It is not within the scope of my design to notice in detail the progress of the Maryland colony. The first settlement was made by Leonard Calvert, who, in February, 1634, arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia, with about two hundred Roman Catholics. The Virginians had remonstrated against the grant to Baltimore, but, by express commands of the king, Harvey, then governor, received Calvert with courtesy. Early in March he sailed up the Potomac, and, casting anchor under an island which he called St. Clement, he fired his first cannon, erected a cross, and took possession "in the name of the Savior of the world and the King of Great Britain." *** He then proceeded up the Potomac to the mouth of the Piscataqua Creek, opposite Mount Vernon, and near the site of the present Fort Washington, fifteen miles south of Washington City. The chief of the Indian village at that place was friendly; but Calvert, deeming it unsafe to settle so high up the river, returned, and entered the stream now called St. Mary's. He purchased a village of the Indians, and commenced a settlement. (b) Founded upon religious toleration and the practice of [[ b April. 1634]] justice, **** the colony rapidly increased in population and resources; and peace, except * Kennedy's Discourse on the Life and Character of George Calvert, before the Maryland Historical Society, 1845, page 43. ** Bancroft, i., 375. *** Belknap. **** As an instance of the determination to preserve peace within his borders, Leonard Calvert issued a proclamation in 1638, to prohibit "all unreasonable disputations in point of religion tending to the disturbance of the public peace and quiet of the colony, and to the opening of faction in religion." A Catholic gentleman (Captain Cornwaleys) had two Protestant servants. They were one day reading aloud, together. Smith's Sermons, and were overheard by Cornwaleys's overseer, a Roman Catholic, while reading a passage in which the pope was called anti-Christ, and the Jesuits anti-Christian ministers. The overseer abused them, and ordered them to read no more. The servants preferred a formal complaint against the overseer, and submitted it to the governor and council. Of the latter, Cornwaleys was one. The parties were heard, and the overseer was fined five hundred pounds of tobacco, and ordered to remain in prison until he should find sureties for his good behavior in future. This case shows the tolerant spirit of a Catholic administration.--Kennedy's Discourse, page 45.