replaced the Puritan austerity of the North. Yet Virginia had a severe
code of punishments; and at one time, if a man stayed away from church
three times without good reason, he was liable to the penalty of death.
The Virginians were tolerant of all faiths excepting those of the
Quakers and the Roman Catholics. Persons professing these creeds were
sternly excluded from the colony.

[Sidenote: The Indians.]

Just one hundred years before the outbreak of the Revolution, the white
population of New England had reached fifty-five thousand: while the
Indians, retreating at the approach of the European, had become reduced
to two-thirds of that number. The presence of the aborigines on the
borders of the whole line of the colonies seemed at first, destined to
become fatal to the settlement of the continent. But had it not been
for Indian hostility, the colonies might never have grown together and
merged, first into a close defensive alliance, and then into a great and
united state. It was mainly the sentiment of the common preservation
that brought about the intimate relations which gradually grew up
between Puritan, Dutchman, and Cavalier.

[Sidenote: Indian Wars.]

The Puritans treated the Indians with strict justice: Penn made friends
of the powerful tribes along the Delaware; and Roger Williams succeeded
in conciliating the Narragansetts. But a time came when the Indians saw
clearly that they were being pushed further and further back, away from
their ancient homes. Then followed the terrible wars which so long
threatened the existence of the struggling colonies, and which the
dauntless courage and hardihood of the settlers alone rendered vain.