390 A VOYAGE TO Book IX. 



CHAP. VIII. 



Of the English Colony of Boston, its rffej progrefs, 

 and other particulars, 



i^HE fiift fettlement of the colonies of New-Eng- 

 "*" land, the principal province of which bears that 

 name, and has Boflon for its capital, was made in the 

 year 1584 by Sir Walter Raleigh, though the firft dif- 

 covery of thefe coafts is not to be attributed to him j 

 Juan Ponce de Leon, having many years before, namely 

 in 1 5 13, given them the name of Florida, from his 

 difcovery of them on Palm' Sunday j he was foon after 

 followed by Lucas Vazqiies de Ayllon, a native of To- 

 ledo, who having been driven by a tempeft on the eaft 

 coaft of Florida, he afterwards employed an interval 

 of fair weather, in coafting, reconnoitring, and taking 

 draughts of its capes, rivers, and baysj at the fame 

 time landing in feveral parts, and quietly trading with 

 the natives. 



Raleigh took pofieffion of this country in the name 

 of queen Elizabeth of England, and gave it the title 

 of Virginia, a corruption as forae think from that of 

 the chief 'Cacique of thefe parts, who was called Vigi- 

 neaj but others, and indeed the generality, will have 

 it to have been in honour of his fovereign; and in 

 alluiion to that princefs's invariable averfion to mar- 

 riage, which would have brought her into a ilate of 

 fubordination ; but to vv'hocver the compliment was 

 dcfigned, whether to the cacique or the queen, this is 

 the name of that part of the coait which reaches from 

 38 to 45 deg. of N. latitude. Raleigh began to peo- 

 ple it with his countrymen i and he found iuch great 

 numbers ready to embrace his propofals, and fccond 

 3ny further enterprizes, that the fettlement he had 

 made, increafed beyond expedation, and the country 

 was divided into feveral provinces, beginning with the 



moil 



