The seventeenth century in America was the seedtime of colonization. For 115 years after Columbus discovered America, explorers sailed the western waters, and the nations of Europe staked out vast empires. England launched several successful attempts to plant colonies in what is now the United States. In the years following the landing at Jamestown in 1607, England laid the foundation for her extensive colonial system in North America. From these scattered colonies a nation grew, but a long time ed before the colonies became states and the states became a nation.

In editing this booklet, we have let the authors tell their own story in their own words, but we have sometimes modernized the spelling and punctuation and—when it seemed absolutely necessary—words and sentence structure. Our aim has been to turn the language of these old documents into English modern enough that what the writers have to say is not obscured by the way they said it. Occasionally we have made cuts within selections to save space, but, for the most part, the material used is complete.

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