eached Salem
in safety and made it the largest colony in New England.

%38. Why the Puritans came to New England.%--It was in 1625 that
Charles I. ascended the throne of England. Under him the quarrel with
the Puritans grew worse each year. He violated his promises, he
collected illegal taxes, he quartered troops on the people, he threw
those into prison who would not contribute to his forced loans, or
pressed them into the army or the navy. His Archbishop Laud persecuted
the Puritans with shameful cruelty.

Little wonder then that in 1629 twelve leading Puritans met in
consultation and agreed to head a great migration to the New World,
provided the charter and the government of the Massachusetts Bay Company
were both removed to New England. This was agreed to, and in April,
1630, John Winthrop sailed with nearly one thousand Puritans for Salem.
From Salem he moved to Charlestown, and later in the year (1630) to a
little three-hilled peninsula, which the English called Tri-mountain or
Tremont. There a town was founded and called Boston.

The departure of Winthrop was the signal, and before the year 1630
ended, seventeen ships, bringing fifteen hundred Puritans, reached
Massachusetts. The newcomers settled Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury,
Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now Cambridge). New England was
planted.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 75-105.
Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 188-219.]

%39. New Hampshire and Maine.%--When it became apparent that the
Plymouth colony was permanently settled, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose
interest in New England had never lagged, together with John Mason
obtained (1622) from the Council for New England a grant of Laconia, as
they called the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers,
and from the Atlantic "to the great river of Canada." Seven years later
(1629) they divided their property. Mason, taking the territory between
the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, called it New Hampshire because he
was Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in England. Gorges took the region
between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and called it Maine. After the
death of Mason (1635) his colony was neglected and from 1641 to 1679 was
annexed to Massachusetts. The King separated them in 1679, joined them
again in 1688, and finally parted them in 1691, making New Hampshire a
royal colony.

Gorges took better care of his part and (in 1639) was given a charter