THINGS NEEDFUL FOR THE COLONY.

237

XV.

Dec.

meat be dry-salted; none can better do it than the CHAP. sailors. Let your meal be so hard trod in your cask that you shall need an adz or hatchet to work it out 1621. with. Trust not too much on us for corn at this time, 11. for by reason of this last company that came, depending wholly upon us, we shall have little enough till harvest. Be careful to come by some of your meal to spend by the way; it will much refresh you. Build your cabins as open as you can, and bring good store of clothes and bedding with you. Bring every man a musket or fowling-piece. Let your piece be long in the barrel, and fear not the weight of it, for most of our shooting is from stands. and take it fasting; it is of good use. aniseed water is the best; but use it sparingly. If you bring any thing for comfort in the country, butter or sallet oil, or both, is very good. Our Indian corn, even the coarsest, maketh as pleasant meat as rice; therefore spare that, unless to spend by the way. Bring paper and linseed oil for your windows,' with

Oiled paper to keep out the snow-storms of a New England winter! This serves to give us some idea of the exposures and hardships of the first colonists. It is an indication of progress in domestic comfort when we find Higginson in 1629 writing from Salem to his friends in England, "Be sure to furnish yourselves with glass for windows." See Hutchinson's Collection of Papers, p. 50.

Glass windows were first introduced into England in 1180. They were so rare in the reign of Edward III. that Chaucer, in describing his chamber, mentions particularly

that

" with glass "Were all the windows well y-glazed."

Bring juice of lemons,
For hot waters,

Even in the time of Henry VIII.
they were considered a luxury, and
yeomen and farmers were perfectly
contented with windows of lattice.
In the days of Queen Elizabeth
they were unknown except in a
few lordly mansions, and in them
they were regarded as movable
furniture. When the dukes of
Northumberland left Alnwick cas-
tle to come to London for the win-
ter, the few glass windows, which
formed one of the luxuries of the
castle, were carefully taken out
and laid away, perhaps carried to
London to adorn the city residence.
See Anderson's Hist. of Commerce,
i. 90, ed. 1764; Ellis's Specimens
of the Early English Poets, i. 221,
323; Hallam's Middle Ages, ii.
294; Northumberland Household

238

POWDER AND SHOT.

CHAP. cotton yarn for your lamps. Let your shot be most XV. for big fowls, and bring store of powder and shot. I 1621. forbear further to write for the present, hoping to see 11. you by the next return. So I take my leave, com

Dec.

mending you to the Lord for a safe conduct unto us, resting in him,

Your loving friend,

E. W.'

Plymouth, in New England, this 11th of December, 1621.

Book, Preface, p. 16; E. Everett's

Edward Winslow, of whom

Address before the Merc. Lib. As- some account will be given heresoc. p. 19.

after.

CHAPTER XVI.

REASONS AND CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE LAWFUL-
NESS OF REMOVING OUT OF ENGLAND INTO

THE PARTS OF AMERICA.

XVI.

The Pre

FORASMUCH as many exceptions are daily made CHAP. against the going into and inhabiting of foreign desert places, to the hindrances of plantations abroad, and 1621. the increase of distractions at home; it is not amiss amble. that some which have been ear-witnesses of the exceptions made, and are either agents or abettors of such removals and plantations, do seek to give content to the world, in all things that possibly they can.

And although the most of the opposites are such as either dream of raising their fortunes here to that than which there is nothing more unlike, or such as affecting their home-born country so vehemently, as that they had rather with all their friends beg, yea, starve in it, than undergo a little difficulty in seeking abroad; yet are there some who, out of doubt in tenderness of conscience, and fear to offend God by running before they be called, are straitened and do straiten others from going to foreign plantations.

For whose cause especially I have been drawn, out of my good affection to them, to publish some reasons

240

XVI.

THE LAWFULNESS OF REMOVING.

CHAP. that might give them content and satisfaction, and also stay and stop the wilful and witty caviller; and herein 1621. I trust I shall not be blamed of any godly wise, though through my slender judgment I should miss the mark, and not strike the nail on the head, considering it is the first attempt that hath been made (that I know of) to defend those enterprises. Reason would, therefore, that if any man of deeper reach and better judgment see further or otherwise, that he rather instruct me than deride me.

Cautions.

1. 2, &

XXXV. 1.

Matth.

cv. 13.

i. 1, 2.

And being studious for brevity, we must first conGen. xii. sider, that whereas God of old did call and summon our fathers by predictions, dreams, visions, and certain ii. 19. illuminations, to go from their countries, places and habitations, to reside and dwell here or there, and to Psalm wander up and down from city to city, and land to land, according to his will and pleasure; now there is no such calling to be expected for any matter whatsoever, neither must any so much as imagine that there Heb will now be any such thing. God did once so train up his people, but now he doth not, but speaks in another manner, and so we must apply ourselves to God's present dealing, and not to his wonted dealing; Josh and as the miracle of giving manna ceased, when the fruits of the land became plenty, so God having such a plentiful storehouse of directions in his holy word, there must not now any extraordinary revelations be expected. But now the ordinary examples and precepts of the Scriptures, reasonably and rightly understood and applied, must be the voice and word, that must call us, press us, and direct us in every action.

v. 12.

Gen. xvii. 8.

Neither is there any land or possession now, like unto the possession which the Jews had in Canaan,

FROM ENGLAND TO AMERICA.

241

XVI.

being legally holy and appropriated unto a holy people, CHAP. the seed of Abraham, in which they dwelt securely, and had their days prolonged, it being by an immediate 1621. voice said, that he (the Lord) gave it them as a land of rest after their weary travels, and a type of eternal rest in heaven. But now there is no land of that sanctimony, no land so appropriated, none typical; much less any that can be said to be given of God to any nation, as was Canaan, which they and their seed must dwell in, till God sendeth upon them sword or captivity. But now we are all, in all places, strangers and pilgrims, travellers and sojourners, most properly, having no dwelling but in this earthen tabernacle; our 2 Cor. v. dwelling is but a wandering, and our abiding but as a fleeting, and in a word our home is nowhere but in the heavens, in that house not made with hands, whose maker and builder is God, and to which all ascend that love the coming of our Lord Jesus.

Though then there may be reasons to persuade a man to live in this or that land, yet there cannot be the same reasons which the Jews had; but now, as natural, civil and religious bands tie men, so they must be bound, and as good reasons for things terrene and heavenly appear, so they must be led.

1, 2, 3.

And so here falleth in our question, how a man that Object. is here born and bred, and hath lived some years, may remove himself into another country.

persons

I answer, a man must not respect only to live, and Ans. 1. do good to himself, but he should see where he can What live to do most good to others; for, as one saith, “He may whose living is but for himself, it is time he were dead." remove.

So were the Jews, but yet their temporal blessings and in

heritances were more large than
ours.-Author's Note.

hence