It was in 1492, just nine years after Luther's birth, that the
intrepid Genoese, Christopher Columbus, under the patronage of
Ferdinand, king of Spain, made the discovery of land on this side of
the Atlantic Ocean. A few years later the distinguished Florentine,
Americus Vespucius, set foot on its more interior coasts, described
their features, and imprinted his name on this Western Continent. But
it was not until more than a century later that permanent settlements
of civilized people upon these shores began to be made.
During the early part of the seventeenth century several such
settlements were effected. A company of English adventurers planted
themselves on the banks of the James River and founded Virginia
(1607). The Dutch of Holland, impelled by the spirit of mercantile
enterprise, established a colony on the Hudson, and founded what
afterward became the city and State of New York (1614). Then a
shipload of English Puritans, flying from religious oppression, landed
at Plymouth Rock and made the beginning of New England (1620). A
little later Lord Baltimore founded a colony on the Chesapeake and
commenced the State of Maryland (1633). But it was not until 1637-38
that the first permanent settlement was made in what subsequently
became the State of Pennsylvania.