fugitives, lay spread before him.

The rider stopped his horse, and for some moments sat in silence
gazing on the scene. From the eminence, to whose top he had ridden,
declined before him the sloping hills, on whose sides open cultivated
spaces were interspersed with woods. On the waters' edge, for the most
part, were scattered the houses of the colonists, the majority of them
rude huts, made of unhewn logs, with here and there a frame building,
or a brick or stone house of less humble pretensions, while beyond,
rolled the sparkling waves of the bay, sprinkled with "a great company
of islands, whose high cliffs shoulder out the boisterous seas," as
the old chronicler Wood expresses it, and rocking a few small vessels
lying at anchor. He who viewed the region that morning, must have had
a brilliant imagination to dream of the magnificent cities destined to
stud those coasts, and of the millions to fill those extensive forests
within two hundred years. Westward, indeed, the star of Empire had
taken its way, and the wise men of the East were following its
heavenly guidance; but who knew it then?

At last, excited by the view and his thoughts, the rider rose in his
stirrups, and stretching out his arms, gave expression, in a low
voice, to his feelings--

"Well may these men, who hope to found a new dynasty, be proud of the
lovely land which they have chosen for a refuge! If iron resolution,
scorn of delights and contempt of death could do it, they would
accomplish the emprise--_mais l'homme propose et Dieu dispose_.
Without the directing mind and sustaining arm of the source of all
wisdom and power, in vain is the labor of man. Ruin and disgrace shall
overwhelm all undertakings not founded on the Rock of Ages. With what