Chapter III: Part 3

But to set by these things that happened unto me at Sea, I am now upon Land, and there I’le keep my self if I can, and for four years I am pretty sure of my restraint; and had I known my yoak would have been so easie, (as I conceive it will) I would have been here long before now, rather then to have dwelt under the pressure of a Rebellious and Trayterous Government so long as I did. I dwell now by providence in the Province of _Mary-Land_, (under the quiet Government of the Lord _Baltemore_) which Country a bounds in a most glorious prosperity and plenty of all things. And though the Infancy of her situation might plead an excuse to those several imperfections, (if she were guilty of any of them) which by {91} scandalous and imaginary conjectures are falsly laid to her charge, and which she values with so little notice or perceivance of discontent, that she hardly alters her visage with a frown, to let them know she is angry with such a Rascality of people, that loves nothing better then their own sottish and abusive acclamations of baseness: To be short, the Country (so far forth as I have seen into it) is incomparable.

Here is a sort of naked Inhabitants, or wilde people, that have for many ages I believe lived here in the Woods of _Mary-Land_, as well as in other parts of the Continent, before e’er it was by the Christian Discoverers found out; being a people strange to behold, as well in their looks, which by confused paintings makes them seem dreadful, as in their sterne and heroick gate and deportments, the Men are mighty tall and big limbed, the Women not altogether so large; they are most of them very well featured, did not their wilde and ridiculous dresses alter their original excellencies: The men are great Warriours and Hunters, the Women ingenious and laborious Housewives.

As to matter of their Worship, they own no other Deity then the Devil, and him more out of a slavish fear, then any real devotion, or willing acknowledgement to his Hellish power. They live in little small Bark-Cottages, in the remote parts of the Woods, killing and slaying the several Animals that they meet withall to make provision of, dressing their {92} several Hydes and Skins to Trafique withall, when a conveniency of Trade presents. I would go on further, but like Doctor _Case_, when he had not a word more to speak for himself, _I am afraid my beloved I have kept you too long_. Now he that made you save you. _Amen._

_Yours to command_, G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, _Febr._ 6. _Anno_

And not to forget _Tom Forge_ I beseech you, tell him that my Love’s the same towards him still, and as firm as it was about the overgrown Tryal, when Judgements upon judgements, had not I stept in, would have pursued him untill the day of Judgement, _&c._

_To my Father at his House._

SIR,

After my Obedience (at so great and vast a distance) has humbly saluted you and my good Mother, with the cordialest of my prayers, wishes, and desires to wait upon you, with the very best of their effectual devotion, wishing from the very Center of my Soul your flourishing and well-being here upon Earth, and your glorious and everlasting happiness in the World to Come. {93}

These lines (my dear Parents) come from that Son which by an irregular Fate was removed from his Native home, and after a five months dangerous passage, was landed on the remote Continent of _America_, in the Province of _Mary-Land_, where now by providence I reside. To give you the particulars of the several accidents that happened in our voyage by Sea, it would swell a Journal of some sheets, and therefore too large and tedious for a Letter: I think it therefore necessary to bind up the relation in Octavo, and give it you in short.

We had a blowing and dangerous passage of it, and for some dayes after I arrived, I was an absolute _Copernicus_, it being one main point of my moral Creed, to believe the World had a pair of long legs, and walked with the burthen of the Creation upon her back. For to tell you the very truth of it, for some dayes upon Land, after so long and tossing a passage, I was so giddy that I could hardly tread an even step; so that all things both above and below (that was in view) appeared to me like the _Kentish Britains_ to _William the Conqueror_, in a moving posture.

Those few number of weeks since my arrival, has given me but little experience to write any thing large of the Country; only thus much I can say, and that not from any imaginary conjectures, but from an occular observation, That this Country of _Mary-Land_ abounds in a flourishing variety of delightful Woods, {94} pleasant groves, lovely Springs, together with spacious Navigable Rivers and Creeks, it being a most helthful and pleasant situation, so far as my knowledge has yet had any view in it.

Herds of Deer are as numerous in this Province of _Mary-Land_, as Cuckolds can be in _London_, only their horns are not so well drest and tipt with silver as theirs are.

Here if the Devil had such a Vagary in his head as he had once among the _Gadareans_, he might drown a thousand head of Hogs and they’d ne’re be miss’d, for the very Woods of this Province swarms with them.

The Christian Inhabitant of this Province, as to the general, lives wonderful well and contented: The Government of this Province is by the loyalness of the people, and loving demeanor of the Proprietor and Governor of the same, kept in a continued peace and unity.

The Servant of this Province, which are stigmatiz’d for Slaves by the clappermouth jaws of the vulgar in _England_, live more like Freemen then the most Mechanick Apprentices in _London_, wanting for nothing that is convenient and necessary, and according to their several capacities, are extraordinary well used and respected. So leaving things here as I found them, and lest I should commit Sacriledge upon your more serious meditations, with the Tautologies of a long-winded Letter, I’le subscribe with a {95} heavenly Ejaculation to the God of Mercy to preserve you now and for evermore, _Amen_.

_Your Obedient Son_, G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, _Jan._ 17. _Anno_

_To my much Honored Friend_ Mr. M. F.

SIR,

You writ to me when I was at _Gravesend_, (but I had no conveniency to send you an answer till now) enjoyning me, if possible, to give you a just Information by my diligent observance, what thing were best and most profitable to send into this Country for a commodious Trafique.

_Sir_, The enclosed will demonstrate unto you both particularly and at large, to the full satisfaction of your desire, it being an Invoyce drawn as exact to the business you imployed me upon, as my weak capacity could extend to.

_Sir_, If you send any Adventure to this Province, let me beg to give you this advice in it; That the Factor whom you imploy be a man of a Brain, otherwise the Planter will go near to make a Skimming-dish of his Skull: I know your Genius can interpret my meaning. The people of this place (whether the saltness of the Ocean gave them any alteration when they went over first, or their continual dwelling under {96} the remote Clyme where they now inhabit, I know not) are a more acute people in general, in matters of Trade and Commerce, then in any other place of the World (see note No. 60), and by their crafty and sure bargaining, do often over-reach the raw and unexperienced Merchant. To be short, he that undertakes Merchants imployment for _Mary-Land_, must have more of Knave in him then Fool; he must not be a windling piece of Formality, that will lose his Imployers Goods for Conscience sake; nor a flashy piece of Prodigality, that will give his Merchants fine Hollands, Laces, and Silks, to purchase the benevolence of a Female: But he must be a man of solid confidence, carrying alwayes in his looks the Effigies of an Execution upon Command, if he supposes a baffle or denyal of payment, where a debt for his Imployer is legally due. (See note No. 61).

_Sir_, I had like almost to forgot to tell you in what part of the World I am: I dwell by providence Servant to Mr. _Thomas Stocket_ (see note No. 62), in the County of _Baltemore_, within the Province of _Mary-Land_, under the Government of the Lord _Baltemore_, being a Country abounding with the variety and diversity of all that is or may be rare. But lest I should Tantalize you with a relation of that which is very unlikely of your enjoying, by reason of that strong Antipathy you have ever had ’gainst Travel, as to your own particular: I’le only tell you, that _Mary-Land_ is seated within the large extending armes {97} of _America_, between the Degrees of 36 and 38, being in Longitude from _England_ eleven hundred and odd Leagues.

Vale.

G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, _Jan._ 17. _Anno_

_To my Honored Friend_ Mr. T. B. _at his House_.

SIR,

Yours I received, wherein I find my self much obliged to you for your good opinion of me, I return you millions of thanks.

_Sir_, you wish me well, and I pray God as well that those wishes may light upon me, and then I question not but all will do well. Those Pictures you sent sewed up in a Pastboard, with a Letter tacked on the outside, you make no mention at all what should be done with them: If they are Saints, unless I knew their names, I could make no use of them. Pray in your next let me know what they are, for my fingers itch to be doing with them one way or another. Our Government here hath had a small fit of a Rebellious Quotidian, (see note No. 63), but five Grains of the powder of Subvertment has qualified it. Pray be larger in your next how things stand in _England_: I understand His Majesty is return’d with Honour, and seated in the hereditary Throne of his Father; God {98} bless him from Traytors, and the Church from Sacrilegious Schisms, and you as a loyal Subject to the one, and a true Member to the other; while you so continue, the God of order, peace and tranquility, bless and preserve you, _Amen_.

_Vale._

_Your real Friend_, G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, Febr. 20. _Anno_

_To my Honored Father at his House._

SIR,

VVith a twofold unmeasurable joy I received your Letter: First, in the consideration of Gods great Mercy to you in particular, (though weak and aged) yet to give you dayes among the living. Next, that his now most Excellent Majesty _Charles_ the Second, is by the omnipotent Providence of God, seated in the Throne of his Father. I hope that God has placed him there, will give him a heart to praise and magnifie his name for ever, and a hand of just Revenge, to punish the murthering and rebellious Outrages of those Sons of shame and Apostacy, that Usurped the Throne of his Sacred Honour. Near about the time I received your Letter, (or a little before) here sprang up in this Province of _Mary-Land_ a kind of pigmie Rebellion: A company of {99} weak-witted men, which thought to have traced the steps of _Oliver_ in Rebellion (see note No. 63). They began to be mighty stiff and hidebound in their proceedings, clothing themselves with the flashy pretences of future and imaginary honour, and (had they not been suddenly quell’d) they might have done so much mischief (for aught I know) that nothing but utter ruine could have ransomed their headlong follies.

His Majesty appearing in _England_, he quickly (by the splendor of his Rayes) thawed the stiffness of their frozen and slippery intentions. All things (blessed be God for it) are at peace and unity here now: And as _Luther_ being asked once, What he thought of some small Opinions that started up in his time? answered, _That he thought them to be good honest people, exempting their error_: So I judge of these men, That their thoughts were not so bad at first, as their actions would have led them into in process of time.

I have here enclosed sent you something written in haste upon the Kings coming to the enjoyment of his Throne, with a reflection upon the former sad and bad times; I have done them as well as I could, considering all things: If they are not so well as they should be, all I can do is to wish them better for your sakes. My Obedience to you and my Mother alwayes devoted.

_Your Son_ G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, Febr. 9. _Anno_

{100}

_To my Cosen_ Mris. Ellinor Evins.

E’ _re I forget the Zenith of your Love,_
L  _et me be banisht from the Thrones above;_
L  _ight let me never see, when I grow rude,_
I  _ntomb your Love in base Ingratitude:_
N  _or may I prosper, but the state_
O  _f gaping_ Tantalus _be my fate;_
R  _ather then I should thus preposterous grow,_
E  _arth would condemn me to her vaults below._
V  _ertuous and Noble, could my Genius raise_
I  _mmortal Anthems to your Vestal praise,_
N  _one should be more laborious than I,_
S  _aint-like to Canonize you to the Sky._

The Antimonial Cup (dear Cosen) you sent me, I had; and as soon as I received it, I went to work with the Infirmities and Diseases of my body. At the first draught, it made such havock among the several humors that had stolen into my body, that like a Conjurer in a room among a company of little Devils, they no sooner hear him begin to speak high words, but away they pack, and happy is he that can get out first, some up the Chimney, and the rest down stairs, till they are all disperst. So those malignant humors of my body, feeling the operative power, and medicinal virtue of this Cup, were so amazed at their sudden surprizal, (being alwayes before battered only by the weak assaults of some few Empyricks) they stood not long to dispute, but with joynt consent {101} made their retreat, some running through the sink of the Skullery, the rest climbing up my ribs, took my mouth for a Garret-window, and so leapt out.

_Cosen_, For this great kindness of yours, in sending me this medicinal vertue, I return you my thanks: It came in a very good time, when I was dangerously sick, and by the assistance of God it hath perfectly recovered me.

I have sent you here a few Furrs, they were all I could get at present, I humbly beg your acceptance of them, as a pledge of my love and thankfulness unto you; I subscribe,

_Your loving Cosen_, G. A.

From _Mary Land_, _Dec._ 9. _Anno_

_To My Brother_ P. A.

BROTHER,

I have made a shift to unloose my self from my Collar now as well as you, but I see at present either small pleasure or profit in it: What the futurality of my dayes will bring forth, I know not; For while I was linckt with the Chain of a restraining Servitude, I had all things cared for, and now I have all things to care for my self, which makes me almost to wish my self in for the other four years.

Liberty without money, is like a man opprest with the Gout, every step he puts forward puts him to {102} pain; when on the other side, he that has Coyn with his Liberty, is like the swift Post-Messenger of the Gods, that wears wings at his heels, his motion being swift or slow, as he pleaseth.

I received this year two Caps, the one white, of an honest plain countenance, the other purple, which I conceive to be some antient Monumental Relique; which of them you sent I know not, and it was a wonder how I should, for there was no mention in the Letter, more then, _that my Brother had sent me a Cap_: They were delivered me in the company of some Gentlemen that ingaged me to write a few lines upon the purple one, and because they were my Friends I could not deny them; and here I present them to you as they were written.

_Haile from the dead, or from Eternity,_
_Thou Velvit Relique of Antiquity;_
_Thou which appear’st here in thy purple hew,_
_Tell’s how the dead within their Tombs do doe;_
_How those Ghosts fare within each Marble Cell,_
_Where amongst them for Ages thou didst dwell._
_What Brain didst cover there? tell us that we_
_Upon our knees vayle Hats to honour thee:_
_And if no honour’s due, tell us whose pate_
_Thou basely coveredst, and we’l joyntly hate:_
_Let’s know his name, that we may shew neglect;_
_If otherwise, we’l kiss thee with respect._
_Say, didst thou cover Noll’s old brazen head,_
_Which on the top of Westminster high Lead_ {103}
_Stands on a Pole, erected to the sky,_
_As a grand Trophy to his memory._
_From his perfidious skull didst thou fall down,_
_In a dis-dain to honour such a crown_
_With three-pile Velvet? tell me, hadst thou thy fall_
_From the high top of that Cathedral?_
_None of the_ Heroes _of the_ Roman _stem,_
_Wore ever such a fashion’d Diadem,_
_Didst thou speak_ Turkish _in thy unknown dress,_
_Thou’dst cover_ Great Mogull, _and no man less;_
_But in thy make methinks thou’rt too too scant,_
_To be so great a Monarch’s Turberant._
_The_ Jews _by_ Moses _swear, they never knew_
_E’re such a Cap drest up in_ Hebrew:
_Nor the strict Order of the_ Romish _See,_
_Wears any Cap that looks so base as thee;_
_His Holiness hates thy Lowness, and instead,_
_Wears Peters spired Steeple on his head:_
_The Cardinals descent is much more flat,_
_For want of name, baptized is_ A Hat;
_Through each strict Order has my fancy ran,_
_Both_ Ambrose, Austin, _and the_ Franciscan,
_Where I beheld rich Images of the dead,_
_Yet scarce had one a Cap upon his head:_
Episcopacy _wears Caps, but not like thee,_
_Though several shap’d, with much diversity:_
_’Twere best I think I presently should gang_
_To_ Edenburghs _strict_ Presbyterian;
_But Caps they’ve none, their ears being made so large,_
_Serves them to turn it like a_ Garnesey _Barge;_
_Those keep their skulls warm against North-west gusts,_
_When they in Pulpit do poor_ Calvin _curse._ {104}
_Thou art not_ Fortunatus, _for I daily see,_
_That which I wish is farthest off from me:_
_Thy low-built state none ever did advance,_
_To christen thee the_ Cap of Maintenance;
_Then till I know from whence thou didst derive,_
_Thou shalt be call’d, the_ Cap of Fugitive.

You writ to me this year to send you some Smoak; at that instant it made me wonder that a man of a rational Soul, having both his eyes (blessed be God) should make so unreasonable a demand, when he that has but one eye, nay he which has never a one, and is fain to make use of an Animal conductive for his optick guidance, cannot endure the prejudice that Smoak brings with it: But since you are resolv’d upon it, I’le dispute it no farther.

I have sent you that which will make Smoak, (namely Tobacco) though the Funk it self is so slippery that I could not send it, yet I have sent you the Substance from whence the Smoak derives: What use you imploy it to I know not, nor will I be too importunate to know; yet let me tell you this, That if you burn it in a room to affright the Devil from the house, you need not fear but it will work the same effect, as _Tobyes_ galls did upon the leacherous Fiend. No more at present. _Vale._

_Your Brother_, G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, _Dec._ 11. _Anno_

{105}

_To my Honored Friend_ Mr. T. B.

SIR,

This is the entrance upon my fifth year, and I fear ’twill prove the worst: I have been very much troubled with a throng of unruly Distempers, that have (contrary to my expectation) crouded into the Main-guard of my body, when the drowsie Sentinels of my brain were a sleep. Where they got in I know not, but to my grief and terror I find them predominant: Yet as Doctor _Dunne_, sometimes Dean of St. _Pauls, said, That the bodies diseases do but mellow a man for Heaven, and so ferments him in this World, as he shall need no long concoction in the Grave, but hasten to the Resurrection_. And if this were weighed seriously in the Ballance of Religious Reason, the World we dwell in would not seem so inticing and bewitching as it doth.

We are only sent by God of an Errand into this World, and the time that’s allotted us for to stay, is only for an Answer. When God my great Master shall in good earnest call me home, which these warnings tell me I have not long to stay, I hope then I shall be able to give him a good account of my Message.

_Sir_, My weakness gives a stop to my writing, my hand being so shakingly feeble, that I can hardly hold my pen any further then to tell you, I am yours {106} while I live, which I believe will be but some few minutes.

If this Letter come to you before I’me dead, pray for me, but if I am gone, pray howsoever, for they can do me no harm if they come after me.

_Vale._

_Your real Friend_, G. A.

From _Mary-Land_, Dec. 13. _Anno_

_To my Parents._

From the Grave or Receptacle of Death am I raised, and by an omnipotent power made capable of offering once more my Obedience (that lies close cabbined in the inwardmost apartment of my Soul) at the feet of your immutable Loves.

My good Parents, God hath done marvellous things for me, far beyond my deserts, which at best were preposterously sinful, and unsuitable to the sacred will of an Almighty: _But he is merciful, and his mercy endures for ever._ When sinful man has by his Evils and Iniquities pull’d some penetrating Judgment upon his head, and finding himself immediately not able to stand under so great a burthen as Gods smallest stroke of Justice, lowers the Top-gallant sayle of his Pride, and with an humble submissiveness prostrates himself before the Throne of his sacred Mercy, and {107} like those three Lepars that sate at the Gate of _Samaria_, resolved, _If we go into the City we shall perish, and if we stay here we shall perish also: Therefore we will throw our selves into the hands of the_ Assyrians _and if we perish, we perish_: This was just my condition as to eternal state; my soul was at a stand in this black storm of affliction: I view’d the World, and all that’s pleasure in her, and found her altogether flashy, aiery, and full of notional pretensions, and not one firm place where a distressed Soul could hang his trust on. Next I viewed my self, and there I found, instead of good Works, lively Faith, and Charity, a most horrid neast of condemned Evils, bearing a supreme Prerogative over my internal faculties. You’l say here was little hope of rest in this extreme Eclipse, being in a desperate amaze to see my estate so deplorable: My better Angel urged me to deliver up my aggrievances to the Bench of Gods Mercy, the sure support of all distressed Souls: His Heavenly warning, and inward whispers of the good Spirit I was resolv’d to entertain, and not quench, and throw my self into the armes of a loving God, _If I perish, I perish_. ’Tis beyond wonder to think of the love of God extended to sinful man, that in the deepest distresses or agonies of Affliction, when all other things prove rather hinderances then advantages, even at that time God is ready and steps forth to the supportment of his drooping Spirit. Truly, about a fortnight before I wrote this Letter, two of our ablest Physicians {108} rendered me up into the hands of God, the universal Doctor of the whole World, and subscribed with a silent acknowledgement, That all their Arts, screw’d up to the very Zenith of Scholastique perfection, were not capable of keeping me from the Grave at that time: But God, the great preserver of Soul and Body, said contrary to the expectation of humane reason, _Arise, take up thy bed and walk_.

I am now (through the help of my Maker) creeping up to my former strength and vigour, and every day I live, I hope I shall, through the assistance of divine Grace, climbe nearer and nearer to my eternal home.

I have received this year three Letters from you, one by Capt. _Conway_ Commander of the _Wheat-Sheaf_, the others by a _Bristol_ Ship. Having no more at present to trouble you with, but expecting your promise, I remain as ever,

_Your dutiful Son_, G. A.

_Mary-Land_, _April_ 9. _Anno_

I desire my hearty love may be remembered to my Brother, and the rest of my Kinred.

FINIS.

{109}

NOTES.

_Note_ 1, _page_ 15.

After having resolved to reprint Alsop’s early account of Maryland, as an addition to my _Bibliotheca Americana_, I immediately fell in with a difficulty which I had not counted on. After much inquiry and investigation, I could find no copy to print from among all my earnest book collecting acquaintances. At length some one informed me that Mr. Bancroft the historian had a copy in his library. I immediately took the liberty of calling on him and making known my wants, he generously offered to let me have the use of it for the purpose stated, I carried the book home, had it carefully copied, but unfortunately during the process I discovered the text was imperfect as well as deficient in both portrait and map. Like Sisyphus I had to begin anew, and do nearly all my labor over; I sent to London to learn if the functionaries in the British Museum would permit a tracing of the portrait and map to be made from their copy, the answer returned was, that they would or could not permit this, but I might perfect my text if I so choosed by copying from theirs. Here I was once more at sea without compass, rudder, or chart: I made known my condition to an eminent and judicious collector of old American literature in the city of New York, he very frankly informed me that he could aid me in my difficulty by letting me have the use of a copy, which would relieve me from my present dilemma. I was greatly rejoiced at this discovery as well as by the generosity of the owner. The following day the book was put into my possession, and so by the aid of it was enabled to complete the text. Here another difficulty burst into view, this copy had no portrait. That being the only defect in perfecting a copy of Alsop’s book, I now resolved to proceed and publish it without a portrait, but perhaps fortunately, making known this resolve to some of the knowing ones in book gathering, they remonstrated against this course, adding that it would ruin the book in the estimation of all who would buy such a rarity. I was inclined to listen favorably to this protest, and therefore had to commence a new effort to obtain a portrait. I then laid about me again to try and procure a copy that had one: I knew that not more than three or four collectors in the country who were likely to have such an heir-loom. To one living at a considerable distance from New York I took the liberty of addressing a letter on the subject, wherein I made known my difficulties. To my great gratification this courteous and confiding gentleman not only immediately made answer, but sent a perfect copy of this rare and much wanted book for my use. I immediately had the {110} portrait and map reproduced by the photo-lithographic process. During the time the book was in my possession, which was about ten days, so fearful was I that any harm should befall it that I took the precaution to wrap up the precious little volume in tissue paper and carry it about with me all the time in my side pocket, well knowing that if it was either injured or lost I could not replace it. I understand that a perfect copy of the original in the London market would bring fifty pounds sterling. I had the satisfaction to learn it reached the generous owner in safety.

Had I known the difficulties I had to encounter of procuring a copy of the original of Alsop’s singular performance, I most certainly would never have undertaken to reproduce it in America. Mr. Jared Sparks told me that he had a like difficulty to encounter when he undertook to write the life of Ledyard the traveler. Said he: “a copy of his journal I could find nowhere to purchase, at length I was compelled to borrow a copy on very humiliating conditions; the owner perhaps valued it too highly.” I may add that I had nearly as much difficulty in securing an editor, as I had in procuring a perfect copy. However on this point I at last was very fortunate.

WILLIAM GOWANS.

115 Nassau street, March 23d, 1869.

_Note_ 2, _page_ 19.

Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, eldest son of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, and Anne Wynne of Hertingfordbury, England, was born in 1606. He succeeded to the title April 15, 1632, and married Anne, daughter of Lord Arundel, whose name was given to a county in Maryland. His rule over Maryland, disturbed in Cromwell’s time, but restored under Charles II, has always been extolled. He died Nov. 30, 1675, covered with age and reputation.—_O’Callaghan’s N. Y. Col. Doc._, II. p. 74.

_Note_ 3, _page_ 19.

Avalon, the territory in Newfoundland, of which the first Lord Baltimore obtained a grant in 1623, derived its name from the spot in England where, as tradition said, Christianity was first preached by Joseph of Arimathea.

_Note_ 4, _page_ 21.

Owen Feltham, as our author in his errata correctly gives the name, was an author who enjoyed a great reputation in his day. His _Resolves_ appeared first about 1620, and in 1696 had reached the eleventh edition. They were once reprinted in the 18th century, and in full or in part four times in the {111} 19th, and an edition appeared in America about 1830. Hallam in spite of this popularity calls him “labored, artificial and shallow.”

_Note_ 5, _page_ 24.

Burning on the hand was not so much a punishment as a mark on those who, convicted of felony, pleaded the benefit of clergy, which they were allowed to do once only.

_Note_ 6, _page_ 25.

Literally: “Good wine needs no sign.”

_Note_ 7, _page_ 26.

Billingsgate is the great fish market of London, and the scurrilous tongues of the fish women have made the word synonymous with vulgar abuse.

_Note_ 8, _page_ 28.

Alsop though cautiously avoiding Maryland politics, omits no fling at the Puritans. Pride was a parliament colonel famous for _Pride’s Purge_.

_Notes_ 9, 10, _pages_ 31, 33.

William Bogherst, and H. W., Master of Arts, have eluded all our efforts to immortalize them.

_Note_ 11, _page_ 35.

Chesapeake is said to be K’tchisipik, Great Water, in Algonquin.

_Note_ 12, _page_ 38.

Less bombast and some details as to the botany of Maryland would have been preferable.

_Note_ 13, _page_ 39.

The American deer (_Cariacus Virginianus_) is here evidently meant. {112}

_Note_ 14, _page_ 39.

Whetston’s (Whetstone) park: “A dilapidated street in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, at the back of Holborn. It contains scarcely anything but old, half-tumble down houses; not a living plant of any kind adorns its nakedness, so it is presumable that as a park it never had an existence, or one so remote that even tradition has lost sight of the fact.”

_Note_ 15, _page_ 39.

The animals here mentioned are the black wolf (_canis occidentalis_), the black bear, the panther (_felis concolor_).

_Note_ 16, _page_ 40.

These animals are well known, the elk (_alces Americanus_), cat o’ the mountain or catamount (_felis concolor_), raccoon (_procyon lotor_), fox (_vulpes fulvus_), beaver (_castor fiber_), otter (_lutra_), opossum (_didelphys Virginiana_), hare, squirrel, musk-rat (_fiber zibethicus_). The monack is apparently the Maryland marmot or woodchuck (_arctomys monax_).

_Note_ 17, _page_ 40.

The domestic animals came chiefly from Virginia. As early as May 27, 1634, they got 100 swine from Accomac, with 30 cows, and they expected goats and hens (_Relation of Maryland_, 1634). Horses and sheep had to be imported from England, Virginia being unable to give any. Yet in 1679 Dankers and Sluyters, the Labadists, say: “Sheep they have none.”—_Collections Long Island Hist. Soc._, I, p. 218.

_Note_ 18, _page_ 41.

Alluding to the herds of swine kept by the Gadarenes, into one of which the Saviour allowed the devil named Legion to enter.

_Note_ 19, _page_ 42.

The abundance of these birds is mentioned in the _Relations of Maryland_, 1634, p. 22, and 1635, p. 23. The Labadists with whose travels the Hon. {113} H. C. Murphy has enriched our literature, found the geese in 1679–80 so plentiful and noisy as to prevent their sleeping, and the ducks filling the sky like a cloud.—_Long Island Hist. Coll._, I, pp. 195, 204.

_Note_ 20, _page_ 43.

Alsop makes no allusion to the cultivation of maize, yet the Labadists less than twenty years after describe it at length as the principal grain crop of Maryland.—_Ib._, p. 216.

_Note_ 21, _page_ 45.

Considering the facts of history, this picture is sadly overdrawn, Maryland having had its full share of civil war.

_Note_ 22, _page_ 46.

The fifth monarchy men were a set of religionists who arose during the Puritan rule in England. They believed in a fifth universal monarchy of which Christ was to be the head, under whom they, his saints, were to possess the earth. In 1660 they caused an outbreak in London, in which many were killed and others tried and executed. Their leader was one Venner. The Adamites, a gnostic sect, who pretended that regenerated man should go naked like Adam and Eve in their state of innocence, were revived during the Puritan rule in England; and in our time in December, 1867, we have seen the same theory held and practiced in Newark, N. J.

_Note_ 23, _page_ 46.

In the provisional act, passed in the first assembly, March 19, 1638, and entitled “An Act ordaining certain laws for the government of this province,” the twelfth section required that “every person planting tobacco shall plant and tend two acres of corn.” A special act was introduced the same session and read twice, but not passed. A new law was passed, however, Oct. 23, 1640, renewed Aug. 1, 1642, April 21, 1649, Oct. 20, 1654, April 12, 1662, and made perpetual in 1676. These acts imposed a fine of fifty pounds of tobacco for every half acre the offender fell short, besides fifty pounds of the same current leaf as constables’ fees. It was to this persistent enforcement of the cultivation of cereals that Maryland so soon became the granary of New England. {114}

_Note_ 24, _page_ 47.

The Assembly, or House of Burgesses, at first consisted of all freemen, but they gradually gave place to delegates. The influence of the proprietary, however, decided the selection. In 1650 fourteen burgesses met as delegates or representatives of the several hundreds, there being but two counties organized, St. Marys and the Isle of Kent. Ann Arundel, called at times Providence county, was erected April 29, 1650. Patuxent was erected under Cromwell in 1654.—_Bacon’s Laws of Maryland_, 1765.

_Note_ 25, _page_ 47.

Things had changed when the _Sot Weed Factor_ appeared, as the author of that satirical poem dilates on the litigious character of the people.

_Note_ 26, _page_ 47.

The allusion here I have been unable to discover.

_Note_ 27, _page_ 48.

The colony seems to have justified some of this eulogy by its good order, which is the more remarkable, considering the height of party feeling.

_Note_ 28, _page_ 48.

Halberdeers; the halberd was smaller than the partisan, with a sharp pointed blade, with a point on one side like a pole-axe.

_Note_ 29, _page_ 49.

Newgate, Ludgate and Bridewell are the well known London prisons.

_Note_ 30, _page_ 50.

Our author evidently failed from this cause. {115}

_Note_ 31, _page_ 50.

A fling at the various Puritan schools, then active at home and abroad.

_Note_ 32, _page_ 50.

The first Quakers in Maryland were Elizabeth Harris, Josiah Cole, and Thomas Thurston, who visited it in 1657, but as early as July 23, 1659, the governor and council issued an order to seize any Quakers and whip them from constable to constable out of the province. Yet in spite of this they had settled meetings as early as 1661, and Peter Sharpe, the Quaker physician, appears as a landholder in 1665, the very year of Alsop’s publication.—_Norris, Early Friends or Quakers in Maryland_ (Maryland Hist. Soc., March, 1862).

_Note_ 33, _page_ 50.

The Baptists centering in Rhode Island, extended across Long Island to New Jersey, and thence to New York city; but at this time had not reached the south.

_Note_ 34, _page_ 56.

A copy of the usual articles is given in the introduction. Alsop here refutes current charges against the Marylanders for their treatment of servants. Hammond, in his _Leah and Rachel_, p. 12, says: “The labour servants are put to is not so hard, nor of such continuance as husbandmen nor handecraftmen are kept at in England. . . . . The women are not (as is reported) put into the ground to worke, but occupie such domestic imployments and housewifery as in England.”

_Note_ 35, _page_ 59.

Laws as to the treatment of servants were passed in the Provisional act of 1638, and at many subsequent assemblies.

_Notes_ 36, 37, _pages_ 59, 61.

Lewknors lane or Charles street was in Drury lane, in the parish of St. Giles.—_Seymour’s History of London_, II, p. 767. Finsbury is still a well known quarter, in St. Luke’s parish, Middlesex. {116}

_Note_ 38, _page_ 65.

Nicholas Culpepper, “student in physic and astrology,” whose _English Physician_, published in 1652, ran through many editions, and is still a book published and sold.

_Note_ 39, _page_ 65.

Dogs dung, used in dressing morocco, is euphemized into _album græcum_, and is also called _pure_; those who gather it being still styled in England pure-finders.—_Mayhew, London Labor and London Poor_, II, p. 158.

_Note_ 40, _page_ 65.

He has not mentioned tobacco as a crop, but describes it fully a few pages after. In Maryland as in Virginia it was the currency. Thus in 1638 an act authorized the erection of a water-mill to supersede hand-mills for grinding grain, and the cost was limited to 20,000 lbs. of tobacco.—_McSherry’s History of Maryland_, p. 56. The Labadists in their _Travels_ (p. 216) describe the cultivation at length. Tobacco at this time paid two shillings English a cask export duty in Maryland, and two-pence a pound duty on its arrival in England, besides weighing and other fees.

_Note_ 41, _page_ 66.

The Parson of Pancras is unknown to me: but the class he represents is certainly large.

_Note_ 42, _page_ 66.

The buffalo was not mentioned in the former list, and cannot be considered as synonymous with elk.

_Note_ 43, _page_ 67.

For satisfactory and correct information of the present commerce and condition of Maryland, the reader is referred to the _Census of the United States_ in 4 vols., 4to, published at Washington, 1865. {117}

_Note_ 44, _page_ 69.

This is a curious observation as to New England trade. A century later Hutchinson represents Massachusetts as receiving Maryland flour from the Pennsylvania mills, and paying in money and bills of exchange.—_Hist. of Massachusetts_, p. II, 397.

_Note_ 45, _page_ 69.

The trade with Barbadoes, now insignificant, was in our colonial times of great importance to all the colonies. Barbadoes is densely peopled and thoroughly cultivated; its imports and exports are each about five millions of dollars annually.

_Note_ 46, _page_ 71.

The Susquehannas. This _Relation_ is one of the most valuable portions of Alsop’s tract, as no other Maryland document gives as much concerning this tribe, which nevertheless figures extensively in Maryland annals. Dutch and Swedish writers speak of a tribe called Minquas (Minquosy, Machœretini in _De Laet_, p. 76); the French in Canada (_Champlain_, the _Jesuit Relations, Gendron, Particularitez du Pays des Hurons_, p. 7, etc.), make frequent allusion to the Gandastogués (more briefly Andastés), a tribe friendly to their allies the Hurons, and sturdy enemies of the Iroquois; later still Pennsylvania writers speak of the Conestogas, the tribe to which Logan belonged, and the tribe which perished at the hands of the Paxton boys. Although Gallatin in his map, followed by Bancroft, placed the Andastés near Lake Erie, my researches led me to correct this, and identify the Susquehannas, Minqua, Andastés or Gandastogués and Conestogas as being all the same tribe, the first name being apparently an appellation given them by the Virginia tribes; the second that given them by the Algonquins on the Delaware; while Gandastogué as the French, or Conestoga as the English wrote it, was their own tribal name, meaning cabin-pole men, _Natio Perticarum_, from Andasta, a cabin-pole (map in Creuxius, _Historia Canadensis_). I forwarded a paper on the subject to Mr. Schoolcraft, for insertion in the government work issuing under his supervision. It was inserted in the last volume without my name, and ostensibly as Mr. Schoolcraft’s. I then gave it with my name in the _Historical Magazine_, vol. II, p. 294. The result arrived at there has been accepted by Bancroft, in his large paper edition, by Parkman, in his _Jesuits in the Wilderness_, by Dr. O’Callaghan, S. F. Streeter, Esq., of the Maryland Historical Society, and students generally. {118}

From the Virginian, Dutch, Swedish and French authorities, we can thus give their history briefly.

The territory now called Canada, and most of the northern portion of the United States, from Lake Superior and the Mississippi to the mouth of the St. Lawrence and Chesapeake bay were, when discovered by Europeans, occupied by two families of tribes, the Algonquin and the Huron Iroquois. The former which included all the New England tribes, the Micmacs, Mohegans, Delawares, Illinois, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes, Miamis, and many of the Maryland and Virginian tribes surrounded the more powerful and civilized tribes who have been called Huron Iroquois, from the names of the two most powerful nations of the group, the Hurons or Wyandots of Upper Canada, and the Iroquois or Five Nations of New York. Besides these the group included the Neuters on the Niagara, the Dinondadies in Upper Canada, the Eries south of the lake of that name, the Andastogués or Susquehannas on that river, the Nottaways and some other Virginian tribes, and finally the Tuscaroras in North Carolina and perhaps the Cherokees, whose language presents many striking points of similarity.

Both these groups of tribes claimed a western origin, and seem, in their progress east, to have driven out of Ohio the Quappas, called by the Algonquins, Alkansas or Allegewi, who retreated down the Ohio and Mississippi to the district which has preserved the name given them by the Algonquins.

After planting themselves on the Atlantic border, the various tribes seem to have soon divided and become embroiled in war. The Iroquois, at first inferior to the Algonquins were driven out of the valley of the St. Lawrence into the lake region of New York, where by greater cultivation, valor and union they soon became superior to the Algonquins of Canada and New York, as the Susquehannas who settled on the Susquehanna did over the tribes in New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. (_Du Ponceau’s Campanius_, p. 158.) Prior to 1600 the Susquehannas and the Mohawks, the most eastern Iroquois tribe, came into collision, and the Susquehannas nearly exterminated the Mohawks in a war which lasted ten years. (_Relation de la Nouv. France_, 1659–60, p. 28.)

In 1608 Captain Smith, in exploring the Chesapeake and its tributaries, met a party of sixty of these Sasquesahanocks as he calls them (I, p. 120–1), and he states that they were still at war with the Massawomekes or Mohawks. (_De Laet Novus Orbis_, p. 79.)

DeVries, in his _Voyages_ (Murphy’s translation, p. 41–3), found them in 1633 at war with the Armewamen and Sankiekans, Algonquin tribes on the Delaware, maintaining their supremacy by butchery. They were friendly to the Dutch. When the Swedes in 1638 settled on the Delaware, they renewed the friendly intercourse begun by the Dutch. They purchased lands of the ruling tribe and thus secured their friendship. (_Hazard’s Annals_, p. 48). They carried the terror of their arms southward also, and {119} in 1634 to 1644 they waged war on the Yaomacoes, the Piscataways and Patuxents (_Bozman’s Maryland_, II. p. 161), and were so troublesome that in 1642 Governor Calvert, by proclamation, declared them public enemies.

When the Hurons in Upper Canada in 1647 began to sink under the fearful blows dealt by the Five Nations, the Susquehannas sent an embassy to offer them aid against the common enemy. (_Gendron, Quelques Particularitez du Pays des Hurons_, p. 7). Nor was the offer one of little value, for the Susquehannas could put in the field 1,300 warriors (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1647–8, p. 58) trained to the use of fire arms and European modes of war by three Swedish soldiers whom they had obtained to instruct them. (_Proud’s Pennsylvania_, I, p. 111; _Bozman’s Maryland_, II, p. 273.) Before interposing in the war, they began by negotiation, and sent an embassy to Onondaga to urge the cantons to peace. (_Relation_, 1648, p. 58). The Iroquois refused, and the Hurons, sunk in apathy, took no active steps to secure the aid of the friendly Susquehannas.

That tribe, however, maintained its friendly intercourse with its European neighbors, and in 1652 Sawahegeh, Auroghteregh, Scarhuhadigh, Rutchogah and Nathheldianeh, in presence of a Swedish deputy, ceded to Maryland all the territory from the Patuxent river to Palmer’s island, and from the Choptauk to the northeast branch north of Elk river. (_Bozman’s Maryland_, II, p. 683).

Four years later the Iroquois, grown insolent by their success in almost annihilating their kindred tribes north and south of Lake Erie, the Wyandots, Dinondadies, Neuters and Eries, provoked a war with the Susquehannas, plundering their hunters on Lake Ontario. (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1657, pp. 11, 18).

It was at this important period in their history that Alsop knew and described them to us.

In 1661 the small-pox, that scourge of the native tribes, broke out in their town, sweeping off many and enfeebling the nation terribly. War had now begun in earnest with the Five Nations; and though the Susquehannas had some of their people killed near their town (_Hazard’s Annals_, 341–7), they in turn pressed the Cayugas so hard that some of them retreated across Lake Ontario to Canada (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1661, p. 39, 1668, p. 20). They also kept the Senecas in such alarm that they no longer ventured to carry their peltries to New York, except in caravans escorted by six hundred men, who even took a most circuitous route. (_Relation_, 1661, p. 40). A law of Maryland passed May 1, 1661, authorized the governor to aid the Susquehannas.

Smarting under constant defeat, the Five Nations solicited French aid (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1662–3, p. 11, 1663–4, p. 33; _Charlevoix_, II, p. 134), but in April, 1663, the Western cantons raised an army of eight hundred men to invest and storm the fort of the Susquehannas. They embarked on Lake Ontario, according to the French account, and then went overland to the Susquehanna. On reaching the fort, however, they found {120} it well defended on the river side, and on the land side with two bastions in European style with cannon mounted and connected by a double curtain of large trees. After some trifling skirmishes the Iroquois had recourse to stratagem. They sent in a party of twenty-five men to treat of peace and ask provisions to enable them to return. The Susquehannas admitted them, but immediately burned them all alive before the eyes of their countrymen. (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1663, p. 10). The Pennsylvania writers, (_Hazard’s Annals of Pennsylvania_, p. 346) make the Iroquois force one thousand six hundred, and that of the Susquehannas only one hundred. They add that when the Iroquois retreated, the Susquehannas pursued them, killing ten and taking as many.

After this the war was carried on in small parties, and Susquehanna prisoners were from time to time burned at Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Cayuga (_Relations de la Nouvelle France_, 1668 to 1673), and their prisoners doubtless at Canoge on the Susquehanna. In the fall of 1669 the Susquehannas, after defeating the Cayugas, offered peace, but the Cayugas put their ambassador and his nephew to death, after retaining him five or six months; the Oneidas having taken nine Susquehannas and sent some to Cayuga, with forty wampum belts to maintain the war. (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1670, p. 68.)

At this time the great war chief of the Susquehannas was one styled Hochitagete or Barefoot (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1670, p. 47); and raving women and crafty medicine men deluded the Iroquois with promises of his capture and execution at the stake (_Relation_, 1670, p. 47), and a famous medicine man of Oneida appeared after death to order his body to be taken up and interred on the trail leading to the Susquehannas as the only means of saving that canton from ruin. (_Relation_, 1672, p. 20.)

Towards the summer of 1672 a body of forty Cayugas descended the Susquehanna in canoes, and twenty Senecas went by land to attack the Susquehannas in their fields; but a band of sixty Andasté or Susquehanna boys, the oldest not over sixteen, attacked the Senecas, and routed them, killing one brave and taking another. Flushed with victory they pushed on to attack the Cayugas, and defeated them also, killing eight and wounding with arrow, knife and hatchet, fifteen or sixteen more, losing, however, fifteen or sixteen of their gallant band. (_Relation_, 1672, p. 24.)

At this time the Susquehannas or Andastés were so reduced by war and pestilence that they could muster only three hundred warriors. In 1675, however, the Susquehannas were completely overthrown (_Etat Present_, 1675, manuscript; _Relation_, 1676, p. 2; _Relations Inédites_, II, p. 44; _Colden’s Five Nations_, I, p. 126), but unfortunately we have no details whatever as to the forces which effected it, or the time or manner of their utter defeat.

A party of about one hundred retreated into Maryland, and occupied some abandoned Indian forts. Accused of the murder of some settlers, apparently slain by the Senecas, they sent five of their chiefs to the Maryland and Virginia troops, under Washington and Brent, who went out in {121} pursuit. Although coming as deputies, and showing the Baltimore medal and certificate of friendship, these chiefs were cruelly put to death. The enraged Susquehannas then began a terrible border war, which was kept till their utter destruction (S. F. Streeter’s Destruction of the Susquehannas, _Historical Magazine_, I, p. 65). The rest of the tribe, after making overtures to Lord Baltimore, submitted to the Five Nations, and were allowed to retain their ancient grounds. When Pennsylvania was settled, they became known as Conestogas, and were always friendly to the colonists of Penn, as they had been to the Dutch and Swedes. In 1701 Canoodagtoh, their king, made a treaty with Penn, and in the document they are styled Minquas, Conestogos or Susquehannas. They appear as a tribe in a treaty in 1742, but were dwindling away. In 1763 the feeble remnant of the tribe became involved in the general suspicion entertained by the colonists against the red men, arising out of massacres on the borders. To escape danger the poor creatures took refuge in Lancaster jail, and here they were all butchered by the Paxton boys, who burst into the place. Parkman in his _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, p. 414, details the sad story.

The last interest of this unfortunate tribe centres in Logan, the friend of the white man, whose speech is so familiar to all, that we must regret that it has not sustained the historical scrutiny of Brantz Mayer (_Tahgahjute; or, Logan and Capt. Michael Cresap_, Maryland Hist. Soc., May, 1851; and 8vo, Albany, 1867). Logan was a Conestoga, in other words a Susquehanna.

_Note_ 47, _page_ 71.

The language of the Susquehannas, as Smith remarks, differed from that of the Virginian tribes generally. As already stated, it was one of the dialects of the Huron-Iroquois, and its relation to other members of the family may be seen by the following table of the numerals:

Susquehanna
or Minqua. Hochelaga. Huron. Mohawk. Onondaga.