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Dunkirk privateers; but it proved false; the Arbella, CHAPTER with her three consorts, kept on their course; and, after a stormy and tedious passage, arrived, as did the other vessels also, some at Salem, and others at Charlestown. It was at Charlestown that the governor, deputy, and their immediate followers first fixed themselves. But their attention was soon attracted to the opposite peninsula, as yet in the sole possession of the solitary Blackstone. It was a tract of about six hundred acres, thinly wooded, and almost divided at high tide into three small islands, each a considerable hill, with gushing springs of fresh water. The largest hill, crowned by three distinct eminences, had gained for the peninsula the English name of Trimountain. Winthrop and his people soon took possession of this spot, and commenced a settlement, which they called BOSTON, after the English town in Lincolnshire, whence Johnson and others of the principal emigrants came.

A ship had arrived a few days before the Arbella, with a company from the west of England, of whom Ludlow, Endicott's brother-in-law, was the leader. The master of that vessel put his passengers unceremoniously ashore at Nantasket; but they presently established themselves at Matapan, which they called Dorchester, after the city whence they came.

A third party, headed by Sir Richard Saltonstall, fixed themselves at Watertown, a few miles up Charles River. These three were the principal settlements. Smaller ones were established at Roxbury, under Pynchon; at Mystic, afterward called Medford, where Cradock's servants, sent out with Endicott, already had a ship-building establishment; and at Saugus, now Lynn. Some settlers, also, still remained at Charlestown. A site on Charles River, between Boston and Watertown, se

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CHAPTER lected for the capital of the colony, soon became known as Newtown, now Cambridge. The magistrates were all to remove and settle there in the spring; but this was not done, except by Dudley; and Boston, in fact, became the capital.

› Each settlement at once assumed that township authority which has ever formed so marked a feature in the political organization of New England. The people assembled in town meeting, voted taxes for local purposes, and chose three, five, or seven of the principal inhabitants, at first under other names, but early known as "select-men," who had the expenditure of this money and the executive management of town affairs. A treasurer and a town clerk were also chosen, and a constable was soon added for the service of civil and criminal proEach town constituted, in fact, a little republic,

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almost complete in itself.

But

The first and second Courts of Assistants were holden at Charlestown; the first General Court met at Boston, Oct. 19. soon after Winthrop's removal thither. The transfer of the company to New England, though not prohibited by the charter, was an arrangement that instrument never contemplated, and it produced a total change in the political condition of the colony, which, from being subject to a distant corporation, now became self-governed. the freemen, whose number at this first court must have been but small, appear on this occasion rather careless of their rights. They were induced to confer the whole power of legislation on the governor and assistants, familiarly known as the magistrates, who were also authorized to elect the governor and deputy governor out of their own body. The sole power left to the freemen was that of filling such vacancies as might occur by death or otherwise in the Board of Assistants.

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Notwithstanding the dutiful and tender apostrophe CHAPTER addressed by the departing leaders to their "dear mother," the Church of England, no sooner had they set foot in 1630. America than distance, and the sense of freedom, inspired new sentiments, or, at least, fresh courage. Following up the system which Endicott had commenced, the plantations at Charlestown, Dorchester, and Watertown constituted themselves, after the examples of Plymouth and Salem, distinct churches, which admitted their own members and chose their own officers. minister of the Charlestown church was Wilson; but he and the church itself were soon transferred to Boston. Wilson was believed to possess a sort of prophetic power of foretelling future events. Phillips was minister at Watertown, and Maverick and Warham at Dorchester. In organizing these churches, the charge of open separation was still evaded. The simple ceremonies employed in the induction of the ministers were represented not as a new ordination repudiating and superseding that which the ministers had received from their bishops in England, but as mere marks of their election and installation.

Military defense was not neglected. Patrick and Underhill, two officers who had seen service in the Netherlands, were appointed captains, and received salaries for training the people, weekly, in the use of arms.

While thus founding their church and state in the wilderness, these new settlers encountered some of the hardships to which all such enterprises are necessarily exposed. The long and boisterous passage had caused the loss of many cattle. Many of the new comers had landed in a debilitated state. They found the emigrants of the preceding year sick, and short of provisions. As an inducement to shift for themselves, it was judged best at once to give liberty to some two hundred indented

CHAPTER servants of the company. The colony surgeon was one VII. of the first victims of disease. Notwithstanding the as1630. sistance of Fuller, a practitioner from Plymouth, who

professed some knowledge of the disorders of the climate, more than two hundred died before December; among the rest, Isaac Johnson, a principal leader in the enterprise, and his wife, the Lady Arbella; also Higginson, the pastor of the Salem church. A short experience of discomforts and privations sufficed with many of the immigrants to dissipate the visions which had seduced them across the Atlantic, and more than a hundred, including some who had been very zealous, returned home by the same ships in which they came. Among these returning passengers were William Vassall, one of the assistants, and Bright, one of the ministers, neither of whom seem to have been quite satisfied with the civil and ecclesiastical polity which the immigrants were determined to adopt. Vassall, however, presently came back, and settled in Plymouth colony.

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1631. A winter followed cold beyond any English experi Many of the "poorer sort," badly sheltered in booths and tents, and insufficiently clothed and fed, suffered severely. Before the winter was over, the infant colony was threatened with famine; but the seasonable return of a vessel which had been dispatched to England for provisions raised the spirits of the colonists, and the fast that had been ordered was changed for a thanksgiving. A few additional emigrants came in this vessel; among others, Roger Williams, a young minister, destined to play a conspicuous part. When she returned, Sir Richard Saltonstall, with a portion of his family, embarked in her. He never came back again; but his two sons remained in the colony, and he still continued to be interested in it, though not altogether satisfied with

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the strict regimen which the colonists adopted. "If any CHAPTER come hither to plant for worldly ends, that can well stay at home," wrote Dudley, by the same opportunity, to 1631. the Countess of Lincoln, "he commits an error of which he will soon repent him; but if for spiritual, he will find here what may well content him, materials to build, fuel to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to fish in, a pure air to breathe in, good water to drink till wine or beer can be made, which, with the cows, hogs, and goats brought hither already, may suffice for food. For clothes and bedding, they must bring them with them, till time and industry produce them here. In a word, we yet enjoy little to be envied, but endure much to be pitied in the sickness and mortality of our people. If any godly men, out of religious ends, will come over to help us in the good work we are about, I think they can not dispose of themselves or their estates more to God's glory and the furtherance of their own reckoning. But they must not be of the poorer sort yet for diverse years; and for profane and debauched persons, their oversight in coming here is wondered at, where they shall find nothing to content them."

At the second General Court, a hundred and seven- May 18. teen new freemen were admitted, including several old planters. Thus re-enforced, the freemen showed some jealousy of the close oligarchy to which the preceding court had intrusted the government of the colony. They claimed the right of annually nominating new assistants, and of passing upon those in office, reduced already by deaths and departures to seven in number.

But this court is principally remarkable for the adoption of that theocratic basis on which, for the next half century, the government of Massachusetts continued to No man was hereafter to be admitted a freeman

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