Ark and the Dove, set sail from Cowes, under command of Leonard Calvert, brother of the Lord Proprietary, and having on board a goodly company of gentlemen—adventurers. It was but the common sight of the putting out to sea of two insignificant boats to those who watched them from the shore that autumn day; but it stands out as marking a great era in the history of human progress. The pious and catholic Cecilius Calvert, carrying out the designs of his great father, had decreed that all men living under his protection should be free to serve God according to the dictates of their own consciences,—a decree so far in advance of their times as to place the names of the Calverts forever in the foremost rank of the world's greatest and wisest men.
After many adventures, on the 25th of March, the Feast of the Annunciation, the colonists landed. A precious early chronicle tells us that
"Heere we went to a place where a large tree was made
into a Crosse, and taking it upon our shoulders, wee carried
it to the place appointed for it. The gouvernour
and Commissioners putting their hands first vpon it, and
then the rest of the chiefest aduenturers. At the place
prepared wee all kneeled downe and said certain Prayers,
