PLYMOUTH--Massachusetts--Connecticut--New Haven--New Hampshire--Rhode Island--Maine--Vermont--Character of the Early Settlers. The settlement of _New England_ commenced at Plymouth in 1620. This part of the continent between Penobscot and Cape Cod, had been carefully explored in 1614, by Captain Smith. He says, respecting it: "Of all the foure parts of the world I have yet seen not inhabited, could I have but means to transport a colony, I would rather live here than any where; and if it did not maintaine itselfe, were we but once indifferently well fitted, let us starve." Such was the opinion early formed of the desirableness of this region for colonization. Charles, Prince of Wales, was pleased to call it New England, on account of the favorable impression he received respecting it, from Smith's chart and description. This country was settled by a class of people very different, in many respects, from that which emigrated to the southern colony. The latter, for the most part, as has been seen, were mere adventurers, having in view the improvement of their secular interests, or the _eclat_ of successful enterprise. The colonists of New England sought chiefly the boon of religious freedom for themselves and their descendants, and through it the advancement of the Christian church in the world--a boon of which they had been deprived in their native land. The ground of this disfranchisement, was their non-conformity to the established English church, or separation from it. Having, while members of that church, devised and sought a greater purity in its worship without success, they at length separated themselves from it, and formed a distinct worshiping community. For thus professing to follow the _pure_ word of God, in opposition to traditions and human devices, they were in derision termed _Puritans_. In the progress of their religious views, and of the persecuting spirit of the government, they passed from mere puritanism, or efforts at greater purity in worship and in manners, to non-conformity, and from non-conformity to dissent. From difficulties in regard to the ritual of the church, they proceeded to doctrines. The Puritans and the universities denied a portion of the Apostles' Creed, so called: "advocated the sanctity of the Sabbath and the opinions of Calvin; his institutions being read in their schools, while the Episcopal party took the opposite side, and espoused the system of Arminius." Both under Elizabeth and James, conformity was insisted on. The latter declared, "I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion, in substance and ceremony. I will make them conform, or I will hurry them out of the land, or else worse." And he did hurry out of the land many of those who had become obnoxious to him; while the others were more cruelly hindered from leaving the country, to suffer from contempt, poverty, or a lingering death in imprisonment. Their attempts to escape were frequently frustrated, and