128 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



Loss of 

 Identity 



Quick As- 

 similation of 

 the French 



Phillip de la 

 Noye 



Touton's Peti- 

 tion 



cording to the whim or degree of learning of the user, and 

 so it is not to be wondered at that the strange and unfa- 

 miliar names of the French emigrants should have been 

 mangled almost out of all resemblance to the originals. 

 We shall find this to be the case over and over again. 

 And while the Huguenots did not lose the essential traits 

 of character which are the pi'ide of their descendants, 

 they were very adaptable, and soon learned to conform to 

 the outward customs of the people among whom they found 

 themselves. They entered into the spirit of the civili- 

 zation by which they were surrounded and thoroughly 

 identified themselves with it. For these reasons it is 

 often extremely difficult to separate their history from the 

 history of the country at large, just as in the present in- 

 stance it would be an almost impossible task to convince 

 the general public that Priscilla Mullins, the flower of 

 early Puritan civilization, was in reality a daughter of 

 France. 



A year after the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth 

 Eock another Huguenot joined his fortunes to those of the 

 infant state. This was Phillip de la Noye, who came over 

 in the ship Fortune. Like so many other French emi- 

 grants who came to America, la Noye was born in Hol- 

 land, where his parents had taken refuge, and had there 

 made his acquaintance with the Puritans. Fate was 

 kinder to him than it had been to Guillaume Molines, and 

 he was enabled to gain a strong foothold in the colony. 

 His descendants, whose name became anglicized into 

 Delano, are nmnerous in the region where their ancestors 

 landed, and are to be met with in the West as well as in 

 New England. The late Eev. H. A. Delano, a Baptist 

 minister of marked gifts as a preacher, was an honoured 

 member of this family. 



in 



In the year 1662, Jean Touton, "of Eotchell in France, 

 Doctor Chirurgiou," forwarded a petition to the "Magis- 



