82 EBV. GEORGE PATTERSON ON 



the union with England. It is also to be noted that at that time Scotland had on some parts 

 of her coast a hardy and adventurous seafaring population, who extended their voyages 

 to the Spanish main, and traded to the north for fur and fish. 



But as the civilized world was at this time ringing with tidings of lands of fabled 

 wealth beyond the western wave, and men's minds were excited by visions of riches to 

 be gained by colonization in America, it was not to be expected that the people of Scotland 

 should remain unmoved by these occurrences. Apart from any more sordid influences, 

 it was natural that the patriotism of her sons should be fired with the idea of the elory 

 of Scotland being extended by the planting of a new Scotland on the shores of America. 

 On the 3rd of November, 1620, Sir Frederick Gorges, Grovernor of New Plymouth, received 

 from King James a patent by which forty English subjects, incorporated as " the council 

 for planting, ruling and governing New England," were granted a territory extending 

 from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and from the Atlantic ocean 

 to the Pacific. The colonists found on their northern frontier some French settlers, and 

 Sir Frederick, on behalf of his people, entreated the English Government to dislodge 

 them. King James consulted his "philosophical poet," who by intercourse with the 

 projectors of the scheme, and probably by other causes, had become interested — as he 

 says, "exceedingly inflamed," — in regard to American colonization. But, instead of 

 joining with them to build up a New England, he resolved, by the favour of the King, 

 to engage his countrymen in extending the glory of their native land by founding a New 

 Scotland beyond the ocean. Writing some time after, he thus speaks regarding his first 

 connection with the scheme : "Being much encouraged hereunto by Sir Ferdinando 

 Gorge, and some utheris of the undertakers for New England, 1 shew them that my 

 countrymen would never adventure in such an enterprise, unless it were as there was 

 a New France, a New Spain and a New England, that they might likewise have a 

 New Scotland." 



The King entered fiilly into the proposal, and the company of New England having 

 surrendered part of their territory, the King agreed to give him the vast region from the 

 St. Croix to the St. Lawrence. On the 5th of August, 1621, he communicated his royal 

 purpose to that effect to the Scottish Privy Council. " Having," he says, " euer beene 

 ready to embrace anie good occasion whereby the honor or profFete of our kingdome 

 might be advanced ; and, considering that no kyud of conquest can be more easie and 

 innocent than that which doth proceede from Plantationes, especially in a country 

 commodioixs for men to live in, yet remayneing altogither desert, or, at least, onely 

 inhabited by Infidells, the conversion of whom to the Christian faith (intended by this 

 meanes) might tend much to the glory of God since sundry other Kiugdomes, as 

 likewise this our kingdome of late, vertuously aduentriug into this kind, haue renued 

 their names ' considering (prayse to God) how populous that our kingdome is at this 

 present, and what necessity there is of some good means whereby ydle people might be 

 employed, preventing worse courses. Wee think there are manie that might be spared 

 who may be fitt for such a forraine Plantatioun, being of mynds as resolute and bodyes 

 as able to overcome the difiiculties that such adventurers must at first encounter with 

 as anie other Nation whatsoeuer." For these reasons he " had more willingly harkened 



' i.e. tlie Kingdom of England in New England. 



