orth, should not be restrained
from the exercise of their religion, provided such liberty was not
extended to popery, or prelacy, or to such as, under the profession of
Christ, practise licentiousness. Other laws in the same spirit were
enacted; and a persecution was commenced against the Quakers, as well
as against those guilty of popery, and prelacy.

A scene of revolutionary turbulence ensued, in the course of which a
resolution was passed declaring the upper house to be useless, which
continued in force until the restoration. Philip Calvert was then
appointed governor by Lord Baltimore, and the ancient order of things
was restored. The colony, notwithstanding these commotions, continued
to flourish; and, at the restoration, its population was estimated at
twelve thousand souls.

CHAPTER III.

First ineffectual attempts of the Plymouth company to settle
the country.... Settlement at New Plymouth.... Sir Henry
Rosewell and company.... New charter.... Settlements
prosecuted vigorously.... Government transferred to the
colonists.... Boston founded.... Religious intolerance....
General court established.... Royal commission for the
government of the plantations.... Contest with the French
colony of Acadie.... Hugh Peters.... Henry Vane.... Mrs.
Hutchinson.... Maine granted to Gorges.... Quo warranto
against the patent of the colony.... Religious
dissensions.... Providence settled.... Rhode Island
settled.... Connecticut settled.... War with the Piquods....
New Haven settled.

{1606}

The steps by which the first, or southern colony, advanced to a firm
and permanent establishment, were slow and painful. The company for
founding the second, or northern colony, was composed of gentlemen
residing in Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England; was less
wealthy, and possessed fewer resources than the first company, which
resided in the capital. Their efforts were consequently more feeble,
and less successful, than those which were made in the south.[47]

[Footnote 47: Robertson.]

{1607}

{1608}

{1614}

The first vessel fitted out by this company was captured and
confiscated by the Spaniards, who, at that time, asserted a right to
exclude the ships of all other nations from navigating the American
seas. Not discouraged by this misfortune, the company in the following
year dispatched two other vessels, having on board about two