390 A VOYAGE: TO Book IX. 



CHAP. VIII. 



Of the English Colony of Boston, its rlfe^ 

 progrefsy and other particulars^ 



THE firft 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, tho' the firft difco- 

 very of thefe coafts is not to be attributed to him ; 

 Juan Ponce de Leon, having many years before, 

 namely in 15 13, given them the name of Florida, 

 from his difcovery of them on Palm Sunday ; he was 

 foon after follov/ed by Lucas Vazqucs de Ayllon, a 

 native of Toledo, who having been driven by a 

 temped on the eaft coaft of Florida, he afterwards 

 employed an interval of fair weather, in coafting, 

 reconnoitring, and taking draughts of its capes, riverSj 

 and bays •, at the fame time landing in feveral parts, 

 and quietly trading with the natives. 



Raleigh took polTeflion of this country in the name 

 of queen Elizabeth of England, and gave it the title 

 of Virginia, a corruption as fome think from that of 

 the chief Cacique of thefe parts, who was called Vi- 

 ginea j but others, and indeed the generality, will have 

 it to have been in honour of his fovereign ^ ^nd in 

 allufion to that princefs's invariable averfion to mar- 

 riage, which would have brought her into a ftate of 

 fubordination ; but to whoever the compliment was 

 defigned, whether to the Cacique or the queen, this is 

 the name of that part of the coaft which reaches from 

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

 ple it with his countrymen ; and he found fuch great 

 numbers ready to embrace his propofals, and fecond 

 any further enterprizes, that the fettlement he had 

 made, increafed beyond expectation, and the country 

 was divided into feveral provinces, beginning with the 



