14 BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. who, in leaving England , forsook their homes, and those comforts that are only found in long settled countries, and also those attachments that are most dear to the human bosom. But these circumstances alone are not sufficient to do justice to their courage and magnanimity. The victories they obtained over all the complicated hardships that can assail the heart, and stagger the fortitude, of man, raised their charac¬ ter in the estimation of those who value facts, rather than military splendour, to a level with the bravest people recorded in history: They carried with them to resolute hearts and intelligent understandings, and that unconquer¬ able spirit of perseverance which surmounts the num¬ berless difficulties that await all great undertakings. The success attending the actions of such men asto¬ nished Eurojie. Their industry and indefatigable activity ensured their prosperity; their improvements in all the useful arts did honour to their ingenuity; and it must not be forgotten, that, notwithstanding their peculiar circumstances, and the occupations they followed, from the first foundation of their settle¬ ments, they were particularly careful to provide for the education of their children. Their position was favourable to commerce ; and their natural turn and temper, ever aiming at new discoveries, and incessantly employed in the search of whatever might better their circumstances, carried them into every quarter from whence profit could be obtained. There was hardly a port or spot in the American hemisphere, in which business could be