they were in Canterbury or York. Yet it was to this place of all others that Lord Baltimore turned when Florida, with her Roman Catholic associations, wonld have opened her doors gladly; when Mexico, more Roman still, would have done the like; and when there was hardly a place in all the world but would have been more suitable for his purpose. CHAPTER V. LORD BALTIMORE IN VIRGINIA. 1629. Their tents are pitched, their spades have broke the soil, The strong oak thunders as it topples down, Their lily-handed youths essay the toil, That from the forest rends its ancient crown. Where are your splendid halls, which ladies tread, Virginian sires-ye men of old renown? Though few and faint, your ever-living chain Holds in its grasp two worlds, across the surging main. When Lord Baltimore, newly arrived from the bleak shores of Avalon, in the early part of October, 1629, saw for the first time the banks of the James, he must have felt as did Lot of old, when first he saw the beautiful vale of Jordan, well watered everywhere and like the garden of the Lord. Certainly Virginia presented a striking contrast to Avalon. The month of October is the beautiful month for woodland scenery throughout this Western continent, and as Lord Baltimore and his company sailed along as far as James City, the principal settlement of the Virginians, and containing with its adjacent plantations about three thousand settlers, they saw the trees in all their varied shades of green and brown, bright crimson and gorgeous purple, forming for them, as they passed up the river, an avenue of wondrous beauty. Even the least observant among them must have been charmed. The fields were not all harvested. In some the corn was yet ripening. Orchards were still bearing their fruit. On either side of the river, fair pasture lands stretched afar. All was very good. What could man need more? Why go further? Here was a country which might claim the "prerogative over the most pleasant places known, for large and majestic navigable rivers; for beautiful mountains, plains, hills, valleys; for rivulets and brooks running most pleasantly into a fair bay, encompassed, except at the mouth, with such fruitful and delightsome land, that heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man's commodious and delightful habitation, were it fully cultivated and inhabited by industrious people." Avalon could not rival this. At last Lord Baltimore had found a place, such as he had dreamed of, where he could build his home 1 1 Smith, History of Virginia, Book 1, P. 114. and permanently settle down. Here his fairest hopes might be realized and fortune prove no longer fickle. From the acting governor, John Pott, and the various officials of the colony the travelers received a kindly welcome.2 It is almost unnecessary to say this. The Virginians of today are famous for their hospitality to strangers, so were their fathers before them. Their readiness to entertain strangers is in truth a heritage, the gift of the parents to the children. Yet remembering all the circumstances, it undoubtedly speaks well for the genuine goodness of heart of those early settlers in the Old Dominion, that they were so ready to extend the right hand of fellowship to their visitors. For of course they knew all about Lord Baltimore's parliamentary career, and they must have disapproved of it in toto. Moreover, strongly as they objected to his political doings, they must have even more emphatically disapproved of his theological gyrations. If he had ever been a Churchman, they must have regarded him as a faithless son of their own beloved Church. If on the other hand he had always been a Roman Catholic, he had, in their judgment, been guilty of long continued hypocrisy. Perhaps, 2 Founders of Maryland, Neill, P. 44. too, they had heard of his troubles with Stourton. But now that he was their guest, forgetting these unpleasant features in his former career, they gave him a hearty welcome. Still, after all, they candidly acknowledged that they regarded Lord Baltimore as a very desirable person to have among them, "as being of that eminence and degree whose presence aud affection might give a great advancement to this Plantation." 3 Those early Virginian settlers were not without a keen eye for the advancement of their colony. Rank and social position had, in their eyes, a certain money value, and they made ready to use his lordship as one of the colony's assets, while Lord Baltimore, on his part, readily reciprocated their sentiments. From the pathetic letter which Baltimore wrote to the king as he was about to leave Newfoundland,' it is evident that when he sailed up the James he had not the remotest idea of settling at Jamestown itself. Probably he himself had not then any very clear ideas of what he wanted to do, having nothing more than an indefinite intention of "planting himself to the southward." It was only after he had actually seen their country, that he forthwith formed his plans, and informed the |