_Clerk of the District of Masachusetts._




THE

RIVALS OF ACADIA




CHAPTER I.

Far on th' horizon's verge appears a speck--
A spot--a mast--a sail--an armed deck!
Their little bark her men of watch descry,
And ampler canvas woos the wind from high.

LORD BYRON.


On a bright day in the summer of 1643, a light pleasure-boat shot gaily
across the harbor of Boston, laden with a merry party, whose cheerful
voices were long heard, mingling with the ripple of the waves, and the
music of the breeze, which swelled the canvas, and bore them swiftly
onward. A group of friends, who had collected on the shore to witness
their departure, gradually dispersed, till, at length, a single
individual only remained, whose eyes still followed the track of the
vessel, though his countenance wore that abstracted air, which shewed