apprentice to a French Protestant, who taught him the art of silk-dyeing. As soon as he attained the years of manhood, he sold his paternal estate in England, and entered on a commercial life, in which he was not very successful. When the Church of Leyden contemplated a removal to America, Bradford zealously engaged in the undertaking, and came with the first company, in 1620, to Cape Cod.* While the ship lay in that harbour, he was one of the foremost in the several hazardous attempts to find a proper place for the seat of the colony, in one of which he, with others of the principal persons, narrowly escaped the destruction which threatened their shallop. On his return from this excursion to the ship with the joyful news of having found a harbour and a place for settlement, he had the mortification to hear that, during his absence, his wife had accidentally fallen into the sea, and was drowned.‡ * [In February, 1619, he was one of the agents sent to England to make a bargain with the Virginia Company for the removal.-Prince, 151.-H.] + Prince, 76. [This was Dec. 7th. Of this lady we know only that her baptismal name was Dorothy.-Prince, 165. From Prince's Jist of signers on board the Mayflower, page 308 of volume ii., I suppose she had no children. Roger White's Letter to Brad After the sudden death of Governor Carver, the infant colony cast their eyes on Bradford to succeed him; but, being at that time so very ill that his life was depaired of, they waited for his recovery, and then invested him with the command. He was in the thirty-third year of his age; his wisdom, piety, fortitude, and goodness of heart were so conspicuous as to merit the sincere esteem of the people. Carver had been alone in command. They confided in his prudence, that he would not adventure on any matter of moment without the consent of the people or the advice of the wisest. To Bradford they appointed an assistant, Isaac Allerton,* not because they had not the same con ford (Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 43) furnishes ground for a conjecture that her maiden name was May:-H.] * [Isaac Allerton's reputation among the descendants of the Pilgrims is hardly equal to his deserts. He came over in the Mayflower with his wife Mary and five children. Some years after her death, Feb. 25th, 1621, he married Fear, a daughter of Elder Brewster. He appears to have been a man of courage, for the day after the grand reception of Masassoit, "some of them told us the king would have some of us come to see him; Captain Standish and Isaac Alderton went voluntarily."Mourt's Journal, 231. The planters had much confidence in his discretion and capacity for business, as they sent him their agent to England in the fall of 1626, to complete with the adventurers the negotiation which Standish had begun, to borrow money, buy goods, &c.--Prince, 239. He returned in the spring of 1627, having borrowed" £200 at thirty per cent., to fidence in him, but partly for the sake of regularity, and partly on account of his pre the great content of the plantation." He brought the adventurers to a composition, signed Nov. 15th, by which they relinquished all their interest in the company for the sum of £1800, to be paid in seven years. Ib., 242, 243. Again, in 1627, "with the return of the ships," he was commissioned to carry out the necessary bonds to the adventurers at London, to sell the company's beaver, and procure a patent for a settlement on the Kennebec. "Having settled all things in a hopeful way," and made provision for the passage of some of their friends at Leyden, he returned early in the spring of 1628.—Ib., 245, 246, 247. Mr. Shirley calls him "your honest, wise, and discreet agent." Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 58. He made two voyages to England in 1629 to procure a new and enlarged patent for the colony. In his second attempt he was successful. He met many difficulties in this business; "many locks," said Shirley, "must be opened with the silver, nay, with the golden key."Prince, 265. Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 70.—He did not succeed, however, in procuring, what was earnestly desired, an exemption from duties of goods to and from the colony; and probably his failure in this particular, and the expense attending the attempt, occasioned his connexion with the company to be dissolved a harsher treatment than his faithful labours had deserved. He returned to England in 1631, and Bradford dismisses his record of the fact with saying, "being no more employed by the plantation." Prince, 361. He afterward established a trading-house at Machias, and, having suffered repeated and severe losses at sea, and by fire, removed to New-Haven, probably in 1647, and died there in 1659.-Mass. Hist. Col., xxvii., 243, 301. Mr. Hutchinson says that Point Alderton, near the entrance of Boston Harbour, was named from him. In Mourt's Relation (Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., 231), his name is spelled Alderton. Such a memorial was due to his enterprise and integrity, and yet but a slight offset to a toilsome and sorrowful life.-H.] carious health. They appointed but one, because they were so reduced in number that to have made a greater disproportion between rulers and people would have been absurd, and they knew that it would always be in their power to increase the number at their pleasure. Their voluntary combination was designed only as a temporary expedient, till they should obtain a charter under the authority of their sovereign. One of the first acts of Bradford's administration was, by advice of the company, to send Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins to Massasoit, with Squanto for their guide. The design of this embassy was to explore the country, to confirm the league, to learn the situation and strength of their new friend, to carry some presents, to apologize for some misbehaviour, to regulate the intercourse between them and the Indians, and to procure seed-corn for the next planting season. These gentlemen found the sachem at Pokanoket,† about forty miles from Plymouth. * Hubbard's MS. Hist., p. 49. [In the printed copy, 61.—H.] + This was a general name for the northern shore of the Nar raganset Bay, between Providence and Taunton Rivers, and comprehending the present townships of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington in the State of Rhode Island, and Swanzey in Massachusetts Its northern extent is unknown. The principal They delivered the presents, renewed the friendship, and satisfied themselves respecting the strength of the natives, which did not appear formidable, nor was the entertainment which they received either liberal or splendid. The marks of desolation and death, by reason of the pestilence, were very conspicuous in all the country through which they passed; but they were informed that the Narragansets, who resided on the western shore of the bay of that name, were very numerous, and that the pestilence had not reached them. After the return of this embassy, another was sent to Nauset,* to recover a boy who had straggled from Plymouth, and had been taken up by some of the Indians of that place. They were so fortunate as to recover the boy, and make peace with Aspinet, the sachem, whom they paid for the seed-corn which they had taken out of the ground at Paomet in the preceding autumn.† During seats of the sachem were at Sowams and Kikèmuit. The former is a neck of land formed by the confluence of Barrington and Palmer's Rivers; the latter is Mount Hope.-See Callender's Century Discourse, p. 30, 73. * [Now Eastham.-Mass. Hist Coll., viii., 159.-H.] + Mourt's Relation in Purchas, iv., 1853. [And in Mass. Hist. Coll., viii.-H.] VOL. III.-B |