LITMIR.BIZ

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in Virginia.

      The good humour which prevailed in Virginia on the restoration of Charles to the throne, was not of long duration. The restraints on commerce, and the continually decreasing price of tobacco, soon excited considerable discontents. The legislature endeavoured, by prohibiting its culture for a limited time, to raise its value; but, Maryland refusing to concur in the measure, the attempt was unsuccessful. Other legislative remedies were applied with as little advantage. Acts were passed suspending all proceedings in the courts of law, except for goods imported; giving to country creditors priority in payment of debts; and to contracts made within the colony, precedence in all courts of justice. Such expedients as these have never removed the discontents which produced them.

      The English government seems, at all times, to have questioned the right of the Dutch to their settlements in America; and never to have formally relinquished its claim to that territory. Charles now determined to assert it; 1664Grant to the duke of York.and granted to his brother the duke of York "all that part of the main land of New England, beginning at a certain place called and known by the name of St. Croix, next adjoining to New England in America, and from thence extending along the sea coast unto a certain place called Pemaquie, or Pemaquid, and so up the river thereof to the farthest Head of the same, as it tendeth northward; and extending from thence to the river Kernbequin, and so upwards by the shortest course to the river Canada northward; and also all that island or islands commonly called by the general name or names of Meitowax, or Long Island, situate and being towards the west of Cape Cod, and the narrow Highgansetts, abutting upon the main land between the two rivers there called and known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson's river, and all the land from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware bay, and also all those several islands called or known by the names of Martha's Vineyard or Nantucks, otherwise Nantucket."

To reduce this country, part of which was then in the peaceable possession of the Dutch, colonel Nichols was dispatched with four frigates, carrying three hundred soldiers. Commissioners appointed by the Crown.In the same ships, came four commissioners, of whom colonel Nichols was one, "empowered to hear and determine complaints and appeals in causes, as well military as civil and criminal, within New England; and to proceed in all things for settling the peace and security of the country." Intelligence of this deputation preceded its arrival, and the preparation made for its reception, evidences the disposition then prevailing in Massachusetts. A committee was appointed to repair on board the ships as soon as they should appear, and to communicate to their commanders the desire of the local government that the inferior officers and soldiers should be ordered, when they came on shore to refresh themselves, "at no time to exceed a convenient number, to come unarmed, to observe an orderly conduct, and to give no offence to the people and laws of the country." As if to manifest in a still more solemn manner their hostility, to the objects of the commissioners, a day of fasting and prayer was appointed to implore the mercy of God under their many distractions and troubles.[94]

      The commissioners arrived in July, and their commission was immediately laid before the council, with a letter from the King requiring prompt assistance for the expedition against New Netherlands.

      The general court, which was immediately convened, after having first resolved "that they would bear faith and true allegiance to his majesty, and adhere to their patent, so dearly obtained, and so long enjoyed, by undoubted right in the sight of God and man," determined to raise two hundred men for the expedition. In the mean time colonel Nichols proceeded to Manhadoes. Conquest of the Dutch colony.The auxiliary force raised by Massachusetts was rendered unnecessary by the capitulation of New Amsterdam, which was soon followed by the surrender of the whole province.

      The year after captain Argal had subdued Manhadoes, the garrison, having obtained a reinforcement from Holland, returned to their ancient allegiance. In 1621, the states general made a grant of the country to the West India company, who erected a fort called Good Hope on Connecticut (which they denominated Fresh) river, and another called Nassau on the east side of Delaware bay. The fort on Connecticut river, however, did not protect that frontier against the people of New England, who continued to extend their settlements towards the south. The Dutch remonstrated in vain against these encroachments, and were under the necessity of receding as their more powerful neighbours advanced, until the eastern part of Long Island, and the country within a few miles of the Hudson were relinquished. Farther south, the Dutch had built fort Casimir (now New Castle) on the Delaware. This fort was taken from them by the Swedes, who claimed the western shore of that river, but was retaken by the Dutch, who, at the same time, conquered Christina, and received the submission of the few Swedes who were scattered on the margin of the river. They also made a settlement at cape Henlopen, which attracted the attention of lord Baltimore, who sent a commission to New Castle ordering the Dutch governor to remove beyond the 40th degree of north latitude, to which his lordship's claim extended. This mandate however was not obeyed.

On the appearance of colonel Nichols before New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant, the governor, was disposed to defend the place; but the inhabitants, feeling no inclination for the contest, took part with their invaders; and Stuyvesant was compelled to sign a capitulation, by which he surrendered the town to the English, stipulating for the inhabitants their property, and the rights of free denizens. New Amsterdam took the name of New York, and the island of Manhattans that of York Island.[95]

      Hudson's, and the south, or Delaware river, were still to be reduced. Carteret commanded the expedition against fort Orange, up Hudson's river, which surrendered on the twenty-fourth of September, and received the name of Albany. While at that place, he formed a league with the five nations, which proved eminently useful to the views of the English in America.

      The command of the expedition against the settlement on the Delaware was given to sir Robert Carr, who completed the conquest of that country.

      Thus did England acquire all that fine country lying between her southern and northern colonies; an acquisition deriving not less importance from its situation, than from its extent and fertility.

      Nichols took possession of the conquered territory, but was compelled to surrender a part of it to Carteret.

Soon after the patent to the duke of York, and before the conquest of New Netherlands, that prince had granted to lord Berkeley, and sir George Carteret, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, to the westward of Long Island, bounded on the east, south, and west, by the river Hudson, the sea, and the Delaware; and, on the north, by forty-one degrees and forty minutes north latitude. This country was denominated New Jersey.[96]

      The conquest of New Netherlands being achieved, the commissioners entered on the other duties assigned them. A great part of Connecticut had been included in the patent to the duke of York; and a controversy concerning limits arose between that colony and New York. In December, their boundaries were adjusted by the commissioners in a manner which appears to have been satisfactory to all parties.

In Plymouth, and in Rhode Island, the commissioners found no difficulty in the full exercise of the powers committed to them. In Massachusetts, they were considered as men clothed with an authority subversive of the liberties of the colony, which the sovereign could not rightly confer. The people of that province had been long in habits of self-government, and seem to have entertained opinions which justified their practice. They did not acknowledge that allegiance to the crown which is due from English subjects residing within the realm; but considered themselves as purchasers from independent sovereigns of the territory which they occupied, and as owing to England, only that voluntary subjection which was created and defined by their charter. They considered this instrument as a compact between the mother country and themselves, and as enumerating all the cases in which obedience was due from them. In this spirit, they agreed, soon after the arrival of the commissioners, on an address to the crown. This address, in which they express great apprehension of danger to their rights from the extraordinary powers granted to men not appointed in conformity with their charter, is drawn up in a style of much earnestness and sincerity, and concludes with these remarkable words, "let

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