The peacefulness
of the' Indians had
much to do with the
way in which Mary-
land was settled. In
New England, where
the Indians might make
an attack at almost any _
moment, the settlers ■■':■
naturally kept close
tc^ether in towns and

villages, where they ■ -.^

could take refuge in a ~^

fort or block-house and block-house

defend themselves ; but

in Maryland, where there was no need of this
stMmxttts. defense, they spread themselves out over the

country, each family living on its own farm or
plantation remote from the others. Even St. Mary's,
where the courts were held and public business attended



jNGoogIc



40 HISTORY OF MARYLAND

to, never had more than sixty houses, and these were
scattered for five miles along the shore.
For the first ninety years St. Mary's and Annapolis

were the only real towns. Then came Joppa, on the

Gunpowder River, which flourished after a

Early Towna. ,,.... , ,.
fashion for fifty years, only to die away as its
trade passed into the hands of the town of Baltimore.
Before the present Baltimore was founded two other
towns of that name had appeared, or rather had been
made on paper and staked out, one* on the Bush River
in Baltimore County in 1683, and another in Dorchester

•There is still a boat-landing on the Bush River, called "Old
Baltimore." This landing seems to float up and down the river.
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CUSTOMS OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD 41

County. In the year 1729 the Assembly passed a law
giving the planters near the Patapsco permission to buy
land on that river to make a port for their vessels. The

site of the town was first surveyed in 1730.
