THE DIVIDING LINE. 
5 
In like manner New Plymouth joined itself to Massachusetts, except only 
Rhode Island, which, though of small extent, got itself erected into a sepa- 
rate government by a charter from king Charles IL, soon after the restoration, 
and continues so to this day. , , 
These governments all continued in possession of %||||r respective rights 
and privileges till the year 1683, when that of Massachtisetts was made void 
in England by a quo warranto. 
In consequence of which the king was pleased to name sir Edmund 
Andros his first governor of that colony. This gentleman, it seems, ruled 
them with a rod of iron till the revolution, when they laid unhallowed hands 
upon him, and sent him prisoner to England. 
This undutiful proceeding met with an easy forgiveness at that happy 
juncture. King William and his royal consort were not only pleased to over- 
look this indignity offered to their governor, but being made sensible how 
unfairly their charter had been taken av/ay, most graciously granted them a 
new one. 
By this some new franchises were given them, as an equivalent for those 
of coining money and electing a governor, which were taken away. How- 
ever, the other colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island had the luck to 
remain in possession of their original charters, which to this day have never 
been called in question. 
The next country dismembered from Virginia was New Scotland, claimed 
by the crown of England in virtue of the first discovery by Sebastian Cabot. 
By colour of this, title, king James I. granted it to sir William Alexander by 
patent, dated September the 10th, 1621. 
But this patentee never sending any colony thither, and the French believ- 
ing it very convenient for them, obtained a surrender of it from their good 
friend and ally, king Charles IL, by the treaty of Breda. And, to show their 
gratitude, they stirred up the Indians soon after to annoy their neighbours of 
New England. Murders happened continually to his majesty’s subjects by 
their means, till sir William Phipps took their town of Port Royal, in the year 
1690. But as the English are better at taking than keeping strong places, 
the French retook it soon, and remained masters of it till 1710, when general 
Nicholson wrested it, once more, out of their hands. 
Afterwards the queen of Great Britain’s right to it was recognized and 
confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht. 
Another limb lopped off from Virginia was New York, which the Dutch 
seized very unfairly, on pretence of having purchased it from captain Hudson, 
the first discoverer. Nor was their way of taking possession of it a whit 
more justifiable than their pretended title. Their West India company tam- 
pered with some worthy English skippers (who had contracted with a swarm 
of English dissenters to transport them to Hudson river) by no means to land 
them there, but to carry them some leagues more northerly. 
This Dutch finesse took exactly, and gave the company time soon after 
to seize Hudson river for themselves. But sir Samuel Argali, then governor 
of Virginia, understanding how the king’s subjects had been abused by these 
republicans, marched thither with a good force, and obliged them to renounce 
all pretensions to that country. The worst of it was, the knight depended 
on their parole to ship themselves for Brazil, but took no measures to make 
this slippery people as good as their word. 
No sooner was the good governor retired, but the honest Dutch began to 
build forts and strengthen themselves in their ill-gotten possessions.; nor did 
any of the king’s liege people take the trouble to drive these intruders thence. 
The civil war in England, and the confusions it brought forth, allowed no lei- 
sure for such distant considerations. Though it is strange that the protector, 
B 
