Contents ▼▲
Front Matter A Name to be Proud of Ready for Sea The King's Gift Why I am an Adventurer The Signal for Departure A Lad's Portion The Allotment of Land An Unexpected Delay Our Arrival at Cowes We Put to Sea The Dove Disappears A Second Tempest An Unseemly Christmas The Port of Barbadoes The Arrival of the Dove Under Sail Again The Land of America The Land Given by the King Fear of the Brown Men Where to Build the City Taking the Island A Voyage of Discovery Visiting the Indians An Unexpected Meeting Captain Fleet's Story An Indian Werowance Indian vs. English Claims Seeking a Place for the City The Bargain The Village of Yaocomico What the Indians Look Like Indian Weapons and Tools Landing the Goods Counting Our Blessings The Susquehanoughs A Land of Abundance Buying Cattle Storehouse and Fort A Visitor from Virginia A Talk with the Indians Running up the Colors Settling Down Master William Claiborne Lord Baltimore's Claims Stirring up the Indians Winning Back the Indians Busy Times Indian Women as Servants Making a Canoe A Boat of Bark Indian Money A Generous Harvest Trouble at Plymouth Strange Religious Service The Dance Begins An Odd Ceremony William Claiborne's War Settlement on Kent Island We Prepare for War The Army leaves St. Mary's In Command of the Guard A Flag of Truce Captain Fleet Repents The First Prize of War A Battle is Fought The Return of the Fleet William Claiborne's Flight The City of Saint Mary's A Cruel Murder Mystery Remains Unsolved Master George Evelin A Fatal Accident Preparing for Action Ready for a Man's Duty I Wear the Uniform My New Name On Board the Pinnance Indians in War Paint The Arrival at Kent Island The Capture of the Fort Butler and Smith Captives Back to Claiborne's Fort I am Assigned New Duties A Narrow Escape Words of Praise

Calvert of Maryland - James Otis




The King's Gift

The first Lord Baltimore, meaning George Calvert, in the year of grace, 1620, bought for himself a plantation on the island of Newfoundland, in America, and, naming it Avalon, sent there sixty or seventy laboring men and their wives to build up for him a town; but it was found to be a cruel country for weather, being biting cold a goodly portion of the year, and the old lord brought all his people back to England in the Ark  and the Dove  lest they die of homesickness, frost, and starvation.

When King Charles, who had a great love for the old lord, heard that he had failed of settling a colony in Newfoundland, and had thereby wasted a goodly portion of his money, he gave him as a free gift a certain lot of land which was supposed to be situated north of the Virginia colony, and westward from the settlements at Plymouth and Boston.

Being only a lad, and not accustomed to such matters as the building up of a new world, it seemed strange to me that the king did not know how much land he laid claim to, and where it was located; but I afterward came to understand that no one in England had any idea as to how large was this country in which the brown-skinned men lived. Therefore it was that the bounds of our Province of Maryland were changed no less than three times before they were finally settled to the pleasure of our governor and the people of Virginia. Even then, so John declared, we did not really know how far to the northward our grant extended.

Because of all I have heard spoken between my father and his friends, I doubt if any man knew just how much land the king really gave to the old lord; but certain it is there must be an enormous extent, for it is proposed to build many towns and cities in such part of the New World as belongs to my Lord Baltimore.

Well, as is well known, the old lord died before he could take any steps toward gaining benefit by the king's gift, and his eldest son Cecilius, as was right and lawful, came into the title and the estates.

The young lord is no more than twenty-seven years old; but he counts on building up a country for himself in the land of America, and is to-day, the seventeenth of October, in the year of grace, 1633, so far prepared to carry out the plans made by his father, that the Ark  and the Dove  are, as I have already said, lying here in the Thames River, within view of the tavern where I am writing, ready for sea as soon as the word shall be given.