PROLOGUE 3 I. DIVERSE VOYAGES 9 Columbus, Cartier, and the Conradian Shape of Adventure in America II. DIVINE TOBACCO 23 Hakluyt and the Virginia Business III. CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS 57 Captain John Smith, Father of Us All IV. A MODEL OF MOSES 99 The Pilgrims Lend a Prophetic Presence to the Land V. GLORIOUS ENTERPRISE 131 Governor Winthrop’s Wonderful Wall VI. WOMB OF NATURE 159 Thomas Morton and the Call of the Wild VIL BY WAY OF NEWTOWN 189 How Thomas Hooker Crossed his Rubicon and Started the Pequot War: A Hudibrastic Interlude VIII. ECCLESIASTIC DRUMS 217 Puritan Theocrats, Despairing of the Present Generation, Reform the Past IX. A FABRIC HUGE 253 Cotton Mather’s Masterpiece; Or, The Original Errand Betrayed X. PROVIDENTIAL PASSAGES 279 Wherein a Matron, a Minister, a Militiaman, and a Madam Display the Cardinal Points of the Puritan Compass XI. RETURN, ALPHEUS 311 Taylor, Sewall, Wolcott, and Company: Some Poetic Fabrics from the Linsey-woolsey Loom XII. ON HIS MAJESTY’S SERVICE 341 Robert Beverley, William Byrd, and the Palladian Version of American Pastoral EPILOGUE 383 EX LIBRIS 389 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PRIMARY SOURCES 399 INDEX 405