CHAPTER the Governor of New Plymouth for the time being, were VI. to be members, with power to restrain interlopers, al1623. ready beginning to establish themselves along the coast. Gorges sailed to take possession of his government, taking with him a number of indented servants, and accompanied by one Morrell, a clergyman appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, commissary of ecclesiastical affairs. Gorges and Morrell resided a year or more in New England, a part of the time at Plymouth, and the remainder at Weston's deserted plantation at Wissagusset, where Gorges endeavored to establish a settlement, preferring that situation, it would seem, to his own grant on the north shore of the bay. At Plymouth Gorges encountered Weston, who had come out to New England to look after his colony, but had been shipwrecked on the eastern coast, and robbed by the Indians, escaping barely with his life. He found refuge and assistance at Plymouth; but the good people there regarded his misfortunes as a judgment upon him for deserting them, and Gorges appears to have taken some proceedings against him as an interloper. The colony of New Plymouth, though still the chief settlement of New England, remained, as yet, very feeble. The best dish that could be set before the third supply of colonists, about sixty in number, who came in the August. Anne and the Little James, was a lobster, a piece of fish, and a cup of "fair spring water." As to bread, there was none in the colony. Among the passengers was Nathaniel Morton, then a boy eleven years old, a nephew of Governor Bradford, afterward secretary and historian. of the colony. The Anne was laden with clapboards, and such furs as had been collected; and Winslow went back in her, to obtain in London a supply of goods, without which the little settlement was in danger of VI. perishing. He published, while there, a tract, entitled CHAPTER "Good News from New England," and, having succeed-. ed in obtaining a much-needed loan of £1800, nearly 1624. $9000, he returned in the spring, taking with him, March among other things, a few cattle, the first brought to New Plymouth. At the same time came one Lyford, recommended by some of the partners in London as a minister for the colony. But he was not inclined to go the full length of the separatists, and insisted upon administering the sacrament by virtue of his episcopal ordination. To this the majority would not consent; some disturbance resulted; and a ship sailing for England with letters from Lyford on board, Bradford followed her in his canoe, examined the letters, and found matters therein of a dangerous tendency. Lyford was presently expelled, along with Oldham and Conant, his principal adherents. These expelled colonists established themselves on Nantasket, at the entrance of what is now Boston harbor. These proceedings, with a growing jealousy and difference of opinion upon this question of separation from the Church of England, seem to have increased the misunderstanding between the colonists and their London partners. The non-existence of private property, the discontent and unwillingness to labor thence arising, and the exorbitant interest, as high as forty-five per cent., paid for money borrowed in London, were serious drawbacks to the prosperity of New Plymouth. It was found necessary, indeed, to enter into an agreement that each family 1623. should plant for itself; and an acre of land was accord- 1624. ingly assigned to each person in fee. Under this stimulus, the production of corn soon became so great, that, from buyers, the colonists became sellers to the Indians. the end of the fourth year after its settlement, Plymouth had thirty-two dwelling-houses, and a hundred and eighty At CHAPTER four inhabitants. The general stock, or whole amount VI. of the investment, personal services included, amounted 1624. to £7000, or $34,000. The London partners were very unwilling to make any further advances. John Robinson died in Holland, and several years elapsed before his family, and the rest of the Leyden congregation, could find means to transport themselves to New Plymouth. Those already there-passengers by the Mayflower, the Fortune, the Anne, and the Little Jameswere afterward distinguished as the "old comers," or "forefathers." Six or seven years elapsed before the colony received any considerable addition to its numbers. The lieutenant general, admiral, and archbishop's commissary for New England, finding little subject-matter for the exercise of their authority, or little prospect of any respect being paid to it, soon quitted the country. Morrell, who had employed himself in writing a descriptive poem in Latin and English, had said nothing to the settlers at New Plymouth about his ecclesiastical authority till he was just about leaving, though the affair of Lyford might seem to have afforded some occasion for its exercise. In England, the rights of the company were again brought in question. James's fourth Parliament had no sooner met than the New England charter was referred to the committee of grievances. Sir Ferdinando Gorges was heard by counsel on behalf of the patent, which Coke pronounced void on account of its at tempted monopoly of the seas. Another bill passed the Commons for the protection of the fishermen, but it failed again in the Lords. The members of the Council for New England, contemplating, perhaps, a surrender of this unpopular charter, appear to have divided their territory into provinces, for which they cast lots in the presence of King James; but this division was not at this time carried into effect. VL Presently after his accession, Charles I. renewed the CHAPTER grant of Nova Scotia, with authority to the grantee to. create an order of a hundred and fifty hereditary baro- 1625. nets; and these titles, sold by Alexander, a number of which are still in existence, proved a more profitable speculation than the planting of colonies. At the end of the seven years originally limited in the 1627. agreement between the Plymouth colonists and the Lon- Nov. don adventurers, the London partners agreed to sell out their interest for £1800, or about $9000, to be paid in nine annual instalments. Eight of the principal colonists, in consideration of a six years' monopoly of the Indian traffic, gave their private bonds for the amount. The joint-stock principle was now abandoned; a division was made of the movable property; and twenty acres of 1628. land, nearest the town, were assigned in fee to each colonist. January. The soil of New Plymouth was very poor; some not very successful attempts were made at the cultivation of tobacco; but the chief reliance to pay for cloths and other goods from England was the peltry collected by trade with the Indians. To save the voyage round Cape Cod, and to facilitate the traffic with the Indians on Narraganset Bay and Long Island Sound, a trading house was built at the head of Buzzard's Bay. A grant was also obtained from the Council for New England of a large tract at the mouth of the Kennebec, where a post was established, and a lucrative traffic opened with the eastern Indians. A friendly message, brought by Secre- 1627. tary De Razier, had lately been received from the Dutch October. at the mouth of the Hudson. From these Dutchmen the use of wampum was learned, soon found very serviceable in the trade with the eastern Indians. There was not yet capital enough to engage in the cod fishery, but a step was made toward it in the establishment of a salt work. CHAPTER Straggling settlers, with or without grants from the Council for New England, were now fast planting them1625. selves along the coast. East of the Piscataqua, obscure hamlets of fishermen were established at Agamenticus, now York, and at the mouth of the Saco. A party of some thirty persons, under a Captain Wollaston, had set up a plantation in Massachusetts Bay, not far from Wissagusset, at a place which they called Mount Wollaston, now Quincy. This plantation presently fell under the control of one Morton, "a pettifogger of Furnival's Inn," or, as he describes himself, " of Clifford's Inn, gentleman.' He changed the name to Merry Mount; sold powder and shot to the Indians; gave refuge to runaway servants; and set up a May-pole, upon which occasion he broached a cask of wine and a hogshead of ale, and held a high revel and carousal. The people of Plymouth were requested by the other settlers to interfere; and 1628. Morton was seized by the redoubtable Standish, and sent prisoner to England. Eight plantations, from Piscataqua to Plymouth, some of them only single families, contributed to the expense. Though their number did not yet amount to three hundred, the Plymouth colonists considered themselves as now firmly established. "It was not with them as with other men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish themselves at home again;" so they stated in their application to the Council for New England for a new patent. They presently 1630. obtained it, with an assignment as boundaries, on the June 13. land side, of two lines, the one drawn northerly from the mouth of the Narraganset River, the other westerly from Cohasset rivulet, to meet "at the uttermost limits of a country or place called Pocanoket." The tract on the Kennebec was also included in this grant. |