tender for the payment of all debts, at its usual price, unless money were expressly stipulated.

The Plymouth Council in 1631 made its eighth and last grant of territory in New England. The patent gave to Aldworth and Elbridge, two merchants of Bristol, England, several thousand acres of land at Pemaquid Point, in Maine, all the islands, including Monhegan, and exclusive right of fishing in the waters within 27 miles of the shore belonging to them. The grant lying east of Gorges' territory was within the French claim. Sabine says this was the last patent ever issued by any authority whatever, conferring the privilege of exclusive use of any American waters.*

Godyn, the Dutch patroon, whose purchase was within the State of Delaware, sent De Vries, with thirty settlers, in 1631. The settlement was established near Cape Henlopen, and the region was called Zwanendel, or the Valley of Swans. The Dutch claimed now from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod.

The country near the head of Chesapeake Bay was early explored by the Virginians, and a valuable trade in furs was established with the Indians of that region. In 1631 William Clayborne, a man of resolute and enterprising spirit, and of large property, who had been first sent out by the London Company as a surveyor, obtained from the king a license for exclusive traffic at this place with the Indians. The license was confirmed by a commission from the governor of Virginia, and under it Clayborne perfected several trading establishments which he had already partly set up, acknowledging the jurisdiction of Virginia. One of these was on the Island of Kent, the largest island in the Chesapeake, having an area of about 45 square miles, and being nearly opposite the present city of Annapolis. He had another at the head of the bay, near the mouth of the Susquehannah River.

1632. The population of Maine at this time was about 1,000, all of them being upon the coast, and mostly fishermen. Trelawney and Goodyear's establishinent at Richmond Island (near Portland) soon became a noted station, several vessels being annually loaded there with fish, on account of the proprietors.

The Indians exterminated the Dutch colony on the Delaware.t

1633. Reports being less favorable frou Massachusetts in 1631-2, emigration had declined, but the accounts of 1633 again stimulated it. Gov. Winthrop laments that the high wages paid, 2s. 6d. sterling a day, led to idleness and dissipation.

Among the laws of Massachusetts adopted near this time were statutes forbidding all persons to receive interest upon money loaned, to wear apparel to costly for their estates, and prohibiting gaming.

A vessel was built at Boston in 1633, called the "Trial.”

*In 1631 Capt. John Smith published his last work on New England, giving an account of "the yearly proceedings of this country in fishing and planting;" from 1614, the date of his first voyage thither, to 1630. The same year he died in London, aged 52.

Capt. Fox was sent by Charles I., and Capt. Thomas James by Bristol merchants, to discover the northwest passage to China.

+ The war in Europe was ended in 1632 by the treaty of St. Germains. Charles, who had married a priness of France, was not indisposed to make concessions to that power, and was glad to end the war on almost any terms, owing to the trouble encountered while prosecuting it from his refractory parliament. He resigned to France again the right to Quebec, Acadia, and Cape Breton Island, Louis a greeing to pay 82,700 livres for skins, furs, knives, &c., property of English traders found by the French at Quebec, which they had lately re-taken. The Company of New France began now to extend its establishments in Canada, but quarrels between the leading traders of the colony about the fur trade hindered its prosperity.

In 1632 the English settled Montserrat, and the Dutch Curacoa, West India Islands. 11

VOL. XXX.--NO. II.

A vessel, with a cargo of fish and furs, was dispatched from Boston to Virginia, probably the first such adventure. She was wrecked at the capes

of the Chesapeake.

The population of Plymouth was 396.

Wouter Van Twiller, the Director-General of the New Amsterdam Colony, in order to anticipate the attempt from Plymouth Colony, in Connecticut, purchased of the Indians, this year, lands about 60 miles up the Connecticut or Fresh River, at what is now the city of Hartford. Here a fortified trading house was erected, within the present limits of the city, called the House of Good Hope." In October, a party from Plymouth having come round by sea in a small sloop, passed the station in disregard of a threat to fire upon them, and established a trading house, as the nucleus of a settlement, seven miles above, at Windsor. Van Twiller protested, but in vain. Charles issued three proclamations upon tobacco-one prohibiting, very strictly, its sale in Great Britain by any other than reputable, substantial traders. It was not to be at all sold by keepers of taverns, ale-houses, inns, victualling houses, strong-water sellers, &c. Another repeated former regulations, and a third re-asserted and increased the privilege of his pre-emption. As the tobacco trade became profitable, and the king's revenue enlarged therefrom, the royal reflections upon the malignity of the weed became less severe. Before this, it had been deemed expedient to allow the import from the Carribees, as well as from Virginia and the Somer Isles. The dingy shrub was plainly working itself into favor-not merely with the people, so easily converted into chewers, smokers, and snuffers, but with the most powerful and violent enemy it had yet encountered, whose hostility had seemed invincible. While royal lips and royal olfactories disdained as much as ever the contamination of its pungent humor, it appealed to royal cupidity by its respectable and ever-growing availability as a financial assistant of the government, in a time when the tax-granters and tax payers were getting too chary of their "rascal counters." It promised to become an efficient tax-agent for the exchequer, among a people who had obstinately demurred to other forms and authorities, and if it poisoned the subjects, the king may now have begun to reflect it only properly punished them for the presumption of resisting his own divine right to exercise arbitrary disposal of all their properties.

Art. II.-MERCANTILE BIOGRAPHY.

ERASTUS BRIGHAM BIGELOW.

To an extent unknown before, our age beholds the power of scientific discovery and mechanical invention. We are beginning to appreciate their importance, and to honor the men of genius and toil to whom the great results are due. We confess that they should rank with the benefactors of the race. Why, indeed, should they not stand among the foremost of that illustrious band?

Let us look into this small cell. It is the chemist's laboratory. A few fluids and powders, some crucibles, flasks, and test-tubes, a trough, a lamp,

and a pair of scales, constitute its furniture. What can seem more insignificant? Yet with means so simple, that calm philosopher unlocks the secrets of nature. There he analyzes, weighs, measures, reasons, and combines. His labors are silent, yet their result may ring through the world. It may give fresh impulse to the streams of Commerce, may even turn them into new channels, and tell at length with unquestioned power on national destiny and human progress.

Take another case. In his still, lonely, perhaps dark chamber, sits one in deep reverie. Can it be that his thoughts, his dreams are of the slightest consequence to mankind? Yes-for that dreamer is Arkwright, or it is Watt, or Stephenson, or Fulton, or Whitney, or Morse? His is a nobler study than any arts of diplomacy or of war. Cams and cogs, levers, valves, wheels, are the tools with which he works. A machine is in the process of construction by and within that most wonderful of all machines, the human brain. At present it is only an ideal form, a mechanical phantom. But soon we shall see it embodied in iron. Fire, air, water, will be summoned to impel it. It will become a creature endued with life and power. A fairy, nimble and untiring, it will spin, knit, weave the world's clothing. A giant, at once obedient and beneficent, he will yoke each elemental force to his barge and car. Time and space, wind and wave, the earth and the air, frost, fire, the dreaded thunderbolt itself, will all bow before the wand of genius, and swell his peaceful triumphs.

Why should such a man be less prized than the warrior who rescues his country from oppression-than the statesman who lays broad and deep the foundations of empire-or than the patriot orator whose glowing words of counsel or remonstrance have saved that empire in some hour of peril? If the provinces of discovery and invention make a less imposing show than those of war, of statesmanship, and of eloquence, they have certainly a wider range and longer duration. The benefits conferred by science and art (whatever may be said of the original honor) belong to no particular nation. They cannot long be confined within geographical lines. They are as lasting as time itself.

We propose to give some account of an eminent inventor. We do this, not merely to make better known to his countrymen one of whom they may justly be proud; not merely as presenting to minds philosophically disposed a study instructive and curious; but especially as a remarkable instance of struggle, and perseverance, and final success. Let youth, conscious of talent, ambitious, but repressed by penury, read and take courage. We shall not apologize for entering into some minuteness of detail. Incidents, in themselves trifling, become instructively interesting when seen to be indications of individuality-the tokens and first steps, however faint, of a distinguished career.

The subject of this notice was born April 2d, 1814, in West Boylston, a small town of Massachusetts, seven miles north of Worcester. His father had a little farm, to the toils of which he added, with Yankee versatility, the business of a wheelwright and that of a chair-maker. The boy was sent, of course, to the district school. At the age of eight he asked his master to put him into arithmetic and writing, but he was pronounced too young for these high branches. He was not, however, to be headed off so. He took up Pike's Arithmetic at home, performed, unassisted, every question as far as the Rule of Three, and made a fair record of the whole. Who does not see in this a promising outset ?

But his school and his arithmetic engrossed only a fraction of his time. His boyish activities showed early a mechanical tendency. With minute fence of regular post and rail he inclosed a few yards of ground. This was his little farm. There might be seen a plow, a cart, a wagon complete in every part, with other implements of husbandry, all of his own making, and of a size to match. His live stock was a litter, of kittens. To carry out his idea, he must set them to work; a yoke was made, and two of these small steers were attached to the cart. Finding that they insisted on pulling backward, he turned their heads toward the cart. The wheels now went forward, but the team could not be guided; the experiment consequently failed.

Not content with being a farmer and a wheelwright, he went into the chair line. Having made a chair-back, he so finified it with paint and bronze and gold, that folks looked on with wonder, and predicted that the boy was destined to become a great painter.

He contrived to get a violin, and it was not long before he could execute with facility the then popular airs of "Bounding Billows," and "Away with melancholy." This was a new phase. His career, evidently, was to be a musical one. Kind neighbors even suggested that he might hope ere long to find high and profitable employment in the orchestra of the Boston Museum, consisting at that time, if we remember rightly, of a fiddle and a hand

organ.

John Temple, a neighbor of Mr. Bigelow, was a substantial farmer. He had noticed the lad's capacity, and sometimes jokingly asked him to come and live with him, and learn his occupation. Erastus regarded this proposition as a business matter. With him, an offer was an offer. Accordingly, one Monday morning in early spring, this boy of ten years presented himself at Mr. Temple's door and demanded employment. It was given him, with no expectation that he would continue through the day. He worked on, however, and at the end of the week suggested to Mr. T. that it would be proper to come to some understanding in regard to wages. On being asked his terms, he offered to work six months on condition of receiving at the close, a cosset lamb called "Dolly," to which he had taken a strong liking. The moderate demand was of course acceded to. But scarcely had a month elapsed ere a difficulty rose. Dolly could not live without eating, and how was he to provide for her? His fellow laborers discovered the cause of his anxiety, and teasingly aggravated it. At length he proposed and effected an alteration in the contract. He relinquished his claim to Dolly, and Mr. T. agreed to furnish, instead, a pair of cow-hide boots, and sheeps gray cloth sufficient for a suit of clothes. The agreement was fully carried out on both sides. At the close of the period, an offer of four dollars a month for the ensuing summer was made and accepted. The kind-hearted man, at parting, gave the young farmer a silver dollar.

During the next two years he continued to work for Mr. Temple in the summer, and to attend school in winter. The farmer urged him to stay till he should be of age, and he offered to do so if, at the close of the term, he could receive in compensation a small outlying farm belonging to his employer. Fortunately, this offer was declined. It was an escape not unlike that of Daniel Webster from the clerkship of the county court.

In 1827 Mr. Bigelow removed to another part of the town, and engaged in the manufacture of cotton yarn. Erastus was set to work in the mill. So long as he found anything to study in the machinery and its working, he was interested; the occupation then became distasteful. While employed

in this drudgery of tending spindles, he was busy in framing plans for the future. His grand desire was to obtain a liberal education. As his parents, from their limited circumstances, could not encourage him in this, he began to consider in what way he might accomplish the object himself. He already knew how to earn and to save. He had not only clothed himself by his toil, but to his first silver dollar had added several more. Like Goldsmith, he now turned his musical talents to account. In a community where critical connoisseurship was unknown, he passed for an accomplished performer. At all balls and dancing parties for many miles around his services were in request. After a long day of spinning, how tedious must have been a whole night of fiddling! Often, doubtless, his eyelids grew heavy and his arm Who can think of the motive which nerved that arm, without respect for the young violinist?

a-weary.

About this time he made his first invention. It was a hand-loom for weaving suspender webbing. It accomplished the object; but as the business would not justify the employment of an operative, he abandoned it, after realizing from it a few dollars. His next invention was of more importance. A ball of cotton cord, known in the market by the name of "piping cord," had been brought into the house for domestic use. On examination, he found it to be of yarn like that which he was spinning every day. On inquiry, he learned that it was made by hand, in the ordinary rope-walk. He was sure that it could be formed more expeditiously and cheaply by automatic machinery. In a few weeks he had matured the plan of a machine, and within two months he had it in successful operation. It worked wellearning for the youthful inventor in the course of a year about one hundred dollars. At length the article fell greatly in price, and the working of the machinery was abandoned.

These first developments of a peculiar genius were evidently called forth by his burning desire for an education. They were temporary expedients to enable him to pay his way. It should not be forgotten that they were the achievements of a lad only fourteen years of age. Having now by his industry and ingenuity acquired a small fund, he obtained parental consent to attend a neighboring academy, at his own expense. This was in 1830. Here he entered on the study of Latin. His teacher was pleased, and wrote to the father, recommending a collegiate course for the boy. But to the cautious parent, a trade seemed safer and better. As the son preferred not to engage again in the dull employment of the spinning mill, the matter was compromised, and he was told that he might go to Boston and become a commission merchant, if he could.

To Boston accordingly he went. He carried no letters-knew no one. After a few inquiries from door to door, he found employment in the wholesale and retail dry-goods establishment of S. F. Morse & Co. The firm was highly respectable, and the place was deemed a good one. But the charm of novelty was soon over, and then the occupation of measuring and selling ribbons and calicoes seemed petty and monotonous. He felt, he knew, that he was made for something beyond that. The idea of a college course still haunted him. On one occasion he walked out to Cambridge, and had a talk with President Quincy. It only served to show that there was no chance yet for him.

About this time a teacher of stenography came to Boston and gave lessons in the art. He drew much attention and formed large classes. Our young clerk shared in the general interest, but the cost of a course (ten dol