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maritime enterprise of
Maine, and its settlements be
gan to obtain a fixed prosperity.
The
French, just before occupying
Crown Point, pitched their tents on the opposite eastern shore, in the township of
Addison.
But already, in 1724, the government of
Massachusetts had established Fort Dummer, on the site of Brattleborough; and thus, one hundred and fifteen years after the inroad of
Champlain, a settlement of civilized man was made in
Vermont.
That Fort Dummer was within the limits of
Massachusetts, was not questioned by the
French; for the fort at
Saybrook, according to the
French rule, gave to
England the whole basin of the river.
Of
Connecticut the swarming population spread over all its soil, and occupied even its hills; for its whole extent was protected against the desolating inroads of savages.
The selfish policy of its governors and its royalist party delayed the increase of New York.
Pennsylvania, as the land of promise, was still the refuge of the oppressed.
We shall ‘soon have a German colony,’ wrote
Logan, ‘so many thousands of Pala-
tines are already in the country.’
‘We are also very much surprised at the vast crowds of people pouring in upon us from the north of
Ireland.
Both these sorts sit frequently down on any spot of vacant land.
They say the proprietary invited people to come and settle his country.
Both pretend they would pay, but not one in twenty has any thing to pay with.’
Nor did the south-west range of mountains, from the
James to the
Potomac, fail to become occupied by emigrants, and enlivened by county courts; and, in 1732, the valley of
Virginia received white inhabitants.
West of the
Alleghany there were no
European settlements, except as traders, especially from
Carolina, had ventured among the Indians, and, becoming wild like the