Having made some observations in reference to the mottoes on several of the flags given in our table, we would now invite attention to the religious character of those on the colonial flags, viz.: _Qui transtulit sustinet_, and an "Appeal to Heaven." In the famous effort of colonial vigor, which, resulting in the capture of Louisburg, surprised the world in 1745, we learn, from Belknap's _History of New Hampshire_, vol ii. p. 157, that the flag used bore the motto, _Nil desperandum Christo Duce_. A motto furnished by the celebrated George Whitfield. This last flag, under the treaty of union, must have been an Union flag, probably, similar to the British ensign above given, or perhaps with a white field, to which color the New England people were partial (see the colors of the Massachusetts cruisers, Flag No. 8, in our table), with the motto above given inscribed on the field. May we not conclude that, when the flags embodying such mottoes were dispensed with, some reference to them would still be preserved, as would be the case by preserving in the flag which replaced them the colors of the flags laid aside? THE RATTLESNAKE UNION FLAG. The letter previously quoted, dated New Providence, May 13, 1776, says: "And their standard, a rattlesnake;" motto--"Don't tread on me." This _standard_ is thus described, viz.:-- "In CONGRESS, February 9, 1776. "Colonel Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the Commander-in-chief of the American Navy, being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattlesnake in the middle, in the attitude of going to strike, and the words underneath, 'Don't tread on me.'[57] "_Ordered_, That the said standard be carefully preserved and suspended in the Congress room." [57] American Archives, 4th series, vol. v. p. 568. South Carolina Provincial Congress. Before I proceed, I shall offer one or two remarks on this device of the rattlesnake, to show that it also, as well as the British crosses, was an emblem of union, and that it was seized upon as one _then_ (December, 1775) in use, and familiar. In 1754, in the _Philadelphia Gazette_, when Benjamin Franklin was editor of that paper, an article appeared, urging _union_ among the colonies as a means of insuring safety from attacks of the French. This article closed with a wood-cut of a snake divided into parts, with the initials of one colony on each division, and the motto, "Join, or die," underneath, in capital letters.[58] (See Fig. 3, Plate II.) [58] Franklin's Works, vol. iii. p. 25.