Before the charter had passed the seals, the first Lord Baltimore died, and it was issued, on 20 June 1632, to his son Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, a namesake of the great Lord Burghley, under whom the father's official career had begun. By the charter this first lord proprietary was granted a large country hitherto uncultivated, in the parts of Amen partly occupied by savages. He was destin never to see his province, but he took watchf care over it for nearly 45 years. After some months preparation his first colonial expedition sailed from England, on 22 Nov. 1633, under the command of his younger brother, Leonard Calvert, in two vessels of well-omened name— the Ark and the Dove. Leonard Calvert, corn: missioned as lieutenant-general and governor of the province, was only 28 years old, and was a sincere straightforward man, but had the fatal failing of his family, in being unable to read men and to choose the proper agents to carry out his purposes. With him went several gentlemen, most of whom were Roman Catho lics, while the majority of the yeomen and servants were Protestants. It is probable that from the beginning the majority of the Mary land settlers paid no religious allegiance to the Pope of Rome. The voyage from England to America consumed from one to three months at that period, and as Leonard Calvert sailed by the southern route, stopping at the West Indies, he .did not arrive in Virginia until 24 Feb. 1634.
The governor there was' friendly, hut the settlers were so hostile that they soon after ward revolted, seized him and sent him to Eng land, largely because of his friendliness to Cal vert. Lord Baltimore had wisely enjoined his brother to have as little to do as possible with the Virginians during the first year, and heed ing that advice, the settlers soon sailed up the bay and entered the Potomac River. They landed on Saint Clements' (now called Blackis ton's) Island on Our Blessed Lady's Day in Lent,D 25 March 1634, on the first day of the year, according to their calendar, and in the beginning of spring, and °took solemn posses sion of the country, for our Saviour and our Sovereign Lord, the King of England.° From the enthusiastic reports of the country sent him, Baltimore prepared and printed in England, in 1634 and 1635, two pamphlets called Rela tions, which were in the nature of prospectuses to invite colonists and are the earliest printed accounts of the province. The fears of the ab origines were pacified, and through the advice of Capt. Henry Fleet, an old Indian trader, Calvert bought from them their town of Yao comico, which was renamed Saint Mary's. Claiborne's factory was the only other settle ment of Europeans within the province at the time. Calvert had instructions to use Clai borne courteously and permit him to proceed in his plantation if he would acknowledge Balti more as his overlord; but this acknowledgment was steadily refused, and a petty warfare arose between the settlers on Kent Island and those at Saint Mary's, which led to a naval combat on the Pocomoke River in 1635. Claiborne's
difficulties increased, through differences with his London partners, and he went to England in 1637, leaving the factory in charge of Capt. George Evelin, who was friendly to Balti more. He vainly endeavored to induce the settlers on the island to accept Baltimore as their ruler, and finally, in February 1638, Cal vert led an expedition in person against the factory and overcame the opposition there, while Claiborne failed in England in an appeal to the Lords' Commissioners of Plantations. He never lost his animosity toward Lord Balti more, and continued to the end of a long life his struggle against proprietary rule. Both in England and in America the Virginians tried to prevent Baltimore from taking possession of the province which had been granted him. The expense of his expeditions and of the litigation in England nearly impoverished him; but neither then nor, when later deprived of the province by force, did Cecil Calvert deviate from his persistent effort to secure himself and his descendants so valuable a possession. Re maining in England, he warded off one threat ened danger after another, and his policy, as his letters disclose it, was that of a calm, shrewd, unenthusiastic, fair-minded, far-seeing man. He was a faithful member of the Roman Catholic Church, and wished to provide an asylum for his fellow-believers within his palatinate; hut he wisely foresaw that any grant of especial privileges to the Roman Catholics— still more an establishment of that Church in the province—would lead to a speedy for feiture of his patent. He clearly wished the establishment of no other church. Conse quently, from the beginning of his, settlement of Maryland, he set an example of a ruler who separated church from state, who directed his colonists to show toleration to all Christians and who allowed freedom of worship in any Christian form. Jews were tacitly permitted to dwell in the province. In his first expedition he sent two Jesuit priests, that the colonists might have religious counsel and guidance. One of the Jesuits, Father Andrew White, a man of marked devotion to his work, wrote an ac count of the voyage, in Latin and in English, to which we owe valuable information. The Jesuit order continued to be the chief religious agency of the Roman Catholic Church in Mary land throughout the whole of the provincial period, and their conscientious zeal and faith fulness deserve high praise. They reared from the provincial fatnihes a good many Jesuit priests who were very influential in the organ ization of their Church in the United States and were largely responsible for its American character.