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diff --git a/39882.txt b/39882.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b730a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/39882.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15484 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Beginners of a Nation, by Edward Eggleston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Beginners of a Nation + +Author: Edward Eggleston + +Release Date: June 2, 2012 [EBook #39882] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEGINNERS OF A NATION *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Christine P. Travers and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + A HISTORY OF + LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES + + + + + THE BEGINNERS OF A NATION + A HISTORY OF THE SOURCE AND RISE + OF THE EARLIEST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS + IN AMERICA WITH SPECIAL + REFERENCE TO THE LIFE AND + CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE + + + BY + EDWARD EGGLESTON + + + [Illustration: Editor's logo.] + + + NEW YORK + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + 1896 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1896, + By EDWARD EGGLESTON. + + + + +_TO_ + +_THE RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES BRYCE, M. P._ + + +_MY DEAR MR. BRYCE_: + +_In giving an account of the origins of the United States, I have told +a story of English achievement. It is fitting that I should inscribe +it to you, who of all the Englishmen of this generation have rendered +the most eminent service to the American Commonwealth. You have shown +with admirable clearness and candor, and with marvelous breadth of +thought and sympathy, what are the results in the present time of the +English beginnings in America, and to you, therefore, I offer this +volume. I need not assure you that it gives me great pleasure to write +your name here as godfather to my book, and to subscribe myself, my +dear Mr. Bryce,_ + + _Yours very sincerely,_ + _EDWARD EGGLESTON._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In this work, brought to completion after many years of patient +research, I have sought to trace from their source the various and +often complex movements that resulted in the early English settlements +in America, and in the evolution of a great nation with English speech +and traditions. It has been my aim to make these pages reflect the +character of the age in which the English colonies were begun, and the +traits of the colonists, and to bring into relief the social, +political, intellectual, and religious forces that promoted +emigration. This does not pretend to be the usual account of all the +events attending early colonization; it is rather a history in which +the succession of cause and effect is the main topic--a history of the +dynamics of colony-planting in the first half of the seventeenth +century. Who were the beginners of English life in America? What +propulsions sent them for refuge to a wilderness? What visions +beckoned them to undertake the founding of new states? What manner of +men were their leaders? And what is the story of their hopes, their +experiments, and their disappointments? These are the questions I have +tried to answer. + +The founders of the little settlements that had the unexpected fortune +to expand into an empire I have not been able to treat otherwise than +unreverently. Here are no forefathers or foremothers, but simply +English men and women of the seventeenth century, with the faults and +fanaticisms as well as the virtues of their age. I have disregarded +that convention which makes it obligatory for a writer of American +history to explain that intolerance in the first settlers was not just +like other intolerance, and that their cruelty and injustice were +justifiable under the circumstances. This walking backward to throw a +mantle over the nakedness of ancestors may be admirable as an example +of diluvian piety, but it is none the less reprehensible in the +writing of history. + +While the present work is complete in itself, it is also part of a +larger enterprise, as the half-title indicates. In January, 1880, I +began to make studies for a History of Life in the United States. For +the last sixteen or seventeen years by far the greater part of my time +has been given to researches on the culture history of the United +States in the period of English domination, that "good old colony +time" about which we have had more sentiment than information. As year +after year was consumed in this toilsome preparation, the magnitude of +the task became apparent, and I began to feel the fear for my work so +felicitously expressed by Ralegh, "that the darkness of age and death +would have covered over both it and me before the performance." It +seemed better, therefore, to redeem from the chance of such mishap a +portion of my work, by completing this most difficult part of the +task, in order that when, early or late, the inevitable night shall +fall, the results of my labor, such as they are, may not be wholly +covered over by the darkness. + +There is always difference of opinion in regard to the comparative +fullness with which the several portions of a historical narrative +should be treated, and I can not hope to escape criticism on this +point. I have related some events with what will be considered +disproportionate amplitude of detail. But the distinctive purpose of +this work is to give an insight into the life and character of the +people, and there are details that make the reader feel the very +spirit and manner of the time. It is better to let the age disclose +itself in action; it is only by ingenious eavesdropping and peeps +through keyholes that we can win this kind of knowledge from the past. +Literary considerations should have some weight in deciding how fully +an episode shall be treated, unless the historian is content to +perform the homely service of a purveyor of the crude ore of +knowledge. I have sought to make this "a work of art as well as of +historical science," to borrow a phrase from Augustin Thierry. Some +omissions in this volume will be explained when its successors appear. + +I find it an embarrassing task to make acknowledgment to those who +have assisted me; the debts that have accumulated since I began are +too many to be recorded. I must not neglect to express my grateful +remembrance of the hospitality shown to my researches during my +various sojourns in England. At the British Museum and at the Public +Record Office every facility has been extended to me, and a similar +attention was shown to my wants at other less public repositories of +books, such as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. To Dr. +Richard Garnett, the head of the printed book department of the +Museum, I owe thanks for many personal attentions. I am also indebted +to Mr. E. M. Thompson, keeper of the manuscripts in the museum. The +late Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, of the Public Record Office, was very +obliging. I owe most of all to the unfailing kindness of the Right +Honorable James Bryce, M. P., who found time, in the midst of his +preoccupations as a member of Parliament and his duties in high +office, to secure for me access to private stores of historical +material. Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice with generous kindness put himself +to much trouble to facilitate my examination of the manuscripts at +Landsdowne House. I am indebted to Lord Leconsfield for permission to +visit Petworth House and read there Percy's Trewe Relacion in the +original manuscript. I must ask others in England who befriended my +researches to accept a general acknowledgment, but I can not forget +their courtesy to a stranger. In common with other students I +received polite attentions during my researches in Paris at the +Bibliotheque Nationale. + +In this country I owe much to the librarians of public libraries and +their assistants--too much to allow me to specify my obligations to +individuals. At the Astor, and at the Lenox, under its more recent +management, my debt has been continual for many years. Acknowledgments +are due to the officers of the Boston Public Library, the Library of +Congress, the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and the libraries of the +New York, the Massachusetts, the Pennsylvania, the Maryland, and the +Virginia Historical Societies. To Harvard College Library and to the +New York State Library I am specially indebted; from them I have been +able to supplement my own collection by borrowing. The Brooklyn +Mercantile Library has granted me similar privileges. The New York +Mercantile Library, on the other hand, I have not found hospitable to +research. + +To my generous friend Mr. Justin Winsor I owe thanks for many favors. +Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet opened his valuable collection to me, and the +late Mr. S. L. M. Barlow showed me similar kindness. My friend, Mr. +Oscar S. Straus, permitted me to use at my own desk valuable works +from his collection. There are others whose friendly attentions can be +more fitly recognized in later volumes of this series, and yet others +whom I must beg to accept this general but grateful acknowledgment. + +Mr. W. W. Duffield, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic +Survey, supplied the artist with the coast charts from which the maps +in this volume were drawn. + +To avoid misapprehension, it is needful to say that this is not a +re-issue of anything I have heretofore produced. The lectures on the +culture history of the United States given at Columbia College and +other institutions were never written or reported. The papers on +colonial life contributed to the Century Magazine in 1882, and the +years following, were on a different plan and scale; they have merely +served the purpose of preliminary studies of the general subject. To +the editor and publishers of the Century Magazine I am obliged for +their courtesy in all affairs relating to my contract with them, and +for an arrangement which enables me to have free use of my material. + +JOSHUA'S ROCK, LAKE GEORGE, _October, 1896_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +BOOK I. + +_RISE OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY._ + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + + English Knowledge and Notion of America at the Period of + Settlement 1 + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + + James River Experiments 25 + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD. + + The Procession of Motives 73 + + +BOOK II. + +_THE PURITAN MIGRATION._ + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + + Rise and Development of Puritanism 98 + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + + Separatism and the Scrooby Church 141 + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD. + + The Pilgrim Migrations 159 + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH. + + The Great Puritan Exodus 188 + + +BOOK III. + +_CENTRIFUGAL FORCES IN COLONY-PLANTING._ + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + + The Catholic Migration 220 + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + + The Prophet of Religious Freedom 266 + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD. + + New England Dispersions 315 + + +LIST OF MAPS. + + (In the coast line the American maps follow the charts of + the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; the third map + conforms to the British Ordnance Survey.) + + I.--Chesapeake Bay 1 + II.--James River 28 + III.--The cradle of the Pilgrims 149 + IV.--Coast explored by the Pilgrims 177 + V.--The colony at St. Mary's 245 + VI.--Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth 275 + VII.--The early settlements on Narragansett Bay 296 + VIII.--New England after the dispersions 343 + +[Illustration: Chesapeake Bay.] + + + + +BOOK I. + +RISE OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + +_ENGLISH KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS OF AMERICA AT THE PERIOD OF +SETTLEMENT._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: The Elizabethan age.] + +The age of Elizabeth and James--the age of Spenser, of Shakespeare, +and of Bacon--was a new point of departure in the history of the +English race. All the conditions excited men to unwonted intellectual +activity. The art of printing was yet a modern invention; the New +World with its novelties and unexplained mysteries was a modern +discovery; and there were endless discussions and agitations of spirit +growing out of the recent reformation in religion. Imagination was +powerfully stimulated by the progress of American exploration, by the +romantic adventures of the Spaniards in the West Indies, and their +dazzling conquest of new-found empires in Mexico and Peru. It was an +age of creation in poetry, in science, and in religion, and men of +action were everywhere set on deeds of daring. The world had regained +something of the vigor and spontaneity of youth, but the credulity +and curiosity of youth were not wanting. The mind of the time accepted +and reveled in marvelous stories. The stage plays of that drama-loving +age reflected the interest in the supernatural and the eager curiosity +about far-away countries. Books of travel fitted the prevailing taste. +He who could afford to buy them regaled himself with the great folios +of Hakluyt's Voyages and Purchas his Pilgrimes. General readers +delighted in little tracts and pamphlets relating incidents of +far-away travels, or describing remote countries and the peoples +inhabiting them, or the "monstrous strange beasts" found in lands +beyond the bounds of Christendom. + +[Sidenote: Credulity about America.] + +[Sidenote: George Beste, First Voyage of Sir Martin Frobisher.] + +America excited the most lively curiosity as a world by itself and the +least known of all the "four parts" into which the globe was then +divided. There were those, indeed, who made six parts of the world by +adding an arctic continent, which included Greenland and a vast +southern land supposed to stretch from Magellan's Strait southward to +the pole. It was easy to believe in these two superfluous continents; +they were mirages of the New World. Every great discovery excites +expectation of others like it. And in a time when vague report or +well-worn tradition counted for more than observation or experimental +knowledge, it was inevitable that current information about America +should be distorted and mixed with fable. In that age, still +pre-Baconian, men had few standards by which to measure probabilities, +and to those shut in by the narrow limits of mediaeval knowledge the +mere uncovering of a new continent whose existence contravened the +fixed beliefs of the ages was so marvelous that nothing told about it +afterward seemed incredible. + +[Sidenote: Illusions of discoverers.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +The history of American exploration is a story of delusion and +mistake. The New World was discovered because it lay between Europe +and the East Indian Spice Islands by the westward route. Columbus, +seeking the less, found the greater by stumbling on it in the dark. +Zuan Caboto--in English, John Cabot--who is described by a +contemporary as "a Venetian fellow with a fine mind, greatly skilled +in navigation," discovered North America in 1497. But he did not exult +that he was the finder of a vast and fertile continent in which great +nations might germinate, for he believed that his landfall at Cape +Breton was within the dominions of the Grand Cham of China, and he +sailed down the coast again the next year, "ever with the intent to +find said passage to India." It was announced on his return from his +first voyage that Henry VII had "won a part of Asia without a stroke +of the sword." + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +The discovery of the Pacific by Balboa in 1513, and the voyage of +Magellan's ship across that ocean in 1520, were not sufficient to +remove the illusion that America was connected with Asia. The notion +that the New World was an Asiatic peninsula died lingeringly about the +middle of the sixteenth century; but to reach Asia was still the main +purpose of western exploration, and America was for a long time +regarded mainly as an obstruction. The belief in a passage to the +Pacific by means of some yet-to-be-discovered strait severing the +continent of America, survived far into the seventeenth century, and +the hope of coming by some short cut into a rich commerce with the +Orient led to a prying exploration of all the inlets, bays, and +estuaries on the American coast and so promoted discovery, but it +retarded settlement by blinding men to the value of the New World. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Frobisher.] + +[Sidenote: Frobisher's Voyages, Hakl. Soc., _passim_.] + +Adventure by sea became a favorite road to renown for ambitious +Englishmen in the time of Elizabeth, and the belief in a passage +through or round North America grew into a superstition. The discovery +of this strait seemed, in the phrase of George Beste, a writer of the +time, "the onely thing of the world that was left undone whereby a +notable mind might be made famous and fortunate." Sir Martin +Frobisher, who is reckoned by Camden "among the famousest men of our +age for counsell and glory gotten at sea," made three voyages in 1576 +and the following years to that part of the American coast almost +under the arctic circle. He desisted from the attempt to get to China +by an arctic channel only when he had involved the "venturers" or +stockholders associated with him in heavy debts, and spent the fortune +of his wife and stepchildren, to whom "glory gotten at sea" must have +been insufficient compensation. "Sir Martin Frobisher whome God +forgive" is the phrase in which he is spoken of by his wife. + +[Sidenote: Gilbert.] + +[Sidenote: Haies in Hakl. Voy., 184-227.] + +In the year of Frobisher's first voyage, Sir Humphrey Gilbert issued a +treatise to prove that there was a way to the East Indies round North +America. This he demonstrated by a hydra-headed argument constructed +after the elaborate fashion of that unscientific age, proving the +existence of a northwest passage, first by authority, secondly by +reason, thirdly by experience of sundry men's travels, and fourthly by +circumstance. Not content with getting to China by logic, and nothing +daunted by Frobisher's brilliant failure, Gilbert mortgaged his estate +that he might engage in attempts yet more disastrous than Frobisher's, +and lost his life during his second voyage, in 1584. + +[Sidenote: Hakluyt.] + +[Sidenote: Hakl. Disc. on Western Planting.] + +[Sidenote: N. Y. Col. Docs. I, 16.] + +About this time there appeared on the scene the famous geographer, +Richard Hakluyt, one of those men that exert a marked influence in +favor of a new movement mainly by ardor and industry. Hakluyt's fervor +was akin to enthusiasm, his belief of every story favorable to +projects for colonization, and his unwavering faith in the projects +themselves bordered on flat credulity. To men of his own time his +tireless advocacy of American exploration and colony-planting must +have seemed irksome hobby-riding. But he was the indispensable +forerunner of colonization. "Your Mr. Hakluyt hath served for a very +good trumpet," says Sidney. Believing in everything American as +unwaveringly as if his soul's salvation depended on his faith, he +believed in nothing more sublimely than in a passage to the "South +Sea" or Pacific Ocean. He seized on every vague intimation of ignorant +map-makers, on every suspicion of an explorer, on every fond tale of +an Indian that tended to lend support to the theory in hand. All +evidence was of equal weight in his scales, provided it lay on the +affirmative side of the balance. It mattered little to him where his +witnesses placed this elusive passage. In Hakluyt's mind it was +ubiquitous. The Pacific is now "on the backside" of Montreal Island, +and the great Laurentian lakes suffer a sea change; now it is reached +by a river flowing three months to the southward--that is, the +Mississippi. Then the much-sought strait is carried northward on the +authority of an old map--"a great old round carde"--shown him "by the +King of Portingall." But he had also seen "a mightie large old mappe +in parchment" which showed, as far south as latitude 40 deg., a little +neck of land "much like the streyte neck or Isthmus of Darienna." He +had seen the same isthmus on another old map "with the sea joynninge +hard on both sides as it doth on Panama." In a paper meant for private +use, he expresses solicitude that the nearness of the Pacific to +Florida shall not become known too commonly. Many years later an +injunction was granted in Holland forbidding a publisher to insert in +a map the newly discovered channel into the South Sea. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Ralegh.] + +Both Frobisher and Gilbert made ineffectual attempts to plant colonies +in the new lands, but colony-planting held a place in their minds +quite secondary to the search for the South Sea in the north and the +finding of gold. It was only when the large and lucid mind of Sir +Walter Ralegh took up the subject seriously that the settlement of an +agricultural colony became for a while the real object of American +voyages. Ralegh sent no men to the arctic or to the wintry shores of +Newfoundland, as Frobisher and Gilbert had done. He turned to milder +latitudes, and dispatched his explorers in 1584, and his colonists in +1585, to the coast of what is now North Carolina. + +[Sidenote: Ralph Lane's quest.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +[Sidenote: Lane's Account in Hakl. III.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +But the ever-mischievous South Sea delusion did not vanish when the +period of colonization was reached. Ralph Lane, the governor of +Ralegh's first colony on Roanoke Island, having inquired perhaps for +that western sea which Hakluyt had seen "on the mightie old mappe in +parchment," understood the inventive savages to say that the Roanoke +River sprang from a rock so near to a sea that the waves in storm +often dashed into this fountain, making the river brackish for some +distance below. That the story might be more interesting, they added +that there was gold there, and that the walls of a town in that land +were made of pearls. This is what the white men fancied the Indians +said; but whatever they said was spoken in a tongue of which Lane's +men had but the most scanty knowledge, if indeed it were not given +mainly by signs. Nothing dispirited by the extravagance of these +tales, Lane and some of his men set out to immortalize and enrich +themselves--like a company of children running after the pot of gold +at the end of the rainbow. While the crafty Indians were plotting the +destruction of the colonists left behind, the governor and his +followers pursued their quest until they were obliged to eat their +dogs, made palatable by seething with a dressing of sassafras leaves. +They returned, half famished and wholly disappointed, just in time to +rescue the colony from destruction. But faith is faith, and despite +his severe experience Lane went back to England believing that the +Roanoke rose near to the Bay of Mexico "that openeth out into the +South Sea." The map which the colonists brought with them when they +abandoned the country in 1586 handed down the delusion, in another +form, by showing a strait leading from the neighborhood of Port Royal +into a body of water to the westward. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Seeking the Pacific on James River.] + +[Sidenote: Hudson.] + +[Sidenote: Dermer.] + +Twenty years after the return of Ralegh's first colonists the +Jamestown company was sent to plant the germ of an English-speaking +nation in North America. Beginning with the first voyage of Columbus, +the search for a route through America had lasted a hundred and +fourteen years. No passage north of Magellan's Strait had been found, +yet a belief in the existence of such a water-way remained a part of +the geographical creed of the time. The Jamestown emigrants were +officially instructed to explore that branch of any river that lay +toward the northwest, perhaps because the charmed latitude of 40 deg. +might thus be reached. It was in carrying out this instruction that +Captain John Smith came to grief at the hands of the Indians while +looking for the Pacific in the swamps of the Chickahominy. Smith +rarely mixed his abounding romance with his geography; he is as sober +and trustworthy in topographical description and in map-making as he +is imaginative in narration. But Smith was at this time under the +influence of the prevailing delusion, and he hoped that his second +voyage up the Chesapeake would lead him into the Pacific. His belief +in a passage to the westward in latitude 40 deg., just beyond the +northward limit of his own explorations, he communicated to his friend +Henry Hudson, who was so moved by it that he sailed to America in 1609 +in violation of his orders, and in seeking the strait to the South Sea +penetrated the solitudes of the picturesque river that bears his name. +The explorer Dermer was intent on winning immortality by finding a +passage to the Pacific when, in 1619, he was storm-driven into Long +Island Sound. At Manhattan Island, or thereabout, he got information +from the obliging Indians that made plain his way to the Orient. He +was very secretive about this route, which, however, seems to have +lain through Delaware Bay. + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +[Sidenote: Sandys's plan.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +[Sidenote: Luke Fox.] + +[Sidenote: Northwest. Fox, p. 172.] + +[Sidenote: Weston Documents 45 and 47 and ff.] + +[Sidenote: Catlet and Lederer.] + +[Sidenote: Glover, in Phil. Trans., xi 626. Comp. Perfect Descr. of +Va., 1649 and Lederer's Voyage.] + +[Sidenote: Lawson's Carolina, 47.] + +[Sidenote: Scot's Magazine, 1765, page 161.] + +A false notion once generally accepted is able to live in some +ghostly shape after the breath is out of its body. The hope of a +passage to the Pacific by means of a strait and the belief in a +narrow isthmus in latitude 40 deg. could not long survive the increase +of knowledge that followed the settlement of Virginia and Captain +Smith's explorations. But sixteen years after the landing at +Jamestown, when these two geographical jack-o'-lanterns had ceased +to flicker, the poet George Sandys, who was secretary of the colony, +wrote that he was ready to venture his life in finding a way to the +South Sea, but this way was now to be by an overland route. About +the same time Henry Briggs, the famous Savile lecturer at Oxford, +proved to the satisfaction of many that the rivers running westward +from the Virginia mountains must reach the Pacific in about one +hundred and fifty miles. One Marmaduke Parkinson, an explorer +sailing in the Potomac, confirmed the theory of the learned +mathematician by discovering in the house of a chief a "China Boxe," +whatever that may have been. In 1631 Luke Fox set sail by the +northwest, carrying a letter from Charles I addressed "to the +Emperor of Japan," which he probably was not able to deliver. In +1634 Captain Thomas Yong got as far as the falls of the Delaware in +the endeavor to go through the continent in latitude 40 deg.. The strait +and isthmus and northwest passage having failed, Yong was content +to go by fresh water till he should reach a Mediterranean Sea in the +heart of America, which he believed to open into both the "North +Ocean" and the South Sea. As the century advanced the fresh-water +route had in turn to be finally abandoned, and seekers after the +Pacific were fain to betake themselves to dry-shod travel, and even +to mountain-climbing, as George Sandys had proposed. A Colonel +Catlet is mentioned who reached the Alleghanies in the endeavor to +find a river flowing westward, but he was daunted by what seemed to +him almost impassable ranges of mountains that barred his way. Over +these "rocky hills and sandy desarts" scarce a bird was seen to fly. +In 1669, Lederer, a German surveyor, set out from Virginia on a +similar futile exploration. As late as 1700 the well-informed Lawson +speaks hopefully of the proximity of the Pacific to North Carolina. +This fallacy had prompted many desperate adventures, and had been +the cause of many important discoveries, in the two centuries that +it held possession of men's minds. It reached its last attenuation +in 1765, when the public prints announced that large boats were +fitting out at Quebec to try the whale-fishing in Lake Ontario, and +that "they have hopes of finding a communication by water with the +western ocean, founded on the favorable reports of some Indians, who +inform that a river runs westward many hundreds of miles as large as +the Mississippi." + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Gold-hunting.] + +[Sidenote: Hakluyt. Pref. to Va., magnified.] + +[Sidenote: Pilgrimage, 795.] + +As the mistake made by Columbus had left for heritage an almost +ineradicable passion for the discovery of a westward sea way to Japan +and China, so the vast treasure of gold and silver drawn by the +Spaniards from Mexico and Peru produced a belief in the English mind +that a colony planted at any place on the American coast might find +gold. Here, again, the undoubting Hakluyt and other writers after him +were ready with learned conclusions balancing on the tight rope of +very slender premises. If an Indian had been seen wearing a piece of +copper that "bowed easily," this flexibility proved it to be tarnished +gold. If a savage seemed to say in his idiom, or by gestures and other +signs, something which the puzzled newcomers took to signify that in a +country farther on the copper was too soft for use, or that it was +yellow, or that it had a good luster, what further evidence could an +ingenious writer desire of the existence of the precious metal in that +country? Purchas, the successor of Hakluyt in geographical research, +explains the divine purpose in thus endowing a heathen land with gold, +which is that the Indian race "as a rich bride, though withered and +deformed, ... might find many suitors for love of her portion," and +thus the pagans be converted. But Purchas filches both the simile and +the pious thought from Herrera, who in turn probably pilfered it with +many better things from the good Las Casas. Purchas also speaks with +more optimism than elegance of the "silver bowels and golden entrails +of the hills," as though one had but to dig into the first mountain to +be enriched. + +[Sidenote: Frobisher's gold.] + +[Sidenote: Early Virginia gold-hunting.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +Frobisher brought home from sub-arctic islands what his clumsy +assayers avouched to be "gold eure." Refining works were erected for +this stuff at Deptford to no profit, and to this day the inquisitive +student is not able to ascertain from the conflicting reports whether +there was any gold in the ore or not. The main causes of the suffering +at Jamestown during the first winter were the waste of time and the +consumption of supplies while lading the ships with the glittering +"dust mica" which is so abundant in the Virginia sands. The +worthlessness of this cargo could not weaken the hopes of those +alchemists who were able to produce gold merely by the use of +arguments. The mines in Virginia moved farther west. It wanted only +that explorers should reach the mountains. In spite of the sickness +that wasted the colony in 1610, Lord De la Warr sent an expedition to +dig gold on the upper James, but the warlike up-river tribes soon +drove the prospectors back. In 1634, Sir John Harvey sent another body +of men on the same fool's errand, though there had not been found in +all the years preceding a particle of tangible evidence that gold +existed in Virginia. But on the James, as on the Hudson, the +glistering pigment with which the Indians besmeared their faces on +occasions of display was believed to contain gold, and the places of +its procurement were sought with ludicrous secrecy. + +[Sidenote: Fact and fable about America.] + +[Sidenote: Ingram's story.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +The unfaltering faith in the existence of abundant gold on the eastern +coast of North America could not have subsisted on thin air so long if +it had not been stimulated by the almost fabulous wealth drawn from +South America by Spain. It had received encouragement also from the +tales told by adventurers returned from America, who seem to have +thought it necessary to bring back stories that would match in some +degree the prevalent beliefs about the New World. The earliest but one +of all the documents relating to America preserved among the British +state papers is the statement of one David or Davy Ingram. With a +hundred other luckless seamen he was put ashore in Mexico by Sir John +Hawkins, because the ship lacked provisions. Ingram, traveling from +tribe to tribe, achieved the notable feat of crossing the continent in +a year. In 1569 he embarked on a French ship that he found near the +mouth of the St. John River in what is now the province of New +Brunswick. It was eleven years later that Davy Ingram, at home in +England, made his statement, and the sailor's story had by that time +gained much, perhaps, by frequent telling to wonder-loving listeners. +Sometimes he relates facts with sobriety, speaking the truth by +relapse, it may be; again, he seems to be repeating tales told him by +the savages, who were habitual marvel-mongers, or weaving into the +account of what he had seen legends common in the folklore about +America that had grown up in Europe; or perchance he only falls into +an old forecastle habit of incontinent lying without provocation. The +American women are described as "wearing great plates of gold covering +their whole bodies like armor.... In every cottage pearls are to be +found, and in some houses a peck"--an assertion that had a grain of +truth in it, since the sailor no doubt mistook wampum beads for +pearls. Fireflies, in this old tar's exalted memory, are "fire +dragons, which make the air very red as they fly," while the buffalo +appears as an animal "as big as two of our oxen." The streets in one +"city" are broader than London streets, which we may readily believe. +The banqueting houses are built of crystal, "with pillars of massie +silver, some of gold." This is a fine example of the manner of a mind +afflicted with the vice of exaggeration; crystal becomes silver in the +next breath, and silver is as instantly transmuted to gold. All that +optimistic projectors sought in America--gold, silver, pearls by the +peck, and great abundance of silkworms--are obligingly supplied in +Ingram's narrative. Such tales impressed the imagination in a romantic +and uncritical age. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Indian devil-worship.] + +The interest in America was heightened by popular curiosity regarding +the Indians. The American savages were sometimes treated as +sun-worshipers, but they were more commonly thought to be worshipers +of devils. The prevailing belief in witchcraft, divination, and +abounding evil spirits rendered it easy for Europeans to accept the +Indian deities as supernatural beings, and to credit the pretensions +of the powwows, or Indian priests, to give knowledge of distant or +future events, to heal the sick, and even to bring rain in time of +drought. But it was observed at Plymouth that when the Pilgrims prayed +for rain it fell gently, and that the rain procured by the Indian +conjurers was violent and destructive--a rain with something devilish +about it. According to writers of the time, the demons worshiped by +the savages were able to materialize themselves on great occasions, +appearing to their votaries in some beastly form. This belief in +Indian devil-worship fitted well with the religious faith of the +period, which can hardly be described as anything but a sort of +Manichaeism dividing the government of the universe almost equally +between good and evil powers. Religionists of all schools desired to +convert these subjects of Satan, not from those philanthropic motives +that are main considerations in modern propagandism, but because their +conversion would glorify God, and yet more because it would despite +the devil. Sometimes the religious motive was incongruously supported +by hopes of commercial advantage. The navigator Davis wrote to +Secretary Walsingham that if the Indians "were once brought over to +the Christian faith they might soon be brought to relish a more +civilized kind of life and be thereby induced to take off great +quantities of our coarser woolen manufactures." + +[Sidenote: Indians exhibited.] + +[Sidenote: Rosier's True Relation.] + +[Sidenote: Tempest, ii, 2.] + +The early explorers made a practice of kidnapping Indians and +transporting them to England, where the sight of barbarians without +doublet or hose quickened the interest in projects for colonization +and adventure. In our age of commercial activity and extended +geographical knowledge one can form but a weak conception of the +excitement produced by the sight of "the Indian man and woman," no +doubt Esquimaux, brought by Frobisher. Portraits of these rarities +were made for the king and queen and others. In 1605 Weymouth brought +from the coast of Maine five kidnapped Indians, "with all their bows +and arrows" and two beautiful birch-bark canoes. "This accident," +exclaimed Sir Ferdinando Gorges, "hath been the means of putting life +into all our plantations." Some of the savages captured at various +times were exhibited for money, and one perhaps was shown after he was +dead; at least we may venture to conjecture so much from Shakespeare's +jeer in The Tempest at the idle curiosity of the crowd. In England, +says Trinculo, "any strange beast makes a man. When they will not give +a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead +Indian." This interest in outlandish savages no doubt suggested to the +poet the creation of the monster Caliban, who probably seemed a +realistic figure to the imagination of that age. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Notions about animals.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +[Sidenote: Evelyn's Diary, i, 277.] + +The animals of the new continent excited the wonder of the people of +Europe and increased the interest in America. Regarding them, also, +the most extravagant stories were easily credited. It was recorded in +the sober Latin of Peter Martyr that the advance of Cabot's ships was +retarded by the multitude of codfish on the Newfoundland coast, and +that the bears were accustomed to catch these fish in their claws. It +is hard to recognize the familiar opossum in the description by +Purchas: "A monstrous deformed beast, whose fore part resembleth a +fox, the hinder part an ape, excepting the feet, which are like a +man's; beneath her belly she hath a receptacle like a purse, where she +bestows her young until they can shift for themselves." The humming +bird was believed to be a cross between a fly and a bird. The Hudson +River Dutch settlers went further, and named it simply "the West +Indian bee." These dainty creatures were prepared for exportation to +Europe in New Amsterdam by drying them, in Barbadoes by filling them +with sand. They were accounted "pretty delicacies for ladies, who wore +them at their breasts and girdles." Evelyn saw two preserved as great +rarities at Oxford, in 1564. A New England versifier extols + + The humbird for some queen's rich cage more fit + Than in the vacant wilderness to sit. + +[Sidenote: Wood's New Eng. Prospect, p. 23.] + +[Sidenote: De Bry's Hariot, p. 10.] + +Flying squirrels, when brought into English parks in 1608, were the +occasion of much wondering excitement. King James begged for one of +them, like a spoiled child. The skins of muskrats were esteemed for +their odor and were brought to England "as rich presents." It was +thought that musk might be extracted from this animal. Hariot, the +learned man of Ralegh's first colony, fancied that the civet cat would +prove profitable to settlers in America, but his words indicate that +he had been misled by traces of the skunk, whose perfume has never yet +come into request. Speaking of the "civet catte," he says, "in our +travails there was found one to have been killed by a salvage or +inhabitant; and in many places the smell where one had lately beene +before." + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +The raccoon, the "aroughcun" of the Virginia Indians, being a +plantigrade, was esteemed a monkey; the peccaries were called the wild +hogs of America, and were thought to have "their navels on the ridge +of their backs." Somewhere in the region of the Hudson River a beast +is described as having a horn in the middle of his forehead, from +which it would appear that the unicorn on the royal coat of arms may +have been found running at large. It is not easy to account for the +"camel mare," reported to have been seen about three hundred miles +west from the coast of New Jersey, unless it belonged to the genus +_Incubus_. The bewildering number of new creatures found in America +troubled the European scholars of that day, who were ever theological. +They were puzzled to get so many four-footed beasts and creeping +things into the compass of Noah's ark. Mercator, the Flemish +geographer, avoided this difficult embarkation by concluding that +America had been excepted from the Deluge. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: An age of romance and adventure.] + +Thus grotesque and misleading were many of the glimpses that Europe +got of the New World as the mists of ignorance slowly lifted from it. +These erratic notions regarding America give one an insight into the +character of the English people at the period of discovery and +colony-planting. Credulity and the romantic spirit dwell together. The +imagination in such an age usurped the place of discrimination, and +the wonderful became the probable. The appetite for the marvelous +fostered exaggeration; every man who had sailed in foreign seas +thought it shame not to tell of wonders. The seventeenth century +indeed betrayed a consciousness of its own weakness in a current +proverb, "Travelers lie by license." History and fiction had not yet +been separated. Like every other romantic age, the period of Elizabeth +and James was prodigal of daring adventure; every notable man aspired +to be the hero of a tale. English beginnings in America were thus made +in a time abounding in bold enterprises--enterprises brilliant in +conception, but in the execution of which there was often a lack of +foresight and practical wisdom. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 3.] + +See the careful and learned discussion of the Voyages of Cabot by the +late Charles Deane, in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of +America, vol. iii. Mr. Deane effectually destroys the delusion which +so long gave the credit of this discovery, or a part of it, to +Sebastian Cabot, the son of the real discoverer. Mr. Henry Harrisse, +in John Cabot, the Discoverer of America, and in an earlier work, Jean +et Sebastien Cabot, etc., reaches the same conclusion. He even doubts +Sebastian's presence in the expeditions of his father, John Cabot, +etc., p. 48. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 4.] + +Yet George Beste, who sailed with Frobisher, says: "Now men neede no +more contentiously strive for roume to build an house on, or for a +little turffe of ground, ... when great countreys and whole worldes +offer and reache out themselves to them that will first voutsafe to +possesse, inhabite, and till them." These countries, he says, "are +fertile to bring forth all manner of corne and grayne, infinite sortes +of land cattell, as horse, elephantes, kine, sheepe, great varietie of +flying fowles of the ayre, as phesants, partridge, quayle, popingeys, +ostridges, etc., infinite kinds of fruits, as almonds, dates, quinces, +pomegranats, oringes, etc., holesome, medicinable, and delectable" +(Frobisher's Voyages, Hakluyt Society, p. 38). + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 8.] + +Ralegh, in his History of the World, book i, chap, viii, sec. xv, has +an interesting digression on the danger of trusting such +communications, and he relates an anecdote of misapprehension by this +very party sent under Grenville and Lane: "The same happened among the +English, which I sent under Sir Richard Greeneville to inhabit +Virginia. For when some of my people asked the name of that country, +one of the savages answered, '_Wingandacon_,' which is as much as to +say, as, _'You wear good cloaths,' or gay cloaths_." From this answer +it came that the coast of North Carolina was called "Wingandacon," or, +in its Latinized form, Wingindacoa, while the chief, or "king," of the +country appears in the narratives of the time as Wingina. Ralegh says +that Yucatan means merely "What say you?" and that Peru got its name +from a similar mistake. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 8.] + +I found the original of this map among the drawings made by John White +in the Grenville Collection in the British Museum. It was reproduced +to accompany a paper of mine on the Virginia Colony in the Century +Magazine of November, 1882. It excited interest among scholars, as it +was supposed to have been previously unknown. A copy was afterward +found, however, in the collection made by Dr. Kohl for the State +Department at Washington. The drawings in the Sloane MSS., British +Museum, attributed to John White by Dr. E. E. Hale, in the +Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, iv, 21, are not +White's originals. The latter are in the Grenville Collection. See my +comparison of the two in The Nation of April 23, 1891. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 10.] + +As late as December 5, 1621, in a letter from the Virginia Company to +Governor Wyatt, these words occur: "The Conjectures of the Southwest +Passage and the piece of copper which you sent us gladly saw and +heard." This long-surviving desire for a short passage to the East +Indies is traceable to the passion that existed in Europe in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for spices, and this no doubt came +from the gross forms of cookery in that time. Anderson's Commerce, sub +anno 1504, cites Guicciardini on the great quantities of spices used, +and adds: "For in those days the people of Europe were much fonder of +spices in their cookery, etc., than they have been in later times." +The rise in the price of commodities in Elizabeth's time may have been +only apparent, but it promoted voyages looking to the extension of +commerce. Compare Holinshed, i, 274. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 10.] + +Waterhouse's Declaration of Virginia, 1622, a rare tract. Also +Purchas, iii, 892, 893, where these words are quoted from Briggs: "The +Indian Ocean, which we commonly call the South Sea, which lyeth on the +West and Northwest Side of Virginia, on the other side of the +mountains beyond our Falls [of James River] and openeth a free and +faire passage, not only to China, Japan, and the Moluccas, but also to +New Spaine, Peru, and Chili, and those rich countries of Terra +Australis not as yet discovered." It is one of many marks of practical +sagacity in Captain John Smith that after his experience on the +American coast he was able to form views of the geography of the +continent almost a century in advance of the opinions held in his +time. He speaks of "those large Dominions which doe stretch themselves +into the main God knoweth how many thousand miles" (Generall Historie, +book vi). + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 14.] + +So late as 1626, Fleet, the only survivor of the massacre of Spelman's +party, after spending five years in captivity among the Virginia +Indians, persuaded a London merchant to intrust him with a vessel for +the Indian trade by his stories of the "powder of gold" with which the +savages made a paint for their faces. To this story he added a +statement that he had often been in sight of the South Sea or Pacific +Ocean. Fleet's Journal may be found in Scharf's History of Maryland, +i, 13, etc. Van der Donck relates, in his description of New +Netherland, that Kieft, the director of New Netherland, and Van der +Donck, found an Indian painting himself and bought the pigment, which +being burned in a crucible yielded two pieces of gold. (See the +translation in New York Historical Society Collection, ii, 161, 162.) +A bag of specimens of the precious ores of the Hudson River region was +sent to Holland by the ill-fated ship that sailed out of New Haven in +1645. The ship was seen no more except by the New Haven people, who +beheld its specter in the sky. Of the Hudson River gold mines no +specter has ever been seen in earth or sky. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 15.] + +I have quoted from Mr. Sainsbury's abstract of the fragment in the +British Public Record Office, but a similar statement by Ingram was +inserted in Hakluyt's Divers Voyages in 1589. It was omitted in the +later edition as too incredible even for Hakluyt. See also a paper by +Dr. De Costa, in the Magazine of American History, March, 1883, on the +copy of Ingram's Statement preserved in the Bodleian Library. Ingram's +story, and others like it, seem to be satirized in the play of +Eastward, Ho! by Chapman, Jonson, and Marston. The assertion of +Seagull, in the play, that "they have in their houses scowpes, +buckets, and diverse other vessels of massie silver," would seem at +first sight to be an unmistakable allusion to the extravagance of +Ingram's narrative. But in the second edition of Bullein's A Dialogue +against the Fever Pestilence, which was published in 1573, one Mendax, +describing an unknown land, declares that "their pottes, panns, and +all vessells are cleane gold garnished with diamondes." This shows +that Ingram's story had probably absorbed certain traits from what I +have ventured to call European folklore tales about America--folk +tales originally applied to the Orient, no doubt; echoes of Sir John +Mandeville and Marco Polo, perhaps. Of course it is just possible, but +not probable, that Bullein had heard the tales of Ingram, who had +returned three years or more before he printed his second edition. The +authors of Eastward, Ho! probably enlarged on Bullein. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 18.] + +"Unguibusque inter squamas immissis," Decade III, book vi. These +details are probably given on the authority of Sebastian Cabot, whose +veracity is not above suspicion. + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 19.] + +Some of the early writers speak of "apes." Strachey calls what appears +to be a raccoon a monkey, and Brickell, as late as 1743, uses the same +word. The peccaries are recorded as in the text by the marvel-loving +Purchas, p. 805. One finds unicorns in Speed's Prospect, Description +of New York. Speed also lets us know that the buffalo was accustomed +to defend himself by vomiting "a hot scalding liquor" on the dogs that +chased it. Argall was the first Englishman to see the bison, in 1613. +Citing his letter, Purchas says, p. 943, "In one voyage ... they found +a slow kind of cattell as bigge as kine, which were good meate." + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + +_JAMES RIVER EXPERIMENTS._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Departure of the emigrants.] + +[Sidenote: Ld. Chancellor's Speech in reply to the Speaker.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1606.] + +In December, 1606, there lay at Blackwall, below London, the Susan +Constant, of one hundred tons, the Godspeed, of forty tons, and the +little pinnace Discovery, of but twenty tons--three puny ships to bear +across the wintry Atlantic the beginners of a new nation. The setting +forth of these argonauts produced much excitement in London. Patriotic +feeling was deeply stirred, public prayers were offered for the +success of the expedition, sermons appropriate to the occasion were +preached, and the popular feeling was expressed in a poem by Michael +Drayton. Even those who were too sober to indulge the vain +expectations of gold mines and spice islands that filled the +imaginations of most Englishmen on this occasion could say, as Lord +Bacon did later: "It is with the kingdoms on earth as it is with the +kingdom of heaven: sometimes a grain of mustard seed proves a great +tree. Who can tell?" On the 19th of that most tempestuous December the +little fleet weighed anchor and ran down on an ebb tide, no doubt, as +one may nowadays see ships rush past Blackwall toward the sea. Never +were men engaged in a great enterprise doomed to greater sorrows. +From the time they left the Thames the ships were tossed and delayed +by tempests, while the company aboard was rent by factious +dissensions. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: The laws and orders.] + +Those who shaped the destinies of the colony had left little undone +that inventive stupidity could suggest to assure the failure of the +enterprise. King James, who was frivolously fond of puttering in novel +projects, had personally framed a code of unwise laws and orders. The +supremacy of the sovereign and the interests of the Church were +pedantically guarded, but the colony was left without any ruler with +authority enough to maintain order. The private interest of the +individual, the most available of all motives to industry, was merged +in that of the commercial company to which Virginia had been granted. +All the produce of the colony was to go into a common stock for five +years, and the emigrants, men without families, were thrown into a +semi-monastic trading community like the Hanseatic agencies of the +time, with the saving element of a strong authority left out. Better +devices for promoting indolence and aggravating the natural proneness +to dissension of men in hard circumstances could scarcely have been +hit upon. Anarchy and despotism are the inevitable alternatives under +such a communistic arrangement, and each of these ensued in turn. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Character of the emigrants.] + +[Sidenote: Smith's Gen. Hist., iii, c. i and c. xii.] + +[Sidenote: Advertisements for Planters of New Eng., p. 5.] + +[Sidenote: Comp. Briefe Declaration in Pub. Rec. Off., Sainsbury i, +66; and New Life of Va.] + +[Sidenote: Essay on Plantations.] + +The people sent over in the first years were for the most part utterly +unfit. Of the first hundred, four were carpenters, there was a +blacksmith, a tailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a drummer. +There were fifty-five who ranked as gentlemen, and four were boys, +while there were but twelve so-called laborers, including footmen, +"that never did know what a day's work was." The company is described +by one of its members as composed of poor gentlemen, tradesmen, +serving men, libertines, and such like. "A hundred good workmen were +better than a thousand such gallants," says Captain Smith. Of the +moral character of the first emigrants no better account is given. It +was perhaps with these men in view that Bacon declared it "a shameful +and unblessed thing" to settle a colony with "the scum of the people." + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: The arrival.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1607.] + +[Sidenote: Percy, in Purchas, p. 1689.] + +The ships sailed round by the Canaries, after the fashion of that +time, doubling the distance to Virginia. They loitered in the West +Indies to "refresh themselves" and quarrel, and they did not reach +their destination until seedtime had well-nigh passed. They arrived on +the 6th of May, according to our style. Driven into Hampton Roads by a +storm, they sailed up the wide mouth of a river which they called the +James, in honor of the king. At that season of the year the banks +must have shown masses of the white flowers of the dogwood, mingled +with the pink-purple blossoms of the redbud against the dark primeval +forest. Wherever they went ashore the newcomers found "all the ground +bespread with many sweet and delicate flowers of divers colors and +kinds." The sea-weary voyagers concluded that "heaven and earth had +never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation." + +[Sidenote: The first meetings with Indians.] + +[Sidenote: Percy, in Purchas iv, pp. 1685, 1686.] + +They were like people in an enchanted land--all was so new and +strange. On the first landing of a small party they had a taste of +savage warfare. "At night, when wee were going aboard, there came the +savages creeping from the Hills like Beares, with their Bowes in their +Mouthes, charged us very desperately, hurt Captain Gabrill Archer in +both hands, and a Sayler in two places of the body very dangerous. +After they had spent their arrowes, and felt the sharpness of our +shot, they retired into the Woods with a great noise and so left us." + +[Illustration: James River.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1607.] + +But the newly arrived did not find all the Indians hostile. The chief +of the Rappahannocks came to welcome them, marching at the head of his +train, piping on a reed flute, and clad in the fantastic dress of an +Indian dandy. He wore a plate of copper on the shorn side of his head. +The hair on the other side was wrapped about with deer's hair dyed +red, "in the fashion of a rose." Two long feathers "like a pair of +horns" were stuck in this rosy crown. His body was stained crimson, +his face painted blue and besmeared with some glistering pigment +which to the greedy eyes of the English seemed to be silver ore. He +wore a chain of beads, or wampum, about his neck, and his ears were +"all behung with bracelets of pearls." There also depended from each +ear a bird's claw set with copper--or "gold," adds the narrator, +indulging a delightful dubiety. + +[Sidenote: Purchas i, 686 and following.] + +During the period of preliminary exploration every trait of savage +life was eagerly observed by the English. The costume, the wigwams, +and most of all the ingenious weapons of wood and stone, gave delight +to the curiosity of the newcomers. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Founding of Jamestown.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +[Sidenote: Relatyon of the Discovery of our River, Am. Antiq. Soc., +iv, 61.] + +The colonists chose for the site of their town what was then a +malarial peninsula; it has since become an island. The place was +naturally defended by the river on all sides, except where a narrow +stretch of sand made a bridge to the main. Its chief advantage in the +eyes of the newcomers was that the deep water near the shore made it +possible to moor the ships by merely tying them up to trees on the +river bank. Here the settlers planted cotton and orange trees at once, +and experimental potatoes, melons, and pumpkins, but they postponed +sowing grain until about the first of June in our reckoning. + +[Sidenote: The winter of misery.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1607.] + +[Sidenote: Purchas, p. 1690.] + +They took up their abode in hastily built cabins roofed with sedge or +bark, and in ragged tents. The poorer sort were even fain to shelter +themselves in mere burrows in the ground. Ill provided at the start, +the greater part of their food was consumed by the seamen, who +lingered to gather comminuted mica for gold. In this hard environment, +rent by faction, destitute of a competent leader and of any leader +with competent authority, the wonder is that of this little company a +single man survived the winter. "There never were Englishmen left in +any foreign country in such misery as we were in this new-discovered +Virginia," says George Percy, brother to the Earl of Northumberland. A +pint of worm-eaten barley or wheat was allowed for a day's ration. +This was made into pottage and served out at the rate of one small +ladleful at each meal. "Our drink was water, our lodgings castles in +the air," says Smith. The misery was aggravated by a constant fear of +attack from the Indians, who had been repulsed in an energetic assault +made soon after the landing of the English. It was necessary for each +man to watch every third night "lying on the cold, bare ground," and +this exposure in a fever swamp, with the slender allowance of food of +bad quality and the brackish river water, brought on swellings, +dysenteries, and fevers. Sometimes there were not five men able to +bear arms. "If there were any conscience in men," says Percy, "it +would make their hearts bleed to hear the pitiful murmurings and +outcries of our sick men without relief every day and night for the +space of about six weeks." The living were hardly able to bury the +dead, whose bodies were "trailed out like dogs." Half of the hundred +colonists died, and the survivors were saved by the Indians, who, +having got a taste of muskets and cannon in their early attack on +Jamestown, now brought in supplies of game, corn, persimmons, and +other food, to trade for the novel trinkets of the white men. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Emergence of Captain John Smith.] + +Peril and adversity bring the capable man to the front. The colony +proceeded, by means of the technicalities habitually used in those +days, to rid itself of its president, Wingfield, a man of good +intentions but with no talents suitable to a place of such difficulty. +Slowly, by one change and then another, the leadership fell into the +hands of Captain John Smith. During the voyage he had drawn upon +himself the jealousy of the others, probably by his boastful and +self-asserting habit of speech. When the list of councilors, till then +kept secret, was opened at Jamestown and his name was found in it, he +was promptly excluded by his associates. It was only on the +intercession of the clergyman, Hunt, that he was at length admitted to +the Council. + +His paradoxical character has been much misunderstood. Those who +discredit the historical accuracy of Captain Smith's narratives +consider his deeds of no value. It is the natural result and +retribution of boasting that the real merit of the boaster is cast +into the rubbish heap of contempt along with his false pretensions. +On the other hand, those who appreciate Smith's services to the colony +in its dire extremities believe that the historical authority of such +a man must be valid. + +[Sidenote: His romantic tendencies.] + +His character, double and paradoxical as it is, presents no insoluble +enigma if we consider the forces of nature and of habit underlying its +manifestations. According to his own highly colored narrative, he had +fed his fervid imagination on romances of chivalry. The first natural +result in a youth so energetic as he, was that he should set out to +emulate the imaginary heroes of whom he had read. It was equally a +matter of course that a man of his vanity should exaggerate his own +adventures to the size of those that had excited his admiration. The +same romantic turn of the imagination that sent him a-wandering after +exploits in Flanders and in the wars with the Turks, in Barbary, and +in Ireland, made his every adventure seem an exploit of heroic size. +Such a man is valuable when boldness and aggressive action are in +request; to relate facts where autobiography is involved he is little +fitted. + +[Sidenote: His story of his own life.] + +According to Smith's own narrative, he was robbed and shipwrecked at +sea; he slew three infidel champions in single combat and cut off +their heads, just for the amusement of the ladies; he was made captive +by the Turks and escaped by slaying his master with a flail; he +encountered pirates; in the plunder of a ship he secured by the grace +of God a box of jewels; and, to round off his story, he was beloved +in romance fashion by a fair Turkish lady, one Tragabigzanda; +befriended by a Russian lady, the good Calamata; and, later, was +snatched from the open jaws of death by the devotion of the lovely +Princess Pocahontas, daughter of King Powhatan, of Virginia. What more +could one ask? Here are the elements of all the romances. But, to +crown all, he emulated the misadventure of the prophet Jonah, and he +even out-Jonahed Jonah. He got ashore by mere swimming without the aid +of a whale, when cast overboard by Catholic pilgrims to appease a +tempest. Never any other wanderer since the safe return of Ulysses +passed through such a succession of marvelous escapes as this young +John Smith. His accidents and achievements, even without exaggeration, +were fairly notable, doubtless, but they are forever obscured by his +vices of narration. + +[Sidenote: Interest in colonization.] + +[Sidenote: His character.] + +By the time he was twenty-eight years old this knight-errant had +pretty well exhausted Europe as a field for adventure. Soon after his +return to his own land he found the navigator Gosnold agitating for a +new colony in Virginia, the scene of Ralegh's failures. That being the +most difficult and dangerous enterprise then in sight, nothing was +more natural than that Smith should embark in it. From this time to +the end of his life this really able man gave his best endeavors to +the advancement of American colonization. In counsel he was accounted +wise, and his advice was listened to with more than common deference +in the assemblies of the Virginia Company as long as the company +lasted. In labor he was indefatigable, in emergencies he proved +himself ready-witted and resourceful. His recorded geographical +observations are remarkably accurate considering his circumstances, +and his understanding of Indian life shows his intelligence. His +writings on practical questions are terse, epigrammatic, and wise +beyond the wisdom of his time. But where his own adventures or credit +are involved he is hardly more trustworthy than Falstaff. His boasting +is one of the many difficulties a historian has to encounter in +seeking to discover the truth regarding the events of an age much +given to lying. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Smith's exploration and trading.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1607, 1608.] + +[Sidenote: Oxford Tract, _passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Gen. Hist _passim_.] + +On Smith principally devolved the explorations for a passage to the +Pacific and the conduct of the Indian trade. He was captured by the +Indians in the swamps of the Chickahominy and carried from village to +village in triumph. Contriving to secure his release from the head +chief, Powhatan, he returned to Jamestown. Nothing could have suited +better his bold genius and roving disposition than the life he +thereafter led in Virginia. He sailed up and down the bays and +estuaries, discovering and naming unknown islands, ascending great +unknown rivers, cajoling or bullying the Indians, and returning to his +hungry countrymen at Jamestown laden with maize from the granaries of +the savages. Smith and his companions coasted in all seasons and all +weather in an open boat, exercising themselves in morning +psalm-singing and praying, in manoeuvring strange Indians by +blustering or point-blank lying, and in trying to propagate the +Christian religion among the heathen--all in turn as occasion offered, +like true Englishmen of the Jacobean time. + +[Sidenote: His narrative.] + +Captain Smith's earlier accounts of these achievements in Virginia +seem to be nearer the truth than his later Generall Historie. As years +rolled on his exploits gained in number and magnitude in his memory. +The apocryphal story of his expounding the solar system by means of a +pocket compass to savages whose idiom he had had no opportunity to +learn is to be found only in his later writings. He is a prisoner but +a month in the narrative of the Oxford Tract of 1612, which was +written by his associates and published with his authority, but his +captivity had grown to six or seven weeks in the Generall Historie of +1624. His prosaic release by Powhatan had developed into a romantic +rescue by Pocahontas. Two or three hundred savages in the earlier +account become four or five hundred in the later. Certain Poles assist +him in the capture of an Indian chief in the authorized narrative of +Pots and Phettiplace. In the later story our hero performs this feat +single-handed. A mere cipher attaches itself sometimes to the figure +representing the number of his enemies, who by this simple feat of +memory become ten times more redoubtable than before. + +[Sidenote: His service to the colony.] + +[Sidenote: Oxf. Tract, p. 32. Gen. Hist., bk. iii, ch. v.] + +[Sidenote: Historie of Travaile into Virginia, p. 41.] + +But it does not matter greatly whether the "strangely grimmed and +disguised" Indians seen by Smith at one place on the Potomac, who, +according to the story, were shouting and yelling horribly, though in +ambuscade, numbered three or four hundred as in one account, or three +or four thousand as in his later story. To Captain Smith remains the +credit of having been the one energetic and capable man in those first +years--the man who wasted no time in a search for gold, but won from +the Indians what was of infinitely greater value--the corn needed to +preserve the lives of the colonists. In an open boat, with no +instrument but a compass, he explored and mapped Chesapeake Bay so +well that his map was not wholly superseded for a hundred and forty +years. Even Wingfield, who had reason to dislike Smith, recognizes the +value of his services; and Strachey, who had every means of knowing, +says that "there will not return from" Virginia "in hast any one who +hath bene more industrious or who hath had (Captain Geo. Percie +excepted) greater experience amongst them, however misconstruction +maye traduce here at home." + +[Sidenote: Smith overthrown.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1609.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +During the autumn of 1608 and the winter following Captain Smith was +sole ruler of Jamestown, all the other councilors having gone; but the +next spring there arrived five hundred new colonists inadequately +provisioned, and under two of the old faction leaders who were Smith's +mortal enemies. These were the visionary and turbulent Archer and his +follower Ratcliffe. Smith got some of the newcomers to settle at +Nansemond, and others took up their abode near the falls of the James +River. After much turmoil Smith was disabled by an accident, and his +enemies contrived to have him sent home charged, among other things, +with having "incensed" the Indians to assault the insubordinate +settlers under West near the falls, and with having designed to wed +Pocahontas in order to secure royal rights in Virginia as son-in-law +to Powhatan. + +[Sidenote: His later years.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +He afterward explored the New England coast with characteristic +thoroughness and intelligence. What he published in his later years by +way of advice on the subject of colony-planting is full of admirable +good sense. With rare foresight he predicted the coming importance of +the colonial trade and the part to be played by the American fisheries +in promoting the greatness of England by "breeding mariners." He only +of the men of his time suspected the imperial size and future +greatness of North America. He urged that the colonies should not +annoy "with large pilotage and such like dues" those who came to trade +in their ports. Low customs, he says, enrich a people. This is a +strange doctrine in an age when foreign trade seemed almost an evil, +and false conceptions of economic principles were nearly universal. +Captain Smith's words are often pregnant with a wit whose pungency is +delightful. In mental and physical hardihood, and in what may be +called shiftiness, as well as in proneness to exaggeration and in +boastfulness, he was in some sense a typical American pioneer--a +forerunner of the daring and ready-witted men who have subdued a +savage continent. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: The famine of 1609-'10.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1609, 1610.] + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1610.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +[Sidenote: Tragicall Relation, 1623. Briefe Declaration, 1624, both in +British Pub. Record Office. Percy's Trewe Relacyon, MS., Petworth +House.] + +Disaster of some sort could hardly have been avoided had Captain Smith +been allowed to stay, but after his departure ruin came swiftly, and +there was no hand strong enough to stay it. The unchecked hostility of +the savages drove the outsettlers from Nansemond and the falls of the +James. The Indians found exercise for their devilish ingenuity in +torturing those who fell into their hands alive, and outraging the +dead. The brave but unwise Percy added fuel to their consuming fury by +visiting their shrine and desecrating the tombs of their chiefs. There +was now no one who could carry on the difficult Indian trade. +Ratcliffe, who had conspired to send Smith back to England, fell into +an ambuscade while emulating Captain Smith's example in trading with +Powhatan. He was tortured to death by the Indian women, and only +fifteen of his fifty men got back to Jamestown. The brood hogs of the +colony were all eaten, the dogs came next, and then the horses, which +were to have stocked Virginia, were consumed to their very hides. +Rats, mice, and adders were relished when they were to be had, and +fungi of various sorts were eaten with whatever else "would fill +either mouth or belly." An Indian slain in an assault on the stockade +was dug up after he had been three days buried, and eaten "by the +poorer sort," their consuming hunger not being embarrassed by the +restraints of gentility. From this horrible expedient it was but one +step to the digging up of their own dead for food. Famine-crazed men +even dogged the steps of those of their comrades who were not quite +wasted, threatening to kill and devour them. Among these despairing +and shiftless men there was but one man of resources. Daniel +Tucker--let his later sins as tyrant of Bermuda be forgiven--bethought +himself to build a boat to catch fish in the river, and this small +relief "did keep us from killing one another to eat," says Percy. He +seems to have been the only man who bethought himself to do anything. +One man, in the ferocity engendered by famine, slew his own wife and +salted what he did not eat at once of her flesh, but he was put to +death at the stake for this crime. Some, braving the savages, sought +food in the woods and died while seeking it, and were eaten by those +who found them dead. Others, in sheer desperation, threw themselves on +the tender mercies of the Indians and were slain. To physical were +added spiritual torments. One despairing wretch threw his Bible into +the fire, crying out in the market place that there was no God in +heaven. Percy adds, with grim theological satisfaction characteristic +of the time, that he was killed by the Indians in the very market +place where he had blasphemed in his agony. The depopulated houses, +and even the palisades so necessary for protection, were burned for +firewood by the enfeebled people, and Jamestown came presently to look +like the slumbering ruins of some ancient fortification. Fortunately, +the Indians did not think it worth while to lose any more of their men +in attacking the desperate remainder. It seemed inevitable that all +who were shut up in the Jamestown peninsula should perish of hunger in +a very few days. Of the nearly five hundred colonists in Virginia in +the autumn of 1609, there were but sixty famine-smitten wretches alive +in the following June, and hardly one of these could have survived had +help been delayed a few days longer. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: The arrival of Gates and Somers, 1610.] + +[Sidenote: A True Declaration of the Estate of the Colony of Virginia, +1619, p.23.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +Relief came to the little remnant from a quarter whence it was least +expected. The emigrants of the preceding year had been sent out under +the authority of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers. The two +leaders were jealous of each other, and for fear either should gain +advantage by prior arrival they embarked in the same ship. This ship +became separated from the rest of the fleet and went ashore on the +Bermudas, then uninhabited, and "accounted as an inchaunted pile of +rockes and a desert inhabitation for Divels," in the words of a writer +of the time; "but all the fairies of the rocks were but flocks of +birds, and all the Divels that haunted the woods were but herds of +swine." Here old Sir George Somers, a veteran seaman, constructed two +little cedar vessels, and provisioning them for the voyage with what +the islands afforded--live turtles, and the flesh of wild hogs and +waterfowl salted--the company set sail for Virginia in the spring of +1610, arriving barely in time to save the colony from extinction. +Finding that their provisions would not last more than two or three +weeks, they abandoned the wreck of Jamestown, crowding all the people +into four pinnaces, including the two improvised cedar boats built on +the Bermudas. They sailed down the river in the desperate hope of +surviving until they could reach Newfoundland and get supplies from +fishing vessels. The four little craft were turned back on +encountering Lord De la Warr, the new governor, ascending the James to +take charge of the colony. The meeting with De la Warr was bitterly +regretted by the old settlers, who preferred the desperate chance of a +voyage in pinnaces on a shipless sea with but a fortnight's provision +to facing again the horrors of life at Jamestown. + +[Sidenote: De la Warr's arrival, 1610.] + +[Sidenote: Smith's Oxford Tract, so called.] + +With all the formalities thought necessary at that time, De la Warr +took possession of Jamestown, now become a forlorn ruin full of dead +men's bones. Gates was sent to England for a new stock of cattle, +while the brave old Sir George Somers once more embarked for the +Bermudas in the Patience, the little cedar pinnace which he had built +wholly of the wood of that island without a particle of iron except +one bolt in the keel. In this boat he sailed up and down until he +found again "the still vexed Bermoothes," where he hoped to secure +provisions. He died in the islands. Argall was also sent to the +Bermudas, but missed them, and went north to the fishing banks in +search of food. + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +[Sidenote: De la Warr's government, 1610.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +[Sidenote: British Museum, MS. 21,993, ff. 174, 178. Instr. to Gates +and De la Warr.] + +[Sidenote: Gold-hunting.] + +[Sidenote: Briefe Declaration, MS., Pub. Rec. Off.] + +Jamestown was cleansed, and with a piety characteristic of that age +the deserted little church was enlarged and reoccupied and daily +decorated with Virginia wild flowers. All the bitter experience of the +first three years had not taught the true method of settling a new +country. The colony was still but a camp of men without families, and +the old common stock system was retained. To escape from the anarchy +which resulted from a system that sank the interest of the individual +in that of the community, it had been needful to arm De la Warr with +the sharp sword of martial law. Some of the instructions given him +were unwise, some impossible of execution. To convert the Indians out +of hand, as he was told to do, by shutting up their medicine men or +sending them to England to be Christianized by the methods then in +use, did not seem a task easy of accomplishment, for Indian priests +are not to be caught in time of war. But De la Warr undertook another +part of his instructions. A hundred men under two captains were sent +on a wild-goose chase up the James River to find gold or silver in the +mountains, whither the phantom of mines had now betaken itself. This +plan originated with the London managers of Virginia affairs, and men +had been sent with De la Warr who were supposed to be skillful in +"finding out mines." But being especially unskillful in dealing with +the Indians, they were tempted ashore by savages, who offered them +food and slew them "while the meate was in theire mouthes." The +expedition thereupon turned back at a point about forty miles above +the present site of Richmond. + +[Sidenote: Flight of De la Warr.] + +A new town was begun at the falls, in the fond belief that two mines +were near, and De la Warr took up his residence there. Jamestown, +drawing its water from a shallow and probably polluted well, became +the seat of a fresh epidemic. In the month of March following his +arrival the governor fled from the colony to save his own life, +leaving Virginia more than ever discredited. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: Sir Thomas Dale, 1611.] + +[Sidenote: Docs. Rel. to Col. Hist. N. Y., i, pp. 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, +16-21.] + +As the hope of immediate profit from Virginia died away, the colony +would have been abandoned if there had not arisen in its favor a +patriotic enthusiasm which gave it a second lease of life. Many of the +great noblemen were deeply engaged in this new agitation in favor of +the unlucky colony, and none more deeply, perhaps, than Prince Henry, +the heir apparent. At Henry's request, Sir Thomas Dale, an officer who +had been employed about the prince's person, and who with other +English officers was now in the service of the Netherlands, was +granted leave of absence to go to Virginia. Since the colony was a +check to Spain, the Netherlands were supposed to have an indirect +interest in the enterprise and were persuaded to continue Captain +Dale's pay. De la Warr, who remained in England, was nominally +governor; Gates, when present in Virginia, was the ranking officer; +but for five years Dale appears to have been the ruling spirit in the +colony. + +[Sidenote: The heavy hand of Dale, 1611-1616.] + +[Sidenote: A Briefe Declaration of the Plantation of Virginia, 1624, +MS., Pub. Rec. Off.] + +To induce him to go, Dale had been deceived regarding the condition of +the plantation, as had been everybody else that had gone to Jamestown +after the first ships sailed. The vice-admiral, Newport, was the +principal reporter of Virginia affairs in England and the principal +agent of the company in this deception. Dale's rough temper was +already well known. It was for this, no doubt, that he had been chosen +to do a rude piece of work. On his arrival he saw the desperate state +of the undertaking. He pulled Vice-Admiral Newport's beard and +threatened him with the gallows, demanding "whether it weare meant +that people heere in Virginia shoulde feed uppon trees." + +[Sidenote: Brit. Museum, MS., 21,993, f. 174.] + +[Sidenote: Briefe Declaration.] + +Under the inefficient government of George Percy, who had again been +placed in charge, the seedtime of 1611 was allowed to pass without the +planting of corn. The Jamestown people were found by Dale "at their +daily and usual work bowling in the streets." But the days of +unthrifty idleness were at an end. "The libertyes, ffranchises, and +immunityes of free denizens and natural-born subjects of any our +other dominions" promised to the colonists, were also at an end from +the moment of the arrival of this sharp-set soldier and +disciplinarian. Dale's pitiless use of martial law turned Virginia not +exactly into a military camp, but rather into a penal settlement where +men suffered for the crime of emigration. The men taken to Virginia in +Dale's own company were hardly fit for anything else, and were so +"diseased and crazed in their bodies" that at one time not more than +sixty out of three hundred were capable of labor. The food sent with +Sir Thomas Dale by the corrupt contractors was "of such qualitie as +hoggs refused to eat." Sir Thomas Gates afterward made oath to its +badness before the Chief Justice in London. + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: The years of slavery.] + +Dale regarded himself as an agent of the company. His aim was by hook +or crook to make the hitherto unprofitable colony pay dividends to the +shareholders, who were his employers. His relation to the emigrants +was that of a taskmaster; one might, perhaps, more fitly call him a +slave-driver. Instead of seeking to render the colony self-supporting +by clearing corn ground, he gave his first attention to lading vessels +with sassafras root, then much prized as a medicine, and cedar timber, +valued especially for its odor. + +[Sidenote: Briefe Declaration. Percy to Northumberland, Hist. MS., +Commission, Rept., iii, 53, 54.] + +[Sidenote: Observations and Travel from London to Hamburgh, p. 13.] + +During a part of Dale's time eight or nine ounces of meal and half a +pint of peas was the daily ration. In their declaration, made some +years afterward, the surviving colonists aver that both the meal and +the peas were "moldy, rotten, full of cobwebs and maggots, loathsome +to man and unfit for beasts." Better men than these might have been +driven to mutiny by the enforced toil and bad food. And mutiny and +desertion were usually but other names for suicide under the rule of +the pitiless high marshal. Some fled to the woods, hoping to reach a +mythical Spanish settlement believed to be not very far away. Dale set +the Indians on them, and they were brought back to be burned at the +stake. Others, who in desperation or deadly homesickness resolved to +venture their lives in a barge and a shallop "for their native +country," suffered in various ways for their temerity. Death by +shooting or hanging was clemency. One offender was put to death by the +awful torture of breaking on the wheel, a penalty that Dale may have +learned during his stay on the Continent. Taylor, the water poet, has +left us the sickening details of such an execution in Germany in 1616. +One need not waste any sympathy on those who were hanged for stealing +to satisfy hunger; death is more merciful than life to men in such a +case. But one poor rogue, who thought to better his rations by +filching two or three pints of oatmeal, had a bodkin run through his +tongue and was chained to a tree until he perished of hunger. Though +these things were twice attested by the best men in the colony, one +prefers to make some allowance for their passionate resentment, and +to hope that some of the horrors related are exaggerated. It is hard +to believe, for example, that men unable to work were denied food, and +left to creep away into the wretched burrows in the ground used for +shelter, there to die unregarded in the general misery. + +[Sidenote: Briefe Declaration.] + +In 1612 a company of ten men sent out to catch fish braved the perils +of the ocean in a little bark and got back to England. It was the only +escape from Dale's tyranny, pitiless and infernal. "Abandon every hope +who enter here" was almost as appropriate to the mouth of the James +River as to the gate of Dante's hell. All letters of complaint sent to +England were intercepted, and all efforts of friends of the colonists +in England to succor or rescue them were thwarted by the company in +London. The king's pass to one of the colonists authorizing him to +leave Virginia was sent to him by his friends closely made up in a +garter, to avoid the vigilance of Sir Thomas Dale. + +[Sidenote: Dale's services.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +Dale's administration was strongest on its military side. There was no +danger that the Indians would reduce the colony to any straits while +he was in charge. He gave his first attention to fortification, and he +even begged for two thousand convicts out of English jails to form a +line of posts from Hampton to a point a hundred miles above Jamestown. +He sent Argall all the way to Mount Desert to plunder a Jesuit +settlement and make prize of a French ship--an undertaking congenial +to Dale's military temper and the Viking tastes of Argall. As his +experience increased, Dale came to understand that other than military +measures were needed to found a colony, though he never more than half +comprehended the elements of the problem. In his later time he cleared +more corn ground, and he could boast at his departure that Virginia +contained six horses, a hundred and forty-nine neat cattle, two +hundred and sixteen goats, and hogs without number. Dale set off a +private garden of three acres of land to each of the old planters, on +the condition that they should provide food for themselves while still +giving nearly all of their time to the service of the common stock. +Even this slave's-patch of private interest given to only a fraction +of the colonists put some life into Virginia; but two thirds of the +people were retained in the old intolerable bondage, and not even the +most favored secured personal ownership of land. Dale's administration +was remembered as "the five years of slavery." + + +XII. + +[Sidenote: Dale's return.] + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +[Sidenote: Note 11.] + +The rough-handed soldier from the Low Countries had indeed brought the +Virginia chaos into order, but it was an order almost as deadly as the +preceding anarchy. Dale confessed that the government of Virginia was +"the hardest task he had ever undertaken," and he got himself out of +it after five years by making a theatrical return to England in 1616 +with a train of Indians, including the "Princess" Pocahontas, +converted, baptized with a Christian name as Rebecca, and wedded to an +Englishman. He added glowing reports of the country, and proved all by +exhibiting "at least sixteen several sorts of staple commodities to be +raised in this plantation." For greater effect, samples of twelve of +these products of the colony were sold by public auction in the open +court of the company. Though Dale could show many commodities, some of +which have never flourished in Virginia since his time, he left behind +him not an established community, but a mere camp of unhappy men +retained in the country by the sheer impossibility of getting away. +After nine years of suffering, Virginia consisted of some three +hundred and twenty-six men, twenty-five women and children, and graves +outnumbering many times over all the living souls. + +[Sidenote: Note 12.] + +Three things had been discovered in Dale's time that were of +importance to the colony. Dale had by personal experiment learned the +two fishing seasons in the James River. The colonists had begun the +profitable cultivation of tobacco, and the economic success of the +colony was thereby assured. Lastly, even Dale's small experiment with +private interest rendered the apportionment of the land and the +establishment of private ownership certain to come in time. As early +as 1614 it was estimated that three men working for themselves raised +more corn than ten times as many when the labor was for the public +stock. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: Argall's government.] + +[Sidenote: Lord Rich's intrigue.] + +[Sidenote: Note 13.] + +[Sidenote: Stith, 142.] + +[Sidenote: The Companie's root of difference. MS. Rec. Va. Co., May 7, +1623.] + +[Sidenote: MS. Rec. Va. Co., _passim_.] + +Captain Argall, who succeeded Sir Thomas Dale, was a bold and notable +mariner. He had built the first Virginia vessel; he had traded with +the Indians for corn with as much enterprise and address as Captain +Smith had shown; he had in a small ship called the Dainty made the +first experimental voyage to James River by the westward route, +avoiding the long circuit by the Canaries and West Indies. It had been +his fortune to be the first Englishman to see the American bison, +which he found near the Potomac. He it was who by a shrewd trick had +captured Pocahontas and held her as hostage; and he drove the French +out of Maine, despoiling their settlement at Mount Desert. To a +mastery of all the arts that make the skillful navigator he added the +courteous politeness of a man of the city and the unfaltering rapacity +of a pirate. As governor, he robbed the company with one hand and the +hapless colonists with the other. While using the ships and men of the +colony to carry on the Indian trade, he turned all the profits of it +into his own wallet. The breeding animals of the colony accumulated by +Dale he sold, and made no account of the proceeds. There was hardly +anything portable or salable in Virginia that he did not purloin. He +even plundered the property of Lady De la Warr, the widow of his +predecessor. He boldly fitted out a ship belonging to Lord Rich, and +sent an expedition of sheer piracy to the West Indies under an old +letter of marque from the Duke of Savoy. When advices from England +warned Argall that his downfall was imminent, he forthwith redoubled +his felonious diligence. His chief partner in England was Lord Rich, +who became the second Earl of Warwick in 1619, about the time of +Argall's return, and who is known to history in his later character as +a great Puritan nobleman, who served God while he contrived to better +his estate with both hands by such means as troublous times put within +his reach. He was not content with small pickings. Rich appears to +have aimed at nothing less than wrecking the company and securing the +land and government of Virginia. The first step toward this was to get +a charter for a private or proprietary plantation within Virginia +which should be exempt from all authority of the company and the +colony. This independent government was to serve as a refuge from +prosecutions for Argall and other piratical agents, and at last to +possess itself of the wreck and remainder of Virginia. The second step +in this intrigue was one that could have availed nothing in any time +less respectful to shadowy technicalities and less prone to legal +chicanery than that of James I. As we have seen, jealousy was excited +in Virginia by the possibility of Captain Smith's wedding Pocahontas +and setting up a claim to authority based on her inheritance from +Powhatan. A tradition lingered in Virginia a hundred years later that +King James questioned Rolfe's right to intermarry with a foreign +princess without the consent of his sovereign. If this had any +foundation, it grew out of the value of a pretext in a time of +technicality and intrigue. There may have been already a scheme to +trade upon the hereditary right of Powhatan's daughter. Pocahontas +died in England, leaving an infant son. Argall, on his arrival, +hastened to notify the company that Opechankano, the brother and +successor of Powhatan, had resolved not to sell any more land, but to +reserve it for the son of Pocahontas when he should be grown. The +company charged that this was a ruse to serve the ends which Argall, +Rich, and others had in view. The larger plan miscarried, but Argall +found his prey so tempting that he lingered longer than was safe, and +got away in the nick of time by the aid of Lord Rich, who had stood +guard like a burglar's pal, and who contrived to delay the ship +carrying out the new governor until a small swift-sailing vessel could +be sent to fetch away Argall and his varied booty of public and +private plunder. In that day justice often went by favor, and Argall +consigned his spoils to hands so powerful that the Virginia Company, +stripped bare by his treacherous villainy, could never recover any of +its lost property. The embittered colonists had the bootless +satisfaction of sending over after the runaway governor twenty-four +bundles of accusatory depositions. + + +XIV. + +[Sidenote: Fall of the lottery.] + +[Sidenote: Note 14.] + +From the first nobody reaped any profit from investments made in the +new colony except the clique of merchants who had been allowed to sell +wretched supplies for the distant settlers at ruinous rates. Rich and +those interested with him had abundantly reimbursed themselves for all +outlays on their part. The Virginia Company, swindled by commercial +peculators at home, robbed by a pirate governor in America, and +embarrassed by Spanish intrigues at the English court, had also been +deprived of the lotteries, large and small, which had supplied money +for sending eight hundred emigrants to Virginia. The lottery, which +had fallen into great disrepute and had suffered "many foul +aspersions," was abolished in compliance with a public sentiment. The +company was tottering swiftly to a fall; vultures like Warwick were +waiting longingly for its death. + +[Sidenote: Revival of interest, 1618.] + +But there set in once more a widespread patriotic movement in its +behalf. Such movements were characteristic of that vital age when love +of country was fast coming to count for more as a motive to action +than loyalty to the person of a prince. "Divers lords, knights, +gentlemen, and citizens, grieved to see this great action fall to +nothing," came to its rescue with one final effort which resulted +after some years in putting the enterprise well beyond the danger of +failure. They formed auxiliary societies within the Virginia Company, +after the custom of corporations in that day. Each of these undertook +to plant a settlement or "hundred." In one year the population rose +from less than four hundred to about a thousand. The newly active +element infused a more liberal spirit into the company, and set about +correcting the abuses in its management. + + +XV. + +[Sidenote: The Great Charter, 1618.] + +[Sidenote: Pub. Rec. Off. Col. Papers, iii, 40. Disc. of the Old Va. +Co.] + +[Sidenote: Note 15.] + +The movement of 1618 was retarded by the disgrace into which the +colony had fallen. An unbroken series of misfortunes and +disappointments, the bad conduct of the company's affairs, the ill +fame of Dale's remorseless tyranny, and the fresh Argall scandal, had +made Virginia odious. One convict to whom the alternative was +proposed, chose hanging in preference to transportation to Virginia. +It was needful that something should be done to restore credit. The +men who took the lead in the patriotic movement of 1618 on behalf of +Virginia were mainly liberal statesmen--that Earl of Southampton who +is known as the friend of Shakespeare; Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the +greatest men of a great age, whose brave support of popular liberty +had lost him the favor of the king; Sir John Danvers, and others. The +records before the election of Sandys in 1619 were probably destroyed +to conceal the guilt of the managers. We can only conjecture that the +rising influence of the men who were able a few months later to +overthrow the ruling party had much to do with the most notable +change that took place in the conduct of affairs in the Virginia +Company at this time. On the 13th of November, 1618--memorable but +neglected and forgotten date--the Virginia Company, acting within the +powers conferred on it by its charter, granted to the residents in +Virginia a document styled a "Great Charter or Commissions of +Priviledges, Orders, and Lawes." No copy of this instrument now +exists, but some of its provisions have been preserved. It established +a legislative body, to consist of councilors of estate and of +representatives or burgesses chosen by the several "plantations" or +hundreds, and it limited the power of the governor. This charter was +the starting point of constitutional government in the New World. It +contained in embryo the American system of an executive power lodged +mainly in one person, and a Legislature of two houses. One might +without much exaggeration call this paper a sort of Magna Charta of +America, and it was a long and probably a deliberate step toward +popular government. If the results that have followed it be +considered, it can hardly be accounted second in importance to any +other state paper of the seventeenth century. + + +XVI. + +[Sidenote: Division of land.] + +[Sidenote: Note 16.] + +[Sidenote: Aspinwall Papers, p. 14, note.] + +[Sidenote: True Declaration, p. 25.] + +Not only did this admirable charter establish a representative form of +government and do away with martial law, but it fairly launched the +Virginians on the current of freedom and advancement by authorizing a +liberal division of land to all those who had arrived before the +departure of Sir Thomas Dale. The oldest land titles in Virginia are +deduced from the authority of the Great Charter of 1618. Communism, +pernicious everywhere, is at its worst in an infant settlement. "Every +man sharked for his own bootie," says a writer on Virginia in 1609, +"but was altogether careless of the succeeding penurie." The +distribution of land abolished the common stock system of labor, and +opened a pathway to the ambition of the diligent. + +[Sidenote: The good news in Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Note 17.] + +[Sidenote: Tragicall Relation, 1623.] + +Tidings of the great change wrought in their condition and prospects +by the new charter reached the dwellers on the James River in the +spring of 1619, and the colonists were "ravished with so much joy" +that they felt themselves "now fully satisfied for their long labors +and as happy men as there were in the world." They valued their +liberties as no man can who has not known the bitterness of bondage, +and in 1623, when they had reason to fear the re-establishment of the +old tyranny, the Virginia Assembly petitioned the king in these strong +words: "Rather than be reduced to live under the like government, we +desire his Majesty that commissioners may be sent over to hang us." We +have here, perhaps, the very first of the many protests of colonial +Legislatures against oppression from England. + + +XVII. + +[Sidenote: The sending of wives to Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Note 18.] + +[Sidenote: Note 19.] + +In 1618, before the adoption of the charter, it was concluded, in the +quaint phrase of the time, "that a plantation can never flourish till +families be planted and the respects of Wives and Children fix the +people on the soyle," or, in simpler words, that a colony of bachelors +can hardly found a state. The first ship laden with home-makers +carried over ninety maids, and the company thought it necessary to +promise special rewards to the men who should marry these young women. +If the maids were as certified, "young, handsome, and well +recommended," they needed no such dowry in a land that had hardly a +woman in it. Young or old, handsome or homely, the maids did not prove +a drug. Shipload after shipload of them were eagerly bought by the +planters, who had to pay a round sum in the high-priced tobacco of +that early time to defray the cost of transporting these wives. +Besides having to pay for his wife, the planter could have her only on +the condition of winning her consent; and the eager courtship that +ensued on the arrival of a shipload of maids must have been one of the +most amusing scenes in the settlement of America. Suitors far +outnumbered the women, and the latter had things pretty much their own +way. The first cargo of this interesting merchandise was landed in +1619, but as late as 1624 the women were probably in danger of setting +the colonists by the ears, for the governor felt obliged to issue a +proclamation threatening fine or whipping for the offense of betrothal +to more than one person at a time. In 1632, thirteen years after the +first shipment, we find the colony still being replenished with women +sent in the same fashion. In that year, two, whose behavior during the +voyage had been disgraceful, were sent back as unfit to be mothers of +Virginians. The precaution could not have been of much practical use, +but it indicates the early growth of a wholesome local pride. When +there were house mothers in the cabins, and children born in the +country, the settlers no longer dreamed of returning to England; and +there was soon a young generation that knew no other skies than those +that spanned the rivers, fields, and vast primeval forests of their +native Virginia, which now for the first time became a home. + + +XVIII. + +[Sidenote: The struggle ended, 1624.] + +It is not the Virginia colony alone that we have seen in the crucible. +The fate of English colonization was no doubt settled by the +experiments made during the first years on the James River, and the +story told in this chapter is but the overture to the whole history of +life in the United States. In our colonizing age a settlement might be +made in the heart of Africa with a far smaller loss of life than was +incurred in the first sixteen years in Virginia. From 1607 to 1623 +there were landed in Virginia more than six thousand people. The +number that returned to England was inconsiderable, but in the year +1624, when the colony passed under a royal government, there remained +alive in the colony only twelve hundred and seventy-five. Of those who +came in these early years four fifths perished. A part of this loss +was due to radically wrong conceptions of the nature, end, and proper +methods of colonization, a part to corrupt and incompetent management +in the London Company. The bad character of many of the earliest +emigrants was one cause of difficulty. The writers of the time +probably exaggerated this evil in order to excuse the severity of the +government and the miseries into which the settlers fell. But the loss +of many of the early comers must be accounted a distinct gain to +Virginia. Unfitted for their environment, they were doomed to +extinction by that pitiless law which works ever to abolish from the +earth the improvident, the idle, and the vicious. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 29.] + +In 1889, when I visited Jamestown, there was no apparent trace of +Sandy Beach which had connected the island with the mainland. This bit +of sand, in the antique phrase of one of the early colonists, was "no +broader than a man may well quaite a tileshard." Strachey, in Purchas, +p. 1752. Jamestown is now a farm; the ruins of the church and many of +the tombs in the eighteenth-century churchyard remain; but the upper +end of the island is wearing away, and I picked out of the crumbling +sand, far from the later burying place, human bones of earlier +burials, possibly of the victims of the famines and epidemics. The +walls of the magazine had been exposed by erosion. I brought away +wrought nails, bits of glass grown iridescent from long burial, and +an exploded bombshell of so small a caliber as to mark its antiquity. +By the aid of a negro youth living on the farm I found the hearth +bricks turned up in various places by the plow, and the arrangement, +or rather lack of arrangement, of the town could thus be made out. My +guide volunteered the information that Jamestown was "the first place +discovered after the Flood." Some drawings made at the time were +reproduced with an article on Nathaniel Bacon in the Century Magazine +for July, 1890. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 37.] + +Whether Smith was injured by gunpowder and required treatment, as he +asserts, or was sent home under charges, has been matter of dispute. +Both accounts are correct, as is shown by the testimony of an +important manuscript at Petworth House, in Surrey, which I was allowed +to examine by the courtesy of Lord Leconsfield. It is from the pen of +George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, who was chosen +to succeed Smith on his departure from the colony. It is not the +narrative from which Purchas makes extracts, but a sequel to it. The +title is "A Trewe Relacyon of the pceedinge and Ocvrrentes of momente +wch have hapned in Virginia from the Tyme Sr Thomas Gates was +shipwrackde vpon the Bermudes Ano. 1609 vntill my depture ovtt of the +country wch was in Ano Dni 1612." It is a quarto of forty-one pages. +Percy was a man of courage, but his own narrative in this little book +shows that he had no qualification for the office of governor except +the rank of his family. His ill health is made an excuse for his +inefficiency, but Dale's letter of May 25, 1611, shows that even the +horrible events of Percy's first government had not taught him to +plant corn when again left in charge. Percy naturally resents Smith's +boastfulness, and bluntly accuses him of laying claim to credit that +was not his. The charge that Smith, unable to control the unruly +settlers at the Falls under West, advised the Indians to attack them, +is supported by Percy; and a very different charge, that he stirred up +the Indians to assassinate West himself, appears at a later time in +Spelman's Relation, a tract that bears abundant internal evidence of +the writer's mental inability to speak the truth. Percy himself +relates that the Indians were already hostile to West's party, and +that they had wounded and killed some of West's men in resentment of +their wanton outrages. See also the account in the Oxford Tract, with +the signatures of Pots and Phettiplace, for Smith's version of the +affair. "Bloody-mindedness" seems not to have been a trait of Smith. +But the exigency was a terrible one, for death by starvation was +already impending, and only the restoration of discipline at any cost +could have saved the colony from the horrible fate it met. Such a +course would not have done much violence to the notions of the time, +and would have found precedents in the various plots against the lives +of Smith, Wingfield, and others in the colony. It is quite probable, +however, that there is no truth in the story. The violent hatred of +the factions will account for the suspicion. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 38.] + +Captain Smith's True Relation was sent from Virginia and was printed +in London in 1608. In 1612 he published what is commonly referred to +as the Oxford Tract. Its proper title is very long. The first part of +it is as follows: "Map of Virginia, with a description of the Covntry, +the Commodities, People, Government, and Religion. Written by Captain +Smyth, sometime Governor of the Covntry. And wherevnto is annexed the +proceedings of those colonies since their first departure from +England," etc. The second part of the book professes to be taken from +the writings of eight of the colonists, whose names are given, and to +have been edited by W. S.--that is, the Reverend Dr. Symonds. The +Generall Historie was first proposed in a well-considered and rather +elegant speech by Captain Smith at a meeting of the Virginia Company, +April 12, 1621, while the new patent which was to be submitted to +Parliament was under discussion. He suggested the writing of a history +to preserve the memory of the worthies of Virginia, dead and living, +and gave it as his opinion that no Spanish settlement of the same age +afforded matter more interesting. "Which worthy speech," says the +record, "had of the whole court a very great applause as spoken freely +to a speciall purpose, and therefore thought fitt to be considered and +put in practice in his due time. And for which also Mr. Smyth as +preferring allwaies mocions of speciall consequence was exceedingly +commended." MS. Records of the Virginia Company, i, 197-200. A first +edition of the Generall Historie appeared in 1624, the last two +editions in 1632. The book is a compilation of Smith's earlier works, +somewhat expanded, not to say inflated. The later portions are mostly +made up from the official and _quasi_-official pamphlets. Just what +was Dr. Symonds's part in the preparation of the Oxford Tract and the +Generall Historie it would be interesting to know. The latter work +was in some sense by authority of the company, and liable to the +peculiar suspicion that hangs about writings designed to advance the +colony and not primarily to record history. Its descriptive portions +are of high value, and we are now able to control its historical +errors to a certain extent. Besides these three works on Virginia, +Smith published a Description of New England, 1616, New England's +Trials, 1620, and Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New +England or Elsewhere, in 1631, the year of his death. These all +contain valuable matter relating to Virginia. He also published in +1627 two works on seamanship, a Sea Grammar, and the Accidence or +Pathway to Experience necessary for a Young Seaman. In 1630 he +published his True Travels, a book which contains an account of his +own adventures previous to his going to Virginia. More than a quarter +of a century had elapsed between the occurrence of these adventures +and their publication. Smith's vivid imagination had meantime no doubt +greatly magnified his own exploits. It is quite impossible at this day +to sift what truth there is in the True Travels from the +exaggerations. Travelers in that time were not held to a very rigid +account, and their first obligation seems to have been to amuse their +readers. No distinct line had yet been drawn in literature between +fact and fiction. + +Many years ago, before I had had an opportunity to examine and compare +all his writings, I rashly printed a brief argument in favor of the +trustworthiness of Captain John Smith and the credibility of the +Pocahontas story. I believe no person of critical judgment can make a +thorough comparison of Smith's successive books without being +convinced of the ineradicable tendency of his mind to romance in +narrating adventure, especially his own adventure. Even his style +where his vanity speaks loses something of its native directness and +force. His practical writings on navigation and on the proper conduct +of colonization, and his descriptions of the country and the savages, +are plain, direct, and lucid. His speeches in the Virginia Company +appear to have been exceedingly wise, and to have impressed his +hearers. Note, for example, his proposals (Records, i, 197) that +colonial governors should be liable to trial in England; his proposal +to reduce the fee for sending a child to Virginia from five pounds to +five marks, the cost of apprenticing to a trade (i, 174); and his +preference for a governor well paid to one working "for love" +(February 4, 1623). His personal morals were probably unexceptionable. +One of his associates certifies to his freedom from tobacco, wines, +dice, debts, and oaths. But a comparison between the statements made +in the Oxford Tract and those in the Generall Historie leaves upon the +mind of the critic a distinct impression of the very processes by +which his adventures were exaggerated in his own memory as time +elapsed. The three or four hundred savages on the Potomac (Oxford +Tract, p. 32, a sufficiently marvelous story) rise to three or four +thousand in the Generall Historie. Pocahontas becomes the central +figure in incidents as told in 1624 in which she had no place in 1612. +There is but one allusion to Pocahontas in the entire Oxford Tract (p. +103), and that has to do with the charge that Smith intended to marry +her. A just and witty judgment of Captain Smith was made almost in his +own time by Thomas Fuller. He says: "Such his perils, preservations, +dangers, deliverances, they seem to most men beyond belief, to some +beyond truth. Yet we have two witnesses to attest them, the prose and +the pictures, both in his own book; and it soundeth much to the +diminution of his deeds that he alone is the herald to publish and +proclaim them.... However, moderate men must allow Captain Smith to +have been very instrumental in settling the plantation in Virginia, +whereof he was Governor, as also admiral of New England." Fuller's +Worthies, edition of 1840, i, 276. Those who desire to see an +ingenious and learned defense of Captain Smith, particularly in the +matter of the Pocahontas story, will find it in an address by Mr. +William Wirt Henry, published by the Virginia Historical Society. +Prof. Arber's discussion of the subject in his edition of Smith's +Works is sentimental rather than critical. Compare Deane's Wingfield +for the other side. Unnecessary heat has characterized some of the +debates about John Smith. History pitched in a shrill polemical key is +not instructive and is something less than amusing. These debates +center themselves on the Pocahontas story, which is of little +historical importance except as it involves the trustworthiness of +Smith's narrative. + +The conduct of Captain Smith in the Virginia colony will be better +understood if we appreciate the character of his principal opponent, +Gabriel Archer. Archer's return to Virginia in 1609 and his agency in +overthrowing Captain Smith are alluded to apparently in a passage in +the New Life of Virginea, 1612, "In which distemper that envious man +stept in, sowing plentifull tares in the hearts of all," etc. One of +Archer's schemes seems to have been to establish a parliament and a +complicated government at the beginning. Purchas and Strachey both +take sides against Archer in his controversy with Smith. Purchas, iv, +p. 1749, Oxford Tract, 22. Wingfield warned Newport of the danger of +disturbance from Archer, who was "troubled with an ambitious spirit." +Wingfield's Discourse, 77, 94, 95. Wingfield also says, "In all their +disorders was Mr. Archer a ringleader." He adds that Ratcliffe "did +wear no other eies or eares than grew on Mr. Archer's head." For a +bibliographical account of Smith's works the reader is referred to the +valuable notes in Mr. Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of +America, vol. iii, _passim_. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 38.] + +A Trewe Relacyon, etc., at Petworth House, as above. The Indians in +sheer wantonness scraped out the brains of their dead victims with +mussel shells. Percy seems to have retaliated in a way to exasperate +without disabling the savages. He "burned their hawses, Ransacked +their Temples, tooke downe the corpses off their deade Kings from off +their Toambes [that is, the scaffold on which their well-dried remains +were deposited], and caryed away their pearles, caps, and bracelets +wherewith they doe decore their Kings fvneralls." (For this sacred +house thus desecrated by Percy the Indians had such reverence that +none but priests and chiefs were allowed to enter, and the Indians +never ventured to pass it without casting some offering of tobacco, +wampum, copper, or puccoon root into the water.--Strachey, 90.) When +Percy had captured a chief's wife and children, the soldiers in +revengeful wantonness, according to Percy's account, threw the +children out of the boat and shot them in the water. The inefficient +Percy was able to save the life of the "queen" or chief's wife with +difficulty. West and Ratcliffe, who had overthrown Smith, are accused +by Percy of unnecessary cruelty to the savages. West sailed away in +the ship, leaving Jamestown to its fate. Ratcliffe was put to death +with exquisite tortures. There is no doubt some truth, as there is +certainly jealousy, in Percy's charge that Captain Smith was "an +ambitious, unworthy, and vainglorious fellow, attempting to take all +men's authorities from them," but he was neither weak, like Percy and +Ratcliffe, nor visionary, like the gold-hunting Martin and the +doctrinary and demagogical Archer, nor treacherous and cruel, like +West. With all his faults he only was master of the situation in these +early years. Percy admits that the lawful authority was that of Smith. +The history of the government of Percy and his supporters seems to +justify Smith's refusal to share his lawful power with incompetent +factionaries. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 39.] + +So far the State Papers, but Percy, in his A Trewe Relacyon, adds that +he caused the man to be tortured till he confessed, and he relates +repulsive details of the crime. The effrontery of an official +publication went so far as to deny (True Declaration, 1610), on the +authority of Sir Thomas Gates, this fact so circumstantially and +abundantly attested. In Peckard's Life of Ferrar, p. 158, a petition +from the Virginia colony to the king is preserved in which occur these +words: "To tell how great things many of us have suffered through +hunger alone would be as incredible as horrible for us to repeat to +your sacred ears." + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 41.] + +See, among other authorities, A Plaine Declaration of Barmudas, in +black letter, 1613, written by one of the party. Myriads of birds +nested on the island. How the hogs came to be there is matter of +conjecture. The writer of the Plaine Declaration makes old Sir George +Somers the resourceful hero of their marvelous escape, and it was from +him that the islands took the name of Somers or Summer Islands. For +want of pitch, the seams of the vessels were paid with "a kind of hard +lime" and some "wax cast up by the sea." Strachey's A True Reportory +of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, etc., +Purchas, iv, p. 1734, is also by one of the shipwrecked party. The +Rev. Joseph Hunter has written with much learning, patient research, +and fatiguing prolixity to disprove the theory that Shakespeare's +Tempest was suggested by the wreck of Gates and Somers. He succeeds in +showing its relation to another occurrence, but works of imagination +do not usually have their origin in a single fact, and it is hard to +resist the conviction that the Tempest, as we have it, contains more +than one allusion to the wreck upon "the still vexed Bermoothes." + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 42.] + +The beauty of the wood of certain American trees had already been +noted. The communion table in Jamestown in De la Warr's time was made +of black walnut. The pews were of cedar, and there were "fair, broad +windows," with shutters of cedar, "to shut and open as the weather +shall occasion," but there appears to have been no glass. Window glass +was little used at that time, and there probably was not a glazed +window in the colony. The pulpit was of cedar, and the font was "hewen +hollow like a canoa." Strachey, in Purchas, p. 1755. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 42.] + +Some families appear to have gone to Virginia with De la Warr. The +purpose to send families of wives and children and servants is +expressed in A True Declaration, which was dated 1610, but, as Mr. +Alexander Brown points out, issued in December, 1609. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 48.] + +The Tragicall Relation of 1623, and the Briefe Declaration of 1624, +manuscripts in the British Public Record Office, are the most +important authorities for the facts given in the text. The Briefe +Declaration is rather the fuller, but the earlier paper supplies some +particulars. These two formal documents are not from the same hand, +and the slight difference between them in details tends rather to +confirm than to shake the reader's confidence in their testimony. The +names of Sir Francis Wyatt, George Sandys, and other prominent +colonists appended to the Tragicall Relation are a guarantee of its +good faith. It is curious to note that Raphe Hamor, whose relation is +so favorable to Dale, and who held the post of secretary under Dale +and that of vice-admiral under Argall, signs this paper, which is a +severe impeachment of Sir Thomas Smythe's administration of the +affairs of the company before 1619. Hamor's True Discourse has +heretofore usually been taken as an authority, but after reading the +documents in the Public Record Office one is compelled to believe that +Hamor, or perhaps one might say Dale, under cover of his secretary, +misrepresents the state of the colony, and makes promises to those who +may emigrate that it was hardly possible to carry out. The Discourse +of the old Virginia Company (Colonial Papers, iii, 40), and other +papers in the Public Record Office relating to the strife between the +company and the Court, throw light on this period. The half-apologies +for Dale's cruelties in Smith's Generall Historie, book iv, prove +their existence. "For amongst them, so hardened in evil," says this +writer, "the fear of a cruel, painful, and unusual death more +restrains them than death itself." See also Hamor, p. 27. There is a +letter from Whitaker appended to Hamor's Discourse. Though apparently +an incidental letter, it bears marks of having been procured for +purposes of vindication. Its defensive tone goes to show that the +character of Dale's tyranny had transpired in England. Whitaker +praises Sir Thomas Dale mainly for being religious and valiant, and +says that he had "great knowledge in Divinity and good conscience in +all his doings; both which bee rare in a martiall man." In Whitaker's +Good Newes of Virginia, 1613, there is no praise of Sir Thomas Dale. +That Dale was famous for his severity before he left Europe is +manifest from the phrase used by the Jesuit Biard, "Le Mareschal +Thomas Deel que vous auez ouy estre fort aspre en ses humeurs." +Relation, chap. xxxiii. See in this and the preceding chapter the +whole account of his savage temper toward his French prisoners, etc. +It has been the custom of our older writers to speak of Dale's +administration only in praise, but careful weighing of the original +authorities shows that Dale was utterly pitiless in the cruelty of his +discipline and unjust in his detention of the old planters, and that +when he left the colony he was more generally execrated than any other +man that ruled in these early days, not even excepting his successor, +Argall. Dale's severity was serviceable in carrying the enterprise +through straits, but the reports of his harshness brought the colony +into disrepute and checked immigration. The detestation of Dale was +shared by the best men in Virginia, yet it is to be remembered that +the savagery of Dale's government was due not wholly to the brutal +temper of the man, but partly to the age and the school in which he +had been bred. Legal torture was in use long after this. The Clarendon +Papers, quoted by Southey, state that at Henley-on-Thames, as late as +1646, it was ordered that a woman's tongue should be nailed to a tree +for complaining of the tax levied by Parliament. The cruel practices +of the agents of the Virginia Company are paralleled by those of the +East India Company at the same time. "Before they were intrusted with +martial law they made it a rule to whip to death or starve to death +those of whom they wished to get rid." Mills, British India, i, 38. +Even that champion of popular liberty, Sir Edwin Sandys, found it in +his heart to approve of Dale's course while admitting its harshness. +He said to the court of the Virginia Company of the 17th of November, +1619, that "Sir Thomas Dale, building upon these foundations with +great and constant severity, reclaymed almost miraculously those idle +and disordered people, and reduced them to labor and an honest fashion +of life." MS. Records of the Virginia Company. Compare also Sir Thomas +Smythe's defense, note to Aspinwall Papers in IV Massachusetts +Historical Collections, ix, p. 1. My citations from the Tragicall +Relation and Briefe Declaration are partly from the originals in the +British Public Record Office, which I carefully examined in 1885, but +the first of these is printed in Neill's Virginia Company, and the +Briefe Declaration was published by the State of Virginia in 1874 in a +Senate document entitled Colonial Records of Virginia. Very good +abstracts of both papers appear in Sainsbury's Calendar. I cite the +Discourse of the Old Virginia Company from the MS. in the British +Public Record Office. I do not remember to have seen it in print. + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 49.] + +Birch's Court of James I, i, 415. Chamberlain to Carleton, June 22, +1616: "Sir Thomas Dale is arrived from Virginia, and brought with him +some ten or twelve old and young of that country, among whom is +Pocahuntas, daughter of Powhatan, married to one Rolfe, an Englishman. +I hear not of any other riches or matter of worth, but only some +quantity of sassafras, tobacco, pitch, tar, and clapboard, things of +no great value unless there were plenty, and nearer hand. All I can +hear of it is, that the country is good to live in, if it were stored +with people, and might in time become commodious. But there is no +present profit to be expected." + + +[Sidenote: Note 11, page 49.] + +The Discourse of the Old Virginia Company, an exceedingly interesting +manuscript in the British Record Office, makes it appear that as late +as 1618 the colonists had no thought of staying in Virginia, and even +the directors at home were interested only in making money out of +tobacco and sassafras, with little or no care to plant a permanent +colony. Some allowance must be made, perhaps, for the _ex-parte_ +nature of this paper, but its tone and the high character of those who +offered it give reason to trust it. Colonial Papers, iii, 40. Answer +of the Virginia Company to Queries of the Privy Council in 1625. + + +[Sidenote: Note 12, page 49.] + +We may trust Hamor's True Discourse, p. 17, for some of these details, +though the book generally is discredited by the account given in the +Tragicall Relation, which Hamor himself signed with others in 1623. A +comparison of all these authorities makes it evident that only +eighty-one who were ranked as "farmers" derived any benefit from +Dale's three-acre division, while about two hundred others were +probably left in unmitigated bondage. + + +[Sidenote: Note 13, page 51.] + +"And to protect Captain Argall from being called to an account for his +government under shew of a new plantation to be set up in Virginia by +Captain Argall and his partners, whereof the said earl (Warwick) hath +since appeared to be one (which yet to this day hath had no +beginning), there was procured a patent to the said captain and his +associates for the said new plantation; whereby he and his Company, +their heirs and assigns (save only in time of defence by war), were +exempted from all power, authority, and jurisdiction to be from hence +derived or there established, that so he might reign there as great +and absolute master, without law or controulment, and without the fear +of ever being called to any future reckoning.... Whatsoever was +remaining at that time in the colony belonging to the public ... he +converted it in a manner wholly to his own private use and possession, +the very public lands cultivated, the Company's tenants and servants, +their rents, corn and tributes of corn, their kine and other cattle, +their stores and other provisions; whereby the company, being disabled +in all appearance of ever setting up the same again or to bear the +great burden of public charge both at home and abroad, being thus +stripped of all revenue, the said Company must have failed and decayed +and the whole colony have fallen in time into the hands of the said +captain and his association to be there established, which seemeth to +have been his prime and original desire.... This course of depredation +and roving not sufficing as likely to receive encounter and check from +hence, new engines were used, some to dishearten and some to disgrace +the Company, that so as it seemeth they might in time obtain the +plantation and leave it as a prey to the said captain, his friends and +followers, etc." Burk's History of Virginia, Appendix, vol. i. The +extract is from the document known as The Company's Chief Root of +Differences, etc. I have compared this copy with that in the MS. +Records of the Virginia Company, Library of Congress, and find only +slight verbal differences. At the instance of Warwick the authors of +this paper--Lord Cavendish, Sir Edwin Sandys, and John and Nicholas +Ferrar--were put under arrest in their own houses for this +"impertinent declaration." The Warwick party had made "threats of +blood" to deter Southampton from complaining to the king. + + +[Sidenote: Note 14, page 53.] + +Birch's Court and Times of James the First, i, 311. Chamberlain to +Carleton, May 16, 1614: "Sir Thomas Gates is come from Virginia, and +brings word that plantation will fall to the ground if it be not +presently supplied. He speaks of wonderful commodities that are to be +had there if we could but have patience and would be at the cost to +bring them to perfection." Out of this necessity for some present +support came the great lottery. It was recommended by the Privy +Council to the Mayor of Canterbury, February 22, 1615. There was a +"running lottery" of smaller adventures in Paul's Churchyard before +the "great standing lottery" was instituted, and then there were other +"running lotteries" "in many other places after." Purchas, p. 1773. No +doubt there were corruptions and abuses in these lotteries. The +merchants prospered while Virginia languished. Its unpopularity is +attributed to "malignant tongues," in the MS. Records of the Virginia +Company, i, 158, and the overthrow of the lottery may have been part +of the plot of those who sought soon after to wreck the company +itself. + + +[Sidenote: Note 15, page 55.] + +My attention was first attracted to the date of the Great Charter of +November 13, 1618, by a minute in the handwriting of Secretary +Williamson in the Public Record Office, as follows: "Those Adventurers +& Planters by Vertue of y{e} s{d} Lett{rs} Patent of Incorporacon &c. +made a Great charter of Lawes & Ord{rs} for y{e} govermn{t} of the +Country. It bore date at London, Nov. 13{th} 1618." Col. Pprs, i, 11. +The proceedings of the first Assembly in Virginia are preserved in the +Public Record Office in Pory's Report. This report gives the only +information we have regarding the provisions of this long-lost +charter. An abstract of these proceedings is printed in the Calendar +of Colonial Documents, and the whole document was reprinted in the New +York Historical Society Collections, second series, vol. iii, and yet +more carefully in the Colonial Records of Virginia, 1874. There is an +allusion to this charter in the Briefe Relation, 1624. Various +Virginia land grants deduce their authority from the Great Charter of +Laws and Orders of November 13, 1618, as we learn from a note in the +Aspinwall Papers, p. 14. There are many allusions to the charter of +1618 in the Manuscript Records of the Virginia Company in the Library +of Congress. + + +[Sidenote: Note 16, page 56.] + +The Code of Lawes, Divine, Morall and Martiall, by which Dale reigned +was edited and published by Strachey in 1612, and reprinted in Force's +Tracts, vol. iii. This code appears to have had no other sanction than +the approval of Sir Thomas Smythe, the governor of the company. The +beneficial effect of these laws is maintained in Hamor's Discourse, in +Rolfe's Relation, and in certain letters of Dale in the Record Office. +It was not, indeed, the government by martial law, but Dale's abuse of +his power, that wrought the mischief. After the emancipation the old +settlers lived in perpetual terror lest some turn of the wheel should +put them once more in the power of Sir Thomas Smythe and his divine +and martial laws. See especially the Additional Statement appended to +the Discourse of the Old Virginia Company. On the long and bitter +dissension that resulted in the overthrow of the company, see Arthur +Woodnoth's Short Collection of the most remarkable Passages from the +Original to the Dissolution of the Virginia Company, a rare work of +great value to the historian of this period. + + +[Sidenote: Note 17, page 56.] + +Rolfe's Relation has it that the ship which brought Yeardley brought +also the news of the election of Sandys and John Ferrar. But Yeardley +arrived in Virginia on the 18th of April (O.S.), and Sir Thomas +Smythe's resignation did not take place until ten days later. +Manuscript Records of the Virginia Company. The news that Sir George +Yeardley did bring was no doubt that the power of Sir Thomas Smythe +and his party was broken, and that the actual control of affairs was +in the hands of such men as Sandys, Southampton, Cavendish, Danvers, +and the two Ferrars. The whole policy of the company indicates that +the new party was really in power, and the appointment of such a man +as Yeardley was probably the work of the rising party. The records +before the resignation of Sir Thomas Smythe were probably destroyed +for purposes of concealment. + + +[Sidenote: Note 18, page 57.] + +Manuscript Book of Instructions, etc., Library of Congress. Letter to +the Governor and Council by the ship Marmaduke, August 12, 1621. A +proposal to send women had been made seven years earlier. Commons +Journal, 1, 487, May 17, 1614. Extract from Martyn's Speech (for which +he was reprimanded): "That they require but a few honest Labourers +burthened with Children.--Moveth, a committee may consider of the +means for this, for Seven Years; at which some of the Company may be +present." On November 17, 1619, Sir Edwin Sandys pointed out in the +court of the company that the people of Virginia "were not settled in +their mindes to make it their place of rest and continuance." "For the +remedying of the Mischiefe and for establishing a perpetuitie of the +Plantation," he proposed the sending of "one hundred young maides to +become wives." Manuscript Records of the Virginia Company, i, 44, 45. +Two women, the first in the colony, had arrived in September, 1608. +Oxford Tract, 47. There were women in Gates's party in 1610. It was +even reported that some English women had intermingled with the +natives. Calendar Colonial Papers, i, 13. An allowance of food to +women in De la Warr's time is proof that women were there. In 1629 +there was living Mistress Pearce, "an honest, industrious woman," who +had been in Virginia "near twenty years." Rolfe (a copy of whose +Relation is among the Duke of Manchester's MSS. now in the British +Public Record Office) sets down a remainder of seventy-five of the +three hundred and fifty-one persons in the colony at Dale's departure, +as women and children. It is worth recalling here that D'Ogeron, who +governed Santo Domingo in 1663 and after, supplied the buccaneers +with wives brought from France; and the plan was also put into +practice in Louisiana about a century later than the Virginia +experiment, and the same expedient, as is well known, was resorted to +in Canada. In Virginia more pains were taken to have all the women +thus imported of a good character than in some of the French colonies. + + +[Sidenote: Note 19, page 58.] + +The belief that these maids were "pressed" or coerced into going is +probably erroneous (see the speech of Sandys, July 7, 1620, Manuscript +Records of the Virginia Company). He says, "These people (including +the maids) are to be provided as they have formerly beene, partlie by +printed publication of the supplies indicated, together with the +conditions offered to these publique tennants, partlie by help of such +noble friends and others in remote parts as have formerlie given great +assistance." The notion that some of the maidens were pressed seems to +have had its rise in the counterfeiting of the great seal and the +issuing of forged commissions to press maidens for "breeders for the +King" in the Bermudas and Virginia in order to extort money. One Owen +Evans was accused of such practices in October, 1618 (Sainsbury, p. +19), and one Robinson was hanged, drawn, and quartered for this or +similar offences in November of the same year (Birch's Court of James +I, 108). In order to encourage the adventurers or shareholders to +subscribe to the sending of maids, a town was laid off in Virginia to +be called Maydstown. The subscribers were to be allowed shares in this +town. Manuscript Records, May 20, 1622, on the general subject; also +Records under date of November 3, 1621, and the 17th of the same +month, June 11, and November 21, 1621, and the manuscript book in the +Library of Congress, which I refer to in these notes as Manuscript +Book of Instructions, pp. 76 and 89. I may remark here that this book +has not been in use in recent times for reference. Its origin is +uncertain, nor can the authorities of the library tell where it came +from. It was compiled in the latter part of the seventeenth century, +judging from internal evidence, and was perhaps kept among the records +of the colony for reference on what we should call constitutional +questions. I found a loose memorandum laid in its pages in the +handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, to whom the book probably once +belonged. + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD. + +_THE PROCESSION OF MOTIVES._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: The chief mistake.] + +The cause of the sorrows of Virginia will be more plainly seen if we +turn again to the motives that propelled Englishmen to plant a colony. +The chief mistake lay in the main purpose. If the founding of a state +had been other than a secondary and remote end, the managers might +have sent at first families and not bachelors, farmers and not +gentlemen, laborers and not riff-raff. But more visionary motives +dominated the action. A state was planted, but something else was +mainly intended by the first projectors. The work seemed continuous, +but the end in view shifted and the actors gradually changed. The only +motive that held from first to last, and ran through all the rest, was +the rivalry with Spain. + +[Sidenote: The rivalry with Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Lane to Sydney. Aug. 12, 1585. Sainsbury.] + +[Sidenote: Lane to Walsingham. Aug. 12, 1585. Sainsbury.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +The colonies attempted by Frobisher and Gilbert were to serve as +relays in the work of exploration for a sea passage to the Pacific and +the search for mines, but they mark strongly the influence of the +Spanish example on English projects. Ralegh was a lifelong opponent in +peace and war of Spanish intrigue and aggression, and his efforts to +plant colonies in the virgin land were suggested by a knowledge of +the almost exhaustless treasure that flowed into Spanish coffers from +America. The opportune capture of a Spanish carack bound homeward from +Mexico with letters describing the wealth of Mexican mines brought the +support of English merchants to Ralegh's undertaking. Imbued with the +same spirit, Ralegh's governor wrote from Roanoke Island in 1585 that +his colony would be a means of deliverance from the domination of +Spain, "whose strength doth altogether grow from the mines of her +treasure." In the perilous isolation of the little company on Roanoke +Island, Lane assures himself that God will feed his men by means of +ravens rather than suffer their "enemies the papists" "to triumph at +the overthrow of this most Christian action." The home-staying English +of that age were spurred to colony-planting by three main +motives--cupidity, patriotic feeling, and religious zeal--and all of +these were provoked by emulation and jealousy of Spain. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Delusions in colony-planting.] + +The prolonged movement for a colonial establishment, which extended +over the latter half of the reign of Elizabeth and almost the whole of +the reign of James I, was kept alive by delusions. The ultimate ends +for which colonies were proposed and planted in the last quarter of +the sixteenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth century were +none of them attained. The movable passage through North America to +the Pacific was still leading explorers a merry dance when the first +Jamestown emigrants sailed in 1606, and gold mines of comminuted mica, +of iron pyrites, of Indian mineral paints, and of pure fable were +potent attractions for some time after. The gradual increase of +geographical knowledge caused the "South Sea" to take shelter in the +unknown region behind the mountains, and the gold mines reported by +Indians and discovered by sanguine prospectors were somehow lost in +the interminable forests. In this exigency the first colony must have +perished for want of support if new hopes as illusive as the old had +not moved the English people to avert such a calamity. + +[Sidenote: Commodities.] + +[Sidenote: For example, Carlisle's treatise, Anderson's Commerce, year +1583.] + +[Sidenote: Wine.] + +[Sidenote: Silk.] + +[Sidenote: Anderson on the year 1589.] + +[Sidenote: 1609.] + +The production of commodities which the ungenial climate of the +British Islands refused to grow was thought of from the beginning, and +they became after 1616 the main hope of wealth from Virginia. It +seemed grievous that England should spend her money in buying wine and +silk from southern Europe and naval stores from the Baltic. The only +maxim of political economy generally accepted in that day was that a +nation is enriched by getting money from abroad and keeping it at +home. The precious metals constituted the only recognized riches. Laws +were made to restrain the exportation of gold and silver, and +sumptuary laws to discourage the consumption of those things that must +be bought of the foreigner. Efforts to raise in Great Britain the +products of the Mediterranean region would have proved successful if +the climate had been half as favorable to such enterprises as the +government. The arguments advanced in favor of the possibility of +producing wine in England did much, no doubt, to secure the sunshine +of royal favor for experiments made to that end, but climatic +conditions were inexorable. King James busied himself to no profit in +raising mulberry trees and nursing a private stock of silkworms, in +imitation of Henry IV, the reigning King of France, who succeeded in +producing cocoons in the Tuileries but not in making silk culture +profitable in the north of France. Mulberries were first planted in +England in 1608, two years after the sailing of the Virginia +argonauts. James sent circulars to persons of influence among his +subjects asking them to cultivate mulberry trees, and, in the years +immediately following, the silk fever ran its course alongside the +excitement about the great lottery in behalf of the Virginia colony. +Hakluyt, spreading sails for America in every breeze, hastened to +announce at the first mention of silk culture that mulberry trees, +"apt to feed silke wormes to make silke," were a "chiefe commoditie" +of Virginia. + +The first principles that govern colony-planting were not yet +understood. It was proposed to force everything from a forlorn camp of +men dwelling under roofs of bark and sedge, environed by treacherous +foes and in constant peril of starvation. The raising of silkworms was +begun in Virginia in 1613, and before the colony was nine years old it +was able to send to England silk that doubtless had cost more than a +hundred times its market value. The experiment came to nothing. It +could not have happened otherwise amid the miseries of those early +years. The rats, which opportunely destroyed the eggs of the silk +moth, were made to bear the responsibility for the failure. + +[Sidenote: A new silk fever.] + +[Sidenote: Cal. Dom. S. P. James I, p. 428.] + +[Sidenote: Pory's Report, Pub. Rec. Off.] + +[Sidenote: Phil. Trans. I, 201.] + +[Sidenote: Hening i, 14.] + +[Sidenote: Original Records of Colony of Va.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +[Sidenote: 1655.] + +[Sidenote: Comp. Va. Richly Valued, 1650, and Leah and Rachel, 1636.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +Silk was little known in England at the beginning of Elizabeth's +reign, but it came into great request a few years later. In 1617 Lord +Carew declares that there is "a madness for silk instead of cloth." +This rage for silk led to the establishment of silk manufacturing in +England; throwsters, dyers, and weavers were brought to England from +abroad and settled in Spitalfields, "the cheap end of its metropolis," +and in Moorfields. It seemed more than ever important to produce silk +in the king's dominions, in order to supply these manufacturers with +material without importation from alien lands. Accordingly, a new +effort was made in 1620 to secure raw silk from Virginia. The Earl of +Southampton, ever eager to promote the Virginia colony, "writt into +Italy, France, and Spayne" for silkworm "seed"; the king gave some +from his own stock, and the expert who had charge of the king's worms +was sent over to look after the business. A French book on the subject +was translated to instruct the colonists. The first Virginia Assembly +in 1619 had passed a law to promote the raising of the mulberry. To +save expense, the colonists at this time, or later, planted the trees +in hedgerows and mowed them with a scythe. In 1621 orders were sent +from England that none but members of the Council and the heads of +hundreds should wear silk, unless they had made it themselves. The +prohibition shows how general was the craze for silk clothing. The +climate of Virginia proved genial enough, but the massacre of 1622, +the bitter Indian conflicts that ensued in 1623, and the epidemic of +the same year, following one another swiftly, were enough to +annihilate a hundred feeble projects. The real doom of silk-raising, +however, came from the fact that the culture of tobacco in virgin soil +was incalculably more profitable and vastly less troublesome to +pioneers than hatching silkworms' eggs in one's pocket or bosom, or +sleeping with them in a small box under one's bolster and covering +them in the warm bed on rising. The project was blighted in the bud by +adverse economic conditions--a killing frost more deadly to such +enterprises than an ungenial climate. But a lesson in economic +principles is one of the hardest for men to learn. Long after the +colony had become prosperous, English projectors and Virginia +experimenters tried again and again to supplant tobacco with silk. If +we may credit the report, Virginia furnished a coronation robe of silk +for Charles I, and Charles II certainly wore silk from worms hatched +and fed in his Virginia dominions. One Esquire Digges brought +Armenians to Virginia to attend his worms. But in the Reformed +Virginia Silkworm, by Hartlib, the friend of Milton, it is announced +that a young lady had discovered that silkworms would care for +themselves on the trees, "to the instant wonderful enrichment of all +the planters there, requiring neither cost, labour, or hindrance in +any of their other employments." It is also suggested on the eager +title-page of the pamphlet that "the Indians, seeing and finding that +there is neither Art, Pains, or Skill in the thing," will +"incontinently fall to raising silk." Not only were the gentle +savages, and especially their women and children, to devote themselves +to silk, but the American caterpillar--"the natural silkworm" as it +was called--was expected to spin for the market if his cocoon could be +"refined." + +[Sidenote: Hening ii, 242.] + +[Sidenote: Phil. Trans. XI, 628.] + +By 1666 the silk delusion had passed, and the Virginia Assembly +repealed all acts for the encouragement of mulberry trees. Ten years +later, Glover, the botanist, found many of these trees still standing +as melancholy witnesses to the waste of energy by the earlier +promoters and settlers of the colony. Almost every other American +colony made the same experiment for itself, and Virginia renewed its +endeavors from time to time, each generation forgetting what its +fathers had learned. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Silk-grass.] + +[Sidenote: 1585.] + +[Sidenote: A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of +Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Proceedings of Va. Assembly, 1619. 2d N. Y. Hist. Society +Coll. iii, 348.] + +[Sidenote: Purchas IV, p. 1777.] + +[Sidenote: Instr. of 24 July, 1624. MS. Bk. of Instr. Libr. of Cong.] + +Along with the silk fever went the silk-grass craze. Ralegh's people +had seen the Indians wearing garments woven of the fiber of the _Yucca +filamentosa_, the "Adam's needle and thread" of our popular speech. +Hariot, in his account of it, declares that "the like grows in +Persia," and that much of the "silk-works" coming thence to Europe was +made of this fiber. He probably confounded the yucca with the ramie +plant of the East, of which grass cloth is made. Of the yucca fiber +taken to England in 1585, "a piece of silk grogram" was made, and of +course pronounced "excellent good"; it was even presented to the +queen. The coarse and rather brittle fiber of this plant was exalted +by enthusiasts into something nearly equal to silk. Ordinances for +planting it were sent from England; at least one legislative act in +its favor was passed by the Virginia Assembly, and the most foolish +hopes were entertained regarding the profit to be had from it. By 1619 +it had come to be called "silk flax," and it was then advocated for +homelier uses, such as cordage and linen, and every householder was +compelled by law to set a hundred plants; the governor himself set +five thousand. In 1624 it is spoken of as "a commoditie of speciall +hope and much use." There were by this time those who ventured to say +that the silk-grass enterprise was "full of difficultie"; but the +managers in England easily got rid of this objection by attributing +the difficulty to "negligence and want of experience." They were just +then intent on finding some commodity that would take the place of +tobacco, which was frowned upon by both court and Parliament. In spite +of all discouragement, the hope of good results from the yucca fiber +outlasted that generation, and was in full vigor in 1649, sixty-four +years after Hariot's mistake. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Wine.] + +[Sidenote: MS. Rec. Va. Co. i, 343.] + +It was also proposed to produce wine in Virginia for English +consumption. No more gold and silver should go out of the realm to buy +port and canary to the profit of foreigners and the impoverishment of +the good and loyal subjects of his Majesty. The instructions on this +point were clear, and before the Virginia exiles had secured bread to +stay their hunger they had made wine of the sour wild grapes of the +country. French vine-dressers were sent over a little later and were +forbidden to plant tobacco, but were compelled to employ themselves +about vines, with the care of silkworms for variety. In 1621 these +Frenchmen sent to England a cask of wine, the arrival of which was +duly celebrated. Other experimental casks of wine were afterward sent +to England from America at long intervals, but without decreasing the +profits of wine growers in the Old World. + +[Sidenote: Other products sought.] + +[Sidenote: Nova Brittania.] + +All the commodities sought from Virginia were unsuited to conditions +in a new country. To the folly of making such experiments at all where +living itself was an experiment, the managers added the folly of +crowding a multiplicity of problematic enterprises on the colony at +the same time. With a virgin continent in which to produce novelties, +all things seemed possible in an age so hopeful. Plants of every +clime grew rank in the imagination of projectors. Virginia was a +wonderland, and it was readily believed without evidence that the +"soyle and clymate" were "very apt and fit for sugar canes"; "also +linseed and rapeseeds to make oiles," as a black-letter pamphlet of +1609 expresses it. Along with "orenges, limons, and almonds," this +official writer proposes to plant "anniseeds, rice, cummin, +cottonwool, carroway seeds, ginger, madder, olives, oris, sumacke," +and, as if this breathless list were not enough for one new land, he +adds, "and many such like that I can not now name." If we may trust +the publications of the company, various West India plants were tried +in the very first days of the colony, while the threefold peril of +death from famine, pestilence, and savage war was imminent. + +[Sidenote: Timber and naval stores.] + +[Sidenote: MS. Rec. Va. Co. 31 May and 23 June, 1620.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +But it was not enough to wring from an infant colony the products of +the south; those derived from the north of Europe were straightway to +be got there also. German millwrights--"Dutch carpenters," in the +phrase of the records--were brought from Hamburg by John Ferrar to +build Virginia sawmills; timber was still sawed by hand in England. +Pitch, tar, and potash were to be produced by Poles sent out for the +purpose in the second year of the colony. Patriotism dictated that +England should be relieved of her dependence on foreign countries for +naval stores. Virginia had forests: why should she not produce these +things? + +[Sidenote: Glass-making.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +[Sidenote: Iron works.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +[Sidenote: Result of the massacre.] + +It had been found that the savages eagerly received glass beads in +exchange for corn and peltries. Nothing more was required to prove the +profitableness of glass-making. Some Germans were sent to the colony +in 1608, and glass works were established. For some reason no proper +materials were available at first, and it became necessary to request +that sand might be sent from England to make Virginia glass of at the +glass works in the woods near Jamestown. The German glass blowers were +prone to run away to the Indians, among whom work was lighter and food +more abundant. The tribesmen encouraged these desertions by providing +dusky wives for the men whose skill with tools and weapons they valued +highly. In 1621 the glass business was revived, and this time it was +intrusted to Italian workmen. About the same time iron works were +established at Falling Creek, with "forty skilled workmen from Sussex +to carry them forward." Twenty-five ship carpenters were sent to ply +their trade on the James River, and it was also arranged that oil was +to be distilled from walnuts by the "apothecaries." George Sandys was +sent over in July, 1621, to have entire control of all schemes for +staple commodities. There was a certain fitness in intrusting these +creatures of the imagination to a poet. Pineapples, plantains, and +other fruits were to be started forthwith. There was once again great +hope from the "rich commodity of silk," an endowed school for Indians +was founded, and the little Virginia pool became iridescent with many +frail bubbles. The sudden and frightful massacre by the savages in +March, 1622, obliterated instantly all vain and premature projects. +This calamity did not cause the failure of these foredoomed schemes; +it only saved them from a painful and lingering death, and provided +their friends with a decent epitaph for them. The people who survived +the massacre were decimated by an epidemic in the following year. What +strength they could spare from frequent battles with the savages they +spent in growing corn and tobacco, which last, of all the things +tried, proved to be the only commodity profitable for export. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Tobacco.] + +[Sidenote: A Covnter-Blaste to Tobacco, 1604.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +Against tobacco King James had written a book. It was denounced in +Parliament and regarded by all public-spirited men as an evil. +Nevertheless, it turned the scale and saved the colony. In +colony-planting the problem is fundamentally an economic one, and +economic problems are solved by coarse and homely means. John Rolfe, +the first Englishman that ventured to wed an Indian, planted the first +tobacco at Jamestown in 1612, and by 1616 the better West India +variety had perhaps been substituted for the harsh kind grown by the +Virginia Indians, and by them called "uppowoc" or "apooke." Tobacco +prospered and was profitable, to the disgust of the pedantic king and +the sorrow of all who had cherished hopes of beautiful products from +a colony upon which so much poetic sentiment had been lavished. +Neither gold nor spices came as had been expected; the strings of +pearls seen by Ralegh's men were not again to be found, or were +perhaps transformed on investigation into wampum beads; the silver +mine once discovered on the upper James had vanished forever; tropical +fruits refused to grow; even madder and woad failed, and, though the +indigo plant would readily mature, nobody knew how to manufacture the +dye. Silk was troublesome and unprofitable, shipbuilding, and such +coarse but patriotic products as naval stores had come to naught. But +the detestable "weed," as King James had dubbed it, throve apace. As +early as 1617 the waste margins of the broad streets of Jamestown were +planted with it by the eager settlers. The English merchants grasped +at the profits of it, the farmers of the customs rejoiced in the heavy +duties imposed on it, and a powerful mercenary interest in the +prosperity of Virginia was established. By 1624, when the Virginia +Company was dissolved, the danger that the colony would be abandoned +as a result of Spanish intrigues, Indian massacres, or prolonged +discouragement had passed away. Public spirit, patriotism, and +religious enthusiasm no longer guarded it as a feeble house plant. It +had struck root in the outdoor soil of human self-interest and its +life was assured. From that time the colony that had been for +seventeen years a fairyland to dreamers in England and a perdition to +its inhabitants, became a sober money-making enterprise, uninteresting +to enthusiasts and philanthropists. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Motives of sentiment.] + +In the preceding sections of this chapter we have traced what may be +called the series of commercial motives that, sometimes in succession, +often in co-operation, propelled the Virginia movement. The agitation +for a colony was primarily a commercial one. The London or Virginia +Company by which it was carried forward had been organized in the form +of the great trading corporations of the time, such as the Muscovy +Company and the East India Company, and it was expected to yield large +returns. But though commercial in form and purpose, the Virginia +Company from the outset was able to appeal successfully in every +emergency to motives that were far from mercenary. Into the +chain-threads of commercial enterprise was woven a woof of patriotic +feeling and religious sentiment. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the patriot party in the Virginia Company.] + +[Sidenote: Woodnoth's Short Collection, p. 6.] + +[Sidenote: Peckard's Ferrar, 113.] + +Dale's empty-handed return, and Argall's homecoming with hands full of +the spoil of both colony and colonists, were severe blows to the hope +of profit from Virginia, and thereafter commercial motives fell to a +second place. The company began to pass more and more out of the +control of traders like Sir Thomas Smyth and Alderman Johnson, and +the corrupt clique of predatory merchants, as well as out of the reach +of voracious noblemen like Warwick. More and more it passed into the +hands of the great liberal statesmen whose leader was the +incorruptible Sir Edwin Sandys, a man of rare gifts and knowledge and +of great resoluteness. These men had suffered some disappointment, no +doubt, in their struggle for parliamentary freedom in England. They +might have succeeded better had their antagonist been a strong king, +but against the pusillanimity, the vanity, the vacillation, and the +pedantic dogmatism of James little permanent headway could be made. +Without relinquishing the conflict in the House of Commons, they took +it up in the Quarter Courts of the Virginia Company. In this new field +they found themselves afresh confronted by the obstinacy of the king, +who was stirred up to oppose them by the discarded governor, Sir +Thomas Smyth, and his friends, by Warwick, and by all the partisans of +high prerogative and all the advocates of the Spanish match. +"Bedchamber men" and others about the king's person were engaged to +work upon the king to come to the rescue of Sir Thomas Smyth's +"honor." The Spanish ambassador Gondomar, who had spies in the +Virginia Company, took pains to feed James's discontent. He told the +king that it was time for him to look into the Virginia courts, which +were held in the great hall of the house of the Ferrar family. Too +many of the king's nobility and gentry resorted thither, in order to +be in company with the popular Lord Southampton and the dangerous +Sandys. They were deep politicians, and they entertained designs +beyond a tobacco plantation. Their leaders, he said, were "subtle men +of high courage who regarded neither his master nor their own." + +[Sidenote: Sir Edwin Sandys.] + +[Sidenote: Royal Hist. MS. Comm. viii, II, 45.] + +[Sidenote: The king's interference.] + +[Sidenote: 1620.] + +[Sidenote: A land of freedom.] + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +Sandys, as assistant to Sir Thomas Smyth and virtual governor, had +already succeeded in establishing in Virginia a constitutional state +with a representative government. He was furthering plans for the +foundation of the little separatist state of New Plymouth, and his +enemies set agoing tales that he had dark designs of removing with the +Pilgrims to America, in order to found a democratic state there. In +1619 Sir Thomas Smyth tendered his resignation, and the company, to +his surprise, it would appear, accepted it, and chose Sandys to his +place. When, in 1620, his first year of government drew to a close, +Sir Edwin Sandys erected an elegant ballot-box in the midst of the +hall of the Ferrars, that the brilliant assemblage of noblemen, +knights, gentlemen, and merchants might by a secret vote exercise the +right of choice without any constraint. Just as the assemblage was +about to begin voting, two clerks of the signet were announced with a +message from the king forbidding the company to choose Sandys. "Choose +the devil, if you will, but not Sir Edwin Sandys," was one form in +which the king expressed his aversion. Southampton, braving the king's +displeasure, allowed himself to be elected, with Sandys for deputy. +In June, 1621, both Southampton and Sandys were imprisoned. This +attracted attention to Virginia as a "refuge from a more oppressive +government in England." In three months' time twenty-five ships set +sail for the colony, which gained an impetus from the king's +opposition that put it beyond the danger of destruction by the +calamities of the next two years. Even before the massacre and +pestilence of 1622 and 1623, Southampton was assured by friends at +court that it would come to "push of pike," and that the company would +be overthrown. The charter of the company was vacated in 1624, but +free government had so taken root in the colony that it could never +afterward be quite extirpated. A new English state with a popular +government had been founded of deliberate purpose by a group of +English statesmen, at the head of which, and easily first, was Sir +Edwin Sandys, whose great service to the people and nation that were +to come has been almost forgotten. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: Religious propagandism.] + +[Sidenote: Note 11.] + +We shall not have taken a just account of Virginia colonization if we +do not reckon religious motives among the many forces that carried +that wavering enterprise to success. From the excitement about +American exploration and colonization the English church caught its +first missionary impulse. The Indian captives brought from America at +various times gave to Englishmen the novel sight of men and women +from beyond the bounds of Christendom; people who had never been +baptized, and had never learned to wear English garments, "naked +slaves of the devil," as one of the early Virginia clergymen described +them. To the benevolent desire of Englishmen for the deliverance of +the savages from devil-worship and semi-nudity, there was added the +natural wish for ecclesiastical extension. The separation of England +from the Roman hierarchy had been a blow to the aspiration for an +unattainable catholicity cherished in one form or another by Christian +ecclesiastics of almost every school. It was not possible that the +great men who were leaders of the English church in the reigns of +Elizabeth and James should be content with the narrow limits of "the +little English paddock," while Spanish conquerors and missionary +priests were winning for the Roman communion a new and vast dominion +in America. English ecclesiastics felt keenly the reproach made +against them by the Roman Catholics that they were not "converters of +infidels." + +[Sidenote: Zeal of the clergy.] + +Perhaps the earliest of all Anglican missionaries was Robert Hunt, the +first minister in Virginia, a light shining in a dark place indeed. He +bore with unfaltering courage and a sweet-hearted patience rarely +equaled in the history of martyrdom the accumulating miseries of +Jamestown, until he also perished in the general mortality. His +nobleness of spirit softened the detestable rivalries of the early +leaders. The most active and influential writers in favor of +colonization were clergymen such as Hakluyt, Symonds, Purchas, and +Crashaw. Other clergymen, following in the footsteps of Hunt, risked +life itself in the Virginia colony, while devout laymen spent their +money in its behalf. Thus did Anglican zeal further a colonization +that, by a curious perversity of outcome, resulted in founding a +nation of dissenters. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: The Ferrars.] + +In the great hall of the house of Nicholas Ferrar, a London merchant, +the courts or meetings of the Virginia Company were held for years. +The two sons of this Nicholas Ferrar, John and Nicholas, served in +turn as deputy governors of the Virginia Company. This pious Ferrar +family, as it became influential, lent to the scheme of colonizing +Virginia something of the air of a project for propagating the gospel. +Nicholas, the father, gave money for the education of infidels in +Virginia. A school was founded there by the gifts of the pious, and +rewards were given to those colonists who would educate Indian +children in their families. After the younger Nicholas, who was a man +of remarkable zeal and activity, tinged with a romantic enthusiasm, +became deputy in 1622, the production of silk and wine and iron and +the educating of Indians in Christianity traveled on abreast. A +college was proposed, for which an endowment of thirteen hundred +pounds was collected, and to which a valuable library was bequeathed +by a settler. Practical men grumbled at the prematurity of all this, +and complained of those in charge that "they spent Michaelmas rent in +mid-summer moone." The governor of the colony, honest Sir Francis +Wyatt, wished that "little Mr. Ferrar were in Virginia, where he might +add to his zeal a knowledge of the country." + +The horrible massacre of March, 1622, made the Indian question +something other than the Ferrars saw it. All schemes for educating the +savages were obliterated in a day. The only thought after this was how +to put the savages to death, old and young, men and women, more often +by foul means than by fair. The settlers even emulated, if they did +not surpass, the treachery of the Indians. With the dissolution of the +company by _quo warranto_ proceedings in 1624 the government of the +colony passed to the Crown, and the Ferrars had no more to do with +Virginia. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: Later History of the Ferrars.] + +[Sidenote: Peckard's Life of N. Ferrar.] + +[Sidenote: Arminian Nunnery 1641.] + +[Sidenote: Hearne's Langtoft's Chronicle, App. to Pref., cix.] + +The later career of Nicholas Ferrar the younger, though without direct +relation to colonization, throws light on the age of colony +beginnings. Rejecting the offer of a rich bride, he bought for his +mother, now a widow, the manor lordship of Little Gidding, in +Huntingdonshire, and took the entire Ferrar family, including his +brother and his sister with eighteen children, into religious +retirement. Here this half-domestic, half-monastic community gave alms +to the poor, illuminated manuscripts of the Bible, and worshiped in +its little chapel with genuflections and other observances that +procured for it the nickname of the "Protestant Nunnery," and brought +down upon it the pious fury of the Puritans. Nicholas Ferrar, who had +taken deacon's orders, was the real head of the community. He prepared +at Little Gidding what is perhaps the earliest English monatesseron of +the four gospels. By means of relays of worshipers the Ferrars kept +their devotions always in progress. The entire Psalter was chanted +antiphonally during each twenty-four hours. Those whose turn it was to +keep vigil were wont to leave a candle at the door of Nicholas and to +wish him good-morrow at one o'clock in the morning, at which hour he +was accustomed to rise and begin the exercises of the day. The +strength of this belated mediaeval saint gave way under a discipline so +austere, and he died in 1637. Little Gidding, with its "fair grove and +sweet walks letticed and gardened on both sides," was devastated a few +years later by the counter-zeal of the Puritans, who showed an +especial indignation against the organ, which they broke into pieces +to light fires for roasting the sheep of the Ferrars. Behold an +epitome of the first half of the seventeenth century--its idealism in +affairs, and its war to the death of opposing ideals in religion! + +[Sidenote: Advent of Puritanism.] + +In the very years during which the Ferrars were most active on +behalf of Virginia the earliest Puritan movement toward America set +in. The attenuated mediaevalism of the Ferrars did not lack a +certain refined beauty, but it was hardly suited to the rough work +of hewing a road along which civilization might march into a savage +wilderness. The Puritans, with their robust contempt for aesthetic +considerations--making firewood of organs with delight, and feasting +without scruple on the sheep of those whom they esteemed +idolaters--were much the fitter to be champions against the American +Canaanites. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 74.] + +Two of the chapter heads to Hakluyt's Westerne Planting, printed in 2d +Maine Historical Collections, ii, sufficiently indicate the views +prevailing at the time: + +"V. That this voyadge will be a greate bridle to the Indies of the +Kinge of Spaine, and a meane that wee may arreste at our pleasure for +the space of tenne weekes or three monethes every yere, one or two +hundred saile of his subjectes Shippes at the fysshinge in Newfounde +lande. + +"VI. That the mischefe that the Indian threasure wroughte in time of +Charles the late Emperor, father to the Spanishe Kinge, is to be had +in consideration of the Queens moste excellent Majestie, least the +contynuall comynge of the like threasure from thence to his sonne +worke the unrecoverable annoye of this realme, wherof already wee have +had very dangerous experience." + +The heading of the first chapter should be added: "I. That this +westerne discoverie will be greately for thinlargemente of the gospell +of Christe whereunto the princes of the refourmed relligion are +chefely bounde, amongst whome her Majestie ys principall." + +It would be foreign to the purpose of the present work to tell the +story of Spanish jealousy of Virginia, and of the diplomatic intrigues +for the overthrow of the colony. See documents in Mr. Alexander +Brown's Genesis of the United States. One can not but regret that Mr. +Brown did not give also the original of his Spanish papers; no +translation is adequate to the use of the historian. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 78.] + +This method was recommended to the colonists as late as 1753 in +Pullein's Culture of Silk for the Use of the American Colonies, and it +had probably long prevailed on the continent of Europe. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 79.] + +The authorities on the early efforts to raise silk, in addition to +those cited in the text and the margin, are too numerous to find place +here. The most valuable of all is, of course, the copy of the Records +of the Virginia Company after April, 1619, in the Library of Congress, +_passim_. See, for example, under date of December 13, 1620, and June +11, 1621. See also A Declaration of Virginia, 1620, and Purchas, pp. +1777-1787, Hamor's True Discourse, Smith's General History, Book II, +Anderson's Commerce under 1620, and various state papers abstracted by +Sainsbury, with Sainsbury's preface to the first volume of his +Calendar, and Hening, _passim_. The reader is also referred to Mr. +Bruce's Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, +issued as these pages are passing into the hands of the printer. The +wildness of some of the proposals for the production of Virginia silk +in the Commonwealth period is almost surpassed by other projects of +the time. In Virginia Richly Valued, 1650, perfume was to be extracted +from the muskrat, and the James River sturgeon were to be +domesticated. Fishes may be "unwilded," says the author. Besides +feeding silkworms, the Indians were to be used in pearl fisheries in +Virginia waters. Wyckoff on Silk Manufacture, Tenth Census, says that +experimental silkworms had been taken to Mexico by the Spaniards in +1531, without any permanent results. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 82.] + +Even in Elizabeth's time efforts had been made to procure naval stores +without the intervention of foreign merchants. As early as 1583, +Carlisle, who was son-in-law to Secretary Walsingham, had subscribed a +thousand pounds toward an American colony, which it was urged would +buy English woolens, take off idle and burdensome people, and, among +other things, produce naval stores. In 1601 Ralegh had protested +eloquently against the act to compel Englishmen to sow hemp. "Rather +let every man use his ground to that which it is most fit for," he +said. Edwards, Life of Ralegh, p. 272. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 83.] + +Why Germans were sent it is hard to say, as glass was made in England +as early as 1557. Glass was produced in Virginia, according to +Strachey, who says: "Although the country wants not Salsodiack enough +to make glasse of, and of which we have made some stoore in a goodly +howse sett up for the same purpose, with all offices and furnases +thereto belonging, a little without the island, where Jamestown now +stands." History of Travaile into Virginnia Brittannia, p. 71. The +house appears to have been standing and in operation in 1624. Calendar +of Colonial Documents, January 30, February 16, and number 20, pp. 38, +39. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 83.] + +Purchas, p. 1777, says that one hundred and fifty persons were sent +over two years earlier to set up three iron works, but the statement +seems hardly credible. In the midst of the misery following the +massacre of 1622, and notwithstanding the imminent probability of the +overthrow of the company, which was already impoverished, some of the +adventurers or shareholders sent nine men to Virginia to try a +different method of making iron from the one that had previously been +used. Letter of August 6, 1623, in Manuscript Book of Instructions in +Library of Congress, fol. 120. Having "failed to effect" the making of +iron "by those great wayes which we have formerly attempted," the +undiscouraged visionaries "most gladly embraced this more facile +project" of making iron "by bloom," but with a like result, of course. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 84.] + +The raising of tobacco in Virginia was one of the earliest projects +entertained. "We can send ... tobacco after a yeare or two, five +thousand pounds a yeare." Description of the Now-discovered river and +Country of Virginia, with the Liklyhood of ensuing Ritches by +England's Ayd and Industry, May 21, 1607. Public Record Office, +printed in Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, iv, 59, +62. The paper is supposed to be from the pen of Captain Gabriel +Archer. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 85.] + +In 1604 the king had, by a royal commission addressed to "our +treasurer of England," arbitrarily raised the duty on tobacco from +twopence a pound to six shillings tenpence. He was probably moved to +make this surprising change by his antipathy to tobacco; but by +increasing the profits of the farmers of customs and monopolists of +tobacco, he no doubt contributed to that abandonment of Virginia to +tobacco raising which seemed to him so lamentable. The use of Spanish +tobacco in England was general before that from Virginia began to take +its place. Barnabee Rich says, in 1614: "I have heard it tolde that +now very lately there hath bin a cathologue taken of all those new +erected houses that have set vppe that trade of selling tobacco in +London, ande neare about London, and if a man may beleeue what is +confidently reported, there are found to be vpward of 7000 houses that +doth liue by that trade." He says such shops were "almost in euery +lane and in euery by-corner round about London." The Honestie of this +Age, p. 30. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 86.] + +The MS. records of the Virginia Company and the State papers relating +to Virginia in the Public Record Office, London, are the most +important authorities on the subjects treated in the text. On the +commodities attempted at the outset, Manuscript Book of Instructions, +Library of Congress, the first volume of Hening's Statutes, _passim_, +and Purchas, pp. 1777-1786, _passim_. On the inferiority of the Indian +tobacco, see Strachey, p. 121. + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 89.] + +Peckard's Life of Ferrar supplies many of the particulars in this +section. The Records of the Virginia Company and other original +authorities do not sustain all of Peckard's statements. The author's +view is evidently distorted by biographer's myopia. He often seems to +depend on tradition, but in some passages his touch is more sure, and +he writes like a man who has documents before him. Arthur Woodnoth's +Short Collection of the Most Remarkable Passages from the Originall to +the Dissolution of the Virginia Company is of great value. It is a +scarce tract, which I met first in the White-Kennett Library, in the +rooms of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It is also in +the British Museum, Harvard College, and the Library of Congress. It +is to be taken with discrimination, but the view of the inner workings +of court intrigue as it affected Virginia is so fresh and detailed +that it would be a pity to miss its information. It was printed in +1651. There is a brief sketch of the life of Sandys in Brown's Genesis +of the United States, ii, 993. + + +[Sidenote: Note 11, page 90.] + +Hakluyt's Discourse concerneing Westerne Planting, printed first in +the Maine Historical Collections, second series, vol. ii, page 11. +"And this enterprise the princes of religion (amonge whome her +Majestie ys principall) oughte the rather to take in hande because +papists confirme themselves and drawe other to theire side shewinge +that they are the true Catholicke churche because they have bene the +onely converters of many millions of infidells. Yea, I myself have +bene demanded of them how many infidells have bene by us converted." + + + + +BOOK II. + +THE PURITAN MIGRATION. + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + +_RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF PURITANISM._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Love of display in Elizabeth's time.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +[Sidenote: Machyn's Diary, 324, note.] + +Not religious disputants only, but the world in general, exaggerated +the importance of vestments and ceremonies in the reign of Elizabeth. +The love of formality and display that characterized the Renascence +was then at its height. It was a time of pomps and royal progresses. +Great historic characters went about dressed like performers in a +show. Some of the queen's gowns were adorned with jewels on every +available inch of space. These bespangled robes were draped over vast +farthingales, which spread out like tables on which her arms might +rest, and her appearance when thus attired has been compared to that +of an Oriental idol. Her courtiers and statesmen were equally fond of +dazzling the spectator. Ralegh wore a pendent jewel on his hat +feather, and the value of the gems on his shoes was estimated at six +thousand six hundred pieces of gold. The love of pomp was not confined +to the court; every nobleman and country gentleman kept his house +filled with idle serving men, the sons of neighboring gentlemen or +yeomen, whose use was to "grace the halls" of their patron by their +attendance and to give dignity to his hospitality. High sheriffs and +other officials performed their functions with thirty or forty men in +livery at their heels, even borrowing the retainers of their friends +to lend state to their office. Edward VI set out upon a progress in +1551 with a train of four thousand mounted men. These were noblemen +and gentlemen with their retainers. He was obliged to dismiss all but +a hundred and fifty of this vast army of display lest it should "eat +up the country." The gorgeous progresses of Elizabeth are too well +known to need description. A painting of the time shows her to us in +the act of making a friendly call on her cousin-german, Lord Hunsdon. +She is sitting under a canopy, and is borne on the shoulders of men +and attended by a brilliant train of lords and ladies on foot. It was +truer in the days of Shakespeare than it has been since that "all the +world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." + +[Sidenote: The age of the drama.] + +A passionate love of the theater was inevitable in such a time. The +best poetry then took a dramatic form; even history was taught from +the stage; and satire and polemics felt the attraction and were often +put into imaginary dialogues. It was Shakespeare's good fortune that +he happened to live among a people fond of show and in an age +dramatic as well as poetic to its very core. Genius is nourished by +sympathy, and supremely great performance is rendered possible only by +the rare coincidence of the great man and a fitting environment. + +[Sidenote: Display in dress.] + +[Sidenote: Peckard's Life of Ferrar.] + +[Sidenote: Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, _passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +Dress signified more to the men of the time of Elizabeth and James +than it is easy for us moderns to imagine. Greatness declared itself +by external display. The son of a rich merchant when he returned from +his travels decked himself in gorgeous apparel, and formally made his +appearance on the Exchange like a butterfly newly emerged. It was thus +that his parents brought the young man out in the world. A sum equal +in purchasing power to several thousand dollars in our time is said to +have been spent on one pair of trunk hose. Men of the lowest ranks, +desirous of appearing more than they were, impoverished themselves in +buying expensive hats and hose; and it is recorded that women +suffering for the necessaries of life sometimes contrived to adorn +themselves with velvet. For the very reason that so much importance +was attached to dress, laws were made to repress inappropriate display +in people of lower rank. Even the severe Puritan moralists did not +object to the pomp of the great, but to the extravagant imitation of +it by those who had no right to such ostentation. It was with +difficulty that men could conceive of greatness without display. To +refuse a bishop his vestments was to abate something of his lofty +rank. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Observance of ceremonies.] + +[Sidenote: Compare _supra_, p. 41.] + +[Sidenote: Strachey, in Purchas, iv, 17-54.] + +[Sidenote: De la Warr's letter, in Strachey's Virginia, p. xxix.] + +Along with a love for external show went a scrupulous observance of +decorous and often pompous ceremonies. Englishmen in the sixteenth and +the early part of the seventeenth century never omitted to observe +proper formality, no matter how dire the emergency. One may see this +exemplified by reverting to some of the earliest events in American +history. When Gates arrived at Jamestown near the close of the +"starving time," he found only the gaunt ghosts of men clamoring to be +taken from the scene of so many horrible miseries. Instead of giving +immediate attention to the sufferings of the people, he caused the +little church bell to be rung. Such of the inhabitants as could drag +themselves out of their huts repaired once more to the now ruined and +unfrequented church with its roof of sedge and earth supported by +timbers set in crotches. Here the newly arrived chaplain offered a +sorrowful prayer, and then George Percy, the retiring governor, +delivered up his authority to Sir Thomas Gates, who thus found himself +in due and proper form installed governor of death, famine, and +desperation. When Gates abandoned the wrecked town with his starving +company he fired a "peale of small shott," in order not to be wanting +in respect for a royal fort; and when De la Warr arrived, a few days +later, he made his landing with still greater pomp than that of Gates. +There was a flourish of trumpets on shipboard before he struck sail +in front of Jamestown. A gentleman of his party bore the colors of the +governor before him. The governor's first act when he set foot on +American soil was to fall on his knees and offer a long, silent +prayer, which was probably sincere though theatrical, after the manner +of the age. He rose at length and marched up into the ruined town. As +he passed into the stockade by the water gate, which was shabbily off +its hinges, the color bearer dropped down before him and allowed the +colors to fall at the feet of his lordship, who proceeded to the +tumble-down chapel, under the earthen roof of which the authority over +the colony was duly transferred to his hands with such solemnities as +were thought proper. Whenever Lord De la Warr went to church at +Jamestown he was attended by the councilors, captains, and gentlemen, +and guarded by fifty men with halberds, wearing De la Warr's livery of +showy red cloaks. The governor's seat was a chair covered with green +velvet. It was in the choir of the now reconstructed little church, +and a velvet cushion lay on the table before him to enable him to +worship his Maker in a manner becoming the dignity of a great lord +over a howling wilderness. More than a quarter of the able-bodied men +in Virginia were needed to get the governor to church and back again +aboard the ship where he dwelt. + +[Sidenote: Formality at Plymouth.] + +[Sidenote: De Rasieres's letter, 2d N. Y. Hist. Coll., ii, 352.] + +Even at a later date in the rather hungry little Pilgrim colony at +Plymouth almost as much ceremony was observed, though the people were +extreme Puritans without rank. At beat of drum on Sunday morning the +men came to Captain Standish's door with their cloaks on, each bearing +a musket or matchlock. They proceeded to church three abreast, led by +a sergeant. In the rear walked the governor, in a long robe. On his +right was Elder Brewster, wearing a cloak. On the governor's left was +Captain Miles Standish, who also wore a cloak and side arms, and +carried a small cane as a sort of baton of authority perhaps. Thus +"they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him." + +[Sidenote: Puritanism an outgrowth of the time.] + +It was only in an age such as this that resistance to the celebration +of rites and the observance of forms could be made a capital article +of faith by the Puritan, and later by the Quaker. The wearing of a +surplice, the propriety of doffing the hat on certain occasions, was a +matter for scruple and violent debate, for the grave consideration of +the lawgiver and magistrate, and for severe penalties. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Origin of the Puritan movement.] + +[Sidenote: Fuller's Ch. Hist., book v, sec. iv, 27, 28.] + +[Sidenote: 1536.] + +In the brief Protestant reign of Edward VI there were those who +objected to "the vestments," and one may even find what were afterward +called Puritan opinions condemned among current errors in the +twenty-eighth year of Henry VIII; but Puritanism--as a party protest +against pomp and ceremonialism in religious worship--had its origin in +the persecution of Queen Mary's time. The English Protestants who +fled from that fiery ordeal found refuge chiefly in Protestant cities +of the Continent. Strasburg, Frankfort, Basel, Zurich, and Geneva were +the places to which these English exiles mainly resorted. Zurich and +Strasburg became cities of refuge for many of those who were to become +leaders of the Anglican or Conservative party, while others who tended +to what were afterward called Puritan views went sooner or later to +Geneva, where Calvin was the dominant influence. + +[Sidenote: A. D. 1553.] + +[Sidenote: The English exiles.] + +In the cities in which they found safety the exiles organized English +churches. More remarkable religious communities were never gathered +into single congregations. Five bishops and five deans of the English +Church, and more than fifty eminent doctors of divinity, with younger +men who were destined to play a leading part in the future, were +comprised in these little churches. Such communities soon became +centers of animated discussion and debate. + +[Sidenote: Outbreak of dissension.] + +During the preceding reign of King Edward VI, English Protestantism +had been forced into many compromises within itself. No form of +religious life can become national without exacting of its advocates +of differing shades of opinion many sacrifices for the sake of unity; +but now that the leaders of English Protestantism were in exile they +found themselves in a measure freed from motives of policy and with +leisure to develop and apply their theories. A passion for the ideal +thus suddenly unchained easily becomes rampant. There sprang up +swiftly a dispute between the church in Strasburg and the church in +Frankfort on matters of government. The reformatory spirit is rarely +conciliatory, and in its excess and overflow it is wont to be +pragmatic and impertinent. Some of the reformers of Strasburg felt +bound to go over to Frankfort and re-reform the reformed English +church there; and the little English community in Frankfort was soon +torn asunder between the followers of Richard Cox and those of John +Knox--the same who was afterward so famous in the Scottish +reformation. + +[Sidenote: Character of the debates at Frankfort.] + +This dispute in Frankfort between the Coxans and the Knoxans, as they +were called, had all the characteristics that render church quarrels +odious. One finds in it the bitterness of slanderous violence--the +little deceptions and unmanly treacheries that characterize such +debates and disclose the sorry threadbareness of human saintship even +in exiles and martyrs for conscience' sake. But, petty as were these +squabbles at Frankfort, they produced results of the first magnitude. +Small things change the whole course of history when they lie near the +fountain head of a great current. From the conflicting factions in the +church of the exiles at Frankfort were evolved the opposing parties +that were to give character to English Protestantism, and to modify +profoundly the history of England and as profoundly the history of the +United States. + +[Sidenote: The rise of the two great parties.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +In the contentions of the English at Frankfort, resulting now in the +exiling from the city of one beaten minority and now in the departure +of another, and in the driving away of one leading disputant after +another, there appeared at length the features of the two great +parties of English Protestantism face to face for the first time. One +of these parties tried to hold all of antique ritual that the +Protestant conscience could be made to bear, insisted upon the +superior authority of the clergy, and sought to disturb as little as +possible the ancient order of the English church. On the other hand, +in the rapid changes produced by the Frankfort contentions, the +tendency of the ultra wing of the Protestants to the notion of a local +and independent church and to a democratic church government was +already apparent. Even the peculiarity of two ministers presiding over +one church, which was cherished later in New England, appeared among +the English at Frankfort and Geneva at this time. + +[Sidenote: A purified ritual.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +While attempting to mediate between the parties at Frankfort, Calvin +expressed his preference for a ritual of greater purity than that +established by the English Prayer Book of King Edward's time. Extreme +Protestants rallied round this ideal of a liturgy purified of human +tradition. It was some years later, after the Frankfort church had +been dissolved and the exiles had returned to England, that this party +came to be known by the name of Puritan--that is, a party not so much +bent on purity of conduct as on purifying Protestant worship from +mediaeval forms. + +[Sidenote: Return of the exilies, 1558.] + +After the death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth the English +Protestants returned to their own country. The two great parties that +were to divide the English church had already begun to crystallize. +Those who had settled at Strasburg and Zurich came back hoping to +re-establish the Anglican Church on the conservative basis of the +Prayer Book of Edward VI. Those who returned from Basel and Geneva had +caught the spirit of the Calvinistic churches, and wished to push the +reformation to a more logical extreme; while the Frankfort church, or +what remained of it, had been storm-driven well-nigh to a theory of +congregational independence in church government. + +[Sidenote: Results.] + +The petty squabbles of the English exiles, transplanted to England, +grew into bitter feuds and brought forth persecutions and political +struggles. The settlement of New England, the battles of Marston Moor +and Naseby, the temporary overthrow of the English monarchy, the +growth of non-conformity, the modification of the English Constitution +and of all English life, were germinally present in the differences +between the exiles at Zurich and those at Geneva, and in the squabbles +of Cox and Knox, of Whithead and Horne at Frankfort-on-the-Main about +gowns and litanies and the authority of the priest. It is not often +that a great historical movement can be traced through a single rill +to its rise at the fountain head. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: The Puritan debate.] + +[Sidenote: Certayne Qvestions concerning silk or vvool in the high +priest's ephod, 1605.] + +The theological debates that fill so large a place in the history of +the first half of the sixteenth century in Europe were mainly +concerned with speculative dogmas. However futile controversies may +seem that seek to reduce to formulas the relations between God and +man, they have at least a topical dignity. But the debates about +ceremonies and vestments which the exiles brought back to England from +the Continent, and which held first place there during the reign of +Elizabeth and James, were bitter without being serious. A +life-and-death struggle concerning the wearing of "white surplices" or +the making of the sign of the cross in baptism can not but seem +frivolous to the modern mind. Learned scholars like Broughton and +Ainsworth thought it not beneath them to write tractates discussing +the material of which the ephod of a Jewish high priest was made. It +was learnedly demonstrated that the ephod was of silk, and there were +sober essays on the linsey-woolsey side of that controversy. To the +fine-spun mind of that time the character of the Jewish ephod was +thought to settle the propriety of the Christian surplice. To the +modern reader the whole debate about vestments and liturgies would be +amusing if it were not so tedious. It is necessary to steady one's +judgment of that age by remembering that deeper things sometimes lay +concealed under these disputes regarding the contemptible mint and +cumin of ecclesiasticism. Puritanism at its rise was an effort to +escape from formalism, the outgrowth of an aspiration for greater +spirituality in worship; but it gradually passed into an opposite +formalism as rigid as that from which it had escaped. + +[Sidenote: Uniformity not possible.] + +It was in vain that Elizabeth tried to compel uniformity. The +difference between the radical and the conservative is constitutional, +and is manifest in every period of agitation. Neither the mediation of +moderate men nor the compulsion of authority can bring these two +sempiternal divisions of the human race into agreement. The +conservative English churchman limited his Protestantism to the +rejection of the pope's authority, and to certain moderate reforms in +church government and ritual. He shuddered with alarm at every +proposal to reconstruct religious institutions which were moss-grown +with ancient sentiment. The extreme Puritan, on the other hand, went +about his work in the spirit of a Jehu. He saved all his reverence for +the precepts of the Bible, now becoming common in the vulgar tongue. +He applied biblical phraseology to the affairs of life in a way that +would have been impossible had he possessed any sense of humor. He +felt himself impelled by the call of God to carry out in England the +changes that had taken place in the Calvinistic churches of the +Continent, and to go even further. He would have no surplices, no sign +of the cross, no liturgy, no church holy days. Away with these rags +of Antichrist, was his cry. Let us get back to the simplicity of the +primitive ages. The Anglican, on the other hand, felt himself an +Englishman above all, and without a stately liturgy, great bishops in +square caps and lawn sleeves, Christmas feasts, solemn Good Fridays, +and joyous Easters, there would have remained for him no merry +England. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Growth of party spirit.] + +The party line between Anglican and Puritan was not at once sharply +drawn. It was only after debates growing ever more acrimonious, after +persecutions and numberless exasperations, that the parties in the +Church of England fell into well-defined and hostile camps. If there +had been some relaxation of the requirements of uniformity, if a +conciliatory policy had been pursued by the government, the ultimate +division might have been postponed until party spirit had cooled; but +in that day blows took the place of words, and words had the force of +blows. The queen herself could write to a bishop who scrupled to do +what she desired, "By God, I will unfrock you!" and moderation in +debate was not to be expected from lesser folk. + +[Sidenote: Puritanism the party of opposition.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +When the reformer has warmed to his work he looks about him for new +abuses to fall upon. The dominant discontent of any age is prone to +spread its wings over other grievances, and feebler movements seek +shelter from the strong. Puritanism no doubt gathered momentum from +the widespread agrarian and industrial disturbance in this and the +preceding reigns. The profit from sheep-raising had induced many manor +lords to inclose the wastes on which the peasants had pastured their +cattle for ages. The humble copy-hold tenant, having no longer grass +for his cows or mast for his pigs, was driven to distress by +agricultural progress. In some cases even the common fields, +cultivated in allotments from ancient times by the members of the +village communities, first as serfs and later as tenants, were turned +into sheepwalks, and hamlets of tenants' cottages were torn down to +make room for more profitable occupants of the soil. The worst +offenders were the greedy courtiers who had secured the estates of the +English monasteries. Workmen ruined by the dissolution of the guilds +were added to the ranks of the unhappy. All the discontent begotten of +these transitions from mediaeval life tended to strengthen the leading +opposition--and that leading opposition was Puritanism. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Widening the field of protest.] + +Puritanism also progressively widened its field of protest. Beliefs +that Protestants rejected were symbolized by the vestments of bishop +and clergy. Advanced Protestants insisted that the shadows should be +banished with the substance, that the symbol should disappear with the +dogma. We have seen that in Frankfort the inchoate Puritan party +wished to abolish the litany and purge the service book of all the +remains of the old religion. This controversy raged in England, and +the Puritan side did not at first lack support even among the bishops. +But Elizabeth, the real founder of Anglicanism, molded the church to +her will, putting down Catholics and Puritans with a hard hand. The +more advanced of the party came at length to believe that all +"stinted" prayers "read out of a book" were contrary to the purity and +simplicity of Christian worship. The hostility of the bishops to that +which the Puritans believed to be the cause of God no doubt helped to +convince the persecuted party that the episcopal office itself was +contrary to Scripture. + +[Sidenote: Puritanism becomes dogmatic.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +Most of the Puritans of Elizabeth's time, under the lead of the great +Cartwright, became Presbyterian in theory and sought to assimilate the +Church of England to the Calvinistic churches of the Continent, +holding that theirs was the very order prescribed by the apostles. +Another but much smaller division of the Puritans tended toward +independency, finding in the New Testament a system different from +that of Cartwright. Both the Presbyterians and those who held to local +church government wished to see their own system established by law. +Neither faction thought of tolerating Anglican practices if the +Anglicans could be put down. The notion of a state church with +prescribed forms of worship enforced by law was too deeply imbedded in +the English mind to be easily got rid of, and the spirit of +persecution pervaded every party, Catholic or Protestant. Every one +was sure that divine authority was on his side, and that human +authority ought to be. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Anglicanism becomes dogmatic.] + +A corresponding change began to take place in the Episcopal party. The +earlier defenders of Elizabeth's establishment argued, somewhat as +Hooker did later, that the "practice of the apostles" was not an +"invariable rule or law to succeeding ages, because they acted +according to the circumstances of the church in its infant and +persecuted state." Episcopal government they held to be allowable, and +maintained the attitude of prudent men who justify their compromise +with history and the exigency of the time, and advocate, above all, +submission to civil authority. But the tendency of party division is +to push both sides to more positive ground. There arose in the last +years of Elizabeth a school of High-churchmen led by Bancroft, +afterward primate, who turned away from Hooker's moderation and +assumed a more aggressive attitude. Like the Presbyterians and the +Independents and the Catholics, these in turn maintained that their +favorite system of church economy was warranted by divine authority, +and that all others were excluded. + +[Sidenote: Failure of Elizabeth's policy.] + +When the High-church leaders had reached the dogmatic assertion of +apostolic succession and a divinely appointed episcopal form of +government as essentials of a Christian church, the fissure between +the two ecclesiastical parties in England was complete. Each had +settled itself upon a supposed divine authority; each regarded the +other as teaching a theory contrary to the divine plan. Elizabeth's +policy of repression had produced a certain organic uniformity, but +the civil war of the seventeenth century was its ultimate result. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: Bitterness of the debate.] + +The controversy between the two Protestant parties naturally grew more +bitter as time went on. The silencing of ministers, the Fleet Prison, +the inquisitorial Ecclesiastical Commission, and other such +unanswerable arguments did not sweeten the temper of the Puritans. The +bitterness of the controversy reached its greatest intensity in 1588, +when there appeared a succession of anonymous tracts, most of them +signed Martin Marprelate. They seem to have been written mainly by the +same hand, but their authorship has been a matter of debate to this +day. + +[Sidenote: The Marprelate tracts.] + +[Sidenote: 1588.] + +[Sidenote: The Marprelate tracts in Lenox Library.] + +The sensation produced by these violent assaults is hardly conceivable +now. There were no newspapers then, and there was but little popular +literature. Here were little books printed no one knew where, written by +no one knew whom, concerning a religious controversy of universal +interest. They were couched in the phrase of the street, in the very +slang and cant of the populace, and were violent and abusive, sometimes +descending to sheer blackguardism. Marprelate went gunning for large +game; his deadliest abuse he let fly as from a blunderbuss at the very +heads of the English church. The Dean of Salisbury he calls "Doctor of +Diviltrie and Deane of Sarum." It was the first time in the history of +polemics that any one had addressed a high dignitary of the church with +such irreverent titles as "You grosse beaste!" "You block, you!" +Sometimes Martin bends his knees with mock reverence, as when he calls +the clergy "right poysond, persecuting and terrible priests." He blurts +out epithets against "the sinful, the unlawful, the broken, the +unnatural, false, and bastardly governours of the church; to wit, +archbishops and bishops"; and addresses them as "you enemies to the +state, you traytors to God and his worde, you Mar-prince, Mar-land, +Mar-magestrate, Mar-church, and Mar-commonwealth." The spice of the +books, that which gave them their popularity, was doubtless their +rollicking impudence. "Wo--ho, now, Brother London!" he cries to the +Bishop of London. "Go to, you Asse!" is a kind of kennel eloquence +relished by the populace. Martin seems even to giggle and sneer and hiss +in type in such expressions as "tse, tse, tse." + +[Sidenote: An Admonition to the People of England, p. 25.] + +The little books went everywhere. The Bishop of Winchester sadly +confessed that these "slanderous pamphlets, freshe from the presse," +were "in men's hands and bosoms commonly." The queen and courtiers +read them, and students had nothing better to laugh at. Who will not +stop in the street to hear one clown rail cleverly at another? But to +see the bishops collectively and the primate and others severally put +into a pillory and pelted in this daring fashion by a man who knew +that his life would pay the forfeit for his libel if he could by any +means be discovered, was livelier sport than bull-baiting. + +[Sidenote: Nugae Antiquae, ii, 89, 90.] + +Dr. Cooper, Bishop of Winchester, replied to the first pamphlet +somewhat ponderously, as became a bishop who feels that the +proprieties forbid his being too interesting. Marprelate wanted +nothing better than a bishop for an antagonist; and while the whole +constabulary force of the kingdom was hunting him for his life, the +nimble Martin was chuckling over the excitement made by a new tract of +his, headed with the well-known street cry of a tub-mender, which +played derisively on Bishop Cooper's name, "Hay any worke for Cooper?" +This tract professed to be "printed in Europe not farre from some of +the Bounsing priestes." In this paper Martin shows to what depth a +religious debate in Elizabeth's time could descend; he stoops to make +the bishop ridiculous by twitting him with the infidelity of his wife, +a scandal which the unfortunate prelate had treated with "Socratical +and philosophical patience." + +[Sidenote: Lenox Collection, N. Y. Pub. Library.] + +[Sidenote: Comp. Bacon's An Advertisement touching Controversies, +etc.] + +There were not wanting many imitators of Martin's grossness on the +other side of the controversy, who were just as libelous but for the +most part less clever. One of the tracts in reply was called An Almond +for a Parrat. The author says he had heard that Martin was dead, or, +as he expressed it, "that your grout-headed holinesse had turned uppe +your heeles like a tired jade in a medow and snorted out your +sorrowefull soule, like a mesled hogge on a mucke-hille." This is +beastly without being vivacious. While the press and the stage were +occupied with coarse retorts on Martinism, there appeared tracts in +favor of peace. There are other evidences of the existence of a +moderate party that lamented the excesses of both sides in this +debate. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: Advance of Puritan opinions.] + +Puritanism was evolutionary from the beginning. Its earlier disputes +about vestments and litanies grew by degrees to a rejection of all +liturgies as idolatrous. Even the reading of the Bible as a part of +the service came at last to be reprehended by extremists, and the +repetition of the Lord's Prayer was thought dangerously liturgical. +The advanced Puritans sought to exclude from Christian worship +everything pleasing to the aesthetic sense, confounding bareness with +simplicity. Compromises continued to be made inside the church, but in +the ultimate ideal of Puritan worship there remained, besides the +sermon, nothing but long extemporary prayers and the singing by the +untrained voices of the congregation of literal versions of the Hebrew +Psalms--doggerel verse in cobblestone meters. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: Opposition to May-poles.] + +[Sidenote: 1549.] + +[Sidenote: Rushworth, Pt. III, vol. ii, 749. A. D. 1644.] + +In its early stages Puritanism was a crusade against idolatry, and +drew its inspiration in this, as in nearly everything else, from the +Old Testament. To the word "idolatry" it gave an inclusiveness not +found in the Jewish Scriptures, and puzzling to a mind accustomed to +modern ways of thinking. There was hardly any set observance of the +church in which constructive idolatry did not lie concealed. All holy +days except Sunday were abhorred as things that bore the mark of the +Beast. Even in the reign of Edward VI, long before the name of +Puritanism was known, the May-poles round which English people made +merry once a year were denounced as idols in a sermon preached at +Paul's Cross by Sir Stephen--the "Sir" being a polite prefix to a +clergyman's name. This Stephen, curate of St. Catherine Cree, was a +forerunner of Puritanism, who sometimes defiantly preached from an elm +tree in the chuchyard and read the service standing on a tomb on the +north side of the church. He wanted the saintly names of churches and +the heathen names of days of the week changed, so keen was his scent +for idolatry. The parish of St. Andrew Undershaft had received its +distinctive name from a very tall May-pole that overtopped the church +steeple. This pole was erected annually, and it rested from one May to +another on hooks under the eaves of a row of houses and stalls. In the +newborn Protestant zeal against idols Sir Stephen denounced +especially the lofty shaft of St. Andrew. The people in their rage +took it from the hooks and sawed it in pieces, and its sections were +appropriated by the several householders who had given it shelter and +who presently heaped its parts upon one great bonfire. Puritanism kept +up its Don Quixote battle against May-poles until there was hardly one +standing to seduce the people to idolatry. When the Puritan party came +into power, nearly a hundred years after the days of Sir Stephen of +St. Catherine Cree, one of its earliest laws ordered that all +May-poles--"an heathenish vanity generally abused to superstition and +wickedness"--be taken down. + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: Austerity in morals.] + +From denouncing constructive idolatry in organ music, litanies, and +May-poles, the transition to attack on the more real and substantial +evils in ordinary conduct was inevitable. History has many examples of +this pervasiveness of scrupulosity. The Puritan conscience had been +let loose to tear in pieces the remnants of old superstitions. It was +certain to break over into the field of conduct. Having set out to +reform the church, it took the world by the way. + +[Sidenote: Pickering's ed., p. 172.] + +As early as 1583 Philip Stubbes, a Puritan lawyer, issued his hot +little book, The Anatomie of Abuses. It deals with the immoralities +and extravagances of the time. Stubbes repeats the early Puritan +objection to the May-pole: it is a "stinckyng idol," he declares, +which the people bring from the woods, "followyng it with greate +devotion." And when they have set it up they "leape and daunce aboute +it, as the heathen people did at the dedication of their idolles." But +Stubbes takes a step forward and objects to the all-night May frolics +on account of their immorality. He says, "I have heard it credibly +reported by men of great gravitie, credite and reputation, that of +fourtie, three score, or a hundred maides goyng to the woods over +night, there have scarcely the third parte of them returned home +againe undefiled." As men of "great gravitie, credite and reputation" +were not likely to know the facts in this case, some of the immorality +with which Stubbes charges the young people may have been as fanciful +as the heathenism attributed to them. Imputed unrighteousness was a +part of the Puritan system. He denounces the wild excesses in dress +and the other follies of the time with a lack of a sense of proportion +which already foreshadows later Puritanism. + +This secondary development of Puritanism by which its energies were +turned toward the regulation of conduct, as the disputes of the +Reformation period lost their violence, gave to the name Puritan a new +and higher sense. It is a phase of its history more important than all +its primary contentions over gowns and liturgies and hierarchies, or +its later debates about the five points of Calvinism and a sabbatical +Sunday. One may easily forget its austerity and extravagance, for by +the reform of manners this movement made the English race its debtor. +In no succeeding reaction have English morals reverted to the +ante-Puritan level. It is only by the religious ferments infused +successively by new sects and movements, of preaching friars, +Lollards, Puritans, Quakers, Methodists, Salvationists, that the great +unleavened mass of men is rendered gradually less sodden. + + +XII. + +[Sidenote: Puritan decline.] + +[Sidenote: _Supra_, page 115.] + +[Sidenote: Rogers's Pref. to the 39 Articles.] + +The last years of Elizabeth's long reign were years of apparent +Puritan decline. The old bugbear of popery was receding into the past, +and a new generation had come on the stage that had no memory of the +struggles of the reigns of Henry and Edward and Mary. The danger from +the Armada had brought English patriotism to the point of fusion. Even +the persecuted Catholics rallied to the support of the queen against +Philip. The government of Elizabeth rose to the zenith of its +popularity on the overthrow of the Armada. It was just at this +inopportune moment, when the nation had come to feel that the England +of Elizabeth was the greatest England the ages had known, that there +came forth from a small coterie of the oppressed ultra-Puritans the +Martin Marprelate tracts. However effective these may have been at +first in making the bishops ridiculous, there followed a swift +reaction. The Puritans were dubbed Martinists, and henceforth had to +bear the odium of the boisterous vulgarity and libelous exaggeration +of the Marprelate lampoons. The queen's government, stronger now than +ever in the affection of the people, put in force severe +ecclesiastical measures against nonconformists in the church, and sent +Brownists, or Separatists, to die by the score in loathsome prisons. +Half a dozen of their leaders were dispatched by the shorter road of +the gallows. The long reign of the queen had by this time discouraged +those who hoped for a change of policy at her death. Hooker's +masterful and delightful prose, informed by a spirit of winning +moderation, was arrayed on the side of the Anglicans by the +publication of parts of his Ecclesiastical Polity in 1594 and 1597. +But Puritanism suffered most from the persistence of Archbishop +Whitgift and others in efforts to suppress all nonconformity in the +church. These champions of Anglicanism, in the swaggering words of one +of them, "defended the prelacy, stood for the power of the state, put +the new doctors to the foil, profligated the elders, set upon the +presbytery, and so battered the new discipline as hitherto they could +never nor hereafter shall ever fortify and repair the decay thereof." +The presbyteries which Cartwright and his friends had formed within +the Church of England were swept out utterly by the archbishop's +broom. The Puritan movement which had begun almost simultaneously with +Elizabeth's reign seemed to be doomed to languish and die with the old +queen who had been its resolute and lifelong antagonist. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: Seeking a positive ground.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +For the first thirty years or more of its existence Puritanism was +mainly a bundle of negations, and no bundle of mere negations is a +sufficient reason for maintaining a party. No vestments, no +ceremonies, no bishops, were effective cries in the hot Reformation +period. But the new generation had ceased to abhor these left-overs of +Romanism. Bishops, gowns, prayer books, had become Protestant to most +of the people by association. To find additional reasons for differing +from Anglican opponents was a party necessity. The new debates which +sprang up in the last years of the sixteenth century were not +deliberately planned by the Puritans, as some of their opponents +asserted. They came by a process of evolution. But a period of +temporary decline in a movement of this sort hastens its natural +unfolding. The leaders are forced to seek the advantage of such new +issues as offer when the old ones fail. In the last years of +Elizabeth, Puritanism was molting, not dying. + + +XIV. + +[Sidenote: The Puritan Sabbath.] + +The great reformers of the sixteenth century had sought to strip from +the Christianity of their time what they deemed the second-hand +garments of Judaism. Along with the theory of a priesthood they +declared also against a doctrine known in the church at least from the +fifth century, that the fourth commandment enforced on Christians the +keeping sacred in some sense of Sundays and other church holy days. +Luther maintained that a commandment to keep the Sabbath "literally +understood does not apply to Christians, for it is entirely outward, +like other ordinances of the Old Testament." He thought a festival day +important for rest and for attending religious worship; but with +characteristic oppugnancy he says: "If anywhere the day is made holy +for the mere day's sake, ... then I order you to dance on it, and +feast on it, to do anything that shall remove this encroachment on +Christian liberty." The Augsburg Confession makes a similar statement +of the Protestant position. Calvin considered the fourth commandment +binding on Christians only in a sense mystical and highly Calvinistic. +It signified that "we should rest from our own works" under the +Christian dispensation. He even suggested that some other day of the +week might be chosen as a day of rest and worship at Geneva for an +exhibition of Christian liberty in this regard. His practice was +conformed to his theory. It is incidentally related that when John +Knox once visited the Genevan reformer on Sunday, he found him playing +at bowls. Knox was not more a sabbatarian than Calvin. + + +XV. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the strict Sabbath.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Marsden's Early Puritans (1850) page 242, where +Becon's Catechism and Coverdale are quoted.] + +[Sidenote: Robert's Social Hist. of the Southern Counties, p. 239.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +Writers on this subject have generally agreed in dating the rise of +the Puritan Sabbath from the appearance, in 1595, of Dr. Bownd's book +on The Sabbath of the Old and of the New Testament. But the doctrine +of the strict keeping of Sunday may be traced farther back. In truth, +the difference between the English and the Continental Sunday dates +from the Reformation. The protests of Luther and Calvin go to show +that Sunday had in the church before the Reformation, theoretically if +not in practice, the sanctity of a church feast. The English +Reformation was conservative, like all other English revolutions. +English reformers retained the Catholic Sunday, as they did the +vestments and national hierarchy of the old church. Thomas Hancock has +been styled "the Luther of the southwest of England." He was the great +preacher of Poole in the days of Edward VI. That he, like other +English reformers, did not agree with Luther in rejecting the +obligation to rest on Sunday is shown by the record, for the voice of +Poole was the voice of Hancock. About 1550 the juries in the Admiralty +Court of Poole were charged to inquire into Sunday fishing; and so +advanced was the premature Puritanism of Edward's time that even the +leaving of nets in the sea over Sunday was to be investigated. Here +was a strictness unknown in Catholic times. + + +XVI. + +[Sidenote: _Supra_, page 16.] + +[Sidenote: Early English Text Society Reprint, 106, 107, 108.] + +The word Sabbath does not occur in these early entries. But in the +troubles among the Marian exiles at Frankfort, where so many other +traits of Puritanism first came above the horizon, it is significant +that one finds Sunday called the Sabbath. Sabbath as applied to Sunday +occurs first in literature, perhaps, in 1573, and then it is +considered necessary to explain it. Bullein's Dialogue against the +Fever Pestilence, a work of considerable popularity, first appeared as +early as 1564. In the edition of 1573 there was inserted a new passage +not found in the earlier issue. Mendax is relating incredible tales of +travel in lands unknown, after the manner of David Ingram and other +returned adventurers. Up to this point all is pure lying merely for +the fun of the thing, or perhaps to ridicule the exaggerations of +travelers. But the interpolated passage is not of a piece with the old +garment into which it is patched. It is less grotesque and humorous, +and it smacks of incipient Puritanism in several flavors. It treats +first of all of the "Kepyng of the Saboth Daie," "whiche is the +seventh daie, that is sondaie," in the imaginary city of "Nodnol," an +anagram of London. The gates are shut, and nobody is allowed to "goe, +neither ride forth of the Citie duryng that daie, except it be after +the euenyng praier; then to walke honestlie into the sweete fieldes, +and at every gate in the time of service there are warders." "What so +ever hee be he muste kepe hollie the Sabboth daie, and come to the +churche both man, woman, young and olde." "There were no people +walking abroad in the service tyme; no, not a Dogge or catte in the +streate, neither any Taverne doore open that daie, nor wine bibbyng +in them, but onely almose, fasting and praier." This is perhaps the +oldest extant statement of an early Puritan ideal of Sabbath-keeping. + + +XVII. + +[Sidenote: Cox's Literature of the Sabbath Question, _sub anno_.] + +[Sidenote: Robert's Southern Counties, pp. 238, 239.] + +[Sidenote: 1583.] + +[Sidenote: 1588.] + +Scruples regarding recreations on Sunday come distinctly into view in +the title of a sermon preached at Paul's Cross in 1576. In 1580 the +magistrates of London secured from the queen a prohibition of the +performance of plays within the limits of the city on Sundays. In +other municipalities--Brighton, Yarmouth, and Lyme--ordinances were +made about this time against such offenses as the prosecution on +Sunday of the herring fisheries, cloth working, and other labors, and +even against the Sunday practice of archery, formerly thought a +patriotic exercise. There are other evidences of a movement, +especially in the south of England, in favor of a stricter Sabbath in +these and the following years. Stubbes does not fail to denounce +"heathnicall exercises upon the Sabbaoth day, which the Lorde would +have consecrated to holy uses." The Puritan mode of Sabbath-keeping +already existed among the chosen few. "The Sabboth daie of some is +well observed," says Stubbes, "namely, in hearing the blessed worde of +God read, preached, and interpreted; in private and publique praiers; +in reading of godly psalmes; in celebrating the sacraments; and in +collecting for the poore and indigent, which are the true uses and +endes whereto the Sabbaoth was ordained." He records the opposite +belief of his opponents that Sunday was ordained "onely to use what +kinde of exercises they thinke good themselves." In practice this was +the rule of the English people at large. These opposite opinions come +into view when Martin Marprelate a few years later berates the Bishop +of London for playing at bowls on Sunday. + + +XVIII. + +[Sidenote: Bownd on the Sabbath.] + +[Sidenote: 1595.] + +[Sidenote: 1592.] + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +Dr. Bownd's book on The Sabbath of the Old and the New Testament, +which, if we may believe its opponents, was nearly ten years "in the +hammering," was the outcome of a sentiment already rising among the +Puritans, and not wholly confined to that party. It was preceded by a +little work of Richard Greenham which seems to have been circulated +for some years in manuscript after a fashion of that time, and to have +had at first more influence on practice than Bownd's formal treatise. +Greenham was Bownd's stepfather, and his work was the parent of +Bownd's, which is distinctly more extreme. But Dr. Bownd's book is +none the less memorable as a point of departure, because in it the +opinions on this subject which have since prevailed so generally in +all English-speaking lands "were for the first time broadly and +prominently asserted in Christendom"; at least, they were here first +systematically propounded and defended. Bownd held that the fourth +commandment is partly moral, in the phrase of the casuists. He +shifted the obligation to the first day of the week by arguments now +familiar, and he laid down rules for the observance of the day. Honest +recreations and lawful delights he flatly forbids on Sundays, but he +rather obsequiously makes some allowance for the "feasts of noblemen +and great personages on this day." People of rank do not wholly escape +him, however, for he points a moral with the story of a nobleman whose +child was born with a face like that of a dog, because the father had +hunted on the Lord's Day. He allows the ringing of only one bell to +call the people to church on Sunday. Chimes were quite too pleasing to +accord with a severe Sabbath. + + +XIX. + +[Sidenote: Spread of Bownd's opinions.] + +[Sidenote: Cartwright's Admonition to Parliament, 1572.] + +[Sidenote: Robert's Southern Counties, pp. 37, 38.] + +Such rigor fell in with the passion of that age for formal observance +and with the exigent temper of the Puritans by whom Bownd's views were +rapidly and universally accepted. The stricter divines might well be +glad of a new lever for reforming the old English Sunday, which was +devoted, out of service time, to outdoor games, to the brutally cruel +sports of bull and bear baiting, to merry morris-dances, in which the +performers were gayly decked and hung with jingling bells in different +keys, as well as to coarse farces called interludes, which were played +on stages under booths and sometimes in the churches. As an austere +reaction against frivolity, Puritanism pushed Sabbath-keeping to its +extreme, reprobating even the most innocent and domestic recreations, +and changing a day of rest and refreshment into one of alternate +periods of application to religious devotion and of scrupulous +vacuity. Bownd's rather ultra propositions were carried yet further +when reproduced by high-strung preachers. It is said that some of +these declared that the ringing of more than one bell to call people +to church on the Sabbath was as great a sin as murder, adultery, or +parricide. The lack of a sense of proportion is the specific +distinction of the zealot and the polemic. This lack was not peculiar +to the Puritans, however. Joseph Hall, afterward a well-known bishop, +could address men so worthy as John Robinson and his colleague in such +words as these: "Your souls shall find too late ... that even +whoredoms and murders shall abide an easier answer than separation." +Perhaps one may rather say that a lack of the sense of proportion in +morals was a trait of that age, an age of zealots and polemics. + + +XX. + +[Sidenote: Prevalence of the strict Sabbath.] + +[Sidenote: Fuller's Ch. Hist. of Britain, book ix, sect. viii, 20, +21.] + +In such a time Dr. Bownd's book easily captivated the religious +public, and there arose a passion for a stricter Sabbath. According to +Fuller, the Lord's Day, especially in towns, "began to be precisely +kept, people becoming a law to themselves, forbearing such sports as +yet by statute permitted; yea, many rejoicing at their own restraint +herein. On this day the stoutest fencer laid down the buckler; the +most skillful archer unbent the bow, counting all shooting beside the +mark; May-games and morris-dancers grew out of request; and good +reason that bells should be silenced from jingling about men's legs, +if their very ringing in steeples were adjudged unlawful." Some +learned scholars were impressed by Bownd's argument, and others who +did not agree with his conclusions thought it best not to gainsay +them, "because they tended to the manifest advance of religion." And +indeed the new zeal for Sabbath-keeping must have incidentally +promoted morals and good order in so licentious an age. + +[Sidenote: Opposition to Bownd.] + +[Sidenote: Fuller's Church History, book ix, sect. viii, 21.] + +[Sidenote: Note 11.] + +But a violent opposition quickly arose. Some opposed the book as +"galling men's necks with a Jewish yoke against the liberty of +Christians," and many of the clergy of the new high-church type +resented the doctrine of a Christian Sabbath, asserting that it put +"an unequal lustre on the Sunday on set purpose to eclipse all other +holy days to the derogation of the authority of the church." There +were those who asserted that the "brethren," as they styled them, had +brought forth Bownd's book, intending by this "attack from an odd +corner" to retrieve lost ground. The manifest advantage to Puritanism +from the shifting of the ground of debate, aroused Archbishop +Whitgift. In 1599 he made the tactical mistake of ordering the book +called in, and in 1600 Chief-Justice Popham forbade the reprinting of +it. The price of the work was doubled at once, and it was everywhere +sought for, books being "more called on when called in," as Fuller +says. When it could not be had in print, it was transcribed by +enthusiastic admirers and circulated "from friend to friend" in +manuscript. As soon as Whitgift's "head was laid," a new and enlarged +edition was published. + +[Sidenote: Note 12.] + +[Sidenote: 1611.] + +[Sidenote: Note 13.] + +The theory of a Sunday-Sabbath, which from the first was not confined +to the Puritans, permeated English and American thought and life. But +from that time forward the Puritans made rigid Sabbath-keeping the +very mark and password of the faithful. From England the theory spread +northward to Scotland, where it found a congenial soil. The strict +observance of Sunday was embodied in those Laws, Divine, Moral, and +Martial, under which Sir Thomas Dale oppressed Virginia, years before +the earliest Puritan migration carried it to the coast of New England. +On that coast Bownd's Sabbath took on its deepest hue, becoming at +last as grievous an evil, perhaps, as the frivolity it had supplanted. + + +XXI. + +[Sidenote: Effect on Puritanism.] + +The Puritans protesting against Hebraism in vestments, in priesthood, +in liturgy, and in festivals, fell headlong into the Pharisaism of the +rigid Sabbath. History records many similar phenomena. To escape from +the spirit of one's age is difficult for an individual, impossible +perhaps for a sect or party. Nevertheless, the Sabbath agitation had +given a new impulse to the Puritan movement--had, indeed, given it a +positive party cry, and had furnished it with a visible badge of +superior sanctity. + +[Sidenote: The new Puritanism.] + +The Calvinistic controversy which broke out almost simultaneously +with that about the Sabbath and prevailed throughout the reign of +James I, added yet one more issue, by making Puritanism the party of +a stern and conservative orthodoxy, as opposed to the newer +Arminianism which spread so quickly among the High-Church clergy. +From all these fresh developments Puritanism gained in power and +compactness, if it lost something of simplicity and spirituality. +Standing for ultra-Protestantism, for good morals, for an ascetic +Sabbath, for a high dogmatic orthodoxy, Puritanism could not but win +the allegiance of the mass of the English people, and especially of +the middle class. It was this new, compact, austere, dogmatic, +self-confident Puritanism, when it had become a political as well as +a religious movement, that obliterated Laud and Charles and set up +the Commonwealth. And in studying the evolution of this later +Puritanism we have been present at the shaping of New England in Old +England. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 99.] + +Evelyn's Diary, pp. 4, 5; date, 1634: "My father was appointed Sheriff +for Surrey and Sussex before they were disjoyned. He had 116 servants +in liverys, every one livery'd in greene sattin doublets. Divers +gentlemen and persons of quality waited on him in the same garbe and +habit, which at that time (when 30 or 40 was the usual retinue of a +High Sheriff) was esteem'd a great matter.... He could not refuse the +civility of his friends and relations who voluntarily came themselves, +or sent in their servants." Compare Chamberlain's remarks about Sir +George Yeardley, whom he styles "a mean fellow," and says that the +king had knighted him when he was appointed Governor of Virginia, +"which hath set him up so high that he flaunts it up and down the +streets in extraordinary bravery with fourteen or fifteen fair +liveries after him." Domestic Correspondence, James I, No. 110, +Calendar, p. 598. The propriety of keeping so many idle serving men is +sharply called in question in a tract entitled Cyuile and Vncyuile +Life, 1579, and an effort is made to prove the dignity of a serving +man's position, while its decline is confessed in A Health to the +Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen, 1598. Both of these tracts are +reprinted in Inedited Tracts, etc., Roxburghe Library, 1868. The +serving man was not a menial. He rendered personal services to his +master or to guests, he could carve on occasion, and as a successor to +the military retainers of an earlier time he was ready to fight in any +of his master's quarrels; but his principal use was to lend dignity to +the mansion and to amuse the master or his guests with conversation +during lonely hours in the country house. Among the first Jamestown +emigrants were some of these retainers, as we have seen. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 100.] + +The Anatomie of Abuses, by Philip Stubbes, 1583, Pickering's reprint, +pages 16, 17: "It is lawfull for the nobilitie, the gentrie and +magisterie to weare riche attire, euery one in their callyng. The +nobility and gentrie to innoble, garnish, and set forth birthes, +dignities, and estates. The magisterie to dignifie their callynges.... +But now there is suche a confuse mingle mangle of apparell, and suche +preposterous excesse thereof, as euery one is permitted to flaunt it +out in what apparell he lusteth himself, or can get by any kinde of +meanes. So that it is very hard to know who is noble, who is +worshipfull, who is a gentleman, who is not; for you shal haue those +which are neither of the nobilitie, gentilitie nor yeomanrie ... go +daiely in silkes, veluettes, satens, damaskes, taffaties and suche +like; notwithstanding that they be bothe base by birthe, meane by +estate, and seruile by callyng. And this I compte a greate confusion, +and a generall disorder in a Christian common wealth." + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 106.] + +A Brieff Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort, 1564, is the +primary authority. It is almost beyond doubt that Whittingham, Dean of +Durham, a participant in the troubles, wrote the book. The Frankfort +struggles have been discussed recently in Mr. Hinds's The Making of +the England of Elizabeth, but, like all writers on the subject, Hinds +is obliged to depend almost solely on Whittingham's account. The +several volumes of letters from the archives of Zurich, published by +the Parker Society, give a good insight into the forces at work in the +English Reformation. See, for example, in the volume entitled Original +Letters, 1537-1558, that of Thomas Sampson to Calvin, dated +Strasburgh, February 23, 1555, which shows the Puritan movement half +fledged at this early date when Calvin's authoritative advice is +invoked. "The flame is lighted up with increased vehemence amongst us +English. For a strong controversy has arisen, while some desire the +book of reformation of the Church of England to be set aside +altogether, others only deem some things in it objectionable, such as +kneeling at the Lord's Supper, the linen surplice, and other matters +of this kind; but the rest of it, namely, the prayers, scripture +lessons and the form of the administration of baptism and the Lord's +Supper they wish to be retained." + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 106.] + +There are many and conflicting accounts of the origin of the name. In +the Narragansett Club Publications, ii, 197-199, there is an +interesting statement of some of these by the editor of Cotton's +Answer to Roger Williams, in a note. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 111.] + +That the Puritans early made common cause with the suffering tenantry +is not a matter of conjecture. Philip Stubbes, in 1583, in the +Anatomie of Abuses, pp. 126, 127, writes: "They take in and inclose +commons, moores, heathes, and other common pastures, where out the +poore commonaltie, were wont to haue all their forrage and feedyng for +their cattell, and (whiche is more) corne for themselves to liue vpon; +all which are now in most places taken from them, by these greedie +puttockes to the great impouerishyng and vtter beggeryng of many +whole townes and parishes.... For these inclosures bee the causes why +riche men eate vpp poore men, as beastes dooe eate grasse." One might +cite recent economic writers on the effect of inclosures, but the +conservative laments of the antiquary Aubrey, in his Introduction to +the Survey of Wiltshire, written about 1663, give us a nearer and more +picturesque, if less philosophical, view. He says: "Destroying of +Manours began Temp. Hen. VIII., but now common; whereby the mean +People live lawless, no body to govern them, they care for no body, +having no Dependance on any Body. By this Method, and by the Selling +of the Church-Lands, is the Ballance of the Government quite alter'd +and put into the Hands of the common People." Writing from what he had +heard from his grandfather, he says: "Anciently the Leghs i. e. +Pastures were noble large Grounds.... So likewise in his Remembrance +was all between Kington St. Michael and Dracot-Ferne common Fields. +Then were a world of labouring People maintained by the Plough.... +There were no Rates for the Poor in my Grandfather's Days ... the +Church-ale at Whitsuntide did the Business.... Since the Reformation +and Inclosures aforesaid these Parts have swarm'd with poor People. +The Parish of Caln pays to the Poor 500L _per annum_.... Inclosures +are for the private, not for the publick Good. For a Shepherd and his +Dog, or a Milk-Maid, can manage Meadow-Land, that upon arable, +employ'd the Hands of several Scores of Labourers." Miscellanies on +Several Curious Subjects, now first published, etc., 1723, pp. 30-33. +It will fall within the province of another volume of this series to +treat of the systems of landholding brought from England, and I shall +not go further into the subject of inclosures here. A portion of the +agricultural population seemed superfluous in consequence of +inclosures, and colonization was promoted as a means of ridding the +country of the excess of its population. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 112.] + +In the matter of Church government Puritanism passed through three +different periods. In the reign of Elizabeth the Church-Puritan was +mainly Presbyterian under Cartwright's lead. But there was even then a +current that set toward Independency. Separatism was the outward +manifestation of this tendency, and according to Ralegh's estimate, +cited in the text, there were about twenty thousand declared +Separatists in England in 1593. After the suppression of the +presbyteries within the Church in the last years of Elizabeth, and the +crushing out of the Separatists by rigorous persecutions, questions +of the particular form of Church government fell into abeyance among +the Puritans for about forty years. "Indiscriminate anti-prelacy was +the prevailing mood of the English people," says Masson, "and the +distinction between Presbyterianism and Independency was yet caviare +to the general." Life of Milton, ii, 590. Richard Baxter, the Puritan +divine (as quoted by Masson), confesses in 1641 that until that year +he had never thought what Presbytery or Independency was, or ever +spoke with a man who seemed to know it. See also Hanbury's Memorials, +ii, 69. Writers on this period do not seem to recognize the fact that +the two views were in some rivalry among the early Puritans, and that +the theory of the independence of the local church seems to have been +at least foreshadowed in the opinions at Frankfort. But there was a +long generation in which these differences among the Puritans were +forgotten in their life-and-death conflict with the Episcopal party. +Then, as Puritanism came into power, the example of other Protestant +European countries drew England toward Presbyterianism, while the +voice of New England came from over the sea pleading for +Congregationalism. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 123.] + +A letter of Sandys, afterward Archbishop of York, to Bullinger, quoted +by Marsden, Early Puritans, 57, shows that though Puritanism by 1573 +had become something other than it was at Frankfort, it was still +mainly negative. Sandys writes: "New orators are rising up from among +us; foolish young men who despise authority and admit of no superior. +They are seeking the complete overthrow and uprooting of the whole of +our ecclesiastical polity; and striving to shape out for us I know not +what new platform of a church." He gives a summary under nine heads. +The assertion that each parish should have its own "presbytery" and +choose its own minister, and that the judicial laws of Moses were +binding, are the only positive ones. No authority of the magistrate in +ecclesiastical matters, no government of the Church except by +ministers, elders, and deacons, the taking away of all titles, +dignities, lands, and revenues of bishops, etc., from the Church, the +allowing of no ministers but actual pastors, the refusal of baptism to +the children of papists, fill the rest of this summary. One misses +from this skeleton the insistence on Sabbath-keeping, church-going, +"ordinances," and ascetic austerity in morals that afterward became +distinctive traits of the party. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 125.] + +Augustine and other early doctors of the Church held to a +Sunday-Sabbath in the fifth century, basing it largely on grounds +that now seem mystical. Compare Coxe on Sabbath Laws and Sabbath +Duties, 284, note, and Cook's Historical and General View of +Christianity, ii, 301, cited by Coxe. The question was variously +treated during the middle ages, St. Thomas Aquinas and other schoolmen +taking the prevalent modern view that the fourth commandment was +partly moral and partly ceremonial. There is a curious story, for +which I do not know the original authority, of Eustachius, Abbot of +Hay, in the thirteenth century, who on his return from the Holy Land +preached from city to city against buying and selling on Sundays and +saints' days. He had with him a copy of a document dropped from heaven +and found on the altar of St. Simon, on Mount Golgotha. This paper +threatened that if the command were disobeyed it should rain stones +and wood and hot water in the night, and, as if such showers were not +enough, wild beasts were to devour the Sabbath-breakers. That there +was a difference of opinion in that age is shown by the fact that +Roger Bacon, later in the thirteenth century, thought it worth while +to assert that Christians should work and hold fairs on Sunday, while +Saturday was the proper day for rest. He showed no document from +heaven, but, like a true philosopher of that time, the learned friar +appealed to arguments drawn from astrology. Hearne's Remains, ii, 177, +cites Mirandula. Legislation by Parliament regarding Sunday observance +was rare before the Reformation. A statute of 28 Edward III +incidentally excepts Sunday from the days on which wool may be shorn, +and one of 27 Henry VI forbids the keeping of fairs and markets on +Sundays, Good Fridays, and principal festivals except four Sundays in +harvest. In 4 Edward IV a statute was passed forbidding the sale of +shoes on Sundays and certain festivals. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 125.] + +In the "Injunctions by King Edward VI," 1547, Bishop Sparrow's +Collection, edition of 1671, p. 8, there is a remarkable statement of +what may be called the Edwardean view of Sunday as distinguished from +the opinions and practice that had come down from times preceding the +Reformation: "God is more offended than pleased, more dishonoured than +honoured upon the holy-day because of idleness, pride, drunkenness," +etc. The religious and moral duties to which the "holy-day," as it is +called, should be strictly devoted are there specified. But, true to +the position of compromise, halfwayness, and one might add paradox, +which the English Reformation took from the beginning, there is added +in the same paragraph the following: "Yet notwithstanding all Parsons, +Vicars, and Curates, shall teach and declare unto their Parishioners, +that they may with a safe and quiet conscience, in the time of +Harvest, labour upon the holy and festival days and save that thing +which God hath sent. And if for any scrupulosity, or grudge of +conscience, men should superstitiously abstain from working upon those +days, that then they should grievously offend and displease God." See +also "Thacte made for thabrogacion of certayne holy-dayes," in the +reign of Henry VIII, 1536, in the same black-letter collection, p. +167. In this act "Sabboth-day" occurs, but apparently with reference +to the Jewish Sabbath only. "Sonday" is used for Sunday. + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 129.] + +Dr. Bownd's Sabathum Veteris et Novi Testamenti is exceedingly rare. +There is a copy in the Prince Collection of the Boston Public Library. +It is the only one in this country, so far as I can learn. I am under +obligations in several matters to Cox's Literature of the Sabbath +Question, to the same author's Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties, and to +Hessey's Bampton Lectures for 1860. + + +[Sidenote: Note 11, page 131.] + +It is Thomas Rogers, the earliest opponent of the doctrine of Greenham +and Bownd, who sees a deep-laid plot in the publication of their +books. "What the brethren wanted in strength they had in wiliness," he +says. "For while these worthies of our church were employing their +engines and forces partly in defending the present government +ecclesiastical, partly in assaulting the presbytery and new +discipline, even at that very instant the brethren ... abandoned quite +the bulwarks which they had raised and gave out were impregnable: +suffering us to beat them down, without any or very small resistance, +and yet not careless of affairs, left not the wars for all that, but +from an odd corner, and after a new fashion which we little thought of +(such was their cunning), set upon us afresh again by dispersing in +printed books (which for ten years' space before they had been in +hammering among themselves to make them complete) their Sabbath +speculations and presbyterian (that is more than kingly or popely) +directions for the observance of the Lord's Day." Preface to +Thirty-nine Articles, paragraph 20. He also says, with some wit, "They +set up a new idol, their Saint Sabbath." + + +[Sidenote: Note 12, page 132.] + +The doctrine of a strict Sabbath appears to have made no impression in +Scotland until the seventeenth century was well advanced. In the +printed Burgh Records of Aberdeen from 1570 to 1625 there is no +sabbatarian legislation in the proper sense; but there are efforts to +compel the people to suspend buying and selling fish and flesh in the +market, the playing of outdoor games and ninepins, and the selling of +liquors during sermon time only. Take as an example the following +ordinance--as curious for its language as its subject--dated 4th +October, 1598, twenty-four years after Knox's death: + +"Item, The prouest, bailleis, and counsall ratefeis and approves the +statute maid obefoir, bering that na mercatt, nather of fische nor +flesche salbe on the Sabboth day in tyme cumming, in tyme of sermone, +vnder the pane of confiscatioun of the same; and lykvayes ratefeis the +statute maid aganis the playeris in the linkis, and at the kyillis, +during the time of the sermones; ... and that na tavernar sell nor +went any wyne nor aill in tyme cumming in tyme of sermone, ather on +the Sabboth day or vlk dayes, under the pane of ane vnlaw of fourtie +s., to be vpliftit of the contravenar als oft as they be convict." + + +[Sidenote: Note 13, page 132.] + +New England Puritanism took a position more ultra even than that of +Bownd. Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge, Mass., developed from some +Sermons on the Subject a work with the title, Theses Sabbaticae, or the +Doctrine of the Sabbath. After a considerable circulation in +manuscript among New England students of divinity, it was printed at +London in 1650 by request of all the elders of New England. From the +time of Augustine the prevailing theory of advocates of a +Sunday-Sabbath has been that the fourth commandment is partly moral, +partly ceremonial; but Shepard, who does not stick at small logical or +historical difficulties, will have it wholly moral, by which means he +avoids any option regarding the day. The rest of the Sabbath, +according to this authoritative New England treatise, is to be as +strict as it ever was under Jewish law, and is to be rigidly enforced +on the unwilling by parents and magistrates. In the spirit of a +thoroughpaced literalist Shepard argues through fifty pages that the +Sabbath begins in the evening. He admits that only "servile labour" is +forbidden, but he reasons that as "sports and pastimes" are ordained +"to whet on worldly labour," they therefore partake of its servile +character and are not tolerable on the Sabbath. It appears from his +preface that there were Puritans in his time who denied the sabbatical +character of Sunday and spiritualized the commandment. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + +_SEPARATISM AND THE SCROOBY CHURCH._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Importance of the Separatists.] + +To the great brotherhood of Puritans who formed a party within the +church there was added a little fringe of Separatists or "Brownists," +as they were commonly called, who did not stop with rejecting certain +traits of the Anglican service, but spurned the church itself. Upon +these ultraists fell the merciless hand of persecution. They were +imprisoned, hanged, exiled. They were mostly humble people, and were +never numerous; but by their superior boldness in speech and writing, +by their attempts to realize actual church organizations on apostolic +models, they rendered themselves considerable if not formidable. From +this advance guard and forlorn hope of Puritanism, inured to hardship +and the battle front, came at length the little band of New England +pioneers who made a way into the wilderness over the dead bodies of +half their company. The example of these contemned Brownists led to +the Puritan settlement of New England. Their type of ecclesiastical +organization ultimately dominated the Congregationalism of New England +and the nonconformity of the mother country. For these reasons, if +for no other, Brownism, however obscure it may have been, is not a +negligible element in history. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Nonconformity in the Church.] + +The great body of the Puritans seem to have agreed with Bishop Hall +that it was "better to swallow a ceremony than to rend a church," and +they agreed with him in regarding Separatism as criminal. They were, +indeed, too intent on reforming the Church of England to think of +leaving it. They made no scruple of defying ecclesiastical regulations +when they could, but in the moral code of that day schism was the +deadliest of sins. + +[Sidenote: Scrambler, Bishop of Peterborough, to Burghley, 13th April, +1573, in Wright's Elizabeth and her Times.] + +[Sidenote: Rogers's Preface to Articles. Parker Soc. ed., p. 10.] + +In the early part of Elizabeth's reign, before the beginning of the +rule of Whitgift and the High Commission Courts, Puritan divines +slighted or omitted the liturgy in many parishes. This became more +common after the rise of Cartwright and the Presbyterian movement, +about 1570. For example, in the town of Overston, in 1573, there was +no divine service according to the Book of Common Prayer, "but +insteade thereof two sermons be preached" by men whom the bishop had +refused to license. The village of Whiston was also a place of Puritan +assemblage, "where it is their joye," writes the Bishop of +Peterborough, "to have manie owte of divers parishes, principallie +owte of Northampton towne and Overston aforesaid, with other townes +thereaboute, there to receive the sacramentes with preachers and +ministers to their owne liking, and contrarie to the forme prescribed +by the publique order of the realme." Thomas Rogers says, "The +brethren (for so did they style them-selves) would neither pray, nor +say service, nor baptize, nor celebrate the Lord's Supper, nor marry, +nor bury, nor do any other ecclesiastical duty according to law." + +At this time some of the Puritan divines held high positions in the +church. Whittingham, who had been on the Puritan side of the quarrels +in Frankfort, and who had received only a Genevan ordination, +succeeded in holding his deanery of Durham until his death, in 1579. +In 1563 Dr. Turner was sneering at bishops as "white coats" and +"tippett gentlemen," while himself Dean of Durham. + +[Sidenote: The Semi-Separatists.] + +[Sidenote: Bancroft in Barlowe's Svmme and Svbstance.] + +[Sidenote: Heresiography, p. 82.] + +But Elizabeth after a while filled the bishoprics with men to her +liking, whose heavy hands made the lot of Puritans in the church +harder and harder. Many ministers were silenced, but there were many +who, by evasion or by straining their consciences, held their +benefices. Some Puritan clergymen, when they were to preach, preferred +"to walk in the church-yard until sermon time rather than to be +present at public prayer." Some Puritan laymen had their own way of +conforming to the church. "There is a sort of Semi-Separatist," says +Pagitt, as late as 1646, "that will heare our Sermons but not our +Common-prayers; and of these you may see every Sunday in our streets +sitting and standing about our doores; who, when Prayers are done, +rush into our Churches to hear our Sermons." + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Causes of Separatism.] + +[Sidenote: Thomas Scott in Pagitt, 80.] + +[Sidenote: Plimoth Plantation, p. 8.] + +The growth of Separatist churches was due to two causes. An almost +incredible reverence for the letter of the Scriptures had taken the +place of older superstitions. There was a strong tendency to revert to +the stern spirit of the Old Testament and to adopt the external forms +of the New. Religious idealists saw a striking contrast between the +discipline of the primitive and almost isolated bands of enthusiastic +believers in the apostolic time and the all-inclusive parishes of the +hierarchical state church. And in that age of externalism the +difference in organic form between the Anglican church and the little +synagogues of Christian seceders founded by Paul in the Levant weighed +heavily upon the minds of earnest people. It did not occur to them +that this primitive organization was probably brought over from the +neighboring Jewish congregations from which the converts had +withdrawn, and that there might not be any obligation to imitate it +under different skies and in a remote age. The Separatist was an +idealist. "He lives by the aire," said an opponent, "and there he +builds Castles and Churches; none on earth will please him; ... he +must finde out Sir Thomas More's Utopia, or rather Plato's Community, +and bee an Elder there." But Separatism was undoubtedly promoted by +persecution. Bradford says that the sufferings inflicted on them by +the bishops helped some of the Puritans "to see further into things by +the light of the word of God. How not only these base and beggerly +ceremonies were unlawfull, but also that the lordly and tiranous power +of the prelats ought not to be submitted unto." Drawn thus by the +letter of the biblical record, while stung by cruel oppression and +galled by the opposition of the constituted authorities to what they +deemed the truth divine, it is not strange that religious enthusiasts +began to long for societies organized like those of the apostolic age, +from which the profane should be excluded by a strict discipline. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Robert Browne and Brownism.] + +[Sidenote: 1581 to 1586.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +The beginning of Separatism has been commonly attributed to Robert +Browne, a contentious and able advocate of Separatist doctrines. After +a brief and erratic career as an advocate of these opinions, and after +suffering the penalty of his zeal and proving the sincerity of his +belief in thirty-two different prisons, in some of which he could not +see his hand at noonday, Browne at length began to waver--now inclined +to return to the church, now recoiling toward dissent. Worn out in +nerves by controversy and persecution, this eccentric man was so +alarmed by a solemn sentence of excommunication from a bishop, that he +repented and made peace with the English church. He accepted a +benefice, but employed a curate to preach for him. Browne lingered on +to an unhonored age, imperious and contentious, not able to live with +his wife, and held in no reverence by churchmen, while he was despised +by Separatists. He died at eighty, in Northampton jail, to which he +had been carried on a feather bed laid in a cart. The old man had been +committed to prison this thirty-third time in his life for striking a +constable who sought to collect a rate. + +[Sidenote: Rise of Separatism.] + +[Sidenote: Barclay's Inner Life, pp. 13, 53.] + +[Sidenote: Dialogue of 1593 quo. by Waddington.] + +[Sidenote: Bradford's Dialogue.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +[Sidenote: Josias Nichols, The Plea for the Innocent, 1602, in +Hanbury, i. 3.] + +[Sidenote: Stephen Breadwell, 1588, in Dexter, 255.] + +Separatism in some form existed before Browne's zeal made it a thorn +in the side of the bishops. Something like a separation existed in +1567. In 1571 there was an independent church of which we know little +but the pastor's name. Bradford even dates independency back to the +reign of Mary. In truth, the rise of this sect, from which came the +earliest New England colony, appears to be lost in obscurity. +Significant movements are usually cradled in rustic mangers, to which +no learned magi think it worth their while to journey. The beginning +of Separatism was probably in the little conventicles held by devout +Puritans who, in the words of one of their own writers, "met together +to sing a psalm or to talk of God's word." But Browne, so far as we +know, was one of the earliest to organize independent churches, with +officers named and classified after those of the petty hierarchies of +the early Christian congregations, or rather according to such +deductions regarding them as he was able to make from the Epistles of +Paul. Separatism, though it owed something to Browne's activity, was +not founded by him. Browne's labors began about 1581, and his fiery +career as a Brownist had lasted only four or five years when he began +to vacillate. A great part of this time was spent in exile, much of it +in prison, and very little of it about London. But before 1587 London +seems to have been the center of the Separatists, from which they had +"sparsed their companies into severall partes of the Realme." + +[Sidenote: H. M. Dexter's Congregationalism, 255-257.] + +It seems that their rise in London came from the devout meetings of +those who had begun to repudiate the Church of England as +antichristian. Without any officers or organization apparently, these +people, when we first get sight of them, were wont to assemble in the +summer time in the fields about London, sitting down upon a bank while +the Bible was expounded now by one and now by another of the company. +In the winter it was their custom to spend the whole Sunday together +from five o'clock in the morning, eating dinner in company and paying +for it by a collection. They responded in prayer only by spontaneous +groans or sobs, much after the fashion of the early Quakers, +Methodists, and other enthusiasts of a later time. If one of their +members returned to a parish assembly, they pronounced him an apostate +and solemnly delivered him over to Satan until he should repent. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Barrowism.] + +When they began to organize themselves formally into a church the +London Separatists in their turn resorted to the apostolic epistles. +These had already been treated like the magician's bottle that is made +to yield white wine or red at pleasure. From them whatsoever form of +discipline was desired by Anglican, Presbyterian, or Brownist had been +derived, and now a still different discipline was deduced, a mean +betwixt Presbyterian and Brownist theories. This is known now as +Barrowism. It was the form of church government brought by the +Pilgrims to Plymouth, and substantially that which prevailed in New +England throughout the seventeenth century. + +[Illustration: The cradle of the Pilgrims.] + +[Sidenote: Separatists in Amsterdam, 1593.] + +The London Separatists suffered miserably from persecution. Many of +them languished and died in prison. Barrow and Greenwood, their +leaders, were hanged at Tyburn. A part of them migrated to Amsterdam, +while the rest maintained a furtive church in London. Those in +Amsterdam, having no lingering abuses of the English church to reform, +set every man's conscience to watch his neighbor's conduct. Having +seceded from the communion of the Church of England on account of +scandals, they were scandalized with the least variation from their +rigorous standard by any of their own church members, and they were +soon torn asunder with dissensions as the result of this vicariousness +of conscience. The innocent vanity of the pastor's wife who could +never forego a "toppish" hat and high-heeled shoes was the principal +stumbling-block. + +Though Separatism had been almost extirpated from England by the close +of Elizabeth's reign, there remained even yet one vigorous society in +the north which was destined to exert a remarkable influence on the +course of history. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: The cradle of the Pilgrims.] + +On the southern margin of Yorkshire the traveler alights to-day at the +station of Bawtry. It is an uninteresting village, with a rustic inn. +More than a mile to the southward, in Nottinghamshire, lies the +pleasant but commonplace village of Scrooby. About a mile to the north +of Bawtry is Austerfield, a hamlet of brick cottages crowded together +along the road. It has a picturesque little church built in the middle +ages, the walls of which are three feet thick. This church will seat +something more than a hundred people nowadays by the aid of a rather +modern extension. In the seventeenth century it was smaller, and there +was no ceiling. Then one could see the rafters of the roof while +shuddering with cold in the grottolike interior. The country around is +level and unpicturesque. + +[Sidenote: Hunter's Founders of New Plymouth, 24, 25.] + +But one is here in the cradle of great religious movements. In Scrooby +and in Austerfield were born the Pilgrims who made the first +successful settlement in New England. A little to the east lies +Gainsborough, from which migrated to Holland in 1606 the saintly +Separatist John Smyth, who gave form to a great Baptist movement of +modern times. A few miles to the northeast of Bawtry, in Lincolnshire, +lies Epworth, the nest from which the Wesleys issued more than a +hundred years later to spread Methodism over the world. Religious zeal +seems to have characterized the people of this region even before the +Reformation, for the country round about Scrooby was occupied at that +time by an unusual number of religious houses. + +The little Austerfield church and the old church at Scrooby are the +only picturesque or romantic elements of the environment, and on these +churches the Pilgrims turned their backs as though they had been +temples of Baal. In the single street of Austerfield the traveler +meets the cottagers of to-day, and essays to talk with them. They are +heavy and somewhat stolid, like most other rustic people in the north +country, and an accent to which their ears are not accustomed amuses +and puzzles them. No tradition of the Pilgrims lingers among them. +They have never heard that anybody ever went out of Austerfield to do +anything historical. They listen with a bovine surprise if you speak +to them of this exodus, and they refer you to the old clerk of the +parish, who will know about it. The venerable clerk is a striking +figure, not unlike that parish clerk painted by Gainsborough. This +oracle of the hamlet knows that Americans come here as on a +pilgrimage, and he tells you that one of them, a descendant of +Governor Bradford, offered a considerable sum for the disused stone +font at which Bradford the Pilgrim was baptized. But the traveler +turns away at length from the rustic folk of Austerfield and the +beer-drinkers over their mugs in the inn at Bawtry, and the villagers +at Scrooby, benumbed by that sense of utter common-placeness which is +left on the mind of a stranger by such an agricultural community. The +Pilgrims, then, concerning whom poems have been written, and in whose +honor orations without number have been made, were just common country +folk like these, trudging through wheat fields and along the muddy +clay highways of the days of Elizabeth and James. They were just such +men as these and they were not. They were such as these would be if +they were vivified by enthusiasm. We may laugh at superfluous scruples +in rustic minds, but none will smile at brave and stubborn loyalty to +an idea when it produces such steadfast courage as that of the +Pilgrims. + +[Sidenote: Magnalia, Book II, chap. i, p. 2.] + +And yet, when the traveler has resumed his journey, and recalls +Scrooby and Bawtry and Austerfield, the stolid men and gossiping +women, the narrow pursuits of the plowman and the reaper, and +remembers the flat, naked, and depressing landscape, he is beset by +the old skepticism about the coming of anything good out of Nazareth. +Nor is he helped by remembering that at the time of Bradford's +christening at the old stone font the inhabitants of Austerfield are +said to have been "a most ignorant and licentious people," and that +earlier in that same century John Leland speaks of "the meane townlet +of Scrooby." + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: Elder Brewster.] + +But Leland's description of the village suggests the influence that +caused Scrooby and the wheat fields thereabout to send forth, in the +beginning of the seventeenth century and of a new reign, men capable +of courage and fortitude sufficient to make them memorable, and to +make these three townlets places of pilgrimage in following centuries. + +[Sidenote: Itinerary, i, 36, in Hunter's Founders, p. 20.] + +[Sidenote: Bradford, 410.] + +[Sidenote: _Supra_, Book I, chap. ii, iii.] + +[Sidenote: Plimoth Plantations, 411.] + +"In the meane townlet of Scrooby, I marked two things"--it is Leland +who writes--"the parish church not big but very well builded; the +second was a great manor-place, standing within a moat, and longing to +the Archbishop of York." This large old manor-place he describes with +its outer and inner court. In this manor-place, about half a century +after Leland saw it, there lived William Brewster. He was a man of +education, who had been for a short time in residence at Cambridge; he +had served as one of the under secretaries of state for years; had +been trusted beyond all others by Secretary Davison, his patron; and, +when Elizabeth disgraced Davison, in order to avoid responsibility for +the death of Mary of Scotland, Brewster had been the one friend who +clung to the fallen secretary as long as there was opportunity to do +him service. Making no further effort to establish himself at court, +Brewster went after a while "to live in the country in good esteeme +amongst his freinds and the good gentle-men of those parts, espetially +the godly and religious." His abode after his retirement was the old +manor-place now destroyed, but then the most conspicuous building at +Scrooby. It belonged in his time to Sir Samuel Sandys, the elder +brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, whose work as the master spirit in the +later history of the Virginia Company has already been recounted. At +Scrooby Brewster succeeded his father in the office of "Post," an +office that obliged him to receive and deliver letters for a wide +district of country, to keep relays of horses for travelers by post on +the great route to the north, and to furnish inn accommodations. In +the master of the post at Scrooby we have the first of those +influences that lifted a group of people from this rustic region into +historic importance. He had been acquainted with the great world, and +had borne a responsible if not a conspicuous part in delicate +diplomatic affairs in the Netherlands. At court, as at Scrooby, he was +a Puritan, and now in his retirement his energies were devoted to the +promotion of religion. He secured earnest ministers for many of the +neighboring parishes. But that which he builded the authorities tore +down. Whitgift was archbishop, and the High Commission Courts were +proceeding against Puritans with the energy of the Spanish +Inquisition. "The godly preachers" about him were silenced. The +people who followed them were proscribed, and all the pains and +expense of Brewster and his Puritan friends in establishing religion +as they understood it were likely to be rendered futile by the +governors of the church. "He and many more of those times begane to +looke further into things," says Bradford. Persecution begot +Separatism. The theory was the result of conditions, as new theories +are wont to be. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: The Scrooby Church.] + +[Sidenote: Magnalia, Book ii, c. i, 2.] + +Here, as elsewhere, the secession appears to have begun with meetings +for devotion. By this supposition we may reconcile two dates which +have been supposed to conflict, conjecturing that in 1602, when +Brewster had lived about fifteen years in the old manor-house, his +neighbors, who did not care to attend the ministry of ignorant and +licentious priests, began to spend whole Sundays together, now in one +place and now in another, but most frequently in the old manor-house +builded within a moat, and reached by ascending a flight of stone +steps. Here, Brewster's hospitality was dispensed to them freely. They +may or may not have been members of the Separatist church at +Gainsborough, as some have supposed. It was not until 1606 that these +people formed the fully organized Separatist church of Scrooby. It was +organized after the Barrowist pattern that had originated in +London--it was after a divine pattern, according to their belief. +Brewster, the nucleus of the church, became their ruling elder. + +[Sidenote: The ruling elder.] + +[Sidenote: Bradford's Plimoth Plantation, 408-414.] + +[Sidenote: Hunter's Founders, _passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Winsor's Elder William Brewster, a pamphlet.] + +[Sidenote: F. B. Dexter in Narrative and Crit. Hist., iii, 257-282.] + +It was in these all-day meetings at the old manor-house that the +Separatist rustics of Scrooby were molded for suffering and endeavor. +The humble, modest, and conscientious Brewster was the king-post of +the new church--the first and longest enduring of the influences that +shaped the character of these people in England, Holland, and America. +Brewster could probably have returned to the court under other +auspices after Davison's fall, but as master of the post at Scrooby, +then as a teacher and as founder of a printing office of prohibited +English books in Leyden, and finally as a settler in the wilderness, +inuring his soft hands to rude toils, until he died in his cabin an +octogenarian, he led a life strangely different from that of a +courtier. But no career possible to him at court could have been so +useful or so long remembered. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: John Robinson.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +But Brewster was not the master spirit. About the time the Separatists +of Scrooby completed their church organization, in 1606, there came to +it John Robinson. He had been a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, +and a beneficed clergyman of Puritan views. He, too, had been slowly +propelled to Separatist opinion by persecution. For fourteen years +before the final migration he led the Pilgrims at Scrooby and Leyden. +Wise man of affairs, he directed his people even in their hard +struggle for bread in a foreign country. He was one of the few men, in +that age of debate about husks and shells, who penetrated to those +teachings concerning character and conduct which are the vital and +imperishable elements of religion. Even when assailed most roughly in +debate he was magnanimous and forbearing. He avoided the bigotry and +bitterness of the early Brownists, and outgrew as years went on the +narrowness of rigid Separatism. He lived on the best terms with the +Dutch and French churches. He opposed rather the substantial abuses +than the ceremonies of the Church of England, and as life advanced he +came to extend a hearty fellowship and communion to good men in that +church. Had it been his lot to remain in the national church and rise, +as did his opponent, Joseph Hall, to the pedestal of a bishopric or to +other dignity, he would have been one of the most illustrious divines +of the age--wanting something of the statesmanly breadth of Hooker, +but quite outspreading and overtopping the Whitgifts, Bancrofts, and +perhaps even the Halls. Robert Baillie, who could say many hard things +against Separatists, is forced to confess that "Robinson was a man of +excellent parts, and the most learned, polished, and modest spirit +that ever separated from the Church of England"; and long after his +death the Dutch theologian Hornbeeck recalls again and again his +integrity, learning, and modesty. + +Shall we say that when subjected to this great man's influence the +rustics of Scrooby and Bawtry and Austerfield were clowns no longer? +Perhaps we shall be truer to the probabilities of human nature if we +conclude that Robinson was able to mold a few of the best of them to +great uses, and that these became the significant digits which gave +value to the ciphers. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 146.] + +The eccentricities, moral and mental, of Browne were a constant +resource of those who sought to involve all Separatists in his +disgrace. Odium has always been a more effective weapon than argument +in a theological controversy. Browne's enemies alleged that even while +on the gridiron of persecution his conduct had not been free from +moral obliquity. I have not been able to see Bernard's charges on this +score, but John Robinson, in his Justification, etc. (1610), parries +the thrust in these words: "Now as touching Browne, it is true as Mr. +B[ernard] affirmeth, that as he forsook the Lord so the Lord forsook +him in his way; ... as for the wicked things (which Mr. B. affirmeth) +_he did in the way_ it may well be as he sayeth, ... as the more like +he was to returne to his proper centre the Church of England, where he +should be sure to find companie ynough in any wickednesse." Edition of +1639, p. 50. One of the most learned accounts of Browne is to be found +in H. M. Dexter's Congregationalism, the lecture on Robert Browne. It +is always easy to admire Dr. Dexter's erudition, but not so easy to +assent to his conclusions. See also Pagitt's Heresiography, p. 56 and +_passim_; Fuller's Church History, ix, vi, 1-7; and Hanbury's +Memorials, p. 18 and following. + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 146.] + +John Robinson, in Justification of Separation from the Church of +England, p. 50, edition of 1639, says: "It is true that Boulton was +(though not the first in that way) an elder of a Separatist church in +the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's dayes, and falling from his holy +profession recanted the same at Paul's Crosse and afterwards hung +himself as Judas did." Compare Cotton's The Way of the Congregationall +Churches Cleared, p. 4, and various intimations in Hanbury's +Memorials, which imply the existence of Independent congregations in +London and elsewhere in the early years of Elizabeth's reign. But +Hanbury's handling of the valuable material he collected with +commendable assiduity is sometimes so clumsy that the reader is +obliged to grope for facts bearing upon most important questions. One +gets from Hanbury's notes and some older publications a vague notion +that the Flemish Protestants, recently settled in England in great +numbers, exerted an influence in favor of Independency. Robert Browne +began his secession in Norwich, a place where the people from the Low +Countries were nearly half the population, and Browne was even said to +have labored among the Dutch first. Fuller, ix, sec. vi, 2. + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 156.] + +Robinson's character may be judged from his works. His good qualities +are very apparent in the wise and tender letters addressed to the +Pilgrims when they were leaving England and after their arrival at +Plymouth, which will be found in Bradford's Plimoth Plantations, 63, +64, 163. See Bradford's character of him, ibid., 17-19. See also +Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 473-482. Ainsworth's tribute is in +Hanbury's Memorials, 95. See also Winslow's Brief Narration in Young's +Chronicles, 379. George Sumner, in 3d Massachusetts Historical +Collections, ix, has a paper giving the result of his investigations +in Leyden. He quotes Hornbeeck as saying, twenty-eight years after +Robinson's death, that he was the best of all the exiles as well as +the most upright, learned, and most modest. Hornbeeck's words are: +"Optimus inter illos." "Vir supra reliquos probus atque eruditus." +"Doctissimi ac modestissimi omnium separatistorum." + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD. + +_THE PILGRIM MIGRATIONS._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Accession of James I.] + +[Sidenote: Neal, ii, 28. Compare Burns's Prel. Diss. to Wodrow, +lxxiv.] + +The accession of James of Scotland to the English throne in 1603 +raised the hopes of the Puritans. James had said, in 1590: "As for our +neighbour kirk of England, their service is an ill-said masse in +English; they want nothing of the masse but the liftings." Later, when +the prospect of his accession to the English throne was imminent, +James had spoken with a different voice, but the Puritans remembered +his lifelong familiarity with Presbyterian forms, and his strongly +expressed satisfaction with the Scottish Kirk. They met him on his way +to London with a petition for modifications of the service. This was +known as the Millinary Petition, because it was supposed to represent +the views of about one thousand English divines. + +[Sidenote: Hampton Court conference.] + +[Sidenote: Svmme and Svbstance, _passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Prel. Diss. to Wodrow, lxxiv.] + +[Sidenote: Ch. Hist., x, vii, 30.] + +[Sidenote: Nugae Antiquae., i, 181.] + +In January, 1604, the king held a formal conference at Hampton Court +between eleven of the Anglican party on one side, nine of them being +bishops, and four Puritan divines, representing the petitioners. +Assuming at first the air of playing the arbiter, James, who dearly +loved a puttering theological debate, could not refrain from taking +the cause of the churchmen out of their hands and arguing it himself. +The reports of the conference are most interesting as showing the +paradoxical qualities of James, who, by his action at this meeting, +unwittingly made himself a conspicuous figure in the history of +America. The great churchmen were surprised at the display made by the +king of dialectic skill. They held Scotch learning in some contempt, +and were amazed that one bred among the "Puritans" should know how to +handle questions of theology so aptly. James, though he had declared +the Church of Scotland "the sincerest kirk in the world" because it +did not keep Easter and Yule as the Genevans did, now had the face to +assure the prelates that he had never believed after he was ten years +old what he was taught in Scotland. His speeches in the conference are +marked by ability, mingled with the folly which vitiated all his +qualities. Quick at reply and keen in analysis, he even shows +something like breadth of intelligence, or at least intellectual +toleration, but without ever for a moment evincing any liberality of +feeling. His manifest cleverness is rendered futile by his narrow and +ridiculous egotism, his arrogance in the treatment of opponents, and +his coarse vulgarity in expression. "In common speaking as in his +hunting," says Fuller, "he stood not on the cleanest but nearest way." +The Puritans were no more able to answer the arguments of the king +than was AEsop's lamb to make reply to the wolf. Laying down for his +fundamental maxim "No bishop, no king," he drew a picture of the +troubles that would beset him when "Jack and Tom and Will and Dick" +should meet and censure the king and his council. He would have no +such assemblage of the clergy until he should grow fat and pursy and +need trouble to keep him in breath, he said. It could not occur to his +self-centered mind that so grave a question was not to be settled +merely by considering the ease and convenience of the sovereign. "He +rather usede upbraidinges than argumente," says Harrington, who was +present. He bade the Puritans "awaie with their snivellinge," and, in +discussing the surplice, made an allusion that would be deemed a +profanation by reverent churchmen of the present time. + +[Sidenote: The king and the bishops.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Nugae Antiquae, ii, 25, 26.] + +With characteristic pedantry he spoke part of the time in Latin, and +his clever refutation of the hapless Puritans sounded like the wisdom +of God to the anxious bishops. In spite of the downright scolding and +vulgar abuse with which the king flavored his orthodoxy, the aged +Whitgift declared that undoubtedly his Majesty spoke by the special +assistance of God's Spirit; but one of the worldly bystanders +ventured, in defiance of the episcopal dictum, to think that whatever +spirit inspired the king was "rather foul-mouthed." Bancroft, Bishop +of London, theatrically fell on his knees and solemnly protested that +his heart melted within him with joy that Almighty God of his singular +mercy had given them such a king "as since Christ's time the like +hath not been seen." The king in his turn was naturally impressed with +the sagacity of a bishop who could so devoutly admire his Majesty's +ability, and, when soon afterward a fresh access of paralysis carried +off Whitgift, it was not surprising that Bancroft should be translated +from London to Canterbury over the heads of worthier competitors. From +the moment of Bancroft's accession to the primacy the lot of the +Puritans and Separatists became harder, for he plumed himself +doubtless on being the originator of the high-church doctrine, and he +was a man whose harsh energy seems not to have been tempered by an +intimate piety like that of Whitgift. + +[Sidenote: Results.] + +[Sidenote: Svmme and Svbstance, 35.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Bacon's Certain Considerations touching the better +Pacification of the Church of England.] + +When James rose from his chair at the close of the debate on the +second day he said, "I shall make them conform themselves, or I will +harry them out of this land, or else do worse"; and he wrote to a +friend boasting that he had "peppered the Puritans soundly." But the +king had missed, without knowing it, the greatest opportunity of his +reign--an opportunity for conciliating or weakening the Puritan +opposition, and consolidating the church and his kingdom. James could +think of nothing but his own display of cleverness and browbeating +arrogance in a dispute with great divines like Reynolds and Chaderton. +The conference had been for him a recreation not much more serious +than stag-hunting. That it was pregnant with vast and far-reaching +results for good and evil in England and the New World he, perhaps, +did not dream. By his narrow and selfish course at this critical +moment he may be said to have sealed the fate of his son, if not the +doom of his dynasty; and his clever folly gave fresh life to the +bitter struggle between Anglican and Puritan which resulted in the +peopling of New England a quarter of a century afterward. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: The storm of persecution.] + +[Sidenote: Bacon's Observation on a Libel.] + +Every proscription of the Puritans within the church was accompanied +by a crusade against the Brownists without, who were counted sinners +above all other men. Though Ralegh in 1593 had estimated the Brownists +at twenty thousand, they were by this time in consequence of +oppression "about worn out," as Bacon said. Upon those who remained +the new persecution broke with untempered severity. Badgered on every +side by that vexatious harrying which King James and his ecclesiastics +kept up according to promise, the little congregation at Scrooby in +1607 resolved to flee into Holland, where they would be strangers to +the speech and to the modes of getting a living, but where they might +worship God in extemporary prayers under the guidance of elders of +their own choice without fear of fines and prisons. + +[Sidenote: Toleration in the Low Countries.] + +[Sidenote: Errours and Induration, p. 27.] + +That which is most honorable to the Low Countries, from a historical +point of view, namely, that their cities were places of refuge for +oppressed consciences, was esteemed odious and highly ridiculous in +the seventeenth century. In one of the plays of that time there is a +humorous proposition to hold a consultation about "erecting four new +sects of religion in Amsterdam." The Dutch metropolis was called a +cage of unclean birds, and a French prelate contemned it as "a common +harbor of all opinions and heresies." At a later period Edward +Johnson, the rather bloodthirsty Massachusetts Puritan, inveighs +against "the great mingle mangle of religion" in Holland, and like a +burlesque prophet shrieks, "Ye Dutch, come out of your hodge podge!" +Robert Baylie, in a sermon before the House of Lords as late as 1645, +says of the toleration by the Dutch, that "for this one thing they +have become infamous in the Christian world." + +[Sidenote: Flight of the Pilgrims.] + +To the asylum offered by the Low Countries the Scrooby Separatists +resolved to flee. The pack of harriers let loose by James and Bancroft +were in full cry. The members of the Scrooby church found themselves +"hunted and persecuted on every side," having their houses watched +night and day, so that all their sufferings in times past "were but as +flea bitings in comparison." But the tyranny that made England +intolerable did its best to render flight impossible. In various +essays to escape, the Separatists were arrested and stripped of what +valuables they had, while their leaders were cast into prison for +months at a time. + +[Sidenote: The Pilgrims in Amsterdam.] + +[Sidenote: Bradford's Plimoth Plantation 16.] + +At length by one means or another the members of this battered little +community got away and met together in Amsterdam. To plain north +country folk this was indeed a strange land, and one can see in the +vivid and eloquent language of Bradford of Austerfield, who was a +young man when he crossed the German Ocean, the memory of the +impressions which these cities of the Low Countries made on their +rustic minds. But "it was not longe before they saw the grimme and +grisly face of povertie coming upon them like an armed man, with whom +they must bukle and incounter." + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Removal to Leyden.] + +[Sidenote: Bradford's Plimouth Plantation.] + +[Sidenote: Winslow's Relations.] + +Robinson discovered that he was not of a piece with those Separatists +who had preceded him to Amsterdam. In one division of these, questions +of whalebone in bodices, of high-heeled shoes and women's hats, +distracted scrupulous minds. In the other, which came from the same +part of England as Robinson's church, the agitations were of a +theological nature. Questions about the baptism of infants and the +inherent righteousness of man and the portion of his nature that +Christ derived from his mother, with discussions of the right of a man +to be a magistrate and a church member at the same time, were seething +in the heated brain of the scrupulous but saintly pastor. Robinson saw +that these controversies would involve the Scrooby church if it +remained in Amsterdam. In Robinson the centrifugal force of Separatism +had already spent itself, and his practical wisdom had set bounds to +the course of his logic. To leave the Dutch metropolis for a smaller +place was to reduce the Scrooby exiles to still deeper poverty, but +nevertheless the Pilgrims fled from discord as they had fled from +persecution, and removed to the university city of Leyden, called by +its admirers "the Athens of the Occident." After their departure +English Separatism in Amsterdam went on tearing itself to pieces in a +sincere endeavor to find ultimate theological truth, but Robinson's +people in spite of their poverty were united, and were honored by +those among whom they sojourned. Others, hearing of their good report, +came to them from England, and the exiled church of Leyden was fairly +prosperous. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Danger of extinction.] + +But when ten years of exile had passed the outlook was not a pleasant +one. The life in Leyden was so hard that many chose to return to their +own land, preferring English prisons to liberty at so dear a rate. The +"tender hearts of many a loving father and mother" were wounded to see +children growing prematurely decrepit under the weight of hard and +incessant toil; "the vigor of Nature being consumed in the very bud as +it were." Some of the young people were contaminated by the +dissoluteness of the city, others joined the Dutch army or made long +voyages at sea, acquiring habits very foreign to the strictness of +their parents. The result of a contest between the rigid Puritanism of +the little church and the laxity prevalent in Holland was not to be +doubted. Human nature can not remain always at concert pitch. +Intermarriages with the Dutch had already begun, and all that was +peculiar in the English community was about to be swallowed up and +lost forever in the great current of Dutch life which flowed about it. + +[Sidenote: Emigration planned.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Winslow in Young, 387.] + +Puritanism was in its very nature aggressive, even meddlesome. It was +not possible for a Puritan church, led by such men as Robinson, and +Brewster, and Carver, and Bradford, and Winslow, to remain content +where national prejudices and a difference in language barred the way +to the exertion of influence on the life about them. With destruction +by absorption threatening their church, these leaders conceived the +project of forming a new state where they "might, with the liberty of +a good conscience, enjoy the pure Scripture worship of God without the +mixture of human inventions and impositions; and their children after +them might walk in the holy ways of the Lord." + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Puritans and American settlements.] + +[Sidenote: Waddington's Cong. Hist., ii, 113, 114.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +What suggested in 1617 the thought of migration to America we do not +know. Just twenty years earlier, in 1597, some imprisoned Brownists +had petitioned the Privy Council that they might be allowed to settle +"in the province of Canada," an indefinite term at that time. Francis +Johnson with three others went out in that same year to look at the +land. The voyage was an unlucky one, and the settlement of Johnson as +pastor of the church in Amsterdam was the result. The persecutions +which followed the accession of Bancroft to the archbishopric had +started as early as 1608 a widespread agitation among the Puritans in +favor of emigration to Virginia, but, when only a few had got away, +the primate secured a proclamation preventing their escape from the +means of grace provided for them in Courts of High Commission. + +[Sidenote: Condition of Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +[Sidenote: Inventory of books.] + +[Sidenote: Winsor's pamphlet on Elder Brewster.] + +The year 1617, in which the agitation for emigration began among the +Pilgrims, was the year after Dale's return with highly colored reports +of the condition of the Virginia colony. It is noticeable that among +the books owned by Elder Brewster at his death was a copy of +Whitaker's Good Newes from Virginia, published in 1613. Whitaker was +minister at Henrico in Virginia, and was the son of a Puritan divine +of eminence who was master of St. John's College, Cambridge. It is +possible that he was known to Brewster, who had been at Cambridge, or +to Robinson, who had resigned a fellowship there to become a +Separatist. Whitaker himself was Puritan enough to discard the +surplice. His Good Newes is an earnest plea for the support of the +colony for religious reasons. "This plantation which the divell hath +so often troden downe," he says, "is revived and daily groweth to more +and hopeful successe." At the very time when the Pilgrims first +thought of migrating there was beginning a new and widespread interest +in Virginia. This was based partly on religious enthusiasm, such as +Whitaker's book was meant to foster, and partly on the hope of new and +strange commodities, particularly silk. Even this silk illusion may +have had its weight in a secondary way with the Leyden people, for +Bradford, afterward governor at Plymouth, was a silk-weaver in Leyden, +and there were two books on silkworms in Brewster's library at his +death. + +[Sidenote: Alternatives.] + +To European eyes all America was one; even to-day the two Americas are +hardly distinguished by most people in Europe. The glowing account of +Guiana given by Ralegh helped to feed the new desire for an American +home; and it was only after serious debate that North America was +chosen, as more remote from the dreaded Spaniard and safer from +tropical diseases. One can hardly imagine what American Puritanism +would have become under the skies of Guiana. Not only did the Pilgrims +hesitate regarding their destination, but there was a choice of +nationalities to be made. England had not been a motherly mother to +these outcast children, and there was question of settling as English +subjects in America, or becoming Dutch colonists there. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Application to Sandys.] + +[Sidenote: Hunter's Founders of New Plymouth, pp. 22, 23.] + +The Pilgrims preferred to be English, notwithstanding all. But they +wished to stipulate with England for religious liberty. In this matter +they had recourse to Sir Edwin Sandys, the one man who would probably +be both able and willing to help them. Brewster had lived, as we have +seen, in an old episcopal manor at Scrooby. Sandys, Archbishop of +York, had transferred this manor by a lease to his eldest son, Sir +Samuel Sandys, who was Brewster's landlord and brother of Sir Edwin +Sandys. Of Sir Edwin the great liberal parliamentary statesman, Fuller +says, "He was right-handed to any great employment." In 1617 he was +already the most influential of the progressive leaders of the +Virginia Company, its acting though not yet its nominal head, and in +1619 he was elected governor of the Company. Brewster's +fellow-secretary under Davison was a chosen friend of Sandys, and, in +view of both these connections, we may consider it almost certain that +the two were not strangers. To Sir Edwin Sandys was due much of the +new interest in Virginia. He and his group seem to have been already +striving to shape the colony into a liberal state. + +[Sidenote: Failure to secure formal toleration.] + +[Sidenote: Bacon's Advice to Villiers.] + +[Sidenote: Archdale's Carolina, 26.] + +To meet the views of the Leyden people, Sandys endeavored by the +intervention of a more acceptable courtier to gain assurance from the +king, under the broad seal, that their religion should be tolerated if +they migrated to Virginia. But James's peculiar conscience recoiled +from this. He intimated that he would wink at their practices but he +would not tolerate them by public act. And, indeed, the Pilgrims +reflected afterward that "a seale as broad as the house flore would +not serve the turne" of holding James to his promise. At the king's +suggestion the archbishops were applied to, but neither would they +formally approve such an arrangement. Nor can one wonder at their +unwillingness, since the most profound, liberal, and far-seeing +thinker of that age, Lord Bacon himself, was so far subject to the +prejudices of his time that he could protest against allowing heretics +to settle a colony, and could support his position by a mystical +argument fit to be advanced by the most fantastic theologian. "It will +make schism and rent in Christ's coat, which must be seamless," he +says. He even goes so far as to group Separatists with outlaws and +criminals, and to advise that if such should transplant themselves to +the colonies they should be "sent for back upon the first notice," for +"such persons are not fit to lay the foundation of a new colony." Much +more fit than is a speculative philosopher to draw the lines on which +practical undertakings are to be carried forward. The transplanting of +English speech and institutions to America would have languished as +French colonization did, if none but orthodox settlers had been +allowed to fell trees and build cabins in the forest. Ever since the +age of stone hatchets colony planters have been drawn from the ranks +of the uneasy. An early Quaker governor of South Carolina puts the +matter less elegantly but more justly than Bacon when he says: "It is +stupendious to consider, how passionate and preposterous zeal, not +only vails but stupefies oftentimes the Rational Powers: For cannot +Dissenters kill Wolves and Bears as well as Churchmen?" + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Relations with the Virginia Company.] + +[Sidenote: MS. Rec. Va. Co., Feb. 2, 1620.] + +[Sidenote: Winslow's Briefe Narration, Young, 383.] + +The liberal and practical mind of Sir Edwin Sandys harbored none of +the scruples of Bacon, and his more wholesome conscience knew +nothing of the fine distinctions of James and the archbishops +between formal toleration and a mere winking at irregularities. He +embraced the cause of the Pilgrims and became their steadfast +friend, passing through the Virginia Company successively two +charters in their behalf, and the general order which allowed the +leaders of "particular plantations"--that is, of such plantations as +the Leyden people and others at that time proposed to make--to +associate the sober and discreet of the plantation with them to make +laws, orders, and constitutions not repugnant to the laws of +England. This was a wide door opening toward democratic government. +The patent given to the Pilgrims was also a liberal one, and it was +even proposed to put into their hands a large sum of money +contributed anonymously for the education of Indian children, but to +this it was objected that the newcomers would lack the confidence of +the savages. One of the Virginia Company, possibly Sandys himself, +lent to the Leyden people three hundred pounds without interest for +three years. When we consider that the Pilgrims had to pay in their +first year of settlement thirty and even fifty per cent, interest on +their debts, and that this three hundred pounds, the use of which +they received without interest, would be equal in purchasing power +to five or six thousand dollars of our money, we may readily believe +that this loan and the semi-independence offered them under their +"large patent" from the company, were the considerations that +decided them in favor of emigration after the English Government had +refused a guarantee of toleration, and the Dutch Government had +declined to assure them of protection against England. + +[Sidenote: Authors of the Plymouth Government.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +That group of liberal English statesmen who were charged with keeping +"a school of sedition" in the courts of the Virginian Company founded +the two centers of liberal institutions in America. The Earl of +Southampton, the Ferrars, Sir John Danvers, and above all and more +than all, Sir Edwin Sandys, were the fathers of representative +government in New England by the charter of February 2, 1620, as they +had been of representative government in Virginia by the charter of +November 13, 1618. When the Pilgrims found themselves, upon landing, +too far north to use their "large patent" from the Virginia Company, +they organized a government on the lines laid down in the general +order of the company. The government established by them in their +famous Compact was precisely the provisional government which the +Virginia Company in the preceding February had given them liberty to +found "till a form of government be here settled for them." Under this +compact they proceeded to confirm the election of the governor, +already chosen under the authority derived from the charter, now +invalid. + +[Sidenote: Charges against Sandys.] + +[Sidenote: Duke of Manchester, papers, Royal Hist. MSS. Comm. viii, +II, 45.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +The enemies of Sir Edwin Sandys did not fail to make use of his +friendship for the Leyden people to do him injury. It was afterward +charged that he was opposed to monarchical government, and that he had +moved the Archbishop of Canterbury "to give leave to the Brownists and +Separatists to go to Virginia, and designed to make a free popular +state there, and himself and his assured friends were to be the +leaders." That Sandys thought of emigration is hardly probable, but he +succeeded in establishing two popular governments in America which +propagated themselves beyond all that he could have hoped to achieve. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: The farewell to Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Plimoth Plantation, 59.] + +"Small things," wrote Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln in the first +months of the Massachusetts settlement--"small things in the beginning +of natural or politic bodies are as remarkable as greater in bodies +full grown." The obscure events we have recited above are capital +because they had a deciding influence on the fate of the Pilgrim +settlement. It is not within our purpose to tell over again the +pathetic story of that brave departure of the younger and stronger of +the Pilgrims from Leyden to make the first break into the wilderness, +but courage and devotion to an idea are not common; courage and +devotion that bring at last important results are so rare that the +student of history, however little disposed to indulge sentiment, +turns in spite of himself to that last all-night meeting in Pastor +Robinson's large house in the Belfry Lane at Leyden. "So," says +Bradford, as if penning a new holy scripture, "they lefte that goodly +and pleasante citie, which had been ther resting place near 12 years; +but they knew they were pilgrimes and looked not much on those things, +but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest cuntrie and +quieted their spirits." Nor is it easy to pass over the solemn parting +on the quay at Delft Haven, where, as the time of the tide forced the +final tearful separation, while even the Dutch spectators wept in +sympathy, the voice of the beloved Robinson in a final prayer was +heard and the whole company fell upon their knees together for the +last time. + +[Sidenote: Robinson's influence.] + +[Sidenote: Winslow's Briefe Narration, Young, 397.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +These things hardly pertain, perhaps, to a history of life such as +this. It is with the influences that are to mold the new life while it +is plastic that we are concerned. Chief of these is Robinson himself, +a Moses who was never to see, even from a mountain top, the Canaan to +which he had now led his people. He must stay behind with the larger +half of the church. Rising to the occasion, his last words to this +little company are worthy his magnanimous soul. He eloquently charged +them "before God and his blessed angels to follow him no further than +he followed Christ." ... He was confident "the Lord had more truth and +light to break forth out of his holy word." In whatever sense we take +them these were marvelous words in the seventeenth century. Robinson +understood the progressive nature of truth as apprehended by the human +mind in a way that makes him seem singularly modern. In the same +address he declared it "not possible that ... full perfection of +knowledge should break forth at once." He bade them not to affect +separation from the Puritans in the Church of England, but "rather to +study union than division." + +Admirable man! Free from pettiness and egotism. Fortunate man, who, +working in one of the obscurest and dustiest corners of this noisy and +self-seeking world, succeeded in training and sending out a company +that diffused his spirit and teachings into the institutions and +thoughts of a great people! + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: The landing.] + +[Sidenote: Morton's Memorial, 6th edition, p. 22, note.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Asher's History of W. I. Company in Bibl. Essay.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +On a chain of slender accidents hung the existence of New England. Had +the claims of Guiana prevailed, had the tempting offers of the Dutch +changed the allegiance of the Robinsonian Independents, had the +Mayflower reached her destination in what is now New Jersey, the +current of American history would not have flowed as it has. A South +American New England, a Dutch New England, or a non-peninsular +community of English Puritans west of the Hudson with good wheat +fields and no fisheries or foreign trade, would have been different in +destiny from what we call New England, and its influence on events +and national character could not have been the same. It will always +remain doubtful whether or not Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, +was bribed by the Dutch, as the Plymouth people came to believe. +Nothing could be more probable in view of the general bad character of +the seamen of that time and the eagerness of one political party in +Holland to secure a foothold for the Dutch in America; but whether +Jones, who seems to have borne a bad reputation, was bribed, or, as he +pretended, became entangled in the shoals of Cape Cod and turned back +in real despair of finding his way, is of no moment. He turned back +and came to anchor in Provincetown Harbor. Here the threats of the +brutal seamen, unwilling to go farther, and the clamor of the +overcrowded and sea-weary passengers did the rest. To continue longer +closely cabined in the little ship was misery and perhaps death. Here +was land, and that was enough. And so, after exploration of the whole +coast of Cape Cod Bay, the place already named Plymouth on John +Smith's map was selected for a settlement. Here the landing was made +on the 10th of November, O.S., 1620. + +[Sidenote: Elements of New England.] + +Camden has preserved to us an old English saying accepted in the days +of the Pilgrims, to the effect that "a barren country is a great whet +to the industry of a people." It was the wedding of an austere creed +to an austere soil under an austere sky that gave the people of New +England their marked character, and the severe economic conditions +imposed by the soil and climate were even more potent than Puritanism +in producing the traits that go to make up the New England of history. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: Earlier attempts to colonize New England.] + +The unwise management that ruined nearly all projects for colonization +in that age and that produced such disasters in Virginia, had defeated +every earlier attempt to plant English people on the New England +coast. Gosnold had taken a colony to Elizabeth Island in Buzzard's Bay +in 1602, but the men went back in the ship in order to share the +profit of a cargo of sassafras. Captain George Popham was the head of +a party that undertook to colonize the coast of Maine in 1607, but +having suffered "extreme extremities" during the winter, the colonists +returned the following year. In 1615 Captain John Smith himself set +out with sixteen men, only to be taken by a French privateer. These +and other attempts ending in failure, and many disastrous trading +voyages, led to a belief that the Indian conjurers, who were known to +be the devil's own, had laid a spell on the northern coast to keep the +white people away. This enchanted land might long have lain waste if +Captain Jones of the Mayflower, sailing to Hudson River or the region +south of it, had not run foul of the shoals of Cape Cod. + +[Illustration: Coast explored by the Pilgrims.] + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: Sufferings at Plymouth.] + +The Pilgrims suffered, like their predecessors, from the prevailing +unskillfulness in colony-planting. They had escaped from the horrors +of the Mayflower, but how much better was the wild land than the wild +sea; the rude, overcrowded forest cabins than the too populous ship? +"All things stared upon them with a weather-beaten face," says +Bradford. The horrors of the first winter in Virginia were repeated; +here, as at Jamestown, nearly all were ill at once, and nearly half of +the people died before the coming of spring. The same system of +partnership with mercenary shareholders or "adventurers" in England +that had brought disaster in Virginia was tried with similar results +at Plymouth, and a similar attempt at communism in labor and supply +was made, this time under the most favorable conditions, among a +people conscientious and bound together by strong religious +enthusiasm. It resulted, as such sinking of personal interest must +ever result, in dissensions and insubordination, in unthrift and +famine. + +[Sidenote: Bradford.] + +The colony was saved from the prolonged misery that makes the early +history of Virginia horrible by the wise head and strong hand of its +leader. William Bradford, who had been chosen governor on the death of +Carver, a few months after the arrival at Plymouth, had been a youth +but eighteen years old when he fled with the rest of the Scrooby +church to Holland. He was bred to husbandry and had inherited some +property. In Holland he became a silk worker and on attaining his +majority set up for himself in that trade. He was still a young man +when first chosen governor of the little colony, and he ruled New +Plymouth almost continuously till his death--that is, for about +thirty-seven years. He was of a magnanimous temper, resolute but +patient, devotedly religious, but neither intolerant nor austere. He +had a genius for quaintly vivid expression in writing that marked him +as a man endowed with the literary gift, which comes as Heaven pleases +where one would least look for it. + + +XII. + +[Sidenote: Abolition of communism.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +After two years of labor in common had brought the colony more than +once to the verge of ruin, Bradford had the courage and wisdom to cut +the knot he could not untie. During the scarce springtime of 1623, he +assigned all the detached persons in the colony to live with families, +and then temporarily divided the ancient Indian field on which the +settlement had been made among the several families in proportion to +their number, leaving every household to shift for itself or suffer +want. "Any general want or suffering hath not been among them since to +this day," he writes years afterward. The assignment was a +revolutionary stroke, in violation of the contract with the +shareholders, and contrary to their wishes. But Bradford saw that it +was a life-and-death necessity to be rid of the pernicious system, +even at the cost of cutting off all support from England. In his +history he draws a very clear picture of the evils of communism as he +had observed them. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: Significance of Plymouth.] + +Why should the historian linger thus over the story of this last +surviving remnant of the "Brownists"? Why have we dwelt upon the +little settlement that was never very flourishing, that consisted at +its best of only a few thousand peaceful and agricultural people, and +that after seventy years was merged politically in its more vigorous +neighbor the colony of Massachusetts Bay? Historical importance does +not depend on population. Plymouth was the second step in the founding +of a great nation. When Bradford and the other leaders had at last +successfully extricated the little settlement from its economical +difficulties, it became the sure forerunner of a greater Puritan +migration. This tiny free state on the margin of a wilderness +continent, like a distant glimmering pharos, showed the persecuted +Puritans in England the fare-way to a harbor. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 162.] + +Sir John Harington says: "The bishops came to the Kynge aboute the +petition of the puritans; I was by, and heard much dyscourse. The +Kynge talked muche Latin, and disputed wyth Dr. Reynoldes, at Hampton, +but he rather usede upbraidinges than argumente; and tolde the +petitioners that they wanted to strip Christe againe, and bid them +awaie with their snivellinge: moreover, he wishede those who woud take +away the surplice mighte want linen for their own breech. The bishops +seemed much pleased and said his Majestie spoke by the power of +inspiration. I wist not what they mean; but the spirit was rather +foule mouthede." Nugae Antiquae, i, 181, 182. James took pains to put an +example of his bad taste on paper. In a letter on the subject he brags +in these words: "We haue kept suche a reuell with the Puritainis heir +these two dayes as was neuer harde the lyke, quhaire I haue pepperid +thaime as soundlie as ye haue done the papists thaire.... I was forcid +at the last to saye unto thaime, that if any of thaim hadde bene in a +colledge disputing with their skollairs, if any of their disciples had +ansoured thaim in that sorte they wolde haue fetched him up in place +of a replye, and so shoulde the rodde haue plyed upon the poore boyes +buttokis." Ellis Letters, Third Series, iv, 162. The principal +authorities on the Hampton Court Conference are, first, "The Svmme and +Svbstance of the Conference, which it pleased his excellent Majestie +to have," etc., "Contracted by William Barlovv, ... Deane of Chester"; +second, Dr. Montague's letter to his mother, in Winwood's Memorials, +ii, 13-15; third, the letter of Patrick Galloway to the Presbytery of +Edinburgh, in Calderwood, vi, 241, 242; and, fourth, a letter from +Tobie Mathew, Bishop of Durham, to Hutton, Archbishop of York, in +Strype's Whitgift appendix, xlv. Compare Nugae Antiquae, 181, 182, and +the king's letter to Blake, in Ellis's Letters, third series, iv, 161, +which are both cited above. Mr. Gardiner has shown (History of +England, i, 159) that this letter is addressed to Northampton. There +are several documents relating to the conference among the state +papers calendared by Mrs. Greene under dates in January, 1604. Of the +vigorous action taken against the Puritans after the conference, some +notion may be formed by the letter of protest from the aged Matthew +Hutton, Archbishop of York, to Lord Cranborne, in Lodge's +Illustrations of British History, iii, 115, and Cranborne's reply, +ibid., 125. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 168.] + +Stith has not the weight of an original authority, but he is justly +famous for accuracy in following his authorities, and he had access to +many papers relating to the history of Virginia which are now lost. +Under the year 1608 he says: "Doctor Whitgift, Arch-Bishop of +Canterbury, ... having died four Years before this, was succeeded to +that high Preferment by Dr. Richard Bancroft.... He had very high +Notions with Relation to the Government of both Church and State; and +was accordingly a great Stickler for, and Promoter of, the King's +absolute Power, and failed not to take all Occasions, to oblige the +Puritans to conform to the Church of England. This Prelate's Harshness +and Warmth caused many of that People to take the Resolution this Year +of settling themselves in Virginia, and some were actually come off +for that Purpose. But the Arch-bishop, finding that they were +preparing in great Numbers to depart, obtained a Proclamation from the +King, forbidding any to go, without his Majesty's express Leave." +History of Virginia, 1747, p. 76. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 168.] + +For Whitaker's filiation, Neill's Virginia Company, 78. Whitaker's +Good Newes from Virginia is no doubt intended by the entry in the +inventory of Brewster's goods, "Newes from Virginia." I know no other +book with such a title. That Alexander Whitaker was himself touched +with Puritanism, or at least was not unwilling to have Puritan +ministers for colleagues, is rendered pretty certain from passages in +his letters. For instance, he writes to Crashaw from Jamestown, August +9, 1611, desiring that young and "godly" ministers should come, and +adds, "We have noe need either of ceremonies or bad livers." British +Museum, Additional MSS., 21,993. (The letter is printed in Browne's +Genesis, 499, 500.) In a letter given in Purchas and in Neill, 95, +dated June 18, 1614, he says that neither subscription nor the +surplice are spoken of in Virginia. It has escaped the notice of +church historians that Whitaker's semi-Puritanism seems to have left +traces for many years on the character and usage of the Virginia +church. The Rev. Hugh Jones writes as late as 1724 in his Present +State of Virginia, p. 68, that surplices were only then "beginning to +be brought in Fashion," and that the people in some parishes received +the Lord's Supper sitting. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 173.] + +The late Dr. Neill was the first, I believe, to call attention to this +fact, though he did not state it quite so strongly as I have put it in +the text. It is worth while transferring Neill's remarks from the New +England Genealogical Register, vol. XXX, 412, 413: "The action of the +passengers of the Mayflower in forming a social compact before landing +at Plymouth Rock seems to have been in strict accordance with the +policy of the London Company, under whose patent the ship sailed. On +June 9, 1619, O.S., John Whincop's patent was duly sealed by the +Company, but this which had cost the Puritans so much labor and money +was not used. Several months after, the Leyden people became +interested in a new project. On February 2, 1619-'20, at a meeting at +the house of Sir Edwin Sandys in Aldersgate, he stated to the Company +that a grant had been made to John Peirce and his associates. At the +same quarterly meeting it was expressly ordered that the leaders of +particular plantations, associating unto them divers of the gravest +and discreetest of their companies, shall have liberty to make orders, +ordinances, and constitutions for the better ordering and directing of +their business and servants, provided they be not repugnant to the +laws of England." Bradford, in his Plimouth Plantation, 90, says they +"chose or rather confirmed Mr. John Carver, ... their Governour for +that year"--that is, for 1620. Mr. Deane, the editor of Bradford, has +lost the force of this by misunderstanding a statement in Mourt's +Relation, so called. See Deane's note, page 99, of Bradford. The +statement in Mourt is under date of March 23d. I quote from the +reprint in Young, 196, 197: "and did likewise choose our governor for +this present year, which was Master John Carver," etc. Young applies +Bradford's words, "or rather confirmed," to this event, and Deane also +supposes that Bradford confuses two elections. Carver was no doubt +chosen in England or Holland under authority of the charter to serve +for the calendar year, and confirmed or rechosen after the Compact was +signed. What took place on the 23d of March was that a governor was +elected for the year 1621, which, according to the calendar of that +time, began on the 25th of March. For the next year they chose Carver, +who was already "governor for this present year," and whose first term +was about to expire. Both Deane and Young failed to perceive the +pregnant fact that Carver was governor during the voyage, and so lost +the force of the words "or rather confirmed." Bradford, in that +portion of his History of Plimouth Plantation which relates to this +period, gives several letters illustrating the negotiations of the +Pilgrims with the Virginia Company. The MS. Records of the Company in +the Library of Congress, under dates of May 26 and June 9, 1619, and +February 19, 1620 (1619 O.S.), contain the transactions relating to +the Whincop Charter, which was not used, on account of Whincop's +death, and the Pierce Charter, which the Pilgrims took with them. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 174.] + +The charge against Sandys is in the Duke of Manchester's papers, Royal +Historical MS. Commission viii, II, 45. It is remarkable that the +dominant liberal faction in the Virginia Company is here accused of +seeking to do what the Massachusetts Company afterward did--to wit, to +found a popular American government by virtue of powers conferred in a +charter. That liberal government in New England had its rise in the +arrangements made with the London or Virginia Company before sailing, +and not, as poets, painters, and orators have it, in the cabin of the +Mayflower, is sufficiently attested in a bit of evidence, conspicuous +enough, but usually overlooked. Robinson's farewell letter to the +whole company, which reached them in England, is in Bradford, 64-67, +and in Mourt's Relation. It has several significant allusions to the +form of government already planned. "And lastly, your intended course +of civill communitie will minister continuall occasion of offence." +The allusion here seems to be to the joint-stock and communistic +system of labor and living proposed. In another paragraph the allusion +is to the system of government: "Whereas, you are become a body +politik, using amongst your selves civill governmente, and are not +furnished with any persons of spetiall emencie above the rest, to be +chosen by you into office of governmente," etc., "you are at present +to have only them for your ordinarie governours, which your selves +shall make choyse of for that worke." That the government under the +Virginia Company was to be democratic is manifest. The compact was a +means of giving it the sanction of consent where the patent and the +general order did not avail for that purpose. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 176.] + +Winslow's Briefe Narration appended to his Hypocrisie Vnmasked is the +only authority for Robinson's address. Dr. H. M. Dexter has with +characteristic wealth of learning and ingenuity sought to diminish the +force of these generous words of Robinson in his Congregationalism, +403 and ff. But the note struck in this farewell address was familiar +to the later followers of Robinson's form of Independency. Five of the +ministers who went to Holland in 1637 and founded churches, published +in 1643 a tract called An Apologeticall Narrative Humbly Submitted to +the Honourable Houses of Parliament. By Thomas Goodwin, Phillip Nye, +Sidrach Simpson, Jer. Borroughs, William Bridge. London, 1643. From +the copy in the British Museum I quote: "A second principle we carryed +along with us in all our resolutions was, Not to make our present +judgment and practice a binding law unto ourselves for the future +which we in like manner made continuall profession of upon all +occasions." On page 22 Robinson's words are almost repeated in the +phrase "they coming new out of popery ... might not be perfect the +first day." Robinson's early colleague, Smyth, the unpractical, +much-defamed, but saintly "Anabaptist," says in a tract published +after his death, "I continually search after the truth." Robinson +wrote a reply to a portion of this tract. See Barclay's Inner Life, +appendix to Chapter V, where the tract is given. This holding of their +opinions in a state of flux, this liberal expectancy of a further +evolution of opinion, was a trait to be admired in the early +Separatists in an age when modesty in dogmatic statement was +exceedingly rare. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 177.] + +Neill, in the Historical Magazine for January, 1869, and the New +England Genealogical Register, 1874, identifies the Mayflower captain +with Jones of the Discovery, who was accounted in Virginia +"dishonest." But honest seamen were few in that half-piratical age. +That he was hired by the Dutch to take the Pilgrims elsewhere than to +Hudson River is charged in Morton's Memorial, and is not in itself +unlikely. But the embarrassments of Cape Cod shoals were very real; a +trading ship sent out by the Pilgrims after their settlement, failed +to find a way round the cape. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 177.] + +Early New England writers were not content with giving the Pilgrims +the honor due to them. Hutchinson asserts that the Virginia Colony had +virtually failed, and that the Pilgrim settlement was the means of +reviving it. This has been often repeated on no other authority than +that of Hutchinson, who wrote nearly a century and a half after the +event. The list of patents for plantations in Virginia as given by +Purchas, in which appears that of Master "Wincop," under which the +Pilgrims proposed to plant, is a sufficient proof that Virginia was +not languishing. "These patentees," says Purchas, "have undertaken to +transport to Virginia a great multitude of people and store of +cattle." Virginia had reached the greatest prosperity it attained +before the dissolution of the company, in precisely the years in which +the slender Pilgrim Colony was preparing. It is quite possible to +honor the Pilgrims without reversing the order of cause and effect. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 181.] + +Bradford's Plimouth Plantation, 135, 136: "The experience that was had +in this commone course and condition, tried sundrie years, and that +amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanitie of that +conceite of Platos and other ancients, applauded by some of later +times--that the taking away of propertie, and bringing in communitie +into a comone wealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if they +were wiser than God. For this communitie (so fare as it was) was found +to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment +that would have been to their benefite and comforte. For the yong-men +that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine that +they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens +wives and children with out any recompence. The strong, or man of +parts, had no more in devission of victails and cloaths, then he that +was weake and not able to doe a quarter the other could; this was +thought injuestice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalised +in labours, and victails, cloaths, &c., with the meaner and yonger +sorte, thought it some indignite and disrespect unto them. And for +mens wives to be commanded to doe servise for other men, as dresing +their meate, washing their cloaths, &c., they deemd it a kind of +slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it. Upon the point +all being to have alike, and all to doe alike, they thought them +selves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so if it +did not cut of those relations that God hath set amongest men yet it +did much diminish and take of the mutuall respects that should be +preserved amongst them. And would have bene worse if they had been men +of another condition." + + + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH. + +_THE GREAT PURITAN EXODUS._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Result of the Pilgrim settlement.] + +Men who undertake a great enterprise rarely find their anticipations +fulfilled; they are fortunate if their general aim is reached at last +in any way. The Pilgrims had migrated, hoping to be "stepping-stones +to others," as they phrased it. They thought that many like-minded in +matters of religion would come to them out of England, but the +Separatist movement had been worn out by persecution. There were few +open dissenters left, and the Pilgrims, by their long exile, had lost +all close relations with their own country. Among those that came to +Plymouth from England were some whose coming tended to dilute the +religious life and lower the moral standards of the colony. The fervor +of the Pilgrims themselves abated something of its intensity in the +preoccupations incident to pioneer life. The hope of expanding their +religious organization by the rapid growth of the colony was not +fulfilled; discontented Puritans were not eager to settle under the +government of Separatists, and ten years after their migration the +Plymouth colony contained little more than three hundred people. + +[Sidenote: The religious motive.] + +None the less the hope of the Pilgrims was realized; they became +stepping-stones to thousands of others. Captain John Smith laughed at +the "humorous ignorances" of these "Brownist" settlers, but, humorous +or not, ignorant or not, the "Brownists" remained on the coast while +other emigrants retreated. In spite of their terrible suffering none +of the Pilgrims went back. This is the capital fact in their history. +A new force had been introduced into colonization. Henceforth +persecuted or discontented religionists, prompted by a motive vastly +more strenuous and enduring than cupidity, were to bear the main brunt +of breaking a way into the wilderness. + +[Sidenote: Commercial settlements.] + +[Sidenote: John White's The Planter's Plea, in Young's Chronicles of +Mass.] + +The first effect of the slender success at Plymouth was to stimulate +speculative and merely adventurous migration. From 1607 until the +arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620 no English colony had landed on the +northern coast; but after the Pilgrims came, fish-drying and +fur-buying stations began to appear on the banks of the Piscataqua and +the coast eastward in 1622 and 1623. These tiny settlements were germs +of New Hampshire and Maine, the only New England plantations begun +without any admixture of religious motives. A commercial colony was +tried in Massachusetts Bay as early as 1622, but it failed. There were +other like attempts. In 1624 some men of Dorchester, headed by John +White, the "Patriarch" Puritan clergyman, sent out a colony to Cape +Ann. The members of this company were to grow maize to supply fishing +ships, and in the season the same men were to lend a hand on board the +ships, which would thus be saved the necessity for carrying double +crews. But this plausible scheme proved a case of seeking strawberries +in the sea and red herrings in the wood. Farmers were but lubbers at +codfishing, and salt-water fishermen were clumsy enough in the +cornfield. Losses of several sorts forced the Dorchester Company to +dissolve. Four members of their futile colony, encouraged by a message +from White, remained on Cape Ann. Removing to the present site of +Salem, they waited at the risk of their lives for the coming of a new +colony from England. + +[Sidenote: Individual settlers.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +Solitary adventurers of the sort known on nearly every frontier were +presently to be found in several places. The scholarly recluse was +represented by Blackstone, who had selected for his secluded abode a +spot convenient to a spring of good water where the town of Boston was +afterward planted; the inevitable Scotch adventurer was on an island +in Boston Harbor; Samuel Maverick, a pattern of frontier hospitality +and generosity, took up his abode on Noddle's Island; while the +rollicking and scoffing libertine was found in Thomas Morton, who with +some rebellious bond servants got possession of a fortified house in +what is now Braintree. Here Morton welcomed renegade servants from +Plymouth and elsewhere. He wrote ribald verses which he posted on his +Maypole, and devised May-dances in which the saturnine Indian women +participated. He broke all the commandments with delight, carried on +a profitable trade in selling firearms to the savages in defiance of +royal proclamations, and wrought whatever other deviltry came within +his reach, until his neighbors could no longer endure the proximity of +so dangerous a firebrand. Little Captain Standish, whom Morton +derisively dubbed "Captain Shrimp," descended on this kingdom of +misrule at last and broke up the perpetual carnival, sending Morton to +England. + +The settlement of New England was thus beginning sporadically and +slowly. If the Massachusetts Puritans had not come, these feeble and +scattered plantations might have grown into colonies after a long +time, as such beginnings did in New Hampshire and Maine, and later in +North Carolina, but having no strong neighbor to support them, it is +likely that they would all have been driven away or annihilated by +some inevitable collision with the Indians. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Puritanism at the accession of Charles I.] + +English Puritanism throughout the reign of James I had been the party +of strict morals, of austere and Pharisaic scrupulosity, of rigid +Sabbath observance, and of Calvinistic dogmatism. During that reign it +had passed through its last transformation in becoming a political +party--the party of anti-Catholic politics at home and abroad. Because +Parliament was on its side, the mere course of events had made the +Puritan party favor the predominance of Parliament, and this brought +it to represent liberalism in politics. By his unconcealed +partisanship, James had contrived to make the Puritans a permanent +opposition suspected of disliking monarchy itself. Charles I was even +more the antagonist of Puritanism than James. + +[Sidenote: Later Puritanism conservative.] + +In one other respect the position of Puritanism had been gradually +changed by mere parallax. In Elizabeth's reign it had been the party +of innovation. It was no longer the party of change in religion when +Charles came to the throne. The adoption of the Arminian system of +doctrine by many of the High-churchmen, and the reactionary +innovations now proposed by ecclesiastics like Laud, had left +Puritanism to stand for Protestant conservatism. It was immeasurably +the gainer with the mass of slow-moving people by this change of +relative position. The parliamentary struggle with James and Charles +added to the religious Puritans a numerous body of political Puritans +who, without much care about religion, were fain to ally their +political discontent with the discontent of those who resisted +ecclesiastical retrogression. This compact party, powerful after all +its defeats, was bound by its position to cherish every aspiration for +the improvement of morals, every indignant movement for the +suppression of abuses, and it became the ally of every popular +resentment against royal absolutism or episcopal encroachment, and the +advocate, almost to fanaticism, of an anti-Spanish foreign policy, and +a domestic policy in which repression and persecution of Roman +Catholics held first place. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Rise of Laud.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +But the king and the High-churchmen were the party in possession. +Buckingham, in the first years of Charles, was more than ever dominant +at court, and Buckingham's favorite, just rising above the horizon, +was Dr. Laud, Bishop of St. Davids at the death of James, and soon +afterward translated to Bath and Wells and then to London. It soon +came to be understood that he was only waiting for the death of his +opponent, Archbishop Abbott, to take the primacy, much of the power of +which he had already contrived to grasp. On the death of Buckingham, +Laud succeeded him as chief favorite at court. The one great and real +service which this able and indefatigable divine rendered the world is +the last he would have chosen. He was the main spur to the settlement +of Puritan colonies in New England. + +[Sidenote: Character of Laud.] + +[Sidenote: Letter to Selden in Chalmers, art. Laud.] + +Do our best, we moderns shall hardly avoid injustice in our opinion of +Laud. The changes of time and the advance of ideas have rendered a +sympathetic judgment of him difficult. Ecclesiastic above all, he was +not, like Whitgift and Bancroft, a Protestant High-churchman. He +sought to make the English church Catholic and mediaeval, yet he would +on no account attach it to Rome. Like Whitgift, he made the church +dependent on royal authority, and in this he was far removed from the +earlier churchmen. There was nothing spiritual in his nature; his +personal devotion had neither agony nor exaltation. He had none of the +mediaeval enthusiasm that prompted the vigils of his contemporary, +Nicholas Ferrar, for example, and elevated the master of Little +Gidding to a saintship, amiable and touching. Notwithstanding the +energy of Laud's devotion, his nature was as shallow and objective as +it was sincere. It has been remarked that when Laud spoke of the +beauty of holiness he meant no more than decorum in public worship, +the beauty of a well-ordered church and of proper intonation and +genuflexion. He seemed to touch a modern note when he proposed to +suppress the futile debate between Calvinists and Arminians because it +tended to disturb Christian charity; but Laud's Christian charity, +like his holiness, was purely external; it was merely quiet submission +to one ritual and one form of discipline. His relentless, vindictive, +and even cruel temper toward opponents showed him incapable of +conceiving of charity in any spiritual sense. He disliked controversy +because it put obstacles in the way of uniformity, and he had no taste +for speculative debate because it tended to undermine authority. His +intellect was utterly practical and phenomenally acute. It was +incredibly energetic, and its energy was intensified by its +narrowness. His attachment to the church had no relation to the +beneficent utilities of the church. The church was a fetich for which +he was ready to die without a murmur. In his zeal he was reckless of +personal danger and sometimes unmindful of the moral complexion of his +actions. His egotism was so interblended with his zeal that he could +not separate one from the other, nor can the student of his character. +A disservice to him was an affront to Almighty God. The very honesty +of such a man is pernicious; a little duplicity might have softened +the outward manifestations of his hard nature. Unhappily, there was +not even indolence or self-indulgence to moderate his all but +superhuman activity, which pushed his domination to its possibilities, +and, with a vigilance aspiring to omniscience, penetrated to the +minutest details in the administration of church and state. He even +filed papers giving the elements of the debates on good works as an +evidence of sanctification carried on between Hooker and Cotton in the +cabin meeting-houses of New England. For the rest he presents the +paradoxes one expects in so marked a character. While he had no taste +for the credulous dogmatism of his time, he showed a certain relish +for superstitions in recording dreams and omens, yet he had none of +the timidity of superstition. He was, moreover, fearless in peril, and +he faced unpopularity without flinching. Stubborn and inflexible with +the clergy and the populace, obdurate and pitiless with those who had +offended him or his king or his church, he was flexible and +insinuating in his relations with those in power. His unworthy +yielding to his early patron, the Earl of Devonshire, in a matter +which concerned his ecclesiastical conscience, gave him a bitter and +lifelong repentance. His complacence to Buckingham, and his servile +devotion to Charles, seem a little despicable. He was even willing at +the last to make terms with Parliament, when it became plain that +Parliament was the new master. Though obsequious, he was the farthest +possible from a coward, and he accepted death on the scaffold with the +serene composure of a martyr. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Political conditions promote emigration.] + +[Sidenote: Gorges's Briefe Narration.] + +The great migration to New England set in soon after the beginning of +Laud's ascendency in the ecclesiastical government of England. It +waned as he declined, and ceased forever with his fall. There is a +witty justness in the phrase by which a colonial historian dubs Laud +"the father of New England." Other archbishops had contented +themselves with crushing the Separatists, but, with characteristic +boldness and logical thoroughness, Laud struck at the powerful Puritan +party which had contrived for more than half a century to remain in +the Church of England while protesting against the discipline and +service of the church. The arbitrary government of the new king, the +dissolution of Parliament, and the imprisonment of liberal leaders cut +off hope of securing church reform or a relaxation of oppressive laws. +High-church pulpits resounded with arguments in favor of the king's +absolute authority and the duty of unquestioning obedience, while the +declared principles of the king and his court left the property, +liberty, and life of the subject exposed to the rapacity or the +vindictiveness of those in power. In view of these things, some of the +Puritans began to think the American wilderness a better place of +residence than England. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Religious motives for Puritan emigration.] + +The state of the church was even more a reason for removal than the +oppressions of the government. Persecution had failed to drive Puritan +ministers or their followers into what they deemed the capital sin of +schism. They hated the domination of the bishops, communion with the +ungodly, and the absence of a rigid discipline. But they had been +sustained through long years of waiting by the hope of delivering the +church from those who oppressed and defiled her. They proposed, +whenever they could gain power, to winnow the chaff from the wheat, +and they probably destined the chaff to swift destruction. But the +hope of seeing a church without spot or wrinkle, prayer book or +bishop, died under the reactionary policy of Buckingham and Laud, and +many came to look with favor on a project whose full import was only +whispered in the ear, to found in the wilds of America a "particular +church," as they phrased it--a new church with a right of priority in +a new land and backed by the sanction of the government of the +country. It was no modern generalized love of liberty, civil or +religious, but a strenuous desire to find a place where they might +make real their ideal of church organization that brought the Puritans +out of their comfortable nests in England to dwell in poor cabins in a +wilderness. It is a motive for braving dangers by sea and land hard of +comprehension in our Sadducean age. + +[Sidenote: Fear of judgments.] + +[Sidenote: Life and Letters of Winthrop, i, 390, 313.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +There was one other consideration still more difficult for men of our +day to understand. Political and military reverses had apparently +well-nigh wrecked Protestantism on the Continent. Many Protestants in +the Palatinate and elsewhere were making peace by becoming Roman +Catholics. "All other churches of Europe are brought to desolation, & +our sinnes, for which the Lord beginnes allreaddy to frowne upon us & +to cutte us short, doe threatne evill times to be comminge upon us." +These words are set down in the Reasons for New England as the second +consideration. In another part of the same paper it is urged that the +"woefull spectacle" of the ruin of "Churches beyound the Seas," "may +teach us more wisdome to avoide the Plauge when it is foreseene & not +to tarry as they did till it overtake us." The dominance of Old +Testament ideas is easily seen here. But this fleeing from judgments +that were to fall not on the lives or possessions of men, but on the +churches themselves--judgments of a spiritual nature, apprehended only +by inference--was a refinement of Hebraism never known to the Hebrews. +The delusion that Laud meant to hand over the English church bound +hand and foot to Rome may have made such judgments seem visibly +imminent. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the Massachusetts Company.] + +[Sidenote: Compare The Planter's Plea.] + +The project for a Puritan colony languished at first on account of the +failure of the semi-Puritan, semi-commercial Dorchester farming and +fishing colony on Cape Ann; but White of Dorchester continued to +agitate the planting of a colony. He had, no doubt, efficient help in +the proceedings against the Puritan clergy. From Dorchester the plan +was carried to London, where it soon became, in the phrase of that +time, "vulgar," or, as we should say, popular. Its countenance to the +world, and especially toward the government, was that of a commercial +venture like the planting of Virginia, but in its heart it was a +religious enterprise. In March, 1628, the Council for New England gave +to the Massachusetts projectors a patent for lands extending from the +Merrimack to the Charles and three miles beyond each river. The +western boundary of this tract was the Pacific Ocean, for holders of +grants could afford to be generous in giving away the interior of an +unexplored continent about which nothing was known but that it +abounded in savages. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Leadership and character of Endecott.] + +[Sidenote: 1628.] + +[Sidenote: Bentley's Description of Salem.] + +[Sidenote: Eliot's Biography, 195.] + +In June a small colony was sent to Massachusetts under John Endecott. +The next year another company of emigrants was added. Endecott, who +was one of the patentees, loved a bold enterprise, and readily +consented to take charge of the forerunners of the colony. He lacked +the moderation and saneness needed in a leader, and his long career in +connection with Massachusetts was marked from the beginning by +mistakes born of a rash temper and impulsive enthusiasm. Two of the +gentlemen emigrants who had been named by the company in London as +members of the local Council were not willing to go to the unexpected +lengths Endecott favored in the organization of the Salem church, +though they were probably Puritans of a moderate type. They held a +separate service with a small company, using the prayer book. Endecott +appears to have made no effort at conciliation; he promptly shipped +John and Samuel Browne, pack and prayer book, back to England. This +was precisely the course that even Lord Bacon advised in the treatment +of schismatics who should contrive to gain access to a colony, and +there is no occasion for surprise that a quixotic enthusiast like +Endecott did not hold broader views than those of a philosopher of the +same period. But Endecott's rash action endangered the whole +enterprise, which required at this stage the extreme of prudence. The +alarmed managers in England contrived to settle with the Brownes in +private, and the affair had no other result than to ruin Endecott's +reputation for prudence. Endecott, however, went on fighting the +Lord's battles against the Apollyons of his fancy, regardless of +results. Soon after his arrival he marched to the den of Morton, the +profligate master of "Merrymount." In the absence of Morton he hewed +down the profane Maypole in God's name, and solemnly dubbed the place +Mount Dagon, in memory of the Philistine idol that fell down before +the ark of the Lord. At a later period he cut one arm of the cross out +of the English colors of the Salem trainband, in order to convert the +Union Jack to Protestantism. One of the many manifestations of his +pragmatical conscience was his Tartuffian protection of modesty by +insisting that the women of Salem should keep their faces veiled at +church. He was also a leader in the crusade of the magistrates against +the crime of wearing wigs. A strange mixture of rashness, pious zeal, +genial manners, hot temper, and harsh bigotry, his extravagances +supply the condiment of humor to a very serious history--it is perhaps +the principal debt posterity owes him. But there was a side to his +career too serious to be humorous. Bold against Maypoles and prayer +books and women who presented themselves in church immodestly +barefaced, and in the forefront against wigs, he was no soldier either +in prudent conduct or vigor of attack. When intrusted with the command +of an expedition to demand satisfaction of the Pequots, he proved +incapable of anything but a campaign of exasperation. When late in +life he was governor of Massachusetts, and had become, after the death +of Winthrop and Dudley, the dominant political leader, the putting to +death of Quakers left an ineffaceable blot on the history of the +colony he had helped to found. When the colony was brought to book in +England for this severity, Endecott showed himself capable of writing +one of the most cringing official letters on record, as full of cant +as it was of creeping servility. In him we may clearly apprehend +certain unamiable traits of Puritanism and of the early seventeenth +century which appear in his character in exaggerated relief. This +hearty and energetic bigot must have been representative of a large, +though not of the better, element in Massachusetts Puritanism, for he +was chosen to the governorship oftener than any other man during the +continuance of the old charter government. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: Leadership of Winthrop.] + +It is a pleasure to turn from Endecott to one who was, like him, a +seventeenth-century man, and who did not escape the scrupulosity and +ridiculosity of Puritanism, but whose amiable personality, +magnanimity, and qualities of leadership made him the principal figure +in the Puritan migration. Winthrop, like two or three of the +conspicuous actors in our later history, owes his distinction to the +moral elevation of his character quite as much as to his considerable +mental gifts; for character multiplied into sagacity is better than +genius for some kinds of work. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the great migration of 1630.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +He was a late comer in the enterprise. In the year after Endecott had +brought over a colony composed mostly of servants of the company and +of the individual patentees, a second company of emigrants had been +sent over with a commission to Endecott as governor on the place, +assisted by a council. A church had been formed at Salem. Now set in a +larger agitation in favor of migration to New England. The course of +events in England was so adverse to Puritanism that those who were +devoted to that purified church, which was as yet invisible, except to +the eye of faith, began to look toward America. Every door for public +action in state or church was closed to the Puritans in England, +closed and barred by Courts of High Commission, by the Star Chamber, +and by the Tower. Into one of the gloomiest rooms of the latter had +lately gone, at the arbitrary command of the king, that high-spirited +martyr to constitutional liberty, Sir John Eliot. Finding no way by +which to come out again except a postern of dishonor, Eliot +deliberately chose to languish and die in prison. The almost hopeless +outlook at home, the example set by Endecott's emigration to New +England in 1628, and by that of Higginson's company in 1629, perhaps +also the ever-active propagandism of "Father White" of Dorchester, set +agoing among the Puritans a widespread interest in the subject. Some +of the leading minds thought it a noble work to organize a reformed +church in a new country, since, in their view, the Church of England, +under Laud, had taken up its march backward. This purpose of planting +a Puritan church in America now began to take the first place; even +the conversion of the Indians, which had been the chief avowed purpose +hitherto, fell into the background. + +[Sidenote: Winthrop's paper.] + +The manuscript paper entitled Reasons for New England, to which +reference has already been made, was widely but secretly circulated, +and frequently copied, after a fashion of that time, prevailing +especially in the case of tracts or books of a kind to shrink from +print. It contained arguments in favor of removing to New England, +with answers to the various objections made against emigration. +Several copies of these Reasons, or Considerations, have come down to +us in various handwritings, and the authorship has been attributed now +to one, now to another; to Winthrop, to White of Dorchester, to Sir +John Eliot himself. It appears to have been in its earliest form the +production of Winthrop. There were horseback journeys, some of them by +night, made about this time for the purpose of secret consultation. + +[Sidenote: His character.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +Winthrop, a country gentleman of Groton, in Suffolk, and an attorney +in the Court of Wards, was a strict Puritan, desiring above all a +reformed church and "the ordinances of God in their purity," as the +phrase of the time went. Precocious in everything, and inclined to +ideal aims, he had been religious from boyhood, had married at a +little over seventeen years of age, and had been made a justice of the +peace while still very young. He studied divinity, and only the +dissuasion of friends kept him from entering the ministry. Of judicial +temper, he came to be often consulted upon points of conscience, which +gave much trouble in that age of casuistry and abounding scruples. His +kindly visits to those who were in any trouble of spirit were highly +prized. He himself makes much of the corruptions of his own nature and +of his juvenile aberrancy, but generosity and purity of spirit like +his are born and not acquired. His devoutness, accompanied by a habit +of self-criticism in the presence of Infinite Justice, doubtless gave +additional vigor to his virtues. For the rest, he was a man of +independent estate, of prudent and conciliatory carriage, of a clear +but not broad mind. What, as much as anything else, fitted him for his +function was, that all his virtues were cast in Puritan molds and all +his prejudices had a Puritan set. + +[Sidenote: His influence.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +When the question of emigration was under discussion other gentlemen +who thought of going turned to Winthrop as the natural leader, +declaring that they would remain in England if he should desert them. +He was not only the official head, but he was indeed the soul, of the +migration of 1630, and he went to America confident of a call divine +like that of Moses. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: Cradock.] + +It is a fact worthy of note that the three primary steps toward the +establishment of free government in America were due to Englishmen +who did not themselves cross the sea. The Great Charter of 1618 to the +Virginia colony, and the "large patent" to the Plymouth Pilgrims, were +granted, as we have seen, under the leadership of Sir Edwin Sandys, +Governor of the Virginia Company of London. The third of the measures +which placed colonial government on a popular basis was due to the +governor of another corporation engaged in colony planting. + +[Sidenote: Cradock's plan.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Records, July 29, 1629.] + +[Sidenote: Sainsbury's Calendar, May 17, 1626.] + +On the 28th of July, 1629, while Winthrop and his friends were +debating their removal to New England, Mathew Cradock, a wealthy and +liberal merchant, who held the office of governor, or, as we should +say, president, of the Massachusetts Company, read in a "general +court" or meeting of the company "certain propositions conceived by +himself," as it is carefully recorded. He proposed "that for the +advancement of the plantation, the inducing and encouraging persons of +worth, quality and rank to transplant themselves and families thither +and for other weighty reasons"--reasons which probably it was not +thought best to spread upon the records, but which were the core of +the whole matter--for these reasons Cradock proposed to "transfer the +government of the plantation to those that shall inhabit there," and +not to continue it in subordination to a commercial company in London. +The sorrows of the Virginia colony under the administration of Sir +Thomas Smyth and the disagreements between the Pilgrims and their +"adventurers" in London had taught a wholesome lesson. Three years +earlier Sir Francis Wyatt, the best of all the early governors of +Virginia, had set forth in an elaborate report that the principal +cause of the "slow proceeding of the growth of the plantation" was +that the government had been divided between England and Virginia. +Massachusetts escaped from this embarrassment. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: Evolution of the Mass. government.] + +[Sidenote: Hubbard, chap. xviii.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +The evolution of the Massachusetts government may now be traced +through its several stages. A company was formed, partly of Dorchester +men, but chiefly of residents of London. This company secured a patent +to lands in Massachusetts Bay from the Council for New England. The +patentees intended both a commercial enterprise and a Puritan +settlement. They sent Endecott, one of their number, as agent or +superintendent, with a company of servants and others, to prepare the +way for the migration of other patentees. In March, 1628, they secured +a liberal charter from the king, which gave them the right to +establish in Massachusetts a government subordinate to the company. +The plan was to settle a government in the form rendered familiar by +that of the Virginia Company. The Massachusetts Company in London sent +a commission to Endecott as governor on the place, subject to the +orders of the company in England. A council of assistants was +associated with him, but there was as yet no provision for giving the +people a voice in the government. + +[Sidenote: The change of plan.] + +Winthrop and his coterie of gentlemen appear to have been dissatisfied +with the prospect of living under a government directed from England, +and thus subject to English stockholders and liable to interference +from the court. Cradock had been a leader and the most liberal +investor in the enterprise. He, no doubt, readily foresaw the great +advance that the colony would make if Winthrop and his friends should +embark their lives and fortunes in it, and he may have intended to +emigrate himself. The annulling of the charter of the Virginia Company +on frivolous pretexts had shown how easily the Massachusetts charter +might meet the same fate in a reign far more devoted to arbitrary +government than that of James and entirely hostile to Puritanism. +There could hardly be a doubt that the charter would be revoked as +soon as its projectors should develop their true purpose before the +all-observing eyes of Laud, who was now rising rapidly to dominant +influence in the government. It was at this juncture probably that +Cradock conceived his ingenious plan. He would resign his place and +have the officers of the company chosen from gentlemen about to embark +for the plantation. The charter prescribed no place of assembling to +the company, which had been left free apparently to make its +headquarters at its birthplace in Dorchester or at its new home in +London. It was also free to meet in any other place. The meetings of +the company might therefore be held in Massachusetts, where the +Puritanism of its proceedings would attract less attention. The +governor and other officers would then be chosen in the colony; the +company and the colony would thus be merged into one, and the charter +transported to Massachusetts would perhaps be beyond the reach of +writs and judgments. + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: The Cambridge agreement.] + +[Sidenote: 1629.] + +No doubt the influential company of friends who were debating a +removal to New England were informed of Cradock's proposition before +it was mooted in the company on the 28th of July. The plan was +probably thought of in consequence of their objection to emigration +under the Virginia system. Cradock's proposition was at least the +turning point of their decision. Nearly a month later, on the 26th of +August, the leaders of Winthrop's party assembled to the number of +twelve, at Cambridge, and solemnly pledged themselves, "in the +presence of God who is the searcher of all hearts," "to pass the Seas +(under God's protection) to inhabit and continue in New England." The +preamble states the object of this migration. It was not civil +liberty, the end that political Puritans had most in view, and +certainly there is no hint of a desire for religious liberty. Even the +conversion of the Indian is not uppermost in this solemn resolve. +"God's glory and the church's good" are the words used. This has the +true ring of the Puritan churchman. The whole pledge is couched in +language befitting men who feel themselves engaged in a religious +enterprise of the highest importance. + +This pledge contained a notable proviso. The signers agreed to +emigrate only on condition that "the whole government together with +the patent for said plantation" should be transferred and legally +established in the colony by order of the General Court of the +Company, and that this should be done before the last of the ensuing +month. There was opposition to the removal of the government, and this +peremptory condition was necessary. Three days later, after a debate, +the company voted that its government should be transferred to +Massachusetts Bay. + +[Sidenote: Removal of the charter.] + +[Sidenote: 1629.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Palfrey, i, 371, and Deane's note in Mass. Hist. +Soc. Proc. 1869, p. 185.] + +[Sidenote: Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., p. 31.] + +On the 20th of October Cradock resigned his governorship and Winthrop +was chosen in his stead. Puritan ministers were at once elected to the +freedom of the company, in order that its proceedings might not want +the sanction of prayer. The next year the charter crossed the wide +seas, and in 1630 a court of the company was held in the wilderness at +Charlestown. But a subordinate government "for financial affairs only" +was maintained in London, with Cradock, the former president, at the +head. This seems to have been an effectual blind, and probably the +king's government did not know of the flight of the charter until the +Privy Council in 1634 summoned Cradock to bring that document to the +Council Board. Thomas Morton, the expelled master of Merrymount, +writes of the wrath of Laud, who had been foiled by this pretty ruse: +"My lord of Canterbury and my lord privy seal, having caused all Mr. +Cradock's letters to be viewed and his apology for the brethren +particularly heard, protested against him and Mr. Humfries that they +were a couple of imposturous knaves." Laud had thought to crush the +government of Massachusetts by destroying the company, whose office +remained in London, with Cradock still apparently its head. The +archbishop found too late that he had eagerly pounced upon a dummy. He +devised many things afterward to achieve his purpose, but the charter +remained over seas. + + +XII. + +From the point of view of our later age, the removal of the charter +government to America is the event of chief importance in this +migration of Winthrop's company. The ultimate effect of this brilliant +stroke was so to modify a commercial corporation that it became a +colonial government as independent as possible of control from +England. By the admission of a large number of the colonists to be +freemen--that is, to vote as stockholders in the affairs of the +company, which was now the colony itself, and a little later by the +development of a second chamber--the government became representative. + +[Sidenote: The main purpose.] + +But we may not for a moment conceive that the colonists understood +the importance of their act in the light of its consequences. In their +minds the government was merely a setting and support for the church. +The founding of a new church establishment, after what they deemed the +primitive model, was the heart of the enterprise. This is shown in +many words uttered by the chief actors, and it appears in strong +relief in an incident that occurred soon after the arrival of +Winthrop's company. Isaac Johnston, the wealthiest man of the party, +succumbed to disease and hardship, but "he felt much rejoiced at his +death that the Lord had been pleased to keep his eyes open so long as +to see one church of Christ gathered before his death." Here we have +the Puritan passion for a church whose discipline and services should +realize their ideals--a passion that in the stronger men suffered no +abatement in the midst of the inevitable pestilence and famine that +were wont to beset newly arrived colonists in that time. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: Influence of Plymouth.] + +One salient fact in the history of the Massachusetts Bay colony is the +dominant influence of the example of Plymouth. The Puritans of the +Massachusetts colony were not Separatists. No one had been more severe +in controversy with the Separatists than some of the Puritans who +remained in the Church of England. They were eagerly desirous not to +be confounded with these schismatics. When the great migration of 1630 +took place, the emigrants published a pathetic farewell, protesting +with the sincerity of homesick exiles their attachment to the Church +of England, "ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we have +obtained in the common salvation we have received in her bosom and +sucked at her breasts." + +[Sidenote: Differences among the Puritans.] + +It is to be remembered that these Puritans did not agree among +themselves. Puritanism was of many shades. There were some, like the +Brownes whom Endecott sent out of the colony, that were even unwilling +to surrender the prayer book. The greater part of the earlier Puritans +had desired to imitate the Presbyterianism of Scotland and Geneva, and +in Elizabeth's time they had organized presbyteries. Nothing seemed +more probable beforehand than the revival in New England of the +presbyteries of the days of Cartwright. But what happened was +unexpected even by the Puritans. The churches of Massachusetts were +formed on the model of John Robinson's Independency. + +[Sidenote: Effect of emigration.] + +[Sidenote: Roger Clap's Memoirs, 40.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +There must have been a certain exhilarant reaction in the minds of the +Puritans when at last they were clear of the English coast and free +from the authority that had put so many constraints upon them. There +were preachings and expoundings by beloved preachers with no fear of +pursuivants. The new religious freedom was delightful to intoxication. +"Every day for ten weeks together," writes one passenger, they had +preaching and exposition. On one ship the watches were set by the +Puritan captain with the accompaniment of psalm-singing. Those who +all their lives long had made outward and inward compromises between +their ultimate convictions and their obligations to antagonistic +authority found themselves at length utterly free. It was not that +action was freed from the restraint of fear, so much as that thought +itself was freed from the necessity for politic compromises. Every +ship thus became a seminary for discussion. Every man now indulged in +the unwonted privilege of thinking his bottom thought. The tendency to +swing to an extreme is all but irresistible in the minds of men thus +suddenly liberated. To such enthusiasts the long-deferred opportunity +to actualize ultimate ideals in an ecclesiastical vacuum would be +accepted with joy. What deductions such companies would finally make +from the hints in the New Testament was uncertain. The only sure thing +was that every vestige of that which they deemed objectionable in the +English church would be repressed, obliterated, in their new +organization. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the Congregational form in New England.] + +[Sidenote: Cotton to Salonstall in Hutch. Papers.] + +[Sidenote: Hubbard's Hist. of New Eng., 117.] + +With the evils and abuses of the English church more and more +exaggerated in their thoughts, the sin of separation readily came to +seem less heinous than before. There was no longer any necessity for +professing loyalty to the church nor any further temptation to think +ill of those at Plymouth, who, like themselves, had suffered much to +avoid what both Separatists and Puritans deemed unchristian practices. +A common creed and common sufferings, flight from the same oppression +to find refuge in what was henceforth to be a common country, drew +them to sympathy and affection for their forerunners at Plymouth. The +Plymouth people were not backward to send friendly help to the +newcomers. The influence of the physician sent from Plymouth to +Endecott's party in the prevailing sickness soon persuaded the +naturally radical Endecott to the Plymouth view of church government. +Winthrop's associates, or the greater part of them, drifted in the +same direction, to their own surprise, no doubt. There was a lack of +uniformity in the early Massachusetts churches and some clashing of +opinion. Some ministers left the colony dissatisfied; one or more of +the churches long retained Presbyterian forms, and some stanch +believers in presbyterial government lamented long afterward that New +England ecclesiastical forms were not those of the Calvinistic +churches of Europe. But the net result was that Robinsonian +independency became the established religion in New England, whence it +was transplanted to England during the Commonwealth, and later became +the prevailing discipline among English dissenters. + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +Thus the church discipline and the form of government in Massachusetts +borrowed much from Plymouth, but the mildness and semi-toleration--the +"toleration of tolerable opinions"--which Robinson had impressed on +the Pilgrims was not so easily communicated to their new neighbors who +had been trained in another school. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 191.] + +Morton's settlement has become the subject of a literature of its own, +and of some rather violent and amusing discussion even in our times. +Morton's New English Canaan has been edited by Mr. C. F. Adams for the +Prince Society. His defensive account of himself leaves the impression +that the author was just the sort of clever and reckless rake who is +most dangerous to settlements in contact with savages, and who might +be expelled neck and heels from a frontier community holding no +scruples of a Puritan sort. The Royal Proclamation in Rymer's Foedera, +xvii, 416 (and Hazard's State Papers, i, 151), 1622, sets forth the +evil of the sale of arms to the savages, but it was leveled at earlier +offenders than Morton. Compare Sainsbury's Calendar, September 29 and +November 24, 1630, pp. 120, 122. There are also references, more or +less extended, to Morton in the Massachusetts Records, Winthrop's +Journal, Bradford's Plimouth Plantation, Dudley's Letter to the +Countess of Lincoln in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, and in +other early accounts. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 193.] + +Abbott's account of Laud's rise, Rushworth, i, 440, is traced with a +bitter pen, no doubt, but the student Laud, as Abbott draws him, is so +much like his later self that one can not but believe that the +description of him picking quarrels with the public readers and +carrying information against them to the bishop has a basis of fact. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 199.] + +Rushworth, writing under the later date of 1637, says: "The severe +Censures in Star Chamber, and the greatness of the Fines, and the +rigorous Proceedings to impose Ceremonies, the suspending and +silencing Multitudes of Ministers, for not reading in the Church the +Book for Sports to be exercised on the Lord's day, caused many of the +Nation, both Ministers and others, to sell their Estates, and to set +Sail for New England (a late Plantation in America), where they hold a +Plantation by Patent from the King." Part II, vol. i, p. 410. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 204.] + +"We trust you will not be unmindful of the main end of our Plantation, +by endeavouring to bring the Indians to a knowledge of the Gospel." +Cradock's letter to Endecott, February 16, 1629, Young's Chronicle, +133; also the official letter, ibid., page 142, where the "propagation +of the Gospel" among whites and Indians is the "aim." The Royal +Charter itself declared that "to win and invite the natives of the +country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and +Saviour of mankind ... is the principal end of this Plantation." (A +similar provision was inserted in the Connecticut Charter in 1662, in +imitation of that of Massachusetts.) The common seal of the +Massachusetts colony, sent over in 1629, bore an Indian with the +inscription, "Come over and help us." Young's Chronicles of +Massachusetts, 155, Instructions to Endecott. The paper of "Reasons," +attributed to Winthrop, keeps the conversion of the Indians in view, +but it is blended with that which was in his mind the main end, the +founding of a Puritan church. The first paragraph reads, "It will be a +service to the Church of great consequence to carry the Gospell into +those parts of the world, to helpe on the comminge of the fullnesse of +the Gentiles, & to raise a Bulworke against the kingdome of +Ante-Christ which the Jesuites labour to reare up in those parts." +Life and Letters of Winthrop, i, 309. The copy of this paper in Sir +John Eliot's handwriting has a preamble written in a nervous style +that may well be Eliot's own. This preamble goes back to the +conversion of the Indians as a main purpose. The Antapologia of T. +Edwards, 1644, declares that White of Dorchester and others had the +conversion of the Indians in view in promoting emigration to New +England. Edwards says, page 41, that the establishing of +Congregational churches "was not in the thoughts of them that were the +first movers in that or of the ministers that were sent over in the +beginning." The statement is quite too strong, but the ecclesiastical +purpose seems to have grown rapidly when the number of emigrants +revealed the greatness of the opportunity. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 204.] + +Cotton Mather says, Magnalia, Book II, chap. iv, 3, that Winthrop was +made a justice at eighteen, but Mather's account of anything marvelous +needs support. Winthrop held his first court at Groton Hall several +months after he had attained his majority. Life and Letters, i, 62. +Compare page 223 of the same volume. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 205.] + +Of his election to the governorship he wrote to his wife, "The onely +thinge that I have comforte of in it is, that heerby I have assurance +that my charge is of the Lorde & that he hath called me to this +worke." Life and Letters, i, 340. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 208.] + +The government of the colony under Endecott was substantially that +prescribed for "particular plantations" in the general order of the +Virginia Company at the time the charter for the Pilgrim colony was +granted, and like that which was formed at Plymouth under the Compact. +The Massachusetts form may have been borrowed from Plymouth. This may +be considered the primary form of colony government in the scheme of +the Virginia Company. The plan antedates the formation of the Virginia +Company by at least twenty years, for it was a form proposed by Ralegh +when, in 1587, he organized his colony under the title: "The Governor +and Assistants of the city of Ralegh in Virginia." The secondary form +of government was that prescribed for Virginia in the charter of 1618, +which added a lower house elective by the people. This fully developed +government could come only when the population had become large enough +to render a representative system possible. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 210.] + +It has been maintained by several writers that the charter had been +worded with a view to removal. See, for example, Palfrey's New +England, i, 307. But a paper read before the Massachusetts Historical +Society, and printed in the Proceedings for December, 1869, by the +late Charles Deane, shows that such a presumption is groundless. In +calling the subordinate government of Endecott "London's Plantation in +Massachusetts Bay in New England," the company showed that it proposed +to keep its headquarters in London. It is open to question, however, +whether Deane does not go too far in denying that the charter gave +authority for the transfer. In that technical age the letter of the +instrument would probably be counted more conclusive than at present, +and the evidence of the dockets would have less weight. The removal of +the government was not one of the charges made in the _quo warranto_ +proceedings against the company. On the main question compare also the +very significant treatment of the subject by Winthrop in his paper on +Arbitrary Government, Life and Letters, ii, 443, where he expressly +says that it was intended to have the chief government in England, +"and with much difficulty we gott it abscinded." It is to be +remembered that the exercise of governmental functions by a commercial +corporation was not a novel spectacle in that age. In 1620 the English +and Dutch East India Companies, after having been at war while the two +nations were allies, concluded a treaty of peace. No doubt the +exercise of such powers by trading companies had been made familiar by +the mingling of the functions of government with those of commerce by +the merchants of the Hanse cities. The East India and the Hudson Bay +Companies continued to exercise territorial jurisdiction until a very +recent period. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 214.] + +This rebound from their previous attitude of compromise is well +exemplified in the church covenant adopted at Dorchester, Mass., in +1636, under the lead of Richard Mather, which contains these words: +"We do likewise promise by his Grace assisting us, to endeavour the +establishing amongst ourselves all His Holy Ordinances which He hath +appointed for His church here on Earth, ... opposing to the utmost of +our power whatsoever is contrary thereto and bewailing from our Hearts +our own neglect hereof in former times and our poluting ourselves +therein with any Sinful Invention of men." Blake's Annals of +Dorchester. Robinson of Leyden, in his Justification of Separation, +1610, declared that the Puritans would soon separate if they might +have the magistrates' license; and Backus, who quotes the passage (i, +pp. 2, 3), remarks on the confirmation which the history of +Massachusetts gives to Robinson's theory of conformity. + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 215.] + +In his Way of the Churches Cleared, controversial necessity drove +Cotton to assert that Plymouth had small share in fixing the +ecclesiastical order of Massachusetts, but he is compelled to admit +its influence. "And though it bee," he says, "very likely, that some +of the first commers might helpe their Theory by hearing and +discerning their practice at Plymmouth: yet therein the Scripture is +fulfilled, 'The Kingdome of Heaven is like unto leaven,'" etc., pp, +16, 17. + + + + +BOOK III. + +CENTRIFUGAL FORCES IN COLONY-PLANTING. + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST. + +_THE CATHOLIC MIGRATION._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Centrifugal forces.] + +At every new stage in the history of the American settlement, we are +afresh reminded that colonies are planted by the uneasy. The +discontent that comes from poverty and financial reverse, that which +is born of political unrest, and that which has no other cause than +feverish thirst for novelty and hazardous adventure, had each a share +in impelling Englishmen to emigrate. But in the seventeenth century +religion was the dominant concern--one might almost say the dominant +passion--of the English race, and it supplied much the most efficient +motive to colonization. Not only did it propel men to America, but it +acted as a distributing force on this side of the sea, producing +secondary colonies by expelling from a new plantation the discontented +and the persecuted to make fresh breaks in the wilderness for new +settlements. Connecticut and Rhode Island were secondary plantings of +this kind. Religious differences also made twain the Chesapeake +region, the first home of the English in America, one of the two rival +colonies being intolerantly Protestant, the other a home for Catholic +refugees. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Character of George Calvert.] + +George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore, who projected the Maryland +colony and left it to his son to carry forward, belonged to the order +of men who are shrewd without being creative--men of sagacity as +differentiated from men of ideas. The man in whose mind there is a +ferment of original ideas has theories to promulgate or expound. +Sagacity has small necessity for speech--its very reticence gives an +advantage in the conduct of affairs. The parliamentary antagonist and +political rival who confronted Calvert was no other than our old +acquaintance Sir Edwin Sandys, of the Virginia Company. Calvert and +Sandys were alike men of rare accomplishments, and both were +interested in schemes for colonization; otherwise they were antipodal. +Sandys was a statesman of advanced ideas, creative, liberal, and +original, fitted to be the founder of representative government in the +English colonies. In that age of worn and brittle institutions it was +not deemed wholly safe to suffer so robust a thinker as Sandys to be +always at large, and it was one of Calvert's most difficult duties, as +the king's secretary and chosen intermediary, to explain to Parliament +why its leader was under restraint. Sandys, as we have already said, +was described as "right-handed to every great employment"; when +Calvert came upon the scene, he was aptly characterized as "a forward +and knowing person in matters relating to the state." The phrase +denotes, perhaps, clever adroitness within the limits of that +mediocrity which in those perilous times was a safeguard to the man +who ventured into politics. After having started well at court, Sandys +had fallen into irretrievable disfavor by his resolute advocacy of the +liberties of his countrymen. The message to the Virginia Company, +already recited, "Choose the devil, but not Sir Edwin Sandys," +expressed the depth of the king's antipathy. But if Sandys seemed to +the king a devil, Calvert became for him a convenient angel. Notions +about human rights and the liberty of Parliament did not obstruct +Calvert's career. Not that he was a man to prove unfaithful to his +convictions, as did his bosom friend Wentworth, or to suppress liberal +opinions in order to smooth an ascending pathway, as did his great +contemporary Bacon. Calvert played a far simpler part and one less +dishonorable. It was his fortune to be a man of facile mind, naturally +reverential toward authority. The principles enunciated by his +sovereign and the measures by which those in power sought to attain +the end in view were pretty sure to seem laudable or at least +excusable to him. Such a mind can not be called scrupulous, neither is +it consciously dishonest. The quality most highly esteemed at the +court of James was fidelity, unswerving devotion to the interests of +the king and of one's friends. And this, the dominant virtue of his +time and of his class--this honor of a courtier--Calvert possessed in +a high degree; it is a standard by which he has a right to be judged. +To a French ambassador he seemed an honorable, sensible, courteous, +well-intentioned man, devoted to the interests of England, but without +consideration or influence. + +[Sidenote: Calvert's rise.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +Whatever his lack of influence in councils of state, Calvert's +fidelity, useful abilities, and many accomplishments won the +friendship of James, and in that lavish reign when all the fairy +stories came true at a court which was "like a romance of knight +errantry," as the Spanish minister declared, the favor of the king was +sure to result in good fortune to the favorite. From being secretary +to Burleigh, Calvert rose to be principal Secretary of State, was +knighted, and at last ennobled. Grants of estates in Ireland and of +great unexplored tracts of territory in the wilderness of America, +pensions, sinecure offices, grants of money out of increased customs +fees, and presents from those who had ends to serve at court, were the +means by which a successful courtier bettered his estate, and by some +or all of these Secretary Calvert thrived. That he did thrive is +proved by the great sum he was able to lose in his futile attempt to +plant a colony in Newfoundland. It was believed that he had accepted a +share of the money dispensed lavishly in presents and pensions to +English courtiers by Spain, but this Calvert denied, and one can +believe that a man of his fidelity to king and country would be able +to resist a temptation to which others succumbed. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: The colony of Avalon.] + +[Sidenote: Cal S. P. America, pp. 25, 26, March 16, 1620.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +Calvert was very early interested in colonization. He was a member of +the Virginia Company in 1609, and later one of the councilors for New +England. In 1620 he was one of a commission appointed to settle the +affairs of a Scotch company for colonizing Newfoundland, and in the +next year he dispatched his first colony to the southeastern peninsula +of that island which he had bought from Sir William Vaughan. In this +latter year (1621) he secured a grant of the whole vast island, but in +1622 he accepted a re-grant of the peninsula alone, and this became +his first proprietary colony. Captain Whitbourne's pamphlet on +Newfoundland was just then circulating gratuitously by the aid of +collections made in the churches with the sanction of royal authority. +It described a Newfoundland of Edenic fruitfulness. Even cool-headed +statesmen like Calvert appear to have been captivated by the stories +of this veteran seaman and weather-beaten romancer. Calvert called his +new province Avalon. The name signifies the land of apples--that is, +the fruitful country. In old British mythology it was the paradise of +the blessed, the island in the western seas to which King Arthur was +translated in the famous legend. This name of promise suited the +situation of the new island state, and fitted well the enthusiastic +tales of Whitbourne and the groundless hopes of Calvert. The bleak +Newfoundland coast had already blossomed with fanciful names; there +was the Bay of Plesaunce and the Bay of Flowers, Robin Hood's Bay and +the River of Bonaventure; there was the Harbor of Formosa and the +Harbor of Heartsease. Avalon, the earthly paradise, was but the +complement of these. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: The charter of Avalon.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +Sir George Calvert probably drafted with his own hand--the hand of an +expert and accomplished man of the court--the charter of April 7, +1623, that conferred on him an authority little short of sovereignty +over his new territory. This masterpiece of dexterous charter-making +afforded a model for other proprietary charters, and Calvert himself +bettered it but little in the Maryland charter of a later date. The +ambiguous passages in the Maryland charter, which have been accounted +evidence of a design to make way for the toleration or even the +possible dominance of Roman Catholicism, appear already in the charter +of Avalon. Was the colony of 1621 or its charter of 1623 intended to +supply a refuge, if one should be needed, for Englishmen of the +Catholic faith? The question is not easily answered. The primary +design of the Avalon colony was, no doubt, to better the fortunes of +Sir George Calvert and to lift him and his successors into the +authority and dignity of counts-palatine in the New World. But there +can hardly be a doubt that, before the charter of 1623 was granted, +Secretary Calvert was already a Catholic, secretly or latently, if not +overtly. His charter of Avalon naturally left open a door for the +toleration of the faith to which he was already attached, or toward +which he was tending. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Calvert's conversion.] + +Calvert's conversion was almost inevitable. He favored the project for +the Spanish match, and he was, like some other courtiers, under the +influence of Gondomar, a consummate master of intrigue. He was bound +by ties of friendship, and later by the marriage of his son, to Lord +Arundel of Wardour, a Catholic, and the constitution of his mind and +all the habits of a lifetime made him a lover of authority in church +and state. Under favoring circumstances such a man becomes a Roman +Catholic by gravitation and natural affinity. + +[Sidenote: Petition in Rushworth, Part I, i, 141. Compare Neal, Part +II, c. ii.] + +There was a Catholic revival in England at this time, especially among +the courtiers and upper classes. In 1623 there was a large influx to +England of priests and Jesuits. English Romanists flocked to the +vicinage of London, and resorted in great numbers to the mass in the +houses of foreign ambassadors; and in many English country houses the +mass was openly celebrated in defiance of law. The Commons, in alarm, +adopted what James fitly called "a stinging petition against the +papists." + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: His resignation.] + +[Sidenote: 1624.] + +[Sidenote: 1625.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +Calvert had staked his hopes for himself and for English Catholicism +on the Spanish match. This otherwise pliant courtier was intractable +where his religious convictions were concerned. He scrupled to draw +back at the bidding of Charles and Buckingham, when drawing back +involved a violation of the treaty oath of the king and council, the +plunging of England into a Spanish war, the sacrifice of the interests +of the Catholic church, and a fresh exposure of his co-religionists in +England to a harsh persecution. Calvert was one of that party in the +junta for Spanish affairs which was unwilling to break a solemn treaty +in order to gratify the wounded vanity of Buckingham and Charles, and +he paid dearly for his firmness. To bring about his resignation, his +antagonists diverted business from his office, thus reducing his fees +and subjecting his pride to mortification. Under this treatment it was +noted by a letter writer of the time that Mr. Secretary Calvert +"droops and keeps out of the way." It was reported that he was ill, +and then that he had been rebuked by the king and the prince, and it +was known that he wished to sell his office to some one acceptable to +Buckingham. Calvert's cleverness as a courtier did not fail him in his +fall. He succeeded at the last in mollifying Buckingham, whose consent +he gained to the sale of the secretaryship. After nearly a year of the +prolonged agony of holding office in disfavor, he resigned in +February, 1625, receiving six thousand pounds for his office, which +was worth to the incumbent two thousand a year. He was at the same +time raised to the Irish peerage as Baron Baltimore. He made his +religious scruples the ostensible reason for his resignation, and he +was already known to be "infinitely addicted to the Catholic faith." +He made no secret of his proscribed religion; he exposed to visitors +the altar, chalice, and candlesticks in his best room; and he +catechised his children assiduously in the doctrines of the ancient +church. At the accession of Charles he retired from the Privy Council +rather than take an oath offensive to his conscience. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Calvert deserts Newfoundland.] + +[Sidenote: Letters of Wynne, Daniel, and Hoskins, in Whitbourne's +second ed.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +During the period of his decline from court favor Calvert's colony of +Avalon probably suffered from neglect. He now gave his new leisure to +the work of rescuing it. In 1627 he made a voyage to Newfoundland, +taking a company of Catholic settlers and two priests. He went again +in 1628. From Newfoundland he wrote to one of the Jesuits in England a +letter of affection, declaring his readiness to divide with him "the +last bit" he had in the world. In Avalon began the long chapter of the +troubles of the Baltimores with the Puritan opposition. Besides his +contentions with Puritan settlers, who abhorred the mass as a Jewish +prophet did idolatry, he found it necessary to fight with French +privateers bent on plunder. By the time the almost interminable +Newfoundland winter had begun, he discovered that Avalon was not the +earthly paradise it appeared in the writings of pamphleteers and in +the letters of his own officeholders interested only in the +continuance of their salaries. The icy Bay of Plesaunce and the bleak +Bay of Flowers mocked him with their names of delight; of little avail +was the fast-bound River of Bonaventure to its unlucky lord, or the +Harbor of Heartsease to him who had sunk a fortune of thirty thousand +pounds in the fruitless attempt to plant a settlement on a coast so +cold. Ill himself, and with half his company down with scurvy, some of +them dying, Baltimore turned his thoughts toward Virginia, now, after +all its trials, prosperous under a genial sun. + +[Sidenote: Sails to Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Rymer's Foedera, tom. vii, iv, 147.] + +He knew the conditions of that colony and the opportunities it +afforded. A member of the Virginia Company during nearly all the years +of its stormy existence, he had been made one of the fifty-six +councilors that took over its effects at its demise, and he was one of +the eight who constituted the quorum, and who probably transacted the +business of this Council for Virginia. Even under the government of +the Company there had been precedents for the establishment of a +"precinct" within Virginia independent of the Jamestown government. +Such a plantation had been that of Captain Martin and that proposed by +Rich and Argall, and a charter for such had been given to the Leyden +pilgrims. Baltimore wrote to ask for a precinct, pleading the king's +promise already made that he might choose a part of Virginia. Here he +would still be the head of a little independent state--a state in +which the mass might be said without molestation. Before another +winter set in he abandoned Avalon to fishermen and such hardy folk, +and took ship for the James River, where he arrived in October, 1629. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: Virginia antagonism.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +Baltimore's reception in Virginia was most inhospitable. He had +perhaps counted on his former relation to the colony as a councilor to +assure him a welcome. But the Virginians of that time were Sandys and +Southampton men. They may have remembered that Calvert had been +Sandys's enemy and political rival, and that he belonged to the +faction of Sir Thomas Smyth in the company. The members of that +faction had been the executioners of the company when they could no +longer control it. Calvert was one of the later council, which had +tried to take away insidiously the privileges granted to Virginians by +their charter from the Virginia Company. This attack on their +liberties they had stoutly resisted, even to cutting off a piece of +one of the ears of the clerk of their own assembly for abetting it. +Now a nobleman of the detested faction, an advocate of absolute +government and a close friend of the king, had come among them. +Baltimore might easily expect to secure the governorship of Virginia +itself. Perhaps it is hardly necessary to go even so far afield for a +motive. The prospect of a settlement of Roman Catholics within the +limits of the colony was in itself enough to excite the opposition of +the Virginia churchmen. Baltimore's party of Catholics was not the +only one repelled from Virginia about this time. Soon after Lord +Baltimore's visit, perhaps, or just before, the Virginians refused +permission to a company of Irish Catholics to settle within their +bounds. These appear to have gone afterward to the island of St. +Christopher's, where again Protestant fellow-colonists fell out with +them about religion, so that they were finally sent to settle the +neighboring island of Montserrat. + +[Sidenote: Character of the early Virginians.] + +[Sidenote: Leah and Rachel, and De Vries Voyages, _passim_.] + +The Virginians, after all their sufferings, were now prosperous in a +gross way, reaping large profits from tobacco, and living in riotous +profusion after the manner of men beginning to emerge from the +hardships and perils of a pioneer condition into sudden opulence. +Their rude living did not at all prevent the colonists from being +fastidious about their religion--it was the seventeenth century. Most +of the Virginia clergy at this period were as reckless in life as the +people, but the Protestantism of the colony was incorruptible. Some of +the rabble even showed their piety by railing at the newly arrived +papist nobleman. + +[Sidenote: Expulsion of Baltimore.] + +[Sidenote: MS. Book of Instructions, Library of Congress, folio 136.] + +A weapon of defense against Baltimore was ready to hand. Three years +before his coming instructions had been sent from England to Yeardley +to proffer the oath of supremacy "to all such as come thither with an +intention to plant and reside, which, if any shall refuse, he is to be +retorned or shipped from thence home." This order may not have been +intended for so great a personage as a nobleman of the Court. It may +have been meant only to head off humble Irishmen like those who +settled Montserrat, or it may have been merely a fence against +Separatists. But it served the turn of the alarmed colonists. Pott and +Mathews, Claiborne and Roger Smyth, who led the opposition, offered +the oath to Baltimore. Baltimore had sacrificed his place in the Privy +Council rather than take this oath so contrary to his conscience, and +he now again stood by his religious convictions, and took ship for +England as ordered by the Virginia Council. He was disappointed and +already shaken in health. The members of the council, appalled at +their own boldness, perhaps, wrote to the king in self-defense. There +is still extant an old manuscript record book of the seventeenth +century which contains the instructions to Yeardley. Immediately +following, as if to put it under the shelter of royal authority, is +the report of the council, without date or signature, that the oath +had been offered to Baltimore and refused. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: Baltimore's seal.] + +Baltimore's hardships during two voyages to Newfoundland, and a winter +in the rude abodes of pioneers there, his illness during that winter, +the constant spectacle of sickness and death about him, and the +disappointment caused by his rude reception in Virginia, were enough, +one would think, to have broken his resolution. He went back to +England "much decayed in his strength," as he confessed; but, +strangely enough, this accomplished man of the world, whose career had +been that of a courtier, was far from living in ease and quietness as +his friends had expected him to do. He was possessed of a passion for +peopling the wilderness. He had written to the king from America that +he was resolved to spend "the poore remaynder" of his days in +colony-planting, his "inclinations carrying him naturally" to such +work. To what extent he was prompted by a desire to leave to his heir +the semi-sovereignty of a principality, and how far he was carried by +a naturally adventurous temper hitherto latent, we have no means of +deciding; but one can hardly resist the conclusion that a fervent +religious zeal was the underlying spring of a resolution so +indomitable. Like many another man of that time, Calvert was lifted +from worldliness to high endeavor by religious enthusiasm. The king +felt obliged to interpose his authority; he forbade Baltimore's +risking his life in another voyage, but he granted him a charter for a +new palatinate on the north side of the Potomac. + +[Sidenote: Death of the first Lord Baltimore.] + +Lord Baltimore was doomed never to see the desire of his eyes. He died +on the 15th of April, 1632, before the charter had passed, leaving the +planting of Maryland to be carried forward by his son and heir, +Cecilius. The charter of Maryland passed the seals on the 22d of the +following June in favor of Cecilius, the second Lord Baltimore. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: The charter of Maryland.] + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +[Sidenote: Rushworth, Part I, vol. i, 141, 1623.] + +[Sidenote: Note 11.] + +[Sidenote: Note 12.] + +The Maryland charter was no doubt the work of George Calvert's own +hand. Its main provisions are identical with those of Avalon; but it +put the proprietary in a still better position. He held Avalon by +knight's service, Maryland in free and common soccage, and the +holdings of Maryland settlers would be under the proprietary, not +under the crown. In fact, the crown retained practically no rights of +value in Maryland beyond the bare allegiance of the settlers. Larger +privileges of trade were conceded to Maryland than had been given to +Avalon. In one respect the liberties of the future settlers were +apparently better guarded in the Maryland charter, for there is a +faint promise of a representative government in its phraseology. But +even this was not definitely assured. In a single regard the charter +of Maryland appears less favorable to the Catholic religion than its +predecessors. Historic specialists with a religious bias, doing their +small best to render the current of history turbid, have not failed to +convince themselves by means of the new clause that Maryland was a +Protestant colony. The patronage and advowsons of all churches had +been conferred on the proprietary in the Avalon charter, and a like +concession is made in the Maryland grant; but to this, in the Maryland +charter, is attached a sort of "lean-to"--a qualifying clause that +appears to limit the ecclesiastical organization of the colony to +Anglican forms. "Together with license and power," runs the charter, +"to build and found Churches, Chapels and Oratories in convenient and +fit places within the premises, and to cause them to be dedicated and +consecrated according to the ecclesiastical laws of our kingdom of +England." In 1632 the Baltimore family was openly Catholic. The +Puritans were raging against every indulgence shown by the court to +Romanists. The clamor of the Catholic-baiters did not stop with a +demand that Romanists should be expelled from England. The Commons had +a few years earlier petitioned the King that they be excluded from +"all other Your Highness's dominions." The founding of an English +colony that might make a home for English and Irish Romanists was a +more difficult project in the reign of Charles than it had been in the +time of James when Avalon was granted. The clause which allowed +Baltimore to dedicate his churches according to the ecclesiastical +laws of England excites admiration. It graciously permitted an +Anglican establishment in Maryland; it did not oblige Baltimore to do +anything at all, nor did it, in fact, put any constraint whatever on +his actions in this regard. The impotent clause which seemed to limit, +but did not limit, the ecclesiastical organization was breathlessly +followed by one far from impotent--a masterpiece of George Calvert's +skill. It gave to the proprietary the legal power exercised from +ancient times by the Bishops of Durham as counts-palatine. The +regalities of Durham having been pared down by Henry VIII, the charter +somewhat furtively reached back after the local absolutism of the +middle ages by giving Baltimore all the temporal power ever possessed +by any Bishop of Durham. But if alarm should be taken at the giving of +powers so vast to a Roman Catholic subject, there might be reassurance +for timid souls in a clause in imitation of older charters than +Calvert's, which stipulated that no interpretation should be put upon +the charter by which God's holy and true Christian religion might be +prejudiced. Ambiguity spread from the charter to some of the early +Maryland laws, which wore a Protestant or a Catholic face according to +the side from which they were approached. + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: Condition of English Catholics.] + +[Sidenote: An act for the better discovering and repressing of popish +recusants. Also, An act to prevent, etc., 3 Jac. I, chaps. iv and v.] + +When George Calvert projected his new southern colony he had every +reason to suppose that it would be quickly supplied with settlers from +the discontented English and Irish Catholics. The statute enacted in +the third year of James, soon after the Gunpowder Plot, put those who +adhered to the Roman communion in a precarious and exasperating +situation. For the first year that a Catholic wholly neglected the +sacraments of the English church he must pay twenty pounds. This was +raised to forty the second year, and to sixty for every year of +conscientious abstention thereafter. If he did not attend the parish +church at all, the luxury of a conscience cost him twenty pounds a +month, which, as money then went, was a large sum. If he were a rich +landholder, the king might take the use or rentals of two thirds of +his land until he should conform. The oath of allegiance by which he +was to be tested was made ingeniously offensive to a Catholic +conscience. If a Romanist should persuade a Protestant to accept his +own faith he was guilty of treason, as was also his convert. The man +who harbored a Roman Catholic neglecting to attend the parish church +was to be fined ten pounds a month. Marriage by a Romish priest +invalidated accruing land tenures. The Catholic was not suffered to +send his children beyond seas for an education, nor yet to keep a +schoolmaster of his own faith; he could not serve as an executor; he +might not have the charge of any child; his house might be searched +for Catholic books; he was not allowed to keep weapons; and when at +last his vexed and troubled life was over, his dead body might not be +buried among the graves of his forefathers in the parish churchyard. + +[Sidenote: Administration of the law.] + +[Sidenote: Lingard, viii, 189, cites Rymer, xxii, 13; Hardwicke +Papers, 1446, and a private letter.] + +The administration of this law was attended by many aggravations. The +pursuivants took the very cattle and household goods of the poor; from +the rich they exacted large payments, failing which, they pounced on +valuable plate and jewels, which they seized under pretense that these +were articles of superstition or the concealed property of Jesuits. +It is said that James derived a revenue of thirty-six thousand pounds +a year from the fines of lay Catholics. To the several Scotch +favorites of the king were assigned certain rich recusants from whom +they might squeeze whatever could be got by the leverage of the law. + +[Sidenote: Influence of foreign policy.] + +[Sidenote: 1583, reprinted 1688.] + +[Sidenote: 1609, sm. 4to, pp. 112.] + +[Sidenote: Ellis Collection, first series, iii, 128.] + +[Sidenote: Neal, ii, ch. ii. Rapin, 215, 2d ed.] + +Very embarrassing to the foreign policy of England was the severity of +English laws against Catholics, and Lord Treasurer Burleigh found it +needful to publish in Elizabeth's time, for circulation in all the +courts of Europe, a treatise on The Execution of Justice in England +and the Maintenance of Public Order and Christian Peace; and in the +following reign James himself turned pamphleteer and published an +Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance. There were periods when pressure +from abroad softened the administration of the law. But it was only +irregularly and intermittently that the Government could be brought to +grant indulgences that roused the pious wrath of Puritans and reduced +the revenue of the king and his favorites. If Spain, and afterward +France, made it a condition precedent to a marriage treaty that the +penal laws against English recusants should be relaxed, Parliament, +resenting foreign dictation, demanded of the king a renewal of the +severities against papists. Twenty-four Catholics suffered capitally +in James's reign, before 1618; and when in 1622 it was necessary to +condone Catholicism in order to conciliate Spain, it is said that four +hundred Jesuits and priests were set free on bail at one time. The +number of Catholics, lay and cleric, released in this year is put at +four thousand, but this may be an exaggeration. + + +XII. + +[Sidenote: Catholic emigration small.] + +[Sidenote: Harl. Miscell., ii, 492, and following, where passages from +contemporary writers are quoted.] + +In 1627, and again in 1628, Lord Baltimore took Catholics with him to +Newfoundland and settled priests there. The English court was just +then sailing on a Protestant tack, and England had allied itself with +the Huguenots of La Rochelle. Another of the good works by which the +government of Charles and Buckingham was endeavoring to prove its +sanctification was the enforcement of the penal statutes against Roman +Catholics. It is notable that Baltimore sailed with the first Catholic +emigrants to Avalon about the time of the setting in of the movement +toward Massachusetts which swelled at length into the great Puritan +exodus. The five years of delay caused by the change from Avalon to +Maryland, and also perhaps by the exhaustion of Baltimore's resources +and his death, was unfavorable to the project of a Catholic province. +The English government by 1634 had grown more lenient toward +Romanists, the co-religionists of the queen. The work at which Laud +kept all hands busy just then was the suppression of Puritanism, and +thousands of Puritans were by this time shaking the dust of England +from their feet and seeking a home in the western wilderness, +persuaded that the Church of England under Laud had all sails set for +Rome. This illusion regarding the purposes of the archbishop and his +party, which alarmed the Puritans, heartened the Catholics, who +naturally preferred to stay at home where a flood tide seemed to be +setting toward Catholicism. The small Catholic migration to Maryland +was not to be compared with that stream of Puritan emigration that +about this time poured into New England twenty thousand people in a +decade. The fall of Laud and the rise of the Puritans to power put a +complete stop to the New England migration, but it failed to quicken +the Catholic movement, for Maryland herself had become sadly involved +in the civil commotions of the time. + +[Sidenote: Baltimore's partners.] + +[Sidenote: Note 13.] + +Cecilius Calvert undoubtedly counted on a large migration of Catholic +recusants, and the documents show that the Jesuit order in England +took great interest in the movement. The second Lord Baltimore was +joined by partners in the financial risks of the venture, and though +we meet with more than one allusion to these adventurers whose +interest in the colony was apparently still active twenty years after +its beginning, they were profoundly silent partners; their names are +nowhere recorded, and we are left to conjecture the origin of their +interest in Maryland. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: The religious aim.] + +"The first and most important design of the Most Illustrious Baron, +which ought also to be the aim of the rest, who go in the same ship, +is, not to think so much of planting fruits and trees in a land so +fertile, as of sowing the seeds of religion and piety." This was Lord +Baltimore's authoritative declaration, and because it varies in form +from the stock phrases so common at the time, it bears an air of some +sincerity, though it is diplomatically ambiguous. + +[Sidenote: Efforts to obstruct the ships.] + +[Sidenote: Letters of Baltimore to Wentworth in Strafford papers, +_passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Note 14.] + +Baltimore's opponents made great exertions to prevent the departure of +the Ark and the Dove, which were to bear faithful Catholics across the +flood to a new world. A story was started that these ships were +carrying nuns to Spain, and another tale that found believers was that +they had soldiers on board going to France to serve against the +English. It was told that Calvert's men had abused the customs +officers at Gravesend, and sailed without cockets in contempt of all +authority, the people on board refusing the oath of allegiance. The +Ark was stopped and brought back by order of the Privy Council, and +the oath of allegiance was given to a hundred and twenty-eight +passengers. But the ships came to again at the Isle of Wight, and when +they got away at last there were near three hundred passengers on +board, including Jesuit priests. Most of the passengers were "laboring +men"; how many were Catholic and how many Protestant it is impossible +now to tell. That the leaders and the gentry were, most of them, +Catholics there is every reason to believe. The passengers called +Protestants were rather non-Catholics, precisely the kind of +emigrants that would give the Jesuits the converts of which they tell +exultantly in their letters. There was no Protestant minister on +board, nor was there the slightest provision for Protestant worship, +present or future. + + +XIV. + +[Sidenote: Toleration.] + +[Sidenote: Note 15.] + +Toleration was the Baltimore policy from the beginning. It was no +doubt in the original plan of George Calvert and his associates, +whoever they were. The Provincial of the Society of Jesus privately +furnished Baltimore with arguments in defense of this policy before +the first colony sailed. The founders of Maryland were men of affairs +shaping plan to opportunity, and the situation was inexorable. +Toleration and protection was all that English Roman Catholics could +hope to find in traveling thus to the ends of the earth. + +[Sidenote: Toleration a policy.] + +Cecilius gave positive instruction that on shipboard acts of the Roman +Catholic religion should be performed with as much privacy as +possible, so as not to offend the Protestant passengers "whereby any +just complaint may hereafter be made by them in Virginia or in +England." There is no pretense of theory here; all is based on the +exigency of the situation and sound policy. The policy was George +Calvert's, whose school was the court of James, and whose whole career +shows that he entertained no advanced views of human liberty. Had he +held toleration as a theory of government, his doctrine would have +been more liberal than that of Ralegh and Bacon and far in advance of +that of contemporary Puritan leaders. They quite misunderstand the man +who regard him as a progressive thinker; he was a conservative +opportunist. Still less was Cecilius a man likely to act on general +principles. + + +XV. + +[Sidenote: Religious observance at sea.] + +[Sidenote: Relatio Itineris, p. 10.] + +[Sidenote: Note 16.] + +[Sidenote: Relatio Itineris, 16, 17.] + +We have seen how religiously the Puritans passed their time at sea in +long daily expositions of Scripture and other devotions, and that +sometimes even the watch was set with a psalm. Not less religious were +the Catholic pilgrims, and though the form is strikingly different, +the believing and zealous age is the same. To make things safe, the +Jesuit fathers committed the principal parts of the ship in some +detail to the protection of God in the first place, and then to that +"of His Most Holy Mother and of St. Ignatius and of all the angels of +Maryland." These angels to whom the safety of Maryland was committed +were kept busy by special spiritual opponents. A dangerous storm was +raised on one occasion by all the "malignant spirits of the tempest +and all the evil genii of Maryland." But Father White circumvented +this combination of ordinary storm spirits with imps of Protestant +proclivities by setting forth to Christ and the Blessed Virgin, while +the storm was at its worst, "that the purpose of this journey was to +glorify the Blood of our Redeemer in the salvation of the Barbarians, +and also to build up a kingdom for the Saviour and to consecrate +another gift to the Immaculate Virgin his mother." The last clause +apparently refers to Maryland, as if it were named in honor of the +Virgin. The representation was effective; the good father had scarcely +ceased speaking when the storm began to abate. + +[Illustration: The colony at St. Mary's.] + +[Sidenote: The arrival.] + +The Puritans when using a geographical name that began with the word +"saint" scrupulously uncanonized it by leaving off the prefix. But +these devout pilgrims of the Roman faith, when once the saints and +guardian angels of Maryland had piloted them safe in spite of the +malice of storm spirits and evil genii into landlocked waters and the +bounds of Lord Baltimore's grant, proceeded to sanctify the whole +region by sprinkling it with the names of saints and angels from +Michael the archangel downward. The ancient Indian designations were +marks of a heathenism they purposed to overthrow, and they began by +trying to get rid of the whole "bead roll of unbaptized names." No +convenient island, creek, river, bay, or cape escaped Christian +baptism. On Annunciation Day, 1634, they landed on Heron Island, in +the Potomac, which they named appropriately for St. Clement, who was +martyred by being thrown into the sea attached to an anchor, and here +the sacrifice of the mass was celebrated, the worshipers reflecting +that "never before had this been done in this part of the world." +After the mass they took upon their shoulders a great cross hewn out +of a tree and advanced in order to the place appointed, where the +governor and his assistants took part in its erection. The +Catholics of the party, seeing this symbol of the faith erected in a +new land, knelt upon the ground and recited the litanies of the cross +in a kind of religious ecstasy. Here in another form was that tender +attachment to their faith that one finds among the more devout +Protestant exiles, and in the nobler natures there was doubtless that +element of the heroic and the saintly often evolved in the religious +sufferings and activities of that day--a relief to the pettiness of +the debates and the irksomeness of the bigotries of the age. + + +XVI. + +[Sidenote: A Catholic colony.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Clarke's Gladstone and Maryland Toleration.] + +[Sidenote: Maryland Archives, i, 23.] + +[Sidenote: Excerpta de Diversis Literis, etc., 56-60.] + +The colony had been named Maryland by King Charles in honor of his +wife Henrietta Maria; at least there was assigned to the king +responsibility for a name that, like nearly everything else about +Maryland, was ambiguous. But the phrase _Terra Mariae_ in the charter, +though represented there to be the equivalent of Maryland, was +significant to a devout Catholic of something better than a compliment +to a Catholic queen. The Indian village which with its gardens and +cornfields had been bought for the germinal settlement and capital, +took the name of St. Mary's, and the whole infant colony is called the +Colony of St. Maries, by its own Legislative Assembly in 1638, as +though by Maryland were intended the land of Mary. Notwithstanding the +manifest care of the second Lord Baltimore to hold the missionaries +within the limits of worldly prudence, the zealous fathers lived and +labored in a spirit of other-worldliness. They set themselves first of +all to convert those sheep without a shepherd, the Protestants of +Maryland. Some of these appear to have been men of reckless and +immoral lives, who were greatly bettered by an acceptance of religious +restraint. Those non-Catholics who were ill, and those who found +themselves languishing and dying in the wilderness without the +consolations of their own religion, were zealously visited and +converted _in extremis_ by the Jesuits. The servants and mechanics +employed by or apprenticed to the missionaries were brought under +their constant influence and were readily won. Nearly all the +Protestants who arrived in 1638 were swiftly brought over to the faith +of the missionaries, and twelve converts were joyously reckoned as +fruits of the Jesuit labors in 1639. There was more than one instance +of the miraculous, or at least of the marvelous, to help on this work. +One man of noble birth, who had by dissipation brought himself to +desperate straits, and then sunk until he became at length a bond +servant in Maryland, embraced Catholicism. After the death of this +convert a very bright light was sometimes seen burning about his place +of burial, and even those who were not Catholics were permitted to see +this wonder. The horrible punishments that resulted from the Divine +wrath against those who scoffingly rejected the Catholic faith in +Maryland remind one of the equal calamities that befell those who +were unfaithful to Puritanism in New England. Seventeenth-century +Englishmen with sky-wide differences in opinion were one in the traits +that belonged to their age. Father White was sure that the destruction +of Indians in Maryland was specially ordered by God to provide an +opening "for His own everlasting law and light"; but not more sure +than were the Puritans that the cruel plague which exterminated whole +villages on the Massachusetts coast was sent to open a way for the +planting of Calvinistic churches. Each division of Christians in turn +reduced the Almighty Creator to the level of a special tutelary +divinity, sometimes to that of a rather vindictive genius of the +place. + +[Sidenote: Note 17.] + +In this work of propagandism the missionaries did not forget the red +men. Their labors among the aborigines were fairly successful at +first, then interrupted by relapse and by war. Such is the history of +Indian missions. Much was made of the solemn profession and baptism of +an Indian "king," at which the governor and other distinguished men +"honored by their presence the Christian sacraments," the governor +marching behind the neophyte in the procession. Maryland was in fact +openly a Catholic colony until after 1640. + +[Sidenote: Failure to make a Catholic state.] + +[Sidenote: Note 18.] + +[Sidenote: Note 19.] + +But as a Catholic colony it was a failure. In fear of the rising +Puritan tempest in England, or the violent opposition on several +grounds of its stronger neighbor Virginia, and of the mutinous +bigotry of its own Puritan settlers, who regarded Baltimore's +government as a "Babylon" to be overthrown, it was never able to +afford to Catholics perfect security, much less was it able to promise +them domination. But the Catholics included most of the rich and +influential families, and it was a Jesuit boast that they were +superior to other American settlers in breeding and urbanity. As they +had choice of the best land in the province, the Catholic families +remained during the whole colonial period among the most prominent +people of Maryland. There is also evidence that the Catholics were +numerically considerable in proportion to the population, though the +reports on the subject are vague and conflicting. In 1641 they were +about one fourth of the whole. The ranks of the early Catholic +settlers, both of the rich and poor, seem to have been recruited from +Ireland as well as from England, but the Maryland government in Queen +Anne's Protestant time passed acts levying an import tax of twenty +pounds on each Irish Catholic servant, in order that the bond servants +and even the transported convicts in Maryland should be orthodox +Protestants. + + +XVII. + +[Sidenote: Opposition to Maryland.] + +George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore, molded the Maryland +enterprise until the drafting of the charter, and his spirit was felt +in it after his death. Cecilius, his son, was a man of a somewhat +different sort, and his traits became more apparent as time went on. +He was strongly supported at court by Strafford, his father's most +devoted and obliged friend, and no doubt also by the queen, who was +godmother to Maryland. The opposition to Maryland was probably +embittered by the hatred to Strafford and the jealousy of a Catholic +queen. + +[Sidenote: The second Lord Baltimore and Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Note 20.] + +On his enemies in Virginia the younger Baltimore took ample vengeance. +He got one of the queen's household appointed treasurer of the colony, +and the Virginians found themselves obliged to pay the quitrents, +which had been neglected and apparently forgotten. Other officers of +the colony were nominated by Baltimore. Harvey, the governor, hoping +to collect money due him from the royal treasury by Baltimore's +assistance, was his obsequious tool, to the bitter indignation of the +Virginians, who hated Baltimore not only because he was a Romanist, +but also because he had divided the first colony and cut off the +northern Indian trade from Virginia. In consequence of the quarrel +between Harvey and the Virginians over Maryland there ensued a +revolution in Virginia; Harvey was shipped to England by the same bold +men who had sent the first Lord Baltimore packing. But Harvey was sent +back again by the king, and by this counter revolution the colonial +constitution of Virginia was modified for the worse. It was altogether +an exquisite revenge. + +[Sidenote: Baltimore seeks to control Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Note 21.] + +Cecilius meditated even a bolder stroke. He schemed through Windebank +to have himself made governor of Virginia, promising to wring out of +it eight thousand pounds more of revenue for the king from some +neglected sources. To achieve this, he proposed a scheme by which +Windebank was to impose on the king's credulity. Secretary Windebank +may have recoiled from the part he was to play; it is certain that +Charles was not persuaded to hand over Virginia bound hand and foot +into the power of the proprietary of the rival colony. + + +XVIII. + +[Sidenote: Cautious policy of Baltimore.] + +[Sidenote: Baltimore's instructions, 15 Nov., 1633, Calvert Papers.] + +Intolerance on the part of the authorities of Maryland directed toward +Protestants might have brought a swift overthrow of the whole project. +The instructions given for the first voyage already cited show +throughout the need for extreme caution in the face of extreme peril. +It is required of the governor and commissioners that "they be very +careful to preserve the peace amongst all the passengers on shipboard, +and that they suffer no scandal nor offense to be given to any of the +Protestants." The rulers are to instruct the Catholics to be silent +"upon all occasions of discourse concerning matter of religion," and +those in authority are to "treat the Protestants with as much mildness +and favor as justice will permit." These instructions were to hold +good after landing, and in one notable case of religious dissension +after the arrival in Maryland, justice was meted out against the +Catholic offender in a way that showed a disposition to observe this +policy of conciliation toward Protestants at the expense of some +unfairness toward Catholics. Very early a proclamation was issued for +the suppression of all religious disputes, and Copley, the business +administrator of the Jesuits, thought they ought to be put down for +fear the writings should be sent to the governor of Virginia. + +[Sidenote: Necessary ambiguity.] + +[Sidenote: Note 22.] + +The ambiguous charter of Maryland was a necessary hypocrisy. The plan +of toleration was also inevitable, and it was carried no further than +necessity required, for in that age, when toleration was odious, a +liberal policy had also its perils. The Act for Church Liberties of +1639 was a fine example of the studied ambidexterity of the Maryland +government. It was enacted "that Holy Church within this province +shall have all her rights, liberties, and immunities, safe, whole, and +inviolate in all things." Holy Church here is a deliberate +substitution for "the Church of England" in a similar phrase of Magna +Charta. Such an act was worthy of Bunyan's Mr. Facing-both-ways. +Interpreted by judges holding office at the will of a Catholic +proprietary, it could have but one meaning. For the outside world it +might bear another sense. It did all that could be done in the +circumstances for the Roman Catholic religion and for Catholic +ecclesiastics. + + +XIX. + +[Sidenote: Puritan settlers invited.] + +[Sidenote: Note 23.] + +[Sidenote: Winthrop's Journal, ii, 148, 149.] + +In 1643, Parliament, dominated by Puritans, could not let the distant +Maryland province rest in peace. It passed an ordinance making the +Earl of Warwick Governor in Chief and Lord High Admiral of all the +plantations in America. This act contained covert allusions to +papists, Spaniards, and governors recently appointed by the king. +Baltimore met the rising tempest in a way characteristic of him. If he +could settle a portion of his province with Puritans they might serve +to shield him from the storm. Besides, the Catholic emigration had not +proved large, and his province needed inhabitants. He wrote to a +Captain Gibbons, of Boston, sending him a commission under the +Maryland government, and offering "free liberty of religion and all +other privileges" to such of the New England people as were willing to +remove to Maryland. There were those in New England in that day who +longed for a more genial climate, but to settle under the authority of +a papist was to them much like pitching a tent on the confines of +perdition. + +[Sidenote: Puritans from Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: 1643.] + +Though Puritans could not be induced to move from New England, it +happened that the Puritans living in Virginia were persecuted in this +same year by that stanch cavalier and retrograde churchman, Sir +William Berkeley, who wanted his parsons to read prayers, but did not +like preaching ministers of any sort. He was new to his government, +and had brought over with him plenty of hostility to the party that +had affronted his royal master in England. Virginia Puritans had no +choice but to suffer or depart, and Maryland was convenient. They +began soon after this to seek a refuge under the protection of a +proprietary who was a papist and who practiced toleration--two things +almost equally hateful to the Puritans. Mr. James, a Puritan minister, +tarried in Maryland a short time, as early as 1643; he was probably +the only Protestant minister that set foot on Maryland soil before +1650. But the Puritan was never easy unless he was uneasy, and he was +sure to be uneasy within when there was none to molest from without. +To take an oath of fidelity to a papist was to him swearing fealty to +antichrist; but so desirous was Baltimore of Puritan settlers that +even the Maryland oath of fidelity was modified, and a saving clause +was inserted for the ease of the Puritan conscience. The coming of +Puritans who were in sympathy with the Parliament in England and who +abhorred a tolerant papist, contributed something to the multifarious +turmoils of the following years. + + +XX. + +[Sidenote: Maryland turmoils.] + +[Sidenote: Note 24.] + +What we know of the petty civil wars of Maryland is tedious and +perplexing. The broils before 1649 sprang from diverse sources, some +of which we know, others we may easily conjecture. There was the old +claim of Claiborne to jurisdiction over Kent Island; there was a +disposition on the part of some of the Marylanders to relieve the +tedium of existence by taking a hand in the great struggle against +royal authority which was rending England; there was the tendency +common in frontier communities to carry debates to a violent issue; +there was perhaps a natural proneness to insurrection on the part of +bond servants and men lately out of service; and there was an innate +hunger for spoil of any sort in the seamen of that age and in the +rougher class on shore. But by 1648 the tempest had passed for the +time; order had been reestablished; the Catholic and the Puritan were +living in peace like the lion and the lamb of Hebrew prophecy; and the +Catholic proprietary, always promptly bending before the storm, had +delegated his authority to a Protestant governor who took the +Parliament side. + + +XXI. + +[Sidenote: The Act of 1649.] + +[Sidenote: Note 25.] + +Before this epoch Maryland toleration had been merely a practical +fact. It had not been theoretically stated; it had not been a matter +of legislation at all; its extent and limitations were unknown. But +now that this colonial home of Catholics was to be a land of +Protestants, and particularly of Puritans, it was necessary to +formulate the principle of toleration, the more, that Baltimore's own +co-religionists were to be put under a Protestant governor. Governor +and high officers of state were required to swear that they would +molest on account of religion no person professing to believe in +Jesus Christ, "and in particular no Roman Catholic." By the mere march +of events it had come to pass that in the state founded by Catholics +as a cradle for the Roman Catholic religion, the Catholic was now +compelled to secure as best he could the toleration of his religion at +the hands of the heretic. Part of Baltimore's plan for this new +settlement of affairs involved the sending over of a code of perpetual +laws to be adopted by the Assembly. The proprietary gave orders that +the governor should not assent to any of these laws if all were not +passed; but the Assembly of Maryland farmers was too cunning to be +entrapped into passing laws which it thought inconvenient and unjust. +A humble letter was sent from the members to the lord proprietary +complaining that they were "illeterate" and "void of that +Understanding and Comprehension" necessary to the discussion of such a +code, and that in April they were too busy with their "necessary +employment in a Crop" to give attention to it. They selected certain +acts out of the code which they passed, among which was the famous Act +of Toleration of 1649. That this was part of the code sent from +England there can be no doubt; the "illeterate" colonists were not +capable of framing it, and it bears the character-mark of the +Baltimore policy throughout. Here is no philosophic theory of +toleration, no far-reaching conclusion like that of Roger Williams, +that the magistrate may not take cognizance of merely religious +offences. Williams was a thinker, a doctrinary, too far in advance of +his age to be the successful organizer of a new state. Baltimore, on +the other hand, accepted a practical toleration as an expedient--he +may even have come to believe in it as a theory by force of his own +situation. But he was not primarily a thinker at all. Even here, where +Baltimorean toleration reaches high tide, no philosophic congruity is +sought. The Jew and the Unitarian who deny the divinity of Christ are +to be put to death. Only so much toleration is granted as is needful +to the occasion. And even this toleration is not put upon any other +ground than public policy; the forcing of conscience in religion "hath +frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence"; therefore this +law is made "to preserve mutual love and amity amongst the +inhabitants." The provisions against such offences as blasphemy and +Sabbath-breaking and religious disputes precede those for toleration. +Very politic is the arrangement by which reviling of God is made a +capital offence, while reviling the Virgin Mary is adroitly associated +with speeches against the "holy apostles or evangelists" as a sort of +second-class blasphemy, a finable offence. + +[Sidenote: Vicissitudes of toleration.] + +And yet it was toleration, and the law was all the more influential as +an example, perhaps, because it was only practical and quite +incongruous. It was eminently prudent and statesmanlike. That it was +not perpetually effective was the fault not of Baltimore but of the +times. Puritan ideas were rampant. The government of the proprietary +was overthrown; the Jesuits fled to the inhospitable Virginia, where +they lived concealed in a low hut like a cistern or a tomb, not +lamenting their physical privations so much as the lack of wine which +deprived them of the consolation of the sacrament. The new government +of Maryland, five years after Baltimore's famous "act concerning +Religion," passed a new act with the same title--an act brusque and +curt, a law with its boots and spurs on. "That none profess and +exercise the papist religion" is its rude forbidding. The tables are +turned; it is no longer the nonresident Jew and the hypothetical +Unitarian who are excepted. But the wheels rolled swiftly once more, +and in three years Cecilius, absolute lord and proprietary, was again +master of Maryland, and the beneficent act of 1649 resumed its sway. +It protected the Catholic element, which, though always rich and +influential, came to be in latter colonial times but about a twelfth +of the population. Toleration also served to make Maryland an early +dwelling place for abounding Quakers and others holding religious +views not relished in colonies less liberal. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 223.] + +"Voto a Dios que la Corte d'Inglatierra es como un libro de cavalleros +andantes." Quoted by Chamberlain in Birch, i, 413. In view of the +swift mutations of fortune among courtiers, Dudley Carleton the +younger wrote on December 18, 1624, "He is happiest who has least to +do at court"--a truth which Calvert probably had come to appreciate by +that time. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 224.] + +"The third man who was thought to gain by the Spaniard was Secretary +Calvert; and as he was the only secretary employed in the Spanish +match, so undoubtedly he did what good offices he could therein for +religion's sake, being infinitely addicted to the Roman Catholic +faith, having been converted thereunto by Count Gondomar and Count +Arundel.... Now this man did protest to a friend of his own that he +never got by the Spaniards so much as a pair of pockets; which it +should seem is a usual gift among them, being excellently perfumed, +and may be valued at twenty nobles or ten pounds price." Goodman's +Court of King James, i, 376, 377. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 225.] + +Whitbourne gives these names. Those who believe that Calvert was +already actuated by religious zeal, remind us that Glastonbury (by a +curious legendary confusion of names) was also called Avalon, and that +in the Christian legend Joseph of Arimathea began at Glastonbury the +planting of the Christian religion in Britain. See Anderson's Church +of England in the Colonies, second edition, i, 325, 326. This +interpretation of Calvert's intention in naming his colony was early +given. British Museum, Sloane MSS. XXG. 3662, folio 24, date 1670. +When Calvert's first colony was sent out the Scotch settlement in +Newfoundland was of twelve years' standing, while the Bristol colony +had been seated there five years. Calvert's enterprise seems to have +been pushed with more energy and with a more liberal expenditure than +its predecessors. Compare Whitbourne _passim_ with the statement of +Sir William Alexander in his Encouragement to Colonies, 1624, p. 25. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 225.] + +Among the papers at Landsdowne House which I was permitted to examine +by the kindness of Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, there is an unpublished +work by James Abercromby, written in 1752. It discusses with acuteness +the nature of the several colonial governments. I shall refer to it +hereafter under the title of Abercromby's Examination, Landsdowne +House, 47. Abercromby was, so far as I know, the first to point out +the apparently intentional ambiguity of the passages in the Maryland +charter that have to do with religion. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 226.] + +It is interesting that in 1622, the year preceding the division of New +England by lot, three shares were laid off and no more. They were at +the extreme north of the territory divided the next year, and were +assigned respectively to the Duke of Lenox, the Earl of Arundel, and +Sir George Calvert. A "grand patent" was then in preparation for a +colony on the coast of Maine to be called Nova Albion. Calendar +Colonial Documents, July 24, 1622. It seems probable, from the charter +of Avalon, that Calvert intended it to be a colony that should harbor +Catholics, but on the other hand the first settlers were chiefly +Protestants, with a clergyman of their own faith, and there seem to +have been few Romanists or none in Avalon until the arrival of a +company with the lord proprietary in 1627. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 228.] + +Fuller's oft-quoted account of the circumstances of Calvert's +resignation, Worthies, Nuttall's edition, iii, 417, 418, gives +probably the commonly received story, and shows that the religious +motive was popularly accepted as the reason for his leaving office. +Archbishop Abbot was better informed though less impartial. His letter +is in the curious work entitled "The Negotiations of Sir Thomas Roe in +his Embassy to the Ottoman Porte from the Year 1621 to 1628," etc., +published in 1740. Abbot says: "Mr. secretary Calvert hath never +looked merily since the prince his coming out of Spaine: it was +thought hee was muche interested in the Spanishe affaires: a course +was taken to ridde him of all imployments and negotiations. This made +him discontented; and, as the saying is, _Desperatio facit monachum_, +so hee apparently did turne papist, whiche hee now professeth, this +being the third time that hee hath bene to blame that way. His Majesty +to dismisse him, suffered him to resigne his Secretaries place to Sir +Albertus Moreton, who payed him three thousand pounds for the same; +and the kinge hath made him baron of Baltimore in Ireland; so hee is +withdrawn from vs, and having bought a ship of 400 tuns, hee is going +to New England, or Newfoundlande, where hee hath a colony." Page 372. +The letters preserved among the state papers are the main authority, +especially those addressed to Sir Dudley Carleton, who desired to buy +Calvert's place. See, _passim_, the Calendar of Domestic Papers for +1624 and 1625 to February 12th. The circumstantial account given in +the Salvetti correspondence, though cited as authority by Mr. +Gardiner, has never been printed, for which reason it is here given in +the original from the British Museum Additional MSS. 27962 C.: "Il +Signor Cavalier Calvert primo Segretario et Consigliero di Stato, +credendosi, doppo la rottura de' trattati, che si haveva con Spagna, +(che per comandamento di sua Maesta haveva lui solo maneggiati,) +d'essere eclipsato nell' oppinione del Sig{r}. Principe et Signor +Duca, et di non essere piu impiegato con quella confidenza, che +solevano ricorse pochi giorni sono dal Signor Duca di Buchingam per +fargli intendere la sua risolutione, la quale era, che vedendo di non +potere godere della buona grazia dell' Eccellenza sua nella medesima +forma che godeva avanti della sua andata in Spagna era risoluto di +rittrarsi dalla Corte, et di mettere in sua mano, come di presente +faceva, la sua carica, perche ne disponasse ovonque le piacesse con +molte altre parole tutte piene di valore et magnanimita: +soggiugnendoli di piu come dicono, che essendo risoluto per l'avvenire +di vivere et morire Cattolicamente, conosceva di non poterlo fare nel +servizio dove era senza gelosia dello stato et pericolo del +Parlamento. Il Signor Duca ancorche non amasse questo Cavaliero, ne +nessuno altro che ha hauto le mani nel parentado di Spagna, con tutto +cio vedendo un atto cosi honorato, gli rispose: che non potera negare +che non gli fusse stato da non so che tempo in qua nemico; ma che hora +vedendo la franchezza et nobilta d'animo, col rispetto che gli haveva +mostrato, l'abracciava per amico, per mostrargliene gli effeti, sempre +che ne havesse occasione, con assicuratione de piu che operrebbe con +sua Maesta gli fusse confermato le suoi pensioni, et di piu dato +honorevole ricompensa per la sua carica di segretario. Et che quanto +alla sua religione egli l'havrebbe protetto quanto fusse mai stato +possibile," etc. Salvetti, Correspondence, iii, February 6, 1624-'25. + +The letter of the 28th February (O.S.) in the same volume gives an +account of the formal resignation to the king, and states that the +greater part of the money paid to Calvert was from his successor, and +that it was paid _denari contanti_, "cash down," and adds +sympathetically that "this good lord will be able to live easily and +quietly" hereafter. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 229.] + +Calvert attributes his deception to interested letters. The principal +motives to settle in Newfoundland may be seen by the reader who has +patience enough to thread his way through the jumble of mythology, +allegory, political economy of a certain sort, verse in English and +Latin, theology, satire, and an incredible number of what-nots besides +"for the generall and perpetuall good of Great Britain," found in +Vaughan's Golden Fleece, published in 1626. The nearness of +Newfoundland to Ireland and the comparative cheapness of +transportation thither, but especially the well-established value of +its fisheries and the market they afforded for the produce of the +colony, were the most plausible reasons for settling a colony there. +Probably there was a lurking purpose to turn the shore fishery into a +monopoly such as was contemplated by projectors for the New England +coast. The fact was insisted upon that part of Newfoundland was "equal +in climate," or at least in latitude, to "Little Britain in France," +or Brittany. Then, too, Newfoundland is an island, and Vaughan at +least persuaded himself that "Ilanders should dwel in Ilands." As some +of the apostles were fishermen, "Newfoundland the grand port of +Fishing was alloted to Professors of the Gospell." Golden Fleece, Part +Third, pp. 5 and 6 and _passim_. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 230.] + +Lord Baltimore may have had the governorship of Virginia in view. +Cecilius, his son, sought to have himself made governor in 1637. +Colonial Papers, ix, 45, Record Office. See an earlier communication +on the same subject in Sainsbury, 246, under the date of February 25, +1637. It is almost the only petition of the second Lord Baltimore that +was not granted. See also section xvii of the present chapter, and +note 21 below. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 231.] + +I have ventured to conjecture so much on evidence not complete. Father +White, who was cordially entertained by the Governor of St. Kitts in +1634, speaks of the people of Montserrat as "pulsos ab anglis Virginiae +ob fidei Catholicae professionem." White's choice of words does not +necessarily imply, I suppose, an actual banishment from Virginia, but +at least a refusal of permission to come. Neither Edwards nor Oldmixon +mention this fact; but as White visited St. Kitts only two years after +the settlement at Montserrat, which was made immediately from St. +Kitts (according to Edwards) and was subject to the same governor, his +information was doubtless correct. There seems to have been another +project to plant Catholics in Virginia about this time, unless, as is +rather probable, we meet the same plan in another form. Sir Pierce +Crosby offered to plant ten companies "of the Irish Regiment into a +fruitful part of America not yet inhabited." To make the proposal +acceptable, it was stated, somewhat diplomatically perhaps, that the +major part of the officers and many of the soldiers were Protestants. +Sainsbury's Calendar, p. 95, where the conjectural date is 1628. + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 235.] + +The translation quoted is that published by Cecilius Calvert in the +Relation of 1635. The original reads: "Unacum licencia et facultate +Ecclesias Capellas et Oratoria in locis infra premissa congruis et +idoneis Extruendi et fundandi eaque dedicari et sacrari juxta leges +Ecclesiasticas regni nostri Anglie facendas." Maryland Archives. + + +[Sidenote: Note 11, page 235.] + +Sir Edward Northey, Attorney-General of England in the following +century, gave this decision: "As to the said clause in the grant of +the province of Maryland, I am of opinion the same doth not give him +power to do anything contrary to the ecclesiastical laws of England." +This is as ingeniously ambiguous as the clause itself. The +attorneys-general and solicitors-general during the eighteenth century +set themselves to the task of subordinating colonial government to +parliamentary authority by a series of opinions in which they make +rather than explain law. In the present instance Northey was more +modest than usual, for he reaches a purely negative and impotent +conclusion, which Neill turns into a positive one in his text. +Founders of Maryland, 99. There is a collection of opinions on +colonial subjects rendered by the attorneys and solicitors-general in +the first half of the eighteenth century, in a volume at Landsdowne +House which I have examined. This collection was made, or at least +furnished, for the use of Lord Shelburne. Before Northey's opinion was +given the English Parliament had assumed power to override some +provisions of the Maryland charter, as is pointed out in Abercromby's +Examination, MS. at Landsdowne House, 47. How slowly the Church of +England grew in the colony may be inferred from the statement made in +1677, that four clergymen have plantations and settled "beings" of +their own--a phrase sufficiently obscure. Others were sustained by +voluntary contributions. Colonial Papers, No. 49, Record Office, +folios 54, 55. This is Baltimore's reply to the paper at folio 56, the +order of which is evidently reversed. The population of the province, +it is stated, was composed at that time chiefly of dissenters of +various sects, Catholics and Anglicans being the smallest bodies. + + +[Sidenote: Note 12, page 236.] + +As early as 1752 it was remarked that the Maryland charter contained +"the most extensive power of any charter in British America." +Abercromby's Examination, MS., Landsdowne House. In Collier's +Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, vol. ix, is the writ of +Edward III, A. D. 1327, by which the regalities of the bishopric of +Durham are confirmed after a trial in parliament. + + +[Sidenote: Note 13, page 240.] + +Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, wrote to Strafford, 10 January, 1633-'34, +that he had sent "a hopeful colony into Maryland with a fair and +probable Expectation of Success, however without Danger of any great +prejudice unto myself, in Respect that many others are joined with me +in the Adventure"--that is, in the financial risk. Strafford Papers, +i, 179. Twenty years later Cromwell writes to Bennet, Governor of +Virginia, "We have therefore at the request of Lord Baltimore and of +divers other persons of quality here who are engaged in great +adventures in his interest," etc. Thurloe, i, 724. A tradition of this +co-operation may have remained in Maryland a century later, for in +1755 or 1756 there was presented to the Lord Baltimore of that day, +who was a Protestant, a petition from Roman Catholic residents of +Maryland in which this assertion occurs: "The money and persons of +this persuasion contributed chiefly to the settling and peopling of +this colony." British Museum MS. 15,489. + + +[Sidenote: Note 14, page 242.] + +The statement of Father Henry More, in 1642, that "in leading the +colony to Maryland by far the greater number were heretics," is not +conclusive, though it is relied on by General Bradley T. Johnson and +others. More was Provincial of the Jesuits in England, and he is no +doubt repeating loosely the information contained in Father White's +letter of the year before, which says, "Whereas three parts of the +people in four at least are heretics"--a statement true, no doubt, in +1641, when the Kent Islanders and newcomers were counted, but not +true, probably, of the company of 1634, as Bancroft seems to say. + + +[Sidenote: Note 15, page 242.] + +The original document is in the Stoneyhurst MSS., Anglia, vol. iv. It +is reprinted in full in General Bradley T. Johnson's "The Foundation +of Maryland." It tends to show that the emigration of many recusants +was confidently expected. + + +[Sidenote: Note 16, page 243.] + +"Nubes, terrificum in morem excresentes, terrori erant intuentibus +antequam discinderentur: et opinionem faciebant prodiisse adversum nos +in aciem, omnes spiritus tempestatum maleficas, et malos genios omnes +Marylandiae." Relatio Itineris, 15. + + +[Sidenote: Note 17, page 247.] + +See _passim_, Letters of Missionaries. A letter of Copley, the Jesuit, +to Lord Baltimore, in Calvert Papers, p. 165, implies the possibility +of Catholic incumbents of Maryland parishes. He is complaining of the +law of the Assembly of 1638 relating to glebe land: "In euery Mannor +100 acres must be laid out for Gleabe lande, if then the intention to +bind them to be pastors who enjoy it, we must either by retaining so +much euen of our owne land undertake the office of pastors or lesse +euen in our owne Mannor maintaine pastors, both which to us would be +uery Inconuenient." + + +[Sidenote: Note 18, page 248.] + +Letters of Missionaries, p. 77. "The Catholics who live in the colony +are not inferior in piety to those who live in other countries; but in +urbanity of manners, according to the judgment of those who have +visited the other colonies, are considered far superior to them." More +than a hundred years later the Catholics retained a superiority, +according to Updike's Appendix to McSparran, 1752: "The Catholics, +having the start in point of time of the after settlers, are also to +this day ahead of them in wealth and substance; by which means the +first and best families are for the most part still of the Roman +communion," p. 492. + + +[Sidenote: Note 19, page 248.] + +The act passed in 1704 was renewed in 1715 and still in force in +1749. I cite from Ogle's Account of Maryland, of the latter date, a +manuscript at Landsdowne House, numbered 45, folio 199. In No. 61 at +Landsdowne House is a decision of the Attorney-General in England in +1605 that Jesuits may be expelled from Maryland by order of the +queen if aliens, but not if they are subjects. The various +eighteenth-century enactments against Catholics will be found in +Bacon's Laws of Maryland, _passim_. MS. 15,489, British Museum, +cites some of these severe laws and the proceedings taken under +them. Strong petitions against these measures were signed by Charles +Carroll and others. + + +[Sidenote: Note 20, page 249.] + +Gabriel Hawley, Robert Evelin, and Jerome Hawley, appointed to places +in Virginia, appear to have been Catholics and partisans of Baltimore. +Aspinwall Papers, i, page 101, note. + + +[Sidenote: Note 21, page 250.] + +Baltimore's letter bears date February 25, 1637, and is in the Record +Office, Colonial Papers, xiv, No. 42. The memorial apparently sent +with it is No. 49 in the same volume. Baltimore proposes to reward +Windebank for his assistance, and he sets down the very manner in +which the secretary is to approach the king with a diplomatic +falsehood. Both the letter and memorial are printed in Maryland +Archives, Council Proceedings, pp. 41, 42. + + +[Sidenote: Note 22, page 251.] + +The act was one of those that for some reason of expediency was never +read a third time, but was condensed into what would now be called an +omnibus bill. The act is given in Bacon's Laws, and is compared by +Bozman with Magna Charta. Bozman regards this law of 1639 as an +attempt to establish the Roman Catholic religion. + + +[Sidenote: Note 23, page 252.] + +A copy of the ordinance as printed separately at the time is in the +Lenox Library. It is reprinted in Churchill's Voyages, viii, 776. + + +[Sidenote: Note 24, page 254.] + +It is extremely curious that, in the letters of one of the Jesuits +reporting the attack upon them in 1645, he should have used an +expressive word hitherto supposed to be very modern and American. He +says that the assault was made "by a party of 'rowdies' or marauders." +From the way in which the sentence is printed in the Records of the +Society of Jesus, iii, 387, I suppose that in the original manuscript +the English word "rowdies" is given and explained by a Latin +equivalent. + + +[Sidenote: Note 25, page 256.] + +Charles, the third Lord Baltimore, writes in defense of the Maryland +policy of toleration under date of March 26, 1678: "That at the first +planteing of this Provynce of my ffather--Albeit he had an absolute +Liberty given to him and his heires to carry thither any Persons out +of any the Dominions that belonged to the Crown of England that should +be found Wylling to goe thither, yett when he comes to make use of +this Liberty He found very few who were inclyned to goe and seat +themselves in those parts But such as for some Reasons or other could +not Lyve with ease in other places, And of these a great parte were +such as could not conforme in all particulars to the severall Lawes of +England relateing to Religion. Many there were of this sort of people +who declared their Wyllingness to goe and Plant themselves In this +Provynce soe as they might have a generall toleracon settled there by +a Lawe by which all of all sorts that professed Christianity in +Generall might be at liberty to worship God in such manner as was most +agreeable with their respective Judgments and Consciences without +being Subject to any Penaltyes whatever for their soe doing." Colonial +Papers, vol. xlix, Record Office. Compare Leah and Rachel, p. 23, +where the author also implies that the Act of Toleration was a +concession to Puritan demands. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND. + +_THE PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Centrifugal forces in Massachusetts.] + +The centrifugal force of religious differences acted with disastrous +results in Maryland, because the Catholic party, which had always a +controlling negative there through the proprietary, was in the +minority. The Massachusetts people, on the other hand, were fairly +homogeneous in religious opinion, and their government was admirably +compacted. In Massachusetts religious sentiment was a powerful +centripetal force. Magistrates and ministers were nicely poised, and +each order relied upon the other to maintain existing conditions. If +the magistrates were perplexed or were seriously opposed, the elders +were called in to advise or to lend a powerful ecclesiastical sanction +to the rulers. When any disturbance of church order was threatened, +the magistrates came to the front and supported the clergy with the +sharp smiting of the secular arm. In the magistracy and in the ranks +of the clergy were men of unusual prudence and ability. If the little +Puritan commonwealth seemed a frail canoe at first, it was +navigated--considering its smallness one might rather say it was +paddled--most expertly. But in Massachusetts, as well as in Maryland, +religious opinion was the main source of disturbance. The +all-pervading ferment of the time could not be arrested, and more than +once it produced explosion. Now one and now another prophet of novelty +or prophet of retrogression arose to be dealt with for religious +errors; there were divergences from the strait path of Puritanism in +the direction of a return to Church of England usage, divergences in +the direction of extreme Separatism, in the direction of the +ever-dreaded "Anabaptism," in the direction of Arianism, and of +so-called Antinomianism. In the case of the Antinomians, the new +movement was able to shelter itself under the authority of the younger +Vane, then governor, and for a while under the apparent sanction of +the powerful Cotton. But no other religious disturbance was ever +allowed to gather head enough to become dangerous to the peace and +unity of the little state. Dislike as we may the principles on which +uniformity was enforced, we must admire the forehanded statesmanship +of the Massachusetts leaders in strangling religious disturbances at +birth, as Pharaoh's midwives did infant Hebrews. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: Early life of Roger Williams.] + +[Sidenote: N. Eng. Hist., Gen. Reg., July, 1889.] + +[Sidenote: Indorsement of Mrs. Sadleir on Williams's letter, +transcript, Lenox Library; also in Narragansett Club, Pub. VI.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +One of the most formidable of all those who ventured to assail the +compact phalanx presented by the secular and religious authorities of +Massachusetts was Roger Williams. Williams was the son of a merchant +tailor of London. He manifested in boyhood that quickness of +apprehension which made him successful in acquiring languages later in +life. Before he was fifteen the precocious lad was employed in the +Star Chamber in taking notes of sermons and addresses in shorthand, +and his skill excited the surprise and admiration of Sir Edward Coke. +Coke had found time, in the midst of a tempestuous public career and +the arduous private studies that brought him permanent renown, to +defend the legacy which founded the new Sutton's Hospital, later known +as the Charter-House School. Of this school he was one of the +governors, and he appointed young Roger Williams to a scholarship +there, Williams being the second pupil that ever gained admission to +that nursery of famous men. His natural inclination to industry in his +studies was quickened by the example and encouragement of Coke, who +was wont to say that he who would harrow what Roger Williams had sown +must rise early. From the Charter House Williams went to Pembroke +College, Cambridge. He early manifested sincere piety and a tendency +to go to extremes in his Puritan scruples. Even in his father's house +he had begun to taste the bitterness of persecution. His eager temper +transformed his convictions into downright passions; his integrity was +an aggressive force, and there was a precipitation in his decisions +and actions that was trying to his friends. From an early period he +showed a conscience intolerant of prudent compromises. Puritanism had +contrived to exist and to grow to formidable strength within the +church by means of such compromises. Hooker and Cotton, two of the +greatest luminaries of that party and afterward the lights that +lightened New England, one day urged on the impetuous Williams the +propriety of temporarily conforming in the use of the common prayer. +By conceding so much to the judgment of his revered elders, Williams +would have removed the only obstacle to his advancement, for +preferment was offered to the clever and exemplary _protege_ of Coke +in the universities, in the city, in the country, and at court. But +neither interest nor example could sway the impractical young +minister. He took refuge, like other extreme Puritans, in a private +chaplaincy, and refused all compromise, in order, as he afterward +declared, to keep his "soul undefiled in this point and not to act +with a doubting conscience." Most men feel bound to obey conscience +only where it clearly commands or forbids; good men may act on the +balance of probabilities where there is doubt; but this young man +would not do anything concerning which his moral judgment felt the +slightest halting. Here is the key to his whole career; his strength +lay in his aspiration for a soul undefiled; his weakness, in that he +was ever a victim to the pampered conscience of an ultraist. Property +of some thousands of pounds, that might have been his had he been +willing to make oath in the form required in chancery, he renounced to +his scruples. It certainly seemed rash in a young man just setting +out in life, with a young wife to care for, to indulge in such +extravagant luxury of scruple. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Flight of Williams from England.] + +[Sidenote: Williams's letter to Mrs. Sadleir, as above.] + +Laud succeeded in hunting the non-conforming Puritans from their +lectureships and chaplaincies. It became with Williams no longer a +question of refusing preferments on both hands with lavish +self-denial, but of escaping the harsh penalties reserved for such as +he by the Courts of High Commission and the Star Chamber. There was +nothing left but to betake himself to New England for safety. He fled +hurriedly across country on horseback, feeling it "as bitter as death" +that he dared not even say farewell to his great patron Sir Edward +Coke, who detested schism. + +[Sidenote: Arrival in New England.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +Here, as in after life, the supreme hardship he suffered was not mere +exile, but that exile of the spirit which an affectionate man feels +when he is excommunicate of those he loves. His escape by sea was +probably the more difficult because he was unwilling to "swallow down" +the oath exacted of those who emigrated. But he succeeded in sailing +with his young wife, and in 1631 this undefiled soul, this dauntless +and troublesome extremist, landed in New England. He was invited to +become one of the ministers of the Boston church. But Williams was +conscientiously a Separatist, and he refused to enter into communion +with the Boston congregation because of its position with reference to +the church in England. + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +This protest by withdrawal of communion was a fundamental principle of +Separatism. It was not, as it appears on the surface, a manifestation +of uncharitableness toward persons, but a solemn protest by act in +favor of a principle. Never was any man more forgiving, +long-suffering, and charitable toward opponents than Williams, but +never was a man less inclined to yield a single jot in the direction +of compromise where his convictions were involved, whatever might be +the evils sure to result from his refusal. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Williams at Salem.] + +[Sidenote: Winthrop's Journal, i, 63, 12th April, 1631.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +Williams repaired first to Salem, the north pole of Puritanism, where +the pioneer church of Massachusetts had a more Separatist tone than +any other. In the phrase of the time, no other churches in the world +were so "pure" as the New England churches, and Salem was accounted +the "purest" church in New England. Its surviving minister, Skelton, +and its principal layman, Endecott, both tended to extreme +Congregationalism; but the General Court of the colony protested +against the selection of Williams to be one of the ministers of the +Salem church. Skelton's Separatist tendencies, Endecott's impetuous +radicalism, and Salem's jealous rivalry with the younger town of +Boston, were already sources of anxiety to the rulers. The addition of +Williams to these explosive forces was alarming. Williams's +ecclesiastical ideals were not those which the leaders of the colony +had devoted their lives and fortunes to establish. Had this young +radical been less conscientious, less courageous, less engagingly good +and admirable, there would not have been so much reason to fear him. A +letter was written to Endecott protesting against Williams's +ordination, because he had refused communion with the church at +Boston, and because he denied the power of the magistrate to enforce +duties of the first table--that is, duties of religion. Here at the +very outset of his American life we find that Williams had already +embraced the broad principle that involved the separation of church +and state and the most complete religious freedom, and had +characteristically pushed this principle to its logical result some +centuries in advance of the practice of his age. The protest of the +court prevented his ordination. He yielded to the opposition and soon +after removed to Plymouth, where the people were Separatists, modified +by the conservative teachings of John Robinson, somewhat modified also +by the responsibility of founding a new state, and perhaps by +association with Puritans of the neighboring colony. + +[Sidenote: Williams at Plymouth.] + +[Sidenote: Maverick's Description of New England, 25.] + +[Sidenote: Williams to Winthrop, 1632.] + +At Plymouth the young idealist "prophesied" in his turn, but did not +take office in the church, which already had a pastor in Ralph Smith, +the Separatist, who had been suffered to come over in a Massachusetts +ship only on his giving a promise not to preach in that jurisdiction +without leave. The congregation at Plymouth was poor, and Roger +Williams mainly supported himself by hard toil "at the hoe and the +oar"--that is, perhaps, in farming and fishing. His body seems to have +been vigorous, and no physical fatigue abated anything of his mental +activity. The Pilgrims had passed more than twelve years in Holland, +and almost every adult in Plymouth must have known Dutch. Those of +Roger Williams's own age, who were children when they migrated to +Leyden and men when they left, probably spoke it as well as they did +their mother tongue. The Plymouth people, indeed, were styled +"mungrell Dutch" a quarter of a century later. It is probable that +Williams, with his usual eagerness to acquire knowledge, now added +Dutch to his stock of languages; it is certain that he afterward +taught Dutch to John Milton. But he was still more intent on learning +the language of the natives, that he might do them good. He resolved +not to accept office as pastor or teacher, but to give himself to work +among the Indians. Perhaps his tendency to individualism made this +prospect pleasing to him. He may have begun already to realize in a +half-conscious way that there was scant room in any organization for +such as he. The learning of the Indian language was an arduous toil in +more ways than one. "God was pleased to give me a painful patient +spirit," wrote Williams long after, "to lodge with them in their +filthy, smoky holes to gain their tongue." He afterward wrote an +excellent treatise on the dialect of the New England Indians. + +[Illustration: Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth.] + +[Sidenote: Writes against the royal patents.] + +[Sidenote: Bradford, 310.] + +[Sidenote: Knowles's Life of Williams, 53.] + +[Sidenote: Williams returns to Salem.] + +At Plymouth Williams spoke, as he had at Salem, without restraint from +any motive of expediency or even of propriety. Separatist Plymouth, +whose days of advance were over, was a little disturbed by his speech. +In his own sweet, reckless way he sometimes sharply rebuked even the +revered Bradford when he thought him at fault. And in the interest of +the aborigines and of justice Williams laid before Governor Bradford a +manuscript treatise which argued that the king had no right to give +away, as he had assumed to do in his grants and charters, the lands of +the Indians merely because he was a Christian and they heathen. That +it was right to wrong a man because he was not orthodox in belief +could find no place in the thoughts of one whose conscience was wholly +incapable of sophistication. Bradford accepted candidly the rebukes of +Williams and loved him for his "many precious parts." But as governor +of a feeble colony he was disturbed by Williams's course. In +spirituality, unselfish fearlessness, and a bold pushing of Separatist +principles to their ultimate logical results, Roger Williams reminded +the Pilgrims of the amiable pastor of the Separatist church in +Amsterdam whose change step by step to "Anabaptism," the great bugbear +of theology in that time, had been a tragedy and a scandal to the +Separatists of Leyden. Elder Brewster feared that Williams would run +the same course. Williams wished to return to Salem, where he might +still devote himself to the neighboring Indians, and assist +Skelton, now declining in health. Brewster persuaded the Plymouth +church to give him a letter of dismissal. The leading Pilgrims felt +bound to send "some caution" to the Salem church regarding the extreme +tendencies of Williams. On the other hand, some of the Plymouth people +were so captivated by his teachings and his personal character that +they removed with him. This following of an approved minister was +common among Puritans; an acceptable preacher was of as much value to +a town as good meadows, broad pastures, and pure water. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: The town system.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +To understand the brief career of Williams at Salem and its +catastrophe, we must recall the character of colonial life in +Massachusetts at the time. There were already sixteen settlements or +"towns" on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, with an indefinite stretch +of gloomy wilderness for background, the dwelling place of countless +savages and wild beasts. The population of all the settlements may +have summed up five thousand people--enough to have made one +prosperous village. The inhabitants of the various towns of the bay +were from different parts of England; their dress and dialect were +diverse, and their Puritanism was of various complexions. The town +system, at first a reproduction on new soil of the township field +communes that had subsisted in parts of England from ages beyond the +fountain heads of tradition, gave some play to local peculiarities +and prejudices. There is evidence that the central government relieved +itself from strain by means of this rural borough system. The ancient +town system in turn appears to have taken on a new youth; it was +perhaps modified and developed by the local diversity of the people, +and it lent to Massachusetts, at first, something of the elasticity of +a federal government. + +[Sidenote: Life in the Massachusetts settlements.] + +[Sidenote: 1630 to 1640.] + +This community of scattered communes was cut off from frequent +intercourse with the world, for the sea was far wider and more to be +feared in that day of small ships and imperfect navigation than it is +now. The noise of the English controversies in which the settlers had +once borne a part reached them at long intervals, like news from +another planet. But most of the time these lonesome settlements had no +interest greater than the petty news and gossip of little forest +hamlets. The visitor who came afoot along Indian trails, or by water, +paddling in a canoe, to Boston on lecture day, might bring some news +of sickness, accident, or death. Sometimes the traveling story was +exciting, as that wolves had slaughtered the cattle at a certain +place, while yet cattle were few and precious. Or still more +distressing intelligence came that the ruling elder of the church at +Watertown had taken the High-church position that Roman churches were +Christian churches, or that democratic views had been advanced by +Eliot of Roxbury. A new and far-fetched prophetical explanation of a +passage in the Book of Canticles, and a tale of boatmen wrecked in +some wintry tempest, might divide the attention of the people. Stories +of boats capsized, of boatmen cast on islands where there was neither +shelter nor food, of boats driven far to sea and heard of no more, +were staples of excitement in these half-aquatic towns; and if the +inmates of a doomed boat had been particularly profane, these events +were accounted edifying--divine judgments on the ungodly. When the +governor wandered once and lost himself in the forest, passing the +night in a deserted wigwam, there was a sensation of a half-public +character. That a snake and a mouse had engaged in a battle, and that +the puny mouse had triumphed at last, was in one budget of traveling +news that came to Boston. To this event an ominous significance was +given by John Wilson, pastor of the Boston church, maker of anagrams, +solemn utterer of rhyming prophecies which were sometimes fulfilled, +and general theological putterer. Wilson made the snake represent the +devil, according to all sound precedents; the mouse was the feeble +church in the wilderness, to which God would give the victory over +Satan. Thus enhanced by an instructive interpretation from the prophet +and seer of the colony, the story no doubt took up its travels once +more, and now with its hopeful exegesis on its back. The Massachusetts +mouse was an auspicious creature; it is recorded by the governor, and +it was no doubt told along the coast, that one got into a library and +committed depredations on a book of common prayer only, nibbling every +leaf of the liturgy, while it reverently spared a Greek Testament and +a Psalter in the same covers. + +In a petty state with a range of intellectual interests so narrow, the +conflict between Williams and the General Court took place. + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Self-consciousness of the Massachusetts community.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +It was a community that believed in its own divine mission. It traced +the existence of its settlements to the very hand of God--the God who +led Israel out of Egypt. The New England colonists never forgot that +they were a chosen people. Upon other American settlers--the Dutch in +New Netherland, the Virginia churchmen, the newly landed Marylanders, +with their admixture of papists--they looked with condescension if not +with contempt, accounting them the Egyptians of the New World. The +settlers on the Bay of Massachusetts were certain that their +providential exodus was one of the capital events in human history; +that it had been predesigned from eternity to plant here, in a virgin +world, the only true form of church government and to cherish a church +that should be a model to the Old World in turn, and a kind of +foreshadowing of the new heaven and the new earth. Some dreamed that +the second coming of Christ would take place among the rocky woodlands +of New England. The theocratical government was thought to be the one +most pleasing to God, and a solemn obligation was felt to import into +this new theocracy the harsh Oriental intolerance which had marked +that fierce struggle in which the Jewish tribes finally shook off +image worship. + +[Sidenote: John Cotton, 1633.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +The apostle of theocracy who arrived soon after Williams's return to +Salem was John Cotton, a Puritan leader in England, in whom +devoutness was combined with extreme discretion, a dominant will +with a diplomatic prudence and a temper never ruffled. Cotton's +ingenious refinements made him a valuable apologist in an age of +polemics, but they often served to becloud his vision of truth and +right. He was prone to see himself as he posed, in the character of +a protagonist of truth. He gave wise advice to the Massachusetts +Puritans at their departure from England. When, a few years later, +Laud's penetrating vigilance and relentless thoroughness made even +Cotton's well-balanced course of mild non-conformity impossible, he +fled from his parish of Boston, in Lincolnshire, to London, and +escaped in 1633 with difficulty to the new Boston in New England. As +John Cotton had been the shining candle of Puritanism in England, +his arrival in America was hailed with joy, and from the time of his +settlement in the little capital his was the hand that shaped +ecclesiastical institutions in New England, and he did much also to +mold the yet plastic state. Though he usually avoided the appearance +of personal antagonism, every formidable rival he had left +Massachusetts early. Williams, Hooker, Davenport, and Hugh Peter all +found homes beyond the bounds of the colony. There can not be two +queen bees in one hive, nor can there well be more than one master +mind in the ecclesiastical order of a petty theocratic state. It was +the paradox of colonial religious organization that the Episcopal +colonies had parishes almost independent of all supervision, while +the New England Congregationalists were, from the arrival of Cotton, +subject to the dominance of ministers who virtually attained to the +authority of bishops. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Salem refractory.] + +Salem, the oldest town of the commonwealth, was the most ready to +pursue an independent course and it was attached to Williams, whose +ability attracted new settlers and who maintained a position of +independence toward Cotton and the authorities at Boston. To subdue +the refractory Salem was no doubt one of the secondary purposes of the +proceedings against Williams. There seems to have been no personal +animosity toward Williams himself; his amiable character and his +never-doubted sincerity were main obstacles to his punishment. + +[Sidenote: Collision inevitable.] + +The return of Roger Williams to such a place as Salem was naturally a +matter of alarm to the ministers and magistrates of Massachusetts. +Collision was not a matter of choice on either side. The catastrophe +was like one that comes from the irresistible action of physical +forces. In a colony planted at great cost to maintain one chosen form +of worship and subordinating all the powers of government to this +purpose, a preacher who asserted the necessity for a complete +separation of religion and government in the interest of soul liberty +had no place. His ideal was higher than the prevailing one, but that +age could not possibly rise to it. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: The book against the patent.] + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +[Sidenote: Reply to Cotton, 276, 277.] + +Williams was yet only a private member of the church in Salem, but in +the illness of the pastor he "exercised by way of prophecy"--that is, +preached without holding office. An alarming report was soon in +circulation that he had written a book against the king's patent, the +foundation of the colonial authority. This treatise, we have said, was +written in Plymouth for the benefit of Governor Bradford. Like many of +the manuscript books that have come down to us, it appears to have +been a small quarto, and, if it resembled other books of the sort, it +was neatly stitched and perhaps even bound by its author in the +favorite pigskin of the time. Williams sent his book promptly to be +examined. Some of the "most judicious ministers much condemned Mr. +Williams's error and presumption," and an order was made that he +"should be convented at the next court." In the charges no fault was +found with the main thesis of the book, that the king could not claim +and give away the lands of the Indians; but it was thought that there +were disloyal reflections cast upon both James and Charles--at least +those eager to condemn construed the obscure and "implicative phrases" +of Williams in that sense--and these supposed reflections were the +subject of the charges. Williams wrote a submissive letter, and +offered his book, or any part of it, to be burned after the manner of +that time. A month later, when the governor and council met, the whole +aspect of the affair had changed. Cotton and Wilson, the teacher and +the pastor of the Boston church, certified, after examination of +Williams's quarto, that "they found the matters not so evil as at +first they seemed." It was decided to let Williams off easily. There +are some things unexplained about the affair; the eagerness of the +"judicious ministers" and court to condemn without due examination, +the failure even to specify the objectionable passages at last, and +the unwonted docility of Williams--all leave one to infer that there +was more in this transaction than appears. Laud and his associates +were moving to have the Massachusetts charter vacated, and it may have +seemed imprudent for the magistrates to found their authority on a +base so liable to disappear. If the charter had been successfully +called in, Williams's ground of the sufficiency of the Indian title to +lands might have proved useful as a last resort. Williams asserted, +long afterward, that before his troubles began he had drafted a letter +addressed to the king, "not without the approbation of some of the +chiefs of New England," whose consciences were also "tender on this +point before God." This letter humbly acknowledged "the evil of that +part of the patent which relates" to the gift of lands. Had the letter +been sent to its destination it would have cut a curious figure among +the worldly-minded state papers of the time. + +[Sidenote: An abstract principle.] + +It is probable that most of the land of the colony had been secured +from the natives by purchase or by treaty of some sort; at least the +Indians were content, and the little quarto had at that time no +practical bearing whatever, but that did not matter to Williams. The +more abstract a question of right and wrong, the more he relished a +discussion of it. It was of a piece with his exquisite Separatism, a +mere standing up in the face of heaven and earth for an abstract +principle. His purpose was not to right a specific and concrete wrong, +for there had been none, but to assert as a broad principle of +everlasting application that a Christian king may not dispose of the +land owned by heathens merely because of his Christianity. Williams +was not a judge or a lawgiver; he was a poet in morals, enamored of +perfection, and keeping his conscience purer than Galahad's. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: The alarm.] + +[Sidenote: 1634.] + +It was in the winter of 1633-'34 that the book about the patent was +called in question. Skelton, pastor of Salem, died in the following +August, and the Salem people, in spite of an injunction from the +magistrates, made Williams their teacher in his stead. The country was +now full of alarm at news from England that the charter was to be +revoked, that a general governor of New England was to be appointed, +and that a force was to be sent to support his authority. Laud was put +at the head of a commission for the government of the colonies in +April, 1634. There could be no doubt of the meaning of this measure. +For more than a year the alarm in Massachusetts continued. The +ministers were consulted regarding the lawfulness of resistance to +force. A platform was constructed on the northeast side of Castle +Island, and a fortified house was proposed to defend the platform. The +trainbands were drilled, muskets, "bandeleroes" or cartridge belts, +and rests were distributed to the several towns, and pikemen were +required to learn to use the cumbrous musket of the time. Puritans in +England, angry that Laud, the new archbishop and old persecutor, +should stretch a long arm to America, sent powder and cannon to their +co-religionists, the object of whose military vigilance could easily +be covered by dangers from the savages, from the French, or from the +Spaniards. + +[Sidenote: Debates not appeased.] + +But these assiduous preparations, under the supervision of a military +commission which had "power of life and limb," did not abate in the +least the discussion of questions of doctrine and casuistry. +Refinements of theology were quite as real and substantial to the +Puritan mind as trainbands and fortifications. Sound doctrine and a +scrupulous observance of the "ordinances" conciliated God; they were +indeed more important elements of public safety than drakes and +demi-culverins. + +[Sidenote: Reform in dress.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Records, 3d September, 1634.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Ward's Simple Cobbler, _passim_.] + +The General Court of September, 1634, undertook to provide for the +public safety in both respects. Along with regulations and provisions +of a military nature, it set out to remove those flagrant sins that +had provoked the divine wrath. The wearing of silver, gold, and rich +laces, girdles, and hatbands was forbidden; slashed clothes were also +abolished, "other than one slash in each sleeve and another in the +back"; ruffs and beaver hats, which last were apparently a mark of +dudishness, were not to be allowed. Long hair and other fashions +"prejudicial to the general good" were done away with in this hour of +penitence. Men and women might wear out the clothes they had, except +their "immoderate great sleeves, slashed apparel, immoderate great +rayles, long wings," which were to go at once without reprieve or +ceremony. The use of tobacco, socially and in public, or before +strangers was made an offense. If taken secretly or medicinally, the +Court did not take cognizance of it. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: The fast-day sermon.] + +[Sidenote: 1634.] + +Seeing that the millinery sins recounted in this act had cried to +Heaven, and that, beside the danger from England, there was the desire +of Hooker's party to remove to the Connecticut, and a dissension +concerning the power of the Upper House that threatened trouble, the +Court appointed the 18th of September a solemn fast-day, hoping by +repentance, prayer, and the penance of hunger to avert the manifold +disasters that threatened them. Roger Williams was sure to speak like +a prophet on such an occasion. He did not stop at slashed garments, +great sleeves, and headdresses with long wings; he preached on eleven +"public sins" that had provoked divine wrath. We have no catalogue +left us. The list may have included some of those amusing scruples +that he held in common with other Puritans, or some of those equally +trivial personal scruples that Williams cherished so fondly. But no +sermon of his on public sins could fail to contain a declaration of +his far-reaching and cherished principle of religious freedom, +including perhaps a round denunciation of the petty inquisition into +private opinion which had been set up in Massachusetts. The Sabbath +law, the law obliging men to pay a tax to support religious worship, +the requirement that all should attend religious worship under +penalty, and the enforcement of a religious oath on irreligious and +perhaps unwilling residents, the assumption of the magistrate to +regulate the orthodoxy of a church under the advice of the ministers, +were points of Massachusetts law and administration that he denounced +at various times; and some of them, if not all, were no doubt put in +pillory in this fast-day sermon in the early autumn of 1634. Judged +by modern standards, the sermon may have had absurdities enough, but +it was no doubt a long way in advance of the General Court's mewling +about lace, and slashes, and long hair, and other customs "prejudicial +to the general good." To this sermon, whatever it was, Williams +afterward attributed the beginning of the troubles that led to his +banishment. + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: Williams dealt with ecclesiastically.] + +[Sidenote: Note 10.] + +Winthrop, just but gentle, narrow-minded but ever large-hearted, had +been superseded in the governorship by Dudley, open and zealous +advocate of religious intolerance. Dudley, who was always +hot-tempered, was for proceeding out of hand with the bold "teacher" +of the church in Salem, but he felt bound to consult with the +ministers first, since Williams was an "elder," and even among +Puritans there was a sort of benefit of clergy. Cotton had developed a +complete system of church-state organization hammered out of, or at +least supported by, Bible texts linked by ingenious inferences, and +from the time of Cotton's arrival there was a strong effort to secure +uniformity. But Cotton was timid in action, and he was nothing if not +orderly and ecclesiastical. Williams was an elder, entitled as such to +be proceeded with "in a church way" first. As leader and spokesman of +the clergy Cotton expressed his charitable conviction that Williams's +"violent course did rather spring from scruple of conscience than +from a seditious principle." The clergy proposed to try to convert him +by argument, not so much, perhaps, from hope of success as from a +conviction that this was the orderly and scriptural rule. Dudley, +impatient to snuff out Williams at once, replied that they "were +deceived in him if they thought he would condescend to learn of any of +them." But the "elders" now proceeded in the roundabout way prescribed +by Cotton's system ingeniously deduced from Scripture. The individual +church must deal with its own member; the sister churches might +remonstrate with a church. Cotton and Wilson, for example, could +appeal to the Boston church to appeal to the Salem church to appeal to +Williams, and in this order much of the correspondence went on. + +[Sidenote: The governor's verse.] + +It was, perhaps, when his desire to act promptly against the Salem +heretic was thus foiled by Cotton's prudent and intricate orderliness +in procedure that Dudley relieved his emotions by what is happily the +only example of his verse that has survived: + +[Sidenote: Eliot's New England Biography, 156, 157.] + + Let men of God in courts and churches watch + O'er such as do a toleration hatch, + Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice + To poison all with heresy and vice. + If men be left and otherwise combine, + My epitaph's I die no libertine. + + +XII. + +[Sidenote: Note 11.] + +The most substantial grievance of the rulers against Williams was his +opposition to "the oath." In order to make sure of the loyalty of the +residents in this time of danger a new oath of fidelity to be taken by +residents had been promulgated. Practical men are wont to put aside +minor scruples in time of danger. David eats the sacred shew-bread +when he is famishing: but Williams would rather starve than mumble a +crumb of it. He did not believe in enforced oaths; they obliged the +wicked man to a religious act, and thus invaded the soul's freedom. +Cotton says that Williams's scruples excited such an opposition to the +oath that the magistrates were not able to enforce it. He thus +unwittingly throws a strong light on the weakness of the age, and +extenuates the conduct of Williams as well as that of the rulers. The +age was in love with scrupulosity, and Williams on this side was the +product of his time. In such an age a scruple-maker of ability and +originality like Williams might be a source of danger. + +[Sidenote: Scruples small and great.] + +During the year following Williams was several times "convented" +before the Court. He was charged with having broken his promise not to +speak about the patent, with opposing the residents' oath, with +maintaining certain scruples in opposition to the customs of the +times, as that a man should not return thanks after a meal, or call on +an unregenerate child to give thanks for his food. These were not +more trivial certainly than half a hundred scruples then prevalent, +but they chanced to be unfashionable--a damning fault in a scruple. +The sense of proportion was feeble in religionists of that day, and +neither Williams nor his opponents understood the comparative +magnitude of his greater contentions, and the triviality of those +petty scruples about which, like the whole Puritan world, he was very +busy. Religious freedom and the obligation of grace after meat could +then be put into the same category. As years went by, although the +mind of Williams was never disentangled from scrupulosity, he came to +see clearly what was the real battle of his life. No better fortune +can befall a great spirit than such a clarification of vision. The +extended works of Williams's later life are written mainly to +overthrow the "bloody tenent of persecution." It was this championship +of soul liberty as the weightiest matter of the law that lifted him +above all others who paid tithes of their little garden herbs. + +[Sidenote: Williams inflexible.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop's Journal, i, 81.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Rec., i, 135, 136.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Rec., i, 156, 157. Winthrop's Journal, i, 194.] + +Williams was certainly incorrigible. Richard Brown, the ruling elder +of the church at Watertown, seems to have submitted to the +remonstrance of the magistrates against his too charitable judgment of +the Roman churches. Eliot, of Roxbury, afterward the Indian apostle, +advanced peculiar opinions also, but he was overborne and convinced. +Stoughton, who had denied that the "assistants" of a corporation were +scriptural magistrates, was brought to book about this time, and he +retracted. Salem itself was forced to bend its stiff neck at last. +The town had been refused its land on Marble Neck because of its +ordination of Williams, and having, under Williams's leadership, +protested in a letter to the churches against the injustice of +spiritual coercion by financial robbery, the deputies of Salem were +now summarily turned out of the court. Endecott, with characteristic +violence, protested further against the double injustice to Salem. He +was promptly put under arrest, and this severity brought swift +conviction to his mind, so that he humbly apologized and submitted the +same day. The only bond of unity between the rash Salem leader and +Williams was a common tendency to go to extremes. In spirit, the +heroic, long-suffering Williams, who rested in what he called the +"rockie strength" of his opinions in spite of penalties and +majorities, was far removed from a leader who bent before the first +blast, and who became in later life the harshest persecutor in the +commonwealth. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: Williams's trial.] + +[Sidenote: Note 12.] + +Williams remained the one resolute, stubborn, incorrigible offender. +Eliot, Stoughton, and Endecott, and even Williams's fellow-elder, +Sharpe, and the whole church at Salem, might be argued into conformity +by the sharp dialectics of the clergy, or bullied out of their +convictions by the sharper logic of the magistrates, but Roger +Williams could not be overborne. Individualist in his very nature, his +self-reliant spirit was able to face isolation or excommunication. +The great Hooker was set to dispute with him. Hooker's refined +arguments were drawn out by inferences linked to inferences. He proved +to the satisfaction of everybody but the culprit that it was not +lawful for Williams, with his opinions, to set food before his +unregenerate child, since he did not allow an irreligious child to go +through the form of giving thanks. But the wire-drawn logic of Hooker, +though Williams could not always answer it, had no more influence with +him than the ingenious sophistications of the pious Cotton; Williams +constantly fell back upon the "rockie strength" of his principles. On +the 9th of October, 1635, he was sentenced to banishment. After the +manner of that curious age, his banishment was based on charges of +great importance mixed with charges utterly trivial. His denial of the +authority of the magistrate to regulate the orthodoxy of the churches +and the belief of individuals is, however, made one of the cardinal +offenses in all the trustworthy accounts given at the time. With this +were joined in the proceedings, but not in the sentence, such things +as the denial of the propriety of grace after meat. All the elders but +one advised his banishment. + +[Sidenote: Williams banished.] + +[Sidenote: Note 13.] + +[Sidenote: Note 14.] + +[Sidenote: Note 15.] + +[Sidenote: Note 16.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop, i, 209, 210.] + +The magistrates, though deeply "incensed" against him, probably felt +at the last some reluctance to banish such a man. Six weeks were +accorded him in which to leave. Winthrop, who was Williams's friend, +and who seems to have been loath to consent to his banishment, wrote +to him to "steer his course for Narragansett Bay," where there was +territory beyond the bounds of Massachusetts and Plymouth. The forest +journeys or boat voyages to Boston and back, the bitter controversies +there, and the uproar of indignation which was produced in Salem by +the news of the verdict, the desertion of Williams by Endecott, +convinced by force, and by Sharpe, the ruling elder, who had been also +dealt with, the natural yielding of the Salem church after a while to +the pressure from the General Court, and to the desire of the townsmen +to secure the lands at Marble Neck, put a strain on Williams which, +added to his necessary toil in the field, broke his health and he fell +ill. The General Court probably also felt the recoil of its act. When +six weeks had expired consent was given that Williams should remain +during the winter provided he would refrain from preaching. But +Williams was in Salem, and in Salem he was the center of +interest--just now he was the center of explosion. It was impossible +for the great Separatist to be silent. A few faithful friends, +come-outers like himself, clave to him and repudiated as he did +communion with the church at Salem, which could condone the offenses +of the magistrates for the sake of "these children's toys of land, +meadows, cattle, and government." These fellow-Separatists, some of +whom perhaps had removed from Plymouth out of love for this unworldly +saint, loved him none the less for his courage and his sorrows. They +frequented his house on Sunday as he convalesced. Indeed, the +attachment to him was so great that the "ordinances" which had been +appointed by the magistrates and enforced on Salem as the price of the +common land on Marble Neck, were neglected and almost deserted. +Williams could not refrain from speech with this concourse of +visitors, and at length word came to Boston that more than twenty +persons had definitely adhered to the opinions of their former +teacher, unconvinced by the argument of the rod of justice applied to +Endecott and Sharpe, or by the valuable land on Marble Neck. These +disciples proposed to remove in the spring with Williams to the shores +of Narragansett Bay. This might meet the approval of the sagacious and +kindly Winthrop, who had directed Williams's attention to that +promising place, and who foresaw perhaps the usefulness of such a man +in the dangerous Indian crisis now threatening the colony. But to +devotees of uniformity, the prospect of a community on the very border +of the land of the saints tolerating all sorts of opinionists was +insufferable. When once the civil government weights itself with +spiritual considerations, its whole equilibrium is disturbed. Liberty +and justice seem insignificant by the side of the immensities. The +magistrates, or a part of them, were alarmed at the prospect of a +settlement of the followers of Williams at Narragansett Bay, "whence +the infection would easily spread into these churches, the people +being, many of them, much taken with an apprehension of his +godliness." It was therefore agreed to send him to England on a ship +soon to sail. + + +XIV. + +[Sidenote: Escape to the Indians.] + +The hardships of such a voyage in midwinter in his state of health +might prove fatal, and his arrival in England would almost certainly +deliver him into the hands of Laud. But what is justice or mercy when +the welfare of churches and the rescue of imperiled souls is to be +considered? A warrant was dispatched ordering him to Boston within a +certain time. Probably knowing what was in store for him, he protested +that it would be dangerous for him, in view of his health, to make the +journey, and some of the Salem people went to Boston in his behalf, +and, as was natural in the circumstances, made exaggerated +representations regarding his physical condition. But the magistrates +had other information. They sent the valiant and notorious Captain +Underhill, in whom were mingled about equally devoutness, military +courage, and incorrigible lewdness, to bring Williams by sea in a +shallop. Williams was probably informed of their purpose, for, while +Underhill in his little craft was beating up to Salem in wintry seas +on an errand so congenial, expecting perhaps to come upon his quarry +unawares, Williams was fleeing from one hamlet of bark wigwams to +another. Here among the barbarians he was sure of faithful friends and +secure concealment. Underhill found on his arrival that the culprit +had disappeared three days before he got there, and nobody in Salem, +that could, would tell whither the fugitive had gone. + +[Sidenote: Williams founds Providence.] + +Meantime Williams was, to use his own figure of speech, "steering his +course" "in winter snow" toward Narragansett Bay. "I was sorely tossed +for one fourteen weeks in a bitter winter season," he says, in his +vivid and hyperbolic fashion of speech, "not knowing what bed or bread +did mean." He began one settlement on the eastern bank of the Seekonk +River after getting land from the Indians, but his old enemies the +royal patents now had their revenge. Winslow, governor of Plymouth, a +kind-hearted, politic man, the one born diplomatist of New England, +warned him that he was within the bounds of Plymouth, and asked him to +remove to the other side of the water, because they "were loath to +displease the Bay." It was not enough to drive a heretic from the +bounds of Massachusetts; the pragmatic Puritanism of the time would +have expelled him from the continent had its arm been long enough. +Williams had already begun to build and to plant, but he removed once +more to the place which he named Providence. He planted the germinal +settlement of the first state in the world that founded religious +liberty on the widest possible basis, reserving to the law no +cognizance whatever of religious beliefs or conduct where the "civil +peace" was not endangered. + +[Illustration: The early settlements on Narragansett Bay.] + + +XV. + +[Sidenote: Williams's banishment an act of persecution.] + +[Sidenote: Note 17.] + +Local jealousy and sectarian prejudice have done what they could to +obscure the facts of the trial and banishment of Williams. It has been +argued by more than one writer that it was not a case of religious +persecution at all, but the exclusion of a man dangerous to the state. +Cotton, with characteristic verbal legerdemain, says that Williams was +"enlarged" rather than banished. The case has even been pettifogged in +our own time by the assertion that the banishment was only the action +of a commercial company excluding an uncongenial person from its +territory. But with what swift indignation would the Massachusetts +rulers of the days of Dudley and Haynes have repudiated a plea which +denied their magistracy! They put so strong a pressure on Stoughton, +who said that the assistants were not magistrates, that he made haste +to renounce his pride of authorship and to deliver his booklet to be +officially burned, nor did even this prevent his punishment. The +rulers of "the Bay" were generally frank advocates of religious +intolerance; they regarded toleration as a door set open for the devil +to enter. Not only did they punish for unorthodox expressions; they +even assumed to inquire into private beliefs. Williams was only one of +scores bidden to depart on account of opinion. + +[Sidenote: Intolerance as a virtue.] + +[Sidenote: Note 18.] + +[Sidenote: Note 19.] + +[Sidenote: Simple Cobbler of Agawam, pp. 3 and 6.] + +The real and sufficient extenuation for the conduct of the +Massachusetts leaders is found in the character and standards of the +age. A few obscure and contemned sectaries--Brownists, Anabaptists, +and despised Familists--in Holland and England had spoken more or less +clearly in favor of religious liberty before the rise of Roger +Williams, but nobody of weight or respectable standing in the whole +world had befriended it. All the great authorities in church and +state, Catholic and Protestant, prelatical and Puritan, agreed in +their detestation of it. Even Robinson, the moderate pastor of the +Leyden Pilgrims, ventured to hold only to the "toleration of tolerable +opinions." This was the toleration found at Amsterdam and in some +other parts of the Low Countries. Even this religious sufferance which +did not amount to liberty was sufficiently despicable in the eyes of +that intolerant age to bring upon the Dutch the contempt of +Christendom. It was a very qualified and limited toleration, and one +from which Catholics and Arminians were excluded. It seems to have +been that practical amelioration of law which is produced more +effectually by commerce than by learning or religion. Outside of some +parts of the Low Countries, and oddly enough of the Turkish Empire, +all the world worth counting decried toleration as a great crime. It +would have been wonderful indeed if Massachusetts had been superior to +the age. "I dare aver," says Nathaniel Ward, the New England +lawyer-minister, "that God doth no where in his word tolerate +Christian States to give tolerations to such adversaries of his Truth, +if they have power in their hands to suppress them." To set up +toleration was "to build a sconce against the walls of heaven to +batter God out of his chair," in Ward's opinion. + + +XVI. + +[Sidenote: The casuistry of Cotton.] + +[Sidenote: Note 20.] + +[Sidenote: Hutchinson Papers, 496.] + +[Sidenote: Note 21.] + +[Sidenote: Controversie concerning Liberty of Conscience.] + +[Sidenote: Character of Puritanism.] + +[Sidenote: Note 22.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop, i, 211-214.] + +This doctrine of intolerance was sanctioned by many refinements of +logic, such as Cotton's delicious sophistry that if a man refused to +be convinced of the truth, he was sinning against conscience, and +therefore it was not against the liberty of conscience to coerce him. +Cotton's moral intuitions were fairly suffocated by logic. He declared +that men should be compelled to attend religious service, because it +was "better to be hypocrites than profane persons. Hypocrites give God +part of his due, the outward man, but the profane person giveth God +neither outward nor inward man." To reason thus is to put subtlety +into the _cathedra_ of common sense, to bewilder vision by +legerdemain. Notwithstanding his natural gift for devoutness and his +almost immodest godliness, Cotton was incapable of high sincerity. He +would not specifically advise Williams's banishment, but having +labored with him round a corner according to his most approved +ecclesiastical formula, he said, "We have no more to say in his +behalf, but must sit down"; by which expression of passivity he gave +the signal to the "secular arm" to do its worst, while he washed his +hands in innocent self-complacency. When one scrupulous magistrate +consulted him as to his obligation in Williams's case, Cotton +answered his hesitation by saying, "You know they are so much incensed +against his course that it is not your voice nor the voice of two or +three more that can suspend the sentence." By such shifty phrases he +shirked responsibility for the results of his own teaching. Of the +temper that stands alone for the right, Nature had given him not a +jot. Williams may be a little too severe, but he has some truth when +he describes Cotton on this occasion as "swimming with the stream of +outward credit and profit," though nothing was further from Cotton's +conscious purpose than such worldliness. Cotton's intolerance was not +like that of Dudley and Endecott, the offspring of an austere temper; +it was rather the outgrowth of his logic and his reverence for +authority. He sheltered himself behind the examples of Elizabeth and +James I, and took refuge in the shadow of Calvin, whose burning of +Servetus he cites as an example, without any recoil of heart or +conscience. But the consideration of the character of the age forbids +us to condemn the conscientious men who put Williams out of the +Massachusetts theocracy as they would have driven the devil out of the +garden of Eden. When, however, it comes to judging the age itself, and +especially to judging the Puritanism of the age, these false and harsh +ideals are its sufficient condemnation. Its government and its very +religion were barbarous; its Bible, except for mystical and +ecclesiastical uses, might as well have closed with the story of the +Hebrew judges and the imprecatory Psalms. The Apocalypse of John, +grotesquely interpreted, was the one book of the New Testament that +received hearty consideration, aside from those other New Testament +passages supposed to relate to a divinely appointed ecclesiasticism. +The humane pity of Jesus was unknown not only to the laws, but to the +sermons of the time. About the time of Williams's banishment the +lenity of John Winthrop was solemnly rebuked by some of the clergy and +rulers as a lax imperiling of the safety of the gospel; and Winthrop, +overborne by authority, confessed, explained, apologized, and promised +amendment. The Puritans substituted an unformulated belief in the +infallibility of "godly" elders acting with the magistrates for the +ancient doctrine of an infallible church. + + +XVII. + +[Sidenote: Character of Williams. His scruples.] + +[Sidenote: New England Firebrand Quenched, 246.] + +[Sidenote: Williams to Winthrop, 1637, Narr. Club, vi.] + +[Sidenote: Note 23.] + +In this less scrupulous but more serious age it is easy to hold +Williams up to ridicule. Never was a noble and sweet-spirited man +bedeviled by a scrupulosity more trivial. Cotton aptly dubbed him "a +haberdasher of small questions." His extant letters are many of them +vibrant with latent heroism; there is manifest in them an exquisite +charity and a pathetic magnanimity, but in the midst of it all the +writer is unable to rid himself of a swarm of scruples as pertinacious +as the buzzing mosquitoes in the primitive forest about him. In +dating his letters, where he ventures to date at all, he never writes +the ordinary name of the day of the week or the name of the month, +lest he should be guilty of etymological heathenism. He often avoids +writing the year, and when he does insert it he commits himself to the +last two figures only and adds a saving clause. Thus 1652 appears as +"52 (so called)," and other years are tagged with the same doubting +words, or with the Latin "_ut vulgo_." What quarrel the tender +conscience had with the Christian era it is hard to guess. So, too, he +writes to Winthrop, who had taken part in his banishment, letters full +of reverential tenderness and hearty friendship. But his conscience +does not allow him even to seem to hold ecclesiastical fellowship with +the man he honors as a ruler and loves as a friend. Once at least he +guards the point directly by subscribing himself "Your worship's +faithful and affectionate in all _civil_ bonds." It would be sad to +think of a great spirit so enthralled by the scrupulosity of his time +and his party if these minute restrictions had been a source of +annoyance to him. But the cheerful observance of little scruples seems +rather to have taken the place of a recreation in his life; they were +to him perhaps what bric-a-brac is to a collector, what a +well-arranged altar and candlesticks are to a ritualist. + +[Sidenote: Williams becomes a Seeker.] + +[Sidenote: Note 24.] + +Two fundamental notions supplied the motive power of every +ecclesiastical agitation of that age. The notion of a succession of +churchly order and ordinance from the time of the apostles was the +mainspring of the High-church movement. Apostolic primitivism was the +aim of the Puritan and still more the goal of the Separatist. One +party rejoiced in a belief that a mysterious apostolic virtue had +trickled down through generations of bishops and priests to its own +age; the other rejoiced in the destruction of institutions that had +grown up in the ages and in getting back to the primitive nakedness of +the early Christian conventicle. True to the law of his nature, Roger +Williams pushed this latter principle to its ultimate possibilities. +If we may believe the accounts, he and his followers at Providence +became Baptists that they might receive the rite of baptism in its +most ancient Oriental form. But in an age when the fountains of the +great deep were utterly broken up he could find no rest for the soles +of his feet. It was not enough that he should be troubled by the +Puritan spirit of apostolic primitivism; he had now swung round to +where this spirit joined hands with its twin, the aspiration for +apostolic succession. He renounced his baptism because it was without +apostolic sanction, and announced himself of that sect which was the +last reduction of Separatism. He became a Seeker. + +[Sidenote: The Seekers.] + +Here again is a probable influence from Holland. The Seekers had +appeared there long before. Many Baptists had found that their search +for primitivism, if persisted in, carried them to this negative +result; for it seemed not enough to have apostolic rites in apostolic +form unless they were sanctioned by the "gifts" of the apostolic +time. The Seekers appeared in England as early as 1617, and during the +religious turmoils of the Commonwealth period the sect afforded a +resting place for many a weatherbeaten soul. As the miraculous gifts +were lost, the Seekers dared not preach, baptize, or teach; they +merely waited, and in their mysticism they believed their waiting to +be an "upper room" to which Christ would come. It is interesting to +know that Williams, the most romantic figure of the whole Puritan +movement, at last found a sort of relief from the austere externalism +and ceaseless dogmatism of his age by traveling the road of literalism +until he had passed out on the other side into the region of devout +and contented uncertainty. + + +XVIII. + +[Sidenote: Moral elevation of Williams] + +In all this Williams was the child of his age, and sometimes more +childish than his age. But there were regions of thought and sentiment +in which he was wholly disentangled from the meshes of his time, and +that not because of intellectual superiority--for he had no large +philosophical views--but by reason of elevation of spirit. Even the +authority of Moses could not prevent him from condemning the harsh +severity of the New England capital laws. He had no sentimental +delusions about the character of the savages--he styles them "wolves +endued with men's brains"; but he constantly pleads for a humane +treatment of them. All the bloody precedents of Joshua could not make +him look without repulsion on the slaughter of women and children in +the Pequot war, nor could he tolerate dismemberment of the dead or the +selling of Indian captives into perpetual slavery. From bigotry and +resentment he was singularly free. On many occasions he joyfully used +his ascendency over the natives to protect those who kept in force +against him a sentence of perpetual banishment. And this +ultra-Separatist, almost alone of the men of his time, could use such +words of catholic charity as those in which he speaks of "the people +of God wheresoever scattered about Babel's banks either in Rome or +England." + +[Sidenote: Superior to the age.] + +Of his incapacity for organization or administration we shall have to +speak hereafter. But his spiritual intuitions, his moral insight, his +genius for justice, lent a curious modernness to many of his +convictions. In a generation of creed-builders which detested schism +he became an individualist. Individualist in thought, altruist in +spirit, secularist in governmental theory, he was the herald of a time +yet more modern than this laggard age of ours. If ever a soul saw a +clear-shining inward light not to be dimmed by prejudices or obscured +by the deft logic of a disputatious age, it was the soul of Williams. +In all the region of petty scrupulosity the time-spirit had enthralled +him; but in the higher region of moral decision he was utterly +emancipated from it. His conclusions belong to ages yet to come. + +[Sidenote: His prophetic character.] + +This union of moral aspiration with a certain disengagedness +constitutes what we may call the prophetic temperament. Bradford and +Winthrop were men of high aspiration, but of another class. The reach +of their spirits was restrained by practical wisdom, which compelled +them to take into account the limits of the attainable. Not that they +consciously refused to follow their logic to its end, but that, like +other prudent men of affairs, they were, without their own knowledge +or consent, turned aside by the logic of the impossible. Precisely +here the prophet departs from the reformer. The prophet recks nothing +of impossibility; he is ravished with truth disembodied. From Elijah +the Tishbite to Socrates, from Socrates to the latest and perhaps yet +unrecognized voice of our own time, the prophetic temperament has ever +shown an inability to enter into treaty with its environment. In the +seventeenth century there was no place but the wilderness for such a +John Baptist of the distant future as Roger Williams. He did not +belong among the diplomatic builders of churches, like Cotton, or the +politic founders of states, like Winthrop. He was but a babbler to his +own time, but the prophetic voice rings clear and far, and ever +clearer as the ages go on. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 268.] + +Sir William Martin, an early friend of Williams, describes him as +passionate and precipitate, but with integrity and good intentions. +Hutchinson Papers, 106. See also, for example, the two letters of +Williams to Lady Barrington, in New England Genealogical Register, +July, 1889, pp. 316 and following. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 269.] + +Letter to John Cotton the younger, 25th March, 1671. "He knows what +gains and preferments I have refused in universities, city, country +and court," etc. Williams's enthusiastic nature gave a flush of color +to his statement of ordinary fact, the general correctness of which, +however, there is never reason to doubt. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 270.] + +Letter to John Cotton the younger, Narragansett Club Publications, vi, +356. There is no account of this event elsewhere, but the church +records of that early date are imperfect, and there is every reason to +accept the circumstantial statement of Williams. That he refused to +enter into membership with the church is confirmed by Winthrop's +Journal, 12th April, 1631, and such refusal must have had some such +occasion. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 271.] + +"We have often tried your patience, but could never conquer it," were +Winthrop's words to Williams, who gave to Massachusetts lifelong +service in return for its lifelong severity toward him. The sentence +is quoted in Williams's letter to the younger Cotton, cited above, +which is itself a fine example of his magnanimity of spirit. +Narragansett Club Publications, vi, 351-357. + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 272.] + +There is difference of opinion on this point, but certain words of +Williams himself seem to bear on it. After his retirement from Salem +to Plymouth he received a letter from Winthrop, which appears to have +intimated that no man under twenty-five ought to be ordained. Williams +explains in reply that he is "nearer upwards of thirty than +twenty-five," but avers, "I am no elder in any church ... nor ever +shall be, if the Lord please to grant my desires that I may intend +what I long after, the natives souls." Williams's Letter, Narragansett +Club Publications, vi, 2. Of course, these words might have been +written if he had resigned the eldership before leaving Salem, but +they would have had much less pertinency. + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 276.] + +Mr. Straus, in his Life of Roger Williams, says aptly that +Massachusetts was under a government of congregations rather than of +towns, since only church members could vote. A fuller discussion of +the source and evolution of the town system is deferred to a later +volume of this series. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 278.] + +David Pieterzen de Vries, in his Voyages, reports this feeling of +superiority as freely expressed at Hartford in 1639. There is a quaint +humor in what he says of it that is enhanced by the naive Dutch phrase +in which it is set down: "Dit Volck gaven haer uyt det sy Israeliten +waren, ende dat wy aen onse colonie Egyptenaren waren, end' Engelsen +inde Vergienies waren mede Egyptenaren," p. 151. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 279.] + +"And such was the authority ... Mr. Cotton had in the hearts of the +people, that whatever he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into an +Order of Court, if of a civil, or set up as a practice in the church, +if of an ecclesiastical concernment." Hubbard, History of +Massachusetts, 182. + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 281.] + +Knowles's Life of Williams, 58, note, quotes from a letter of +Coddington's appended to Fox's reply to Williams, in which Coddington, +who was one of the magistrates that examined the treatise, charges +Williams with having "written a quarto against the King's patent and +authority." + + +[Sidenote: Note 10, page 288.] + +Cotton's Answer to Williams's Examination, 38. I have followed Cotton +implicitly here, but without feeling sure that his memory can ever be +depended on where his polemical feeling is concerned. On the next page +he is guilty of a flagrant but no doubt unconscious suppression of an +important fact. "It pleased the Lord to open the hearts of the Church +to assist us," etc., he says, putting out of sight the sharp dealing +by which the Salem church was brought to ignominious subjection. + + +[Sidenote: Note 11, page 289.] + +Cotton's Answer to Williams, 29. Compare also Massachusetts Records of +4th March, 1633, where a mercenary inducement to take the oath is +offered by making the regulations for recording the lands of freemen +apply also to the lands of "residents" presumably not church members +and ineligible to the franchise, but only to the residents "that had +taken or shall hereafter take their oathes." Backus supposes that +Williams saw some incidental result from the oath that would be +prejudicial to religious freedom. This is to suppose that Williams +needed a practical consideration to stir him to action--it is to +suppose that Williams was not Williams. Practical men were afraid the +independence of Massachusetts would be lost; Roger Williams was only +afraid that Massachusetts would commit a public sin in trying to +escape the impending evil. A conscience undefiled was his objective +point in private and public life; safety, public or private, was +secondary. + + +[Sidenote: Note 12, page 292.] + +There has been much ingenious and rather uncandid effort by Cotton +first of all, and by other defenders of the General Court since, to +prove that Williams's views on toleration were not a cause of his +banishment. If those views had been the sole cause, the decree would +have been more comprehensible and defensible in view of the opinions +of the age. But the question about the validity of the patent, the +question of the protest written against the course of the magistrates +in blackmailing Salem into a refusal to support him, the question of +the freeman's oath, and, what seems to have been deemed of capital +importance, the question of grace after meat, are all involved at one +time or another. The formal charges in what may be considered the +beginning of the banishment proceedings, the trial in July, as given +by Winthrop, our most trustworthy authority, are: 1. That the +magistrates ought not to punish for a religious offense--"the breach +of the first table"--except where it disturbed the civil peace. 2. +That the magistrate ought not to tender an oath to an unregenerate +man. 3. That a man ought not to pray with an unregenerate person. 4. +That thanks were not to be given after the sacrament and after meat. +Savage's Winthrop, i, 193, 194. In the final proceedings in October, +the letters growing out of the refusal to confirm to Salem its +outlying land entered into and embittered the controversy. Winthrop, +i, 204. The recorded verdict makes the divulging "of dyvers newe and +dangerous opinions against the aucthoritie of the magistrate" the +first offense, and the "letter of defamacion" the second. Williams +says that a magistrate, who appears to have been Haynes, the governor, +summed up his offenses at the conclusion of the trial under four +heads: 1. The denial of the authority of the patent. 2. The denial of +the lawfulness of requiring a wicked person to take an oath or pray. +3. The denial of the lawfulness of hearing the parish ministers in +England. 4. The doctrine "that the Civill Magistrates' power extends +only to the Bodies and Goods and outward State of men." Against the +evidence of Williams, Winthrop, and the records, I can not attach any +importance to the halting accounts given years afterward, for +controversial purposes, by Cotton, from what he thought was his +memory. + + +[Sidenote: Note 13, page 292.] + +"Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church at Salem, +hath broached and dyvulged dyvers newe and dangerous opinions, against +the aucthoritie of magistrates, as also writt letters of defamacion +both of the magistrates & Churches here, & that before any conviccion, +& yet maintaineth the same without retraccion, it is therefore ordered +that the said Mr. Williams shall departe out of this jurisdiccion +within sixe weekes now nexte ensueing, which if hee neglect to +performe it shall be lawfull for the Gouernour & two of the +magistrates to send him to some place out of this jurisdiccion, not to +returne any more without license from the Court." Massachusetts +Records, i, 161. + + +[Sidenote: Note 14, page 293.] + +Neal's History of New England, i, 143. "Sentence of banishment being +read against Mr. Williams, the whole town of Salem was in an uproar; +for such was the Popularity of the Man and such the Compassion of the +People ... that he would have carried off the greatest part of the +Inhabitants of the Town if the Ministers of Boston had not +interposed." Neal appears to derive these facts, which wear a +countenance of probability, from an authority not now known. + + +[Sidenote: Note 15, page 293.] + +The phrase occurs in Williams's noble letter to Major Mason, 1st +Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, i, 275 and following. +The magnanimity shown toward those opposed to him in this letter is +probably without a parallel in his age; it has few in any age. + + +[Sidenote: Note 16, page 294.] + +"The increase of the concourse of people to him on the Lord's days in +private, to the neglect or deserting of publick Ordinances and to the +spreading of the Leaven of his corrupt imaginations, provoked the +Magistrates rather than to breed a winters Spirituale plague in the +Countrey, to put upon him a winter's journey out of the Countrey." +Master John Cotton's Answer to Master Roger Williams, 57. + + +[Sidenote: Note 17, page 297.] + +The main original authorities on the banishment of Williams are +Winthrop's Journal and the Massachusetts Records of the period. Some +facts can be gathered from the writings of Williams, whose +autobiographical passages always have an air of truth while they are +sometimes vague and often flushed by his enthusiastic temper. +Cotton's memory is less to be trusted; some of his statements are in +conflict with better authorities. He no doubt believed himself to be +truthful, but his ingenious mind was unable to be precise without +unconscious sophistication. Hubbard was of Presbyterian tendencies and +totally opposed to all forms of Separatism. He appears to have +recorded every exaggerated rumor cherished by Williams's antagonists +to his discredit. Neither in this nor in other matters can we rely +much on Hubbard's testimony. No critical student of history puts +unquestioning confidence in Cotton Mather. His strange mind could +never utter truth unvarnished. In a case like this, where family +pride, local feeling, and sectarian prejudice were all on one side, +and where he had a chance to embroider upon traditions already two +generations old, it is better to disregard the author of the Magnalia +entirely. Bentley's Historical Account of Salem, in 1st Massachusetts +Historical Society Collections, vi, is a paper that excites admiration +for its broadmindedness. It contains information not elsewhere to be +found, but it is impossible to tell how far Bentley depended upon +sources not now accessible and how far he relied on ingenious +inferences drawn from his large knowledge of local history. The +publications of the Narragansett Club contain the whole controversy +between Cotton and Williams and all the letters of the latter now +known to be extant. I have in some cases referred to the originals, in +others I have used these careful reprints. Williams has been rather +fortunate in his biographers. Mr. Oscar S. Straus, approaching the +subject from a fresh standpoint, has produced the latest Life of +Williams, written in a judicial temper and evincing a rare sympathy +with its subject. The character of Williams has never been better +drawn than by Mr. Straus, pp. 231-233. The life by T. D. Knowles is +perhaps the best of the older biographies, Arnold's History of Rhode +Island contains a sketch of Williams, and Elton's brief biography has +a value of its own. Gammell's Life in Sparks's Biography is generally +fair. "As to Roger Williams," by the late Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter, is, +what it pretends to be, a partisan statement of the case against +Williams. It shows characteristic thoroughness of research, it clears +up many minor points, and is as erudite as it is one-sided. + + +[Sidenote: Note 18, page 298.] + +Baylie's Sermon before the House of Lords, on Errours and Induration, +accuses the Dutch of mere worldly policy in toleration. Williams +alludes to the charge, Bloudy Tenent yet more Bloudy, p. 8. But the +toleration of Holland may rather be traced to that decay of bigotry +and that widening of view which are beneficent results of an extended +trade. Williams in the Bloudy Tenent yet more Bloudy, p. 10, complains +of the exclusion of Catholics and Arminians from toleration in the +Netherlands. It would carry us beyond the range of the present work to +inquire how far the toleration of Amsterdam was related to that +"meridian glory" which Antwerp reached as early as 1550 by making +itself a place of refuge for the persecuted of England, France, and +Germany. The Articles of Union, adopted at Utrecht in 1579, which have +been often called the Magna Charta of the Dutch, go to show that +political and commercial considerations counted in favor of +toleration, but they also show that some notion of the sacredness of +the free conscience had been adopted among the Dutch. Article XIII of +the Union provides that the states of Holland and Zealand shall +conduct their religious affairs as they think good. More qualified +arrangements are made for the other states, as that they may restrict +religious liberty as they shall find needful for the repose and +welfare of the country. But this significant provision is added, that +every man shall have freedom of private belief without arrest or +inquisition: "Midts dat een yder particulier in syn Religie vry zal +moghen blyven, ende dat men niemandt, ter cause van de Religie, zal +moghen achterhalen, ofte ondersoecken." Pieter Paulus Verklaring der +Unie van Utrecht, i, 229, 230. Compare Van Meteren, Nederlandsche +Historie etc., iii, 254, 255, and Hooft Nederlandsche Historie, etc., +Book IX, where the full text of Article XIII is given. + + +[Sidenote: Note 19, page 298.] + +Barclay, in his Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the +Commonwealth, p. 97, cites Peter John Zwisck, a Mennonite of West +Frisia, as the author, in 1609, of The Liberty of Religion, in which +he maintains that men are not to be converted by force. In 1614 one +Leonard Busher petitioned James I in favor of liberty of conscience, +and Barclay conjectures that he was a member of that Separatist or +General Baptist church returned from Holland, of which Helwyss had +been pastor. In 1615 this obscure and proscribed congregation +professed a great truth, yet hidden from the wise and prudent, namely, +that "earthly authority belonged to earthly kings, but spiritual +authority belonged to that one Spiritual king who is king of kings." +In more than one matter Roger Williams showed himself attracted to the +doctrines of the Mennonites and their offshoot the English General +Baptist body. Whether directly through his reading of Dutch +theological works or indirectly through English followers of Dutch +writers, Williams probably derived his broadest principles, in germ at +least, from the Mennonites or Anabaptists of the gentler sort, as he +did also some of his minor scruples. For the connection between the +Mennonites of the Continent and the English cognate sects the reader +is referred to Barclay's Inner Life, a valuable work of much research. +See also the petition of the Brownists, 1641, cited in Barclay, p. +476, from British Museum, E 34-178, tenth pamphlet. + + +[Sidenote: Note 20, page 299.] + +Another delightful example of the far-fetchedness of Cotton's logic is +his justification of the sentence of banishment against Williams by +citing Proverbs xi, 26: "He that withholdeth corn, the people shall +curse him." This text, says Cotton, "I alledged to prove that the +people had much more cause to separate such from amongst them (whether +by Civill or church-censure) as doe withhold or separate them from the +Ordinances or the Ordinances from them, which are the bread of life." +Reply to Williams's Examination, 40. The reference in the text is to +the same work, 37. "Much lesse to persecute him with the Civill Sword +till it may appeare, even by just and full conviction, that he sinneth +not out of conscience but against the very light of his own +conscience." But in Cotton's practice those who labored with the +heretic were judges of how much argument constituted "just and full +conviction." This logic would have amply sheltered the Spanish +Inquisition. + + +[Sidenote: Note 21, page 300.] + +Cotton's Answer to Williams's Examination, 38, 39. Cotton confesses to +having had further conversation of a nature unfavorable to Williams, +but he is able to deny that he counseled his banishment. Even Cotton +could hardly have prevented it, and he confesses that he approved the +sentence. The only interest in the question is the exhibition of +Cotton's habitual shrinking from responsibility and his curious +sinuosity of conscience. + + +[Sidenote: Note 22, page 301.] + +In an unpublished work by Mr. Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public +Library, which I have been kindly permitted to read, and which is a +treatise on the election sermons mostly existing only in manuscript, +the author says: "The early discourses were full of ecclesiasticism, a +great deal of theology, some politics; ... but of humanity, brotherly +kindness, and what we understand by Christianity in the human +relations, I have been able to discern very little." + + +[Sidenote: Note 23, page 302.] + +Many of Roger Williams's scruples were peculiar, but his scrupulosity +was not. Cotton takes pains to call pulpits "scaffolds," to show that +they had no sacredness. The scruple about the heathen names of days of +the week was felt by many other Puritans. It is evident in Winthrop, +and it did not wholly disappear from Puritan use until about the end +of the seventeenth century. + + +[Sidenote: Note 24, page 303.] + +Barclay, Inner Life, etc., 410, 411, cites Sebastian Franck's Chronica +of 1536, from which it appears that the Seekers in fact if not in name +existed about a century before Williams adopted their views. "Some +desire to allow Baptism and other ceremonies to remain in abeyance +till God gives another command--sends out true laborers into the +harvest.... Some others agree with those who think the ceremonies +since the death of the Apostles, are equally departed, laid waste and +fallen--that God no longer heeds them, and also does not desire that +they should be longer kept, on which account they will never again be +set up but now are to proceed entirely in Spirit and in Truth and now +in an outward manner." The relation of Seekerism to Quakerism is +manifest. "To be a Seeker is to be of the best Sect next to a finder," +wrote Cromwell in 1646. + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD. + +_NEW ENGLAND DISPERSIONS._ + + +I. + +[Sidenote: Importance of the Rhode Island colony.] + +The removal of Roger Williams and his friends was the beginning of +dispersions from the mother colony on Massachusetts Bay. The company +that settled Providence was too small in number at first to be of +great importance. The emigration of Williams and his followers to the +Narragansett country was an example that may have turned the scale +with Hooker and his party in favor of a removal to the Connecticut +instead of to some place in the Massachusetts wilderness. Williams +certainly prepared a harbor for most of the Hutchinsonians, and +pointed the way to Gortonists, Baptists, Quakers, and all others of +uneasy conscience. Providence Plantation, and at times all Rhode +Island, fell into disorders inevitable in a refuge for scruplers and +enthusiasts established by one whose energies were centrifugal and +disintegrating. But when at length it emerged from its primordial +chaos the community on Narragansett Bay became of capital importance +as an example of the secularization of the state, and of the congruity +of the largest liberty in religion with civil peace. The system which +the more highly organized and orderly commonwealths of Massachusetts +and Connecticut labored so diligently to establish--a state propping +and defending orthodoxy and church uniformity--was early cast into the +rubbish heap of the ages. The principle on which the heterogeneous +colony of religious outcasts on Narragansett Bay founded itself, was +stone rejected that has become the head of the corner. + + +II. + +[Sidenote: The Connecticut migration.] + +The emigration to the Connecticut River was already incubating when +Williams sat down with his radical seceders in the Narragansett woods. +The Connecticut settlement was impelled by more various and +complicated motives than that of Williams, and its origins are not so +easy to disentangle. But it, too, has an epic interest; one dominant +personality overtops all others in this second of venturesome westward +migrations into the wilderness. + +[Sidenote: Early life of Hooker.] + +[Sidenote: 1630.] + +We can trace nothing of Hooker to his birthplace, a little hamlet in +Leicestershire, except that the imagery of his discourses in after +life sometimes reflected the processes of husbandry he had known in +childhood. But that he passed through Emmanuel College, Cambridge, +while Chaderton was master, is more significant, for Emmanuel was the +cradle of Puritan divines, the hatching-place of Puritan crotchets, +the college whose chapel stood north and south that it might have no +sacred east end, a chapel in which "riming psalms" were sung instead +of the hymns, and where lessons different from those appointed in the +calendar were read. Hooker was presented to the living of Chelmsford, +in Essex. Here his eloquence attracted wide attention, and unhappily +attracted at the same time the notice of his diocesan Laud, then +Bishop of London, who drove the preacher from his pulpit. Hooker +engaged in teaching a school four miles from Chelmsford, where Eliot, +afterward the Indian apostle, became his usher and disciple. But Laud +had marked him as one to be brought low. He was cited before the Court +of High Commission, whose penalties he escaped by fleeing to Holland. +Thus early in his career Laud unwittingly put in train events that +resulted in the founding of a second Puritan colony in New England. + + +III. + +[Sidenote: Hooker's company.] + +[Sidenote: Walker's First Church in Hartford, 40.] + +[Sidenote: Dudley's Letter to Countess of Lincoln, Young's Chron. of +Mass., 320.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Records, 14 June, 1631, and 3 February, 1632.] + +[Sidenote: Holmes's Hist. Cambridge, 1st Mass. Hist. Coll., vii, 6-8.] + +The persecution of Hooker made a great commotion in Essex, dividing +attention with the political struggle between the king and the people +about tonnage and poundage. While Hooker was an exile in Holland a +company of people from Braintree and other parts of Essex, near his +old parish of Chelmsford, emigrated to New England, chiefly, one may +suppose, for the sake of good gospel, since they came hoping to tempt +Hooker to become their pastor. This company settled at Newtown, now +Cambridge, which had been projected for a fortified capital of the +colony, that should be defensible against Indians and out of reach if +a sea force should be sent from England to overthrow the government. +Newtown was palisaded and otherwise improved at the expense of the +whole colony. Hooker's company were perhaps ordered to settle there +because no place was appropriate to the great divine but the new +metropolis. + + +IV. + +[Sidenote: Failure of Newtown as a metropolis.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop, i, 98, 99. 1632.] + +But a metropolis can not be made at will, as many a new community has +discovered. It had been arranged that all the "assistants" or ruling +magistrates of Massachusetts should live within the palisades of +Newtown, but Winthrop, after the frame of his house was erected, +changed his mind and took down the timbers, setting them up again at +Boston. This was the beginning of unhappiness at Newtown, and the +discontent had to do, no doubt, with the rivalry between that place +and Boston. It is probable that there was a rise in the value of +Boston home lots about the time of the removal of the governor's +house. Trade runs in the direction of the least resistance, and +peninsular Boston was destined by its situation to be the metropolis +of New England in spite of the forces that worked for Salem and +Newtown. + +[Sidenote: Wonder-working Providence, ch. xxviii.] + +[Sidenote: Wood's N. E. Prospect, 1634. Young, 402.] + +[Sidenote: October, 1632.] + +Newtown, or Cambridge, to call it by its later name, was a long, +narrow strip of land, "in forme like a list cut off from the +Broad-cloath" of Watertown and Charlestown. The village was compactly +built, as became an incipient metropolis, and the houses were +unusually good for a new country. In one regard it was superior to +Boston. No wooden chimneys or thatched roofs were allowed in it. To +this town came Hooker, and if it had continued to be the capital, +Hooker and not Cotton might have become the leading spirit of the +colony. But a capital at a place to which only small vessels could +come up, was not practical, and the magistrates in the year before +Hooker's arrival decided by general consent that Boston was the +fittest place in the bay for public meetings. + +[Sidenote: Hooker's arrival, 1633.] + +[Sidenote: Wood's N. E. Prospect.] + +[Sidenote: Young, 397, 398.] + +The hopes of Newtown were perhaps not wholly extinct for some time +after. The arrival of Hooker must have been a great encouragement to +the people. But Boston was on the alert. That town had neither forest +nor meadow land. Hay, timber, and firewood were brought to its wharf +in boats. From the absence of wood and marsh came some advantages--it +was plagued with neither mosquitoes nor rattlesnakes, and what cattle +there were on the bare peninsula were safe from wolves. Not to be +behind in evangelical attractions it secured Cotton to balance +Newtown's Hooker, when both arrived in the same ship. That Boston was +now recognized as the natural metropolis was shown in the abortive +movement to pay a part of Cotton's stipend by a levy on the whole +colony. + + +V. + +[Sidenote: Discontent at Newtown.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Rec., _passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Wonder-working Providence, ch. xxxiii.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Holmes's History of Cambridge, 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., +vii, pp. 1, 2.] + +[Sidenote: 2d Mass., vii, 127.] + +"Ground, wood, and medowe" were matters of dispute between Newtown and +its neighbors as early as 1632, and the frequent references to questions +regarding the boundary of Newtown go to show dissatisfaction in the +discarded metropolis, the number of whose people was out of proportion +to its resources. Cattle were scarce in the colony. Each head was worth +about twenty-eight pounds, the equivalent of several hundred dollars of +money in our time. The Newtown people saw no prospect of foreign trade, +and found the plowable plains of Cambridge dry and sandy. They had given +up trying to coax fortunes from the stony hill land of the town with +hand labor, and turned their attention to the more profitable pursuit of +cattle-raising. They took unusual pains to protect their valuable herd +from the wolves by impaling a common pasture. Natural meadow was the +only resource for hay in the English agriculture of the seventeenth +century, and the low grounds of Cambridge yielded a poor grass. Shrewd +men in Newtown already saw that as an agricultural colony Massachusetts +was destined to failure, and one Pratt, a surgeon there, was called to +account for having written to England that the commonwealth was "builded +on rocks, sands, and salt marshes." + + +VI. + +[Sidenote: Cotton and Hooker.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Walker's First Church of Hartford, 129-132.] + +There is good authority for believing that a rivalry between Hooker +and Cotton had quite as much to do with the discontent as straitened +boundaries and wiry marsh grass. Hooker was the greatest debater, +perhaps, in the ranks of the Puritans. His theology was somewhat +somber, his theory of Christian experience of the most exigent type. +To be saved, according to Hooker, one must become so passive as to be +willing to be eternally damned. In other regards he was a Puritan of a +rather more primitive type than Cotton. He knew no satisfactory +evidence of a man's acceptance with God but his good works. Cotton was +less logical but more attractive. His Puritanism grew in a garden of +spices. He delighted in allegorical interpretations of the Canticles, +his severe doctrines were dulcified with sentiment, and his conception +of the inward Christian life was more joyous and mystical and less +legal and severe than Hooker's. He was an adept in the windings of +non-committal expression, and his intellectual sinuosity was a +resource in debate or difficulty. Hooker, on the other hand, had a +downrightness not to be mistaken. With an advantage in temperament and +the additional advantage of position in the commercial and political +center, it is not surprising that Cotton's ideals eloquently and +deftly presented soon dominated the colony and that he became the +Delphic oracle whose utterances were awaited by the rulers in +emergencies. + +[Sidenote: Theological differences.] + +[Sidenote: Note 1.] + +[Sidenote: Note 2.] + +Theological differences were early apparent in the teachings of the +two leaders. Trivial enough to the modern mind are these questions +concerning works as an evidence of justification and concerning active +and passive faith in justification. Hooker maintained all by himself +that there was "a saving preparation in a Christian soule before unyon +with Christ." The other ministers pretended to understand what he +meant by this, and at first opposed him unanimously. No doubt, too, +Hooker and his disciples found some fault with the outer form of the +church as shaped by Cotton. Certain it is that Hooker's theories of +civil government were more liberal and modern than Cotton's, though +like Cotton's they were hung upon texts of Scripture. Hooker lacked +Cotton's superfluity of ingenuity; he had less imagination and less +poetic sentiment than Cotton, but his intellect was more rugged, +practical, and virile. He was not a man to have visions of a political +paradise; he did not attempt to limit citizenship to church members +when he framed a constitution for the Connecticut towns. Nor did he +give so much power and privilege to the magistrate as was given in +Massachusetts. He disapproved of Cotton's aristocratic theory of the +permanence of the magistrate's office, as he did apparently of the +negative vote of the upper house and of the arbitrary decisions which +the Massachusetts magistrates assumed the right to make. + + +VII. + +[Sidenote: Attractions of Connecticut.] + +One other potent motive there was. Stories of the fertility of the +"intervale" land on the Connecticut River came by the mouth of every +daring adventurer who had sailed or tramped so far. There one might +find pasture for the priceless cattle and hay to last the long winter +through, and in that valley one might cultivate plains of great +fertility. + + +VIII. + +[Sidenote: Obstacles to removal.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop, i, 167, 168.] + +There were dangerous Pequots on the Connecticut, it is true, and the +Dutch had already planted a trading house and laid claim to the +territory. The Plymouth people who traded there were also claimants. +And, more than all, leaving Massachusetts in a time of danger from the +machinations of Laud would seem desertion. The government of the +Massachusetts Bay colony was anomalous; it partook of the character of +the commercial company from which it sprang, yet it had traits of a +religious or at least a voluntary society. It was the accepted opinion +that those who had taken the freeman's oath were "knit" together "in +one body," and that none of them ought to leave the colony without +permission. Hooker's party gained the consent of a majority of the +representative members of the General Court, but not of a majority of +the assistants. This precipitated a debate in the colony on the +constitutional question of the right of the assistants, or +magistrates, to form an upper house and veto a decision of the chosen +deputies of the towns. + + +IX. + +[Sidenote: Attempts to prevent removal.] + +It is no part of our purpose to unravel the tangle of ecclesiastical +and civil politics in which the proposed emigration had now become +involved. The Dorchester church and a part of that of Watertown were +ready to follow the lead of Hooker and Newtown. Days of fasting and +prayer were appointed to prevent the removal of these "candlesticks," +as the churches were called, out of their places; but in spite of +humiliations and of Cotton's persuasive eloquence, which at one time +almost charmed away the discontent, the emigration set in, +stragglingly at first. + +[Sidenote: Explorers and pioneers.] + +[Sidenote: 1633.] + +John Oldham, an adventurous man of a rather lawless temper--one of +those half-ruffians that are most serviceable on an Indian +frontier--had been expelled from Plymouth. He was now a resident of +Watertown, one of the centers of discontent and next neighbor to +Newtown. He had gone with three others on a trading expedition to the +westward overland. Walking along trails from one Indian village to +another they discovered a large river, which they found to be the +Fresh River of the Dutch and the Connecticut of the Plymouth traders. +They probably brought back to Watertown accounts that produced a fever +for removal. Oldham was not a man to stand on the manner of his +emigration. Waiting for nobody's consent, he led out a small company +from Watertown the next year. These settled at what is now +Wethersfield. From Dorchester, which had no alewife fishery with which +to enrich its fields, settlers removed in 1634 to the Connecticut, +where the soil did not need to be "fished." In 1635 the number of +emigrants was larger, and there was much suffering during the +following winter and many of the cattle perished. + + +X. + +[Sidenote: Emigration by churches.] + +[Sidenote: 1636.] + +[Sidenote: Note 3.] + +But the unit of New England migration was the church. No doubt the +cohesiveness of the townships, and of the churches which were the +nuclei of the towns, was re-enforced by provincial differences between +the several communities. In 1636 Hooker, the real founder of +Connecticut, and his congregation of Essex people, sold their houses +and meadows and home lots and acre rights in the commonage in +Cambridge to a new congregation led by Thomas Shepard. From Newtown +and from Dorchester the churches emigrated bodily--pastors, teachers, +ruling elders, and deacons--carrying their organization with them +through the wilderness like an ark of the covenant. New churches were +soon afterward formed in the places they had left. Naturally, town +government became the principal feature of civil organization in +states thus planted by separate and coherent groups. + + +XI. + +[Sidenote: The new government.] + +[Sidenote: Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., i, 20, 21.] + +[Sidenote: Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., i, 3, and ff.] + +The Connecticut rulers acted at first as a government subordinate to +Massachusetts; but the settlements, except that of people from Roxbury +at Springfield, were south of the line of the Massachusetts colony, +and it was not in the nature of things that Hooker and Haynes should +subordinate themselves to Cotton and Winthrop. There was indeed no +little exasperation between the two colonies. An independent +constitution was adopted in Connecticut, on principles which Hooker +thought he found in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, and which were +not exactly those that Cotton had managed to deduce from Scripture in +his Model of Moses his Judicials. The Massachusetts people, whose +government aspired to dominate all New England, seem to have been +angered by Hooker's secession and by his refusal to subordinate the +new state to their own. Massachusetts asserted its authority over +Springfield, which was within its limits, and every effort possible +was made to prevent new emigrants who landed at Boston from going to +the west. Even in England accounts adverse to Connecticut were +circulated. Hooker, the real head of the new state, resented this in a +letter of great vigor and some passion. + + +XII. + +[Sidenote: Instability of a theocracy.] + +In its early years Massachusetts had no rest. Three profound +disturbances--the expulsion of Williams, the secession of Hooker and +his followers, and the Hutchinsonian convulsion--followed one another +in breathless succession, and a dangerous Indian war ran its course at +the same time. That the early settlements were founded on "rocks and +sands and salt marshes" was not the chief misfortune of the Bay +colony. Its ecclesiastical politics proved explosive, to the +consternation of its pious founders, who like other settlers in Utopia +had neglected to reckon with human nature. + + +XIII. + +[Sidenote: Severity of Puritanism.] + +It has been the habit of modern writers on the subject to dismiss the +Hutchinsonian controversy as a debate about meaningless propositions +in an incomprehensible jargon. Yet there was in it but the action of +well-known tendencies in human nature which might almost have been +predicted from the antecedent circumstances. Puritanism had wrapped +itself in the haircloth of austerity, it took grim delight in harsh +forbiddings, and heaped up whole decalogues of thou-shalt-nots. Nor +did it offer, as other intense religious movements have done, the +compensation of internal joys for the gayety it repressed. +Theoretically Calvinist, it was practically an ascetic system of +external duties and abstentions, trampling on the human spirit without +ruth. + +[Sidenote: Reaction toward a subjective joyousness.] + +[Sidenote: Magnalia B. III, c. I, 32.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Cotton's Fountain of Life, 35.] + +[Sidenote: Note 4.] + +[Sidenote: Note 5.] + +[Sidenote: Shepard's Memoirs in Young, 505.] + +But the heart will not be perpetually repressed; kept from natural +pleasures, it will seek supernatural delights. Men were certain sooner +or later to soften the iron rigidity of Puritanism by cultivating +those subjective joys for which Calvinism provided abundant materials. +While preachers like Hooker were scourging the soul into a +self-abasement that could approve its own damnation, and while +ingenious scribes were amassing additional burdens of scruple for +heavy-laden shoulders, there arose in England a new school of Puritan +pietists. These shirked none of the requirements of the legalists, but +their spirits sought the sunnier nooks of Calvinism, and they +preached the joy of the elect and the delight of a fully assured +faith. Cotton, whose fair complexion, brown hair, and ruddy +countenance attested a sanguine temperament, belonged by nature to +this new order. He rejoiced that he had received the "witness of the +Spirit" on his wedding day, and he delighted to draw out Scripture +imagery to a surprising tenuity in describing the "covenant of +marriage" and the intimacy of the "covenant of salt" or of friendship +between God and the soul of the believer. Preachers of the same sort +brought relief to multitudes in various towns of England. The people, +tired of churchly routine on the one hand and of legalism on the +other, thronged to hear such divines "filling the doores and windows." +It was the evangelicalism of the following century sending up its +shoots prematurely into a frosty air. The old-fashioned Puritan had +always conceived of religion as difficult of attainment. It was a +paradoxical system wherein men were saved by the works they +theoretically abjured. Conservative Puritans complained of the +preachers who spread a table of "dainties," as though it were +meritorious to sustain the soul on a rugged diet of rough doctrine. In +Thomas Shepard's Memoirs of his own Life we may overhear "a godly +company" of the time in familiar "discourse about the wrath of God and +the terror of it, and how intolerable it was; which they did present +by fire, how intolerable the torment of that was for a time; what, +then, would eternity be?" + + +XIV. + +[Sidenote: Cotton's revivalism.] + +[Sidenote: Winthrop's Journal, i, 144.] + +[Sidenote: Report of Record Com. ii, 5. Boston Town Records, 1635. +Hutchinson Papers, p. 88.] + +Cotton professed that he loved to sweeten his mouth with a piece of +Calvin before he went to sleep. His emotional rendering of Calvinistic +doctrines wrought strongly on the people of the new Boston, and his +advent was followed by widespread religious excitement. More people +were admitted to the church in Boston in the earlier months of +Cotton's residence than to all the other churches in the colony. +Boston seems to have become religious in a pervasive way, and in 1635 +measures were taken to prevent persons who were not likely to unite +with the church from settling in the town. In this community, which +had no intellectual interest but religion, and from which ordinary +diversions were banished, there were sermons on Sunday and religious +lectures on week days and ever-recurring meetings in private houses. +The religious pressure was raised to the danger point, and an +explosion of some sort was well-nigh inevitable. Cotton's enthusiasms +were modulated by the soft stop of a naturally placid temper, but when +communicated to others they were more dangerous. + + +XV. + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Hutchinson's character.] + +[Sidenote: Wonder-working Providence, ch. lxii.] + +[Sidenote: Note 6.] + +[Sidenote: Short Story, etc., p. 31.] + +[Sidenote: Cotton's The Way of the Churches Cleared, Part I, p. 51. +Short Story, 31.] + +[Sidenote: Short Story, 34.] + +Mrs. Anne Hutchinson had been one of Cotton's ardent disciples in old +Boston. She crossed the sea with her husband that she might sit under +his ministry in New England. She was a woman cursed with a natural +gift for leadership in an age that had no place for such women. "This +Masterpiece of Womens wit," the railing Captain Johnson calls her, and +certainly her answers before the Massachusetts General Court go to +show that she was not inferior in cleverness to any of the magistrates +or ministers. Winthrop, whose antipathy to her was a passion, speaks +of her "sober and profitable carriage," and says that she was "very +helpful in the time of childbirth and other occasions of bodily +infirmities, and well furnished with means to those purposes." In the +state of medical science at that time such intelligent and voluntary +ministration from a "gentlewoman" must have been highly valued. Almost +alone of the religionists of her time she translated her devotion into +philanthropic exertion. But a woman of her "nimble and active wit" +could not pass her life in bodily ministrations. Power seeks +expression, and her native eloquence was sure to find opportunity. +Mrs. Hutchinson made use of the usual gathering of gossips on the +occasion of childbirth to persuade the women to that more intimate +religious life of which she was an advocate. It was the custom to hold +devotion at concert pitch by meetings at private houses for men only; +women might be edified by their husbands at home. Mrs. Hutchinson +ventured to open a little meeting for women. This was highly approved +at first, and grew to unexpected dimensions; fifty, and sometimes +eighty, of the principal women of the little town were present at her +conferences. + + +XVI. + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Hutchinson's doctrines.] + +[Sidenote: Compare Whelewright's Sermon in Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., +1866, 265. Cotton's Sermon on the Churches Resurrection, 1642.] + +In these meetings she emphasized Cotton's favorite doctrine of "a +covenant of grace." Her sensitive woman's nature no doubt had beat its +wings against the bars of legalism. She was not a philosopher, but +nothing could be more truly in accord with the philosophy of character +than her desire to give to conduct a greater spontaneity. Cotton +himself preached in the same vein. In addition to the Reformation, of +which Puritans made so much, he looked for something more which he +called, in the phrase of the Apocalypse, "the first resurrection." +Mrs. Hutchinson, who was less prudent and more virile than Cotton, did +not hesitate to describe most of the ministers in the colony as +halting under a "covenant of works." Her doctrine was, at bottom, an +insurrection against the vexatious legalism of Puritanism. She carried +her rebellion so far that she would not even admit that good works +were a necessary evidence of conversion. It was the particular +imbecility of the age that thought of almost every sort must spin a +cocoon of theological phrases for itself. Spontaneity of religious and +moral action represented itself to Mrs. Hutchinson and her followers +as an indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the believer and as a personal +union with Christ whom they identified with the "new creature" of +Paul. Such a hardening of metaphor into dogma is one of the commonest +phenomena of religious thought. + + +XVII. + +[Sidenote: Vane's arrival, 1635.] + +[Sidenote: His election as governor, 1636.] + +Sir Henry Vane the younger, who had become an ardent Puritan in spite +of his father, landed in Boston in October, 1635. He had already shown +those gifts which enabled him afterward to play a considerable part in +English history. His high connections made him an interesting figure, +and though only about twenty-six years of age he was chosen governor +in May, 1636. Ardent by nature, and yet in his youth when he "forsook +the honors and preferments of the court to enjoy the ordinances of +Christ in their purity," nothing was more natural than that he should +be captivated by the seraphic Cotton and that he should easily adopt +the transcendental views of Mrs. Hutchinson. Winthrop, the natural +leader of the colony, having given place in 1635 to Haynes, perhaps in +order that Hooker's party might be conciliated and the Connecticut +emigration avoided, was a second time thrust aside that a high-born +youth might be honored. Winthrop was utterly opposed to Mrs. +Hutchinson, in whose teachings his apprehensive spirit saw +full-fledged Antinomianism, and, by inference, potential anabaptism, +blasphemy, and sedition. The Hutchinsonians were partisans of Vane, +who adhered to their doctrine. The ministers other than Cotton and +Whelewright, stung by the imputation that they were under "a covenant +of works," rallied about Winthrop. Political cleavage and religious +division unfortunately coincided. + + +XVIII. + +[Sidenote: Arrogance of the Hutchinson party.] + +[Sidenote: 1636.] + +[Sidenote: Cotton's Churches Resurrection, p. 27.] + +Supported by the prestige of the young governor and of some +conspicuous citizens and inspired by Cotton's metaphorical and +mystical preaching, which was interpreted with latitude, the +enthusiasm of the Hutchinsonians tended to become fanaticism. We have +to depend mainly on the prejudiced account of their enemies, but there +is little reason to doubt that the advocates of "a covenant of grace" +assumed the airs of superiority usually seen in those who have +discovered a short cut to perfection. The human spirit knows few +greater consolations than well-disguised self-righteousness. The +followers of Mrs. Hutchinson, if we may believe the witnesses, +sometimes showed their sanctity by walking out of meeting when a +preacher not under "a covenant of grace" entered the pulpit. They even +interrupted the services with controversial questions addressed to the +minister. Wilson, pastor of the Boston church, was condemned by them +as being under "a covenant of works," and also incidentally criticised +for his "thick utterance." Nor can one find that Cotton interposed his +authority to protect his less gifted colleague. It is quite +conceivable that he looked with some satisfaction on the progress of +affairs in Boston. The heavenly minded young governor who had chosen +to suffer reproach with the people of God was his disciple. The +brilliant woman who was easily the leader of the town was the very +apostle of his doctrine. The superiority of his opinions on a union +with Christ that preceded active faith as compared with those of +Hooker and the lesser divines was enthusiastically asserted by the +great majority of the Boston church, led by Mrs. Hutchinson. Seeing so +much zeal and sound doctrine he may have felt that the first or +spiritual resurrection of which he was wont to prophesy from the +Apocalypse, had already begun in his own congregation, and that among +these enthusiasts were those who had learned to "buy so as though they +bought not"--those who had been lifted into a crystalline sphere where +they had "the Moone under their feet. And if we have the Moone under +our feete, then wee are not eclipsed when the Moone is Eclipsed." Thus +did Cotton's imagination revel in cosmical imagery. + + +XIX. + +[Sidenote: Bitterness of the debate.] + +[Sidenote: Overthrow of Vane, 1637.] + +The arrogance of the elect is hard to bear, and it is not wonderful +that the debate waxed hot. The concentrated religiousness of a town +that sought to shut out unbelieving residents made the dispute +dangerous. In the rising tempest a ballast of ungodly people might +have been serviceable. But in Boston there were few even of the +indifferent to be buffers in the religious collision. While the +covenant-of-grace people made themselves offensive, their +opponents,--Winthrop, the slighted ex-governor, Wilson, the unpopular +pastor, and the ministers accused of being under a covenant of +works--resorted to the favorite weapons of polemics. They hatched a +brood of inferences from the opinions Mrs. Hutchinson held, or was +thought to hold, and then made her responsible for the ugly bantlings. +They pretended to believe, and no doubt did believe, that Mrs. +Hutchinson's esoteric teaching was worse than what she gave out. They +borrowed the names of ancient heresies, long damned by common consent, +to give odium to her doctrine. That the new party should be called +Antinomian was plausible; the road they had chosen for escape from +Puritan legalism certainly lay in that direction. But Antinomianism +had suffered from an imputation of immorality, and no such tendency +was apparent, unless by logical deduction, in the doctrines taught in +Boston. The hearers of Mrs. Hutchinson were also accused of having +accepted the doctrines of the so-called Family of Love which had of +old been accused of many detestable things, and was a common bugaboo +of theology at the time. The whole town of Boston and the whole colony +of Massachusetts was set in commotion by the rude theological brawl. +Such was the state of combustion in Boston that it was thought +necessary by the opponents of Vane and Mrs. Hutchinson to hold the +court of elections at the former capital, Newtown. The excitement at +this court was so great that the church members, who only could vote, +were on the point of laying violent hands on one another in a contest +growing out of a question relating to the indwelling of the Holy +Ghost. Vane was defeated, and Winthrop again made governor. + + +XX. + +[Sidenote: The Synod of 1637.] + +[Sidenote: Short Story of the Rise, Reign, etc., _passim_.] + +[Sidenote: Winthrop's Journal, i, 284, and following.] + +[Sidenote: Cotton's Way of the Churches Cleared, _passim_.] + +A great synod of elders from all the New England churches was +assembled. All the way from Ipswich and Newbury on the east and from +the Connecticut on the west the "teaching elders" made their way by +water or by land, at public expense, that they might help the +magistrates of Massachusetts to decide on what they should compel the +churches to believe. For more than three weeks the synod at Cambridge +wrestled with the most abstruse points of doctrine. The governor +frequently had to interpose to keep the peace; sometimes he adjourned +the assembly, to give time for heats to cool. A long list of errors, +most of which were not held by anybody in particular, were condemned. +A nearly unanimous conclusion on certain fine-spun doctrines was +reached at length by means of affirmations couched in language vague +or ambiguous. Cotton, who had been forced after debate to recant one +opinion and modify others, assented to the inconclusive conclusions, +but with characteristic non-committalism he qualified his assent and +withheld his signature. + + +XXI. + +[Sidenote: The persecution.] + +[Sidenote: Mass. Rec., i, 207.] + +The field was now cleared for the orderly persecution of the +dissentients. Whelewright, Mrs. Hutchinson's brother-in-law, had been +convicted of sedition in the preceding March on account of an +imprudent sermon preached on a fast day. But his sentence had been +deferred from court to court, apparently until after the synod. At the +November court following the synod Whelewright was banished, and those +who had signed a rather vigorous petition in his favor many long +months before were arraigned and banished or otherwise punished. The +banished included some of the most intelligent and conspicuous +residents. Not until this November court had her opponents ventured to +bring Mrs. Hutchinson to trial. Whelewright, standing by his +hot-headed sermon, had just been sentenced; the abler but more timid +Cotton had already been overborne and driven into a safe ambiguity by +the tremendous pressure of the great synod. Vane had left the colony, +and the time was ripe to finish the work of extirpation. The elders +were summoned to be present and advise. + + +XXII. + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Hutchinson's trial, 1637.] + +[Sidenote: Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass. Bay, ii, appendix.] + +[Sidenote: Note 7.] + +During a two days' trial, conducted inquisitorially, like an English +Court of High Commission, Cambridge presented the spectacle of a +high-spirited and gifted woman, at the worst but a victim of +enthusiasm, badgered by the court and by the ministers, whose dominant +order she had attacked. Cotton, with more than his usual courage, +stood her defender. The tough-fibered Hugh Peter, who made himself +conspicuous in several ways, took it on him to rebuke Cotton for +saying a word in defense of the accused. Endecott and Hugh Peter, +mates well matched, browbeat the witnesses who appeared in Mrs. +Hutchinson's behalf, and Dudley, the conscientious advocate of +persecution, was rude and overbearing. Winthrop acted as chief +inquisitor, the narrow sincerity and superstition of his nature +obscuring the nobler qualities of the man. + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Hutchinson is excommunicated.] + +[Sidenote: Note 8.] + +[Sidenote: Rise, Reign, Ruine, etc., and Winthrop's Journal, i, 309, +310.] + +Mrs. Hutchinson defended herself adroitly at first, refusing to be +trapped into self-condemnation. But her natural part was that of an +outspoken agitator, and her religious exaltation had been increased, +doubtless, by persecution, for combativeness is a stimulant even to +zeal. On the second day she threw away "the fear of man," and declared +that she had an inward assurance of her deliverance, adding that the +General Court would suffer disaster. For this prophesying she was +promptly condemned. Cotton had prophesied notably on one occasion, +Wilson, his colleague, was given to rhyming prophecies, and Hooker had +made a solemn prediction while in Holland. In this very year the plan +of the Pequot campaign had been radically changed in compliance with a +revelation vouchsafed to the chaplain, Stone. But these were +ministers, and never was the ministerial office so reverenced as by +the Puritans, who professed to strip it of every outward attribute of +priestliness. Above all, for a woman to teach and to have revelations +was to stand the world on its head. "We do not mean to discourse with +those of your sex," etc., said Winthrop severely to Mrs. Hutchinson +during the trial. She was sentenced to banishment, but reprieved, that +the church might deal with her. On the persuasion of Cotton and +others, Mrs. Hutchinson wrote a recantation apologizing for her +assumption to have revelations, and retracting certain opinions of +which she had been accused. But she added that she had never intended +to teach or to hold these opinions. For this falsehood, as it was +deemed, she was summarily excommunicated. Yet nothing seems more +probable than that her hyperbolic utterances under excitement had not +stood for dogmatic opinions. Under Cotton's fine-spun system of church +government a member could not be excommunicated except by unanimous +consent. Many of Mrs. Hutchinson's friends were absent from the +colony, others had prudently changed sides or stayed away from the +meeting. But her sons ventured to speak in her behalf. Cotton at once +admonished them. The effect of putting them under admonition was to +disfranchise them; it was one of Cotton's ingenuities of the +sanctuary. The sons out of the way, the mother was cast out +unanimously--a punishment much dreaded among the Puritans, who +believed that what was thus bound on earth was bound in heaven. It was +a ban that forbade the faithful even to eat with her. But the +melancholy under which Mrs. Hutchinson had suffered vanished at once, +and she said as she left the church assembly, "Better to be cast out +than to deny Christ." + + +XXIII. + +[Sidenote: Omens and auguries.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop's Journal, i, 313, 316; ii, 11, and Short +Story of Rise and Reign of Antinomianism.] + +[Sidenote: Winthrop, i, 316.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop, i, 326.] + +[Sidenote: Death of Mrs. Hutchinson.] + +Mrs. Hutchinson and most of her party settled on Rhode Island, where +they sheltered themselves at first in caves dug in the ground. Here +she again attracted attention by the charm of her eloquent teaching, +and some came from afar to hear the "she Gamaliel," as her opponents +called her. Such gifts in a woman, and in one who had been +excommunicated by the authority vested in the church, could be +accounted for only by attributing her power to sorcery. Winthrop sets +down the evidence that she was a witch, which consisted in her +frequent association with Jane Hawkins, the midwife, who sold oil of +mandrakes to cure barrenness, and who was known to be familiar with +the devil. At length "God stepped in," and by his "casting voice" +proved which side was right. Mary Dyer, one of the women who followed +Mrs. Hutchinson, had given birth to a deformed stillborn child. This +fact became known when Mrs. Dyer left the church with the +excommunicated Mrs. Hutchinson. Winthrop had the monstrosity exhumed +after long burial had rendered its traits difficult to distinguish. He +examined it personally with little result, but he published in England +incredible midwife's tales about it. God stepped in once more, and +Mrs. Hutchinson herself, after she went to Rhode Island, suffered a +maternal misfortune of another kind. The wild reports that were +circulated regarding this event are not fit to be printed even in a +note; the first editor of Winthrop's journal felt obliged to render +the words into Latin in order that scholars might read them +shamefacedly. But Cotton, who was by this time redeeming himself by a +belated zeal against the banished sectaries, repeated the impossible +tale, which was far worse than pathological, to men and women, callow +youths, young maidens, and innocent children "in the open assembly at +Boston on a lecture day," explaining the divine intent to signalize +her error in denying inherent righteousness. The governor, who was +more cautious, wrote to the physician and got a correct report, from +which the divine purpose was not so evident, and Cotton made a +retraction at the next lecture. We are now peering into the abyss of +seventeenth-century credulity. Here are a grave ruler and a divine +once eminent at the university, and now renowned in England and in +America, wallowing in a squalid superstition in comparison with which +the divination of a Roman haruspex is dignified. + +[Sidenote: Note 9.] + +Having suffered the loss of her husband, and hearing of efforts on the +part of Massachusetts to annex Rhode Island, Mrs. Hutchinson removed +to the Dutch colony of New Netherland with her family. Here she and +all her household except one child were massacred by the Indians. This +act of Providence was hailed as a final refutation of her errors, the +more striking that the place where she suffered was not far removed +from a place called Hell Gate. + + +XXIV. + +[Sidenote: Results of ecclesiastical government.] + +This famous controversy lets in much light upon the character of the +age and the nature of Puritanism. It is one of many incidents that +reveal the impracticability of the religious Utopia attempted in New +England. The concentration of religious people undoubtedly produced a +community free from the kind of disorders that are otherwise +inseparable from a pioneer state and that were found abundantly in New +Netherland, in Maryland, and in Virginia and on the eastward fishing +coast. "These English live soberly," said a Dutch visitor to Hartford +in 1639, "drinking but three times at a meal, and when a man drinks to +drunkenness they tie him to a post and whip him as they do thieves in +Holland." But while some of the good results to be looked for in an +exclusively Puritan community were attained, it was at the cost of +exaggerating the tendency to debate and fanaticism and developing the +severity, the intolerance, and the meddlesome petty tyranny that +inheres in an ecclesiastical system of government. During the lifetime +of one generation Massachusetts suffered all these, and it is doubtful +whether regularity of morals was not purchased at too great a +sacrifice of liberty, bodily and spiritual, and of justice. Certainly +the student of history views with relief the gradual relaxation that +came after the English Restoration and the disappearance from the +scene of the latest survivors of the first generation of New England +leaders. + +[Illustration: New England after the dispersions.] + + +XXV. + +[Sidenote: The New Haven colony.] + +During the period of the greatest excitement over the Hutchinson case +John Davenport, a noted Puritan minister of London, had been in +Massachusetts. Like many other emigrant divines of the time he brought +a migrant parish with him seeking a place to settle. Davenport arrived +in June, 1637, and took part against the Antinomians in the synod. +After examining every place offered them in Massachusetts, he and his +friends refused all and resolved to plant a new colony. The people +were Londoners and bent on trade, and Massachusetts had no suitable +place for their settlement left. The bitterness of the Hutchinson +controversy may have had influence in bringing them to this decision, +and the preparations of Laud to subject and control Massachusetts +perhaps had weight in driving them to seek a remoter settlement. +Davenport had ideals of his own, and the earthly paradise he sought to +found was not quite Cotton's nor was it Hooker's. He and his followers +planted the New Haven colony in 1638. In this little colony church and +state were more completely blended than in Massachusetts. The +government was by church members only, to the discontent of other +residents, and in 1644 New Haven adopted the laws of Moses in all +their rigor. The colony was united with Connecticut by royal charter +at the Restoration, after which the saints no longer sat upon thrones +judging the tribes of Israel. + + +CONCLUSION. + +[Sidenote: Later English emigrations to New England.] + +[Sidenote: Lord Maynard to Laud, 17 March, 1638, in Sainsbury.] + +[Sidenote: Savage's Winthrop's Journal, i, 319, 320, 322.] + +[Sidenote: Rushworth, i, Part II, 409, 718.] + +[Sidenote: Josselyn's Rarities, 108.] + +The emigration to New England from the mother country was quickened by +the troubles that preceded the civil war. In 1638 it reached its +greatest height, having been augmented perhaps by agricultural +distress. Fourteen ships bound for New England lay in the Thames at +one time in the spring of that year. There was alarm at the great +quantity of corn required for the emigrants, lest there should not be +enough left in London to last till harvest. "Divers clothiers of great +trading" resolved to "go suddenly," in which we may see, perhaps, +evidence of bad times in the commercial world. Some parishes it was +thought would be impoverished. Laud was asked to put a stop to the +migration; but the archbishop was busy trying to compel the Scots to +use the prayer book. Most of the lords of the Council were favorable +to New England; the customs officers purposely neglected to search for +contraband goods, and the ships, twenty in all, got away with or +without license, and brought three thousand passengers to Boston. But +the tide spent itself about this time, and by 1640 emigration to the +New England colonies had entirely ceased. About twenty-one thousand +two hundred people had been landed in all. + +[Sidenote: Cavalier emigration to Virginia.] + +[Sidenote: Petition to House of Lords, 15 Aug., 1648. Royal Hist. MS., +Com. Rept., vii, 45.] + +[Sidenote: Sainsbury, 360.] + +The swing of the political pendulum in England that served to check +the Puritan exodus gave impetus to a new emigration to Virginia and +Maryland. During the ten years and more before 1640 few had gone to +that region but bond servants. There were in that year not quite eight +thousand people in Virginia. It is the point of time at which the +native Virginians began to rear a second generation born on the soil. +The waning fortunes of the king sent to the colony in the following +years a large cavalier emigration, and the average character of the +colonists was raised. Better ministers held the Virginia parishes and +better order was observed in the courts. In 1648 four hundred +emigrants lay aboard ships bound for Virginia at one time, and in 1651 +sixteen hundred royalist prisoners seem to have been sent in one +detachment. + +[Sidenote: Prospective ascendency of the English colonies.] + +By the middle of the seventeenth century the English on the North +American continent were in a fair way to predominate all other +Europeans. From the rather lawless little fishing villages on the +coast of Maine to the rigorous Puritan communes of the New Haven +colony that stretched westward to pre-empt, in advance of the Dutch, +land on the shores of Long Island Sound, the English held New England. +English settlers "seeking larger accommodations" had crossed to Long +Island and were even pushing into the Dutch colony. The whole +Chesapeake region was securely English. Already there were Virginians +about to break into the Carolina country lying wild between Virginia +and the Spanish colony in Florida. The French and the Dutch and the +Spaniards excelled the English in far-reaching explorations and +adventurous fur-trading. But the English had proved their superior +aptitude for planting compact agricultural communities. A sedentary +and farming population where the supply of land is not limited reaches +the highest rate of natural increase. At a later time, Franklin +estimated that the population of the colonies doubled every +twenty-five years without including immigrants. The compactness of +English settlement and the prolific increase of English people decided +the fate of North America. The rather thin shell of Dutch occupation +was already, by the middle of the seventeenth century, feeling the +pressure under stress of which it was soon to give way. A century +later collision with the populous and ever-multiplying English +settlements brought about the collapse of the expanded bubble of New +France. + + +ELUCIDATIONS. + +[Sidenote: Note 1, page 321.] + +There is a paper on this debate in the British Record Office indorsed +by Archbishop Laud, "Rec: Octob: 7. 1637," "Propositions wch have +devided Mr. Hooker & Mr. Cotton in Newe England. 1. That a man may +prove his justification by his works of sanctification, as the first, +best, and only cheife evidence of his salvation. 2. Whither fayth be +active or passive in justification. 3. Whither there be any saving +preparation in a Christian soule before his unyon with Christ. This +latter is only Hooker's opinion, the rest of the ministers do not +concurr with him: Cotton and the rest of the contrary opinion are +against him and his party in all." Colonial Papers, ix, 71. In the +next paper in the same volume, also indorsed by Laud, the controversy +is more fully set forth. Copies of both are in the Bancroft collection +of the New York Public Library. Laud indorsed these papers +respectively October 7 and 15, 1637. The Cambridge Synod, which met +August 30th, had adjourned late in September, and the debates which +divided the two divines must have preceded it, and perhaps preceded +the migration of Hooker to Connecticut in 1636. When Haynes was +Governor of Massachusetts he had pronounced the sentence of banishment +against Williams. But some years later, while Governor of Connecticut, +he relented a little and wrote to Williams: "I think, Mr. Williams, I +must now confesse to you, that the most wise God hath provided and cut +out this part of his world for a refuge and receptacle for all sorts +of consciences. I am now under a cloud, and my brother Hooker, with +the bay, as you have been, we have removed from them thus far, and yet +they are not satisfied." Quoted by Williams in a letter to Mason, 1st +Massachusetts Historical Collections, i, 280. + + +[Sidenote: Note 2, page 322.] + +The abstract of Hooker's sermon of May 31, 1638, as deciphered and +published by Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, is in the Collections of the +Connecticut Historical Society, i, 20, 21, and the Fundamental Laws of +1639 are in Hinman's Antiquities, 20, and ff., and in Trumbull's Blue +Laws, 51. Compare also the remarkable letter of Hooker to Winthrop in +Connecticut Historical Society Collections, i, 3-15. Hooker objects +strongly to the right of arbitrary decisions by the magistrate: "I +must confess, I ever looked at it as a way which leads directly to +tyranny, and so to confusion, and must plainly profess, if it was in +my liberty, I would choose neither to live nor leave my posterity +under such government." This letter exhibits Hooker's intellect to +great advantage. One is inclined to rank him above most of his New +England contemporaries in clearness and breadth of thought. + + +[Sidenote: Note 3, page 325.] + +The selling of half-developed homesteads to newcomers by older +settlers was of constant occurrence in all the colonies during the +colonial period. It was a notable practice on the frontiers of +Pennsylvania down to the Revolution, and perhaps later. Hubbard thus +describes what went on in every New England settlement: "Thus the +first planters in every township, having the advantage of the first +discovery of places, removed themselves into new dwellings, thereby +making room for others to succeed them in their old." General History +of New England, 155. + + +[Sidenote: Note 4, page 328.] + +The existence in England of a doctrine resembling that of the +followers of Cotton and Mrs. Hutchinson is implied in Welde's preface +to the Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruine of Antinomianism. +"And this is the very reason that this kind of doctrine takes so well +here in _London_ and other parts of the kingdome, and that you see so +many dance after this pipe, running after such and such, crowding the +Churches and filling the doores and windowes." + + +[Sidenote: Note 5, page 328.] + +Giles Firmin's Review of Davis's Vindication, 1693, quotes from a +letter of Shepard of Cambridge, Massachusetts: "Preach Humiliation, +labor to possess Men with a Sence of Misery and wrath to come. The +Gospel Consolations and Grace which some would have only disht out as +the Dainties of the times and set upon the Ministry's Table may +possibly tickle and ravish some and do some good to some which are +Humbled and Converted already. But if Axes and Wedges be not used +withal to hew and break this rough unhewn bold but professing age, I +am Confident the Work and Fruit ... will be but meer Hypocrisie." + + +[Sidenote: Note 6, page 330.] + +Notwithstanding his early imprudence during the partisan excitement in +Boston, Whelewright was a man of sound judgment, and his testimony +regarding his sister-in-law is the most important we have. "She was a +woman of good wit and not onely so, ... but naturally of a good +judgment too, as appeared in her civill occasions; In spirituals +indeed she gave her understanding over into the power of suggestion +and immediate dictates, by reason of which she had many strange +fancies, and erroneous tenents possest her, especially during her +confinement ... attended by melancholy." Mercurius Americanus, p. 7. + + +[Sidenote: Note 7, page 338.] + +Hugh Peter, after his return to England, adopted the views in favor of +toleration beginning to prevail there. Nine years after he had +obtruded himself so eagerly to testify against Mrs. Hutchinson, he was +writing to New England earnest remonstrances against persecution. 4 +Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi, where the letters are given. + + +[Sidenote: Note 8, page 338.] + +There were those who wished to give time for a second admonition +before excommunication, but they were overruled, probably by Wilson. +Winthrop, i, 310. It would, perhaps, have been in better form to take +the other and less eager course. There is a Latin paper in the British +Public Record Office, dated 3 March, 1635, which professes to give a +brief and orderly digest of the canons of government constituted and +observed in the reformed New England churches. I am unable to trace +its authority. From this I quote; "Qui pertinacitur consistorii +admonitiones rejecerit a coena domini suspendatur. Si suspensus, post +iteratus admonitiones nulla poenitentiae signum dederit ad +excomunicationem procedat Ecclesia." + + +[Sidenote: Note 9, page 341.] + +It would be a waste of time to controvert the ingenious apologies +which have been written to prove that an inexorable necessity +compelled the banishment of the Antinomians. The Massachusetts +government was in its very nature and theory opposed to religious +toleration, as we may see by the reference of the case of Gorton and +his companions to the elders, and their verdict that these men, not +residents of the jurisdiction, ought to be put to death for +constructive blasphemy, a decision that the magistrates by a majority +vote would have put in execution if the "deputies" or representative +members of the assembly had not dissented. Savage's Winthrop's +Journal, ii, 177. The doctrine of intolerance is ingeniously set forth +in Cotton's "The Powring Ovt of the Seven Vials, ... very fit and +necessary for this Present Age," published in 1642. Cotton compares +Jesuits and heretics to wolves, and says, "Is it not an acceptable +service to the whole Country to cut off the ravening Wolves?" The +Puritans of New England from their very circumstances were slower to +accept the doctrine of religious liberty than their coreligionists in +England. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abbot, Abp., on Calvert's resignation, 259, n. 6. + + Abercromby's Examination, 258, n. 4; 262, n. 11; 263, n. 12. + + Aberdeen Burgh Records, no Sabbatarian legislation in, 140, n. 12; + quaint ordinance from, 140, n. 12. + + Accidents, New England hung on a chain of slender, 176. + + Act, for Church Liberties, 1639, 251; 265, n. 22; + for discovering popish recusants, 237, m.; + of Toleration, 1649, 255, 256; + act to prevent, etc., 237, m. + + Activity, intellectual, men excited to unwonted, 1. + + Adam's needle and thread, garments woven of fiber of, 79; + efforts to cultivate, 80. + + Admonition to the People of England, 115, m. + + Advertisements for Planters of New England, 27, m. + + Age of romance and adventure, an, 1, 20; + of colony beginnings, 92; + dramatic and poetic to its core, 100. + + Agrarian and industrial disturbance aids the Puritan movement, 111. + + Ainsworth wrote tractate on the Jewish ephod, 108. + + Alexander, William, Encouragement to Colonies, 258, n. 3. + + Alleghanies deemed almost impassable, 11. + + Almond, an, for a Parrat, 116. + + America excited the most lively curiosity, 2; + notion that it was an Asiatic peninsula, 3; + search for a route through, lasted one hundred and fourteen years, 8; + a Mediterranean Sea sought in the heart of, 11; + fact and fable about, 14; + excepted from the Deluge, 20; + treasure from flowing into Spanish coffers, 74; + Hakluyt spreading sails for, in every breeze, 76; + all one to European eyes, 169. + + Amer. Antiqu. Soc. Trans., 22, n. 4. + + Amsterdam, Separatists migrated to, 148; + called a common harbor of all opinions, 164. + + Anabaptism, divergencies in direction of, in Mass., 267. + + Anarchy and despotism the inevitable alternatives of communism, 26. + + Anderson's Church of England in the Colonies, 258, n. 3. + + Anderson's Commerce, 22, n. 5; 75, m.; 76, m.; 95, n. 3. + + Anglican and Puritan party lines not sharply drawn at first, 110. + + Anglican Church party, leaders at Zurich and Strasburg, 104; + held to the antique ritual, 106; + content with moderate reforms, 109; + must have a stately liturgy and holy days, 110; + becomes dogmatic, 113; + aided by Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 122. + + Anglican zeal founded a nation of dissenters, 91. + + Animals, notions about American, 18; + too many kinds for Noah's ark, 20. + + Animals for breeding, stock of, 48; + sold by Argall, 50. + + Antinomianism, divergencies in direction of, in Mass., 287; + found by Winthrop in Mrs. Hutchinson's teachings, 332. + + Antinomians sheltered by Vane and Cotton, 267; + Davenport took part against, in the synod, 343; + banishment of the, 349, n. 9. + See also HUTCHINSON, MRS. ANNE, and HUTCHINSONIAN CONTROVERSY. + + Antwerp, a place of refuge for the persecuted, 312, n. 18. + + Apocalypse of John, the, received hearty consideration from the New + England Puritans, 301. + + Apostolic primitivism, aim of the Puritan, 303; + goal of the Separatist, 303. + + Apostolic succession asserted as essential, 113. + + Archdale's Carolina, 171, m. + + Archer, Gabriel, wounded by the Indians, 28; + hostile to Smith, 37; + character of, 64, n. 3; + a ringleader in disorders, 63, n. 3; + a paper on Virginia by, 96, n. 7. + + Archery on Sunday prohibited, 127. + + Arctic continent, an, 2. + + Argall, Captain, the first Englishman to see the bison, 24, n. 10, 50; + sent to the Bermudas, went to the fishing-banks for food, 42; + to Mt. Desert for plunder, 47; + bad record and government, 50; + robbed Company and colonists, 50, 52; + fitted out a ship for piracy, 51; + charter procured for a new plantation to protect, 51, 68, n. 13; + escaped in nick of time, 52. + + Argonauts of the New World set sail, 25. + + Arianism, divergencies in direction of, in Massachusetts, 267. + + Ark, The, and The Dove, efforts to prevent departure of, 241; + no Protestant minister or worship on board, 242. + + Armada, the Spanish, patriotism aroused by the danger from, 121. + + Armenian silk-raisers brought to Virginia, 78. + + Arminian Nunnery, 93, m. + + Arminianism spreads among the High-Church clergy, 133, 192. + + Arminians and Calvinists, Laud attempts to suppress debate between, 194. + + Arminians excluded from toleration in the Netherlands, 298, 312, n. 18. + + Arnold's History of Rhode Island, 311, n. 17. + + Articles of Union, the, provided for freedom of private belief, 312, + n. 18. + + Arundel, Lord, a friend of Sir George Calvert, 226; + territory assigned to, 259, n. 5. + + Asher's History of West India Company, 177, m. + + Asia, efforts to reach, 3. + + Aspinwall Papers, 56, m.; 70, n. 15; 264, n. 20. + + Aubrey's Survey of Wiltshire, 136, n. 5. + + Augustine on the Sunday-Sabbath, 137, n. 8; 140, n. 13. + + Austerfeld, a cradle of the Pilgrims, 149; + the stolid rustics of, 150; + the font at which Bradford was baptized, 151; + inhabitants at Bradford's birth a most ignorant people, 152. + + Austerity in morals a Puritan characteristic, 119. + + Auxiliary societies formed, 53. + + Avalon, Calvert's province in Newfoundland called, 224, 258, n. 3; + charter of, 225, 234; + primary design of the colony, 225; 259, n. 5; + troubles of Baltimores and Puritans in, 228; + abandoned by Calvert, 230; + Catholic emigrants to, 239. + + + Bacon, Lord, objects to heretics settling a colony, 171. + + Bacon's Lord, An Advertisement touching Controversies, 117, m.; + Advice to Villiers, 171, m.; + Certain Considerations, 162, m.; + Essay on Plantations, 27, m.; + Observation on a Libel, 163, m.; + Speech in reply to the Speaker, 25, m. + + Bacon's Laws of Maryland, 264, n. 19; 265, n. 22. + + Bacon, Nathaniel, 60, n. 1. + + Bacon, Roger, on the Sunday question, 138, n. 8. + + Baillie, Robert, on John Robinson, 156. + + Baltimore, first Baron. See CALVERT, GEORGE. + + Baltimore, Letters to Wentworth, 241, m. + + Baltimore, second Baron. See CALVERT, CECILIUS. + + Bancroft, Richard, Bishop of London, theatrical adulation of King + James, 161; + as primate persecutes the Puritans, 162; + stops emigration to Virginia, 168, 183, n. 2. + + Baptist Church, the General, on earthly and spiritual + authority, 312, n. 19. + + Baptists, Williams and his followers become, 303. + + Barclay's Inner Life, 146, m.; 186, n. 6; 312, n. 19; 314, n. 24. + + Barlow's Svmme and Svbstance, 143, m.; 160, m.; 162, m.; 182, n. 1. + + Barrow hanged at Tyburn, 148. + + Barrowism a mean between Presbyterianism and Brownism, 148; + the model for the church at Scrooby, 154. + + Bawtry, the station near Scrooby, 149, 150, 151. + + Baylie, Robert, condemns the toleration of the Dutch, 164, 311, n. 18. + + Baylie's Errours and Induration, 164, m.; 311, n. 18. + + Bell, ringing of only one, to call people to church, 129; + of more than one a sin, 130. + + Bentley's Description of Salem, 200, m.; + Historical Account of Salem, 311, n. 17. + + Berkeley, Sir William, persecution of Puritans in Virginia by, 252. + + Bermudas, Gates and Somers shipwrecked on the, 40; + birds and wild hogs at the, 41, 65, n. 6; + marvelous escape from the, 41, 65, n. 6. + + Beste, George, 2, m.; 4; + on the New World, 21, n. 2. + + Biard on Dale's severity to French prisoners, 66, n. 9. + + Bible, reading the, as part of the service, reprehended by the + extremists, 117. + + Birch's Court of James I, 68, n. 10; 69, n. 14; 72, n. 19; 258, n. 1. + + Bishoprics filled by Elizabeth, 143. + + Bishops, effect of the hostility of the, to the Puritans, 112; + attacked by the Mar-Prelate tracts, 115; + reaction in favor of, 121; + had become Protestant to most people, 123. + + Bison found near the Potomac, 50. + + Blackstone, William, first settler at Boston, 190. + + Blake's Annals of Dorchester, 219, n. 9. + + Boston chosen as fittest place for public meetings, 319; + secured Cotton to balance Newton's Hooker, 319. + + Boston church, Roger Williams refused to become a minister of, 270. + + Boston Town Records, 329, m. + + Boulton, a Separatist, recanted and hung himself, 157, n. 2. + + Bowling in the streets the daily work at Jamestown, 44. + + Bowls, Calvin playing at, on Sunday, 124; + Mar-Prelate berates the Bishop of London for playing, 128. + + Bownd's, Dr., Sabbath of the Old and the New Testament, 124, 128; + views rapidly accepted, 129; + ultra-propositions exceeded, 130; + captivated the religious public, 130; + opposition to, 131; + new edition published, 132, 139, n. 10. + + Bozman, 265, n. 22. + + Bradford, William, a silk-weaver in Leyden, 169; + chosen governor at Plymouth, 179; + abolishes communism, 180; + of high aspiration restrained by practical wisdom, 306. + + Bradford's Dialogue of 1593, 146, m.; + Plimoth Plantation, 145, m.; 153, m.; 154, m.; 155, m.; 158, n. 3; + 165, m.; 166, m.; 175, m.; 184, n. 4; 186, n. 9; 274, m. + + Brewster, William, at court, 152; + master of the post at Scrooby, 153; + secured ministers for neighboring parishes who were silenced, 153; + the host and ruling elder of the Scrooby church, 154; + useful career of, 155; + project of forming a new state, 167; + books owned by, 168. + + Briefe Declaration, MS., 27, m.; 40, m.; 43, m.; 44, m.; 45, m.; + 46, m.; 47, m.; 66, n. 9. + + Brieff Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort, 135, n. 3. + + Briggs, Henry, on the nearness of the Pacific, 10, 22, n. 6. + + Bristol colony in Newfoundland, 258, n. 3. + + British Museum, MS., 42, m.; 44, m. + + Broughton wrote a tractate on the Jewish ephod, 108. + + Brown, Richard, submitted to remonstrance, 290. + + Browne, John and Samuel, sent back to England by Endecott, 200. + + Browne, Robert, leader of the Separatists, 145; + despised for recanting, died in prison, 146; + career lasted only four or five years, 147; + John Robinson's justification of, 157, n. 1; + authorities on, 157, n. 1; 158, n. 2. + + Brownists. See SEPARATISTS. + + Brown's Genesis of the United States, 94, n. 1; 183, n. 3. + + Bruce's Economic History of Virginia, 95, n. 3. + + Buckingham dominant at court, 193; + consents to sale of Calvert's secretaryship, 227. + + Bull and bear baiting on Sunday, 129. + + Bullein's Dialogue against the Fever Pestilence, 23, n. 8; 126. + + Burgesses, House of, in Virginia, 55. + + Burk's History of Virginia, 69, n. 13. + + Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, treatise on Execution of Justice in England + published by, 238. + + Burns's Prel. Diss. to Woodrow, 159, m.; 160, m. + + Busher, Leonard, petitioned James I for liberty of + conscience, 312, n. 19. + + + Cabins at Jamestown, 29. + + Cabot, John, discovers America, 3; + his ships retarded by codfish, 18; + Deane's voyages of, 21, n. 1; + Harrisse on, 21, n. 1. + + Cabot, Sebastian, not a discoverer, 21, n. 1; + a doubtful authority, 24, n. 9. + + Calendar of Colonial Documents, 70, n. 15; 96, n. 5; 259, n. 5. + + Calendar of Domestic Papers, 259, n. 6. + + Calendar of Domestic State Papers James I, 77, m. + + Calendar of State Papers America, 224, m. + + Caliban suggested by popular interest in savages, 17. + + Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore, son of George Calvert, 234; + expected large Catholic migration, 240; + religious aim of, 240; + partners in financial risks, 240, 263, n. 13; + policy of toleration, 242; + orders the Catholic service to be conducted privately on + shipboard, 242; + a conservative opportunist, 243; + supported at court by Strafford, 249; + schemes against Virginia, 249, 264, n. 21; + seeks to be governor, 250; + offer to New England people, 252; + had Maryland oath of fidelity modified for Puritans, 253; + yielded office of governor to Protestant, 254; + again master of Maryland, 257. + + Calvert, George, character of, 221; + his rise in power, 223; + denied being bribed by Spain, 223, 258, n. 1; + member of Virginia Company, 1609, 224, 229; + councilor for New England, 224; + establishes colony in Newfoundland, 224, 239; + his conversion to Catholicism, 226; + intractable, 225; + resigned secretaryship and made Baron Baltimore, 228, 259, n. 6; + in Newfoundland, 228, 229; + sails to Virginia, 229; + not received hospitably, 230; + refuses to take oath of supremacy, and leaves Virginia, 232; + religious enthusiasm, 233, 258, n. 3; + passion for planting colonies, 233; + death of, 233. + + Calvert Papers, 250, m.; 264, n. 17. + + Calvin, John, the dominant influence at Geneva, 104; + on the Sabbath, 124; + Cotton a follower of, 329. + + Calvinism, materials for subjective joys provided by, 327. + + Calvinistic churches, efforts to assimilate the Church of England + to the, 112; + controversy adds another issue, 133; + doctrines popular, 328, 329, 347, n. 4. + + Calvinists and Arminians, Laud's attempt to suppress debates + between, 194. + + Cambridge settled under the name of Newtown, 317. + + Cambridge pledge, the, of Winthrop and others, 209. + + Camden's Elements of New England, 177, m. + + Canada, Brownists ask leave to settle in, 167. + + Cannibalism at Jamestown, 39; + denied by Gates, 65, n. 5. + + Cape Anne, failure of Dorchester Company's colony on, 189, 199. + + Cape Cod shoals turn back the Mayflower, 177, 186, n. 7. + + Carlisle's treatise, 75, m. + + Cartwright, leader of the Presbyterians, 112, 136, n. 6. + + Cartwright's Admonition to Parliament, 129, m. + + Carver, John, chosen governor, 173, 184, n. 4. + + Castle Island, platform constructed on, 284. + + Catholic conscience, oath made offensive to the, 237. + + Catholic migration, the, 220; + revival in England, 226; + settlers in Newfoundland, 228, 239; + Baltimore family openly, 228, 235; + migration to Maryland small, 240; + pilgrims very religious, 243, 244, 245; + tax on Catholic servants in Maryland, 248; + colony in Maryland until after 1640, 247; + at peace with Puritans in Maryland, 254; + element protected in Maryland, 257; + party in minority in Maryland, 266. + + Catholicism condoned, to conciliate Spain, 238; + tide toward, in England, 240. + + Catholics, Irish, not allowed to settle in Virginia, 231; + Baltimore's party of, repelled from Virginia, 231; + harsh laws in England against, 236, 237, 238; + enforcement of penal statutes against, 239; + co-religionists of queen, 239; + toleration and protection to English Catholics in Maryland, 242; + no perfect security for, in Maryland, 248; + rich and influential families of, in Maryland, 264, n. 18; + conciliation to Protestants at expense of fairness toward, 251; + papist religion forbidden, 257; + excluded from toleration in the Netherlands, 298, 312, n. 18. + + Catlet, Colonel, reaches the Alleghanies, 11. + + Cattle, scarce in Massachusetts colony, 320; + perished in Connecticut, 324. + + Cavalier emigration to Virginia, 345. + + Cedar timber exported, 45. + + Ceremonies, observance of pompous, 101; + bitter debates about, 108; + ceased to be abhorrent, 123. + + Certayne Qvestions concerning the high priest's ephod, 108, m. + + Chapman, Jonson and Marston's Eastward, Ho! 23, n. 8. + + Charles I, coronation robe of silk for, from Virginia, 78; + obliterated by Puritanism, 133. + + Charles II wore silk raised in Virginia, 78. + + Charter, the Great, granted by the Virginia Company, 55, 173, 206; + only information concerning, 70, n. 15. + + Charter for a private plantation obtained by Warwick, 51, 68, n. 13. + + Charter of New England, 1620, 173; + of the Massachusetts Company, 210, 218, n. 7; + of Avalon, April 7, 1623, 225; + for precinct in Virginia granted to Leyden pilgrims, 229; + for new palatinate on north side of the Potomac granted to + Baltimore, 233; + of Maryland passed, 234; + terms of the, 234, 235, 236; + compared with those of Avalon, 234; + ambiguous, 251. + + Charter-House School founded by legacy as Sutton's Hospital, 268; + attended by Roger Williams, 268. + + Chesapeake Bay mapped by Captain John Smith, 36. + + Chesapeake region securely English, 345. + + Chimes not in accord with a severe Sabbath, 129. + + Church, a "particular," Puritans desire to found, 197; + the unit of New England migration, 325. + + Church at Jamestown enlarged, 42, 65, n. 7. + + Church economy, each system of, claimed divine authority, 113. + + Church, English, Laud sought to make Catholic, 193. + + Church government, three periods of, 112, 136, n. 6; + questions of, fell into abeyance, 137, n. 6; + Barrowism, the form of, brought to New England, 148; + Puritans desire to make real their ideal of, 198; + Puritan passion for, 212. + + Church of England repudiated as antichristian, 147; + divergencies in direction of, in Massachusetts, 267. + + Church of the exiles at Frankfort, the factions in developed into two + great parties, 105. + + Church quarrels at Strasburg and Frankfort, 105; + reform, no hope of securing, 196, 197. + + Churches of Massachusetts formed on model of Robinson's + Independency, 213; + lack of uniformity in the early, 215; + borrowed discipline and form of government from Plymouth, 215. + + Churchill's Voyages, 265, n. 23. + + Churchmen, High, aggressive, 113. + + Cities of refuge on the Continent, 104; + English churches organized in, 104. + + Civet cat, Hariot thought, would prove profitable, 19. + + Claiborne, claim of, to Kent Island, 253. + + Clap's, Roger, Memoirs, 213, m. + + Clarendon Papers, 67, n. 9. + + Clarke's Gladstone and Maryland Toleration, 245, m. + + Clergymen most active writers in favor of colonization, 91; + some preach sermons but stay away from public prayer, 143; + supported by magistrates in Massachusetts if church order + was disturbed, 266; + men of unusual prudence in ranks of, 266. + + Climate of Great Britain not favorable to raising products + of the Mediterranean, 75. + + Coddington's Letter, 308, n. 9. + + Code of Lawes, Divine, Morall, and Martiall, by Sir Thomas + Smyth, 70, n. 16; 132. + + Codfish, multitude of, on coast of Newfoundland, 18. + + Coxe, Sir Edward, defended legacy which founded Charter-House + School, 268; + appointed Roger Williams to a scholarship, 268; + schism detested by, 270. + + College proposed and endowed, 91. + + Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, 263, n. 12. + + Colonial Constitution of Virginia modified for the worse, 249. + + Colonial Papers, 68, n. 11; 71, n. 18; 262, n. 11; 264, n. 21; + 265, n. 25; 346, n. 1. + + Colonial proprietors, 70, n. 15. + + Colonial Records of Virginia, 70, n. 15. + + Colonies, secondary, 220. + + Colonists, efforts of friends to succor, thwarted, 47; + loss of life among, in Virginia, 58. + + Colonization, English, the fate of, settled by the experiments + on the James River, 58; + promoted, to get rid of excess of population, 136, n. 5; + unwise management ruined many projects for, 178. + + Colony, English, rise of the first, 1; + motives for founding, 73. + + Colony government, primary and secondary forms of, 218, n. 7. + + Colony of St. Maries, 245. + + Colony-planters drawn from the ranks of the uneasy, 171, 220. + + Colony-planting, Hakluyt's tireless advocacy of, 5; + John Smith on, 37; + spurred by three motives, 74; + kept alive by delusions, 74; + first principles of, not understood, 76; + an economic problem, 84; + the religious motive most successful in, 189, 220; + centrifugal forces in, 220, 266. + + Commandment, the fourth, held to be partly moral, partly ceremonial, + 138, n. 8; 140, n. 13; + Shepard holds it to be wholly moral, 140, n. 13. + + Commerce with the Orient, the hope of, retarded settlement, 4. + + Commissions, forged, to "press" maidens, 72, n. 19. + + Commodities, sixteen staple, exhibited from Virginia, 49; + production of, the main hope of wealth for Virginia, 75, 97, n. 9. + + Commons inclosed, 111, 135, n. 5. + + Commons Journal, 71, n. 18. + + Communion, withdrawal of, a fundamental principle of Separatism, 271. + + Communism at Jamestown, 26, 42; + abolished, 56; + attempted at Plymouth, 169, 185, n. 4; + abolished by Bradford, 180; + evils of, 186, n. 9. + + Compact, the, of the Pilgrims, 173, 183, n. 4; 185, n. 5. + + Company's Chief Root of Differences, the, 52, m.; + authors of, 69, n. 13. + + Congregationalism, rise of, in New England, 214. + + Connecticut, a secondary colony, 220; + the migration to, has an epic interest, 316; + independent constitution adopted by, 325; + accounts adverse to, circulated in England, 326. + + Connecticut Historical Society Collections, 326, m.; 347, n. 2. + + Connecticut River, stories of the fertility of the intervale land + on the, 322; + dangerous Pequots on the, 323; + soil did not need to be "fished," 324. + + Consciences, oppressed, places of refuge for, in the Low Countries, 163. + + Conservative and radical, difference between constitutional, 109; + churchman limited his Protestantism, 109. + + Constitutional government, starting point of, in the New World, 55. + + Continent, an arctic and antarctic, 2; + crossed by Ingram in a year, 14. + + Controversie concerning Liberty of Conscience, 300, m. + + Conversion of the Indians, desired for the sake of trade, 16, 90, + 216, n. 4; + orders for the, 42; + interest in, becomes secondary, 204, 209; + authorities on the, 216, n. 4; + by the Catholics, 247. + + Convicts asked for by Dale, 47. + + Cook's Historical View of Christianity, 138, n. 8. + + Cooper, Dr., Bishop of Winchester, answered first Mar-Prelate tract, 116. + + Copley, business administrator of Jesuits, 251, 264, n. 17. + + Corn not planted at proper season, 44, 60, n. 2; + ground for, cleared, 48; + more raised by private than by public labor, 49. + + Cotton, John, apparent sanction of Antinomianism by, 267; + one of the greatest luminaries of the Puritans and one of the lights + of New England, 269; + apostle of theocracy, shaped ecclesiastical affairs in New + England, 279, 308, n. 8; + his rivals left Massachusetts, 280; + virtually attained a bishop's authority, 280; + on Williams's book, 282; + complete system of church-state organization, 287; + verbal legerdemain on Williams's banishment, 297; + casuistry of, 299, 313, n. 20; 321; + attitude toward Williams's banishment, 299, 300, 313, n. 21; + source of his intolerance, 300; + belongs among the diplomatic builders of churches, 306; + uncandid and halting accounts of Williams's trial, 309, 310, n. 12; + 311, n. 17; + curious sinuosity of conscience, 313, n. 21; + secured by Boston to balance Newtown's Hooker, 319; + rivalry with Hooker, 320; + Puritanism of, grew in a garden of spices, 321; + of a sanguine temperament, 328; + his advent followed by widespread religious excitement, 329; + theological differences between his teachings and those of Hooker, + 346, n. 1; + Model of Moses his Judicials, 326; + opinions recanted and modified by, 336; + defends Mrs. Hutchinson, 337; + persuades her to recant, 339; + disfranchises her sons, 339; + belated zeal of, against the sectaries, 341; + wallows in superstition, 341. + + Cotton planted, 29. + + Cotton's Answer to Williams's Examination, 308, n. 10, 11; 310, n. 16; + 313, n. 20, 21; + Fountain of Life, 328, m.; + Sermon on the Church's Resurrection, 331, m.; 334, m.; + Way of Congregational Churches, 157, n. 2; 219, n. 10; 330, m.; 336, m. + + Council for New England grants a patent to the Massachusetts projectors, + 199, 207. + + Councilors of estate in Virginia, 55. + + Counter-Blaste to Tobacco, 84, m. + + Country, a barren, a great whet to industry, 177. + + Courtier, the honor of a, possessed by Calvert, 223; + the happiest has least to do at court, 258, n. 1. + + Courts of High Commission, penalties of, 270. + + Covenant of grace _vs._ covenant of works, 331, 334, 335. + + Cox, Richard, followers of, dispute with those of John Knox, 105. + + Cox's Literature of the Sabbath Question, 127, m.; 138, n. 8; + 139, n. 10. + + Cradock, Mathew, Governor of the Massachusetts Company, proposes + transfer of the government, 206, 208, 209; + resigned his governorship, 210; + denounced by Laud, 211; + letter to Endecott, 216, n. 4. + + Credulity about America, 2, 20; + abyss of seventeenth century, 341. + + Customs, low, advocated by Captain John Smith, 37. + + Cyuile and Vncyuile Life, 134, n. 1. + + + Dainties, preachers who spread a table of, complained of, 328, 348, n. 5. + + Dainty, Argall's voyage in the, 50. + + Dale, Sir Thomas, sent to Virginia, 43; + tyranny of, 45-47; + horrible cruelties of, 46; + services, 47; + theatrical return, 48, 68, n. 10; + glowing reports of the country, 49, 168; + cruelties of, proved, 66, n. 9; + his severity, 67, n. 9; + various authorities on, 67, n. 9. + + Danvers, Sir John, interested in the Virginia Company, 54; + in power, 71, n. 17; + one of the fathers of representative government in America, 173. + + Darien, Isthmus of, 6. + + Davenport, John, took part in the synod, 343; + with his followers planted the New Haven colony, 343. + + Days of the week, scruples about the heathen names of the, 302, + 314, n. 23. + + Days of fasting and prayer appointed, 324. + + De Costa, in Mag. of Amer. Hist., 23, n. 8. + + De la Warr, Lady, plundered by Argall, 50. + + De la Warr, Lord, sends expedition for gold, 13; + arrival of, regretted by the old settlers, 41; + governor at Jamestown, 41; + resides at the falls of the James, 43; + flight of, from the colony, 43; + nominally governor, 44; + ceremonious landing at Jamestown, 101; + escorted to church by gentlemen and guards, 102. + + Deane, Charles, Voyages of Cabot, 21, n. 1; + misunderstood a statement by Bradford, 184, n. 4. + + Debate, the Puritan, 108; + bitterness of the, 114; + new issues, 123; + advantage of new ground of, to the Puritan, 131. + + Debates, theological, concerned with speculative dogmas, 108. + + Declaration of Virginia, 95, n. 3. + + Delft Haven, the parting at, 175. + + Delusions in colony-planting, 74. + + Deptford, gold-refining works at, 13. + + De Rasieres's letter, 103, m. + + Dermer, seeking the Pacific, is driven into Long Island Sound, 9. + + Description of the Now-discovered river and Country of Virginia, + 96, n. 7. + + Desertion, Dale's punishment for, 46. + + Devil worship, Indian, belief in, 16. + + De Vries's Voyages, m., 231. + + Dexter, F. B., in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, 155, m. + + Dexter's H. M., Congregationalism, 147, m.; 157, n. 1; 185, n. 6; + "As to Roger Williams," as erudite as it is one-sided, 311, n. 17. + + Discontent, numerous causes for, 111, 135, n. 5. + + Discourse of the Old Virginia Company, 54, m.; 66, n. 9; 68, n. 11; + 70, n. 16. + + Discovery, the pinnace, 25. + + Dispersions from the mother colony, 315. + + Display, love of, in Elizabeth's time, 98; + greatness declared itself by, 100, 134, n. 2. + + Dissension, outbreak of, among the English Protestant exiles, 104. + + Dividends, Dale's aim to make the colony pay, 45. + + D'Ogeron supplied buccaneers with wives, 71, n. 18. + + Dogs as food, 8. + + Domestic Correspondence, James I, 134, n. 1. + + Dorchester Company, failure of colony of, on Cape Ann, 189, 199. + + Dorchester, Mass., church covenant, 219, n. 9; + ready to follow the lead of Hooker, 323; + settlers remove from to Connecticut, 324; + church emigrated bodily, 325. + + Drama, the age of the, 99. + + Dress, inordinate display in, 134, n. 2; + laws to repress, 100; + excesses in, denounced, 120; + regulations against, in Massachusetts, 285. + + Drunkenness, punishment for, 342. + + Dudley, a zealous advocate of religious intolerance, 287; + impatient to snuff out Williams, 288; + verse by, 288; + rude and overbearing, 338. + + Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln, 174, 317, m. + + Durham, legal power of Bishops of, given to proprietor of Maryland, + 236, 263, n. 12. + + Dutch Government declined to assure the Pilgrims of protection + against England, 173; + made tempting offers to the Independents, 176; + despised for showing toleration, 298, 311, n. 18; + laid claim to the Connecticut, 323; + occupation giving way, 346. + + Duties, heavy, on tobacco, 85, 96, n. 8. + + Dyer, Mary, misfortune of, 340. + + + East India Company's agents, cruelty of, 67, n. 9. + + East Indies, desire for a short passage to the, 3, 4, 5, 12, 22, n. 5. + + Eastward, Ho! the play of, 23. + + Ecclesiastical Commission, the inquisitorial, 114. + + Ecclesiastical extension desired by the English Church, 90; + organization of the Brownists dominant, 141; + politics explosive in Massachusetts, 326; + system of government, petty tyranny that inheres in, 342. + + Economic success of the Virginia colony assured, 49; + adverse conditions more deadly than an ungenial climate, 78; + problems solved by homely means, 84. + + Edwards, T., Antapologia, 217, n. 4. + + Eliot, Sir John, confined in the Tower, 203. + + Eliot, John, convinced of error, 290, 291; + usher and disciple of Hooker, 317. + + Eliot's Biography, 201, m.; 288, m. + + Elizabeth, Queen, jeweled dresses of, 98; + gorgeous progresses of, 99; + could not compel uniformity, 109; + threatens to unfrock a bishop, 110; + molded the church to her will, 112; + her policy of repression resulted in the civil war, 114; + greatest popularity in last years of her reign, 121. + + Elizabethan age, the, 1; + prodigal of daring adventure, 20. + + Ellis Letters, The, 182, n. 1. + + Ellis collection, first series, 238, m. + + Elton's brief biography of Roger Williams, 311, n. 17. + + Emigrants sail for Virginia, 25; + bad character of the, 27, 59. + + Emigration to New England quickened by troubles that preceded the + civil war, 344; + reached greatest height in 1638, 344; + ceased entirely in 1640, 344; + to Virginia and Maryland, received impetus from check of Puritan + exodus, 344, 345. + + Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the cradle of Puritan divines, 316. + + Endecott, John, leadership and character of, 200; + cut arm of cross from English colors, 201; + put Quakers to death, 202; + impetuous radicalism of, 271; + protested against the double injustice to Salem, 291; + arrested, apologized, and submitted, 291; + witnesses for Mrs. Hutchinson browbeaten by, 338. + + England, danger from, feared in Massachusetts, 284, 285. + + English, character of the, at the period of Elizabeth and James, 20; + sober living of, 342; + superior aptitude of, for planting agricultural communities, 346; + compactness of settlement and increase of, decided the fate of + North America, 346. + + English knowledge and notions of America, 1; + first protest against oppression, 56; + jealousy of Spain, 74, 94, n. 1; + ecclesiastics reproached by Roman Catholics, 90, 97, n. 11; + Church leaders not content while Spanish priests converted + infidels, 90; + eminent clergy among the exiled, 104; + churches organized in cities of refuge, 104; + beginning of two parties in the Church, 107; + heads of the Church attacked by Mar-Prelate, 115; + laws against Catholics embarrass the foreign policy, 238; + rise of the first of the colonies, 1; + prospective ascendency of the colonies, 345. + + English Protestantism. See PROTESTANTISM, ENGLISH. + + Ephod of Jewish high priest, discussion of material of, 108. + + Epworth, the nest of Methodism, 150. + + Esquimaux kidnapped by Frobisher, 17. + + Eustachius and his document dropped from heaven, 138, n. 8. + + Evans, Owen, accused of "pressing" maidens, 72, n. 19. + + Evelyn's Diary, 18, m.; 134, n. 1. + + Excerpta de Diversis Literis, 246, m. + + Excommunication dreaded by the Puritans, 339. + + Exiles, the English, 104; + return of, 107; + results of their squabbles, 107. + + Exploration, American, the history of, a story of delusion and + mistake, 3; + retarded settlement, 4. + + Extravagance of Indian tales, 8. + + + Factions at Jamestown, 36, 64, n. 4. + + Fairs and markets on Sundays, 138, n. 8. + + Faith, devotion to, 245. + + Families, the colony a camp of men without, 42; + a plantation can never flourish without, 57; + some, sent to Virginia with De la Warr, 65, n. 8. + + Family of Love, Anne Hutchinson accused of accepting the doctrines + of the, 335. + + Famine at Jamestown, 38, 65, n. 5. + + Fast day, a, appointed in Massachusetts, 286. + + Ferrar, John, election of, 71, n. 17; + deputy governor, 91. + + Ferrar, Nicholas, Jr., deputy governor of Virginia Company, 91; + established a religious community at Little Gidding, 92; + austere discipline of, 93; + mediaeval enthusiasm of, 194. + + Ferrar, Nicholas, Sr., courts of Virginia Company held at house of, 91; + gave money for educating infidels in Virginia, 91. + + Ferrars, the, among the founders of liberal institutions in America, 173. + + Firearms, sale of, to the savages, 191, 216, n. 1. + + Firmin's, Giles, Review of Davis's Vindication, 348, n. 5. + + Fisheries, American, importance of, foreseen, by Capt. John Smith, 37; + of Newfoundland, 261, n. 7. + + Fishing on Sunday, ordinances against, 127. + + Fishing seasons in the James River learned, 49. + + Fleet, Henry, only survivor of Spelman's party, 22, n. 7. + + Fleet's Journal, 23, n. 7. + + Flemish Protestants favored independency, 158, n. 2. + + Font, the stone, at which Bradford was baptized, 151. + + Food, bad and insufficient, 45, 46. + + Force, men not to be converted by, 312, n. 19. + + Formalities, proper, never omitted, 41, 101; + at Plymouth, 102. + + Founding of a state a secondary end, 73. + + Fox, Luke, sails to the northwest, 10. + + Franck's, Sebastian, Chronica, 314, n. 24. + + Frankfort, disputes in the church at, produced great results, 105; + character of debates at, 105; + rapid changes produced by the, 106, 135, n. 3. + + Freemen's oath extended to residents, 289, 308, n. 11; + opposed by Williams, 289, 309, n. 12. + + Fresh River of the Dutch, the Connecticut, 324. + + Frobisher's, Sir Martin, voyages, 2, 4, n. 1; + brilliant failure, 5; + attempt to plant a colony, 7; + finds "gold eure," 13; + Voyages, 21, n. 1. + + Fuller, Thomas, judgment of Captain John Smith, 63, n. 3. + + Fuller's Church History, 103, m.; 131, m.; 157, n. 1; 160, m.; + Worthies, 259, n. 6. + + + Gainsborough, the hamlet of, 150. + + Gammell's Life of Roger Williams, 311, n. 17. + + Gardens, private, apportioned in Virginia, 48, 49, 68, n. 12. + + Gates, Sir Thomas, wrecked on the Bermudas, 40; + abandoned the wreck of Jamestown, 41, 101; + sent to England for cattle, 41; + denied that human flesh was eaten, 65, n. 5; + installed governor in proper form, 101. + + General Court of Massachusetts protested against selection of Williams + as a minister of the Salem church, 271; + prevented his ordination, 272, 307, n. 5; + makes regulations for dress, 285; + appointed a fast day, 286; + promulgated a new resident's oath, 289; + "convented" Williams several times, 289; + forced Salem into submission, 291, 293; + tried and banished Williams, 292; + fearing his settlement at Narragansett Bay, agreed to send him + to England, 294; + banished scores for their opinions, 297; + the real extenuation for the conduct of the, 297; + character of the age forbids condemnation of, 300. + + Geneva, the city of refuge for the Puritans, 104; + differences between exiles at, and those at Zurich, 107. + + Gibbons, Captain, of Boston, commission sent to, 252. + + Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, on a northwest passage, 5; + attempt to plant a colony, 7. + + Glass-blowers ran away to the Indians, 83. + + Glass, window, not used in the colony, 65, n. 7. + + Glass-works established near Jamestown, 83, 95, n. 5. + + Glastonbury, also called Avalon, 258, n. 3. + + Glover in Phil. Trans., 11, m. + + Godspeed, The, 25. + + Gold and silver, exportation of, restrained by law, 75. + + Gold, belief in finding, in North America, 12, 14, 22, n. 7; 75. + + Gold-hunting, 7, 12; + in Virginia, 13, 23, 42. + + Gold mines of the Hudson River, 23. + + Gondomar's spies in the Virginia Company, 87; + influence over Calvert, 226, 258, n. 2. + + Goodman's Court of King James, 258, n. 2. + + Goodwin, Thomas, and others, Apologetical Narrative, 185, n. 6. + + Gorges's Briefe Narration, 196, m. + + Gowns and litanies, squabbles about, 107. + + Gosnold, agitating for a new colony, 33; + failure of colony in Buzzard's Bay established by, 178. + + Government, democratic, established by the Pilgrims before sailing, + 185, n. 5; + three primary steps for, in America, due to Englishmen who did + not cross the sea, 205. + + Government, representative form of, established, 55, 89; + faint promise of, in Maryland charter, 234. + + Governmental functions exercised by commercial corporations, 218, n. 8. + + Grace after meat opposed by Williams, 289, 290, 292, 309, n. 12. + + Greenham's, Richard, MS. on the Sabbath, 128. + + Greenwood, leader of the Separatists, hanged at Tyburn, 148. + + Grenville, Sir Richard, sent to Virginia by Ralegh, 21, n. 3. + + Guiana or North America, Pilgrims choose between, 169. + + Guicciardini on use of spices, 22, n. 5. + + Guilds, dissolution of the, 111. + + + Haies in Hakluyt's Voyages, 5, m. + + Hakluyt, Richard, a forerunner of colonization, 5; + belief of, in a passage to the Pacific, 6; + stories of gold, 12; + of mulberry trees, 76. + + Hakluyt's Discourse on Western Planting, 6, m.; 94, n. 1; 97, n. 11; + Voyages, 2, 5, m.; 8, m.; 12, m.; 23, n. 8. + + Hamor, Raphe, secretary under Dale, a signer of the Tragicall + Relation, 66, n. 9; + True Discourse, 66, n. 9; 68, n. 12; 70, n. 16; 95, n. 3. + + Hampton Court conference, 159; + authorities on the, 182, n. 1. + + Hanbury's Memorials, 157, n. 1, n. 2; 158, n. 3. + + Hancock, Thomas, the Luther of England, 125. + + Hanging clemency, 46; + preferred to transportation to Virginia, 54; + and to the old tyranny, 56. + + Hardwicke Papers, 238, m. + + Hariot's Briefe and True Report, 80, m. + + Harleian Miscellany, 240, m. + + Harrington's Nugae Antiquae, 116, m.; 161, m.; 162, m.; 182, n. 1. + + Harrisse's, Henry, John Cabot, the Discoverer of America, 21, n. 1. + + Hartlib's Reformed Virginia Silkworm, 79. + + Harvey, Sir John, sends expedition for gold, 13; + Governor of Virginia, 249; + quarreled with Virginians, 249; + counter-revolution, 249. + + Hawkins, Jane, Mrs. Hutchinson an associate of, 340. + + Hawkins, Sir John, lands luckless seamen in Mexico, 14. + + Haynes, Governor of Massachusetts, 332; + pronounced sentence against Williams, 347, n. 1; + letter to Williams while Governor of Connecticut quoted, 347, n. 1. + + Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen, 134, n. 1. + + Hearne's Langtoft's Chronicle, 93, m. + + Hening's Statutes, 78, m.; 79, m.; 97, n. 9. + + Henrietta Maria, Maryland named for, 245; + godmother to Maryland, jealous of Calvert, 249. + + Henry, Prince, interested in Virginia colony, 43. + + Henry, William Wirt, Address, 63, n. 3. + + Hessey's Bampton Lectures, 139, n. 10. + + Hind's Making of the England of Elizabeth, 135, n. 3. + + Hinman's Antiquities, 347, n. 2. + + Hogs, brood, of the colony eaten, 38; + wild, in the Bermudas, 41, 65, n. 6. + + Holinshed's Chronicles, 22, n. 5. + + Holland, the "mingle mangle of religions" in, 164. + + Holmes's History of Cambridge, 318, m.; 320, m. + + Home, Virginia for the first time a, 58. + + Home-makers sent to Virginia, 57, 58. + + Homesteads at Newtown sold to newcomers, 325, 347, n. 3. + + Hooft, Nederlandsche Historie, 312, n. 18. + + Hooker, Thomas, one of the greatest luminaries of the Puritans, 269; + desire of his party to move to Connecticut, 285, 315; + set to dispute with Williams, 292; + early life of, 316; + driven from his pulpit by Laud, 317; + fled to Holland, 317; + a company of his people settled at Newtown, 317; + arrival at Newtown, 319; + rivalry with Cotton, 320; + somber theology of, 320; + difference between his teachings and those of Cotton, 321, 346, n. 1; + theories of civil government more liberal than Cotton's, 322; + limited the power of the magistrate, 322, 347, n. 2; + the real founder of Connecticut, 325. + + Hornbeck on John Robinson, 158, n. 3. + + Horses eaten, 38. + + Houses burned for firewood, 40. + + Hubbard's History of Massachusetts, 308, n. 8; + History of New England, 207, m.; 215, m.; 347, n. 3; + testimony of, unreliable, 311, n. 17. + + Hudson, Henry, influenced by Captain John Smith, seeks the South Sea, 9. + + Hudson River gold, 23, n. 7. + + Huguenots of La Rochelle, England allied with, 239. + + Humming birds exported, 18. + + Hundreds or plantations, 54, 55. + + Hunt, Robert, first minister in Virginia, 90. + + Hunter, Rev. Joseph, on Shakespeare's Tempest, 65, n. 6. + + Hunter's Founders of New Plymouth, 150, m.; 152, m.; 155, m.; 170, m. + + Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, an ardent disciple of Cotton in old Boston, 329; + character of, 329, 330; + "masterpiece of womens wit," 330; + meetings for women opened by, 330; + doctrines of, 331; + the very apostle of Cotton's doctrine, 333; + brought to trial by her opponents, 337; + adroit defense, 338; + condemned by the General Court, 338; + sentenced to banishment, 339; + recanted, but was excommunicated, 339, 348, n. 8; + her sons disfranchised, 339; + settled in Rhode Island with her party, 340; + accused of witchcraft by Winthrop, 340; + wild reports about, 340, 341; + massacred by Indians at New Netherland, 341. + + Hutchinson on the Virginia Colony, 186, n. 8. + + Hutchinson Papers, 215, m.; 299, m.; 307, m.; 329, n. 1. + + Hutchinson party partisans of Vane, 332; + arrogance of the, 333; + Pastor Wilson condemned by, 333. + + Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, 211, m.; 337, m. + + Hutchinsonian controversy, the, 326, 327; + the debate waxed hot, 334. + + Hypocrites better than profane persons, 299. + + + Idolatry, Puritanism a crusade against, 118. + + Illusions of discoverers, 3, 75. + + Inclosures, effects of, 135, n. 5; + for private not the publick good, 136, n. 5. + + Independency, tendency toward, 112, 136, n. 6; + foreshadowed at Frankfort, 137, n. 6; + dated back to reign of Mary, 146; + favored by Flemish Protestants, 158, n. 2; + Robinsonian, the established religion in New England, 215. + + Independents in early years of Elizabeth's reign, 158, n. 2. + + Indian children, rewards to colonists for educating, 91. + + Indian conjurers laid spell on the coast, 178. + + Indian exhumed and eaten at Jamestown, 39. + + Indians plot destruction of the colonists, 8; + curiosity regarding the, 15; + desire to convert, 16, 90; + kidnapped and exhibited, 17; + attack those first landing in Virginia, 28; + constant fear of attack from, 30; + supply food to Jamestown, 31, + Smith trades with, 34, 36; + devilish ingenuity in torturing, 38; + outrage the dead, 38, 64, n. 4; + slay gold hunters, 43; + no danger from, while Dale was in charge, 47; + taken to England by Dale, 49, 68, n. 10; + unnecessary cruelty to, 64, n. 4; + reverence for their sacred house, 64, n. 4; + endowed school established for, 83, 91; + schemes for educating obliterated, 92; + treachery of, emulated by the settlers, 92; + destruction of, in Maryland and in Massachusetts divinely ordered, 247; + right of the king to give away lands of, questioned, 274, 282, 283; + land secured from, by purchase, 283. + + Industrial disturbance aids the Puritan movement, 111. + + Infallibility of "godly" elders, 301. + + Ingram, Davy, crosses the continent, 14; + statement, 14, 23, n. 8. + + Injunctions by King Edward VI, 138, n. 9. + + Interludes sometimes played in churches, 129. + + Intolerance sanctioned by logic, 299. + + Iron works established at Falling Creek, 83; + failure of, 96, n. 6. + + Isthmus in latitude 40 deg., belief in an, 10. + + + James I framed code of laws and orders for the Virginia colony, 26; + Covnter-Blaste to Tobacco, 84; + obstinacy of, 87; + his accession raised the hopes of the Puritans, 159; + paradoxical qualities of, 160; + dialectic skill at Hampton Court conference, 160; + refutes the hapless Puritans, 161; + boasts that he had peppered the Puritans, 162, 182, n. 1; + results of his folly, 162; + would wink at but not publicly tolerate the Pilgrims, 170; + refused guarantee of toleration, 173; + friendship with George Calvert, 223; + revenue from fines of lay Catholics, 238; + Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance, 238. + + James, Puritan minister in Maryland, 253. + + James River discovered by the accident of a storm, 27; + settlement near the falls of the, 37. + + James River experiments, the, 25; + their story the overture to the history of life in the United + States, 58. + + Jamestown, causes of suffering at, 13; + founded, 29; + at first a peninsula, 29; + abandoned, 41; + population in 1616, 49; + in 1889, 59, n. 1; + some drawings of, 60, n. 1. + + Jamestown Company, the. See VIRGINIA COMPANY, THE. + + Jamestown emigrants instructed to explore rivers to the northwest, 9. + + Jesuits flock to England, 226; + set free, 239; + interested in migration to Maryland, 240; + the provincial of the Society of Jesus favored toleration, 242; + religious observances of, at sea, 243; + conversion of non-Catholics in Maryland by, 246; + fled to Virginia, 257. + + Jesus, the humane pity of, unknown to the laws and sermons of the + time, 301, 313, n. 22. + + Johnson, Bradley T., Foundation of Maryland, 263, n. 15. + + Johnson, Edward, the bloodthirsty Massachusetts Puritan, 164; + his Wonder-working Providence, 318, m.; 320, m.; 330, m. + + Johnson, Francis, voyage of, to America, 167; + pastor at Amsterdam, 168. + + Johnston, Isaac, of Winthrop's company, death of, 212. + + Jones, captain of The Mayflower, conduct of, 177; + identified with Jones of The Discovery, 186, n. 7. + + Jones's, Rev. Hugh, Present State of Virginia, 183, n. 3. + + Josselyn's Rarities, 344, m. + + Judgment, present, not a binding law, 185, n. 6. + + Judgments, divine, fear of, 198. + + + Kent Island, Claiborne's claim to, 254. + + Knowles's Life of Williams, 274, m.; 308, n. 9; + the best of the older biographies, 311, n. 17. + + Knox, John, followers of, dispute with the Coxans at Frankfort, 105; + not more a sabbatarian than Calvin, 124. + + + Labor, common-stock system of, at Jamestown, 26; + abolished by distribution of land, 56; + failure of, at Plymouth, 179; + evils of, 186, n. 9. + + Labor, private, more productive than common-stock system, 49; + prohibited on Sundays, 127. + + Laborers, twelve so-called, in the Virginia colony, 27. + + Land, division of, in Virginia, 48, 49, 56, 68, n. 12. + + Land grants, various, in Virginia, based on the Grand Charter, + 56, 70, n. 15. + + Lane, Ralph, governor of Ralegh's first colony, 7, 21, n. 3; + seeks gold and the South Sea, 8; + account in Hakluyt, iii, 8, m.; + hopes for his Roanoke colony, 74; + to Sydney and Walsingham, 74, m. + + Latitude of 40 deg., belief of a westward passage in, 9, 10. + + Laud, Archbishop, obliterated by Puritanism, 133; + one great service of, to the world, 193; + character of, 193; + fearless in peril, 195; + dubbed "the father of New England," 196; + Letter to Selden, 196; + Abbott's account of Laud's rise, 216, n. 2; + fails to crush the Massachusetts Company, 211; + suppressing Puritanism, 239; + fall of, 240; + non-conforming Puritans hunted from lectureships and chaplaincies + by, 270; + drove John Cotton to New England, 279; + moving to vacate the Massachusetts charter, 282; + made head of a commission to govern the colonies, 284; + drove Hooker from his pulpit at Chelmsford, 317; + preparations to control Massachusetts made by, 343; + asked to stop emigration to New England, 344; + tries to compel Scots to use prayer book, 344. + + Laws, divine, moral, and martial, under which Dale oppressed + Virginia, 45, 70, n. 16; 132. + + Leah and Rachel, 79, m.; 265, n. 25. + + Lederer, voyage of, from Virginia, 11, m. + + Legislative body established by the Great Charter, 55. + + Leland, John, Itinerary, 152, m. + + Lenox, Duke of, territory assigned to, 259, n. 5. + + Letters of complaint intercepted, 47. + + Letters of Missionaries, 264, n. 17, n. 18. + + Leyden, Scrooby exiles remove to, 166; + Pilgrims set out from, 174. + + Liberty in religion congruous with civil peace, 315. + + Lingard, 238, m. + + Little Gidding, Ferrar's community at, 92; + devastated by the Puritans, 93. + + Liturgy, a, purified of human tradition, 106; + omitted in many parishes, 142. + + London Separatists, 147; + organize a church, 148; + miserably persecuted, some flee to Amsterdam, 148. + + Long Island Sound, Dermer storm-driven into, 9. + + Long Island, English settlers on, 345. + + Lord's Prayer, repetition of the, thought dangerously liturgical, 117. + + Lotteries of the Virginia Company, 69, n. 14; + abolished, 53, 70, n. 14. + + Low Countries, toleration in the, 163; + condemned by Baylie, 164. + + Luther, Martin, on the Sabbath, 124. + + + Machyn's Diary, 99, m. + + Magellan's Strait, 2, 9. + + Magistrates aided by clergy in Massachusetts, 266; + men of unusual ability, 266; + right of, to punish for a religious offense, denied by + Williams, 272, 286; + or to regulate the orthodoxy of churches and the belief of + individuals, 292, 309, n. 12; 310, n. 13. + + Magna Charta, the, of America, 55. + + Maids by the shipload sent to Jamestown, 57; + not coerced into going, 72, n. 19. + + Maine, French driven out of, 50; + first English colony in, 189; + fishing villages of, 345. + + Manchester, Duke of, papers, 71, n. 18; 174, m.; 184, n. 5. + + Manuscript Book of Instructions, 71, n. 18; 72, n. 19; 80, m.; + 96, n. 6; 97, n. 9; 232, m. + + Manuscript Records, Virginia Company, 52, m.; 61, n. 3; 67, n. 9; + 69, n. 13, 14; 70, n. 15; 71, n. 18; 72, n. 19; 81, m.; 82, m.; + 95, n. 3; 97, n. 9, 10; 172, m.; 184, n. 4. + + Mar-Prelate tracts, the, 114; + answers to the, 116; + effects of the reaction against, 121. + + Marriage by a Roman priest invalidated accruing land tenures, 237. + + Marsden's Early Puritans, 125. + + Martial law under Dale, 45; + Smyth's code of, 70, n. 16; 132. + + Martin, Sir William, on Roger Williams, 307, n. 1. + + Martyr, Peter, Decade III, 24, n. 9. + + Maryland, Baltimore's projected colony in, 236; + change to, from Avalon, 239; + small migration to, 240; + policy of toleration in, 242, 250, 265, n. 25; + committed to guardian angels, 243; + arrival of the Catholic pilgrims, 244; + ceremonies of the landing in, 244; + said to have been named by King Charles, 245; + called Colony of St. Maries, 245; + efforts to convert the Protestants in, 246; + openly a Catholic colony, 247, 264, n. 17; + import tax on Catholic servants and convicts, 248, 264, n. 19; + opposition to Maryland, 249; + Puritan settlers invited, 252; + civil wars of, 253, 254; + Act of Toleration passed, 255; + again a proprietary government under Calvert, 257; + disastrous results of religious differences in, 266. + + Maryland Archives, 245, m.; 262, n. 10; 265, n. 21. + + Maryland Assembly too cunning to be trapped by Baltimore, 255. + + Maryland charter, ambiguity of the, designed, 225, 236, 251, + 259, n. 4; 262, n. 11; + compared with charter of Avalon, 234; + provisions of, 235, 236; + extensive powers granted by, 236, 263, n. 12. + + Mass celebrated in defiance of law, 226; + abhorred by the Puritans in Avalon, 228. + + Massachusetts Bay, failure of commercial settlements on, 189; + patent to lands in, granted to the Massachusetts Company, 207. + + Massachusetts charter, Laud's effort to vacate the, 282, 284. + + Massachusetts colony, government under Endecott, 217, n. 7; + people homogenous in religious affairs, 266; + religious opinion, main source of disturbance in, 266, 267; + self-consciousness of the, 278; + preparations for resistance in, 284; + failure as an agricultural colony, 320; + three profound disturbances in, 326; + in commotion over the Hutchinson controversy, 335. + + Massachusetts Company, rise of the, 199, 207; + first colony of, under John Endecott, 199, 207; + second company of emigrants, 203; + fear that the charter might be revoked, 208; + company and colony to be merged in one, 209; + transfers its government and charter to Massachusetts Bay, 210; + the commercial corporation becomes a colonial government, 211; + the colonists believed they were founding a new church, 212. + + Massachusetts government, evolution of the, 207; + first court of, at Charlestown, 210; + later became representative, 211; + relieved from strain by the borough system, 276; + a government of congregations, 308, n. 6; + theocratical, 279; + religious intolerance of the, 297, 349, n. 9; + anomalous in character, 323; + angered by Hooker's secession, 326. + + Massachusetts Historical Collections, 310, n. 15; 318, m.; 320, m.; + 347, n. 1; 348, n. 7. + + Massachusetts Records, 206, m.; 285, m.; 290, m.; 291, m.; 308, n. 11; + 310, n. 13, 17; 317, m.; 320, m.; 337, m. + + Massacre by the Indians put an end to all projects, 84, 92. + + Masson's Life of Milton, 137, n. 6. + + Mather's Magnalia, 152, m.; 154, m.; 217, n. 5; 328, m.; + authority to be disregarded, 311, n. 17. + + Maverick, Samuel, on Noddle's Island, 190; + Description of New England, 273, m. + + Maydstown laid off in Virginia, 72, n. 19. + + Mayflower, conduct of the captain of the, 177. + + Maynard to Laud, 344, m. + + May-poles, opposition to, 118; + pole of St. Andrew Undershaft sawed up, 119; + law against May-poles, 119; + the frolics around charged with immorality, 120; + Morton's, at Merrymount, 190, 201. + + Mediterranean Sea, a, looked for in the heart of America, 11. + + Meeting, last all-night, in Pastor Robinson's house, 175. + + Mennonites, Williams attracted to the doctrines of the, 312, n. 19; + derived his broadest principles from the, 313, n. 19. + + Mercurius Americanus, 348, n. 6. + + Merrymount, Morton's dangerous settlement at, 190, 201, 216, n. 1. + + Metals, the precious, the only recognized riches, 75. + + Mica mistaken for gold, 13, 30, 75. + + Migration, the great, to New England, 196, 203. + + Millinary Petition, the, 159. + + Millinery sins, regulations against, 285. + + Mills's British India, 67, n. 9. + + Milton, John, learned Dutch from Roger Williams, 273. + + Mines, Mexican, reports of wealth of, brought support to Ralegh's + undertaking, 74. + + Ministerial office never so reverenced as by Puritans, 338. + + Ministers, two, over one church, 106; + might prophesy, but not a woman, 338. + + Missionary impulse, first, in the English Church, 89, 94, n. 1. + + Monatesseron, the earliest English, 93. + + Montserrat, island of, settled by Catholics, 231, 232, 261, n. 9. + + Months, scruples about the heathen names of the, 302. + + Morals, austerity in, 119; + advance of, under Puritan influence, 121; + lack of sense of proportion is a trait of the age, 130; + regularity of, purchased at a great sacrifice, 342. + + More, Father Henry, 263, n. 14. + + Morton, Thomas, and his deviltry, 190, 201, 216, n. 1; + Memorial, 177, m.; + New English Canaan, 216, n. 1. + + Motives for founding English colonies, 73; + commercial and sentimental, 86; + religious, 89, 189. + + Mount Desert, Jesuit settlement at, plundered, 47, 50. + + Mourt's Relation, 184, n. 4. + + Mouse and snake, battle between, 277; + interpretation of, by Pastor John Wilson, 277. + + Mouse nibbles a Book of Common Prayer, 278. + + Movements, significant, usually cradled in rustic mangers, 146. + + Mulberries first planted in England, 76; + law for promoting the raising of, in Virginia, 77; + repealed, 79. + + Muskrat skins valued for their odor, 19. + + + Names, fanciful, of the Newfoundland coast, 225, 229. + + Names, Indian, of places changed, 244. + + Nansemond, settlement at, 37; + settlers driven from, 38. + + Narragansett Bay recommended to Williams by Winthrop, 293; + proposal to remove to, alarmed the magistrates, 294; + colony on, founded on the true principle, 316. + + Narragansett Club Publications, 135, n. 4; 268, m.; 307, n. 3, 4, 5; + 311, n. 17. + + Naval stores, Virginia expected to produce, 82; + efforts to procure, in Elizabeth's time, 95, n. 4. + + Neal's History of New England, 310, n. 14; + History of the Puritans, 159, m.; 226, m.; 239, m. + + Neill, E. D., on the social compact, 183, n. 4; + Founders of Maryland, 262, n. 11; + Virginia Company, 67, n. 9; 183, n. 2. + + Netherlands, indirect interest of the, in the Virginia colony, 44. + + New England, coast of, explored by Capt. John Smith, 37; + shaped in Old England by Puritanism, 133; + pioneers of, came from the Separatists, 141, 146; + existence of, hung on a chain of accidents, 176; + elements of, 177; + early attempts to colonize, 178; + early settlements in, 189; + great migration to, 196, 203; + capital laws of, condemned by Williams, 304. + + New England charter of 1620, 173. + + New England colonists deemed themselves a chosen people, 278; + accounted other colonists the Egyptians of the New World, + 278, 308, n. 7; + held to an intolerant theocracy, 279; + dispersions of the, 315; + relief at disappearance of the last of the leaders, 342. + + New England Firebrand Quenched, 301, m. + + New England Historical Gen. Reg., 267, 307, n. 1. + + New England Puritanism more ultra than Bownd, 132, 140, n. 3. + + New England traits due to special causes, 178. + + Newfoundland, failure of colony at, 223, 224; + Capt. Whitbourne's pamphlet on, 224; + fanciful names in, 225; + not a paradise in winter, 229, 260, n. 7; + value of the fisheries, 261, n. 7. + + New France bubble ready to collapse, 346. + + New Haven, Davenport and his company planted colony at, 343; + colony united with Connecticut by royal charter at the + Restoration, 343; + stretching westward, 345. + + New Life of Virginea, 63, n. 3. + + New Plymouth, Sandys's plans for the foundation of, 88. + + Newport, Vice-Admiral, reporter of Virginia affairs, 44; + threatened with the gallows by Dale, 44; + warned against Archer, 64. + + Newtown, Hooker's company settled at, 317; + intended for capital and palisaded, 318; + superior to Boston in one regard, 318; + discontent at, 318, 319, 320; + questions regarding boundary, 319; + cattle-raising at, 320; + the church at, emigrated bodily to Connecticut, 325; + court of elections held at, 335. + + New World, mirages of the, 2; + discovered because it lay between Europe and the East Indies, 3; + grotesque and misleading glimpses of the, 20. + + New York Colonial Documents, 6, m., 43, m. + + New York Hist. Soc. Coll., 23, n. 7; + second series, 70, n. 15; 80, m. + + Nichols's, Josias, Plea for the Innocent, 146, m. + + Nonconformists, severe measures against, 122; + in the Church, 142. + + North Carolina, coast of, called Wingandacon, 21, n. 3. + + Northey, Sir Edward, decision on the Maryland charter, 262, n. 11. + + Northwest passage, search for a, 4, 5, 9, 10. + + Nova Albion, 259, n. 5. + + Nova Brittania, 82, m. + + + Oath of allegiance, 241; + emigration oath refused by Williams, 270; + new oath for residents opposed by Williams, 289; + magistrates unable to enforce, 289. + + Ogle's Account of Maryland, 264, n. 19. + + Oil to be distilled from walnuts, 83. + + Oldham, John, an adventurous man of lawless temper expelled from + Plymouth, 324; + led a small company from Watertown, 324. + + Opossum, the, described by Purchas, 18. + + Opposition, Puritanism the party of, 110. + + Original Records of Colony of Virginia, 78, m. + + Overston, sermons preached in, by unlicensed men, 142. + + + Pacific Ocean, discovery of the, 3; + belief in a passage to the, 4, 6; + nearness to Florida, 6; + sought _via_ the James River, 8; + in latitude 40 deg., 9, 10; + _via_ the Delaware, 10; + proximity of, to Virginia, 10, 22, n. 6; + to North Carolina, 11. + + Pagitt's Heresiography, 143, m.; 144, m.; 157, n. 1. + + Palfrey's History of New England, 211, m.; 218, n. 8. + + Palisades burned for firewood, 40. + + Paradox, the, of colonial religious organization, 280. + + Parkinson, Marmaduke, explorer, 10. + + Parliamentary freedom, struggle for, 87. + + Parties, the two great, of Protestantism, rise of, 106; + results, 107; + lines between, not sharply drawn at once, 110; + controversy between, grew more bitter, 114. + + Party, a moderate, lamented the excesses of the extremists, 117. + + Passage to the Pacific Ocean sought, 3, 4, 9, 10, 22, n. 5; 73, 74. + See also NORTHWEST PASSAGE and PACIFIC OCEAN. + + Patent, royal, validity of, questioned by Williams, 274, 281, 289, + 308, n. 9; 309, n. 12. + + Patience, the, pinnace, built wholly of wood, 41. + + Paulus, Pieter, Verklaring der Unie van Utrecht, 312, n. 18. + + Pearce, Mistress, "near twenty years" in Virginia, 71, n. 18. + + Pearl fisheries in Virginia waters, 95, n. 3. + + Peckard's Life of Ferrar, 65, n. 5; 87, m.; 93, m.; + account of, 97, n. 10; 100, m. + + Peirce, John, received a grant from the Virginia Company, 184, n. 4. + + Pequot war, Williams denounced slaughter of women and children in, 305; + plan of campaign changed through a revelation, 338. + + Pequots dangerous on Connecticut River, 323. + + Percy, George, on the arrival at Virginia, 28; + on the sufferings at Jamestown, 30; + increased the hostility of the Indians, 38, 64, n. 4; + inefficiency as governor, 44, 60, n. 2; + succeeded by Gates, 101. + + Percy to Northumberland, 46, m.; + Trewe Relacyon, 40, m.; 60, n. 2; 64, n. 4; 65, n. 5. + + Perfect Description of Virginia, 11, m. + + Perfume to be extracted from the muskrat, 95, n. 3. + + Persecution in Queen Mary's time, 103; + spirit of, pervaded every party, 113; + of the Separatists, 141; + begot Separatism, 154, 155; + new storm of, 163, 182, n. 1; + starts agitation for emigration to Virginia, 168, 183, n. 2. + + Peter, Hugh, rebuked Cotton for defending Mrs. Hutchinson, 337; + browbeat Mrs. Hutchinson's witnesses, 338; + returned to England and favored toleration, 348, n. 7. + + Petition to House of Lords, 345, m. + + Pharisaism of the rigid Sabbath, 132. + + Philosophical Transactions, 78, m.; 79, m. + + Pilgrims brought Barrowism to New England, 148; + Scrooby and Austerfeld cradles of the, 149; + no tradition of, lingers at Scrooby, 150; + common country folk, 151; + flee to Amsterdam, 164; + theological agitations drive them to Leyden, 165; + danger of extinction, 166; + intermarriages with the Dutch, 167; + emigration to Virginia under consideration, 168, 182, n. 2; + questioned whether to be Dutch or English colonists, 169; + ask aid of Edwin Sandys, in securing religious liberty, 169; + receive two charters, a general order, and a liberal patent from + the Virginia Company, 172; + their Compact under the general order, 173; + departure from Leyden, 174; + forced to land, select Plymouth, 177; + suffered for their ignorance of colony-planting, 178; + honor due, 186, n. 8; + "stepping stones to others," 188; + slender success of, stimulated commercial settlements, 189; + the "large patent" granted to the, through influence of Sandys, 206; + influence on the Massachusetts colony, 212. + + Piscataqua, settlement on the, 189. + + Plaine Declaration of Barmudas, 65, n. 6. + + Planting, the first, at Jamestown, 29. + + Plants of every clime believed to grow in Virginia, 82. + + Plays, performance of, on Sundays prohibited, 127. + + Pledge signed at Cambridge by Winthrop's party, 209. + + Plymouth, ceremony observed at, 103; + the landing at, 177; + horrors of Jamestown repeated at, 179; + the second step in the founding of a great nation, 181; + Roger Williams "prophesied" at, 272; + people styled "mungrell Dutch," 273; + disturbed by Williams, 274; + gives him a letter of dismissal to Salem, 275. + + Pocahontas, 33, 35, 37; + converted and wedded to Rolfe, 49; + taken to England, 49, 68, n. 10; + captured by Argall, 50; + dies leaving an infant son, 52. + + Pocahontas story, the, 63, n. 3. + + Pomp and display at the court of Elizabeth, 98; + imitation of, objected to by the Puritans, 100, 134, n. 2. + + Popham, Captain George, attempt of, to colonize in Maine, 178. + + Port Royal, map showing strait near, 8, 21, n. 4. + + Pory's Report, 70, n. 15; 77, m. + + Pots and Phettiplace, narrative, 35, 61, n. 2. + + Powhatan releases Captain Smith, 33, 34, 35. + + Precinct in Virginia asked for by Calvert, 229. + + Presbyterianism developed under Cartwright, 112, 136, n. 6; + swept out by Whitgift, 122; + hoped for in New England, 213. + + Price of commodities, rise of, promoted voyages, 22, n. 5. + + Private interest, even a slave's patch of, put life into Virginia, 48. + + Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc., Wheelwright's sermon in, 331, m. + + Proceedings of Virginia Assembly, 80, m. + + Property, community of. See COMMUNISM; LABOUR. + + Prophet, the, and the reformer, 306. + + Proportion, lack of sense of, peculiar to zealots and polemics, 130. + + Protestant colonists at St. Christopher's oppose Catholic + fellow-colonists, 231; + no Protestant minister or worship on ships coming to Maryland, 242. + + Protestant Nunnery, Ferrar's community at Little Gidding called the, 93. + + Protestantism, English, rise of the two great parties of, 106, 107; + controversy grew more bitter, 114; + incorruptible in Virginia, 231. + + Protestantism on the Continent nearly wrecked, 198. + + Protestants, English, find refuge on the Continent, 104; + compromises at home, dissensions in exile, 104; + the ultra wing tended to democratic church government, 106; + return after death of Mary, 107; + their petty squabbles develop into bitter feuds and struggles, 107; + widespread results, 107; + Baltimore orders no scandal nor offense to be given to, 250; + his policy of conciliation toward, in Maryland, 251. + + Protestants on the Continent become Roman Catholics, 198. + + Providence Plantation founded by Williams, 296; + fell into inevitable disorders, 315; + an example of the largest liberty in religion congruous with + civil peace, 315. + + Provincetown Harbor, the Mayflower in, 177. + + Public Records Office Colonial Papers, 54, m. + + Pullein's Culture of Silk, 95, n. 2. + + Punishments, various, inflicted by Dale, 46. + + Purchas his Pilgrimes, 2, 12, m.; 18, 22, n. 6; 24, n. 9, n. 10; + 28, m.; 29, m.; 30, m.; 64, n. 3; 65, n. 6; 69, n. 14; 80, m.; + 95, n. 3; 96, n. 6; 97, n. 9; 102, m. + + Purchas's stories of silver and gold, 12. + + Puritan, the, never easy unless he was uneasy, 253. + + Puritan community, cost of the good results attained in a, 342. + + Puritan conscience, the, let loose against old superstitions, 119. + + Puritan divines in high church positions, 143. + + Puritan exodus, the great, 188, 239. + + Puritan opinions condemned, 103. + + Puritan pietists, a new school of, 327. + + Puritanism, rise and development of, 98; + an outgrowth of the time, 103; + an effort to escape from formalism, 109; + gathered strength as the leading opposition, 111; + becomes dogmatic, 112; + evolutionary, 117; + importance of secondary development of, 120; + apparent decline of, 121; + begun with Elizabeth, seemed doomed to die with her, 122; + evolves new issues, 123, 137, n. 7; + opposed to Arminianism, 133; + set up the Commonwealth, 133; + threatened destruction of, at Leyden, 167; + under James I the party of opposition, 191; + conservative under Charles I, 192; + unamiable traits of, manifested in Endecott, 202; + course of events in England adverse to, 203; + suppression of, by Laud, 239; + divergencies from, in Massachusetts, 267; + existed and grew through prudent compromises, 268, 269; + Salem, north pole of, 271; + condemned by its false and harsh ideals, 300; + character of, 300, 301, 342; + an ascetic system of external duties and abstentions, 327. + + Puritans, why so called, 106, 135, n. 4. + + Puritans, English, contempt of the, for aesthetic considerations, 94; + reverence for Bible precepts, 109; + would have no surplices, no liturgy, 109; + banished the symbol with the dogma, 111; + importance of efforts toward the regulation of conduct, 120; + dubbed Martinists, 121; + differences forgotten in the conflict with the Episcopal + party, 137, n. 6; + omitted the liturgy, 142; + present Millinary Petition to James I, 159; + at the Hampton Court conference, 160, 181, n. 1; + not eager to join Separatist settlers, 188; + a powerful party, 192; + motives for emigration, 197; + fear of divine judgments, 198; + barred from all public action, 203; + plan for a Puritan church in America, 204; + carried out through the Massachusetts Company, 212; + differences among the, 213; + exhilarating effect of freedom from constraints, 213; + raging against indulgence to Romanists, 235, 238; + believed the church under Laud would become Roman Catholic, 239; + dropped "saint" from geographical names, 244; + rise of, to power, 240; + dominant in Parliament, 252; + could not be induced to leave New England for Maryland, 252; + persecuted in Virginia, leave there for Maryland, 253; + at peace with Catholics in Maryland, 254; + their ideas rampant in Maryland, 257; + send munitions of war to New England, 284; + conceived of religion as difficult of attainment, 328. + + Puritans of the Massachusetts colony not Separatists, 212; + pathetic farewell to the Church of England, 213; + persuaded to the Plymouth view of church government, 215; + leaving England, 239; + emigration to New England, 240. + + + Quakers put to death by Endecott, 202; + protected in Maryland, 257. + + + Raccoon, the, called a monkey, 19, 24, n. 10. + + Radical and conservative, difference between, constitutional, 109. + + Rain, results of Puritan and Indian prayers for, 16. + + Ralegh, Sir Walter, sends explorers and colonists, 7; + History of the World, 21, n. 3; + distrusts Indian tales, 21, n. 3; + a lifelong opponent of Spain, 73. + + Rapin, 239, m. + + Rappahannocks, dress of the chief of the, 28. + + Ratcliffe, enemy of Capt. John Smith, 37; + ambuscaded and tortured to death, 38, 64, n. 4; + follower of Archer, 64, n. 3; + cruel to the savages, 64, n. 4. + + Ration, a day's, pitiful allowance for, 30, 46. + + Records of Virginia Company destroyed, 54, 71, n. 17. + + Recreations on Sunday, scruples regarding, 127; + forbidden by Dr. Bownd, 129. + + Reformers, the, of the sixteenth century declared against a + priesthood, 123; + and a Sabbath, 124. + + Relatyon of the Discovery of our River, 29, m. + + Religion, motive to colonization, 220. + + Religious enthusiasts and the Anglican church, 144. + + Religious ferments, leavening effects of, 121. + + Religious freedom a cherished principle of Roger Williams, 286; + established at Providence, 296. + + Religious liberty befriended by few, detested by Catholic and + Protestant, 298. + + Religious service, attendance at, should be compulsory, 299. + + Report of Record Com., 329, m. + + Residents, new oath of fidelity for, 289; + successfully opposed by Williams, 289, 309, n. 12; + mercenary inducement offered to, to take the freeman's + oath, 308, n. 11. + + Retainers, brilliant trains of, 99. + + Rhode Island, a secondary colony, 220; + importance of the, 315. + + Rich, Lord. See WARWICK, second Earl. + + Rich's, Barnabee, Honestie of this Age, 96, n. 8. + + Rites, resistance to, an article of faith, 103. + + Ritual, a purified, preferred by the extreme Protestants, 106, 135, n. 3. + + Ritual, the antique, desire to change as little as possible, 106, + 135, n. 3. + + Rivalry with Spain, 73. + + Roanoke Island, first colony on, 7; + Lane's hopes for, 74. + + Roanoke River, story of source of, 7. + + Robert's Social History of the Southern Counties, 125, m.; 127, m.; + 129, m. + + Robinson hanged and quartered for extorting money from "pressed" + maidens, 72, n. 19. + + Robinson, John, joins the Separatists at Scrooby, 155; + character and influence of, 156, 158, n. 3; + leads the Scrooby church to Amsterdam, 164; + to Leyden, 165; + idea of forming a new state, 167; + prayer and last words at departure of the Pilgrims, 175, 185, n. 6; + advised union rather than division, 176; + farewell letter of, 185, n. 5; + liberality and breadth of view, 176, 185, n. 6; + held to "toleration of tolerable opinions," 298. + + Robinson's, John, Justification, 157, n. 1, n. 2; 219, n. 9. + + Rogers, Thomas, opponent of Greenham and Bownd, 139, n. 11. + + Rogers's Preface to Thirty-nine Articles, 122, m.; 139, n. 11; 143, m. + + Rolfe, John, married Pocahontas, 68, n. 10; + planted first tobacco at Jamestown, 84. + + Rolfe's Relation, 70, n. 16; 71, n. 17, n. 18. + + Rosier's True Relation, 17, m. + + "Rowdies" assault the Jesuits, 265, n. 24. + + Royal Hist. MS. Comm., 88, m. + + Royal Hist. MS. Com. Rept., 345, m. + + Rushworth's Hist. Coll., 216, n. 2, n. 3; + petition in, 226, m.; 235, m.; 344. + + Rustics, the, of Scrooby and its neighborhood, 150, 151; + influence of Brewster on, 153; + of John Robinson, 157. + + Rymer's Foedera, 229, m.; 238, m. + + + Sabbath, the, as a holy day objected to by Luther and Calvin, 124; + rise of the Puritan, 124; + Sunday first so called in literature, 126; + passion for a stricter, 130; + doctrine of a Christian, resented, 131, 139, n. 11; + in Scotland, 132, 139, n. 12; + of deepest hue in New England, 132, 140, n. 13. + + Sabbath-breakers, punishments threatened against, 138, n. 8. + + Sabbath-keeping, early Puritan ideal of, 127; + pushed to its extreme, 130; + new zeal for, promoted morals, 131; + rigid, a mark of the faithful, 132. + + Sadleir, Mrs., indorsement of, on Williams's letter to, 268, m. + + Sainsbury's Calendar, 67, n. 9; 207, m.; 262, n. 9; 344, m.; 345, m. + + Salem, north pole of Puritanism, 271; + protest of the General Court against Williams as minister at, 271; + attached to Williams and refractory toward the authorities at + Boston, 280; + made Williams teacher, 284; + deputies turned out of court in punishment, 291; + indignation at Williams's banishment, 293. + + Salem church, organization of the, 200. + + Salisbury, the Dean of, attacked by Mar-Prelate, 115. + + Salvetti, correspondence on Calvert's resignation, 260, n. 6. + + Sampson, Thomas, letter to Calvin, 135, n. 3. + + Sandy Beach, no trace of, 59. + + Sandys, Edwin, Archbishop of York, letter of, 137, n. 7; + transferred manor place at Scrooby to his son Samuel, 153, 170. + + Sandys, Sir Edwin, interested in the Virginia Company, 54; + approved Dale's course, 67, n. 9; + arrested, 69, n. 13; 89; + chosen governor of Virginia Company, 71, n. 17; 88, 170; + proposed sending maids to Virginia, 71, n. 18; + leader of the company, 87, 89, 170; + established representative government in Virginia, 88; + plans for foundation of New Plymouth, 88; + sketch of life of, in Brown's Genesis of the United States, 97, n. 10; + tried to secure toleration for the Leyden people, 170; + one of the fathers of representative government in America, 173; + charges against, 174, 184, n. 5; + parliamentary antagonist of Calvert, 221; + in disfavor at court, 222; + Virginians friendly to, 230. + + Sandys, George, would seek the South Sea overland, 10, 11; + name appended to The Tragicall Relation, 66, n. 9; + in charge of manufacturing schemes, 83. + + Sandys, Sir Samuel, owned manor place at Scrooby, 153, 170. + + Sassafras root exported, 45, 68, n. 10; 68, n. 11. + + Savage life eagerly observed by the English, 29. + + Sawmills built in Virginia, 82. + + Scharf's History of Maryland, 23, n. 7. + + Schism esteemed the deadliest of sins, 142, 197. + + Scotch settlement in Newfoundland, 224, 258, n. 3. + + Scot's Magazine, 11, m. + + Scrambler, Bishop of Peterborough, to Burghley, 142, m. + + Scriptures, reverence for the letter of the, 144. + + Scrooby, the cradle of the Pilgrims, 149; + a region noted for religious zeal, 150; + no tradition of the Pilgrims at, 150; + called "the meane townlet" by John Leland, 152; + owners of manor place at, 153; + the church at, 154, 155. + + Seamen, threats of brutal, 177. + + Seekers, the, a sect, the last reduction of Separatism, 303; + in New England, probably through influence from Holland, 303; + in England as early as 1617, 304; + "a Seeker of the best Sect next to a finder," 314, n. 24. + + Seekonk River, Williams removes from, to Providence, 296. + + Semi-Separatists, the, 143. + + Separatism and the Scrooby church, 141; + promoted by persecution, 144; + rise of, 146; + divergencies in direction of, 267; + protest by withdrawal of communion a fundamental principle of, 271. + + Separatist, Roger Williams conscientiously a, 270. + + Separatist tendencies of Skelton, 271. + + Separatist tone of Pioneer church of Massachusetts at Salem, 271. + + Separatists, number of the, 136, n. 6; + importance of the, 141; + the advance guard of Puritanism, 141; + regarded as criminals by the Puritans, 142; + causes of growth of the, 144; + idealists, 144; + rise of the, 146; + meetings of, in London, 147; + in Amsterdam, 148; + one vigorous society of, in the north, 149; + the Scrooby church of, organized, 154; + all-day meetings at Brewster's manor house, 155; + new persecution of the, 163; + the Scrooby church resolve to flee to Holland, 163, 164; + petition for leave to settle in Canada, 167; + classed with criminals by Bacon, 171; + held their opinions in a state of flux, 186, n. 6. + + Servingman, the, not a menial, 134, n. 1. + + Servingmen in livery, 99, 134, n. 1. + + Settlements, sixteen, in Massachusetts, 275; + life in the settlements, 276. + + Settlers emulate the treachery of the Indians, 92; + individual, 190. + + Shakespeare's good fortune to live in a dramatic age, 99. + + Shepard, Thomas, a new congregation led by, 325; + letter of, quoted, 348, n. 5; + Theses Sabbaticae, 140, n. 13; + Memoirs in Young, 328, m. + + Sheriffs had many liveried servants, 99, 134, n. 1. + + Ship carpenters sent to the James River, 83. + + Silk, craze for, in England, 76, 77, 169; + wearing of, prohibited in the colony, 78. + + Silk culture attempted in England, 76; + in Virginia, 76, 77; + causes of failure, 77, 78; + renewed efforts for, 78, 79, 83; + authorities on these efforts, 95, n. 3. + + Silk-grass craze, the, 79. + + Silk manufacturing established in England, 77. + + Silkworms' eggs, hatching, in one's pocket or bosom, 78, 95, n. 2. + + Skelton, minister at Salem, 271; + extreme Congregationalism and Separatist tendencies of, 271; + death of, 283. + + Sloane manuscripts, British Museum, 22, n. 4. + + Smith, Captain John, a trustworthy topographer, 9, 34; + captured by Indians, 9; + views of geography of the continent, 22, n. 6; + becomes leader at Jamestown, 31, 36; + his character, 31, 32, 33; + story of his own life, 32, 33; + the Jonah and Ulysses of his time, 33; + explorations and narrative, 34, 35, 36; + overthrown, 36; + accused of design to wed Pocahontas, 37, 51; + later years, 37; + foresight of America's future, 37; + disabled by an accident, 37, 60, n. 2; + sent home under charges, 37, 60, n. 2; + accused of advising Indians to attack settlers at the Falls, + 37, 60, n. 2; + a typical American pioneer, 38; + account of his writings, 61, n. 3; + commended by the Virginia Company, 61, n. 3; + given to romance in narration, 62, n. 3; + his practical writings and wise speeches, 62, n. 3; + examples of his exaggeration, 63, n. 3; + Thomas Fuller's judgment of, 63, n. 3; + authorities in the debates about, 63, n. 3; + refusal to share his power, 64, n. 4; + captured by the French, 178. + + ----, Generall Historie, 22, n. 6; 27, m.; 34, m.; 35, 36, m.; + 61, n. 3; 66, n. 9; 95, n. 3. + + ----, New Life of Virginia, 27, m. + + ----, Oxford Tract, 34, m.; 35, 36, m.; 42, m.; 61, n. 3; 64, n. 3. + + ----, True Relation, 61, n. 3. + + Smyth, John, the Separatist, migrated from Gainsborough, 150; + continually searching for truth, 186, n. 6. + + Smyth, Sir Thomas, governor of Virginia Company, 70, n. 16; + resignation, 71, n. 17; + aroused the king's opposition to Sandys, 87; + resigned, 88; + sorrows of the colony under, 206; + faction of, 230; + defense, 67, n. 9. + + Somers, Sir George, wrecked on the Bermudas, 40; + builds two vessels and takes provisions to Virginia, 41; + returns to the Bermudas, 41; + death of, 42; + Somers or Summer Islands named from, 65, n. 6. + + South Sea delusion, the, 6, 7, 8; + an overland route to, 10; + behind the mountains, 75. + See also PACIFIC OCEAN. + + Southampton, Earl of, interested in the Virginia Company, 54; + threatened by the Warwick party, 69, n. 13; + really in power, 71, n. 17; + procures silkworm "seed," 77; + elected governor of the company, 89; + imprisoned, 89; + one of the fathers of representative government in America, 173; + Virginians friendly to, 230. + + Southwest passage, conjectures of a, 22, n. 5. + + Spain, rivalry with, the motive for planting English colonies, 73; + England's jealousy toward, 74, 94, n. 1; + lavish of gifts to English courtiers, 223; + made England relax penal laws against English recusants, 238. + + Spanish example, the influence of, on English projects, 73; + fishing-boats to be seized at Newfounde lande, 94, n. 1; + jealousy of Virginia, 94, n. 1. + + Spanish match, the, favored by Calvert, 226, 227, 258, n. 2. + + Speed's Prospect, 24, n. 10. + + Spelman's Relation, 60, n. 2. + + Spices, passion for, in Europe, 22, n. 5. + + Spirit of the age, escape from the, difficult, 133. + + Squirrels, flying, 18. + + Standish, Captain Miles, escorts the governor to church on Sundays, 103. + + Star-Chamber censures, 203, 216, n. 3; + Roger Williams as a lad employed by the, 268; + harsh penalties for Separatists, 270. + + State church, notion of, not easily got rid of, 112. + + St. Christopher's Island sought by Catholic refugees, 231. + + Stephen, Sir, denounced May-poles as idols, 118; + wanted names of days of the week changed, 118. + + Stith's History of Virginia, 51, m.; 182, n. 2. + + Stoughton retracted, 290, 291; + pressure put on, 297. + + Strachey's Historie of Travaile into Virginia, 24, n. 10; 36, m.; + 59, n. 1; 64, n. 4; 65, n. 7; 95, n. 5; 97, n. 9; 102, m.; + True Reportory, 65, n. 6. + + Strafford, friend of George Calvert and his son, 249. + + Strafford Papers, 241, m.; 263, n. 13. + + Strait, a, sought to the South Sea, 4, 6, 8, 9. + + Strasburg and Zurich, cities of refuge for conservatives, 104. + + Strasburg reformers attempt to reform church at Frankfort, 105. + + Straus's Life of Roger Williams, 308, n. 6; 311, n. 17. + + Stubbes's Philip, Anatomie of Abuses, 100, m.; 119, 127, 134, n. 2; + 135, n. 5. + + Succession, apostolic, of churchly order and ordinance the mainspring + of high-churchism, 302. + + Svmme and Svbstance. See BARLOW. + + Sumner, George, on John Robinson, 158, n. 3. + + Sumptuary laws, 75. + + Sunday had sanctity of a church feast before the Reformation, 125; + English reformers retained the Catholic, 125; + first called Sabbath in literature, 126; + scruples regarding recreations on, 127; + brutally cruel sports on the old English, 129; + strict observance of, carried to New England, 132; + in the middle ages, 138, n. 8; + legislation on, rare before the Reformation, 138, n. 8; + in time of Edward VI, 138, n. 9; + sabbatical character of, denied, 140, n. 13. + See also SABBATH. + + Sunday fishing, juries inquire into, 125. + + Sunday morning ceremony at Plymouth, 103. + + Sunday-Sabbath, theory of a, not confined to the Puritans, 132; + Augustine on, in the fifth century, 137, n. 8; 140, n. 13. + + Surplices begin to be used in Virginia, 183, n. 3. + + Susan Constant, the ship, 25. + + Sutton's Hospital founded by legacy, which Coke defended, later known as + Charter-House School, 268. + + Swift, Lindsay, on the early election sermons, 313, n. 22. + + Symonds, Dr. William, editor of second part of Smith's Oxford Tract, + 61, n. 3. + + Synod, the, of 1637, 336, 346, n. 1. + + + Tales, extravagant, of the Indians, 7, 8; + Ralegh distrusts, 21, n. 3. + + Taylor's Observations and Travel from London to Hamburg, 46, m. + + Tempest, Shakespeare's, 17; + suggested by the wreck of Gates and Somers, 65, n. 6. + + Tenant, the copy-hold, driven to distress, 111. + + Tenantry, the suffering, Puritans make common cause with, 111, 135, n. 5. + + Theater, passionate love of the, 99. + + Theocracy, instability of a, 326. + + Thomas Aquinas, St., on the fourth commandment, 138, n. 8. + + Thurloe, 263, n. 13. + + Timber sought in Virginia, 82. + + Tobacco, profitable cultivation of, in Virginia, 49, 84; + exported, 68, n. 10, n. 11; 96, n. 7; + more profitable than silk-raising, 78; + culture of, forbidden, 81; + King James's Covnter-Blaste to, 84; + John Rolfe planted the first, at Jamestown, 84; + heavy duties on, 85, 96, n. 8; + seven thousand shops in London, 97, n. 8; + inferiority of Indian, 97, n. 9; + large profits from, 231; + public use of, forbidden in Massachusetts, 285. + + Toleration, the Baltimore policy, 242, 263, n. 15; + principle of, formulated, 254; + Act of, passed in 1649, 255, 256, 257; + intolerable to the rulers of "the Bay," 297; + limited and qualified at Amsterdam, 298; + decried as a great crime by all the world, 298; + a beneficent result of commerce, 298, 312, n. 18. + + Tortures, legal, examples of, 46, 67, n. 9. + + Town government, the principal feature of civil organization, 325. + + Town system, the, 275. + + Trade with the Indians by Captain John Smith, 34; + suspended after Smith's departure, 38; + renewed by Capt. Argall, 50. + + Tragicall Relation, 40, m.; 56, m.; 66, n. 9; 68, n. 12. + + Trainbands drilled, 284. + + Travel, taste for books of, 2. + + Treasure received by Spain from America influenced English colonial + projects, 73; + wrought mischief to England, 94, n. 1. + + True Declaration of the Estate of the Colony of Virginia, 40, m.; + 56, m.; 65, n. 5, n. 8. + + Trumbull's Blue Laws, 347, n. 2. + + Tucker, Daniel, builds boat at Jamestown, 39. + + + Underhill, Captain, sent after Williams, 295. + + Unicorn, reported find of the, 19, 24, n. 10. + + Uniformity not possible, 109. + + Upper House, dissension concerning power of the, in Massachusetts, 286. + + Utopia, the religious, attempted in New England, 342. + + + Van der Donck's New Netherland, 23, n. 7. + + Van Meteren, Nederlandsche Historic, 312, n. 18. + + Vane, Sir Henry, the younger, favored the Antinomians, 267; + an ardent Puritan, 332; + arrives in Boston and is elected governor, 332; + a disciple of Cotton, 333; + defeat of, 336; + leaves the colony, 337. + + Vaughan's Golden Fleece, 261, n. 7. + + Vessel, the first Virginia, built by Captain Argall, 50. + + Vestments objected to, in reign of Edward VI, 103; + bitter debates about, 108; + ceased to be abhorrent, 123. + + Virginia Assembly petitions the king, 56; + proceedings of the first, 70, n. 15. + + Virginia colony, the, 8; + emigrants set sail, 25; + code of laws and orders, 26; + character of the emigrants, 27; + arrival, 27; + first meetings with the Indians, 28; + the winter of misery, 29; + fear of attack from the Indians, 30; + food bought of the Indians, 31; + five hundred colonists arrive under Archer and Ratcliffe, 36; + settlements at Nansemond and the falls of the James River, 37; + famine of 1609-'10, 38; + only sixty survivors in June, 1610, 40; + arrival of Gates and Somers, 40; + Jamestown abandoned, 41; + arrival of De la Warr, 41; + De la Warr's government, 42; + flight of De la Warr, 43; + second lease of life, 43; + inefficient government of George Percy, 44; + martial law and slavery under Thomas Dale, 45; + ten men escape, 47; + Dale's services, 47; + private gardens allowed, 48; + tobacco cultivated, 49; + Argall's government and treachery, 50-52; + the Great Charter, 1618, 55, 173; + joy at its receipt, 56; + feared re-establishment of the old tyranny, 56, 70, n. 16; + wives supplied, 57; + the first homes, 58; + whole number of colonists, 58; + four fifths perished, 59; + petition to the king, 65, n. 5; + began raising silkworms, 76; + the silk-grass craze in, 79; + glass and iron works established and failed in, 83; + planted tobacco, 84; + struck root and its life assured, 85; + gained impetus from the king's opposition, 89; + government of, passed to the Crown, 92; + reached its greatest prosperity, 186, n. 8; + inhospitable to Lord Baltimore, 230; + opposes Roman Catholics, 231, 261, n. 9; + reckless living of people and clergy, 231; + expulsion of Lord Baltimore from, 232; + new emigration to, 344; + second generation of native Virginians appears, 345; + better ministers in the parishes and order in the courts, 345. + + Virginia colony, map of, by John White, 1586, 8, 21, 22. + + Virginia Company, letter of, to Governor Wyatt quoted, 22, n. 5; + code of laws and orders for its colonists, 26; + swindled and robbed, 52; + fall of the lottery, 53; + revival of interest, 53; + records destroyed, 54; + change in conduct of affairs, 55; + cruelty of agents paralleled by those of the East India + Company, 67, n. 9; + overthrow of the company, 70, n. 16; + dissolved in 1624, 85, 89, 92; + organized for trading, 86; + passed out of the control of traders, 87; + King James interferes with the election, 88; + grants two charters and a liberal patent to the Pilgrims, 172; + also leave to establish a provisional government, 173; + Lord Baltimore a member and councilor of, 224, 229, 230; + attempt to take away privileges granted to the colonists, 230. + + Virginia Company's Manuscript Records. See MANUSCRIPT RECORDS, + VIRGINIA COMPANY. + + Virginia Richly Valued, 79, m.; 95, n. 3. + + Virginians obliged to pay quitrents in Maryland, 249. + + Vries, David P. de, Voyages, 308, n. 7. + + + Waddington's Congregational History, 167, m. + + Walker's First Church in Hartford, 317, m.; 321, m. + + Ward's Simple Cobbler, 285, m.; 299, m. + + Warwick, second Earl, intrigues to wreck the Virginia Company, + 51, 68, n. 13; + protects Argall in his plundering, 52; + has Cavendish and others arrested, 69, n. 13; + loses influence in the company, 87; + made Governor in Chief and Lord High Admiral of all plantations + in America, 252. + + Waterhouse's Declaration of Virginia, 22, n. 6. + + Watertown church, part of, ready to follow Hooker, 323; + one of the centres of discontent, 324. + + Welde's Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruine of Antinomianism, + 330, m.; 336, m.; 339, m.; 340, m.; 347, n. 4. + + Wentworth, friend of Calvert, 222. + + West, insubordinate settlers under, 37, 60, n. 2; + Indians hostile to, 60, n. 2; + treacherous and cruel, 64, n. 4. + + West India plants tried in Virginia, 82. + + Weston Documents, 11, m. + + Wethersfield, John Oldham and his company settled at, 324. + + Weymouth kidnapped Maine Indians, 17. + + Whale-fishing in Lake Ontario, 11. + + Whelewright, brother-in-law of Mrs. Hutchinson, 336; + banished at November court following the synod, 337; + testimony regarding his sister-in-law, 348, n. 6. + + Whelewright's sermon, 331, m. + + Whincop charter not used, 184, n. 4; 186, n. 8. + + Whiston, a place of Puritan assemblage, 142. + + Whitaker, Alexander, praises Dale, 66, n. 9; + minister at Henrico, 168; + letters, 183, n. 3. + + Whitaker's Good Newes from Virginia, 66, n. 9; 168. + + Whitbourne, Captain, pamphlet on Newfoundland, 224, 258, n. 3; + letters of Wynne and others in, 229, m. + + White, Father, Relatio Itineris, 243, m.; 244, m.; 263, n. 16; + on settlement of Montserrat, 261, n. 9; 263, n. 14, n. 16. + + White, John, of Dorchester, an active colonizer, 189, 199, 203. + + White, John, map of Virginia by, 1586, 8; + in Grenville Collection, 21, n. 4; + reproduced in the Century Magazine, 22, n. 4; + copy in Kohl Collection, 22, n. 4 + + White's, John, The Planter's Plea, 190, m.; 199, m. + + Whitgift, Archbishop, efforts of, to suppress nonconformity, 122; + ordered Bownd's book called in, 132; + persecuted the Puritans at Scrooby, 153; + declared King James inspired, 161. + + Whittingham, Dean of Durham, author of A Brieff Discourse, 135, n. 3; + on the Puritan side in Frankfort, 143. + + Williams, Roger, in advance of his age, 256; + opposed the authorities in Massachusetts, 267; + early career of, 268; + refused preferments, 269, 307, n. 2; + flight of, to New England, 270; + refuses communion with the Boston church, 270, 307, n. 3; + opposed to compromise, 271, 307, n. 4; + his selection as minister at Salem opposed by the General Court, + 271, 272; + removed to Plymouth, 272; + wrote a treatise on the dialect of the New England Indians, 273; + rebuked Bradford and wrote against the royal patents, 274, 281, + 308, n. 9; + returned to Salem with some followers, 275; + his ideal too high for that age, 281; + preached without holding office, 281; + "convented at court," 281; + charges against, based on his book, "not so evil as at first they + seemed," 282; + the broad principle laid down by, 283; + made teacher at Salem, 284; + fast-day sermon on eleven "public sins," 286; + dealt with ecclesiastically, 287; + scruples against enforced oaths, 289; + new charges against, 289; + champion of soul liberty, 290; + incorrigible, 290, 291; + trial and banishment, 292, 309, n. 12; 310, n. 13, 14, 16; + authorities, 310, n. 17; + on account of illness permitted to remain during the winter, 293; + a few friends faithful to, 293, 294; + escape to the Indians, 295; + abandons settlement at Seekonk River and founds Providence, 296; + banishment of, an act of persecution, 297; + character of, 301, 307, n. 1; + a collector of scruples, 301, 302, 314, n. 23; + tenderness and friendship for Winthrop, 302; + became a Baptist and renounced his baptism, 303; + a Seeker, 303, 304; + his moral elevation of spirit, 304; + ascendency over the Indians, 305; + an individualist, 291, 305; + superior to his age and ours, 305; + his prophetic character, 306 + a John Baptist of the distant future, 306; + enthusiastic nature of, 307, n. 2; + needed no practical consideration to stir him to action, 308, n. 11; + magnanimity without a parallel, 310, n. 15; + removal of Williams and his friends the beginning of dispersions + from the colony, 315; + prepared a harbor for all of uneasy conscience, 315. + + Williams's letter to Mrs. Sadleir, 268, m.; 270, m.; + letters to Winthrop, 273, m.; 302, m.; 307, n. 5; + Reply to Cotton, 283, m.; + letters to Lady Barrington, 307, n. 1; + letter to John Cotton, the younger, 307, n. 2, 3, 4; + letter to Major Mason, 310, n. 15; + Bloudy Tenent, 311, n. 18. + + Wilson, John, interprets battle of mouse and snake, 277; + on Williams's book, 282; + condemned by the Hutchinsonians, 333; + given to rhyming prophecies, 338. + + Windebank, schemes of Cecilius Calvert with, 250. + + Wine, efforts to produce, in Great Britain, 76; + in Virginia, 81. + + Wingandacon, Indian name of the coast of North Carolina, 21, n. 3. + + Wingfield deposed from leadership, 31; + recognizes Smith's services, 36; + plot against the life of, 61, n. 2; + warned Newport against Archer, 64, n. 3. + + Wingfield's Discourse, 64, n. 3. + + Winslow, of Plymouth, warns Williams from Seekonk River, 296. + + Winslow's Briefe Narration, 172, m.; 175, m.; 185, n. 6. + + Winsor's, Justin, Elder Brewster, 155, m.; 169, m. + + Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, 21, n. 1. + + Winthrop, John, principal figure in the Puritan migration, 202; + character and influence of, 204; + made a justice of the peace, 204, 217, n. 5; + elected governor, 210, 217, n. 6; + objected to a government directed from England, 208; + superseded by Dudley, 287; + recommended Narragansett Bay to Williams, 293, 294; + lenity toward Williams rebuked, 301; + moved house, begun at Newtown, to Boston, 318; + antipathy to Mrs. Hutchinson, 330; + ministers rally around, 332; + again made governor, 336; + chief inquisitor at the trial of Mrs. Hutchinson, 338; + evidence to prove Mrs. Hutchinson a witch, 340, 341; + wallows in superstition, 341. + + Winthrop's Journal (Savage's), 252, m.; 272, m.; 290, m.; 291, m.; + 294, m.; 301, m.; 307, n. 3; 309, n. 12; 310, n. 17; 318, m.; 323, m.; + 329, m.; 336, m.; 339, m.; 340, m.; 341, m.; 344, m.; 348, n. 8; + 349, n. 9. + + Winthrop's Life and Letters, 198, m.; 217, n. 4, 5, 6; 218, n. 8. + + Winthrop's Reasons for New England, 198, 204, 217, n. 4. + + Wives for the Virginia colonists, 57, 71, n. 18; + supplied to Louisiana and Canada, 72, n. 18. + + Women, proposal to send, to Virginia, 71, n. 18; + in Gates's party, 71, n. 18; + first two in the colony, 71, n. 18. + + Wood, beauty of the, of certain American trees, 65, n. 7. + + Woodnoth's Short Collection, 70, n. 16; 87, m.; + account of, 97, n. 10. + + Wood's New England's Prospect, 18, m.; 318, m.; 319, m. + + Words had the force of blows, 110. + + Wright's Elizabeth and her Times, 142, m. + + Wyatt, Sir Francis, name appended to The Tragicall Relation, 66, n. 9; + opinion of, on a divided government, 207. + + Wyckoff, on Silk Manufacture, 95, n. 3. + + + Yeardley, Sir George, arrival in Virginia, 71, n. 17; + knighted, 134, n. 1; + instructed to administer oath of supremacy, 232. + + Yong, Thomas, in the Delaware, 10; + seeks a Mediterranean in America, 11. + + Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 217, n. 4; 317, m. + + Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 158, n. 3; 167, m.; 184, n. 4. + + Yucatan, meaning of, 21, n. 3. + + Yucca, clothing made from the fiber of the, 79, 80; + a "commoditie of speciall hope and much use," 80. + + + Zeal, passionate, often stupefies reason, 171. + + Zurich and Strasburg cities of refuge for conservatives, 104; + differences between exiles at, and those of Geneva, 106, 107. + + Zurich Letters, 135, n. 3. + + Zwisck, Peter John, The Liberty of Religion, 312, n. 19. + + +CHARLES ALEXANDER NELSON. + +THE END. + + + + +D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + +_WITH THE FATHERS. Studies in the History of the United States._ By +JOHN BACH MCMASTER, Professor of American History in the University of +Pennsylvania, author of "The History of the People of the United +States," etc. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. + + "The book is of great practical value, as many of the essays + throw a broad light over living questions of the day. Prof. + McMaster has a clear, simple style that is delightful. His + facts are gathered with great care, and admirably interwoven + to impress the subject under discussion upon the mind of the + reader."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._ + + "Prof. McMaster's essays possess in their diversity a + breadth which covers most of the topics which are current as + well as historical, and each is so scholarly in treatment + and profound in judgment that the importance of their place + in the library of political history can not be + gainsaid."--_Washington Times._ + + "Such works as this serve to elucidate history and make more + attractive a study which an abstruse writer only makes + perplexing. All through the studies there is a note of + intense patriotism and a conviction of the sound sense of + the American people which directs the government to a bright + goal."--_Chicago Record._ + + "A wide field is here covered, and is covered in Prof. + McMaster's own inimitable and fascinating style.... Can not + but have a marked value as a work of reference upon several + most important subjects."--_Boston Daily Advertiser._ + + "There is much that is interesting in this little book, and + it is full of solid chunks of political + information."--_Buffalo Commercial._ + + "Clear, penetrating, dispassionate, convincing. His language + is what one should expect from the Professor of American + History in the University of Pennsylvania. Prof. McMaster + has proved before now that he can write history with the + breath of life in it, and the present volume is new + proof."--_Chicago Tribune._ + + "Of great practical value.... Charming and instructive + history."--_New Haven Leader._ + + "An interesting and most instructive volume."--_Detroit + Journal._ + + "At once commends itself to the taste and judgment of all + historical readers. His style charms the general reader with + its open and frank ways, its courageous form of statement, + its sparkling, crisp narrative and description, and its + close and penetrating analysis of character and + events."--_Boston Courier._ + + +THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES. + +Edited by Ripley Hitchcock. + + "There is a vast extent of territory lying between the + Missouri River and the Pacific coast which has barely been + skimmed over so far. That the conditions of life therein are + undergoing changes little short of marvelous will be + understood when one recalls the fact that the first white + male child born in Kansas is still living there; and Kansas + is by no means one of the newer States. Revolutionary indeed + has been the upturning of the old condition of affairs, and + little remains thereof, and less will remain as each year + goes by, until presently there will be only tradition of the + Sioux and Comanches, the cowboy life, the wild horse, and + the antelope. Histories, many of them, have been written + about the Western country alluded to, but most if not + practically all by outsiders who knew not personally that + life of kaleidoscopic allurement. But ere it shall have + vanished forever we are likely to have truthful, complete, + and charming portrayals of it produced by men who actually + knew the life and have the power to describe it."--_Henry + Edward Rood, in the Mail and Express._ + + +_NOW READY._ + +_THE STORY OF THE INDIAN._ By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, author of "Pawnee +Hero Stories," "Blackfoot Lodge Tales," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. + + "In every way worthy of an author who, as an authority upon + the Western Indians, is second to none. A book full of + color, abounding in observation, and remarkable in sustained + interest, it is at the same time characterized by a grace of + style which is rarely to be looked for in such a work, and + which adds not a little to the charm of it"--_London Daily + Chronicle._ + + "Only an author qualified by personal experience could offer + us a profitable study of a race so alien from our own as is + the Indian in thought, feeling, and culture. Only long + association with Indians can enable a white man measurably + to comprehend their thoughts and enter into their feelings. + Such association has been Mr. Grinnell's."--_New York Sun._ + + +_THE STORY OF THE MINE._ By CHARLES HOWARD SHINN. Illustrated. 12mo. +Cloth, $1.50. + + The figures of the prospector and the miner are clearly + outlined in the course of the romantic story of that mine + which more than any other embodies the romance, the + vicissitudes, the triumphs, the excitement, and the science + of mining life--the Great Comstock Lode. From the + prospector, through development and deep-mining, to the last + of the stock gambling, the story is told in a way that + presents a singularly vivid and engrossing picture of a life + which has played so large a part in the development of the + remoter West. + + +_IN PREPARATION._ + + The Story of the Trapper. By GILBERT PARKER. + The Story of the Cowboy. By E. HOUGH. + The Story of the Soldier. By Captain J. McB. STEMBEL, U. S. A. + The Story of the Explorer. + The Story of the Railroad. + + +_THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES_, 1789-1894. By JOHN FISKE, CARL +SCHURZ, WILLIAM E. RUSSELL, DANIEL C. GILMAN, WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS, +ROBERT C. WINTHROP, GEORGE BANCROFT, JOHN HAY, and Others. Edited by +General JAMES GRANT WILSON. With 23 Steel Portraits, facsimile +Letters, and other Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50. + + "A book which everyone should read over and over again.... + We have carefully run through it, and laid it down with the + feeling that some such book ought to find its way into every + household."--_New York Herald._ + + "A monumental volume, which no American who cares for the + memory of the public men of his country can afford to be + without."--_New York Mail and Express._ + + "Just the sort of book that the American who wishes to fix + in his mind the varying phases of his country's history as + it is woven on the warp of the administrations will find + most useful. Everything is presented in a clear-cut way, and + no pleasanter excursions into history can be found than a + study of 'The Presidents of the United + States.'"--_Philadelphia Press._ + + "A valuable addition to both our biographical and historical + literature, and meets a want long recognized."--_Boston + Advertiser._ + + "So scholarly and entertaining a presidential biography has + never before appeared in this country.... It is bound to + become the standard of its kind."--_Binghamton Herald._ + + "It is precisely the book which ought to have a very wide + sale in this country--a book which one needs to own rather + than to read and lay aside. No common-school library or + collection of books for young readers should be without + it."--_The Churchman._ + + "General Wilson has performed a public service in presenting + this volume to the public in so attractive a shape. It is + full of incentive to ambitious youth; it abounds in + encouragement to every patriotic heart."--_Charleston News + and Courier._ + + "There is an added value to this volume because of the fact + that the story of the life of each occupant of the White + House was written by one who made a special study of him and + his times.... An admirable history for the young."--_Chicago + Times._ + + "Such a work as this can not fail to appeal to the pride of + patriotic Americans."--_Chicago Dial._ + + "These names are in themselves sufficient to guarantee + adequacy of treatment and interest in the presentation, and + it is safe to say that such succinct biographies of the + complete portrait gallery of our Presidents, written with + such unquestioned ability, have never before been + published."--_Hartford Courant._ + + "A book well worth owning, for reading and for reference.... + A complete record of the most important events in our + history during the past one hundred and five years."--_The + Outlook._ + + +_THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION._ (EGYPT AND CHALDAEA.) By Prof. G. MASPERO. +Edited by Rev. Prof. A. H. SAYCE. Translated by M. L. McCLURE. Revised +and brought up to date by the Author. With Map and over 470 +Illustrations. Quarto. Cloth, $7.50. + + "The most sumptuous and elaborate work which has yet + appeared on this theme.... The book should be in every + well-equipped Oriental library, as the most complete work on + the dawn of civilization. Its careful reading and studying + will open a world of thought to any diligent student, and + very largely broaden and enlarge his views of the grandeur, + the stability, and the positive contributions of the + civilization of that early day to the life and culture of + our own times."--_Chicago Standard._ + + "By all odds the best account of Egyptian and Assyrian + theology, or more properly speaking, theosophy, with which + we are acquainted.... The book will arouse many enthusiasms. + Its solid learning will enchant the scholar--its brilliancy + will charm the general reader and tempt him into a region + which he may have hesitated to enter."--_The Outlook._ + + "For a general comprehension of the dawn of civilization we + know of no stronger work."--_New York Times._ + + "You no sooner open it at random than you discover that + every paragraph is alluring and instructive. You may not + hope to read it through, even in a dozen sittings, but you + can not give a glance at any one of its pages without having + your attention specially challenged."--_New York Herald._ + + "The most complete reconstruction of that ancient life which + has yet appeared in print. Maspero's great book will remain + the standard work for a long time to come."--_London Daily + News._ + + +_LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND ASSYRIA._ By G. MASPERO, late Director of +Archaeology in Egypt, and Member of the Institute of France. Translated +by ALICE MORTON. With 188 Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. + + "A lucid sketch, at once popular and learned, of daily life + in Egypt at the time of Rameses II, and of Assyria in that + of Assurbanipal.... As an Orientalist, M. Maspero stands in + the front rank, and his learning is so well digested and so + admirably subdued to the service of popular exposition, that + it nowhere overwhelms and always interests the + reader."--_London Times._ + + "Only a writer who had distinguished himself as a student of + Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities could have produced this + work, which has none of the features of a modern book of + travels in the East, but is an attempt to deal with ancient + life as if one had been a contemporary with the people whose + civilization and social usages are very largely + restored."--_Boston Herald._ + + "A most interesting and instructive book. Excellent and most + impressive ideas also of the architecture of the two + countries and of the other rude but powerful art of the + Assyrians, are to be got from it."--_Brooklyn Eagle._ + + "The ancient artists are copied with the utmost fidelity, + and verify the narrative so attractively + presented."--_Cincinnati Times-Star._ + + +_A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY_, from 1775 to 1894. By EDGAR +STANTON MACLAY, A. M. With Technical Revision by Lieut. ROY C. SMITH, +U. S. N. In two volumes. With numerous Maps, Diagrams, and +Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, $7.00. + + "The field is comparatively new, and Mr. Maclay has brought + to his task patience, assiduity, and patriotism.... Maps and + plans, and a great number of illustrations, add value to the + book, which is designed to be a permanent and useful + contribution to historical literature."--_New York + Observer._ + + "While the author has had the assistance of Lieut. Roy C. + Smith, U. S. N., in preparing those parts of his work which + are necessarily technical, he has wisely refrained from + confusing the general reader by an undue parade of + technicalities.... The narrative proceeds in a clear, + concise, and vigorous style, which very materially adds to + the character of the work."--_New York Journal of Commerce._ + + "The author writes as one who has digged deep before he + began to write at all. He thus appears as a master of his + material. This book inspires immediate confidence as well as + interest."--_New York Times._ + + "A most conscientious narrative, from which wise statesmen + may learn much for their guidance, and it certainly is one + of absorbing interest."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._ + + "Mr. Maclay is specially qualified for the work he has + undertaken. Nine years has he devoted to the task. The + result of his labors possesses not only readableness but + authority.... Mr. Maclay's story may be truthfully + characterized as a thrilling romance, which will interest + every mind that is fed by tales of heroism, and will be read + with patriotic pride by every true American."--_Chicago + Evening Post._ + + "A more valuable and important work of history than this has + not been issued from the press for many a day. It is not + only that this book tells a story never before told (for + Cooper's works never professed to tell the whole story of + our navy, even down to his own day), but that it is told + with true historic sense, and with the finest critical + acumen."--_New York Evangelist._ + + "A work which is destined to fill a noticeable gap in our + national annals."--_Philadelphia Bulletin._ + + "No better excuse for this important work could be desired + than that a navy with such a brilliant career on the whole + as has the American navy is without a full and continuous + record of its achievement.... The author has important new + facts to tell, and he tells them in a clear and graceful + literary style."--_Hartford Post._ + + "Mr. Maclay has deservedly won for himself an enviable place + among our American historians.... His researches have been + exhaustive and his inquiries persistent, and he has used his + wealth of material with a proper appreciation of historical + value."--_Boston Advertiser._ + + "Like the average young American, this author has an + enthusiastic appreciation of American valor on the high + seas, and he reproduces graphic sketches of battle scenes + and incidents in a way to insure for his book a hearty + welcome on the part of these who keenly enjoy this sort of + literature.... The illustrations of the old battle ships and + the conflicts at sea, made memorable as long as the history + of the American Republic shall live, add much to the + attractiveness of this book.... Professor Maclay has added a + substantial work to historical American + literature."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._ + + "It fills a place which has almost escaped the attention of + historians. Mr. Maclay's work shows on every page the minute + care with which he worked up his theme. His style is precise + and clear, and without any pretense of rhetorical + embellishment."--_New York Tribune._ + + +_THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA._ A Study of the American Commonwealth, +its Natural Resources, People, Industries, Manufactures, Commerce, and +its Work in Literature, Science, Education, and Self-Government. +Edited by NATHANIEL S. SHALER, S. D., Professor of Geology in Harvard +University. In two volumes, royal 8vo. With Maps, and 150 full-page +Illustrations. Cloth, $10.00. + + In this work the publishers offer something which is not + furnished by histories or encyclopaedias, namely, a succinct + but comprehensive expert account of our country at the + present day. The very extent of America and American + industries renders it difficult to appreciate the true + meaning of the United States of America. In this work the + American citizen can survey the land upon which he lives, + and the industrial, social, political, and other + environments of himself and his fellow-citizens. The best + knowledge and the best efforts of experts, editor, and + publishers have gone to the preparation of a standard book + dedicated to the America of the present day; and the + publishers believe that these efforts will be appreciated by + those who desire to inform themselves regarding the America + of the end of the century. + + +LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. + +Hon. WILLIAM L. WILSON, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, +Fifty-third Congress. + +Hon. J. R. SOLEY, formerly Assistant Secretary of the Navy. + +EDWARD ATKINSON, Ll. D., Ph. D. + +Col. T. A. DODGE, U. S. A. + +Col. GEORGE E. WARING, Jr. + +J. B. McMASTER, Professor of History in the University of +Pennsylvania. + +CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, LL. D. + +Major J. W. POWELL, Director of the U. S. Geological Survey and the +Bureau of Ethnology. + +WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D., U. S. Commissioner of Education. + +LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D. + +H. H. BANCROFT, author of "Native Races of the Pacific Coast." + +HARRY PRATT JUDSON, Head Dean of the Colleges, University of Chicago. + +Judge THOMAS M. COOLEY, formerly Chairman of the Interstate Commerce +Commission. + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. + +D. A. SARGENT, M. D., Director of the Hemenway Gymnasium, Harvard +University. + +CHARLES HORTON COOLEY. + +A. E. KENNELLY, Assistant to Thomas A. Edison. + +D. C. GILMAN, LL. D., President of Johns Hopkins University. + +H. G. PROUT, Editor of the Railroad Gazette. + +F. D. MILLET, formerly Vice-President of the National Academy of +Design. + +F. W. TAUSSIG, Professor of Political Economy in Harvard University. + +HENRY VAN BRUNT. + +H. P. FAIRFIELD. + +SAMUEL W. ABBOTT, M. D., Secretary of the State Board of Health, +Massachusetts. + +N. S. SHALER. + +Sold only by subscription. Prospectus, giving detailed chapter titles +and specimen illustrations, mailed free on request. + + + + +New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. + + + + +[Transcriber's notes: + +Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other +inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been +maintained. + +An entry in the index for the "Northwest passage" has been left out, +being unreadable. + +Superscripts are enclosed in { }. + +In the sentence "Those Adventurers & Planters by Vertue .... ", there +is a tilde on the last "c" of "Incorporacon"; and in the sentence "In +this Provynce soe as they might ...", there is a tilde on the "c" of +"toleracon".] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Beginners of a Nation, by Edward Eggleston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEGINNERS OF A NATION *** + +***** This file should be named 39882.txt or 39882.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/8/8/39882/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Christine P. 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