THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



The settlement of the New World was largely inaugu- 

 rated by those who fled from religious persecution. But 

 it cannot be said on that account that their ruling mo- 

 tive was not the desire to enjoy the security of a home. 

 Religious sentiment lies very close to the hearth-stone. 

 Upon its human side, at least, it has 'nothing in common 

 with politics. Still less is it related to the struggle for 

 gain. It was because they could not live at peace in 

 Europe, because they could not be certain of life or 

 tenancy in any one place, and therefore could not ac- 

 cumulate a competence for their children, that the relig- 

 ious enthusiasts fled over the sea. The Puritan in Mass- 

 achusetts, the Baptist in Rhode Island, the Quaker in 

 Pennsylvania, and the Catholic in Maryland, looked less 

 passionately upon their spires and crosses than upon the 

 babies in their cradles, the vegetables in their gardens, 

 and the smoke which curled from their chimneys. 



It is true that there were many fanatics in the sev- 

 enteenth and previous centuries to whom religion was 

 dearer (than home ; but it was not the axes of these 

 fanatics that felled the American forests. Their devoted 

 spirits were freed at the stake, or at the block, or their 

 poor bodies festered in foul prisons. It was the element 

 whose love of home and kindred was too powerful to 

 permit them to suffer martyrdom, even though their 

 convictions forbade them to eschew their religious prac- 

 tices, who inaugurated the first era of colonization on 

 these shores. Theirs are the first footprints in our his- 

 tory, and they lead straight to the home and the fire- 

 side. 



The second real era of colonization came with the 

 end of the Revolution. Previous to that event the 



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