In America the middle of the seventeenth century saw the English making good their foothold on the rude Atlantic shore, in Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and a few other points, contending with the Indians, the Dutch, and the home government, jealous of their liberties, extending their trade, and inaugurating great enterprises. It was in 1656 that the Quakers arrived in Boston. A bloody persecution sprung up against them in the few years following, and four were put to death. It was still later in the century, 1692, that the horrible proceedings against witchcraft took place in Salem, where many were most unjustly hanged, and many more tortured into confession of abominable falsehoods. It is well to remember this when we grow indignant over the persecution of the Huguenots in France. Further north, in Acadie, or Nova Scotia, and Canada, the French had already explored the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, made some feeble settlements, and converted some of the Indians. Their missionaries and adventurers were full of heroism and zeal. Later in the century they discovered the Mississippi, and claimed all the territory in that Western region from its source to its mouth, calling it, after the great king, Louisiana. In England, 1650 saw Oliver Cromwell in pretty complete possession of power, Charles I having been beheaded the year before. In 1651 the royal army was totally defeated at Worcester, and Charles II soon after escaped in disguise to France to come back triumphantly in 1660, when the Lord Protector had passed away. During the Commonwealth Roman Catholics were deprived of the privilege of voting or holding office, and the use of the Prayer-book was forbidden to Episcopalians. It was in the short reign of James II (1685-88) that Judge Jeffreys wrote his name with letters of blood in the annals of English history. When the people turned to William of Orange, the perfidious and tyrannical James was forced to flee with his family to France, and spent the remainder of his days at St. Germain, a pensioner on the bounty of Louis XIV. Anne, the younger daughter of James II, reigned over England from 1701 to 1714. On the continent of Europe the terrible Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) between Protestants and Catholics, memorable for the brave deeds of Gustavus Adolphus, had just closed in the Peace of Westphalia, by which Brandenburg—the forerunner of Prussia—was enlarged, and Saxony strengthened, while Switzerland and the low countries, or Netherlands, were acknowledged as independent States. The Belgic Provinces, between the Netherlands and France, divided among themselves, remained submissive to Spain and the Roman Catholic Church. They became involved in the wars attending the decline of the Spanish monarchy, and during the remainder of the century were the theater of fierce struggles between contending armies, and were subjected to many changes of boundaries.