superior power. Before the voice of heaven they silenced even the
calls of their country.

Yet, while so deeply impressed with the sense of religious
obligation, they felt, in all its energy, the force of that tender
tie which binds the heart of every virtuous man to his native
land. It was to renew that connection with their country which had
been severed by their compulsory expatriation, that they resolved to
face all the hazards of a perilous navigation and all the labors of
a toilsome distant settlement. Under the mild protection of the
Batavian government, they enjoyed already that freedom of religious
worship, for which they had resigned so many comforts and enjoyments
at home; but their hearts panted for a restoration to the bosom of
their country. Invited and urged by the open-hearted and truly
benevolent people who had given them an asylum from the persecution
of their own kindred to form their settlement within the territories
then under their jurisdiction, the love of their country
predominated over every influence save that of conscience alone, and
they preferred the precarious chance of relaxation from the bigoted
rigor of the English government to the certain liberality and
alluring offers of the Hollanders. Observe, my countrymen, the
generous patriotism, the cordial union of soul, the conscious yet
unaffected vigor which beam in their application to the British
monarch:--

"They were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother
country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. They were
knit together in a strict and sacred bond, to take care of the good
of each other and of the whole. It was not with them as with other
men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause