Being fettered and oppressed by the religious intolerance of the Old World, they sought, in the wilds of America, that measure of civil and religious freedom which they so much desired.

A little more than two hundred years ago, Dec.

22, 1620, the Mayflower landed one hundred of these voluntary exiles on the coast of New England.

Here, says Martyn, "New England was born," and this was "its first baby cry, a prayer and a thanksgiving to the Lord." Another permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., in 1607.

In process of time other settlements were made, and colonies organized, which were all subject to the English government till the declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.
The population of these colonies, according to the _U.S.Magazine_ of August, 1855, amounted in 1701, to 262,000; in 1749, to 1,046,000; in 1775, to 2,803,000.