ican Slavery--Indian Wars--Bacon's Rebellion--Forms of
Government--Prosperity--Education--_New England_,--Plymouth--Massachusetts
Bay Colony--Union of the Colonies--Religious Persecution--King Philip's
War--The Witchcraft Delusion--_New Hampshire_,--_The Connecticut Colony_,
--_The New Haven Colony_,--Union of the Colonies--Indian Wars--The Charter
Oak--_Rhode Island_,--Different Forms of Government--_New York_,--The
Dutch and English Settlers--_New Jersey_,--_Delaware_,--_Pennsylvania_,
--_Maryland_,--Mason and Dixon's Line--_The Carolinas_--_Georgia_.

At the opening of the seventeenth century there was not a single English
settlement on this side of the Atlantic. It has been shown that the
French succeeded in planting colonies in Canada, that of De Monts, in
1605, in Acadia (the French name of Nova Scotia), proving successful,
while Champlain founded Quebec three years later. St. Augustine,
Florida, was founded by the Spanish in 1565, but it has played an
insignificant part in our history. England was the mother of the
colonies, from which the original thirteen States sprang, and we are
vastly more indebted to her than to all other nations combined.

THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT.

In the year 1606, when James I. was king of England, he gave a charter
or patent to a number of gentlemen, which made them the owners of all
that part of America lying between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth
degrees of north latitude. The men who received this gift associated
themselves together under the name of the London Company, and in the
same year sent out three vessels, carrying 105 men, but no women or
children. A storm drove them out of their course, and, in the month of
May, they entered the mouth of a broad river, which they named the
James in honor of their king. They sailed up stream for fifty miles,
and, on the 13th of May, 1607, began the settlement of Jamestown, which
was the first English colony successfully planted in America. Everything
looked promising, but the trouble was that the men did not wish to work,
and, instead of cultivating the soil, spent their time in hunting for
gold which did not exist anywhere near them. They were careless in their
manner of living and a great many fell ill and died. They must have
perished before long had they not been wise enough to elect Captain John
Smith president or ruler of the colony.

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND HIS ADVENTURES.

This man is one of the most interesting ch