J ■.'Stt&Ssi^^TJC-AjW^rtiiiii;^--! CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM 3 1924 092 744 030 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092744030 THE ENGLISH IN AMEEICA THE PURITAN COLONIES VOL. I. 73 fc=n LONG THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA THE PURITAN COLONIES BY j/Af DOYLE, M.A. FELLOW OP ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD VOL. I ' The ages of monotony had their use, for they trained men for ages when they need not- he monotonous ' , .-■; Bagehot, Physics and Politics LONDON LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 1887 OOrUvM It /cornelC UNfVERSITYl LIBRARY /^ PEEFACE. The purpose and scope;Of this book have been explained in the preface to an earlier volume. I have however deviated from the plan there laid down, in that I have given two volumes to a portion of my subject which I hoped to dispose of in one. I shall probably make a stiU further deviation, and instead of conclud- ing my work with one more volume, give one to New York and the Quaker colonies, and one to the whole body of colonies while under the first and second Georges. In this I propose to deal chiefly with the relations which existed between the colonists and the English government. It may not be amiss to say a word as to the sources from which I have taken my materials. I have endeavoured throughout to act on the sound legal principle of never adducing inferior testimony where better could be had. On 'that principle I have endea- voured invariably to consult an original authority where such could be found. But where, as sometimes has been the case, writers who cannot claim to be VI TREFACE. original authorities have used materials which are now lost or inaccessible, I have not scrupled to rely upon them, if I could satisfy myself that they were to be trusted. A writer who does so no doubt runs the risk of being called a compiler. It appears to me that he is blameworthy only if he uses the work of other men to save his own trouble, not if he uses it as the only means of giving completeness to his work, with- out sacrificing accuracy. If a writer, is £t to deal with a historical subject, he is also fit to judge how far his predecessors on that subject may be trusted. In the preface to my earlier volume I acknowledged the debt of gratitude which I owed to Mr. Noel Sainsburt. I can only now add that during the preparation of these volumes that debt has constantly increased. In referring to my earher book I have called it ' Virginia &c.' All Sodlb College, Oxford : S^t. 27, 188G. CONTENTS OP THE FIKST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. I'AGE Introduction 1 CHAPTER II. THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. Organization of the Independents 14 Brownism 18 Voyages to New England 20 The North Virginia Company 21 Sir Ferdinando Gorges 21 Voyages in 1606 24 The attempted settlement at Sagadahoc 24 Failure of the colony 25 John Smith explores New England ....... 26 Voyage sent out hy Gorges 27 Smith's adventures in 1615 28 Smith's pamphlets on New England 29 Eevival of the Plymouth Company 30 New patent for New England -. 81 Opposition in Parliament 83 The Independents in Eastern England 36 Proposed Puritan emigration about 1590 86 Policy of James I. and Bancroft 37 Holland a refuge for Nonconformists 38 The Scrooby Church 39 John Robinson ... 40 William Brewster .......... 41 William Bradford '42 Attempted flight m 1607 . . 43 Flight to Holland ... 44 The Puritans in Holland . ... ... 45 Project for emigration ... 47 Relations with the Virginia Company . , 47 VlU CONTENTS OF PAGE Doubts about the site for a colony ^ The seven Leyden Articles .......■■ 49 Attitude of the T^ing 51 Difficulties with the Virginia Company ... . .53 Blackwell and the Amsterdam emigrants 63 The Leyden Company 54 Patent fh)m the Vi3^;inia Company 66 Proposed change of plans 57 Scheme for settling on Dutch territory .... .57 Choice of the first emigrants 6S Parting advice from Robinson ........ 69 Importance of the migration 60 The voyage of the Mayflower 61 Arrival at Cape Cod 64 The colonists join in an association 64 Exploring party sent out 65 Choice of a site .66 Further explorations 67 Settlement at Plymouth gg Hardships of first winter 68 Dealings with the savages 70 Bradford chosen Governor 71 Stability of the colony 72 Its economical condition 72 Difficulties with the London partners 75 Grant of allotments 77 Further division of land 78 Private settlers . , , .78 Difficulties of the new-comers '79 Dissolution of the Company 81 Further division of land .82 Distribution of live-stock 83 Allotment of meadow-land 84 General appearance of the settlement 85 Trade of the colony 86 Intercourse with New Netherlands 87 Friendship vyith Massasoit .88 Extension of the colony 9q Growth of new towns 92 System of representation , 94 The new patent . "^ gg "Weston's settlement 97 Indian conspiracy defeated , 99 The Council for New England jOq WoUaston's settlement >•-..... 10.3 Destruction of Merrymount . ..... 104 Maverick's settlement ........ ing "William Blackstone iq^ THE FIRST VOLUME. IX CHAPTER III. THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. The Dorchester Adventurers Eshing station at Cape Anne John White of Dorchester . - Purposes of the founders . The first Massachusetts patent Dispute with Mason and Gorges . The Patentees . Endicott sent out Trouble with Morton . A royal charter obtained . Proceedings of the Company System of land tenure Ministers engaged Endicott's institution . Enforcement of discipline . JElcclesiastical settlement Expulsion of the Brownes . Transfer of the charter to America John Winthrop . ~ His ' Model of Christian Charity ' Winthrop's associates Their departure . Sufferings of the colonists . Hired servants set free Extension of the settlement Change in the constitution . Dispute about taxation Dispute between "Winthrop and Dudley Establishment of a House of Eepresentatives Dudley chosen Governor . A religious test for citizenship introduced Christopher Gardiner .... Treatment of other malcontents no 111 113 115 116 116 118 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 126 127 128 129 131 133 184 134 136 136 137 138 189 141 143 145 146 148 149 CHAPTER IV. KOGEB WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. Three epochs in New England history Roger Williams His first sojourn in Massachusetts 151 153 155 X CONTENTS OF PAGH He is for a wliile at Plymouth . 156 His theories of Church government . . . • • 157 Attacks on the colony in England 15*^ Difficulty with Dudley 159 Appointment of Commissioners for New England . . 159 Preparations for resistance ...... • 1"" Winslow's mission to England ■ ■ 1^1 Dangerous attitude of Williams .... • 162 Endicott defaces the flag • • 163 Banishment of Williams 165 Henry Vane and Massachusetts . . ... . 169 Winthrop's administration is attacked 170 Theological disputes at Boston ■ • 173 Vane threatens to leave 174 The colony divided into two religious parties . ... 175 The election of 1637 176 Order for exclusion of heretics . . . . . . • • - 177 Controversy between Winthrop and Vane ... . . 178 Synod of divines at Newtown 179 Punishment of the heretics 181 Banishment of Wheelwright 182 Trial of Mrs. Hutchinson 182 Trial of Oaptaiu Underhill 184 Win„hrop's dispute with the Church of Boston 186 General view of the question ........ 186 Scheme for an autocratic order . 189 Dissolution of the Council for New England 192 Legal proceedings of Massachusetts 193 Laud's hostility . 195 Gorges and his schemes 195 Their failure 196 CHAPTER V. THU SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT AND THE PEQUOD WAR. A new stage in colonization 199 Proposals of Plymouth for trade on the Connecticut .... 200 Dutch fort on the river ......... 202 Massachusetts remonstrates ........ 203 Action of Plymouth 203 Patent granted to Lord Say and Sele 204 Emigration from Massachusetts . 205 Dispute with Plymouth 207 Dispute with Saltenstall 209 Severity of the winter 209 THE FIRST VOLUME. XI Foundation of Saybrook . Renewed emigration from Massachusetts Government of Connecticut Constitution formally constructed Towns' governments . Relations to the natives Stone kUled by the Pequods Negotiations for redress Further outrages by the Pequods The Narragansetts under Oldham Endicott's attack on Block Island His dealings with the I|equods . Roger Williams mediates with the Narragansetts Correspondence between Bradford and Winthrop Outrages by the Pequods in the winter of 1636 Military system of New England Want of united action Mason's campaign .... Attack on the Mystic fort . Mason's return Further operations against the Pequods Treaty of Hartford .... Effect of the Pequod war . PASE 210 ail 212 213 214 214 215 216 217 218 220 221 223 224 225 225 227 228 281 234 235 238 238 CHAPTEE VI. THE SEITLBMENTS SOUTH OF CAPE COD. Settlements in Narragansetts Bay Roger Williams and his associates Purchase of land from the Indians Constitution of the settlement Affair of Verin .... Formation of a Baptist Church . A constitution formally established Emigration to Aquednek Constitution of the colony Separation of the colony Constitution of Newport Proceedings at Pooasset Reunion of Newport and Portsmouth Constitution of the reunited colony Colonization of Newhaven Eaton and Davenport land ili Massachusetts Their choice of a site . Purchase from the Indians Condition of the colony during its first year 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 248 249 250 251 251 253 254 256 257 258 258 xii CONTENTS OF PAGE A constitution formed .... • ■ • ■ Other settlements in the ndghbourhood of Xewharen 261 Consolidation of the colony ... •^ -' Necessary changes in the constitution . ■ ■'"* General condition of the colony . . . • ■'"* Effect of the settlement of Newhaven . ^67 CHAPTER VII. THE SETTLEMENTS NORTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. General character of the settlements north of the Piscataqua . 268 Belations to New England ........ 269 Grant of lands by the Plymouth Council 270 John Mason . . ii70 Settlements on the Piscataqua .... . . 272 The Laconia Company . 273 Dixy Bull . . 273 State of the settlement on the Piscataqua .... . 274 It becomes independent ...... . . 276 Puritanism at Cocheco .... ... 277 Beligions disputes at Cocheco .... . 277 Settlement at Exeter . . 281 Dealings of these colonies with Massachusetts . . 2S2 Settlement of Hampton ....... . 283 Union of the three townships with Massachusetts . . . 284 Disturbances in the Church of Exeter ... . 287 Early settlements in Maine .... . 287 Gorges is created Proprietor of Maine ...... 289 Constitution of his colony ..... . . 289 Scattered settlements in Maine ........ 291 Settlement at Pejebscot 292 The Plough Patent 292 CHAPTER VIII. THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDEBATION. Necessity for union 294 Obstacles to union 294 The affi-ay on the Kennebec 295 Boundary disputes between Plymouth and Massachusetts . . 297 ISspntes between Connecticut and Massachusetts . . 297 Danger from the Indians . . ...... 298 Encroachments on Dutch territory 298 THE FIRST VOLUME. XlU PAQB English settlements towards the Hudson ...... 300 Encroachments on Long Island 300 Attempts to settle on the Delaware .... . . 301 The Dutch at Hartford .... .302 The French settlements to the north 303 Their hostilities with Plymouth ... .303 Materials for a confederation 305 First suggestion of confederation . . 306 Scheme proposed by Massachusetts 307 Deliherations as to confederation ... 307 Exclusion of Maine . 308 Exclusion of the Narragansett settlements ... 308 Threatened trouble with the Narragansett Indians ; . 809 The Confederation formed .312 The Federal Constitution 312 First meeting of the Federal Commissioners 310 Samuel Gorton 316 Proposed annexation of Patuxet by Massachusetts .... 318 Resistance by Gorton 319 Settlement of Gorton at Shawomet 320 The Indians appeal to Massachusetts . . . . . 320 Proceedings against Gorton .321 Defeat and death of Miantonomo 322 Attack upon Shawomet 325 Trial of Gorton and his followers 327 Dispute in New France between D'Aulney and De la Tour . . 330 Negotiations between De la Tour and the English .... 331 Discussions in Massachusetts 331 Expedition against D'Aulney 333 Agreement between Plymouth and De la Tour 334 Massachiisetts abandons De la Tour 335 Remonstrance of the Federal Commissioners with Massachusetts . 336 Treaty between D'Aulney and Massachusetts 336 Constitutional changes in Massachusetts 338 Relations between the Assistants and the Deputies .... 34l Wiuthrop's statement of opinion 343 His pamphlet on the veto 344 Claims of those who were not church-members . . . . 346 Disaffection in Essex 346 Disputes between Assistants and Deputies 348 Conference of the two Chambers 351 Winthrop's pamphlet on government 352 Dispute about the Election Sermon 353 Electiou of a ti-ain-band captain at Hingham 353 Inquiry into Winthrop's conduct 354 His speech . .355 XIV CONTENTS OF CHAPTER IX. NEW ENGLAND UNDEE THE COMMONWEALTH. PiGE Effect of the overthrow of the monarchy in New England . . . 357 The Narragansett colonies get a charter . ... 357 Return of Roger Williams . 359 Dispute about Shawomet 360 The English gDvernment supports Gorton .... . 301 Union of the Narragansett townships 862 Constitution of the colony ..... . . 363 Laws enacted ... 364 Peculiar system of legislation .... . . 365 Faint traces of a Royalist party in New England .... 366 Dispute ahout Captain Stagg .... . . 367 Further dispute ahout Richardson 37O Dispute about the religious qualification 376 Petition of the unenfranchised inhabitants 372 Winslow sent to England as agent for Plymouth and Massachusetts . 373 Trial and punishment of the petitioners 375 Further proceedings against the petitioners ... 377 Vassall goes to England 373 Disputes with the Narragansett settlements . . . 380 Dispute about Springfield 301 Boundary dispute between Connecticut and Massachusetts . . . 384 Massachusetts imposes a retaliatory duty .... 385 Indian disputes ogg Expedition against the Narragansetts 3U7 The NaiTagansetts submit ....... gug Tbey violate their agreement . . . gag Disputes with the Dutch .... 300 Further danger from the Narragansetts . 301 l)eath and character of John Winthrop . 390 Value of his history oqg Atherton's expedition against the Indians . . 3gR Negotiations at Hartford with the Dutch . . ggg English encroachment on the Delaware . . ggg Rumours of conspiracy between Dutch and Indians . . 399 Dissensions within the Confederacy ..... 4qi Rigby buys the Plough Patent .... . aqk Disputes in Maine ........ ^rip State of aflairs in Maine in 1649 .... Ann Annexation of Maine by Massachusetts ... ^nq Disunion among the Narragansett plantations ... 4, p Providence incoi-porated by chartef ... a.i q Disputes between Warwick and Massachusetts ... 41 q THE FIRST VOLUME. XV Unsuccessful attempt at annexation by JIassachusetts . The attempt renewed in 1651 Punishment of Baptists in Massachuselts . Ooddington's grant of Aquednek and Conanicut The Narragansett settlers resist . Ooddington's grant revoked Further dispute .... Return of Williams Final pacification .... Disputes concerning civil authority Arrest of William Harris .... Effect of the Restoration on Rhode Island . PAGE 414 415 416 420 421 422 422 423 424 425 420 426 APPENDICES. Appendix A. Challoner's voyage of 1606, p. 24 . . . . 429 B. Grants and settlements to the north of the Merrimac, p. 38 ... . . . . 430 INDEX . 435 MAP. New England in 1 660 to face title-page. Erratum. Page 291, fifth line from bottom,/or John rend Richard. THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. CHAPTEE I. INTEODUCTION. In the history of the Enghsh colonies in America we can trace the operation of two forces, which, to borrow the language of physics, may be called centrifugal and centripetal. The colonies were kept apart by variety of climate, and therefore of occupation and interest. At the same time community of origin and of political traditions, the need for mutual help, and still more for some uniform system of commercial administration, tended to draw the settlements together and to lay the foundation foi: national unity. So far we have been almost exclusively concerned with the separate life and conflicting interests of the Southern plantations. Only here and there do we catch a faint glimpse of some half-conscious aspiration after unity.^ But when we pass to the Northern settlements, we are at once brought face to face with those ideas and principles which at a later day served to weld the colonies into one commonwealth. Nor is that all. The scenes which are now coming before us actually display the tendency towards union at work. In the Federation of the New England colonies we see the germ and the foreshadow- ing of the United Eepubhc. ' See Virginia, &c., pp. .S.S2, 355. II. B 2 INTRODUCTION. This difference between North and South is partly due to natural conditions of soil and climate. In the Southern colonies we see a sparse and wholly agri- cultural population, consisting mainly of slaves and slaveowners. In the North, slave labour is ineffectual ; population is, for a newly-settled country, dense, and agriculture is supplemented by trade and fishing. In the eighteenth century, and still more in the nine- teenth, nearly aU the features by which the North was marked off from the South were caused by these con- ditions. For the present we are rather concerned with differences due to the materials from which the colonies were originally formed, and to the motives which actuated the founders of them. "We have already seen how the Southern colonies were constructed. So far as they reproduced EngHsh life, it was the free, unreflecting life of the country squire. Like his counterpart at home, the Southern planter might be self-indulgent if he would ; if he laboured, it was from energy of temper or pubhc spirit, not in obedience to the pressure of circumstances or to the opinion of his neighbours. New England copied the sober life of the English yeoman and trader, a life lacking grace and brightness, but never forgetful of moral and rehgious disciphne, nor of duty towards the household and the State. So too, we find that which has been hitherto wanting in the history of the American colonies, a vigorous pohti- cal Hfe. The records of the Southern plantations are not wholly free from disputes and conflicts. But these almost always turn on matters of personal conduct or details of administration, scarcely ever on questions of principle. In New England we are brought face to face with those great problems of legislation and government which are common to all free and progressive communities. Thus, in studying the history of New England we INTRODUCTION. 3 are beset by two special dangers. One of these arises from the nature of our authorities, the other from the temper in which we approach our task. The material from which we have to reconstruct the life of New England is far more abundant than in the case of the Southern colonies, but it is also from its nature far more hkely to lead us astray. In dealing with the Southern colonies we may mis- interpret our authorities, but we are in little danger of being wilfully misled by them on important matters. Our knowledge of their political history is chiefly derived from those who wrote for some immediate practical purpose, and with no deliberate intention of telling a tale to posterity. The history of the Southern colonies is for the most part to be gleaned out of despatches, entry books, and the Hke. When the Virginian or the Mary- lander did deliberately sit down to describe the world in which he lived, he had no self-conscious feeling that he was writing about' the infancy of a great nation. The wonders of external nature, the fertility of the soil, the abundance of strange beasts and birds, the adven- turous hfe of the wilderness, the peculiar customs and fanciful mythology of the savage, all these absorbed the interest of the settler and excluded any speculation about the destinies of his little commonwealth. But with the New England Puritan it was different. He had an exaggerated and even a morbid sense of his responsi- bilities as a citizen, and an enthusiastic conviction of the greatness which awaited his new country. Steeped in scriptural learning, he never ceased to regard himself as one of a peculiar people, the chosen and predestined heirs to the new Canaan. No event in his history seemed trivial to him, since each was a step in the chain by which God was working out the great des- tiny of the Puritan commonwealth. At the same time, that provincial spirit of exaggeration which is almost B 2 4 INTRODUCTION. invariably found in a young community, led the Puritan colonist to see a Latimer or a Calvin in the occupant of every village pulpit. Thus, in gathering our information from the abundant supply of chronicles and biographies which the piety and the intellectual activity of New England have bequeathed to us, we are constantly at the mercy of self-deceiving enthusiasm. We are reading not a history but a hagiology. An equal or even greater danger lies in the nature of the subject and our mental attitude towards it The men of the seventeenth century are so closely akin to ourselves in their pohtical ideas and aspirations, we all of lis have so direct an interest in the result of their contests, that it is scarcely possible to judge them with impartiality. And in the nature and spirit, though not always in the outer form of its political contests. New England was but the counterpart of the mother country. The issues on which the political battles of Massachusetts were fought out, the limitations which the state may for its own protection impose on individual freedom of speech and action, the right of a majority to define the conditions of citizenship, these were among the main problems which had to be solved by English statesmen in the seventeenth century ; in a shghtly altered form they have occupied every generation since, and occupy us still. Even more difficult is it wholly to avoid partisanship in deahng with those theological disputes which are so strangely and inextricably blended with New England politics. The feelings and antecedents of -every Enghsh- man must in some measure incline him either to sympa- thize with the Puritan in his moral earnestness, his pitiless self-sacrifice, his boundless and unswerving confidence in the ever-present guidance and protection of God, or else to be repelled by his narrow aversion to all that lay beyond his own sphere of vision, the bhnd INTRODUCTION. 5 self-confidence with which he interpreted the divine decrees, and the ruthless severity with which he en- forced them. Over and above the danger of being biassed by sympathy or antipathy in our estimate of Puritanism, there are other misleading influences against which we must guard ourselves. One of the chief evils against which the Puritan fought is so remote, and seems to us so impossible, that we are in danger of overlooking the reality of it. "We can scarcely place ourselves in the position of men who had to deal with Popery, not as an insidious enemy, now and again making a successful raid under the cloke of obscurity and weakness, but as an open foe, militant and aggressive. It is hard to bear in mind that what are now the stock phrases of trium- phant bigotry were once a daring and much needed protest on behalf of spiritual freedom. As with the doctrinal aspect of Puritanism so is it with the moral. The reputation of a great movement often suffers by the completeness of its victory. To judge Puritanism aright we need to have before our eyes the evils against which it made war. We are apt to forget that a large portion of what was once the dis- tinctive morality of Puritanism has been, so to speak, absorbed into the moral creed common to the whole nation. The chastity of woman, the sanctity of domes- tic life, ' our pure religion breathing household laws,' respect for these forms part of the moral code of every EngUshman who has any such code at all. They were once the strongholds for which the Puritan did battle against the assaults of the courtier and the dramatist. In another way, too, we must beware lest we import the ideas of the nineteenth century into our judgment of the seventeenth. In all questions of toleration, whether we are dealing with Churchman or Puritan, with Laud 6 INTRODUCTIOX. or Endicott, we must remember that the whole standard of public morality is altered. To speak of the Puritan, whether in England or America, as the champion of spiritual freedom, is a proof of ignorance or worse. Toleration was abhorrent to him, even when he most needed it. He would have scorned those pleas of expe- diency which modern apologists have sometimes urged La his behalf. His creed on this matter was as simple as that of Saint Lewis or Torquemada. He had posses- sion of the truth, and it was his bounden duty by what- ever means to promote the extension of that truth, and to restrain and extirpate error. In this he in no wise fell short of the moral standard of. his age. Here and there, indeed, might be found either a man of exceptional wisdom and liberality, such as L'Hopital or Bacon, or a sceptical statesman like Henry of Xavarre or Baltimore, who seemed in some measure to anticipate the more enlightened doctrines of a later day. But it is no reproach to men that they neither rose above the wisdom of their own generation nor feU short of its enthusiasm, and that they were not among the few who could anticipate a moral reform. The difficulties which thus beset the history of the Puritan colonies are not to be avoided by refusing to consider the religious aspect of the question. In Xew England we cannot even temporarily or in thought sever religion from the other elements of national life. The word of God, as revealed in the Bible and as taught by certain authorized interpreters, served as a standard by wliich every act of individual or national life must be measured. TVliatever may be our judgment of the American Puritan, the pervading and ever-present character of his religious belief cannot be overrated. A Xew England writer did no more than justice to his commonwealth when he said, ' If any make religion as INTRODUCTION. 7 twelve and the world as thirteen, such an one hath not the spirit of a true New England man.' ^ If, then, we would enter into the spirit'' of New England history, we must clearly understand what is implied in the name Puritan. One use we may disregard. In England, during the sixteenth and in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, the Puritan was often marked off from the Separatist. Identical or nearly so in doctrine, in their views about ritual, and in their moral code, they differed in their attitude towards the established Church. The Separatist was hostile to the Church, not only as corrupt, but as being in principle at variance with the right order of things as laid down in Scripture. The con- forming Puritan was willing to remain within the Church if it could be purged from what he regarded as the abuses bequeathed to it by Rome. Each of these classes bore its part in the settlement of New England. In their new home, however, the distinction which had separated them disappears. In England, the con- forming Puritan unwillingly accepted the forms of the Church, from the dislike of violent change common to Englishmen, from respect for historical association, from hope of reform, and because Anglican and Puritan were divided from one another not by a gulf, but by a border-land in which the two- sets of opinions insensibly blended. In America all this was changed. In Eng- land, external conditions had kept the Puritan in tem- porary union with a system to which in his heart he was hostile. In America he was set free from these conditions and accepted his emancipation. For our purposes then we may disregard these ac- cidental differences which existed in England. Time ' Higginson's ' Election Sermon, 1663,' quoted in Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. i. p. 61. 8 INTRODUCTION. indeed brought other divisions. But for our present purpose we may look on the Puritans of New England as a compact and homogeneous body, bound together by a common morahty, a common system of worship and ecclesiastical discipline, and common theological doctrines. The distinctive morality of the Puritan does not need to be formally set forth. As displayed in America it wiU naturally unfold itself in the course of our history. His system of worship had a positive and a negative side, and, as in most systems, the former was its strength, the latter its weakness. On the one hand it clearly asserted and upheld the great principle that no machinery can by itself make men righteous, and that aU religious systems must be tested, not by their picturesqueness nor their historical associations, but by their influence, direct or indirect, on men's spiritual and moral nature. On the other hand, the Puritan showed a total inabiHty to recognise the diversity of man's spiritual wants, and the corresponding variety of the machinery needed to stimulate and to satisiy those wants. He clearly saw that human life was a battle against the powers of evil, but in that battle he would use no weapon which had once been defiled by the touch of Rome, and he thus left to his opponents all those instruments which the experience of many cen- turies had fashioned and elaborated. The theology of Puritanism was in one respect its most important because its most characteristic feature. The Puritan might, under pressure of circumstances, diverge widely from any one fixed standard of Church government or ritual. His morahty was not so much a definite or systematic code, as the loyal acceptance of certain principles and subjection to certain influences. His theological creed, on the other hand, was hard, un- accommodating Calvinism. INTKODUOTION. 9 The theology of the Puritan had a double effect. It determined all his views of human conduct and hfe, and it gave him a political creed. Setting aside its influence on the moral character of the individual, we may look on Calvinism as a system which at once predisposed the holder towards certain political prin- ciples and brought him in contact with certain political associations. From this point of view, then, the Cal- vinistic creed and the Calvinistic system of Churcli government may be dealt with together. Between them they make up what is for us the most important side of Puritanism, that which we may call its construc- tive and political aspect. The system of Church government which afterwards found its complete developement in New England was, indeed, in outward form, other than that propounded and fashioned by Calvin. The conception of the congrega- tion as the unit of ecclesiastical government seems to have been first definitely formulated as a system by Zwingle. ' Hong and Kussuacht is a truer church than all the bishops and popes together,' was the formal declaration of his ecclesiastical theory. The age was not ripe for such teaching. The dread of anarchy and the need for compromise with the civil power, and for union in the face of the enemy, made any such system for the present impossible. But while the practical genius of Calvin overrode the theories of Zwingle, at the same time it insured their ultimate triumph. The machinery, half ecclesiastical, half political, which Calvin established, became the instrument for bringing into existence a system which embodied the theories of the cirlier reformer. The Puritanism of New England did not merely de- rive its theological dogmas from Calvin ; it owed to him the spirit which pervaded and quickened its ecclesias- tical institutions. The creed taught by Calvin has been ] INTRODUCTION. ever associated with self-government in civil and eccle- siastical matters, partly through the circumstances of history, partly from the character of the Predestinarian ^ theology. The new doctrines found their first home | among the free institutions of civic life, and the religious and pohtical institutions of the Swiss cities naturally blended with one another. The same associations which surrounded Calvinism in the land of its birth followed it in the lands of its adoption. The reformers of Germany and England found allies and supporters among princes, and the purity of their principles at times suffered by the neces- sity for compromise. The corruption of the French and Scotch courts gave the teachers of Calvinism scope for condemning the powers of this world, in the spirit of the Hebrew prophets. But apart from any conditions of origin or early training, it is the essential tendency of Calvinism to destroy all distinctions of rank and all claims to superiority which rest on wealth or political expediency. Beside the conception of an aristocracy divinely chosen on the most awful principles of exclusion, all gradations are as nothing. The sovereignty of one supreme will annihilates all lesser power, save that which can clearly make good its claim to some delegated right. Thus, while Calvinism sweeps away all sovereignty rest- ing on mundane claims, it does not leave man free to go his own way, but steps in and fills the vacant throne with its own pecuhar authority. Theoretically indeed, the doctrine of necessity denies the need for any control, ^ by denying the possibility of disobedience. Practically, there is no sovereignty more exacting and more irre- sistible than that which professes to be simply carrying out the decrees of Omnipotence. . In New England Calvin- ism had for the first time a free and open field for poh- tical action. There, accordingly, we see displayed to the utmost its special characteristics ; the unswerving asser- INTRODUCTION, 11 tion of its own sovereign power, the repudiation of all other authority. The Marian persecution brought the English re- formers under the influence of the Calvinistic ideas alike in theology and Church government. On the latter side, at least, those ideas found a congenial soil in the minds of Englishmen. In adopting the system of congrega- tional worship and discipline the English Protestant was but following the habits which the training of genera- tions had made almost instinctive. The independence of Parhament might have been greatly lessened under Yorkist and Tudor rule, but the Englishman of the six- teenth century had other, and perhaps for the bulk of the community more effectual, training in self-govern- ment. The usages of the free Teutonic commonwealth lived on, though in altered forms. The yeoman still took his part in the proceedings of the court baron ; the townsman belonged to a trade guild and sat in his city corporation. The centralizing despotism of the Tudors may have narrowed the province and curtailed the forms of the old local institutions, but it hardly weakened their spirit. The habits which had been engendered by centuries of self-government gained greatly in strength by being transferred to a virgin soil. The power of shaping new institutions was stimulated by the need for them. At the same time it was no longer fettered by the complex interests and restraints of an old-established community. Thus the ecclesiastical history of New England is not so much concerned with the extension and progress of theological doctrines as jvith the constitutional growth of religious communities. Indeed, the spiritual aspect of Puritan life was somewhat overlaid and crushed by the minuteness of ecclesiastical organization. For this and other reasons Puritanism, in its later and more 12 INTRODUCTION. mature forms, is less attractive than in its early and struggling days. In this respect it follows the general course of rehgious movements. A party in its hour of infant weakness and persecution consists only of those who are really zealous for its objects and will make great sacrifices for them; it has nothing wherewith to bribe those who are accessible to meaner motives. Then the penalties of joining it grow less and the ad- vantages more. Its followers are no longer braced up by the need of making converts ; its opponents and its supporters have in some measure changed positions. The latter begin to rely upon established public opinion ; the former feel the need of justifying their position by argument and of commending it by the example of their lives. As the movement becomes popular it also becomes secularized : something is yielded to expedi- ency, and purity of doctrine and practice becomes tainted with compromise. In other ways, too, the character of Puritanism was altered by its transfer to America. The change was in some respects for the better, in some for the worse. Eeheved from the pressure of persecution, from the need of constantly assuming an attitude of watchful antagonism, Puritanism lost much of its harshness. For the first time the Puritan lived in a 'Wiiorld that was friendly and full of hope ; he had passed from the land of bondage to the land of promise. Yet this very change had its draw- backs. Freedom from opposition may sweeten the moral nature, but it is not conducive to mental activity. The arms which were no longer needed were suffered to rust, and the theology of New England became more and more a sterile and unreflecting repetition of fixed dogmas. Calvinism in America ever tended to become more a system of ecclesiastical discipUne, less a fountain of spiritual truth. To an Englishman the history of the Puritan colonies INTRODUCTION. 13 has a special attraction, as showing how the constitu- tional principles of his own country may be adapted and developed in altered conditions of life. Besides this, it has another peculiar interest. In New England we can see the unchecked working of a principle whose operation in England was modified and balanced by other influences. The" reformation of rehgion in Eng- land was not an isolated movement ; it was but one of various forms in which a great national awakening showed itself. It had nothing in common with some of those forms ; with some it was actively at war. But though the English Puritan might abhor the Eenais- sance and its works, he could not wholly sever himself from them, any more than he could free himself from the religious and political associations which surrounded him from infancy. While the Puritan saw daily before him the relics of mediasval piety, while his thirst for religious knowledge brought him under the spell of the new learning and its manifold culture, Calvinism could not wholly have dominion over him. The writings of Milton show how English Puritanism was forced to assume a width of view alien to its true nature. In America it was otherwise. Whatever praise, whatever blame attaches to New England in its early day must be set down to Puritanism. When it triumphed it triumphed of its own unaided strength ; where it failed it failed from its own insufficiency and narrowness. 14 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. CHAPTEE il. THE PLYilOUTH PILGEIMS.^ As English history really opens amid the scenes and in- stitutions described by Tacitus, before any English in- Organiza- vader had set foot on the shores of Britain, so inde^m^* it is with the Puritan colonies. The constitu- dents. tional history of New England, in truth, bewail when the first congregation of English Xonconformists came into being. The revolt from the Papacy had not ' The authorities for this chapter naturally resolve themselves iuto two groups : (1) Those who deal with the attempts to settle to the north of Cape Cod, between 1602 and 1620, and with the restoration of the Plymouth Com- pany ; (2) those hearing on the history of the Puritan settlers. The autiior- ities for the voyages between 1602 and 1607 have been already referred to ( Virginia, &c., pp. 140-3). They are mostly published in Purchas, and are republished in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collection, 3rd series, vol. viiL Of Popham's attempted colony we have a full account in Stracfaey's Travai/la into Virginia Britannia. John Smith's explorations are described in two pamphlets written by him. The first, published in 1616, is entitled A Description of KeiD England ; the second, called Keio England's Trials, was published in 1622. Both were originally printed in London, and are included in the second volume of Force's collection. They are also in the new and complete edition of Smith's works published by ilr. Arber in 1884. All my references to Smith in this volume are to that edition. Sir Ferdinando Gorges' Description of New England is a valuable contemporary record of all tlie events of New England history in which the writer himself took part. Un- fortumitely the style is often careless and obscure, and the chronology confused. It was originally published by the author's namesake and grandson in a col- lection entitled America Painted to the Life, The description is republished in the Massachusetts Historical Collection, 3rd series, vol. vi. The Plymouth Company two years after its revival published AtractcaiXeA A Brief Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England. It is republished io the Massachusetts Historical Collection, 2nd series, vol. ix. Oar knowledge of the Plymouth Puritans is derived mainly from the INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION. 16 gone far when the gulf between the moderate and the thoroughgoing reformers showed itself. The revival of writings of Bradford and Winslow. I have in my text spoken fully qf both writers. Bradford's histoiy remained in manuscript till the present century. It had been given up as lost, but was discovered by Mr. Young about 1840, and has been edited andpublished by Mr. Charles Dean, in 1856, as the third volume of the fourth series of the Massachusetts Histoi-ical Collection. In referring to it I have throughout quoted the original pagination. It served as the basis for New EnfflancFs Memorial, published by Nathaniel Morton in 1669. Indeed, the greater part of Morton's work is no more than an abridgement of Bradford's. Bradford's letter-book, published in the 1st series of the Massachusetts Historical Collection, vol. iii., contains much that is valuable. Except Bradford's history, almost everything that bears on the early history of Plymouth has been published, either in the Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, by Alexander Young (Boston, 1844), or in the modem edition of New Eny- land's Memorial (Boston, 1855). One of the ablest and most highly-educaled men among the Plymouth settlers, Edward Winslow, has left three pam- phlets containing much valuable material. The earliest in subject, though not in date of production, is a controversial work entitled Hypocrisy Unmasked, published in London in 1646. The main substance of this pamphlet is an attack upon one Samuel Gorton. This will come before us again. But to this is appended an account of the emigration from Leyden. Winslow also published A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the Eng- lish Plantation settled at Plymouth (London, 1622), and another pamphlet, entitled Oood News from New England, in 1624. These three pamphlets are all given by Mr. Young. My references to Winslow, unless otherwise ex- pressed, are to this reprint. There is besides among the Colonial Papers a memorial from Winslow addressed to the Privy Council, containing some interesting information about his doings in New England. Prince's Chronological History of New England is a trustworthy compila- tion from early authorities. So much of the work as came down to 1630 was published in one volume in 1736. The rest appeared in a fragmentary form, and was republished in the second series of 'the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. vii. The whole of Prince's work was edited by Mr. Drake, and published in 1852. My references are to this edition. The Records of Plymouth have been published in a complete form in twelve volumes, edited partly by Mr. N. B. Shurtleff, partly by Mr. D. Pulsifer. They extend from the foundation of the colony down to its incorporation with Massa- chusetts in 1692. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, in his Founders of New Plymouth, has collected all that can be learnt about the Independent church at Scrooby, its flight to Holland and sojourn there. Another very valuable authority has lately come to light. It is a document bought in 1875 by the British Museum, and entitled A Description of New England. It bears neither date nor the name of the author, but it was evidently written in 1660 or 1661, since the writer refers to the execution of the three Quakers ' last year.' It may also be assumed, I think, as certain, as it is assumed by Mr. Dean, who 16 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 15«7 letters did much to break down the boundaries of race and country, and the persecuted English Protestant con- stantly had deahngs with the reformed churches of Holland, Germany, and Switzerland. Congregations of foreign refugees in London and Norwich enjoyed by the special permission of the Crown their own discipline and worship, and must have served as a model and an encouragement to English Nonconformists. The first introduction of the congregational system in England is necessarily obscure, inasmuch as the movement, if not unlawful, was so far opposed to the wishes of those in power as to make secrecy expedient. In 1567 a small lias edited the pampliet, that Maverick was the author. The writer speaks of himself as having, in 1625, ' buUt and fortified the aucient«st house in the Massachusetts government.' No settlement except Maverick's answers to that description. Hostility to Massachusetts runs through the whole pam- phlet, yet; as far as we can tesjt the writer's statements by comparison with other authorities, they are accurate. Thus it has great value as the only contemporary account of New England from its earliest days, written from an anti-Puritan point of view. It preserves many details concerning the scattered settlements to the north of the Piscataqua. Another authority, in some measure of the same kind, is Thomas Lechford. He was a London attorney, who got into trouble in England by supporting Pryune. He either was banished or fled to escape punishment. He reached New England in 1638. He had decided and peculiar views on Church government, and having quarrelled with Episcopalians in England he quarrelled with Nonconformists in America. He more than once incurred judicial censure for his attacks on the ecclesiastical system of Massachusetts. In 1642 he wrote a pamphlet called Plain Dealing in New England. It is a detailed account of the system of civil and ecclesiastical government in Massachusetts. It is clear that the writer was in sympathy with the general principles and aims of the colonists, but was a man given to ex- aggerate the importance of mere details and questions of procedure. Plain Dealing was republished in the third series of the Massachusetts Historical Collection, vol. iii. A later edition was published in 1867 with an introduction and notes, both very full and of great value, by J. H. TrumbuU. Though Lechford mentions Plymouth, his place is among Massa- chusetts writers. Morton's New English Cawoan is likewise an anti-Puritan account of early New England history, but it has little authoritative value. I shall have occasion to speak of the author and his work in my text. The book has been admirably edited for the Prince Society by Mr. O. F. Adams. His pre- face is an exceedingly valuable monograph upon aU th« subjects on which Morton's history touches. 1567-75 INDEPENDENT OKGANIZATION. 17 Independent congregation with a pastor and deacon of its own was set up in London. Two years later another and, as it would seem, a larger body, established itself at Wandsworth.^ These were followed by other bodies of the same kind, styled conventicles. Side by side with these sprang up certain so-called Prophesyings, or organiza- tions for moral and religious instruction, not, indeed, professedly opposed to the Church, but independent of it, and hostile to the spirit of Anglicanism. When the conventicles and prophespngs were suppressed by the authority of the Crown, an attempt was made to combine the objects of both in an organization which should be within the pale of civil and ecclesiastical law. This was to be effected by a system of discipline esta- blished in the eastern and midland counties. Assem- blies of clergy were held, at which ecclesiastical matters were discussed and rules of practical discipline framed, independent of the authority of the Church of England, and sometimes in opposition to it. Afterwards meet- ings were held in London, with precautions for secrecy. There, under the direction of two eminent Nonconformist divines, Cartwright and Travers, a code was drawn up for the guidance of such parish clergymen as chose to adopt it. This has been described by a friendly writer as ' an attempt to introduce a reformation into the Church without a separation,' ^ by a hostile one as a scheme ' for breeding up Presbytery under the wing of Episcopacy.' ^ This was to be done by instituting a voluntary ' M^addington's Histoi-y of Congregational Government, 1869-80. This ■writer has worked out with great cave the early history of the Nonconformist congregations in England. ' Neal, History of the Puritans, ed. 1754, vol.i., p. 233. A full account of this organization is given in a pamphlet written by Bancroft, the future Archbishop, in 1593, and entitled Dangeroiis Positions and Proceedings. ' Heylin, History of the Pi-eshyterians, ed. 1670, p. 300. II. • C 18 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1.-5-82 »^ discipline alongside that recognized by the Church, and, as far as might be, utilizing the established system. This disciphne was to take cognizance of theological dogma, morality, and pubhc worship. The ministers who accepted it were not to be content with episcopal ^ ordination, but were also to obtain the approval of an assembly. Patrons of Uvings were to be 'dealt with earnestly,' to persuade them to present fit incumbents. Neither the Common Prayer Book nor the ceremonies of the Church of England were to be used. If an incumbent were threatened with deprivation for such omission, he might bring his case before an assembly. The lay officials, the collectors, and churchwardens were to be looked upon as elders and deacons. To enforce and administer this system local assembhes were to be formed, under the control of provincial synods ; these in their turn were to give account to a national synod. The energy of the Queen and the Bishops prevented this system from being carried out in its integrity. But the jact that it was devised and found many adherents shows how the Nonconformists of the sixteenth century were learning the lesson of organization and self-govern- ment. They were, in fact, on a small scale, much in the position of the Christians under the heathen Emperors. The nonconforming congr^ations had no acknowledged position in the eye of the law. But they had all the powers and machinery of seK-govemment ready, and only needed recognition to stand out as autonomous bodies, capable of undertaking many of the functions of the civil authority. Meanwhile another movement was at work, different from that just described in its formal and avowed ob- jects, but tending towards the same result. In 1582, Eobert Browne pubhshed a 'Book which sheweth the Life and Manners of aU true Christians.' The writer was an ordained clergyman, whose character 1582 PRESBYTERIANS AND BROWNISTS. 19 and conduct seem to have been such as to give no small advantage to his controversial opponents. Whatever the man may have been, his work marks an epoch in English history. It is the first formal assertion of that doctrine vrhich has ever since formed the quickening principle of English dissent. It definitely sets forth the claims of the congregation, bound together by common faith and worship, to be a self-governing body complete in itself. That is to say, it revived those doctrines of Zwingle which had been discredited by the outrages of the Anabaptists and crushed by the rigid organization of the Calvinistic system. To us, who see how readily English nonconformity adapted itself to the system set forth by Browne, it seems difiicult to believe that his teaching met with bitter hostility from those, who might be regarded as the recognized and authoritative exponents of Puritanism. The Puritan of the school of Cartwright was scarcely less wedded to the principle of a national church than the Anglican of the school of Hooker. Here, as often, the permanent influence of a party was determined not by the profession with which it started, nor the formal distinctions which at the outset divided it from its opponents, but by the under-currents of thought which it kept ahve. The reforming Puritan was at one with the Brownist in his estimate of man's spiritual nature and his earthly mission. His teaching was making clear the way for the institutions which he denounced. Moreover, the gulf between Presbyterianism and Li- dependency might at any time be narrowed, tiU in practice they met. Presbyterianism need not leave the individual congregation wholly without power of independent action ; congregational Independency, as interpreted by the next generation, left a wide mar- gin for the exercise of authority by the whole body of churches confederated together. The ecclesiastical c 2 20 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1602-7 scheme laid down by Browne, and by those continental reformers whom he followed, treated each congregation as a distinct body, with certain rights of self-government in matters of faith and ritual. At the same time it did not necessarily make those rights complete. The authority of the separate con- gregation must be limited by reference to the joint authority of the whole body of believers. In other words, the system might be that of a number of wholly independent communities or that of a federation. Moreover, the English Puritan, if he clung to Presby- terianism in theory, was almost compelled to adopt Congregationalism in practice. Indeed, it might be almost said that the pohcy of Whitgift made Presby- terians into Brownists against their will. Isolation was a needful consequence of secrecy and weakness. The so-called presbytery at Wandsworth must have been, for all practical purposes, an Independent congregation. Before dealing with the first Puritan settlers in America it is needful to say something of the land which Voyages they werc to occupy, and of those who had England, already visited and endeavoured to inhabit it. Between 1602 and 1607 at least three English voyagers had touched upon the coast north of the Hudson, and explored the country with a view to colonization. I have already spoken of these voyages in connexion with the history of Virginia.^ They have a more direct bearing on the settlement of Xew England. Their result was to reveal the seaboard from the Kennebec to Cape Cod, including the whole of what afterwards was the coast of Massachusetts. It was found to be a country in every way weU fitted for habitation ; the sea abounding in fish, and the land in timber and in beasts and birds good for food ; the native peaceful, friendly, and ready to trade. The one drawback, the severity of the climate, ' Vtrginia, &c., p. 140. 1606 SIR FERDINANDO GORGES. 21 necessarily escaped the notice of voyagers in the summer, and was only learnt by painful experience. It will be remembered that the original Virginia Company contained two branches, one having its head- The North quarters at London, the other at Plymouth.^ Compan^ The fate of the former has been already told. The career of the latter, short and troubled as it was, formed a stage in the process by which New England was colonized. Like the Virginia Company the North- ern branch drew its strength from that source which had contributed so largely to the colonial enterprise of the previous century, the gentry of Devonshire. Fore- most among its supporters was Chief Justice Popham. His experience as a judge had probably impressed on his mind the necessity for colonization as a remedy for that over-population and lack of employment to which crime was so largely due. He had already turned his thoughts to such questions, if it be true that he had a large share in framing and supporting the severe acts against vagrancy framed in the later years of Ehzabeth.^ Among Popham's associates was Ealeigh Gilbert, the nephew of Sir Humphrey. The name of another connects the present scheme with earlier and nando later cfforts in the same direction. Sir Ferdi- ''^^^' nando Gorges ' figures constantly in the early years of New England history, and forms a curious Hnk between the Puritan settlers and the more romantic efforts of the sixteenth century. Gorges seems to have begun his career as a follower of Essex. Any claim which that might have given him to the goodwill of the Puritans was forfeited when he forsook his patron in ' The charter with the names of the council is in Stith, Appendix I. " This is stated in Lloyd's State Worthies, a hook of no special historical authority, published in 1766. It is in a measure confirmed hy D'Ewes, Journal of Parliament, fol. 542. ' Our knowledge of (iorges is almost entirely derived from the State Papers. 22 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1588-1603 the hour of downfall. Henceforth Gorges' attitude to the New England settlers was for the most part one of jealous rivalry. We have no contemporary biography of Gorges, but the frequent references to him in the State Papers enable us to construct a not inadequate sketch of his career. The earliest recorded event is his imprisonment in the Low Countries, where, hke more than one of the pioneers of American colonization, he had served against Spain. In 1596, eight years later, we find him appointed to a post of responsibihty, the command of the newly fortified seaport of Plymouth, while at the same time he kept his commission in the English contingent in the Netherlands. What is re- corded of his conduct at Plymouth is of a piece with the temper and character which he afterwards showed in colonial afiairs. He soon contrived to embroil him- self with the civil authorities on a question of billeting. At the same time his despatches, when there was a possibility of real danger, were vigorous and practical. He was thought worthy to be chosen among those who served as a council of war before the Cadiz expedition, and we find his commander explaining in a despatch that he had left Gorges at Plymouth, finding him ' the only stay of the country.' From this time Gorges seems to have taken his place among the chief followers and advisers of Essex. The prosperity of Gorges survived the downfall of his patron, but only at the cost of his good name. He, ac- cording to popular belief, was one of those who urged Essex to the most unscrupulous of his misdeeds, the seizure of the Lord Keeper and the Chief Justice. Having involved his patron in an unpardonable crime. Gorges, with almost incredible baseness, secured his own retreat by giving, on the pretended authority of Essex, an order for the release of the prisoners. His treachery carried not only pardon but a speedy renewal 1605 GORGES' COLONIAL SCHEMES. 23 of royal favour. In the first year of the new reign he was restored to his governorship of Plymouth, and for the rest of his career we find him figuring as a strenuous competitor in the servile race for court patronage. Gorges' brief and discreditable connexion with Essex was probably not without its influence on the history of New England. Even if there had been no question of material interests, the betrayer of Essex would necessarily have been an object of suspicion and hatred to the Puritans. It is no doubt due, at least in part, to this cause that, while Gorges plays a prominent part in the colonization of New England, we have but Httle direct evidence as to his character. The Puritan chroniclers furnish us with ample, if at times indis- criminating, accounts of their own heroes ; but in dealing with the great enemy of New England Puritanism they content themselves with vague denunciations and dis- paragement. Thus our knowledge of Gorges is mainly derived from the references in public documents and from his own writings, in which a style originally careless and void of literary skill has in aU likelihood been made yet more confused by the errors of editors and printers. Yet even in its present state Gorges' work gives us a clear and definite impression of the writer, as a man of resolute purpose and clear but narrow views, whose zeal for the public good was often blended with personal cupidity and ambition, but not wholly overlaid by them. Gorges' position at Plymouth must have brought him into close contact with those who were interested in American discovery, probably with many who had actually taken part in it. His own thoughts seem to have been first turned that way when Weymouth, on his return in the summer of 1605, brought with him five natives, three of whom Gorges summarily seized.* By good fortune, they were of the same tribe, but ' Gorges' Description, p. 50. 24 THE PLYMOUTH PILGEIMS. 1006-7 of different villages. Thus, while they could readily communicate with one another, they were also able after a while to give Gorges a comprehensive description of their country. Their feeling towards their captors seems to have been, on the whole, friendly, and for the next fifteen years they served to keep open communi- cation between the natives and successive English voyagers and explorers. The Plymouth, or North Virginia, Company was formally incorporated in April 1606, and in the same Voyages in Summer two voyages were made. The first of 1G06. these was a complete failure, resulting in the loss of the vessel or vessels engaged and the capture of the crews, among them Gorges' two natives.' Another vessel sent out by Popham in the same year fared better. Pring, who was in command, was already in some degree acquainted with the coast, and now made a complete survey of it.^ His report decided the council of the company to undertake a colony. In June 1607 a hundred and twenty settlers were sent out in two vessels, one commanded by Ealeigh Gilbert, the other by George Popham, a brother of the Chief Justice. Popham was also appointed to the presidency of the colony. He was, as it would seem, hardly young or vigorous enough for such a task, though otherwise well fitted for his post.^ The whole history of the colony is a curious com- ment on the seemingly small chances whereby the fate of The at- young Communities is determined. In every coZj-tt respect the composition of the colony seemed Sagadahoc.' f^j. ^g^^gj, ^YiSLB. that of the party which in the previous year had been sent to Virginia. Setting aside ' For this voyage see Appendix A. " Gorges, p. 63. 3 Gorges, p. 55, says that Popham ' was well stricken in years before he went, and had long been an infirm man.' * A full diary of the proceedings of the colonists is given by Strachey, pp. 163-180. 1007 POPHAM'S COLONY. 25 Popham's advanced age, the leaders seem to have been all well fitted for their posts. We read of no disputes nor mistakes ; perfect harmony and perfect obedience seem to have prevailed. In their deahngs with the natives the English were both just and prudent, erring neither by severity nor over-confidence. It is clear that the settlers were industrious, since before the winter fifty houses, an intrenched fort, a church, and a storehouse had been finished, and a pinnace of thirty tons built. As the colonists did not reach America till August it was too late to till the soil, and they had to depend for food on their trade with the natives and on the supphes sent from England. Accordingly, all the time that could be spared from building and fortifying their habitations was spent in exploring the coast and its inlets. But despite the good order of the colonists and the prudence shown by the leaders, the settlement was Failure ovcrthrown by a series of untoward mishaps, colony. Misfortune began with a winter of exceptional severity. The Thames was frozen over so hard that a fair was held and boats built upon it. In New England the weather was such that nothing could be done in the way of exploration or trade. Despite the cold, how- ever, there was little sickness among the settlers, and only Popham died, as much perhaps from the infirmity of age as from the climate. A worse blow to the colony was the loss of its principal supporter, the Chief Jus- tice. Moreover, the same ship which brought tidings of his death also announced that of Sir John Gilbert. His brother Ealeigh inherited the family estate. His uncle's spirit was not strong enough in him to make him reject the hfe of an Enghsh squire for that of an American colonist. His desertion, the loss of the two Pophams, the destruction of the. fort by fire, and above all the severity of the winter, so completely disheartened the settlers that with one accord they at once resolved to 26 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1C08-14 forsake their new home. For seven years no attempt was made to revive the settlement or to form a fresh one. The Plymouth Company confined its efibrts to voyages for trade and exploration, and left the task of colonization to their more vigorous and fortunate rivals in London. Nevertheless Sir Francis Popham, the son of the Chief Justice, made some faint attempts to follow up his joim father's schemes,^ whUe Gorges seems never piorS^w to have abandoned his hopes of colonization. England. Bgforc loug they were joined by an ally better fitted probably than any other man who could have been found in that day to enlist influential support and to attract popular interest towards their designs. In 1609 Captain John Smith left Virginia, never to revisit it. His services in the cause of colonization were no longer rendered to that settlement with which tradition has justly associated his name, but were de- voted to exploring the northern coast and advocating the advantages to be obtained from it by plantation and fisheries. His first voyage thither was made in 1614, on behalf of four London merchants "with whom he was himself connected as a partner. The insufficiency of his charts withheld Smith from making a thorough survey of the country, and he had to content himself with a cargo of fish and furs worth nearly fifteen hun- dred pounds.^ The voyage had one memorable result. Hitherto the land north of Cape Cod had been com- monly known to Enghshmen as North Virginia. That name Smith now changed to the more distinctive title of New England.^ The fidelity with which the Piiritan colonies reproduced many of the best phases of Enghsh thought and political life gave a significance to the • A Srief Relation, p. 4. « New England^g Trials, p. 240. ' Smith's General Sittory, p. 699. ' I had taken a draught of the coast and called it New England.' Again {New England's Trials, p. 243) he says, ' This Virgin's sister caUed New England, An. 1616, at my humble suit by our most gracious King Charles.' (Of. p. 937.) Elsewhere Smith says, 'New 1014 VOYAGES OF 1614. 27 name beyond what was dreamt of by the author. An- other incident of the voyage deserves notice, as having had its effect on the future relations between the English and the Indians. During Smith's temporary absence Hunt, the master of one of the vessels, deceitfully cap- tured thirty of the natives with the intention of selling them in some Spanish port.^ Hitherto all the dealings of English voyagers with the natives of New England seem to have been just and their relations friendly. This one act created distrust and a desire for revenge which made themselves felt at the expense of later ex- plorers. Meanwhile Gorges had succeeded in securing the help of Lord Southampton,^ who had, like himself, Voyage been among the friends and followers of Essex. Gorg°e^.' ^ Aided by other subscribers, they furnished a ship and sent it out in June 1614 under the command of a Captain Hobson.^ They appear to have set great store by the friend- ship and promised help of an Indian named Epenow, who sailed with them. He had been found in London by Captain Harley, one of those who shared Popham's failure. Epenow can hardly have been among the Indians kidnapped by Hunt, though Gorges seems to have been of that opinion.* But be that as it may, the England is that part of America in the ocean sea opposite to Nova Albion, in the South Sea, discovered by the moat memorable Sir Francis Drake in his voyage about the world, in regard whereof this is styled New England, being in the same latitude' {Description of New England, p. 188). And again (p. 192), ' That part we call New England is betwixt the degrees of 41 and 45.' It is not unlikely that Smith gave currency to an existing though not generally accepted name. ' Brief Relation, p. 6. Smith's Description, p. 219. ^ Gorges, p. 59. ' The voyage is described by Gorges, p. 60, and in the Brief Relation, p. 5, &c. Smith also mentions it. * Gorges says that he was one of twenty-nine who had been captured by a ship of London. This must refer to Hunt. On the other hand, it seems impossible that one of Hunt's prisoners could have been brought to London 28 THE PIATIOUTH PILGRIMS. 1C15 recent outrage had made the natives suspicious and re- sentful. They communicated with Epenow and helped him to escape. A fight ensued, and though the voyagers suffered no serious injury, they were unable to achieve any useful result, either by trade or discovery. Next year Gorges renewed his attempt, aided by Smith. To whatever part of the world Smith betook Smith's himself, there romantic adventures seemed to in Tel 5.'''^ await him, with captivity as one of their lead- ing episodes. In 1615 he sailed from Plymouth with two ships fitted out by Gorges and other west country adventurers.^ Soon after sailing. Smith's ship be- came unseaworthy, and was compelled to put back, leaving her consort, under the command of Captain Dermer, to complete the voyage. Smith's second at- tempt after refitting was even more disastrous. His crew were mutinous, and off the coast of New England he was seized by a French man-of-war, under the pre- tence that he was a pirate. He succeeded in allaying the suspicions of his captors, but before he could return to his own vessel the crew had set sail for England, and Smith was left on board a foreign vessel without so much as his clothes. A captivity when Smith was him- self the prisoner and the narrator was not Ukely to be wanting in romantic incidents. More than one English vessel communicated with the Frenchmen, and on one occasion an EngHsh officer came on board. Smith, however, was at these times strictly secluded, whUe in various encounters with Spanish vessels, the French brought him out ' to manage their fights,' though what precise form his service took does not appear. At sold there, and returned to his own country, all in one summer. Smith and the authors of the Brief Selation both speak of Hunt's treachery as the cause of Epenow's hostility and of the failure of the yoyape, hut this does not require us to hdieve that Epenow was one of Hunt's captives. • This voyage is fully described in Smith's Description, pp. ^Zl-iiH. His account is confirmed hy the Brief Description., p. 7. 1610-22 JOHN SMITH. 29 length, oif Eochelle, he contrived to get away in a small boat, just in time to escape the shipwreck of the vessel. With this untoward voyage Smith's career as an explorer seems to have ended. But though he no longer bore an active part in discovery or coloniza- pamphiets tiou, his scrvices to New England were not over. New*Eng- In the year after his escape he published a pamphlet urging the expediency of settling that region, and followed it up six years later by another to the same purpose. He especially dwells on the value of the New England fishery, and points out how from that unpretending resource the Dutch had drawn more sub- stantial gain than the Spaniards from their American mines. The style and substance of the two pamphlets are thoroughly characteristic of the writer. They are con- fused, egotistical, and at times petulant, yet the reso- lute energy and unselfish zeal of the writer break out everywhere. There is something of real eloquence in passages where he gives vent to his anger against the sloth and incredulity of his countrymen. ' Who,' he asks, 'would live at home idly (or think himself any worth to live) only to eat, drink, and sleep, and so die? or by consuming that carelessly his friends got worthily ? or by using that miserably that maintained virtue honestly? or for being descended nobly pine with the vain vaunt of great kindred in penury ? or to maintain a silly share of bravery toyle out thy heart, soule, and time basely by shifts, tricks, cards, and dice ? or by relating news of others ' actions, shark here and there for a dinner or a supper ? deceive thy friends by fair promises and dissimulation in borrowing where thou never intended to pay ; ofiend the laws, surfeit with excess, burden thy country, abuse thyself, despair in want and then cozen thy kindred, yea, even thine ' See the first note to this chapter. 30 THE PLYMOUTH PHXSRIMS. 1616-8 own brother, and wish thy parents' death (I will not say damnation) to have their estates ; though thou seest what honours and rewards the world yet hath for them that will seek them and worthily deserve them ? ' There is a true and unexpected touch of picturesqueness in his description of the fisherman ' crossing the sweet ayre from isle to isle over the silent streams of a calm sea, wherein the most curious may find pleasure, profit, and content.' Nor is he more than just to himself when he claims that Virginia and Xew England have ' been my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice, and, in total, my best content.' With that passage, character- istic alike in its egotism and its vigorous simplicity, we may fitly take leave of the heroic figure, heroic despite many failings, to whom America owes so much. For the next four years nothing was done towards advancing the colonization of New Enghmd. Gorges Revival of continucd to send out voyages for explora- raLai^ tion.^ It is clear, too, that the New England CompaBj. fisiieries were growing in importance, since the disorder and misconduct of the fishermen and the ne- cessity for some authority over them were among the pleas urged for re-establishing the Plymouth Company with a new charter. That proposal was made by Gorges and some of his associates about the year 1618.^ The Virginia Ck)m- Kew patent pauy had now a constitution differing from that Engird. given to it by the original patent. The two most important changes were the abrogation of double government by a resident and a non-resident council, and the substitution of an exact for an undefined boundary. The former change seemed equally appli- cable to the Plymoutli Company, whUe the alteration of boundary in the case of Virginia made a similar limi- tation in the case of the northern colony needfid as a ' Gorges, pp. 61, &c. = lb. p. 70. Of. the Brief Hdation, p. 13. 1620 THE NEW ENGLAND PATENT. 31 precaution against confusion and disputes. Gorges' scheme met with a certain amount of opposition from the Virginia Company.^ Their hostility, however, was ineffectual, and in November 1620 a fresh patent was granted,^ The document is an important one, for though little was done towards colonizing New England by the actual patentees, yet territorial rights conveyed to them by this charter were recognized by all settlers during the next fifteen years as the basis of their claims. The . territory granted by the charter was that lying between forty and forty-eight degrees of latitude. The preamble stated with somewhat starthng exaggeration that this district had been lately depopulated by a pestilence, and might therefore be regarded as unoccupied soil.^ The name of New England was formally confirmed. The basis of the new association was far narrower than that of the Virginia Company. There the whole body of shareholders was constituted a corporation with certain legal rights, and controlled by a council which, though originally appointed by the Crown, tended to become purely representative. Here, however, the corpora- tion and the council were identical, consisting of forty patentees. Any rights which further shareholders or associates might enjoy would be derived, not from the original in- strument, but from special contract with the patentees. The practical result was that the new Company became simply a channel through which the territorial rights of the Crown were transferred to certain persons, not to be used on any connected or organic scheme, but as the individual thought fit. The most conspicuous names ' Bri^ Relation, p. 12. ' The original document is among the State Papers, Colonial Entry Book, lix. 1-28. It has been reprinted in Hazard's Collection, and as an appendix to Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. i. App. xxvi. ' For the amount of truth contained in this statement see below, p. 70. 32 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620 among the members of the Company were those of the two court favourites, Buckingham and Lenox, the Earl of Pembroke, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; while the pre- sence of Southampton, Sir Thomas Eoe, and Sir Nathaniel Eich marked a certain community of interest between I the new corporation and the Virginia adventurers. The [ Company was to be established at Plyinouth, and was to elect a president and to fill up vacancies in its own body. The most important privileges conferred on them were: 1. The right of legislating, subject to the . necessary and usual condition that these laws were not I contrary to those of the realm. 2. The monopoly of ■ trade within the limits of the patent. 3. Freedom from ' [all customs beyond four per cent. 4. The right to expel all intruders from the territory of the com- ■pany by force of arms if necessary, and, as a needful /condition, the right to exercise martial law within that j territory. The council had also power to impose the oaths of allegiance and supremacy if they thought fit ; 1 but no conditions were imposed as to the religious behef or ecclesiastical discipline of those who were to in- habit their lands. All details as to the system of govern-. j ment to be adopted in the colony itself were left to the ' discretion of the patentees. In one respect the consti- tution of the Company was unsound from the outset. It started without capital. No fixed sum was either subscribed or guaranteed by the members, but it was left to them to make such contributions as they might think fit. It was afterwards decided that each member should invest a hundred pounds, making up the meagre capital of four thousand pounds in all.-^ The patentees, indeed, contemplated forming a com- pany after a kind. They circulated a proclamation in the seaports of the West of England, setting forth the nature of their monopoly and prohibiting all private trade. ' Brief Relation, p. 13, 1220-1 OPPOSITION IN PAKLIAMENT, 3-3 They expected by this means, in their own words, ' to induce every reasonable man in and about them (these towns), affecting the public good or a regular proceeding in the business of trade, to embrace a uni- formity, and to join in a community or joint-stock together.' ^ A company which had no better assurance than this for its capital was little likely to carry out any schemes which involved much immediate outlay. As a natural consequence, the new corporation never attempted to rival the enterprise of the Virginia Company, and con- tented itself with the position of a large landholder whose income is derived from letting or selling his j territory. ' The attempt to enforce their right of monopoliz- ing trade at once brought dd^n a storm of opposition Opposition upou the ucw Corporation. Since Southampton in Parlia- ^ ., ^ ment.8 was a patentee, one can hardly suppose that the Virginia Company continued actively hostile to its younger rival. But the battle against monopolies was then at its height, and the choice of Buckingham as the President of the Plymouth Company, and the presence of Mompesson, the great monopolist, among its members, could not fail to quicken the popular feelings against the corporation. During the session of 1621 a bill was brought in for preventing extortions and tithes on lishing. There is nothing to show that this " was specially aimed at the New England Company, but it in some manner foreshadowed the great attack which followed. The bill apparently passed the Commons, ' lb. ' The fact of these bills having been brought in, with some details of the discussions which followed, is preserved in the journals of the House of Oommons. Gorges' own appearance before Parliament is told by him in a rather confused manner (pp. 66-71). I do not feel quite certain whether his description refers to his appearance before the House in 1621 or to a second appearance three years later. II. D 34 THE PLYMOUTH PH^GRIMS. 1621 but was thrown out by the Lords. Later in the session a more definite bill was brought in to give freer liberty of fishing on the coast of America, with special mention of Virginia and New England. The chief object of the bill was to make public the right of fishing on the American coast, and also to allow those who exercised that right to land and get firewood. The bill was opposed by Guy, a Bristol merchant, who had under a patent settled a colony in Newfoundland. The discussion which followed has been preserved, and is of great interest. On the one side the enemies of the Company, prominent among whom was Sir Edward Coke, urged the impropriety of allowing a great natural resource like the sea-fisheries to be made a monopoly. On the other side it was shown clearly and forcibly that the choice lay between colonization or free fishing, and that the two were incompatible. As regarded the immediate question, there was justice in each view. On the one hand it seemed monstrous that an undertaking of great pubhc importance should be hindered by a few lawless and disorderly men. On the other hand it was obviously undesirable that a national industry hke fishing should be at the mercy of a small and irresponsible body. During the course of the debate a question of considerable constitutional interest was raised ; the right, namely, of Parhament to legislate for a colony. It does not seem, however, that any definite opinion was expressed on this point or that any precedent was established. In November a more direct attack was made on the New England patent. The committee for inquiring into and presenting grievances summoned Gorges, or, in his absence, his representatives, to appear before them. Here, unfortunately, the extant Parliamentary records fail us, and we are left to the confused and necessarily one-sided report of Gorges himself. He pointed out the 1619-21 ILL SUCCESS OF THE COMPANY. 35 importance of his colonial sciiemes and the impossibility of effecting anything whUe the fishermen were allowed to exasperate the natives by fraudulent dealings or to sell them arms. In spite of Gorges' representations, the New England monopoly held a prominent place on the list of grievances presented to the King.^ The patent, how- ever, was saved by the adjournment of Parliament, and for the present Gorges and his associates were allowed to pursue their schemes unmolested. In the meantime the Company seemed in more danger from its own inherent weakness than from the attacks of its enemies. Hunt's outrage had borne fruit. Dermer, who had been Smith's colleague in the voyage of 1615, and whose skill and knowledge of the country were highly valued by the Company, had been wounded in an affray with the savages, and soon after died in Virginia.^ Another ship's- captain whom the Company had sent out had fallen less creditably in a tavern brawl in the same colony.^ The new corporation failed to enlist any of that en- thusiasm, whether in merchant, missionary, or soldier of fortune, which had seconded the efforts of the Virginia Company. Help, however, was at hand, though of a kind which men like Gorges distrusted and despised. At a later day, when events might have taught him otherwise, he wrote of New England that he did not ' despair of means to make it appear that it would yield both profit and content to as many as aimed thereat, these being truly for the most part the motives that all men labour, howsoever otherwise adjoined {sic) with fair colors and goodly shadows.' * In the same spirit Smith disclaimed the idea ' that any other motive than wealth will ever erect there a commonwealth.'^ The shallowness of such prophecies was soon to be made manifest. We must go back to those httle ' Gorges, p. 71. ' lb. p. 63. s jj. p. 62. * lb. p. 57. * Smith's Description, p. 212. B 2 36 THE PLYMOUTH PILaRIMS. 1590 congregations of Eaglish Independents among which the seminal principles of self-government had been gaining The lude- the powers needed for a great task. That new Pgre"ga- Congregational system which has been abeady Eastern described seems to have been confined to the England, eastcm and east-midland counties, and had taken especially firm root in the border districts of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Hitherto the colo- nizing energy of England had shown itself in the western counties. Henceforth, through the influence of Puri- tanism, they fall into the background. By a singular chance the name of the first Puritan settlement bears witness to the maritime importance of Devonshire, but there the connexion of the West of England with the Northern colonies ended. The distinctive peculiarities of the New Englander are directly inherited from East Anglia, from a land, that is, where successive migrations of German and Scandinavian conquerors had wiped out all trace of the earlier Celtic occupant. In this the settlement of New England did but follow that law by which in almost every important movement the eastern half of this island has asserted its lasting supremacy. During the reign of Elizabeth the distressed non- conformist had bethought him of the land beyond the Proposed Atlantic as a refugc. A petition is yet extant in fiS£rl"ion which a congregation of Independents, ' falsely about 1690. called Brownists,' asks leave from the Queen to remove to ' a foreign and far country which Heth to the west, and there remaining to be accounted her Majesty's faithful and loving subjects.' Their courage and loyalty were in advance of their geographical knowledge, since they mention as one of the advantages of the scheme that they may ' settle in Canada and greatly annoy the bloody and persecuting Spaniard in the Bay of Mexico.' ^ ' This petition is among the State Papers (Calendar of Domestic State Papers, 1591-4, p. 400). It is not dated. 1597-1604 SECTARIES TRANSPORTED TO AMERICA. 37 It is possible that an order of the Privy Council, issued in 1597, may have referred to some of these petitioners. The order is an answer to the petition of certain ship masters who were about to send two vessels to New- foundland, one to winter in the country. They have asked leave to transport ' divers artificers and persons that are noted to be sectaries, whose minds are continually in an ecclesiastical ferment.' Leave was given to take four of these persons. They were to bind themselves not to serve the King's enemies, and not to return to the realm till they should reform themselves, and live in obedience to the ecclesiastical laws. That they contemplated something of a permanent settlement is shown by the entry that they were to take ' household stuff and implements.' ^ The voyage made in the Chance- well and the Hopewell is fully recorded in Hakluyt's Collection.^ The vessels separated. The Chancewell fell in with pirates, and fared so ill at their hands that the scheme of settlement was abandoned. Though nothing came of this scheme for Puritan colonization, it is not unhkely that the project lived on in the minds of some of its proposers, and had its share in bringing about the efforts of the next century. The persecuted Puritan had for the present to con- tent himself with less ambitious schemes of "emigration. Dealings of If ^^^ prospects Seemed for a moment to and Ban- brighten with the accession of a king trained ?hfp«ri-' in Presbyterianism, the result of the Hampton tans. Court Conference at once dispelled the illusion. James had once publicly fought the battle of Calvin against Arminius ; but he had no sympathy with those theories of Church government which were almost ' I owe my knowledge of this entry in the Privy Council Journal to Mr. Waddington (vol. ii. p. 114). He assumes, I think without evidence, that these four emigrants were among the ahove-mentioned petitioners. ' Vol. iii. p. 242. 38 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1604 inseparaWy identified with the Calvinistic theology. ' I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the land,' was the unkingly speech which proclaimed the ecclesiastical policy of James.^ In Bancroft he had a fellow- worker imbued with equal bitterness, but gifted with far greater sagacity and strength of purpose. The existing enactments against nonconforming ministers and their congrega- tions were at once put in force, and the Puritan whose principles led him as far as separation had no choice left but imprisonment or exile. The Puritan in his distress at once turned towards the Netherlands as a refuge. Everything in the history Holland °^ *^^ ^^^^ sig^ty years tended to make Hol- ^ecomes a land the home of religious freedom. Nowhere reftige for ^ Noucon- could the Protestant find such sufferings to formists. i i • i i i ■ ■ ■ evoke his sympathy or such heroic associations to kindle his pride. The fires of Smithfield and Oxford sink into insignificance when compared with the agonies amid which the free commonwealth of the Netherlands had its birth. The Enghsh Puritan had more than once borne his part in the defeats and victories of the Dutch arms. He had seen Dutch fugitives in his own land enjoying that liberty of worship and of Church government which was denied to himself. The freedom which the Dutch reformers won for themselves was used with wise and liberal comprehensiveness for the benefit of their distressed brethren. Holland became, in the language of a Presbyterian pamphleteer, ' a cage for unclean birds,' ^ and a Puritan poet of the next generation described it in oddly worded praise as the • The original authority for this speech seems to he a pamphlet entitled Sum of the Conference at Hampton Court, by Dr. William Barlow, then dean of Chester and afterwards Hshop of London. The original edition appeared in 1604. It was repuUished in the first volume of the Phomix, a collection of ecclesiastical pamphlets, in 1707. The King's speech is recorded at p. 170. " Baylie's Dissuasive from the Errors of the Tim^s, 1646, p, 9. 1593-1608 NONCONFORMISTS IN HOLLAND. 39 ' staple of sects and mint of schism.' ^ As early as 1593 an Independent English congregation, which had come into existence in London, had taken refuge in Amsterdam.^ Soon after the Hampton Court Con- ference two of the East Anghan churches, those of Gainsborough and Scrooby, likewise sought shelter in the Netherlands. That of Gainsborough, in aU proba- bility the more numerous and wealthy body, was the first to emigrate, and, following the example of the London church, it settled at Amsterdam. The fugitives were unfortunate in their leader. Their pastor, John Smith, possessed to the fuU that factious and impracticable temper so common among his sect. The Netherlands were a hotbed of theological disputes. The new-comers were at once drawn into the conflict, and disappear from history, leaving only vague traces of discord and failure.^ Of the character and position of those who composed the two emigrant churches we know less than could ^^^ be wished. Fortunately, however, the leading Scrooby mcmbcrs of the Scrooby church have been church. • • Ti TO . , , Vividly commemorated lor posterity by the loving testimony of their friends and followers, a testi- mony which is amply confirmed by the silence, or even the grudging commendation, of enemies. Plainly, they were men strong in the peculiar virtues of Puritanism, yet comparatively free from its pecuhar failings, men fitted not merely by their earnest zeal and faith in God, but by their tolerant wisdom and benignity of temper, to be the founders of a Christian commonwealth. Eichard CHfton, the minister under whose guidance the httle flock set forth, only accompanied them as far as their first stage. Being, as it would seem, unfitted for work ' Marvell's Works, ed. 1776, vol. iii. p. 290. ' Waddington, vol. ii. p. 104. ' For Smith and his congregation see Bradford, pp. 6-12. 40 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1608 by age and infirmity, he joined himself to those who had already found a home in Amsterdam. He was succeeded johj, in his office by John Robinson. To him proba- Kobinson. ^^^y^ rather than to any other person, belongs the honour of having established that ecclesiastical and moral discipline of which New Plymouth was the embodiment! v, Our knowledge of him is derived from the testimony of his followers and from his own writings. With the latter in their theological aspect we are not concerned. At a later stage we shall have to deal with those writers on divinity who played so important a part in the in- tellectual history of New England. But there was no special connexion between Eobinson and the theologi- cal school of Massachusetts save the common basis of 9, Calvinistic creed. That feature in the writings of the former which concerns us is their moral tone and general attitude of thought, since these were among the chief influences which determined the character and temper of the Plymouth settlers. Eobinson stands almost alone among Nonconformist writers of that day in his dignified sobriety of language, his entire freedom from maUce or self-righteousness, his manifest indiffe- rence to mere controversial victory. That man rose far above his sect, far, indeed, above his age, who could bid his disciples in their hour of parting -' follow him no further than he followed Christ,' and warn them by showing how each successive sect among the reformers, Lutherans and Calvinists alike, had rested content with that portion of spiritual truth revealed to its founder. The impression which Eobinson's writings leave is fully confirmed by his friend and follower Bradford. There is a reality and a definiteness about his testimony which clearly mark it off from the somewhat unctuous and conventional eulogies of Puritan bio- graphers. Bradford bears witness to Eobinson's practi- cal sense, which helped his flock to surmount the daily 1008 ROBINSON AND BREWSTER. 41 trials and difficulties of exile, and to that gentleness and toleration -which could only be roused to severity by the sight of hypocrisy or by selfish indifference to the pubhc good.-^ From another of his disciples, Edward Winslow, we learn that Eobinson's attitude towards those from whom he differed became more tolerant and comprehensive with advancing years, and this state- ment is confirmed ^ by a less friendly writer. . Higher praise could hardly be given to one who was the moral and political guide and the spiritual oracle of a little community. Plymouth, in its early years, stood out among the Puritan colonies conspicuous for the brotherly love and helpfulness of its citizens, for the scrupulous morality which marked their dealings, whether with Englishman or Indian, and still more for the absence of those theological disputes which form so mournful and discreditable a chapter in the history of Massachusetts. We cannot err in ascribing a large share of this to the influence of Eobinson. Robinson had a worthy colleague in the ruling elder of his church, William Brewster. Both of them at the ■William time of the migration to HoUand were men in Brewster.s ^j^e prime of life. In education, social position, and political experience Brewster was a man of higher stamp than his fellow-emigrants. He had been at Cam- bridge, and had afterwards become secretary to William Davidson. The knowledge of the poHtics and of the social and economical life of the Netherlands which Brewster acquired during his master's embassy there must have been of the greatest value to his brethren. The downfall of Davidson must have deeply impressed ' Bradford, p. 13. " Winslow in Young, p. 387. Baylie, p. 17. Cotton tears testimony to the same effect in one of his controversies with Roger Williams (Narraganeett Historical Society's Publications, vol. ii. p. 210). ' Bradford in his chronicle for the year of Brewster's death, 1643, gives a very full sketch of his life and character, p. 253. 42 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1594-1657 the mind of liis follower with the lesson, ' Put not your trust in princes.' Brewster, however, did not share the ruin of his master. He obtained the appointment of postmaster at Austerfield, near Scrooby, a position of some importance in those days, since over and above the despatch of letters it involved the duty of further- ing travellers, and at times of supplying them with food and lodgings. This ojffice Brewster held from 1594 or earlier to 1607.^ During that time he occupied a manor house belonging to the Archbishop of York. Here his position enabled him to use his house as a centre for religious meetings, and to be a liberal benefactor to Puritan ministers outside his own congregation. Brew- ster does not seem ever to have published any writings, and we cannot, therefore, as in the case of Eobinson, judge of him by his own testimony. All that we do know of him confirms what we learn from Bradford, that in sound judgment, meekness of temper, and sense of public duty, though not in theological learning, he was a worthy yokefellow for Eobinson. The third figure, that of William Bradford, is per- haps the most interesting of all to the student of New William England history. A lad of seventeen at the Bradford. ^^^^ ^f ^^iB flight ffom Scrooby to Holland,''' Bradford was just entering on pubhc life when New Plymouth became a settled community. In the second year of the colony's existence he was chosen governor, and out of the remaining thirty-four years of his hfe there were only five during which he did not hold that ofiice. His character as a public man may be best left to unfold itself in the history of the commonwealth in which he . played such a conspicuous part. For the present he comes before us in his other character of a ' Hunter, p. 66. ' Hunter (p. 108) refers to the parish register of Austerfield. William Bradford's hirth is there entered under March 19, 1589. 1607 WILLIAM BRADPORD. 43 historian. To him is due almost all that we know of the Plymouth settlers from the day when they left Lincolnshire till they became a firmly rooted and pros- perous commonwealth in America. Gratitude is quickened when we compare the simple, vigorous, and picturesque chronicle set before us by Bradford with the tedious and pedantic writings from which so much of the later history of New England has to be extracted. There is nothing to show that Brad- ford was a widely-read man, nor is there in his writings any striving after literary effect. Yet his work is in the true sense scholarly. The language is hke the language of Bunyan, that of a man who trained himself not merely to speak but to think in the words of Scripture. Every expression is simple and effective, never far- fetched, never mean nor common. The substance is worthy of the style. Faults no doubt there are. At times there is a disappointing lack of detail and precision. Occasionally we feel that in the aims and hopes which Bradford assigns to himself and his fellow-workers at the outset of their enterprise, he is unconsciously win- ning the easy success of a retrospective prophecy. Yet with these and it may be other defects, Bradford's writings still remain the worthy first-fruits of Puritan hterature in its new home. They are the work of a wise and good man who tells with a right understand- ing the great things that he and his brethren have done.^ In 1607 the congregation at Scrooby made its first attempt to escape into Holland. They had actually Attempted fouud a ship and embarked at Boston, when lef?.'"" through the treachery of the master they were arrested and imprisoned. According to Bradford's ' It is evident from more than one passage in which Bradford refers to sub- sequent events that hia history was not written from year to year in the form of a diary or chronicle. See, for example, p. 180. ' Bradford p. 8. 44 THE PLYMOUTH PH^GEIMS. 1608 own admission they were for the most part treated leniently, but the scheme of departure was for the pre- sent overthrown. The attempt was renewed in the following year. An entry in the Exchequer returns of ecclesiastical fines throws some hght on the proceedings which led to this flight. We find that in 1608 three alleged ' Brownists or Separatists ' were summoned before two Ecclesiastical Commissioners at Southwell, and fined twenty pounds each for refusing to attend.'' One of the offenders was Brewster, and we can hardly doubt that the attack upon him was accompanied by proceedings against his friends and fellow-worshippers. It is also to be noticed that he had ceased to hold the oflice of postmaster in the preceding autumn.^ In 1608 the actual flight to Holland was made. The emigrants, doubtless out of caution and because they Flight to were too many for one ship to carry, decided Holland.' ^Q gQ i^ detachments. The fate. of the first party seemed to bode ill for the project. During the midst of their embarcation, when many of the men were on board, but while the women and all the clothes and furniture were yet on land, an alarm was raised that the ofiicers of the law were coming with a great company to seize the fugitives. The master, through cowardice or indifference, weighed anchor, and the Uttle band was thus miserably parted ; the women deserted and unprotected, the men on board without any goods save the clothes they wore and ignorant of what might befall those whom they had left. To the sufferings which the fugitives had already undergone were added the perils of the sea. A fearful storm arose ; the ship was driven to the coast of Norway, and only reached » Hunter, p. 131. » lb. p. 68. ^ The flight of the Pilgrims to Holland and their stay there is told in the second and third chapters of Bradford. 1608-9 THE PUKITANS IN HOLLAND. 45 Amsterdam after fourteen days of terror, during half of which time neither sun, moon, nor stars could be seen. The wives and children who had been left behind, after being ' hurried from one place to another and from one justice to another and thus turmoiled a good while,' were at last set free through the very weariness of their persecutors, and, probably with other members of the Scrooby congregation, joined the first fugitives in Holland. The sojourn of the exiles in the Low Countries is described by Bradford with singular pathos and simpli- The Pari- city. He tells how they saw many goodly and Holland, fortified cities strongly walled and guarded with troops of armed men ; how they ' heard a strange lan- guage and beheld the different manners and customs of the people with their strange fashions and attires, all so far differing from that of their plain country villages wherein they were bred and had so long hved, as it seemed they had come into a new world.' After staying a year in Amsterdam they removed to Leyden, ' a fair and beautiful city and of a sweet situation,' and there ' fell to such trades and employments as they best could, valuing peace and spiritual comfort above all riches whatsoever. And at length they cariie to raise a competent and com- fortable living, but with hard and continual labour.' Thus they ' continued for many years in a comfortable condition, enjoying much sweet and delightful society and spiritual comfort together.' The little colony formed a refuge for Nonconformists from various parts of Eng- land, tin it became a great congregation. The honesty and industry of the exiles gained them employment, and so peaceful was their life that the magistrates held them up as an example to the turbulent Walloons. One would gladly know something more of their ecclesiastical discipline and of the process by which their capacity for self-government was trained and perfected. 46 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1609 We can easily see in how many ways the change of life must have tended to beget that spirit of enterprise and invention needful for the success of colonists. The man who had learnt to speak a strange tongue, to make his bargains in a strange currency, and to adapt his life and mode of work to the habits of a foreign country, was far better fitted for the career of an emigrant than one who had been confined to the common tasks of a farm labourer, a small yeoman, or a handicraftsman in a country village. Moreover the emigration to Holland must have acted as a process of selection, by which the most venturesome and those endowed with the most steadfast faith in their peculiar doctrines were chosen out as the seed of a new commonwealth. The men who in the cause of religion forsook their English homes for an unknown land, and who were again willing to aban- don their new-won peace and prosperity for the terrors of the wilderness, were like the twice-chosen band of Gideon. In other ways their stay in Holland must have served to confirm and intensify those peculiar features of character which had come into existence in England and were further developed in America. Holland was then torn in pieces with theological conflict. As in the Eastern Empire during the great controversies of early Christendom, the whole community was marshalled in two dogmatic sects. The English Puritans could not fail to be drawn into the struggle. Indeed we know that Robinson, though unwilhng to take up arms, did actually play a distinguished part as a combatant.^ Thus the tendency of the English Puritan to look at all questions, moral, metaphysical, and even political, from a theological point of view, was confirmed and increased. Moreover, the Hfe of a small isolated community was fitted to beget the self-reliance and the strong sense of ' Bradford, p. 15. 1609-17 PROJECT FOR EMIGRATION. 47 mutual dependence needed by colonists, and so fully manifested in the Puritan settlements of New England. Before they had dwelt many years in their new home the project of a fresh emigration presented Pro'eotfor itself to the Puritan exiles. Holland gave emigration, them a refuge where they could enjoy religious freedom and subsist by hard toil, but it offered nothing more. Many of the usages which they saw about them, especially the lack of Sabbath observance, were re- pugnant to their religious feelings. They found diffi- culties in giving their children suitable training, and the future of their posterity seemed far from hopeful. They must either submit to a life of unremitting toil and hardship, or else become soldiers or sailors, or betake themselves to some other secular calling, where- by they would be swallowed up in the mass of the population. Some, too, retained love enough for their country to wish to recover their position as English citizens, if they might do so without forfeiting their freedom of worship.* Bradford, we may well believe, expressed the views of himself and his more ardent and far-sighted breth- ren, though scarcely those of the whole community, when he says that ' they had a great hope and inward zeal of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagation and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world.' ^ There were other circumstances which may have specially inclined the Leyden congregation towards the Eeiaiiona idea of American colonization. Despite the Yblwl influence of Ferrars the views of the more Company, moderate Puritans were strongly represented in the Virginia Company. Sandys was both by per- sonal and hereditary sympathy connected with that ' Winslow in Young, p. 381. « Bradford, p. 16, 48 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1618 party. Loyalty to the existing order of things did not necessarily imply a belief in Episcopacy as an ideal form of ecclesiastical government under all circumstances, and Churchmen who had no sympathy with the con- gregational system in England might consistently be- friend Nonconformists in their attempts to establish themselves in a new country. Sandys' father had been, as Archbishop of York, moderate and tolerant in his deahngs with Dissenters. An elder brother now held the manor of Scrooby,^ and Sandys must have thus been personally acquainted with Brewster and other leading men in the Leyden church. The connexion, if it did not help to suggest the scheme of colonization, at least showed the easiest and most direct way of carrying it out. Virginia was not the only country, probably not even the first, which the Puritans thought of for their Doubts new home. Some of them proposed to emi- li'tTfof'^ grate to Guiana, urging the fertihty of the colony. country ' where vigorous nature brought forth all things in abundance and plenty.' We read that the advocates of this scheme were ' none of the meanest,' ^ and it is not unlikely that a land where slave labour could be employed, and where capital could be invested in large plantations, had attractions for the richer members of the community. Others dwelt on the unhealthiness of Guiana and the neighbourhood of the Spaniards. "We may well believe, too, that a sounder judgment of the conditions needful for natural pros- perity led them to prefer a country whose soil and climate would in some measure enable Englishmen to follow their accustomed industry and mode of life. The latter opinion prevailed, and negotiations were opened with the Virginia Company. To this end two influential members of the church ' Hunter, p. 22. ' Bradford, p. 18. 1617 THE LEYDEN ARTICLES. 49 Eobert Cushman and John Carver, were sent over to England.^ It is clear that the Leyden church anticipated The seven opposition to their scheme, if not from the A^ciM. Virginia Company, at least from the King and the High Church party. To meet this they drew up seven Articles, setting forth their attitude towards the civil power. These are of great interest, as showing how large a share of the wisdom of the serpent per- tained to the founders of New Plymouth. The articles can be better understood by a simple reproduction than by any explanation or analysis.^ They were as fol- lows : — 1. To the confession of faith published in the name of the Church of England, and to every article thereof, we do with the reformed churches where we live, and also elsewhere, assent wholly. 2. As we do acknowledge the doctrine of faith there taught, so do we the fruits and effects of the same doctrine to the begetting of saving faith in thousands in the land (conformists and reformists as they are called), with whom also, as with our brethren, we do desire to keep spiritual communion in peace, and will practise in our parts all lawful things. 3. The King's Majesty we acknowledge for supreme governor in his dominion in all causes and over all persons, and that none may decline or appeal from his authority or judgment in any cause whatsoever, but that in all things obedience is due unto him, either active, if the thing commanded be not against God's Word, or passive, if it be, except pardon can be obtained. 4. We judge it lawful for his Majesty to appoint bishops, civil overseers, or officers in authority under him, in the several provinces, dioceses, congregations or parishes, to oversee the churches and govern them civilly according to the laws of the land, unto whom they are in all things to give account, and by them to be ordered according to godliness. ' They are named in a letter fi'om Sandys to Robinson and Brewster Nov. 12, 1617. The letter is given by Bradford, p. 20. ' These Articles are among the Colonial Papers, 1618. n. E 50 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1617 5. The authority of the present bishops in the land we do acknowledge, so far forth as the same is indeed derived from his Majesty unto them and as they proceed in his name, whom we will also therein honour in all things and him in them. 6. We believe that no synod, class, convocation, or assembly of ecclesiastical officers has any power or authority at all, but as the same by the magistrate given unto them. 7. Lastly, we desire to give unto all superiors due honour, to preserve the unity of the Spirit with all that fear God, to have peace with all men what in us lieth, and wherein we are to be instructed by any. The Articles are signed by Robinson and Brewster. This was in all likelihood done merely in their official capacity as pastor and elder, nor is there any record as to the authorship of the document. Yet its character is so plainly written on the surface, and is in so many ways at variance with the special pecuharities of Puritanism, that we can hardly err in ascribing it to the concilia- tory temper and undogmatic mind of Eobinson. The Articles were manifestly framed to assure the Virginia Company that its new clients would not en- tangle it in any conflict with the civU power. On the surface they look hke an unconditional acceptance of what by anticipation one may call Erastianism. They seem to contain a definite acknowledgement that all ec- clesiastical authority must proceed from the civil power and be responsible to it. A careful inspection, however, shows that the more important concessions are qualified by distinct, though cautiously expressed, reservations. In the first article the acceptance of the confession of faith pubhshed by the Church of England is Umited by the introduction of the reformed churches of Holland as partners in that acceptance. So the promise of obedience to the King's authority is modified by the condition that the thing commanded be not against God's word, a condition which might easily be so inter- 1018 ATTITUDE OF THE KING TO THE EMIGBANTS. 51 preted as to nullify the general admission. Yet even if we presume the most favourable interpretation of these Articles, the fourth contained an admission of the right of the State to control rehgion, which seems strangely at variance with the recognized doctrines of the Noncon- formist. In truth, we must look on these seven Articles not so much as an exposition of faith but rather as con- ditions of agreement. The followers of Eobinson might feel that, though kings' hands are long, they could hardly reach an insignificant settlement across the Atlantic, and that when in America they might with safety assent to doctrines which it would have been not merely in- consistent but perilous to admit under the immediate authority of the King and the bishops. These concessions on the part of the would-be emi- grants were met by the King in a hke spirit of com- Attitude promise. There was, in truth, nothiner in his oftheKing ^ . , -, ,. . . i , • towards attitude towards rehgious questions to makehim grants.' hostilc to the scheuies of the Leyden Puritans. The saying, ' No bishop, no king,' expressed fairly enough the grounds of his ecclesiastical sympathies and anti- pathies. For James, unhke his son, the artistic and reverential associations of the English Church had no charm. Puritanism offended him on its pohtical rather than its religious side, by its merits rather than its fail- ings. His ideal of pohcy was despotism interpreted and administered by a doctrinaire, as the ideal of Eliza- beth had been despotism wielded by a far-sighted, am- bitious, and unscrupulous diplomatist. The institutions of the Puritan hindered the administrative details of such a system ; the spirit of Puritanism made the system itself unpopular, and even impracticable. But from this point of view Nonconformity in America was widely different from Nonconformity in Lincolnshire. To a churchman of the school of Bancroft dissent was schism, and as such was an evil to be resisted and B 2 52 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1618 extirpated everywhere. But by the death of that primate and the appointment of Abbott in his stead this view had lost the support of the chief ecclesiastical authority. The King's resolution to ' harry them out of the land ' was not so much a declaration of war against Non- conformity for its own sake as the determination of a schoolmaster to get rid of a boy whose presence is fatal to good discipline. The friendship of Sandys for the Leyden Puritans secured them a valuable advocate at Court in one of the Secretaries of State, Sir Eobert Naunton. The King took the trouble to inquire into their schemes, and when told that their main support was to be derived from fishing, declared with approval that it was the Apostles' own calling. He then sug- gested to Naunton that the emigrants should confer with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. The Puritans however, feeling perhaps that the scriptural precedent quoted by the King did not cover the whole question, avoided further inquiry and remained content with the royal approval.^ But though the King might connive at the scheme of Nonconformist emigration, he was not prepared openly and avowedly to acknowledge it. In answer to the petition for a charter the Puritans were told that they should not be molested so long as they behaved peaceably. At first the emigrants were discouraged. The wiser and more influential of them, however, judged that such tacit approval would be a guarantee against mischief. They shrewdly, argued, too, that mere paper securities would be valueless, since, as they expressed it, ' if afterwards there should be a purpose or desire to wi-ong them, though they 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 ' Winslow, p. .383. 1019 blackwell's failure. 63 reverse it.' * Tlie fate of the Virginia. Company was the best comment on that speech. The possibihty of the King's displeasure was not the only obstacle which stood in the way of emigration. Difficulties It "^^s necessary that the Virginia Company with the should assent to a scheme widely at variance Virginia i . i • ^ ^ i • i Company, -ypith the principles which it had hitherto adopted. The policy of the Company throughout had been to keep all the plantations as an organized community under one government. Not only their pohtical but also their commercial system presupposed such unity. The presence of a single independent settler, claiming to be outside the jurisdiction of the Company, had been a cause of inconvenience.^ It might prove a most perilous experiment to suffer in the midst of the colony the existence of a detached settle- ment, in religious matters firmly attached to its own peculiar usages and principles, and so extending the sphere of religion that few secular questions lay wholly beyond its province. There were further reasons which might disincline the Virginia Company from accepting the proposals Biackweii of the Lcydcu Nonconformists. A somewhat Amsteniam simUar experiment had been lately made, and emigrants.5 ^]jg rcsult was uot such as to eucouragc a second trial. Early in 1619, one Blackwell, an elder in the church of Amsterdam, had made arrangements with the Virginia Company for the emigration of a number of his brethren. Though the details of this affair are somewhat obscure, yet it is clear that the result was disastrous to all concerned and discreditable to the promoter. Before the voyage Blackwell and ' Bradford, p. 19. ' Virginia, &c., p. 212. ' Por BlackweU'a proceedings see Bradford, pp. 24-5. The miseries of the emigrants whom he sent out are described in a letter from Oushman to his friends in Holland, quoted hy Bradford. 54 THE TLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1019 others were gathered together at a private meeting in London, seemingly for purposes of devotion. There they were apprehended and brought before an eccle- siastical tribunal. Blackwell contrived not only to exculpate himself by making a scapegoat of one of his associates, but even to obtain from the Archbishop an expression of good -will and a solemn blessing on the projected voyage. The rest of Black well's conduct seems to have been equally unworthy and less fortunate to himself. The unhappy emigrants, a hundred and eighty in number, found that a single vessel had been provided for them, in which they were to be ' packed together like herrings.' The streets of Gravesend, we are told, ' rang of their extreme quarrelling,' each man blaming his neighbour for the strait into which he was brought. In addition to the lack of room the ship was iU supplied with water. Contrary winds drove her into a more southerly course than was intended. Sickness set in, and a hundred and thirty of the passengers, including Blackwell himself, died. Such was the first attempt at a Puritan migration to America, an introductory episode of which we do not hear much from the historians of New England. Further delay seems to have been caused by the divisions existing in the Virginia Company. On the side The Ley- of the Puritans, too, there were hindrances to den etni- . , grante be overcome. io start a new colony requu'ed pa™."™™ money, and the emigrants could contribute nothing beyond the labour of their hands. Accord- ingly, it was necessary to associate with themselves a certain number of capitahsts. To this end negotia- tions were opened with some merchants and others. The scheme finally took the form of a partnership, in which the system adopted by the Virginia Company was imitated, and personal emigration was taken as au equivalent for pecuniary subscription. The terms 1019 ARRANGEMENT WITH RARTNERS. 55 arranged were as follows : All emigrants over sixteen years of age were entitled to a single share of ten pounds value ; every emigrant wlio furnished his family with necessaries was entitled to a double share for each person so furnished, and everyone who exported child- ren between ten and sixteen years old to one share for every two children. Children below ten were to be entitled to fifty acres of unmanured land, but were to have no further interest in the Company. All settlers, except those provided for under the conditions above mentioned, were to receive their necessaries out of the common stock. For seven years there was to be no individual property or trade, but the labour of the colony was to be organized according to the different capacities of the settlers. At the end of the seven years the Company was to be dissolved and the whole stock divided.' Two reservations were inserted, one entitling the settlers to separate plots of land about their houses, and the other allowing them two days in the week for the cultivation of such holdings. The London partners, however, refused to grant these concessions, and the agents of the emigrants withdrew them rather than give up the scheme. For so doing they were blamed by those for whom they acted. Stringent as the conditions enforced seemed, yet it must be remembered what were the relations between the emigrants themselves and the partners who found the capital. The latter had no interest in the success of the undertaking but a financial one. There is nothing to show that as a whole they had any sympathy with the peculiar views and objects of the colonists. Those views might well seem to make the Leyden Puritans undesirable associates in a commercial scheme. The colony was specially ex- posed to the risk of a coUision with the authority of ' The terms of the agreement are given hy Bradford, pp. 28-9. 56 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. IGlfl the Crown, and it was certain that the settlers would care more for the fulfilment of their own political and ecclesiastical schemes than for the financial success of the Company. There is no exact record extant of the number of the partners or of the proportions which the two sections of the Company bore to one another. From Smith we learn that the subscribers in England were about seventy, and the whole capital seven thousand pounds.^ The actual number of emigrants was about a hundred and twenty.^ It is most probable that the above-named sum included the shares of ten pounds granted to each emigrant. We may also assume that a certain number of these emigrants were furnished at the expense of their parents, husbands, or masters, who would there- fore be entitled to a double share. Thus we arrive at the approximate conclusion that from a quarter to a fifth of the capital of the Company was vested in the actual settlers. In the meantime an arrangement had been made with the Virginia Company, a result probably of the Patg„j more businesslike character which the enter- viSin^a prise had now assumed. In the autumn of 1619 Company. ^ patent was granted to the new corporation, giving the emigrants the right to settle on a portion of the territory of Virginia.^ The patent was made out in the name of John Wincob, probably one of the London shareholders. He was in the service of the Countess of Lincoln, whose family at !i later day played a conspicuous part in the settlement of New England. The patent itself is, un- fortunately, no longer extant. It was deprived of all legal value by the events which led the settlers to esta- blish themselves beyond the bounds of the Virginia Company. Yet in its bearings on New England history ' Smith's General History, p. 783. ' See below, p. 62. ' Bradford, p. 26. 1020 PROPOSED CHANGE OF PLANS. 57 it would have had something more than a merely anti- quarian interest. It would probably have shown how far the Puritan settlers intended to remain a distinct and separate body, and how far they consented to be merged in the commonwealth of Virginia ; in other words, how far the foundation of Plymouth was the result of design or of chance. Even now, when all hindrances seemed to have been surmounted, the emigrants found themselves beset by Proposed fresh difficulties. As we have already seen, in pianF" 1620 the Plymouth Company was revived. Its original promoters had intended it as an ally to the Virginia Company. In its new form it was rather a rival. Some of the London merchants who were now associated with the Leyden Puritans thought, not unwisely, that New England with its fisheries would be a better field for their enterprise than Virginia. It is not imlikely that they were influenced by the notorious divisions prevailing in the Virginia Company and the court favour extended to the new corporation. Accordingly they proposed to abandon the patent they had just obtained, and to get fresh powers from the Plymouth Company. This seems to have reopened the whole question of a site for the new colony. The emigrants and their partners were divided into factions, one for Virginia, one for New England, one for Guiana, each threatening to withhold subscriptions unless its own scheme was adopted.^ At this juncture a project was set on foot which, if carried out, would wholly have changed the destiny of Scheme for Plymouth, and it may be of New England. The Dutoh^ "° Leyden Pviritans, despairing, in all likelihood, of territoiy.s ^uy succcssful Settlement on Enghsh territory, authorized Eobinson to negotiate with the Dutch West > Bradford, p. 28. ' These negotiations are fully told by Mr. Brodhead in his Bistory of New York, ed. 1859, pp. 123-6. His knowledge of the transaction is derived 58 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620 India Company. We may well believe that Bradford is but recording his own wishes and those of many of his associates, when he tells us that one motive in the choice of a site was the wish to remain Enghsh citizens. Yet it is clear that the arrangements proposed by Robinson would have effectually frustrated any such purpose. He undertook that his own congregation should be recruited from England till the whole body of emigrants was brought up to four hundred famihes. The Company seemingly were favourable to 'the project ; but the scheme was too important to be undertaken without a special reference to the States- General. After some discussion that body refused to countenance the application, thinking, in all likelihood, that such a scheme might bring about a dispute with England. The projects for emigrating to Guiana and to New England also fell through, and the Pilgrims returned to their original purpose of settling in Virginia. A further question had yet to be settled : should the whole body of emigrants go forth at once, or should Choice of a select party be sent in advance ? If the latter the first '' emigrants.! schcmc Were adopted, how should the pioneers be chosen ? After a solemn fast and public petition to God for guidance, it was agreed that those who wished to go should offer themselves, and that whichever party, whether that which stayed or that which went, was the greater, it should be placed under the guidance of Eobinson, while the rest should be left to the care of Brewster. One motive for thus dividing the congrega- tion was to keep a hold upon Holland as a refuge if the new venture should turn out ill. The division was nearly equal, but as those who decided to wait formed the larger body, Eobinson stayed with them. The plan adopted gave rise to a report, more than once repeated from the Dutch archives. None of the New England chroniclers even refer to it. ' Bradford, p. 27 ; Winslow, p. 383. 1620 CHOICE OF EMIGRANTS. 59 by later writers, that the emigration was brought about by a secession or severance in the Leyden congregation. The clear and confirmatory statements of Bradford and Winslow wholly do away with any such view. The error involves something more than an injustice to the first Puritan colonists. It ignores one of the chief guid- ing principles, not merely in the establishment of New Plymouth, but in the colonization and extension of New England. That process was carried on throughout, not by the migration of individuals, but of corporate societies. Elsewhere a colony was a band of men brought together for the first time for a special purpose. In New Eng- land, on the other hand, all colonization started with a pre-existing organization and unity. Each corporation might be augmented by the influx of new members, and from time to time new corporations might be formed ; but in almost every case the corporate union came first, the movement afterwards. Thus it was that New England preserved in so intense a form that civic spirit which was well-nigh lost in other colonies. Each little band of emigrants, whether it moved from Lincolnshire to the coast of New England, or from the Atlantic sea- board along the banks of the Mystic or the Connecticut, carried with it an unbroken chain of associations and an undying sense of brotherhood. In July the emigrants sailed from Delft harbour to Southampton. The parting counsels which Eobinson Parting bcstowcd on them are too characteristic to be from°Eo- passed over. They were given in his farewell binson. sermou and in a letter which he sent to his disciples during their short stay in England, as though not satisfied that he had said all that was in his heart.^ The spirit which these breathe is widely difierent from that which we shall too often find in later Puritan ' The substance of Robinson's sermon is given by "SVinslow, pp. 385-8, and his letter by Bradford, pp. 39-41. 60 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620 writings. There is no trace of self-righteous exaltation, no contrast between the Jerusalem of the New World which lay before the emigrants and the Babylon of the Old which they were leaving, nor is there anything of the dogmatic and combative temper which is the keynote in so much of the theological Hterature of that age. He warns his followers, indeed, with solemnity and deep feehng. But it is not against the dangers of speculative error nor against doctrinal and ceremonial backsliding that he cautions them. He beseeches them to cherish toleration and charity in their daily deahngs, not ' nou- rishing a touchy humour,' and he bids them ' with their common employments join common aifections truly bent upon the general good, avoiding as a deadly plague all retiredness of mind for proper advantage.' Above all, with signal liberality he exhorts them to be ready to receive new religious truth, since it was ' not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness and that full perfection of know- ledge should break forth at once.' In the same spirit of true catholicity he expresses a hope that in their new home his disciples may be allied with those breth- ren who, agreeing with them in rehgious creed though not in policy, had remained within the pale of the Church of England while protesting against many of its usages. Among the many virtues which New England may justly claim for her sons those which Eobinson in- culcated had no high place, yet there are not a few passages in the early life of Plymouth where we can trace the workings of his gentle and benign influence. New England patriotism has woven out of the voyage and first settlement of the so-called Pilgrims something Import- like a sacred legend, in which every incident and migration, porsonago is commemoratcd with loving fidelity. The history of the American colonies has been for the most part dealt with by those who have seen clearly, and 1620 IMPORTANCE OF THE MIGRATION. 61 even with something of exaggeration, the preponderant influence which the Northern colonies have exercised on the common destinies of the Confederation. The early history of New England is none too rich in picturesque and romantic incidents, and thus the voyage of the Mayflower and the fortunes of those whom she bore have assumed a prominence perhaps beyond their real importance, and certainly far beyond the place which they filled in the eyes of their own generation. If we judge by actual and substantial results, the settle- ment of Plymouth fell far short of the great movement ten years later. The origin of New England, as the living embodiment of certain political and religious principles, dates from the foundation of Massachusetts. The more vigorous life of the younger commonwealth overshadowed, and in the long run swallowed up, that of her older but weaker yokefellow ; nor can it be fairly urged that Plymouth had either by example or otherwise much effect on Massachusetts. If the Plymouth settle- ment had never been made, the political life of New England would in aU probability have taken the same form and run the same course as it did. Yet it is no delusion which sees in the foundation of Plymouth a turning point in American history. A new force had been put in motion. The settlement of Plymouth may not have been the most effective appli- cation of that force nor a necessary condition of its later working, but it was the first trial of it. The discoverer, the gold-seeker, the merchant had all attempted the task of colonization with varying success. Now for the first time the religious enthusiast, strong in his sense of a divine mission and of a brotherhood whose foundation was in heaven, sailed out on that sea, strewn with the wrecks of so many heroic ventures and goodly hopes. This interest, however, is not of such a kind as to compel us to follow in detail the movements of the first 62 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620 settlers, save so far as they illustrate the temper in The which they approached their task, and the in- voyage. domitable courage with which they battled against all difficulties. On the fifth of August 1620 the emigrants set sail from Southampton. A few recruits liad joined them in England, bringing their whole number up to a hundred and twenty.^ They were embarked in two vessels, the Mayflower, of a hundred and eighty tons burden, and the Speedwell, of sixty. The latter vessel had carried the emigrants from Delft. Her present voyage was un- lucky from the outset. She had scarcely set saU when she was found to leak, and with her consort had to put back into Dartmouth. A second time they sailed, but after they had gone about a hundred leagues the Speedwell was again found to be unseaworthy. The emigrants put back, this time to Plymouth, and the Sj)eedwell was condemned as unfit for the voyage. The emigrants themselves set down this mishap, not to any insufficiency in the vessel, but to the knavery of the master and crew, who had been hired to spend a year in the country and now repented of the undertaking* The failure of their ship was not the only hindrance which befell the voyagers. Before leaving Southampton a governor was appointed for each vessel, with two as- sistants under him. Martin, w^ho was entrusted with the command of those in the Speedwell, proved unreasonable and arbitrary, and seems to have been especially ob- noxious to Cushman, who was one of his assistants.^ Provoked by his misconduct and disheartened by their ' Smith (New England's Trials, p. 259) definitely says that a hundred and twenty sailed, and that after the first failure twenty gave up the attempt. This is partially confirmed by Bradford. He gives in an appendix a list of those who actually landed. They number one hundred and two. He does not state how many turned back. ' This is stated in a letter from Cushman to a friend, named Southworth, published in Bradford's history, p. 43. 1020 VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER. 63 repeated mishaps, some of the emigrants, among whom was Cushman, abandoned the voyage.' Others, too, were finally rejected as unfit for the venture, some from weakness, some as having. many young children. Of those who had sailed at the first attempt about twenty were left behind. The remaining hundred re-embarked in the Mayflower, and set sail from Plymouth on the sixth of September. The result of this double delay was to postpone the arrival of the emigrants in America by a full month, whereby the winter found them unpre- pared. Matters were made worse by a bad passage, so that it was not till more than thirteen weeks from their first departure that they sighted land. The point reached was Cape Cod, lying more than two hundred miles beyond the northern boundary of the territory granted to the Virginia Company. The emigrants then resolved to sail south-westward, with the intention of setthng near the mouth of the river which had been ex- plored in 1609 by Hudson, and which now bore his name. A contrary wind, however, drove them back. Forty years later their failure was ascribed to the treachery of Jones, the master of the Mayflower. He, it was said, had been bribed by the Dutch, who wished to keep the banks of the Hudson and the shores of Delaware Bay for themselves.^ It is certain, from the friendly relations which the settlers maintained both with Jones and with their Dutch neighbours, that no such suspicion was entertained at the time. It is just possible that the Enghsh conquest of New Netherlands in 1664 may have brought to light some documentary evidence of this treason. More ' Bradford (p. 42) describes this reduction of tbe number of emigrants very fully. It is noteworthy that Morton wholly suppresses at, though he had Bradford's account before him. * No trace of such a suspicion is to be found either in Bradford or Winslow. The view seems to have been first broached by Morton in his New England's Memorial, published 1669. 64 THE PLYMOUTFI PILGRIMS. 1620 probably, however, the idea was suggested by the rivalry of the Dutch at a later day. Moreover, the spirit in which the poet of the Trojan migration sang, ' tantas mohs erat Eomanam condere gentem,' was never wanting in the chroniclers of New England. It was ever their tendency to expand and emphasize those incidents in which the hand of God could be traced, guiding the . destinies of the Puritan commonwealth, defying the schemes of its enemies and often overruling the counsels of its founders. Baffled in their attempt to sail southward, the emi- grants anchored in Cape Cod harbour. They found Arrival at themsolves at the head of a peninsula which Cape Cod. ^ums uorthward and runs for rather more than twenty miles parallel to the mainland. At its northern point it again turns westward, in the shape of a J, thus forming a land-locked basin, where, as it seemed to the passengers of the Mayflower, a thousand ships might find anchorage. The country promised to furnish the necessaries of hfe, and henceforth, though there may have been doubts as to the exact site, there seems to have been none as to the region in which the settlement was to be placed. Before the colonists entered upon the search for a home, they took a definite and formal step towards de- The daring themselves a body politic. One might colonists ^^ 1 1 join in a havo supposcd that the corporate character sociation. attaching to the Leyden church would have sufficed. There seem, however, to have been symptoms of discord, due not improbably to those who had joined the party during its short stay in England. Moreover, since the spot which the colonists had occupied lay out- side the bounds of the Virginia Company, the patent granted by that body was valueless, and thus the colonists were left without any formal declaration of their corporate existence in their new home. Accord- ingly the whole body of emigrants signed a solemn 1620 CARVER CHOSEN GOVERNOR. 65 covenant.^ This set forth as the objects of the colony the glory of God, the advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of the King and the country of England. It went on to bind all those who signed it to submit to all such laws and ordinances as the com- munity should from time to time enact. There is no reservation of conformity with the laws of England, nor is anything said as to the mode of legislation. The instrument was, in fact, nothing more than a general acknowledgement of the authority of the whole com- munity over each of its individual members. At the same time the settlers proceecJedT to the election of a Governor. Their choice fell on John Carver, a deacon in the church. Of him we know less than of almost any man who took a leading part in the foundation of Plymouth. "We are told that he was a man of good estate, and that he was entrusted with a large share in the negotiations which preceded the departure from Holland. But his origin, occupation, and the length of his connexion with the Leyden church are all un- recorded. No steps seemingly^ were taken towards defining Carver's duties and position, or towards the appointment of any executive. So far the smallness of the community made any constitutional machinery superfluous. The colonists now betook themselves to a thorough exploration of the country. Sixteen armed men were sent out under the command of Miles Standish, Exploring parties sent the Johu Smith of New England. He was of a QUt.3 . ^ good Lancashire family, had been a soldier of fortune in the Low Countries, and though seemingly not a member of Eobinson's congregation, had enlisted himself ' It is given hy Bradford, p. 54. ' In all tkalrfSlIows asTo the doings of the Pilgrims for the first few- years, I have relied almost wholly on Bradford and Winslow. II. F 66 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620 among the emigrants.^ For nearly forty years he was the leading spirit of the colony in every undertaking which needed courage and military skill. He and his party, among whom was Bradford, spent two days in ex- ploring the spit of land which ends in Cape Cod. They found abundant springs of water and ground cleared by the natives, and they had evidence of the fertility of the soil in an Indian magazine of corn, from which they sup- plied themselves. They also discovered, as they thought, traces of European visitors, and they saw some of the natives, who fled from them. A second voyage of ex- ploration discovered more stores of maize, and also two Indian wigwams. The inhabitants however could not be found, and the explorers were unable to traffic for corn as they had wished. The colonists had now to decide whether they should settle for the winter in their present quarters at Choice of a Capc Cod Or scarch for a site elsewhere. Those site. ^j^Q were for remaining put forward the good anchorage, the fertility of the soil, and the prospect of a profitable whale fishery. They furthermore urged the difficulty and danger of exploration in the winter, and pointed out how the hardships already undergone had unfitted the settlers for further wanderings. On the other hand, fresh water was hard of access, and was hkely to fail altogether in summer, whUe it was said that there was good harbourage and fishing ground at Agawam, sixty miles to the north. It was argued, too, that it would be unwise to settle till they were satisfied that the site was the best that could be found, since when once they were estabhshed a second migration would be difficult. The question wq,s one of no small importance to the future of the colony. If the nucleus of the new com- munity had been established at Cape Cod, on the point of a peninsula separated from the mainland by a long narrow strip of land or by twenty miles- of sea, Plymouth ' Mr. Young has collected all that is to he known ahout Standiah, p. 125. 1620 FURTHER EXPLORATION. 67 could not have maiutained, as it did, a regular, con- nected, and well-organized system of extension. Finally the settlers decided not to venture so far as Agawam, but to make a more thorough survey of the bay. To this end the shallop was again sent expiora- out with eighteen explorers, including some of the chief men among the emigrants. Eight of the party stayed on board the shallop, while the rest investigated the land, keeping sight as far as might be of their comrades. In the early days of discovery Euro- pean voyagers were almost sure of a friendly reception from the savages. Things had been changed by the misconduct of Hunt and the unruly fishermen who visited the coast of New England. On the third morning the land party were breakfasting by their bivouac, having just carried their armour down to the shore and left it by the shallop. The watchful savages had in all likelihood tracked the movements of the strangers, and were ready to avail themselves of this momentary carelessness. The settlers for the first time heard the dreaded war cry, and a shower of arrows was poured in upon each party. A few musket shots, however, served to rout the assailants, and by singular good fortune not one of the English was wounded. The whole party then embarked in the shallop, and sailed round the bottom of the bay, past the opening afterwards known as Barnstaple, till they reached a point nearly opposite Cape Cod. Here they found a spot fitted for their pur- pose, alike by its fertility, its supply of water, and its harbourage. Some years before the Indian name of Accomac had been changed, either by Smith or his patron,* Prince Charles, to Plymouth, a name which associated itself curiously with the last days of the colonists on English soil.^ Two arms of land, separated ^ Smith {Gen. Hist, p. 699) says that he sulmitted his map to Piince Charles, who re-named several of the places. It will be rememhered that V 2 68 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620 by a narrow opening, Tan out, the northern rather more, the southern less, than a mile long, enclosing a harbour of about a mile in width. Among the recom- mendations of this site was the proximity of much cleared corn land, and of a high hill commanding a view over the whole bay. Having satisfied themselves of the fitness of the site, the exploring party returned to the main body. For one of them the meeting was a sad one. The wife of Bradford had been drowned during his absence, and it is a significant instance of the impersonal character of his work that, although our knowledge of all these events is mainly derived from him, we are left to learn this one incident from another source.'^ On the fifteenth of December the Mayflower, with the whole party on board, sailed across the bay. The The decision of the exploring party stiU left the tabifsh ^' settlers certain room for choice as to their new themselves ^qj^^ rj^^^ g^^gg geemcd to ofier themselves month. g^g sijitable ; one on an island at the mouth of the harbour, the other by a river which fell into the middle of the bay. The security promised by the island was a strong argument in its favour, but the want of spring water there, and of cleared ground, finally decided the settlers in favour of the mainland. The history of the first winter at New Plymouth is a noble justification of the boast made in the name of Hardships the settlers on the eve of departure that ' it was of the first . . •'^ winter. not with them as with other men, whom small things can discourage or small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home again.' ^ 4 there was also an Accomac in Virginia. Smith may, perhaps, have supposed identity of name where there was only likeness. ' Prince, p. 166. The annalist may have learnt the fact from a pocket - hook of Bradford's to which he had access. ' Letter from Robinson and Brewster in Bradford, p. 33. 1620-1 DISTRESS OF THE SETTLERS. 69 We are carried back in thought to the starving time at Jamestown, or still earlier to the day when Hore and his followers weU-nigh died of hunger on the coast of New- foundland. The successive delays in starting from Eng- land were the main cause of the troubles that followed. If the emigrants had carried out their original scheme, they would have been safely housed before winter. As it was, they were building their log huts at the very time when they most needed shelter. Moreover, in the process of unloading their vessel, and in exploring the coast, the settlers were often compelled to wade, and thus many of them were seized by colds and agues. The ailments thus engendered were made worse by lack of wholesome food. From the season of the year it was impossible for them either to hunt or to gather the fruits of the earth, and by a strange oversight the settlers had brought out no fishing tackle, whereby what should have been a most valuable resource was wasted. The ship's stores could only be eked out with shellfish, and the very pro- cess of gathering these must have aggravated the pre- vailing maladies. One unlooked-for chance saved the infant commonwealth from destruction. The settlers on the Kennebec, far better furnished with all external resources and appliances, had given way before the severity of the climate. The men of Plymouth, strong as they were in steadfastness of purpose and in their sense of a divine mission, must have yielded if they had been exposed to the same trials. The stars in their courses fought for them, and they were spared the ac- customed severity of a New England winter. Yet even so half their number died, and at one time there were but seven who were not stricken down with sickness. Happily the savages showed no wish to take advan- tage of this helplessness. This was in all likelihood partly due to an incident which had happened some few years earlier. The Indians in Massachusetts Bay 70 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1621 had captured a French trading vessel, and had put to death all the crew save five, whom they kept as slaves. Dealings One of thcsc survivors warned his captors that savag'es* the God of the white men would not suffer their wrongs to go unpunished. A fearful pestilence which soon afterwards depopulated the shores of Massachusetts Bay seemed to fulfil the prophecy.^ Not only were the forces of the savage tribes lessened, but the survivors were firmly persuaded that the plague was a weapon in the hands of the new-comers, which they kept treasured up in their camp, and could at any moment let loose upon their foes. At the outset^ indeed, the attitude of the savages was suspicious and somewhat threatening. On the sixteenth of March, the settlers for the first time actually had speech of one of them . An Indian who had picked up a few English words among the fishermen near the Kennebec, boldly walked into the EngUsh village. The settlers received him kindly, though with a watchfulness which showed that they had no confidence in his expressions of good-will. He tarried for a whole night among them, and on the day after his departure came again, bringing with him five of his countrymen. The friendship which had thus begun was confirmed by the good offices of one Tisquantum, or Squanto, who had been among Hunt's prisoners. He had dwelt for some time in London with a merchant of Cornhill, and had returned with Dermer to his native country. Like Manteo, he showed unswerving fidelity to his new friends.^ A week after the first meeting a formal alUance was made with Massasoit, the chief of the district.^ By this he under- ' Morton's New EnglancFs Memmial, p. 44. Bradford (p. 60) mentions the shipwreck and the massacre of the French, hut says nothing of the warn- ing. The pestUence is mentioned by numerous writers ; see Young, 183. One authority for it to whom he does not refer is the author of the Consider- ations; see p. 11.3. - Winalow, p. 190. s lb. p. 103. 1621 BRADFORD CHOSEN GOVERNOR. 71 took to notify all his native allies of the friendship which had been formed between him and the English. He also promised, if any of his subjects injured the set- tlers, to hand over the offender for punishment. Each side was to support the other if unjustly attacked, each was to come unarmed on the occasion of a visit, and Massasoit was to be esteemed the friend and ally of King James. Of all the alliances between the Indians and the English settlers in America, none was more stead- fastly and more honourably observed. The arrival of spring brought to the settlers the re- newal of health and the promise of increased prosperity. Bradford In Bradford's words, ' the sick and the lame Governor, rccovercd apacc,' and ' new life was put into them.' When early in April the Mayflower, which had been detained through the winter by the illness of her men, set sail for England, none of the settlers, as it would seem, availed themselves of the chance of return- ing. Just as the Mayflower departed the colony lost its Governor, Carver. He had lived through the hardships of the winter, but was seized with an attack, apparently of apoplexy, while busy with his fellows sowing the common field. ^ There could be little doubt as to the choice of a successor. Brewster held the post of ruhng Elder, and there seems from the first to have been an understanding that the governorship could not be held in conjunction with that ofiice.'"^ With Brewster out of the field there could be no possible rival to Bradford. If we look upon the history of the early New England commonwealth as the prelude to the history of the great Federal Republic, there is a pecuhar interest in this election. Bradford was in truth the first American citizen of Enghsh race who bore rule by the free choice of his brethren. Nay more, we may look on him as heading that bead-roU of worthies among whom the * Bradford, p. 62. ' Hutcbinson's Historxj of Massachusetts, vol. ii. p. 460. 72 THE PLYMOUTH PH^GKIMS. 1G21 ruler whose untimely and tragic death his country yet laments is the latest, though assuredly not the last. From Bradford to Garfield America has never wanted men who with no early training in pohtical hfe, and lacking much that the Old World has deemed needful in her riilers, have yet, by inborn strength of mind and lofty pubhc spirit, shown themselves in all things worthy of high office. When the colony had surmounted the difficulties of the first winter, its existence might be looked on as stability secured. Only once afterwards, in a moment of colony. peculiar trial and depression, was the thought of removal entertained.^ The very sufferings which the settlers had undergone, though they weakened the colony materially, were yet not without their value. The good discipline, patience, and brotherly love of the settlers had been tried to the utmost, and the test had revealed no weakness. To those who could discern the qualities on which national success depends the ultimate prosperity of the httle commonwealth must have seemed assured. In a young society, at least if it be a peaceful and progressive one, economical and commercial conditions Economi- V^^J ^ larger part proportionately than they do ti^noffte in long established societies. Till a certain degree colony. (jf prosperity has been attained, mere physical wants exercise a paramount influence over the hfe of the community. Thus in the early history of Plymouth the commercial and industrial progress of the colony fills up the foreground ; such political changes as came about were directly caused by economical considerations, while the relations of the settlers to these without their own community may be regarded as episodes in the main story. The industrial system with which the colony started was one of pure communism. The whole body of settlers was to work as an organized band under the ^ Bradford, pp. 241, 261. 1621 SYSTEM OF COMMUNAL LAND TENURE. 73 orders of the Governor and Assistants. All produce was to He put into a common stock. Out of that the wants of the settlers were to be supplied, while the sur- plus was to form the profits of the Company, or, as Bradford usually calls it, ' the general.' Some writers have imagined that a desire to copy the institutions of the primitive Church led to the adop- tion of this system. There is not a word in any contem- porary document to show that the Puritans of Plymouth or their brethren in England had even a speculative preference for such a scheme. If the theory needed refuting, it would be disposed of by the fact, already mentioned, that a stipulation for private holdings was urged by the settlers and refused by their commercial associates, who are little likely to have been guided by scriptural precedent.^ Later inquirers have, with more plausibility, seen in New Plymouth and in the other New England town- ships which followed its model, the continuation of the old Teutonic village, with its marlc, or common field, of which a portion is allotted in temporary holdings, to be tilled according to certain fixed rules.''* The truth of tliis view depends on the extent to which the analogy is pressed. That there is a likeness between the earher and later tenure cannot be questioned. But to prove identity in the case of institutions, not merely likeness but continuity is needed. It must never be forgotten that to speak of ' institutions ' is merely a convenient way of stating the fact that a body of men, in their corporate capacity, perform a certain class of acts. Two generations of the same race, widely separated in time, may perform the same acts ; yet, unless the intermediate ' See above, p. 55. ' This view is set forth in a monograph by Mr. Herbert B. Adams, entitled The Oermanic Origin of New England Towns. This forms part of a historical series published by the Johns Hopkins University. 74 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1021 generations have also performed them, or unless the younger generation is consciously and deliberately copy- ing the older one, it is hardly correct to speak of the institutions as identical. Here, then, we are at once met by two diflSiculties. If the New England system was the continuation of the mark, the Enghsh common field is needed as a hnk between them. But the identity of the mark with the Enghsh common field of later times, even the connexion between them, must be looked on as in itself an open question.^ And even if we allow that the common tenure, which has left such marked traces on the agriculture of later times, is but a continuation of that system which obtained among the Enghsh in their continental home, it has yet to he shown that the New England system was a continuation of the latter. The manor may have been the continuation of the mark, or it may have been an ahen system which only resembled it in some of its incidents. But it is certain that the manorial system had, in its turn, been largely superseded by that separate cultivation which has in our day become universal. Communal land tenure was not unknown to the Englishman of the seventeenth century, but it was not the form with which he was most familiar. The adoption of the system by the colonists was due to the necessity which forced them into unwUhng partnership with a body of traders. Under these circumstances it is certainly safer, and probably more accurate, to say, not that the colonists carried on the primitive Teutonic usage, but that the usage revived and recovered its strength under circum- stances closely resembhng those which had originally ' Less weight than this cannot, I think, be given to the views set fortli by Mr. Seebohm in his recent work on The English Village Community. At the same time it would be premature to treat them as forming more than a plausible hypothesis. 1621 DISPDTES WITH THE LONDON PARTNERS. 75 favoured its growth. At the same time it must be admitted that the incidents of the new system often reproduce with startling fidehty those which patient inquiry has detected in the past. We have already seen in the case of Virginia how the objects of a commercial corporation are likely to Difficulties conflict with the welfare of a young community. London* The Virginia Company indeed in its later days, partners, guided by men of singularly lofty and self- sacrificing spirit, postponed present gain to the enduring advantage of the community which it had founded. But the temper which animated Sandys and Ferrars found no counterpart among the merchants who were associated with the Plymouth colonists. We are reminded of the remonstrances addressed by the Virginia Company to its first party of emigrants,^ when we find Weston, one of the chief London partners, writing to upbraid Bradford with the slender results of the undertaking.^ Later events make it likely that Weston did more than justice to the complaints of his associates in the hope of making mischief between them and the colonists, and thus securing for himself any profit that could be got out of the settlement. The difference between Smith's answer and that sent by Bradford is characteristic. Smith rebukes the Company for their folly in preferring im- mediate profit to the permanent welfare of the colony. Bradford's strain is of a higher mood. He reminds the partners that, if the Company had lost their profits, the settlers had suflered worse things in the loss of many honest and industrious men's lives. The alHance with a commercial company might be a needful stepping-stone for the Puritan refugees in their search for a new home : it could never as a lasting arrangement be acceptable to ' Virginia, &c., p. 164. ' Bradford publishes "Weston's letter and his own answer in his hibtory, pp. 66, 67. 76 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1621-2 either side. The relations between the settlers and the London partners were made yet more unsatisfactory by the want of unity which prevailed among the latter. Weston's letter showed clearly that he had no sympathy with the pecuhar aims and principles of the Plymouth settlers, and in his subsequent conduct he proved him- self equally disloyal to his colleagues in England. He soon gave reason to suspect that he was endeavouring to ahenate the settlers from their partners, and by thus wrecking the Company to get the trade of the colony into his own hands.-^ This suspicion was confirmed by the fact that he was engaged in establishing a private plantation of his own. The fate of this abortive and discreditable effort will be more fitly dealt with hereafter. Weston was not the only one of the partners who sought to make his own profit at the expense of the rest. Since the site occupied by the settlers formed no part of the Virginia Company's territory, it became necessary to obtain a patent from the grantees of the soil, the recently established Council for New England. Accordingly, in May 1621, a patent was issued making over to the adventurers the tract on which their emi- grants had settled. This patent was granted to John Pierce, one of the partners, as agent or trustee for the whole body. What followed is somewhat obscure. Pierce, it is said, contrived in the next year to obtain from the Council a fresh patent, superseding the original one. This new instrument seemingly converted Pierce from the trustee of the Company into the actual reci- pient in his own right, and placed the partners in the position of his tenants. In the autumn of 1622 Pierce sailed for New England to put in force his fraudulently gotten claims. A storm, however, drove him back, and forced him to postpone his voyage till the next year. A second time he sailed, and a second time he ' Bradford, p. 76. 1622-3 GRANT OF ALLOTMENTS. 77 was beaten back by contrary winds. In March 1623 Pierce's partners summoned him before the Plymouth Council. After a long dispute Pierce abandoned his claim. On the face of the matter it would seem as if a barefaced attempt at fraud had failed, but if it be true that Pierce received five hundred pounds as compensa- tion, there must have been circumstances in the case beyond those which have been recorded.^ It is scarcely a subject for wonder that the partners, thus beset by dissension among themselves, should have neglected the welfare of the settlers. In the autumn of 1622 the colony was increased by the arrival of thirty- five fresh emigrants. But after the first migration no supply of food was sent from England. This was treated by the settlers as a grievance against their partners in England. Yet it seemed in no way unreasonable that the colony should have been- expected henceforth to maintain itself by its own labour.^ Their necessities compelled the settlers to make an important change in their economical arrangements. Grant of Commuuism had, in all probability, only been allotments, ^j.^^^ g^g ^ temporary experiment, but even as such it had failed. The nature and causes of that failure are forcibly described by Bradford. The ' aged and graver ' men resented having to take their place as labourers in a common gang, while the young and vigorous felt it hard that their labour should be no better rewarded than that of the old and infirm. Husbands, too, disliked an arrangement which compelled their wives to act as public servants, and to wash and cook for any members of the community as the govern- ment might appoint. ' All that we know about Pierce's patent is derived from the Minutes of the council for New England, in the Colonial Papers, and from Bradford. That he received five hundred pounds compensation is stated in a letter written by the London partners, and published by Bradford, p. 99. ' Winslow, p. 280. 78 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1023-4 Accordingly, in the summer of 1623 the system of individual property was cautiously and tentatively in- troduced. A portion of land was to be annually allotted to each household for the cultivation of corn. Those whom we may call the unattached members of the com- munity, young bachelors and boys not belonging to a family, were told off to work under the control of the different householders. The industrial prosperity of the community seems to have dated from this change. The authority of the Governor and Assistants was no longer needed to en- force industry, and those who under the former system had professed themselves unable to work now toiled zealously for the profit of their own families.^ Yet the system as thus amended was not wholly satisfactory. The industrious husbandman saw the Further plot of land which he had laboriously cleared lani " and manured pass after the expiration of a year into the hands of, it might be, an idle and improvident neighbour. Accordingly, in. 1624, an apphcation was made to the Governor for permanent holdings. The request was granted, and one acre was allotted in per- petuity to every freeman. The condition was imposed that it was to be near as might be to the town.^ From this we may infer, what is fully confirmed by later pro- ceedings, that the system of land tenure adopted by the settlers was in a great measure shaped by their need for political and religious union, as well as by economical considerations. The change from communal to private ownership was probably furthered by an important, though Private somcwhat obscurcly recorded, event which settlers. took placc at nearly the same time that the first allotments were granted. There came out in 1623 a ' This change, its causes and its results, is very fuUy told by Bradford, p. 96. 2 lb. p. 116. 1623-4 THE NEW COMEES. 79 party of about sixty emigrants, who were to live upon the territory and be under the same general juris- diction as the other settlers, but who were to have land of their own allotted to them, and to be altogether in- dependent of the corporate trade and agriculture of the Company. Their presence was a source of difficulty from the outset. They themselves were afraid lest the supplies which they had brought with them should be cast into the common stock. On the other hand, the older settlers seem to have thought that the new-comers might unfairly enter into the fruit of their labours. An agreement however was made which seems to have satisfied both parties. The new-comers were to have lands allotted to them which they should till separately and in such manner as they chose. Half the produce, over and above what they needed for their own wants, was to be brought into the common stock, while out of the residue they were to pay a certain quantity of corn for the maintenance of government. Beyond this no pubHc burden was laid, upon them save the duty of personal service in defence of the community. They were to have no share in the for trade with the Indians, but it was to be reserved as a monopoly for the Company.^ Though this arrangement was accepted as for the time satisfactory, it left iU-feehng between the two par- Difficuities ties, which in the next year broke into ouen of the new- . _,, , . « , . " comera. cnmity. ihe only witness for this matter is Bradford, whose account is somewhat obscure, and ne- cessarily tinged with a suspicion of partisanship.^ The leaders in the matter were Oldham and Lyford. Oldham in all hkelihood, was one of the independent settlers whose accession to the colony has been just mentioned. ' Bradford, p. 100. '' The whole account of this dispute and the agreement hy which it was settled is to he found in Bradford's chronicle of the year 1624. 80 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1623-4 He seems to have been an energetic, headstrong, con- tentious man, but not wanting either in honesty or pubhc spirit. Lyford was a minister who had been brought out in 1624. He was apparently a man of that pecuUar type of wickedness which an austere and exacting system of morals is apt to breed out of evil natures, sensual and a hypocrite. These two were found to be secretly raising a faction against the government. Their plot was brought to nought by the energy of the Governor. Lyford had sent home a number of letters, which were thought to contain attacks upon the government of Plymouth. Just as the ship which was to take them had set sail, Bradford boarded her from a boat, and with the help of the master seized upon Lyford's letters and opened them, copying some and detaining others. This measure was justified by Lyford's own conduct, since he had dealt in like fashion with letters to Eobinson and Brewster. The papers which Bradford seized were found to contain complaints of the manner in which the independent settlers were treated, and revealed the existence of a party among the merchant adventurers who sought to change the civil and reHgious constitution of the colony. For a while the Governor and his advisers were content to watch the proceedings of the malcontents. But before long the contumacious behaviour of Oldham gave them an opportunity for striking a blow. The disaffected, if there were such, showed no readiness to support their leaders. Oldham was punished, and when in the next year he attempted to return and stir up a fresh faction, he was driven out in a pecuharly ignomini- ous fashion, having to run the gauntlet of a guard of musketeers v^ho beat him with the biitts of their weapons.' At a later day he seems to have become reconciled to the government of Plymouth, and played a prominent and ' On this Bradford is confirmed by Morton (iV. E. Canaan, bk. iii. ch. yiii.). 1624-7 DISSENSIONS WITH THE LONDON PAKTNERS. 81 discreditable part in New England history. Lyford was more leniently dealt with, being suffered to remain in the colony on promise of repentance and amend- ment. But he was soon found to be renewing his mal- practices, while at the same time the gross immorality of his private life was brought to light. He was banished from the colony, and died not long after in Virginia. The whole course of events so far had tended to make the settlers and the London partners dissatisfied Dissoiuiion -vyith the existing state of affairs. Those of of the * p n • 1 1 11 Company, the advcnturers who professedly wished well to Plymouth complained that the religious exclusiveness of the colonists and their reputation, certainly ill-deserved, for idleness and neglect of business kept subscribers aloof. Bradford, indeed, himself admits that the colony , had been injured by the indiscretion of those who ' sent out all the weakest and poorest, contrary to our minds and advice.' ^ On the other hand, the whole tone of his history clearly shows that the settlers felt themselves neglected by their associates. Another grievance com- plained of by the settlers was the expense caused by the ' too much jollity ' of their partners at their meetings in London, a charge admitted and faintly palliated by the adventurers.^ Thus all sense of a common interest uniting the set- tlers to their partners in England had disappeared. The capital contributed by the adventurers had been a neces- sary condition for establishing the colony, but beyond that the settlers had gained no help from their associates. Nay, more ; the union was a hindrance to the religious and political designs of the colonists. They would fain have brought out at the cost of the Company those ' Bradford's letter-book, p. 6). ' These complaints and recriminations are to be found in Bradford's letter-book, pp. 20-38. II. G 82 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1627 brethren who had remained behind at Leyden. The London partners not unnaturally objected to an expen- diture which held out no promise of commercial gain.' They must have seen, too, that the trade of a Httle com- munity which was struggling for a bare existence left but a narrow margin for profit. Accordingly, in 1627 the partnership was dissolved by agreement. The London merchants made over the whole of their stock and interest in the colony to the settlers for eighteen hundred pounds.''' By a further arrangement the trade of the colony was vested for six years as a monopoly in a small private company, con- sisting of the Governor, Winslow, Standish, Brewster, and four others. In consideration of this they became responsible for the payment of the eighteen hundred pounds, and undertook over and above to free the colony from its corporate debts, amounting to six hun- dred pounds, and to make certain necessary advances of corn and implements.^ The newly formed partner- ship found itself entangled in many difficulties. Money had to be borrowed at thirty, in one case, indeed, it would seem at forty-five, per cent.* Matters were made worse by the speculative rashness, if not the actual dishonesty, of the agent in England, AUerton. There is, however, no need to follow the confused and tortuous thread of these disputes, since they had no effect on the growth or general well being of the colony. The dissolution of the Company was attended by another, and an even more important, economical change. Further Hithcrto the settlers had been hindered in iS.™ " their tillage by the want of live stock, and the English grain which they endeavoured to grow did not ' Bradford, p. 110. " The agreement is given by Bradford, p, 143. ' This ia also given by Bradford, p. 152. * This is stated in a letter from Shirley to Bradford (Bradford, p. 1S4). 1627 DIVISION OF LAND AND STOCK. 83 thrive.^ They had now learnt from their Indian friends the cultivation of maize,^ and they had also imported some horned cattle.^ Accordingly, in 1627 the settlers resolved to carry further the system of private allot- ments. The land along the banks of the stream to the south of the town was divided, by officers specially appointed, into patches of twenty acres each, with a river frontage of five acres. These were then assigned by lot to the different householders. At the same time the system of separate holdings did not entirely and at once supersede that of common tillage. Since it was beyond the power of a single householder to till twenty acres of ground at once, only those lots which lay near the town were to be taken in hand. Each landholder whose plot was brought under cultivation was to asso- ciate with him a certain number of his neighbours chosen by himself, or, in default, assigned to him by the Governor and Assistants. This arrangement was to last for four years. The owner was to reserve for his own use twice as much land as he would be able to reclaim within that time. Meanwhile his associates were to live on the rest, and at the end of the term to proceed to their own holdings. The owner of each plot was to have full rights over all timber which grew upon it, but he was to enjoy no monopoly of fowling or fishing, and he was bound to leave a footpath through his ground.' At the same time, and no doubt as part of the same arrangement, a distribution of live stock was made. A «onofii"v *^*^^ ^^^ *^° goats were allotted to every stock. thirteen persons. The details of the division are recorded with quaint minuteness.* To compensate for varieties in the qualities of the animals, the reci- pients of the better ones were bound to return a certain ' Bradford, p. 61. » lb. » lb. pp. 109, 137. * lb. p. 146. Records, vol. xi. p. 5. ' lb. vol. xii. p. 9, 84 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1627-33 proportion of the produce to the general stock. The arrangement was, no doubt, less complex in fact than would at first appear. Usually several of the joint owners were members of a single family, and we meet with more than one case where a comparatively rich man, such as Standish, at once bought out his partners. The increased prosperity of the colony is clearly marked by an entry in the records for 1633, dealing AUotment for the first time with the public meadow land. or meadow . -^ . land. Hitherto, no doubt, the rearing of cattle had been confined to one or two of the richest settlers, and there had been no need for any general arrangement as to haymaking. But now the growth of other settle- ments in the neighbourhood enabled the colonists to drive a thriving export trade both in corn and cattle, and thus hay was needed both for rearing stock and feeding plough-oxen.^ Accordingly, we find the com- munity adopting the arrangement universal in the old Teutonic system, and allotting to each household a por- tion of the common pasture, to be kept- up and mown, and then to revert to public use.^ By this arrangement the land system of the com- munity was brought into almost exact conformity with that of a primitive village community, as described by those who have reconstructed it from tradition and surviving details. Each household had its own equal patch of arable land. The grass land beyond was divided into two portions ; one the waste, where all free- men had equal rights of common pasturage ; the other subject to temporary occupancy by individuals on a regular system for the one purpose of haymabng. But, as we have seen, this likeness cannot safely be set down as the result of continuous usage, nor is it likely that it was caused by conscious imitation. It was Bradford, p. 192. ^ Records, vol. i. p. 14. 1627 APPEARANCE OF PLYMOUTH. 85 rather due to the combination of a similar political system with similar conditions of soil and climate. It is not till a community has reached an artificial and self-conscious condition that it dwells on or com- Generai mcmorates the details of its everyday life, appearance fortunately we have independent testimony settlement, j^^^^ which WO Can form a clear idea of the outward appearance of the Puritan colony in its early days. In 1627 Isaac De Easieres, the Secretary of the Dutch colony at Few Netherlands, visited Plymouth. The circumstances of that visit will come before us again. For the present we are only concerned with his detailed description of the settlement, which evidently impressed him by its sober dignity and completeness.^ His description, read in conjunction with extant records, brings the little town clearly before our eyes. It stood on rising ground separated from the sea by some twenty yards of sand. The buildings were laid out hke a Eoman city in miniature. Two streets crossing one another formed the town. At their meeting stood the Governor's house. Before it was an open space, the forum as one may call it, guarded by four cannon, one to command each of the ways which met there. On an eminence behind the town, but within its precinct, stood the building which at once testified to the civil and religious unity of the little commonwealth and to the constant presence of an armed foe, the public store- house, place of worship, and fort in one, protected with battlements and six cannon. Each house was a substantial log hut, standing on its enclosed patch of ground. Pound the whole ran a palisade, the tun, which, as a distinguishing feature, so often gave its name to the Teutonic settlements. Of the four entrances three were ' De Easieres' letter is printed in the Appendix to New England's Memorial, p. 495. 86 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS, 1623-5 guarded by gates, the fourth being sufficiently pro- tected either by the fort or the sea. Along the stream to the south was the arable land, divided into small patches of corn. Beyond lay the common pasture, the mark, with its diversity of meadow, wood, and jungle. The sojourn of the colonists in Holland had fami- liarized them with trade, and had developed habits and Trade of Capacities beyond those of the ordinary English the colony, yeomau. The partnership with the London merchants too, short and unsatisfactory as it was, must have had its effect. Thus from the outset Plymouth was not merely an agricultural, but also a trading and seafaring community. In 1623 the settlers made their first commercial venture. They buUt a pinnace, and sent it south to buy corn and beaver from the Narragansett Indians. They found however that the Dutch had already secured that market, and that the beads and knives which they offered were little esteemed in com- parison with the cloth and other commodities of their rivals.^ Next year the adventurers in England at- tempted, with the help of the settlers, to establish salt works at Plymouth, and a fishing station at the northern extremity of Massachusetts Bay, named by the filial piety of Charles the Eirst Gape Ann.^ Both these undertakings failed through the incompetency and misconduct of those who were in charge of them, and an attempt next year to transfer the salt works to Cape Ann fared no better.^ In 1625 the settlers made a more successful venture by sending a shallop laden with corn to sell to the Indians along the Kennebec. This attempt prospered, althoifgh ' Bradford, p. 108. ' This was one of the names given by Prince Charles, and either suggested or adopted by Smith (see p. 4.3). Smith himself had called the cape Tragabizanda after a princess the heroine of one of his romantic adventures in Eastern Europe. ' Bradford, p. 117. 1627-33 TRADE OF PLYMOUTH. 87 those who undertook it knew nothing of the district and had no experience in seamanship.' In 1627 the settlers took an important step in extend- ing their trade soiithwards. By establishing a permanent station at the head of Buzzards Bay, and keeping a ship there, they were able to secure an overland passage and avoid the dangers of Cape Cod.^ Next year the trade on the Kennebec was definitely established by a grant of land there from the council for New England, and by the building of a factory.^ The colonists soon pushed their enterprise yet further. The partners who had bought the trade of the company set up a factory at the mouth of the Penobscot,* and some of them, apparently as a private venture, built what is described as a wigwam in MachiasBay.^ These attempts were regarded by the French settlers in Canada as encroachments. In 1631 they attacked and plundered the factory at Penobscot,^ and soon after that at Machias shared the same fate.^ Over and above these ventures to the north, the settlers were pushing the trade with the Indians southwards, in the direction of the Connecticut. These proceedings, how- ever, in that quarter were so closely mixed up with the history of Massachusetts, that it will be best to deal with them later. The relations of the settlers to the Dutch in New Netherlands were in the early days of the colony uni- interconrse formly friendly. In 1627 the two governments ImX-^ exchanged letters, with promises of mutual lands. gQQ^ offices and proposals for trade.* It is noteworthy that Bradford in his letter dwells on the ' Bradford, p. 138. . " lb. p. 149. ' /*. p. 157. « lb. p. 170. ' lb. p. 189 ; Winthrop's Bistory of New England, vol. i. p. 117. Here and elsewhere I refer to the original pagination, » Bradford, p. 189. ' Winthrop, as atove « Bradford, pp. 149-51. 88 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1623-7 hostility of the Spaniard as a possible danger common to each colony. He also warns the Dutch governor to beware of the jealousy of the English in Virginia, as shown by the deahngs of Argall with the Trench. It is not unlikely that the settlers in New Netherlands looked on Plymouth rather as an independent community than as appertaining to England. This, coupled with the dread of a Spanish attack, would explain conduct so much at variance with the jealous and exclusive policy usually adopted by the Dutch. Soon after these letters had passed the EngUsh settlers received a formal visit from De Rasieres, the Secretary of the Dutch colony. His solemn entry, pre- ceded by trumpeters, must have been the nearest approach to a public pageant which the little Puritan village had yet witnessed. He explained to the Ply- mouth settlers how profitable they would find it to barter wampum or sheU-money with the Indians for furs, and encouraged them to push their trade to the north.^ We have already seen how the relations of the settlers to the Indians were favourably opened by an alliance Dealings ynth Massasoit. Two events soon occurred with the . (" • 1 1 • Indians. wliich servcd to strengthen this friendship.' The settlers were able to help Massasoit against a dis- affected sachem, named Corbitant, who had made him- self specially obnoxious to the English by threatening the life of their friend and interpreter Squanto.^ . A further opportunity for befriending Massasoit soon arose. In the spring of 1623 news came to Ply- mouth that he was near death. Accordingly, Edward Winslow was sent to give help. Among the settlers he stood second only to Bradford, both in literary power and practical capacity. Bradford, as Governor, could ' De Rasieres' visit is described by Bradford, p. 157. ' Winslow in Young, p. 219. 1621-S DEALINGS WITH INDIANS. 89 not leave the settlement, and accordingly what one may call the diplomatic work of the httle community, whether among the Indians or in England, was discharged by Winslow. He had already once visited Massasoit, and his clear and graphic account of his journey is among the most interesting of the records of native life left to us by the early settlers.^ It brings out forcibly the wayward temper of the savage, his sudden changes from unreasoning suspicion to hearty friendship, and the mental quickness and eagerness for knowledge which were so strangely united with the ineradicable barbarism of his daily habits. The illness of Massasoit, though far beyond the skill of the Indian doctors, yielded readily to the treatment of Winslow. The chief at once showed his gratitude by revealing to his benefactor certain evil designs which his neighbours entertained against the English.^ In Virginia the English had to deal with a single native power, whether as friend or foe. In New Eng- land it was otherwise. Besides the Pokanoket Indians under the rule of Massasoit, there were at least five other tribes between Plymouth Bay and the Connecticut. It is clear too that Massasoit's own authority was but lax, probably through that change in the system of chieftainship of which I have spoken elsewhere.^ This condition of things made it difficult for the settlers wholly to avoid hostility with one tribe or another, while on the other hand it lessened the danger of a united attack. The alliance with Massasoit was followed by the formal submission of nine sachems within his district.* The first sign of hostility to the settlers came from the Narragansetts, a tribe on the west side of the ' It is publialied in Young, ch. xi. • ° For Winslow's second visit, see Young, ch. xx. " Virginia, &c.,^f, 17, 5u2. ■* Prince, p. 196. Winslow and Bradford both mention the fact hut without specifying' the number. 90 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1622-9 bay so named, facing the Pokanokets. In January 1622, their chief, Canonicus, alarmed or exasperated by the alliance of the English with his enemy Massasoit, sent Bradford a symbolical warning, a bundle of arrows wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin. The Governor, having learnt from his Indian friends that the message was meant to be hostile, replied in kind by sending back the skin stuffed with powder and ball. His prompt answer apparently awed Canonicus.^ Fortunately for the settlers of Plymouth, the territory of their friend Massasoit lay directly between them and the Narra- gansetts. Canonicus did not follow up nor repeat his threat, and in the next ^year his people were trading with the settlers for corn and furs. The men of Ply- mouth had other disputes with the Indians, but these rather concerned the outlying English settlers, and wiU be best dealt with in connexion with that part of our subject. The increase of Plymouth in point of population was slow as compared with that of the southern colonies. Extension In 1624 it Only numbered a hundred and colony. eighty inhabitants.^ By 1629 it had increased to three hundred.^ This paucity of population is ex- plained .by the economical and religious condition of the colony. In the south there were no limits upon terri- torial extension, and thus there was room for everyone who had hands with which to till the ground. The large planter would gladly find implements, food, and a hut for every labourer that would work for him. But in New England the demand for hired labour was limited by the want of capital and the smallness of the farms. The mere field-drudge, the ofiscouring of a great city, could find work on a tobacco plantation, but there was no 1 Winslow in Young, p. 281. ' Smith's General History, p. 247. ' This ia expressly stated in the patent granted in 1629 (Hazard, vol, i. p. 300). 1627-36 UNSUITABLE SETTLERS EXCLUDED. 91 place for him in the economy of New England. The Plymouth emigrant, if he had not capital enough to be- come a yeoman-farmer, needed at least skill enough to become a craftsman or a ploughman. The increase of New England was therefore necessarily slower than that of the southern plantations. Eeligious exclusiveness worked in the same direction. Though no formal test was required for citizenship, we may be sure that Plymouth was no place for those who were outside the pale of Puritanism. So long as the settlers were yoked with the London partners they could not be free in their choice of associates. We have already seen what trouble might arise from the accession of colonists who were wholly alien from the original emigrants, and there can be no doubt that a desire to escape from such enforced union hastened the dissolu- tion of the partnership. One of the first results of that change was an addition of fresh emigrants from Leyden. Thirty-five came out in the May of 1629, followed by a smaller body soon after. ^ It is hardly hkely that any persons would have wished to settle in Plymouth who would have been unacceptable to the Puritan inhabi- tants, but if any such danger existed it was guarded against by a law passed in 1636, requiring that all who became householders should first obtain the approval of the Governor and Council.^ One incident recorded by Bradford illustrates the restrictions which the exclusiveness of the existing set- tlers imposed on the increase of the colony. An emi- grant ship bound for Virginia was driven ashore at Plymouth. A few that ' carried themselves very orderly' were suffered to remain. The rest, ' being untoward people,' were compelled to seek their original destination. ' Bradford, p. 165. He expressly states in a note in hia letter-book (p. 7) that the second company was the smaller. '' Rerords, vol. xi. p. 26. 92 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1630-2 The means by which their exclusion was enforced is not specified, but may be filled in with no great efibrt of imagination.^ In spite of these checks on extension the increase of trade and agriculture brought its natural result. About Growth of 1630 the settlers began to occupy the fertile new towns, pasture land, to the north of Plymouth. ^ Stan- dish seemingly took a leading part in this movement, since the newly occupied ground bore the name of Duxbury, in commemoration of his Lancashire birth- place. Many of the Plymouth settlers abandoned their allotments near the town, and it was found necessary to enact that all land so deserted should revert to the commonwealth and might be re-granted.^ Bradford and those in authority looked with disfavour on this tendency to spread abroad. We shall find a like feeling in the neighbouring colony of Massachusetts. It was natural enough that the first Plymouth settlers should feel peculiar afiection for a home surrounded by such re- collections and won at such a price. No doubt too, the jealous watchfulness of the New England govern- ment in this matter was a wholesome check upon those temptations to dispersion which a new country offers. Yet their dislike to what was only the natural and neces- sary growth of the colony shows how little the founders of Plymouth understood its future destiny. Besides tending to weaken the original settlement of Plymouth, the distance of the new plantation made it difficult to meet for congregational worship. The Governor and Assistants proposed a compromise. They would gratify the desire for more extended holdings by allotting to some of the richer residents land at Green Harbour, a little to the north of Duxbury, to be farmed by hired servants.* This scheme would have dissociated the ' Biadford, pp. 146-8. ' lb. p. 192. ' Records, vol. xi. p. 18. * Bradford, p. 192. 1632-6 FOEMATION OF FRESPI TOWNSHIPS. 93 possession of land from the use and occupation of it, and thus, by its tendency to divide the community into large landed proprietors and hired labourers, would have changed the whole character of the settlement. The remedy soon proved worse than the evil. The occu- pants of the lands at Green Harbour ceased to have any political or religious connexion with Plymouth.^ Ac- cordingly, the Governor and Assistants reluctantly gave way, and Duxbury was constituted a township with a church.''^ At the same time the supremacy of the old settlement was asserted by a resolution that the govern- ment should be ' tied ' to Plymouth, and that the Governor should be required to live there.^ The old anxiety for union soon reappeared, and in 1636 a proposal was made to build a place of worship which should serve as a meeting-point for the two townships.* Besides the practical inconvenience of such a scheme, it could not have failed to be repugnant to the patriotism of Ply- mouth, and, as might have been expected, it fell to the ground. The process of extension was soon carried further, and a third township came into being at Scituate, some ten miles beyond Duxbury.^ It is worth notice that both these settlements were near to the coast, and both to the north of Plymouth. Thus the ten- dency of the colony to become a seafaring as well as an agricultural community was confirmed. At the same time it was brought into close connexion with Massachusetts, and the need for some kind of union was increased. ' Bradford, as atove. ' The admission of Duxbury to tlie full rights of a township is recorded in 1637 (Records, vol. i. p. 62). But in the previous year a constable was appointed for Duxbury, so that it is clear that it possessed certain separate rights. * Records, vol. i. p. 36. * lb. p. 41. " The date at which Scituate was formally admitted to the rights of a township is not recorded. But it is described as a town in 1G36 (Records vol. i. p. 44), and it had a constable at the same time as Duxbury. 94 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1620-36 The growth of these new townships gave an impulse , to the political hfe of the colony. So long as Plymouth System of ^as the Only settlement, constitutional machi- tion. nery of a simple kind sufficed. The power of making laws was vested in the whole Assembly of the freemen. The judicial and executive body, called the Court, consisted of the Governor and seven Assistants elected by the Assembly. This Court admitted freemen and granted land, and in conjunction with a jury tried civil and criminal cases. ^ The addition of Scituate and Duxbury made some system of delegation a necessity. Complete representative government did not, however, come at once. In 1636 eight Deputies met, four from Plymouth and two from each of the other colonies, and in conjunction with the Court revised and codified the laws.^ These delegates, however, were only appointed for the special business in hand, and, as it would seem, without any definite intention of continuing the system of representation. They confirmed the existing distri- bution of power between the Council and the General Assembly. The code which they produced was mode- rate and sensible in its tone, and showed no marked trace of Puritanism either in moral austerity, or in giving any special prominence to offences against rehgion. The selection of Deputies was only intended as a temporary measure for a special purpose. But in November 1636 another step was taken in the direction of a representative system. The functions of the General Assembly were divided. The meetings for legislation were to be kept distinct from those for electing the Governor and Assistants. At the former the whole body of freemen were to attend as before ; at the latter • The constitutional powers of the Court are first formally declaied in 1636 (Records, vol. xi. p. 11). But there is every reason to helieve that the arrangement described existed from the time of the first settlement. ' Kecords, vol. xi. p. 6. 1638 A KEPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM INTRODUCED. 95 proxies were to be allowed.^ The need for this change was illustrated by the fact that two years later sixteen freemen were fined for absenting themselves from the Assembly."^ In 1638 the system of representation was definitely introduced, and the functions of the legislative Assembly of freemen were virtually transferred to Deputies. Ply- mouth returned four, each of the other towns two. It would seem as if this change was accompanied by an extension of the franchise. Hitherto only freemen had been allowed to appear at the General Assembly. Hence- forth it was enacted that, while the representatives them- selves must be freemen, all the householders without qualification should have a vote in their election.^ Ap- parently the new system did not formally supersede the old. The primary Assembly still seems to have remained in theory the supreme legislative body.* In practice, the advantages of representation asserted themselves, and the more cumbrous system fell into disuse. We may profitably compare this change with the hke process in Maryland. There, too, a primary Assem- bly was superseded by a system of representation, and there was a period of transition during which the two were in some measure combined. But the superior poli- tical intelligence and constructive power of the New Englander is manifest throughout the process. At Ply- mouth the change was effected easily, indeed, almost spontaneously, and completely, with none of those com- promises which accompanied it in Maryland. The dissolution of the partnership left the settlers ' The clause allowing proxies is in the Records (vol. xi. p. 80). As nothing is said limiting or altering the powers of the general Court we are, I think, justified in supposing that they were left intact. ' Records, vol. i. p. 104. ' Ih. vol. li. p. 91. ■" It is expressly ordered in the act which provided for Deputies that the general Court should reserve the power of revising and repealing those pro- ceedings. 96 THE PLYMOUTH PILGEIMS. 1629-30 immediately dependent on the council for New Eng- land. It was doubtful how far the Plymouth colonists The new could claim any rights under the patent of patent. 1621, and, except for that, they were mere squatters with no legal title to the territory which they occupied. In March 1629, Bradford received an alarm- ing letter from Shirley, one of the London adventurers, who still took an interest in the Company. It warned him that Gorges, though avowedly friendly to the colo- nists, wished in reality to withhold from them all security of tenure."- At least one agency'was sent to England, but with no effect.^ At length, in January 1630, the desired instrument was obtained.^ The paterit granted by the New England Council gave to Bradford and his associates all the land bounded by the Cohasset river on the north, the Narragansett river in the south, and the territory of Pokanoket to the west. In addition to this the patent set forth that the colonists had no suitable place for trade and fishing, and to that end granted them a tract of land extending fifteen miles in breadth on each bank of the Kennebec. It also gave power of legislation, subject to the usual reservation in favour of the laws of England, and to a special limitation in favour of any form of government established by the Council. The latter condition greatly lessened the value of the grant, since Gorges might at any time carry out his scheme for establishing a general government over the whole of New England, and thereby sweep away the constitution of Plymouth at one stroke. The patent also granted a monopoly of trade with the Indians within the limits assigned, and empowered the settlers to defend this and their other rights by force of arms. This patent gave the settlers secure possession of ' Shirley to Bradford, Mass. Hist. 1st series, vol. iii. p. 71. '' Bradford, p. 16G. ' Tlie instrument is in Hazard, vol. i. p. 208. 1622-9 WESTON'S SETTLEMENT. »/ their land, but it did not go farther. It did not guard them against legislative interference by the Council or by the Crown. The latter was probably the more real danger. The King's proclamation, issued in May 1625, referred specially to Virginia.^ But it also set forth that New England formed part of the King's empire, and it might be supposed to foreshadow a comprehensive system of control by the Crown.^ Dreading such danger, the settlers bestirred themselves to get a charter from the King. Like every form of court favour in that day, it could only be procured through venal officials, and the Plymouth settlers were but scantily supplied with the means of corruption. Nevertheless, the negotia- tion seemed for a while in a fair way to succeed. Diffi- culties, however, arose, partly from the dishonesty or in- competence of AUerton, partly, it was thought, from the unworthy jealousy felt by the newly formed Company of Massachusetts.^ No charter was obtained, and the legis- lative independence of Plymouth was left to depend on the precarious good-will of the sovereign. Meanwhile the task of colonization was being carried on along the shores of New England, feebly and im- weston's pcrfcctly iudccd, by others besides those of settlement. Plymouth. One attempt was made by that Thomas Weston who had played so base a part alike towards the settlers and towards his commercial part- ners. In 1622 he severed his connexion with the Lon- don merchants, and sent out on his own account seventy men, who settled on the south side of Massachusetts Bay, some twenty-five miles by land from Plymouth.* Our knowledge of their doings is mainly derived from » Colonial Papers, 1625, May 13. ' Letter from White to Bradford in Bradford's letter-book, p. 4.3. ' Shirley to Bradford, letter-hook, p. 72. In the same letter Shirley says that ' many locks must he opened with the silver, nay, the golden key.' * For Weston's colony see Bradford, passim, pp. 77-107. Something also may he learnt from Gorges. II. H 98 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1632-3 Bradford, who is necessarily an unfavourable witness. An independent settlement under a man like Weston could not but be a source of uneasiness to the Plymouth colo- nists. They might well dread alike either its success or its failure. In the former case it would be a dangerous commercial rival. In the latter it might entangle them in difficulties with the natives or might become a drain on the resources of the colony. Thus Bradford's account could hardly fail to be tinged with animosity. Yet we may safely acquit him of anything hke calumnious inven- tion. He draws a vivid picture of the thriftlessness and folly of Weston's settlers, in language which reminds us of the worst days of the colony at Jamestown. On their first arrival the new-comers were quartered at Plymouth, while their leaders were choosing a place for their settlement. At the very outset they showed their folly and dishonesty, lessening the scanty supply of food by plundering the green corn in the night. Their depar- ture to Wessagussett did not put a stop to their indolence and improvidence. Only the earnest remonstrances of the Plymouth government withheld the overseer, Saun- ders, from robbing the natives of their grain, an act which would have exposed every English setttler in the country to the risk of massacre. Eestrained from this, Weston's settlers were brought to the most abject straits. Some pilfered from the Indians ; some sold their clothes to them ; others even made themselves over as slaves to the savages. There is indeed far more of contempt than pity in Bradford's tone, when he teUs of one who was so weak that in searching for shellfish he stuck fast in the mud and died, while others, after gathering clams and ground nuts, could not guard their wretched stores from the natives. Weston's settlers, who are described as ' lusty men,' had at their first coming scofied at the poverty and weakness of the Plymouth settlers. They soon found 1G23 INDIAN CONSPIRACY DEFEATED. 99 themselves dependent for very life on the men whom they had despised. In the summer of 1623 the sefllers at Plymouth were able at once to befriend these evil neighbours and to be rid of them. A message came from Massasoit warning the government of Plymouth that a widespread conspiracy had been formed to cut ofi' Weston's plantation, and that the danger would pro- bably extend to all the English settlers. The tribes that were found for this purpose extended, we are told, from Agawam, in the north, to the island of Capawack, or, as it was called at a later day, Martha's Vineyard, in the south. ^ Such a preparation for the destruction of two small settlements, both weakened by poverty and sickness, shows how deeply the resources of the white man had struck terror into the savage. Standish was at once despatched with a party of armed men to seize the ring- leaders among the natives, especially one Wituwamat, who was thought to be at the bottom of the conspiracy. The language and demeanour of the Indians when Standish arrived justified his suspicions. But before they could proceed from insults to actual attack Stan- dish struck the first blow. Two of the savages were killed and the rest dispersed. When the news of this, the first encounter of the settlers with the natives, reached the brethren in Holland, the kindly temper of Eobinson broke out in the pathetic lament, ' How happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you killed any ! ' ^ He might have been consoled by hearing that Standish, with humanity which unhappily was not always followed, was careful to do no hurt to ' the Indian women. Having relieved Weston's settlers from the threatened danger, Standish gave them a suificient supply of corn to enable those who wished to sail northward and get 1 ^Yinalow in Young, p. 323. » Bradford, p. 114. n 2 100 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1622-3 a homeward passage in fishing vessels. A few followed their deliverer, and were suffered to join themselves to Plymouth.^ Scarcely had his colony been dispersed when Weston himself arrived in America. We may pardon the Puritan chronicler if he shows some satisfaction in telling how miserably Weston wandered about the country, and at length, after losing his goods by ship- wreck, arrived at Plymouth in clothes borrowed from a charitable squatter at Piscataqua. The forgiving kindness of the Plymouth settlers furnished Weston with a supply of beaver as a stock for trade. After this, we are told, he boasted with almost incredible baseness that the settlers had thereby put themselves in his power, since they had no right to dispose of the common goods.^ While a small and obscure band of persecuted fugitives were thus laying the foundation of a pros- TheCoun- perous Commonwealth, the Council for New England. England, strong in court favour and in the support of rich noblemen, could hardly be quickened into any show of activity by all the perseverance and energy of Gorges. The records of the Council from May 1622 are extant, and show that, while little actually was done, elaborate schemes of colonization were enter- tained. While extensive and often self-contradictory grants of land were made to private adventurers, a territory of forty square miles was reserved for a pubHc plantation and a site chosen for a city. Some of the entries show that a scheme was entertained for a plan- tation not unlike that which afterwards came into being in Carolina, but wholly unfitted for the climate and natural conditions of New England. Save six merchants, none were to be admitted to the Company • Standish's expedition is told by Winslow ; Young, pp. 3.30-342 ; Bradford, p. 94. » Bradford, p. 95. 1622-3 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL. 101 but ' persons of honour or gentlemen of blood.' ^ At the same time poor children ' not yet tainted with any villany ' were to be sent out. This was to be done by arrangement with the Lord Mayor, and it was also pro- posed that the Lords-Lieutenant of the various shires should assist in exporting needy persons as settlers. By these means a colony was to be formed, consisting of 'gentlemen to bear arms and attend upon the governor, husbandmen, and handicraftsmen.' Practically, however, the Council contented itself with maintaining its monopoly of trade and fishing. In November 1622 its authority in this matter was strength- ened by a royal proclamation forbidding all persons to trade on the coast of New England or to have any deal- ings with the natives without licence from the Council.^ At the same time Francis West, better known in con- nexion with Virginia, was sent out with a commission as admiral, or, in plainer language, as agent for the Com- pany, to enforce the monopoly against fishermen and independent traders. In a few months West returned, unable to cope with his lawless opponents.^ His place was filled in the autumn of 1623 by Gorges' son Eobert, who had just come back from serving the Venetian re- pubUc in its war with Austria.^ He was sent out with a commission as Governor-general of the Company's territory. He was to be assisted by two persons ap- pointed by the Council in England, by any others that he himself chose to nominate, and by the Governor of Plymouth for the time being.^ The latter clause is of considerable importance, since it shows that the Council in England was willing to accept and recognize the Puritan settlement, and raises a presumption in their ' All these proposals are recorded in the Minutes of the council for New England, in Colonial Papers, May 31, 1622. » Colonial Papers, 1622, Nov. 6. ' Minutes of Council. Bradford, p. 100. * Gorges, p. 74. ' Bradford, p, 104. 102 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1622-5 favour in those cases where they interfered with private and unauthorized traders. At the same time Eobert Gorges held a patent for a territory of ten miles along the coast and thirty inland, granted in recompense for his father's exertions, to he held by a feudal tenure of armed service.^ Thus Gorges was to be at once the territorial proprietor of a private plantation and the representative of the authority of the Council. The former part of the scheme came to nothing. As Governor his chief proceeding was to call Weston to account for his misdeeds. Besides his misconduct to- wards the Plymouth settlers, Weston had cheated the Council by obtaining a licence to export cannon for purpose of defence and then selling them.^ His offence was aggravated by his insolence to Gorges.^ Weston would have been punished by the seizure and forfeiture of his ship but for the intercession of Bradford, who explained to Gorges that the loss would fall, not on Weston, but on those to whom he was responsible for the vessel, and whom, as it would seem, he had already defrauded.* This assertion of authority by the Council was fol- lowed by the attack in the House of Commons, which so far succeeded as to have placed the patent on the list of grievances to be submitted to the Crown. -^ Although this came to nothing, and the formal authority of the Council was in no way curtailed, yet the practical result was to discourage subscribers, and damp the ardour of the leading men. Eobert Gorges, disheartened by his want of success and by the news from England, left his plantation.^ Among those who stayed behind was a scholarly clergyman, WilHam Morrell, who embodied his recollections of the country in some fairly graceful, ' Colonial Papers, Dec. 30, 1622. » Bradford, p. 105. ' lb « Bradford, p. 107 ; Gorges, p. 74. 1625-8 WOLLASTON'S SETTLEMENT. 103 if commonplace, verses, which by their smoothness con- trast curiously with the harsh efforts of the Puritan muse.^ During the next five years several small independent settlements came into existence along the coast of New ,„ n . .. England. One of these deserves more than a Wollaston s o aetaement.2 pa^ggjjjg noticc, siucc it fumished the early history of New England with a singular and somewhat picturesque episode, and also incidentally throws light on the social condition of Virginia. In 1625 a Captain Wollaston, acting as head of a partnership, established a private plantation in Massachusetts Bay, a little to the north of the site occupied by Weston. The settlers seem to have been mainly indented servants. Wollas- ton quickly found that this system of industry was ill- suited to the country. He broke up his plantation, transported the chief part of his servants to Virginia, and there sold them. The rest were left in charge of a deputy, who soon received orders from Wollaston to send some more of the servants to Virginia, and keep the rest on the plantation. Among Wollaston's partners was one Thomas Morton, a London attor- ney by profession, and in character a quick-witted, profligate adventurer, with a smattering of classical learning. He now persuaded the labourers who still remained on the plantation that it would be better to stay with him as independent settlers than to be trans- ported and sold in Virginia. Accordingly, they drove out Wollaston's agent, renamed the plantation Merry- mount, and changed it into a sort of trading station where they dealt with the Indians, taught them to shoot game, and supported themselves in idle revelry on the ' Morrell wrote toth a Latin and an English veision of his poem. They are in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Puhlications, 1st series vol i p. 126. ' The whole of this business is told by Bradford, pp. 168-167. 104 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1028 proceeds. It is hardly needful to say that to the Ply- mouth Puritans the presence of such neighbours was an intolerable abomination. Happily, our knowledge of Morton's misdeeds at this time and afterwards is not derived exclusively from his enemies. He himself pub- lished a full account of his own conduct, written with that pedantic humour and cumbrous display of learning into which the ornate and versatile scholarship of the Elizabethan age so easily passed. Morton bespatters his Puritan enemies with abuse, some, it may be, well deserved, but makes no attempt to clear himself of the charges brought against him. The contrast between the two types of character, the ready, unscrupulous, profligate adventurer, and the Puritan in whom thrifty tastes and religious discipline worked together, is a familiar one in fiction. It never stood out more forcibly on the stage than it did here in the real life of New England. Just as the dealings of Weston with the Indians had made his plantation a serious source of danger, so was Destruc- it HOW with Merrymount. Nor was this all. Me°ry- It also servcd as a refuge for discontented ser- mount. vants. The evil was not confined to Plymouth. There were now various small settlements, ' scattering beginnings,' as Bradford calls them,i along the coast of the bay. To them the Indians were even more formid- able than to the compact and well-armed colony of Plymouth. They may not have shared the abhorrence which the Puritans felt for a community which called itself Merrymount, where people ' frisked like fairies, or rather furies,' round a maypole, and where ten pounds' worth of strong liquor had been drunk in one morning.2 But a settlement which served as a magazine and school of musketry for the Indians was a danger to every fisherman or trader in the bay. Accordingly, in ' Bradford, p. 107. ' lb, p. 159. 1628 DESTRUCTION OP MERKYMOUNT. 105 the summer of 1628 Morton was warned to abandon his evil courses. He disregarded the warning, and there- upon an armed party, raised by the various plantations and headed by Standish, marched against Merrymount.^ They found Morton ready with firearms and barred doors. He seems, however, to have confined himself to a show of resistance, and was seized, brought to Plymouth, and thence sent to England in the custody of Oldham, now, as it would seem, reconciled to the settlers.'^ The Council for New England, with a lenity which the Plymouth chronicler naturally con- demns, soon suffered Morton to return. Standish, or those by whose orders he acted, cannot be charged with undue severity, since they contented themselves with removing Morton and sufiered his riotous followers to remain, and at a later day to become a fresh source of trouble. The experience of the plantations attempted by Weston, Gorges, and WoUaston carried two lessons with it. It showed that the system of industry which was succeeding in Virginia was ill adapted to the soil and chmate of New England. In the northern colony the husbandman could by hard labour wi'ing from the soil subsistence for himself and his household. The profits of industry left no margin to support a class who enjoyed leisure. All beyond mere subsistence had to be got by some trade which required personal activity and intelli- gence. Such episodes as the misconduct of Weston's settlers and of Morton, also showed the necessity for some uni- form and comprehensive system of control. Without it every plantation along the coast of New England might be placed at the mercy of the Indians by the folly or greed of one unscrupulous trader. Morton was not the only offender of this kind. Bradford complains ' Bradford's letter-book, p. 62. » Bradford, p. 1G2. 106 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 1622-5 that the English fishermen sold arms and ammunition to the natives, so that the sight of a gun was no longer, as it had once been, a terror to them.^ The royal proclamation of 1622 against irregular trade may have been intended for the special benefit of Gorges and his associates, but Bradford equally welcomes it as a boon to Plymouth.^ It would even seem from his complaints that certain settlers at Eemaquid sold guns and powder to the French, which ultimately found their way to the natives.' It might be urged, as it was by the opponents of the Plymouth Council in Parliament, that a great national industry like fishing ought not to be placed under the control of a small band of court favourites. But if there was an error it lay, not in the existence of the authority, but in the fact that it was misplaced and exercised with feeble purpose and for selfish aims. Meanwhile the settlements which afterwards grew into Maine and New Hampshire were being formed near Maverick's the mouth of the Piscataqua. These will be settlement. -^Qst dealt with as a separate part of our subject. Moreover, a few scattered settlers had established them- selves in Massachusetts Bay. Of these by far the most important was Samuel Maverick. A New England writer of a later day described him as ' strong for the lordly prelatical power,' and when circumstances placed him under the dominion of the Massachusetts government his principles kept him outside the pale of citizenship, and more than once brought him into conflict wath public authority and opinion. But though Maverick can have had little sympathy with the inhabitants of Plymouth, his settlement was not without its value to them. He appears, from his own account, to have formed a pri- vate plantation with his own dependents.* The site of ' Bradford, p. 158. « Ih. ' lb. p. 210. ^ Maverick, Desa-ijttion of New England, p. 13. 1022-7 SMALLER SETTLEMENTS. 107 it seems to have been a few miles due north of what was afterwards Charlestown. It was palisadoed and defended with cannon, and, if we may beheve Maverick himself, the terror which it struck into the natives had a large share in keeping them from any attack on the English. Another settlement of the same kind was formed at the mouth of the Piscataqua, by a company of three Plantation Plymouth merchants. They, too, Maverick biqur'* tells us, 'were a terror to the Indians, who were at that time insulting over the poor, weak, and unfurnished planters at Plymouth.' ^ Besides checking the Indians, the settlers at Piscataqua did good service to Plymouth in contributing to the cost of the expedi- tion against Morton.^ Bradford also tells us how the manager of the plantation, David Thompson, formed a temporary partnership with the Plymouth settlers in the Indian trade.^ Within five or six years of his settle- ment at Piscataqua Thompson left the service of his employers, and set up, as it would seem, a private settle- ment on an island in Massachusetts Bay. The Ust of those who bore a share in the overthrow of Merrymount shows the existence of six other separate William settlements. Of these one, occupied by William Biackstone. Blackstouc, was on the site of Boston, and was vacated by the owner in favour of the Massachusetts Company. Tradition ascribes to Biackstone the saying " Description of New England, p. 10. Ohristopher Levett, in his Voyage to New England, says that he spent a naonth ' at Pannaway, ■where one Mr, Tomson hath made a plantation.' Mr. Deane, in the Eroeeedings of the Massachusetts Sistorical Society fw 1876 (p. 69), suggests that ' Pannaway ' may he a misprint for Piscataqua, or a clerical error made by Levett himself in copying his journal. The last theory seems to me to he a very prohahle one. Levett visited New England in 1623. His own doings there will come before us later, as forming part of the early history of New Hampshire. Winslow, also writing in 1624, refers to Thompson's settlement at Piscataqua (Young, p. 350). ' Thelist of contributers ia in Bradford's letter-book, p. 63. ' Bradford, p. 141. 108 THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. that, having come from England to escape the lord bishops, he would not submit to the lord brethren.^ Whether this story is true or not, it is at least significant of the position of these independent settlers. We may be sure that, if they had any sympathy with Puritanism, they would not have remained exposed to the risks and discomforts of isolation. As time went on, and as New England became a settled country, their position became untenable. Of the outlying plantations, those north of the Merrimac formed the germ of Maine and New Hampshire, those south were swallowed up by the Puritan colony of Massachusetts. • This speech of Blackstone is quoted by Mr. Young ( Chronicles of Massa- chusetts, p. 170), on the authority of Cotton Mather. I have not been able to find the original reference in that writer. I find the words ascribed to Blackstone in a tract entitled An Account of Providence published in the Massachusetts Historical Collection, 2nd series, vol. ix. p. 166, and ascribed to Stephen Hopkins, governor of Rhode Island from 1767 to 1766. 109 CHAPTER III. THE SETTLEMENT OP MASSACHUSETTS.' Is the last chapter I spoke of various scattered plantations which sprang up in the neighbourhood of ' Nearly all the writings which bear on the early history of Massachu- setts have heen collected by Mr. Young in a volume called Chronicles of Masaachutetts, a companion to that for Plymouth, to which I have already referred. The book consists of letters which passed between leading members of the Massachusetts Company, the records of the Company, so far as they are extant, one or two pamphlets, and a sort of chronicle entitled Mecords of Charlestovm, taken in the year 1664 from the town archives. The records of the Company are also published in the third volume of the Archceologia Americana, with a very full introduction by Mr. Haven, containing bio- graphical notices of all the members of the Company. The records of the colony down to 1680 have been collected and edited in a very complete form by Mr. Shurtleff. Of the chronicles and biographies from which our know- ledge of New England history is so largely drawn I shall have occasion to speak in my text. By far the most valuable of them is Winthrop's History of New England. It is cast into the form of a diary or chronicle. This work, Hke Bradford's History of Plymouth, remained in manuscript for many jears. In 1790 it was printed at Hartford. A new edition, with very valuable biographical notes, was published by Mr. Savage in 1825. This was re-edited, with further additions, in 1853. It is to this edition that 1 refer. A life of Winthrop, by hia descendant, Mr. Kobert 0. Winthrop, appeared in W69. In addition to its literary merit and conspicuous accuracy, it hat value as containing several of "Winthrop's letters and manuscripts hitherto unpublished. Of the early New England writers two deserve special notice. One is William Wood, the author of New England's Prospect, published in 1634 The writer was evidently an ardent believer in colonization and keenlv interested in America. But it is also clear that he had no special sympathv with the founders of Massachusetts, either on religious or political grounds His book cannot be better described than in the words of the title-pa^e A true lively, and experimental description of that part of America commonly called 110 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1623 Plymouth between 1620 and 1630. In addition to those mentioned, there was one destined to have a far more The Dor- lasting influence, and to serve in some measure venturers.! as the foundation on which the greatest of the Puritan colonies was built. In 1623 a small private company of merchants all or most of them inhabitants of Dorchester, who had been accustomed to send fishing vessels every year to the coast near the Kennebec, bethought them of New England, both as it stands to our new-come English planters and to the old native inhabitants. Mr. Young has embodied a part of the hook in his collection. The whole has been republished by the Prince Society with a short preface by Mr. Charles Deane. The other is that singular work, The Wonder-working Providence ofSion's Saoiour in New England. This was published anonymously, but the author- ship has been universally ascribed to Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn in Massachusetts. It was originally printed in London in 1654, with tho second title of A History of New England from the English Planting in the yeere 1628 until the yeere 1652, Five years later it was shamelessly pirated and published without acknowledgement byFerdinando Gorges, grandson of Sir Ferdinando, in a collection of pamphlets entitled America Painted to the lAfe. Since then it has been reprinted twice, firstly in the second series of the Massachiisetts Historical Soafty''s Collection, and then with a very careful and elaborate preface by Mr. W. F. Poole. Mr. Poole has gone very fully into the questions arising out of the authorship of this book. I shall have more to say of it when I come to deal with the literature of New England. Both Wood and Johnson are very fully criticized by Mr. Tyler in his History of American Literature. The fourth and fifth series of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collection contain a number of letters written by or to leading men in New England during the seventeenth century. These are a mine of valuable information. Of later authorities the principal is Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts. The writer was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts from 1758 to 1771, and Governor from 1771. In 1774 he was virtually superseded by General Gage, and never after exercised any authority in the colony. In 1764 he published a history of the colony from its foundation. His work is clear and methodical, and he had access to many valuable documents. Hubbard's History of Nexo England is seldom more than a reproduction of Winthrop and Morton. Here and there it preserves valuable scraps of information, probably derived from Oonant, who was personally known to Hubbard. The book remained in manuscript till 1815, when it was printed as the fifth and sixth volumes of the second series of the Massachusetts Historical Collection. • The doings of the Dorchester Adventurers are related in John Wliite'a Brief RdatioH of the Occasion of the Planting of this Colony (Young, M. C). 1623-5 SETTLEMENT AT CAPE ANiST. Ill establishing a permanent station to help them in load- ing their vessels and in getting supplies for the crews. There was something of a spiritual purpose in the undertaking at the outset, since one of the objects was to maintain a minister for the fishermen along the coast, who during their stay there were wholly without religious teaching. In 1623 the partners sent out a ship of fifty tons. By some mishap she was delayed in sailing, and did Fishing not reach the coast till six weeks after the c^pe""' opening of the regular fishing season. The ■*-°° master, thinking probably that it was too late to begin, turned southwards, and, finding the fishing in Massachusetts Bay good, landed fourteen men to form a settlement at Cape Ann. The territory thus occupied was subject to a com- plicated tenure. Originally granted by the Plymouth council to the Earl of Sheffield, it had been by him assigned to some of the Plymouth adventurers, who in turn had admitted the Dorchester merchants, either as tenants or in some kind of partnership.^ It is not easy to make out the exact relationship between the parties ; but we can at least see that each had an interest in the -fisheries at Cape Ann, and that the arrangement was unsatisfactory to the men of Plymouth. In 1625 a dispute arose over a fishing stage, buUt by the Plymouth settlers, and used in their absence by a certain Hewes, who was acting for the Dorchester partners. Standish was sent on behalf of Plymouth to protest against this intrusion. The rival claimants would have come to ' The original grant of Cape Ann ty Lord Sheffield to Oushmau and Wiuslow, as repreaentatiTea of the Plymouth colonists, is still extant, and has been printed in America with a preface by Mr. Wiugate Thornton (Pal- frey, vol. i. p. 222). Smith (Gen. Hist. p. 703) says, ' At Cape Ann there is a plantation beginning by the Dorchester men which they hold of those of New Plymouth, who also by them have set up a fishing work.' Bradford, pp. 160, 168. THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. lG2o-6 blows if it had not been for the good offices of Eoger Conant, an independent settler, who had at one time lived at Plymouth, but had withdrawn ' out of dislike of their principles of rigid separation.' He succeeded in arranging a compromise by inducing Hewes and his party to build a fresh stage.^ About the same time Conant was appointed by the Dorchester partners as their manager. Lyford was associated with him as minister of the settlement, and Oldham was invited to join them as trading agent, but preferred to be inde- pendent.^ The silence of the Plymouth chroniclers may be taken as evidence of the good character of Conant, but the presence of Lyford and Oldham could not fail to beget unfriendly relations between Plymouth and the new settlement. In 1626, after three years' trial, the Dorchester adventurers came to the conclusion that their settle- ment was an unprofitable undertaking. The partner- ship was dissolved, and the shipping and stock-in- trade sold. Most of the settlers returned, and Conant was left with the cattle and with three servants whom he with difficulty persuaded to stay. Since the fishery was abandoned there was no motive for remaining on the exposed promontory of Cape Ann. Accordingly, Conant withdrew south to the safer harbourage of Naumkeag, or, as it was soon afterwards named, Salem.' ' This is told by Hubbard (p. 111). His point of view is peculiar. ' Captain Standish,' be says, ' had been a soldier in the Low Countries and had never entered the school of our Saviour Christ, or of John the Baptist. His harbinger, or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first lessons, to offer violence to no man, and to part with the cloak ratherthan needlessly contend for the coat, though taken away without order.' Massachusetts showed but little respect for that ' lesson ' in her dealings with her neighbours, though she gave them ample opportunities for practising it themselves. ^ Hubbard, p. 107. ' Oonant'sproceedingsare told by Hubbard, pp. 107,108. Forthenaming of Salem, see Young, M. C, p. 23. 1630 white's schemes. 113 The Dorchester adventurers had abandoned their undertaking as unprofitable. One of them, however, John saw in the very failure the opportunity for hisdesi^s. a scheme of colonization far more important than that which his partners had originally designed. The first project of the commonwealth of Massachu- setts has been commonly ascribed to John White, the Puritan rector of Dorchester. There is yet extant a pamphlet on the subject ascribed to him. From this, taken in conjunction with two works of similar character written about the same time, we may form a clear idea of the schemes entertained by the founders of Massachusetts and of the hopes which they held out to their followers. One of them, a letter from one Sanders to Secretary Coke, is preserved in manuscript among the public records.^ Its character is somewhat commonplace, and there is no special appeal to Puritan principles, though there is a liberal use of Scriptural language. The writer puts forward much the same arguments as those which had been urged for the settlement of Virginia. He dwells on the importance of converting the heathen, and still more on the neces- sity for finding a vent for surplus population, and remedying the distress caused by those ' depopulators and wasters ' who had turned large tracts of tillage into pasture. The other pamphlets, which are both extant in print, are in every way more remarkable. One of them, ' The Planters' Plea,' published in 1630, is anonymous. The other, entitled ' General Considerations for Planting New England,' was written in the previous year. The authorship of it has been ascribed to White, and also to John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massa- chusetts.'"* Both these pamphlets repeat the economical ' Colonial Papers, 1630. " Both these aie given by Mr. Young. The rianUrs' Flea 18 also in Force's Collection, toI. ii. More than one draft of the Considerations is extant. VOL. II. I 114 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. luso arguments for colonization, but do not rely mainly on them. Both protest emphatically against the error of supposing that the refuse population is good enough material for emigration. ' It seems to be a common and gross error that colonies ought to be eniunctories or sinckes of states, to drayne away their filth.' * White in the same spirit, and probably with a recollection of the unruly followers of Smith and Delaware, says that other plantations failed because ' they used too unfit instruments, a multitude of rude ungovernable persons, the very scum of the land.' Both touch on the pro- spects of conversion among the Indians, but somewhat formally and with little real enthusiasm. In one im- portant respect they differ. The author of the ' Plea ' disclaims any project of constituting a community of Separatists, and dwells strongly on the distinction be- tween those who seceded from the Church and those who still remained members of it, although they refused to conform to all its usages. He is evidently anxious to allay any suspicion on this head, and pleads that the neglect of Church ordinances and the choice of Nonconformist ministers were due to the exigencies of colonial hfe. White, if White really be the author of the other pamphlet, is more clear-sighted or more out- spoken. He begins by avowing that the purpose of those who are founding the new settlement is ' to raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist, which the Jesuits labour to rear up in all quarters of the world.' One copy is in the Record Office in manuscript, with the endorsement, ' White of Dorchester, his instructions for the plantation of New England.' The endorsement seems to be in the same handwriting as the documeut itself. Another was found by Wiuthrop's biographer among the family papers. A third, differing in some details from both of these, is printed in the Hutchinson Collection. The whole question of the authority is discussed by Mr. Winthrop in the Life. I cannot regard his arguments for ascribing it to his ancestor as conclusive. ' Planteri Plea, p. 19. 1630 PURPOSES OF FOUNDERS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 115 But the most significant passage is one in which he warns his countrymen to learn wisdom from the woful spectacle of the ruin which befell the Protestants of the Palatinate and Eochelle, and ' to avoid the plague while it is foreseen, and not to tarry as they did till it over- took them.' We may take in connexion with this a somewhat remarkable passage in the writings of Gorges. He tells us that the Puritans had now lost all hope of reformation of Church government, and that conse- quently ' some of the discreeter sort, to avoid what they found themselves subject unto, made use of their friends to procure from the council for the affairs of New Eng- land to settle a colony within their limits.' No man was more keenly alive than Gorges to everything which bore on the colonization of New England, and we may accept him and White as trustworthy witnesses for the definite and well-considered purpose which animated the founders of Massachusetts. In England the cause of Episcopacy seemed irresistibly triumphant ; the last hope of the Puritan party lay in the establishment of a refuge beyond the Atlantic, and Plymouth furnished an encouraging example. What the humble fugitives from Scrooby had begun on a small scale, a community of wealthy merchants and gentry might carry out with far greater success. Nor were religious motives the only ones which might urge thoughtful men to look for a refuge beyond the ocean. In State as in Church the sky was black with the signs of coming evil. It was not merely that the liberties of Englishmen seemed in danger, and that assertions of the royal authority, which the nation had reluctantly forgiven to the necessities of the time and to the vigour of the Tudor monarchs, could not be brooked from weaker hands. The evil lay deeper. Not merely were the forms of political life broken through, but thoughtful men must have begun to feel that those 1 2 116 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1622-8 forms, even if restored and observed, could not meet the wants of the nation. The political needs of the com- munity seemed to have outgrown the machinery wjijch had once satisfied them. The despair of Falkland was the despair, not of weakness, but of too clear a vision. If Strafibrd was willing to become the framer and de- fender of arbitrary government, it was because lie saw more surely than others that the issue lay between despotism and' revolution. When Winthrop and his followers sailed the storm had not yet broken, but the first warning sounds were heard. Well might Eng- lishmen long for a refuge where they might preserve these constitutional forms whose day seemed in England to have passed away, and that political freedom which at home, if saved at aU, could be saved only by the sword. The first step towards fulfilling these schemes was to procure a home for the new commonwealth. This The first was dono by an agreement with the New Eng- chSts land council, which transferred to six grantees patenu ^Y[ the territory from the Merrimac on the north to a point three miles south of the Charles river. The tract thus granted had a deeply indented seaboard of about forty-five miles in length, and, as usual, its ex- tension inland was unlimited. Owing to the confused and reckless fashion in which the New England council dealt with its territory, there were already claims to it under previous grants. The general history of these wUl come before us again. For the present it is only necessary to consider them so Disputes far as they bore upon the Massachusetts patent. Mason and In August 1622 Gorges and John Mason ob- ^"s^- tained a grant of all the land between the rivers Kennebec and Merrimac.^ Later in the same year Robert Gorges obtained a grant of ' all that part of the mainland in New England commonly called Messachu- ' Colonial Papers, 1628, March 19. » lb. 1622, Aug. 10. 1622-9 DISPUTES WITH MASON AND GOEGES. 117 stack, situate on the north-east side of Messachusetts Bay.'^ The grant to the Dorchester associates en- croached on the former grant, and swallowed up the latter. The difficulty with Mason was got over, as it would seem, by a compromise, by which the land in dispute was divided, and the boundary fixed at theMer- rimac.^ If this were so, there must have been, between 1622 and 1629, some partition of land not recorded between Gorges and Mason, since it is nowhere said that the former was a party to the arrangement with the Mas- sachusetts Company. It is certain that Mason obtained in 1629 a grant for the land between the Piscataqua and the Merrimac, in all likelihood as a formal ratifi- cation of the compromise.^ The claims of Eobert Gorges caused more trouble. His death had vested his rights either in his brother John or in his father.* In either case we may be sure that the active support of the claims would fall to the shareof SirFerdinando. According to his own account, he, as one of the council for New England, only sanctioned the grant to Cradock and his partners on the understanding that it should not interfere with the grant of 1623 to his son.® That limitation was never recognised by the Massachusetts Company, and the conflict of claims was in all likelihood the original cause of a feud which left abiding traces in colonial history. Of the six grantees two only, Humphrey and Endi- ' Colonial Papers, 1622, Dec. 30. * Thia is mentioned by Hubbard (p. 226). Apparently the original documentary authority for it is the report of the commissioners sent out by Charles the Second {Colonial Papers, 1665, Dec. 14). Jocelyn ia there given as the authority for it. Jocelyn, who will often come before us, waa a leading man in Maine, and no friend to Massachusetts. » Colonial Papers, 1629, Nov. 7. * This is stated by Mr. Adams in his preface to the New English Canaan by Mr. Haven (Arch. Am. vol. iii. p. xliv.), and by Mr. Young (M. C. p. 170). None of them give an authority, and 1 cannot find one. Yet aU three writers are so habitually trustworthy that I venture to accept the statement. " Gorges, p. 80. 118 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1G29 cott, play any part in later New England history. The former had already been treasurer of the fishing com- pany at Cape Ann, and he subsequently held office under the Massachusetts Company, both in England and in the Tije colony itself.^ John Endicott at once took a patentees, prominent place in the new undertaking, and to the end of his hfe he stood in the foremost rank of New England statesmen, figuring at every stage as the embodi- ment of all that was narrowest and sternest in Puritanism. For the present this grant did no more than establish a private partnership. The partners might entertain Endicott ^^^ acknowledge among themselves political de- sent out. signs, but in the eyes of the world there was no- thing to distinguish their scheme from those of Gorges or Weston. In the face of the grant to Eobert Gorges it was clear that the title' of the Company to its newly acquired lands might at any time be challenged. Measures were at once taken to meet this danger. Endicott was sent out with sixty men to make good his claim by occu- pation. The small station at Salem, which had been strengthened in the previous year by the exportation of twelve cattle,^ served as a nucleus for the new settle- ment, and Endicott was sent out with men enough to bring the total number up to sixty.^ If any specific in- structions were given to Endicott they are no longer extant, nor is there anything to show how far the Httle community was entrusted with the management of its own afiairs. Later documents suggest that Endicott's chief mission was to make preparations for a further instalment of settlers, and to send home a sample of what the country could produce. He was to ship a freight of beaver skins and fish, or, failing those, of timber, with specimens of any herbs that might be use- ' Mr. Haven in Arch. Am. vol. iii. p. 50. ' Planters' Plea, p. 43. » Ih. 1629 TROUBLE WITH MORTON. 119 fill as dyes or for medicine.^ A very full inventory is extant of the goods with which he was supplied, and the entry of five hundred red caps makes one suppose that some trade with the natives was intended, though no undertaking of the kind is recorded.^ The new-comers seem to have been at first ill received. This was in all likehhood due to the influ- Troubie encc of Mortou, who, through the leniency with Mor- ^ a m t i ton. or unscrupuiousness oi Allerton, had now re- turned to New England.^ His own account of the matter is too confused and metaphorical to be of much value.* He seems to have objected, firstly to Endicott's claim of civil authority, and then to his attempt to enforce a system of joint trade. On the latter point he apparently gained his way. He tells with satisfaction how he made ' six or seven for one,' while the trade of the Company under ' Captain Littleworth,' as he calls Endicott, only brought loss. On this he founds an accu- sation of dishonesty against Endicott ; but if Morton sold ammunition and spirits to the natives without scruple, the matter is easily explained. The dispute with the old settlers was settled, we are expressly told, by the moderation and forbearance of Conant, who thus for the second time played the part of a peacemaker.^ For the present Morton him- self escaped punishment. But Merrymount was no longer suffered to be a school of riot and debauchery. Morton's associates there had been guilty of that crowning outrage on Puritan decency, the setting up of a maypole. Endi- cott hewed down the infelix arbor, branded the seat of iniquity with the name of Mount Dagon, and solemnly admonished its occupants ' to look that there should be better walking.' ® ' Letter from Cradock to Endicott {Arcfi. Am. vol. iii. p. 8). ' lb. p. 6. = Bradford, p. 167. * New English Canaan, bk. iii, ch. 2] . ' Hutbard, p. 109. « Bradford, p. 160 120 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1629 Meanwhile the partners in England were taking steps to strengthen their legal position. . The six original A royal patentees admitted more persons into their charter ^ ' ^ obtained, partnership. inis change was accompanied by one still more serious. The promoters of the colony were no longer content to be a mere private company for trade. The authority of the Crown was to be called in to make good any flaw which might exist in their territorial title. In March 1629 a royal charter was obtained, constituting a legal corporation, under the title of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.^ This corpora- tion were to elect annually a Governor, Deputy- Governor, and eighteen Assistants, who were to hold monthly meetings. The appointment of eighteen Assis- tants shows that the Company was to be enlarged considerably beyond its present numbers. General meetings were to be held four times a year. The members had power to elect necessary officers, and to defend their own territory by force against invasion or attack. *■ The Governor and Assistants might, if they thought fit, administer the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to members of the Company. It is not un- likely that this clause may have been inserted to meet the difficulty which had lately arisen in the case of Lord Baltimore, owing to the absence of any such pro- vision in the Virginia charter.^ ' In anticipation of a future want the grantees re- sisted the insertion of any condition which should fix the government of the Company in England. Winthrop explicitly states that the advisers of the Crown had originally imposed such a condition, but that the patentees succeeded, not without difficulty, in freeing ' The charter is in the Colonial Papers. It is also given in Hazard s Collection, vol. i. p. 239. ' See Viryinin, &c., p. 370. 1629 phoceedinqs of the company. 121 themselves Irom it.^ That fact is a full answer to those who held that in transferring the government to America the patentees broke faith with the Crown. ^ The records of this corporation supply us with ample information as to the measures taken in establish- Prooeedings ing the new colony. The first Governor elected Company, was Matthcw Cradock, of whom little is known, ■save that he was a member of the Long Parliament. He does not appear to have even visited New England, and he soon steps aside to make way for more active, if not more zealous, promoters of the colony. Of the Assistants, the most important was Sir Eichard Salton- stall. His stay in the colony only extended over one year, but during that time he seems to have taken a leading part in public affairs, and he became the founder of an important New England family.^ One of the first steps taken by the newly organized Company was to establish a government resident in the colony. This was to consist of a Governor, a Deputy-Governor, and twelve councillors, or, as they are usually called after- wards. Assistants. Of these, seven were to be named by the Company, three more chosen by these seven and the Governor, and the remaining three appointed by the ' old planters,' that is to say, by those independent settlers whom Endicott had found already established on the territory of the Company under grants from the ' This is stated by Winthrop in a pamphlet written in 1044, and pub- lished in an appendix to his life, vol. ii, p. 443. ^ The most noteworthy upholder of this view is the late Mr. Oliver, in that remarkable book, The Puritan Commmiwedth, published in 1856. Mr. Oliver was a Boston lawyer, and a zealous churchman. Provoked by tho extravagant and unreaaonaWe praise so often bestowed on the founders of Massachusetts, he has subiected their actions to a merciless scrutiny, always acute and sometimes just, but more often carried out in the spirit of a party advocate. His work is of no small value to the student of New England history as the pleading of an advocatus diaboli, and as a set-off against the too frequent adulations of American writers. '' Mr. Haven gives short biographical sketches of Cradock and Saltonstall {Arch. Am. vol. iii. pp. 56, 66). 122 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1629 council of New England. The Governor, Deputy- Governor, and Council were empowered to appoint minor officers and to enact such laws as they might deem needful for the colony, with the customary reser- vation that they were not to be at variance with the laws of the realm.^ It is worth noticing that the local government thus estabUshed is formally styled an absolute government, and that no provision is made for any control to be exercised by the Company, either over legislation or over the appointment of officers. It would seem as though the functions of the Company were to be confined to managing the trade and the material welfare of the settlement. Indeed, one may believe that when these provisions were framed some at least of the members must have contemplated the coming change, whereby the Company ceased to exist as a separate corporation and became merge^ in the legislature of the colony. Land was allotted on a system like that adopted by the Virginia Company. Each shareholder was to have System of two hundred acres for every fifty pounds that tenure. hc had invested. If he settled in the colony he was to have- fifty more for himself and fifty for each member of his family. Emigrants who were not share- holders were to have an aUotinent of fifty acres, with the same quantity for each servant exported. The Governor and Council had also power to grant a further quantity to such emigrants 'according to their charge and quality.' A proposal was made and favourably enter- tained that all land granted to those who were not shareholders should be burdened with certain hereditary services, but this scheme fell to the ground.^ At the same time provisions were made for the spiritual needs of the settlers. Early in 1629 three > YouDg, M. a, p. ]92. ' The scheme for tenures ty service is proposed in the instructions to Endicott {Arch. Am. vol. iii, p. 104). 1629 MINISTERS ENGAGED. 123 ministers were engaged. One of them, Francis Higgin- son, had been a beneficed clergyman of the Church of Ministers England, but had either resigned his living or engaged, i^qqj^ deprived for nonconformity. After this he had held one of those lecturerships which the Puritan party maintained by voluntary contributions. He may be looked on as the earliest of those New England divines who were men of letters as well, and to whose writings we owe a large share of our knowledge of the secular affairs of the colony. His accounts of his voyage and of the fertility and wholesomeness of his new abode are graphic and at times picturesque, and he was pro- bably one of those who were charged with having sent home ' too large commendations of the country,' and thereby prepared the way for much disappointment.^ Of the two other ministers engaged. Bright and Skelton, we know less.-^They were both graduates of Cambridge, but there is notffing to show that they were in holy orders. The agreement with the three ministers is extant.^ Each was to be sent out free of cost, with the right of a passage back at the expiration of three years. A house and a hundred acres of freehold were to be given to each, with two cows, whose produce was to be shared by rather a complicated arrangement between the ministers and the Company. In the event of their staying seven years another hundred acres was to be allotted to them. Higginson and Skelton each ended their days in Massachusetts after a short sojourn there. Bright was one of those who turned back, disheartened, as it would seem, by the difiiculties of colonial life.* A fourth minister, Ealph Smith, also went out, not appa- rently by agreement, but as a volunteer. He differed ' Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln (Young, M. C, p. 310), makes this complaint. Higginson'a journal of his voyage, and a pamphlet hy him entitled New EnglaruCs Plantation, are in Young, M. C, pp. 213 220. The latter is also published in Force, vol. i. " Young, M. C, p. 205. ' Dudley's letter, p. 316. 124 THE SETTLEMENT OF 5U.SSACIIUSETT3. 1629 from the other three in that he was a Separatist, they only Nonconformists. He soon became dissatisfied with the colony, and wandered about in great difficulty and want, till at length he found a flock more akin to him in opinions at Plymouth.^ The fleet of ships which took out the ministers also carried out some three hundred and fifty emigrants, with a large supply of live stock, a matter in which the colony was well pro- vided from the outset.^ At the same time the Company sent a letter to Endicott * with a copy of the charter, followed in the Endicotfa next mouth by further supplementary instruc- tions, tions. A considerable part of these is occupied with advice about trade, and with provisions for carry- ing out the system of land tenure already described. Nothing is said about the conversion of the natives ; indeed the instructions concerning them rather prohibit any attempts in that direction?, ' For avoiding the hurt that may follow through much familiarity with them,' they are to be suffered to visit the colony only at certain specified times and places. All the settlers are to be trained in the use of arms, and regular musters are to held. At the same time strict justice is to be observed in all dealings with the savages, and if their territorial rights are infringed they are to receive compensation. They are also to be guarded against the evils resulting from the introduction of spirits. The credit due to the Company for this precaution is somewhat lessened when we read that ' there is much strong waters sent for sale,' ' Bradford, p. 172. The Company in their instructions to Endicott (p. 151) say, ' Mr. Ralph Smith, a minister, hath desired passage in ourships.' " Smith distinctly says six ships and three hundred and fifty emigrants. See his Advertisements far the Unexperienced, or the Fat,hway to arect a Plantation ( Works, p. 949) . This was his last pubhshed writing, and appeared in 1680. The Company's archives confirm this. Higginson, strangely enough, says five ships, and does not mention the number of emigrants. ^ Arch. Am. vol. iii. pp. 79, 93. 1C20 ENDICOTT'S INSTRUCTIONS. 125 and that the purchase of drink by the savages is not to be forbidden, but only ' so ordered as that the savages may not, for our lucre's sake, be reduced to the excessive use, or rather abuse, of it.' One of the most important points dealt with in Endicott's instructions was his treatment of the old planters. It was but natural that they resented the suddenly imposed control of a body in whose constitu- tion and administration they had no share. Endicott was instructed to conciliate them by giving them the freedom of the Company, with all rights of trade belonging thereto, confirming them in their holdings, and supplementing these with grants of land at his own discretion. Another difficulty lay in the fact that these old planters had been in the habit of growing tobacco. The members of the Company had wholly set their faces against this form of industry, seeing, no doubt, that it was incompatible with those social and economical arrangements at which they aimed. The old planters, however, were allowed to continue tobacco culture if they pleased. At the same time the Company did its best to dissuade them by pointing out the unprofitable nature of the crop, while all other settlers were for- bidden either to grow, sell, or use it. In addition to the growth of tobacco the Company found it necessary to prohibit the sale of guns and ammunition to the Indians. This prohibition was pro- bably aimed rather at traders and captains of fishing vessels than at permanent settlers.^ The conduct of Morton too, as reported by Endicott, may have helped to bring about this measure. In any case it illustrates the difficulties of the Company in dealing with a country which was already in part settled. ' Dudley in Us letter says that the factors employed in the heaver trade by merchants from Bristol and elsewhere were special offenders (Youns ^f. C, p. ."""^ 126 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1629 Setting aside Morton, the only one of the old planters who seems to have caused the Company any serious trouble was Oldham. He had obtained rights over a portion of the soil as a sub-tenant of Eobert Gorges.^ The archives of the Company contain several references to disputes with him, but do not give us sufficient material for fully understanding them.^ It is clear that the difficulty was due partly to the uncompromising tenacity with which Oldham upheld his rights, partly to his sanguine and speculative disposition. At one time he seems to have sought for employment as a factor or trading agent for the Company, for which post he was, after much consideration, pronounced unfit. Then he tried to establish a private partnership with a monopoly of the beaver trade. Endicott was instructed to prevent this, and also to estabhsh a settlement in Massachusetts Bay, near the present site of Boston, by way of making good his footing there against Old- ham. How Oldham's claims were disposed of does not appear, but his later relations to the government of Massachusetts show that peace was estabhshed between them. The servants sent out at the Company's expense were subjected to a rigid system of disciphne. They Strict dis- were to be divided into groups, or, as they enforaed. wcrc Called, families. Every family was to be placed under a head, either a minister or a layman, chosen for his moral and religious fitness and for know- ledge of some trade. Each of these overseers was to keep a register of the work done by those under him, and these registers were to be sent in to the Governor and forwarded to the Company in England. Industry was to be enforced, n.ot merely on the servants of the Company, but on all the settlers.^ ' No idle drone ' is ' For this grant see the Company's Records {Arch. Am. vol. iii. p- 95)' 2 75. pp. 15,22,31. ' J6. p. 99. 1629 ECCLESIASTICAL SETTLEMENT. 127 to be permitted to live in the settlement.^ ' For the better governing and ordering ' of the settlers, and es- pecially to check indolence, a house of correction is to be built.2 At the same time the ecclesiastical organization of the settlement was effected. The ease and rapidity with Ecciesias- which this was carried out shows how slight m«it! was the difference between Puritanism within the Church and Congregationalism, and how readily the former passed into the latter when circumstances favoured the change. The founders of the colony had not as yet avowed themselves hostile to the Church of England, and of the four ministers taken out only one, as we have seen, was a Separatist. But the whole party, laymen and clergy alike, were bound to the Chujch only by expediency and not by any real loyalty. In their new home all motive for compromise was at end. If an example had been needed one was furnished by the neighbouring colony of Plymouth . Before the minis- ters arrived one Fuller, a surgeon and an Elder in the Plymouth church, had visited Salem, and had given Endicott advice concerning the religious constitution of his settlement. Accordingly, as soon as the ministers landed Higginson and Skelton were elected to the offices of pastor and teacher respectively. Each then in turn ordained the other by laying hands on him. A church covenant, that is, we may suppose, a system of faith and discipline, was then drawn up by Higginson, and accepted by thirty of the settlers. Elders were appointed, and the ceremony of ordination apparently repeated by them.^ Bradford and some of the chief men from Plymouth set forth to attend this ceremony, but from contrary winds arrived too late.* ' Arch. Am. vol. iii. p. 105. 2 tj. p_ 99^ ' The whole of this proceeding is described by Bradford (p. 173). ' This is stated by Morton {New England's Memorial, p. 99). 128 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1620 The first effect of this step was to reveal rather than to create disunion in the colony. Two brothers, John Expulsion and Samuel Browne, members of the Council Brownes.< and highly esteemed by the leading men of the Company, were dissatisfied with the ministers for not using the Book of Common Prayer and for neglecting the ceremonies of the Church of England. Accordingly, they drew together a congregation of those who thought with them, and read the service from the Prayer Book. Por this they were summoned before the Governor and Council. The Brownes then charged the ministers with being Separatists, and foretold that they would become Anabaptists. After some further dispute Endicott told them that New England was no fit place for such as they were, and sent them home. They demanded compensation from the Company, and the matter was referred to a committee, containing amongst its members four nominated by the Brownes themselves. Beyond that point we have no account of the dispute. The feature of the case least to the credit of the Company is an entry in the records to the effect that certain letters, written by the Brownes to their friends in England, were to be detained and read, and might be used against their authors if occasion offered. But the substantial justice of a measure is a different matter from the propriety of each detail. On the face of it, no doubt, there is something repulsive in the spectacle of those who had just been suffering from persecution becoming, at least in outward appearance, persecutors in turn. The later history of New England will furnish examples of ecclesiastical tyranny which leave no room • Endicotfs dealings with the Brownes are told by Morton (p. 100). Brad- ford does not mention it, nor does it appear whence Morton derives his account. We have also various entries in the records, and a letter from the Assistants in England to the ministers on the subject. It is clear from this letter that the Assistants rather feared the indiscreet zeal of those in the colony. 1G29 BANISHMENT OF THE BEOWNES. 129 for extenuation. But the banishment of the Brownes differed widely in detail if not in principle from the persecution of the Antinomians and the Quakers. Again, expulsion from an old-established society and exclusion from a newly-formed one are two widely different things. In the latter case the penalty to the individual is far less, the need of the community for protection far greater. Endicott and his council might reasonably plead that the colony was a partnership formed for special objects, and that it would be folly to suffer men among them who were avowedly hostile to those objects. If there were a fault, it lay not so much in the expulsion of the Brownes as in the somewhat Jesuitical policy which up to that time had disguised the intentions of the Company. If the colony was to become what its promoters intended, unity, not merely of religious belief, but of ritual and of ecclesiastical discipline, was, at least for the present, a needful condition of existence. We must not condemn the banishment of the Brownes unless we are prepared to say that it would have been better for the world if the Puritan colony of Massachusetts had never existed. This measure showed that Massachusetts was to be an exclusively Puritan settlement. The next step Transfer of ^^^ ^ declaration that it was to be as far as to^Am/r'*' possible au independent commonwealth. On '<=»•' the twenty-eighth of July Cradock laid before the Assistants a proposal for transferring the govern- ment of the plantation to those in America, instead of keeping it subordinate to the Company in England. No vote was then taken, but the members present were instructed to consider the matter ' privately and secretly,' and to report their views in writing at the next meeting. Before that meeting twelve of the more influential members bound themselves by a written agreement to emigrate with their families if the transfer" ' The whole of these proceedings are recorded in the Archives. 11. TC 130 THE SETTLKMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1629 of the government could be effected.^ On tlie twenty- ninth of August the question was formally proposed and the measure carried. At first it was intended that this change should only apply to the government of the colony, and not to the commercial management of the Company. As expressed in the minutes of the Company, ' the government of persons was to be held there, the government of. trade and merchandises to be here.' The relations, in fact, between the two bodies were to be like those subsisting between the Virginia Company and the local legislature. But the example of Virginia was not encouraging, and the men who were about to settle in Massachusetts aimed at an amount of independence which they could never enjoy unless they were set wholly free from the control of a corporation in Eng- land. The matter was somewhat complicated by the fact that the Company was in debt to the amount of three thousand pounds, two-thirds of which debt was caused by unpaid subscriptions. Although this may have made the details of arrangement more difficult, yet in one way it furthered matters. The speculation looked so unpromising that it was easy to arrange a compro- mise with those partners who regarded the undertaking solely or chiefly as one of business. Two committees were appointed, one to represent the interests of the shareholders, the other those of the planters who were going out. The encumbered state of the Company made it necessary, in modern commercial language, to propose a fresh issue of stock to the original share- holders. They, however, refused this proposal. Finally it was arranged that the stock and Mabihties of the Company should be transferred to ten persons. In con- sideration of their incurring this risk they were to enjoy a partial monopoly of the fur trade, an entire monopoly of salt-making, of the shipping of emigrants and goods, ' This agreement is published hy Mr. Young, M. C, 279. 1629 JOHN WINTHKOP, 131 and of supplying the public magazines at fixed rates. The valuation made for this transfer showed that the present stock of the Company was only worth one- third of the sum subscribed. In compensation for this loss an additional portion of land was allotted to each share- holder, together with the right of investing a further sum for trade, such trade to be carried on for seven years under the control of the ten partners, and then to revert to the shareholders. Nothing seems to have come of this. The practical result of the transfer was to extinguish the old Company and to substitute a private firm of ten partners, all directly interested in the political and social future of the colony. Of their commercial doings we hear nothing, and there can be little doubt that these were subordinated to the general well-being of the settlement. The change of design necessarily brought with it a change of oflScials. It was needful that the more im- john portant offices of the Company should be filled ^pointTd ^y ^-^"^ ^^^ intended to emigrate. Cradock Governor, accordingly resigned. His place was filled by John Winthrop. He was now in his forty-third year ; a Suffolk landholder, the representative of one of those houses of which so many rose during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from burgess rank to a place among the country gentry. He was himself a member of the Inner Temple, and had held a small legal office. We may well believe that even those who knew him can have scarcely discerned the promise of a future career of greatness as a statesman. For his was one of those characters, essentially Enghsh, in which the seven- teenth century was above aU fruitful, men whom a careful discharge of small duties has trained for higher tasks, who when those tasks come accept them with no unworthy shrinking or self-abasement, with the dignity and consciousness of strength, but who, tiU that hour K 2 132 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1629 comes, care little what the world thinks of their powers. In such men there is no impatience nor haste, no craving for the rewards or the excitement of the conflict, but a steadfast waiting for some clear call of duty. They may seem slothful to those who do not know the inner secret of their strength ; they might be fatalists if it were not for their resolute purpose and creative power. Such were the men whom Puritanism found waiting their summons. A living coal from the altar of Calvin touched their lips. The Enghsh squire and trader was transformed into a statesman who could baffle princes in council, a soldier who could overthow them on the battle-field. The training and temper of such men fitted them to take all that was best in their new creed. The gloom of Calvinistic theology, the atrocity of its logical conclusions, went for nothing with men who were in- difierent to abstract speculation. They did not need to be transformed by the moral disciphne of Puritanism ; it was enough if they were imbued and inspired with higher aims. The culture of the Eenaissance, its art hovering on the verge of frivolity, its humanism ever passing into sensuality, formed no part of their hves. The Englishman of the Elizabethan age did not turn his back on the world of art, but it had no real hold on his spirit. At most it was but the fringe of his life and did not enter into the substance of it. His very pastimes, hke those of Englishmen in aU ages of healthy national vigour, had in them an element of disciphne and self-restraint. His recreations were found in those ' solemn and divine harmonies of music' which Milton deemed a needful part of manly training, or in those field-sports in which the strength, endurance, and intelligence of man were still matched against the craft of wild beasts. If he gave up these pleasures at the bidding of rehgion, he did so, not so much in the spirit of the self-mortifying ascetic, as of the man who puts away childish things. Some- 1629 HIS 'MODEL OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY.' 138 times he was strong enough even to free himself from the need for such renunciation. The Comus is the immortal witness of a half-successful attempt to conse- crate those arts which weaker men would have banished. Thus the Puritanism of men such as Hampden and Winthrop was not like a sudden wave of religion sweeping over an enervated and sensual class. It did not transform life at the risk of a violent reaction ; rather it braced up men's energies and impulses by setting forth aims higher indeed than those held before, yet akin to them, bound to the associations and memories of the past, not severed from them by the shame of recantation or remorse. We have evidence from Winthrop's own pen that he well understood the duties which were laid upon himself His 'Model ^^^ ^^^ assoclatcs, and the moral and social "fChristian diflScultics to which a young community is specially exposed. His views on these points are set forth in an address written during his voyage, and entitled ' A Model of Christian Charity.' It may be de- scribed as a short and clear statement of the principles An which Christian men should live together, and especi- ally of those moral laws which should guide them in their use of private property. As we might expect from the whole career of the writer, the work does not aim at any marked originahty of thought ; yet it is full of in- dividual character, and wholly free from conventionality either of idea or expression. It is the work of a prac- tical man writing for a practical end. From first to last there is nothing sectarian nor controversial. Illus- tration is used where it is needed, but there is no dis- play of learning, and the style, unhke much of the writing of that age, is neither ponderous nor fantastic. Winthrop's view of property is that of Aristotle. He ' The Model of Christian Charity is printed in the Maseachusetts His- torical Collection, 3rd series, vol. vii. 134 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETT.S. 1629-30 would have individual ownership combined with common use.^ At the same time that community of enjoyment must not be based on any formal system, nor can it be provided for by exact rules. It must spring from the free spirit of Christian charity and brotherly love. Winthrop also shows himself fully alive to the dangers which beset a young community, where the struggle of life is keener than in an old-established state. 'We must,' he says, ' be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the supply of others' necessities.' Finally he appeals to his followers by reminding them how their failure will discredit the cause of God. If they should fail through their own selfishness they will shame the face of God's worthy servants. If they should succeed, then men would say of other planta- tions in later days, ' The Lord make it like that of New England.' More than one of Win thr op's associates was, like himself, abandoning ease, wealth, and the possibihty of a Winthrop's brilHaut public career. Such were the Deputy- associates. Grovemor, John Humphrey, and Isaac Johnson. Slightly, if at all, lower in rank was Thomas Dudley, a stern Puritan who had served in the Huguenot army under Henry the Fourth. All these were connected with the Earl of Lincoln, the head of a great Protestant family, Humphrey and Johnson as his sons-in-law, Dudley as the steward of his household.^ In the spring of 1630 Winthrop and his party of emigrants sailed. Owing to delays in preparing the Their de- sMps the wholc body did not sail together, but parture. ^^ ^^ j^jg^g|. three detachments, numbering in all about nine hundred emigrants. This, which we may ' (jiavepbv Tolwv on Peknov flvai fiev IBias Tas Kr^a-eis, Ttj 8e xPW^^ ffoieii' Koivds. Politics, ii. 6. 8. ' Sketches of all these men are given in the Archaologia Americana, vol. iii. 1C30 THE EMIGRATION OF 1630. 135 regard as virtually the foundation of Massachusetts, was unquestionably the greatest effort of colonization which Enghshmen had yet made. For the first time the projects of Ealeigh and Gilbert found their fulfilment. England was at length sending out, not a band of traders nor of pauper labourers, but a worthily representative body of citizens, animated, like a Greek colony, with the desire to reproduce the political life of the country which they were leaving. In Virginia, indeed, so far as natural conditions allowed, the constitutional life of the mother country reappeared in no unworthy form. But the growth of Virginia had been imperceptible and, as it were, unconscious ; there was no epoch in its history which answered to the great New England emigration of 1630. As far as the romance of its circumstances and the personal heroism of its leaders goes, the settlement of Plymouth, beyond a doubt, must rank higher than that of Massachusetts. But it cannot claim the same im- portance as a deliberate and well-considered effort of colonization. It was not free choice but hostile pressure from without which drove the Plymouth settlers to for- sake their EngHsh homes and to accustom themselves to an exile which lessened the effort of emigration. The founders of Massachusetts were many of them rich men furnished with abihty, dwelhng peaceably in their habi- tations, who forsook the good things of the world to win for themselves .and their children a home free from its corruptions. The narrowness of their aims and measures must often forbid our sympathy or even awake our indignation ; it should never bhnd us to the greatness of their undertaking. In June Winthrop landed in America. In spite of the wealth and commercial ability of its founders the infant settlement of Massachusetts did not escape those sufferings which so far seemed to be the allotted portion of every colony in its early years. Of the settlers 136 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1630 who had been sent out the year before more than eighty had died during the winter, and the survivors had but a fortnight's victuals left. The arrival of Win- of'thV°^° throp and his followers did not make matters ooionists.i ^g^^gj._ ]y[any of them were suffering from . scurvy, and the ship which was to have brought stores with them was by mishap or mismanagement kept back. Unhappily it was a season of dearth in England, and but little corn could be exported. Later writers tell us of the fortitude and resignation with which the settlers endured their hardships. Dudley and Winthrop seem to have been less impressed with the heroism of those who stayed than with the*faint-heartedness of those who fled. In the first year after Winthrop's landing more than a hundred settlers, some of them men of wealth, left the colony. The greater part, among them Bright, one of the four ministers lately sent out, returned to England, others joined the settlers on the Piscataqua.^ One consequence of the dearth was that the Company had no means of feeding its hired servants, who now numbered a hundred and eighty. Accordingly Hired ser- . • i i • y i vants set it was neccssary to give them their ireeaom. As each of them had cost about twenty pounds to transport the loss was a heavy one. The natural condition of New England made it certain that servile industry could never play a prominent part in the economy of the colony, and that the land would be mainly tilled by small proprietors. Yet the check thus imposed on the employment ol servants and the addition to the community of a large body of free labourers must have hastened and confirmed the working of a natural tendency. ' The arrival of Winthrop's fleet and many of the chief incidents that follow are told in a letter from Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln, sent home on March 12, 1630. The letter is published in Young, M. C, pp. 303-340. ' Dudley, pp. 316, 316. a /j gjg 1629-31 EXTENSION OF THE SETTLEMENT. 137 The poverty of the settlers had another important result. It led them to spread abroad over the land in search of fertile soil. From the outset they ^xtension ^^^^^ ^^ j^^^^ agreed by common consent that settlement.! g^^^^ ^^^j^ ^^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ Colouy. A few of the settlers sent out the year before had already established themselves to the north of the Charles river, and had given their abode the name of Charles- town. Here Winthrop at first chose his home. But the brackish water made Charlestown an undesirable dwelling-place. One of the old planters, Blackstone, had occupied a site on the south side of the Charles river which possessed a valuable spring of fresh water. He now recommended this site to Winthrop. The Governor accordingly decided to leave his first resting- place, and the inhabitants of Charlestown had the dis- appointment of seeing his new timber house carried across the river to a fresh site, which then received the name of Boston,'^ and which henceforth seems to have enjoyed, though in an unacknowledged and in- formal manner, the position of the capital. Soon after Winthrop resolved upon a yet further migration to the inland site of Newtown. His house was for a second time actually transferred, but the urgent request of his neighbours at Boston prevailed, and the Governor stayed among them.^ So rapid was the process of dispersal that within a year of Winthrop's arrival eight separate settlements were in existence, dotted along the shore of ' Our knowledge of the extension of the colony is derived partly from Winthrop, Dudley, and Wood, partly from two pamphlets puhliahed in Young, M. C. I have already mentioned one of these, the Records of Charlestovm. The other is the Memoirs of Roger Clap, one of those also who came out with Winthrop. This was written apparently for the edifica- tion of Clap's children, and was not printed till 1731. '' Charlestown Records, p. 881 . ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 82. In citing Winthrop I refer throughout to the old pagination, which is preserved hy Mr. Savage in the margin. 138 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1631 the bay from Salem to Dorchester. Inland, to the west, the furthest settlement was Watertown, lying on the north bank of the Charles river, some five miles from Charlestown. In all likelihood it was only the strong desire for congregational unity and for religious minis- tration which, coupled with the lack of clergy, kept this process from going yet further. The growth of fresh settlements brought with it an expansion in the constitutional machinery of the colony. Of all the colonies that have yet come before Change m . . . , , , the consti- US, V iTgmia IS the only one where a system of tution. ' , ° . •' . . •' local representation came mto existence at once in full working order. In every other case it was reached after a variety of contrivances and compromises. The reason is plain. Every other colony enjoyed a certain amount of independence before it had grown large enough to make a local representation either needful or possible. Only in Virginia had the colony the needful materials for a representative assembly at the time when it first acquired the right of self-government. It might be thought that the rapid formation of separate planta- tions would have made Massachusetts a second excep- tion. But, if it be not a paradox to say so, the consti- tution of Massachusetts was older than the existence of the colony. The legislature of the colony was simply the General Court of the Company transferred across the Atlantic. At the same time the dispersal of the settlers at once unfitted that body for the work of legis- lation. The remedy first applied to this difficulty was, not to substitute a representative assembly for a primary one, but to limit the functions of the Court. It is clear that there was an oligarchical temper at work among the leading men in Massachusetts. The action of this was plainly shown by the transfer of all legislative rights from the Court of freemen to the Governor, Deputy- Governor, and Assistants. At the same time the election 1030-1 CHANGE IN THE CONSTITUTION. 139 of the Governor was handed over from the freemen to the Assistants. These measures were enactedin October 1630.^ In the following March this change was carried yet fur- ther. Hitherto seven Assistants had been required to form a legal meeting. The return of several of the leading men to England made it difficult to secure the presence of a full court. Accordingly it was enacted that, if less than nine Assistants were in the colony, then a majority of them should constitute a meeting.^ This system, if retained, might, and in all likelihood would, have thrown the supreme power into the hands of a small ohgarchy resident at Boston. There is good reason to think that this was followed by a still further aggression upon the rights of the freemen. In May 1631 it was enacted at the General Court of Election ' that it shall be lawful for the commons to propound any persons that they should desire to be chosen Assistants.' * One leading authority on the history of Massachusetts has seen in tliis ' a substitution of the invidious and difficult process of removal ' for the right of election.* This must, perhaps, be regarded as a conjecture, but it is conjecture which approaches nearly to certainty. It is at least safe to assume that the change, even if it did not deprive the freemen of their right of election, encompassed the exercise of it with difficulties. True to Enghsh precedent, Massachusetts found the salvation of her constitutional liberties in a question of Dispute taxation. When the Governor had intended about taxatioD.5 to change his abode to Newtown, the assembly resolved to fortify that settlement at the public charge. Although Winthrop abandoned his purpose of leaving Boston, the fortification of Newtown still went on, probably with a view to guarding the frontier of the ' Records, vol. i. p. 79. = lb. p. 84 ' lb. p. 87. * Palfrey, History of New England, ed. 1882, vol. i. p. 349. ' Our knowledge of this di.ipute is derived from Winthrop (vol. i. p. 70). 140 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1631-2 colony against the Indians. To meet the cost a rate was levied on each town by order of the Governor and Assistants. Against this the men of Watertown protested. Their objection seems to have rested, not on the ground that the Court had ceased to be a properly elected body, but on one less tenable, that the government merely existed for administrative purposes, and that the power to tax or make laws was vested in the whole body of freemen. Such a contention, by denying the validity of representation, really struck a blow at those popular rights which it proposed to defend. Happily the refusal to pay the rate went for more than the grounds on which that refusal was based. We may be sure too that in fact the men of Watertown were contending against an oligarchical spirit, which was probably made all the more dangerous by the conspicuous personal merit of the man in whom it was embodied. The recusants were summoned to Boston, and after being admonished by the Governor withdrew their opposition. The tone in which Winthrop talks of the transaction shows, as is but natural, no sympathy with his opponents. Yet the temper in which the men of Watertown defended their local rights was the best assurance that the same spirit would not be wanting if the liberties of the whole colony were ever threatened by any higher power. Though the men of Watertown gave way on the main issue, their protest seems to have borne fruit. In the next year the powers of the Governor were formally defined by an act unhappily no longer extant.^ It was also enacted by the General Court in the following May, that the whole body of freemen should choose the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and A ssistants.^ It is clear that a strong feeling on behalf of popular rights was • Winthrop, vol. i. p. 72. The records of this very important court are evidently imperfect. ' Ih. p. 75. 1631-2 DUDLEY ATTACKS WINTHROP. 141 abroad, since at the same time it was proposed that each train-band should choose its own officers. This proposal, however, was given up, in deference to the remon- strances of Winthrop.^ A further step towards self-government was taken in the resolution that every town should appoint two representatives to advise the Governor and Assistants on the question of taxation.^ We can hardly err in supposing that this was the direct result of the protest made by the men of Watertown. This constitutional dispute was followed soon after- wards by a personal one. In 1632 Dudley, the Deputy- Dudley Governor, brought certain charges of arbitrary winthrop. administration against the Governor. Our know- ledge of the dispute which ensued is derived entirely from Winthrop himself, and the tone in which he tells of it bears witness to his fairness of mind and generosity of temper.^ The matter was laid before a court of arbitrators, most of them, it would seem, ministers. The first of the grievances was an act by which, as Dudley contended, he had been injured. According to him Winthrop had formally entered into an undertaking to change his abode from Boston to Newtown, and had thereby induced Dudley and others to move. The Court decided that there were circumstances which extenuated Winthrop's breach of agreement, but that he was in fault. The other charges against Winthrop are of more interest since they all bore on the constitutional question of the origin and extent of the Governor's power. The first contention which Dudley put forward was that the Governor had no power beyond that of an Assistant except the right to summon the Court and to take formal precedence. Winthrop replied with the some- what weak plea that the Court, in constituting him ' "Winthrop, p. 76. * lb. = 25. p. 82_86. 142 THE SETTLEMENT OP MASSACHUSETTS. 1632 Governor, gave him all the power which belonged to a Governor by common law or statute. Dudley then charged the Governor with a series of acts by which he had exceeded the limits of his power. The attack was, no doubt, made more galling by Dudley's assertion that he proceeded ' in love, and not by way of accusation.' So bitter was the feeling on each side, that the arbitra- tors, instead • of deciding on the general question, had to content themselves with keeping the peace between the disputants. The proceedings of which the Deputy Governor complained fell under two heads, executive and judicial. Winthrop, he said, had of his own responsibility moved the ordnance, fortified Boston, lent powder from the pubhc store to the men of Plymouth, and permitted the estabhshment of a trading station and a fishing wear. Dudley furthermore charged Win- throp with remitting and postponing penalties, and with having induced the Court, after it had decided on a case, to change its verdict. Winthrop does not seem to have met Dudley's chai-ges in detail, but to have contented himself with the general, and not unreasonable, plea that some ' slips ' during three years of office ought to be overlooked. It was less worthy of his character to contrast his own liberality towards the public with the parsimony of his opponent. The arbitrators came to no formal decision, and Dudley, as it would seem, had to content himself with having called pubhc attention to the supposed in- fringements of the constitution. Most of the acts to which Dudley objected were no more than the needful use of executive power in con- tingencies for which the law cannot provide, and which must from their very nature be left to the discretion of one man. Nor is it easy to see how such power could be abused so long as the right of popular election was a reality. But we must not forget that the elective 1632-4 HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVES. 143 rights of the freemen seemed in danger of being im- paired by partial disuse, if not actually lost. A jealous and apprehensive watchfulness of arbitrary power is the tenure by which a state holds its freedom. It is certain, too, that Winthrop looked on popular government with distrust. ' The best part of a community is always the least, and of that least part the wiser are still less,' was the maxim in which he embodied his views.^ Dudley's accusation may have been factious in many of its details, and the spirit which prompted it may have been un- generous. Yet it probably anticipated a real danger, a danger made all the greater because suspicion was disarmed by Winthrop's high mental gifts and blameless integrity. During 1633 no change in the constitution of Massa- chusetts is recorded. Yet it is difficult not to suppose EatobiiBii- that Something was done in that vear, which ment of a ° J ^ House of connected the. proceedings of 1632 with those Kepresen- r- i no a t i i tatives. 01 1634. In the latter year the freemen of each town elected three representatives. The whole body, twenty-four in number, presented itself at the General Court.^ Sober and orderly though their proceed- ings were, yet it is clear that what they effected was little short of a revolution, if at least we may apply that name to the recovery of disused rights. The deputies demanded to see the patent, and reminded the Governor that by that instrument the power of making laws was vested in the whole body of freemen. The Governor pleaded that the framers of the patent had never con- templated such a number of freemen, and that the colony ' This was said in a letter written to Hooker. The letter itself is no longer extant, but fortunately we have an abstract of it by Winthrop himself. It is to be found at the end of his history (vol. ii. p. 428). The saying is also quoted by Roger Williams in a letter written to Winthrop himself (Narra- ganiet,t Club Publications, vol. vi. p. 1). , » Winthrop, vol. i. p. 128. The whole proceedings of the court mav be very clearly traced by a comparison of Winthrop with the records. 144 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 103^-40 did not possess the necessary materials for a House of Deputies. As a compromise, he suggested that the Governor might annually summon representatives of the freemen, who should revise the laws, declare grievances to the Court, and sanction taxation and the granting of lands, but who should have no power of original legis- lation. Such a declaration was not so much a concession as an avowal of the intention of an oligarchy to maintain power in their own hands. The steps by which the representatives of the freemen won their victory cannot be traced. Only we know that before the Court broke up they had recovered the full power of election and legislation. Henceforth there were to be four Courts a year. At one the whole body of freemen were to elect officers, namely, the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants ; at the other three the representatives of the various towns were to legislate, grant land, and transact public business. The precise manner in which the Assistants were chosen seems somewhat doubtful. It would appear as if up to 1639 the General Court claimed the right to nominate candidates, while in that year the right was transferred to the whole body of freemen. This much seems clear, that each candidate was finally submitted to all the electors to vote for or against him.i Thus it was necessary that each Assistant should be elected by an absolute majority of the voters. One result of this must have been that the freemen had it in their power at any time to paralyze government by refusing to appoint Assistants. As a matter of fact, while the charter provided for eighteen Assistants, up to the year 1640 not more than twelve ever held office together. The relations of the Assistants to the Deputies and the distribution of power between them were unde- fined. Both for the present sat in one chamber and deliberated together. In 1 634 a dispute arose as to the ' 1 infer this from the statement in Lechford, p. 25. 1684-5 DISPUTE BETWEEN ASSISTANTS AND DEPUTIES. 145 legislative powers of the two bodies. A project was brought forward, which will come before us more fully hereafter, for the settlement of Connecticut. Public opinion was much divided as to the expediency of the measure. When it came to the vote it was approved by a majority of five out of twenty-five Deputies, but negatived by the Assistants, of whom only two besides the Governor supported it. The question then arose, was the consent of both bodies necessary ? The popular excitement which ensued was allayed, as was usual in such emergencies, by a fast, at which John Cotton, a divine just arrived from England with a high reputation for learning and eloquence, held forth on the true nature and objects of the constitution. His sermon, as briefly reported by Winthrop, seems to have wholly evaded the difficulty. We are told, however, that it ' gave great satisfaction to the Company,' and that ' the afiairs of the Court went on cheerfully.' Next year the Assistants gave way to the views of the Deputies, and the question was for a while set at rest. After the manner in which Winthrop had dealt with the popular claims, it can hardly be wondered at Dudley that the electors should have looked ehe- Governor whcrc for a Govemor. Their choice fell on wiuthrap. Dudley, The voting was for the first time secret, a change which may have helped to embolden the freemen to take this step.'^ Something too may have been due to the indiscretion of Cotton. Un- familiar though he was with the afiairs of the ctolony, yet he ventured in a sermon to lay down the doctrine that such an office as the governorship should only be forfeited by misconduct.^ In the excited state of public feeling such advocacy could have but one eflect. 1 In the manuscript of Wiuthrop's history (vol. i. p. 132), at the notice of this election there is a marginal note, ' Chosen by papers.' ■^ Winthrop, vol. i. p. 132. II. L 146 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1631-5 It should be said, to Winthrop's honour, that his own account of these transactions bears no tinge of rancour or disappointment. While an oHgarchy of one kind was being over- thrown, an oligarchy of a different sort was estabUshing A reHgious itsclf In 1631 a law was passed, enacting that dtTzenship *io man should be a freeman of the colony unless introduced. ]jg ^g^g g^ member of some church.^ In other words, unless a man would profess his adhesion to a detailed and complex theological creed, and conform to an exacting system of morality and worship, he was debarred from all share in government. The defects of such a system hardly need to be stated. There are but few principles of legislation in which experience is unani- mous, but one at least among them is this ; that no out- ward profession extorted by force or induced by worldly motives can make men either honest beUevers or good citizens. One plea, and only one, may be put forward in defence of the measure. It may be said that it was necessary to insure loyalty to those common objects for which the colony existed, and that church-membership was the only available test of such loyalty. The need, it may be urged, was of the same kind which justified Elizabeth in treating Eomanism as a political crime. If the purpose of the legislature had been absolutely to exclude from the colony all who did not share the re- ligious views of the majority this defence might be vahd ; yet even so, it is hard to see why Massachusetts should have needed a safeguard with which Plymouth and Connecticut both dispensed. The present case differed from that of the Brownes. There Puritanism was brought face to face with its natural enemy, and there could be no issue but internecine war. It may be at times necessary to banish the missionaries of a hostile faith ; but to admit those who dissent from the recog- ' Records, vol. i. p. 87. 1631-6 RELIGIOUS TEST FOR CITIZENSHIP. 147 nized creed of the state, and then to harass them with penalties and restrictions, can never be necessary or even expedient. For in requiring a rehgious quaUfi- cation from its citizens the government of Massachu- setts made no attempt at excluding from its territory- all who were not members of a church. It not merely received them, but it even recognised their existence, and granted them certain civic rights. An oath of allegiance to the colony, differing but slightly from that imposed on the freemen, was required from them.^ Only their citizenship must remain incomplete. Such a policy could not fail to secularize religion, to embitter ecclesiastical disputes, and to keep alive within the colony an element of discontent and possible disruption. The disability of those who stood outside the church did not end here. They were not merely excluded from any share in the government of the colony, but they were furthermore debarred from that local citizenship which formed so important an element in the life of Massachusetts. We have already seen how in Ply- mouth the old Teutonic community reproduced itself. There it was the territorial rather than the poHtical aspect of the township which came before us. The records of Massachusetts from the outset bear con- stant witness to the importance of the town as an administrative body. The limits of local government were for the first time formally defined by an act passed in March 1636, which granted to the towns the right of dividing their lands, electing constables and surveyors, and of enforcing their orders by a fine of twenty shilhngs.^ In the previous autumn an act of the Assembly made church-membership a necessary con- dition for voting at town meetings.^ In May 1636 a further measure was carried which is remarkable both as illustrating the length to which the principle of • Records, vol. i. p. 115. '^ lb. p. 172. s lb. p. 161. L 2 148 THE SBTrLEMBNT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1631-6 self-government was carried, and also the manner in which the disfranchised inhabitants were regarded. It was enacted that each township should elect the captain of its own train-band. The captains themselves were to be church-members, but aU the inhabitants were to be electors.^ A community which openly and avowedly repressed liberty of thought was not likely to be lenient in dealing Chris- with liberty of speech. Puritanism emanci- GaxdLer. pated and dominant was every whit as ruth- less as those whom it denounced as the agents of Antichrist. No doubt such a community as Massa- chusetts was exposed to special dangers, It can hardly be taken as a proof of severity that Morton was arrested and sent to England.'^ At the same time his house was solemnly burnt in the sight of the Indians, as a punishment for the wrongs that he had done them. He was not the only adventurous profligate whose pre- sence disconcerted the Puritan commonwealth. In 1631 a certain Gardiner, calling himself, with ques- tionable right. Sir Christopher, appeared in the colony. It may be doubted whether his moral shortcomings as a bigamist or the suspicion which attached to him as a possible emissary and spy from Gorges told most against him. The authorities dealt with him on both counts. In addition to the two wives in Europe, he had rashly brought a mistress with him to New Eng- land, whom he endeavoured to pass off as a kinswoman. He at first evaded a party sent to arrest him ; his com- panion, however, was captured. When examined she made a singularly ill-judged attempt to benefit her pro- tector by averring that he was a nephew of the per- secutor, Bishop Gardiner. It was probably fortunate for the criminal that chronology proved the improba- • Records, vol. i. p. 188. ^ Wintkrop, vol. i. p. 34, and note ; Dudley in Young, M, C., p. 322. 1631-2 PUNISHMENT OF MALCONTENTS. 149 bility of such unpropitious kinship. The woman being ' impenitent and close,' ' order was taken to send her to the two wives in Old England, to search her further ; ' a measure which no doubt served the joint purpose of examination and punishment.^ Gardiner himself was soon afterwards arrested, and his letters from Gorges seized. The details of the correspondence are not re- corded, but it was thought to forebode danger to the colony, and, hke Morton, the writer was banished.^ If the punishment of such worthless profligates had stood by itself, it could not have done much harm to Treatment the colony in public opinion. But, unluckily, malcon'^ the govcmment of Massachusetts was in other ^^"^^- ways making for itself an evil name. Not a year passed without some fresh tidings coming from the colony of men being punished for seditious or heretical speeches. In the summer of 1631 one EatclifTe was flogged, punished by cropping his ears, and banished for speaking evil of the government.^ Soon after Henry Lynne was sentenced to a like punishment, save that he was to be spared personal mutilation. His offence was writing slanderous letters about the colony to those in England.* In his case, apparently, the penalty of banishment was remitted.* Next year Thomas Knower was set in the bilboes for threatening that if the Court punished him he would lodge an appeal in England.® The report of such pro- ceedings could have but one effect. Men would say, ' The arrest of GardiDei's mistress is told by Dudley in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln. This was written just before the arrest of Gardiner himself. * Winthrop, toI. i. pp. 64, 57. ' Becords, vol. i. p. 86 ; Winthrop, vol. i. p. 56. * Records, vol. i. p. 91 ; Winthrop, vol. i. p. 61. * Mr. Savage shows by reference to the records that a Henry Lynne was living in the colony in 16.S2 and in 1686 (Records, p. 102). ° Records, vol. i. p 94. 150 THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1632 some with complacency, others with disappointment, that the denouncers of persecution had turned perse- cutors. Doubtless the Massachusetts Puritans might urge, probably with more truth than plausibility, that England and America were different places, and that what was persecution in the one country was but self- defence in the other. But mankind generally take little heed of such pleas. To most men in England who had no special bias of creed or party, the Puritan was a man who had clamoured for freedom as long as freedom was likely to serve his own ends, and who now imitated the practices which he had himself once de- nounced. The generality of Englishmen probably thought with Blackstone, that an emigrant to Massachu- setts only exchanged the tyranny of the bishops for the tyranny of the brethren. THREE EPOCHS IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY. 15] CHAPTER IV. EOGEE WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS.^ The history of New England during the seventeenth century resolves itself into three successive epochs. Three The first is that which we have already sur- epochs , , in New vcved, and which we may call the period of England -r, "^ . , . . „/ ^ , history. ruritau colonization, ihat came to an end when Plymouth and Massachusetts took their place as ' Winthrop continues to be our chief authority. The writings of Roger Williams, including his private letters, have heen published with a prefatory memoir by Mr. R. A. GuUd, by the Narragansett Historical Society. They form six volumes. From these we can form a very definite idea of Williams' character and opinions. More than one life of Williams has been written. The best probably is that by Mr. R. Elton. A good sketch of Williams is given in a note to the Ecclemastical Sistory of Massachusetts, by John Elliot, published in the ninth and tenth volumes of Massachusetts Sistorical Society's Collections (first series). The whole history is clear, well arranged, and fair. Unfortunately none of the biographers of Williams had access to all his writings. Their fulness and autobiographical character make the absence of a th oroughly satisfactory life less to be regretted than it is in many cases. The history of the Antinomian controversy is very fully, and on the whole fairly, told by Winthrop. It was also the subject of a partisan pam- phlet by Thomas Welde, minister of Roxbury. It is entitled A short story of the rise, reign, and ruin of Antinomian^, Familists, and Idbei-tines that infected the Churches of New Enyland (London, 1644). The style of the work may be guessed from the title. The peculiar and discreditable circum- stances of its production are fully told by the editor of Winthrop (vol. i. p. 218, m). An answer to Welde was published under the title of the Mercurius Americanus. It has been ascribed to Wheelwright, but the authorship seems doubtful. Whoever may be the author, the production does him no credit. It is captious and petty, full of far-fetched sarcasms and cumbrous would-be pleasantries. It was republished, together with Wheelwright's fast-day sermon (p. 175), for the Prince Society, in Boston, in 1876, vpith a prefatory 152 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIAXS. securely established communities. The second was that during which the parent stock of Massachusetts threw out offshoots. These in turn developed constitutional systems of their own, like that of the mother colony, yet not wholly identical. At the same time the internal character of Massachussetts was sensibly in- fluenced by the series of events which led to this pro- cess of expansion, and also by the reaction of the newly formed communities on herself. This is the stage on which we have now to enter. There is yet a third and later stage, in which the various members thus created were joined into one connected whole, bound together partly by the formal union of a federal consti- tution, but still more by identity of origin, principles, and interests, and by hkeness of attitude towards the mother country. In the first stage, that which we have already traversed, religious influences have been all-important. They are scarcely less so in that on which we now enter. The settlement of ISTewhaven and that of the various colonies which were united to form Ehode Island were due wholly to spiritual motives. Secular objects had a larger share in the settlement of Connecticut, but they did not stand alone. The need for mutual help and support forced the New England colonies into union, but the limits and conditions of that union were in great part determined by the rehgious doctrines and practices of the various provinces. memoir by Mr. Charles H. BelL At this stage of New England history we begin to derive great help from the numerous collections of orig^al documents which exist, most of them preserved in the publications of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Some documents of value are preserved in Hutchinson's Collection of Origiiud Papers relative to the Histm-y of Masgachusetts (Boston, 1769). It was republished for the Prince Society in 1865. The orio-inal pagination is preserved. Another collection of great value for the eaily history of the colonies generally, and more especially for that of New England, is the Collection of Original Papers, published in 1792, by Ebenezer Hazard. EOGER WILLIAMS. 153 When the creed of a community is narrow and dogmatic, and at the same time is not merely accepted Koger ^^^ acquiesced in, but really held by many vviiiiams. ^-^j^ |.jjg genuine fervour of conviction, while at the same time the atmosphere in which men live is fitted to stimulate theological speculation, then conflict is not far off. When, moreover, the sustained predominance of the popular creed is the condition by which a powerful and arrogant class holds sway, while the career of a successful heresiarch offers irresistible temptations to an ambitious and generous spirit, then the contest cannot fail to be bitter and destructive. In Massa- chusetts the needful conditions of the drama were ready ; all that was wanting was the appearance of the chief actor. It is, perhaps, from its striking contrast with the prevalent type of Puritanism, that the character of Hoger Williams stands out more vividly than that of any of his New England contemporaries. In his quickness of thought and grace of expression, in his mixture of kindhness and pugnacity, in his egotism, and in his versatility alike of thought and action, Williams was a true Welshman. His hfe was one of almost unbroken and often passionate strife. Yet he was saved from the bitterness of a professed controversialist, partly by the sweetness of his moral nature, partly, it may be, by an inadequate perception of the real value of the objects for which he fought. It is impossible not to feel that he often wrote for dialectical victory rather than to lead men to any practical line of conduct. With all his logical subtlety his mind lacked comprehensive- ness. He saw doctrines as abstract theories, but over- looked the limitations by which those theories must be modified before they can become rules of conduct. He is to be seen at his best, not in his controversial or doctrinal writings, but in the letters which extend over a lifetime, and leave scarcely an aspect of colonial life 154 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1631 untouched. There the discursiveness and the exube- rance of illustration which often mar his serious writings are in place. The correspondence of the early New England worthies is for the most part marked by a certain monotony of thought and formahty of tone. WilHams' letters are instinct with freshness and grace, with playfulness of expression which never becomes puerile or fantastic. In that age a young man gifted with a winning temper and showing high literary promise was not likely to want a patron. Williams was indebted for his Oxford training to one with whom he had little in common, Sir Edward Coke.^ WiUiams was apparently not ordained, nor is there anything to show that he had ever officiated as a minister of religion among the Non- conformists before his arrival in America. In the spring of 1631 he landed at Massachusetts.^ It was quickly seen how wide were the differences which separated him from those with whom he had associated himself In his zeal for moral righteousness, and in his strong sense ofthe dependence of man upon God, Williams was at one with his Puritan neighbours, but there all ground of union ended. The New Englander, as we have seen, made community of religious belief a necessary con- dition of pohtical union. According to the theories of Wilhams, there was to be no point of contact between the spheres of religion and of civil government. The church, as he wished to see it, was to be bound to- gether by minute and exact identity of belief and practice, but the union was to be preserved by free choice. The civil governor was to deal solely with the persons and property of the citizens, and to exercise no ' Among the letters published by the Narragansett Society are some from Coke's daughter, Mrs. Saddler. She refers to her father's patronage of Williams. ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 41 . 16.31 WILLIAMS' FIRST SOJOURN IN MASSACHUSETTS. ]55 control wliatever over their belief or Tirorsliip. Nothing but active hostility to the Church of England could beget even transient union between such discordant and opposite views. The hostility of the Puritan to the Church was temporary and conditional, that of Williams was rooted in the nature of the institution. To attribute to the founders of Massachusetts any antipathy to a state church as such is to confound the Puritan of the seventeenth century with those who now claim spiritual kindred to him. Winthrop and his followers objected, not to secular control over the church, but to secular control exercised for what they deemed wrong ends. To Williams a state church was an abomination, however it might be administered, and whether it had its abode in Eome, in England, or in Massachusetts. The grounds on which Williams differed from his new associates made themselves manifest almost im- Wiiiiams' mediately upon his arrival. It would, indeed, iourn in havB been foreign to his nature to be long any- chusetts. where without discovering materials for con- troversy. Hitherto the New England churches had wisely abstained from any formal declaration of their attitude towards the Anglican Establishment. Williams now declined to join the church at Boston unless the members would solemnly express their repentance for ever having had communion with the Church of Eng- land. In other words, he demanded from them a wholly uncalled-for declaration of war. He moreover denied the right of the civil magistrate to punish the breach of the Sabbath or any other violation of the first table. This denial does not seem to have been made as a protest against any individual act, but as the spon- taneous assertion of an abstract doctrine.^ In August 1631, some six months after his arrival, the church at ' Winthrop, vol, i". p. 52. 156 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1681-4 Salem chose Williams as its minister. In theory, every church was an independent community, with 2:-ights of self-government in spiritual matters. But, as we shall see, the rulers of Massachusetts never scrupled to violate that theory when the safety of the state seemed to make the observance of it inexpedient. The General Court now addressed a remonstrance to Salem upon its choice of a minister. The remonstrance went unheeded, and for the present the government took no steps towards making it effective.^ Wilhams did not remain long at Salem. There is no record either of the exact date or the circumstances of He goes to his departure. But it is not uncharitable to Lutretums. supposc that the Same peculiarities of thought and temper which had kept him aloof from the church of Boston separated him from that of Salem. We only know for certain that in the summer of 1 632 he was ' prophesying,' or in modern language preaching, at Plymouth, and acting there as assistant to another fugitive from Massachusetts, Ealph Smith .'-^ From the outset Plymouth had been strangely unfortunate in its ministers. Lyford's successor, Eogers, went mad,^ and neither Smith nor Wilhams was likely to bring the older colony into friendly relations with its neighbours. The people of Salem seem to have remembered more of Williams' attractions and virtues than of the faihngs which had led to his departure. In 1634 he returned to Massachusetts at their invitation.* At the same time it seems a httle uncertain how far his departure from Plymouth was voluntary. His peculiarities had, we are told, alarmed some of the leading men, Brewster among them, who foresaw that he would deviate yet further » Winthrop, vol. i. p. 62. « lb. p. 91. ' Bradford, p. 162. •* lb. 195. He was not formally appointed to any office tUl after his return to Salem (Winthrop, vol. i. p. 117). 1634 WILLIAMS' THEOEIES OF CHURCH GOVEENMENT. 157 from the accepted doctrines of the Puritan churches.' Yet he had among his congregation some adherents so loyal that they accompanied him on his return. The forebodings of Brewster were soon fulfilled. Almost immediately upon his return to Salem Williams Histheo- reasserted his doctrines as to the complete church separation of church and state. The civil me™"' magistrate, he declared, had no power save over men's bodies, goods, and outward estates. No religious act, whether prayer or oath, ought to be enforced, since such an act depended, not on the outward form, but on the mind and temper of the agent. The ministrations of the Church of England were corrupt, and to have listened to them was a sin. Over and above these views he urged that the soil belonged of right to the natives, that the settlers could only acquire it from them by contract, and that the acceptance of a patent from the King was a sin requiring public repentance.^ Such teaching, it is clear, went to the very utmost hmits of what any government could suffer without im- pairing its own authority. But the danger of Williams' theories reached yet further. He not only struck at the authority of the local government, but at that of the Crown. His attack upon the patent was almost sure to be represented, not as a protest on behalf of the Indians, but as a protest against the supremacy of the Kino-. The relations of the settlers towards the English o-overn- ment needed the greatest tact and caution. The colo- nists might at any time have to assert their rights on some essential point, and it was specially needful to avoid all strife about non-essentials. The founders of ' Morton's Memorial, p. 102. ' The various charges against Williams may be aU found in Winthrop and are confirmed by Williams' own statement (Nafragansett Hist. Coll vol. i. p. 325). Cotton's answer (vol. ii. p. 30) practically confirms this since he says that Williams was banished, not for holding these views but for publicly teaching them. 158 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1633 Massachusetts could not suffer the fabric which they had built up so laboriously and cautiously, to be im- perilled by the indiscretion of a headstrong enthusiast. The circumstances too of the time gave special im- portance to the danger. The severity of the Massachu- Attacks on s^tts government, sometimes it may be need- inVng""'' f"^l> often probably excessive, had raised up land. enemies who were making their voices heard in England. Gardiner, Morton, and Eatcliffehad,it was said, stirred up Gorges , ever j ealous of Puritan colonization , and his partner Mason to lodge a petition against Massachusetts before the Privy Council.^ The form of the attack gave pecuhar significance to Williams' conduct, since it was based on intercepted letters in which some of the colo- nists had denounced the church government of the mother country. In January 1633 the chief members of the Company then in England, Cradock, Humphrey, and Saltonstall, were summoned before a committee of the Privy Council. The report of the committee was that no such offence had been proved as would justify any present interference with the colony ; that further inquiry should be made, and that if it should be found that the colony was administered as was professed when the patent was granted, the settlers should enjoy a continuance of the royal favour.^ This judgment is important, since it shows that the advisers of the King recognized the existence of Massachusetts as a Nonconformist colony. Moreover, the silence of the committee as to the transfer of the government, which must by this time have been matter of notoriety, is a further argument, if such argument were needed, against those who would represent that transaction as fraudulent or surreptitious. The settlers did not leave the refutation of the • Winthrop, vol. i. p. 100. This is confirmed by a letter from Captain Thomas Wiggin to Secretary Coke (^Col. Papers, 1632, Nov. 19). 2 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 103. There is a copy of the order in Prince, p. 00. 1633-4 DISPUTE WITH DUDLEY. 159 charges against them to their friends in England. They drew up an answer to Gardiner, and strengthened Dispute their case by a manifesto from the old planters uudiey.i testifying to the good conduct of affairs. The circumstances under which this answer was framed, showed how much reason Winthrop and men of his stamp had to fear the uncompromising policy of the more bigoted Puritans. Dudley took exception to three points in the answer. Gardiner had used the words ' reverend bishops.' Those who drafted the answer re- peated the expression, it is needless to say without adopting or approving it. Furthermore they professed their acceptance of the Christian creed as received by the churches of England. Dudley found fault with this expression, on the ground that the churches of England and that of Massachusetts attached different meanings to the article in the creed stating the descent of Christ into hell. Finally he took exception to the title ' sacred majesty,' albeit John Knox had applied it to the Queen of Scotland. The opinion of some of the leading men of Plymouth was obtained ; but though it was in favour of the three expressions questioned, the impracticable and impenetrable mind of the Deputy-Governor re- mained unconvinced. Though the danger of an attack from England was over for the present, it was not at aa end. Next year Appoint- Laud and other members of the Privy Council comniu- began to see that Massachusetts was becoming a pranta-^"" danger ous outpost of disaffection. In February tions. 1634 ten ships bound for New England were stopped, and only suffered to proceed after the emi- grants had taken the oath of allegiance and promised conformity with the Prayer Book.^ Two months later ' The whole of this is told in Winthrop, vol. i. pp. 106-7. ' Mr. Sainsbury states this on the authority of the Council Register. See his epitome of a letter from Dod, a commissioner for Suffolk, to Laud 1684, Feb. 3. 160 EOGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1034 a royal commission was issued entrusting the adminis- tration of the colonies to twelve persons nominated by the Crown. ^ Their powers took in the whole body of colonies, and were in no way specially designed for New England. But the composition of the board made it certain that Laud would be, not merely the titular head, but the moving spirit. The powers of the com- mission included the right to punish ecclesiastical "offences, to remove and appoint magistrates, to establish courts, and to revoke charters unduly obtained. With- out stretching these powers beyond their legitimate interpretation, the Archbishop might by a stroke of his pen undo all that Winthrop and his associates had accomplished. In England it was believed, not unreasonably, that this measure was specially directed against Massachusetts, Thecoio- ^^^ t^is ^^^ confirmed by a summons to Cra- pare to"^*' ^o^k Ordering him to hand in the patent. The resist. order was sent on to the Massachusetts govern- ment. They at first temporized by withholding their answer.^ Soon after a copy of the commission reached the colony. With it came letters warning the colonists that a governor was about to be sent out, and that the discipline of the Church of England would be enforced. It became known that the arch-enemy of New England Puritanism, Morton, had written an exultant letter, in which he foretold with triumph the impending over- throw of 'King Winthrop' and his associates.^ The measures adopted showed how real the settlers thought the danger. Three ports, Dorchester, Charlestown, and Castle Island, on the bay, were. to be fortified. A mihtary commission was appointed, with power to im- prison and put to death, to appoint and remove military ' Colonial I'aper^, 1634, April 28. Cf. Virginia, &c., p. 264. ' Winthrop, voL i. pp. 135-137. ■ ' Morton's letter is published in Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 190. 1634-5 WIKSLOW IN ENGLAND. 161 officers and to make either offensive or defensive war.^ At the same time the rulers of Massachusetts did not neglect more concihatory measures. The govern- winsiow's raent of Plymouth was at this time sending England." Wiuslow to England on commercial business, and also to make peace with Lord Say and his partners, with whom the settlers had quarrelled.' It was arranged that Winslow should at the same time be entrusted with discretionary powers to advocate the cause of Massachusetts, and to explain to the Commissioners for Plantations the matters wherewith the settlers were charged. Winslow appeared before the Commissioners to answer the charges against Mas- sachusetts, and was heard favourably. Emboldened, it would seem, by this, he addressed a petition to the Commissioners, setting forth the danger to which the New England settlements were exposed from the Prench to the north and the Dutch to the south, and asking, on behalf of the colonies, for authority to defend them- selves against these foreign enemies. This application was condemned by Winthrop, as being an admission that the settlers needed special permission to act in self- defence.* Winslow's case seemed -going favourably ^ Gorges however saw in the success of Winslow's mission the overthrow of his own hopes. Laud too knew that his own designs for bringing the colonies under ecclesiastical control could only be carried out in conjunction with the schemes of Gorges. Winslow, accordingly, was im- prisoned on the charge of having broken the ecclesiastical law by celebrating marriages. A petition is extant, • Records, vol. i. pp. 117, 135, 146. ' The mission of "Winslow to Englaood ia fully recorded in Bradford (pn 204-206). Wintlirop males more than one reference to it. ' For this quarrel .^ee below, ch. viii. ■• Winthrop, vol. i. p. 172 II. M 162 KOGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1635 written by him from his prison.^ In it he admits the charge brought against him of having celebrated mar- riages in New England, but pleads the exceptional nature of the circumstances. He sets forth in general terms the utility of the New England colonies, and dwells on the bad character of their enemies, such as Morton and Gardiner. He also renews his petition for a commission against the Dutch and French. Finally he dwells on the pecuniary damage which was being done to his own colony by his detention. His petition was so far successful that he was set free after an imprisonment of four months. There is no definite evidence to show that his representations produced any effect. But it is not unlikely that they may have had weight with fair-minded men, and done something to neutrahze the attacks which were being made on the New England colonies. A community which is brought face to face with an armed foe may be forgiven if it resorts to extreme measures to suppress disunion and disaffection Dangerous . , , attitude of withiu. The attitude of Eoger Wilhams was doubly dangerous. It weakened the authority of the government, and at the same tended to discredit that government with the supreme authority in England. He was fighting as a free-lance at a time when disciphne was all important. Nor was the conduct of Williams in other matters such as to conciliate wise men or to in- spire them with any confidence in his judgment. True to his principle of carrying out every theory which he accepted with logical consistency in all its details, he ^ The petition is in the Colonial Papers. Mr. Sainshury places it con- jecturally in NoTember 1632, but there cannot, I think, be any doubt as to the date. In it Winslow speaks of himself as writing from prison. More- over Winslow landed in America in June 1632 (Winthrop, vol. i. p. 78). There is nothing to show whether the petition was addressed to the Privy Council or to the Commissioners for Plantations, nor does Bradford tell us which of these two bodies gave the order for Winslow's imprisonment. 1633-5 WILLIAMS' VIEWS. 163 protested against meetings of ministers, as being at vari- ance with the congregational system and a step towards Presbyterianism.' Then he entangled himself in a con- troversy with Cotton as to the propriety of women wearing veils at church.^ Finally he exhorted his own congregation to renounce all communion with the other churches in the colony.^ Up to this time the church at Salem had been loyal to its favourite, even to its own hurt. In spite of the remonstrances of the General Court it had appointed him pastor. For this contumacy, and for its supposed complicity in Williams' seditious courses, Salem was punished by being disfranchised till it made an apology. Such an incident oddly illustrates the manner in which civil and ecclesiastical affairs were blended.* But though the men of Salem were ready to defy pubhc opinion on behalf of their pastor, they would not follow him to all extremities. His exhortation was neglected, and he thereupon punished his congregation by wholly withdrawing from them, and even, it is said, .extended this process of private excommunication to his own wife.^ In short, his whole conduct at this junc- ture justified the taunt of Cotton, that he was ' a haber- dasher of small questions against the power.' ® Though the church of Salem incurred Williams' dis- pleasure by its disobedience, yet it was soon seen that his teaching had found an echo there. The train-band 1 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 117. ' All Williams' vagaries at this time are set forth in a letter from one Waddington to George Fox, published by the latter in his New Uriffland's Firebrand Quenched. The letter was written in 1677, by which time the details may have become somewhat obscured. But the charges are in the main confirmed by Cotton and Winthrop, and by the silence of Williams himself. For the question of veils, cf. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 125, and Hubbard, p. 204. 3 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 166. " lb. p. 164. * Hubbard, p. 207. ' This saying is attributed to Cotton in the above-mentioned letter from Waddington. 164 EOGEU WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1634-5 in each town marched under the royal colours, con- taining that .red cross which from the earliest days Endicott of Christianity had been recognized as the Engifsh"'^ symbol of St. George. The Puritan regarded ^*s-' the most holy emblem of the Christian faith with horror which would be ludicrous if it were not painful. That headstrong and narrow-minded man Endicott on his own authority defaced the flag at Salem by cutting out the cross. A New England his- torian of the next generation explains Endicott's act as being ' too much inspired by the notions of Mr. Roger Williams.'^ Endicott probably needed no prompter to such an act, but the incident shows how the spirit of fanaticism which was at work at Salem might entangle the colony in difficulties. Unfortunately the strong hatred of the Puritans for the supposed ' relique of Antichrist ' made them loth to condemn an act which few of them probably would have perpetrated. After some debate a dread of the displeasure which they might inciir in England prevailed. In May 1635 the matter was brought before a General Court. Thence it was referred to a committee, four men appointed by the Governors and Assistants, and one chosen by. the in- habitants of each town. This tribunal found Endicott guilty of indiscretion in taking such a step without the authority of the Court, and of a want of charity both in limiting his reform to Salem and disregarding the other towns, and also in assuming that those who suffered the presence of the cross elsewhere were conniving at idolatry. On these grounds he was formally admonished, and declared incapable of holding office for a year. Every page in the early history of New England bears ' Hubbard, p. 164. So, too, Hubbard assigns tbe advocacy of veils to Williams, where Winthrop attributes it to Endicott. On that point Hubbard's statement is borne out by the writer quoted in the Narragansett Publications. 1635 BANISHMENT OF WILLIAMS. 165 witnesss to the patience, the firmness, the far-seeing wisdom of Winthrop. But to estimate these quahties as they deserve we must never forget what the men were with whom, and in some measure by whom, he worked. To guard the commonwealth against the attacks of courtiers, churchmen, and speculators was no small task. But it was an even greater achievement to keep impracticable fanatics like Dudley and Endicott within the bounds of reason, and to use for the preserva- tion of the state these headstrong passions which at every turn threatened to rend it asunder. In the following October the case of WilHams came before the court. As far as can be learnt from Win- Banish- throp's meagre report of the proceedings, there Williams, secms to have been no lack of fairness, nor does WUhams himself find any fault with his opponents on that ground. He was ofiered a month to prepare his defence. He declined to avail himself of this leave. The case was tried at once, and Hooker, a divine of considerable note, who was already looked on as a rival to Cotton, acted as advocate against WiUiams. As the prisoner refused to recede from any of the positions which he had taken up, he was sentenced to leave the colony within six weeks.^ This order was afterwards relaxed in consideration of the season, and Williams was suffered to stay till the spring, but admonished that he must not use this time of grace for any attempts at conversion. In January it became known that he had broken through this condition, by gathering together a congregation of some twenty persons. These disciples proposed to follow their teacher into exile, and to form a new settlement on the fair and fertile shores of Narra- gansett Bay.^ Those whom New England has ever denounced as persecutors were content with preserving ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 170 ; Records, vol. i. p. 160. " Winthrop, vol. i. p. 175, 166 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1635-45 their own territory from the infection of Nonconformity. The rulers of Massachusetts went further, and held that a heretical settlement was incompatible with the safety of their colony, even though it might be beyond its limits. The Court, issued an order that Williams, should be seized and sent to England. He contrived to escape, and made his way to Narragansett Bay, enduring hard- ships by the way with which we might, perhaps, sym- pathize more if we heard less of them from the sufferer himself.^ Williams' success as the founder and in some sort the supreme magistrate of a prosperous community will His con- come beforc us hereafter, since it forms no un- troversy important part of New England history. One cotton.2 phase of his career however seems to form the natural sequel to his banishment from Massachusetts. Not long afterwards he was engaged in a controversy with one who would certainly have claimed to .be, and would probably have been acknowledged as, the cham- pion of New England in all theological strife, John Cotton. A letter written by him, justifying the banish- ment of Williams, came some years later under the notice of the victim. He replied, and a literary duel fol- lowed, in which Williams discharged at least two bulky pamphlets, to which his opponent replied in a fashion scarcely less voluminous. The title of Wilhams' first work, ' The Bloody Tenent of Persecution,' gives a key to the subject of the controversy. It is scarcely possible to set forth Cotton's doctrine plainly without appearing to misrepresent it. Practically it came to this : we may employ force because we are in the right, but the followers of other religions must not because they are in the wrong. To urge men against their conscience is 1 "Wintlirop, vol. i. p. 175. Of. Williams' letters. ^ Cotton's, as well as Williams', share of tWs controversy is included in the Narragansett Society's Publications. 1044-52 COTTON AND WILLIA.MS. 167 indeed persecution. But no man's conscience can compel him to reject the truth, and therefore to force the truth upon him can be no violation of conscience. To do Cotton justice, he never resorts to those pleas of political expediency by which modern apologists have sought to gloss over the questionable doings of the dominant Puritans in New England. To a skilful controversialist like Williams such an opponent was an easy prey. To bring out in detail all the grotesque and detestable consequences which Cotton's theory must lead to was a task which displayed his opponent's exuberant powers of illustration to the full. Indeed, the manner in which Williams wastes his attacks on comparatively unimportant outposts is the only thing which at aU mars the completeness of his victory. Yet if we look beyond the mere formal ques- tion at issue, we shall hardly consider Williams' attitude so satisfactory. Cotton at least perceived that the civil power had certain definite obhgations towards the in- dividual citizens as spiritual beings. Clumsy, ineffective, hateful in its results as his solution is, yet it is perhaps better that the problem should be solved amiss than complacently ignored. It is hardly fanciful to see the different characters of two races asserting themselves in each of the combatants. In Williams we see the logical subtlety, the passion for theoretical completeness, the lack of constructive power, which form the strength and weakness of the Celt. In Cotton there is the prac- tical temper of the Enghshman, tolerant of anomalies and imperfections, indifferent to ideal completeness, but never losing sight of the realities and necessities of life. The practical superiority of Cotton's position comes out yet more strongly in a side issue which connected itself with the main dispute. Williams, as we have seen, made it a sin to have held communion with the corrupt churches of the Old World. Cotton treats the duty of 168 ROGER "WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1635 secession as a question not of principle, but of degree. According to Williams, men should aim at no spiritual unity beyond that which is brought about by perfect identity of behef and worship. He would get rid of the abuses of ecclesiastical machinery by sweeping away such machinery altogether. His opponent saw that in ecclesiastical as in civil life there was need "for compromise, and that imperfect union was better than isolation and anarchy. A body may have ' corrupt and noisome humours,' they may even make it an un- sound and corrupt body, yet it does not cease to be a body. The two conflicting theories might find their reconcihation in an ideal state of society. There all compulsion would be needless, since an infallible teacher would at once find acceptance with infallible disciples, At the same time the corporation of true believers, linked together by purely spiritual bonds, would in- clude the whole civil community. But the subject of dispute was how to deal with man in his yet imperfect state, and that difiiculty was no more solved by the visionary theories of Williams than by the too prac- ticable remedies of Cotton. The banishment of Williams gave the colony but a short respite from ecclesiastical strife. Hitherto the Further rulcrs of the colony had only been called on troubles, to deal with the isolated attacks of individuals who were virtually severed from, the bulk of the community. WilUams stood almost as much by him- self in his thoroughgoing hostility to Erastianism as did the Brownes in their loyalty to the Church of England. The strife which was now impending was of a difierent and a far more serious kind. It was not an attack from without, but a schism within. It seemed to justify the prophecies of those who held that Puritanism might destroy, but could not bind together. 1635 VANE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 169 The coming conflict was to be associated with the name of the most celebrated Enghshman who yet had Henry become an adopted citizen of the JSTew World, comes to The briUiant powers and varied accomplish- setts. ments of Vane, aided by high birth and early training in pubhc life, have won for their possessor a more dazzling reputation than has been granted to the lofty pubhc spirit and statesmanlike foresight of Winthrop. The actors in the great drama of the seven- teenth century, swayed by conflicting impulses and contradictory principles, offer not a few problems hard to be solved, but none more complex than the character of Vane. Was his the failure of a keen mind and a sus- ceptible conscience wandering amid difficulties, which for men of coarser stuff" had no being ? Or was his inconsistency, and, as at times it even seemed, his dishonesty, the mere commonplace weakness of an irresolute and unstable temper, or the dissimulation which half dupes itself.'' Would Shakespeare have found him in the counterpart of Hamlet, of Proteus, or of Angelo ? If we cannot solve this problem, we may at least console ourselves by thinking that it equally baffled the men among whom Vane lived and moved. In the autumn of 1635 Vane arrived in Massachusetts.^ Though only twenty-three years old he was already a practised diplomatist, at home in the atmosphere of court intrigues and state secrets. For the present he had cast these things behind him, and, in the words of Winthrop, ' being called to the obedience of the gospel, forsook the honour and preferments of the court to enjoy the ordinances of Christ in their purity.' ^ To such an one as Vane life in New England must have been a continuous disenchantment. The more cultivated men among the political reformers valued and sympathized with Puritanism. But they ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 170. '^ lb. 170 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1635-6 valued it in its moral and political aspects, as a means for the regeneration of the individual, as an ally against corrupt courtiers and arbitrary statesmen rather than a system of theological dogma. To them the Independent system meant one under which self-con- stituted societies, freely brought together by common beliefs and aspirations, might work out the problems of spiritual Hfe. In New England it meant the arbitrary rule of a tyrannical public opinion. Moreover, to men familiar with those theories of human rights which were now asserting themselves, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Massachusetts must have seemed a violation of all sound principles. If the ecclesiastical law of Engla,nd was harsh, at least it dealt with fixed precepts and spe- cified penalties. The rulers of New England required the acceptance of a complex series of metaphysical pro- positions, on whose interpretation they were not them- selves agreed. The recusant was punished, not by fixed statute, but by the arbitrary sentence of a partial tribunal. As was so often the case in New England, the theological controversy was closely blended with a Attack civil strife. This seems to have opened at winthrop's the beginning of 1636 with a skirmish, whose tion.' connexion with the main contest it is not altogether easy to determine. At the expiration of Dudley's term of office John Haynes had been elected his successor. Yet it seems clear that in influence and public esteem Winthrop and Dudley were looked upon as the two chief men of the colony. They appear, indeed, to have been regarded as the heads of two pohtical parties, separated, not so much by any difierence of principle, as by the temper which each carried into the task of administration. Dudley, whose view of the relation between the civil power and religion was summed up in the distich — 1C3C ATTACK UPON WINTHEOP. 171 Let men of God in courts and churches watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch,' represented the narrow view of the ordinary Puritan. Winthrop, it is clear, had little real sympathy with the harsher and more bigoted aspects of the creed to which he assented. Among those who had come out with Vane was one widely different in mind and temper, though destined to the same fate, Hugh Peter. He had fled from Eotterdam, driven, it is said, to give up his ministry in the church of exiled Nonconformists by the attacks of the English ambassador.^ Vane and Peter seem to have thought it their mission to settle the differences of a commonwealth with whose political life they were as yet wholly unfamihar.^ To this end they brought together the Governor, Bellingham who was now the Deputy-Governor, Winthrop, Dudley, and the three chief representatives of religion. Hooker, Cotton, and John Wilson, the pastor of Boston. Dudley dis- claimed any such feeling towards Winthrop as could make a discussion or reconcihation necessary. The proceedings then took the shape of a formal admonition from Haynes to Winthrop as to the leniency of his administration. Winthrop admitted the charge, but justified himself on the ground that ' in the infancy of a plantation justice should be administered with more lenity than in a settled state, because people were then more apt to transgress, partly of ignorance of new laws and orders, partly through oppression of business and other straits.' At the same time Winthrop expressed himseK open to conviction in the matter. The three ministers were then asked to consider the question and to report their opinion. This they did to the effect 1 Morton's Memm-ial, p. 167. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 169. Tb, p. 177-179, where the whole of the controversy is'told, • 172 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1636 that ' strict discipline, both in criminal offences and martial matters, was more needed in plantations than in a settled state, as tending to the honour and safety of the gospel.' Winthrop thereupon admitted ' that he had faUed in over much lenity and remissness,' and promised to observe greater strictness in future. Finally the conference drew up certain general prin- ciples for administration and the conduct of business, wholesome enough in tone, but so general as to be practically of httle value. Abstract resolutions pledging men ' to express their difference in all modesty and due respect to the court,' and ' such as differ ' to ' be more familiar and open to each other ' and to ' avoid all jealousies and suspicions,' are not likely to be of much practical use on the occasions when they are really needed. Probably the most important resolution in reality was the concluding one, that ' the magistrates shall appear more solemnly in pubUc, with attendance, apparel, and open notice of their entrance into court.' The whole incident is illustrative of two noteworthy sides of New England history. It shows a perilous ten- dency, of which we shall see other instances, to confuse the spheres of morahty and law, and to substitute general principles for definite precepts. Nor could any incident exemphfy more strongly the ascendency of the clergy. In no other community would a statesman who had worthily discharged the highest civil office, and who combined adminstrative experience with no mean share of learning, have at once abandoned his political convictions at the bidding of three men, whose reputation and influence would elsewhere have been bounded by the four walls of a chapel. The history of the next two years is a strange com- ment on the political eirenicon drawn up at this confe- rence. At the election of 1636 Vane, in spite of his youth and his inexperience of colonial life, was elected 1636 THEOLOGICAL DISPUTES AT BOSTON. 173 Governor, seemingly without opposition or dispute. His year of office was one of trouble to the colony both at Theo- home and abroad. Of its two chief incidents, put^^if''" the war with the Pequod Indians, and the insur- Boston. rection, as we may almost call it, and banishment of the Antinomian heretics, we are at present only con- cerned with the latter. The storm seems to have begun with the arrival at Boston of one Wheelwright, a clergyman who had been silenced by the ecclesiastical authorities in England.^ With him came his sister, Mrs. Hutchinson, a clever, impetuous, indiscreet woman. They brought over what are described by Winthrop as ' two dangerous errors,' ^ which to a mind not trained in Calvinistic theology sound like two abstract and not very intelligible propositions. We may, indeed, doubt whether Winthrop's own condemnation of them does not rather reflect popular feeling and his irritation at what proved to be a source of unprofitable strife than his own judgment as a theologian. The newly imported heresies were deemed so important as to require a con- ference of ministers at Boston to inquire into them. That their pernicious nature was not visible on the surface may be assumed from the fact that Cotton ac- cepted and even advocated them, with certain limita- tions. The suspected heretics were not content with this partial success. Each of the Independent churches of New England had in addition to its pastor a teacher or teachers. That office was already held in the church of Boston by Cotton. Wheelwright's followers were now anxious that he should be raised to the same posi- tion. In the controversy which ensued Winthrop took a leading part. His view was that of a thoughtful layman who stood wholly outside the theological aspect of the case. He argued that, as they were well fur- nished with able ministers whom they did know, it 1 Winthrop, Tol. i. p. 201. " lb. p. 200. 174 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1036 was inexpedient to bring in one, however godly and able, whom they did not know, and who seemed ' apt to raise doubtful disputations.' At the same time, while professing his own unfitness for such disputes, he ap- pealed to Wheelwright to ' forbear, for the peace of the church, words and phrases which were of human in- vention, and tended to doubtful disputation rather than to edification, and had no footing in scripture, nor had been in use in the purest churches for three hundred years after Christ.' ^ Winthrop's arguments prevailed, and Wheelwright's followers consoled themselves with the hope of forming a new Church on the site of Wol- laston's ill-fated settlement. In the following August an incident occurred which strikingly illustrated the character of the Governor who Vane ^^^ becu preferred to Winthrop. Vane called to^eave°tiie together the Assistants and Deputies, and told colony.' them that he must visit England on his own afiairs. When one of the Assistants expressed sorrow at the prospect of losing the Governor at so critical a junc- ture. Vane burst into tears and declared that he would have foregone his own private business, but that he fore- saw danger to the colony from the religious dissensions which prevailed and' from the attacks which he had incurred by his sympathy with the accused. When the Court demurred to his departure on these grounds, he veered round and declared that he was really compelled to leave by private business, and that the other plea ' slipped him out of passion and not out of judgment.' The Court thereupon acquiesced, and arrangements were made for electing Vane's successor. But before the time of electing came Vane had yielded to the re- quest of some of the Boston congregation, and declaring himself to be an obedient child to the church, had pro- ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 203. ^ This scene is fully described by Winthrop (vol. i. pp. 207-209). 1636-7 "TWO RELIGIOUS PARTIES. 175 mised to stay. It is hard to resist the conchision that the whole proceeding was intended by Vane to test the strength of his position, if not to force a vote of confidence. It now seemed as if the supporters of Wheelwright and his sister, strengthened by the adhesion of the Governor and of Cotton, would succeed in esta- divided bHsMug themsclves as the party of orthodoxy re%iras and in crushing Wilson. The whole community P*' '°^' was divided into two theological camps. A sober-minded layman hke Winthrop might well wonder at hearing men distinguished ' by being under a covenant of grace or a covenant of works, as in other countries be- tween Protestants and Papists,' and believe that ' no man could tell, except some few who knew the bottom of the matter, where any difference was.' ^ As soon as the question came formally before the court, it was clear that whatever the church of Boston might hold, the ma- jority of the community looked with no favour on the newly imported doctrines. One of its proceedings was formally to approve of a speech which Wilson had made against his opponents.^ One Greensmith had vented the calumny that all the ministers in the colony, save Cotton, Wheelwright, and perhaps Hooker, taught a covenant of works ; for this he was fined forty pounds. Wheelwright, for bringing like charges in a sermon, was found guilty of sedition, and by an even more astounding interpretation, of contempt of the Court, since it had appointed a fast for the reconcihation of differences, and his sermon tended to kindle them. Fortunately Wheel- wright's sermon has been preserved, and we can there- fore judge how far it justifies the accusation brought against it by his persecutors, and repeated in the present day by their apologists. It is true that he enjoins his hearers to be ready to fight. But in the same passage he warns them that the battle must be fought with ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 213. » ih. p. 214. 176 EOGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1636-7 spiritual and not with carnal weapons. He anticipates the charge of sapping the foundations of morality by a direct exhortation to his followers not to neglect the common duties of social and domestic life, lest they shall give occasion to their enemies to call them libertines or Antinomians. The church of Boston stood firmly by its persecuted minister. Forty of the members, among whom was Vane, addressed to the court a temperate remonstrance on Wheelwright's behalf. They challenged his accusers to specify any seditious act of which he had been guilty, and they reminded the Court that no preacher of unpopular doctrines had escaped the charge of sedition, not Ehjah, nor Paul, nor One who spoke with more divine authority.^ The remonstrance went unheeded, and only served at a later day to involve those who had made it in the punishment which fell upon their leader. Finally the Court voted that its next meeting should be at Newtown, instead of Boston, intending not so much, it would seem, to punish the heretical community, as to hold its deliberations in a more peaceful atmosphere.^ In May 1637 the Court of Election met at Newtown. Proceedings opened with a dispute. The Governor The eieo- wished that a petition from Boston should be 1637.5 read before proceeding to election. Winthrop, apparently with perfectly good reason, objected on the ground that the election was the business for which the Court was specially convened, and that it must take precedence of everything. It was urged, fairly enough, that many might have stayed away from a Court of Election who would have attended if they had known that other, and, as they might have considered it, more important business had to be done. Moreover, tiie ' The remonstrance is in Welde, p. 21. We may safely assume that his version of it is in no way too favourable to the petitioners. ^ Eecords, vol. i. p. 191; Winthrop, vol. i. p. 216. ' This is fully told in Winthrop, vol. i. p. 219. 1C37 THE ELECTION OF 1637. 177 whole body of freemen, having delegated their powers to the Deputies, could not suddenly resume them for a special purpose.' This view was affirmed by a majority of the Court. Vane at first refused to accept this decision. His resistance was overruled and the elec- tion proceeded. Winthrop was chosen Governor, and Dudley, with whom no suspected heretic could look for any mercy, was Deputy-Governor, while Vane was left out of the body of Assistants. His fate was shared by two of Wheelwright's chief followers, Coddington and Dummer, both of whom had held office the year before. For this Boston retaliated by electing the three as its Deputies. A paltry and unfair attempt was made by the Court to annul this election on technical grounds, but Boston stood firm and its representatives were admitted. For a while it seemed as if the return of Winthrop to office might bring peace. Wheelwright apparently showed some inclination to compromise, and Cotton preached a sermon which aimed at bridging over the differences.^ In this he was supported by Shepherd, a newly-arrived divine, who has left his mark on the ecclesiastical history of New England, alike by his zeal for the conversion of the Indians and by the exception- ally sombre nature of his Calvinistic teaching. Unfortunately these efforts at reconciliation were counteracted by an order of the Court, avowedly designed Order to to cxclude from the colony any fresh adherents cxcluds heretica. to what we may now call the heretical party. It was enacted, under a penalty of forty pounds, that no person should entertain any new-comers in his house for more than three weeks, nor supply them with a ' This ■view is set forth in a pamphlet entitled Liberty and the Public Weal Reconciled, published in the Hutchinson Collection (p. 63). I can find no clue to the authorship. 2 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 221. Cotton, he says, ' stated the differences in a very narrow scantling^.' II. N 178 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1637 habitation or a plot of ground, save with the formal sanction of the Court. ^ The measure gave rise to controversy between the leading champions of the opposed parties. Winthrop Contro- thought, not unreasonably, that the measure between needed a special apology. This took the form and'vane.a of a pamphlet, apparently unofficial. Like all Winthrop's productions it is clear and terse. It sets forth effectively enough the abstract right of the community to keep out those whose presence might bring danger. Winthrop shows that the whole fabric of political society in New England rested on the assumption that the state was a self-electing body, requiring from its members certain religious qualifications. Where he fails is in proving that the infliction of suffering and the interference with individual liberty were in the present instance necessary. If Winthrop's apology for the order showed an inadequate appreciation of the principles of religious freedom, Vane's answer to it did so equally. He neither takes the broad hne of general toleration, nor the equally tenable line that toleration was in the present instance consistent with the safety of the state. He is content to rest on the far weaker argument of Wheelwright's doctrinal orthodoxy. He showed, too, how little he understood the community which he had joined, by putting forward the argument that the patent gave a right of settlement in New England to all persons whatsoever. Such a contention was wholly needless for controversial purposes, while the practical acceptance of it would have been fatal in the long run to the objects which Vane had in common with Winthrop. With this feeble and ineffective protest on behalf of his fellow-believers Vane departed from New England. ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 224 ; Records, vol. i. p. 299. ' Winthrop's defence and Vane's reply are both published in the Hutchin- son Collection (pp. 67, &c.) 1637 SYNOD AT NEWTOWN. 179 The ills which his impetuous and unstable temper had brought upon Massachusetts were in a measure atoned for, by the zeal with which he afterwards used his influ- ence on behalf of those Puritan colonies which most needed such help. In August 1637 a synod of divines met at Newtown to discuss, and if it might be to settle, the existing svnodof differences. The first step taken boded ill Newtown.* for the result. The erroneous doctrines were drawn up under eighty heads, with a supplemental cate- gory of nine ' unwholesome expressions.' Henceforth orthodoxy in eighty-nine different articles was to be the needful condition of citizenship in Massachusetts. In truth, the attitude of the New England clergy ill fitted them to guide the civil power to wise courses at such a juncture. The pulpit in New England was the one influence which fashioned and guided public opinions, the one sphere besides that of a legislator or administrator in which a man might win for himself dignity and influence. The sermon was to the New Englander all that the newspaper, the magazine, the speech out of Parliament is to us. At the same time the preacher was strictly and jealously tied down to certain positive conclusions. His position was thus like that of a party writer or a professional pohtician of the present day. His utterances must offer a show of originality, yet they must never deviate from certain fixed modes of thought, nor fail to lead to certain fixed conclusions. Such a system will make ready advocates, effective rhetoricians, skilful manipulators of formulse ; it is assu- redly ill-fitted to train up vigorous, original, or even honest thinkers. How these influences operated was shown by the attitude of Cotton. Hitherto he had been recognized as the ally of Wheelwright. His authority ' The proceedings of this synod are fully related hy Winthrop (vol. i. pp. 238-240). N 2 180 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1837 indeed had been the chief ground on which the orthodoxy of the new opinions was assumed by the pubhc. ' When they were questioned about these things , they carried it as if they held forth nothing but what they had received from Mr. Cotton.'^ Cotton himself, it seems, had been up to this point satisfied of the sound- ness of the new doctrines. He now began to see, in his own words, that he had been ' made a stalking-horse ' by the teachers of heresy.^ It was certainly unfortunate that this conversion should have occurred just when the tide of pubhc feeling had turned. But no one can read Cotton's controversy with Eoger Williams and fail to see that a capacity for abstract speculation found no place among his gifts. Probably in the present instance his inconsistency was due to a confused mind rather than a dishonest temper. Nor does it seem certain that the attitude of Wheelwright and his party was now precisely what it had been at the outset. It is, clear that both he and his sister were among those to whom strife was a delight. A combative temper, the need for satis- fying that love of novelty which they had themselves done so much to create, and that spirit of aggressive opposition which even the semblan6e of persecution begets in original and self-rehant minds, all prompted them to extend their differences from the estabhshed creed. A year earlier it needed the minute vision of a practised controversialist to discover their deviation from orthodoxy. Now we are told they denied the resurrection of the body, and even the innate immor- tality of the soul, and also the duty of observing the Sabbath.^ A Puritan heedless of theological subtleties, if such a one there were, would see in the first doctrine a denial of an important article of the Christian faith, and in the second a perilous deviation from the usage of all Protestant Churches. ' Hubljard, p. 281. ^ Winthrop, vol. i. p. 263. ' lb. 1637 PUNISHMENT OF THE HEEETICS. 181 The result of the conference was, as we have seen, a general condemnation of the new doctrines, as unsafe and either blasphemous or erroneous. Over and above this certain articles of peace were drawn up, to serve as a basis of agreement between Cotton and Wheelwright and their opponents. Wheelwright refused these ; Cotton by accepting them may be considered to have definitely joined that party which now, perhaps, for the first time ranked in public opinion as orthodox.^ It only now remained for the civil power to apply the weapon which the clergy had forged for it. In Punish- November the Court met. It is fortunate that mentor the heretics. Qur knowledge of what followed rests on no worse authority than that of Winthrop himself. On any testimony less trustworthy we could hardly believe a procedure which in its shameless indifference to all principles of criminal jurisprudence rivalled the worst outrages under which Enghsh Nonconformists had ever suffered. In such a case it is well to adhere as closely as possible to the language of our authority. The Court, ' finding upon consultation that two so opposite parties could not contain in the same body without hazard of ruin to the whole, agreed to send away some of the prin- cipals ; and for this a fair opportunity was oflered by the remonstrance or petition which they had proposed to the court.' ^ Eight months had elapsed since the alleged offence had been committed, yet no attempt had been made to deal with it as a crime, till a question of poli- tical expediency made it convenient to do so. Aspin- wall, one of the Deputies for Boston who had signed the petition, was banished. His colleague, Coggeshall, who had only approved the petition without signing it, was disqualified from holding office and disfranchised. Seventy-one more persons, fifty-six of them inhabitants ol Boston, were disarmed, a punishment which might ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 239. " lb. p. 245. ,182 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1637 perhaps be justified as a measure of police, rendered necessary by exceptional circumstances.^ The two heads of the party, Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson, might, as it would seem, have saved Banish- themsclves by a recantation. Probably such a whee?-*^^ triumph of orthodoxy would have been worth Wright. more than the mere infliction of punishment. Wheelwright, however, persisted in holding to his opinions, and refused either to leave the colony or to give up preaching. He thereupon was banished, and took refuge on the banks of the Piscataqua, a journey of no small difficulty in a New England November.^ The trial of Mrs. Hutchinson is the one incident of the proceedings of which a detailed report remains. Trial of From it we may judge of the temper in which chin'son.' the whole affair was conducted. It is im- possible to read the report and not to see that Mrs. Hutchinson was no commonplace fanatic. Her attitude throughout is marked, not merely by controversial acuteness, but by a conspicuous union of self-reliance with dignified sobriety and restraint. Worn by ill- health and harassed by repeated misstatements, she neither returned a railing accusation nor was betrayed into any indiscreet admission. After divers unsuccessful attempts to prove that her conduct in lecturing was opposed both to the letter of Scripture and to the prac- tice of the colony, the Court had to fall back upon the argument of their authority. ' We are your judges, and not you ours, and we must compel you to it.' The Court then dealt with the charge of calumny, in that the prisoner had accused the clergy of preaching a covenant of works. Six witnesses, all ministers, were 1 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 245 ; Records, toI. i. pp. 205-212. ' Mercurius Americanus, p. 24. ' A very full report of this is published by Hutchinson in an Appendix (vol. ii. p. 482). 1637 TRIAL OF MRS. HUTCHINSON. 183 called to prove this charge. There cannot be much doubt as to the value of hearsay evidence given by heated partisans about abstruse doctrinal propositions. Weak as their testimony was, it was still further discredited by the persistent refusal of the Court to administer an oath to them ; a refusal of which two at least of the witnesses strongly approved. Worse was to come. When Mrs Hutchinson called evidence to rebut this charge, her first witness was at once silenced with shameless brutahty by Peter : ' How dare you look into the Court to say such a word ? ' When asked how she knew that she was really under the guidance of the Divine Spirit, ' How,' she answered, ' did Abraham know that it was God that bid him offer his son ? ' Her answer was more than a retort ; it went to the root of the question. Either there must be some fixed external authority whose judgement may not be questioned, or else the final appeal must be made to the conscience of the individual behever. The latter doctrine may place a perilous weapon in the hands of the fanatic, but without it would Puritans have ever been worshipping God after their own fashion on the shores of America ? Indeed one cannot read the proceedings without feehng that, if only the scene had been changed to an ecclesiastical court in England, the whole trial would have formed an edifying chapter in Puritan martyrology. Cotton, alone of all the Court, seems to have had some perception of this. ' That she may have some special providence of God to help her is a thing that I cannot bear witness against.' Endicott's rejoinder, ' Do you bear witness for her or against her ?' showed how even a temporary deviation towards judicial impartiality was beyond the compre- hension of the ordinary Puritan. It mattered little what shape proceedings took. As we have seen from Winthrop's statement, the trial was but an idle formality whose end had been already 184 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1G37-8 settled at the bidding of a supposed political necessity. Sentence of banishment was passed. The execution of the punishment however was postponed, either from Mrs. Hut- some tenderness to the sex of the victim or ex^m- fro™ ^op6 of obtaining the triumph of a recan- municated. tation. Mrs . HutcMnson was imprisoncd in the house of one of the ministers at Eoxbury, and was thence twice brought to Boston to be confronted with a conference of the clergy. We cannot wonder that, like the Maid of Orleans, she should for a moment have wavered before the persistent attack of her tormentors. But her dauntless spirit triumphed over the momentary weakness. After she was excommunicated her spirits, which had seemed somewhat dejected, revived again, and she gloried in her sufferings.^ At the end of February she and her family, with some of her disciples, departed. Instead of following Wheelwright to Piscataqua, they turned south, and, like Eoger Williams, found a refuge in the Karragansett Bay. There, four years later, they were massacred by the Indians — an incident in which, it is needless to say, the theologians of Massachusetts found a striking manifestation of God's judgment in support of ^heir own verdict. The proceedings against Mrs. Hutchinson had shown how the rulers of New England could play fast and Trial of loose with the principles of religious freedom. uii(jeihiii.2 rp}jg ^^1^} of Qjjg Qf }jgj. disciples showed that civil liberty fared little better with them. Among those who had signed the obnoxious petition was a Captain John Underhill. His character forms one of those in- congruous patches which the irony of fate has woven into the sober fabric of New England history. He was a soldier of fortune, with some tincture of letters, having little in common with his Puritan neighbours beyond a » Winthrop, vol. i. p. 247. " The proceedings in the case of Underhill are told by Welde (p. 41). 1637 TRIAL OF UNDERHILL. 185 familiarity with their language and modes of thought. Antinomian views had in his case borne the fruits which were imputed to them, and at a later day he seemed dis posed to play the part of a colonial John of Leyden, so far as the conditions of New England hfe allowed. His mili- tary capacity and the service which he had just rendered against the Pequods made him a person of importance. Accordingly, he was called upon, with some five or six others, to justify his conduct in signing the petition. His defence seems to have proceeded on the theory that free speech was peculiarly a military privilege, since he cited as a precedent the remonstrance of Joab with _ David. The Court went with care into the constitutional aspect of the case, but ruled that it would not bear Underhill's interpretation. Joab's remonstrance Avas professional, and did not deal with the Bang's policy generally. So far as he went beyond that he was not to be excused or followed. Moreover, he admonished David privately and not publicly. Besides, the King had disapproved of him and displaced him. After this we need not wonder that the orthodox historian of the dispute winds up with an edifying homily on the dangers of anarchy and the duty of submission to the civil power. He reminds his readers how in Europe ' contentions began first with disputations and sermons, and when the minds of the people were set on fire by reproach- ful terms of incendiary spirits, they soon set to blows, and had always a tragical and bloody issue.' 'When Ijrethren shall look one at another as enemies and persecutors, and when people shall look at their rulers and ministers as such, how,' he asks, ' shall they join together in any public service, and what can more threaten the dissolution and ruin of Church and Com- monwealth ? ' ^ The so-called persecutors of Prynne and Bastwick might have asked for a more ingenious ' AVelde, pp. 54, 58. 186 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1637 apologist ; they could not have wanted a more thorough- going one. It is satisfactory to be able to pass to an episode more worthy of the political traditions of the men who Avinthrop's founded Massachusctts. Winthrop might be with ths wilHns; to accept the clergy as the allies of the church of . -1 ,1 , , 1 Boston.1 civiJ power, but they were not to become its masters. He sent to England a full report of the pro- ceedings against the Antinomians, lest false rumours should get abroad and deter emigrants from coming out. For some reason not stated, this proceeding displeased many members of the church of Boston, and they pressed the Elders to call Winthrop to account. If a less far-sighted and resolute man had held office, a most perilous precedent might have been established. Winthrop met the attack half-wa;y by clearly laying down the doctrine that the Church was subordinate to the civil power : ' If a magistrate shall in a private way take away a man's goods or servants, the Church may call him to account for it ; but if he doth this in pursuing a course of justice (though the thing be unjust), yet he is not accountable.' It would be a fruitless task to estimate the real im- portance of the mass of theological subtleties which General made up the so-called Antinomian heresy, dispute. Many of them, doubtless, were called into ex- istence by that very opposition which the teachers of them met with, and by the morbid craving for theolo- gical novelties inherent in the peculiar conditions of New England life. But if we are not concerned with these, neither assuredly were the rulers of Massachusetts. The only question which they were bound to consider, and the only one in which we need enter, was the attitude of the Antinomians to the civil power. To deduce pos- sible consequences of conduct from certain opinions, and ' Wintbrop, vol. i. p. 249. 1637 THE ANTINOMIAN DISPUTE. 187 then to guard against those consequences by penal legis- lation, has been in every age the expedient of the per- secutor. And assuredly the Calvinist could find no possibility of danger in the doctrines of the Antinomian, which the rest of the world could not find in the doctrines of the Calvinist. The Antinomians did not, like Eoger Williams, deny the claim of the civil authority to obedi- ence. We are told, indeed, that the men of Boston were lukewarm in the Pequod war,^ and that they brought the government into discredit by saying that the members of it were under a covenant of works.^ In plain language, Wheelwright's followers dishked the government, and did their best to make it unpopular. To use free speech for the purpose of discrediting the constituted authority has been often treated as a crime, but those who have so treated it have not generally been regarded with much favour by the apologists of Massachusetts. It has been urged that banishment from a new and struggling community is but a slight hardship.^ If the main evil of persecution were the injury to the victim, such a defence might be valid. But it is a truism to say that a community which forcibly suppresses free speech cuts itself ofi" from aU hopes of intellectual progress. The spiritual growth of Massachusetts withered under the shadow of dominant orthodoxy ; the colony was only saved from mental atrophy by its vigorous pohtical life. No doubt the best plea that can be urged for the banishment of the Antinomians is that tersely stated by Winthrop : ' They were so divided from the rest of the > Welde, p. 25. ' This plea for the persecutors of the Antinomians is pressed by that most thoroughgoing partisan, Mr. Palfrey (vol. i. p. 491). It is more surprising to find it used, though with far more moderation of tone, by Mr. Gardiner (Personal Qoven-nment of Charles I., vol. ii. p. 283). ' Cotton, in his controversy vrith Williams, asks what hardship there could be in banishment from a society which the victim himself looked upon as corrupt. Williams not unfairly retorts that Cotton probably felt his banish- ment from England to be a hardship. 188 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTIKOMIANS. 1637 country in their judgement and practice as it could not stand with the public peace that they should continue amongst us.' ^ Doubtless there are times when a com- munity has only before it the sad choice of repress- ing free thought or running the risk of disruption. That choice lay before the rulers of Massachusetts, ' as in the same age it lay before the rulers of the Church of England. Each chose the same course ; each must be judged with the same judgment. To say that it was perseciition to silence Nonconformists in England, but not persecution to banish Antinomians in America, is simply to juggle with words. If we hold that the means of preservation can be justified by the worth of the object preserved, then the policy of Laud will bear the test at least as well as the policy of Win- throp. The Church of England may have deviated into persecution, but freedom has been her natural ally. Her reception of new truths may have been slow and grudging, but it has been real. She has identified her- self, tardily it may be, but efiectually, with each suc- cessive phase of national life and thought. No such plea can be urged for the priesthood of Massachusetts. While the Church of England was casting ofi" the tram- mels with which bigotry had fettered her, Puritanism in America was building gibbets for harmless fanatics and yielding itself a willing bondslave to an obsolete and cruel superstition. Her rule, so long as it enduredj was a rule of terror, not of love ; her ways were never ways of pleasantness, her paths were never peace. While New England Puritanism was thus rent and tortured within itself, its attitude towards the home government was materially changed. The change was only part of a greater one which had come over the condition of religious parties. Puritanism was no longer ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 250. He made this statement in the discussion v?ith the Boston Church deeciihed ahove, after the hanishment of the heretics. 1631 SCHEME FOR AN ARISTOCRATIC ORDER. 189 what it had been when Bradford and his associates sought for a quiet refuge beyond the Atlantic. It had Change in become political, aggressive, and practical. The lude of Nonconformist was no longer content to regard ism. the Church, with vague antipathy. Thorough- going ecclesiastical reform was an accepted article in the creed of an important political party. The Church had to dread, not general denunciations, but detailed and well-digested schemes of attack. This change had made itself felt to the full in the position of Massachusetts and in the attitude of the Scheme for Puritan party towards the question of coloniza- an ansto- . | ■' „ . cratic order tiou. The leaders of it were thrown? them- chusetts. selves eagerly into the work which Winthrop and his associates had begun. In the administration of their colony at Providence a number of wealthy and in- fluential Puritans were displaying as much zeal and hberahty as Sandys and Ferrars had brought to bear on their greater undertaking. Indeed, the government of Massachusetts had been somewhat embarrassed by the anxiety of the richer and better-born Puritans to have a practical share in the work of colonization. Lord Brook, Lord Say and Sele, and others had obtained a grant of land from the Council of New England.^ The territory is described, not very clearly, as ' all that part of New England in America which lies and extends itself from a river there, called Narragansett river, the space of forty leagues upon a straight hne near the seashore.' This, as we shall hereafter see, was not without its influence on the history of Massachusetts and the neigh- bouring colonies. Brook and others who thought with him furthermore entertained a scheme for associating themselves on special and pecuhar terms with the settlers of Massachusetts.^ There is nothing to show whether this ' For a further account of thia grant see telow, p. 205. ^ Hutchinson gives in an Appendix (vol. i. p. 490) the proposals made 190 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1630 was distinct from the project just mentioned, or whether the patentees intended to place their territory under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. While desirous to join the Massachusetts settlers, Brook and his associates were not prepared to forego their privileges of rank. Moreover there was at least one important point in which the constitution of Massachusetts feU short of an ideal commonwealth, as imagi»ed by the more enlightened members of the Puritan party. Like Winthrop and Cotton, they distrusted a democracy, but, unlike them, they equally distrusted a religious oligarchy. They believed that the existing constitution 'would draw all things under the determination of the church.' Accord- ingly they submitted to the colonial legislature certain conditions of union. They proposed that the colony should consist of two orders, gentlemen and freeholders. The gentry were to form an upper chamber, the depu- ties of the freemen a lower. The Governor was to be chosen always out of the gentry. The rights of both orders were to be hereditary. Each at the same time was to admit fresh members. Gentry were to be ad- mitted with the consent of both houses, while any man possessing a certain amount . of personal estate was to become a freeman. Whether a property qualification was to be required for the retention of the rights of a freeman by one who inherited them does not appear. The sober and cautious answer made by the colonists to this proposal, if it be not the handiwork of Winthrop, at least reflects his temper and habits of thought. It represented that the scheme of government proposed was really in all important points that which the colony enjoyed. With one exception the differences are, the answer says, really unimportant. ' The Governor to the Massachusetts government by Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brook, and others, tog-ether with the reply to them, and also a letter on the subject from Cotton to Lord Say and Sele. 1636 APPOINTMENT OF A STANDING COUNCIL. 191 always has been chosen from among the Assistants, or of approved known gentlemen.' If any of ' these noble personages ' should come over, ' the colonists would re- ceive them with honour and allow them pre-eminence and accommodations according to their condition.' It is true that before they can hold office they must be members of a church, ' which we doubt not religious gentlemen would willingly desire.' The principle of hereditary rank is combated, but not as though it were of much real importance. On one point, however, the colonists make no attempt to disguise or qualify their views. They hold stead- fastly to the principle that civic rights can only be obtained by church-membership. They lay down the incontestable doctrine that, if power be committed to men, 'not according to their godUness,' danger to Church and commonwealth may ensue. They omit to prove that godliness can be safely inferred from the acceptance of any articles of faith or conformity to any religious usages. This reply was supplemented by a pri- vate letter from Cotton. From this we learn that, though the proposals fell througli, yet the views which they embodied were not without their influence on the politics of Massachusetts. They brought about, or at least fur- thered, the appointment, in 1636, of a standing council whose members were to hold office ' quamdiu se bene gesserint' ^ Winthrop, Dudley, and Endicott were no- minated members. The fate of the attempt might have been foreseen. The council had neither of the condi- tions needful for vitality ; it could neither be useful nor popular. The freemen had already shown their jea- lousy of every power which was not directly amenable to them. Moreover there was no place for the new body in the machinery of the commonwealth. The council was indeed intrusted with the control of the Indian ' Cotton in Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 501 ; Records, vol. i. p. 167. 192 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1636-9 trade. ^ But beyond that it was merely to be a standing committee acting at the bidding of the Court. Such an arrangement could serve no useful purpose. It was assuredly not contemplated in the original constitution of the colony, nor did that constitution leave it in ordinary times any duties to discharge. Probably, however, this superfluous member would have been allowed to exist unchallenged if it had not been for an indiscreet attempt to strengthen the position of the executive. In 1639 one of the Elders was misguided enough to broach a proposal that the Governor should hold office for hfe. The resentment of the freemen took the form of retaliation. One of the Deputies proposed that no member of the council should have any autho- rity as such unless he were also an elected Magistrate. The Assistants introduced some slight change in the form of the motion as a protest on behalf of their own order, but accepted the proposal in substance.^ Hence- forth the council ceased to exist for practical purposes, and the rank of councillor became a mere titular dignity. Though men like Vane and Brook might have but little real influence on the constitutional life of Massa- Dissoiution chusctts, their actual or possible adhesion to Council the colony could not but influence the English Engia:^.3 govemmcnt. A colony of disafiected Puritans supported by men of high birth and political influence was a very diflerent thing from the same colony in the hands of traders and yeomen. Almost simultaneously with these changes which made Massachusetts an ob- ject of suspicion to the King and his advisers, came another which placed the colony more directly in their power. Gorges had wholly failed to infuse any of his own zeal into his associates in the Council for New ' Records, vol. i. p. 179. = Jb. p. 264. " The whole of the proceedings connected with the dissolution are vei-y fully told in the Minutes of the Council for New England. 1635 DISSOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL. 193 England. It could do nothing either to stimulate or to guide the work of colonization. It might in some de- gree interfere with the control which the Crown would otherwise exercise over the New England plantations. If the King had reason to wish for the extinction of the CouucU, the members of that body had no grounds for desiring a prolonged existence. In April 1635 they surrendered their charter. Their last corporate act illustrated the spirit in which they had worked and their utter incapacity to understand the real nature of the task which they had undertaken. We are reminded of Glendower and his associates, when we read of the Council portioning out the Atlantic seaboard from Newfoundland to the Hudson into twelve little prin- cipahties, to be distributed among twelve of the chief members. The field was now clear for a direct attack upon the colony which had expelled Churchmen and defaced the royal colours. In the following September ceedings legal procecdiugs were taken by an action of Massa- QUO Warranto for depriving Massachusetts of chuBetts.* i. o such legislative independence as it possessed, and placing it at the mercy of the Crown. The charges against the Company were set forth by the Attorney- General, Sir John Banks. Substantially they came to this : that the Company had made enactments concerning the lands and goods of persons contrary to the laws and customs of England, and had levied duties and enforced the payment of them by fine ; in other words, they had exercised legislative and judicial powers beyond those granted them by the charter. It may well be doubted whether, as a matter of law, the provisions of the charter would bear the construction which the founders of Massachusetts had placed upon them. It may have been • The legal pi'ocetdiiigs are fully reported in a paper in the Hutchinson Collection, p. 101. II. 194 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1635 unwise and ungenerous for the King's advisers to insist on the letter of the law, and to enforce the legal rights of the Crown against men who were doing a good work. It might well be held that the attitude already taken by the King was a tacit sanction of the proceedings of the colonists. Yet it must be remembered that the measures adopted on behalf of the Crown were only a demand that a legal right should be recognized, and were not even followed by any immediate attempt to put that right in force. In no case can it be matter either for blame or wonder that the judges found for the Crown, and that a formal decision put an end to the privileges granted by the Massachusetts charter. It is perhaps but a slight palliation of the proceed- ings against Massachusetts to say that they contrast favourably with the proceedings of eleven years earlier against the Virginia Company, both in the objects aimed at and the means by which they were reached. The Virginia Company was punished for actions which had entitled it to the gratitude of every patriotic and right- minded Englishman. It was overthrown on pleas so transparently frivolous that an arbitrary decree of the King or the Privy Council would have been a less shame- less mode of attack. The case against the Massachusetts charter may or may not have been a good one, but assuredly it was a case with which an honest advocate could go into court. The purposes for which the charter had been used, might be in the main good ; to many wise men they must have seemed full of danger. Each measure was characteristic of the source from which it sprang. James and his counsellors destroyed the Virginia Company at the bidding of disappointed speculators and intriguing diplomatists. Charles and Laud- sought to sweep away the liberties of Massa- chusetts as hindrances to a policy, narrow it may be, but neither selfish nor corrupt. 16.35-8 HOSTILITY OF LAUD AND GORGES. 19-5 This measure seems to have been received in Massa- chusetts with something strangely Uke apathy. The minute chronicle kept by Winthrop contains no direct statement of the occurrence. The settlers may have re- garded it, not so much as a fresh substantive attack, but rather as the formal registration of a decree which had already been determined. The sword had been always hanging over them ; it could little matter at what moment it fell. Moreover the enemies of the colony showed no immediate wish to act upon the altered state of affairs. They had stripped Massachusetts of the means of defence, but they held their hands from any further attack. To the King and to his temporal counsellors the in- dependence of Massachusetts was probably a secondary Land's matter, thrust aside for the present by more t'othe*'^ pressing questions. But the colony had two colony. enemies. The one proposed to attack her eccle- siastical independence, the other her civil rights. The dangers which might result to the Church from the unimpeded growth of Massachusetts could not escape the ubiquitous watchfulness of Laud. Henceforth we find him, with characteristic love of detail, receiving and investigating the complaints of malcontents, and drawing up minutes on matters of colonial administra- tion.^ To Gorges the overthrow of the liberties of Massa- chusetts was a needful condition for the fulfilment of Gorges a lifelong ambition. He had been the chief and his /. i • i schemes, agcut for the court m the negotiations with the Council of Few England for the surrender of its charter. We now find him persistently urging the necessity of consolidating the New England colonies into a single province, pointing out his own fitness for the post ' Colonial I'apers, 1635, Dec; 1637, Oct. 6; 1638, May 2, Nov. 27. AVinthrop, vol. i. p. 276, 298. 196 EOQER WILLIAMS AND THE ANTINOMIANS. 1634-5 of Governor, and in his private letters dwelling eagerly on his prospects of success.^ His hopes and schemes were but those of a specu- lator and a place-hunter. Yet a halo of borrowed grandeur rests upon them. Before the generation which had just passed away had risen in vague majesty the vision of a great colonial empire, of England sitting as an island queen, replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. The dream was to have its fulfil- ment in the future. For a while it vanished amid the romantic splendour of the age which gave it birth. The men who had striven to give form and reality to those hopes were the men among whom Gorges had lived and moved. In youth, through the stirring years of his manhood, he had breathed an air where every breeze from ocean seemed charged with the tale of their struggles and their triumphs. His is a dim copy of their ambition ; a faint after-glow of their glory seems to, light his career. He takes his place, unconsciously it may be, as the last figure in a mighty procession, and in that presence we can for a moment forget his own unworthiness. In the events which baffled the schemes of their enemies the Puritan emigrants might well see the hand Their of God Stretched out for their protection. In failure. 1635, simultaueously with the dissolution of the Council, a declaration was issued by the King announcing his intention of placing the New England colonies under the government of Gorges.^ This however does not seem to have been followed up by any sort of commis- sion or transfer of authority. But a rumour reached the colony that a Governor had actually been appointed, and that his coming was only hindered by a mishap to the ship which had been specially built to bring ' Colonial Papers, 1634, May 12, June 6, Dec. 9 ; 1635, March 21. » lb. 1635, April 26. 1635-8 MASSACHUSETTS THREATENED. 197 him.^ In the following winter the enemies to New England were weakened by the death of John Mason, the one man who seems to have entered with zeal and energy into the schemes of Gorges. It can hardly be regarded as a want of charity in Winthrop that he hailed this as a special intervention of God on behalf of the colony, though we may perhaps see some httle credulity in his belief that Mason during his last sickness bewailed his enmity to New England, and promised if he recovered to be a friend to the colony.^ In 1637 another de- claration was issued, closely resembling that of 1635, but again the announcement of the King's intention to appoint Gorges was not followed by any definite com- munication of authority.^ Temporary hindrances might delay the attack. The failure of an unseaworthy ship or the death of an individual might give Massachu- setts a respite. But it would have gone hard with the liberties of the Puritan commonwealth if no more certain succour had been at hand. The outbreak of the Scotch rebellion was a turning point in English history. Its influence on the fortunes of America was more remote, but scarcely less real. We can hardly err in connecting the changed aspect of affairs in England with the atti- tude which the Commissioners took up towards the Puritan colony. In 1638 a strict order came from the Commissioners requiring that the charter should be sent to England. The Court resolved to withhold it, and in its stead sent a letter of explanation, unhappily no longer extant. The answer of the Commissioners was practically a concession. According to Winthrop, they declared their intention of only asserting the authority of the Commission, and leaving the liberty of the colonists virtually untouched. They still demanded the charter, but promised that it should be replaced by 1 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 161. = jf, p jgy^ » Colcminl Papers, 1837, July 23. 198 EOGER WILLIAMS AiSD THE ANTINOML-VNS. 1G38 a fresh one, and that the colonial government should have all the necessary powers given to it pending the grant of the new instrument.^ There the attack ended, diverted, we can hardly err in thinking, by the increas- ing troubles at home. If so, the action of the Long Parliament did as much indirectly for Massachusetts as it did directly for England. If the Bang and his advisers had been left with their hands free, with power and leisure to work their will on Massachusetts, the colony must have either seen her nascent hberty destroyed or been prematurely hurried into rebellion. ' Winthrop, vol. i. pp. 269, 299, 306. It is remarkable that there is no trace of this proceeding to be found among the State Papers. 199 CHAPTEE Y. THE SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT AND THE PEQUOD WAR.^ The settlement of Connecticut marks a new stage in colonial history. For the first time a colony becomes Anew itself in turn the parent of a new community, coio^^ The step was marked by those peculiar features tioi- which throughout distinguished the extension of the Puritan settlements of New England. When a few straggling Virginian explorers crossed their southern • For what one may call the Massachusetts side of early Oonnecticut history Winthrop is the main authority. The Records of Connecticut from the outset are puhlished. The editor, Mr. J. Hammond Trumhull, began his labours in 1850. The twelfth volume, coming down to 1762, appeared in 1882. Mr. Trumbull has incorporated many valuable documents with the records. Trumbull's History of Co«nee was despatched to Block Island. Their in- structions were to extirpate the natives there, by killing all the men and capturing the women and children, and then to take possession of- the island. Thence they were to go on to the mainland and to demand the murderers of Stone, with a thousand fathom of wampum for damages, and some of the Indian children as hostages.* One would have thought that even the unswerving advocacy of a Kew England chronicler might have shrunk from defending this unjust and ferocious policy. No effort was made to obtain redress by peaceful means or to separate the innocent from the guilty. The whole com- munity of Block Island was to be destroyed because it contained a band of murdei'ers. Excuse may be made for those who' for six years had lived in more or less constant dread of a watchful and unforgiving enemy. But there is one man for whom no such plea can be urged. Vane's associations and training should have raised him above colonial narrowness and prejudice. It would have been no hard task for him, still in the fulness of his untarnished popularity, to have raised his voice on behalf of justice and mercy.* ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 191. ' Underbill gives a very full report of this expedition, in wliicli he had a command. Gardiner tells so much of it as came imder his own observation at Saybrook. ' Winthrop (voL i. p. 192) says ninety. Underbill says a hundred, and Mason a hundred and twenty. ^ The instructions are given by Winthrop, vol. i. p. 193. ' Underbill (p. 4) specially says, ' God stirred up the heart of the honoured Governor, Mister Henry Vane, and the rest of the magistrates.' 1636 ENDICOTT'S EXPEDITION. 221 The expedition was carried out, as it had been planned, cruelly and unwisely. The English were de- His layed in landing on the island by a heavy failure. ^^^^ When on shore they found the ground almost impassable from brushwood. The natives either escaped in their canoes or hid themselves in the thickets. The exploits of the invading force are summed up by Underhill. According to him, they ' burnt the Indian houses, cut down their corn, and destroyed some of their dogs instead of men.' ^ We are indebted to the same authority for an account of the manner in which the expedition, after leaving Endicott's Block Island, dealt with the Pequods. On t?th°the reaching the Pequod territory the English were Peqjods. received by multitudes of the natives, who greeted them in. a friendly fashion, not thinking they in- tended war. Then, Underhill ingenuously tells us, ' we, thinking it the best way, did forbear to answer them ; first, that we might the better be able to run through the work ; secondly, that by delaying of them we might drive them into security, to the end we might have the more advantage of them.'^ But before the assailants could strike a blow the Pequods divined their intention, and sent a chief to confer with them. The English received him on board one of their vessels, and renewed their demand that Stone's murderers should be given up. The Pequods' ambassador excused the murder on the ground that a Dutch trader had kidnapped one of their chiefs, and then, having promised to deliver him up for ransom, had given up his dead body. For this they vowed revenge. Soon after Stone's vessel appeared on the river and made overtures for trade. The son of the murdered chief went on board, found Stone in a drunken sleep, and brained him with his iomahawk. The Enghsh might well look with suspicion on a defence ' Underhill, p. 7. » lb. 222 SETTLEMENT OF CONNEOTIGUT. 1636 wholly at variance with that which had been given two years before. They further argued with good reason, that the Pequods must be well able to distinguish between Dutch and English, and that to accept these explanations would be an encouragement of future at- tacks. Two courses lay open to Endicott. He might strike a blow decisive enough to cripple and terrify the Pequods. If his men were not enough in number for that, common sense would have led him to avoid exas- perating the savages, and to wait till a larger and better furnished force could deal with them effectually. But the attack upon Block Island had already shown that Endicott was wholly ignorant of the strategy needed against the Indians. Gardiner, whose professional con- tempt for citizen soldiers was in this case fully justified, urged the danger to which he and his feUow-settlers would be exposed. ' You come hither,' he said, ' to raise these wasps about my ears ; then you will take wing and flee away.' ^ The details of Endicott's campaign can- not be told better than in the complacent language of Under hill : 'Marching into a champaign field we displayed our colours ; but none would come near us, but standing remotely off did laugh at us for our patience. We suddenly set upon our march and gave fire to as many as we could come near, firing their wigwams, spoiling their corn, and many other necessaries that they had buried in the ground we raked up, which the soldiers had for booty. Thus we spent the day burning and spoiling the country. Towards night we embarked ourselves. The next morning, landing on the Nahan- ticot shore, where we were served in like nature ; no Indians would come near us, but ran from us as the deer from the dogs. But having burned and spoiled what we could light on, we embarked our men and set sail for the Bay. Having ended this exploit came off, leaving ' Gardiner, p. 140. loae EMBASSY OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 223 one man wounded in the leg, but certain numbers of theirs slain and many wounded. This was the substance of the first year's service.' ^ Scarcely had Endicott returned when news reached Boston of a fresh source of danger. It was announced Roger that the differences between the Pequods and ncgotf^ the Narragansetts were made up.^ An alliance Narr^^- betwecu thosB tribes would have extended the ^^"^" danger of invasion from the plantations on the Connecticut to the whole line of settlements along the New England coast. Fortunately there was one man in New England who was both able and willing to cope with this difficulty. The kindly and sympathetic temper and the inquiring mind of Roger Williams had taught him to regard the savage as something more than a beast of prey to be avoided or destroyed, and his own wrongs had not made him indifferent to the danger of his persecutors. He and his companions on the shores of Narragangett Bay were specially menaced by the threatened combination among the savages. Yet we may well believe that the principle which he laid down, and to which he ever loyally adhered, ' I know that every man, quatenus man, is his brother's keeper,' ^ would have been motive enough. The ungenerous silence of every Massachusetts chronicler, Winthrop alone excepted, shows how deep a humiliation it must have been when the government had to confess that their hopes of safety lay in the man whose very presence in America was a defiance of their authority. At the urgent request of the Governor and Council Williams embarked alone in a canoe and made his way to the home of Canonicus and Miantonomo.* There he found ' Underbill, pp. 10, 11. = Winthrop, vol. i. p. 196. ' This expression occurs in a letter to Winthrop, August 1638 {Nai-r. Hoc. Pub., vol. vi. p. 114). * Letter to Mason, June 22, 1670, published in Mass. But. CoU., 1st series, vol. i. p. Wo>- J 'i 4"' 224 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1636 the ambassadors of the Peqiiods, whose hands and wea- pons, in his own words, ' yet reeked with the blood of his countrymen.' By what arguments he prevailed we are not told, but when he left the Narragansetts after a three days' sojourn in their wigwams, their friendship with the Pequods was at an end, and they were willing to negotiate an alliance with the English. They seem to have brought with them the Mohicans, whose weak- ness and lack of numbers would have made it almost impossible for them to stand alone against the other tribes. Miantonomo was received at Boston, and an offensive alliance against the Pequods formally drawn up and accepted.^ Scarcely had this been completed when Win- throp, then Deputy-Governor, received a letter from Correspon- the Govcmor of Plymouth, protesting against between the foUy of the late expedition, as having merely ^nf^°'^ provoked without curbing the Pequods. The winthrop. ^nwontcd petulance and sophistry of Winthrop's answer betrays his consciousness of a weak cause. How, he asks, could soldiers in armour follow the savages in the forests ? The government had not intended to make war, but merely to inflict punishment, and this it had done. It was likely too that the savages would have submitted ' if God had not deprived them of common reason.' In other words, the Massachusetts government had sent out an expedition without troubling itself about the temper and resources of the enemy, and had courted failure in a case where failure might bring with it the massacre of hundreds of Englishmen.^ The remonstrances of the Plymouth government were but the echo of those urged by Gardiner, and both were fully justified. All the winter the settlers on the I Winthrop, vol. i. p. 109. ^ Winthrop mentions the substance of Bradford's letter shortly and g-ivea that of his own answer in full (vol. i. p. 190). 1636-7 OUTRAGES BY THE PEQUODS. 225 Conuecticut were harassed by skirmishing parties of Pequods. The garrison at Saybrook was defied and Outrages insultsd ; the men could hardly venture out to Peq'u^ gather forage and fuel, and in spite of aU pre- wlntef of* cautions Gardiner was wounded by an Indian "^®- archer.^ Further up the river more than twenty English settlers were killed or taken prisoners, and the new settlements were cut oflf from all com- munication with the coast.'^ Meanwhile the rulers of Massachusetts were absorbed in other and, as they seemingly deemed, in more important afiairs. At Boston the one topic which excluded aU other thoughts was whether the ministry preached a covenant of grace or a covenant of works. Not three days' march off the very friends and brethren of the disputants lay down each night to sleep, not knowing whether by the morning every man in their habitations might not be a captive in the hands of the torturer and every woman and child a mutilated corpse. The mihtary system of the various colonies was ill- adapted for striking a single and decisive blow. In The mill- Massachusetts the township was the basis of of^'ew*"" the miUtary system. There each town had ngiand.5 fj.QQ^ ^]jg Qutset its own company, which met for drill once a week.* Monthly drill was soon after- wards substituted.* A side-hght is thrown on the social and industrial condition of the colony by an ex- emption from service which included magistrates, elders, * Gardiner, p. 145. ^ Mason mentions nine killed at Weathersfield. According to Prince the whole numher was fifteen killed and eight taken prisoners. Among the prisoners were two maids. They were ransomed by the Dutch, and returned having sufiered no wrong at the hands of their captors (Winthrop, vol. i. p. 223). ' A very complete understanding of the military system of Massachusetts may he learnt from the records. Some details are furnished by Johnson. * Mass. Records, vol. i. p. 85. ' lb. p. 102. II. Q 226 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1636. deacons, shipwrights, millers, and fishermen.^ In 1636, as the colony extended and as danger became more pressing, the legislature introduced a more complete organization into the system. The militia was divided into three regiments, each with its own district. One included Boston and five townships south-east of it along the coast. Another took in the inland towns, including the detached settlement of Dedham, while the third extended northward. There was as yet no central authority, but the officers were to be chosen by the council out of a list of candidates recommended by the townsmen.^ The early records of Plymouth throw no light on the military condition of the colony. We know that the force raised against the Pequods were volunteers.^ We know, too, from more than one incident, that there was no lack of individual courage or soldierly skill among the settlers. A militia organized according to local divisions is admirably fitted for a purely defensive war. Every soldier feels that there is an object at stake in which he as an individual is directly interested. Every man is bound to his comrades by the tie of neighbourhood, often of friendship and kindred. But for purposes of attack, when complex movements have to be carried out, and when the end sought is not one of obvious and im- mediate necessity, then the weak points of the system are felt. The very strength of his individual passions and interests hinders the citizen soldier from taking his place as part of a complex machine. His civil pursuits ofier a rival claim. He is loth to leave his farm and his merchandise till the protection of them becomes an actual necessity. And though the war with the Pequods was in a certain sense a defensive war, yet it was not ' Mass. Eecords, pp. 210, 258. « lb. p. 180. ' Plymouth Records, vol. i. p. CO. 1637 WA2\T OF UNITED ACTION. 227 a war which could be carried on solely by defensive operations. It was not enough to guard the settle- ments on the river from isolated attacks ; the enemy must be so dealt with as to make such attacks impossible, and to secure free arid safe communication between Connecticut and the other New England colonies. Even before the military difficulty could arise there were political difficulties to be overcome. Each colony Want of had an interest in the war, and it could hardly action. be Carried on with success unless each co- operated. Yet the matter did not concern each colony alike. Early in 1637 Massachusetts made a trifling con- tribution to the help of her colony by sending twenty men under the command of Underbill to reinforce the garrison of Saybrook.^ In May Winslow arrived at Boston to confer with the government there about a joint attack on the Pequods.^ The spirit in which negotia- tions were carried on boded ill for the proposed alliance. Winslow announced at the outset that no final decision could be given tiU the session of the General Court, a month later. He also thought it a fitting opportunity to bring up certain grievances, such as the refusal of Massachusetts to help Plymouth against the French in Canada, their interference with the trade on the Kennebec, and the alleged trespass on the Connecticut. Finally he pleaded that Massachusetts was strong enough to fight her own battles without help from a weak neighbour. In reply the Massachusetts/government pointed out that it was no private quarrel of their own, but a danger common to aU the colonies. The other charges they partly explained away, while in some measure admitting and regretting them. While Plymouth and Massachusetts were wrangling ' Gardiner, p. 148. He calls them ' twenty lusty men weU armed.' ■' Full accounts of this negotiation are ^ven hy Winthrop (vol. i. p. 219; and by Bradford (p. 220). a 3 228 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1637 the men of Connecticut were up and doing. Already in the first week in May a force of ninety men had been Connecti- raised from the three townships of Windsor, pareT/or Hartford, and Weathersfield.^ Without wait- ■^'"■- ing for any promises of help from either of the other settlements, the little band set forth on its desperate enterprise. Its numerical weakness was more than made up for by the capacity of the commander, John Mason. New England historians, usually so lavish in eulogy, have meted out praise with a sparing hand to one far worthier of it than many of the divines and legislators with whom they have dealt so bountifully. Like nearly all the mihtary heroes in the early days of the colonies, Mason had learnt soldiership in the Netherlands. It may seem no great exploit to conduct a short campaign against a horde of half-naked savages armed almost wholly with bows and arrows. Yet it gave Mason scope to show a comprehensiveness of view, a promptness of action, and a power of inspiring his followers with his own enthusiasm and self-rehance, which elsewhere might have won him a high place in military history. The gratitude which he so largely earned from his own gene- ration should also be felt by posterity, since he has left a chronicle of the campaign in which each of its suc- cessive incidents is told with method and with graphic simplicity. The task that lay before him was to clear the Pequods out of a tract of country between the Connecticut and Plan of *b® Mystic rivers, some thirty-five miles in width campaign. ^^^ stretching about sixty inland, backed by dense forests in which escape would be easy. The main body of the savages was entrenched in two forti- fied villages, the chief one on the Mystic river, some 1 Connecticut Records, vol. i. p. 9 ; Mason, p. 133. Mason now becomes an authority of the first importance. UnderhUl says a hundred men. It is clear that he is habitually inaccurate in his figures. Gardiner, on the other hand, says eighty. 1637 MASON MARCHES AGAINST THE PEQUODS. 229 four miles from the shore. It was clear that they had made ready for the worst, since the wives and children of their chief men were placed in safety at Long Island.^ If the two colonies on the coast could have been trusted to cooperate efficiently, probably the best method of attack would have been a simultaneous invasion from the Connecticut plantations, from the north-east, and from the coast. But to secure the success of such a combination would probably have needed more skiU and better organization than were at the command of the settlers, even if Plymouth and Massachusetts could have been trusted to cooperate loyally. Eor the Connec- ticut force to attempt that line of attack alone would simply have brought them face to face mth an enemy who could fight or disperse through the forest as they pleased. Accordingly it was settled by the authori- ties at Hartford that Mason was to proceed down the Connecticut and along the coast tiU he came to the mouth of the Pequod river. There he was to disembark and to march inland against the enemy .^ By this plan he could pick up any assistance that might come from the other plantations, while even if they failed him wholly it would only weaken and not neutrahze his attack. The English were accompanied by Uncas, at the head of eighty Mohican warriors.^ At Saybrook Mason met with a discouraging recep- tion from Gardiner, who might well be pardoned if he looked with little confidence on the military powers of the colonists. When he pointed out the incapacity of the men, Mason gave the somewhat desponding answer that the Connecticut magistrates either could not or ' Letter from AVinslcw to Winthrop, Maj 22, 1637, in Maes. Hist. Coll., 4th series, vol. vi. p. 164. ° Mason, p. 134. ' Our commission limiting us to land our men in Pequod river.' ' Mason mentions Uncas, tut does not speeily the number of his men. Gardiner fays eighty. TJnderhill says ' three score Mohiggeners.' 230 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1637 would not send better.^ At first Gardiner refused to let any of his men join them. At length however Mason prevailed on him to substitute twenty of his men for twenty of the weakest of the force from Connecticut.^ During the passage down the river the Mohicans were successful in some trifling skirmishes against the enemy. The service rendered was small in itself, but reassuring to the Enghsh, who had hitherto doubted the good faith of their allies.* On reaching the mouth of the river Mason saw how inadequate was the proposed scheme of campaign. If Mfison he simply marched straight inland on the changes his -^ ^ " plan. requod village, the enemy would deal with him as they had dealt last year with Endicott. It would be madness for ninety heavy-armed men, laden with am- munition and provisions, to attempt to pursue a force of some hundred savages through the forest. In one way, and in one way only, could an effectual blow be struck. The English might land further up the coast in the friendly territory of the Narragansetts, and thence penetrate the Pequod country by a flank movement. By this means they might cut off the Pequods from the upper country, and if they failed to annihilate them, bring them to bay on the banks of the Connecticut. Moreover the Pequods were expecting an attack from the mouth of the river, where they had scouts posted, and the proposed change of plan might effect a surprise. Mason's subordinates opposed his new scheme. Im- patience to end the campaign and return home, the bane of citizen armies from the days of Harold down to the days of Washington, made them shrink from the proposed delay.* Mason saw that he had to deal with men whom it was better to persuade than to coerce, and he knew ' Gardiner, p. 149. « Mason, p. 135. ' lb. ; Underbill, p. 16. * Trijmtull states this, but without giving his authority. 1G37 MASON CHANGES HIS PLAN. 231 too that for that end the voice of the minister who ac- companied the force would be the most efficient influence. In his own words, he ' earnestly desired Mr. Stone that he would commend our condition to the Lord, to direct how and in what manner we should demean ourselves.' ^ We may well believe that Mason's request was no cal- culated artifice ; in the crisis of his country's fate the Puritan captain leant on a wisdom beyond his own. Stone spent the night in prayer, and not in vain, since in the morniag he bade his countrymen trust to the guidance of their brave and far-sighted leader. On the twenty- third of May, nearly a fortnight after their departure from Hartford, the Uttle army landed in the country of the Narragansetts. . The Indians, though favourable to Mason's purpose, told him that his force was too small for the task before it. We must remember that the nego- tiations with the Narragansetts had been conducted by Massachusetts, and the savages might naturally distrust an undertaking in which that colony had no share. By this time Plymouth and Massachusetts had come to terms, and had voted, the former fifty men,^ the latter ttl*M^s°tto ^^" hundred.' An advanced party of forty fort. men under Captain Patrick was hurried for- ward to join Mason.* While among the Narragansetts Mason received a message announcing Patrick's intended coming. He decided however that the increase of strength would not compensate for the delay. His men were impatient to end the war and return home, and every day that he waited lessened the chance of taking ' Mason, p. 154. * Bradford (p. 223) gays fifty, the Records (vol. i. p. 10) enumerate forty- three. * Here, again, there is a slight discrepancy between the chronicle and the records. "Winthrop (vol. i. p. 222) says two hundred. According to the Records (vol. i. p. 192) the number was originally a hundred and sixty, and fifty-one more were raised afterwards. * Winthrop, vol.i. p. 222 ; Bradford, p. 223. 232 SETTLEMENT OP CONNECTICUT. 1837 the Pequods by surprise. Moreover some immediate and brilliant success seemed needful to confirm the wavering allegiance of his Indian allies. Accordingly the day after his landing Mason advanced, with two hundred of the Narragansetts added to his original force. After a day's march he.reached JSTyantic, an important settlement of the Narragansetts on the borders of the Pequod country. There his distrust of his allies was strengthened by the refusal of the Indians to admit him within their village. Mason's original design was to divide his force and to make a simultaneous attack on the two Pequod villages. What he now learnt as to the strength and disposition of the enemy led him to concentrate his forces on the principal village. This stood on the west bank of the Mystic, in a large enclosure surrounded by a pahsade twelve feet high and an earthen rampart of three feet.^ Before dawn on the twenty-sixth of May Mason made his onslaught. Many of the Narragainsetts had already dropped away, and neither those that stayed nor the Mohicans showed any willingness to support the English. In justice it must be borne in mind that the attack was one for which neither their experience nor their arms in any way fitted them. Mason divided his troop in two. One party under himself attacked on the west, the other, led by Underbill, from the east. The Enghsh poured in a heavy volley, and Mason forced an entrance through the gateway, while Underhill's party after a struggle scaled the palisade. Though the Indian archery took but little effect through the headpieces and buff coats of the assailants, yet two were killed and twenty more disabled, while the shelter afforded by the wigwams enabled the savages to avoid the fire of their enemies. One dreadful resource remained. Mason seized a fire- ' Underhill (p. 2.3) and Vincent (p. 29) Loth describe the fort. The latter says it covered two acres, the former makes it only one. 1637 DESTRUCTION OF THE MYSTIC FORT. 233 brand from a wigwam and applied it to the light fabric. In an instant the huts of basket-work, covered with dry- mats, were in a blaze. Underbill followed his example. In half an hour the two streams of fire met and the whole village was in ruins. Underbill's narrative rises into dignity and pathos as he tells us how ' great and doleful was the bloody sight to the view of young soldiers that had never been in war, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick in some places that you could hardly pass along.' ^ We may feel too that he has summed up the merits of the case when he says, ' Mercy they did deserve for their valour, could we have had opportunity to bestow it.' A needless war against savages is just as great a crime as a needless war against a civilized nation. But if once the necessity arises, then it is impossible that such a war should be carried out on the principles which govern civilized nations. A civihzed community is amenable to penalties and restraints which have no force against savages. It can be mulcted of a share of its territory ; its commerce can be destroyed by a blockade. As life becomes more complex the need for direct penalties grows less. In primitive times an individual is rendered harmless by blinding or mutilation. A community is bound over to keep the peace by giving hostages. To endeavour to restrain a fierce, proud, and vindictive nation like the Pequods would have been striving to bind the unicorn in the furrow. In such a case the grim maxim of Essex holds good : ' Stone-dead hath no fellow.' That such a necessity exists is the best reason why a civilized power should avoid war with savages, It is no reason for refusing to face facts when war becomes needful. More than six hundred Pequods had perished, and only two of the assailants.'^ But of the latter more than ' P. 25. * The estimates vary very widely; I have taken Mason's. 234 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1637 one in every four was wounded, and the task of bearing them to the vessels which were lying at the mouth of the Mason's Pcquod river was a sore tax on the exhausted return. troops. The surgeon, who was no soldier, had fled to the ships, and the raw air of the early morning was telling on the sufferers. Fortunately, however, the Mohi- can and Narragansett allies, who had rendered no other service, were able to help in carrying the wounded. As the little force was making its way to the sea a fresh party of the enemy, numbering over two hundred, came in sight. When they found the charred remains of the village, strewed with the corpses of their country- men, they raised a howl of grief and rage and rushed upon the retiring enemy. It was no part of Mason's scheme of campaign to turn upon this second force. He contented himself with keeping the foe in check tiU his troops had reached the shore. There they found a vessel with Patrick and his forty men from Massachu- setts. Though too late to bear a hand in the campaign, he might now have been of service in transporting the English soldiers or the Indian allies by sea, and saving the exhausted force from the fatigue and danger of a- land march. But Patrick's contentious and impracti- cable temper made him utterly useless, so that, in the words of Mason, ' we did not desire or dehght in his company, and so we plainly told him.' ^ On Saturday, three days after the victory, the httle army reached Saybrook. There it was ' nobly enter- Eeoeption taiucd by Lieutenant Gardiner with many great troops in guus,' and with courtesy which must have con- Coimecti- ° ^ . , • , i ^ ,. i t cut. trasted pleasantly with the gloomy lorebodmgs with which he had witnessed their departure.^ Of their reception by their fellow- citizens Mason is content to tell ' Mason, p. 144. ' lb. Gardiner himself (p. 149) says, ' They returned with victory, to the glory of God and honour of our nation.' 1637 MASON'S RETURN. 235 US that they ' were entertained with great triumph and rej oicing and praising God for His goodness . ' ^ We learn from the records of the colony that the gratitude of the citizens showed itself in act by a grant of five hundred acres of land to Mason and of the like amount to be distributed among his men. Well might Connecticut be triumphant and thankful at the return of her dehverers. They had saved her from destruction, from horrors which we may describe in words, but can hardly even shadow to our own minds. They had shown too that the little community .of three villages, which had not yet fully taken the forms of civic ex- istence, had within it the spirit by which commonwealths are kept alive. The safety of the state had been staked on the courage and good conduct of the citizens, and they had borne the test. The daughter had shown that she could dispense with the tardy and grudging help which the parent offered her. Her very success was a rebuke to that parent. The slur which had been cast on New England soldiership by the failure of Endicott, was wiped out by the skill and daring of Mason and his followers. The victory by the Mystic had practically annihi- lated the power of the Pequods and decided their fate, f "emiJns "^^^ *^^^ ^^ subjugatiou had yet to be carried against Qut in detail. When the result of the cam- the Peqnods. paigu bccamc known at Boston the Council resolved only to send half the number of men that had been originally voted. A deputation, headed by three ministers, waited on Winthrop and remonstrated with him. The arrogant claims of the priesthood to interfere in secular affairs met with less toleration from Winthrop than from any other of the statesmen of New England. A private remonstrance, he told them, might have been heard, but ' to come ... in a public and popular way . . . ' lb. 236 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1037 would bring authority into contempt.' As a concession, however, a hundred and forty men were sent.' Though the Pequods had endeavoured to strike a parting blow at Mason's force before it embarked, yet the defeat by the Mystic had utterly destroyed all unity and discipline among them. In their wrath they turned on their leader, Sasacus, and denounced him as one whose ambition had brought about the ruin of his nation. The chief, finding his life in danger, fled with seventy of his chosen followers to the country of the Mohawks.^ With his flight all thought of resistance was at an end. The remnant of the natives broke up into scattered bands, which took refuge separately in the swampy recesses of the forest. One of these, numbering eighty, was siirrounded and captured by the force from Massachusetts.^ The largest party escaped across the Connecticut and took refuge with some friendly Indians. At the end of June the force from Massachusetts was joined by forty men from Con- necticut under the command of Mason. For a while it was impossible to ascertain where the main body of the surviving Pequods was. At length a deserter, who acted as spy for the English, told them that his countrymen were in a fortified village near the shore, forty miles beyond Saybrook. There the English surrounded them. The evils of a divided command were strikingly illus- trated by the contrast between the vigorous and efiicient operations of the late campaign and the hesitation and delays now. Some were for cutting down the trees round the village to clear a space for an assault, others were for blockading it with a palisade. Some again wished to attack at once ; others would wait till the next morning. At last it was decided to send an interpreter and demand a surrender. Old men, women, and children, two hundred in all, obeyed the summons and ' Wintlirop, vol. i. p. 226. ■" ^ Mason, p. 145; "Winthrop, vol. i. p. SS3. s jj 1637-8 FATE OF THE PEQU0D3. 237 gave themselves up prisoners. Of the fighting men who stayed behind, seventy made a sortie, and were suffered to escape through the incompetence of Patrick. The remainder, a hundred and eighty in number, seemingly made no attempt at resistance and were led off as cap- tives.^ The Mohawks, to whom Sasacus had fled, Idlled him and sent his scalp-lock as an offering to Boston.^ All that remained of the nation, lately so terrible, was a few scattered bands of fugitives, who were hunted down by the Enghsh and their savage allies. A difficulty now arose with the friendly Indians. The adoption of a prisoner was a familiar usage among the Mohicans savages. It is clear that the ties of political and Narra- .'^ in- tii i i gansette uuiou aud ailegiancc sat nghtly on them, and toincorpo- that wherc community of blood and speech Pequods. cxistcd, the members of one tribe were readily absorbed into another. The Pequods who had been actually taken during the war were allowed to be the bondslaves of the English, though it would seem as if they were no very profitable acquisition. But those who were yet at large, nearly two hundred in number, were coveted as adoptive tribesmen both by the Mohicans and the Narragansetts.^ Uncas, it is clear, thought by acquiring this addition to build up the power of his tribe, to oust the Narragansetts from their position of supremacy, and possibly to undermine their alliance with the Enghsh. Eoger WiUiams threw himself into this dispute with characteristic eagerness.* His kindly sympathy with the Indians never degenerated into irrational sentiment, nor blinded him to their vices. There is something of apology in the tone in which he ' This last attack is described fully by Mason (pp. 146-148), and by Winthrop (vol. i. p. 233). Mason, oddly enough, does not mention the place. Winthrop describes it as within twenty or thirty miles of the Dutch. ' Winthrop, vol. i. p. 235 ; Gardiner, p. 151. ' Gardiner, p. 161. * Williams' letters are fuUof references to this. 238 SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 1638 assures Winthrop that he ' observes in Miantonomo some sparks of true friendship.' ^ In the autumn of 1638 the remnants of the Pequods, to the number of some two hundred warriors with their The treaty families, formally submitted to the English. On of Hartford, ^^g twentj-first of September a solemn con- ference was held at Hartford, at which the Pequods were divided between the Mohicans and the Narra- gansetts, A hundred of them were allotted to Uncas, eighty to Miantonomo, and twenty to Mnigret, a chief ruling over those who dwelt at Nyantic, a Narragansett by blood but independent of Miantonomo. The Pequods were to discard their own name, and to be henceforth called Mohicans and Narragansetts. At the same time the memory of their separate nationality was, somewhat inconsistently, kept ahve by the imposition of a tribute.^ The overthrow of the Pequods meant even more for New England than the escape of Connecticut from EfTectof massacre and destruction. By it the whole the Pequod . . , , . . . •!_, , . wai-. territorial relations between the English and the Indians were reversed. Hitherto the settlements in the Connecticut had formed an isolated strip, an isthmus, as it were, thrust out from New England into the midst of the sea of barbarism. But now, by the annihilation of the Pequods and the secure establishment of the townships on the Connectictit, the remaining Indian tribes were in their turn detached and hemmed in. The new settle- ments inland and the whole body of those along the coast, from the mouth of the Connecticut to Boston, were brought into direct communication. The political unity of New England was but a question of time. ' Letter to Winthrop, July 1637 {Narr. Hist. Coll., vol. vi. p. 47). ' I can nowhere find any draft of this treaty. The substance of it is given by Williams in a letter published in Potter's History of Narragamett (p./ 77). This book forms the third volume of the Rhode Island Histoncal Society Collection. 239 CHAPTER VI. THE SETTLEMENTS SOUTH OF CAPE COD.^ While Englishmen were thus making good their ground against all rivals in the valley of the Connecticut, a more Formation tranquil process of extension was at work on ments in the shores of Narragansett Bay. That coloni- Narragan- . . , ° • j ^ t. sett Bay. zatiou was m a large measure earned out by men whom Massachusetts abhorred and would fain have hindered. Yet none the less was it an integral part of the work which Massachusetts had set herself to ■ Neither Newhaven nor Rhode Island had at their foundation any con- temporary chronider of their own. The early history of each colony must be learnt from the records, which are themselves in a somewhat mutilated state, from letters, and from incidental references in the Massachusetts histo- rians. Winthiop becomes a secondary and, as we shall see, not always a trust- worthy authority. Indeed, we must look with some suspicion on everything that the Massachusetts writers tell us about the heretical and anarchical settlers of Rhode Island. The records of Rhode Island, including those of the four separate townships before they were united, were published in 1856-1862. They form seven volumes, extending from 1636 to 1776, and are edited by Mr. J. R. Bartlett. The records of Newhaven were published in 1857. They form two volumes, extending from the foundation of the colony down to its union with Connecticut. There is unfortunately a gap in them from 1650 to l(i52. They are edited by Mr. C. J. Hoadly. Mr. Samuel Greene Arnold, in his History of Bhode Idand, has brought together sU the extant materials. He brings out more clearly than any previous writer the distinct threads of the hbtoiy of the various settlements. My references to Mr. Arnold's book are to the third edition, that of 1878. The History of New England, with par- ticular reference to the denomination called Baptists, by Isaac Backus, 1777, contains much valuable information about Rhode Island, The author was minister of a Baptist Church at Middleborough, in Plymouth, and bis work contains many extracts from unpublished documents of great impor- tance. 240 THE SETTLEMENTS SOUTH OF CAPE COD. 1636 achieve. Ehode Island was to New England what New ' England as a whole was to the mother country. In each case the emigrants were outcast children, whose work yet served the common end and redounded to the glory of the parent state. In another way the history of Ehode Island was a copy in miniature of the his- tory of New England. In Ehode Island the process of union was reproduced on a smaU scale and in a primitive form. A group of petty communities found the necessary conditions for union in their common origin, in contiguity, and in the need for mutual support against the jealous hostihty of the parent state. Ehode Island indeed furnished a striking illustration of the capacity of the New England Puritans for organized civil life. The men who successively founded the settle- ments which grew into Ehode Island were assuredly not men of special enlightenment. They had for the most part broken with Massachusetts, not so much because she was narrow and dogmatic, as because the narrowness and dogmatism of her divines was of a different pattern from their own. Yet out of this material was formed a vigorous and progressive com- monwealth, whose political institutions were shaped in obedience to her actual wants, and bore no trace of any fanciful theory or exclusive temper. The isolated plantations which grew into Ehode Island differed but little at the outset from other small Eoger independent settlements which were gradually ™Mr^ absorbed into the greater New England colo- associates. j^y^Qg^ They Were distinguished from them, not so much by their origin and mode of hfe, as by their later history. That their destiny was different, that they were able to form and maintain an existence of their own, was due partly to the circumstances of their origin, partly to the personal ascendency of the man who was in some measure their founder, and throughout their chief 1636 ROGER "WILLIAMS AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 241 guide and counsellor, Eoger Williams. That charm of character and that power over men which even Williams' enemies recognized, and which indeed made him formidable to them, soon brought him companions and disciples in his banishment. Williams' own wishes would haVe led him to prefer the career of a missionary, an English counterpart of Lallemand or Brebeuf, among those savages whose Hfe interested him so deeply, and whose hearts he so well knew how to win.^ Four wan- derers, one a banished fugitive from Dorchester, asked leave to join him. Of the motives for that union, so fertile in results, we are told nothing. A sixth asso- ciate soon presented himself. The first choice of a site was at Seekonk. That however proved to be within the limits of the Plymouth patent. Winslow, then Governor, fearing that the reception of the fugitives might be distasteful to Massachusetts, asked WilHams to go further, pointing out to him the merits of the country to the south, and promising that his own people should be friendly to the new settlement.^ Williams' scrupulous regard for the rights of the. savages and the claims which he had already established Purchase to their good-will made it at once needful and fromtoe easy for him to gain their consent to his settle- indians.' j^q^^^ By a formal grant Canonicus and Mian- tonomo made over to him the fertile territory between the Pawtucket and Patuxet rivers. The tract thus ' Williams' own words at a later day were, ' My soul's desire was to do the natives good. . . . and therefore desired not to he troubled with English company.' This was stated by Williams in evidence in a judicial inquiry in 1677 (Arnold, vol. i. p. 97). " Williams to Mason (ilf