Of the various European settlements upon this continent,
which have finally merged in one independent nation, the first
establishments were made at various times, by several nations,
and under the influence of different motives. In many
instances, the conviction of religious obligation formed one and
a powerful inducement of the adventures; but in none,
excepting the settlement at Plymouth, did they constitute the
sole and exclusive actuating cause. Worldly interest and
commercial speculation entered largely into the views of other
settlers, but the commands of conscience were the only
stimulus to the emigrants from Leyden. Previous to their
expedition hither, they had endured a long banishment from
their native country. Under every species of discouragement,
they undertook the voyage; they performed it in spite of
numerous and almost insuperable obstacles; they arrived upon
a wilderness bound with frost and hoary with snow, without
the boundaries of their charter, outcasts from all human
society, and coasted five weeks together, in the dead of winter,
on this tempestuous shore, exposed at once to the fury of the
elements, to the arrows of the native savage, and to the
impending horrors of famine.

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before
which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
These qualities have ever been displayed in their mightiest
perfection, as attendants in the retinue of strong passions.
From the first discovery of the Western Hemisphere by
Columbus until the settlement of Virginia which immediately