*

territory had been asserted, as mentioned in a former chapter, from a very early period. They lost nothing, it may be believed, of their force, as colonies multiplied and lands were in continually increasing demand. An old grant from the Council for New England was made to cover Long Island. Connecticut and Massachusetts pushed on towards the Hudson. On the south, parties from Connecticut and from Maryland threatened the domains upon the Delaware, (1639-63.) Year after year, during a quarter of a century, brought some fresh invasion of the English, exciting some fresh remonstrance from the Dutch. "Those of Hartford," runs one of the Dutch records, "have not only usurped and taken in the lands of Connecticut, but have also beaten the servants of their high mightinesses the honored company with sticks and plough staves, laming them,” (1640.) It is the tone of all the records, querulous and feeble, the wail of a colony never numbering more than ten thousand against its far more numerous neighbors. Nor were its neighbors its only foes. Amongst its own people was a large number of Englishmen, emigrants from hostile colonies, who naturally became hostile settlers. At one time, some English villages of Long Island proclaimed "the commonwealth of England and his highness the lord protector," (1655.) At another, the towns at the west end of the island proclaimed the English king, (1663.) Finally: the danger was so great that Peter Stuyvesant, the foe of all liberal institutions, called a convention of his province. It appears how far the English had pushed their aggressions on scanning the meagre list of the towns or settlements that were represented. New Amsterdam and Rensselaerswyck head the roll of twelve. The convention favored peace with the Indians; as for the English, why, the English in New Netherland alone were "six to one," (1664.)

*To the Earl of Stirling, (1635.)

Long as the dissensions between the English and War; loss of the the Dutch had lasted, neither the colonies nor the province. mother countries had gone to war about them. A war of two years (1652-54) between the Dutch and the English under Cromwell did not involve their American settlements. When England came under Charles II., another war with Holland was resolved upon, partly from commercial and partly from political motives, the chief of the latter being the intimate connection at that time between the Dutch and the French. Before war was formally declared, New Netherland was surprised by an English fleet. It did not come as a national, but as an individual expedition. Charles II. had made a grant, as has been narrated, of New Netherland to the Duke of York and Albany. It had been the work of a few months only for the duke to buy up other English claims, and collect commissioners and troops to take possession of his new realms. Accompanied by John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, who, though amiable and disinterested in most respects, was full of determination against the Dutch, the commissioners, headed by Colonel Nichols, obtained possession of the province without battle. The terms of the surrender promised to the conquered their religion, their law of inheritance, and their trade and intercourse with Holland, (1664.) The transaction, at first professedly discountenanced by England, was afterwards sustained by her, and finally submitted to by Holland in the treaty of Breda, (1667.)

Recovery

On the outbreak of fresh hostilities between the and final same countries, a few years later, (1672,) New York, loss. as New Amsterdam was now called, received the summons to capitulate to a Dutch squadron, (1673.) It did so, and was held by the Dutch for upwards of a year, when it was once more, and for the last time, surrendered by them, (1674.) Thus were the Dutch, and with them the Swedes, brought beneath the English dominion.

Spanish

race.

CHAPTER VI.

SPANISH WARS.

THERE were other races, rivals of the English, less easily to be reduced than the Dutch or the Swedes. One upon the southern border bore the flag of Spain, rent and dim indeed, but still the flag of a great nation.

Its col- Yet the colony of the Spaniards was far from ony. being a great one. St. Augustine, eldest of the permanent settlements upon United States soil, was amongst the least active of them all. Half garrison, half mission in its character, it formed a post where a few troops and a few priests kept up the Spanish claim upon Florida. A century after its foundation, it was nearly annihilated by one of the buccaneering expeditions that were wont to ravage the American coast. It rallied, however, especially when a treaty between Spain and England put a stop to the English commissions with which the buccaneers of the time were generally provided, (1670.)

Collisions

But there was no good will to speak of between with the Spain and England, or amongst their colonies. A English. force from Florida was soon marching against the newly-organized Carolina, a more flagrant incursion, in Spanish eyes, upon the territory still claimed by Spain, than any of the northern colonies had made. The expedition was met and turned back by the resolute Carolinians, (1672.) Some years after, another invasion of the Span

iards effected the destruction of a Scotch settlement just made near the Spanish border, (1686.) These were not wars so much as the chastisements inflicted or attempted by Florida against its English trespassers.

Effect on the colony.

If there was any effect, it was not to dislodge the intruders, but rather to stimulate the intruded upon. Florida took a fresh start. St. Augustine awoke

from its slumber, brushed up its means of offence and defence, and assumed a new attitude. The surrounding country, still in the hands of the Indians, was dotted over with forts and chapels, with soldiers and missionaries. On the other side of the peninsula, upon the Gulf of Mexico, Pensacola was reared with fortress and dwellings, (1696.) It seemed as if Spain was at last to occupy our soil with a colony worthy of bearing her great name.

War. Attacks on St. Augustine and Charleston.

Presently war broke out between England with various allies on one side, and on the other Spain and France, (1702.) It was but just heard of in South Carolina, when Governor Moore obtained the consent of the assembly to an attack upon St. Augustine. With twelve hundred men, half of them Indians, Moore was able to take the town, but not the fort, from which he precipitately retreated on the arrival of some Spanish men-of-war from Havana, (1702.) Poorly as his expedition turned out, Moore, no longer governor, headed a second, composed almost entirely of Indians, with whom he made a foray amongst the missionary villages of Northern Florida without any effective results, (1705.) The next year, a naval attack by both French and Spaniards upon Charleston was beaten off with great loss, three hundred out of eight hundred assailants being killed or captured, (1706.) This was the last event of the war, so far as the colonies were concerned, although peace was not made until seven years later by the treaty of Utrecht, (1713.)

Treaty of

This treaty is of moment in United States hisUtrecht. tory. The war, of which it was the conclusion, arose from the attempt of Louis XIV. to seat a prince of his own house upon the Spanish throne; in other words, to combine Spain and France in one vast kingdom. So menacing was the attempt to Europe, that not England alone, but Holland, Germany, both the Empire and Prussia, Portugal and Savoy armed themselves against it. The treaty of Utrecht decided that France and Spain must remain separate. Had they been joined, the English colonies upon our shores would have found it difficult to withstand their united foes.

Second war.

Descents

Five years after, France was on the side of England in a war with Spain, (1718.) It was caused on Flor principally by the refusal of Spain to fulfil the ida. Utrecht treaty so far as related to the empire of Germany, with which power France and England, and then Holland, all allied themselves. Afterwards, Spain and the Empire made peace together, while France, England, and Holland formed a league against them, (1725.) Little was done either in Europe or in America. Pensacola was taken and retaken by the French, then in their Louisiana settlements, (1719.) It was soon restored, (1721.) A force of three hundred, artly Indians, made a sally from Carolina upon the Spanish and Indian villages of Florida, (1725.) But the war was without interest or effect, and peace returned with the treaty of Seville, (1729.)

Third

war.

Georgia

Then followed the settlement of Georgia, already described as intended to be an outpost against the and Flor- Spaniards, (1733.) Whatever they thought of this ida. fresh aggression upon their realm, they seem to have said or done nothing for some time; then General Oglethorpe, the head of the Georgian colony, was sum