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THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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Maine down to Georgia, into a scene of unrivalled wealth and comfort.

When in 1776 the thirteen colonial states in America resolved to throw off their allegiance to Great Britain, their population comprised about two million white men, and nearly half a million slaves; and in the ensuing eighty years the inhabitants of the United States, increased to thirty-four, with eight associated territories, have become more than twelve times as numerous. This mighty group of English colonies has grown into a nation larger than the mother country in the number of its residents, and fourteen times as large if measured by the extent of land which it occupies.

Yet the colonial possessions still subject to Great Britain, the most striking features in whose history have now to be set forth, comprise an area nearly four times as great, and a population nearly four times as numerous, as those of the United States. The extent of territory is not likely to be very much augmented. But the number of inhabitants may be increased almost without limit

"As the element of air affords

An easy passage to the industrious bees

Fraught with their burthens; and a way as smooth
For those ordained to take their sounding flight
From the thronged hive, and settle where they list

In fresh abodes-their labours to renew;

So the wide waters, open to the power,

The will, the instincts, and appointed needs

Of Britain, do invite her to cast off

Her swarms, and in succession send them forth,
Bound to establish new communities

On every shore whose aspect favours hope

Or bold adventure; promising to skill
And perseverance their deserved reward.
Change wide and deep, and silently performed,
This land shall witness; and, as days roll on,
Earth's universal frame shall feel the effect,
Even till the smallest habitable rock,

Beaten by lonely billows, hear the songs

Of humanized society, and bloom

With civil arts that shall breathe forth their fragrance, A grateful tribute to all-ruling Heaven."1

1 Wordsworth, "The Excursion,” Book ix.

CHAPTER II.

OUR FIRST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST INDIES-THE EXPLOITS OF SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND HIS SUCCESSORS-THE COLONIZATION AND EARLY HISTORY OF BARBADOS-LORD WILLOUGHBY OF PARHAM-THE CIVIL WAR IN BARBADOSLORD WILLOUGHBY AND SIR GEORGE AYSCUE-THE PROGRESS OF THE ISLAND DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY-ITS TRADE AND POPULATION-THE SLAVES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS.

[1562-1700.]

F the colonies now in the possession of
Great Britain, the oldest are the West
Indies. They were, indeed, the scene of

frequent fighting between English and Spaniards, out of which grew the subsequent colonization, long before there was any permanent settlement of our countrymen upon the American continent.

It was an island of the Bahama group that Christopher Columbus, believing he had thus attained his project of discovering a western passage to Cathay, first visited on the 12th of October 1492; and at San Domingo, in Hispaniola, or Hayti, he soon afterwards organized the centre of Spanish government, whence proceeded countless expeditions for conquering and colonizing the adjoining islands and mainland, all of which were then known as the West Indies. For some time the Spaniards were left in undisputed

possession of these regions. To the King of Spain they were assigned by a Papal bull, which none dared to dispute until Protestantism was powerful enough to set at defiance the authority of Rome; and by the Spaniards they were cruelly despoiled without hindrance, until the native Indians, reduced to bitter slavery by their conquerors, were almost exterminated.

England, in fact, was first brought into important relations with the West Indies by a memorable plan -the successful working out of which cannot be looked back upon without shame-to supply the need occasioned by the rapid dying out of these Indian slaves. The originator both of the negro slave-trade and of our West Indian colonization was Sir John Hawkins, one of the most eminent of the great seamen under Queen Elizabeth. In his youth, says his old biographer, "he made divers voyages to the isles of the Canaries, and there, by his good and upright dealing, being grown in honour of the people, informed himself of the state of the West Indies; and being amongst other things informed that negroes were very good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store of negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, he resolved within himself to make trial thereof."1

This he did in 1562. With three little vessels he proceeded from England to Guinea, where he captured three hundred negroes, and, crossing the Atlantic, he sold his cargo at good profit to the Spaniards in San Domingo. His only purpose in so doing was the adoption of a lucrative and, in his

1 Prince, "Worthies of Devon," p. 389.

HAWKINS'S SLAVE-TRADING.

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eyes, a harmless trade. King Philip II. of Spain, however, regarded any English interference with his colonial possessions as an offence to himself, and a source of danger to those possessions. He confiscated a portion of Hawkins's return cargo which found its way to Cadiz, and sent out strict injunctions to the West Indies, that if Hawkins came again no dealings were to be had with him. Hawkins did

not choose to be so thwarted.

In 1564 he fitted out a larger fleet of trading ships, five in number, and, having collected a larger cargo of negroes on the western coast of Africa, went to sell them to the Spanish colonists. King Philip's orders prevented his going again to San Domingo, but he disposed of his slaves on the Spanish Main, and was able to take home a wonderful store of "gold, silver, pearls, and other jewels," which yielded a profit of sixty per cent., after all the expenses of the voyage had been paid. Queen Elizabeth rewarded him with a baronetcy, and the addition of a negro, "in his proper colour, bound and captive," to his coat-of-arms; and King Philip complained loudly of his insolent conduct in again interfering with the colonial trade of Spain.

Those complaints, however, only induced Sir John Hawkins to make a third expedition, greater and more eventful than either of its predecesUpon this he started, with young Francis Drake for one of his captains, at the head of six vessels and fifteen hundred men, in 1567. The voyage was to him and his followers wholly unfertunate. He could only obtain a scanty supply of negroes on the African coast, and of these he had

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