FRAXLAND
ESDANS
F
BLA
UNIVERS
UNIVERS
THE
THE
ARTES
TENTIAS
1817
SITY
ERIT
OF MIC
OF MIC

··LIBRARIES · N'
MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
All great and honourable actions are accom-
panied with great difficulties, and must be both
enterprised and overcome with answerable courages
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
ON
The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers
AS TOLD IN GOVERNOR BRADFORD'S MS.
HISTORY OF THE PLIMOTH PLANTATION
WITH A REPRODUCTION OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S
MAP OF NEW ENGLAND
George
BY
G. CUTHBERT BLAXLAND M.A.
SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE oxford
AND DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN TO THE LATE BISHOP OF LONDON
LONDON
WARD & DOWNEY LIMITED
PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1896
F
68
B64
PREFACE
THESE Essays are the offspring of an interest
which the present writer learned to feel in
the Bradford MS. at a time when he had
the privilege of being its custodian. That
interest, dormant for many years, has been
revived by the recent publication in fac-simile
of the priceless document, whereby that
which was formerly the privilege of the few
has become the general property of the
reading world. It has now been made possible
for anyone who desires to do so not only to
read the story as it was written, but even to
see with his own eyes, as it were, the very
strokes of Governor Bradford's pen, and
almost to stand by him as he traces, with
conscientious pains, his old, yet living, story.
vi
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Such an occasion may, it is hoped, justify
the issue of these "scribbled writings," which,
while they lay claim to no originality or re-
search outside the manuscript itself, may yet
impart to his readers some of the interest
and profitable enjoyment which the author
has himself derived from its time-honoured
pages.
隐​道
​CONTENTS
I. EXILES FOR CONSCIENCE' SAKE
A LETTER WRITTEN BY MR. ROBINSON FROM
LEYDEN TO THE COLONISTS ON THE EVE
OF THEIR DEPARTURE
•
NOTE ON THE "MAYFLOWER "}
II. THE COLONISATION OF NEW PLYMOUTH-
HOW IT WAS PROMOTED AND FINANCED
III. GLIMPSES OF THE LAND AND OF THE TIMES
IV. WILLIAM BRADFORD, AS AUTHOR, MAN, AND
PAGE
I
35
42
49
82
STATESMAN
100
•
•
NOTES ON SOME OF THE CURIOUS WORDS
AND FORMS OF EXPRESSION OCCURRING
IN THE MS.
130
A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF GOVERNOR
BRADFORD'S NARRATIVE
•
135
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
I
EXILES FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE
GOVERNOR BRADFORD's story of PLIMOTH
PLANTATION may truly be regarded, in con-
ception and design, as a prose Epic. To
say this does not imply that there is in it any
conscious selection or arrangement of the
materials to produce an artistic effect, or
that there is any attempt to work up the
subject to an artificial climax. On the con-
trary, nothing could be more simple and un-
studied than the general course of the narra-
tive. Bradford's story unfolds itself according
to the modest and unambitious rule which he
sets before himself at the beginning.
B
2
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
And first of ye occasion, and Inducements,
therunto; the which that I may truly unfould,
I must begine at ye very roote & rise of y same.
The which I shall endevor to manefest in a
plaine stile; with singuler regard unto yo
simple trueth in all things, at least as near as
my slender judgmente can attaine the same.
He leads his readers through a mass of
details, of correspondence on commercial
matters, of long-winded legal documents, all
of great historical interest, yet many of
them decidedly prosaic in character. He
omits nothing which truth requires to be
told. He adopts after the first Introductory
Book, the most inartistic of all styles, the
style of the simple annalist, recording the
events of each year by themselves, as
though they were written in a journal. Yet
still there is evidence to show that the
materials were not really put together, in
their present form, until a later period.
Bradford wrote at a time when the result
to which events were tending had been
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
3.
attained, and was actually realised before
his eyes. And the consciousness of that
attained result, great and honourable as it
was, filling his mind, tinges his retrospect of
the preceding events at many points. It
becomes a pervading spirit, giving life and
purpose to the whole body. And so with-
out art or effort, yet not without intention,
his record of events from year to year, as God
in His Providence had ordered them, clothed
in a language which, though often homely, is
never petty or undignified, but rather full of
unstudied grace, and infused with the poetry
of deep feeling and unaffected religion, be-
comes a true Epic. It is an Epic of the
Ways of God with Man. The little one
has become a thousand. The cause once
despised and persecuted has attained to
honour and triumph. Step by step through
crushing disasters, through difficulty and
opposition, through misrepresentation and
persecution, patient perseverance and heroic
faithfulness to truth have vindicated their
cause.
The exiles for conscience sake, seek-
B 2
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
ing only to follow the path set before them, with-
out knowing whither it would tend, have come
to be the honour and example of a new world.
Such is Bradford's conception of his
subject. It is a history which does not
stand alone in the annals of the human race.
In every age there have been men who have
endured persecution, and faced difficulty for
the truth, as they have conceived it, men by
whose single-minded and self-sacrificing
devotion to their cause, the world has been
enriched and ennobled, and of whom it has
not been worthy. But even were such in-
stances many times more numerous than
they are, the cost of heroism to the sufferer
would still be the same, and equally
deserving of our gratitude and honour. Nor
is it needful that we should be in full accord
with Bradford's theological principles, that
we should adopt his estimate of the exclusive
righteousness of his cause, or of the charac-
ter of his enemies, in alliance, as it seemed
to him, with the powers of darkness, in order
to sympathise with his enthusiasm, or to give
“MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
5
"}
to him, and the "pore, persecuted Church
whose sufferings he shared, our ungrudging
tribute of admiration and praise. Per-
secution is an ugly and shameful thing, by
whomsoever it is practised, and makes a blot
upon the fair fame of those who have been
guilty of it, which is not easily wiped off by
their successors. But history compels us to
acknowledge that, at a time when all per-
secuted, the blame rests upon all, and not
upon any section or party. And similarly
all Englishmen must feel a pride in, and
cherish as a precious possession, the memory
of men who were true to their consciences,
let the cost be what it might, and who
pursued their aim undaunted, though the
difficulties were well-nigh overwhelming.
The lasting and permanent value, for
Englishmen generally, of the struggle in
which the Pilgrim Fathers, to use the name.
by which posterity has honoured their
memory, played the men, lies not in the
particular form of Church discipline or
doctrine for which they contended, but in
6
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
their assertion of the great principle that
conscience is free, that it is not to be coerced,
that neither Church, nor state, nor individuals
may use compulsion, much less vindictive
terrorism, to tear away men's hearts from
convictions for which they are answerable to
God only. For this principle, which they
instinctively felt, perhaps, rather than saw, to
be true in their own case, the Pilgrim
Fathers made their stand, in the strength of
passive and unretaliating endurance while at
home, and in the resolution to be free at any
cost, when they embraced exile. For this
mankind is their debtor. Whether they
recognised the whole scope of the issue, and
its application to others also, is another
question into which we do not now enter.
Our object is to reflect, if it may be, some-
thing of the picture which Bradford so
graphically and ingenuously draws. As-
suredly the Pilgrim Fathers owe much to
their historian.
The Bradford MS. is practically the
main source from which our knowledge of the
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
7
planting of Plymouth Plantation, and the events
which led to it, is derived. Other writers who,
in the next generations, became the historians
of the Colony, do little more than borrow
from Bradford, adopting his words and
phrases, with the addition, often by no means
an improvement, of occasional amplifications
and insertions. It is well known that the
discovery and identification of the MS.,
after its long and unaccountable burial in the
Library of Fulham Palace, were due to the
correspondence of extracts quoted from it by
Bishop Wilberforce with passages, known
to have been transcribed from its pages by
Bradford's successors. What adds an especial
interest, is that it is the history of a most
eventful time, written by the man who had
the principal share in making that history.
For it was Bradford's influence, more than
anything else, that governed the Colony after
its first plantation. And there is, further,
for us the additional charm that in its simple,
unlaboured narrative, its homely phrases and
vivid details, we have presented to us a living
8
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
picture of the thoughts, ways, words pre-
valent at the time. We have also a portrait
of a man who, while reflecting much of the
contemporary Puritan character at its best,
serious, Godfearing, resolute, added thereto
a warmth of affection, a depth of feeling, a
wealth of human sympathies, a vigour of
judgment and action, enlivened by twinkles
of humour, which were all his own.
In order to understand the position of the
early Independents, we must briefly glance.
at the course which the
which the Reformation
had hitherto taken in England. On the
Continent the burning question of religion,
which form should predominate, whether
Catholic or Protestant, had arisen, been
fought out, and settled, all within or very
nearly within the course of the sixteenth
century. Thus Germany had been divided
into Catholic and Protestant by the Treaty of
Passau in 1552. And although there was yet
one more conflict to come-for while Brad-
ford was building up his colony in New
England, Germany was passing through
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
9
the throes of the Thirty Years' War-yet the
status quo remained practically unchanged.
In France the Huguenots had struggled for
equality, and in spite of the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew's had even seen a King of their
own ascend the throne. But that King had
been obliged to buy Paris with a mass, and the
Huguenots had to be content with the right
to exist, given by the Edict of Nantes in
1598, as a settlement of the question. The
Low Countries had contended stubbornly for
their independence, political and spiritual,
against Granvelle and Alva and all the
power of Spain; and although what is now
Belgium was permanently lost to them, and,
at the time when the exiles from Scrooby ar-
rived, Holland was resting from its struggle on
the precarious security of a twelve years' truce
(commencing in 1609), yet there Protestantism
had really and permanently won the day.
In England alone there had as yet been
no war, though blood had been shed on the
scaffold and at the stake, and the religious
question had not been settled. The Roman
IO
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
supremacy had indeed been finally abolished.
But what form the National Christianity
would take, remained still at issue. The
clouds were gathering, soon about to break
upon the country in the storm of the Civil
War, of which the Pilgrims would hear the
distant rumours in their home beyond the
sea. But, meanwhile, the conflict was being
carried on within the fold of the National
Church. The refugees from the Marian
persecutions, who had returned eager to
impress upon the Church the principles
which they had learned in Holland,
Germany, and Switzerland, had made no
open breach with it. The influence of
Elizabeth, and the threat of foreign invasion,
tended to hold the divergent elements
together. The disappointment felt by the
more advanced Reformers, when James I.
and the Hampton Court conference main-
tained the Edwardian settlement, had tended
to accentuate differences. But the Puritans
still maintained their union with the Church,
which they desired to convert to their views
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
II
Both
from within, and not to overthrow.
Puritan and high-churchman alike looked
with equal disfavour upon those who inclined
to separation. Some attempts had been
made to form independent bodies. The
first advocacy of these principles is usually
associated with the name of Robert Browne,
who separated from the Church about 1580,
though it appears that there existed in-
dependent congregations still earlier.
Nonconformity had as yet made com-
paratively but little progress.
But
The name of
“Brownist" was a term of reproach which
even the Plymouth Colonists, some years
after their emigration, showed a disposition
to evade, though they did not actually deny
it.¹ And the Nonconformists generally seem
1 In the year 1625 the Adventurers allege as one of the
reasons for breaking up the Company, that the Colonists
have dissembled with them about the French discipline, &c.,
and that though they deny the name of Brownists yet they
practise the same, and therefore they (the Adventurers)
would sin against God in building up such a people. It is
noticeable that the Colonists in their reply maintain their
liberty to differ from the French discipline. But the charge of
the "scandallous name of Brownist" they leave unanswered.
-Bradford MS., p. 134.
12
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
to have been in the position of men who
have no friends, exposed to coldness, opposi-
tion, and even persecution from every side.
Such was the situation of affairs at the
time when Bradford takes up the story of the
pore persecuted Church, to which he was so
ardently attached. He is indignant at the
"warrs and oppositions Satan hath raised,
maintained and continued against the saincts.'
And especially is he indignant with those seem-
ing reformed professors, who had stirred up
discord among the refugees on the Continent,
and then had brought the same contention to
England under "gracious Queene Elizabeth."
It is they, he declares, who by their com-
promise with Episcopacy have betrayed their
cause; they have incensed the Queen against
the faithful few; they, "to cast contempte the
more upon ye sincere servants of God," have
'opprobriously and most injuriously" given
unto, and "imposed upon them that name of
Puritans, which [it] is said the Nouatians (out
of prid) did assume and take unto themselves."
And so it is they who are responsible for the per-
((
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
13
1
secutions which have befallen God's servants.
The whole passage is characteristic of the
impetuous vigour with which Bradford could
write when thoroughly roused. And not less
vehement is the description of the wrongs
and injuries done to the two congregations
formed out of sundry towns and villages,
"some in Notingamshire, some of Lincollin-
shire, and some of Yorkshire, where they
border nearest togeather," with one of which
that of Scrooby ¹ is identified. It is not neces-
sary to dwell more in detail upon this, the
least pleasing part of our subject. Nor is it
proposed to follow the steps of those migra-
tions, first to Leyden, and then across the
Atlantic to New England, by which the
Pilgrims became the pioneers of a great
religious and colonial enterprise in the New
World. Their story has been fully told by
others. Our purpose is rather to try and
gather out of Bradford's chronicle an esti-
1 The name of Scrooby is not mentioned. But this allu-
sion to the junction of the three counties, coupled with the
mention in Mr. Brewster's life (p. 255) of the place of meeting
as a manor of ye Bishop's," has led to the identification.
((
14
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
mate of some of the causes which led to the
honourable success which they did ultimately
achieve. From the Proem of the Epic we
transfer our point of view to the culmination,
and cast a backward glance upon some.
features of its progress.
We cannot but be profoundly impressed
by the greatness of the difficulties through
which, at the outset, the Pilgrims had to force
their way. Their forlorn estate in England,
the difficulties of their first embarkation, the
hardships they encountered in Holland, the
discouragements which attended their first
appeals for means to plant a Colony, and the
hard terms on which they had to purchase that
assistance. These were the commencement.
Then the necessity to abandon one of the ships
and part of the company at Plymouth, the
visitation of sickness which broke out shortly
after their landing, and reduced their numbers
by nearly half, followed by the neglect and
speedy abandonment of the undertaking by
the Adventurers, leaving them in weak-
ness and isolation to cope with the rigorous
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
15
climate and unknown possibilities of their
new home-these complete the catalogue of
adversities, of disaster upon disaster, under
which we can but marvel that they did not.
succumb. For it was by no means a fore-
gone conclusion that a Colony at that period
should succeed. On the contrary, success was
the exception; the whole coast of the conti-
nent was strewn with the wrecks of previous
failures. An interesting comparison, by way
of contrast, is afforded by the history of the
shortlived Colony planted two years later in
Massachusetts Bay. It was planted in a
spot which had natural advantages superior
to those of Plymouth, at a more favourable
time of year, and, what makes the comparison
more instructive, it was sent out by the same
Mr. Weston who had taken the leading part
among the Adventurers in forwarding the
colonists to Plymouth. Thus they had the
advantage of the experience that had been
acquired; they were able, further, to avail
themselves of Plymouth as a pied-à-terre
while fixing their abode. The first party of
16
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
colonists are described as "sixty lusty men,"
probably by no means inferior in physical
strength and hardiness to those of Plymouth.
And they came out in arrogant confidence of
success. And yet the first winter brought
them to ruin. Just one picture, in the words.
of Bradford, may be given, and will serve to
show the possibilities of disaster to which
these early Colonies were exposed.
It may be thought strang that these people
should fall to these extremities in so short a
time, being left competently provided when
ye ship left them, and had an addition by that
moyetie of corn that was got by trade, besids
much they gott of ye Indeans wher they lived
by one means & other. It must needs be their
great disorder, for they spent excesseivly whilst
they had, or could get it, and, it may be, wasted
parte away amongst ye Indeans (for he yt was
their cheef was taxed by some amongst them,
for keeping Indean women, how truly I know
not). And after they begane to come into
wants, many sould away their cloathes, and
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
17
bed coverings; others (so base were they) be-
came servants to ye Indeans, and would cutt
them woode, and fetch them water, for a cap
full of corne; others fell to plaine stealing,
both night & day from ye Indeans, of which
they greevosly complained. In ye end they
came to that misery, that some starved & dyed
with could & hunger; one in geathering
shell fish was so weake as he stuck fast in ye
mudd, and was found dead in ye place. At
last most of them left their dwellings, &
scatered up & downe in ye woods, & by
ye water sids, wher they could find ground
nuts & clames, hear 6 and ther ten. By
which their cariages they became contemned
& scorned of ye Indeans; and they begane
greatly to insulte over them, in a most in-
solente maner. Insomuch y many times as they
lay thus scatered abrod, and had set on a pot
with ground nuts, or shell-fish, when it was
ready the Indeans would come and eate it up;
and when night came, wheras some of them
had a sorie blanket, or such like, to lappe them
selves in, the Indeans would take it, and let:
C
18
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
ye other lye all night in the could; so as their
condition was very lamentable. Yea in y end
they were faine to hange one of their men,
whom they could not reclaime from stealing,
to give y Indeans contente.
The result was that a conspiracy was
formed amongst the Indians, which might
have resulted in the extermination of the
English, if the Plymouth people had not
received information, and interfered to the
rescue of their unworthy fellow-countrymen.
The same disgraceful and disastrous history
was enacted in the same place when Captain
John Wolastone, (a man of pretie parts him-
self), made a second attempt, about 1624, to
establish a Colony in Massachusetts Bay. A
share in the management was left in the un-
worthy hands of one Morton, a man of
more craft than honestie (who had been a
kind of petiefogger of Furnefels Inne), with
the result that by dissoluteness of con-
duct, and reckless treatment of the Indians,
they were reduced to great personal peril,
and became a standing danger to the sur-
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
19
rounding colonists, so that Plymouth was
again obliged to interfere. From the many
other instances of the lawless violence, the
selfishness, the unprincipled recklessness which
seem to have been only too common, if not
the rule, among the sailors, fishermen and
adventurers by whom colonial enterprise at
that period was carried on, we turn with
relief to the picture of the quiet, self-re-
strained, law-abiding God-fearing demeanour
of the colonists at Plymouth. It was in
these qualities that their strength and the
secret of their success lay, though their
material power and wealth were small.
The principles by which they were
influenced on starting, and on which they
based their hopes of success, are well set
forth by themselves in the "Articles of In-
ducement” drawn up when they were seeking
to leave Holland: and if the establishment
of a Colony on these principles was not alto-
gether a new experiment, yet the carrying
of them out was an object lesson to the
world.
C 2
20
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
1. We veryly beleeve & trust ye Lord is
with us, unto whom & whose service we have
given our selves in many trialls; and that He
will graciously prosper our Indeavour, ac-
cording to the simplicitie of our harts therin.
2¹y We are well weaned from ye dellicate
milke of our mother countrie, and enured to ye
difficulties of a strange and hard land; which
yet in great parte we have by patience overcome.
3ly The people are, for the body of them,
industrious, and frugall (we thinke we may
safly say) as any company of people in the
world.
4ly We are knite togeather, as a body, in
a most stricte, & sacred bond and covenante of
the Lord; of the violation wherof we make
great conscience, and by vertue wherof, we doe
hould our selves straitly tied to all care of
each others good, and of ye whole by every one,
and so mutually.
Lastly, it is not with us, as with other
men, whom small things can discourage, or
small discontentments cause to wish themselves
at home againe; we knowe our entertainmente
“MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
21
in England, and in Holand we shall much
prejudice both our arts, & means by removall;
where (if we should be driven to returne) we
should not hope to recover our present helps,
and comforts. Neither indeed looke ever (for
our selves) to attaine unto y like in any other
place, during our lives, which are now draw-
ing towards their periods.
It must indeed be recognised that a
great part of their success was due to the
wisdom with which they were governed.
But the credit of good government, in a
voluntary community such as theirs, must be
given to the good sense of the governed,
who accepted and upheld it, as well as to
the governors who by the will of the com-
munity administered it. They had been
trained in habits of self-government by their
Church organisation, and it is very striking to
observe how from the time when, in the
ships at Southampton, they elected their
governors and assistants, and onwards
through their history, the instincts of law
22
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
and order never failed them, preserving them
from confusion and panic even in positions
of great anxiety. The voice which everyone.
had in the management of public matters.
was a fact, and not merely a theory. And
the
governor, who respected that right, had
the strength of an intelligent consensus of
judgment and support behind him. Even
in the complicated questions involved in the
transfer of the property of the company, first
to all the colonists as shareholders, and then to
the seven "undertakers" who hired it of them
for six years, Bradford tells us that all the
members were consulted, had the proposed
steps explained to them, and gave their
consent. The complicated arrangement
which ensued when the lands were divided
by lot, which provided, for the sake of
equality, that "whose lotts so ever should fall
next ye towne or most conveniente for nearnes,
should take to them a neighboure or tow,
whom they best liked, & should suffer them
to plant corne with them for 4 years, and
afterwards they might use as much of theirs
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
23
"¹
for as long time, if they would," could only
have been conceived as likely to be a
workable theory in a community where
common participation in the management
had trained the people to confidence in their
laws, and in one another.
It is true that even with their unusually
developed sense of public spirit, and of the
necessity for subordinating individual ad-
vantage to the general good, a system of
absolute Communism proved a failure. Such
a system does not seem to have been a
success even among the Christians of the
Apostolic Age. It was not of their own
will that the Plymouth colonists first adopted
it; it was forced upon them by the Ad-
A loyal attempt to adhere to the
system, by which the community was the
holder of all property, was made for about a
year and a half. But stress of scarcity
forced them into adopting a more productive
system, so far at any rate as to allow that
they should set corne every man for his
venturers.
1 Bradford MS., p. 146.
24
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
owne particuler, and in that regard trust to
themselves." And the result in making "all
hands very industrious" and in promoting
friendliness and plenty, was, on Bradford's
authority, a marked success. The fact that,
under circumstances so unusually favourable,
the Communistic system nevertheless broke
down, is full of significance for students of
social questions, and Bradford's description
and his comments thereon are well worthy to
be quoted in full, as a characteristic specimen
both of his judgment and of his style.
The experience that was had in this
comone course and condition, tried sundrie
years, and that amongst godly, and sober
men, may well evince, the vanitie of that
conceite of Plato's, & other ancients, ap-
plauded by some of later times, that ye
taking away of propertie, and bringing in
comunitie, into a comone wealth, would
make them happy, and florishing, as if they
were wiser then God. For this comunitic, (so
farr as it was) was found to breed much con-
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
25
fusion, & discontent, and retard much Im-
bloyment, that would have been to their benefite
and comforte. For ye yong-men that were most
able and fitte for labour and service, did
repine that they should spend their time, &
strength to worke for other men's wives, and
children, without any recompence. The
strong, or man of parts, had no more in de-
vision of victails, & cloaths, then he that was
weake, and not able to doe a quarter ye other
could, this was thought Injustice. The aged
and graver men to be ranked, and equalised,
in labours, and victails, cloaths, &c., with ye
meaner, & yonger sorte, thought it some
Indignite, and disrespect unto them. And
for men's wives to be commanded to doe
servise for other men, as dressing ther meate,
washing their cloaths, &c., they deem it a
kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands
well brooke it. Upon ye poynte all being to
have alike, and all to doe alike, they thought
them selves in ye like condition, and one as
good as another; and so if it did not cut of
those relations, that God hath set amongest
26
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
@
men; yet it did at least much diminish, and
take of, ye mutuall respects, that should be
preserved amongst them. And would have bene
worse if they had been men of another condi-
tion. Let none objecte this is men's coruption,
and nothing to ye course itselfe; I answer see-
ing all men have this coruption in them, God in
his wisdome saw another course fiter for them.
The failure of Communism notwith-
standing, it was the spirit of sympathy and
mutual assistance, manifested at the first
when they had to nurse one another in sick-
ness (contrasted with the unfeeling selfish-
ness of the sailors, who formed the crew of the
Mayflower, in like condition), and which held
them together through weal and woe, even
when plotters like Lyford and Oldham tried
to foment divisions among them, that formed
the first element of their strength.
A second point to be noted is the high
standard of morality which was throughout
We hear on one occasion when
maintained.
1 Bradford MS., pp. 96-97.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
27
the stress of famine was very sore, and the
Colony was reduced to an allowance of a
quarter of a pound of bread per day, that thefts
of corn took place, and the thieves when dis-
covered had to be well whipt. But this
was exceptional. The unruly conduct of
parties of men who from time to time visited
the Colony was a source of great annoyance.
The Puritan theory of the identity of Church
and State, requiring that the law should
regulate the private morals of individuals,
led on several occasions to persons (visitors)
suspected of immoral relations being packed
out of the Colony with all despatch. One
grievous outbreak of vice caused anxious.
communications between the Colonies of
Salem and Plymouth, and offenders were
visited with all the severity of the Levi-
tical law. But it is significant that the first
execution for murder did not occur till
1630. It caused, we read, great sadness
among the people, and was not carried out
without anxious consultation with Mr. Win-
throp of Boston, and others who agreed that
28
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
the murderer should be
land purged from blood.
a prison was built in 1638.
executed, and the
The first house for
We meet with
curious instances of the strictness of Puritan
discipline, as for instance in the stopping of
games in the street on Christmas Day 1621,
and in the incidental mention that " every
Lord's day some are apointed to visite sus-
pected places, & if any be found idling, and
neglecte ye hearing of ye word (through
idlenes or profanes), they are punished for ye
same." And Bradford in another place passes
severe strictures, as upon gross excesses
of dissoluteness and profanity, so also upon
the "idle or Idoll Maypolle." But even if
occasionally somewhat overstrained, and
wanting in proportion, this high regard for
purity and righteousness characterising them,
in common with the other early Puritans,
constituted one of the chief bonds of union
and strength among the Plymouth Pilgrims.
And this high regard for Christian up-
rightness and charity was manifested in
their dealings with the natives also, a circum-
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
29
When
stance which while it tended much to their
safety and success, is also a noble feature in
their colonial history, when compared with
the conduct of some English settlers in other
places and in later times. The corn which the
second exploring party from the ship found
at Pamet creek, and took for their pressing
need, was scrupulously paid for, when the
owners were found, six months later.
Corbitant by his threatened violence to their
friends, Hobamack and Squanto, provoked
strong measures, an expedition of armed
men was sent with orders "if they found
that Squanto was killed to cut of Corbi-
tant's head; but not to hurt any but those
that had a hand in it." And when some of
the Indians were wounded through misun-
derstanding, the colonists brought them to
Plymouth, had their wounds dressed and
cured, and then sent them home. Their
kindness to Hobomack in his sickness was
requited by the revelation of the conspiracy
which might have broken out upon them to
their destruction. Kindness and justice was,
30
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
indeed, the best policy in their time of
weakness, but unscrupulous men do not
generally perceive or act upon the principle.
And it is a striking and honourable instance
of the righteous justice of their dealings with
the Indians, that in the year 1638, when they
had no such great danger to fear, three Eng-
lishmen were executed for the murder of one
Indian, in spite of the dissatisfaction caused
among many of the community, "who mur-
mured that any English should be put to
death for Indians." Another noble instance
of Christian conduct deserves honourable
mention. An offshoot of the Plymouth
Colony was established at Connecticut, and
in the year 1634 the Indians round about their
settlement were visited with a fearful infliction
of small-pox, which cut them off almost to a
man, "so that they were not able to help
one another, no not to make a fire, nor to
fetch a little water to drinke, nor any to
burie the dead. . . . But those of ye Eng-
lish house (though at first they were afraid
1 Bradford MS., p. 228.
“MAYFLOWER ESSAYS
31
of ye infection) yet seeing their woefull and
sadd condition, and hearing their pitiful cries
and lamentations, they had compassion of
them and daly fetched them wood and water,
and made them fires, gott them victualls
whilst they lived, and buried them when
they dyed." Not without reason does our
true-hearted, God-fearing author add his
witness to the "marvellous godness and
providens of God," in that "not one of ye
English was so much as sicke or in ye
least measure tainted with this disease,
though they daly did these offices for them,
for many weeks togeather."
"1
And so we pause in our review of the
causes by which the Pilgrim Fathers of New
Plymouth were able to bring their Colony
through storm and trouble to a position of
stability and success, where so many failed.
The causes lay in the men themselves, in
their resolution, their industry, their sober
self-control, their faithfulness to one another,
and their maintenance of a high standard of
1 Bradford MS., p. 204
32
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
righteousness in their dealings with their
fellow-colonists and with the Indians. They
succeeded because they deserved to succeed.
They had had in the letter of Mr. Robinson,¹
addressed to them from Leyden at their de-
parture, wise and noble counsel, and of this
teaching they had been worthy disciples. The
qualities for which we admire them and by
which they deserved and won success sprang
from a root which lay yet deeper. It sprang
from a sincere devotion to the service of God
and the belief in His sustaining power and
protecting arm. The spirit of faith and of
the love of God breathes in every page of our
author's manuscript, and in this he is, we may
well believe, the representative of those
whose history he records. And it is this
spirit which gives its Epic character to the
history which he relates, for it is an Epic of
the ways of God with men, of the vindication
of His faithfulness to those who trust in Him.
The first foretaste of coming honour was
when in 1630 the flowing tide of English
This letter is printed at length at the end of this Essay.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
33
emigration brought stronger and more
promising Colonies to Salem and Boston, and
the news was brought to our author that the
instruction given to those who came out was
"that they should take advise of them at
Plimoth, and should doe nothing to offend
them;" to which he appends the following
characteristic note: “
"Thus out of smalle
beginings greater things have been prodused,
by his hand y' made all things of nothing, and
gives being to all things that are. And as
one smalle candle may light a thousand so y
light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in
some sorte to our whole nation, let ye glorious
name of Jehova have all ye praise.
ye praise." Brad-
ford wrote his history at a time when Ply-
mouth, having outlived the troubles and hard-
ships of her early days, had become a strong
and prosperous state with daughter Colonies.
around her, happy in the welfare of her people,
honoured in the esteem of her neighbours,
and a member of an organised confederacy
of townships able to stand alone, supporting
and supported by one another-the "United
D
34
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Colonies of New England." And as he
surveys the course of progress and growth
by which out of weakness she has been made
strong, he stands again in recollection with
that forlorn band of Pilgrims who were
landed, weather-beaten and homeless, upon
an inhospitable shore, where "which way so
ever they turned their eys (save upward to ye
heavens), they could have little solace or content
in respecte of any outward objects." Before
them an unknown, wintry country, behind
them the mighty ocean "to separate them
from all ye civill parts of ye world... What
could now sustain them, but ye spirite of God
and His Grace?" Such was the first
venture made in faith: and now " May not &
ought not the children of these fathers rightly
say, our fathers were Englishmen which came
over this great ocean and were ready to perish
in this wilderness? But they cried unto ye
Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked
on their adversitie; let them therefore praise
ye Lord because He is good and His mercies
endure for ever."
“MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
35
A LETTER WRITTEN BY MR. ROBINSON
FROM LEYDEN TO THE COLONISTS
ON THE EVE OF THEIR DEPARTURE.
Loving & christian friends, I doe har-
tily & in y Lord salute you all, as being they
with whom I am presente in my best affection,
& most ernest longings after you, though I
be constrained for a while to be bodily absente
from you. I say constrained, God knowing how
willingly, & much rather then otherwise, I
would have borne my part with you in this
first brunt, were I not by strong necessitie held
back for y present. Make accounte of me in
ye meanwhile, as of a man devided in my sclfe
with great paine, and as (naturall bonds set a
side) having my beter parte with you. And
though I doubt not but in your godly wisdoms,
you both foresee & resolve upon yt which con-
cerneth your presente state & condition both
D 2
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
severally and joyntly, yet have I thought it
but my duty to add some further spur of pro-
vocation unto them, who rune already, If not
because you need it, yet because I owe it in love
& dutie. And first, as we are daly to renew
our repentance with our God, espetially for
our sines known, and generally for our un-
knowne trespasses, so doth ye Lord call us in
a singuler manner upon occasions of shuch
difficultie & danger as lieth upon you, to a
both more narrow search, & careful reforma-
tion of your ways in his sight, least he calling
to remembrance our sines forgotten by us or
unrepented of, take advantage against us, & in
judgmente leave us for ye same to be swalowed
up in one danger or other; wheras on the
contrary, sine being taken away by ernest
repentance, & y pardon therof from ye Lord
sealed up unto a man's conscience by his Spirite,
great shall be his securitie and peace in all
dangers, sweete his comforts in all distreses,
with hapie deliverance from all evill, whether
in life or in death.
Now next after this heavenly peace with
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
37
God & our owne consciences, we are carefully
to provide for peace with all men what in us
lieth, espetially with our associats, & for yt
watchfullnes must be had, that we neither at all
in our selves doe give, no nor easily take
offence being given by others. Woe be unto ge
world for offences, for though it be necessarie
(considering ye malice of Satan & man's cor-
ruption) that offences come, yet woe unto ye man
or woman either by whom the offence cometh,
saith Christ, Mat. 18. 7. And if offences in
ye unseasonable use of things in themselves in-
different, be more to be feared then death
itselfe, as ye Apostle teacheth, 1 Cor. 9. 15,
how much more in things simply evill, in which
neither honour of God nor love of man is
thought worthy to be regarded. Neither yet
is it sufficiente y we keepe ourselves, by ye
grace of God, from giveing offence, excepte
withall we be armed against ye taking of them
when they be given by others. For how un-
perfect & lame is ye work of grace in yt person,
who wants charitie to cover a multitude of
offences, as ye scriptures speaks.
38
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Neither are you to be exhorted to this grace
only upon ye comone grounds of christianitie,
which are, that persons ready to take offence,
either wante charitie, to cover offences, or wis-
dome duly to waigh humane frailtie, or lastly
are grosse, though close hipocrites, as Christ
our Lord teacheth, Mat. 7. 1, 2, 3; as indeed
in my owne experience, few or none have bene
found which sooner give offence, then shuch as
easily take it; neither have they ever proved
sound & profitable members in societies, which
have nurished this touchey humor. But besids
these, ther are diverse motives provoking you
above others to great care & conscience this
way: As first, you are many of you strangers,
as to ye persons, so to ye Infirmities one of an-
other, & so stand in neede of more watchfull-
nes this way, least when shuch things fall
out in men & women as you suspected not, you
be inordinatly affected with them; which doth
require at your hands much wisdome & chari-
tie for y covering & preventing of incident
offences that way. And lastly your intended
course of civill comunitie will minister con-
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
39
tinuall occasion of offence, & will be as fuell
for that fire, excepte you dilligently quench it
with brotherly forbearance. And if taking of
offence causlesly or easilie at men's doings be
so carefuly to be avoyded, how much more heed
is to be taken, yt we take not offence at God
himselfe, which yet we certainly doe so ofte as
we doe murmure at his providence in our
crosses, or beare impatiently shuch afflictions
as wherwith he pleaseth to visite us. Store
up therfore patience against y evill day, with-
out which we take offence at ye Lord himselfe
in his holy & just works.
A 4 thing ther is carfully to be provided
for, to witt, that with your comone imploy-
ments, you joyne commone affections truly bente
upon ye general good, avoyding as a deadly
plague of your both commone & severall com-
fort all retirednes of minde for proper advan-
tage, and all singularly affected any maner of
way; let every man represe in himselfe & ye
whol body in each person, as so many rebels
against ye commone good, all private respects of
men's selves not sorting with ye general con-
40
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
veniencie. And as men are carfull not to
have a new house shaken with any violence
before it be well setled & ye parts firmly
knite; so be you, I beseech you, brethren, much
more carfull, yt the house of God which you
are, and are to be, be not shaken with unnece-
sarie novelties or other oppositions at ye first
setling therof.
Lastly, wheras you are become a body
politik, using amongst your selves civill gover-
mente, and are not furnished with any persons
of spetiall eminencie above ye rest, to be chosen
by you, into office of goverment, Let your
wisdome & godlines appeare, not only in
chusing shuch persons as doe entirely love,
and will promote y comone good, but also in
yeelding unto them all due honour, & obedi-
ence in their lawfull administrations; not
behoulding in them ye ordinarinesse of their
persons, but Gods ordinance for your good;
not being like ye foolish multitud, who more
honour ye gay coate, then either y vertuous.
minde of y man, or glorious ordinance of y
Lord. But you know better things, & that
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
4E
ye image of ye Lord's power & authoritie
which ye magistrate beareth, is honourable, in
how meane persons so ever. And this dutie
you both may y more willingly, and ought ye
more conscionably to performe because you are
at least for ye present to have only them for
your ordinarie governours, which your selves
shall make choyse of for that worke.
Sundrie other things of importance I
could put you in minde of, and of those before
mentioned in more words, but I will not so
farr wrong your godly minds, as to think you
heedless of these things, ther being also diverce
among you so well able to admonish both them
selves & others of what concerneth them.
These few things therfore, & ye same in few
words I doe ernestly commend unto your care,
& conscience, joyning therwith my daily in-
cessante prayers unto ye Lord, yt he who hath
made ye heavens & y earth, ye sea and alı
rivers of waters, and whose providence is over
all his workes, espetially over all his dear
children for good, would so guide & gard you
in your wayes, as inwardly by his Spirite, so
42
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
outwardly by y hand of his power, as y² both
you & we allso, for & with you may have
after matter of praising his name all ye days
of your and our lives. Fare you well in him
in whom you trust, and in whom I rest.
An unfained well-wisher of your hapie
success in this hopefull voyage.
John Robinson.
Note by Bradford." This letter though
large, yet being so frutfull in it selfe, and
suitable to their occation, I thought meete to
inserte in this place."
NOTE-ON THE MAYFLOWER.
It is curious how little the contemporary and early
notices of the ship which brought over the first
party of Pilgrims correspond with the celebrity to
which that vessel has in these latter days attained.
With us the Mayflower is a household word, a
name of renown in two continents, she has a fame
like that of the Argo in old classical Romance.
But if we look at the old records, we find no such
commemoration, but rather such a scarcity of
evidence, as almost leaves room to doubt whether
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
43
the ship was known by the name of the May-
flower at all.
It is of course well known that mention of a
ship Mayflower meets us at two separate periods in
the records of the early Puritan Colonies of New
England; the earlier one being that which brought
the first Pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620, the second
that which made two journeys in 1629 and 1630,
and brought over members of the two large
parties which colonised Massachusetts Bay. As-
suming that the earlier ship is rightly called the
Mayflower, the further question arises, whether the
former and the latter are the same.
It is a curious fact that of the first Mayflower
there is extant no absolutely contemporary
mention by name. It is of course not wonderful
that the little band of exiles, seeking only a refuge
where they would be left alone, should have been.
unconscious of the significance of their voyage,
and of the interest which would afterwards attach to
every detail connected with it. Those who make
history are seldom aware of it at the time. It is
not surprising that they should have taken no
pains to inform the world of the name of their
ship. But at the same time it is strange that no
incidental allusion to the name of the vessel should
occur, in the writings of either of the two passengers
in her, who have left a record of their story behind
44
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
them. Yet such is the case. Bradford, whose his-
tory is the source from which most subsequent
writers have derived their information of the
migration, tells us everything else about the ship,
that she was a vessel of nine score tons, that she
was hired at London and was waiting for them.
when they arrived at Southampton, and that her
master was Mr. Joans. He gives us all the details
of the starts and the puttings back, of the voyage,
of the delaying of the ship during the winter, of
her despatch homewards in March 1621. But
never once does he chance to mention her name nor
that of her consort, which brought them from
Holland and is generally known as the Speedwell.
They are to him always the "larger" and the
"lesser" ships, nor does Weston, of whose letter
the part relating to the return of the ship, and hist
disappointment at her having no cargo, is quoted,
allude to her by name. And this is more remark-
able because Bradford does mention the name of
the ship which arrived in the autumn of 1621, the
Fortune, and in the rest of his history we find that
nearly every other ship mentioned, is named either
by himself or by others in the course of correspond-
ence. Bradford, moreover, tells us that some of the
second party from Leyden, in 1630, came in the
Mayflower. But he utters not a word of recognition
of an old friend, or of the coincidence of names.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
45
There is another narrative of the early days of
the settlement at Plymouth, written by one of the
company, and even more detailed than Bradford's.
It is attributed to one G. Mourt, but is supposed to
embody the journal of Mr. E. Winslow. But in
this also no mention is made of the name of the
ship.
Captain John Smith, who more than once
mentions the voyage, and who seems familiar with
the details, the abandonment of the smaller ship,
the date of departure, &c., is similarly silent as to
the names. He does mention the Mayflower of
1629.
It is not till we come to Nathaniel Morton's
"New England's Memorials," published in 1669, that
we find the names we are seeking. He trans-
cribing, almost verbatim, Bradford's words, inserts
"called the Speedwell" "called the Mayflower," after
the first mention of the two ships respectively. And
he repeats the name of the Mayflower in recording
her final departure from England. It is curious
that he shows no knowledge of the second
Mayflower that brought the remainder of the
Leyden party in 1630.
Cotton Mather in his "Magnalia" takes up
Morton's version, and speaks of them as the
Speedwell and the Mayflower.
But Mr. Thomas Prince, who published in
46
"MAYFLOWER' ESSAYS
1736 his "New England Chronology," for which he
tells us he borrowed the greatest part of his
intelligence from his much honoured uncle William
Bradford, and such MSS. as he left in his study
relating to the years 1620-1646, has no knowledge
of the first Mayflower. He mentions the second
Mayflower without a word of recognition, and this
is the more remarkable as he is interested in the
previous history of another ship, viz. the Arabella
of which he records, on the authority of Mr.
Johnson, that she had before been called the Eagle.
The fact that he was interested in the former
history of the one, renders it more unlikely that
a far more interesting fact in the former history
of the other would have escaped him if it were a
fact.
We find therefore that we are brought to
Nathaniel Morton as the authority on which the
ascription to the first ship of the name of May-
flower depends. He came to Plymouth in 1623,
being then eleven years old, and perhaps it would
be hypercritical to question the accuracy of his
information. We may accept his statement, though
we cannot but be struck by the curious omission
on the part of those from whom we might have
expected at any rate a casual mention.
But when we come to the question of the
identity of the first Mayflower with the second, the
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
47
evidence seems more than doubtful. We know from
the records of the Massachusetts Bay Company
that the Mayflower formed part of the little fleet
which took out Higginson's Company to Salem in
1629. She was a ship of Yarmouth, her master
Mr. Pierce. Higginson in his journal mentions all
his ships, with the tonnage and equipment of
ordnance of all the others. But unfortunately, of
the Mayflower he only says that she carried pro-
visions and passengers.
Governor Winthrop also records the names of all
his eleven ships, the Mayflower among them. She
left Southampton in May 1630, and arrived at Char-
leston on July 1, which nearly corresponds with
the date given by Bradford for the arrival of the
second batch of the Leyden party. But none of
these contemporary writers give any hint that
this Mayflower of Yarmouth was the same as
that which nine years before had been hired at
London.
It is not till we come to Savage, who, in 1825,
reprinted Winthrop's works, and to Young, who
quotes the records of the company, and Higginson's
journal, above referred to, in his "Chronicles," pub-
lished in 1841 and 1846, that we meet with the
confident assertion that the former and the latter
Mayflower were the same. But they bring no
evidence beyond their own word. In view, there-
48
“MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
fore, that Mayflower was a common name, borne
doubtless by ships from many ports, and in the
absence of further evidence that might naturally
be expected, we submit that the identity of the
Mayflower hired in London with the Mayflower of
Yarmouth nine years later remains unproven.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
49
II
THE COLONISATION OF NEW PLYMOUTH
-HOW IT WAS PROMOTED AND
FINANCED.
THE migration of the Pilgrim Fathers was
essentially a religious movement, the action
of men who forsook home and kindred for
what they conceived to be the only true
principles of their Lord, and who were ready.
to "goe into a cuntrie they knew not (but by
hearsay), an adventure almost desperate, a
case intolerable and a miserie worse than death
-for their desires were sett on the ways of
God, and to enjoye his ordinances" and "they
rested on his providence, and knew whom they
had beleeved." But a resolution like this, how-
ever spiritual in its origin and motive, must.
take a practical shape and must issue on its
material side in an undertaking subject to the
E
50
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
same conditions and necessities as those of
ordinary life. And the proposed migration to
New England, involving a voyage which then
lasted several weeks, and the necessity to pro-
vide also for the first winter in their new home,
was an undertaking of considerable magnitude.
Even Pilgrims have bodies to be transported
and mouths to be filled. It became in fact,
on its mundane side, a colonial adventure, to
be provided for and conducted after the
manner then usual with such undertakings.
It was not left to the Pilgrims to discover
for themselves the way in which their Colony
must be formed. There had been others.
in the field before them. The age which
succeeded that of Elizabeth was an age in
which that glamour of adventure and imagi-
nation, which invested the exploits of the first
discoverers, was wearing off, and men were
settling down soberly to appraise the worth
of what they had gained, and the best way
of turning it to account. Colonisation was
being taken up as a serious business by men
who recognised that the promise of the New
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
51
World lay not in dreams of fabulous gold
mines, and rich prizes of Spanish galleons,
but in the hard-won profits of trade and culti-
vation, the fruits of honest work. "There is
no country to pillage as the Romans found,"
wrote Captain John Smith of his Colony of
Virginia; "all you must expect from thence
must be by labour."
As a consequence of this business-like
spirit, the principles of colonisation had al-
ready been reduced to system. And the
system adopted was that which has played
a very large part, for good or ill, in the
history of British colonisation. It was in
fact the system of what we should now call
a Chartered Company. The first promoters
of such an undertaking were men of position
and substance, such as Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, whose name is often met with in the
pages of Bradford's narrative, Lord Chief
Justice Popham, the Earl of Warwick, Lord
Saye and Sele, and other prominent persons.
These formed a council to project the Colony,
and provide for its general administration.
E 2
52
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
They then proceeded to obtain a Royal
Patent or Charter, guaranteeing to them the
exclusive right of settlement and trade within
the specified area, with other clearly defined
powers of government. Thus there was
already a Virginia Company incorporated
in 1606, whose Patent originally included
the whole of New England, as well as
Virginia proper, to which their occupation
was in fact confined. And when the resolu-
tion to migrate to North America¹ was
finally taken by the Leyden Pilgrims, it was
to the Virginia Company that they first had
recourse, with the idea of forming a distinct
body, to live by themselves, but under the
general government of Virginia. What
was wanted was another Patent, or sub-lease,
under the Company whereby the privileges
granted to the general Company as a whole
were transmitted to themselves, so far as the
1 The alternative suggestion was to choose Guiana as a
residence, and there is, at the present time, a special interest
in the reason alleged as an inducement thereto, that the
Spaniards (haveing much more than they could possess) had
not yet planted there, nor any where very near ye same.-
Bradford M.S., p. 18.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
53
limited area assigned to them was concerned.
It would secure for them the right of occupa-
tion and trade, to the exclusion of intruders
from outside, leaving them independence in
their local self-government, while it in-
corporated them under the general govern-
ment and protection of Virginia, as a
dependency of the British Crown. In the
unsettled state of the country, however, this
general government and protection was
likely, at first, to be more of a name than a
reality.
Such a Patent was applied for, and at
length, after considerable trouble, was granted.
The negotiations which took place were
complicated by the pursuit of another object,
the granting of which did not rest with the
Company, but for which appeal had to be
made directly to the King, through the Privy
Council. What they desired was the right
of freedom of religion, that is exemption
from the authority of the National Church,
which was obligatory upon all British subjects
within the King's dominions, and which they
54
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
had had to flee to Holland to escape. It
was hoped that the King would give them such
a licence of freedom, confirmed under the
Broad Seal, and they had "some great persons
of good rank and qualitie," whose influence
would be used on their behalf. This, how-
ever, could not be effected. The influence of
the Archbishop was against them. However,
they "prevailed so far in sounding his
Majestie's mind, that he would connive at them
and not molest them so long as they carried
themselves peacably;" but confirmation under
the Broad Seal was not to be expected.
was a disappointment, but they comforted
themselves with the shrewd reflection that
though they had a seale as broad as the
houseflore" it would be no real protection, if
there should be a desire at any time to revoke
it. This desired independence in religion
formed no part of the Patent of the Company,
though many of their friends in the Company
exerted themselves to procure it for them.
It
The Patent, obtained with great pains
and delay, from the Virginia Company was,
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
55
however, never used. While they were
engaged in negotiations for the means of
transport, and making their preparations,
there came to them at Leyden a Mr. Weston,
who was the principal agent of the capitalists
with whom they were in treaty, and he told
them that" sundrie Honble Lords had obtained
a large grante from y King for ye more
northerly parts of that countrie derived out
of the Virginia patente, and wholy secluded
from their govermente, and to be called by
another name, viz. New England." And he
advised them to turn their thoughts in this
direction.
What he referred to was the revival of a
branch of the Virginia Company, which had
originally been incorporated as far back as
1606 under the name of the Plymouth¹ or
North Virginia Company, and which had
recently been re-established by the efforts
¹ Called "Plymouth” because the Patent was originally
granted for Plymouth and the western counties of England.
This name "New England" was substituted for that of North
Virginia by Captain John Smith after his exploration in
1614.
56
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others, with
the title of the New England Company.
A book is extant, of which a copy is in the
British Museum, entitled "A briefe relation
of the discovery and plantation of New
England," set forth in 1622 by the President
and Council of New England. It consists of
a kind of Manifesto of the said Council,
giving an account of several attempts which
had been made in previous years to plant
Colonies, though without success, and taking
credit for having collected much information,
which has prepared the way for future
Colonists. It sets forth a scheme of govern-
ment for the prospective Colony under a
Governor General, Treasurer, Martial,"
((
Admiral and other functionaries, and further
provides for the division of the country into
Baronis, Manors, &c. The present object
of the Council is to obtain a fresh Patent,
and to invite would-be Colonists to join in a
community, or joint stock together. Brad-
ford alludes to this book by its full title, but
without much respect. And though he does
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
57
not say that it was under this company that
the Plymouth Colony were to obtain their
Patent, yet such must have been the case.¹
As a matter of fact, indeed, owing partly to
the shortness of the time before the migra-
tion, partly also, doubtless, to the fact that
this company did not obtain its new Patent
till November 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers had
to sail without a Patent. And this lack of
legal authorisation gave occasion for an out-
break of discontent, and the expression of
mutinous intentions on the part of some of
the Colonists on their arrival at Cape Cod.
The hardships of the voyage, and the gloomy
outlook of the new country, seem to have
relaxed the bonds of loyalty. And these mal-
contents avowed that in the absence of a
charter nobody had a right to command
them, and they would use their liberty. The
¹ The "Briefe Relation" concludes with a bare allusion to
the fact that the Company has "a peaceable plantation at this
bresent (1622) among them (the Indians), where our people
both prosper and live in good liking and assuredness of their
neighbours,” which seems to be a reference to the Plymouth
Colony.
58
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
lack of legal sanction, however, was remedied
for the time by a bond¹ of mutual combination
in fidelity to one another, and in allegiance
to the King, which was signed by all the
company on board the ship before dis-
embarking. And a Patent was obtained
afterwards, of which information was sent by
the next ship, which came out in the following
autumn: “we have procured you a charter, the
best we could, which is better than your former,
¹ This “Acte” is very interesting; it ran as follows :
In ye name of God Amen. We whose names are under-
writen, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord King
James by ye grace of God, of great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland
king, defender of ye faith, &c.
Haveing undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and advance-
mente of ye christian faith and honour of our king & countrie,
a voyage to plant yº first colonie in ye Northerne parts of
Virginia, doc by these presents solemnly and mutualy in ye
presence of God, and one of another, covenant, & combine our
selves togeather into a civill body politick; for our better
ordering, & preservation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid;
and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame shuch just
& equall lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices,
from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient
for ye generall good of ye colonie: unto which we promise all
due submission and obedience. In witnes wherof we have
hereunder subscribed our names at Cap Codd ye 11 of Novem-
ber, in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne Lord King
James of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and oj
Scotland ye fiftie-fourth. An° dom, 1620.
“MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
59
and with less limitation." The establishment
of the Colony was thus complete so far as
legal sanction was concerned.
But
Before passing from this subject, a few
passages of interest in respect of this and
other Patents, and their bearing upon the
history of Plymouth, may be briefly glanced
at. It appears that the Patent was first
taken, “by reason of acquaintance," in the
name of Mr. Pierce, one of the leading
Adventurers. It was of course understood
that he took it in trust for the rest.
when he saw that the prospects of the Colony
looked hopeful, and had won the favour of
the New England Council, he applied for
and obtained another Patent of much larger
extent, apparently on behalf of the Colony,
though in his own name. But his design
was "to keep it to himselfe, and alow them
what he pleased, to hold of him as tenants,
1 The "less limitation" probably refers to the provisions
as to religion. The New England Company was founded
on more liberal principles as to religion than that of Vir-
ginia, and the Colonists may have received that sanction for
religious freedom which they desired.
бо
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
It
and sue to his courts as cheefe lord."
appears to have been a discreditable transac-
tion, and would have secured for him
formidable rights over the rising plantation.
Pierce was accused of breach of trust by
other members of the company, and forced
to part with his " royall lordship." He
succeeded in exacting, however, a price of
500l. for that, "which cost him but 50l.," and
then further sued the company in most of the
chief courts in England, and even brought it
to Parliament. He fitted out a ship called the
Paragon with goods for the Colony, and the
fact that this ship was twice driven back by
unusually severe weather was taken for a
sign that "the hand of God was justly
against him. "But," says Bradford, "he is
now dead and I will leave him to ye Lord."
"}
The question of a Patent arose again
when the company of Adventurers broke
up and was succeeded by the partnership of
the eight "undertakers." Application was
made just at the time that the Massachusetts
Company were projecting their great settle-
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
61
The
ment in Boston Bay, and had obtained their
unusually large powers-a fact which stirred
the friends of Plymouth to emulation.
following letter written by Mr. Sherley, one
of the partners, is a
very interesting
specimen of business correspondence, which
was then not always carried on with that
excessive economy of ideas and words which
now prevails. The writer is somewhat of a
gossip, and moralises, with a scriptural
allusion more ingenious than accurate, upon
the trite subject of the venality of men in
office. But the style is characteristic, the
picture of underhand influences is probably
not untrue, and the remarks about the Patent
are noteworthy.
Most worthy and loving freinds,-
Some of your letters I received in July, &
some since by Mr. Peirce, but till our maine
bussines y patent was granted, I could not
setle my mind, nor pen to writing. Mr.
Allerton was so turmoyled about it, as verily
I would not, nor could not have undergone it,
62
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Then
if I might have had a thousand pounds; but
ye Lord so blessed his labours, (even beyond ex-
pectation in these evill days), as he obtained ye
love & favors of great men in repute, &
place. He got granted from y Earle of War-
wick, &s Fferdinando Gorge, all that Mr.
Winslow desired in his letters, to me, & more
allso, which I leave to him to relate.
he sued to ye king, to confirme their grante,
and to make you a corporation, and so to
inable you to make, & execute lawes, in
such large, & ample maner, as ye Massa-
chusett plantation hath it. Which ye king
graciously granted; referring it to ye Lord
keeper, to give order to y solisiter to draw it
up, if ther were a presidente for it. So
ye Lord keeper furthered it all he could, and
allso y solisiter (but as Festus [!] said to Paule,
with no small sume of money obtained I this
freedom); for by ye way many ridells must be
resolved, and many locks must be opened with
ye silver, ney ye golden key. Then it was to
come to ye lord Treasurer, to have his war-
rente, for freeing ye custume for a certain
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
63
time; but he would not doe it, but refferd it
to ye counsell table. And ther Mr. Allerton
atended day by day, when they satte, but could
not gett his petition read. And by reason of
Mr. Peirce his staying, with all ye passengers
at Bristoll, he was forct to leave ye further
prosecuting of it, to a solissiter. But ther is
no fear, nor doubte but it will be granted, for
he hath y cheefe of them to freind, yet it will
be marvelouly needfull for him to returne by
ye first ship yt comes from thence; for if you
had this confirmed, then were you compleate,
and might bear such sway, & goverment, as
were fitt for your ranke, & place yt God hath
called you unto. And stope ye moueths, of
base and scurrulous fellowes, yt are ready to
question, & threaten you in every action you
doe, &c.
It was dated March 19, 1629.¹
The Patent upon which money was thus
¹ Mr. Thomas Prince, who used the " Bradford M.S.” for
his "New England Chronology" (published in 1736), and who
has made some annotations in the blank pages, remarks here
that the letter is dated according to the Old Style, which
reckoned the year 1629 as lasting till March 25, 1630.
64
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
spent was never obtained. Mr. Allerton,
the agent of the partners, left it unfinished,
because he wanted, for private ends, to come
back to England, and the opportunity lost
did not occur again. We do not find, how-
ever, that the want of it was much felt by the
Colony. But a Patent must have been
obtained at some time, and taken out in the
name of Bradford and his heirs, for we find
it recorded, and it is an incident which
comes in with singularly dramatic propriety
towards the end of his narrative, if not of his
public career,—that in the year 1640, in con-
sequence of the growth of the Colony and the
expansion of Plymouth into now nine
flourishing townships, William Bradford for
himself, his heirs and assigns did formally
surrender his Patent, and resign into the
hands of the people the rights and powers
he had had on their behalf, and which by his
faithful stewardship they were now in a con-
dition to exercise themselves.
But the subject of the Patent has occupied
us too long. The Colonists when meditating
'MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
65
emigration had to face the further and more
pressing question of finance. When they
left England in 1607-8 they were men in
humble life, "not acquainted with trads nor
traffique. but had only been used to a
plain countrie life and ye inocente trade of
husbandrey." The stay in Holland had not
improved their circumstances, for it was "the
grimme and grisly face of povertie coming
upon them like an armed man" that forced
them to remove. How was the capital to
be found to provide them with ships for
transport and supplies for their sustenance
and trade, not only during the voyage, but
also during the first months, perhaps years,
of their settlement? After a good deal of
negotiation, lasting more than two years, the
agents sent over from Leyden Mr. John
Carver, and Mr. Robert Cushman found
means to engage with a company of Adven-
turers or speculators, of whom the above-
mentioned Mr. Weston was among the
chief, to form a joint stock corporation for
the purpose. It was formed on the basis
F
66
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
of Iol. shares. Every person, above 16,
adventuring his person was rated as holder
of a single share; if he further furnished
himself with 10l. worth of equipment, his
share was double. Between the ages of ten
and sixteen two persons represented a share.
Of those who came later and who died
earlier, the shares were reckoned proportion-
ately. Those who adventured only their
money, had a share for every 10l. so invested.
The partnership was to last for seven years,
(unless otherwise terminated by the whole
company), during which time all the profits
were to accumulate; and at the end of that
time "ye capitall and profits, viz. the houses,
lands, goods, and chatles," were to be divided
amongst the shareholders. All the members.
of the Colony were during the seven years to
work for "the general," and to have their
meat and drink, apparel and all provisions
out of the common stock.
These terms were very hard, and the
Colonists pleaded that their agent, Mr.
Cushman, had without authority deviated
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
67
from the terms they had originally drafted,
which differed in two respects, viz. (1) that
the houses, and cultivated lands, especially
the gardens, were to be excepted from the
general division, remaining the property of
the planters, and (2) that these were to have
two days in the week for their own private
employment. "The land and house," writes
Mr. Robinson pathetically to Mr. Carver,
"will be but a trifell for advantage to ye
adventurers, and yet the devision of it a great
discouragemente to ye planters, who would
with singuler care make it comfortable with
borrowed houres from their sleep." And
again, "consider also how much unfite that
you and your like must serve a new prenti-
shipe of 7 years, and not a daies freedom
from taske." A good deal of tart recrimina-
tion passed between the Leyden party and
their agent Mr. Cushman, but the latter
protested that the Adventurers would not
hear of any change, that the first mention of
it had caused one of them at once to with-
draw 500, and that if they refused the
F 2
68
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
terms the whole project would be "dasht."
The Colonists still refused consent, and the
agreement was unsigned when they sailed,
but they yielded to Weston's pressure and
signed it in the following year.
The scheme was harsh and impolitic. It
verified one of Bradford's proverbs, "covetous-
ness never brings ought home." The Colonists,
bound by a yoke of bondage to the Adven-
turers, had little heart for their work. They
were inclined to rely too much on the
supplies to be sent from home. Wanting
the spring of private enterprise, they failed
to do their utmost for themselves. It might
have been expected that the early months of
the first year, while waiting for harvest,
would be a time of scarcity. But though
that harvest brought a temporary plenty, yet
the second spring was even worse than the
first. The community had to be placed on
famine rations of lb. of bread per head; the
morale of the Colony showed signs of break-
ing down, and thefts of corn became of daily
occurrence. The Communistic system had
1
4
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
69
to be relaxed, at least so far as to allow every
family a temporary holding of a "parcell of
land according to the proportion of their
numbers,” to sow corn, so as to throw them
on their own resources. There was no more
famine after this. But it was not
But it was not only the
economical grievance that harassed
harassed the
Colonists. There was also the further con-
sequence of this bondage, that the liberty
which they prized so highly, liberty as a
church and as a community, was undermined.
They were subject to the control of the Ad-
venturers in things which touched their
dearest principles. They had to accept as
fellow-settlers whomsoever the Adventurers
chose to send, however undesirable in re-
spect either of religious sympathies or of
general character. And this hardship was
aggravated by the self-seeking of some of the
Adventurers, who tried to push their own
private advantage in violation of the prin-
ciples of partnership, which secured the mono-
poly of the trade to the company. We have
glanced at the conduct of Mr. Pierce.
Mr.
70
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Weston, in spite of vehement promises of
perpetual support, openly broke off from the
company that he might, (though he failed
ignominiously), trade on his own account,
to the injury of "the general." Moreover
the second ship which came out from the
company at home, the Anne, brought 50
people, many of whom were so incapable
that the Colony had to bear the expense of
sending them home again. She brought out
also the ominous accession of "a company
that did not belong to ye general body, but
came one their perticuler, and were to have
lands assigned them, and be for themselves, and
yet to be subjecte to ye generall goverment."
The seeds of disintegration were thus sown.
Accommodation had to be made for these
"particulars," within the Colony hitherto
united in oneness of interest and organisation.
The next year some of the company de-
manded leave to join the Particulars, and their
demand had to be granted. The rise and
growth of discordant interests in the little
body which numbered under 200 people went
*
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
71
on apace. The assignment of an acre of
land to every person in permanent possession.
was a salutary measure, but insufficient.
Disagreement arose in a new form. That
summer the Adventurers sent out as a
preacher a Mr. Lyford, apparently a dis-
graced clergyman of the Church of England,
and after a little while he and a "particu-
lar" named Mr. Oldham formed a faction,
which led to grave disorders and violent
measures. Lyford and Oldham appealed
home, where other rumours injurious to the
Colony had already been received. And the
Adventurers wrote to express dissatisfaction.
The nature of these objections is summarised
by Bradford with the answers, in a paper
which contains many points of interest, besides
its amusing unconventionality.
I shall here set them (the objections) downe,
with ye answers then made unto them, and
sent over at y returne of this ship: Which
did so confound ye objecters; As some con-
fessed their falte, and others deneyed what they
72
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
had said, and eate their words, & some others
of them, have since come over againe, and here
lived to convince themselves sufficiently, both
in their owne, & other men's judgments.
1. obj. was diversitie aboute religion.
Ans.: we know no shuch matter, for here
was never any controversie, or opposition,
either publicke, or private (to our knowledg)
since we came.
2. ob.: Neglecte of familie duties, one ye
Lord's day.
Ans. We allow no such thing, but blame
it in our selves, & others; and they that thus
reporte it, should have shewed their christian
love the more, if they had in love tould ye
offenders of it; rather then thus to reproach
them behind their baks. But (to say no more)
we wish them selves had given better example.
3. ob. Wante of both the sacrements.
Ans. The more is our greefe, that our
pastor is kept from us, by whom we might
injoye them; for we used to have the Lords
supper, every saboth; and baptisme as often as
ther was occasion of children to baptise.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
73
4. ob. Children not catachised, nor taught
to read.
Ans.: neither is true; for diverse take
pains with their owne as they can.
Indeed we
have no commone schoole for want of a fit
person, or hithertoo means to maintaine one;
though we desire now to begine.
5. ob. Many of ye perticuler members of
ye plantation will not work for ye generall.
Ans. this allso is not wholy true; for
though some doe it not willingly, & other not
honestly, yet all doe it; and he that doth worst
gets his owne foode, & something besids. But
we will not excuse them, but labour to reforme
them ye best we cane; or else to quitte ye plan-
tation of them.
6. ob. The water is not wholsome.
Ans. If they mean, not so wholsome as
ye good beere and wine in London, (which they
so dearly love,) we will not dispute with them,
but els for water it is as good as any in ye
world (for ought we knowe), and it is whol-
some enough to us, that can be contente ther-
with.
74
“MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
7. ob. The ground is barren, and doth bear
no grasse.
Ans. It is heer (as in all places) some
better, & some worse; and if they well con-
sider their woods in England, they shall not
find shuch grasse in them, as in their feelds,
& meadows. The cattle find grasse, for they
are as fatt as need be; we wish we had but
one for every hundred, that here is grase to
keep. Indeed this objection (as some other)
are ridiculous to all here which see, and know
ye contrary.
8 ob.: The fish will not take salt to keepe
sweete.
Ans. This is as true, as that which was
written, that ther is scarce a foule to be seene,
or a fish to be taken. Things likly to be true
in a cuntrie, wher so many sayle of ships
come yearly a-fishing; they might as well say,
ther can no aile, or beere in London, be kept
from sowering.
9 ob.: Many of them are theevish, and
steale on from an other.
Ans.: Would London had been free from
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
75
that crime; then we should not have been
trobled with these here; It is well knowne
sundrie have smarted well for it, and so are
ye rest like to doe, if they be taken.
10 ob.: The cuntrie is anoyed with foxes,
and woules.
Ans.: So are many other good cuntries
too; but poyson, Traps, and other such means
will help to destroy them.
II ob.: The Dutch are planted nere
Hudsons Bay, and are likly to overthrow the
trade.
Ans.: They will come and plante in these
parts also, if we and others doe not, but goe
home and leave it to them. We rather com-
mend them, then condemne them for it.
12 ob.: The people are much anoyed with
muskeetoes.
Ans. They are too delicate, and unfitte
to begine new-plantations, and collonies that
cannot enduer ye biting of a muskeeto; we
would wish such to keepe at home, till at least
they be muskeeto proofe, yet this place is as
free as any, and experience teacheth that
76
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
more ye land is tild, and ye woods cut downe,
the fewer ther will be, and in the end scarce
any at all.
The episode of Oldham and Lyford is
full of the liveliest interest, and though it
must be remembered that we have but one
side of the story, yet we can hardly doubt
that the measures taken with them were
necessary for the very existence of the Colony.
The result was, however, that "the Company
of adventurers broake in peeces here upon."
There were amongst them some who were
dissatisfied with the Colonists and out of
sympathy with their religious views. These
wrote complaining that the Plymouth Church
had incurred the name of "Brownists," and
requiring as a condition of continuing in part-
nership that London influence should be para-
mount in the government, as in the trade of
the Colony; that the "French discipline"
should be ex animo adopted; and that Mr.
Robinson and those who, with him, were
waiting at Leyden for a chance of coming
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
77
over should not be allowed to do so unless
they were reconciled to "our Church" by a
recantation.
That party among the Adventurers who
favoured the Colonists, wrote in a more
friendly strain, though, as a practical comment
upon their words, they sent goods for which
they exacted prices at the rate of 70 per cent.
And then the end of the joint stock company
soon came.
The Colony bought the interest
of the home company for 1,8ool., to be paid
in instalments, and a general division of lands
and goods was made among the whole com-
munity. Then a partnership was formed
between Bradford and three others on the
Plymouth side, and three partners, afterwards
increased to four, in London, who hired the
trade of the Colony for six years, on condition
of paying the 1,800l. and all debts.
And so
it came about that the Colony, emancipated
from a harsh and alien control, was enabled to
work out its development in freedom. There
were difficulties arising from the weakness,
with which the London partners allowed
78
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
themselves to be used by their clever but
unscrupulous agent, named Allerton, to
prosecute schemes injurious to the common
interests; and an interminable correspondence
arose over a ship called the White Angel.
But this did not interrupt the flow of the now
rising tide of prosperity. The first use of
their freedom made by Bradford and his
colleagues was to send for their friends, at
Leyden, who were brought in the Talbot and
Mayflower to Massachusetts Bay in 1629 and
1630, and were fetched from thence to Ply-
mouth. And the results did not end there.
It was to this brave venture on the part of
her second governor and his friends, that
Plymouth owed her extrication from difficul-
ties which might have strangled her in her
infancy, and her establishment in a position of
honour and usefulness in the world.
A few words in conclusion as to the sub-
sequent relations of the Colony with the New
England Company, and the Home Govern-
ment. In the June of 1623 a ship came out
bringing a Captain Francis West, who had a
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
79
commission to be Admiral of New England,
to restrain interlopers, and such ships as came
to fish and trade without a licence from the
Council. But, says Bradford, "he could doe
no good of them for they were to stronge for
him. And he found ye fishermen to be stuborne
fellows." He went away to Virginia, and
shortly after this fishing was made free by
Parliament.
In the September of the same year Captain
Robert Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando, came to
Massachusetts Bay bearing a commission from
the Council as Governor General of New Eng-
land. He was to form a Council consisting
of the aforesaid Admiral, a Mr. Christopher
Levite, the Governor for the time being of
Plymouth, and such others as he approved.
And he with his Council, or any two of them,
had authority to do and execute what to them
should seem good in all cases, capital,
criminal, and civil. Thus the authority con-
veyed to the Company by Patent was of the
fullest. But neither in this, nor in any other
instance in Bradford's time was it ever
80
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
seriously put into effect. Captain Gorges
did indeed call Weston to account, with
sundry threatenings, which came to nothing.
But he was more intent on planting a Colony
on his own account, in a territory granted to
him in Boston Bay. And his public functions,
as did these private operations also, soon came
to nothing. When in 1628 Morton's excesses
became a source of danger to his neighbours,
it was to Plymouth, and to no publicly
constituted authority, that they applied for
assistance. The New England Colonies
were left to make their way by themselves
without the protection, and consequently in
independence, of the home authorities. In
1635 Mr. Winslow was instructed while in
England to appeal to the Privy Council to
take some measures against the encroach-
ments of the French and Dutch. But nothing
was done, and the Privy Council soon had
other work to attend to in the troubles which
were arising at home. The New England
Colonies, forced thus to shift for themselves,
formed a Confederacy for their own protection
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
81
and support, and in the preamble to the
Articles of Confederation they stated as one
of the reasons for such combination, that by
reason of the distractions in England we
are hindered from y humble way of seeking
advice, or reaping those comfortable fruits of
protection, which at other times we might
well expect."
Thus the waves of great
civil struggles in England were felt on the
further shores of the Atlantic, and produced
results of far-reaching consequence not only
to the Colonies themselves, but to the World.
The
young communities which were springing
up in all the vigour of youth in this new
Country were doubtless soon quite able to
take care of themselves, and by no means
inclined to submit to control. But it was
assuredly to the circumstance of their being
thus left alone that we must attribute much
of that rapid development of self-reliance and
independence, which have borne their fruit
in the great Republic of the West.
G
82
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
III
GLIMPSES OF THE LAND AND OF
THE TIMES
"Then" (after passing Quonahassit south-
wards) "we come to Accomack an excellent
good harbor, good land: and no want of
anything but industrious people. After
much kindness; upon a small occasion wee
fought also with fortie or fiftie of those;
though some were hurt, and some were slaine;
yet within an hour after they became
friends. Cape Cod is the next that presents
itself, which is only a headland of high hils
of sand overgrowne with shrubbie pines, hurts
and such trash: but an excellent harbor for all
weathers. This cape is made by the maine
sea on the one side, and a great Bay on the
other in forme of a sickle: on it doth inhabit
the people of Pawmet; and in the bottom of
the Bay the people of Chawum."
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
83
These are the words¹ of the man who
first discovered the capabilities of the site of
New Plymouth for colonisation. Captain
John Smith, one of the most adventurous
and practical of English explorers in North
America, finding himself in the spring of 1614
off the coast of North Virginia, as it was
then called, and at leisure, while the rest of
his company were fishing, took eight men
in an open boat, and spent eighty days in
exploring the great bay which extends from
Penobscot to Cape Cod. The results of his
investigation he published on his return, with
a map of the coast.
And to him belongs
the honour of having discerned, and first
called attention to, the qualities which were
afterwards to make New England the most
promising field for English colonisation. In
the course of exploration he not only made
acquaintance with the coast-line, but also in-
formed himself of the names given by the
natives, and in some cases by fishermen, to
1
In the Description of New England, first published (with
the map, of which a facsimile is given in this volume) in
1616. See Arber's Reprint, p. 205.
G 2
84
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
places on the shore. Among these was Ac-
comack. On returning to England he tells us
that he submitted the map of his discoveries
to Prince Charles (afterwards Charles I.),
with the request that he would become god-
father to the country by giving it new
names. The map as it is presented to our
readers is the result: and it reveals the
interesting fact, that Plymouth had already
received its name four years before the
arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers. Smith
appends a table on which a list of some
thirty-two old and new names are set
forth in parallel columns, among them
Accomack, newly called Plimouth.
point of interest about these names is that
which he probably least anticipated, viz.
that, in spite of this princely sanction, the
greater number of them never took root. Sub-
sequent occupiers of the territory used their
own discretion as to the names they adopted.
And so there is ground for Nath. Morton's
statement, that the name of Plimouth was so
called, not only for the reason above men-
One
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
85
tioned, "but also because Plimouth in Old
England was the last town they left in their
native country, and for that they received
many kindnesses from some Christians there."
Bradford was, however, acquainted with
this previous name, and quotes a letter
written by Mr. Dermer, a former associate
of Capt. John Smith, which introduces many
points of interest.
This Mr Dermer was hear the same year
that these people¹ came, as apears by a rela-
tion writen by him, & given me by a freind.
Bearing date June 30.
30. Anº. 1620.
1620. And
they¹ came in Novembr following, so ther was
but 4 months difference. In which relation
to his Honrd friend, he hath these pasages
of this very place.
I will first begine (saith he) with that
place from whence Squanto, or Tisquantem,
was taken away: wh. in cap. Smiths mape is
called Plimoth: and I would that Plimoth had
1 Bradford habitually alludes to his fellow-colonists as
"these people" or "they," a fact which leads to some ambi-
guity in his narrative at times.
86
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
ye like comodities.
plantation might hear be seated, if ther come
to the number of 50 persons, or upward.
Otherwise at Charlton, because ther ye
savages are lese to be feared. The Pocanaw-
kits which live to ye west of Plimoth, bear an
invetrate malice to ye English, and are of
more streingth then all y savags from thence
to Penobscote. Their desire of revenge was
occasioned by an English man, who having
many of them on bord, made a great slaughter
with their murderers, & smale shot, when as
(they say) they offered no injurie on their
parts.
I would that the first
One thing that strikes us in this letter is
that Capt. Smith's map is referred to, as
early as 1620, as the recognised authority, at
the time, on the geography of New England.
It represents all that was known by the
world at large on the configuration of the
country. It is very remarkable, and at the
same time highly creditable to the worthy
Captain, that in the short space of eighty
days, and with the very limited resources he
“MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
87
In the years 1639 and
possessed, he should have succeeded in
making a map so careful and accurate, at
least in its general outlines. But at the
same time the fact that it presented only the
coast-line, and could not pretend to give
internal features, or to trace the course of
rivers beyond their mouths, bore curious
results in after years.
1640 a dispute arose between the townships
of Hingam and Sityate as to their bound-
aries, which involved further issues as to the
territory of Plymouth and Massachusetts.
The cause of the dispute was that the Patent
originally granted to Hingam provided "that
from Charles-river or any branch or part
thereof they were to extend their limits and
three myles further to ye Southward.' On
the authority of this grant the people of
Hingam, finding "a smale river or brooke
rather, that a great way within land trended
southward and issued into some part of yje
river taken to be Charles River," and taking a
point three miles southward of the extremity
of this brook, drew a line eastward to the
))
88
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
sea.
This line of demarcation was highly
advantageous to the men of Hingam, and
was equally objectionable to Sityate and
Plymouth, for it included a territory which
took in not only all the surroundings of
Sityate, but reached even to a part of Ply-
mouth itself. The dispute was conducted
with much warmth and some violence.
The one party planted their stakes in the
coveted meadow grounds, which stakes the
others promptly pulled up. Recourse was
had ultimately to arbitration, and Capt.
Smith's map was called in evidence. It was
urged that Charles River, as named in that
map, could no more be taken to include
every little brook that ultimately found issue.
through it to the sea, than the Humber in
Old England included the Trent and Ouse
and all the smaller rivers and brooks that fell
into them. And in the end the arbitration
resulted in a formal delimitation of bound-
aries, in favour of Sityate, the landmarks
of which, such as Bound Brook and Great
Pond, are recognised to the present day.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
89
But to return to the point at which the
Pilgrim Fathers first set foot on the terra
firma of Cape Cod and Accomack, described
above by Capt. Smith and Mr. Dermer. It
was a land as yet uncolonised. To the north
there was an English settlement at New-
foundland and a fishing-station at Monahigan.
The French were settled at Nova Scotia,
and were extending their influence towards
Penobscot. To the south the Dutch were
planting themselves at Manhattan, afterwards
New York; and further south still was the
far from prosperous English Colony of
Virginia. The description of Accomack
given by Dermer might well arouse those
apprehensions which had troubled the minds
of the Pilgrims while still at Leyden. To
their disquieted imaginations it appeared to
some that they were going to utter ruin.
Besides the chances of famine and nakedness,
of unwholesome diet, air, and water, there was
unknown peril of savage enemies, people who
were cruel, barbarous, treacherous, and
merciless. The savages whom they might
90
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
expect to meet would practise every refine-
ment of cruelty, "fleaing some alive with
ye shells of fishes, cutting of ye members and
joynts of others by peesmeale, and broiling on
ye coles eate ye collops of their flesh in their
sight whilst they live." Such a prospect
might well "move the very bowels of men to
grate within them, and make ye weake to
quake and tremble." All honour to the men
and stout-hearted women who braved these
dangers, not altogether imaginary! That
they had much to fear is unquestionable.
The shedding of blood such as that so lightly
mentioned by Capt. Smith, and again by Mr.
Dermer, and further the villainous slave
raiding perpetrated by a miscreant named.
Hunt, who had carried off some twenty-four
of the natives intending to sell them as
slaves in Spain (among whom was Squanto,
the future interpreter), had incensed the
Indians against white men. How far the
Colonists might have met with perils such
as they feared we cannot say, but it happened
that the way had been prepared for them.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
91
A terrible sickness, such as the people seemed
specially subject to, had desolated the coun-
try, leaving at Accomack not a man alive save
Squanto, and Bradford describes the traces
of this grievous visitation which were seen by
an exploring party shortly after their arrival,
-the bones of the dead lying still unburied
on the ground. Thus they were able to
plant themselves firmly until they were
strong enough to repel attack.
The land, on their arrival, to Bradford's
gaze, at any rate, presented but a dismal
pros-
pect. "What could they see but a hideous and
desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild
men ?"
But it improved on further acquain-
tance. In the next year a letter written home
by one of the company gives a far more encour-
aging picture: "Indians round us peaceable
and friendly. Country pleasant and temperate,
yielding vines, walnuts, chestnuts, small nuts
and plums, flowers, roots and herbs; no place
hath more gooseberries and strawberries, nor
better. There is timber. Turkies, quails,
pigeons, partridges, lakes abounding with fish
92
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
and fowl, otters and beavers. Better grain
cannot be than the Indian corn.
And more-
over we are all freeholders, the rent day doth
not trouble us."
These words, which are borne out by
other accounts, describe the natural resources
of the country, on which they came more and
more to rely. It was thought that they would
gain their livelihood mainly upon fishing. It
was fishing that, in Captain Smith's view, con-
stituted the wealth of the country, an estimate
for which the name of the great headland,
Cape Cod, might be taken as a justification.
And many attempts at fishing were made, but
from some cause or other, perhaps because
they were landsmen, who had had no experi-
ence of seafaring life, the men of Plymouth
seem to have made but a poor business of it.
"It was," says Governor Bradford, “a thing
fatal to this colony"; and again," they had always
lost by fishing." The staple of their trade was
in beaver and otter skins, and clapboard (i.e.
wood cut into "feather-edged " planks) for the
home market. And they soon found another
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
93
market among the Indians, with whom they
bartered beads, knives, cloth, and other
home-procured articles. But it is interest-
ing that they soon began to raise the com-
modities for their trading in their new home.
It was not very long before they found demand
among the Indians for as much corn as they
could grow; and another most profitable com-
modity was introduced to them by the Dutch,
viz. Whampampeag, the trade in which pro-
duced, Bradford observes, quite an alteration
in the disposition of the Indians towards them,
so greatly did they come to desire it. This
whampampeag, called sometimes whampam,
sometimes peag, and sometimes by the whole
name, consisted of shells, or rather the middle
part of the clam shell, strung on threads. Out
of the shell was cut a small cylinder about a
quarter of an inch deep, and being bored and
strung was used amongst some tribes of the
Indians as money. The strings were also
woven into bracelets, of six threads in a row,
and into girdles of many rows.
reckoned at a later time at the value of 5s.
It was
94
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
per fathom for white whampam and 10s. per
fathom for black or purple. Bradford tells
us that the Narrigansets and Pequents, keep-
ing it to themselves, prided themselves greatly
upon the possession. But when a more
general trade was established, the Indians
took to it with great eagerness, and to it he
attributes the enriching not only of the
Colonists, but also, though the reasoning is a
little obscure, of the Indians also. And it
became a source of not unmixed benefit, for
the Indians became rich, powerful, and proud,
and able to purchase guns, powder and shot,
a development of very ominous character.
The Colonists were for a very long time
dependent for articles of domestic use upon
the home market, and very curiously interest-
ing are the lists of commodities which are
sent, or which their agents are commissioned
to purchase for them. Coats and cloaks were
in
great request in the early days of the Colony,
and it is noted as a circumstance of great
good-fortune that the first ship which came
out brought some "Burching lane suits," a
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
95
description of articles on which some light is
thrown by Stow in his "Survey of London"
(1633). He tells us that Birchin lane (so called
after Birchover the builder) "hath been inhabited
for the most part by wealthy drapers." As
the Colony gets richer, Bastable (i.e. Barn-
stable) rugs and metheglin (i.e. mead, a drink
made of honey, and fermented) become
articles of import. And there are singularly
detailed lists of goods wanted for private use,
such as linen cloths, bed-ticks, stockings, tape,
pins, rugs, &c.
The intercourse with home was not car-
ried on without much risk and frequent loss,
partly by reason of storms, but also from
enemies and pirates. The first ship carrying
a cargo to England (valued at £500) was
captured by the French, and all the goods.
seized. Mr. Cushman, who was made a
prisoner, but afterwards set free, tells us,
indeed, that they were hoping to recover these
1 His description continues: "From Birchin Lane on
that side of the street, down to the stocks, had (for the most
part) dwelling there fripperers and upholders that sold old
apparel or household stuffs."
96
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
losses in France. But whether this actually
happened we are not told. Besides risks
from greater enemies, such as France and
Spain, there were pirates innumerable upon
the seas; one ship was captured by pirates
off the coast of Ireland: another fell a prey
to a Turkish warship almost within sight of
Plymouth (in Old England). It is difficult
to realise the insecurity of traffic from such
enemies in these more secure times. Law-
lessness and turbulence were rife outside the
pale of settled cities, and until the estab-
lishment of the Massachusetts Colonies there
were probably not many places on the coast
of the bay where men could live at peace,
and under the shelter of law, besides Ply-
mouth. Within the town itself, Bradford and
his assistants seem to have ruled over a quiet
and law-abiding people. Our manuscript, at
any rate, contains comparatively few records
of crime, and it was not for many years that
the Colony required a prison. Still, mention.
does arise now and again of delinquents being
whipped for thieving and other immoralities.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
97
Visitors who so offended were shipped off to
other places; very grievous offences were,
however, visited with great severity. And
in the midst of much that accords in thought
and spirit with our modern ideas it is some-
what startling to come upon the deliberately
expressed opinion of a grave divine that, in
his judgment, "in matters of highest conse-
quence magistrates may proceed so far to bodily
torments as racks, hote irons," &c. to extract
a confession. However, New England was
probably not behind the rest of the world in
the seventeenth century.
It is pleasant to note that on one oc-
casion, when the question was raised
whether a criminal intention should be
visited with the same punishment as the
effected crime, Bradford's opinion inclined
to the more merciful view. He doubts, too,
whether adultery is a capital offence.
But we must bring to a conclusion this
sketch of the land and of the times in which
our narrative is placed. And we cannot do
better than conclude with a description of
II
98.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
a natural feature which has, alas! only too
often given a lamentable interest to the
history of America, viz. its liability to
hurricanes. The following is a description
of one which took place in the year 1635:
This year, ye 14 or 15 of August (being
Saturday,) was such a mighty storme of
wind, and raine, as none living in these parts,
either English, or Indeans ever saw. Being
like (for ye time it continued), to those Haur-
icanes, and tuffons that writers make mention
of in ye Indeas; it began in y morning, a
litle before day, and grue not by degrees, but
came with violence in y begining, to ye great
amasmente of many. It blew downe sundry
houses, and uncovered others; diverse vessells
were lost at sea, and many more in extreme
danger; It caused y sea to swell (to ye south-
ward of this place) about 20 foote right up
and downe; and made many of the Indeans
to clime into trees for their saftie; it tooke of
ye borded roofe of a house which belonged to
this plantation at Manamet, and floted it to
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
99
another place, the posts still standing in ye
ground. And if it had continued long
without ye shifting of ye wind, it is like it
would have drouned some parte of ye cuntrie.
It blew downe many hundered thousands of
trees, turning up the stronger by the roots,
and breaking the hiegher pine trees of, in the
midle; and ye tall yonge oaks, & walnut
trees of good biggnes were wound like a withe,
very strang, and fearfull to behould.
begane in ye south'st, and parted toward
south east, and vered sundry ways, but ye
greatest force of it here was from ye former
quarters; it continued not (in ye extremitie)
above 5 or 6 houers, but ye violence begane to
abate. The signes, and marks of it will re-
maine this 100 years in these parts wher it
was sorest. The moone suffered a great eclips
the 2 night after it.
It
Jue
H 2
100
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
IV
WILLIAM BRADFORD, AS AUTHOR, MAN,
AND STATESMAN
In the "History of Plymouth Plantation” we
have William Bradford presented to us in
the aspect of author, autobiographer, and
historian. Of course the History is the
chief, indeed the only consciously undertaken
object of his writing. And as a history, from
the importance of the events he chronicles.
and from his unique relation to them, as well
as from its own intrinsic merit, his work is
beyond price. But a history of events so
essentially connected with his name and in-
fluence, of which it was so true, though he
would never have said it, quorum pars magna
fui, becomes an involuntary autobiography.
It was not his desire to pose before the
world. On the contrary, he keeps himself
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
ΙΟΙ
severely in the background, and hardly ever
permits himself to appear in the story ex-
cept under the impersonal designation of
the Governor." Hardly an allusion per-
sonal to himself occurs, except in some
annotations made later in life. But this
reticence both in what he tells us, and in
what he keeps to himself, is strongly charac-
teristic, and adds another expressive, though
unconscious, touch to the autobiographical
portrait. As an author, his conception and
treatment of his subject, his style, language,
and, not least, handwriting itself, have all a
high degree of literary interest as specimens.
of the English of the time, and of the culture
attained by a man of the people. But there
is an interest deeper still in tracing the cha-
racter of the man in the style of the author,
even as the man himself is formed by the
history which he relates.
Governor Bradford's manuscript is a large
quarto of some 280 pages, written for the
most part on one side of the paper only, though
in some parts the History covers both sides;
102
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
and some of the blank pages are used for
additional notes written by Bradford himself
at a later period, and for a few subsequent
annotations by Mr. Thomas Prince, who used
the work for his " New England Chronology."
There are a few straggling entries of facts,
relating to the later history of the book, written
on the outer leaves. The first few pages are
used by Bradford as a note-book for his
Hebrew Studies. The History occupies
270 pages, and is followed by an Appendix
giving a record of the persons who came
over in the first ship, written in 1650.
Against Bradford's own name someone has
written "who dyed 9th of May 1658," and
has also added a few notes as to survivors
of the first party as late as 1698. The
volume is bound in white vellum like an
account-book, and is somewhat discoloured.
The History itself is written in handwriting
of singular clearness (the letters all formed
separately), suggestive of unwearied patience
and conscientiousness. In some places it is
minute and close, with 59 lines of, on an
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
103
average, 16 words to the line, in a column of
10 × 7 in., every letter formed with a distinct-
ness as perfect as that of printing. On other
pages the writing is larger and less regular.
The work falls into two divisions. The first
part consists of an introductory chapter, lead-
ing to the story of the flight to Leyden and of
the subsequent history of the Pilgrims, up to
the point of their discovery and occupation of
New Plymouth. With their establishment
in their new home the writer begins his
second book, prefacing it with these words:
The rest of this history (If God give me life,
and opportunitie) I shall for brevitie sake,
handle by way of annalls, noteing only the
heads of principall things and passages as they
fell in order of time; and may seeme to be
profitable to know, or to make use of. And
this may be as ye 2 booke.
But, though the history is thenceforward
recorded "by way of annalls," there is evidence
to show that it was actually written in its
present form at a later period and all together.
104
“MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
As Mr. Doyle has lately pointed out,¹ the
state of preservation and cleanness of the
paper are incompatible with a course of entries
continued during a period of thirty years.
The author, moreover, himself states that
these scribbled writings" were
were begun
“about ye year 1630, and so peeced up at
times of leasure afterwards." But these
"scribbled writings" seem to have been only
the notes from which the History was after-
wards compiled. As early as the fifty-seventh
page, in the record of the year 1620, we
are informed that the peace with Massasoyt
hath now continued this twenty-four years,'
which brings us at least to the year 1644 as the
time of writing. Some additional notes on the
blank pages are dated 1646. The last entry
relates to the year 1646, and records that Mr.
Winslow went to England in that year, and
"hath now bene absente this 4 years," i.e.
until 1650. The heading for the years 1647
and 1648 is written, though no record follows.
(
1 In his introduction to the facsimile reprint of the MS.
lately published.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
105
The Appendix is distinctly dated 1650. We
are justified, therefore, in regarding the his-
tory as the work of Bradford's later years,
written in the maturity of his judgment, and
in view of the issue to which the events were
tending.
The English in which it is written is that
of the English Bible, or perhaps we should
rather say the more popular language of the
Pilgrim's Progress." It is a language which
Bradford uses with great effect. His style is
a little stiff, perhaps, to our notions, and now
and then somewhat involved. But usually
it flows with transparent clearness. He
chooses his words with great felicity, and
seems to have them equally at his command,
whether wielding them with terrible emphasis
like the blows of a hammer in indignant
denunciation, or pouring them out in lucid
narrative or in the eloquent expression of deep
and tender pathos. The vigour, the terseness,
the expressiveness of his style are well illus-
trated in the extracts which have been given
in the pages of this book. The spelling is
106
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
throughout irregular, though not illiterate, and
here and there we come upon expressions and
constructions which have become archaic.¹
Scriptural allusions abound; and the style is
frequently enlivened by homely phrases and
illustrations, colloquial in character, but admi-
rably adapted to express the writer's meaning.
For instance, Robinson brought his Ar-
minian opponent to an apparent (i.e. evident)
nonpluss. Blackwell betrayed one of his
friends "that so he might slip his own neck
out of y coler." "He wone ye bp's favour (but
lost ye Lord's)," (p. 25). Oldham had been
a "chief stickler" in a former faction, and
"ramped more like a furious beast than a
man," until "he was clapt up a while." Ly-
ford, who opened other men's letters, is "this
slye marchante," i.e. fellow, and of these two
the following illustration seems to have been
used in the public court: "like the Hedg-
hogg whom ye conny in a stormy day (in
pittie) receaved into her borrow, would not
be content to take part with her, but in the
*
1 See note on page 130.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
107
end with her sharp pricks forst ye poore
conny to forsake her owne borrow, so these
two," &c. There is telling sarcasm in the
following: "for shuch men (hypocritical
ministers) pretend much for poor souls, but
they will looke to their wages and conditions,
if that be not to their content, let poor souls
doe what they will they will shift for
themselves, and seeke poore souls somewher
els, among richer bodys" (p. 128). Of the
same character is the description of the man
“who was so drunke yt he rane his owne nose
upon ye pointe of a sword yt one held before
him"; and the typical Englishman speaks in
the account of the French surprise of Penob-
scot: "and many French complements they
used, and congees they made" till they had
cajoled the occupants out of their arms.
P. 188 (a).
Illustrations like these might be multiplied
indefinitely. We must pass on from the con-
sideration of the style to gather some of the
indications given us in the book of the
personal history of the man and his character.
108
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
It has been mentioned that he tells us very
little about his own doings, except so far as
they are connected with the general fortunes
of the Colony. He seems to have joined the
congregation at Scrooby at its commencement,
and he writes of the persecutions they
endured as one who had felt them. He was
then about seventeen years old. From his
vivid description of the flight from England
-telling how for instance the Dutch
captain swore his country's oath, "Sacra-
mente" and weighed anchor-and of the
storm which followed, the water running
into their mouths and ears, as the ship seemed
foundered in ye sea," the ejaculations of the
mariners and of the passengers, and how "if
modestie would suffer" he could tell of their
prayers—we infer that he was one of the first
party that thus escaped. Of his own life at
Leyden he makes no mention, and all that
we can gather of his position among the
refugees is conveyed by the fact that his
initials with those of two others occur at the
end of a letter written in the name of the
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
109
whole body. When the party reached
America, he tells us that he was among those
who were stricken with the disease, and was
much beholden to Brewster and Standish
for their kind offices. To the mention of a
specially brutal answer given by a sailor to one
in his sickness who desired but a small can of
beer a little note is added in the margin-
"which was this author himself." He tells us
that on the death of Carver" William Brad-
ford was chosen governor in his stead-being
not yet recovered of his ilnes in which he had
been near ye point of death." From this
point until the resignation of his Patent in
1640 we read of him only as "the governor."
The facts that he left a young son behind
when he sailed from England, that his wife
died soon after their arrival, that he married
again and had four children, we learn but
from the Appendix. This reticence seems
significant not only of his modest and reserved
character, but also of his absorption in the
fortunes of the Church and Colony to which
he devoted his whole self and work. No
IIO
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
man had a higher ideal of public spirit and
of the subordination of private to public
interest than he. He quotes with approval
of his beloved master, Mr. Robinson, that
"none did more offend him than those that were
close, and cleaving to themselves." One main
source of the success with which the weak
and struggling Colony came through the
overwhelming difficulties and hardships of the
early years was the public spirit and cohesion
of its members, tried, as they were, at more
than one critical period in their history, and
of this public spirit none partook more fully,
or set a more noble example than the
Governor. Indeed, it may be thought that
Bradford carries this absorption in the affairs
of Plymouth even to the fault of a certain
narrowing of his sympathies. He is all for
Plymouth; and his interest in the affairs of
his neighbours, in the rise and progress of
other Colonies as they grew up around him,
even in the great migrations of his co-
religionists to Boston Bay in 1630, is but
incidental, so far only as they affected his
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
III
4
own beloved community. But if his affections
were somewhat narrowed, making him, as we
may imagine, a man of but few intimate
friends, they were very deep and break out
at times from his habitual reserve with strong
and pathetic emotion. Witness the tender
and touching account of the departure from
Leyden, and the sorrowful leave-takings of
parting friends. Witness, too, his devoted
affection for his friends Robinson and Brew-
ster. To others, as to Cushman, he can give
a just and generous appreciation; to these
he gives his heart. And his strong yearning
for love and confidence, often characteristic
of a reserved nature, and his longing for it
both in public and private relations, when it
seemed to be lost, is expressed with passionate
intensity in a note written in old age con-
trasting the latter with the former state of
the Colony :
O sacred bond, whilst inviollably pre-
served! how sweete and precious were the
fruits, that flowed from ye same! But when
112
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
this fidelity decayed; then their ruine ap-
proached. O that these anciente members had
not dyed, or been dissipated, if it had been the
will of God, or els that this holy care, and
constante faithfullness had still lived, and
remained with those that survived and were
in times afterwards added unto them. But
(alas) that subtill serpente hath slylie wound
in himselfe, under faire pretences of necessitie,
and ye like, to untwiste those sacred bonds,
and tyes, and as it were insensibly by degrees
to dissolve (or in a great measure) to weaken
ye same. I have been happy, in my first
times, to see, and with much comforte to
injoye, the blessed fruits of this sweete com-
munion, but it is now a parte of my miserie,
in old age to find, and feele y decay, and wante
therof (in a great measure) and with greefe,
and sorrow of hart to lamente, & bewaile
ye same. And for others warning, and
admonition, (and my own humiliation) doe I
hear note ye same.
Bradford's deep affection for his "pore
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
113
people," this poor persecuted Church, and
their confidence in him shown by his
repeated election¹ as Governor, had its roots
in the Puritanism which bound them to-
gether in devotion to a common cause.
Puritanism was to them the very Cause of
God, and they were God's people, pledged
by a sacred covenant to stand firm, and to
stand together. And the bond of common
allegiance to their cause had been drawn
closer and stronger by years of fellowship in
persecution, in their perilous venture, in
battling with the difficulties of their situation.
In their principles and aspirations he and
they were in full accord. Bradford was a
Puritan in his devotion to the principles of
Independency, and in the bitter hatred, which
they then involved, of Episcopacy with its
"courts cannons and ceremonies." He was a
Puritan in his ideal of the State exercising
the functions of the Church, and enforcing
by strict discipline, moral and spiritual, its
1 Twelve times successively, 1621-1632, and eight times
between 1633 and 1646.
I
114
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
austere standard of life.
He partook fully
of the strong" esprit de corps" which ani-
mated the party, and was very jealous for its
liberty, its purity, and its consistency. But
he was a man whose personal character pre-
served him from much of the narrowness
which Calvinism tended to develop. His
was a Puritanism of the earlier type, which
had not begun to frown upon innocent
culture, in which austerity had not turned to
sourness, nor lost its sympathy with the
many-sided interests of human life.
He is very bitter against the Church of
England, and ruthless in his exultation over
the downfall of Episcopacy. A note written
in 1646, on the page opposite to that on
which, early in his work, he has recorded
the oppression suffered by the Noncon
formists, gives utterance to an almost savage
triumph. But his denunciations, though
violent, never degenerate into scurrilous
abuse, such as too often disgraced the contro-
versies of the time. His religion is practical
rather than doctrinal. And as he wins our
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
115
respect by his own unfeigned piety and up-
rightness, so he too judges of men by their
actual conduct and not by the party they
belong to. And he judges individuals with
discrimination and often with generosity.
He makes no capital out of the fact that
Lyford was a clergyman of the Church of
England. And even of Oldham he is
inclined on one occasion to believe that he
was actuated, not by hypocrisy, but by "some
sudden pang of conviction."
A devout mind such as his naturally tends
to see the hand of Providence in everything,
and Bradford has given us a very beautiful
description of an occasion on which prayer
was answered "to their owne and ye Indeans
admiration." There had been a great drought
which continued for two months with great
heat, “insomuch y corne began to wither away,
though it was set with fishe the moysture whereof
helped it much: yet at length it began to lan-
guish sore-upon which they set aparte a
solemne day of Humiliation to seek ye Lord by
humble and fervente prayer in this great dis-
I 2
116
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
trese,” and, on that same day, hot and cloud-
less at the beginning, yet "toward evening it
began to overcast, and shortly after to raine
with shuch sweete and gentle showers, as gave
them cause of rejoyceing and blessing God."
But this devout instinct of faith is liable to
perversion in the cause of religious partisan-
ship. Bradford was not free from the dis-
position, then only too common, to attribute
the misfortunes of those whom he disliked to
the judgment of God. There is the story,
for instance, of the "proud and very profane
young man," who, after insulting over the
poor sea-sick passengers, was himself the first
to be stricken with disease and die, from which
our author does not fail to draw the edifying
moral. But his reverence was too deep and
sincere to allow this dangerous tendency to
carry him away unchecked.
"God's judg-
ments are unscerchable," he says on one occa-
sion, "neither dare I be bould therwith, but,
however, it shows us ye uncertainty of all
humane things, and what little cause there is
of joying in them, or trusting to them
>>
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
117
(p. 138). And again, when the Massachusetts
people, who had thrust themselves unscrupu-
lously into Connecticut, met with misfortunes
there, he remarks, "which some imputed as a
correction from God for their intrution (to
ye wrong of others) into yt place; but I dare
not be bould with God's judgments in this
kind."
Bradford was a man of considerable read-
ing. His familiarity with the Bible (in the
Genevan Version) is manifest in the frequent
use of Scriptural language, and in the appli-
cation of illustrations borrowed from the Bible
history, such as Gideon's army, the men of
Eshcol, Naomi and Orpah, Saul's asses,
Ishmael and Gedaliah, &c., used with much
quaint originality. But he also shows fami-
liarity with many other books, ancient and
contemporary. His reading supplies quota-
tions (taking them in the order in which they
occur) from Socrates (the Church historian),
Foxe, Eusebius, a famous writer of Dutch
commentaries (Emmanuel van Meteren), the
Goulden Book" of Marcus Aurelius, Plu-
118
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
tarch's "Life of Cato," Seneca, Peter Martyr,
Purchas, Pliny. He is familiar with the story
of Moses given by a Heathen writer (Tacitus),
and with the history of the Taborites and Zisca.
And it is evident that he had not only read,
but had digested, and could apply with appo-
siteness, the information he had gained. He
was also a careful observer of Nature. He does
not show much appreciation of natural beauty.
On the wonders of land and sea and sky he
makes no comment. His first impressions of
America reflect only the depression of his
own feelings. He is more ready to recognise
the awful majesty of Divine Power in natural
phenomena than joy and beauty. But he has
given us descriptions of a hurricane, and of
an earthquake, drawn with a careful accuracy
of detail and circumstance worthy of modern
science. And there is an account of a visita-
tion of flies in 1633, followed by a pestilence
among the Indians, which has a characteristic
interest.
This disease allso swept away many of yª
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
119
t
Indeans from all ye places near adjoyning;
and ye spring before, espetially all ye month of
May, ther was shuch a quantitie of a great
sorte of flies, like (for bignes) to wasps, or
bumble-bees, which came out of holes in ye
ground, and replenished all ye woods, and eate
ye green things; and made shuch a constante
yelling noyes, as made all y woods ring of
them, and ready to deafe y hearers; they
have not by y English been heard, or seen
before or since. But ye Indeans tould them
yt sicknes would follow, and so it did in June,
July, August, and y cheefe heat of sommer.
One further trait of character must be no-
ticed, without which our sketch of Governor
Bradford would be incomplete, viz. his
possession of the invaluable gift of humour.
It is a gift which few leaders of men have
been without, and which has oftentimes
added much to the influence of its pos-
sessors. A sense of the ridiculous in them-
selves or in others has been to many men, or
might have been, a wholesome corrective
120
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
It is
of exaggeration and intolerance.
good that the stern features of authority,
especially of Puritan austerity, should some-
times relax into a smile. Humour is invalu-
able to a statesman, and Bradford was
fortunate in his possession of the gift. It is
shown in many of his comments and illustra-
tions, as for instance in his allusion to the
Romans who forsook Cato in Utica praying
to be excused "though they could not all be
Catos," and in his quotation of Seneca,
"That a great part of libertie is a well
governed belly." His description of Lyford's
false humility, which "indeed made them
ashamed, he so bowed and cringed unto them,”
shows the same characteristic, not only in his
shrewd insight into the character of the man,
but also in his lively telling of the story. There
is, moreover, a grim humour in the punish-
ment which Oldham was condemned to suffer
-made to run the gauntlet between two files
of soldiers, each of whom gave him a thump
behind with the butt-end of his musket as
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
121
he passed, and so sent him off to mend his
manners.
Nor is it only in his narrative and in his
shrewd perceptions that Bradford's humour
is shown. The same gift helped him to deal
successfully with practical difficulties, where
a heavier hand and harsher manner might
have provoked worse troubles. An instance
of such dealing is given us, with considerable
enjoyment by himself, in the account of
the newcomers in 1621 who declined to
go to their duties on Christmas Day, saying
it was against their conscience to work
on that day. "So ye gou tould them
that, if they made it a matter of conscience,
he would spare them, till they were better
informed." But when, on returning from
work, he found them in the street at play,
"he tooke away their implements, and tould
them that was against his conscience that they
should play & others worke; if they made
ye keeping of it a matter of devotion, let them
kepe their houses."
Of Bradford's general administration of
122
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
its affairs, the Colony of Plymouth itself is
his lasting monument. Called to undertake
the government almost single-handed at the
early age of thirty, he brought the community
through all the perils and difficulties of its
troubled infancy by the force of his own
upright character, his strong common-sense,
his courage, wisdom, and faith. He could
act boldly and promptly in the time of danger,
as for instance when he returned the defiant
message of the Narrigansets with like
defiance. It wanted no small courage for a
little body of some 90 people to challenge a
tribe that could put 900 or 1,000 warriors.
into the field. In vigorous action he was
never wanting.
The scheme by which the Colony became
the purchasers of the property of the Adven-
turers was a bold stroke of policy. But
bolder still was the action of the "under-
takers," of whom we cannot doubt that
Bradford was the inspiring genius, by
which they hired the trade for six years,
undertaking its debts. It was taking upon
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
123
their individual shoulders the responsibilities
of the whole body. It was risking personal
ruin to save the community. And it be
tokened a brave confidence in the latent
resources of the Colony, of which it proved
itself not unworthy. Bradford's strength lay
in seizing the bearings of the situation and in
meeting them with promptness and vigour.
He saw at once the danger that was
looming behind the factious conduct of Lyford
and Oldham, danger of an irreparable schism.
And he was prompt, vigorous and circumspect
in his action. In the night when the ship
which carried home the letters of the con-
spirators put to sea, he followed in a small
boat and took copies of such as proved to be
what he expected. Possessed of proof, he
watched his opportunity, waited till the
mischief had come to a head, and then
struck home with irresistible effect. And
the hand which was prompt to strike was
not wanting, when the occasion offered, to
heal. When the break-up of the company
caused the transfer of its property to the
124
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Colony, the opportunity arose for closing the
schism between the "generals" and the
"particulars," which was ever threatening to
rend the State in two. There was some
wavering of opinion as to how the newly
organised community was to bear itself
towards the "untowarde persons" who were
in the midst of it. But "the gov" and
counsell with other of their cheef friends
wisely seeing that "for ye present, excepte
peace and union were preserved, they should
be able to doe nothing but indanger to over-
throw all, now that other tyes and bonds were
taken away, therefore they resolved to take in
all amongst them." And so the Colony was
restored again to that unity of interest and
sentiment which was necessary for its very
existence.
Governor Bradford has been described by
Mr. Doyle in eloquent words as the prototype
of the long beadroll of American Presidents.
who have borne rule by the free choice of
their brethren. From Bradford onward
"America has never wanted men who with
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
125
no early training in political life, and lacking
much that the Old World has deemed need-
ful in her rulers, have yet by inborn strength
of mind, and lofty public spirit, shown them-
selves in all things worthy of high office."
And the testimony is well deserved. For
the requirements of her early existence, Ply-
mouth had in him the very man she needed.
Brave, indefatigable, public spirited, keen
sighted, uniting an ardent jealousy for her
welfare with an entire abnegation of self, he
elevated the whole tone of life, public and
private, by the example of his blameless and
sincerely religious life.
religious life. He was the ideal
governor to watch over her struggling in-
fancy, to direct the simple administration of
her almost patriarchal government, and to
regulate the rapidly growing forces of her
vigorous youth. For the difficult task of ruling
strong-willed men by their own consent,
without the aid of traditional authority, as in
old established States, his qualification lay in
the influence of his personal character. And
for the immediate needs of present policy his
*.
126
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
statesmanship was sufficient. He could
watch for fresh openings for trade, and
establish outposts in well-chosen positions.
He could foresee that Plymouth must grow,
and that it was needful, in laying out the
allotments of land, to provide not only for
concentration as a means of strength, but also
for extension by the influx of new comers.
But that his statesmanship should rise to the
capacity of genius, and conceive a policy for
the more distant future of Plymouth, and its
expansion beyond the limits of a single town
and a local congregation, was perhaps hardly
to be expected. As a matter of fact, the
instincts and necessities of the people were
driving them on to wider aims than Bradford
could understand or approve. He more than
once complains of the consequences of grow-
ing wealth-that it was tending to dispersion
of the Colony, which would be its ruin. From
one point of view, his direction of the policy
of the State was a series of concessions.
It is, indeed, no small tribute to his wis-
dom that he knew how to make concessions
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
127
with a good grace. But they show a limited
view.
An instance arose in the case of Duxbury,
a growing offshoot of the mother-Colony,
which was attracting to itself some of the
wealthier Colonists, and claimed some amount
of local independence and a separate church.
The prospect filled Bradford with appre-
hension, and was only accepted with reluc-
tance, accompanied by expedients calculated
to stem the rising and dangerous tide. But it
was in vain. The process of expansion went
on. It was the destiny of Plymouth to grow, a
destiny which she could only renounce at peril
of her life. That Bradford failed to compre-
hend this, that it inspired him only with a
lament over his beloved Plymouth left "like
ananciente mother growne olde and forsaken of
her children," shows that in its ultimate aims
his statesmanship was at fault, and he had
mistaken his ideal. It was like the solicitude
of a loving but over-anxious father, fearing to
entrust his children with that future for
128
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
FLOWER"
which his parental faithfulness had indeed
been preparing them.
Bradford's history takes us to the year
1646. At its conclusion he had still some years
to live. He describes himself as now grown
old, though he had not yet attained the
allotted term of years. But it may well be
that he was grown old in labours. Of the
quiet retirement of these later days a touching
memorial remains in those notes of Hebrew
study which, as has been said, occupy the
first pages of his manuscript. The notes are
prefaced by these affecting words :
Though I am growne aged, yet I have
had a longing desire, to see with my owne
eyes, something of that most ancient language,
and holy tongue, in which the Law and
oracles of God were write; and in which
God, and angels spake to the holy patriarks
of old time; and what names were given to
things, from the creation. And though I
canote attaine to much herein, yet I am re-
freshed, to have seen some glimpse hereof (as
Moyses saw the land of Canan afarr of); my
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
129
aime and desire is, to see how the words and
phrases lye in the holy texte; and to discerne
somewhat of the same, for my own contente.
No more touching conclusion could be
given to his strenuous toilsome life than this
peaceful picture of the old man solacing his
declining days with the contemplation, like
Moses from the top of Pisgah, of Divine
hopes and eternal promises, which endear to
him even the very letters in which they were
written. Of him it may truly be said that he
was
One who never turned his back but marched breast
forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong
would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.
K
130
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
NOTES ON SOME OF THE
CURIOUS
WORDS AND FORMS OF EXPRESSION
OCCURRING IN THE MS.
THE following are some, though not a complete
list, of the curious words and expressions which
are met with in the MS.
:
"Tragedies which he (Satan) put in ure," p. 2, i.e.,
put in operation; connected with French œuvre.
Chatchpoule officers, p. 8, the Medieval Latin is
chassipullus," fowl-catcher"; Murray's Dict. quotes
Wicliffe's Bible, i. Sam. xix. 20, " Saule sent catch-
pollis to take David." The word seems equivalent
to "officers." But there is an illustration of a
catchpole, an implement, on p. 1021 of Green's
Short History, vol. 3, Illust. Edit.
Murderers, p. 58, a name for small guns which
were fixed on the decks of ships to sweep them
clear of boarding parties. Captain John Smith
enumerates murderers in his list of "Ordinance
and peeces" required for a ship of war; see
Accidence for Young Seamen, Arber's reprint, p. 799.
Snaphance ordnance, p. 265, a technical term of
gunnery (called also Snapphahn or Asnaphan)
meaning a small hand gun or pistol fired with a
flint lock as distinguished from a matchlock.
“MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
131
Speaking of guns, Bradford, p. 158, says that
the very sight of a gun (though out of kilter) was
originally a terror to the Indians. The phrase
out of kilter is of doubtful origin, and used only
colloquially in this form; it means out of order.
Barrow speaks of organs (musical instruments) out
of kelter.
"He that cund the ship," p. 99, i.e., conned, that
is, kept a look-out. The word still survives as a
nautical term in “conning tower." Other nautical
terms are found on p. 46: "the seas were so high
they could not bear a knote of sail, but were
forced to hull, and as they lay at hull a young man
by a seele (ie., sudden roll or heel) was thrown over-
board." Again, on p. 208 it is complained that the
captain "did not lay his ship better to pass": the
word to pass is perhaps connected with the phrase
take a pass round a block. Or it may simply mean
"better for effect." In another place it is said that
a ship was so overladen and stuffed between decks
that "she was walte and could not bear sail."
In one of Mr. Robinson's letters, p. 115, he
writes "what a hanck these men have over the
professors you know." The word hank means a
skein or coil of yarn ; to have a hank over others is
to have them entangled.
Eftsone, p. 132, is to us an unfamiliar word;
eft means again: eftsoon, soon again.
K 2
132
"MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
Junkats, p. 159, sweetmeats so-called because
it is said they were served on rushes (juncus).
Extravagants, p. 128, is used in its etymological
meaning, i.e., wanderers away from their own proper
place.
There is a curious phrase (p. 174) in the account
of the disagreements between the partners at Ply-
mouth and at London. Mr. Winslow is despatched
to England "to see how the squars wente." The word
square seems sometimes to have been used in the
sense of quarrel, and so it may be here. Another
quaint and expressive phrase occurs in connection
with these disagreements: "Mr. Allerton doth in a
sort wholly now desert them (the partners), and
having brought them into the briers, he leaves them
to get out as they can." In further correspondence
on the same matter we find the expression to shadow
it the more, apparently in the sense of making
more explicit, as of completing an outline by
filling in the shadows. And again, p. 227, the
Plymouth people complain that they are charged
with so much of that which they never had nor
drunk for, where "drinking" seems to be used as
an equivalent for the bargain, of which it was a
concomitant.
Another unfamiliar use of the word drink is
found in the next page, where some men, designing
murder, invite an Indian to drink tobacco. To drink,
"MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
133
meaning to inhale, tobacco was then a common
expression.
We find the word rendezvous (spelled in various
ways) in common use, and the terms adventurer,
undertaker, have a well understood meaning in
connection with commercial transactions. Con-
descend unto occurs frequently in the sense of agree
to. Baffoyling, p. 119, is a curious spelling for
baffling, and may have an etymological origin.
Some curious Christian names occur in the list
of passengers by the Mayflower. One Desire
Minter was maidservant to Mr. Carver. Mr. Brewster
had two sons, Love and Wrasling. Allerton's
three children were called Bartholomew, Remember
and Mary. A child born at sea was appropriately
called Oceanus, an elder sister was called Damaris.
And the child of William White and Susanna his
wife, born on shipboard, after their arrival received
the name Peregrine; his elder brother was Resolved.
This Resolved was still living in 1690.
135
A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF
GOVERNOR BRADFORD'S
NARRATIVE
Events in History of Plymouth
Contemporary Events¹
1590. Birth of Wm. Bradford
1602. Capt. Gosnold explores Cape 1603. Accession of James I.
Cod, 46
1606-7. Formation of congregation at
Scrooby, under Mr. Clifton; Mr.
Robinson, Mr. Brewster, and
Wm. Bradford (aged 17) being
members, 6
1604. Hampton Court
Conference
1606-7. Colony established
at Virginia
Plymouth or North
Virginia Company
formed
Formation of Pro-
testant Union and
Catholic League in
Germany
1609-21. Twelve years'
truce between Dutch
and Spaniards
1607. First attempt to leave England
1608. (Spring.) Escape from England. | 1608.
Most of the men were hurried
off first by themselves; after
stormy passage of fourteen days,
being carried to coast of Nor-
way, they arrive in Holland, 9
The rest of the men and the
women and children follow at
intervals. Settle at Amsterdam,
and remain about a year, 24
1610. Remove to Leyden
1610. May 14. Assassina-
tion of Henry IV.
of France
1612. First English fac-
tory established at
Surat
1614. Capt. John Smith
explores coast of
New England
¹ Some other contemporary events are noted in italics by way of
illustration, besides those mentioned in the Narrative. The figures
given refer to the pages in the Bradford MS.
136
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Events in History of Plymouth
|
cast
Contemporary Events
Frenchmen
ashore at Cape Cod
abused by Indians,
60
1617. Two representatives sent to Eng- 1617.
land to negotiate with Virginia
Company and with Privy Council
for freedom of religion, 18
They return, 19
1
Nov. Two other messengers,
John Carver and Robert Cush-
man, sent to England
Dec. 15. Articles of Inducement
signed at Leyden, 21
1618. Jan. 27. "Declarations" in an-1618.
(1617 swer to questions of Privy
O.S.) Council, 22
(?) Oct. Patent granted by Vir-
ginia Company, 26
1618-19. Mr. Weston comes to Leyden
and persuades Colonists to make
terms with him and fellow-
adventurers and seek patent
from New England Company,
27
1620. June 1. Agreement drawn up by
adventurers, 28
June 10. Colonists protest against
terms of agreement, 31
July 22. First emigrants sail
from Delfshaven, 36.
at Southampton
Arrive
July 27. Mr. Robinson's letter
from Leyden.
Aug. 5. Mayflower and Speed-
well start from Southampton,
42
Put in at Dartmouth, 42
Aug. 17. Cushman's letter from
Dartmouth, 43
Sail again
100 leagues without
Land's End find they must
return again. Put in at Ply-
mouth, 42
Outbreak of Thirty
Years' War in
Germany
Kepler at Linz
Mr. Blackwell's
disastrous expedi-
tion to Virginia, 24
Oct. 29. Execution
of Sir Walter
Raleigh
Nov. 13. Synod of
Dort
1618-19. Revival of North
Virginia Company
as New England
Company
1620.
Dermer captured by
Indians, 59
June 30. Dermer's
letter about Ply-
mouth, 58
Death of Dermer, 60
“MAYFLOWER” ESSAYS
137
Events in History of Plymouth
Contemporary Events
1620. Sept. 6. Smaller ship being left
behind, the larger with 102
passengers puts to sea again
Nov. 9 (about). Reach the land
Nov. 11. Ship anchored in Cape
Cod Harbour, 46
Nov. 15. First exploring ex- 1620. Nov. About this time
pedition (Pamet River) find
corn, 49
Second expedition in Shallop
explore the same bay; bring
away corn, 49
Dec. 6. Third expedition sail to
bottom of the bay (Namskaket),
50
Dec. 8. "First encounter," 51
Dec. 9. Enter Plymouth Har-
bour, 51
Dec. 10. Sunday. Rest
Dec. 11. Return to the ship, 53
Covenant of Union signed, 54
Dec. 16. Ship anchored in Ply-
mouth Harbour, 53
Dec. 25. First house begun
John Carver, governor, 54
1621. Jan. 14.
Fire at house of
(1620 rendezvous, 61
O.S.)
Jan. Visitation of sickness, 54
Feb. Fifty of company die :
only six or seven untouched
by disease, 55
March 16. Samoset (English-
speaking Indian) visits the
settlement, 56
Comes again with Squanto
Visit of Massasoyt (Sachem of
Pocanawkits). Peace concluded
with the Indians, which lasted
twenty-four years, 57
Begin to plant corn, 61
Ship (Mayflower) sent back
England, 61
Mrs.
Susanna
White delivered of
son, Peregrine, the
first English child
born in New Eng-
land
Nov. New patent
granted to New
England Company
138
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
1
+
Events in History of Plymouth
1621. April. Death of Carver, 62
Wm. Bradford' elected Governor,
with Isaac Allerton as assistant,
62
May 12. The first marriage, 62
July 2. Ed. Winslow and Hop-
kins, sent to visit Massasoyt at
Sowams, see remains of Indians
who perished in plague three
years before, 63
End of July. John Billington
loses himself in wood is re-
covered at Nawset. Repayment
made to Indians for corn taken
in previous November, 63
Arrival of Hobamack
Hobamack and Squanto threat-
ened by Indians
Aug. 14. Expedition sent to re-
cover Squanto, 64
Sept. 18. Shallop, with 10 men,
sent to explore Massachusetts, 64
Harvest being gathered, a short
term of prosperity ensues
Nov. 9.
Arrival of the Fortune
with Cushman and 35 others, 65
Letter from Weston
Patent obtained, 66, 67
Agreement with
signed, 67
adventurers
Nov. 23. Fortune sent back with
500/. of skins, &c., 67-69
Captured by French
Narrigansets send defiant mes-
sage. The Governor's answer
Colony put on half-allowance of
food, 69
Settlement surrounded with pale,
and defence organised
Dec. 25. Play in the streets
stopped
Contemporary Events
1622. Second expedition to Massa- 1622. March 22. Massaire
chusetts
Alarm about Narrigansets, 71
of 347 colonists by
Indians at Virginia
1 From this point onwards, when no other Governor is mentioned,
is to be understood that Bradford held that office.
“MAYFLOW
139
YFLOWER" ESSAYS
Events in History of Plymouth
1622. May. A boat arrives from a ship
of Weston's (the Sparrow) in
Damarin's Cove, 72
Letter intimating resolution of
several adventurers to separate
from the Company, 74
of
Fort and meeting-house built, 90
Arrival of the Charity and
Swan, a pinnace, 75
Bringing letters ominous
coming change from adven-
turers, and 60 men, 78
Weston's men in Massachusetts,
92
News of calamity in Virginia, 79
In stress of famine (rations at
lb. of bread per day) thefts
of corn occur; the thieves "well
whipt," 90'
Sept. Expedition to try to ex-
plore south of cape. Death of
Squanto, 92
1623. Weston's people in Massachusetts
in great straits and danger from
Indians. Massasoit, being sick
and relieved by friends from
Plymouth, reveals a conspiracy
to cut off Weston's people.
Captain Standish goes with re-
lief party and rescues Weston's
men, who abandon their colony,
94, 95
I
Weston himself arrives. Governor
assigns temporary allotments of
land to individuals. Failure of
communism, 95, 96
June. Arrival of Capt. Francis
West, Admiral of New England,
100
July. Arrival of the Anne (44 tons)
with 50 people, many of whom
have to be sent back again, 100
And several "Particulars" who
are allowed to settle, 103
Sept. Arrival of Capt. Robt.
Contemporary Events
The pagination of the manuscript here leaps from 79 to 90.
140
“MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS.
Events in History of Plymouth
Gorges, General Governor of
New England, to assume govern-
ment of colony, 104
1623. Sept. Calls Weston to account
Settles in Massachusetts, 105
Fire in colony
Attempted extension of trade
southward a pinnace sent to
Narrigansets to take up corn
and beaver; cannot compete
with the Dutch. Pinnace, on
return, wrecked on Brown's
Island, 108
Contemporary Events
1623.
Scattering begin-
nings" at Pascata-
way and Monahi-
gen, 107
1624. Bradford governor with five 1624. Cardinal Richelieu
assistants, 108
Pinnace sunk near Damarin's
Cove, 109
Some of the Company join the
Particulars," 109
Arrival of Winslow, bringing
three heifers and a bull (the first
cattle brought to the colony),
109
Letters from Mr. Sherley, &c.,
IIO
Objections made against the
colony (answers thereto), 112
Letters from Mr. Robinson at
Leyden, 113
A patent for Cape Anne
Three "eminent persons," viz.
a ship's carpenter, a saltmaker,
and a preacher
Beginning of permanent allot-
ments of land, 116
Death of ship's carpenter, 116
Failure of saltmaker, 117
The minister, Lyford, begins
to plot with Oldham, 118
Suspicions being roused, the
Governor intercepts Lyford's and
Oldham's letters, 119
Lyford and Oldham called to
account, 120
Lyford, abjectly confessing, is
allowed to remain six months
on probation, 124
minister in France
About
time
this
Capt. Wolaston
plants settlement
in Massachusetts.
Morton one of the
Company, 158
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
141
Events in History of Plymouth
1624. Oldham expelled
Pinnace recovered at Damarin's
Cove sent back to England,
129
Lyford sends more letters of
complaint to adventurers
Contemporary Events
1625. Oldham returns and is again 1625. March 27. Accession,
expelled, 130
Lyford sent to Natasco, 133
The adventurers write expressing
dissatisfaction and intention to
dissolve the Company, 134-136
A ship and pinnace returning to
England taken by Turks almost
within sight of Plymouth, 137
Capt. Standish, sent as agent to
London, borrows 150%. at 50
per cent.
Peace at home, 138
Extension of trade northward
Corn sent to Kenebec, 138
1626. Standish returns; brings news of
death of Mr. Robinson and
Mr. Cushman
Colony having sunk to lowest,
begins to rise again, 140
1626.
and June 22, First
Parliament of
Charles I.
Wallenstein victori-
ous at Dessau and
Tilly at Lutter
Aug. Plague " very
hot" in London,
138
Feb. Second Parlia-
ment of Charles I.
Impeachment of
Buckingham
Fishing abandoned for trade in
corn, which becomes valuable
commodity
Goods purchased of moribund
colony in Monahigen, 141
And from French ship wrecked
at Damarin's Cove, 141
Mr. Allerton sent to England to
compound with adventurers,
141
1627. Mr. Allerton returns, having
borrowed 200l. at 30 per cent.,
143
And made bargain with the ad-
venturers for purchase of the
property for 1,800l. by yearly
payments of 200/., 144
All the colonists become share-
holders, 145
Division of land by lot, 146
Ship wrecked in Manamoiac
142
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Events in History of Plymouth
Bay. Mr Fells and Mr. Sibsie
allowed to settle temporarily,
but afterwards dismissed, 148
1627. Station planted at Manamet
(head of Buzzard's Bay), 149
Letters and messengers from
Dutch at New Amsterdam offer.
ing friendship and trade, 150
Proposal of Bradford and two
others to form partnership to
hire trade of colony for six years
1628. Allerton concludes partnership
with Sherley and others, 154-
157
A house erected at Kenibeck,
157
Visit of de Rasiers and others
from New Amsterdam, 157
They suggest trade in Wham-
pam, which becomes valuable
commodity, 158
Indians beginning to understand
use of guns, 158
Morton, in Massachusetts, guilty
of gross excesses, becomes source
of danger
Isolated settlers beg colonists of
Plymouth to remove him, 161
Morton apprehended and sent
to England, 162
Allerton begins private trade, 163
1629. A new patent applied for by the
partners, 166
Ashley, sent by the London part-
ners, settles at Penobscot, 170
A "bargain of salt" housed near
Penobscot leads to the sugges-
tion that a fishing ship should
be sent to take it up, 171
Mr. Ralfe Smith, coming as a
visitor, stays as minister, 172
Contemporary Events
1628.
Third Parliament
of Charles I. Peti-
tion of Right
Mr. John Endicott
plants colony at
Salem
Oct. 10. Fall of La
Rochelle
1629.
Mar. Patent granted
to Massachusetts
Company
This incident was important, as the suggestion that a ship
should be sent to take it up occasioned the sending of the White
Angel, in which Mr. Allerton led the London partners into furthering
unwittingly some private schemes of his own, resulting in disagree-
ment, and confusion which was never fully cleared up.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
143
Events in History of Plymouth
1629. Aug. Arrival at Salem of some
of the Leyden party in the
Talbot, 165
1630. May. Arrival at Charlestown of
remainder of Leyden party in
the Mayflower, 165
The first capital punishment, on
John Billington, for murder
1
631. July 14. A fishing ship (Friend-
ship) arrives at Boston bringing
Mr. Hatherley, 176
July 22.¹ A trading ship (White
Angel) arrives at Massachusetts
Bay bringing Mr. Allerton, 176
Mr. Allerton discharged from
the Company
Penobscot settlement robbed by
the French, who by a ruse take
advantage of the servants left
in charge, 188
Allerton in the White Angel
tries to intercept the trade and
to make settlement beyond
Penobscot, but is foiled by the
French, 189
Sir Christopher Gardner, fleeing
from consequence of misdeeds
at Boston, is captured among
the Indians, brought to Ply-
mouth, and forwarded to Boston,
198 (a)
Contemporary Events
1630. June. Arrival of
900 emigrants to
establish colony of
Massachusetts: Mr.
John Winthrop
governor.Settlement
at Charlestown, at
Boston, and New-
1632. Growth in prosperity and exten- 1632.
sion of the colony leads to
town
Aug. Visitation of
sickness at Charles-
town
Advice sought from
Plymouth, 181
Sir Christopher
Gardner appeals to
1 These events are placed by Bradford in the year 1630. But
Mr. Prince, in manuscript annotations, ascribes them to the year
1631, and they are accordingly so placed here. The White Angel
business resulted in long and troubled correspondence, which fills
many pages of Bradford's MS.
144
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Events in History of Plymouth
Contemporary Events
separation of Church at Dux.
bury, 192
Privy Council,
which upholds
1632. And planting of farms at Green's
Harbour, 192
Mr. Pierce comes out in the 1632.
Lion, and returning við Virginia
with 800/. of beaver, &c.,
wrecked, 193
1633. Mr. Edward Winslow governor 1633.
Roger Williams at Plymouth,
195
Settlement on Connecticut River
threatened by the Dutch, 196
Visitation of an infectious fever
presaged by plague of great
flies, 197
3,366 lb. of beaver and 346 other
skins sent home, 197
1634. Mr. Thomas Prence governor
Hocking, from Pascataway, tries
to intercept the trade at Keni-
beck, 199
In the conflict which ensued
Hocking kills an Indian and is
killed by another
Disputes arise, 200
The ministers of neighbouring
colonies invited by Winthrop to
meet at Boston and arbitrate :
the men of Plymouth exone
rated, 202
Captain Stone tries to carry off
a Plymouth ship from Con-
necticut fails; is subsequently
killed by Indians, 203 (a)
Visitation of smallpox and
sickness, fatal to Indians, but
English escape
1635. Bradford governor
Winslow comes to England to
notify the end of the partner-
ship, 205
Appeals to Privy Council against
encroachment of French and
Dutch, 205
French under Mons. de Aulnoye
seize settlement at Penobscot, 207
colonists, 190 (a)
Oct. 16. Battle of
Lützen
Feb. 11. Burning of
London Bridge,
194
Death of Archbishop
Abbott
Wm. Laud arch-
bishop
the
and
April 28. A decree
of the Privy Council
constitutes
Archbishop
others a commission
for the government
of the colonies, with
full powers to make
laws for organisa-
tion of Church and
State, 201 (a)
Design of
Arch-
bishop to establish
episcopal govern-
ment of Church in
colonies, 2c6

316
म्न
I
317
NEW ENGLAND
The most remarqueable parts thus named.
by the high and mighty Prince CHARLES,
Prince of great Brit
Britaing
Edenborough
HE PORTRAICTUER OF CAPTAYNE
ITH / ADMIRALL OF NEW ENGLAND
IV/HLIWS NHỐT INIVLA
Theſe are the Lines that shew thy Face; but thofe
That shew thy Grace and Glory, brighter bee:
Thy Faire-Difcoueries and Fowle-Overthrowes
Of Salvages,much. Civilliz'd by the
Beſt fhew thy Spirit;and to it Glory Wyn';
So,thou art Braße without, but Golde within
•
If fo; in Braße too foft smiths Acts to beare)
42 I fix thy Fame, w make Braße Steele vugware.
Thine,as thou art Virtues,
John. Davies. Heref
South Hampton
Briſtow
Fawmouth
The River CHARLES
ས་་་་
Bajtable
Schooters hill
Sandwich -
Dartmouth
Q
Jehwich Les S
Snadoun hill
Hull
Bestous
Ynt aures
Smith Tes
Cape ANNA
Talbotts Bay
Fullerton Its
en nt
Cambridg
The Bafe
Leth
The River
forth
ape ELIZABETH
Harington Bay
Cheuyot hills
D
42
London
Oxford to
Plimouth S
Diuere.
Carry Ils
~* P. Murry
Poynt Suitliff
...
Povit Gorge Cape LAMES
Milfor
hat
incere esti
Simon Papers fcalpsis.
$15
STUARDS
Bay
..
Barwi
316
M
SOIT
HON
St John Towne
QVI
318
Y
PENS
Norwich
hartz
Gunnells It
Lain Aborden
319
44
NI.
Lowmonds
PTravers
828
Pembrocks Bay
7.
Fines Ils
44
Gerrards Ils
Hoghton The
Bartyls
Willowby Jls
*
A Scale of Leagues
2
10
Obferved and defcribed by Captayn John Smith.
318
1614
4/2
42
London
Printed by LamesReeue
London: Stanford's Geng? Estabt
مذابة
IN A WALLED GARDEN.
By MADAME BESSIE RAYNER BELLOC.
Personal Recollections of George Eliot, Mary Howitt, Basil Montagu,
Adelaide Procter, Mrs. Jameson, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Comte
Adolphe de Circourt, Cardinal Manning, Mrs. Booth, &c.
I vol. crown 8vo. price 6s. Third Edition.
PRESS OPINIONS.
'A fascinating book. One of the sunniest, freshest, and, in the highest sense,
most entertaining of volumes.'-LITERARY WORLD.
'Bright and intelligent from cover to cover.'-DAILY CHROnicle.
'Full of anecdote and of personal touches which seem to make the personality
of each subject start to new life.'-THE World.
4
Very pleasantly written and informing essays about people of whom one is
glad to hear. Madame Belloc's brief and exact history, with its appreciative
criticisms, takes us over three generations.'-THE Times.
'Of high merit and interest. A volume that is well worth reading.'
ABERDEEN FREE PRESS.
'A garden that we like. An attractive and interesting book."
PALL MALL Gazette.
One of the most interesting books of the season.'-THE NEw Age.
'The whole volume
author.'-THE SPEAKEr.
•
bears witness to the refinement and knowledge of its
'I have closed this dainty and attractive volume with feelings of gratitude for
the gentle and kindly lady who has permitted me to wander through her walled
garden. Many others will doubtless take advantage of the same privilege.'
•
• ·
THE ACADEMY.
'Madame Belloc's judgments upon her friends are less acute, or penetrative, or
flashing than discriminating, sympathetic, and appreciative; her aim being rather to
present the agreeable and attractive qualities they exhibited in family and social life
than to make a dissertation or analysis of their qualities. The most fresh and
interesting pages are those in which the writer gives her impressions of Adelaide
Procter.'-ST. JAMES'S Gazette.
WARD & DOWNEY, Ltd., 12 York Buildings, Adelphi, W.C.
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Messrs. WARD & DOWNEY, Ltd., have in the press an important
work on the Pilgrim Fathers and the Foundation and History of
the New England Colonies, by Professor E. Arber. The book will
be entitled-
THE STORY OF
THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
1607-1630 A.D.
AS TOLD BY
THEMSELVES, THEIR FRIENDS, AND THEIR
ENEMIES.
By EDWARD ARBER, F.S.A.
Hon. Member of the Virginia and Wisconsin Historical Societies; late English
Examiner at the London University, and also at the Victoria University,
Manchester; Emeritus Professor of English Language and
Literature, Mason College, Birmingham.
It will be published in November in One Volume.
Messrs. WARD & DOWNEY, Ltd., have in the press Miss Frances
GERARD'S New Book, entitled
SOME
CELEBRATED IRISH BEAUTIES
OF THE
PRESENT CENTURY.
This will be a companion volume to the same Author's 'SOME
CELEBRATED IRISH BEAUTIES OF THE LAST CENTURY,'
and will contain Sketches of the Lives of Mrs. Dorothea Jordan-Lady
Anne and Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick-Sarah Curran-Anne Birming
ham (Countess of Charlemont), and her Sister (Countess of Leitrim).
Mrs. Chenevix Trench-Sidney Owenson (Lady Morgan) — Olivia
Owenson (Lady Clarke)-Mrs. Norton-Miss O'Neill-Lola Montez-
Marguerite Power (Countess of Blessington).
The volume will contain several Portraits and other Illustrations,
and will be issued in demy 8vo. at One Guinea.
WARD & DOWNEY, Ltd., 12 York Buildings, Adelphi, W.C.
STUDIES
OF
CONTEMPORARY SUPERSTITIONS.
By W. H. MALLOCK.
I vol. crown 8vo. buckram. Price 6s.
CONTENTS:-The Scientific Bases of Optimism—'Cowardly Agnos-
ticism' — Amateur Christianity- Marriage and Free Thought—
A Catholic Theologian on Natural Religion-Science and the
Revolution-Fabian Economics-The So-called Evolution of
Socialism.
PRESS OPINIONS.
'A brilliant attempt to combat the Agnosticism of the day with its own weapons.
TIMES.
'It deals, with all the force and cleverness which mark Mr. Mallock's works,
with some aspects of the great questions, religious and social, which occupy so much
space
in contemporary thought.'-SPEctator.
'A remarkable work from a close reasoner and valiant champion.'
ST. JAMES'S Gazette.
'One of the ablest and one of the most readable of the productions of the
believing sceptics and Christian agnostics.'-GLASGOW Herald.
'Undoubtedly of great contemporary interest.'-Aberdeen Free Press.
'A fierce indictment, but we must confess that Mr. Mallock makes out a very
strong case. He rolls his enemies in the dust with an amazing zest and a very stout
•
•
pair of arms. It is when he comes to deal with the Superstitions of Socialism
that Mr. Mallock is at his best.'-SATURDAY REVIEW.
'We have nothing but praise for this volume.'-CHURCH TIMES.
'The article on Amateur Christianity" is a particularly just and adroit piece
of reasoning.'-THE GUARDIAN.
WARD & DOWNEY, Ltd., 12 York Buildings, Adelphi, W.C
SOME
CELEBRATED IRISH BEAUTIES
OF THE
LAST CENTURY.
By FRANCES
GERARD.
Sketches of the Lives of Mary Molesworth (Countess of Belvedere),
Eleanor Ambrose (The Dangerous Papist'), the Gunnings (Maria,
Countess of Coventry; Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton and of Argyll ;
Kitty Gunning, and Gunilda Gunning), Peg Woffington, Dorothea
Monroe, the Three Montgomerys (Annie, Marchioness of Townshend;
Elizabeth, Lady Mountjoy; and Barbara, Mrs. Beresford), Elizabeth
La Touche (Countess of Lanesborough), Anne Luttrell (Duchess of
Cumberland), the Coghlans of Ardo (Anne, Countess of Barrymore;
Eliza, Duchesse de Castries, &c.), Miss Farren (Countess of Derby), &c.
With numerous Portraits and Illustrations. One vol. demy 8vo.
Price 215.
PRESS OPINIONS.
'When true stories of a past time are told by one who can set them forth in all
the grace of a good literary style they are infused with a finer charm than any
romance. These stories possess that charm in a remarkable degree.'-ACADEMY.
'I well remember the interest and pleasure with which I read your biography of
the excellent Angelica Kauffmann, and I am receiving a somewhat similar enjo
ment in the perusal of your "Irish Beauties."'-From a letter to the Author written
by the Right Hon. W. E. GLadstone.
'Miss Gerard has had an ample store on which to draw; and as she has not been
reticent concerning both the virtues and the failings of her heroines, her volume i
interesting and piquant reading.'-ST. JAMES's Gazette.
'Very attractive and readable. It is full of bright, gay gossip, and often gives
us a vivid picture of a bygone England.'-PAll Mall Gazette,
<
A gallery of portraits and a collection of memoirs in one handsome volume.'
THE WORLD.
'Full of entertaining and valuable information.'-NATIONAL OBSERVER.
WARD & DOWNEY, Ltd., 12 York Buildings, Adelphi, W.C.
Now ready. Handsomely bound. Super-royal quarto,
price £4. 4s.
A Reproduction in fac-simile, by Photography, of the original
Manuscript of
THE HISTORY
OF THE
PLIMOTH PLANTATION
WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM BRADFORD,
One of the Founders of, and Second Governor of that Colony.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JOHN A. DOYLE,
Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford.
LONDON: WARD & DOWNEY, LIMITED.
BOSTON HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & CO.
1896.
THE
HE Manuscript contains an account of the Settlement
in Holland, first at Amsterdam, and afterwards at
Leyden, of the Community of Puritan Separatists commonly
known as Brownists; of their departure from Holland and
embarkation at Southampton in 1620 in the ship 'May-
flower'; of the voyage of the 'Pilgrim Fathers' in the
2
THE PLIMOTH PLANTATION-continued.
C
Mayflower' to America; of the foundation by them there
of 'Plimoth Plantation,' and of the history and government
of the Plantation until 1646.
It contains also: 'The names of those which came over
first, in the year 1620, and were (by the blessing of God)
the first beginners, and (in a sort) the foundation of all the
plantations and Colonies in New England (and their
families).'
The Manuscript belongs to the Library at Fulham
Palace. It has been conjectured that it was brought to
England at the time of the American War; but there is
no reference to its existence in America later than 1767.
Up to 1854 American students of the history of their
country failed to trace it, and Dr. Young in his 'Chronicles
of the Pilgrim Fathers' (published in 1841) refers to it as
'hopelessly lost.' Attention was, however, in 1854, directed
to its resting-place by passages and citations in 'A History
of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America,' by Samuel
Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. Leave was obtained to tran-
scribe the MS., and it was published by the Massachusetts.
Historical Society in their 'Collections' in 1856.
The MS. consists of 280 folio pages, in William
Bradford's own handwriting, and is an example of clear
and beautiful penmanship. Messrs. Ward & Downey
believe that the reproduction in fac-simile of a work of so
peculiar an interest and value will be highly esteemed by
scholars and collectors.
The edition is limited to 350 copies, printed on fine
hand-made paper, and each copy is numbered.
SEP 28 1917
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
145
Events in History of Plymouth
1635. A ship hired to dispossess them,
but without success, 208
Boston invited to co operate to
drive them out, but declines, 209
Aug. 14 or 15. A mighty storm
of wind and rain, 210
Contemporary Events
Disagreement with Dorchester 1635. Beginnings of (Bap-
about Connecticut: compromise
with Dorchester for peace' sake,
21I
1636. Mr. Edward Winslow governor
Misfortunes to Massachusetts
trade in Connecticut suggest a
judgment" on their selfishness
Pequents try to make friendship
with colonists of Massachusetts,
but are refused, 219
Begin aggressions on English,
219
1637. Bradford governor
Pequents make open war on
Connecticut
Boston invites help from Ply-
mouth
Narrigansets refuse to join their
old enemies the Pequents, who
are annihilated: some fly to
Mohawks, some to Monhiggs
(Mohicans), 223-225
1638. Mr. Thomas Prence governor
Three men executed for murder
of an Indian, 228
Prosperity and high prices at
Plymouth, 229
June 1 or 2. Earthquake, 230
First prison, 230
1639. Bradford governor
1640. Dispute and commission
tist) colony at Pro-
vidence
1636.
Distress owing to the
Plague in London,
215
1626.
Hampden refuses
ship money
1638.
66
>>
Attempt to enforce
Prayer Book
Scotland
in
Hartford, Windsor,
and Weatherfield in
Connecticut
colo-
nised from Massa-
chusetts
Settlement at Aqued-
nek, Rhode Island
Scotch covenant re-
newed
First settlements at
Newhaven
and commission to 1640. Nov. 3. Opening of
settle boundaries of Sityate and
Hingham, 231
Bradford resigns his patent
Sudden collapse in prices
1641. Final wind-up of partnership.
"Long Parliament"
L
146.
"MAYFLOWER" ESSAYS
Events in History of Plymouth
Contemporary Events
Colony pays 1,200. in full | 1641. May 12. Execution
quittance to London partners
1641. Mr. Chancy, a minister, raises
question of baptism by immer-
sion, 240
Churches of Boston, Connecti-
cut, and New Haven decide
against it, 241
Troubles and depression in
colony thoughts of removal, 241
1642. Boston consults Plymouth about
defiant attitude of "Anabaptists
and Familists" at Aquednek, 242
And other grievous immoralities.
Execution of an offender, 249
1643. April 16. Death of Brewster, 253
Confederacy for mutual defence
(against Narrigansets) between
Massachusetts, Plymouth, Con-
necticut, and New Haven
United Colonies of New England,
256
Uncass of Monhiggs, with Eng-
lish help, defeats Myantinomo of
Narrigansets and executes him,
260
1642.
of Strafford
Beginning of Civil
War in England
Nov. 13. Battle of
Edgehill
1643-48. Westminster
1643.
Assembly
May 14. Accession
of Louis XIV.
June 24. Death of
Hampden at Chal-
grove Field
1644. Mr. Edward Winslow governor 1644. July 2. Battle of
Renewed projects of removal to
Nawset, 261
Murder of English people near
Connecticut, 262
Temporary agreement with
Indians to keep quiet, 263
1645. July 28. Meeting of commis-
sioners of united colonies at
Boston, 264
War threatening with Narrigan-
sets. Seaconk garrisoned, 265
Before hostilities break out com-
missioners sent
Peace concluded between united
colonies and Indians, 268
1646. Bradford governor
Arrival of three ships under
Capt. Crumwell, 269
Winslow returns to England
1547-1648.
Marston Moor
Rise of Independents
in Parliament
1645. Jan. 10. Execution
of Archbishop Laud
June. Battle of
Naseby
Spottiswoode & Co. Printers, New-street Square, London.
GENERAL BOOKBINDING CO.
80
2
013
FORT
QUALITY CONTROL MARK
6216
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GRADUATE LIBRARY
APR 26 1973
MAY 18 1973
DATE DUE

JAN 1 0 1980

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 00369 7532
DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MUTILATE CARD