one would have learned civility and industry from the other. But experience had now discovered, that by this intercourse, the Irish learned only to envy the superior comforts of their English neighbours, and to take the advantage of a free access to their houses, to steal their goods and plot against their lives. It was, therefore, now deemed necessary to plant them in separate quarters.' From this passage of the Irish historian, (who was partial enough to his own countrymen,) as well as from his whole work, it would seem, that the aborigi- nal Irish were, at this period of time, very little, if any, more civilized than the Indians of America, at the time of the first settlement of Virginia. The English colonists had, therefore, nearly the same difficulties to encounter in the one country as in the other. This historian, on this occasion, gives ho- nourable testimony in favour of the plans and designs of James, and further observes, that "Ireland must gratefully acknowledge, that here were the first foundations laid of its affluence and security." Sce Leland's Hist. of Ireland, Vol. 2, p. 430, 431 ; and Hume's Hist. of England, at the end of ch. 46, in. the reign of James I.
NOTE (H) p. 152.
The author has to lament, that it has not been in his power to procure a sight of Smith's History of Virginia, in which, without doubt, this interesting voyage is more minutely described, and, in his map annexed to it, the places to which he first affixed names, more plainly delineated. An additional incentive to curiosity in this particular, arises from an allegation in the bill in chancery filed by the Penns, proprietors of Pennsylvania, and drawn by the celebrated lord Mansfield when acting as counsel for them, in the year 1735, against the lord Baltimore, for a specific performance of the agreement made between the said Penns and lord Baltimore, relative to the bounds of their two provinces, in which it is alleged, that " the tracts of land, granted to lord Baltimore and described in the charter, were so described and bounded by the help of captain Smith's History and Map of what was then called Virginia, and no other, and so all skilfull persons do own, acknowledge, and believe, which ma- nifestly appears, for that the said map has all and every of the names of the several places which are contained and mentioned in the said letters patent, and no other map or maps whatsoever, which was extant in the year 1632, and at the time of granting the said letters patent, (save only the said Smith's map of Virginia,) hath or have the names and descriptions of the several places mentioned in the said letters patent." What is related in the text is taken from a note in Burk's History of Virginia, (Vol. 1, p. 120,) in which he gives what he calls " a summary of Smith's route." It is as follows : " From Cape Henry, Smith visited the islands, called after him Smith's islands ; thence to Russell's islands, now called Tanger's islands ; coasted along Eastern Shore, till he reached the river Wighcomoco, now called Pocomoke; departing saw
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a high point of land, which he named Point Ployer : calls the shoals near a cluster of islands, Limbo, since called Watt's islands. Stood over again to Eastern Shore, and discovered a river called Cuscarawacock. On this river lived the nations of Sarpinak, Nause, Arseck, and Nantaquack, the best mer- chants and greatest traders in those parts. They told the English of a great nation called Wassawomecks, in search of whom, Smith returned by Limbo, into the bay. Leaves the shallows of the Eastern Shore, and falls in on the western side, above the mouth of Patuxen-Calls the first navigable river Bo- lus river, now called Patapsco, in Maryland." Much of this note in Burk's History, is rendered unintelligible, by a confusion of names, not only in this short "Summary," but even by the most modern map-makers. The summary mentions, that " he coasted along the Eastern Shore, till he reached the river Wighcomoco, now called Pocomoke." But, as there are two distinct rivers in that part of the state of Maryland, yet well known by the names Wighcomoco and Pocomoke, the latter being the most southern, dividing the counties of Somerset and Worcester, and emptying itself, as before-mentioned, into Poco- moke bay below Watkins's Point, the former a little further northward above Watkins's Point, and emptying itself, together with the rivers Manokin and Nanticoke, into what is called Fishing bay, there seems at first view, to be some uncertainty in fixing the location of the river here called Wighcomoco. However, as the lord Baltimore's letters patent or charter of Maryland, de- scribes Watkins's Point, as situated upon the bay, "near the river Wighco," ( prope fluvia de Highco,) and as Pocomoke agrees with that description bet- ter than Wighcomoco in Somerset, (the river Manokin being between that river and Watkins's Point,) and moreover, as the name Highco, is affixed to the Pocomoke, in the map annexed to the articles of agreement entered into between the lord Baltimore and the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, on the 10:11 of May, 1732, (referred to in the before-mentioned bill in chancery, a copy of which map is now before me,) it would seem, that the river called Wighco, in the "Summary of Smith's route," must have been the same as that now called Pocomoke, as is therein alleged. It is worthy of notice, that the word Wighto, or Quigogh, or Wighcomoco, was a name very frequently affixed to rivers by the Indians, there being another river of that name in Maryland, separating the counties of St. Mary's and Charles, and another in Virginia, at the mouth of the Patowmack.
Considerable confusion arises also, from the different names given to these islands, not only in the Summary, but even in the two latest and best maps of the states of Maryland and Virginia. In that of Maryland, published in 1794, by Dennis Griffith, the first islands which Smith would naturally meet with in ascending the Bay of Chesapeake, they being the most southernly cluster be- low and south of the larger island, called Smith's island, are denominated Tangier islands ; but in that of Virginia, published by bishop Madison, in 1807, the same islands are denominated Watts's islands ; and the islands above and north of the above-mentioned larger island, called Smith's island, are
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denominated the Tangier islands; which same islands, so north of Smith's island, are, in Griffith's map, denominated Holland's islands. These maps differ more than might be expected, also in the latitudes of these islands, and in their situation in relation to the opposite shores of the bay. In both maps, the line of the thirty-eighth degree of latitude, (the division between Mary- land and Virginia,) intersects Watkins's point nearly in the same proportion ; but in Griffith's map the line intersects the larger island, called Smith's island, nearly at its most southern extremity, so as to place nearly the whole of the is- land in the state of Maryland, while in that of bishop. Madison this island is, placed so that its most northern extremity is at least two minutes below and south of Watkyns's Point, and somewhat more south of the line of the 38th degree of latitude, by which means the whole of Smith's island is represented as belonging to the state of Virginia. Thus from this disagreement between these two maps, both made upon a large scale, a further difficulty in under- standing this " Summary" is superadded to that which resulted from a change in the names of the places.
It is worthy of observation, however, that it seems to be the opinion of the best mathematicians and geographers, that it is impossible, with the best in- struments, to fix any degree of latitude to a precise point. The uncertainty is such as to vary, according to some, to the difference of two or three miles ; according to others there is uncertainty in coming within seventeen miles. This circumstance was dwelt upon by lord Hardwicke, in the great case of the Penns v. lord Baltimore, (before alluded to in 1 Vesey, 452,) in which the true situation of Cape Henlopen came in question. He took occasion also, in that case to remark, that the computations of latitude, at the time of the lord Baltimore's charter varied much from what they were at present; and that they were set much lower anciently than what they are now; as appears (as he said) by Mr. Smith's book, which is of reputation; but (says he) I do not rely on that; for the fact is certainly so.
We are left to conjecture also, in ascertaining what river is meant in the above-mentioned summary, by that called Cuscarawacock. As one of the na- tions or tribes, which are said to have lived on it, was called Nantaquack, there is much probability, from the similitude of sound, as well as their local situation, that this nation was the same as that which has been long known by the name of Nanticokes, inhabiting on the banks of the Nanticoke river .- There arises a presumption, therefore, that the river then called Cuscarawa- cock is that now called Nanticoke, and that the place of Smith's interview with the several tribes before-mentioned, collected together there, most pro- bly by curiosity, was at the point of land or peninsula, dividing the rivers Wiglicomoco and Nanticoke, and which is called in Griffith's map Nanticoke- point. If it be true, as Mr. Thompson alleges, that the Nanticokes formerly resided at the head of the bay, it is not improbable, that the name of the Cuscarawacock was changed to that of Nanticoke, in some course of time after their residence on it. The apparent terror expressed by them to Smith
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of the Wassawomecks, is some corroboration of the supposition, that they once resided at the head of the bay, and were driven thence by the Wassawo- mecks to seek a habitation in the lower parts of it.
NOTE (I) p. 164.
The principal use of the notice we have taken of this abortive attempt to settle a colony in Newfoundland, is to show a probable chain of connexion between this and a subsequent attempt made by the lord Baltimore, afterwards the proprietary of the province of Maryland, to make a settlement on that island, in a province there, which was granted to him under the name of Ava- Ion. Notwithstanding the partiality which king James evidently had for the English Catholics, yet a very great majority of the nation being Protestants of one description or another, he was obliged to give way to the inclinations of that majority. Hence the penal laws against Papists, though against his wishes, were rigidly enforced throughout the kingdom. A few great men, however, by temporising and professing themselves of the Church of England, though really Catholics, were received at court by James with great cordiality. Among these was Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, one of the patentees of the grant here referred to. An additional cause also operated on the mind of James, which was the attachment which had been manifested by the Howard family to his mother, Mary, queen of Scots. This Henry Howard was the younger brother of Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk, who was re- headed in the reign of Elizabeth, for holding a treasonable correspondence with the queen of Scots. " Alas!" said Mary, when she was told of his death, " what have the noble house of the Howards suffered on my account !" James entered into all these feelings. He had scarcely arrived in London, on his first accession to the throne, before he restored to the family their lost honours. and created Henry earl of Northampton, who in complaisance to James, pro- fessed himself a Protestant. The main branch of the family, however, that is, Thomas Howard's son, and grandson, and their descendents, continued Catho. lics until about the middle of George the third's reign. Henry made use of his favour with James,, on all occasions, to befriend the Papists. Being wurden of the Cinque Ports, he connived at the entrance of the jesuits and Romish priests into the kingdom, though he thought it proper to institute his suit of seandalum magnatum, in the star chamber, against some persons who hap- pened to talk of this. Rapin says, that the truth of the report was proved by a letter under the earl's own hand to cardinal Bellarmine, which the archbishop of Canterbury (George Abbott, who was so opposed to popery that he was called a Puritan,) produced on the trial, and that upon this letter the parties accused were discharged, but in the report of the case by .Moore, (see Moore's Rep. 821), it is said, that they were grievously fined. In. a little more than a year afterwards the earl died, on the 15th of June, 1614; and, what corrobo- rated the truth of the charges against him, he declared in his last will and testament, that he had always been a Catholic, and would die in that rehgmm.
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Hypocrisy being most commonly the mother of every vice, it is almost unne- cessary to add, that historians have drawn his character in the most odious colours. It is very certain, that he was deeply concerned with his niece in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in order to facilitate her marriage with Carr, the king's favourite.
Viewing this man's character, and the situation of the Papists at this pe. riod of time, we are unavoidably led to connect his intentions in sending out this colony to Newfoundland, with those of Sir George Calvert, in about ele- ven years afterwards, whose motives were honestly and openly professed to be, that of forming an asylum for the Catholics. What inducements operated with lord Bacon, Mr. Justice Dodderidge, lord chief baron Tanfield, and others of the patentees less known, we are not informed; and are therefore to attribute to them the laudable motive of pursuing the public good, though perhaps blended with the prospect of private emolument. See Rapin's Hist. of Eng- land, Vol. 8, p. 8, 99, 101, 101, 131. Hume's Hist. Vol. 4, p. 247.
NOTE (K) p. 174.
Although the observations of Doctor Russell on indulgences, (in his History of Modern Europe, letter 55,) are here acceded to, yet it is not thereby meant to approve of his hypercriticism on what Mr. Hume has said on the same sub- ject, in Note (A) to chap. 29, of his Hist. of England. Mr. Hume was endea- vouring to show, that "the sale of indulgences was no more criminal than any other cheut of the church of Rome, or of any other church ;" which led him to remark, that "after all these indulgences were promulgated, there still re- mained (besides hell-fire,) the punishment by the civil magistrate, the infamy of the world," (which last sanction, a very powerful one, is, by the by, omitted by Doctor Russell in his quotation,) "and secret remorses of conscience, which are, the great motives that operate on mankind." On which the Doctor has thought it proper to bestow the following extraordinary language : "Now the first of these assertions" (by which the Doctor can mean nothing else than the existence of hell-fire,) " is literally false ; for the very words of an indulgence bore, that it restored the person to whom it was granted to that innocence and purity which he possessed at baptism; and according to the doctrine of the Romish church, the infant is then fit for Heaven. But the indulgence did not stop here; it concluded thus : ' so that when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened."" Not- withstanding Mr. Hume might have been here guilty of a small over-sight, in not a.tending to the operation of an indulgence, in exempting the sinner from hell-fire-a circumstance, on which he appears to lay very little stress, and that too probably, only in compliment to the believers in Christianity, relying upon the other " great motives" to morality which he mentions, yet he evidently means here only to check the exuberant declamation of "Protestant writers," upon the effects of indulgences. Pronouncing the sale of indulgences to be a " cheat," like other pious frauds committed by other churches as well as the
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Romish, he cannot fairly be said to be arguing in their favour. It must be ac- knowleged by those who suffer themselves to reason on such subjects, that the unbounded confidence, which is taught by modern fanatics to be placed in the efficiency of faith, in preference to good works, in obtaining salvation, has much the same pernicious effect on the moral conduct of human society, as "the actual grant of indulgences by the supreme pontiff of Rome.
NOTE (L) p. 177.
There is not, perhaps, any sect of the original reformers, which has admit- ted of a greater number of subdivisions, than that of the Anabaptists. The doctrine of the baptism of adults, being somewhat more consistent with rea- son, than that of infants, it seems to have been greedily adopted by many of the first reformers. With this principle as a foundation, they frequently con- nected the most ridiculous and absurd tenets ; still retaining, however, the name of Anabaptists. Several of them attempted, in the year 1535, at Amster- dam, to revive the doctrine of the Adamites, a Christian sect of the second century, whose principal tenet was to strip themselves naked during their reli- gious ceremonies. These Anabaptists exceeded the Adamites, for they parad- ed the streets stark naked, both men and women. Another schism happened among the Anabaptists, about the same time, at Iaerlem, in Holland. It owed its original, to the liberty which a young man there took, of putting his hand into the bosom of a young woman whom he loved, and had a mind to marry. This touch of her breast, came to the knowledge of their church; and there- upon they consulted what punishment the delinquent ought to suffer. Some maintained, that he ought to be excommunicated; others said, that his fault deserved favour, and would never consent to his excommunication. The dis- pute grew to such a heighth, that it caused a total rupture between the two parties. Those who declared for indulgence to the young man, were called Mamivarians, from Mamille, breasts. (See Buyle's Hist. Dict. Artic. Adamites, Mamillarians, and Picards.) A more inoffensive party of them, however, was formed about the same time, in Holland, by one of their principal chiefs, whose name was .Mennon, from whom they took the name of Mennonites, and subsist to this day. as a distinct sect, both in Europe and America. " Contrary to the mutinous and sanguinary principles of the original Anabaptists, they became altogether innocent and pacific. Holding it unlawful to wage war, or to ac. cept of civil offices, they devote themselves entirely to the duties of private citizens; and by their industry and charity, endeavour to make reparation to human society, for the violence committed by their founders. A small num- her of this sect, which is settled in England, retains its peculiar tenets con- cerning baptism, but without any dangerous mixture of enthusiasm." ( Rober :- echi's Hist. of Cha. V, book 5th.) They hold the principle also, of refusin,; oaths ; ( Proud's Hist. of Pennsyly. Vol. 2, p. 342;) which is probably what is meant by Robertson, in their refusing to accept of civil offices. A very carly Instance, in regard to them, occurs: about the time of the first revolt of the
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Dutch provinces from Spain, when only the two provinces of Zealand and Hol- land had become independent, the magistrates of the city of Middleburg, in Zealand, had prohibited the .Menists, as they were then called, from carrying on trade, and had caused their shops to be shut up, because they refused to take the usual oaths to the state. The prince of Orange, who still retained his power, as governour of Zealand and Holland, after an admonitory letter to the magistrates, dated January 26th, 1577, issued express orders to them, not to molest the Menists on account of their refusing the oaths. See these letters and orders in a book published by the Quakers, when they applied to Charles Il, of England, for the like liberty, in the year 1675, entitled "The Case of the people called Quakers, relating to oathis." The Menonists emigrated to Penn- sylvania, where their principal settlement in America is, as early as the year 1698, some in 1706, 1709, and 1711, but most of them in 1717; when, in a very extraordinary manner as it appears, the Quakers of that province, notwith- standing the similarity of their tenets, expressed great uneasiness at their coming there. See Proud's Hist. of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, p. 100. Acts of as- sembly in Maryland, provide for the indulgence of them in refusing oaths, put- ting their affirmation upon the same footing as that of the Quakers; but it is doubtful, whether any of them be settled in that state. Lancaster, the place of their principal residence, being in the neighbourhood of Maryland, it is possible that their frequent intercourse in that state, might have occasioned a legislative provision in their favour.
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