principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers? Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all swept off by the thirty savage tribes, enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventurers of other times, and find the parallel of this. Was it the winter's storm, beating upon the houseless heads of women and children; was it hard labor and spare meals; was it disease; was it the tomahawk; was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprise, and a broken heart, aching in its last moments, at the recollection of the loved and left, beyond the sea; was it some, or all of these united, that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope? Is it possible, that from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, an expansion so ample, a reality so important, a promise, yet to be fulfilled, so glorious?'

LEYDEN STREET AND TOWN SQUARE.

The murmuring brook whose waters sweet
Induced them near to fix their seat,
Whose gushing banks the springs afford
That eked along their scanty board;
There first was heard the cheerful strain,
Of axe and hammer, saw and plane,
Around their humble roofs appeared,
Through wasting care and labor reared.

This street received its present name in the year 1823, in grateful remembrance of the hospitality and kindness shown to the pilgrims during their residence of eleven years in the city of Leyden.

It was originally named First Street, and afterwards is in the records sometimes called Great, and Broad street.

Among the principal considerations which determined the fathers of New England to settle in Plymouth, was its favorable position for defence against the aborigines, and the excellent springs of pure water which abound along its shores, and the precipitous banks of town brook. The tide flowed for some distance up this stream, and formed a convenient basin for the reception and safe shelter, of the shallops and other vessels employed in their early enterprises of fishing and traffic. It may in some measure be owing to this circumstance, that convenient wharves along the unprotected shores were not sooner constructed.

This stream proceeds from Billington sea, which is about two miles distant from town. It furnishes a valuable water power in modern times, and in the days of the Pilgrims, and for nearly two centuries