“If you will permit me to say so, Captain Raggett, I don’t think this lack of historical knowledge on your part has caused England to feel less pride in the career of the gallant seaman who has kept her flag flying through many a hard-fought fight.” “Thank you, Fotheringay; thank you, my lad. Old Dick Raggett has done his best for his king and country according to the measure of his ability, even though some of the young bloods at the Admiralty don’t seem to think he’s fit for this blockading service!” “Now,” he continued, “I feel somewhat interested in these people of Cape Cod, and you may help me to understand them better. I notice your friends, Captains Knowles and Mayo, speak excellent English for men in their station of life?” “That is a characteristic of the people, Captain Raggett. The first settlers were men of unusual intelligence and, when you consider the age in which they lived, of some education. They were keen students of the Bible; in fact, it was their only book and their language was modeled on its style. Then, their ministers were men of great learning and they exercised much influence in secular as well as in religious affairs. Their word was law with their flocks and it is not improbable that the people paid them the compliment of imitation in their habit of conversing in good English.” “Why did these first settlers leave England?” “The primary reason was that their religious belief was antagonistic to the established church. They did not believe in the establishment, and they formed a society for the advancement of their own ideas. For this they were persecuted and fled to Holland where, after a residence of some years, they decided to cross the ocean in search of a new home.” “Oh, they were for freedom of conscience, eh? Their descendants don’t follow them in that respect, Fotheringay. Why, in this very town of Provincetown there is at present open war between the Congregationalists and the Methodists! The Methodists are newcomers, and the adherents of the old order resent their presence. Are they not practising here the tactics against which their forefathers rebelled in England?” The humor of the situation appealed to the lieutenant and he laughingly answered: “That, indeed, seems to be the case, sir. It must certainly be admitted that the era of perfect religious toleration has not yet arrived. However, we English are not in a position to throw stones at the Cape Codders. Our own laws dealing with his majesty’s Catholic subjects are no credit to our enlightenment.”