there came a time when outside of the wretched shanty a little cart stood, and on it all his household goods were stored. He had cast the die, and he was going away. A passing neighbor inquired if he was flitting. Before he could answer a voice out of the midst of the stuff replied, “Aye, we're flittin'." It was the voice of the spirit. “Oh,” groaned the poor peasant, “if he is going we might as well stay where we are." So in good faith might the adventurers as well have said, "If that charter is going we may as well stay where we are.”24 The expedition was to have left England about the middle of September. But it was not actually ready to leave Gravesend, its first port of departure, till October 19th; nor its final port in the Isle of Wight till November 22d, 1633. It had doubtless many embarrassing obstacles to contend with ere it finally started; but two difficulties beset it of such 24 Something like this was actually done by the first Lord Baltimore. His grant of lands in Longford County, Ireland, dated February 18th, 1621, was made subject to the condition that he should not sell the land to Roman Catholics. He had also to require all settlers to take the oath of supremacy and be conformable in point of religion. As soon as he professed himself a Roman Catholic, he could not rightly hold the land thus granted, and so on February 12th, 1625, he surrendered his patent, which he received again on March 11th, with the religious clause struck out. See Wilhelm, P. 117. a character as to afford a perfectly satisfactory explanation of all the delays which occurred. The first difficulty was of the nature of an attachment which which had been served on the vessels because several of the adventurers had not paid their board bill. A certain Mr. Gabriel Hawley had contracted with a Mr. James Clements, and other citizens of Gravesend, for the boarding of some of the men at one shilling a day, while they awaited the ships' departure. 25 Before the time for settlement came, Hawley had been cast into prison for debt, the prison being the supposed remedy in that day for failure to pay one's debts our enlightened fathers not possessing the appreciation of the situation belonging to the untutored Indian, who, when confronted with a like condition, laconically said, "Ugh! In prison no catch beaver." Yet, as Hawley was merely Baltimore's agent, Clements and his fellow-sufferers forthwith brought suit against Lord Baltimore himself. 26 The case eventually went before the Privy Council, with what result, however, is not known. The second difficulty was a more serious one. After the ships had left Gravesend it became 25 Md. Hist. Soc., F. P., No. 9. Streeter, Pp. 106, 107. 26 Archives of Maryland, Council, 1636–1667, P. 24. rumored that they were going, not to America at all, but to Spain, and that they were carrying arms and soldiers. In great haste a government vessel was dispatched after them to bring them back again. Upon being overtaken and brought back to Gravesend, a thorough and satisfactory examination was made, and the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were administered to all.28 Released at last, the vessels again started but all the emigrants were not yet on board. The rest were taken on at the Isle of Wight, where opportunity was seized to smuggle the two Jesuit priests on board. Mindful of the fact that some of the adventurers were Roman Catholics, and that Protestants are sometimes unreasonably afraid of Romanism, and apt to take offence where none is intended, Lord Baltimore, as the very first of his parting injunctions to his deputies in charge of the expedition, bade them "cause all acts of Roman Catholic religion to be done as privately as may be, and that they instruct all Roman Catholics to be silent on all occasions of discourse on Religion * and this to be observed at land as well as at sea."29 The Lord Proprietary would not have his colonial 27 Neill, Terra Mariæ, P. 58. 28 Neill, Founders of Maryland, p. 87. 29 Calvert Papers I, P. 133. * * enterprise wrecked through its being identified with Romanism. He acted wisely. Of course such an injunction would have been an impossibility under the religious pilgrimage theory. True pilgrims glory in their religion. There is for them no bowing down in the house of Rimmon. They come out of the midst of their unsanctified brethren shaking the dust off their feet, losing their homes but maintaining their convictions and their independence. They practice no rites in secret for wherefore but to practice them boldly do they become pilgrims at all.30 30 McMahon, P. 198, note. Mr. McMahon, while wishing to "avoid all invidious contrasts turns with exultation to the: pilgrims of Maryland." CHAPTER IX. THE JOURNEY OF THE ADVENTURERS TO MARYLAND, AND THEIR ARRIVAL. 1633-34. You sail and you seek for the fortunate Isles -JOACHIM MILLER. Nothing so abundantly proves the practical wisdom of the lord proprietary as his combined appeal for farmers and missionaries. Without the goodwill of the Indians the colony could not hope to prosper. It would ever be apprehensive of the fate which had overtaken earlier colonies. At any minute the dreaded Indian war-whoop might ring through the dense forests, and, after a life and death struggle, the homes of the settlers be given to the flames, and their mutilated corpses left unburied upon the field. The missionary even |