THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES
THE COMING OF THE DUTCH.--We have now seen how English colonies were
planted in the lands about Chesapeake Bay, and in New England. Into the
country lying between, there came in 1609 an intruder in the form of a
little Dutch ship called the _Half-Moon_. The Dutch East India Company had
fitted her out and sent Captain Henry Hudson in her to seek a
northeasterly passage to China. Driven back by ice in his attempt to sail
north of Europe, Hudson turned westward, and came at last to Delaware Bay.
Up this the _Half-Moon_ went a little way, but, grounding on the
shoals, Hudson turned about, followed the coast northward, and sailed up
the river now called by his name. He went as far as the site of Albany;
then, finding that the Hudson was not a passage through the continent, he
returned to Europe. [1]
[Illustration: LANDING OF HUDSON. From an old print.]
DISCOVERIES OF BLOCK AND MAY.--The discovery of the Hudson gave Holland or
the Netherlands a claim to the country it drained, and year after year
Dutch explorers visited the region. One of them, Adrien Block, (in 1614)
went through Long Island Sound, ascended the Connecticut River as far as
the site of Hartford, and sailed along the coast to a point beyond Cape
Cod; Block Island now bears his name. Another, May, went southward, passed
between two capes, [2] and explored Delaware Bay. The Dutch then claimed
the country from the Delaware to Cape Cod; that is, as far as May and
Block had explored.
[Illustration: NEW NETHERLAND.]
THE FUR TRADE.--Important as these discoveries were, they interested the
Dutch far less than the prospect of a rich fur trade with the Indians, and
in a few years Dutch traders had four little houses on Manhattan Island,
and a little fort not far from the site of Albany. From it buyers went out
among the Mohawk Indians and returned laden with the skins of beavers and
other valuable furs; and to the fort by and by the Indians came to trade.
So valuable was this traffic that those engaged in it formed a company,
obtained from the Dutch government a charter, and for three years (1615-
18) enjoyed a monopoly of the fur trade from the Delaware to the Hudson.
THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY.--When the three years expired the charter
was not renewed; but a new association called the Dutch West India Company
was chartered (1621) and given great political and commercial power over
New Netherland, as the Dutch possessions in North America were now called.
More settlers were sent out (in 1623), some to Fort Orange on the site of
Albany, some to Fort Nassau on the South or Delaware River, some to the
Fresh or Connecticut River, some to Long Island, and some to Manhattan
Island, where they founded the town of New Amsterdam.
[Illustration: DUTCH MERCHANT (1620).]
THE PATROONS.--All the little Dutch settlements were forts or strong
buildings surrounded by palisades, and were centers of the fur trade. Very
little farming was done. In order to encourage farming, the West India
Company (in 1629) offered an immense tract of land to any member of the
company who should take out a colony of fifty families. The estate of a
Patroon, as such a man was called, was to extend sixteen miles along one
bank or eight miles along both banks of a river, and back almost any
distance into the country. [3] A number of these patroonships were
established on the Hudson.
THE DUTCH ON THE CONNECTICUT.--The first attempt (in 1623) of the Dutch to
build a fort on the Connecticut failed; for the company could not spare
enough men to hold the valley. But later the Dutch returned, nailed the
arms of Holland to a tree at the mouth of the river in token of ownership,
and (1633) built Fort Good Hope where Hartford now stands. When the
Indians informed the English of this, the governor of Massachusetts bade
the Dutch begone; and when they would not go, built a fort higher up the
river at Windsor (1633), and another (1635) at Saybrook at the river's
mouth, so as to cut them off from New Amsterdam. The English colony of
Connecticut was now established in the valley; but twenty years passed
before Fort Good Hope was taken from the Dutch.
DUTCH AND SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE.--The Dutch settlers on the Delaware were
driven off by Indians, but a garrison was sent back to hold Fort Nassau.
Meantime the Swedes appeared on the Delaware. After the organization of
the Dutch West India Company (1623), William Usselinex of Amsterdam went
to Sweden and urged the king to charter a similar company of Swedish
merchants. A company to trade with Asia, Africa, and America was
accordingly formed. Some years later Queen Christina chartered the South
Company, and in 1638 a colony was sent out by this company, the west bank
of the Delaware from its mouth to the Schuylkill (skool'kill) was bought
from the Indians, and a fort (Christina) was built on the site of
Wilmington. The Dutch governor at New Amsterdam protested, but for a dozen
years the Swedes remained unmolested, and scattered their settlements
along the shores of Delaware River and Bay, and called their country New
Sweden. Alarmed at this, Governor Peter Stuyvesant (sti've-sant) of New
Netherland built a fort to cut off the Swedes from the sea. But a Swedish
war vessel captured the Dutch fort; whereupon Stuyvesant sailed up the
Delaware with a fleet and army, quietly took possession of New Sweden, and
made it once more Dutch territory (1655).
DUTCH RULE.--The rulers of New Netherland were a director general, or
governor, and five councilmen appointed by the West India Company. One of
these governors, Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan (the island now covered by
a part of New York city) from the Indians (1626) for 60 guilders, or about
$24 of our money. [4]
DEMAND FOR POPULAR GOVERNMENT.--As population increased, the people began
to demand a share in the government; they wished to elect four of the five
councilmen. A long quarrel followed, but Governor Stuyvesant at last
ordered the election of nine men to aid him when necessary. [5]
POPULATION AND CUSTOMS.--Though most of the New Netherlanders were Dutch,
there were among them also Germans, French Huguenots, English, Scotch,
Jews, Swedes, and as many religious sects as nationalities.
The Dutch of New Netherland were a jolly people, much given to bowling and
holidays. They kept New Year's Day, St. Valentine's Day, Easter and
Pinkster (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday the seventh week after Easter), May
Day, St. Nicholas Day (December 6), and Christmas. On Pinkster days the
whole population, negro slaves included, went off to the woods on picnics.
Kirmess, a sort of annual fair for each town, furnished additional
holidays. The people rose at dawn, dined at noon, and supped at six. In no
colony were the people better housed and fed.
[Illustration: DUTCH DOOR AND STOOP.]
THE HOUSES stood with their gable ends to the street, and often a beam
projected from the gable, by means of which heavy articles might be raised
to the attic. The door was divided into an upper and a lower half, and
before it was a spacious stoop with seats, where the family gathered on
warm evenings.
Within the house were huge fireplaces adorned with blue or pink tiles on
which were Bible scenes or texts, a huge moon-faced clock, a Dutch Bible,
spinning wheels, cupboards full of Delft plates and pewter dishes, rush-
bottom chairs, great chests for linen and clothes, and four-posted
bedsteads with curtains, feather beds, and dimity coverlets, and
underneath a trundle-bed for the children. A warming pan was used to take
the chill off the linen sheets on cold nights. In the houses of the
humbler sort the furniture was plainer, and sand on the floors did duty
for carpets.
[Illustration: FOUR-POSTED BED, AND STEPS USED IN GETTING INTO IT. In the
Van Cortland Mansion, New York city.]
TRADE AND COMMERCE.--The chief products of the colony were furs, lumber,
wheat, and flour. The center of the fur trade was Fort Orange, from which
great quantities of beaver and other skins purchased from the Indians were
sent to New Amsterdam; and to this port came vessels from the West Indies,
Portugal, and England, as well as from Holland. There was scarcely any
manufacturing. The commercial spirit of the Dutch overshadowed everything
else, and kept agriculture at a low stage.
THE ENGLISH SEIZE NEW NETHERLAND.--The English, who claimed the continent
from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, regarded the
Dutch as intruders. Soon after Charles II came to the throne, he granted
the country from the Delaware to the Connecticut, with Long Island and
some other territory, to his brother James, the Duke of York.
In 1664, accordingly, a fleet was sent to take possession of New
Amsterdam. Stuyvesant called out his troops and made ready to fight. But
the people were tired of the arbitrary rule of the Dutch governors, and
petitioned him to yield. At last he answered, "Well, let it be so, but I
would rather be carried out dead."
NEW YORK.--The Dutch flag was then lowered, and New Netherland passed into
English hands. New Amsterdam was promptly renamed New York; Fort Orange
was called Albany; and the greater part of New Netherland became the
province of New York. [6]
GOVERNMENT OF NEW YORK.--The governor appointed by the Duke of York drew
up a code of laws known later as the Duke's Laws. No provision was made
for a legislature, nor for town meetings, nor for schools. [7] Government
of this sort did not please the English on Long Island and elsewhere.
Demands were at once made for a share in the lawmaking. Some of the people
refused to pay taxes, and some towns to elect officers, and sent strong
protests against taxation without their consent. But nearly twenty years
passed before New York secured a representative legislature. [8]
EDUCATION.--In the schools established by the Dutch, the master was often
the preacher or the sexton of the Dutch church. Many of the Long Island
towns were founded by New Englanders, who long kept up their Puritan
customs and methods of education. But outside of New York city and a few
other large towns, there were no good schools during the early years of
the New York colony.
[Illustration: NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, AND EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA.]
NEW JERSEY.--Before the Duke of York had possession of his province, he
cut off the piece between the Delaware River and the lower Hudson and gave
it to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley (1664). They named this land
New Jersey, and divided it by the line shown on the map into East and West
Jersey. Lord Berkeley sold his part--West Jersey--to some Quakers, and a
Quaker colony was planted at Burlington. Carteret's portion--East Jersey--
was sold after his death to William Penn [9] and other Quakers, who had
acquired West Jersey also. In 1702, however, the proprietors gave up their
right to govern, and the two colonies were united into the one royal
province of New Jersey.
PENNSYLVANIA.--Penn had joined the Friends, or Quakers, when a very young
man. The part he took in the settlement of New Jersey led him to think of
founding a colony where not only the Quakers, but any others who were
persecuted, might find a refuge, and where he might try a "holy
experiment" in government after his own ideas. The king was therefore
petitioned "for a tract of land in America lying north of Maryland," and
in 1681 Penn received a large block of land, which was named Pennsylvania,
or Penn's Woodland. [10]
[Illustration: CHARLES II AND PENN.]
PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED.--Having received his charter, Penn wrote an account
of his province and circulated it in England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and
Germany. In the autumn of 1681 three shiploads of colonists were sent
over. Penn himself came the next spring, and made his way to the spot
chosen for the site of Philadelphia. The land belonged to three Swedish
brothers; so Penn bought it, and began the work of marking out the streets
and building houses. Before a year went by, Philadelphia was a town of
eighty houses.
PENN AND THE INDIANS.--In dealing with the Indians the aim of Penn was to
make them friends. Before coming over he sent letters to be read to them..
After his arrival he walked with them, sat with them to watch their young
men dance, joined in their feasts, and, it is said, planned a sort of
court or jury of six whites and six Indians to settle disputes with the
natives. In June, 1683, Penn met the Indians and made a treaty which,
unlike most other treaties, was kept by both parties.
THE GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA.--As proprietor of Pennsylvania it became
the duty of Penn to provide a government for the settlers, which he did in
the _Frame of Government_. This provided for a governor appointed by
the proprietor, a legislature of two houses elected by the people, judges
partly elected by the people, and a vote by ballot. [11] In 1701 Penn
granted a new constitution which kept less power for his governor, and
gave more power and rights to the legislature and the people. This was
called the _Charter of Privileges_, and it remained in force as long
as Pennsylvania was a colony.
THE "TERRITORIES," OR DELAWARE.--Pennsylvania had no frontage on the sea,
and its boundaries were disputed by the neighboring colonies. [12] To
secure an outlet to the sea, Penn applied to the Duke of York for a grant
of the territory on the west bank of the Delaware River to its mouth, and
was granted what is now Delaware. This region was also included in Lord
Baltimore's grant of Maryland, and the dispute over it between the two
proprietors was not settled till 1732, when the present boundary was
agreed upon. Penn intended to add Delaware to Pennsylvania, but the people
of these "territories," or "three lower counties," objected, and in 1703
secured a legislature of their own, though they remained under the
governor of Pennsylvania.
[Illustration: PENN'S RAZOR, CASE, AND HOT WATER TANK. Now in the
possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]
THE PEOPLING OF PENNSYLVANIA.--The toleration and liberality of Penn
proved so attractive to the people of the Old World that emigrants came
over in large numbers. They came not only from England and Wales, but also
from other parts of Europe. In later times thousands of Germans settled in
the middle part of the colony, and many Scotch-Irish (people of Scottish
descent from northern Ireland) on the western frontier and along the
Maryland border.
As a consequence of this great migration Pennsylvania became one of the
most populous of the colonies. It had many flourishing towns, of which
Philadelphia was the largest. This was a fine specimen of a genuine
English town, and was one of the chief cities in English America.
Between the towns lay some of the richest farming regions in America. The
Germans especially were fine farmers, raised great crops, bred fine
horses, and owned farms whose size was the wonder of all travelers. The
laborers were generally indentured servants or redemptioners.
[Illustration: CAROLINA BY THE GRANT OF 1665.]
CAROLINA.--When Charles II became king in 1660, there were only two
southern colonies, Virginia and Maryland. Between the English settlements
in Virginia and the Spanish settlements in Florida was a wide stretch of
unoccupied land, which in 1663 he granted for a new colony called Carolina
in his honor. [13]
Two groups of settlements were planted. One in the north, called the
Albemarle Colony, was of people from Virginia; the other, in the south,
the Carteret Colony, was of people from England, who founded Charleston
(1670). John Locke, a famous English philosopher, at the request of the
proprietors drew up a form of government, [14] but it was opposed by the
colonists and never went into effect. Each colony, however, had its own
governor, who was sent out by the proprietors till 1729, when the
proprietors surrendered their rights to the king. The province of Carolina
was then formally divided into two colonies known as North and South
Carolina.
LIFE IN NORTH CAROLINA.--The people of North Carolina lived on small farms
and owned few slaves. In the towns were a few mechanics and storekeepers,
in whose hands was all the commerce of the colony. They bought and sold
everything, and supplied the farms and small plantations. In the northern
part of the colony tobacco was grown, in the southern part rice and
indigo; and in all parts lumber, tar, pitch, and turpentine were produced.
Herds of cattle and hogs ran wild in the woods, bearing their owner's
brands, to alter which was a crime.
There were no manufactures; all supplies were imported from England or the
other colonies. There were few roads. There were no towns, but little
villages such as Wilmington, Newbern, and Edenton, the largest of which
did not have a population of five hundred souls. As in Virginia, the
courthouses were the centers of social life, and court days the occasion
of social amusements. Education was scanty and poor, and there was no
printing press in the colony for a hundred years after its first
settlement.
Much of the early population of North Carolina consisted of indented
servants, who, having served out their term in Virginia, emigrated to
Carolina, where land was easier to get. Later came Germans from the Rhine
country, Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland, and (after 1745)
Scotchmen from the Highlands. [15]
SOUTH CAROLINA.--In South Carolina, also, the only important occupation
was planting or farming. Rice, introduced about 1694, was the chief
product, and next in importance was indigo. The plantations, as in
Virginia, were large and lay along the coast and the banks of the rivers,
from which the crops were floated to Charleston, where the planters
generally lived. At Charleston the crops were bought by merchants who
shipped them to the West Indies and to England, whence was brought almost
every manufactured article the people used. Slaves were almost the only
laborers, and formed about half the population. Bond servants were nearly
unknown. Charleston, the one city, was well laid out and adorned with
handsome churches, public buildings, and fine residences of rich merchants
and planters.
[Illustration: CHARLESTON IN EARLY TIMES. From an old print.]
THE PIRATES.--During the early years of the two Carolinas the coast was
infested with pirates, or, as they called themselves, "Brethren of the
Coast." These buccaneers had formerly made their home in the West Indies,
whence they sallied forth to prey on the commerce of the Spanish colonies.
About the time Charleston was founded, Spain and England wished to put
them down. But when the pirates were driven from their old haunts, they
found new ones in the sounds and harbors of Carolina, and preyed on the
commerce of Charleston till the planters turned against them and drove
them off. [16]
GEORGIA CHARTERED.--The thirteenth and last of the English colonies in
North America was chartered in 1732. At that time and long afterward, it
was the custom in England and the colonies to imprison people for debt,
and keep them in jail for life or until the debt was paid. The sufferings
of these people greatly interested James Oglethorpe, a gallant English
soldier, and led him to attempt something for their relief. His plan was
to have them released, provided they would emigrate to America. Others
aided him, and in 1732 a company was incorporated and given the land
between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers from their mouths to their
sources, and thence across the continent to the Pacific. The new colony
was called Georgia, in honor of King George II.
The site of the new colony was chosen in order that Georgia might occupy
and hold some disputed territory, [17] and serve as a "buffer colony" to
protect Charleston from attacks by the Spaniards and the Indians.
[Illustration: SCOTTISH HIGHLANDER.]
THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA.--In 1732 Oglethorpe with one hundred and thirty
colonists sailed for Charleston, and after a short stay started south and
founded Savannah (1733). The colony was not settled entirely by released
English debtors. To it in time came people from New England and the
distressed of many lands, including Italians, Germans, and Scottish
Highlanders. Oglethorpe's company controlled Georgia twenty years; but the
colonists chafed under its rule, so that the company finally disbanded and
gave the province back to the king (1752).
Under the proprietors the people were required to manufacture silk, plant
vineyards, and produce oil. But the prosperity of Georgia began under the
royal government, when the colony settled down to the production of rice,
lumber, and indigo. Importation of slaves was forbidden by the
proprietors, but under the royal government it was allowed. The towns were
small, for almost everybody lived on a small farm or plantation.
SUMMARY
1. While the English were planting the Jamestown colony, the Dutch under
Hudson explored the Hudson River (1609), and a few years later the
Dutchmen May and Block explored also Delaware Bay and the Connecticut
River.
2. The Dutch fur trade was profitable, and in 1621 the Dutch West India
Company was placed in control of New Netherland.
3. Settlements were soon attempted and patroonships created; but the chief
industry of New Netherland was the fur trade.
4. In 1638 a Swedish colony, called New Sweden, was planted on the
Delaware; but it was seized by the Dutch (1655).
5. The English by this time had begun to settle in New England. This led
to disputes, and in 1664 New Netherland was seized by the English, arid
became a possession of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II.
6. Most of the province was called New York; but part of it was cut off
and given to two noblemen, and became the province of New Jersey.
7. In 1663 and 1665 Charles II made some of his friends proprietors of
Carolina, a province later divided into North and South Carolina.
8. In 1681 Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn as a proprietary
colony.
9. In order to obtain the right of access to the sea, Penn secured from
the Duke of York what is now Delaware.
10. The last of the colonies was Georgia, chartered in 1732.
11. Education scanty and poor. No printing presses for one hundred years
after first settlement.
[Illustration: POUNDING CORN.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Henry Hudson was an English seaman who twice before had made voyages
to the north and northeastward for an English trading company. Stopping in
England on his return from America, Hudson sent a report of his discovery
to the Dutch company and offered to go on another voyage to search for the
northwest passage. He was ordered to come to Amsterdam, but the English
authorities would not let him go. In 1610 he sailed again for the English
and entered Hudson Bay, where during some months his ship was locked in
the ice. The crew mutinied and put Hudson, his son, and seven sick men
adrift in an open boat, and then sailed for England. There the crew were
imprisoned. An expedition was sent in search of Hudson, but no trace of
him was found.
[2] One of these, Cape May, now bears his name; the other, Cape Henlopen,
is called after a town in Holland.
[3] The first patroonship was Swandale, in what is now the state of
Delaware; but the Indians were troublesome, and the estate was abandoned.
The second, granted to Michael Pauw, included Staten Island and much of
what is now Jersey City; it was sold back to the company after a few
years. The most successful patroonship was the Van Rensselaer (ren'se-ler)
estate on the Hudson near Albany. It extended twenty-four miles along both
banks of the river and ran back into the country twenty-four miles from
each bank. The family still occupies a small part of the estate.
[4] New Amsterdam was then a cluster of some thirty one-story log houses
with bark roofs, and two hundred population engaged in the fur trade. The
town at first grew slowly. There were no such persecution and distress in
Holland as in England, and therefore little inducement for men to migrate.
Minuit was succeeded as governor by Van Twiller (1633), and he by Kieft
(1638), during whose term all monopolies of trade were abandoned. The fur
trade, heretofore limited to agents of the company, was opened to the
world, and new inducements were offered to immigrants. Any farmer who
would go to New Netherland was carried free with his family, and was given
a farm, with a house, barn, horses, cows, sheep, swine, and tools, for a
small annual rent.
[5] From these nine men in time came an appeal to the Dutch government to
turn out the company and give the people a government of their own. The
first demand was refused, but the second was partly granted; for in 1653
New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city with a popular government.
[6] Read Fiske's _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, Vol. I, pp. 286-291. In
1673, England and Holland being at war, a Dutch fleet recaptured New York
and named it New Orange, and held it for a few months. When peace was made
(1674) the city was restored to the English, and Dutch rule in North
America was over forever.
[7] Each town was to elect a constable and eight overseers, with limited
powers. Several towns were grouped into a "riding," over which presided a
sheriff appointed by the governor. In 1683 the ridings became counties,
and in 1703 it was ordered that the people of each town should elect
members of a board of supervisors.
[8] In 1683 Thomas Dongan came out as governor, with authority to call an
assembly to aid in making laws and levying taxes. Seventeen
representatives met in New York, enacted some laws, and framed a Charter
of Franchises and Privileges. The duke signed this as proprietor in 1684;
but revoked it as King James II.
[9] William Penn was the son of Sir William Penn, an admiral in the navy
of the Commonwealth and a friend of Charles II. At Oxford young William
Penn was known as an athlete and a scholar and a linguist, a reputation he
maintained in after life by learning to speak Latin, French, German,
Dutch, and Italian. After becoming a Quaker, he was taken from Oxford and
traveled in France, Italy, and Ireland, where he was imprisoned for
attending a Quaker meeting. The father at first was bitterly opposed to
the religious views of the son, but in the end became reconciled, and on
the death of the admiral (in 1670), William Penn inherited a fortune.
Thenceforth all his time, means, and energy were devoted to the interests
of the Quakers. For a short account of Penn, read Fiske's _Dutch and
Quaker Colonies_, Vol. II, pp. 114-118, 129-130.
[10] Penn intended to call his tract New Wales, but to please the king
changed it to Sylvania, before which the king put the name Penn, in honor
of Penn's father. The king owed Penn's father £16,000, and considered the
debt paid by the land grant.
[11] All laws were to be proposed by the governor and the upper house; but
the lower house might reject any of them. At the first meeting of the
Assembly Penn offered a series of laws called _The Great Law_. These
provided that all religions should be tolerated; that all landholders and
taxpayers might vote and be eligible to membership in the Assembly; that
every child of twelve should be taught some useful trade; and that the
prisons should be made houses of industry and education.
[12] Pennsylvania extended five degrees of longitude west from the
Delaware. The south boundary was to be "a circle drawn at twelve miles'
distance from Newcastle northward and westward unto the beginning of the
fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line
westward." This was an impossible line, as a circle so drawn would meet
neither the thirty-ninth nor the fortieth parallel. Maryland, moreover,
was to extend "unto that part of Delaware Bay on the north which lieth
under the fortieth degree of north latitude."
Penn held that the words of his grant "beginning of the fortieth degree"
meant the thirty-ninth parallel. The Baltimores denied this and claimed to
the fortieth. The dispute was finally settled by a compromise line which
was partly located (1763-67) by two surveyors, Mason and Dixon. In later
days this Mason and Dixon's line became the boundary between the seaboard
free and slave-holding states. The north boundary of Pennsylvania was to
be "the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude,"
which, according to Penn's argument in the Maryland case, meant the forty-
second parallel, and on this New York insisted.
[13] The grant extended from the 31st to the 36th degree of north
latitude, and from the Atlantic to the South Sea; it was given to eight
noblemen, friends of the king. In 1665 strips were added on the north and
on the south, and Carolina then extended from the parallel of 29 degrees
to that of 36 degrees 30 minutes.
[14] This plan, the _Grand Model_, as it was called, was intended to
introduce a queer sort of nobility or landed aristocracy into America. At
the head of the state was to be a "palatine." Below him in rank were
"proprietaries," "landgraves," "caciques," and the "leetmen" or plain
people. Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
271-276.
[15] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
310-319.
[16] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
361-369.
[17] Ever since the early voyages of discovery Spain had claimed the whole
of North America, and all of South America west of the Line of
Demarcation. But in 1670 Spain, by treaty, acknowledged the right of
England to the territory she then possessed in North America. No
boundaries were mentioned, so the region between St. Augustine and the
Savannah River was left to be contended for in the future. England, in the
charter to the proprietors of Carolina (1665), asserted her claim to the
coast as far south as 29°. But this was absurd; for the parallel of 29°
was south of St. Augustine, where Spain for a hundred years had maintained
a strong fort and settlement. The possessions of England really stopped at
the Savannah River, and sixty-two years passed after the treaty with Spain
(1670) before any colony was planted south of that river.