: Essays ) 
And as by frequent repetition these groundless 
assertions and malicious calumnies may, if not con- 
tradicted and refuted, obtain further credit, and be 
injurious throughout Europe to the reputation and 
interest of the confederate colonies, it seems proper 
and necessary to examine them in our own just 
vindication. 
With regard to the first, that the colonies were set- 
tled at the expense of Britain, it is a known fact, that 
none of the twelve united colonies were settled, or 
even discovered at the expense of England. Henry 
the Seventh, indeed, granted a commission to Sebas- 
tian Cabot, a Venetian, and his sons, to sail into the 
western seas for the discovery of new countries; but 
it was to be “suis eorum propriis sumptibus et ex- 
pensis,” at their own costs and charges. They dis- 
covered, but soon slighted and neglected these 
northern territories, which were, after more than a 
hundred years’ dereliction, purchased of the natives, 
and settled at the charge and by the labor of private 
men and bodies of men, our ancestors, who came 
over hither for that purpose. But our adversaries 
have never been able to produce any record that 
ever the Parliament or government of England was 
at the smallest expense on these accounts; on the 
contrary, there exists on the journals of Parliament 
a solemn declaration in 1642 (only twenty-two years 
after the first settlement of the Massachusetts, when, 
if such expense had ever been incurred, some of the 
members must have known and remembered it), 
I See the Commission in the Appendix to Pownall’'s Administration 
of the Colonies. Edition 17735. 
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