THE PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND: A HISTORT ? V BY W. CARLOS MAUTYN, AUTHOR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHK MILTON, A HISTOBY OF THE ENGLISH PURITANS, ETC. 'Wliat sought they there, whose steps were on the dust Of the old forest lords? Not summer skies, Nor genial zephyrs, nor the amenities Of golden spoils. Their strength was in the trust That breasts all billows of the abyss of time. The EocK OF Ages, and its hopes sublime." American Souvenir. PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. I i f I 1 LOAN STACK Entei!ED according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G7, by the American Tract Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. Lord Bacon assigns the Ligliest meed of earthly fame to the builders of states, condifores imjyeriorum. The Pilgrim Fathers were members of that guild, and their story belongs to the heroic age of America. "No other state," remarks Stoughton, "can boast of such an origin, and adorn its earliest annals with a tale as true as it is beautiful, as authentic as it is sublime." But aside from the honor which attends the Fore- fathers as the founders of empire, they march down the ages crowned with richer and more fragrant laurels ; for they built not for themselves or for posterity alone, in imitation of Eomulus, and Cj-rus, and Csesar, and Ottoman ; they planted also for justice and for God. Therefore they are the rightful heirs of the benedic- tions of mankind ; while to Americans they are doubly precious as "the parents of one-third of the whole white l^opulation of the Republic." Of course, the career of the Pilgrim Fathers has been often painted : but the interest of the story is inexhaust- ible, and its thiilling incidents exhibit the wisdom, the benevolence, the faithfulness of God in so many glo- rious and delightful aspects, and are so replete with facts whose inevitable tendency is to inflame the love, strengthen the faith, and awaken the wondering grati- tude of the human heart, that it is impossible to wear the " twice-told tale " threadbare by repetition. Besides, a thoughtful scholar, Avho has himself laid his garland of everlasting upon the altar of the Pilgrims, has re- or> B 4 PREFACE. minded its that, "however well history may have been ■written, it is desirable that it should be re-Avritten from time to time by those who look from an advanced posi- tion, giving in every age to the peculiar and marked developments of the past, a simple, compact, and pic- turesque representation." This sketch ri;ns back to the cradle of Puritanism ; summarily rehearses the causes of which it was begot- ten ; accompanies the Pilgrim Fathers across the chan- nel, and depicts the salient features of their residence in Holland, and the reasons which pushed them to further removal; sails with them in the "Mayflower" over the stormy winter sea ; recites in some detail, the incidents which accompanied the settlement at Plym- outh and the kindi'ed colonies throughout New Eng- land ; and closes in the sunshine of that league between the New England colonies which was the prophecy of the Republic, and the crowning glory of those who are distinctively called the Pilgrim Fathers. The volume has been carefully written, and it is fortified by copious marginal notes and citations from a wide range of authoritative authors, from the humblest diarist to the most pretentious compiler who struts in the rustling satin of histor3^ This is "a round unvarnished tale," and aims at fair- ness of statement, not copying that dealer in historj' whom Lucian derides for always styling the captain of his own party an Achilles, and the leader of the opposi- tion a Thersites. Nor does it enter the "debateable ground" of sectarian polity; but avoiding alike the Scylla of indiscriminate encomium, and the Charybdis of controversy, it merely reproduces the broad and un- questioned facts of an emigration whose purpose and whose result was to "Win the wilderness for God." New York, January, 1867. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Spiritual Forces and the Motors of Materialism— English Puritan- ism—Its Conflicts with the Dramatic Eehgiou of the Popes — Aspiration— The Modern Era— The Kecast Ecclesiasticism — Two Parties in the New-modelled English Church — The Puri- tans — The Conformists — The Error of the Church-and-state Reformers — The Epic of our Saxon Annals — Britain, emanci- pated from the Pope, hugs the PopecZo7?i— Persecution— The Separatists — Their Disappointment — The Separatists of the North of England — Division in the Protestant World — The Philosophy of Luther— Calvin's Rationale— The Separatists ad- here to Calvin— The Paid for Exact Conformity— The Piloeim Fathers prepare to quit the Island — Pilgrim Traits— Obsta- cles— The Attempted Exodus— Treachery— The Pilgrims ' ' rifled by the Catchpole Officers" — Imprisonment — The Second At- tempt—The Eendezvous — A Midnight Scene by the Sea-shore — Arrival of the Ship — The Stranded Barque — The Captain's Alarm— The Ship sails— The Deserted Dear Ones on Shore — A Woful Picture— Captured — The Storm— Holland at last — Eeunion -page 17 CHAPTER II. Jhe Quays of Amsterdam— Quaint Aspect of the City — Its His- tory — The Pilgrims and the Dutch Burghers— Strange Charac- teristics of Dutch Social Life— The Pilgrims go to Work— Their Employments — The Removal to Leyden— Reason of the Change of Residence— Leyden— Its Thrilling Story— The Exiles "raise a Competent and Decent Living" — They "enjoy much Sweet Society and Spiritual Comfort together in the Ways of God " — John Robinson— Elder Brewster — The Pilgrims grow in Knowl- edge and Gifts— Their Discipline— Robinson's Wisdom — The Exiles win the Cordial Love and Respect of the Dutch — An 6 CONTENTS. Illustration— Testimony of the Leyden Magistrates— The Con- troversy — Robinson and Episcopiiis— The Debate — "Famous Victory" of the English Divine— Reformed Churches of the Continent — Catholicity of the Pilgrims— Their Bias towards Religious Democracy — Peregrini Deo curce - 37 CHAPTER III. Many Circumstances conspire to render the Exiles anxious and uneasy in Holland — They ' ' know that They are but Pilgrims " — The Projected Removal from the Low Coimtries — Their "Weighty Reasons" — A Grand Germ of Thought — The New World— Career of Maritime Discovery — The Pilgrim Council — The Debate— The Argument of the Doubters — The Apostles of the Future — Ho, for America — The Decision 52 CHAPTER IV. Pilgrim Prayers— " Where shall we j^laut our Colony" — "Large Offers" of the Dutch — Determine to settle in "the most North- ern Part of Virginia" — The two English Emigration Compa- nies—The Envoys — Their Return — The Letter of Robinson and Brewster — The Virginia Comx^any and King James — Two Questions— The "Formal Promise of Neglect"— The "Mer- chant-adventurers " — Terms of the Compact — Republicanism of the Pilgrims— Robinson's Sermon — Who shall sail with the "Forlorn Hope?" — The Past — Robinson's Farewell — The "Speedwell" and the "Mayflower" — "Good-by, Leyden" — ' ' Adieu, Friends " — The ' ' Yo hoy " of the Seamen 61 CHAPTER V. At Southampton — The Abortive Departure — The Number of Vorjageurs ' ' winnowed " — Final Embarkation — The ' ' Floating Village" — On the Atlantic — Opening of Robinson's Letter of Advice— The Seaborn Government- All Hail, Democracy !-- Carver elected Governor — The Pilgrims propose to land — The Captain's Mistake— Geography of the Wilderness— The Unsea- worthy Shallop — The Sixteen Scouts — Miles Standish — On Shore— First Drink of New England Water— The Mysterious Mound — The Hidden Corn — Pilgrim Conscientiousness — Re- turn of the Explorers— In the Shallop— The Dawn of Winter — Renewed Search for a Lauding Spot — First Encounter with the Indians— ' ' Woaih wach kaha hack woach "—The Breakers — First Christian Sabbath in the New World — Plymouth Rock- - - 77 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. The Pilgrims decide to settle at Plymouth — The Landing^The First Law — The Pioneers at Work — Plan of the Town — The Weather — Satisfaction of the Pilgrims with the Site of their Colony — The Journal — Pilgrim Traits — A Page from Cotton Mather — The Frenchman's Proj^hecy — Social Arrangements — • Standish chosen Captain — Births and Deaths — The Block Cita- del — Isolation of the Pilgrims — Combination of Circumstances which produced the Settlement of Plymouth in 1G20 90 CHAPTER VII. The Early Spring of 1621 — The Pilgrims Buoj'ant and Hopeful^ Planting — In the Woods — The Tyro Hunters —A Forest Adven- ture—The Storm — On the Skirts of the Settlement — "Welcome, Englishmen" — The Solitary Indian — His Entertainment — Sam- oset's Story — Valuable Information — The Kidnapper — The Nausets — Pilgrim Description of Samoset — "What shall we do with our Dusky Guest?" — Samoset's Embassy — His Return — Squanto — His Romantic History — Massasoit — The Redman and the Pale-face — Negotiations — The Treaty — Its Faithful Observ- ance — A Picture of Massasoit — Billington's Offence — The Lack- ey-duelists — Death — Frightful Mortality — Burial-hill — Death of Governor Carver — Bradford elected Governor — Departure of the "Maj'flower" — Feeling of the Pilgrims — The "Orphans of Humanity" 98 CHAPTER VIII. The Pilgrim Panacea — The Summer — The Prospect — AVild Fowl, Shell-fish, and Berries — A Glimjise at Plymoiith in 1G21 — The Pioneers open the Volume of Nature — Lessons in Woodcraft^ Bradford and the Deer-trap — Explorations — The Embassy to Massasoit — Its Object — The Indian Guide — The Pause at Na- masket— A New "Kind of Bread"— The "Deserted Village"— The Wigwam "Palace" of Massasoit — Presents — The Sachem and the Horseman's Coat — The "Pipe of Peace" — The Saga- more's Cordiality — Massasoit's Housekeeping — A Full Bed — Indian Games — The Feast — The Return — -Honorable and Ami- cable Treatment of the Indians by the Pilgrim Fathers — Ad- vantages of this Course — Barbarism makes an Obeisance to Civihzation — End of the Indian's Lease of Ages of the Forest — The New Tenant takes Possession in the Name of God ai:id Liberty 110 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. The Lost Boy— The Searchiiig Party— In the Shallop— The Water spout — The Bivouac — Visitors at the Camp-fire— The Indian Hag— Her Strange Emotion— The Pdclclle solved— ^ft Boute again— The Lost Boy found— His Adventures— A Startling Ru- mor — The Hasty Eeturn — Intrigues — The Narragansetts Squanto, Tokamahamon, and Habbamak — Corbitant's Wiles— The Runner's News— Departure of Standish and his "Army" of Fourteen ]\Ien— The Forest March— On the YVar-trail— The Sleeping Village— The Bloodless Assault— "Friend, Friend"— Flight of Corbitant— Safety of Squanto and Tokamahamon— Homeward— Good Effect of the Bloodless Eaid— Heroism and Kindness of the Pilgrims— The Midnight Expedition of Miles Standish — Boston Bay, and the Eiver Charles — The "Har- vest Honae"— "New England's First Fruits " — Building at Plymouth— The Variety of Game— The First Thanksgiving— "Free Eange"- -. 12I CHAPTER X. The Strange Sail— "Is it a Frenchman, or a Buccaneer ?"— War- like Preparations— The English Jack— Joy of the Pilgrims— Ai-rival of the " Fortune "—News from Home— The Eeinforce- ment— A Moment of Sadness— The Letter Budget— The Loudon Company under a Cloud— Course of the King— A Technical Difficulty— The New Patent -Weston's Complaint and Brad- ford's Eeply— Departure of the "Fortune"— Cush man's Ser- mon—The Bane of Plantations— Winslow's Letter Home— Hil- ton's Missive— Social Life and Wants of the Pilgrim Fathers— The " Fortune's " Mishap - 13i CHAPTER XI. Provisions for the New-comers— Danger of Famine— Hardships- Patient Spirit of the Pilgrims— Brewster's Submission— JlioraZe of the Colon J'— Some "Lewd Fellows of the Baser Sort" get "shuffled" into the "Mayflower's" Company— Character of the Eecent Eeinforcement— Bradford's Government— The Laws- Bradford and the "Tender Consciences" — The Controlling Element — Homogeneitj'^ — I44 CH.APTER XII. The Sahent Features of the Colonial Government— The "Proper Democracy"— The Course of England— The Governor— The Council— The Legislative Body— Test of Citizenship— Eeasons CONTENTS. 9 and Excuses for It — Early Decrees — The Jury Trial — First Laws — The Digest — Provision for Education — The Old Statute Book of the Colony — Unique Legislation — First Marriage in New England — Marriage a Civil Contract 149 -"o CHAPTER XIII. Second AVinter in the Wilderness — Faith as a IMotor — Anxiety — The Indian and the Package— A Prisoner — The Riddle Solved — The Mj'sterious Rattlesnake Skin — Defensive Measures — First "General Muster" in New England — The Expedition and the Alarm — Habbamak's Confidence — The Sqiiaw-scout — No Dan- ger — The Expedition resumed — Squanto's Freaks — The Boast of a Travelled Indian — The Buried Plague — The Cheat im- cloaked — Himger — The Boat and the Letter-bag — Cold Com- fort — Dissensions among the Merchant-adventurers in Lon- don — Bradford's Comments - " 156 CHAPTER XIV. Arrival of the "Charity" and the "Swan"— The News— Weston's Desertion — The Situation in England — In a Quandary — The Pilgrims entertain AVeston's Rival Colony — AVord brought of a Massacre in Virginia — AVinslow's Mission to the Coast of Maine — Tlie Double Benefit — Morale of the AVestonians — They finally settle at AVessagusset— Their Lazy Mismanagement — Bradford's Rebuke— The Forayers— Bradford's AValk of Fifty Miles — Death of Squanto— The Lean Harvest — The English Trading Ship— Progress in Building at Plymouth — How the Pilgrims went to Church 168 CHAPTER XV. Affairs at AVessagusset — Expostulations and Appeals of the Pil- grims — An Anecdote — Reported Sickness of Massasoit — Pilgrim Embassy to visit Him — On the AYay — The Death Song — Corbi- tant's Lodge — At Massasoit's Wigwam — The Pow-wows — AVius- low and the Sachem — The Cure^Massasoit discloses a Con- spiracy — The Return — The Envoys and Corbitant — A Shrewd Sagamore — How the Pilgrims communicated Religious Truth — Deliberation at Plymouth — A Frightened Messenger from AVes- sagusset — The Expedition of Miles Standish — Standish and the AVestonians — Sad Condition of that Colony— The Plot dis- closed — Indian Braggadocio — The Two Knives— The Little Man and the Big Man — Patience of Standish — The Death- grapple — Habbamak's Comment — The Skirmish — The "Capital Exploit " of Miles Standish — The AVestonians abandon AVessa- 1* 10 CONTENTS. gusset — End of a Colony whose "Main End was to catch Fish" — Wetawamat's Head — A Liberation — News of the Baffled Conspiracy reaches Leyden — Robinson's Fine Comment — Strength and Weakness 178 CHAPTER XVI. The Mysterioiis Blacksmith — Weston at Plymonth — A Favor^ Ingratitude — Continued Famine at Plymouth— The Commu- nity of Interest — How it worked — Its Partial Abandonment — Facts brain Plato's Theory — Bradford's Argument against the Communal Idea — The Pilgrims rest on Providence — ^Their Shifts to live — The Ih'ought — The Fast — The Answered Prayer — ■ Rain at last — Habbamak's Remarks — Five Kernels of Corn — A Package of Home Letters — Pierce's Patent — He "vomits it up" — Captain Fi-ancis West — New Recruits — The "Annie" and the "Little James" — -Feeling among the New-comers — Cushmau's E]3istle — A Prescient Scribe - -- 193 CHAPTER XVII. The Lading of the "Anne" — Winslow departs for England — Plenty once more — Social Arrangements^ Robert Gorges — Birth and Death of Another Colony at Wessagusset — Morrel's Latin Poem — Prosperity of Pljanoiith^An Election — The Mishaps of a Fishing Expetlition — ^Preparations for Planting — Winslow's Return — What he brought — The Pui-pose and Ani- mus of the London Company of Merchant-adventurers — John Lyford — Circumstances of his Advent — John Oldham — The Pernicious League — Onslaught upon the Pilgrim Government — Wolves in the Sheepfold — The Intercepted Letters — An Explo- sion — "Oldham "tamed" — Lyford's Trial — The Sentence — Winslow's Expose in England and America — Running the Gtiuntlet — Banishment of L\^ord and Oldham— Effect of the Lyford Troubles — ^Brewster's IVIinistry— An Exception to the Indian Doctrine of "Poor Pay, Poor Preach" — Tenets of the Plymouth Church — "Brown Bread and the Gospel is Good fare "—Liberty --- - - --- 205 CHAPTER XVIII. The Pilgrims initiate Measures to buy out the Merchant-adven- turers — Standish sails for England on this Errand — His Nar- row Escape from Capture by a Turkish Rover — His Partial Success and Return — Sad News — Death of Cushman in Eng- land — Death of Robinson at Leyden — Last Hours and Charac- ter of the Moses of the Pilgrims — 227 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER XIX. Progress of Population at Plymouth — Smith's Keport — A Leaf from Bradl'ord's Journal — Eomulus and Pome ; Plymouth and the Pilgrims— The Winter of 1G2G-7— Allerton's Embassy to Eng- land — His Success — The "Undertakers" — -The New Oi'ganiza- tion — Plan of Division — Habbamak's Grant — First Coveted Luxury of the Emancipated Colony — Allerton's Second Mis- sion — Provision made for the Transportation of the Remainder of the Leyden Congregation — Patent for Land on the Kenne- bec — The New Trading Station— A Crazy Clergyman — Catho- licity of the Plymouth Church — Wide Range of the Pilgrim Enterprise — Commerce opened with the Dutch at New Amster- dam — Isaac de Easieres at Plymouth — AVampum — The Pilgrim Settlement as seen through the Eyes of a Dutchman — Joyous Arrival of the Leyden Exiles — How They were received — Mount WoUaston — Thomas Morton turns it into a Den of Plot and Debaiichery — Grief of the Pilgrims — Expostulation — Affront — End of an Experimentam Orucis of Immorality — The Pilgrims find "All Things working together for their Good" 232 CHAPTER XX. English PoUtics — The Puritans and the Pilgrims— Multitudes in Britain prepare for Emigi-ation — Roger Conant — Old John White of Dorchester — The Point d'Jppui — White's Message — Conant's Determination — Agitation at London — A New Scheme for Puritan Emigration — It is patronized by Men of Substance and "Gentlemen born" — The Lock opened by the Silver Key — A Patent — John Endicott leads a Colony into New Eng- land — Salem settled — The English Hermit — Individuality of the Saxon Race — The Explorers colonize Charlestown — News of Endicott's Success in England — Incorporation of the Massa- chusetts Company — Its Powers — An Old Legend 249 CHAPTER XXI. Organization of the Slassachusetts Company — A Unique Letter of Instruction to Endicott — The Soil ordered to be purchased of the Indian Owners — A Blast against Tobacco — The Colonial Seal — Preparations for the Embarkation of Fresh Emigrants — ■ Buckingham — Strafford — Laud — Puritans Eager to Emigrate — The Flotilla— The Plentiful Provision of " Godly Ministers"— Bright — Smith — Higginson — Skelton — "Farewell, Dear Eng- land" — Britain does not know her Heroes — The Landing at Salem — Higginson's Impressions — The Pilgrims plant a Church at Salem — Cordial Relations opened with the Plymouth Colo- 12 CONTENTS. nists — Endicott's Letter to Bradford— An Additional Link in the Chain of Friendship — Ordination of Higginson and Skel- ton — The Ceremony — Bradford's Tardy Arrival — The Confes sion of Faith — Birth of the Theocracy — Dissatisfaction of the Church of England men at Salem — The Brothers Brown — Breach of the Peace imminent — Endicott sends the Browns home to England— Eudicott cautioned by the Massachusetts Company - 2G0 CHAPTER XXII. The New Colony outstrips Plymouth — Intense Interest in the Colonies felt in England — Higginson's Tract — Men of Wealth and Position prepare to emigrate — One Thing makes Them Hesitate — Character of the Charter — The "Open Sesame" — Alienation of the Government of the Companj' — A Daring Con- straction changes a Trading Corporation into a Provincial Government — Joy of the Would-be Emigrants — The Election — An Extensive Emigration set Afoot — The Fleet of Ten Vessels — In the Cabin of the "Arbella" — Winthrop — Dudley — Hum- phrey — Johnson — Saltonstall — Eaton — Bradstreet — Vassall — The Women of the Enteri)rise — The Lady Arbella Johnson — The Fai'ewell at Yarmouth — On the Atlantic 274 CHAPTER XXIII. "Land ho!" — The Supper at Salem— Sickness— Explorations — The Settlement at Cambridge — Biisy Days — Death — The Last Hours of Francis Higginson — Death of Ai-bella Johnson — Grief and Death of her Husband — The Mortality List — Cambridge partially Deserted — Settlement of Boston — The Original Oc- cupant of Shawmut Peninsula — Blackstone's Oddities — The "Lord Bishops" and the "Lord Brethren" — Activity of the Colonists — The View from Beacon Hill — Winthrop's Cheery Letter to his Wife 286 CHAPTER XXIV. Fundamental Law of the Colonies of Massachusetts Baj' — Earliest Legislation — First General Assembly — The Deraoci-atic Ten- dency — The Test of Citizenship — Betlections — Animadversions on the Theocratic Plan — The Acorn and the Oak 293 CHAPTER XXV. Life in the Wilderness — ^Winthrop's Adventure — The False Alarm — The Settlers and the Wolves well frightened — The Courtship of Miles Sttindish — Alden's Wedding — Morton once more at CONTENTS. 13 •'Merry Mount" — Au Execution — Eadcliflf, and liis Punish- ment—The Mysterious Stranger— A Knight of the Holy Sepul- chre astray in the Wilderness — The Three "Wives — The Pur- suit—An Unmasked Jesuit — The "Italian Method" tabooed in New England — Satan's lU-manners^Utopia — A Sentence from Demosthenes — Great Combat between a Mouse and a Snake — Its Significance — Fresh Arrivals — Eliot — Eoger Williams- Attachment of the Pilgrims to their Eocky Eefuge— How.New England looked to a Puritan — How it looked to a Churchman — A Difference of Standpoint — The Brood of Townlets — The AVestem Wilds no longer Tenantless 299 CHAPTER XXVI. The Advance of Civilization — Growth of Plymouth — Ealph Smiths Winthrop visits Bradford — -Gubernatorial Civilities in the Olden Time — Leaves from Winthrop's Note-book — The Primitive Ferry-boat— Bradford's Mare — The Empty Contribution-box — Boundary Quarrel with the French — The Compliments of the Gentlemen from the Isle of Ehe — How They were answered — The Valley of the Connecticut — Efforts to colonize those Bot- tom Lauds — Bradford solicits Winthrop to organize a United Effort for that Purpose — The Sachem's Offer — Winthrop's Eefusal — The Plymo\;th Pilgrims determine to enter Connec- ticut unassisted — The Dutch attempt to balk Them — The Pil- grims colonize Windsor — A few Dutch Oaths — A War-path which ended in a Hug — An Infectious Fever at Plymouth — Conse- quent Mortality— Some "Strange Flies"— Ebb and Flow of the Tide of Emigration — Attempted Emigration of Hazlerigge, Pym, Hampden, and Cromwell — They are stopped by an Order in Council — The King's Faux Pas — Three Famous Men em- bark for New England, and supply The Great Necessities of the Colonists — Haynes — Cotton — Hooker — Title by which the Settlers hold their Lands — Progress towards Democracy — Cot- ton's Sermon against Eotation in Office — Its Non-effect — Colo- nial Authority divided between Two Branches — Law against Ai-bitrary Taxation — Eepresentative Eepublicanism — A Dream broken -- 314 CHAPTER XXYII. The Pilgrim Fathers and the Mosaic Code — Toleration in the Seventeenth Century — American and European Thinkers alike reject it— r Arrival of Eoger Williams at Boston — His Motives for Emigration — His Hopes and Views — Speedily attracts At- 14 CONTENTS. tention — His Devotion to the Principle of Toleration — His Advocacy of it places Him in Direct Opposition to the System on which Massachusetts is founded — Under the Frown of the Authorities — Williams refuses to join the Boston Church — His Declaration — Statement of his Idea of Toleration — The Pilgrims regard Him as a Dangeroiis Heresiarch Avith "a Windmill in his Head " — Consternation at Boston on the Rumor of Williams' Instalment in the Place of Higginson at Salem — Winthrop's Letter of Expostulation — The Salem Church does not heed it — Williams begins to preach — Quits Salem for Plymouth — Brad- ford's Estimate of the Young Welchman — Williams cements a Lasting and Cordial Friendship with the Indians — Returns to Salem on Skelton's Death — Becommencement of his Struggle with the Colonial Government — His Pamphlet on the Charter — His Betraction — Ought Women to appear Veiled at Church ? — Williams says Yes, Cotton says No — Cotton convinces the Ladies — The English Commission for the Regulation of the Colonies — The Pilgrims decide to "avoid and in-otract" — En- dicott cuts the Cross out of the English Flag — Williams speaks against the "Freeman's Oath" — Trouble — Williams' Democ- racy — Points of Variance between the Reformer and the Colonists — The Citation — Williams before the Court — His Frank Defence — Banishment — The Flight through the Winter Woods — Animadversions — Months of Vicissitude — Settlement of Providence — Williams bases his Colony on Toleration and Democracy — Mather's Epigram — Williams makes a Distinc- tion between Toleration and License — Williams' First Visit to England — Intimacy with Vane and Milton^The Second Visit — Cromwell and Marvell added to his List of Trans-atlantic Friends — Elected on his Return President of the Providence Plantations— Excelsior — Williams and the Indians — An Inci- dent — Reflections on the Work and Character of Roger Wil- liams 33i CHAPTER XXVIII. Progress of New England in Material Prosperitj' — Arrival of Three Thousand Settlers in a Single Year — An Illustrious Trio — Hugh Peters — The Younger Winthrop — Sir Harry Vane — A Long Smouldering Feud iDlacated — -Value which the Pilgrims set on Education — Good and Bad Universities — A Piiblic School i^lanted at Cambridge — Harvard College — Relations between Learning and Manners — Enlarged Colonization of New England — The Plymoiith Pilgrims at Windsor — The Yoiinger Winthrop at Saybrook — Hooker's Parishioners at Cambridge — Petition for "Enlargement or Removal" — The Advance Guard CONTENTS. 15 of Civilization— The New Hesperia of Puritanism — Hooker and Hayues lead a Colony into Connecticut and settle at Hart- ford — Pilgrimage from the Seashore to the • ' Delightful Banks " of the Inland Eiver — Liberality of the New-born Colony — New Haven planted by English Puritans — Colonization of Guilford, Milford, and Long Island — Character of these Settlers — Com- merce and Agriculture as the Basis of New Stat^ — Constitution of New Haven — The First Political Paper ever cradled in a Manger — The Connecticut Colonists and the Di;tch at Nev/ Amsterdam quarrel over their Boundary Line — A Yankee Euse — The Dutchmen and the Onion Rows — Isolation of the New Settlements — The War-whooi3 35? CHAPTER XXIX. The Pilgrims and the Indians — Stern Justice with which the Forefathers treated the Aborigines — An Illustration — Murder in the Woods — Its Punishment — End of the Epoch of Peace — Reason AVhy — The Pequods — Uncas — The Pequod Embassy to the Narragansetts — The Forests pregnant with Insurrection — Vane solicits the Intervention of Roger Williams — The Solitary Canoe — Williams in the Wigwam of Miantonomoh — The Pequod Diplomats at Work — Williams pushes his Dangerous Opposi- tion—Old Friendship prevails — The Narragansetts refuse to dig up the Hatchet — The Pequods take the War-path alone — Sassacus — First Patter of the Coming Storm — A Thrilling Scene on the Connecticut River — The Captured Pinnace — Border Gallantry — A Unique Naval Battle — How News travelled in the Olden Time — Endicott on the Trail — A Pilgrim Friar Tuck — Failure — Pandemonium — New England trembles on the Verge of Death — Energy of the Colonists — Mason's Ex- pedition — The Council of War — The Chaplain's Praj'er — Off Point Judith — The Landing — The Seaside Bivouac — The Mid- night March — The Pequod Village — A ■ ' Sound of Revelry by Night"— The Indian Fort — The Night Attack — Scenes of Horror — The Flight of Sassacus — The Pursuit — The Swamp Battle — The Sagamore's Escape — The Gory Scalp-lock — ' ' Sa- chem's Head " — Death, and Servitude of the Survivors — Civil- ization Victorious — 370 CHAPTER XXX. Pilgrim Exclusiveness — The Old Alien Law — Dissenters swarm into Massachvisetts Bay — Agitation — The Two Parties — Anne Hutchinson — A Commendable Practice — Mrs. Hutchinson's Week-day Lectures — The " Covenant o.': Works " and the "Coy- 16 CONTENTS. ennnt of Grace " — Heady Cnirent of Dissension — Horror of the Pilgrims — Antinomianism — Familism — The Female Heresi- arch — The "Legalists" — Mutual Exasperation — Vane's Dis- gust — Wreck of Vane's Administration — Winthro^j's Law — Vane's lieiDly — The Founders of the Colony regain their Influ- ence — Trial of Anne Hutchinson — Cotton and his Proteyi — " Immediate Reveliitions " — Banishment of the Antinomians — Roger Williams welcomes the Exiles to Providence — Purchase and Settlement of Rhode Island— A Happy Result from an Unhappy Cause 388 CHAPTER XXXL Law as the Reflection of National Character — Pilgrim Legisla- tion — The Homes of New England — Origin of Towns — Town Meetings— Duty of voting—' ' Prudential Men "—An Odd Trait- Pilgrims fined for refusing to hold Office — High Character of the Early Governors — Bradford — Edward Wiuslow and Thomas Prince — Winthrop — Dudley — Vane — Endicott — Other Pivotal Men — God's Benediction on New England — 400 CHAPTEE XXXII. New England in 1641 — Inhabitants — Villages — Churches — Houses — Agricvilture — Commerce — Trade — Manufactures — - Foreign Influence of the Pilgrims — The Tone of New England in treating with the Long Parliament during the Civil War — Two Rejected In A'itations— Consolidation of Colonial Liberty — The Oppressed made Guests of the Commonwealth — The Germ of Union — The United Colonxes of New England — Character of the Leagiae — Reflections — • Colonial Union the Crowning Service of the Pilgrim Fathers to Humanity — The Second Generation — The Work and the Lesson of the Pilgrim Fa- thers - 415 THE PILGRIM FATHERS or NEW ENGLAND CHAPTEE I. THE EXODUS. "Nothing is liere for tears ; notliing to wail Or knock the breast ; no weakness, no contempt, Dispraise or blame ; nothing biit well and fair." Milton, Samson Arjonisfes. The influence of tliat mysterious triad, the gold eagle, the silver dollar, and the copper cent, has been overestimated. Spiritual forces are more potent than the motors of materialism. The Ser- mon on the Mount outweighs the law of gravity. Ethics make safer builders than stocks. Two hun- dred years ago, commercial enterprise essayed to subdue the New World in the interest of greedy trade, hungering for an increase; but though offi- cered by the brightest genius and the highest daring of the age, backed by court favor and bottomed on the deepest bank-vaults of London, the effort failed. 18 THE PILGKIM FATHEES. Where physical forces balked, a moral sentiment bore off a trophy. The most prosperous of the American colonies were planted by religion. New ^England is the child of English Puritanism ; and yet, paradoxical as it may seem, antedates its birth. Men say that the history of New England dates from 1620. 'T is a mistake. New England was in the brain of Wickliffe Avhen, in the infancy of Brit- ain, he uttered his first protest against priestcraft and pronounced the Christianity of Rome a juggle. New England, in esse, was born in that chill Decem- ber on Plymouth Rock; New England, in posse, was cradled in the pages of the first printed copy of the English Bible. Soil does not make a state; nor does geograph- ical position. That spot of ground Avhich men call Athens does not embrace the immortal city. It bears up its masonry; but the Athens of Socrates and of Plato exists in the mind of every scholar. The intellectual and moral elements which enter into and shape it, these are the real state. In this sense. New England was in the pages of the Puri- tan publicists, in the psalms of the Lollards, and in the prayers of Bradwardine, centuries before that winter's voyage into the dreary wilderness. Society, government, law, the graces of civil- ity, the economic formulas, are growths. "Books, schools, education," sa^^s Humboldt, " are the scaf- folding by means of which God builds up the human soul." There are no isolated facts. Events do not occur at hap-hazard. Each effect has its cause ; it THE EXODUS. 19 may lie buried beneath many blinding strata, so that it must be dug for, but it exists. Puritanism was not a sudden creation. It did not crop out of the sixteenth century unexpectedly, and begin to impeach formalism without a cause. It was a growth. " It was as old as the truth and manliness of England. Among the thoughtful and earnest islanders, the dramatic religion of the popes had never struck so deep root as in continental soil."'^' Chafed and weary, the people had long demanded a purer and more spiritual faith. The strong repressive hand of the Vatican was not able to stop the mouth of unwearied complaint. Think- ers were convinced that Rome had paganized Chris- tianity. Christ was banished from all active influ- ence. He could only be reached and " touched with the feeling of our infirmities" through the intercession of saints, who were constantly invoked. The popes professed to possess a fund of superero- gation, which they might dispense at will ; and this became their stock in trade. Salvation by merito- rious works was preached. Brokers in souls hawked their celestial wares in every market-place. Rome, an incarnate Pharisee, made broad its phylactery, and hid beneath it a dead religion and a corrupt church.'!' From Wickliffe to Tyndale, a few earnest, de- vout men had impeached this cheat. But the influ- * Palfrey, Hist, of NeW England, vol. 1, p. 101. t Perhaps this whole chapter of history is nowhere more graph- ically treated than in D'Aubigue's Hist, of the Ref. in the Sixteenth Century. See also, Eanke's Hist, of the Popes. 23 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. ence of these teachers was at best but local. They ■were barely able to keep the gospel torch aglow, and to pass it doAvn from hand to hand through the dusky centuries. The masses were affrighted from the pursuit of knowledge by the jingle of the rusty and forged keys of St. Peter, Avhich locked the storehouse of divine revelation, and barred the investigations of the human mind. The modern era dawned in the sixteenth cen- tury. The invention of printing was the avant cou- rier of reform. The reformers gained a fulcrum for their lever. Scholars might shake the dust from their mouldy folios, and by opening the early rec- ords, convict Eome of heresy. Their conclusions might then be scattered broadcast on the wings of the press. "Well might the perturbed ghost of La^in Orthodoxy exclaim, "Ah, fatal age, which gave mankind A Luther and a Faustus." Bibles were everywhere opened. Reform swept from the mountains of Bohemia into Germany; crossing the Saxon plains, it entered the Nether- lands ; thence it passed the channel into England. In the island it Was received with enthusiasm. The government, from personal motives, extended to it the hand of fellowship ; the people adopted it, be- cause they felt the inadequacy of Romanism to meet their religious wants." Home did not strike its flag without a struggle. As Demetrius was shocked when Paul, a wandering * Uhden, New England Theocracy, p. 15. THE EXODUS. 21 preaclier from Tarsus, impeached his Diana, so the Vatican professed to be horrified when the reform- ers inveiglied against the popedom. "Socrates" — so runs the old Grecian indictment — "is guilty of crime for not worshipping the gods whom the city worship, but introducing new divinities of his own."* The adherents of the ancient faith tacked a similar indictment upon the front of the reform. Where they dared, they invoked the thumb-screw and kindled an auto-da-fe. When they could not fight with these congenial weapons, they made faces at their oppo- nents, and hurled epithets. The iconoclasts were called " infidels." Hooker and Hales, Stillingfleet, and Cudworth, and Taylor were thus stigmatized.f And indeed, " this is a cry which the timid, the ignor- ant, the indolent, and the venal are apt to raise against those who, faithful to themselves, go boldly forward, using the past only to show them wdiat the present is, and what the future should be." These men recast the ecclesiasticism of their age. The essence of Komanism was extracted from their creed, but many of its forms were retained. Then, within the new-built temple of the English church, there arose two parties. The Puritans demanded the complete divorce of the reformed church from Rome, in its ceremonies and in its belief. They strove to inaugurate the purity and simplicity of what they conceived to be the primi- tive worship. They esteemed the retained forms '-• Grote, Hist, of Greece. t Preface to Warbtirton's Divine Legation. 22 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. to be pregnant with mischief, in that they were the badges of their former servitude, and because they tended to bridge over the chasm between Kome and the Reformation.* At the outset, the Puritans did not quarrel with the English Establishment ; they all claimed to be wathin its pale,!' and many of their leaders were men of high ecclesiastical standing, of the truest lives, and of the loftiest genius; but they held to the spirit rather than to the letter ; to the substance of the church, not to its forms.:}: The Conformists considered the ceremonies to be non-essential; but they desired to retain them, partly because they were enamoured of those old associations which they symbolized, but chiefly be- cause they dreaded the effect of too sudden and radical a change upon the peace of the island. Be- sides, to facilitate the passage from Romanism to the reformed church, they were willing to step to the verge of their consciences in the retention of the old forms, and in the incorporation of those features of the ancient faith into the outward struc- ture of the new theology which were not intrinsi- cally bad.§ * Neale, Hist, of the Puritans. Collier's Church Hist. Hal- lam, Const. Hist, of Eng. t See ' ' An Account of the Principles and Practices of Several Non-conformists, wherein it appears that their religion is no other than that which is professed in the Church of England," etc. By Mr. John Corbet ; London, 1682. X Elliot, Hist, of New Eng., vol. 1, p. 43. § Fuller, Church Hist. Strype, Life of Parker. Heylin, Life ^ of Lord Clarendon. THE EXODUS. 23 Unquestionably honest minds might differ in this policy. " But certainly the doctrine of the Puritans concerning the connection and mutual influence between forms and opinions, so far from being fanciful or fastidious, had foundations as deep as any thing in moral truth or in human na- ture. A sentiment determined their course ; but it was more cogent than all the learned argument which they lavished in its defence. A man of honor will not be bribed to display himself in a fool's cap ; yet why not in a fool's cap as readily as in any ap- parel associated in his mind, and in the minds of those whom he resjjects, whether correctly or not is immaterial, with the shame of mummery and false- hood ? To these men the cope and surplice seemed the hvery of Rome. They would not put on the uniform of that hated power, while they were mar- shalling an array of battle against its ranks. An officer, French, American, or English, would feel outraged by a proposal to be seen in the garb of a foreign service. The respective wearers of the white and tricolor cockades would be more willing to re- ceive each other's swords into their bosoms than to exchange their decorations. A national flag is a few square yards of coarse bunting ; but associa- tions invest it which touch whatever is strongest and deepest in national character. Its presence commands an homage as reverential as that which salutes an Indian idol. Torrents of blood have been poured out age after age to save it from affront. The rejection of the cope and mitre was as much 24 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. the fruit and the sign of the great reality of a reli- gious revolution, as a political revolution was beto- kened and effected when the cross of St. George came down from over the fortresses alone; fifteen degrees of the North American coast ""^' in '76. The contest which ensued between nascent Pu- ritanism and the entrenched Conformists Avas pro- longed and bitter. It deeply scarred the history of the contemporaneous actors ; and it has shaped the ethics and the politics of two centuries; nor is its force yet spent. Indeed, it may be fitly called the ej)ic of our Saxon annals. " On the one side, in the outset, were statesmen desiring first and mainly the order and quiet of the realm. On the other side were religious men desi- ring that, at all hazards, God might be worshipped in purity and served with simplicity and zeal. It is easy to understand the perplexities and alarms of the former class; but the persistency of their opponents is not therefore to be accounted whim- sical and perverse. It is impossible to blame them for saying, ' If a man believes marriage to be a sac- rament in the sense of the poj)es and the councils, let him symbolize it by the giving of a ring ; if he believes in exorcism by the signing of the cross, let him have it impressed on his infant's brow in baj:)- tism ; if he believes the bread of the Eucharist to be God, let him go down on his knees before it. But we do not believe these things, and as honest men we will not profess so to believe by act or sign * Palfi-ey, Hist, of New England, vol. 1, p. 113, note. THE EXODUS. 25 any more than by word.' Theirs was no struggle against the chiirch, but against the state's control over it. " The fatal error of the church-and-state reform- ers was, that they strove to coerce unwiUiug con- sciences into exact conformity with a prescribed formula of worship by penal legislation. No lati- tude was even winked at. It was a new edition of the old story of Procrustes and his iron bed. Brit- ain, emancipated from the pope, still hugged the pojjedom. The rulers of the island clutched the weapons and enacted the role of the Hildebrandes, the Gregorys, and the Innocents of ecclesiastical history. Dissent was " rank heresy." Liberty was " license." The measure of a conscience was the length of a prelate's foot. " An act was passed in 1593," says Hoyt, " for punishiag all who refused to attend the Established Church, or frequented conventicles or unauthorized assemblies. The penalty was, imprisonment until the convicted person made declaration of his con- formity; and if that was not done within three months after arrest, he was to quit the realm, and go into perpetual banishment. In case he did not depart within the specified time, or returned with- out license, he was to suffer deatli."t In 1603, when James I. came down from Scot- land to ascend the English throne, so stood the law. Nor did it rest idle in the statute-book. The parch- * Palfrey, Hist, of New England, vol. 1, p, 114. f Hoyt, Antiquarian Kesearches. Pilinm Fathei-B, 2 26 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. mentjiat was mstinct with vicious life. Hecatombs of victims suffered under it." " Toleration," re- marks Goodrich, " was a virtue then unknown on British ground. In exile alone was security found from the pains and penalties of non-conformity to the Church of England. "t During the pendency of the dissension between the Puritans and the Conformists within the bosom of the church, many honest thinkers, feeling hope- less of success in that unequal conflict, broke from their old communion, and set up a separate Ebeue- zer.J Even so early as 1592, Sir Walter Ealeigh, speaking in the House of Commons, affirmed that these " Come-outers" numbered U23wards of twenty thousand. § Since that date, every year had added new recruits to their ranks, until, in 1603, they had expanded into a wealthy, influential, and. puissant party in the state.H Though socially tabooed and politically ostra- cised — though shackled by fierce prohibitory legis- lation and by governmental ill-will, the Separatists, as they were called, still prayed and hoped, walking through persecution with faith in their right hand and with patience in their left. At one time they thought they could discern a ray of light on the sullen horizon which gloomed upon them. James * Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. 3. Eymer's Foedera, vol. IG, p. 694. j- Goodi-ich, Ch. Hist. J Neale, History of the Puritans, vol. 1. Kushworth, Claren- don, etc. § Parliamentary History. 11 Strype, Life of Whitgift. Bradshaw, English Puritanism, IfiOo. THE EXODUS. 27 I. had been educated in Presbyterian Scotland.* He had often hymned the praises of the poHty of stout John Ivnox.t When he crossed the Tweed, jubilant Puritanism cried, "Amen," and "All hail." Ere long, however, the weak and treacherous Stuart deserted his Scottish creed. From that moment he hated his old comrades with the peculiar bitterness of an apostate. No epithet was vile enough by which to paint them. He raked the gutter of the English language for phrases. " These Puritans," said he, " are pests in the church and common- wealth — greater liars and perjurers than any bor- der thieves.":}: At the Hampton Court Conference — an intel- lectual tournament between the representatives of the opposing religious parties — the royal buffoon affirmed his determination to make the Puritans " conform, or harry them out of the land, or else worse."§ It has been truly said that " the friends of reli- gious reform had never seen so hopeless a time as that which succeeded the period of the most san- guine expectation. In the gloomiest periods of the arbitrary sway of the two daughters of Henry YIIL, they could turn their eyes to a probable successor to the throne who would be capable of more reason or more lenity. Now nothing better for them ap- * Calderwood, True Hist, of the Ch. of Scotland. Perry, Ch. Hist., vol. 1. t Il^icl- t Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. 3. Hume, Hist, of Eug., etc. § Barlow's Account of the Hampton Court Conference. A copy or it is in Harvard college library. Harrington, Nugae Antiquoe. 28 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. peared in the future than the long reign of a prince wrong-headed and positive alike from imbecility, prejudice, pique, and self-conceit, to be succeeded by a dynasty born to the inheritance of the same bad blood, and educated in the same perniciou, school. It is true that, as history reveals the fact to our age, almost with the reign of the Scottish alien that nobler spirit began to animate the House of Commons which ultimately" checkmated tyranny beneath the scaffold of Charles I. But this astound- ing blow was then remote. "As yet the steady reaction from old abuses was but dimly apparent, even to the most clear-sighted and hopeful minds; and numbers of devout and brave hearts gave way to the conviction that, for such as they, England had ceased for ever to be a habitable spot."* Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, a num- ber of yeomen in the North of England, some in Nottinghamshire, some in Lincolnshire, some in Yorkshire, and the neighborhood of these counties, " whose hearts the Lord had touched with heav- enly zeal for his truth," separated from the English church, "and as the Lord's free people joined them- selves, by a covenant of the Lord, into a church estate in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all his ways made known or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost, the Lord assisting them, "f The Protestant world was at this time divided * Palfrej', Hist, of New England, vol. 1, p. 131. t Bradford, Hist, of the Plymouth Plantation, p. 9. • THE EXODUS. 29 between two regal pliases of reform. " Lutlier's rationale," sa^-s Bancroft, "was based upon the sub- lime but simple truth which lies at the bottom of morals, the paramount value of character and pu- rity of conscience ; the superiority of right disposi- tions over ceremonial exactness ; and, as he ex- pressed it, 'justification by faith alone.' But he hesitated to deny the real presence, and was indif- ferent to the observance of external ceremonies. Calvin, with sterner dialectics, sanctioned by his power as the ablest writer of his age, attacked the Komau doctrines respecting the communion, and esteemed as a commemoration the rite which the papists reverenced as a sacrifice. Luther acknowl- edged princes as his protectors, and in the ceremo- nies of worship favored magnificence as an aid to devotion ; Calvin was the guide of Swiss republics, and avoided in their churches all appeals to the senses as crimes against religion. Luther resisted the Roman church for its immorality ; Calvin for its idolatry. Luther exposed the folly of sui^erstition, ridiculed the hair-shirt and the scourge, the pur- chased indulgence, and the dearly-bought masses for the dead ; Calvin shrunk from their criminality with impatient horror. Luther permitted the cross, the taper, pictures, images, as things of indifference ; Calvin demanded a spiritual worship in its utmost purity."* The Separatists were ardent Calviuists. They esteemed the " offices and callings, courts and cau- * Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. 1, pp. 277, 278. 33 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. ons" of the English church "monuments of idol- ' atrj." Those of the North of England, though ; " presently they were scoffed and scorned by the : profane multitude, and their ministers urged with the yoke of subscription," yet held " that the lordly power of the prelates ought not to be submitted to."* In this northern church was "Mr. Eichard Clif- ton, a grave and revered preacher, who by his pains and diligence had done much good, and under God had been the means of the conversion of many ; also that famous and worthy man, Mr. John Rob- j inson, who afterwards was their pastor for many | years, till God called him away by death ; and Mr. ' William Brewster, a reverent man, who afterwards was chosen elder of the church, and lived with them till old age."t In the year 1607 these reformers seem to have j received the vindictive attention of the government, I for Bradford makes this record: "After that they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, i but were hunted and persecuted on every side. ' Some were taken and clapped up in prison. Others had their houses beset and watched night and day. i The most were fain to fly and leave their houses and goods, and the means of their livelihood. Yet ' these things, and many more still sharper, which afterwards befell them, \v^ere no other than they i looked for, and therefore they were better able to bear them by the assistance of God's grace and • Bradford, Hist. Pljonouth Plantation. f Ibid., Morton's Memorial, Founders of New Plymouth, etc. THE EXODUS. 31 spirit. Nevertheless, seeing themselves thus mo- lested, and that there was no hope of peace at home, by joint consent they resolved to go into the Low Countries, where, they heard, was fi-eedoni for all men ; as also how sundry from London and various parts had been persecuted into exile aforetime, and were gone thither, sojourning at Amsterdam and in other cities. So, after they had continued together about a year, and kept their meetings every sab- bath in one place and another, exercising the wor- ship of God despite the diligence and malice of their adversaries, seeing that they could no longer con- tinue in that condition, they prepared to pass over into Holland as they could."* The Pilgrims were preeminently men of action. They were not dreamy speculators ; they were not dilettanti idealists. They never let "I dare not" wait upon " I would." With them decision was impera- tive, and meant action. They had dropped two words from their vocabulary — doubt and hesita- tion. Instantly they prepared for exile; and the}^ accepted it as serenely when conscience beckoned that way with her imperious finger, as their descend- ants would an invitation to attend a halcj^on gala. Still, in the very outset they met obstacles which would have unnerved less resolute men. But the heart of their purpose was not to be broken. In 1607,t the Pilgrims made an effort to quit the shores * Bradford, Hist. Plymouth Plantation, j^p. 10, 11. See also Neal's Hist, of New England, vol. 1, p. 76. f Some authorities say 1602. Newell, for instance, p. 348, citing the British Quarterly Review. But so competent an author- 32 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. of this inhospitable country. They had appointed Boston, in Lincolnshire, the rendezvous, and a con- tract had been made with an English captain to convey their persons and their goods to Amsterdam. The Pilgrims were punctual ; the seaman was not. Finally, however, he appeared. The eager fugitives were shipped ; but they were taken aboard only to be betrayed. The recreant master had plotted with the authorities to entrap the victims. The unhappy Pilgrims were taken ashore again in ojDen boats, and there the officers "rifled and ransacked them, searching them to their shirts for money."* Even the women were treated with rude immodesty.f After this thievish official raid, they were " carried back into the town and made a spectacle and won- der to the multitude, which came flocking on all sides to behold them. Being thus first, by the catch- pole officers, rifled and stripped of their money, books, and much other goods, they were presented to the magistrates, and messengers were sent to in- form the lords of the council of the matter; mean- time they were committed to ward. The magis- trates used the Pilgrims courteously, and showed them what kindness and favor they could ; but they were not able to deliver the prisoners till order came from the council-table. The issue was, that after a month's imprisonment, the greater part were dismissed, and sent to the places from which they ity as Bradford gives the date in tlie text. See also Young's Chroni- cles, etc. * Bradford, p. 12. t Ibid. Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims. THE EXODUS. 33 came; but seven of their chiefs were still left in prison and bound over to the next assizes."* In the spring of 1608, these same indomitable Pilgrims, together with some others, resolved to make another effort to quit the house of bondage. Dryden says that ' ' Only idiots may be cozened twice. " This time they made a compact wdth a Dutch cap- tain at Hull — they would not trust an EngHshman.f The plan now was, that the men should assemble on a wild common, between Grimsby and Hull, a place chosen on account of its remoteness from any town; the women, the children, and the property of the exiles were to be conveyed to that part of the coast in a barque. The men made their way thither, in small comjjanies, by land. The barque reached its destination a day sooner than the foot travel- lers; it was also some hours ahead of the ship.| As the short, chop-sea of the channel caused the passengers in the barque to suffer acutely from sea- sickness, the sailors ran into a small creek for shel- ter. Here the night was passed. How comfortless! The deep roar of the sullen breakers smote heavily upon their ears; and while the chill winds swept over them, the ceaseless pulsing of the sea and the hollow moaning of the waves at midnight, for the sea continued rough, deepened the melancholy feel- ings which could not but agitate their breasts. So o Bradford, p. 12. t Stougbton, Spiritual Heroes, p. 72. t British Quarterly Keview, vol. l,p. 15. 2* 34 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. liudclled on the weird, strange shore, they counted the hours till dawn.* In the morning the longed-for ship arrived ; but through some negligence of the sailors, the vessel containing the women, their little ones, and the property, had run aground. The men stood in groups on the shore; and that no time might be lost, the captain sent his boat to convey some of them on board, while a squad of sailors were detailed to help get the grounded barque once more afloat. But alack, by this time so considerable a gather- ing in such a place, and at an hour so unusual, had attracted attention; information was conveyed to the neighboring authorities; and as the boat which had already taken the great part of the men to the ship, was again returning to the shore, the caj)tain espied a large company, some on horse- back, some afoot, but all armed, advancing towards the spot where the hapless barque still lay aground with the few remaining men grouped about it. Alarmed, the mariner put back to his vessel, swore by the sacrament that he would not stay, and deaf to the importunities of his sad passengers, he spread his sails, weighed anchor, and was soon out of sight.f "We may imagine with what aching hearts the poor exiles in the ship looked towards the receding shore, to their disconsolate companions, and to their precious wives and children, who stood there "cry- ing for fear and quaking with cold." Those on board c Stoughton, Young, Bancroft. t Young's Chronicles, Stoughton, Bradford, etc. THE EXODUS. 35 the ship had uo property, not even a change of rai- ment ; and they had scarcely a penny in their pock- ets. But the loss of their possessions was as nothing to the cruel stroke which had severed them from those they best loved on earth." " Eobinson — honest and able general as he was in every sense — had resolved to be the last to em- bark. He was therefore a witness of the scene of distress and agony which ensued on the departure of the ship. The outburst of grief was not to be restrained. Some of the women wept aloud; others felt too deeply, were too much bewildered, to in- dulge in utterance of any kind; while the children, partly from seeing what had happened, and partly from a vague impression that something dreadful had come, mingled their sobs and cries in the gen- eral lamentation. As the sail of the ship faded away upon the distant waters, the wives felt as if one stroke had reduced them all to widowhood, and every child that had reached years of consciousness felt as one who in a moment had become fatherless. But thus dark are the chapters in human aft'airs in which the good have often to become students, and from which they have commonly had to learn their special lessons."t On the approach of the officers some of the men escaped, others remained to assist the helpless. These were apprehended and " conveyed from con- stable to constable, till their persecutors were weary <* Stoughton. t British Quarterly Keview, vol. 1, p. 15. 36 THE PILGKIM FATHEES. of so large a number of captives and permitted them to go their way."* • As to the voyagers, the very elements seemed to vrar against them. They soon encountered foul weather, and were driven far along the coast of Nor- way ; " nor sun, nor moon, nor stars, for many days appeared." Once they gave up all for lost, think- ing the ship had foundered. " But when," says a writer who was himself on board, "man's hope and help w^holly failed, the Lord's power and mercy ap- peared for their recovery, for the ship rose again, and gave the mariners courage once more to man- age her. While the waters ran into their very ears and mouths, and all cried 'TVe sink! we sink !' they also said, if not with miraculous, yet with a great height of divine faith, ' Yet, Lord, thou canst save ! yet. Lord, thou canst save !' And He who holds the winds in his fist, and the waters in the hollow of his hand, did hear and save them."t Eventually the storm-tossed ship dropped anchor in Amsterdam harbor; and "in the end," says Young, "notwithstanding all these tortures, the Pil- grims all got over, some at one time and some at another, and met together again, according to their desire, with no small rejoicing. ":|: * Stoughton, p. 74. t Young, cited in Stoughton, p. 74. X Young's Chronicles, p. 29. THE HALT. 37 CHAPTEK II. THE HALT. "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him ; but weep sore for him that goeth away : for he shall return no more, nor see his native country." Jer. 22 : 10. When the Pilgrims stepped from the deck of their vessel upon the quays of Amsterdam, they felt that sad, aching sense of utter desolation which always smites exiled hearts in a strange country. But there was much about Amsterdam which tended to increase this natural homesickness, and to make the blood pulse still more coldly through their veins. Every thing was novel ; the manners, the costume, the architecture, the language of the people. Their first steps were involved in an apparently inextrica- ble maze ; they were confounded by the bewilder- ing confusion of land and water. Canals, crawled with their sluggish water, before them and behind them, to the right and to the left. Indeed, the town was so much interwoven with havens, that the oozy ground was cut up into ninety-five islands or de- tached blocks, connected with each other by two hundred and ninety fantastic bridges. The princi-^ pal havens, called grachts, were from a hundred to a hundred and forty feet wide, and extended in semicircular curves one after the other through the Lown. 38 THE PILGKIM FATHEBS. In order to reach the interior of the city, it was necessary to cross a number of these broad har- bors ; and in making the necessary deflections in passing from gracht to gracht, all recollection of the points of the compass vanished from the minds of the bewildered Englishmen, so that they received the impression that they were wandering in a laby- rinth from which it was impossible to escape by their own unaided efforts. The houses were built of brick, and were gener- ally four or five stories high, with fantastic, pointed gables in front. Some of them were elegantly con- structed ; but the larger number of the citizens seemed desirous of making their dwellings look as like warehouses as possible. Almost every house had a piece of timber projecting from the wall over the uppermost window in the gable, and this was used for hauling up fuel or furniture to the top stor}^ All the residences were erected upon piles of wood driven into the soft, marshy ground ; but so insufficient was this precaution in giving stabil- ity, that many of the buildings leaned considerably from the perpendicular, and seemed as if about to topple over into the street or splai-h out of sight through the mud. The roadway between the houses and the water was so narrow, that in some ,of the finest streets a coach could not conveniently turn round. Such were some of the strange sights which greeted the wondering eyes of the Pilgrims as they hurriedly trod, on the day of their arrival, from the THE HALT. 39 quay where they had landed, mto the interior of the quaint old town in search of lodgings. A brief residence sufficed to familiarize the ex- iles with the peculiarities of the city. They soon discovered that Amsterdam stood uj)on the south- ern bank of the Ai, a neck of the sea which pos- sessed the appearance of a navigable frith. They examined the quays and j)iers which rose sheer out of the water, so as to afford the greatest facility for the shipment of goods from the abounding ware- houses. They wondered at the peculiar form of the town, which Avas semicircular, with its straight side on the Ai, while the bow swept several miles in- land. The canals were fed by the river Amstel, from which the town was named. An immense exterior belt of water, which the Dutch termed "the cingel," pursued a zig-zag line round the sites of ancient bastions, which were then crowned with windmills, whose long arms and tireless fin- gers were incessantly employed in snatching up the ever-encroaching water, and casting it far out into the sea. From the condition of a fishing-village on the Amstel, in the thirteenth century, Amsterdam had risen, under the fostering privileges of the counts of Flanders, to be a commercial town of some im- portance even in the fourteenth century. The establishment of the Dutch independence so greatly accelerated its prosperity, that in the beginning of the seventeenth century it had attained the first rank as a maritime city. Antwerp, the old El Do- 40 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. rado, was eclipsed. Amsterdam became the entre- pot of commerce ; ships visited it from all nations ; its merchants were famed for their honesty and friigalit}^; and its great bank enabled it to take the lead in the pecuniary concerns of Europe. The city was inhabited by a quarter of a million of souls ; and seated in its swamp, it was the freest town in the world. It was a city of refuge to the oppressed of aU nations ; and therein, perhaps, lay the secret of its wonderful prosperity. Amsterdam was the Venice of the Netherlands It was literally a spot which had been Avrung from the grasp of the unwilling and ever-protesting sea, A perpetual Waterloo conflict was waged between the persistent Hollander and old Neptune for the possession of the soil which man's skill had usurp- ed. The city, and indeed the Netherlands at large, formed the " debatable ground" of this unique strug- gle between humanity and the elements. The whole country was a morass, whose buildings were con- structed on huge piles; and it was this that gave rise to the saying of Erasmus, that " multitudes of his countrymen were like birds, living on the tops of trees." Across the forehead of the Netherlands brains and persistence had written their motto, " Labor omnia vincit."" * The facts in the above description of Amsterdam are taken from Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic, from various accounts of travels in the Low Countries, and particiilarly from the very interesting and instructive " Tour " of W. Chambers. Lon- don, 1837. THE HALT. 41 Sucli was the city in wliicli the Pilgrims now found themselves domesticated. In some things they found it easy to assimilate with their new neighbors : a common faith was one strong bond of union ; a passion for liberty was another. But there were not lacking strong points of dissimilar- ity. The Pilgrims were orderly and staid ; yet they never could reconcile themselves to that spirit of system, or precise, long-authorized method, which formed one of the most remarkable traits in the manners of the Dutch. In all departments of their social economy they seemed to act upon established rules, from which it was esteemed a species of her- esy to depart. There were rules for visiting, for sending complimentary messages, for making do- mestic announcements, for bestowing alms, for out- of-door recreations — every thing was required to be done in a certain way, and no other way was right. Society was an incarnate rule. Another thing which puzzled the Pilgrims Was, that in their various walks they observed that every house was provided with one or more mirrors in frames, fastened by wire rods on the outsides of the windows, and at such an angle as to command a complete view both of the doorway and of all that passed in the street. They afterwards found that these looking-glasses Avere universal in Holland, and were the solace of the ladies while following their domestic avocations. But the exiles were too grateful for toleration to be hypercritical. " They knew that they were 42 THE PILGKIM FATHEKS. Pilgrims, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest coun- try, and quieted their spirits."* They spent no time in idleness, but with stout hearts went to work. They had been bred to agricultural pursuits ; but in Holland they were obliged to learn mechanical trades. Brewster became a printer;]- Bradford learned the art of dyeing silk.:]: Some learned to weave, and found employment in the cloth guilds and at the looms. But though grim poverty often pinched them, and their temporal circumstances were never very prosperous, they yet praised God for what they had; and exile and the bond of a common misfortune knit their hearts close together, so that their spiritual enjoyment in each other's society was precious and full.§ Amsterdam was not altogether a city of stran- gers. There were some there already, who, like themselves, had left their native island for con- science' sake.]! But though the}^ had formed a church, its vitals were torn by fierce dissension. The feud blazed when Eobinson and his friends reached Holland; since nothing could placate the resentment of the hostile parties, the Pilgrims, fearful of the baleful effect of the quarrel upon themselves, decided, after a sojourn of twelve * Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. 1, p. 303. f Ibid. Bradford, Young, Stonghton, etc. X Bradford, Hist. Plymoutli Plantation. § Stoughton, p. 82. Young's Chronicles. II Morton's Memorial, Prince, Bradford. THE HALT. ' 43 montlis, to remove fi-om Amsterdam to the neigh- boring city of Leyden." " While Amsterdam was rising into mercantile wealth, Lej'den "was acquiring literary reputation. B}' a singular but honorable jDreference, the citi- zens, on being offered by "William the Silent, in 1575, as a reward for their valor during the famous siege, either a remission of taxes or the foundation of a university, at once chose the university. The city had obtained the appellation of the Athens of the West. But with its scholastic cloisters it com- bined busy manufactures: while in one street the student was engaged with his books, in another the w^eaver was seated at his loom. But all breathed quietude and liberty; and it is difficult to imagine a more inviting home than that which Leyden pre- sented to these w'eary, sore-footed Pilgrims as they trod along the pleasant road from Amsterdam, ' seeking peace above all other riches.' " If the history of the city they had left was cal- culated to stimulate them to industry, the storj- of the town they were entering was adajDted to kee-p alive their love of liberty. Traces might still be seen of the effects of the heroic deed performed by the citizens of Leyden, when, contending for their freedom, they preferred to inundate their city and give it to the sea, rather than submit to the cruel tyranny of Spain."! Here, as before at Amsterdam, they fell to Avork. « Bradford, Cotton Mather, etc. t Stoughton, p. 82. 41 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. " Being now pitched," says Bradford, " they fell to such trades and emplo3'ments as they best could, valuing peace and their spiritual comfort above any other riches whatsoever; and at length they came to raise a competent and decent living, but with hard and continual labor."* In Leyden the Pilgrims remained for many years, " enjoying much sweet society and spiritual comfort together in the ways of God, under the able and prudent government of Mr. John Bobinson. Yea, such was the mutual love and respect which this worthy man had to his flock and his flock to him, that it might be said of them, as it once was of the famous emperor Marcus Aureliust and the people of Rome, that it was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having such a people, or they in having such a pastor. His love was great tow- ards them, and his care was always bent for their best good, both for soul and body ; for besides his singular ability in divine things — wherein he ex- celled — he was very able to give direction in civil affairs, and to foresee dangers and inconveniences ; by which means he was very helpful to the outward estates of the exiles, and so was in every way a common father to them. "I Mr. William Brewster Avas Robinson's assistant, and "he was now called and chosen by the church" * Bradford, Hist. Plymouth Plantation, p. 17. t Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius ; first printed in English in 1534. Debley's Typog. Antiq., vol. 3, p. 289. X Bradford, pp. 17, 18. THE HALT. 46 to fill the place of elder.* The Pilgrims " grew in knowledge and gifts and other graces of the Spirit of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness; and as many came unto them from divers parts of England, they grew to be a great congre- gation. If at any time differences arose or offences broke out — as it cannot be but sometimes there will, even among the best of men — they were ever so met with and nipped in the bud betimes, or oth- erwise so well compassed, as still love, peace, and communion, were preserved; or else the church was purged of those that were incorrigible, when, after much patience used, no other means would serve — which seldom came to pass."t Though strict in their discipline and strongly attached to their distinctive principles, the Leyden exiles were far from being bigots. Hobinson, though, in Cotton Mather's phrase, " he had been in his younger time — as very good fruit hath some- times been, ere age hath ripened it — soured by the principles of rigid separation, "| was now developed into a man of large-hearted benevolence and en- lightened catholicity. Over his flock he breathed this heavenly spirit. Nothing more offended him than the conduct of those " Avho cleaved unto them- selves, and retired from the common good."§ Noth- ing more provoked him than to witness undue rigid- o Bradford, pp. 17, 18. Young, etc. t Bradford, pp. 17, 18. X Cotton i\Iather's Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 47. § Bradford, p. 18. Stoughton. 46 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. ity in the enforcement of subordinate matters, espe- cially when sternness on points of outward order was associated, as is often the case, with laxity in the critics. Kobinson knew how to estimate " the tithe of mint and anise and cummin" in their rela- tive value to the weightier matters of the law. Schism he condemned ; division he deplored. From the government and ceremonies of the English Establishment his conscience compelled him to dis- sent, but ho was prepared to welcome the disciples of that and of all other Christian communions to the fellowship of the Lord's table. " Our faith," said he, " is not negative ; nor does it consist in the condemnation of others, and wiping their names out of the bead-roll of churches, but in the edification of ourselves. Neither require we of any of ours, in the confession of their faults, that they renounce or in any one word contest with the Church of Eng- land."* It is not strange that such a teacher should have won the reverent regard of his Pilgrim flock. They could not fail to hold him " in precious estimation, as his worth and wisdom did deserve." And " though they esteemed him highly while he lived and labored among them," says Bradford, "yet much more after his death, t when they came to feel the want of his help, and saw, by woful exjoe- rience, what a treasure they had lost; yea, such a loss as they saw could not be repaired, for it was « Cited in Stoughtou, p. 84. f Eobinson died at Lej'den, March 1, 1864-5. THE HALT. 47 as hard for tliem to find such another leader and feeder in all respects, as for the Taborites to find another Ziska.* And though they did not, like tlie Bohemians, call themselves orphans after his death, yet they had as much cause to lament their present condition and after-usage."t Characterized by so much unity, peacefulness, consistency, and true-hearted love, the Pilgrims could not fail to Aviu the sincere respect of the Ley- den citizens. Though most of them were poor, yet there were none so poor but if they were known to be of the English congregation, the Dutch trades- men would trust them in any reasonable amount when they lacked money, and this because they had found by experience how careful they were to keep their word, while they saw them painful and diligent in their respective callings. The Leyden merchants even strove to get their custom ; and when they required aid, employed the honest stran- gers and paid them above others.:]: The city magistrates testified to the sobriety and peacefulness of their guests on the eve of their departure from Holland. " These English," said they, in reproving the exiled Walloons§ who were * For an interesting account of Ziska, or Zisca, the blind Hussite leader of the Bohemian insurgents, who was never de- feated, see Mosheim's Eccles. Hist., cent. XV., Hallam's Hist, of the Middle Ages, vol. 1, p. 463, or the Eucyclopfedia Americana, article "Zisca." t Bradford, pp. 18, 19. 1 Ibid., pp. 19, 20. § The Walloons inhabited the southern Belgic provinces bor- dering on France. As they spoke the French language, ' ' they were 48 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. attached to the French refugee church, "have lived among us now these twelve years, and yet we never had any suit or action against any one of them ; but your strifes a'ud quarrels are continual."* The reputation of their pastor for sanctity and learning no doubt tended to raise the respectability of the English church in the estimation of the Dutch. Circum.stances afforded him ample scope for the display of his talents. A heated discussion between the Arminians and the Calvinists raged in Leyden during his residence in the cit}^ and in that far- famed controversy the great English divine was finally persuaded to take part.f In the schools there were daily and hot disputes. Scholars were divided in opinion. The two profes- sors or divinity readers of the Leyden university were themselves ranged on opposite sides ; one of them, Episcopius, teaching the Arminian tenets; the other, Polyander, proclaiming the Calvinistic creed4 Bobinson, though he taught thrice a week, be- sides writing sundry pamphlets,§ went daily to listen called Gallois, which was changed, in Low Dutch, into Waalsche, and in English into Walloon." Many of them were Protestants, and being subject to relentless persecution by the Spanish gov- ernment, they emigi-ated in great numbers into Holland, carrying with them a knowledge of the industrial arts. See Bradford's Hist. Plym. Plantation, p. 20, note. =-■ Bradford, p. 20. Stoiighton, Young, Ashton's Life of Rob- inson, t Stoughton, p. 85. X Bradford, Young, Neal, Mather, etc. ^ A collection of the "Works of John Robinson was printed in THE HALT. 49 to the disputations, hearing first one side, then the other. In this way he became thoroughly grounded in the controversy, saw the force of the opposing 'arguments, and became familiar with the shifts of the inimical disputants. Some sermons which he delivered in the English church on the contested issues attracted public attention. Episcopius had just published certain theses which he had afiirmed that he was prepared to maintain against all oppo- nents. Polyander and the chief preachers of the city waited upon Robinson, and urged him to pick up the gauntlet. He was loath, being a stranger ; but they beat doAvn the rampart of his objections, and finally Eobinson consented to dispute. Epis- copius and the Pilgrim pastor met, and in this public tilt the English champion is said to have achieved " a famous victory."- Ever after this verbal tournament, Robinson was held in the highest esteem by the learned men of the university, by the Dutch preachers, and by the republican government of Holland.t Indeed, it is said that nothing but the fear of offending the English king prevented the bestowal upon him of some mark of national favor.J On their part, the English refugees always treated the reformed churches of the Continent with honor and fraternal kindness. " We acknowl- London in 1851, with a memoir and annotations by Mr. Robert Ashton. * Bradford, p. 21. Cotton Mather's Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 47. f Bradford, Mather, Stoughton. J Ibid. , Young, Ashton's Life of Eobinson. PllBitni Fa the IB. g 50 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. edge," remarked Bobinson, " before God and man, that we harmonize so perfectly Avith the reformed churches of the Netherlands in matters of religion, as to be ready to subscribe their articles of faith, and every one of them, as they are set forth in their confession. We acknowledge these churches as true and genuine ; we hold fellowship with them as far as we can; those among us who understand Dutch, attend their j)reaching ; we offer the Sup- per to such of their members as are known to us and may desire it."* Yet the Pilgrims did not indorse the system of church government which received the imprimatur of the Synod of Dort. They steadfastly maintained that each single church or society of Christians possessed within itself full ecclesiastical authority for choosing officers, administering all the ordi- nances of the gospel, and settling its discipline ; in a word, they held to the perfect independence of the individual churches, and framed their ecclesi- tical polity on the purest democratic model. t " They conceded," observes Uhden, " that syn- ods and councils might be useful in healing divis- ions between churches, and in imi3arting to them friendly advice, but not in the exercise of judicial authority over them, or in the imj)Osition of any canon or any article of faith, without the free assent of each individual church. ";|: * Robinson's Apology for the Eomanists, t Uhden, New England Theocracy, p. 42. Robinson's Works, etc. X Uhden, p. 42. THE HALT. 51 Sbeatlied in the panoply of their principles, busied in the multifarious activities of their daily emj)loyments, and solaced by faith, the Pilgrims " made shift to live in these hard times." Pere- grini Deo cura, runs the old Latin phrase ; and this exiled band of worshippers proved that strangers are indeed peculiar objects of God's care. 52 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. CHAPTER III. THE DECISION. "Can ye lead out to distant colonies The o'erflowings of a people, or j'our wronged Brethren, by impious persecution driven. And arm their breasts with fortitude to try New regions — climes, though barren, yet beyond The baneful power of tjTants ? These are deeds For which their hardy labors well prepare The sinewy arms of Albion's sons." Dyer. Although the Pilgrims resided at Ley den in honor, and at peace with God and their own con- sciences, many circumstances conspired to render them anxious and uneasy. The horizon of the Neth- erlands grew gloomy w'ith portents of war. The famous truce between Holland and the SjDaniard drew near its conclusion.- The imj^atient demon of strife stood knocking at the door. Homesick- ness gnawed at their hearts. Dear, cruel England filled their thoughts. The language of the Dutch had never become pleasantly familiar.t Frequently " they saw poverty coming on them like an armed man." Many of their little band were taken from them by death. " Grave mistress Experience hav- * This "famous truce," so long desired, embraced a period of twelve years. It was signed in April, 1609, and expired in 1621. Grattan, Hist. Netherlands. i Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. 1, p. 303. THE DECISION. 53 ing taught tliem many things," some of their "sagest members began both deeply to apprehend their present dangers and wisely to foresee the future, and to think of timely remedy." They inclined to removal, "not out of any newfangledness or other such like giddy humor, by which men are often- times transported to their great hurt and danger, but for sundry weighty and solid reasons."* These have been often recited, and they com- pletely vindicate the project to remove. The Pilgrims " saw, and found by experience, the hardness of the place and country to be such that few in comparison would come to them, and fewer would bide it out and continue with them; for many that joined them, and many more who desired to be with them, could not endure the great labor and hard fare, with other inconveniences which they underwent and were content to bear. But though they loved the persons of the exiles, approved their cause, and honored their sufferings, yet they left them weeping, as Orpah did her mother- in-law Naomi, and as those Romans did Cato in Utica, who desired to be excused and borne with, though they could not all be Catos.f For many, though they desired to enjoy the ordinances of God as the Pilgrims did, yet, alas, chose bondage, with danger of conscience, rather than to endure these hardships. Yea, some preferred the prisons of Eng- land to this liberty in Holland, with these afflictions. a Bradford, Hist. Plymoi;tli Plantation, pp. 22, 23. f See Plutarch's Life of Cato the Younger. 64 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. The Pilgrims thought that if a better and easier place of residence could be had, it would draw many to them, and take away these discouragements. Yea, their pastor would often say that many of those who both wrote and preached against them there would, if they were in a place where they might have liberty and live comfortably, practise as they did."* Then again, " they saw that, though the exiles generally bore all these difficulties very cheerfully and with resolute courage, being in the best and strength of their years, yet old age began to steal upon them — and their great and continued labors, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before the time — so it was not only probably thought, but apparently seen, that within a few years more they would be in danger to scatter by necessities pressing them, or sink under their burdens, or both. Therefore, according to the divine proverb, that 'a wise man seeth the plague when it cometh, and hideth liimself,'t so they, like skilful and tried sol- diers, were fearful to be entrapjoed and surrounded by their enemies, so as they should neither be able to fight or fly ; so they thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could be found."| It was furthermore perceived that, " as necessity was a task-master over them, so they were forced to be such, not only to their servants, but in a sort to their dearest children ; the which, as it did not a « Bradford. f I'i'overbs 22 : 3. | Bradford. THE DECISION. 55 little wound the tender hearts of many loving fathers and mothers, so it produced likewise sundry sad and sorrowful effects; for many of their children, who were of the best disposition and most gracious inclinations, having learned to bear the yoke in their youth, and being willing to bear part of their pa- rents' burden, were oftentimes so oppressed by their heavy labors, that though their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed under the weight, and became decrepit in early youth, the vigor of nature being consumed in the bud. But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was, that many of the children, by these means and the great licentiousness of youth in those countries and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away by evil example into extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reins off their necks, and departing from their parents. Some be- came soldiers, others made far voyages by sea, and some walked in paths tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of their parents and the dishonor of God, The Pilgrims saw that their posterity would be in danger to de- generate and be corrupted."* Still again — "and this was not least" — they were inclined to remove by the " great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least of making some way thereto, for the propaga- tion and advancement of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in remote parts of the world ; yea, though «* Bradford, p. 24. 56 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. thej should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performance of so gi^eat a Avork."* These and some other kindred reasonsf pushed the Pilgrims to further emigration. The question which each began to ask the other was, " Whither shall we go?" Soon this query stared all other considerations out of countenance, and became the all-engrossing topic of discussion at the hearth- stones and in the chapel of the exiles. At this juncture a germ of thought was devel- oped which proved to be the seed of a mighty em- pire. All Europe stood a-tip-toe gazing across the misty and chilling waste of waters towards that new continent by whose discovery the genius of Columbus had rounded the globe into perfect sym- metry. The glories of the New World flashed in the brilliant eloquence of Ealeigh. Marvellous tales were told of the fertility of the soil and of the health- ful beauty of the skies; while old sailors, who had gazed with their own eyes upon the legendary shores, passed from city to city depicting to eager and credulous crowds the terrors of the wilderness and the wild ferocity of the Western savages. Meantime " the career of maritime discovery had been pursued with daring intrepidity and rewarded with brilliant success. The voyages of Gosnold, and Smith, and Hudson, the enterprise of Raleigh, and DelaAvare, and Gorges, the compilations of Eden, and Willes, and Hakluyt, had filled the com- e Bradford, p. 24. f For additional reasons, see Young, p. 385. THE DECISION. 57 mercial world with wonder. Calvinists of the French church had ah-eady sought, though vainly, to plant themselves in Brazil, in Carolina, and, with De Monts, in Acadia;"* and now, in 1G17, some bold thinker and unshrinking speaker among the Ley- den Pilgrims, perhaps Brewster, perhaps Bradford, perhaps Kobinson himself, proposed to colonize " some of those vast and unpeopled countries of America which were fruitful and fit for habitation, but devoid of all civilized inhabitants ; where there were only savage and brutish men, who ranged up and down little otherwise than as wild beasts."t At the outset the Pilgrims listened to this pro- posal, some with admiration, some with misgiving, some openly aghast. Bradford's quaint pages afford us some glimpses of their debates. The doubters said, " It is a great design, and subject to incon- ceivable perils ; as besides the casualties of the seas, which none can be freed from, the length of the voy- age is such that the weak bodies of many worn out with age and travel, as many of us are, can never be able to endure ; and even if they should, the mis- eries to which we should be exposed in that land will be too hard for us to bear ; 't is hkely that some or all will effect our ruin. There we shall be liable to famine, and nakedness, and want of all things. The change of air, diet, and water, will infect us with sickness; and those who escape these evils will be in danger of the savages, who are cruel, o Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. 1, p. 303. t Bradford, p. 2-4 ; Young's Cbronicles, etc. 3* 58 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. barbarous, and most treaclierous in their rage, and merciless when they overcome; not being content only to kill, but delighting to torment men in the most bloody way, flaying men alive with the shells of fishes, cutting off the joints by piece-meal, broil- ing them on coals, and eating collops of their vic- tims' flesh while they yet live, and in their very sight." As these horrors darkened in their imaginations, the deeply-interested exiles who thronged the coun- cil-chamber shuddered with affright. Mothers, hearing the shrill war-whoop in advance, strained their babes yet closer to their breasts. " Surely it could not be thought but the very hearing of these things must move the very bowels of men to grate within them, and make the weak to quake and tremble." But the opponents of the project irrged still other objections, " and those neither unreasonable nor improbable." " It will require," they said, " more money than we can furnish to prepare for such a voyage. Similar schemes have failed;* and our experience in removing to Holland teaches us how hard it is to live in a strange country, even though it be a rich and civilized commonwealth. What then shall we do in the frozen wilderness?" Fear chilled the hearts, doubt paralyzed the nerves of the assembled exiles. Then the more resolute stood up, and, fixing their eyes on the sky, *' In allusion, probably, to the plantation project at Sagadahoc, in 1607. See Bancroft and others. THE DECISION. 59 exclaimed, " God will protect us ; aud he points us on. All great and honorable actions are accompa- nied with great difficulties, and must be both under- taken and overcome with answerable courage. We grant the dangers of this removal to be tremendous, but not desperate; the difficulties are many, but not invincible ; for though many of them are likelj^, all are not certain. It may be that sundry of the things surmised may never happen ; others, by prov- ident care and the use of good means, may be pre- vented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience may either be borne or overcome. True it is that such attempts are not to be undertaken without good reason; never rashly or lightly, as many have done, for curiosity or hope of gain. But our condition is not ordinary; our ends are good and honorable; our calling lawful and urgent; therefore we may invoke and expect God's blessing on our proceeding. Yea, though we should lose our lives in this action, yet may we have comfort in it, and our endeavor would be hon- orable. "We live here but as men in exile ; and as great miseries may befall us in this place, for the twelve years of truce are now nigh up, and here is nothing but beating of drums and preparations for war, the events whereof are always uncertain. The Spaniard may prove as cruel as the savages of America, and the famine and pestilence as sore here as there, and our liberty less to look out for a remedy."* * This debate is copied from Bradford, pp. 25-27. 60 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. It was thus that the undaunted apostles of the future pleaded; and now as always, the policy of active, trustful, and religious courage overbore the timid pleas of the undecided, the plausible doubts of the skeptical, and the wailing dissent of the croak- ers who paused distrustful of the unknown future and enamoured of the anchored past. The Pil- grims announced their decision to follow in the wake of Columbus, and launch boldly across the Atlantic, trusting God. FAEEWELL. Gi CHAPTEE IV. PAKEWELL. "Like Israel's host to exile clriveu, Across the flood the Pilgrims fled ; Their hands bore up the ark of heaven, And Heaven jtheir trusting footsteps led, Till on these savage shores they trod, And won the wilderness for God." PlERPONT. Having decided to settle in America, the Pilgrims, " after humble prayers unto God for his direction and assistance/' held another general conference, and in this they discussed the location of their pro- posed colony. Some were ardent for Guiana,* whose tropical climate and immeasurable mineral wealth Raleigh had painted in dazzling colors, and whose fertility was such that it was only necessary to " tickle it with a hoe, and it would laugh with a harvest." The Spaniard was already there. It has been well said that the golden dreams which deluded the first European settlers of America were akin, alike in object and results, to the old alchy mists' search after the philosopher's stone. The painful alchymist lost not only the gold he sought, but the wealth of knowledge and of substantial commercial treasure which the researches of modern chemistry have disclosed ; and so the Sj)anish colonists slighted * Bradford, Young, Elliot, Bancroft, etc. 62 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. the abounding wealth of a genial climate and a fer- tile soil, while chasing the illusive phantom of '' a land of gold."* Yet, despite the apparent oj^ening in Guiana, the Pilgrims would not go thither, partly because the pretensions of England to the soil were wavering, but chiefly because a horde of intolerant and ubi- quitous Jesuits had already planted themselves in that vicinity.t "Upon their talk of removing, sundry of the Dutch would have had them go under them, and made them large offers;" but "the Pilgrims were attached to their nationality as Englishmen, and to the language of their fatherland. A deep-seated love of country led them to the generous purpose of recovering the protection of England by enlarg- ing her dominions. They were 'restless' with the desire to live once more under the government of their native land.":j: This feeling led them to reject the proposal of the Holland merchants; and, since they had also given up the idea of colonizing Guiana, they deter- mined to essay a settlement in "the most northern parts of Virginia," hoping under the provincial gov- ernment " to live in a distinct body by themselves," at peace with God and man.§ There were in 1617 two organized English com- panies which had been chartered by James I. to «5 Wilson's Pilgrim Fathers, p. 341. t Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 204. J Ibid. § Ibid., Bradford, Young. FAEEWELL. G6 colonize America, and empowered to effect regular and permanent settlements, extending one hundred miles inland. The headquarters of one of these was in London, of the other in Plymouth.* The Lejden Pilgrims were impelled to sail under the auspices of one of these merchant-companies by a double consideration — a lack of means to effect an inde- pendent settlement, and a desire to emigrate in such shape that they might live under English pro- tection.f Hence on selecting Virginia as the site of their intended settlement, the exiles at once de- spatched two of their number to England, at the charge of the rest,:}: to negotiate with the Yirginia company.§ They "found God going along with them;" and through the influence of '"Sir Edwin Sandys, a religious gentleman then living," they might at once have gained a patent; but the care- ful envoys desired first to consult " the multitude" at Leyden.ll In their interview Avitli the Leyden merchants, the envoj'S had expressly stipulated for freedom of religious worship.lF On their return to Holland they told the Leyden congregation that they " found the Virginia company very desirous to have them go out under their auspices, and willing to grant them a patent, with as ample privileges as they could bestow; while some of their chiefs did not * Wilson's Pilgrim Fathers, p. 356. \ Ibid., Bradford, Bancroft. % Bradford, p. 29. § Ibid. II Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 304 It Bradford, p. 28. G4 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. doubt their ability to obtain a guaranty of tolera- tion for them from the king."^ The Pilgrim agents carried back with them a friendly and sympathizing letter from Sir Edwin Sandys ;t and to this a formal answer was re- turned. " We verily believe," wrote Eobinson and Brewster, "that the Lord is with us, unto whom and whose service we have given ourselves in many trials ; and that he will graciously prosper our en- deavors according to the simplicity of our hearts therein. We are well weaned from the delicate milk of our mother-country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange and hard land, which yet, in a great part, we have by patience overcome. Our people are, for the body of them, industrious and frugal, we think we may say, as any company of people in the world. We are knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great con- science, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves strictly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the whole. It is not with us as with other men, Avhom small things can discourage, or small discon- tentments cause to wish themselves at home again. We know our entertainment in England, and in Holland; we shall much prejudice both our arts and means by removal; but once gone, we should o Bradford, p. 28. t For some account of Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the most prominent members of the Virginia company, see Hood's Athenae Oxon., vol. 2, p. 472. FAEEWELL. fiS not be won to return by any hope to recover even our present helps and comforts."* "While these negotiations were pending the Vir- ginia company found much greater difBcvilty than they had apprehended in winning from the silly and pedantic king an assent to the tolerant clauses of the Pilgrims' patent; "and though many means were used to bring it about, it could not be effected."'!- When the Pilgrims asked that liberty of worship might be confirmed under the king's broad seal, they were asked two questions : " How intend ye to gain a livelihood in the new country?" The reply was, " By fishing, at first." " Who shall make your ministers?" was the next queiy. The Pilgrims answered, " The power of making them is in the church ;" and this spoiled all. To enlarge the dimensions of England James I. esteemed "a good and honest motive; and fishing was an hon- est trade, the apostles' own calling," yet he referred their suit to the decision of the prelates of Canter- bury and London-t- The exiles were advised not to carry their suit before the bishops, but to rely upon events and the disposition which his majesty had shown to connive at their enterprise under " a formal promise of neg- lect."§ Besides, it was considered that if James had confirmed their titles, nothing could bind him. " If afterwards there should be a purpose to wrong « This letter, as also that of Sandys which occasioned it, may be found in extenso in Bradford, pp. 30, 31, 32, 33. t Bradford, p. 29, ± Bancroft, p. 305. § Bancroft. 66 THE PILGEIM FATHEKS. US," said they, " though we had a seal as broad as the house floor, it would not serve the turn; for there would be means enough found to recall or reverse it."* So they determined in this, as in other things, to rest on God's providence. New agents were at once despatched to England to urge forward the lagging prejoarations. But dis- sensions in the Yirginia company "ate out the heart of action." At last, in 1619, a patent was granted,t and only " one more negotiation remained to be completed. The Pilgrims were not possessed of sufficient capital for the execution of their scheme. The confidence in wealth to be derived from fish- eries had made American expeditions a subject of consideration with English merchants; and the agents from Leyden were able to form a partner- ship between their friends and the men of business in London. A company called the 'Merchant-Ad- venturers' was formed. The services of each emi- grant were rated as a capital of ten j)ounds, and belonged to the company; all profits were to be reserved till the end of seven years, when the whole amount, and all houses, lands, gardens, and fields, were to be divided among the shareholders accord- ing to their respective interests. A London mer- chant who risked one hundred pounds would receive for his money tenfold more than the penniless laborer •^ Eradford. f Ibid. "Being takeu iu the name of one who failed to ac- company the expedition, the patent was never of the least ser- vice." Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 303. FAKEWELL. 67 for his eutire services. This arrangement threat- ened a seven years' check to the pecuniary prosper- ity of the colony; yet as it did not interfere with civil rights or religion, it did not intimidate the resolved."" It is peculiarly interesting to us of this genera- tion to notice how prominent a trait republicanism was in the intellectual character of the Pilgrims. It crops out constantly. Nothing must be done without the assent of " the multitude." When any important matter was broached, the pastor did not j)resume to dictate, nor did the elders assume to control ; the decision rested with the majority vote of the community. Their council was the ideal model of a pure democracy. So now, when their envoys returned, "they made a public recital," and the Pilgrims "had a solemn meeting and a day of humiliation to seek the Lord for his direction. "t Robinson preached, " teaching many things very aptly and befitting their present occasion and condition, strengthening them against their fears and perplexities, and encouraging them in their resolutions.":]: This fine incident was at once an illustration and a prophecy ; it illustrated the rugged, seK-centred, yet devout independence of the exiles, and it proph- esied from this the twining laurels of success. The Pilgrims were invincible ; and the secret of their « Bancroft, pp. 305, 306. The title of the company thus foi-med was "The Merchant Adventurers." See Elliot, vol. 1, p. 49. t Bradford. Winslow in Young's Chronicles. X Ibid. 68 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. strength was religious democracy. If in their right- hand they held an open Bible, signifying faith and hope, in their left they clutched tenaciously the fun- damental but still crude principles of organized lib- erty — the now open secret of later Saxon progress. At length, in July, 1620, " after much travail and debate, all things were got ready and provided."* It had been previously decided who and how many should sail with "the forlorn hope;" "for all that were willing to have gone could not get ready on account of their other affairs : neither if they could, had there been means to have transported them all together. Those that stayed being the greater number, required the pastor to tarry with them ; and indeed for other reasons Robinson could not then well go, so this was more readily yielded unto. The others then desired elder Brewster to sail with them, which was assented to. It was also agreed by mutual consent and covenant, that those who went should be an absolute church of themselves, as well as those who remained ; seeing that, in such a dangerous voyage, and removed to such a dis- tance, it might come to pass that they should, for the body of them, never meet again in this world ; yet this proviso was inserted, that as any of the rest crossed the water, or any of the Pilgrims re- turned upon occasion, they should be reputed as members without any further discussion or testi- monial. It was also promised to those that went first, by the body of the rest, that if the Lord gave * Bradford. Winslow in Young's Chronicles. FAKEWELL. 69 them life and means and opportunity, tliej would come to tliem as soon as they could,"* On the eve of departure a solemn fast was held. "Let us seek of God," said these disciples so shortly to be severed by the sullen sea, " a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance." Is it strange that New England is moral and well- ordered and devout, when it was begotten of a fast and a prayer ? Robinson gave the departing members of his exiled flock " a farewell, breathing a freedom of opinion and an independence of authority such as then was hardly known in the world ;"t and this he intermixed with practical directions for the future guidance of the Pilgrim voyagers. He chose that beautiful text in Ezra, " And there, at the river by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before God, and seek of him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our sub- stance.":): Unhappily, " but a brief outline of that remark- able sermon has been preserved. We would gladly give whole shoals of printed discourses in exchange for that one homily. AVhile, however, the larger part is lost in the long silence of the past, the frag- ments of this great man's farewell utterances are gathered up and preserved among our richest relics."§ ® Bradford, p. 42. f Bancroft. J Ezra 8 : 21. This is the version in Bradford's Narrative. § Stoughton, Spiritual Heroes — The Pilgrim Fathers. 70 THE PILGKIM FATHEKS. Never was there a more affecting occasion. A Christian congregation, welded together ahke by a common faith and a common misfortune, was about to be rent asunder. Some of their number, thrice exiled, were soon to essay the settlement of an un- known and legendary wilderness. These dear wan- derers they might never see again with their mortal eyes ; and even should they meet them once more on the shores of time, years must intervene before the greeting. Strange thoughts and anxious chased each other across the troubled mirror of each coun- tenance. All eyes were dim with tears ; all hands were clasped ; the pastor's heart was full. Amidst the painful silence, broken by a frequent sob, the low, sweet voice of Robinson was heard quivering^ upon the sympathetic air : " Brethren, we are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether I shall live ever to see your faces more. But whether the Lord hath appointed it or not, I charge you before God and his blessed angels to follow me no farther than I have followed Christ. If God should reveal any thing to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth of my ministry, for I am very confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word. Mis- erably do I bewail the state and condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go no farther than the instru- ments of their reformation. " Remember your church covenant, in which FAEEVYELL. 71 you have agreed to walk in all the ways of the Lord, made or to be made known unto you. Re- member your promise and covenant with God and with one another to receive whatever light and truth shall be made known to you from his written word ; but withal, take heed, I beseech you, what you re- ceive for truth, and compare it and weigh it with other scriptures of truth before you accept it ; for it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once."* Much is said nowadays about the development of Christianit3\ The clatter of ^se? Whittier, Ballads and other Poems. IN THE WOODS. ]21 CHAPTER IX. IN THE WOODS. " Actions i-are and sudden, do commonly Proceed fi-om fierce necessity." Sir William Davenant. Two or three clays after the return of Winslow and Hopkins from Massasoit's forest rendezvous, the routine -life of the colonists was broken by the sudden disai3pearance of one of the younger mem- bers of the Plymouth commonwealth. John Bil- lington was nowhere to be found. Though he was a vicious lad, the pest of the colony, his absence caused great anxiety. Whither had he gone ? Was he drowned ? Had he been kidnapped ? Had he wandered away and lost his course in the tangled cross-paths of the forest ? Though the season, already declining towards autumn, called for the active labor of the settlers, the supposed peril of the lost boy swallowed up all other considerations, and a squad of ten men was recruited to go in search of him.* The clumsy shallop was rigged, and, led by Standish, all em- barked. They had not sailed far ere a sudden squall, accompanied by a severe thunderstorm, pe- culiar to the season and the latitude, struck them, * Pilgrims' Journal, Palfrey, Bradford. Pilgiim Fathen. (J 122 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. as it were, witli clenched fists. A water-spout, the first they had ever seen, flung up the hissing sea to a sheer height of fifty feet within a stone's toss of the shallop, already half capsized.* Drenched and weary, they landed in Cummaquid, now Barnstable harbor, where they bivouacked. t Here an Indian runner, despatched by Massasoit, met them, and said that the lad they sought might be found at Nauset, some miles farther down the coast. In the morning, as they were about to embark, they espied two Indians, strangers, whom they hailed. Squanto and another friendly sachem named To- kamahamon were with the scouting party, and they now acted as interpreters. These natives corrobo- rated Massasoit's report of the whereabouts of young Billington ; and at' their invitation, six of the Englishmen accompanied them to an interview with their chief, lyanough, who lurked in the vicin- ity. When they met the sagamore, they found him to be a handsome man, in the May of youth, cour- teous in his manners, and unlike an Indian save in his costume.:!: The entertainment to which he invited his pale-face guests was in harmony with his decorous appearance, being various and abun- dant.§ While they were feasting, they saw an old, with- ered squaw, who seemed bowed doAvn beneath the weight of a hundred years, hobbling eagerly tow- * Banvard, p. 56. Priuce ; Mount in Young, pp. 214-218. I Mount in Young. Banvard. % Bradford, p. 103. S "Rnnvn.vfl n .^fi Mount,. J 1VJ.UUUL lU. XUUU^. JJclIlV § Banvard, p. 56. Mount. IN THE WOODS. 123 arcls the spot of green sward where they redined. She had never seen an Englishman, and was natu- rally curious to gaze upon the pale-face strangers. Qn reaching their vicinage she became intensely excited, and commenced to howl and rave and weep, pausing between each sob to curse her chief- tain's guests. The Pilgrims were astonished. They asked why the old squaw cried and cursed, and were told that Hunt had kidnapped three of her sons, at the same time that he had carried Squanto into Si^anish servitude. They told the old squaw, through an interjoreter, that Hunt was a bad man, condemned by all good Englishmen ; said that they would not do so wicked an act for all the skins in New England ; and to convince her of their sincer- ity, gave her some trinkets, which served to j^lacate her exuberant wrath." Taking a friendl}^ leave of lyanough, the Pil- grims returned to the shallop, and at once set sail for Nauset, the Indian name of what is now the pleasant village of Eastham. On their arrival, the shallop was surrounded by a swarm of natives, who greatly annoyed them by their officious offers of assistance.! Standish was impelled to keep on the alert by the remembrance that this tribe was the one which had assailed the English coasting party in December, 1620.| Among these savages the Pilgrims found the long-sought owner of the corn which they had taken from the burial-mound ; he * Mount in Young. Banvard. f Ibid. t Bradford, p. 103. 124 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. was invited to A-isit Plymouth, where he was prom- ised ample payment."'^ Towards evening, a sagamore named Aspiret came to them, bringing with him the lost lad. He had wandered over the hills and through the woods for five daj's, living upon the berries and wild fruit of the season. Finally he reached an Indian vil- lage at Menomet, where Sandwich is now located ; and here the Indians had sent him to the Nausets, among whom he was now found.t The boy was decked out in the tawdry Indian style when Aspinet delivered him to the settlers, and several pounds of beads hung suspended from his neck.| Standish rewarded the sachem for his care of the boy ; he also distributed some presents among his tribe. Here a rumor of war between the Nar- ragansetts and Massasoit reached them ; and Aspi- net also said that the great sagamore had been captured by his vengeful foemen.§ Apprehensive for the welfare of the colony, and conscious that they ought to render Massasoit assistance in case he had been imjustly attacked, the Englishmen bade Aspiret a hasty but cordial farewell, and in- stantly reembarked.il Plymouth was regained without further adven- ture. Their return was welcome, for these ten con- stituted half the martial force of the common- wealth ; and in their absence the remaining settlers ^ Banvard, p. 58. \ Mount in Young. Banvari X Ibid. § Ibid. Prince, toI. 1, p. 107. || Ibid. IN THE WOODS. 125 had learned of dangerous intrigues against their peace, stirred by a sachem called Corbitant, an ally of Massasoit's, but never a friend to the Pilgrims.* "The flying rumors gathered as they rolled ; Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told ; And all who told it added something new, And all who heard it made enlargement too ; In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew, "f At first this startling intelhgence Avas flung into the ears of the settlers : " The Narragansetts have invaded Massasoit's territory ; the sagamore is either a prisoner or has fled ; an attack upon Plym- outh may immediately be expected.":]: Squanto, Tokamahamon, and a warrior named Habbamak, who had come to live among the colo- nists, " a proper, lusty man, of great account for his valor and parts among the Indians,"§ were at once despatched to reconnoitre. Hardly had they disap- jjeared in the skirting forests ere word was brought that Massasoit was safe, that the Narragansetts were not near, but that Corbitant was using every wile to detach the sagamore fi'om the English alliance, while he threatened death to Squanto, Takamaha- mon, and Habbamak, the counsellors of the sachem who were so actively friendly to the Pilgrims. I! Events hustled each other ; for scarcely had the settlers time to breathe freer after this recital, ere " Habbamak came running in all sweating," and * Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 185. Bradford, p. 103. f Pope. % Palfrey, Banvard, Bradford, Pilgrims' Journal. § Bradford, p. 103, || Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 185. 126 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. informed the clustering colonists that he and his two friends had been surprised and overpowered at Namasket by Corbitant ; that he had managed to escape, but that he feared Squanto and Tokamaha- mon were dead, as he saw Corbitant press a knife to their breasts, and say, " If Sqiianto were dead, these English would lose their tongue."^ The Pilgrims never aj)pear to greater advan- tage than in moments of trial ; they are always equal to the occasion ; "Like a ball that bounds According to the force with which 't was thrown ; So in affliction's violence, he that's wise, The more he 's cast down, will the higher rise."f 'T was so with the Pilgrims. Danger seemed pow- erless to abash them. They " walked softly before the Lord," but they " feared no evil." The}^ were profoundly penetrated with John Marston's maxim : " Through danger safety comes ; through trouble rest." So now in this strait, they w^asted no time in technical deliberation. Justice to themselves, to Squanto, to Massasoit, demanded action, prompt, efficient. Impunity was a bounty on offence. They were too weak to dare let an insult go unpunished. Besides, it was remembered that "if they should suffer their friends and messengers to be thus wronged, they would have none to cleave unto them, or bring them intelligence, or do them any good service afterwards, while next their foes would * Banvard, p. 62. f Nabb's Microcosmos. IN THE WOODS. 127 fall upon themseh'es. Whereupon it was resolved to send Standisli and fourteen men well armed, and to go and fall upon the Indian village at Namasket at night ; and if they found that Squanto was killed, to cut off Corbitant's head, but not to hurt any not concerned in the murder. Habbamak was asked if ho would go and be their guide. He said he would, and bring them to the very spot, and point out Cor- bitant. So they set out on the evening of August 14th, 1621."^- The night was dark and tempestuous. Habba- mak himself was often puzzled to find the path, and at times groped blindlj^ Towards midnight the little army halted and made a supper in the dark. As they were now near Namasket, the final preparations for the assault were made. Knap- sacks were thrown aside, and each man received his specific directions. The plan was to surround the wigwam of Corbitant and seize him ere he could escape. None were to be injured unless an attempt to escape was made.f The march was now resumed. Cautiously and silently they trod in the footsteps of their dusky guide, casting furtive glances into the enveloping gloom, and pausing momentarily to listen and to watch. At length the Indian village was reached. There it lay, calm and oblivious of danger, the eyes of its inmates sealed in sleep. Softly but swiftly the assailants stole like spectres half round the * Bradford, pp. 103, 104. * Bradford, pp. 103, 104. f Moimt in Yoiing ; Banvard, Bradford. 128 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. drowsy town, and instructed by Habbamak, the wigwam of the hostile sachem was surrounded. Then came anotlier brief pause, and each man's heart seemed throbbing in his throat, so new and so exciting was the situation. The signal followed; the hut was entered ; its inmates, still half asleep, were deprived of speech by fright and drowsiness. Soon, however, they regained their senses, and great commotion ensued. Standish asked if Corbitant was there. Unable or unwilling to reply, several of the aroused Indians essayed to pass the guard. Then the guns of the invaders increased the hub- bub, and flashed angrily in the pitchy darkness. The women, rushing to Habbamak, called him " Friend, friend !" The boys, noticing that no in- jury was atteniiDted against the squaws, shouted, " I am a girl, I am a girl !"* After a time silence was regained. Standish, speaking through the lips of Habbamak, explained the object of the assault, and again demanded to know the whereabouts of Corbitant. Keassured, the Indians said that the wily sachem, fearing some revengeful action, had decamped ; that Squanto and Tokamahamon had not yet been murdered, but were held as captives in a neighboring wigwam. f The friendly sachems were speedily released, and while their deliverers heartily rejoiced over their escape, they regretted that of Corbitant.^ The whole party breakfasted with Squanto ; after which the Namasket Indians were assembled, and * Banvard, p. G4. f Mount in Young. | Ibid. IN THE WOODS. 129 Standi sli informed them of his determination to hunt Corbitant, and to punish all who should plot evil against the colony, or who should presume to contend against the authority of Massasoit. He also regretted that any had been wounded in the night attack, and invited those who pleased to ac- company him back to Plymouth, where an English physician would heal their hurts. Three, two men and a squaw, accepted this invitation, and tarrying until their wounds were dressed, medicined, and cured, they were then dismissed in peace.* This expedition, so successful and so bloodless, had a prodigious effect. By some system of prim- itive telegraphing, the news of it, and of the awful fire-weapons of the pale-faces, spread throughout the forests. The red men did not want such "med- icine men" for their foes. Nine sachems, repre- senting jurisdictions which extended from Charles Eiver to Buzzard's Bay, came to Plymouth and made their submission.! The Indians of an island which the settlers had never seen, sent to sue for their friendship iX ^^cl Corbitant himself, though too shy to come near Plymouth in person, used the mediation of Massasoit to make his peace.§ The result was, broader amity and firmer peace. But the Pilgrims conquered as much by their mod- eration and self-command as by their energetic ■~ Bradford, Mount, etc. f Bradford, p. 104. Felt, Hist, of New England, vol. 1, pp. 64, 65. Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 183. J Bradford, ut antea. § Ibid., Felt, Palfrej'. 6* 130 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. heroism. The anxious care with which they treated the injured warriors of their midnight raid, and the candor of their speech, placated resentment and inspired respect. Still the basis of this feeling was a knowledge that the white men would not suffer insult ; and it has been finely said, that if Ave justly estimate it, there was more of sound policy and gal- lant daring in the midnight raid of this handful of strangers, than has marked many a deed of arms w^hich historians have delighted to record, and to which nations still look back with exultant pride.* Just as autumn began to smile, the Pilgrims made another expedition. This had a twofold pur- pose : to explore the country, and to cement a peace with the northeastern tribes.f Entering the shallop at midnight, Standish and nine others, with three Indians to interpret, of whom Squanto was one, embarked with the ebb- tide.:}: They sailed along the coast to the bay on which Boston now stands, called in the contempo- raneous record, 3Iassacliusetts Bay.^ "On the sec- ond morning after leaving Plymouth, they landed upon a beach under a cliff, and received the sub- mission of a chief on promising to be ' a safeguard from his enemies.' They survej^ed the 'fifty isl- ands ' of Boston harbor ; and passing the night on * Wilson. t Bradford, p. 104. Palfrey, Banvard. X Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 186. § The word Massachusetts signifies an arrow-shaped hill. It is supposed to have been given to the surrounding country from the Blue Hills of Milton, which were formerly called Massachu- setts Mount. See Banvard, p. 65. IN THE WOODS. 131 board their boat, went on sliore again the following- day and walked a few miles into the country. They observed land which had been cultivated, two forts in decay, untenanted huts, and other tokens of re- cent depopulation. They noted * the fair entrance ' of the river Charles, and ' harbors for shipping ' than which ' better could not be.' Thev conciliated the few natives whom thev met, and traded with them for some skins. They learned that the prin- cipal personage in the neighborhood was the female chief, or 'squaw sachem' of the Massachusetts; that this tribe had suffered from the hostile incursions of the Tarratines, and that its people owed a cer- tain allegiance to Massasoit. The third evening, by ' a light moon,' the partj^ set sail for home, which they reached before the following noon. The ac- counts they brought of the seat of their explora- tions naturally led their friends to ' wish they had been seated there;' "^ but " the Lord, who assigns to all men the bounds of their habitations," re- marks Bradford, "had appointed it for another use."t The party "found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, for which let his holy name have the praise for ever to all posterity."! Standish and his friends had returned on the 22d of September. Their services were needed ; the nodding crops were to be reaped, and all " be- « Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 186. For a fuller account of this expedi- tion, see Mount in Young, pp. 224:-229. t Bradford, p. 105. % Ibid. 132 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. gan now to gather in the small harvest they had."* The husbandry of the year proved a prosperous beginning. The rivers supplied manure in abun- dance, and the weather had been not unfavorable, t " All the summer there was no want." While " some were thus employed in affairs abroad, oth- ers were exercised" in domestic avocations, in " fishing for cod and bass and other fish, of which they took great store, giving every family its por- tion."t "When the fields were gleaned, the pease turned out "not worth the gathering, the sun having parched them in the blossom ;" the barley was " indifferent good ;" and there was " a good in- crease of Indian corn." " They had about a peck of meal a week to a person j or now, since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion."! Seven substantial dwelling-houses had been built, " and four for the use of the plantation," while others were being constructed. Fowl were so abundant in the autumn, that " four men in one day killed as much as, with a little help besides, served the community almost a week." " There was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison." The fowlers had been sent out by the governor, " that so they might, after a special manner, rejoice together, since they had gathered the fruit of their labors;" this was the origin and the first celebration of the national fes- * Bradford, p. 105. f Palfrey. | Bradford. § Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187. IN THE WOODS. 133 tival of New England, the autumnal thanksgiving. On that occasion of hilarity they " exercised their arms," and for three days "entertained and feasted" Massasoit and some ninety of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to the festivity. Health was restored ; household fires were blazing bright- ly ; and in good heart and hope the lonely but thankful settlers disposed themselves to meet the rigor of another winter.* "Here was free range; the hunter's instincts could bourgeon and grow ; the deer that browsed, the fish that swam, the fowl that flew, were free to all — might be captives to each man's bow and spear. Here were ' herring, cod, and ling,' * salt upon salt,' ' beavers, otters, furs of price,' ' mines of gold and silver,' ' woods of all sorts,' ' eagles, gripes, whales, grampus, moose, deer,' ' bears, and wolves,' ' all in season, mind you, for you cannot gather cherries at Christmas in Kent.' "Who then would live at home in degradation, only to eat, and drink, and sleep and to die ?"-!• o Winslow in Mount, etc., cited in Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 187. t Smith's Description of New England, cited in Elliot, vol. 1, p. 77. 134 THE PILGKIM FATHERS. CHAPTER X. KEINFOECEMENT. "A golden treasure is the tried friend ; But who may gold from counterfeits defend ? Trust not too soon, nor j-et too soon mistrust ; Who tmnes betwixt, and steers the golden mean. Nor rashly loveth, nor mistrusts in vain." MiRROK FOB MagISTEATES. On the morning of the 9th of November, 1621, after morning prayer — for the Pilgrims commenced each fresh day by the solemn invocation of God's blessing on its labors, and at evening sealed the record by devout thanksgiving — when the thrifty settlers had separated each to his respective task, an Indian runner came breathless into the settle- ment, and announced that a vessel might be seen off Cape Cod, apparently crowding sail for Plym- outh harbor.* As no friends were expected at that season, this intelligence caused great excitement. A rush for the neighboring heights was made. There, indeed, spotting the dim horizon, a strange ship might be discerned. Endless were the speculations as to her character and objects. Was she manned by the in- imical Frenchman? Was she a buccaneer, bent on murderous pillage '? Could she be a friend ? The Pilgrims were cautious and provident men. In the * Eussell's Pilgrims' Memorial, p. 131. Young's Chronicles, p. 232. REINFORCEMENT. 135 wilderness the common law maxim was reversed — all were necessarily held to be guilty until proved innocent. So now preparation was made to repel intruders, should they come with hostile intent. The governor ordered a cannon to be fired to sum- mon the scattered pioneers home. All were armed ; then, in painful suspense, the colonists waited the approach of the stranger craft. Nearer she drew- and yet nearer. Intently was her every motion viewed. Her architecture was studied ; her rigging was observed; and all eyes were directed towards the peak where should flap her flag : it was not there. But, suddenly, it was run up, and, lo, it was the English jack ! The colonists were delirious with joy, for that flag meant friends at hand and news from " home ;" so their welcoming shouts went echoing across the water to their incoming reinforcers. Soon the ship anchored ; then the boats passing to and fro bore the friends to each other's arms ; and amid kindly greetings and warm welcomings the news was asked and told. It was the" Fortune" which had just arrived. She brought Cushman and thirty -Ave others to reinforce the infant colon3^ - Among this comj^any Avere sev- eral who had embarked in the " Speedwell," balked of a passage then, but now safely arrived. t The meeting was not untinged with sadness. " Death had been busy; Carver was gone, and more than <» Movmt, in Young, pp. 224-229. Kussell's Pilgiim'.s Manual, p. 153. t Bradford, Elliot, Banvard. 133 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. half of those to whom Cushmau had bidden God- speed iu the " Mayflower" rested under the sod, the grass growing on their levelled graves."* But as was their wont, the Pilgrims looked on the bright side of the picture ; and all thanked God that some remained to welcome the new-comers. When the home budget was opened it was found to contain several items of moment to the colony. The patent of the London company under which the emigrants had expected to possess their Ameri- can homes, was made to cover Virginia alone, aud this was rendered nugatory by the debarkation in New England. t The London company was now under a cloud. The active prominence of its chiefs as popular lead- ers of the Parliamentary reformers against the royal prerogative, had provoked the pique of James ; and his hostility was increased by the cunning of the Sj)anish court, with which he was then on friendly terms, and which desired to repel English neigh- bors from the Spanish settlement in Florida.:]: James exhibited his resentment by favoring the interests of a rival company of which Gorges, and Sheflield, and Hamilton, were the leaders. To them a new incorporation was granted, and assuming the title of the "Plymouth Company," they were empowered " to order, and govern New England in America."§ '-- Elliot, vol. 1, p. 79. t Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 190. I Ibid. Peckham's Life of Nicholas Ferrar. London, 1852. § Gorge's Brief Narrative, chap. 16. REINFOECEMENT. 137 Upon the domain of the new corporation the Pilgrims had settled without leave ; they were there- fore liable to a summary ejectment.* The company of Merchant-adventurers, under whose auspices they had sailed, informed of their position by the return of the "Mayflower," immediately applied to the Plymouth company for a patent which should cover the soil now colonized.f It was granted " to John Pierce and his associates," and was in trust for the benefit of the colony 4 Thomas Weston, the agent of the Merchant-ad- venturers, sent a copy of this charter to the Plym- outh colonists, accompanying it with a letter in which, after complaining of the long detention of the "Mayflower" in America, and of her return without a cargo, he said that " the future life of the business depended on the lading of the ' Fortune,' " which being done, he promised never to desert the Pilgrims, even if all the other merchants should do so ;§ adding, " I pray you write instantly for Mr. Kob- inson to come to you ; and send us a fair engross- ment of the contract betwixt yourselves and us, sub- scribed Avith the names of the principal planters."!! While the "Fortune" lay moored in Plymouth harbor, Bradford penned a weighty and dignified « Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 193. f Ibid. X " It was dated June 1, 1G21, and is interesting, as being the first grant made by the great Plymouth company. 'Twas fii'st printed in 1854, in 4th Mass. Hist. Coll., vol, 11. The original is now at Plymouth. 'Tis probably the oldest document in Massachusetts officially connected with her history," Bradford, Ed. note, pp. 107, 108. § Bradford, p. 107, Kussell, Morton, Young. || Ibid. 138 THE PILGBIM FATHEES. reply to Weston's animadversions. After reciting tlie incidents wliicli had checkered the twelvemonth of their settlement, including the death of Carver, to whom the agent of the Merchant-adventurers had directed his missive, he said, with an unconscious touch of pathos, " If the company has suffered, on the side of the settlers there have been disappointments far more serious. The loss of many honest and in- dustrious men's lives cannot be valued at any price. It pleased God to visit us with death daily, and with so general a disease that the living were scarce able to bury the dead, and the well not in any measure sufficient to tend the sick. And now to be so greatly blamed for not freighting the ship, doth indeed go near us, and much discourage us."* Preeminently conscientious, and earnestly desir- ous to give the Merchant-adventurers no just cause of complaint, the Pilgrim colonists made every effort to secure a speedy and profitable cargo for the "Fortune's" homeward voyage. The ship was a small one of but fiftj'-five tons burden ;t but she was at once " laden with good clapboards, as full as she could stow, two hogsheads of beaver and other .. skins, with a few other trifling commodities," in all to the value of five hundred pounds.| Barely four- teen days elapsed between her arrival and her read- iness to dej)art.§ * Bradford, pp. 108, 109. t Elliot, Felt, Banvard, Mount in Young. X Bradford, p. 108. About twenty-five hundred dollars. § Ibid. EEINFORCEMENT. 139 Just before the "Fortune" sailed, the colonists were busy in preparing epistles for tlieir friends in England and for the dear Lejden congregation. These were intrusted to Robert Cushman, who was to return to London and make a report of the situation of the Plymouth colony.* He himself, just on the eve of his return, delivered a memorial discourse in the block citadel on Fort-hill — which was at once church and castle — in which he recited vividly the cause of the emigration, the incidents attending it, the spirit of the actors, and the augu- ries of the future ; and this was printed at London in 1622.t In the dedicatory epistle to this sermon — whose object was to draw the attention of Puritans at home to the advantages of the Plymouth settlement as a residence where the virtues of religion might be more than ordinarily exemplified, as is proved by the fact that it was so speedily published in Eng- land — Cushman says : " If there be any Avho are content to lay out their estates, spend their time, labor, and endeavors for the benefit of those who shall come after, and who desire to further the gos- pel among the poor heathen, quietly contenting themselves with such hardships as by God's provi- dence shall fall upon them, such men I should ad- vise and encovirage to go to New England, for in that wilderness tlieir ends cannot fail them. And whoso rightly considereth what manner of entrance, * Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 197. Bradford. t Dr. Young has reprinted it in his Chronicles, p. 262, et seq. 140 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. abiding, and proceeding we have liad among the savages since we came, will easily think that God hath some great work in store for ns. By reason of one Squanto, who lives amongst ns, who can sjDeak English, we can have daily commerce with the In- dian kings ; and acquaint them with our causes and purposes, both human and religious."* Three things, according to Winslow, are the bane and overthrow of plantations : The vain ex- pectation of instantaneous profit, without work ; ambition ; and the lawlessness of settlers.f These rocks long wrecked the prosperity of the American colonies outside of New England. Cushman bade emigrants beware of entertaining the too common error of supposing that the wilderness was an actual Eldorado, as the Spanish had taught, and as the Virginia colonists had imagined.:]: "No," he said, " neither is there any land or possession now like unto that which the Jews had in Canaan, beiiig legally holy, and appropriated unto holy people, the seed of Abraham, in which they dwelt securely, and had their days prolonged, it being by an immediate voice said, that the Lord gave it to them as a land of rest after their weary travels, and as a type of eternal rest in heaven. But now there is no land of that sanctity, no land so appropriated, none typi- ■~" Cusliman, cited in Felt, vol. 1. p. G7. j- Winslow's Good News, Londou, 1G24. J " Captain Smith describes the Virginia settlers as made up of forty-eight needy ' gentlemen ' to four carpenters, who were come to do nothing else ' but dig gold, make gold, refine gold, and load gold.' " Elliot, vol. 1, p. 79, note. REINFORCEMENT. 141 cal, much less any that can be said to be given of God to any one peojDle, as Canaan was, which they and theirs must dwell in till God sendeth upon them sword and captivity. Now we are all, in all places, strangers and pilgrims, travellers and so- journers. Having no dwelling but in this earthly tabernacle, no residence but a wandering, no abi- ding but a fleeting,"* Avhere work makes a home, and labor keeps it. In a private letter addressed by Edward Wins- low to a friend in London, and which helped to swell the budget which went out by the " Fortune," that stout old worthy says : " We have found the Indians very faithful to their covenant of peace with us, very loving and ready to pleasure us. We often go to them, and they come to us. Some of us have been fifty miles by land into the interior with them, the occasions and relation whereof you shall un- derstand by our general and more full declaration of such things as are worth noting. Yea, it hath pleased God so to possess the Indians with fear of us, and love unto us, that not only the greatest king amongst them, called Massasoit, but also all the princes and tribes round about us have sent their messengers to us to make suit for peace, so that there is now great peace amongst the Indians them- selves, which was not formerly, neither would have been but for us ; and we, for our part, walk as peace- ably and safely in the wood as in the highways in England. We entertain them pleasantly and famil- e Cited in Elliot, vol. 1, j^p. 79, 80. 142 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. iarly in our cabins, and they as friendly bestow their venison on us. They are a peoj)le without any religion, yet trusty, quick of a]323rehension, ripe — • withal just."* By this same opportunity William Hilton, who had come out in the "Fortune," thus sums up an account to his " loving cousin" of the natural wealth and prospects of the country on whose soil he had recently set foot : " Better grain cannot be than the Indian corn, if we will plant it upon as good ground as a man may desire. We are all freeholders ; the rent-day doth not trouble us ; and of all the bles- sings we have, which and what we list we may take in season. Our company are, for the most part, very honest, religious people. The word of God is sincerely taught us every Sabbath ; so that I know not any thing a contented, earnest mind can here want. I desire your friendly care to send my wife and children to me when occasion serves, where I wish all the friends I have in England."t Winslow gives us some significant hints of the social life and wants of the colony by describing to his friends the stores most needful to send out for their use; and we get no little insight into the hardships and very homely accommodations of the forefathei-s through the glass of his request that the next ship may " bring paper and linseed oil for the windows, with cotton yarn for the lamps.":}; "" Winslow, in Young's Chronicles. t Wilson, p. 389. Felt, vol. 1, p. 67. t Smith, New England's Trials. Pjince, vol. 1, p. 115. REINFOECEMENT. 143 And now, on the 14tli of December, 1621, all being ready and leave-taking said, the little " For- tune," crammed with the "first fruits" of the Pil- grim enterprise, set sail for England. But alas, just as she had almost reached the English coast, she was clutched by a French privateer, robbed of her precious freight, and sent into the Thames an empty hull, to the bitter chagrin of the company of Mer- chant-adventurers, and the sad disappointment of the Plymouth colonists, when, at a later day, they learned of the misfortune.* *s Bradford, Young. 144 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. CHAPTER XL THE MOEALE OF THE COLONY. "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is tlae immediate jewel of their souls." Shakspeare, Othello. On the return of the settlers from the shore where they had said good-by to the "Fortune," it was arranged that the new-comers should for the present, in the absence of other accommodations, be received into the families already provided with cabins.* Unhappily, the "Fortune" had brought out no store; indeed, she was obliged to rely on the colonists for provisions for her larder on the home voyage. The emigrants whom she lauded were absolutely destitute, having " not so much as biscuit-cake or any other victuals set aside for pres- ent want. Neither had they any bedding, nor pot nor pan to dress meat in, nor over-many clothes."t Though the plantation rejoiced at this increase of strength, yet they would have been better pleased had many of the emigrants come better provided and in fitter condition to winter in the wilderness4' With the provident promptness which is so om- nipresent a trait in their character, the Pilgrims at once " took an exact account of all their provisions ° Bradford, Mount in Young, Eussell. t Ibid. Prince, vol. 1. | Bradford, p. 106. MOKALE OF THE COLONY. 145 in store, and proportioning these to the number of persons, found that, owing to the arrival of so many unexpected and necessitous guests, they would not hold out above six months, or till the spring, on half-allowance; and they could not well give less this Avinter-time, till fish came in again. But all were presently put on half-allowance, which began to be hard, but it was borne patiently."* Indeed, the Pilgrims bore this hardshij) with something better than mere patience. " I take no- tice of it as a great favor of God," wrote one of the sufferers, " that he has not only preserved my life, but given me contentedness in our straits; insomuch that I do not remember ever to have wished in my heart that I had never come into this country, or that I might be again in my father's house. "f It was said of Brewster, that " with the most submis- sive patience he bore the novel and trying hard- ships to which his old age was subjected, lived ab- stemiously, and after having been in his youth the companion of ministers of state, the rej^resentative of his sovereign, familiar with the magnificence of courts, and the possessor of a fortune sufficient not only for the comforts, but the elegances of life, this humble, devoted Puritan labored steadily with his own hands in the 'liistie stibble-fields ' of the un- kempt wilderness for daily subsistence ; while on the Sabbath, as elder of the church, and in the absence of an ordained minister, he broke the bread of Hfe for the Pilgrim flock. Now, destitute of meat, of c- Bradford, p. 110. t While's Incidents, etc. Pilgrim Fatlieis. *l 146 THE PILGKIM FATHERS. fish, and of bread, over Lis simple raeal of clams he would return thanks to the Lord that he could suck of the abundance of the sea and of treasures hid in the sand."* An eminent historian bids us beware of the error of supposing that the community planted at Plym- outh was of a strictly homogeneous character. " The devoted men who, at Leyden, had debated the question of emigration, did not constitute the whole company even of the 'Mayflower.' They had been joined in England by several strangers who, like themselves, had come under engagement to the Merchant-adventurers of London. That partner- ship had business objects, and was by no means solely swayed by religious sympathy with the Ley- den Pilgrims."t Of the twenty men of the "Mayflower's" com- pany who survived the first winter, several are un- favorably known, as Billington, the foul-mouthed contemner of Standish's authority, and Dotey and Lister, the lackey duelists of Hopkins' quiet liouse- hold.1: So of the reinforcement by the " Fortune." Some were old and devout friends of the colonists, as Simonson and De la Noye, members of the Ley- den church ; John Winslow, Edward's brother ; Thomas Prince, afterwards governor; Cushman's son, and a son of Brewster.§ Others were turbu- * White's Incidents, etc. t Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 187-189. | Chap. 7. p. 106. ^ "Winslow in Brief Narration, in HAqDocrisie Unmasked, p. 393. .;is(i. Pfilfvpy. vol. 1, p. 180. note. MORALE OF THE COLONY. 147 lent and restless rovers, impatient of control, care- less in religion, and burning for adventure ; in Brad- ford's phrase, " lusty young men, and many of them •wild enough, Avho little considered whither or about what they went."* Happily for the peace of the little commonwealth and for posterity, " the advan- tage' of numbers and the authority of superior char- acter determined that events should proceed at Plymouth according to the policy of Bradford, Brewster, and their godly friends. Still internal tendencies to disturbance are not to be left out of view in a consideration of the embarrassments with which the forefathers had to contend. "t Under Bradford's government, the laws were few and mild, but firm; and neither the lazy nor the godless received countenance, though tender consciences were never pinched. Take this inci- dent as an illustration: " On the day called Christ- mas day, the governor called the settlers out to work, as was usual; but the most part of the new- comers excused themselves, and said it went against their consciences to work on Christmas. So the governor told them if they made it a matter of con- science, he would spare them till they were better informed. On this, he led away the rest, and left them ; but when the laborers came home from work at noon, they found the scrupulous ncAV-comers in the street at play openly ; some pitching the bar, some at foot -ball, and others at kindred sports. Immediately the governor went to them, and took o Bradford, p. 106. t Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 189. 148 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. away tlieir implements, and told them that it was against his conscience that they should play while others worked. If they made the keeping of Christ- mas matter of devotion, let them keep their houses ; but there should be no gaming or revelling in the streets; since which time nothing hath been at- tempted that w\ay, at least openly."- In this and kindred ways, the commonwealth was controlled and moulded into higher courses. Practical consistency was gained, and the elements out of which homogeneity might grow were planted at every hearth-stone. " In companions That did converse and spend their time together, Whose souls did bear an equal yoke of love_ There needs should be a like proportion Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit." « Bradford, p. 112. THE PILGRIM GOVEENMENT. 149 CHAPTER XII. THE PILGBIM GOVEENMENT. " A free republic, where, beneath the sway Of mild and eqnal laws, framed by themselves, One people dwell, and own no lord save God." Mes. Hale's Ormond Grosvenor. Just here it is perhaps fit that the salient fea- tures of the unique government under which the forefathers lived and prospered should be briefly sketched ; and in order that this exposition may bo clear, claiming the privilege of a chronicler, we shall command the clock of this narration to stand still, while we peer at times into the then future, in tra- cing some law to its result, or in depicting the change of front of an exploded policy. At the outset, the arrangements of the Pilgrims were extremely simple, and grew naturally from their needs, from their crude ideas of liberty, and their imperfect conception of a model state. Nom- inally, the sovereignty of Britain was recognized; in fact, all through these opening decades of Amer- ican history, the colonists were despised by the home government, and left free to plant the most radical principles of a " proper democracy." It was only when the greed of gain squeezed her heart, not repentance nor love, that England recognized the legitimacy of the neglected child whom she had 150 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. pronounced a bastard, and left to freeze in the winter wilderness. AVhen God wrote success upon the frontlet of the colony, the Shylocks on the Bial- tos of the world were eager to invest in the enter- prise, while England, with motherly pride, patted New England upon the head and said, "I rocked your cradle; but, bless me, how you are grown, and how like me you are. You may pay me your earnings, and I '11 send you a governor." But through the bitter months of the incipient settlement Shylock could see nothing in New Eng- land but a barren coast, while Britain could not discern Plymouth Rock across the water ; nor if she had would any craving governor have itched to set up his chair of state in a cheerless Eldorado of ice and snow. So the Pilgrims were left to shift for themselves until, strengthened by incessant tussles with a rug- ged climate and the savage foe, they expanded into robust manhood. In these first months, the Plym- outh colonists regarded themselves as one famUy, at whose head stood the governor, in loco parentisr But as business increased, the whole burden of gov- ernment was felt to be too onerous for the single shoulders of the governor to bear ; and when Brad- ford stepped into the gubernatorial chair left vacant by the death of Carver, he was voted an assistant.! In 1624, he was given five assistants. Afterwards, in 1633, the number was increased to seven; and « Allen's Biog. Diet.. Thatcher's Plymouth, p. 77. t Chap, 7, p. 108. THE PILGRIM GOVERNMENT. Ibl these, called "the Governor's Council,"* governed the commonwealth in conjunction with their primi- tive executive. The vote of each councillor counted one, and the vote of the chief magistrate was but double — the only check he had over the action of the Council.f The governor was chosen annually, by general suffrage,.]: as were also the councillors.§ The name of the man who was disposed to shirk his civil duty we do not know ; " but a curious law was passed in in 1632, that Avhoever should refuse the office of governor, being chosen thereto, should pay twenty pounds ; and that of magistrate, ten pounds. Very singular, certainly ; and we may suppose that that race has run out even in Massachusetts."!! The legislative body was at first composed of the whole company of voters.! Then, when their numbers grew, church-membership was made the test of citizenship- " — a test which endured till 1665, when it was reluctantly yielded at the requisition of the king's commissioners.tf It was not until 1669 that the increase of population warranted the establishment of a House of Eepresentatives.:j::|: "Narrow as the restriction of citizenship to church-members was, it is easy to explain it by remembering that toleration, in any large sense, » Morton's Memorial, Prince's Annals, Hall's Plymouth Eec- ords. t Ibid. + Ibid. Elliot, vol. 1, p. 109. § Hall, Prince, Thatcher. || Elliott, vol. 1, p. 110. IT Graham, vol. 1. Massachusetts Historical Kecords. Haz- ard, vol. 1. s>c- Ibid. ft Thatcher's Plymouth. J J Graham, vol. 1, p. 230. 152 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. ■was hardly entertained by the most hberal religion- ists in that twilight age, and that the one idea which insjDired this emigration and nerved these men for the bitterest sacrifices was, that they and their chil- dren might be free from an ecclesiastical tj-ranny which, if it followed, would endanger them. It should also be borne in mind that the history they studied, and the guide they felt bound to follow, was the Jewish theocracy, ordained by God, as they doubted not, to be a model in church and state for all time ; and that, under that dispensation, death was the jDunishment for smaller errors than dissent. These facts explain and palliate the religious pre • cision and severity afterwards practised in New England. But the free idea with which they start- ed graduall}^ grew broader, overcame the evil cus- toms of the time, and strangled the prejudices of the Pilgrims themseh'es."* So early as the 17th of December, 1623, it was decreed that " all criminal facts, and all manner of trespass and debt betwixt man and man, should be tried by the verdict of twelve honest men."t Thus the jury trial, the distinctive badge of Saxon civili- zation, a right which a long line of able lawyers, from Coke and Hale to Mansfield and Erskine, have united in styling the palladium of civil liberty, was planted in America. Previous to the year 1632, the laws of Plymouth colony were little more than the customs of the * Elliot, Tol. 1, pp. 112, 113. f Plymouth Kecorcls. Hazard, vol. 1. THE PILGEIM GOVERNMENT. 153 people.* In 163G these were digested, aud pref- aced with a declaration of rights ; and, with vari- ous alterations and additions, the whole manuscript collection was printed in 1671. t Let us open the ponderous old folio, and cull from the mass a few specimen and characteristic samples. Early pro- vision was made for the education of youth. Many of the Pilgrims were men of liberal culture, as Wins- low and Brewster,:!; and all recognized its value and necessity ; so, in order that knowledge and civil liberty might clasp hands, it was enacted, " that twelve pounds should be raised for the salary of a teacher, and that children should be forced to at- tend school."§ Decreed : " For ordering of persons and distrib- uting the lands. That freemen shall be twenty-one years of age ; sober and peaceable ; orthodox in the fundamentals of religion. That drunkards shall be subject to fines, to the stocks, and be posted ; and sellers be forbidden to sell them liquors. " Horse-racing is forbidden ; so also walking about late o' nights. " The minister's salary shall be paid by rate lev- ied on all the citizens. Sabbath work aud travel- ling is forbidden: also all visiting on that dav. " Profane swearing punishable by ' placing in the stocks ; lying, by the stocks or by fine.' " Fowling, fishing, and hunting, shall be free. "Every wolf's head shall be worth, to an In- * Plymouth Kecorcls. Hazard, vol. 1. Elliot. f Elliot. J Thatclier's Plj^mouth, Morton's Memorials, etc. § Book of Laws of New Plymouth, 1671. 154: THE PILGKIM FATHEES. dian, twelve shillings or ' a coat of du£fels ;' to a white man, twenty shillings. " Haunters of ale-houses shall be disciplined bj the church. " A motion of marriage to any man's daughter, if made without obtaining leave, shall be punished by fine or corporal punishment, at the discretion of the court, so it extend not to the endangering of life or limb. " Women shall not wear short sleeves ; nor shall their sleeves be more than twenty-two inches wide :"* an enactment the object of which was, to prevent indecent extremes and extravagance in dress. So runs this " quaint old volume of forgotten lore." If some of these laws seem severe, as we scan them through the vista of two centuries, and in an age when sumptuary laws are perhaps too little known, it may be said in their defence, that they "were quite upon a level with the kindred legislation of Europe, even in their most obnoxious features, while their progressive and liberal tone is as new and unique as the colony which gave them birth, and whose ideas they mirror. In May, 1621, the first marriage in New Eng- land was celebrated.'!- Edward Winslow espoused the widow of William White, and the mother of Peregrine White, whose infant lullaby was the first ever sung by Saxon voice in New England.:^ " ■^^' ° Laws of New Plj'mouth, cited in Elliot, Tol. 1, p. 111. t Prince, Annals, vol. 1, pp. 76, 98, 103, 105. Bradford, p. 101. t Ibid. THE PILGRIM GOVERNMENT. 155 cording to tlie laudable custom of the Low Coun- tries," sajs Bradford, " the ceremony was thought most requisite to be performed by the magistrate, as being a civil contract upon which many ques- tions of inheritance do depend, with other things most proper for their cognizance, and most conso- nant to the Scriptures,* it being nowhere found in the gospel to be layed on ministers as a necessary part of their office. This practice continued, not only among them, but it was followed by all the famous churches of Christ in those parts to the year 1646."t ;> Euth, chap. 4. t Bradford, p. 101. 156 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. CHAPTER XIII. THE COLONIAL ROUTINE. "Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Onr own felicity we make or find ; "With silent course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy." Goldsivuth's Traveller. Now, as their second wilderness winter began to benumb the fingers and chill the blood of the Pilgrim colonists, they were necessarily shut out from many of the employments of the spring, the summer, and the autumn. They were busied chiefly in fishing, hunting, the collection of fuel, hewing timber, and exploring expeditions, varying this rou- tine by occasional trafl&c with Indian trappers.* Devoutly thankful were the forefathers for God's mercy and protection in the past, and with tranquil faith they set their faces towards the future. So full was their devotion, that it constantly cropped out, even setting its impress upon the seal of the commonwealth, which represented four men in the midst of a wilderness, each resting on one knee, and raising his clasped hands toAvards heaven in the attitude of prayer.t e Palfi-ey, vol. 1, p. 196. f This seal was dated 1620, and circumscribed with the words, "Sigillum Societatis Plymouth, Nov. Anglia." THE COLONIAL ROUTINE. 157 "With the Pilgrims, faith was the spur of labor ; and this active enterprise eased and conquered all obstacles. Still, causes for solicitude and trials infinite constantly arose. The lean condition of their larder was a care urgent for the passing time and weighty in the future ; and to this anew source of anxiety Avas added. In the depth of winter, a report was bruited that active hostilities might mo- mentarily be looked for, fomented by the restless enmity of the Narragansetts.* That the Narragansetts were inimical they soon learned. One day one of the warriors of that tribe entered Plymouth, and announced himself to be a messenger from his renowned sagamore Canonicus. He asked for Squanto, but seemed pleased when told that he was absent. He said he had a pack- age for Squanto. This consisted of a bundle of new arrows, wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin. It was enigmatical to the English ; but, suspicious that it could not be the Indian olive-branch, and might mean mischief, Standish detained the mes- senger as he was about to quit the settlement, and determined to hold him until Squanto's return should solve the riddle. t At first the savage was frightened ; but after a little, seeing that his captors meant him no harm, he became quite friendly, and began to chat. The Pilgrims learned from him, that an envoy whom they had despatched to negotiate a peace with the Narragansetts, in the preceding summer, had played « Winslow's Good News from New England. f Ibid. 158 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. Judas, and betrayed his trust. Witliliolding from Cauonicus the presents which the colonists had sent him as tokens of amity, he had used his influ- ence to kindle a war. The imprisoned runner said Canonicus would not have uttered sinister threats, had he thought the English friendly to him. When he returned, and informed the Narragansetts of the real sentiments of the pale faces, firm jjeace would come.* Somewhat affected by these representations, Bradford concluded to release the Indian ; previ- ous to which, however, he bade the envoy inform Canonicus that the pale faces had heard of his threats, and were offended ; that they desired tc live in amity with their red brothers; yet if any warlike demonstrations were made, they would be prepared to meet them.f Then the governor urged the savage to take some food ; but he was too anxious to quit the dangerous vicinage to remain a moment after his liberation ; so, after expressing his gratitude, he immediately set out, in the midst of a driving storm, to find his way through the white, shivering De- cember woods to his wigwam and his people.:]: When Squanto came in, the settlers at once crowded about him, and showing him the spliynx- like Indian package, asked him to spell the riddle. With a laugh and a shrug, he explained that it ex- pressed enmity, and was the red man's declaration * Winslow's Good News from New England. Banvard, p. 70. t Winslow in Young. X Ibid. Banvard. THE COLONIAL KOUTINE. 159 of war. The settlers were startled ; all adjourned to tlie fort ; and here, after deliberation, it was re- solved to meet menace by menace. They thought, rightly, that a determined attitude would in their case be safest ; and though Bradford had no anxi- ety to pit his fifty-odd men against the five thou- sand warriors whom Canouicus could muster, he was bold and defiant in appearance.* The governor filled the rattlesnake-skin with powder and bullets, and despatched it to the Nar- ragansetts by a special messenger, with this word : " If we were supplied with ships, we would save the Narragausett sagamore the trouble of coming so far to meet us by sailing to him in his own domin- ions. As it is, if he will come to the colony, he will find us ready to receive him."t When Canonicus heard this message, he was profoundly impressed with the courage of his pale- face neighbors ; and when the skin was tendered him, he refused to receive it ; but the Pilgrim en- voy would not take it back ; so it was passed from hand to hand among the Narragansetts, till finally, pushed from the forest by superstitious fear, it ■cached the Plymouth settlement nnopened.X Though this prompt action cowed the Narra- gansetts for a time, the rumor of intended hostili- ties continued to vex the colonists through the win- ter. " This made them the more careful to look to themselves ; so they agreed to enclose their dwell- * Winslow in Young, Banvard, Bradford. t Winslow in Young, Eanvard. \ Ibid., Bradford. r 160 THE PILGKIM FATHERS. ings with a strong pale, with flankers in convenient spots, and gates to shut, which were every night locked, and a Avatcli kept ; when need required, there was also warding through the day. The company, by the advice of Standish and the gov- ernor, was divided into four squadrons ; and every man had his position assigned him, to which he was to repair in case of sudden alarm. If there should be a cry of fire, a squad Avas appointed for a guard, with muskets, whilst others quenched the flames. All this was accomplished very cheerfully ; and to prevent Indian treachery, the whole town was impaled round by the beginning of March, while every family had a j)retty garden-spot secured."* The Pilgrims were regularly drilled by Standish, who had learned the science of war in Flanders. On these occasions, part of the exercises consisted in a general rush, each man to his station, and a simultaneous discharge of musketry. After this, the men escorted their officers to their cabins, fired a salute in their honor, and then dispersed. - This may be considered "the first general muster in New England." It was the germ of the present militia system of thirty-six states.f This dihgent training ere long moulded the Pil- grims into a finely disciplined company ; and they were quite proud of their proficiency in arms. Thus "Spake, iu the pride of his heart, Miles Standish, the captain of Plj'mouth : 'Look at these arms,' he said, 'the warlike weapons that hang here, * Bradford, pp. Ill, 112. f Banvard, p. 72. THE COLONIAL ROUTINE. ISI Burnished, and bright, and clean, as if for parade or inspec- tion. This is the s^yord of Damascus I fought with in Flanders. This breastplate — Well I remember the day — once saved my life in a skirmish. There in front you can see the very dint of the bullet Fired point-blank at my heart by a Spanish Arcabucero. Had it not been of shear-steel, the forgotten bones of Miles Stan- dish Would at this moment be mould in their gi'ave in the Flemish morasses. Look! you can see from this window my brazen howitzer, planted High on the roof of the church — a preacher who .speaks to the purpose. Steady, straight forward, and strong, with irresistible logic ; Orthodox, flashing conviction right into the hearts of the hea- then. Now we are ready, I think, for an assault of the Indians. Let them come, if they like, and the sooner they try it the better. Let them come, if they like, be it sagamore, si^chem, or pow- wow, Aspinet Samoset, Corbitant, Squanto, or Tokamahamon. ' "* When, in the preceding summer, the Pilgrims had visited Massachusetts bay, they had promised the tribes in that vicinity to come again in the next spring and renew a trade with them. Now, in the latter part of March, Standish and his friends com- menced preparations for this voyage. Humors, con- stantly renewed, still foreboded an outbreak against the peace and safety of the little commonwealth ; and though the winter had been spent without the 3'ell of the war-whoop, Bradford's fast friend, Hab- bamak, strongly advised against the expedition of Standish, since he feared that the northeastern * Longfellow's Miles Stan dish's Courtship, pp. 9-12. 162 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. tribes were in close league with the Narragansetts, and anxious to precipitate a war.* Finally the colonists concluded to undertake the expedition, but to do so with extreme caution.t Accordingly, Standish embarked. He had not sailed far, ere he was becalmed. Suddenly he heard a cannon-shot, the signal of danger. In- stantly putting about, he bade his men row with their titmost strength and skill. Soon Plymouth was reached, and Standish learned that, just as he had sailed, an Indian, one of Squanto's family, had brought word that the Narragansetts, with Corbitant and Massasoit, were marching on the settlement.:}: Habbamak was confident that, even if this tale were true, Massasoit was not on the war-path ; so confi- dent, that he sent his squaw, under pretence of some message, to spy out the facts in the great sagamore's village.§ Meantime watch was kept through the night, and the whole settlement rested on its arms.ll Nothing came of it all ; not an Indian appeared ; and when Habbamak's wife returned, she said that she found Massasoit at home and quiet.l "After this," says Bradford, "the traders i^roceeded on their voyage, and had a good trafiic ; returning in safety, blessed by God."** From various circumstances, the settlers began « Winslow in Young. Bradford. t ^^i*!- i Bradford, p. 113. § Ibid. Winslow. II Ibid. Young's Chronicles. Thatcher's Plymouth. % Ibid. =" Prince. THE COLONIAL EOUTINE. 163 to suspect that Squanto " sought his own euds and plajed his own game" in his relations with them. He was the most travelled and learned of the In- dians, and with the spirit of braggadocio and the love of great stories common to his race, and also to his white prototypes, he was fond of working on the fears of his more ignorant and credulous broth- ers of the wood, by boasting of his influence with the pale faces, by reciting wild and terror-striking stories of the magical power of the English, and by oifering to insure the peace and security of all who bought his services.* In this way Squanto drove quite a trade, the patent for his truth being his knowledge and sin- gular European adventures. " These English," he would say to a wondering and superstitious group of Indians, " are a wise and powerful people. Diseases are at their com- mand. They have now buried under their store- house the plague. They can send it forth to any place or upon any people they please, and sweep them all away, though they went not a step from home."t " Ugh ! ugh !" would be the responses of the gaping believers. Many was the skin, many the piece of wampum, given Squanto to purchase his powerful intercession on their behalf, to laj the plague of the pale-face magicians. Once Squanto, being sent for by the governor, entered the house accompanied by Habbamak and several other Indians. A hole had been dug in the * Bradford, p. 113. t Banvard, pp. 76, 77. 104 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. floor for the purpose of concealing certain articles, and the ground was left in a broken state. Hab- bamak, glancing at it, asked Squanto, " What does that mean ?" " That," retorted the wily sachem, " is the place where the plague is buried that I told you about." Habbamak, to satisfy himself of the truth or falsity of this statement, asked one of the settlers, shortly after, if this was so. "No," said the stern, truthful Puritan; "we have not the plague at our command ; but the God whom we worship has, and he can send it forth to the destruction both of his enemies and ours."* Having learned these things, the Pilgrims spared no pains to contradict Squanto's misstatements ; and so angered were the neighboring tribes, all of whom he had repeatedly swindled and misled, that Mas- sasoit and Habbamak both strenuously insisted upon putting him to death ; for the American In- dian forgave any thing sooner than an attempt to cheat him; in which he was unlike civilized com- munities, which often admire in jDroportion as they are cozened, and frown on and resent nothing but a clumsy cheat. But Squanto, with all his faults, was too useful to the Pilgrims to be surrendered to the cruel ven- geance of his foes; so he was saved from death, though not without difficulty, and at the risk of estranging Massasoit.f This made the rescued sachem "walk more * Banvard, pp. 76, 77. f Winslow in Young. Banvard. THE COLONIAL EOUTINE. 165 squarely, and cleave unto the Euglisli till lie died." There was great jealousy between Squaiito and Habbamak. Both were competitors for the good- will of tJie Pilgrims; and of this emulation good use was made. The governor seemed to counte- nance the one, and the captain the other, by which ruse the colonists got better intelligence, and kept the two scouts more diligent.* Towards the latter part of May, 1622, the scanty provisions of the Pilgrims quite gave out. Actual hunger began to pinch. The wild fowl, so plenty in the preceding season, were now grown shy of Plymouth, and could not be found. Their hooks and seines for fishing were worn out. It was yet hardly time to plant, as the frost still clutched the soil in its icy hand ; and even if it were, weary weeks must elapse ere a crop could be reaped. The future looked black, yet even in this strait they trusted in God, " knowing that he would not desert his own."t While the Pilgrims were thus perplexed to know where their next mouthful was to come from, they espied one day a shallop off their harbor. It j)roved to be a boat from a ship sent by Thomas Weston to fish off the coast of Maine. It contained six or seven passengers and a parcel of home letters.^ These emigrants, like those who came in the " Fortune," were destitute of provisions, and the colonists were requested by Weston to provide for their necessities. Despite their own wants, " they * Bradford, p. 114. f Ibid., p. 124. % Ibid., 114. 163 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. took compassion on the needy new-comers, and in this famine gave them as good as any of their own."^ The Pilgrims got cold comfort from their letter- bag, " Some of the adventurers," wrote "Weston, " have sent you herewith some directions for your furtherance in the common good. It seems to me that they are like those St. James speaks of, that bade their brother eat and warm himself, but gave him nothing ; so they bid you make salt and uphold the plantation, but send you no means wherewithal to do it. Soon I purpose to send more people on my own account."t It seemed from other letters, that the company of Merchant-adventurers was exhausting its energy in internal bickerings. Nothing was said about forwarding the remainder of the congregation at Leyden ; nothing was promised for the future ; a simple command was sent, that the colonists should assent to the breakage of the joint-stock contract, and despatch to them a paper to that effect, ratified and certified.J " AU this," says Bradford, " was cold comfort to fill their empty bellies ; and on the part of Mr. "Weston, but a slender performance of his late prom- ise never to forsake the colony ;§ and as little did it fill and warm cold and hungry men, as those the * Bradford, p. 114. f Cited in Bradford, pp. 115, 116. J Bradford, p. 116. By the third article of the agreement, this was permitted to be done by general consent. See Bradford, p. 46. § Chap. 10. p. 137. THE COLONIAL EOUTINE. 167 apostle James spoke of, by "Weston before men- tioned. Well might it remind the settlers of what the psalmist saith, ' It is better to trust in the Lord than to have confidence in man.'* And again, ' Put not your trust in princes ' — much less in mer- chants — ' nor in the son of man ; for there is no help in them.'t ' Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God-'t " These things seemed strange to the settlers. Seeing this inconsistency and shufSing, it made them think there was some mystery at bottom. Therefore the governor, fearing lest, in their straits, this news should tend to disband and scatter the colony, concealed these letters from the public, and only imparting them to some trusty friends for ad- vice, concluded for the present to keep all quiet, and await the development of events."§ * Psalm 118 : 8. f I^^l. 146 : 3. t Ibid, verse 5. § Bradford, pp. IIG, 117. 103 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. CHAPTEE XIV. THE RIVAL COLONIES "Look here, upon this picture, and on this." Shakspeabe, Hamlet. It was towards the close of May, 1622, that the seven pioneers from Weston's fishing smack had landed at Plymouth. About a month later, in the end of June or beginning of July, a new colony ar- rived. Two vessels, the " Charity" and the "Swan," rounded Cape Cod and anchored off the Pilgrim settlement,* They brought out a fresh batch of home letters, which Bradford and his coadjutors eagerly opened, hoiking to discover the hidden meaning of these strange movements. Weston's missive was first searched. It was to this effect: "The 'Fortune' is arrived, whose good news touching your estate and proceedings I am very glad to hear. And howsoever she was robbed on the way by the Frenchmen, I hojoe your loss will not be great, for the conceit of a vast return doth animate the merchants. As for myself, I have sold my adventure and debts unto them, so I am quit of you and you of me. Now, though I have nothing to pretend as an adventurer among you, yet I will advise you a little for your good, if you can appre- hend it. I perceive and know as well as any one * Smith's General Historj', folio ed., p. 236. Winslow in Young, p. 296. THE RIVAL COLONIES. 169 the disposition of the Merchant-adventurers, whom the hope of gain hath drawn on to this they have done ; yet that hope will not draw them much far- ther. Besides, most of them are against the send- ing of the Leyden congregation, for whose cause this business was first begun; and some of the most religious of the company except against them for, their creed."* This presaged disaster, and Weston's desertion after his volunteer promises, made the Pilgrims l^rofoundly sad. Next a letter from two of the Merchant-adventurers was read. This warned the colonists to beware of Weston, as one who sought his own single end, and " whom the company had bought out and were glad to be quit of."t Then a letter from their old friend Cushman was opened. " Weston," he said, " hath quite broken off from our company, and hath now sent two small ships on his own venture for a new plantation. The people which they carry are no men for us, wherefore I pray you, entertain them not. If they offer to buy any thing of you, let it be such as you can spare, and make them give the worth of it. 'Tis like they will plant to the south of the cape. I fear these peo- ple will deal harshly with the savages. I pray you signify to Squanto that they are a distinct body from us, and that we have nothing to do with them, neither must be blamed for their faults, nor can warrant their fidelity.":}: * Cited in cvienso iu Bradford, pp. 118. 119. t Ibid., pp. 119, 120. ± Ibid.. 122. 123. 8 170 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. "Weston had overlianled these letters, and so become familiar with their contents. After criti- cising them severely, he added : " Now if yoii be of the mind of these writers, deal plainly with us, and we will seek our residence elsewhere. If you are friendly, as we have thought you to be, give us the entertainment of friends. I shall leave in the coun- try a little ship — if God send her safe thither — with mariners and fishermen, who shall coast and trade with the salvages and the old plantation. It may be that we shaU be as helpful to you as you to us. I think I shall see you in person next sj^ring."'^ The Pilgrims were in a quandary. They stood on the verge of starvation. The recent comers had brought out no stock of provisions, but were dumped destitute upon the charit}^ of those whom they had come to supplant. "As for the harsh censures and suspicious intimated in these letters," remarks Brad- ford, " they desired to judge as charitably and wisely of them as they could, weighing them in the balance of love and reason ; and though the epistles of warn- ing came from godly and loving friends, yet they conceived that many things might arise from over- deep jealousy and fear, together with unmeet provo- cation ; though they well saw that Weston pursued his own ends, and was embittered in spirit. All these things they pondered and well considered, yet concluded to give his men friendly entertainment ; partly in regard to that gentleman's past kindness, and partly in compassion to the people who were now * Cited in e.iienso in Bmdford nt antea. THE EIVAL COLONIES. 171 come into the wilderness — as themselves were — and were by their ships to be presently put ashore ; for they were to carry other passengers into Virginia ;* and they were altogether unacquainted, and knew not what to do. So, as they had received Weston's former company of seven men, and victualed them as their own, now they also received these, being about sixty lusty men, and gave housing for them- selves and their goods ; and many, being sick, had the best the place could afford them."t Of course, so great and unexpected an accession of numbers added vastly to the embarrassment of the Pilgrims, and " amidst these straits, and the desertion of those from whom they had expected a supply, when fjimine began to pinch them sore they knew not what course to take." But God stood behind the cloud, " keeping watch above his own." One day a boat came into Plymouth, and brought word of a massacre in Virginia,:}: and gave a warn- ing to the New England colonists. The kind sender of this message was captain of a fishing-smack then fishing off the Maine coast.§ "When this boat returned, " the governor sent back a thankful answer, as was meet, and also de- spatched the shallop of the colony in its company, in which was Edward Winslow, whose object was to * The vessels were gone most of the summer. t Bradford, pp. 123, 124. J This massacre occurred on the 22d of March, 1622. Smith says that three hundred and fifty settlers were slain. General Hist., pp. 144-149. § Bradford. 172 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. secure what provisions he conld from the fishermen. He was kindly received by the mentor captain, who .not only spared what he could of his own stock, but wrote others to do the same. By these means Winslow got some good quantity, and returned in safety; whereby the plantation had a double bene- fit ; first, a refreshing by the food brought ; and secondly, they knew the way to those parts for their benefit hereafter. Still, what was got and this small boat brought, being divided among so many, came but to little, yet, by God's blessing, it upheld them till harvest."* The daily allowance was a quarter of a pound of bread to each person ; and this the governor doled out, for had it not been in his cus- tody, it would have been eaten up and all had starved ; but thus, with what eels they could catch, they " made pretty shift till corn was ripe."t The Pilgrims soon perceived the truth of Cush- man's estimate of the character of Weston's colo- nists, and found, indeed, that " they Avere not the men for them." In the lump they were a rude, pro- fane, improvident, thievish set, and peculiarly unfit to be the founders of a state.:}; They ate of the bounty of their entertainers, wasted their corn, brought riot and profanity into the quiet, devout homes of the Pilgrims, and repaid kindness by backbiting and reviling.§ Their coming was purely a business affair. It Avas a speculation. It was en- * Bradford, p. 125. f Ibid. Winslow in Young. J Thatcher's Plymouth, Prince's Annals, Banvard. § Banvard, p. 82. THE RIVAL COLONIES. 173 tirely destitute of every religious element, though it abouiKled with irreligious ones. Fearing neither God nor man, they hated the Puiitaus, and ought never to be confounded with the Forefathers,^' They were, in fact, " A lazy, lolling sort, Unseen at church, at senate, or at court, Of ever-listless loiterers, that attend No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend. "f These godless drones remained at Pljanouth most of the summer, until their ships came back from Virginia. I Then, under Weston's direction, or that of some one whom he had set in authority over them, these pests removed into Massachusetts Bay, and selecting a spot called by the Indians Wessagusset, now Weymouth, they essayed to j^lant a settlement.§ " Yet they left all their sickly folks with us, to be nursed and cared for," says Brad- ford, " till they were settled and housed. But of their stores they gave us nothing, though we did greatly want, nor any thing else in recompense of our courtesy; neither did we desire it, for 'twas seen that they were an unruly company, having no good government, — sure soon to fall into want by disorder. "II Such a colony " was not, nor could it come to good," Mismanagement and lazy improvidence in- vited penury. Ere long they ran foul of the Indi- ans ; already the bane of the Pilgrims, they speedily became a pest among the savages, whom they robbed o Banvard, p. 82. f Pope. J Bradford. § Weston in Young, Thi»tcher, Prince. || Bradford. 174 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. and swindled without conscience. In this way tbey exasperated the Indians, and bj their bad courses were nigh bringing ruin on their neighbors as well as on themselves.* On one occasion they stood j)ro- visionless. They could expect no succor from the natives, and they had despoiled every Indian corn- field in their vicinity. In this extremity, Sanders, their chief man, sent to inform Bradford of his in- tention to get some corn from the Indians by force. The Pilgrims sent back a strong protest against the pillage ; advised the new planters to make shift to live, as they did, on ground-nuts, clams, and muscles ; and from their own well-nigh exhausted storehouse sent their disorderly and wasteful rivals a supply of corn.t This stock was soon gone ; then the Westonians desired the Pilgrims to unite with them in an ex- pedition to the Indian settlements on the coast line, in search of corn, beans, and other kindred com- modities. They, not unwilling to assist the needy planters in all honest ways, assented, and terms of agreement were signed designating the division of the articles obtained.:]: Detachments from both colonies embarked in the " Swan," the smaller of "Weston's vessels, and the shallop was also taken. Squanto accompanied the forage as interpreter.§ The Indians were very shy and could hardly be ap- proached. But finally the kindness and tact of • Cotton Mather, Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 58. t Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 200. Prince, Thatcher. t Banvard. § Ibid. THE KIVAL COLONIES. 175 Bradford and Standisli thawed their icy reserve, so that the enterprise was crowned with success. Twenty-seven hogsheads of corn and beans were bought." Owing to the stranding of the shallop, the Plymouth governor was coropelled to foot it home, some fifty miles ; but he " received all the respect that could be from the Indians on the journey."t The "Swan" returned, a day or two later, with the provisions, and, after their distribution, Wes- ton's men sailed from Pljmouth in her to their plantation. :|: This was destined to be Squanto's last service. A violent fever, which struck him on the expedition, soon laid him low. " Pray for me," said the dying Indian to Governor Bradford, " pray for me, that I may go to the white man's God in heaven." Shortly after, he distributed various trinkets among his English friends as memorials, and expired.§ De- spite his pranks and vanity, Squanto was a true friend to the Pilgrims, and his loss was a severe blow to the colonial interests.il Immediately on recovering from the fatigue in- cident to the late voyage, the Pilgrims went out into their fields to reap the harvest. The crop was slen- der, owing partly to the ignorance of the planters of the culture of Indian corn ; partly to their many other employments ; but chiefly to their inability * Thatcher, Wiuslow iu Young. f Ibid. J Banvard. § Banvard, Bradford. II Thatcher, Winslow in Young. 176 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. properly to attend it, caused by weakness from want of food.^ It was apparent that famine must be entailed upon tlie next year also, unless some other source of supply should be opened. This seemed impos- sible. There were no -markets; and they were out of trinkets for their Indian traffic. " Behold now another providence of God," says Bradford; "a ship sent out by English merchants to discover all the harbors betwixt Virginia and the shoals of Cape Cod, and to trade along the coast where it could, entered our bay. She had on board a store of beads — which were then good trade — and some knives, but the crew would sell nothing save in the bunch and at high prices. However, we bought of them, and by this means were fitted again to trade for beaver and for corn with the red men,"t In this same summer a new fort was built, "both strong and comely, which Avas a sure defence." Isaac De Kasieres, who visited Plymouth at a somewhat later day, has left this description of the block citadel : " Upon the hill they have a large square house, with a flat roof, made of thick-sawn planks, stayed with oak-beams. On the top are ranged six cannon, which shoot iron-balls of four or five pounds, and command the surrounding country. The lower part they use for their church, where j^reaching is had on Sundays and the usual hoHdays. The settlers assemble by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of the « Bradford. j- ibid. THE EIVAL COLONIES 177 captain's door ; they have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, three abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum. Behind comes the governor, in a long robe ; beside him on the right hand walks the preacher, and on the left hand the captain, Avith his side arms and cloak on, and with a small cane in his hand. So they march in good order, and on reaching the fort each sets his arms down near him and within easy grasp."* An open Bible in one hand, a shotted musket in the other — such was the manner in which the Pil- grim fathers went to church. * Cited in Kussell's Guide to Plymouth, p. 143. 8* 178 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. CHAPTER XV. THE EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. "And wheu they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear ; And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's vrnnt ; AVhilst he that hears makes tearful action With wrinkled brows, with nods, and rolling eyes." Shakspeake. One short twelvemonth witnessed the birth and the death of Weston's colony. Its cradle was its grave. The Westonians, by their own wickedness and folly, beckoned ruin and blood to be their guests. The ears of the Pilgrims ached with hsten- ing to the Indians' complaints of their injustice and robberies. Not a day passed which did not witness some woful scene of outrage." Bradford and his coadjutors talked themselves hoarse in denuncia- tion ; messengers ran themselves footsore in carry- ing protests of warning, of expostulation, of ap- peal, t " Once," says Cotton Mather, " in preaching to a congregation there, one of the Pilgrims urged these settlers to approve themselves a religious com- munity, as otherwise they would contradict the main end of i^lanting this wilderness ; whereupon a well-known individual, then in the assembly, cried AVinslow in Young. Thatcher, Bradford. 1 Prince, Hubbard, Bauvard. EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 171) out, ' Sir, you are mistaken ; jou think you are preaching to the people at Plymouth bay : our main end was to catch fsJi.' "" The scoifers were soon to learn, under the bitter tuition of experience, that fish are a slippery foun- dation for a colony to build on — not so firm and sure as open Bibles and common schools. The loose morality and vicious courses of their mischievous neighbor-colonists caused the Pilgrims infinite trouble and unfeigned grief. And now, in the midst of their anxiety on this account, a report gave voice to the dangerous sickness of Massasoit :t it was said that the great sagamore, who had been their faithful friend, could not survive.:]: The Plym- outh settlers were profoundly sad ; they were also somewhat alarmed, for Corbitant, their former open foe, would, so tliey were told, clutch Massasoit's sceptre and wear his mantle on the chieftain's death. § The Pilgrims at once decided to send ambassadors to visit Massasoit, see if haply some- thing might not be done for him, and, in case of his decease, to negotiate a new peace with the suc- ceeding sachem.ll For this service Winslow and Habbamak were selected ; and a gentleman who had wintered in Plymouth, and who was desirous of seeing the In- dians in their wigwam-homes, Mr. John Hampden,ir ■^ Cotton Mather, Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 60. t Wiuslow iu Young. Bradford, p. 131. t Ibid. § Ibid. Banvard, p. 95. II Banvard, Winslow's Good News, etc. II "Mr. Baylies, in his Memoirs of Plymouth, assumes that 180 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. was, at his urgent solicitation, permitted to bear tliem company.* They set out at once, but had not gone very deej) into the forest ere some Indians, whom they met at a river-ford, told them that Massasoit was dead. The envoys were shocked ; and Habbamak began to wail forth his chief's death-song : " Oh, great sachem. Oh, great heart, with many have I been acquainted, but none ever equalled thee." Then turning to his pale-face friend, he said, " Oh, Master Winslow, his like you will never see again. He was not like other Indians, false and bloody and implacable ; but kind, easily appeased when angry, and reasonable in his requirements. He was a wise sachem, not ashamed to ask advice, governing better with mild, than other chiefs did with severe measures. I fear you have not now one faithful friend left in the wigwams of the red men."t He would then break forth again in loud lamentations, " enough," says Winslow, " to have made the hardest heart sob and wail.":}: But time pressed, and ."Winslow, bidding Hab- bamak "leave wringing of his hands," trudged on over the patches of snow, through the naked for- ests shivering in the gusty winds of March, under the sullen sky. Corbitant's lodge was near ; here it was hoped that fuller intelligence might be gain- this was the great Hampdeu, vol. 1, p. 410. I find no fects suffi- cient to sustain that opinion." Elliot, vol. 1, p. 93, note. * Elliot, Bauvard, "Winslow. f Winslow's Good News. I Ibid. EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 181 ed. Corbitant was not at home, but liis squaw informed them that Massasoit was not yet dead, tliough he could scarcely live long enough to per- mit his visitors to close his eyes.* Keinvigorated by this news, and persuaded that while there was life there was hope, the envoys again pressed forward with eager footsteps. Soon Massasoit's wigwam was reached. A cordon of visitors surrounded it ; and so great was the crowd, that it was with difficulty that the Pilgrims pushed through and gained an entrance. "When they succeeded, they beheld a scene so repulsive and so annoying as to be quite sufficient to banish what- ever vitality the sick sagamore might still possess. Not only was the lodge crammed with filthy In- dians, whose number efiectually excluded all fresh air, but the pow-wows were busied in yelling their magical incantations, now rubbing the sick sachem, now wailing, now making frantic gestures ; so that, had the disease possessed intelligence and been cognizant of what was taking place, it would have been effectually frightaned away. Six or eight 'medicine-men' were manipulating him at once, and his ears were dinned with yells, when he should have been perfectly quiet."t When the pow-w.ows had concluded their super- stitious spells and exorcisms, they told Massasoit that Winslow had come to visit him. The sick In- dian, turning on his skin couch, greeted the Eng- lishman kindly. Disease had almost choked him, * Winslow's Good News. f Banvarcl, pp. 95, 96. 182 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. and quite robbed him of sight ; he was indeed near death. Winslow at once conveyed the assurance of the deep grief of the colonists at his sickness, informed him that the pale-faces had sent physic for his restoration to health, and offered himself to undertake the cure. These words, being trans- lated by Habbamak, the Indian at once and cor- dially thanked Winslow, and accepted his good offices.* The skilful Englishman, with a " confection of many comfortable conserves," soon worked a cure. The convalescent sagamore said, " Now I know that the Enghsli are indeed my friends, and love me ; w^hile I live I will never forget this kindness."t Nobly did he keep his word ; for, after requesting *' the pale-face medicine" to exercise his skill upon others of his tribe, who were down with the same disease which had laid him low, his gratitude w^as so warm that he disclosed to the pale-face leech the fact that a wide-spread and well-matured conspir- acy was afoot to exterminate Weston's colony, in revenge for injuries heaped'upon the Indians; that all the northeastern tribes were in the league ; and that the massacre was to cover the Pilgrims also, lest they should avenge the fall of their neighbors. " A chief was here at the setting of the sun," added Massasoit, " and he told me that the pale-faces did not love me, else they would visit me in my pain, and he urged me to join the war part}'. But I said, No. Now if you take the chiefs of the league, and « "Winslow's Good News. t Il>id- EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 183 kill them, it will end the war-trail in the blood of those who made it, and save the settlements."* Thankful to Massasoit for this disclosure, and profoundly impressed with its importance, the en- voys speedily bade the sagamore good-b}^, and started for Plymouth. Beaching Corbitant's lodge towards evening, they decided to sleep with him, " We found him," says Winslow, " a notable politi- cian, yet full of merry jests and squibs, and never better pleased than when the like are turned again on him."t " If I were sick, as Massasoit has been," asked he, " would Mr. Governor send me medicine ?" "Yes," said Winslow. *' Would you bring it ?" queried Corbitant. " Certainly," was the reply. At this the sachem was delighted. He resumed his questions. " How did you dare to go so far into our hunt- ing-grounds, with only one pale-face and Habba- mak?" " Because," said Winslow, " where there is true love, there can be no fear ; my heart is so upright towards the Indians, that I have no cause to fear to go among them," " If vou love us- so much," retorted the shrewd chief, " why is it that, when we go to Plymouth, you stand on guard, and present the mouths of your big guns at us ?" " Oh," was the reply, " that 's the most honor- * Winslo-w's Good News. ^j: Ibid. 184 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. able reception we could give you. 'Tis the Euglisli way of saluting clistinguislied guests." " Ugh," said Corbitant, with the peculiar Indian grunt and shrug, " perhaps ; but I do n't like such ways of shaking hands."* Having noticed that before and after each meal his guests offered thanks, Corbitant asked them why they did it. " This led to a long conversation upon the character and works of the great Father ; on the relations which his creatures sustain to him as their preserver and constant benefactor, and the duties which all owe to him as such, with which the chief seemed pleased. When the ten command- ments were recited, he approved of all save the seventh ; he saw many objections to tying a man to one woman. "t " This," says Banvard, " is a specimen of the manner in which the Pilgrims endeavored to com- municate religious truths to the minds of their igno- rant Indian neighbors. When among them, they ob- served religious exercises at their meals ; continued the practice of morning and evening services ; strictly regarded the Sabbath ; and thus provoked inquiries. Then, when o^jportunity was given, they imparted, in a homely, familiar way, the elementary truths of the Bible."t After passing a pleasant night in Corbitant's wigwam, the Pilgrims resumed their journey, and after twentj^-four hours' walk reached Plymouth. They immediately imparted what they knew of « Banvard, pp, 101, 102. f I^id. I Banvixid, p. 102. EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 183 the Indian plot to the governor. Bradford sum- moned the settlers to deliberate. Upon examina- tion other evidence was found Avhich corroborated Massasoit's disclosure ; and even in the midst of this consideration, one of Weston's pioneers came in, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, "with a pack on his back ;" and "though he knew not a foot of the way, yet he got safe to Plymouth by losing his way," as he was pursued by the Indians, and would have been caught had he travelled by the accustomed track.* " He told us," says Bradford, "how affairs stood atWessagusset; how miserable all were ; and that he dare not tarry there longer, as, by what he had ob- served, he apprehended those settlers would shortly be all knocked in the head."t Startled by the imminence of the peril, Bradford at once despatched Standish with a small squad of men to warn and succor the menaced colonists. On reaching Wessagusset Standish boarded the "Swan," which lay moored in the harbor. Not a soul was on her. Surprised, the Pilgrim captain fired his musket. Several colonists then ran down to the shore. " How dare you leave your ship unguarded, and live in so much security?" asked he. " Why," was the reply of the colonists, who were insensible of their peril, " we have no fear of the Indians, but live with them, and suffer them to lodge with us, without ever having a gun or sword, or ever need- ing one." * "Winslow's Good News. t Bradford, p. 131. 186 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. "Well, well," cried StanJisli, "if you have no oc- casion for yigilance, so much the better." He then went ashore. Pitifvil was the situation of the pio- neers ; four words paint the picture ; filth, hunger, disease, nakedness. " After they began to come into want," remarks the old Pilgrim chronicler, " many sold their clothes and bed-coverings ; oth- ers — so base were they — became servants to the Indians, and would cut wood and fetch water for them, for a cup of corn ; some fell to stealing, and when they found the hiding-places where the natives stored their corn, they despoiled them, and this night and day, while the savages complained griev- ously. Now they were come to such misery that some starved and some died of cold. One, in gath- ering shell-fish, was so weak from hunger that he stuck fast in the mud, and not being able to pull clear, he was drowned by the incoming tide. Most had left their cabins and were scattered up and down through the woods and by the water-side, here six and there ten, grubbing for nuts and clams. By this carriage they were contemned and scorned by the Indians as ' paleface squaws,' and they insulted over them right insolently; insomuch that many times, as they lay thus scattered abroad, and had set a pot over a fire and filled it Avith ground-nuts or shell-fish, when it was ready the natives would come and, pushing them aside, eat it up; and at night the Indians, to revenge their thefts, stole their blankets and left them to He all night in the cold. Yea, in the end, they were fain to hang one of their EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 187 own men, whom they could not reclaim from steal- ing, at the dictation of the savages."* Standish at once assembled the leading colo- nists, and opened to them his budget of news. The proposed massacre, the actors, all was laid bare. As frightened now as they were blinded before, all besought him to save them, and placed themselves in his hands. All stragglers were called in and sup- plied from his stores, a pint of corn a day for each man. ' This done, Standish began to dissemble; he wished to lure the chiefs of the conspiracy into his clutches, and so fight guile with guile.f Though suspecting that their plot had been dis- covered, the Indians so greatly despised the colo- nists that they came daily into Wessagusset, utter- ing gibes and menaces loud and deep. They even ventured to taunt Standish. One of the braves, Pecksuot, a bold fellow, but a braggadocio, " went to Habbamak, who was with Standish as his inter- preter, and told him that he had been informed that the cap-tain had come to ' kill him and his friends.' ' Tell him,' he said, ' we know it, but we neither fear him nor will we shun him ; let him attack us when he pleases, he will not surprise us.' ":j: At other times the Indians would enter the plan- tation, and, in the presence of the captain, sharpen their knives, feel their points, and jeer. One of their chiefs, Witawamat, often boasted of the fine quali- ties of his knife, on the handle of which was cut a * Bradford, pp. 130, 131. f Wiuslow's Good News. J Banvard. 18S THE PILGEIM FATHERS. woman's face ; " but," said he, " I have another at home with which I have killed both French and Ena- lish, and that hath a man's face on it ; by-and-by these two must marry."^=- Not long after, he said again, holding up his knife, " By-and-by this shall see and eat, but not speak," in allusion to the muskets of the English, which always reported their doings. f Pecksuot was an Indian of immense muscular size and strength; Standish was a small man. Once the brave said to the captain : " You are a great officer, but a little man; and I am not a sachem, 3-et I possess great strength and courage."| Standish quietly pocketed these insults, and awaited his chance. It soon came. Pecksuot, Wetawamat, and two others, chiefs of the con- spiracy, were finally all entrapped in one cabin. Standish with three comrades and Habbamak were also present. The door was secured and a terrific death-grapple at once ensued. There were no shrieks, no cries, no war-whoops. Nothing was heard save the fierce panting of the combatants and the dull thud of the blows given and returned. Habbamak stood quietly by, and meddled not. Soon the Englishmen were successful; each slew his opponent, and Standish himself closing with Pecksuot, snatched from the braggadocio's neck his vaunted knife, and plunged it into his foeman's heart. One blow did not kill him; frenzied and glaring, he leaped on Standish and tugged wildly at his throat. The struggle was brief but awful, * Banvard, p. 116. f Iljid- I Ibid. EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 189 and Standisli called his whole skill into requisition to complete his victoiy. At length the death-blow was dealt : "See, his face is black and full of blood ; His eye-balls farther out than M'hen he lived ; Staring full ghastly, like a strangled man ; His hair uijreared, his nostrils stretched with struggling ; His hands abroad displayed, as one that grasped And tugged for life, and was by strength subdued."* After the tragedy was over, Habbamak said to Standish, while a smile played over his swarthy features: "Yesterday, Pecksuot, bragging of his strength and stature, said you were a great captain, but a little man ; but to-day I see that you are big enough to lay him on the ground. "i" Standish did not pause for congratulation, nor did he care much for it; knowing the value of promptitude, he at once headed a foray on the neighboring Indian villages. Several skirmishes ensued ; the savages, beaten and terrified, retreated from morass to morass. The conspiracy was buried with its originators ; and many of the sachems who had joined the league, Conacum, Aspinet, lyanough, died from diseases contracted in their headlong flight.l This was considered the "capital exploit" of Miles Standish. It struck such wholesome terror into the hearts of the surrounding tribes, that, in connection with the uniform justice and kindliness of the Pilgrims, it secured peace for half a century.§ * Shakspeare. f Winslow, cited in Banvard, p. 120. % Winslow, Elliot, Palfrey. § Ibid. 190 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. The Westonians, discouraged and disgusted, resolved to break their ranks and give up their set- tlement. Standish "offered to escort them to Plym- outh, and give them entertainment till Weston or some supply should come," says Bradford; "or if they liked any other course better, he promised to help them all he could. They thanked him, but most of them desired him to grant them some corn, then they Avould go with their ship to the eastward, where, haply, they might hear of "Weston, or of some supply from him. That failing, since it was the time of year for ships to frequent the fishing waters, they could work among the fishermen till they could get passage into England. So they shipped what they had of any value, and the cap- tain gave them all the corn he could — scarcely leav- ing himself sufficient to take him home — and saw the colonists well out of the bay; then he himself sailed back to Plymouth in triumph."* There the head of Wetawamat was impaled, and set up prominently in the fort ; and an Indian who had been sent in pursuit of that pioneer who had first brought word to the Pilgrims of the condition of his fellow-settlers, and had been himself cap- tured, recognized it. The Pilgrim Fathers were not revengeful; they did not love to shed blood; so when Habbamak vouched for the friendship of this captive, he was liberated, and sent home to tell his tribe that the colonists loved peace, but that they could fight in case of need. Ere long the offending * Winslow, Bradford, Thatcher. EXPLOIT OF MILES STANDISH. 191 red men sent peace-offerings into Plymouth, and sued for and obtained amity.* Bradford, Winslow, and the rest, kept their friends in England and Holland as fully informed as possible of the daily history of the colony; and of course so memorable an event as this consj)iracy and its suppression, received a profuse recital. When Robinson heard of the rencontre, he wrote back these words, finely illustrative of his charac- ter : " Oh, how happy a thing had it been, that you had converted some before you killed any."t As for Weston's colony, this was the last of it. Some of the better of the pioneers went to Plym- outh ; others finally found their way back to Eng- land. They had landed under far better aus- pices than the Pilgrims. They were welcomed by fellow-countrymen, and sheltered throughout the winter. They commenced their settlement in the summer, when nature laughed, and the hillsides were gay with flowers, and the air sweet with the songs of birds. They possessed a ship. They had had been left competently provided in the wilder- ness. Yet they were no sooner settled than they were iinsettled. Bankrupt and starving, they sought safet}^ in flight. This was the fate of a colony whose " main end was to fish," which was founded on no higher law than the greed of gain.- " ' Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public,' observed the childless Lord Bacon, ^ Winslow, Braclford, Thatcher. ■| Morton, Yonnf^'s Chronicles. 192 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. with complacent self-love, ' have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men.' Weston's com- pany, after having boasted of their strength as far superior to Plymouth, which was enfeebled, the}'- said, by the presence of women and children, yet owed their deliverance to the colony that had many women, children, and weak ones, with them."* Thus it should seem that weakness is sometimes strength. Ethics are better buoys than numbers. Devout weakness is always stronger than self-com- placent and impious strength. Justice and a help- ful hand — these are the palladiums. "Too happy were men, if they understood There is no safety but in doing good."t * Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. 1, p. 319. t Fountain's Rewards of Virtue. A CHECKERED EECORD. 193 CHAPTEK XVI. A CHECKERED EECOED. "Naught shall prevail against us, or disturb Oiir cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings. " WOKDSWOBTH. A FEW weeks after the final abandonment of Wessagusset by Weston's colonists, a fishing-smack dropped anchor off Plymouth. A boat was Ioav- ered, and in a trice an Englishman, in the guise of a blacksmith, was landed. He seemed anxious to learn the condition and prospects of Weston's set- tlement, and was evidently ignorant of its untoward fate. On being informed of the conspiracy, massa- cre, and abandonment of the project, he seemed to be profoundly agitated. This stranger was Weston himself, once a prosperous London merchant, now alone in the wilderness, a ruined man. "A strange alteration there was in him to those who had kuown him in his former flourishing condition," moralizes the old Plymouth governor; "so uncertain are the mutable things of this unstable world. And yet men set their hearts upon them, though they daily see the vanity thereof."* Weston was anxious to know the worst. He « Bradford, p. 133, nU'i im Fathers. Q 194 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. also hoped that something might yet be saved. He sailed in a shallop for the seat of his downfallen venture. But misfortune dogged him. He was shipwrecked, and cast ashore with nothing but the clothes upon his person. Soon after, being discov- ered by the Indians, he was strijDped even of these, and left to find his way nude to the coast of Maine. This he did ; and borrowing a suit of clothes from the fishermen, he returned to Plymouth in a pitia- ble plight, and begged the loan of some beaver-skins as a stock in trade to commence life anew.- The Pilgrims were themselves in a sad strait, " but they pitied his case, and remembered former courtesies. They told him he saw their want, and that they knew not when they should have a sup- ply ; also how the case stood betwixt the Merchant- adventurers and themselves, which he well knew. They said they had not much beaver, and if they should let him have it, it might create a mutiny, since the colony had no other means of procuring food and clothes, both which they sadly needed. Yet they told him they would help him, considering his necessity, but must do, it secretly ; so they let him have one hundred beaver-skins. Thus they helped him when all the world failed him, and he was enabled to go again to the ships, buy provis- ions, and equip himself. But he requited his ben- efactors ill, for he proved afterwards a bitter enemy on all occasions, and repaid his debt in nothing but reproaches and evil words. Yea, he divulged it to ~" "Winslow ill Ymins;. Banvard. A CHECKERED RECORD. 195 some that were none of their best friends, -while he yet had the beaver in his boat, and boasted that he could now set them all by the ears, because they had done more than they could answer in letting him have the skins. But his malice could not pre- vail."* Strangled by this episode, Weston was now dead to the Pilgrims, and he disappears from the after- history of Plymoutli.t Through all these months, hunger continued to gnaw the vitals of the Pilgrim colony. To secure a l^lentiful future, they decided to plant a large grain- crop this spriug. But the labor of the settlers was hampered by an abnormal social arrangement. Plymouth fretted under an agreement which rob- bed work of its spur and its crown. Up to the month of April, 1623, a community of interest was strictly maintained. This did not arise from any peculiar fantastic notions among the colonists, but was required by a clause — reluctantly assented to — of their engagement with the Merchant-adventurers in England.:}: The contract tied the Pilgrims to the communal plan for a specified season.§ Land was not to be owned by individuals ; it was common ; each man cultivated what he pleased, and threw the product of his labor into the general store. * Bradford, pp. 133, 134. t In the latter part of 1623, Weston. went to Virginia ; thence he returned to England, where he disappears from history. Pal- frey, vol. 1, p. 207. X Judge Davis, note on Morton's Memorial. § Winslow in Young, p. 34G. Palfrey, Thatcher, etc. I 196 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. From the stock thus gained overseers supplied the settlers in equal quantities.* Infinite were the vexations, multitudinous were kthe trials, which resulted. Now a general meeting was called, and this question was anxiously dis- cussed. Finally it was decided, though only for reasons of the sternest necessity, to deviate some- what from the form of the contract. As the communal idea has, in our day, won wide favor with theorists and ideal dreamers, we subjoin and commend the weighty words of Bradford, who had experienced the evils of that vicious system, to the Fourierite philosophers : "At length, after much debate, the governor, with the advice of the chiefest among the Pilgrims, gave way that each man should set corn for his individual benefit, and in that respect trust to him- self; though, remembering the contract, all other things were to go on in the communal way till time freed them. So to every family a parcel of land was assigned, but only for present use, no division for inheritance being made, and all boys and youth were ranged under some family. This had good success, for it made all hands very industrious ; so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the governor could have brought to bear. He was saved a deal of trouble, and the division gave great content. Even the women went into the field, taking with them their little ones, wdio before would allege weakness * Winslow in Young, p. 3i6. Palfrey, Thatcher, Banvai-d, etc. A CHECKERED RECORD. 197 and inabilit}^, and whom to liave compelled would have been thought grievously tyrannical, ^ " The experience which was had in this common interest and condition, tried sundry years, and that among godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato and of other an- cients, applauded by some of later times; that the abolition of individual property, and the introduc- tion of a community of wealth, would make men happy and flourishing. This community, so far as it went at Plymouth, was found to breed much con- fusion and discontent, and to retard labor. The young men, that were most able and fit for service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength in working for the families of others, without other recompense than a bare subsistence. The strong man and the man of parts had no greater share than he that was weak, and not able to do a quarter the other could. This was thought injus- tice. The aged and graver sort — ranked and equal- ized with the meaner and younger men in the divis- ion of labor and provisions — esteemed it some indig- nity and disrespect unto their gray heads. And for men's wives to be bidden to do service for others, as dressing meat and washing clothes, they deemed it a kind of slavery which many husbands could not well brook. So if this arrangement did not cut off those relations which God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respect that should be preserved amongst them, and destroyed individuality. And things 198 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. would have been worse, liad the Pilgrims been more qf a different condition. Let none object that this is man's corruption, and nothing to the philos- ophy per se. Yes ; but since all men have this cor- ruption in them, God in his wisdom saw another course fitter for them."* When the Pilgrims had finished planting, they knew that many weary weeks must elapse ere they could reap what they had sown. Meantime " all their victuals were spent, and they rested on God's providence alone, many times not knowing at night where to get a bit of any thing the next day ; so that, as has been well said, they, above all people in the world, had occasion to pray God to give them their daily bread."t As the colonists had " but one boat left, and she not over-well fitted, they were divided into gangs of six or seven each, and so went out with a net they had bought, to take bass and such like fish by course, each company knowing its turn. No sooner was the boat discharged of what she had brought than the next gang took her. Nor did they return till they had caught something, though it were five or six days before ; for they knew there was noth- ing at home, and to return empty-handed would be a great discouragement to the rest. Yea, they strove which should do best. If the boat was gone over-long or got little, then all went to the shore to seek shell-fish, which at low water they dug from the sand. They also got now and then a deer, one * Bradford, pp. 135, 136. f Ibid., p. 136. A CHECKERED RECORD. 199 or two of the fittest being appointed to range tlie woods ; and the meat thus gotten was fairly divided. All these wants were borne with great patience and alacrity of spirit.""- God was thanked for what he gave, and for the rest all hoped. The unusually large corn-crop just planted led the Pilgrims to believe that the approaching har- vest would definitively stojD the hungry mouth of their necessities ; but, alas, this expectation seemed about to be blasted. A severe drought met them in the ojoening months of the summer. From the middle of May to the middle of July there was no rain. All nature seemed to pant with thirst. The streams dwindled, and ceased to laugh. The sum- mer foliage seemed in the " sear and yellow leaf" of autumn. The flowers held out their parched and shrivelled tongues. The sprouting corn began to wither in the blade. Famine seemed inevitable. In this emergency, the devout Pilgrims resorted to the " mercy-seat," and besought Him who had so often appeared to succor them to aid them now. A special da'y of fasting and prayer was appointed ; and we may still ' ' hear the Pilgrims' peaceful praj'er Swelling along the silent air, Amid the forest wld." It has been well said, that answers to prayer do not generally come with ohservation. They are often sent in a way which is hid from most persons, and frequently even from those who receive them. * Bradford, p. 136. 200 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. There are, however, instances in which these an- swers are so striking as to be visible to alb Some instances of this kind may be found in the early history of New England.* On this occasion the day, which was kept with marked earnestness and solemnity, opened with a cloudless sky, while the sun poured its clear, scorch- ing rays full upon the shrinking plains ; but lo, says Wiuslow in his recital, ere the close of the services, "the sky was overcast, the clouds gathered on all sides, and on the next morning distilled such soft, sweet, and moderate showers of rain, continuing some fourteen days, and mixed with such seasona- ble weather, as it was hard to say whether our with- ered corn or our drooping affections were most quickened and revived, such was the bounty and goodness of our God."t Habbamak, who was in Plymouth at this time, exclaimed as the rain began to fall, " Now I see that the Englishman's God is a good God, for he has heard you, and sent you rain, and that without storms and tempests, which we usually have with our rain, and which beat down our corn ; but yours stands whole and erect still ; surely your God is a good God."t But while these timely and gentle showers saved their crop and secured the future, the pinching want of the passing days was not stayed. Indeed, so bit- ter grew the famine, that on one occasion the colony * White's Incidents, p. 41. f Winslow in Young. X White's Incidents, p. 42. A CHECKEEED KECORD. 201 was reduced to a single pint of corn ; which, when divided among the Pilgrims, gave each five ker- nels.* During the height of this suffering, a package of home-letters was received. From these the settlers gleaned some news which was of interest to them. It seems that Mr. John Pierce, in whose name their patent had been taken,t had grown covetous, and attempted to play both the Pilgrims and the Mer- chant-adventurers false. "When he saw " how hope- fnlly the Plymouth colony was seated," the trustee grew desirous of becoming lord-proprietary, and holding them as his tenants, " to sue in his courts as lord.":}: So he surreptitiously sued out a new patent, of much larger extent, in his own name, and then fitted out an expedition headed by him- self, to go and take possession of his usurped domain. § But " God marvellously crossed him." " Having sailed no farther than the Downs," says Cotton Mather, " his ship sprang aleak ; and be- sides this disaster, which alone was enough to have stopped the voyage, one strand of the cable was accidentally cut, by which means it broke in a stress of wind, and all were in extreme danger of being wrecked upon the sands. Having with much cost recruited this loss, and increased the number of emigrants. Pierce again put to sea; but in mid- * Banvard, Thatcher, Morton's Memorial. t Chap. 10, p. 137. I Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 320. Bradford, p. 138. § Morton's Memorial, pp. 95-97. Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 210, 211, 9* 202 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. ocean one of the saddest and longest storms known since tlie days of the apostle Paul drove the ship home to England once more, the vessel well-nigh torn to pieces, and the emigrants, though all saved, weary and affrighted. Pierce, by all his tumbling backw^ard and forward, was by this time grown so sick of his patent that he vomited it up. He as- signed it over to the home company;* but they afterwards obtained another, under the umbrage whereof they could more effectually carry on the affairs of their colony."t The letter from the Merchant-adventurers, which recited these facts, closed with a cheering promise : " We have agreed with two merchants for a ship of a hundred and forty tons, called the 'Anne,' which is to be ready the last of this month of April, to bring sixty passengers and sixty tons of goods to you.":!: While the Pilgrims, enlivened by this news, were living on hope and five kernels of corn, they received a visitor. Captain Francis West, admiral of New England, who sailed under a commission to prevent all trading and fishing on the coast-Hne without a license from the Home Council, called at Plymouth. Of him the necessitous Pilgrims pur- chased a few edibles at high prices.§ The old sailor's mission failed ; the fishermen were too strong and independent to be repressed. Ere long, * Pierce sold liis patent for five hundred pounds ; he gave fifty for it." Banvard, p. 133. See Palfrey, ut antea, on this point, t Cotton Mather's Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 60. J Cited in exteuso in Bradford, pp. 139, 140. § Bradford, p. 141. Wiu.slow in Young. A CHECKERED EECOED 203 on their petition, Parliament decreed that lishing shonki be free.'"' v Two weeks after the departure of West, the promised reinforcements arrived; the "Anne" land- ed her recruits, and a goodly store of provisions besides.t So low was the colonial larder, that " the best dish they could present their friends wdth was a lobster or a piece of fish, without bread, or any thing else but a cup of fair spring water.":!; The " Anne" was shortly followed by the " Little James," a vessel of forty-four tons burden, "built to stay in the country."§ "Among the pioneers just arrived," says Cotton Mather, " were divers worthy and useful men, who were come to seek the welfare of this little Israel ; though at their coming they were as differently affected as the rebuilders of the temple at Jerusa- lem ; some were grieved Avhen they saw how bad the condition of their friends was, and others were glad that it was no worse."|| Among the arrivals at this time " were, Cutli- bertson, a member of the Leyden church, the wives of Fuller and Coake, and two daughters of Brew- ster. There were at least twelve ladies. One of these became the wife of Bradford ; Standish mar- ried another. Alice Southworth, Bradford's second * Bauvard, p. 134. ■f Morton's Memorial, Thatcher, Palfrey. X Bradford, p. 146. § Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 211, 212. II Mather's Magnalia. vol. 1. p. 60. 204 THE PILGKIM FATHEES. wife, is said to have been liis first love. Both being widowed, a correspondence took place, in the sequel of which she came out from England, and married her some-time lover at Plymouth."^' " Some of your old friends go to you with these lines," wrote Cushman; "they come dropping to you, and by degrees I hope ere long you shall en- joy them all."t Now also this commercial partnership beheld a vision of the immortal renown to which its hum- ble agents were destined. " Let it not be grievous to you," wrote the prescient scribe of the Home Company, "that you have been instruments to break the ice for others who came after you with less dif- ficulty ; the honor shall be yours to the world's end. Wetjear you always in our hearts, and our cordial affection is toward you all, as are the hearts of hun- dreds more who never saw your faces, but who pray for your safety as for their own, that the same God who hath so marvellously preserved you from seas, foes, famine, will still preserve you from all future dangers, and make you honorable among men and glorious in bliss at the last day.":}: * Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 212, note. t Bradford, p. 145. t Ibid., pp. 145, 146. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 205 CHAPTEE XVII. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. "I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, With well-placed words of glozing courtesy, Baited wdth reason not unplausible, Wind me into the easy-hearted man, And hug hjm into snares." Milton's C'omus. The Plymouth colonists were men of active en- terprise. They were miserly of time, and hoarded their hours. They were also anxious to please the Merchant-adventurers. So now, as quickly as might be, the "Anne" was laden with clapboards, beaver skins, and divers fars ; letters whose every line was a loving pulsation, were indited to the lingering ab- sentees at Leyden and to home circles in England ; and on the 10th of September, 1623, the vessel sailed, carrying with her Edward Winslow, who was sent over to report progress, and to procure such necessities as were demanded by the imj^erious wants of the expanding colony.* After watching the "Anne" until she dipped below the horizon, the pilgrims returned from the shore and prepared to go into the harvest field. This season " God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the grateful rejoicing of all hearts." The granaries were filled. Some of « Prince, Morton's Memorial, Bradford, Thatcher's Plymouth. 206 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. the abler and more industrious had to spare, and the perturbed ghost of famine, which had so long haunted Plymouth, was definitively laid.* Many attributed this plenteous harvest to the j)artial abandonment of the communal plan, and in consequence the desire for complete emancipation from its thraldom became more general and earn- est.f Some of the late comers had sailed not under articles of agreement with the company of Mer- chant-adventurers, but on their individual account; so they landed free from those conditions which shackled the elder settlers. Under these circum- stances it was thought fit, ere these outsiders were received and permitted to settle and build in Plym- outh, to exact of them certain specified conditions precedent. So reasonable a requisition woii ready assent, and an agreement was signed to this effect : The colony on its part, the outsiders on theirs, cove- nanted to show each the other all reasonable cour- tesies ; all were to be alike subject to such laws and orders as were already made, or might thereaf- ter be made, for the public good ; the outsiders were freed and exempted from the general employments which the communal condition required of its par- ticipants, except for purposes of defence and such work as tended to the lasting welfare of the colony ; they were taxed for the maintenance of the govern- ment, and debarred from traffic with the Indians for their individual profit, until the expiration of * Bradford, p. 147. f Ibid. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 207 the seven years which tied the colonists to the com- nmnaKty.* Towards the middle of September, while the Pil- grims were in the midst of their harvest labors, Rob- ert Gorges, a sou of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, famous as a voyageur and discoverer, sailed into Plymouth bay.f He had recently returned from the Venetian •wars, and now came armed with a commission from the New England council as governor-general of the territory from Acadia to Narragansett Bay.]; With him were families of emigrants equipped to com- mence a settlement, and a learned and worthy cler- gyman of the English church, William Morrel, an important item of whose mission was to " exercise superintendence over the New England churches."§ Gorges tarried at Plymouth about a fortnight, receiving friendly and cordial entertainment.il He ,liad been advised to select Admiral West, Christo- pher Levett, and the existing governor of Plymouth, as his advisers. This he did ; and in this body was vested the full authority to administer justice in all cases, " capital, criminal, and civil," throughout the province of New England.! This arranged. Gorges sailed for Wessagusset, the site of Weston's discom- fiture, and, landing his colonists, essayed to plant on that inauspicious coast a permanent settlement.^'"* . This colony, like its predecessor, was fated. » Bradford, p. 148. \ Felt, Hist. New England, Prince, Bradford. X Felt, Bradford, Morton's Memorial, etc. § Felt, vol. 1, p. 77. II Bradford, p. 149. IT Ibid. i\Iorton's Memorial. vQ Ibid. 208 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. Hardly surviving its birth, it lingered through a twelvemonth, and then dissolved. Sir Ferdinand Gorges and his company, discouraged by the oppo- sition of the Parliament to their New England schemes, would adventure nothing.* In the spring of 1624 he summoned his son home; and a little later Morrel, who had made no effort to exercise his superintendency, followed him, and this gave the second settlement at Wessagusset its coup de grdce.f Morrel was not spoiled by his disappointment. " I shall always be desirous for the advancement of those colonies," he said.| And in a Latin poem addressed to the New England Council, he Avrote : " If these poor lines may wiu that country love, Or kind compassion in the English move, Or painful men to a good land invite, Whose holy works the natives may enlight, — If Heaven grant this, to see there built I trust, An English kingdom from the Indian diist. "§ But while " unmerciful disaster followed thick and followed faster" this enterprise of Gorges and several kindred ones,|| smiting them into early graves, Plymouth, clasping hands Avitli God, strengthened daily, and walked forAvard to assured success. Early in 1624, the annual election occurred. Governor Bradford, anxious to retire, pleaded hard for " rota- tion in office," and alleged that that Avas the " end * Felt. t Ibid. Bradford, Morton's Memorial. X Felt, vol. 1, p. 78. § Cited in Felt, ut antea. II "There were also this year some scattering beginnings made in other places, as at Piscataway, by Mr. David ThomjDSon, who was sent over by Mason and Gorges, at Monhegin, and some other places by sundry others." Bradford, p. 154. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 209 of annual elections," But the Pilgrims riglitly re- garded him as a pivotal-man, and with rare good sense tliey reelected liim unanimously.* "When the election was over the "Little James" was well vict- ualed and despatched to the eastward on a fishing expedition. On reaching Damarin's cove " there arose such a violent and extraordinary storm that the seas broke over such places in the harbor as were deemed absolutely secure, and drove the vessel against great rocks, which beat a hole in her hulk that a horse and cart might have gone through, and afterwards drove her into deep water, where she sank. The master was drowned ; the rest of the men, except one, saved their lives with much ado ; and all the provisions, salt, tackle, and what else was in her, was lost."t Saddened by this mishap, but undismayed, the Pilgrims now commenced their preparations for planting, " A great part of liber- ty," says Seneca, " is a well-governed bell}', and to be patient in all wants.":!; -^^^ Corbett, borrowing the same idea, put it into homely English by affirm- ing that " the stomach is the cause of civilization." He meant that hunger begets labor to satisfy its cravings. " Wants awaken intellect. To gratify them disciplines the mind. The keener the want, the lustier the growth. "§ The famine of the past had revealed to the Pil- grims the weakness and inefficiency of the com- » Prince, Bradford, Pilgrims' Journal. t Bradford, pp. 156, 157. t Seneca's Epis. 123. ' § Phillips' Letters and Speeches, p. 372. 210 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. munal plan. It educated them; for on an indi- vidual basis they reaped plenty. They overcame hunger by patience. They flanked famine by a skilful social arrangement. Now, as before, each man broke ground for himself.* There was no honger an Elysium for sluggards; each reaped as he had sown. In March, 1624, Winslow returned to Plymouth, after an absence of eight months.t He brought with him three heifers and a bull — the first neat cattle that came into New Ed gland.:}: The ex- iles could no longer say, "We are without cattle, and we have no Egypt to go to for corn."§ Cattle they now had, and they created an Egypt. Winslow also brought some " clothing and other necessaries ; a carpenter, who died soon, but not until he had rendered himself very useful;" a" salt- man," who proved " an ignorant, foohsh, self-willed fellow," and only made trouble and waste ; and " a preacher, though none of the most eminent and rare" — to whose transportation Cushman wrote that he and Winslow had consented only " to give content to some in London."|| Winslow informed his coadjutors of a sad "report that there was among the Merchant-adventurers a strong faction hostile to Plymouth, and especially set against the comin^of the rest from Leyden"! — which explains « Prince, Bradford. t Morton's Memorial. X Thatcher's Plymouth, p. 111. § Morton's Memorial, p. 103. || Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 215. IT Bradford, pp. 159, 160, 167. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 211 the long tarrj of Eobinson and his flock in Hol- land. " It will be remembered," remarks Palfrey, " that tlie London adventurers were engaged in a commer- cial speculation. Several of them sympathized more or less in religious sentiment with the Pilgrims ; but even with most of these considerations of pecuniary interest were paramount, and they were, besides, a minority when opposed to the aggregate of those adventurers who had no mind to interest themselves in religious dissensions to the damage of their pros- pect of gain. Under such circumstances, the policy of the English partners would naturally be to keep in favor with the court and with the council for New England, of which Sir Ferdinand Gorges and other churchmen were leaders. This it was that occa- sioned the thwarting embarrassments which were persistently interposed to frustrate Robinson's wish to collect his scattered flock in America. Neither the Yirginia Company, nor the Merchant-adventui-- ers as a body, would have preferred to employ Sep- aratists in founding American colonies, and giving value to their land. But the option was not theirs. At the moment, no others were disposed to con- front the anticipated hardships, and none could be relied upon like these to carry the business through. This was well understood on both sides to be the motive for the engagement that was made. " If Separatists were per force to undertake the enterprise, it was desirable that they should be per- sons not individually conspicuous, or obnoxious to 21'2 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. displeasure in high quarters ; and when Brewster, and not Kobiuson, accompanied the first settlers to New England, it was a result, if not due to the in- trigues of the Adventurers, certainly well according with their policy. Brewster was forgotten in Eng- land ; nor had he ever been known as a literary champion of his sect. The able and learned Rob- inson was the recognized head of the Independents, a rising and militant power. He had an English, if indeed it may not be called a European reputa- tion. No name could have been uttered in courtly circles with worse omen to the new settlement. The case was still stronger when, having lost their way, and in consequence come to need another patent, the colony was made a dependency of the Council for New England, instead of the Yirginia Company. In the Yirginia Company, laboring under the dis- pleasure of the king, and having Sandys and Wri- othesley for its leaders, there was a leaven of pop- ular sentiment. The element of absolutism and prelacy was more controlling in the councils of the rival corporation. "From these circumstances the quick instinct of trade took its lesson. To the favor of the Coun- cil for New England, with Sir Ferdinand Gorges at its head, and the king taking its part against Sir Edward Coke and the House of Commons, the Merchant-adventurers were looking for benefits which some of them had no mind to hazard by en- couraging their colony to exhale any offensive odor of schism. This gives us an insight into the policy WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 213 of that action to which Kobinson referred when, in a letter to Brewster, now brought by Winfelow, he wrote : ' I persuade mj' self that for me, they of all others are unwilling I should be transported, espe- cially such of them as have an eye that way them- selves, as thinking if I come there their market will be marred. And for these Adventurers, if they have but half the wit to their malice, they will stop my course when they see it intended,' " In these circumstances, also, we find an expla- nation of the selection of a minister 'not the most eminent and rare,' and such as Cushman and Wins- low could agree to take only ' to give content to some in London.' To send a clergyman avowedly of the state church was a course not to be thouijht of. The colonists could not be expected to receive him. The best method for their purpose was, to employ some one of a character and position suited to get possession of their confidence, and then use it to tone down their religious strictness, and, if cir- cumstances should favor, to disturb the ecclesias- tical constitution which they had set up. " As the financial prospects of the colony faded, the more anxious were the unsympathizing London partners to relieve it and themselves from the stig- ma of religious schism. The taunt that their colo- nists were Brownists depressed the value of their stock. It was for their interest to introduce settlers of a different religious character, and to take the local power, if possible, out of the hands of those who represented the obnoxious tenets. To this 214 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. end it was their policy to encourage such internal disaffection as already existed, and to strengthen ifc by the infusion of neAV elements of discord. A part even of the 'Mayflower' emigrants, without reli- gious sympathy with their superiors, and jealous of the needful exercise of authority, were fit subjects for an influence adverse to the existing organization. The miscellaneous importation in the 'Fortune' followed ; and the whole tenor of the discourse of Cushman, who came out and returned in her, shows that there were ' idle drones ' and ' unreasonable men' mixed with the nobler associates of the infant settlement. The 'Anne' and her partner, the last vessels despatched by the Adventurers, brought new fuel for dissension in those of that company who came ' on their particular ' account. Nor does it seem hazardous to infer, alike from the circum- stances of the case and from developments which speedily followed, that some of these persons, in concert with the ' strong faction among the Adven- turers,' came over on the errand of subverting the existing government and order."* The clergyman now sent over, and mentioned in the home-letters, was John Lyford. He was the seed of many and sad disturbances. " When he first came ashore," says Bradford, "he saluted the colonists with such reverence and humility as is seldom seen, and indeed made them ashamed, he so bowed and cringed unto them ; he would have kissed their hands, if they had suffered it. Yet all a Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 216-219. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 215 the while, if we may judge by his after-carriage, he was but hke him mentioned by the psalmist,* that croucheth and boweth that heaps of poor may fall by his might. Or like that dissembling Ishmaelf who, when he had slain Gedehah, went out weep- ing, and met them that were coming to offer in- cense in the house of the Lord, saying, ' Come to Gedeliah,' when he meant to slay them. "J The Pilgrims received Lyford cordially, giving him the warmest of welcomes and the heartiest. A larger allowance out of the general store was allotted him than any other had ; and as the gov- ernor was wont, "in all weighty affairs, to consult with Elder Brewster as well as with his special assistants, so now, from coiu'tesy, he called Lyford also to advise in all important crises."§ Ere long he professed to desire to unite with the Pilgrim church. He was accordingly received, and " made a large confession of his faith, and an acknowledgment of his former disorderly walking and entanglement with many corruptions, which had been a burden to his conscience ; so that he blessed God for this opportunity of liberty to enjoy the ordinances of God in jjurity among His people."|| For a time all things went comfortably and smoothly ; but in this calm, Lyford contracted an intimacy with one John Oldham, who had come out in the "Anne" on his own account, and had been a * Psalm 10 : 10. f Jeremiah 41 : 6. J Bradford, p. 171. § Ibid. || Ibid., p. 172. 213 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. factious bawier from the outset/^ From so con- genial an association, evil could not but be begot- ten. The bully and the hypocrite soon nursed it and set it afoot. Both Oldham and Lyford grew very perverse — though just before Oldham also had been received as a member of the Plymouth church, " whether from hypocrisy or out of some sudden pang of conviction God only knows" — and " showed a spirit of great malignancy, drawing as many into faction as they could influence. The most idle and profane they nourished, and backed in all their lawlessness, so they would but cleave to them and revile the Pilgrim church. Private meetings and back-stair whisperings were incessant among them, they feeding themselves and others with what they should bring to pass in England by the faction of their friends among the Adventurers, which brought both themselves and their dupes into a fools' paradise. Outwardly they set a fair face on things, yet they could not carry things so closely but much both of their sayings and doings was discovered."'!" Finally, when the vessel in which Winslow had returned was laden, and ready to hoist anchor and spread sail for home, it was observed that Ly- ford and his coadjutors " were long in writing and sent many letters, and communicated to each other such things as made them laugh in their sleeves, thinking they had done their errand efficiently."! * Bradford, p. 172. Morton's Memorial, p. 112. f Ibid. X Bradford, p. 173. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 217 Scenting miscliief, Bradford watched tliem close- ly ; and wlien the ship left the harbor, he followed her in the shallop, and demanded Lyford's letter- bag. The captain, v/ho was friendly to the colonial government, and cognizant of the plot afoot, both in Britain and at Plj'mouth, to overreach the Pil- grims, at once acceded. Above twenty letters, many of them long, and pregnant with slanders, false ac- cusations, and malicious inuendoes, tending not only to the prejudice, but the ruin and utter subversion of the settlement, were found. Most of these Brad- ford let pass, contenting himself with abstracts. But of the most material true copies were taken, and then forwarded, the originals being detained, lest their writer should deny his work, in which case he would now be compelled to eat his own penman- ship.* The ship had sailed towards evening ; in the night the governor returned. Lyford and his fac- tion " looked blank when they saw Bradford land ; but after some weeks, as nothing came of it, they were as brisk as ever, thinking that all was un- known and was gone current, and that the shallop went but to despatch some well-nigh forgotten or belated letters. The reason why Bradford and the rest concealed their knowledge was, to let affairs drift to a natural development, and ripen, that they might tire better discover the intentions of the mal- contents, and see who were their adherents. And they did this the rather, because they had learned « Bradford, p. 173. 10 ■ 218 THE PILGKIM FATHERS. from a letter written by one of tlie confederates, that Oldham and Lyford intended an immediate reformation of the church and commonwealth, and proposed at once, on the departure of the ship, to unite their forces, and set up a worship on the Eng- lish model."* The Pilgrims had not long to wait. Oldham, with the natural instinct of a bullj, picked constant quarrels, refused to mount guard, and pelted Stan- dish with vile epithets. Lyford, a more cautious knave, had no heart for fisticuffs, but he set up an- other worship on the Sabbath, and openly celebra- ted sacramentst which were to the Pilgrims instinct with vicious tyranny and idolatrous significance; and to escape from which, they had crossed the channel into Holland, and plunged across the At- lantic into the winter wilderness. The colonists at once acted. Oldham was tamed. " After being clapped up awhile, he came to him- self." Lyford was formally impeached, A court was convened, and the settlers at large were sum- moned to attend. Bradford himself conducted the prosecution in this primitive trial. He said that, " being greatly oppressed in Britain, the Pilgrims had come to America, here to enjoy liberty of con- science; and for that they had passed through frightful hardships, and planted this settlement on the sterile rocks. The danger and the charge ol the beginning were theirs. Lyford had been sent over at the general expense, and both himself and '-S Bra.lfoi.l. p. 175. t Ibid. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 219 his large family- had been maintained from the common store. He had joined their church, and become one of themselves; and for him to plot the ruin of his entertainers was most unjust and perfid- ious. As for Oldham and his crew, who came at their own charge and for their particular benefit, seeing they were received in courtesy by the plan- tation, when they came only to seek shelter and protection under its wings, not being able to stand alone, they were like the fable of the hedgehog whom the cony, in a stormy day, from pity wel- comed into her burrow; but who, not content to take part with her, in the end, with her sharp pricks forced the poor cony to forsake her own burrow, as these do now attempt to do with us."t Here Lyford denied that he had been guilty of any wrong. Bradford at once "put in" his inter- cepted letters as evidence. The unmasked hypo- crite was dumb. But Oldham, mad with rage, at- tempted to rouse an emeufe on the spot.j: No hand was uplifted at his appeal, and Bradford caused the whole parcel of letters to be read ; after which, resuming his speech, he reminded Lyford of his humble confession on being received into the church, of his solemn promise not to attempt to perform the functions of a clergyman until he had another call to that sacred ofiice ; in open violation of which, he had assumed the clerical garb, in virtue of his « He had a wife and four children. Bradford, p. 175, editor's note. t Ibid, pp. 175, 176. ± Ibid. 220 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. ordination, drawn aside a small clique, and by attempting to officiate at the Lord's table on the Sabbath, broken his solemn pledge and disturbed the public peace.* * The proof was so patent, the falsehoods which imjireguated the insolent letters were so bold, that the factionists were absolutely dumb. No voice was raised in extenuation of the roguery. Convic- tion was speedy. Oldham and Lyford were both sentenced to banishment. t Oldham at once left Plymouth, and repaired to Nantasket, where the Pilgrims had a station to ac- commodate the Indian trade.:]; But Lyford, as weak as he was vicious, burst into tears, and " confessed that he feared he was a reprobate, with sins too heavy for God to pardon ;" and he promised amend- ment with such emphasis, and pleaded so piteously for forgiveness, that the kind and merciful settlers consented to keep him on probation for six months.§ But he was an ingrained knave, and amendment was not in him. Not long after this scene, he wrote a second letter to the Merchant -adventurers, in which he justified all his former charges, and elab- orated them. Unhappily for him, the messenger to whom he intrusted this precious missive surren- dered it into the hands of Bradford, who simply .filed it for the present, and let his just wrath accu- imulate.ll ■a Bradford, pp. 175, 176. f I^i*^^-' P- 182. i Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 221, note. Morton's Memorial, p. 117, note. ^ Ibid. || Bradford. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 221 In tlie mean time the sliip, with Lyford's batch of letters aboard, dropped anchor in the Thames. The Hes of their masquerading agent were eagerly conned by the London partners. A conclave was held. The inimical adventurers pointed triumph- antly to Lyford's testimony. But, fortunately for the Pilgrims, Winslow, who had returned to Lon- don, had become acquainted with certain disrep- utable and damning facts in Lyford's home-ca- reer, both in England and in Ireland, where he had officiated as pastor, which proved him to be a lecher and a swindler, who soiled the surplice and the cope. With these facts, and followed by grave and unimpeachable witnesses, Winslow hurried into the room where the merchants were assembled, and made his exjwse, which " struck Lyford's friends with sudden dumbness, and made them shame greatly."* But these reports, together with their disap- pointment in not harvesting an immediate fortune, impelled two thirds of the original members of the London Company to withdraw from the venture; "and as there had been a faction and siding amongst them for two years, so now there was an utter breach and sequestration."t Some of the partners, however, remained friend- ly; and these, assuming the debt of the colony — amounting to some fourteen hundred pounds ster- ling — fitted out a ship for another voyage, wrote in terms of comfort and cheer, and sent out cattle, " Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 221. I Winslow, quoted in Palfrey, \\i antea. 222 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. tools and clothing, which they sold to the planters, despite their friendly professions, at an exorbitant advance on the market value." In the spring of 1625, Winslow came back with this ship thus freighted ; and he brought with him besides, the news of the disaffection among the Merchant-adventurers. On landing, he was the surprised witness of a strange ceremony. In the village street was drawn up a guard of musketeers in two files, between which a man was running. As he passed, each soldier gave him a thump behind with the but of his musket. f This was called "run- ning the gauntlet," and was a custom borrowed from the Indians. So engrossed were the settlers in this odd sport, and so convulsed were the sober- est of them with laughter at the victim's odd grim- aces on being struck and bidden " mend his man- ners," that Winslow advanced quite up to the crowd ere he was discovered and recognized. He then learned that the sufferer of this singular pimish- ment was Oldham, who, despite his banishment, had ventured to return to Plymouth and revile his judges.t- Winslow at once informed the clustering colo- nists of the effect of Lyford's letters in England, and repeated his expose, of that bad man's abhorrent private cliaracter.§ The Pilgrims were not sur- prisisd. Lj'ford's own wife, " a grave matron of good carriage," had herself, in the sorrow of her * Thatcher, Prince, Palfrey, Bradford. f Bradford, p. 190. X Ibid., p. 192. Morton's Memorial, p. 120. § Ibid. WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 223 heart, disclosed some secrets and uncloaked some crimes -uhicli led them to believe Lyford capable of perpetrating any villauy.* Now, since his probationary time had expired, and he was a more dangerous rascal than before, he was ordered to quit the colony. This he did, joining Oldham at Nantucket; whence, a little later, he wandered into Virginia, dying there very miser- ably.f Eventually Oldham repented of his evil conduct, and became reconciled to the Pilgrims ; " so that he had liberty to come and go, and converse with them at pleasure," until, some years later, the In- dians, in a petty quarrel, knocked his brains out with a tomahawk.:}: Thus ended the " Lyford troubles." Led by God, the Plymouth colonists safely surmounted one more obstacle, the insidious assault of masquera- ders who " stole the livery of heaven to serve the devil in." The winter of 1624-5 had passed without any special occurrence save this Lyford affair ; and here see one strange thing : " Many who before stood something oft' from the church," says Brad- ford, " now, seeing Lyford's unrighteous dealing and malignity against it, came forward and ten- dered themselves as members, professing that it was not out of any dislike of any thing that they had stood so long aloof, but from a desire to fit * Bradford, p. 192. Morton's Memorial, p. 120. f Ibid. % Chiever's Journal, p. 327. Morton's Memorial. 224 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. themselves better for sucli a connection, and that now they saw that the Lord called for their lielj). So that Lyford's crusade had quite a contrary effect from that hoped ; which was looked at as a great work of God, who drew men on by unlikely means, and by occurrences which might rather have set them farther off."'' Lyford had complained to the Merchant-adven- turers that the Pilgrims had no regularly ordained minister. To this charge Bradford made a fine retort : " We answer, the more is our wrong, that our pastor is kept from us by these men's means, who then reproach ?<.s for it. Yet have we not been wholly destitute of the means of salvation, as this man would have the world believe; for our rever- end elder, Mr. ^rewster, hath labored diligently in dispensing the word of God unto us ; and, be it spoken without ostentation, he is not inferior to Mr. Lyford — and some of his betters — either in gifts or learning, though he would never be persuaded to take higher office upon himself."t Brewster taught twice every Sabbath powerfully and profitably, and Avithout stipend, which he stead- ily declined, working for his bread with his own hands, and earning it in the sweat of his brows, thus approximating to the early Christian practice. " He did more in one year," asserts old John Cot- ton, "than many who have their hundreds per an- num do in all their lives." So it seems that there is one brilliant exception to the Indian maxim, • Bradford, p. 189. t Hji^^-. P- 188- WOLVES IN THE SHEEPFOLD. 225 " Poor pay poor preach." Tlie good elder bad a singular gift iu prayer, "yet was seldom word}^ or prolix." Without the afflatus of ordination, he was so much better than most ministers with it, that, though destitute of " consecrated ministrations," the colonists did not suffer much, and mainly re- gretted the absence of sacraments, which Brewster, unordaiued, was not competent to celebrate.* Prince gives a summary of the religious tenets of the Plymouth church : I. " It held that nothing is to be accounted true religion but what is taught in the Holy Scriptures." II. "It held that every man has the right of private judgment, of testing his belief by the sacred writ, and of worshipping God in his own way as that text directed."! On this doctrine the Pilgrims thrived. " Brown bread and the gospel is good fare," they said to one another.:]: Indeed it was; and there on the deso- late coast, where wheat froze and the bitter winter congealed six months of the twelve, men grew. "At last," says Elliott, "in the beginning of the seventeenth century, we see a church Avith no priest, with no hierarchy, with no forms ; none like it since that at Corinth ; none so entirely free to Avork out its ideas into life and action. It was a religious democ- racy. Its doctrines and practices were the outcome * Elliot, vol. 1, pp. 119, 120. f Ibid., p. 116. Prince's Chronology. Thatcher's Plymouth. J A Brief Eeview of the Else and Progress of New England. London, 1774. 10* 226 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. of the time, and were decided on by tlie votes of the members as men. In theory, the majority ruled in the Plymouth church. 'Tis a noticeable thing in human history, and it has had its influence in both church and state. The day had come when a few brave men could take this step in advance towards freedom, and not be swallowed up and lost. The day had come when democracy was j)ossible in the church, foretelling its speedy coming in the state."* * Elliot, vol. 1, p. 135. SAD NEWS FEOM ENGLAND. 227 CHAPTEE XVIII. SAD NEWS FROM ENGLAND. "Thou know'st 'tis common ; all that live must die. Passing through nature to eternity." Rhakspeake's Ilamlet. The Pilgrims were fretted bj tlie unsatisfactory and clogging conditions of their compact with the London partners. Their j)rosperitj was perpetu- ally menaced by the factions and the chicanery of a herd of merchants whose only god was mammon, and who cared nothing for justice and sober living and their plighted word, if onl}^ they might make their heaps high and massy. Early in 1625, the colonists determined to ini- tiate measures which should look to their disen- thralment, and whose result should be to give them in fee simple those lands which their patient skill had wrung from the sturdy hand of unwilling and churlish nature. Standish was commissioned to go to England, and open negotiations with the Mer- chant-adventurers.* Two ships, which had come out on a trading voyage, were now about to sail for home. In the larger of these the redoubtable captain embarked. " Being both well laden, they went joyfully home * Morton, Prince, Hazard, Bradford, Thatcher, Bauvard. 228 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. together, tlie greater towing the lesser at her stern all the way over. And they had such fair weather, that they never once cast off till both were shot deep into the English channel. Yet there the little vessel was uuliappil}- seized by a Turkish rover, and carried into Sallee, where master and crew were made slaves ; and her cargo of beaver-skins was sold at sixpence a piece. Thus were their hopes dashed, and the joyful news they meant to carry home was turned to heavy tidings."* Fortunately for Standish, the Tui'k was satisfied with the morsel he had already gotten into his capacious maw, and did not pursue the bigger ship ; so that he escaj)ed a life of Eastern servitude, and safely reached the English soil. Wasting no time, he hastened to meet the London partners; and so skilful Avas his diplomacy, that he made arrange- ments for the gradual absorption of the Plj'mouth debt by the settlers, " taking up a hundred and fifty pounds of it on the spot, though at fifty per cent, interest, which he bestowed in trading and in the purchase of such commodities as he knew to be requisite for colonial use."t In the spring of 1626, he returned to Plymouth,:!: bringing with him the mournful intelligence of the death of Cushman in England and of Kobinson in Leyden,§ a double bereavement to the Pilgrim pio- neers. The loss of no other two men could have dealt a Bradford, pp. 202, 203. t Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 224. X Hazard, Bradford, Palfi-ey, § Ibid. SAD NEWS FEOM ENGLAND. 229 so stunning a blow to the infant settlement. Plym- ontli was almost buflfeted from its feet. The loss seemed irreparable to human eyes; but God, Avho uses his servants, delights to show the Avorld that they are not indispensable to him. Cushman had been " as their right hand to the Pilgrims, and for divers years had done and agitated all their busi- ness with the Adventurers, to the great advantage of his friends."* But Eobinson was mourned with a peculiar sor- row. Attached to their great teacher by the ten- derest personal ties, by many favors rendered and received, by marriage vows plighted at his altar, by mutual perils undergone for a common faith, by expectation of his arrival and reunion on the bleak New England strand, is it strange that Plym- outh at large wept sore for him, and plucked its beard ? " Kobinson's powerful ascendency over the minds of his associates, acquired by eminent talents and virtues, had been used disinterestedly and wisely for the common good. With great courage and fortitude, he had equal gentleness and liberality ; and his intellectual accomplishments and the gen- erosity of his affections inspired mingled love and admiration. Though he passed his life in the midst of controversy, it Avas so far from narrowing his mind, that his charity towards dissenters distin- guished him among the divines of his day as much as his abilities and learning, while his broad and •-■• Bradford, p. 207. 230 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. i I tolerant views continued to ripen and expand as ' he grew towards age,"* and bloomed into the '< grave. i In especial he won the benediction of the sev- ; enth beatitude ; for he was famous as a peace- i maker, and there are many instances of reconcilia- j tion between those at variance effected by his fine { Christian tact.t " He fell sick Saturday morning, February 22, 1625. Next day he taught twice ; but in the week, grew feebler every day, and quit this life on the 1st of March. All his friends came freely to him ; and if prayers, tears, or means, could have saved his life, he had not gone hence. ":j: He died in his fifty-first year, " even as fruit fall- ; eth before it is ripe, when neither length of days nor infirmity of body did seem to call for his end."§ The discarded flesh-tabernacle was laid to rest in i the chancel of one of the churches at Ley den, || j allotted bv the Dutch for the use of the English I I exiles ; and the magistrates, ministers, professors, and students, followed him to the grave.lT i Kobinson was the Moses of the Pilgrims, and like his j)rototype, he looked into the promised land ! from the top of Pisgah, but he did not enter it. In- trigue balked him of that felicity, and " hope de- « Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 225. f Banvard, p. 151. ' I Elliot's Biog. Diet. § Young's Chronicles, p. 481. II " It is not certain where he lies buried ; George Sumner j thinks in St. Peter's church, Leyden." Elliot, Hist. New Eng., ' vol. 1, p. 125, note. \ ■ T Stoughton, Heroes of Puritan Times, p. 102. \ SAD NEWS FKOM ENGLAND. 231 ferred made his heart sick." But ideas cannot be barred out. His entered the wilderness, and ger- minated democracy and the representative system. "His truth, planted at Plymouth, has blossomed on the rocky shores, in the sheltered valleys, and on the breezy hills of New England, and borne a grand harvest." 232 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. CHAPTER XIX. PROGRESS. "And when our children turn the page To ask what triumphs marked our age — What we achieved to challenge jiraise. Through the long line of future days — This let them read, and hence instruction draw : ' Here were the many blest, Here found the virtues rest, Faith linked with Love, and Liberty with Law.'" Speague's Centennial Ode. The progress of population at Plymouth was slow for a decade. The lands in the Yicinitj were not fertile. Still the plantation had struck deej) root and was bound to spring up and bear a hun- dred fold.* If the colonial prosperity was not im- posing, it was thriving. A httle earlier than this Smith learned in Virginia that there were on this New England slope " about a hundred and eighty persons; some cattle and goats; many swine and a good store of poultry ; and thirty-two dwelling- houses; forming a town which was impaled about half a mile's compass, with a fort built of wood, loam, and stone ; also a fair watch-tower ; and able to freight a ship of a hundred and eighty tons bur- den."t Fifty ships were on the coast engaged in fishing, every one of which was an enlargement of their * Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 321. f Smith's General History, p. 247. PKOGEESS. 233 market for the sale and purchase of essential com- modities.* " It pleased the Lord," says Bradford, " to give the plantation peace, and health, and contented minds, and so bless the labors of the colonists that thej had provisions in plenty, and to spare ; and this without receiving any food from home at any time, except what they brought out in the Mayflower."t Owing to the competition in the fishing-waters, the Pilgrims esteemed it wiser now to forego that pursuit and to tiu'n their whole attention to " trading and planting." " To every person," says Bradford, " was given an acre of land, and only an acre to them and theirs, as near the town as might be, and they had no more till the contract with the London partners was bought up. The reason was, that all might be kept close together both for better safety and defence, and the better improvement of the common emplo}'- ments. This condition of theirs did make me think of what I once read in Pliny:]: of the Romans and their beginnings in Pomulus' time, when every man contented himself with two acres of land and had no more assigned him ; how it was thought a great reward to receive a pint of corn at the hands of the Boman people ; how, long after, the greatest pres- ent given to a captain who had gotten them a vic- tory over their enemies, was as much ground as he could till in one day ; he being counted not a good but a dangerous man, who could not content him- * Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 221, 222. f Bradford, p. 204. t Pliny, lib. 18, chap. 2. 234 THE PILGEIM FATHEES. self with seven acres of land ; as also how they did pound their corn in mortars, as these colonists did many j^ears before they could get a mill."- In turning from fishing to agriculture the set- tlers were decided gainers, and "ere the close of the year 1626 they had nearly extricated themselves from debt, including the obligation lately incurred for them by Standish, and had besides stored 'some clothing for the people and some commodities be- forehand.' "t The winter of 1626-7 was given to trading, and purchases were made of merchandise from some Englishmen stationed at Monhegan, and from a French ship wrecked off their coast. For several months they had the society of the passengers and crew of a vessel bound to Virginia, but which, losing her reckoning, and falling short of provisions, had moored under Cape Cod and sent to them for succor.:)^ Just before winter closed in the Pilgrims had despatched one of their number, Mr. Allerton, to England with authority to continue the negotiations for a transfer of title opened by Standish with the Merchant-adventin'ers.§ Allerton found the plague — which had somewhat retarded the movements of Standish, and carried oft' some of the most efficient supporters of the colony]] — quite abated. He also learned that James I., the pedantic bigot who had threatened to " harry" the Puritans out of England, * Bradford, p. 168. f Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 225. t Ibid. § Bradford, Morton's Memorial. II Felt, ffist. New England, vol. 1, p. 91. PKOGEESS. 235 was dead, and that he had been succeeded by his son Charles I., the fated prince who afterwards fell under Cromwell's axe on the Whitehall scaffold. The Plymouth agent was successful, though "the curse of usury, which always falls so heavily upon new settlements, did not spare" the Pilgrims, since they w^ere compelled to borrow money at an exor- bitant interest. Allerton had carried out nine bonds, each for two hundred pounds — eighteen hundred pounds being the price at which the partnership held their mortgage. These bonds were given by eight of the most prominent Pilgrims,* and were made payable in nine equal annual instalments, commencing in 1627.1' Thus it was that a bevy of patriotic colonists purchased the rights and assumed the responsibilities of the " Company of Merchant- adventurers." They were known in the phrase of that day as " The Undertakers," and they emanci- pated Plymouth from its harassing thraldom to a greedy horde of money-changers. The Pilgrims were much gratified by this success, though they knew that their undertaking was not without grave hazard. " They, knew not well," re- marks Bradford, " how to raise this yearly payment, besides discharging their other engagements and supplying their annual w^ants, especially since they were forced by necessity to take up money at such high interest. Yet they undertook it."| * These were Bradford, Brewster, Standisb, Allerton, Fuller, Jeremy, Alden, Howlaud. Prince, Bradford, Hazard, etc. l" Bradford, pp. 212, 213. Palfrey. | Ibid., p. 214. 23o THE PILGKIM FATHERS. Of course, this purchase of the right of the home company necessitated a new organization, and a redistribution of property at Plymouth, After ma- ture deliberation, it was decided to erect a common- wealth, in which each settler should own a share, but under an agreement that trade should be man- aged as before until the total discharge of the debt incurred for liberty."" The division was at once made of the stock and land heretofore the joint estate of the adventurers and their partners in the soil. Every man had a share ; and " every father of a family was allowed to purchase one share for his Avife and one for each child living with him."'!- One cow and two goats were assigned by lot to every six shareholders, " and swine, though more in number, j^et by the same rule." In addition to the land which each already held, " every person had twenty acres allotted him ; but no meadows were to be laid out ; nor were they for many years after, because they were straitened for meadoAv land. Every season each was given a certain, spot to mow in proportion to the cattle owned."! The houses became the private proiDerty of their respective tenants by an equitable assign- ment,§ and henceforward there were to be New England freeholders. The vassalage to foreign mer- chants was ended. II It should not be forgotten that in the allotment of land, there was a grant to the Indian Habbamak. a Bradford, ix 214. f ^i^-, P- 214. Morton's Memorial. X Ibid. § Ibid. || Palfi-ey, vol. 1, p. 229. PROGEESS. 237 He held by the Pilgrims and by their God, spite of enticements and obstacles, and died " leaving some good hopes in the settlers' hearts that his soul had srone to rest."* " The first coveted luxury of the emancipated plantation was a reunion with their long-detained comrades in Holland. Hitherto the pleasure of others might decide who should join them. That embarrassment was now happily withdrawn. Their tender mutual recollections had naturally been re- freshed by the common moaning for their 'loving and faithful pastor;'" so now "the Plymouth gov- ernor and some of his chiefest friends had serious cpnsideration,,not only how they might discharge the engagements which lay so heavily upon them, but also how they might — if possibly they could — devise means to help their friends at Leyden over to them, these desiring to come as heartily as they to have them. To effect this they resolved to run a high course and of great venture, not knowing otherwise how to compass it ; which was, to hire the trade of the colony for six years, and in that time to undertake the liquidation of the whole impend- ing debt, so that when the specified time was ended the plantation should be set free, with freedom of trade to the generality."t Allerton was again sent to England with full power " under the hand and seal" of the Undertakers, to close the old bargain and to negotiate "wdth some of the special friends of the colony to join with o EUiot, vol. 1, p. 85. t Bradford, p. 226. 238 THE PILGEIM FATHEKS. them* in this tracle."t The mission was promptly completed. In the spring of 1628, Allerton returned, " bringiug a reasonable supply of goods." He " re- ported that he had paid the first instalment to the Adventurers, delivered the bonds for the residue of the debt, and obtained the due conveyance and re- lease ; also that he had engaged a quartette of friends:}: . to accept an interest in the six years' hire of the colonial trade, in return for which they had agreed to charge themselves with the transporta- tion of the Leyden congregation. Lastly, he had obtained from the New England Council a patent for land on the Kennebec, which was at once turned to account by the erection of a block-house "in that river, in the most convenient place for Indian trade" and a traffic with the Maine fisher- men. § At this same time Allerton brought out with him a young minister named Rogers, the first, save Ly- ford, if we may dignify him by that name, possessed by the Plymouth Pilgrims.ll But he proved only a vexation and an expense; for, being "crazed in the brain," he was sent back to Britain ere a twelve- * The names of the formers of the trade were : Bradford, Brewster, Standish, Prince, Alden, Howland, and Allerton. Prince had come out in the "Fortune," all the rest in the "Mayflower." Palfrey. t Hazard, Prince, Cheever's Journal, Thatcher. I These were James Shirley — who became their English agent — John Beauchamp, Richard Andrews, and T. Hathaway — " the glue of the old company." Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 3, j). 34. {> Palfi-ey, vol. 1, p. 230. il Thatcher, Prince, Morton's Memorial. PEOGEESS. 239 month had elapsed, and the plantation had recourse once more to stout old Brewster.'^" Bj this time the charge of Broivnism and big- oted exclusiveness, so often levelled at the Pilgrims, was well nigh laid in England. Hard-fisted facts had smitten that slander so often in the face that it lost its hardihood. Indeed, remembering the character of that age, the Plymouth church was singularly catholic. Winslow cites many instances of the ad- mission to its communion of communicants of tliB French, the Dutch, and the Scotch churches, merely by virtue of their being so.t He says : " TVe ever placed a wide difference betwixt those who grounded their practice on the word of God, though differing from us in their exi^osition and understanding of it, and those who hate reformers and reformation, run- ning into anti-Christian opposition and persecution of the truth." He adds : " 'Tis true, we profess and desire to practise separation from the world ; and as the churches of Christ are all saints by calling, so we desire to see the grace of God shining forth — at least seemingly, leaving secret things to God — in all whom we admit to church-fellowshif), and to keep off such as openly wallow in the mire of their sins, that neither the holy things of God, nor the communion of saints, may be leavened or polluted thereby. And if any joining us, either formerly at Leyden, or since our New England residence, have with the manifestation of faith and the profession * Cheever's Journal. Bradford, p. 243. t Mather's Magualia, vol. 1, p. 62. 2i0 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. of holiness, held forth therewith separation from the cLurch of England, I have divers times, both in the one place and in the other, heard either Mr. Rob- inson, our pastor, or Mr. Brewster, our elder, stop them forthwith, showing them that we required no such thing at their hands ; but only to hold forth Christ Jesus, holiness in the fear of God, and a sub- mission to the Scripture ordinances and appoint- ments."* Such were the simple tenets of the Plymouth church under the instructions of Brewster — change of heart and a life regulated by the sacred writ the only tests. And now the Pilgrim enterprise began to take a wide range ; they had already acquired rights on Cape Ann, as well as an extensive domain on the Kennebec, now covered by patent ; and they were the first to plant an English settlement on the banks of the silvery Connecticut.f All around them the lusty shouts of the pioneers were heard. They no longer stood alone on the verge of the unbroken and primeval forest. Civilization, pushing restlessly towards the setting sun, began to supplement this nucleus colony. English planters were already seated at Saco and at Sagadahoc, in Maine. :j: The red men who haunted the coast line of Massachu- setts Bay, Avere pushed from their marshy hunting- grounds by the Puritan colonists who followed En- s' Cited in Mather's Magnalia, vol. 1, pj). 62, 63. t Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 321. X Felt's Hist, of New England, vol. 1, p. 95. PEOGKESS. 241 dicofct into the wilderness. And in the west, the patient, phlegmatic Dutch, " without haste, without rest," had founded New Amsterdam on the island of Manhattan, a town which bathed its feet in the waters of okl Hendrick Hudson's majestic river, and which has since expanded to be the metropolis of North America.* No occasion, now, to complain of a lack of com- pany. With all the settlements amicable and cor- dial relations were cemented by the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth. With the Dutch planters, especially, a correspondence was had, by means of which mu- tually kind wishes and commercial offices were in- terchanged.t In 1627, Isaac de Rasieres, " a chief merchant at New Amsterdam, and second to the Dutch governor of the New Netherlands," visited Plymouth, where he tarried " some days," and re- ceived friendly entertainment.:]: A neighborly busi- ness intercourse was commenced, and it was at this time that the Pilgrims became acquainted Avith the value and the uses of ivampum.% This was the In- dian coin — the dollars and cents of barbarism. It * "The Dutch had trading in those southern parts divers years before the English came, but they began no phantation until after the Pilgrims came and were here seated." Morton's Memorial, p. 133, note. f Davis' New Amsterdam, Booth's History of New York City, Bradford. X Bradford, p. 222, et seq. § In Eoger Williams' Key, wampum is considered as Indian money, and is described in the twenty-fourth chapter of that in- teresting tract. Their lohile money they called wampum, which signifies white; their black, suckawhack, sucki signifying black. Hist. Col., vol. 3, p. 231. Pll;,'rim Fathei'S. 11 242 THE PILGRIM FATHEES. was made of small pieces of shell, white sometimes, but often purple, and ground, polished, drilled, and strung or beaded. '^^ " Neither the English of this plantation nor of any other in these j^arts," remarks Bradford, " had knowledge of wampum till now. But the settlers bought fifty pounds' worth of it from De Basieres, who told them how vendable it was at their Indian stations, and did persuade them that they would find it so at Kennebec ; and so it came to pass, for though at first it stuck, and they were two years in w^orking off a small quantity, yet afterwards, when the inland tribes knew of it, the traders could scarce ever get enough to supply the demand, for many years together."'!' De Basieres was a close and shrewd observer, and nothing escaped his keen eyes at Plymouth. On his return he wrote a letter in which he de- scribed at length the salient characteristics of the Pilgrim colony. Let us take a peep into the quaint old manuscript, and see how New England in its Pilgrim babyhood looked in his eyes : "New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill stretching east towards the seashore. It has a broad street about a cannot-shot of eight hundred feet long, looking down the slope, with a street crossing this in the middle, and running northward « Mr. Gookin says : "Wampum is made chiefly by the Narra- gansett Block Island Indians. Upon the sandy flats and shores of those coasts the ■walk sheU are found." Hist. Col., vol. 1, p. 152. t Bradford, p. 234. PKOGEESS. 243 to a rivulet, very rapid but shallow, which there empties into the sea, and soutliAvard to the land. The houses are built of hewn planks, with gardens, also enclosed behind and at the sides by hewn planks, so that their gardens, court-yards, and house« are arranged in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden attack. At the ends of the streets there are three wooden gates. Their government is after the English form. The governor is annually elected. In inheritance they place all children iu one degree, only the eldest has an acknowledgment of seniorit3\ They have made stringent laws on the subject of adultery and fornication, and these ordinances they enforce very strictly, even among the savage tribes which live amongst them. "Their farms are not so good as ours at New Amsterdam, because they are more stony, and con- sequently not so fit for the plough. They have their freedom without rendering an account to any one ; only, if their king should choose to send them a governor, they would be obliged to recognize him as sovereign chief. The maize-seed which they do not require for their own use they deliver over to the governor, at three guilders the bushel, who, in his turn, sends it in sloops to the north for the traffic in skins amongst the savages. They reckon one bushel of maize against one pound of beaver- skins. They have better means of living than our- selves, since fish swim in abundance before their very doors. There are also many birds, such as geese, herons, and cranes, and other small-legged 244 THE PILGBIM FATHEES. birds, which are seen in flocks here in the win- ter. "The tribes in this neighborhood have the same customs as with us, only they are better conducted than ours, because the English treat them fairly, and give them the example of better ordinances and a better life; and also, to a certain degree, give them laws, by means of the respect they have from the very fii'st established amongst them."* In 1629, the bulk of the long lingering Leyden exiles — among the rest the wife and two sons of John E-obinsont — at length landed at Plymouth.:!: The reunited flock, now sadly thinned by death, greeted each other with mutual tears and caresses ; and tightly-clasped hands and wet eyes told what the voice was too choked to say. But in the midst of sadness they were joyous, for " Hope M^as changed to glad fruition ; Faith to sight, and prayei- to praise." The expense of transporting these friends was very heavy, amounting in the aggregate to six hun- dred pounds, as we learn by opening Allerton's * Mr. Brodhead, who obtained this valuable letter, only sum- marized in the text, from the archives at the Hague, gives it in full in the New York Hist. Col., sec. series, vol. 2, p. 343, et seq. t Prince, vol. 1, p. 160. Deane's Scituate, p. 332. "Mrs. Eob- inson, widow of Kev. John Robinson, came over with the latter company, with her son Isaac, and jierhaps -with another son." Editorial note in Bradford, p. 247. " There was an Abraham Eob- inson early at Gloucester, who is surmised to have been a son of the Leyden minister." Ibid. It has been thought that Mrs. Eob- inson did not remain in Plymouth, but went to Salem, "where was a Mrs. Bobinson very early." MS. Letters of J. J. Babson, Esq., of Gloucester, Mass. J Bradford, pp. 247, 248. PROGKESS. 245 charge roll* Nor was this all; destitiite and Lome- less, they had to be maintained the better part of fifteen months before thej were able to stand on their own feet, and pay their way. They had no harvest of their own to reap. Land was given them and block-houses were run up for their shelter. Then they planted " against the coming of another season. "t The Pilgrims, though already overloaded with debt, did not grudge this large addition to the budget of expense, but showed herein " a rare ex- ami:)le of brotherly love and Christian care ;" for Bradford says that " even thus they were, for the most part, both welcome and useful, as they feared God and were sober livers.":]: But if the devout colonists of the Plymouth slope were " sober livers," all their neighbors were not. It seems that some years before this time, perhaps in 1625, perhaps a twelv^emonth earlier, an English Captain Wollaston, inoculated with the general rage for planting settlements, had attempt- ed to drop one on that rocky height near Boston bay which still bears his name.§ Like the foolish architect in the Bible, he built on a sandy founda- tion, though his colony was bottomed on a rock — so strange are the paradoxes of this mortal life. " Not finding things to answer his expectations," he did not tarry long in his eyry, but pressed on into Virginia with a portion of his emigrants, intending * Bradford, pp. 247, 248. f Ibid., p. 249. I Bradford's Letter-Book, in Mass. Hist. Col., vol. 3, pp. 69, 70. § Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 233. 246 THE PILGEOI FATHEES. soon to return for the rest.* So mucli for the in- tention. But in his absence one of his followers, Thomas Morton, "who had been a kind of pettifog- ger, of Fernival's Inn," London, and was now broken down into an uneasy bloat, ripe for mischief, obtained an ascendency over the waiting colonists, and there- by assumed control. " Then," says the old recitor, "they fell into great licentiousness of life, in all profaneness, Morton becoming lord of misrule, and maintaining, as it were, a school of atheism. Hav- ing gotten some goods into their hands by much trading with the Indians, they spent all vainly in quaffing both wine and stronger liquors in great excess — as some have reported, as much as ten pounds' worth of a morning. They also set up a May-pole, and danced and drank around it, frisk- ing about like so many fairies, or /wni'es rather: and Avorse practices they had, as if they sought anew to revive and celebrate the obscene feast of the Roman goddess Flora, or the beastly practices of the mad Bacchanahans. Morton pretended withal to be a poet, and composing sundry rhymes and loose verses, .some tending to lasciviousness and others to detraction and scandal, he affixed these to his idle, or idol, May-pole. The name of the height was changed; it was called 'Merry-Mount,' as if this jollity would have been perpetual. " Now to maintain this riotous prodigality and profuse expenditure, Morton, esteeming himself law- less, and hearing what gain the fishermen made by * Bradford, p. 236. PEOGEESS. 247 trading muskets, powder, and shot amongst them- selves, decided, as head of this consortship, to begin the practice in these parts among the Indians, teach- ing them how to use, charge, and fire their pieces, and the kind of shot fitted to be used for different purposes, as hunting and war. Infinite was the mischief which came by this wicked man's greed ; in that, despite all lay\^s for the restraint of selling ammunition and weapons to the natives, base cove- tousness so far prevailed, that the Indians became amply provided with guns, powder, shot, rapiers, and pistols, also well skilled in their use, and in the repair of defective arms,"* These things, together with the debauchery of Indian women and the incitement of his flaunting and uuAvhipped crimes, which drew the dissolute from all directions to swell his rabble rout, filled the sur- rounding colonists with mingled grief and alarm. At the outset expostulation was essayed. " In a friendly and neighborly way, Morton was admon- ished to forbear these courses." A peculiar char- acteristic reveals the man — Ex jxde Herciilem. The anarch refused to desist. " Obtaining false rules prankt in reason's garb," he denied the jurisdiction of Plymouth, and an- swered the remonstrance with an affront. A second appeal was equally futile. Then, with their accus- tomed stern decision, the Pilgrims acted. Standish was sent to curb this bold blasphemer. '•' Morton fortified his comrades with drink, barricaded his <^' Morton's Memorial, pp. 137. 138. 248 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. house, and defied assault." But liappilj no blood was spilled. The reckless, graceless rake succumbed without a fight. He was taken first to Plymouth, and thence conveyed to England for trial. And so ended this experiment of immorality.* This episode, with others, is convincing proof that the Pilgrims had not wandered into Utopia; nor did they seek that fabled bourne. They ex- pected trouble, and they serenely accepted toil, thanking God just as joyfully for a little as for much. And, indeed, they felt that they walked on mercies. They "found all things working together for their good." They had already planted a stable government, which had been severely tested by open outbreak and by insidious assault. Their friends had found their way to them across the sea; and since they had '■ Liformed their unacquainted feet In the blind mazes of this tangled wood," their infant state had been emancipated from the mercantile dictation of unfriendly men. The bit- terness was past ; the night was nearly spent. Joc- und day stood a-tip-toe on the mistj^ mountain's top. They rested on God's heart. Surely, thej' had occasion to '■ shake the depths of the desert gloom With their hymns of lofty cheer." They might fitly chant pseans, and sing till " the stars heard and the sea! And the sounding isles of the dim woods rang To the anthem of the free." * Bradford, Morton's Memoriid, etc. EBENEZER. 249 CHAPTEE XX. EBENEZER. ♦'Behold, they come, those sainted forms, Uushaken through the strife of storms ; Heaven's darkest cloud hangs coldly down, And earth puts on its rndest frown ; But colder, ruder was the hand, That drove them from their own dear land. " Spkague. "These are the living lights, That from our bold, green heights, Shall shine afar, Till they who name the name Of freedom, towards the flame Come, as the Magi came Towards Bethlehem's star." PlERPONT. While the Plymouth Pilgrims, through these initial years, were engaged in a stern tussle with unkempt nature, in a wrestling-match with froward men, and in an essay to survive the " thousand nat- ural ills that flesh is heir to" in new settlements, writing victoria sine clade on every page of the strug- gle, the Scripture party in England was flounder- ing in a " slough of despond." Charles I. was that most strange and baleful of anomalies, a treacher- ous moralist. He was the painting of a virtue. Outwardly he was Cato ; inwardly he was lago. " This prince," says Bolingbroke, " had sucked in. 11* 250 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. with liis mother's milk those absurd principles which his father was so industrious, and, unhap- pily, so successful in propagating."* Back of him stood a powerful faction, omnipotent in the church, regnant in the state, as wedded as himself to the tenets of absolutism, and eager to cry Amen to his most doubtful acts — often, indeed, instigating them. Both the king and his backers were enamoured of that formal Phariseeism which made broad its phylacter}^ and wrote "holier than thou" upon its forehead. Of course, then, they could not but hate those godl}'' Puritans, both inside and oiitside of the national Establishment, who, like a reproving Na- than, constantly inveighed against self-righteous ceremonialism, and sought to inaugurate a purer and more spiritual ecclesiasticism. The Conform- ists had the power, as they had the will. Elizabeth had commenced this crusade against the " Gospel- lers;" James I. had continued the "harry;" but Charles I. outdid Termagant, and he did out-Herod Herod. Puritanism was girt with a penal code; and now, choked almost purple, it gazed with an agony of interest across the Avater to America, to see if haply it might here find an asylum. The chances of a successful colonization of these "West- ern wilds were ardently canvassed. The progress of the Pilgrim settlement was closely watched, and the spirits of the English Puritans were at high or ebb tide in proportion as that test enterprise seemed to oscillate towards success or eclipse. As yet only * Vide Harris' Life of Charles I., p. 278. EBENEZER. 251 tlie low premonitory moanings of the revolution of 1641 were heard. Throughout the island, godly men began to think of seeking safety and freedom of conscience in exile ; and in this they were en- couraged by the cxperimeidum crucis of Plj-mouth. " I pray you," wrote Shirley, the English agent of the Pilgrims, " subordinate all temporal things to success, that you may disappoint the hopes of our foes, and keep open an asylum into which we may all soon crowd, unless things mend in this now stricken island."* But " things did not mend," and multitudes be- gan to iDrejDare for emigration. And here mark a singular fact. We have seen how disastrously those enterprises failed which bottomed colonization sim- ply on the greed of gain. The victor's ba^-s were only for the brow of moral pioneers. It was as though God had said, "No; I will not plant men in New England who count religion only twelve and the world thirteen." The only successful col- onists of the northeastern coast-line of the Atlantic were men whose motive for emigration Avas religion, and who based their action, on an idea — faith. It happened, in 162i, that Roger Conant, " a most religious, prudent, worth}^ gentleman," and a Puritan, but not a Separatist, somewhat dissatisfied with the rigid rule of Bradford, left Plymouth in the crisis of the Lyford muddle,t and entering his pin- * Bradford's Letter-book. t " 'T is not known when Conant came over. Nothing appears In any of the Plymouth documents to confirm Hubbard's state- 252 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. nace, sailed across tlie bay to Nantasket.* Tarry- ing there but a twelvemonth, he pushed on to Cape Ann; where, finding a knot of fishermen who resided there permanently, occupying themselves in curing fish in the absence of the smacks of their fellow- voyageurs, he resolved to pause. While sojourning here, the English merchants who had sent out these fishermen who here stood huddled together on the cape, appointed Conant their agent ; whereupon he, "not liking the present site, transported his com- pany to Naumkeag, some five leagues distant, to the southwest of Cape Anu."t But neither removal nor Conant's energy saved this venture from financial collapse ;]: and the brave pioneer, in 1625, found himself deserted by most of his companions and without an occupation, in the midst of the tenantless huts of frustrated trade. Then religious sentiment came to his rescue. " To the eye of faith, mountains are crystal, distance may be shaken hands with, oceans are nothing." So now old John White of Dorchester, in England, " a famous Puritan divine of great gravity, pres- ence, and influence," zealous to " sjjread the gos- pel and to establish his way," looking across the ment, that Conant was one of Lyford's party at Plymouth. Though historians have adopted that ipse dixit, it rests on his word alone. But since Hubbard and Conant were afterwards neighbors and friepO-s, he is likely to have been well informed." Palfrey, vol. 1. p. 260, note. * Elliot. Hubbard's Hist, of New England, chap. 18. t Hubbard, chap. 9. Palfrey, Elliot. X Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 286. EBENEZEE 253 Atlantic, descried Conant, a lonely sentinel of Puri- tanism on the northern shore.* The sagacious pas- tor saw in Nanmkeag a point d'aj^jmi. He at once wrote Conant : " I have been apprized of the failure of the merchants ; but do not desert your post. I promise that if you, with Woodbury, Balch, and Palfrey, the three honest and prudent men lately employed in the fisheries, will stay at Naumkeag, I will procure a patent for you, and likewise send 3'ou whatever you write for, either men, or j^ro- visions, or goods wherewith to begin an Indian trade."t Surprised and reinvigorated, Conant prevailed, though not without difficulty, on his companions to remain with him, and they all " stayed at the peril of their lives. "| In 1627, Woodbury sailed for England in quest of supplies.§ Meantime " the business came to agi- tation in London; and being at first approved by some and disliked by others, by dint of much argu- ment and disputation, it grew to be well known ; insomuch that, some men showing affection for the work, and offering the help of their purses if fit men might be procured to go over, inquiry' Avas made whether any would be willing to engage their persons in the voyage. Thus it fell out that at last they lighted, among others, on John Endicott, a * Elliott, vol, 1, p. 139. f Hubbard, chap. 17. J Conant's petition of May 28, 1671, in Mass. Hist. Archives. § Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 287. 251 THE PILGEIM FATHEKS. man Avell known to clivers persons of good repute. He manifested much willingness to accept of the oflfer as soon as it was tendered, which gave great encouragement to such as were still doubtful about setting on this work of erecting a new colony on an old foundation."* Under the patronage of Dudley, and Salton- stall, and Eaton, and Pyncheon, and Bellingham, men of substance and " gentlemen born," men will- ing and able to offer " the help of their purses," reinforced by the good wishes of Puritanism at large, the new scheme soon got upon its working fe^t, and walked forward to success. But so far the project rested on parchment. It must be vivi- fied, and sheltered beneath the imprimatur of a hos- tile government. " Many riddles must be resolved," said old Shirley, " and many locks must be opened by the silver, nay, the golden key."t So they pur- chased of the Council for New England " a strip of land, in width three miles, north of the Merrimack, and three miles south of the Charles river, and run- ning back from the Atlantic to the Western ocean ; so that the}^ Avere not likely to be crowded.":}: Thus, though it might say as the chief captain Lysias said to Paul, " With a great sum of money obtained I this freedom," the new colony had "a local habita- tion and a name" ere it was launched. It has been well said, that Endicott was just the map to, lead, this venture ; firm, rugged, hopeful, * Planters' Plea, chap. 9. f Cited in Bradford, p. 251. t Elliot, vol. 1, pp. 139, 140. EBENEZER. 255 zealous, devout, lie knew no such word as fail. So on the 20tli of June, 1628, he took his wife and chil- dren, and " not much above fifty or sixty other per- sons," and plunged across the Avater.* They reached New England in the autumnf — that hazy, glowing, golden season, when the woods hang out their myriad-tinted banners to the wind, when the streams gurgle most laughingly, when Nature claps her hands with joy, and the "Hills, rock-ribbed and ancient as tlie sun," smooth their wrinkled fronts into unwonted soft- ness. Endicott must have had quite a different idea of the western wilds from that which stern, icy De- cember daguerreotyped upon the minds of Bradford and his coadjutors. At once fraternizing with Conant's sentinel squad — apprized of their coming by Woodbury, who had returned ere Endicott sailed — the new- comers proceeded to put up additional cottages; and they called the nascent hamlet Salem, "for the 'peace which they had and hoped in it.":}: Like their brothers at Plymouth, they immediately began to ex- plore tho surrounding country. Imagine their sur- prise when, on one occasion, they stumbled across " an English palisaded and thatched house." Ap- proachmg cautiously, they heard the ringing music of an anvil. Here, in the heart of the wilderness, lived Thomas AValford, a hermit smith who had * Planters' Plea, chap. 9. Johnson's Wonder-working Provi- dence. Belknap's Biography, p. 249. Hubbard's Hist. \ Ibid. ± Mather's Magnalia, vol. 1, pp. 67, 68. 256 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. won wide favor with the Indians bj iiis skill in workincr metals.* From this and kindred incidents, historians have loved to draw a moral, depicting the excess of indi- viduality which marks the Teutonic races. The Saxon inevitably individuates. He can stand alone ; is self-reliant and aggressive ; asks only, with the old cynic, that intruders shall get out of his sunlight. He does not gather into cities because he is weak, nor because he is social. He is willing, for a pur- pose, to go out from men, and to create a society patterned on his own model. 'Tis a high qual- ity when properly attempered, making individuals kings and nations independent. It explores and subdues unknown and dreaded continents, and is the father of that marvellous enterprise which to- day realizes Puck's prophecy, and " puts a girdle round the earth in forty minutes." Walford's hermitage was in Mishawam. The locality seemed favorable for a settlement. The explorers returned to Salem with their report ; and ere long " a portion of the colonists established themselves around the forge of the sturdy black- smith ; and with the old patriotic feeling, which neither wrongs nor suiferings could altogether root out, they named the new settlement Charlestotv}i, in honor of a king whose severities had driven them from the land of their fathers."! The report of Endicott's successful colonization, * Charlestowu Eecords, Palfrey, Elliot, Everett's Address, t Wilson's Pilgrim Fathers, p. 4S3. EBENEZEE, 257 whicli reached England early in 1629, encouraged White, " the mam promoter and chief organizer of this business," to plant the adventure upon a broader, firmer foundation. The original company was but a voluntary, unincorporated partnership,* •This was now "much enlarged" bv recruits from the Puritans " disaffected to the rulers in church and state."t The next step was, to get a charter and an incorporation. This was solicited, and after some little difficulty and dela}-, obtained. On the 4tli of March, 1629, Charles I. affixed the royal seal to a parchment which erected White's coterie into a body politic, under the title of " The Gov- ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England,"! " The patent passed the seals a few days only before Charles I,, in a public state paper, avowed his design of governing England without a Parlia- ment."! It was cherished by the colonists for more than half a century as a most precious boon ; and the old charterll is the germ of that " bright, con- summate flower," the later constitution, IF " The administration of the affairs of this puis- sant corporation," remarks Bancroft, "was intrusted to a governor, a deputy, and eighteen assistants, * Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 290. ■j- Colony Records. Cradock's Letter in Young's Chronicles. I Prince ; Hazard. Hubbard's Hist. Memoir of J. Endicott, Salem, 18i7. § Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 342. II This is filed in the State-House in Boston, and is printed ia Colony Laws, in Hutchinson's Call, and in Hazard. Bancroft. IT Palfrey, WUson, 258 THE PILGEIM FATHEKS. wlio were to be annually elected by a general vote of the members of tlie body politic. Four times a year, or oftener if desired, a general assembly of tlie freemen was to be held ; and to these assem- blies, which Avere invested with the necessary pow- ers of legislation, inquest, and superintendence, the. most important matters were referred. No provis- ion required the assent of the king to render the acts of the colonial authorities valid. In his eye it was but a trading corporation, not a civil govern- ment. Its doings were esteemed as indifferent as those of any guild in England ; and if grave pow- ers of jurisdiction in America were conceded, it was only because successful trade demanded the con- cession."* Nothing was said of religious liberty. The crown may have relied on its power to restrain it ; the emigrants may have trusted to distance or obscurity to protect it.t But enough was gained. The charter necessitated full liberty, "If you plant an oak in a flower-vase," says Goethe, " either the oak must wither or the vase musif crack," The Puritans meant to let it crack. It is singular that neither Charles nor his lynx-eyed ministers should have detected the freedom or scented the heresy which lurked in the broad terms of the glorious old parchment. In the old legend, a fisherman took a casket out of the sea, and found on its cover the seal of Solo- omou. He broke it, and out of the slender casket * Bancroft, vol. 1, pp. 342, 343. f Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 291. EBENEZEK. 259 rose a giant till be lifted into colossal sliape, and raised his right hand to crush the interloper. So now Charles broke the Solomon-seal of his coer- cion, and enabled this young giant of the West to rise to its legitimate proportions, clutching in its right hand the wholesome sceptre which should crush all obstacles to progressive liberty. In the fable, the fisherman, by a cunning story, lured the giant to go back into the casket, which he then tossed back again into the sea. But neither Charles nor his successors could ever persuade America to go back into the box. 230 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. CHAPTEK XXI. "FAREWELL, DEAR ENGLAND." "With news the time's in labor, and throws forth Each minute some. " Shakspeabe. "Why should we crave a hallowed spot? An altar is iu each man's cot ; A church in every grove that spreads Its living roof above our heads." Wordsworth. With the precious charter in its pocket, the complacent Massachusetts Company strode out of the vojal antechamber, and proceeded at once to effect an organization. Matthew Cradock was elected to the gubernatorial chair; and to Endi- cott, as deputy, was delegated the government of New England." A letter of instructions was indited. It was unique, and highly illustrative of -the benevolent spirit of these builders of states — Conditores Impe- riorum — to whose brotherhood Lord Bacon, in "the true marshalling of the sovereign degrees of honor," assigns the highest placet Let us cull some spe- cimen paragraphs from the old parchment : " If any of the savages" — such were the orders long and uniformly followed and placed on record more than * Young's Chronicles, Prince, Mass. Hist. Coll. + Bacon's Works, vol. 2. '^"FAKEWELL, DEAE ENGLAND." 23L half a century before William Peiin proclaimed the pi'incij)les of peace on the borders of the Dela- ware* — " pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion."'!- Elsewhere the colonial authorities were bidden " particularly to publish, that no wrong nor injury be offered to the Indians.".]: Tobacco was held in especial abhorrence, and denounced as " a trade by this whole Company dis- owned, and utterly disclaimed by some of the chief- est, who absolutely declare themselves unwilling to have a hand in the plantation, if the intention be to cherish or permit the culture thereof."§ Endicott was authorized to expel the incorrigi- ble, using force when necessary. It was also ap- pointed that all labor should cease at " three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, in preparation for the Sab- bath."|| The colonial seal was an Indian erect, with an arrow in his right hand, and the motto, " Come over and help us," peculiarly appropriate in that age. The old seal has been retained by Massachu- 7 * Bancroft, vol. 1 , p. 346. t Prince's Chronicles, p. 2i7. J Ibid. § Cited in Elliot, vol. 1, p. 142. "In a subsequent letter this ^is reiterated thus : ' We especially desire you to take care that no obacco be planted under your government, ituless it be some small qiiantity for mere necessity, for physic, or the preservation of health ; and that the same be taken privately by old men, and no other.' " Ibid. II Young's Chronicles, p. 141. Hazard, vol. 1. t 262 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. setts ; but the motto has been superseded by Alger- non Sydney's famous Latin, Sub libertate quietem* "No idle drone may live amongst us;" so ran the colonial statute ; and it " was the spirit as well as the law of the dauntless community which was to turn the sterility of New England into a cluster of wealthy, cultured, model states." The charter had been granted to the Massachu- setts Company in March ; in April preparations were hastening for the embarkation of fresh emi- grants.f It was not difficult to get recruits; for the pinchers of tender consciences grew daily more rigorous. Puritanism saw popery prejDaring to spring upon it upon one side; it felt the ravenous bite of the Conformists on the other side. It was worse than folly to look to the government for re- dress ; that was the engine of the persecutors. Vil- liers of Buckingham, that volatile madman, who was "Every thing by turns, and nothing long," as Pope has painted him, had been recently assas- sinated. His place in the king's confidence was now filled by Strafford, the systematizer of tjranny in England, whose audacious genius impelled him to attempt to nationalize despotism, and erected the tenets of absolute power inside of constitu- tional forms.'! By his side stood Laud, his Siam- ese twin, a prelate who assumed to ransack the uni- verse — * Bancroft. f Ibid., vol. 1, p. 345. t History of the English Puritans, American Tract Society, N. Y., 1867. "FAEEWELL, DEAR ENGLAND." 263 "Whose tongue Outvenomed all the worms of Nile." The statesman and the priest carried it with a high hand f and the time was not yet when Cozens conld say, " The king has no more authority in ecclesias- tical matters than the boy w^io rubs my horse's heels."t The suffering Non- conformists, "meted and peeled" at home, heard with rapture of that Puri- tan colony in the wilderness, governed by men whose opinions accorded with their own, and shel- tered beneath the segis of a royal charter. Emi- gration began to assume unprecedented propor- tions iX and the Company might have its pick of the best men in the island. But much good seed was left ; enough to grow Cromwell, and nourish Hamp- den, and succor Pym. By the middle of April, 1629, six ships were ready to sail; and under license from the Lord Treasurer, these were freighted with " eighty w'om- en and maids and twenty-six children" — hostages of the fixed attachment of the emigrants to the New World — "and two hundred men, with victuals, arms, tools, and necessary wearing apparel."§ They also took on board " one hundred and forty head of cat- tle, and forty goats.ll As this was a religious enterprise, care was taken * Hist, of the English Puritans, ut autea. t Hume, Hist, of Eng., vol. 2, p. 253. i Perry, Eccl. Hist., vol. 1. § Mass. Col. Rec, vol. 1. Palfrey. II Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 293. 201 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. " to make plentiful provision of godly ministers."* Four clergymen now embarked for Massaclmsetts Bay. Two of these made no figure on the north shore of New England. Bright was a strict Con- formist; and not liking the ecclesiastical proceed- ings of his comrades, he returned to England in the succeeding summer.f Smith was a Separatist ; and since these Puritans were not yet "Come-outers," they were shy of him, so that in landing he went to NantasketjJ where we shall meet him again. The remaining two were Mr. Higginson and Mr. Skelton; the first of Leicestershire, the other of Lincolnshire.! They were both ardent Puritans, who had held livings in the Church of England, and been silenced for non-conformity.|l On receiv- ing an invitation to accompany this expedition, they had "esteemed it a call from heaven," and joyfully assented.f "Both of these men," says Cotton Mather, "were eminent for learning and virtue ; and being thus in a sense driven out of England, they sought graves on the American strand, whereon the epitaph might be inscribed that Avas on Scipio's : Ingrata patria, ne mortui quidem hahebis ossa.''"-'" But unhke the ill-used * Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 293. Mather's Magnalia. t Higginson's New England Plantation. Palfrey. X Bradford, p. 263. Palfrey, yoI. 1, p. 294. § Mather's Magnalia. II Ibid., vol. 1, p. 68. Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 294. 295. V Hutchinson's Coll., 24, 25. Hubbard, Bancroft. »* Mather's Magnalia, ut antea. ''Ungrateful country of my birth, thou shall not possess even my lifeless bones." "FAREWELL, DEAR ENGLAND." 265 pagan, they had no taunts for their erring country, " We will not say," cried Francis Higginson, as he stood on deck off the Isle of Wight, and looked back on the receding shores of the fast-anchored island — "We will not say. Farewell, Babylon, Farewell, Kome! but. Farewell, dear England!"* " England did not regret the departure of these Christian heroes, because she did not know her best men. What nation does ? To materialists and pol- iticians, these Pilgrims seemed to be visionaries and idealists ; impracticable, and in the way. Yet this class is ahvays the life of a nation. We can look back upon them, and surfeit them with praise; but we cannot easily see their mates walking amongst us, treading our own sidewalks, and so learn to cher- ish, and not kill the prophets."t Higginson, Skelton, and their future parishion- ers, landed at Salem " in the last daj's of June."| Their friends already on the spot gave them a hearty pioneer welcome. Higginson employed his first leisure moments in writing home a transcript of the situation : " When we came first to Naum- keag, we found about half a score of cottages, and a fair house built for the governor. We found also abundance of corn planted by those here, very good and well-liking. The two hundred passengers whom we brought were, by common consent of the old planters, combined together into one body politic, •» Mather's Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 7-4. Uhden, pp. 63, 64. t Elliot, Tol. 1, p. 150. X They landed on the 24:th of June, 1629. Uhden, Hutchinson. Pilfffini Father?. j.^ 26o THE PILGRIM FATHERS. under the same governor. There are in all of us, both old and neAV planters, about three hundred ; whereof two hundred are planted at Naumkeag, now called Salem, and the rest have settled at Mas- sachusetts Bay, beginning to build a town there, which w^e call Charlestown. But that which is our greatest comfort, and our means of defence above all others, is, that we have here the true religion and holy ordinances of Almighty God taught amongst us. Thanks be to God, we have here plenty of preaching and diligent catechizing, with strict and careful exercise and good and commend- able order to bring our people into a Christian conversation with those with whom we have to do. wdthal. And thus we doubt not but God will be with us ; and if God be with us, who can be against us i ■• On their arrival at Salem, these Massachusetts Pilgrims found no church. It was their first care to erect one ; and in the prosecution of this work, they had recourse to the devout Plymouth colonists, their brothers in the faith. Cordial greetings had already been exchanged between these sister colo- nies. About the time of the arrival of Higginson, " an infection had spread among the northern pio- neers, of which many died ; some of the scurvy, oth- ers of a hectic fever."t Endicott had sent a mis- sive to Plymouth at this time, requesting medical aid, as he had no leech with him. Bradford imme- * Higginson's New England Plantation, pp. 123, 124. t Bradford, pp. 2G3, 2r,4. "FAEEY/ELL, DEAR ENGLAND." 267 diately sent Thomas Fuller, physician to his planta- tion, and the first in New England — for he was a comer in the "Mayflower" — to the relief of the Salem sufferers, and armed him with an affection- ate letter of condolence and Christian s^'mpathy." These lines, and the prompt despatch of the surgeon, Endicott thus acknowledged : " Eight Worthy Sir — It is a thing not usual that servants to one Master and of the same house- hold should be strangers ; I assure you, I desire it not ; nay, to speak more plainly, I cannot be so to you. God's people are all marked with one and the same mark and sealed with one and the same seal, and have, in the main, one and the same heart, guided by one and the same Sj^irit of truth ; and where this is, there can be no discord ; nay, here must needs be sweet harmony. And the same request, with you, I make unto the Lord — that we may, as Christian brethren, be united by a heav- enly and unfeigned love, bending all our hearts and forces in furthering a work beyond our unaided strength, with reverence and fear, fastening our eyes always on Him that is able to direct and pros- per all our ways. " I acknowledge myself much bound to you for 3'our kind love and care in sending Mr. Fuller among us, and rejoice much that I am by him sat- isfied touching your judgments of the outward form of God's worship. It is, so far as I can gather, no other than is warranted by the evidence of truth, * Bradford, pp. 263, 264. 268 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. and the same wliicli I have professed and main- tained ever since the Lord in mercy revealed him- self to me ; being far from the common report that hath been spread of you touching this particular.* But God's children must not look for less here be- low than ill-report and slanderous gibes ; and 't is a great mercy that he strengthens them to go through with it. I shall not need, at this time, to be tedious unto you, for, God willing, I purpose to see your face shortly. In the mean time, I humbly take my leave of you, committing you to the Lord's blessed protection and rest. " Your assured Friend, "JO. ENDICOTT. "Natjmkeag, May 11, lG29."t The chain of friendship thus early welded had an additional link added to it when the Leyden exiles, borne to America in company with Higgin- son and Skelton, landed from the same flotilla, and pushed from Salem on to Plymouth. Bradford, in reciting this incident, says finely, " Their long stay and keeping back was recompensed by the Lord to their friends here with a double blessing, in that they not only enjoyed them now beyond their late expectation, but with them many more godly friends and Christian brothers, as the beginning of a larger harvest unto the Lord, in the increase of his church- es and people in these waste parts, to the admira- * In allusion to the widespread charge of Bro^\^lism, and big- oted exclusion of all other sects from Christian fellowship, t Bradford, pp. 261, 265. "FAREWELL, DEAR ENGLAND." 269 tion of many and the wonder of the world ; and that here sliould be a resting-place for so many of God's children, when so sharp a scourge came upon their own land. But it Avas the Lord's doing, and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes."'^ Higginson and Endicott had reached Salem in the latter part of June, 1629. Some twenty days later, Endicott " set apart a solemn day of humilia- tion for the foundation of a church and the choice of a pastor and a teacher."t The elder Pilgrims at Plymouth were invited to be present, and lend their countenance to the unique ceremony.:}; The 20th of July arrived. The first part of the day was spent in prayer and preaching ; the latter portion Avas devoted to the ecclesiastical election.§ " It was after this manner," says Gott — who had come over with Endicott, and was afterwards a dea- con in the Salem church — in a letter to Bradford rehearsing the proceedings : " the persons thought of, who had been ministers in the English Estab- lishment, were questioned concerning their calling to preach. They acknowledged that there was a tAvofold calling, the one inward, when the Lord moved the heart of man to take that calling upon him, and fitted him with gifts for it ; the other out- ward, and from the people, when a company of be- lievers are united in a covenant to walk together •-' Bradford, p. 245. t Higginsou's New Englaud Plantation. Gott's letter to Brad- ford ; cited in Bradford, pp. 265, 266. X Talfrcy. § Ibid., Bradford, Gott, etc. 270 THE PILGEIM FATHEKS. in all the ways of God, and all the male members are given a free voice in the choice of their church officers. Now we, being persuaded that these two men were so qualified as the apostle speaks to Tim- othy, 'A bishop must be blameless, sober, apt to teach,' we think we may say, as the eunuch said unto Philip, ' What should hinder my being bap- tized, seeing there is water?' and he believed. So those servants of God, clearing all things by their answers, and being thus fitted, we saw no reason why we might not freely give our voices for their election. Therefore every fit member wrote in a note the name of him whom the Lord moved him to tliiuk fit for a pastor; and so likewise the name" of him whom they would have for a teacher. Mr. Skelton was chosen pastor, and Mr. Higginson teacher ; and they accepting the choice, Mr. Hig- ginson, with several others, laid hands on Mr. Skel- ton, using prayer therewith ; after which there was an imposition of hands on Mr. Higginson by Mr. Skelton and the rest."* Bradford, " and some others with him, coming by sea," and being "hindered by cross-winds," could not reach Salem in the beginning of the cer- emony, but " came into the assembly afterwards, and gave them the riglit hand of fellowship, wish- ing all prosperity and a blessed success unto such good beginnings."t Some days after this election, Mr. Higgin- = Gott's Letter to Bradford. j- Morton's Memorial, p. 146. Hubbard, Prince. "EAREWELL, DEAR ENGLAND." 271 son drevv^ up " A Confession of Faith and Cliurch Covenant." Thirty persons assented to it, and a self-constituted church was planted in the wilder- ness.* This transaction has determined and col- ored the whole religious constitution of New Eng- land. It was a bold and aggressive act. But the Pilgrims had always objected to the ceremonial law of the home Establishment ; and now, being in the Western wilds, they felt free to form their ecclesi- asticism on what thej conceived to be a more au- thentic model. " In their position, such words as 'Non-conformity' and 'Separatism' ceased to be significant. It was only important that they should conform to their view of the Bible ; and their deter- mination to do so was not shaken by the thought that in doing so they must separate, not in spirit, but in discipline and usage, from a church three thousand miles awa3'."t The New England theocracy was begotten of these proceedings.:!: "The emigrants," remarks Bancroft, "were not so much a body politic as a church in the wilderness, with no benefactor around them but Nature, no present sovereign but God. An entire separation was made between church and state — at least in theory; religious worship was established on the basis of the independence of each separate religious community; and these * See the Covenant in Neale's History of New England, vol. 1, pp. 141-143. The subordinate church officers were not chosen till later. See Bradford's Letter-book. t Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 298. X Uhden's New England Theocracy. 272 THE PILGEIM FATHERS. rigid Calviuists, of whose rude intolerance tlie world had been filled with malignant calumnies, subscribed a covenant cherishing, it is true, the severest virtues, but wdthout one tinge of fanati- cism. It was an act of piety, not of study ; it fa- vored virtue, not superstition ; inquiry, and not submission. The communicants were enthusiasts, but not bigots."*^ They declared that "the Holy Scriptures only were to be followed, and no man's authority, be he Augustine, TertulHan, or even Cher- ubim or Seraphim. "t This entire transaction gave dissatisfaction to some at Salem. Finally, John and Samuel Brown, " two brothers, the one a merchant, the other a law- yer, both men of parts, estate, and figure in the settlement, gathered a company sejparate from the public assembl}'.:}: Mutual bickerings ensued. A breach of the peace was threatened-! Then Eudicott interposed. He sent the Browns home to England, and thereby restored quiet. Ii The brothers Brown, on reaching England, car- ried a lusty impeachment to the archiepiscopal throne, then occupied by Laud.^ The Massachu- setts Company, alarmed by the clamor, wrote let- ters of caution to Endicott: "Beware! 'tis possi- * Bancroft, vol. 1 , p. 348. f Mather's Magnalia. t Ibid., vol. 1, p. 72. § Ibid.. Morton, Prince, Young, Cbeever. II Young's Clironicles, p. 288. IT Mass. Col. Kec, vol. 1, p. 408. "FAEEWELL, DEAR ENGLAND." 273 ble some undigested counsels have been too sud- denly put in execution, which may have ill-con- struction with the state here, and make us obnox- ious to any adversary;"^ which shows, not that the island Puritans did not sympathize with bluff Endi- cott's action, but that they dreaded lest it might provoke a hostile government to give their pet col- ony its cov,^ de grace. * Mass. Col. Rec, vol. 1, p. 408. 12* 274 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. CHAPTEE XXII. THE AEBELLA. "We will renew the times of truth and jiistico, Condensing into a fair free commonwealth, Not rash eq^uality, but equal rights, Proportioned like the columns of the temple, Giving and taking strength recii^rocal, And making firm the whole with grace and beauty, So that no part could be removed without Infringement of the general harmony." Byron's Bo