THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND AS PORTRAYED IN MANUSCRIPTS, PROVINCIAL RECORDS AND EARLY DOCUMENTS, BY REV. EDWARD D. NEILL, A. B., AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF AMERICA," "VIRGINIA COMPANY OF "Nec falsa dicere, nec vera reticere." ALBANY: JOEL MUNSELL. 1876. PREFACE. Every year, the citizens of ancient Padua crowd the costly church, dedicated to their townsman, the Italian Saint Anthony, and hang upon its walls, or around the shrine, sketches in oil, or water colors, commemorative of important events in their lives. One of the many good results of the centennial year of the American Republic, is the taking down from the garrets, the neglected portraits of our forefathers, the removal of the stains and dust, the substitution of new frames, for those battered and worm eaten, and in remembering their labors for posterity. With the aid of manuscripts, brought to light during the last decade, and access to the papers of the British Record Office, we can now portray more accurately, and hang in a better light, the FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND. The object of this little book, is to state facts, which had become obscured or forgotten, concern ing the first European settlers on the shores of the Potomac River, and Chesapeake Bay. Bearing in mind, the sentiment of Hieronymus in a letter to Epiphanius: "Malem aliena verecunde dicere, quam jura imprudenter ingerere," I have recorded facts, gleaned from the manuscript Provincial Records at the capital of Maryland, and other documents of the Provincial period, rather than obtruded my own opinions. Macalester College, EDWARD D. NEILL. near Falls of Saint Anthony, Minnesota. |