CHAPTER XII.
THE PURITAN PLANTATION.
It is a fearful thing to undertake the destruction of a nation by slaughter, starvation, and banishment.

When we read of such enormities, perpetrated by some 'scourge of God,' in heathen lands and distant ages, we are horrified, and we thank Providence that it is our lot to be born in a Christian country.

But what must the world think of our Christianity when they read of the things that, in a most Bible-reading age, Englishmen did in Ireland?
The work of transplanting was slow, difficult, and intensely painful to the Irish, for Connaught was bleak, sterile, and desolate, and the weather was inclement.

The natural protectors of many families had been killed or banished, and the women and children clung with frantic fondness to their old homes.

But for the feelings of such afflicted ones the conquerors had no sympathy.