AMERICA,

PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE.

XV.

THE OLD BAY STATE.

Early Explorations-John Cabot-Bartholomew Gosnold-The Old Colony-The Mayflower-Plymouth-Plymouth Rock--Duxbury-Samoset-Governor Bradford-Miles StandishCape Cod-Chatham-Barnstable-Truro-Highland Light -Provincetown-The Puritan Compact-Quincy - Marshfield-Daniel Webster-Minot's Ledge-Nantasket-Hingham-Squantum-Boston-Shawmut - Boston Harbor and Islands-Boston Common-Beacon Hill and the State House -The Codfish-Boston Attractions-Old South Church-Old State House-Faneuil Hall-Old Christ Church--Boston Fire-Boston Development-The New West End-Parks and Suburbs-Brook Farm-Newton-Nonotum Hill-NatickCochituate Lake-Wellesley-Sudbury-The Wayside InnCharlestown-Old Ironsides-Jackson's Head-Bunker Hill -Cambridge-Harvard University-Henry W. LongfellowJames Russell Lowell-Oliver Wendell Holmes-Margaret Fuller-Waltham-Lexington-Concord in Middlesex and its Bridge-Ralph Waldo Emerson-Nathaniel HawthorneHenry D. Thoreau The Alcotts Massachusetts North Shore-Lynn-Nahant-Swampscott-Marblehead-Salem

and the Witches-Beverley-Wenham Lake-Ipswich-Andover-Merrimack River-Salisbury--Concord in New Hampshire Manchester-Nashua-Lowell-Lawrence-Haverhill -Newburyport-Bridal of Pennacook-Cape Ann-Glouces(3)

ter-The Fisheries Norman's Woe-Wreck of the Hesperus Land's End Thatcher's Island - Rockport-Lanesville

Granite-The Fishermen.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

JOHN CABOT was the first explorer of the coasts. of New England under British auspices. After Columbus had discovered America, fabulous tales were told of its outlying islands. The primitive maps represented the Atlantic Ocean as full of islands, some being very large, especially the Island of Brazil, and the fabled Island of the Seven Cities. The latter was said by sailors to be inhabited by Christians who years before had fled from seven cities of Asia, under their seven bishops, taking refuge there. Bristol was then the leading English seaport, and five years after the discovery by Columbus, John Cabot started from it on a western voyage of exploration in search of these famous islands. King Henry VII. encouraged the enterprise, and in May, 1497, Cabot sailed in the little ship "Matthew," with a crew of eighteen, and going westward he discovered one of these islands, which he called the New Found Land. It was Cape Breton Island, but being apparently unproductive and without inhabitants, although some signs of people were seen, he soon returned to England. The greatest excitement followed his arrival home, and the report got abroad that he had discovered the Island of the Seven Cities and the coast of Asia. Cabot became all the rage in Eng

land, and a writer of that time records that Englishmen called him "the Great Admiral," followed him about "like madmen," that he was "dressed in silks," and "treated like a prince." Cabot, feeling his importance, wanted his friends to share his good fortune, so he appointed some of them governors, and others bishops over the new world he had discovered, while King Henry was so delighted at the success of the voyage that he sent Cabot a letter of thanks and the munificent present of £10. King Henry VII. was always regarded as being "a little near."

In 1498, another and larger expedition was fitted out, Cabot planning to sail westward until he reached the land he had discovered in the previous year, and then he thought by turning south he would come to the Island of Cipango (Japan), where he would fill his ships with spices and jewels, a half-dozen small vessels making up the fleet. They took a more northerly course than before, got among icebergs, and where the summer days were so long there was very little night. They reached Labrador, where the sailors were frightened at the amount of ice, and turning south, Cabot sailed along the American coast nearly to Florida, once trying to plant a colony, but being discouraged by the barren soil, abandoning it. Yet sterile as the land might be, the waters were filled with fish, so that Cabot called the country the "Land of the Codfish," there was such an abundance of them. The explorers recorded that the

bears were harmless, they could so easily get food, describing how they would swim out into the sea and catch the fish. Then Cabot disappeared from view. Whether he died on the homeward voyage or after he returned is unknown, as everything about his subsequent career has faded from history. But his two voyages were the foundation of the British claim to the Atlantic coast from Labrador to Florida, and the basis of all the English grants for the subsequently formed American colonies.

Bartholomew Gosnold planted the first English colony in the Old Bay State. Upon Friday, May 14, 1602, after elaborate preparations, he sailed from Falmouth, England, in the ship "Concord," his party numbering thirty-two, of whom about a dozen expected to remain in the new country as settlers. Crossing the ocean and coming into view of the American coast, he steered south, soon finding his progress barred by a bold headland, which encircled him about. He had got into the bight of Cape Cod Bay, and thus discovered that great bended, sandy peninsula, to which he gave the name from the abundance of codfish he found disporting in the waters. Many whales were also seen, and vast numbers of fish of all kinds. He tried to get out of the bay, and coasting around the long and curiously hooked cape, emerged into the Atlantic, and then coming down the outer side got into Vineyard Sound, where he planted his colony on Cuttyhunk Island, but soon abandoned

it. Gosnold returned to England, and in 1607 sailed with Newport's expedition, carrying Captain John Smith to Virginia.

THE OLD COLONY.

The first English settlement permanently planted in New England was the famous "Old Colony" at Plymouth. The Puritan Separatists, from the Church of England, sought refuge from English persecution in Holland, living in Leyden under their pastor, John Robinson, for eleven years, when they decided to migrate to America. They arranged with the Virginia Company to send them across the ocean, and about the middle of the summer of 1620 the little band of Pilgrims sailed from Delft-haven, the port of Leyden, on the "Speedwell," in charge of Elder Brewster. The "Mayflower" joined at Southampton with other Puritans from England, but the "Speedwell" sprunk aleak and they put into Plymouth roads. Then they decided to go on in the "Mayflower" alone, and the party left Plymouth early in September. They were seeking Virginia, but found the land, after a voyage of over two months, at Cape Cod, anchoring inside the Cape. Then they thanked God, "who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm. and stable earth." While the ship lay there, the famous "Mayflower Compact" was drawn up, pledg