now much water had passed the mill. The thinking kind, the wiser
sort, might perceive more things than one, and among these the fact that
savages had a sense of justice and would even fight against injustice,
real or fancied.

The Calverts, through their interpreter, conferred with the inhabitants
of this Indian village. Would they sell lands where the white men might
peaceably settle, under their given word to deal in friendly wise with
the red men? Many hatchets and axes and much cloth would be given in
return.

To a sylvan people store of hatchets and axes had a value beyond many
fields of the boundless earth. The Dove appeared before them, too, at
the psychological moment. They had just discussed removing, bag and
baggage, from the proximity of the Iroquois. In the end, these Indians
sold to the English their village huts, their cleared and planted
fields, and miles of surrounding forest. Moreover they stayed long
enough in friendship with the newcomers to teach them many things of
value. Then they departed, leaving with the English a clear title to as
much land as they could handle, at least for some time to come. Later,
with other Indians, as with these, the Calverts pursued a conciliatory
policy. They were aided by the fact that the Susquehannocks to the
north, who might have given trouble, were involved in war with yet more
northerly tribes, and could pay scant attention to the incoming white
men. But even so, the Calverts proved, as William Penn proved later,
that men may live at peace with men, honestly and honorably, even though
hue of skin and plane of development differ.

Now the Ark joins the Dove in the River St. George. The pieces of
ordnance are fired; the colonists disembark; and on the 27th of March,
1634, the Indian village, now English, becomes St. Mary's.

On the whole how advantageously are they placed! There is peace with
the Indians. Huts, lodges, are already built, fields already cleared
or planted. The site is high and healthful. They have at first few
dissensions among themselves. Nor are they entirely alone or isolated
in the New World. There is a New England to the north of them and a
Virginia to the south. From the one they get in the autumn salted fish,
from the other store of swine and cattle. Famine and pestilence are far
from them. They build a "fort" and perhaps a stockade, but there are
none of the stealthy deaths given by arrow and tomahawk in the north,
nor are there any of the