survive him. Mr. Johnson, one of the assistants, and his lady, who was a great patroness of the settlement, died soon after their arrival. Of the latter, an early historian observes,

Sue left an earthly paradise in the family of an earldom, to encounter the sorrows of a wilderness, for the entertainments of a pure worship in the house of God; and then immediately lett that wilderness for the heavenly paradise."

Persons of less constancy than was possessed by the fathers of New-England, in view of the obstacles and dangers now before them, would have been wholly discouraged. Before several of the ships arrived, the summer was past, they had no habitations for the approaching winter; the places of their settlement were unfixed; they had little or no forage for their cattle; they had but a distant and doubtful prospect of obtaining a support from the productions of the country; they were wholly unacquainted with the means of clearing a wilderness; the climate was much more severe than they had experienced; a wasting sickness prevailed among them; the wild beasts of the forest often raised their alarms; the savages of the wilderness, jealous of their encroachments, whose numbers and temper they could not ascertain, surrounded all their borders. But they had committed their cause to God. They believed they were called in his providence to leave the land of their nativity, he had carried them through the sea, and, they believed, though many of them might fall, he would not wholly desert them in the wilderness. He did not suffer his faithfulness to fail. In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them in his love and in kis pity he redeemed them: and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Four eminent ministers, Messrs. Maverick, Warham, Wilson, and Phillips, who were distinguished lights in the church of Christ while in England, attended the company which came over in 1630. These were eminent instruments of maintaining harmony in the several settlements, and of promoting the general interests of the colony. Before the conclusion of the season, settlements were commenced in several places which are now some of the finest towns in NewEngland. Governor Winthrop and a considerable number of the company laid the foundation of the town of Boston. Mr. Nowell, one of the asssistants, with a number of his friends, sat down at Charlestown, where a few remained of those who began that settlement in the preceding year. This place and Boston were considered, for a season, as one settlement and one church, under the ministry of Mr. Wilson. Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the assistants, with a company of planters,

began the settlement of Watertown. They enjoyed the ministry of Mr. Phillips. Another of the assistants, Mr. Rossiter, with Mr. Ludlow, and a number of settlers, began the town of Dorchester. The ministers Messrs. Warham and Maverick settled with them. A few years after, Mr. Warham and a considerable part of his people, began the settlement of Windsor on Connecticut River. Mr. Pyncheon, also an assistant, was at the head of a company, who commeneed the settlement of Roxbury. The famous Mr. Elliott, who came from England the year following, became their minister. At these places and Salem, the first planters continued till the next year.

The succeeding winter commenced in December, with a great severity. Few of the houses which had been erected were comfortable, and the most of them were miserable coverings. Unused to such severities of climate, the people suffered severely from the cold. Many died from being frozen. The inconveniences of their accommodations increased the diseases which continued to prevail among them. But their constancy had not yet been brought to the last trial.During the continuance of the severe season, their stock of provisions began to fail. Those who wanted were supplied by those who possessed, as long as any remained. A poo man came to the governor to complain, and was informed that the last bread of his house was in the oven. Many subsisted upon shell-fish, ground-nuts, and acrons, which at that season could not have been procured but with the utmost difficulty. Of the steadfastness and submission of the people, under these accumulated sufferings, the early historians give us many very striking testimonies. In consideration of their perilous condition, the sixth day of February was appointed for a day of public fasting and prayer, to seek deliverance from God. Every day, many knees bended in secret, many sighs rose to Him, to whose providential care they had committed their all, whose earthly kingdom they were laboring and suffering to advance. He who provideth for the raven his food, who prepared sustenance for Jacob, could not now be inattentive to the cries of his people. On the fifth of February, the day before the appointed fast, the ship Lion, which had been sent to England for that purpose, arrived laden with provisions. She had a stormy passage, and rode amid heavy drifts of ice after entering the harbor. But He who once stilled the tempest for the sake of his people, carried this ship through every danger, and brought her safe to land. On this event, the existence of the colony was, in a great measure, dependent. These provisions were distributed

among the people according to their necessities, and theirappointed fast was exchanged for a day of general thanksgiving.

On the opening of the spring of 1631, health was generally restored in the settlements, but the colony was greatly impoverished. The most of their provisions had been brought from England; the preceding year having been a season of uncommon scarcity, they were purchased at very high rates; by the length of the passage and the severity of the winter the greater part of their cattle had died; the materials for building and implements of labor were obtained with great difficulty and expense. In imitation of their venerable governor, before whose virtues the patriotism of Leonidas and Timoleon, of Publicola and the Decii, appears in a deepened shade, the wealthy, feeling that they had embarked in this cause, not for themselves, but for the colony and for God, distributed of their property according to the necessities of their brethren, and soon found themselves almost divested of plentiful fortunes.

In the year 1631, great exertions were made for a crop of Indian corn, which was their whole dependence, and it pleased God to give them a favorable season; and according to the lands improved, an abundant harvest. This must have been, indeed, an unpalatable pittance for those who had been nursed in all the delicacies of polished life, which was the case of many of those settlers, but it supplied their necessi ties. They came not to this trackless desert to repose on roses, but they were travellers towards a better country, that is, an heavenly. The fears of the colony, from the hostility of the savages, gradually subsided. In consequence of petty animosities and internal hostilities, they could not be united in a general combination for the extirpation of the colony. The small-pox, and other epidemic disorders, greatly prevailed among them, by which, immense numbers died. These events were considered by our fathers as the signal interpositions of Providence, by which, God was making room and preparing peace for his people. In the commencement of all the individual settlements, the planters were mindful of their great errand into the wilderness, and directed their first exertions to the establishment of a church of Christ, and the institutions of the gospel. The first church, after the one at Salem, was gathered at Charlestown, on a day of solemn fast, August 27th, 1630. Soon after this a church was erected at Dorchester. The next was at Boston.Soon after which, there was one at Roxbury, one at Lynn, and one at Watertown. In less than two years from the organization of the first church, in Salem, there were in the

colony, seven churches, which were indeed, golden candlesticks.

The colony continued to increase by fresh accessions of planters, emigrating every year, from England. In 1653, came over Mr. Haynes, afterwards, the first governor of Connecticut, and Mr. Cotton, Mr. Hooker, and Mr. Stone, three of the most eminent lights of the New England churches. Every year produced additions to the colony, by emigrants from the mother country, many of whom were persons of great merit and distinction, till about the year 1640. The civil wars, commencing in England at that time, put a general stop to emigration. The number of planters which came to New-England, from the commencement of the settlement to the year 1640, were computed at four thousand. After that time, it was supposed that as many removed from New-England, to the mother country, as came from thence to the colonies. From this small number of original planters have proceeded the many thousands of the inhabitants of the New-England States. We now enjoy the benefit of their labors, their wise institutions. and their noble example. We enjoy the benefit of their prayers, which are registered on high.

A brief sketch of the colonies, which issued from this venerable mother colony, with a view of their general progress in the early periods of their history, particularly, in their ecclesiastical interests, is reserved for future numbers.

(To be continued.). pot

ON THE RUINOUS EFFECTS OF ARDENT SPIRITS.

No. II.

0.

IF strong drink is the parent of many terrible diseases, and if our grave yards annually receive thousands of its miserable victims, as I trust has been satisfactorily evinced, these are not the only evils which are found in its train.— For,

2. The enormous consumption of ardent spirits in this country involves an incredible waste of property. When the marshals took the census in 1810, they were directed to collect, and return, to the Secretary's office, the amount of all domestic manufactures, of any considerable importance, in the United States. From these returns it appears, that no less than 25,499,382 gallons of ardent spirits were distilled that year; of which were exported 133,853 gallons, leaving 25,365,529 gallons to be consumed at home. The same year, about 8,000,000 gallons of rum and other foreign distilled li

quors were imported to this country, which being added to the above 25,565,529, produces an amount of 33,365,529 gallons, for our home consumption in a single year!

What the annual amount of imports has been, since 1810, I have not been able to ascertain; but I presume, that during the last year at least, it must have been considerably larger. As to our domestic distilled spirits, it admits not of a doubt, that there has been a steady and rapid increase, so that the quantity now manufactured, and of course consumed, is much greater than it was in 1810.

But not to insist on this, because the exact increase cannot be ascertained, let the aggregate of domestic and foreign spirits, stand as above at 33,365,529 gallons; and let it be made the basis of a few plain calculations. Now 33,365,529 gallons, is 248,932 hogsheads, (at more than 134 gallons the hogshead,) which supposing one team to carry two hogsheads, would load 124,466 waggons. These, allowing only three rods for each team, would reach more than 1,166 miles, or nearly the whole length of the United States, from north to south! The number of hogsheads necessary to contain the liquor, must upon a moderate computation, cost 606,000 dollars, and would, if placed so as to touch each other, reach more than 178 miles, exceeding by 48, the whole length of Massachusetts Proper, on the northern line. Or, to present the subject in another light, the quantity of ardent distilled spirits, which is annually drunk in the United States, is sufficient to fill a canal 42 miles long, 10 feet wide, and 2 feet deep; affording convenient navigation, for boats of several tans burthen? The same quantity if brought together, would form a pond more than 68 rods long, 40 rods broad, and 6 feet deep, covering an area of 17 acres.

Now let us, for a moment, view the subject, in connection with the population of this country. According to the eensus of 1810, the number of inhabitants in the United States and their territorial governments, was 7,230,514. If 33,365,529 gallons, were divided equally among the whole population, the process would give not far from 4 gallons and a half, to every man, woman and child,-bond and free, in the nation. But here two things are to be considered.

In the first place, we have in the United States, 1,185,223 slaves, and as it is their enviable privilege to be denied the use of ardent spirits, they must be taken from the grand total of our population; and then, we shall have left, a little more than 6,000,000 of people to drink more than 33,000,000 gallons of rum, brandy, whisky, &c.