they had sent to England, proving to be a valueless mineral. "Smith, on
his return to Jamestown, found the colony reduced to thirty-eight
persons, who, in despair, were preparing to abandon the country. He
employed caresses, threats, and even violence, in order to prevent them
from executing this fatal resolution." _Ibid._, pp. 45-46. In November,
1620, the Pilgrims or Puritans made the harbor of Cape Cod, and after
solemn vows and organization previous to setting foot on shore, they
landed safely on "Plymouth Rock," December the 20th, about one month
after. They were one hundred and one in number, and from the toils and
hardships consequent to a severe season, in a strange country, in less
than six months after their arrival, "forty-four persons, nearly
one-half of their original number," had died.

... "In 1618, in the reign of James I, the British government
established a regular trade on the coast of Africa. In the year 1620,
negro slaves began to be imported into Virginia: a Dutch ship bringing
twenty of them for sale."--_Sampson's Hist. Dict._, p. 348. The Dutch
ship landed her cargo at New Bedford, (now Massachusetts,) as it will be
remembered, that the whole coast, now comprising the "Old Thirteen," and
original United States, was then called Virginia, so named by Sir Walter
Raleigh, in honor of his royal Mistress and patron, Elizabeth, the
Virgin Queen, under whom he received his royal patent commission of
adventure and expedition.

Beginning their preparation in the slave-trade in 1618, just two years
previous, giving time for successfully carrying out the project against
the landing of the first emigrant settlers, it will be observed that the
African captain, and the "Puritan" emigrants, landed upon the same
section of the continent at the same time, 1620--the Pilgrims at
Plymouth, and the captives at New Bedford, but a few miles