The Expansion of New England - The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River; 1620-1865 #225117

Besides these tangible causes for emigration, there were the more subtle but no less real ones of restless ness and discontent with the life of settled communities. The Wanderlust in the anglo-saxon blood had been potent in urging Englishmen to a part in the Crusades and later to voyages of exploration and discovery. Now it assumed the form it had taken in earlier centuries, and impelled not only individuals, but families, and groups of families, to emigration over seas. Love of adventure, curiosity concerning unknown lands, dreams of prosperity impossible under their present condition.