The  English  Government  has  never  colonized,  except  with  con-
victs. Enghph  settlements  had  the  inestimable  advantage  of  being
spontaneous,  or,  at  least,  of  having  owed  more  to  the  neglect  of
the  mother  country  than  to  its  interference.  Practically  the  first
settlement  of  Englishmen  on  the  western  shore  of  North  America,
was  due  to  the  emigration  of  the  Puritans  who  fled  from  the
ritual  and  discipline  of  Laud,  for  the  first  settlement  of  Virginia  was
a  total  failure,  though  the  name  survived.  The  places  where  these
colonists  landed  are  now  great  and  wealthy  cities,  united  into  a

22


322  BISE  AN'D  PBOGSESS  OF  THE  COLONIAL  TRADE.
gigantic  confederation.  But  when  they  were  first  settled,  the-
colonists  had  to  contend  with  an  inhospitable  climate,  a  barren  soil^
and  the  enmity  of  shrewd,. active,  and  bloodthirsty  savages.  I  never
saw  land  so  utterly  uninviting  as  that  of  the  Atlantic  sea-board  from
Maine  to  New  Jersey,  and  yet  I  have  examined  the  agriculture  of
the  North  German  plains.  The  country  I  speak  of  is  not  only  in-
fertile, but  subject  to  tropical  heat  in  summer,  and  Arctic  cold  in
winter.  It  is  infested  by  tormenting  and  destructive  insects,  the
latter  a  periodical  plague.  It  had  one  perennial  source  of  plenty  if
not  of  wealth  as  yet,  in  its  fisheries.
