‘
[
429]
village,’
1 soon became a chartered borough; like
another
Romulus, the veteran soldier resolved to perpetuate his name, and, under the name of Gorgeana, the land round
York became as good a city as seals and parchment, a nominal mayor and aldermen, a chancery court and a court-leet, sergeants and white rods, can make of a town of less than three hundred inhabitants and its petty officers.
Yet the nature of
Gorges was generous, and his piety sincere.
He sought pleasure in doing good; fame, by advancing Christianity among the heathen; a durable monument, by erecting houses, villages, and towns.
The contemporary and friend of
Raleigh, he adhered to schemes in
America for almost half a century; and, long after he became convinced of their unproductiveness, was still bent on plans of colonization, at an age when other men are but preparing to die with decorum.
Firmly attached to the monarchy, he never disobeyed his king, except that, as a churchman and a Protestant, he refused to serve against the Huguenots.
When the wars in
England broke out, the septuagenarian royalist buckled on his armor, and gave the last strength of his gray hairs to the defence of the unfor-tunate Charles.
2 In
America, his fortunes had met with a succession of untoward events.
The patent
for Lygonia had been purchased by
Rigby, a republican member of the Long Parliament, and a dispute ensued between the deputies of the respective proprietaries.
In vain did
Cleaves, the agent of
Rigby,
solicit the assistance of
Massachusetts; the colony warily refused to take part in the strife.
It marks the confidence of all men in the justice of the Puritans,
