The

RIVALS OF ACADIA,

AN

Old Story

OF

THE NEW WORLD.

When two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.

SHAKSPEARE.

Boston:

WELLS AND LILLY, COURT-STREET.

1827.

3

THE

RIVALS OF ACADIA.

CHAPTER I.

Far on th' horizon's verge appears a speck-
A spot-a mast-a sail-an armed deck!
Their little bark her men of watch descry,
And ampler canvas woos the wind from high.
LORD BYRON.

ON a bright day in the summer of 1643, a light pleasure-boat shot gaily across the harbor of Boston, laden with a merry party, whose cheerful voices were long heard, mingling with the ripple of the waves, and the music of the breeze, which swelled the canvas, and bore them swiftly onward. A group of friends, who had collected on the shore to witness their departure, gradually dispersed, till, at length, a single individual only remained, whose eyes still followed the track of the vessel, though his countenance wore that abstracted air, which shrewed his thoughts were detached from the pass