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ADVERTISEMENT.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The subscriber announces to the public, that he intends publishing a series of works, relating to the history, literature, biography, antiquities and curiosities of the Continent of America. To be entitled The books to form this collection, will chiefly consist of reprints from old and scarce works, difficult to be produced in this country, and often also of very rare occurrence in Europe; occasionally an original work will be introduced into the series, designed to throw light upon some obscure
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
G EORGE A LSOP , the author of this curious tract, was born according to the inscription on his portrait, in 1638. He served a two years’ apprenticeship to some trade in London, but seems to have been wild enough. His portrait and his language alike bespeak the rollicking roysterer of the days of the restoration, thoroughly familiar with all the less reputable haunts of London. He expresses a hearty contempt for Cromwell and his party, and it may be that the fate which confined him to a four
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TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE CÆCILIUS LORD BALTEMORE, (see note No. 2) Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Provinces of Mary-Land and Avalon (see note No. 3) in America.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE CÆCILIUS LORD BALTEMORE, (see note No. 2) Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Provinces of Mary-Land and Avalon (see note No. 3) in America.
M Y L ORD, I Have adventured on your Lordships acceptance by guess; if presumption has led me into an Error that deserves correction, I heartily beg Indempnity, and resolve to repent soundly for it, and do so no more. What I present I know to be true, Experientia docet; It being an infallible Maxim, That there is no Globe like the occular and experimental view of a Countrey . And had not Fate by a necessary imployment, consin’d me within the narrow walks of a four years Servitude, and
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THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
If I have wrote or composed any thing that’s wilde and confused, it is because I am so my self, and the world, as far as I can perceive, is not much out of the same trim; therefore I resolve, if I am brought to the Bar of Common Law for any thing I have done here, to plead Non compos mentis , to save my Bacon. There is an old Saying in English, He must rise betimes that would please every one . And I am afraid I have lain so long a bed, that I think I shall please no body; if it must be so, I ca
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To all the Merchant Adventurers for MARY-LAND, together with those Commanders of Ships that saile into that Province.
To all the Merchant Adventurers for MARY-LAND, together with those Commanders of Ships that saile into that Province.
S IRS, Y OU are both Adventurers, the one of Estate, the other of Life: I could tell you I am an Adventurer too, if I durst presume to come into your Company. I have ventured to come abroad in Print, and if I should be laughed at for my good meaning, it would so break the credit of my understanding, that I should never dare to shew my face upon the Exchange of (conceited) Wits again. This dish of Discourse was intended for you at first, but it was manners to let my Lord have the first cut
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THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
T HE Reason why I appear in this place is, lest the general Reader should conclude I have nothing to say for my self; and truly he’s in the right on’t, for I have but little to say (for my self) at this time: For I have had so large a Journey, and so heavy a Burden to bring Mary-Land into England , that I am almost out of breath: I’le promise you after I am come to my self, you shall hear more of me. Good Reader, because you see me make a brief Apologetical excuse for my self, don’t judge me; fo
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To my Friend Mr. GEORGE ALSOP, on his Character of MARY-LAND.
To my Friend Mr. GEORGE ALSOP, on his Character of MARY-LAND.
From my Study, Jan. 10, 1665. From my Study, Jan. 10, 1665. A Land-skip of the Province of M ARY LAND Or the Lord Baltimors Plantation neere Virginia By Geo: Alsop Gent. Am. Photo-Lithographic Co. N.Y. Osborne’s Process M ARY-LAND is a Province situated upon the large extending bowels of America , under the Government of the Lord Baltemore , adjacent Northwardly upon the Confines of New-England , and neighbouring Southwardly upon Virginia , dwelling pleasantly upon the Bay o
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CHAP. I. Of the situation and plenty of the Province of Mary-Land.
CHAP. I. Of the situation and plenty of the Province of Mary-Land.
The Trees, Plants, Fruits, Flowers, and Roots that grow here in Mary-Land , are the only Emblems or Hieroglyphicks of our Adamitical or Primitive situation, as well for their variety as odoriferous smells, together with their vertues, according to their several effects, kinds and properties, which still bear the Effigies of Innocency according to their original Grafts; which by their dumb vegetable Oratory, each hour speaks to the Inhabitant in silent acts, That they need not look for any other
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CHAP. II. Of the Government and Natural Disposition of the People.
CHAP. II. Of the Government and Natural Disposition of the People.
M ARY-LAND, not from the remoteness of her situation, but from the regularity of her well ordered Government, may (without sin, I think) be called Singular : And though she is not supported with such large Revenues as some of her Neighbours are, yet such is her wisdom in a reserved silence, and not in pomp, to shew her well-conditioned Estate, in relieving at a distance the proud poverty of those that wont be seen they want, as well as those which by undeniable necessities are drove upon the Roc
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CHAP. III. The necessariness of Servitude proved, with the common usage of Servants in Mary-Land, together with their Priviledges.
CHAP. III. The necessariness of Servitude proved, with the common usage of Servants in Mary-Land, together with their Priviledges.
A S there can be no Monarchy without the Supremacy of a King and Crown, nor no King without Subjects, nor any Parents without it be by the fruitful off-spring of Children; neither can there be any Masters, unless it be by the inferior Servitude of those that dwell under them, by a commanding enjoynment: And since it is ordained from the original and superabounding wisdom of all things, That there should be Degrees and Diversities amongst the Sons of men, in acknowledging of a Superiority from In
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CHAP. IV. Upon Trafique, and what Merchandizing Commodities this Province affords, also how Tobacco is planted and made fit for Commerce.
CHAP. IV. Upon Trafique, and what Merchandizing Commodities this Province affords, also how Tobacco is planted and made fit for Commerce.
T Rafique, Commerce, and Trade, are those great wheeles that by their circular and continued motion, turn into most Kingdoms of the Earth the plenty of abundant Riches that they are commonly fed withall: For Trafique in his right description, is the very soul of a Kingdom; and should but Fate ordain a removal of it for some years, from the richest and most populous Monarchy that dwells in the most fertile clyme of the whole Universe, he would soon find by a woful experiment, the miss and loss of
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A Relation of the Customs, Manners, Absurdities, and Religion of the SUSQUEHANOCK (see note No. 46) INDIANS in and near MARY-LAND.
A Relation of the Customs, Manners, Absurdities, and Religion of the SUSQUEHANOCK (see note No. 46) INDIANS in and near MARY-LAND.
A S the diversities of Languages (since Babels confusion) has made the distinction between people and people, in this Christendompart of the world; so are they distinguished Nation from Nation, by the diversities and confusion of their Speech and Languages (see note No. 47 ) here in America : And as every Nation differs in their Laws, Manners and Customs, in Europe , Asia and Africa , so do they the very same here; That it would be a most intricate and laborious trouble, to ru
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To my Honored Father at his House.
To my Honored Father at his House.
S IR, B Efore I dare bid Adieu to the old World, or shake hands with my native Soyl for ever, I have a Conscience inwards tells me, that I must offer up the remains of that Obedience of mine, that lyes close centered within the cave of my Soul, at the Alter, of your paternal Love: And though this Sacrifice of mine may shew something low and thread-bare, (at this time) yet know, That in the Zenith of all {87} actions, Obedience is that great wheel that moves the lesser in their circular motion. I
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To my Brother.
To my Brother.
I Leave you very near in the same condition as I am in my self, only here lies the difference, you were bound at Joyners Hall in London Apprentice-wise, and I conditionally at Navigators Hall, that now rides at an Anchor at Gravesend ; I hope you will allow me to live in the largest Mayordom, by reason I am the eldest: None but the main Continent of America will serve me for a Corporation to inhabit {89} in now, though I am affraid for all that, that the reins of my Liberty will be something sho
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To my much Honored Friend Mr. T. B. at his House.
To my much Honored Friend Mr. T. B. at his House.
From Mary-Land , Febr. 6. Anno And not to forget Tom Forge I beseech you, tell him that my Love’s the same towards him still, and as firm as it was about the overgrown Tryal, when Judgements upon judgements, had not I stept in, would have pursued him untill the day of Judgement, &c....
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To my Father at his House.
To my Father at his House.
S IR, A Fter my Obedience (at so great and vast a distance) has humbly saluted you and my good Mother, with the cordialest of my prayers, wishes, and desires to wait upon you, with the very best of their effectual devotion, wishing from the very Center of my Soul your flourishing and well-being here upon Earth, and your glorious and everlasting happiness in the World to Come. {93} These lines (my dear Parents) come from that Son which by an irregular Fate was removed from his Native home, and af
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To my much Honored Friend Mr. M. F.
To my much Honored Friend Mr. M. F.
S IR, Y Ou writ to me when I was at Gravesend , (but I had no conveniency to send you an answer till now) enjoyning me, if possible, to give you a just Information by my diligent observance, what thing were best and most profitable to send into this Country for a commodious Trafique. Sir , The enclosed will demonstrate unto you both particularly and at large, to the full satisfaction of your desire, it being an Invoyce drawn as exact to the business you imployed me upon, as my weak capacity coul
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To my Honored Friend Mr. T. B. at his House.
To my Honored Friend Mr. T. B. at his House.
S IR, Y Ours I received, wherein I find my self much obliged to you for your good opinion of me, I return you millions of thanks. Sir , you wish me well, and I pray God as well that those wishes may light upon me, and then I question not but all will do well. Those Pictures you sent sewed up in a Pastboard, with a Letter tacked on the outside, you make no mention at all what should be done with them: If they are Saints, unless I knew their names, I could make no use of them. Pray in your next le
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To my Honored Father at his House.
To my Honored Father at his House.
S IR, VV Ith a twofold unmeasurable joy I received your Letter: First, in the consideration of Gods great Mercy to you in particular, (though weak and aged) yet to give you dayes among the living. Next, that his now most Excellent Majesty Charles the Second, is by the omnipotent Providence of God, seated in the Throne of his Father. I hope that God has placed him there, will give him a heart to praise and magnifie his name for ever, and a hand of just Revenge, to punish the murthering and rebell
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To my Cosen Mris. Ellinor Evins.
To my Cosen Mris. Ellinor Evins.
The Antimonial Cup (dear Cosen) you sent me, I had; and as soon as I received it, I went to work with the Infirmities and Diseases of my body. At the first draught, it made such havock among the several humors that had stolen into my body, that like a Conjurer in a room among a company of little Devils, they no sooner hear him begin to speak high words, but away they pack, and happy is he that can get out first, some up the Chimney, and the rest down stairs, till they are all disperst. So those
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To My Brother P. A.
To My Brother P. A.
B ROTHER, I Have made a shift to unloose my self from my Collar now as well as you, but I see at present either small pleasure or profit in it: What the futurality of my dayes will bring forth, I know not; For while I was linckt with the Chain of a restraining Servitude, I had all things cared for, and now I have all things to care for my self, which makes me almost to wish my self in for the other four years. Liberty without money, is like a man opprest with the Gout, every step he puts forward
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To my Parents.
To my Parents.
F Rom the Grave or Receptacle of Death am I raised, and by an omnipotent power made capable of offering once more my Obedience (that lies close cabbined in the inwardmost apartment of my Soul) at the feet of your immutable Loves. My good Parents, God hath done marvellous things for me, far beyond my deserts, which at best were preposterously sinful, and unsuitable to the sacred will of an Almighty: But he is merciful, and his mercy endures for ever. When sinful man has by his Evils and Iniquitie
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Note 2, page 19.
Note 2, page 19.
Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, eldest son of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, and Anne Wynne of Hertingfordbury, England, was born in 1606. He succeeded to the title April 15, 1632, and married Anne, daughter of Lord Arundel, whose name was given to a county in Maryland. His rule over Maryland, disturbed in Cromwell’s time, but restored under Charles II, has always been extolled. He died Nov. 30, 1675, covered with age and reputation.— O’Callaghan’s N. Y. Col. Doc. , II . p. 74....
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Note 4, page 21.
Note 4, page 21.
Owen Feltham, as our author in his errata correctly gives the name, was an author who enjoyed a great reputation in his day. His Resolves appeared first about 1620, and in 1696 had reached the eleventh edition. They were once reprinted in the 18th century, and in full or in part four times in the {111} 19th, and an edition appeared in America about 1830. Hallam in spite of this popularity calls him “labored, artificial and shallow.”...
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Note 14, page 39.
Note 14, page 39.
Whetston’s (Whetstone) park: “A dilapidated street in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, at the back of Holborn. It contains scarcely anything but old, half-tumble down houses; not a living plant of any kind adorns its nakedness, so it is presumable that as a park it never had an existence, or one so remote that even tradition has lost sight of the fact.”...
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Note 16, page 40.
Note 16, page 40.
These animals are well known, the elk ( alces Americanus ), cat o’ the mountain or catamount ( felis concolor ), raccoon ( procyon lotor ), fox ( vulpes fulvus ), beaver ( castor fiber ), otter ( lutra ), opossum ( didelphys Virginiana ), hare, squirrel, musk-rat ( fiber zibethicus ). The monack is apparently the Maryland marmot or woodchuck ( arctomys monax )....
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Note 17, page 40.
Note 17, page 40.
The domestic animals came chiefly from Virginia. As early as May 27, 1634, they got 100 swine from Accomac, with 30 cows, and they expected goats and hens ( Relation of Maryland , 1634). Horses and sheep had to be imported from England, Virginia being unable to give any. Yet in 1679 Dankers and Sluyters, the Labadists, say: “Sheep they have none.”— Collections Long Island Hist. Soc. , I , p. 218....
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Note 19, page 42.
Note 19, page 42.
The abundance of these birds is mentioned in the Relations of Maryland , 1634, p. 22, and 1635, p. 23. The Labadists with whose travels the Hon. {113} H. C. Murphy has enriched our literature, found the geese in 1679–80 so plentiful and noisy as to prevent their sleeping, and the ducks filling the sky like a cloud.— Long Island Hist. Coll. , I , pp. 195, 204....
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Note 22, page 46.
Note 22, page 46.
The fifth monarchy men were a set of religionists who arose during the Puritan rule in England. They believed in a fifth universal monarchy of which Christ was to be the head, under whom they, his saints, were to possess the earth. In 1660 they caused an outbreak in London, in which many were killed and others tried and executed. Their leader was one Venner. The Adamites, a gnostic sect, who pretended that regenerated man should go naked like Adam and Eve in their state of innocence, were revive
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Note 23, page 46.
Note 23, page 46.
In the provisional act, passed in the first assembly, March 19, 1638, and entitled “An Act ordaining certain laws for the government of this province,” the twelfth section required that “every person planting tobacco shall plant and tend two acres of corn.” A special act was introduced the same session and read twice, but not passed. A new law was passed, however, Oct. 23, 1640, renewed Aug. 1, 1642, April 21, 1649, Oct. 20, 1654, April 12, 1662, and made perpetual in 1676. These acts imposed a
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Note 24, page 47.
Note 24, page 47.
The Assembly, or House of Burgesses, at first consisted of all freemen, but they gradually gave place to delegates. The influence of the proprietary, however, decided the selection. In 1650 fourteen burgesses met as delegates or representatives of the several hundreds, there being but two counties organized, St. Marys and the Isle of Kent. Ann Arundel, called at times Providence county, was erected April 29, 1650. Patuxent was erected under Cromwell in 1654.— Bacon’s Laws of Maryland , 1765....
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Note 32, page 50.
Note 32, page 50.
The first Quakers in Maryland were Elizabeth Harris, Josiah Cole, and Thomas Thurston, who visited it in 1657, but as early as July 23, 1659, the governor and council issued an order to seize any Quakers and whip them from constable to constable out of the province. Yet in spite of this they had settled meetings as early as 1661, and Peter Sharpe, the Quaker physician, appears as a landholder in 1665, the very year of Alsop’s publication.— Norris, Early Friends or Quakers in Maryland (Maryland H
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Note 34, page 56.
Note 34, page 56.
A copy of the usual articles is given in the introduction. Alsop here refutes current charges against the Marylanders for their treatment of servants. Hammond, in his Leah and Rachel , p. 12, says: “The labour servants are put to is not so hard, nor of such continuance as husbandmen nor handecraftmen are kept at in England. . . . . The women are not (as is reported) put into the ground to worke, but occupie such domestic imployments and housewifery as in England.”...
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Note 40, page 65.
Note 40, page 65.
He has not mentioned tobacco as a crop, but describes it fully a few pages after. In Maryland as in Virginia it was the currency. Thus in 1638 an act authorized the erection of a water-mill to supersede hand-mills for grinding grain, and the cost was limited to 20,000 lbs. of tobacco.— McSherry’s History of Maryland , p. 56. The Labadists in their Travels (p. 216) describe the cultivation at length. Tobacco at this time paid two shillings English a cask export duty in Maryland, and two-pence a p
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Note 46, page 71.
Note 46, page 71.
The Susquehannas. This Relation is one of the most valuable portions of Alsop’s tract, as no other Maryland document gives as much concerning this tribe, which nevertheless figures extensively in Maryland annals. Dutch and Swedish writers speak of a tribe called Minquas (Minquosy, Machœretini in De Laet , p. 76); the French in Canada ( Champlain , the Jesuit Relations, Gendron, Particularitez du Pays des Hurons , p. 7, etc.), make frequent allusion to the Gandastogués (more briefly Andastés), a
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Note 47, page 71.
Note 47, page 71.
The language of the Susquehannas, as Smith remarks, differed from that of the Virginian tribes generally. As already stated, it was one of the dialects of the Huron-Iroquois, and its relation to other members of the family may be seen by the following table of the numerals: 1. Onskat, Segada, Eskate, Easka, Unskat. 2. Tiggene, Tigneny, Téni, Tekeni, Tegni. 3. Axe, Asche, Hachin, Aghsea, Achen. 4. Raiene, Honnacon, Dac, Kieri, Gayeri. 5. Wisck, Ouiscon, Ouyche, Wisk, Wisk. 6. Jaiack, Indahi
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Note 51, page 75.
Note 51, page 75.
Smith thus locates their town: “The Sasquesahannocks inhabit vpon the cheefe spring of these foure branches of the Bayes head, one day’s journey higher than our barge could passe for rocks,” vol. I , p. 182. Campanius thus describes their town, which he represents as twelve miles from New Sweden: “They live on a high mountain, very steep and difficult to climb; there they have a fort or square building, surrounded with palisades. There they have guns and small iron cannon, with which they shoot
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Note 52, page 77.
Note 52, page 77.
Scalping was practiced by the Scythians. ( Herodotus , book IV , and in the second book of Macchabees , VII, 4, 7). Antiochus is said to have caused two of the seven Macchabee brothers to be scalped. “The skin of the head with the hairs being drawn off.” The torture of prisoners as here described originated with the Iroquois, and spread to nearly all the North American tribes. It was this that led the Algonquins to give the Iroquois tribes the names Magoué, Nadoué or Nottaway, which signified cr
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Note 53, page 78.
Note 53, page 78.
The remarks here as to religion are vague. The Iroquois and Hurons recognized Aireskoi or Agreskoe, as the great deity, styling him also Teharonhiawagon. As to the Hurons, see Sagard, Histoire du Canada , p. 485. The sacrifice of a child, as noted by Alsop, was unknown in the other tribes of this race, and is not mentioned by Campanius in regard to this one. {124}...
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Note 55, page 78.
Note 55, page 78.
The burial rites here described resemble those of the Iroquois ( Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages , II , pp. 389, 407) and of the Hurons, as described by Sagard ( Histoire du Canada , p. 702) in the manner of placing the dead body in a sitting posture; but there it was wrapped in furs, encased in bark and set upon a scaffold till the feast of the dead....
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Note 58, page 80.
Note 58, page 80.
Among the Iroquois the husband elect went to the wife’s cabin and sat down on the mat opposite the fire. If she accepted him she presented him a bowl of hominy and sat down beside him, turning modestly away. He then ate some and soon after retired.— Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages , I , p. 566....
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Note 59, page 81.
Note 59, page 81.
Sagard, in his Histoire du Canada , p. 185, makes a similar remark as to the Hurons, a kindred tribe, men and women acting as here stated, and he says that in this they resembled the ancient Egyptians. Compare Hennepin, Moeurs des Sauvages , p. 54; Description d’un Pays plus grand que l’Europe, Voyages au Nord , V , p. 341. {125}...
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Note 63, page 97.
Note 63, page 97.
The rebellion in Maryland, twice alluded to by our author in his letters, was a very trifling matter. On the restoration of Charles II, Lord Baltimore sent over his brother Philip Calvert as governor, with authority to proceed against Governor Fendall, who, false alike to all parties, was now scheming to overthrow the proprietary government. The new governor was instructed on no account to permit Fendall to escape with his life; but Philip Calvert was more clement than Lord Baltimore, and though
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