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24 honor of his sovereign, and guiding the exploring party through the trackless wilds, suddenly presented himself before Powhatan, the great monarch of the country, while encompassed by his warriors and savage court. He describes his rude palace as "pleasantly situated on a hill, having before it three fertile isles, around it many corn-fields, and strong by nature." What a strange interview, when the red-browed rulers of the land, first gazed upon faces, costumes, and weapons so new and strange, and heard the tones of an unknown language, which was to have the mastery in these realms, when their own barbarous articulations should be a forgotten sound.

In the settlement at Jamestown, lowly roof-trees rise like the mushroom. A rude palisade surrounds them. In the midst, is this temple to Jehovah, over whose ruins, as we linger, the pictured records of its early ritual unfold themselves. We see the masses of fresh, wild flowers with which it was daily decked, and hear the filial petition for a blessing on "England, the sweet mother-country," which mingled with the morning and evening prayer. We see the pulpit, with its hour-glass, on the sacred day reminding the man of God of the fitting limits of his discourse, and that the patience of his auditors could scarcely be expected to outrun the measure of its sands. We see the chair of state for the Governor, with its cushion of green velvet, and the board "on which he kneeleth, covered with a great cloath." Gathered as a congregation, we