A HISTORY OF 
 LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
THE BEGINNERS OF A NATION 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE SOURCE AND RISE 
 OF THE EARLIEST ENGLISH SETTLE 
 MENTS IN AMERICA WITH SPECIAL 
 REFERENCE TO THE LIFE AND 
 CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD EGGLESTON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1897 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1896, 
 Bv 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 emi 
 nent 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 Amer 
 ica, 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 emigra 
 tion. 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 cen 
 tury. Who were the beginners of English life in Amer 
 ica ? What propulsions sent them for refuge to a wil 
 derness ? 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 Eng 
 lish 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 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 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 in 
 justice were justifiable under the circumstances. This 
 walking backward to throw a mantle over the nakedness 
 of ancestors may be admirable as an example of dilu- 
 vian 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 cov 
 ered 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 re 
 lated some events with what will be considered dispro 
 portionate amplitude of detail. But the distinctive pur 
 pose 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 
 
Preface. 
 
 IX 
 
 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 treat 
 ed, 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 ex 
 plained when its successors appear. 
 
 I find it an embarrassing task to make acknowledg 
 ment 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 print 
 ed 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 mu 
 seum. 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 pre 
 occupations 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 facili 
 tate my examination of the manuscripts at Landsdowne 
 House. I am indebted to Lord Leconsfield for permis 
 sion 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 ac 
 cept a general acknowledgment, but I can not forget 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 their courtesy to a stranger. In common with other 
 students I received polite attentions during my re 
 searches in Paris at the Bibliotheque Nationale. 
 
 In this country I owe much to the librarians of pub 
 lic 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. Acknowl 
 edgments 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 Li 
 brary 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 Mer 
 cantile 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 rec 
 ognized 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 in 
 stitutions were never written or reported. The papers 
 on colonial life contributed to the Century Magazine in 
 
Preface. 
 
 XI 
 
 1882, and the years following, were on a different plan 
 and scale ; they have merely served the purpose of pre 
 liminary 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, i8g6. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 RISE OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 
 
 CHAPTER THE FIRST. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ENGLISH KNOWLEDGE AND NOTION OF AMERICA AT 
 THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT i 
 
 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 08 
 
 CHAPTER THE SECOND. 
 SEPARATISM AND THE SCROOBY CHURCH . 
 
 CHAPTER THE THIRD. 
 
 THE PILGRIM MIGRATIONS 
 
 141 
 
 CHAPTER THE FOURTH. 
 
 THE GREAT PURITAN EXODUS 
 
 1 88 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
XIV 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 CENTRIFUGAL FORCES IN COLONY-PLANTING. 
 
 CHAPTER THE FIRST. 
 THE CATHOLIC MIGRATION .... 
 
 CHAPTER THE SECOND. 
 
 THE PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 
 
 PAGE 
 
 220 
 
 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.) 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 . 28 
 . 149 
 
 177 
 
 I. Chesapeake Bay 
 
 II. James River 
 
 III. The cradle of the Pilgrims 
 
 IV. Coast explored by the Pilgrims .... 
 
 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 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 RISE OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 
 
 CHAPTER THE FIRST. 
 
 ENGLISH KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS OF AMERICA 
 AT THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT. 
 
 I. 
 
 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 nov 
 elties and unexplained mysteries was a modern 
 discovery ; and there were endless discussions and 
 agitations of spirit growing out of the recent refor 
 mation in religion. Imagination was powerfully 
 stimulated by the progress of American explora 
 tion, 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 re 
 ligion, and men of action were everywhere set on 
 deeds of daring. The world had regained some 
 thing of the vigor and spontaneity of youth, but 
 
of the First Colony. 
 
 the credulity an d curiosity of youth were not want 
 ing. The mind of the time accepted and reveled in 
 marvelous stories. The stage plays of that drama- 
 loving age reflected the interest in the supernatu 
 ral and the eager curiosity about far-away coun 
 tries. 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 " mon 
 strous strange beasts " found in lands beyond the 
 bounds of Christendom. 
 
 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 di 
 vided. 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 south 
 ward to the pole. It was easy to believe in these 
 two superfluous continents ; they were mirages of 
 the New World. Every great discovery excites ex 
 pectation 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 stand 
 ards by which to measure probabilities, and to 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 those shut in by the narrow limits of mediaeval 
 knowledge the mere uncovering of a new conti 
 nent whose existence contravened the fixed beliefs 
 of the ages was so marvelous that nothing told 
 about it afterward seemed incredible. 
 
 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 con 
 temporary 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 
 \vhich great nations might germinate, for he be 
 lieved 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." 
 
 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 no 
 tion 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 pur- 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 Frobisher. 
 
 Frobisher s 
 Voyages, 
 Hakl. Soc., 
 passim. 
 
 pose 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 seven 
 teenth 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. 
 
 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 fortu 
 nate." Sir Martin Frobisher, who is reckoned by 
 Camden "among the famousest men of our age for 
 counsell and glory gotten at sea," made three voy 
 ages 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 in 
 volved the " venturers " or stockholders associated 
 with him in heavy debts, and spent the fortune of 
 his wife and stepchildren, to whom * glory gotten 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 exist 
 ence of a northwest passage, first by authority, 
 secondly by reason, thirdly by experience of sun 
 dry 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. 
 
 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 be 
 lief of every story favorable to projects for colo 
 nization, and his unwavering faith in the projects 
 themselves bordered on flat credulity. To men of 
 his own time his tireless advocacy of American ex 
 ploration and colony-planting must have seemed 
 irksome hobby-riding. But he was the indispen 
 sable forerunner of colonization. " Your Mr. Hak 
 luyt hath served for a very good trumpet," says 
 Sidney. Believing in everything American as un- 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 vvaveringly 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, pro 
 vided 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, a little neck 
 of land " much like the streyte neck or Isthmus of 
 Darienna." He had seen the same isthmus on an 
 other 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 be 
 come 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. 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 III. 
 
 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 Newfound 
 land, as Frobisher and Gilbert had done. He 
 turned to milder latitudes, and dispatched his ex 
 plorers in 1584, and his colonists in 1585, to the 
 coast of what is now North Carolina. 
 
 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 dis 
 tance below. That the story might be more inter 
 esting, 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 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 Lane s Ac 
 count in 
 Hakl. III. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
 Seeking 
 the Pacific 
 on James 
 River. 
 
 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 ex 
 travagance 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 colo 
 nists 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 coun 
 try in 1586 handed down the delusion, in another 
 form, by showing a strait leading from the neigh 
 borhood of Port Royal into a body of water to the 
 westward. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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 Amer 
 ica had lasted a hundred and fourteen years. No 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 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 official 
 ly instructed to explore that branch of any river 
 that lay toward the northwest, perhaps because 
 the charmed latitude of 40 might thus be reached. 
 It was in carrying out this instruction that Cap 
 tain 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 descrip 
 tion 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 pas 
 sage to the westward in latitude 40, just be 
 yond the northward limit of his own explora 
 tions, he communicated to his friend Henry Hud 
 son, who was so moved by it that he sailed to 
 .* j 
 
 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 win 
 ning immortality by finding a passage to the Pa 
 cific 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- 
 
10 
 
 Rise of tJie First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Sandys s 
 plan. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
 Luke Fox, 
 
 Northwest. 
 Fox, p. 172. 
 
 secretive about this route, which, however, seems 
 to have lain through Delaware Bay. 
 
 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 Pa 
 cific by means of a strait and the belief in a narrow 
 isthmus in latitude 40 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 sec 
 retary 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 satisfac 
 tion of many that the rivers running westward 
 from the Virginia mountains must reach the Pacific 
 in about one hundred and fifty miles. One Marma- 
 duke Parkinson, an explorer sailing in the Potomac, 
 confirmed the theory of thejea^ne^ 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 let 
 ter 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. The strait and isth 
 mus and northwest passage having failed, Yong 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 II 
 
 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 ad 
 vanced 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 hope 
 fully of the proximity of the Pacific to North Caro 
 lina. This fallacy had prompted many desperate 
 adventures, and had been the cause of many impor 
 tant discoveries, in the two centuries that it held 
 possession of men s minds. It reached its last at 
 tenuation 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." 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Weston 
 Documents 
 45 and 47 
 and if. 
 
 Catlet and 
 Lederer. 
 
 Glover, 
 in Phil. 
 Trans., xi, 
 626. Com p. 
 Perfect 
 Descr. of 
 Va., 1649, 
 and Leder- 
 er s Voy 
 age. 
 
 Lawson s 
 Carolina, 
 
 47- 
 
 Scot s 
 Magazine, 
 1765. page 
 161. 
 
12 
 
 Rise of the First Colon} . 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 Gold- 
 hunting. 
 
 Hakluyt. 
 Pref . to 
 Va., mag 
 nified. 
 
 Pilgrim 
 age, 795- 
 
 V. 
 
 As the mistake made by Columbus had left for 
 heritage an almost ineradicable passion for the dis 
 covery 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 conclu 
 sions 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 pre 
 cious metal in that country ? Purchas, the suc 
 cessor of Hakluyt in geographical research, ex 
 plains the divine purpose in thus endowing a 
 heathen land with gold, which is that the Indian 
 race " as a rich bride, though withered and de 
 formed, . . . 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 pil 
 fered it with many better things from the good 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 Las Casas. Purchas also speaks with more opti 
 mism than elegance of the u silver bowels and 
 golden entrails of the hills," as though one had but 
 to dig into the first mountain to be enriched. 
 
 Frobisher brought home from sub-arctic islands 
 what his clumsy assayers avouched to be 
 
 cure." Refining works were erected for this stuff 
 at Deptford to no profit, and to this day the in 
 quisitive 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 evi 
 dence 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, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Frobish- 
 er s gold. 
 
 Early 
 Virginia 
 gold-hunt 
 ing. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 Note 7. 
 
 Fact and 
 fable 
 about 
 America. 
 
 Ingram s 
 story. 
 
 and the places of its procurement were sought 
 with ludicrous secrecy. 
 
 The unfaltering faith in the existence of abun 
 dant 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 preva 
 lent 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 con 
 tinent 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 Bruns 
 wick. 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, per 
 haps, 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 
 
Rnglish Notions of America. 
 
 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 mem 
 ory, 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 sil 
 ver is as instantly transmuted to gold. All that 
 optimistic projectors sought in America gold, sil 
 ver, 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. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 Indian 
 devil- 
 worship. 
 
i6 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 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 pre 
 tensions 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 pro 
 cured by the Indian conjurers was violent and de 
 structive a rain with something devilish about it. 
 According to writers of the time, the demons wor 
 shiped by the savages were able to materialize 
 themselves on great occasions, appearing to their 
 votaries in some beastly form. This belief in In 
 dian devil-worship fitted well with the religious 
 faith of the period, which can hardly be described 
 as anything but a sort of Manichasism dividing the 
 government of the universe almost equally be 
 tween 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 be 
 cause their conversion would glorify God, and yet 
 more because it would despite the devil. Some 
 times the religious motive was incongruously sup 
 ported 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 rel 
 ish a more civilized kind of life and be thereby in- 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 duced to take off great quantities of our coarser 
 woolen manufactures." 
 
 The early explorers made a practice of kidnap 
 ing Indians and transporting them to England, 
 where the sight of barbarians without doublet or 
 hose quickened the interest in projects for colo 
 nization 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 Fro- 
 bisher. Portraits of these rarities were made for 
 the king and queen and others. In 1605 Wey- 
 mouth brought from the coast of Maine five kid 
 napped Indians, " with all their bows and arrows " 
 and two beautiful birch-bark canoes. " This acci 
 dent," exclaimed Sir Ferdinando Gorges, " hath 
 been the means of putting life into all our planta 
 tions." 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 ven 
 ture 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 crea 
 tion of the monster Caliban, who probably seemed 
 a realistic figure to the imagination of that age. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Indians 
 exhibited. 
 
 Rosier s 
 True Rela 
 tion. 
 
 Tempest, 
 
i8 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 VII. 
 
 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 Pur- 
 chas : " A monstrous deformed beast, whose fore 
 part resembleth a fox, the hinder part an ape, ex 
 cepting 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 pre 
 served 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. 
 
 Flying squirrels, when brought into English 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 parks in 1608, were the occasion of much wonder 
 ing 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. Ha- 
 riot, the learned man of Ralegh s first colony, fan 
 cied 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 per 
 fume 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." 
 
 The raccoon, the " aroughcun " of the Virginia 
 Indians, being a plantigrade, was esteemed a mon 
 key ; 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 be 
 wildering number of new creatures found in Amer 
 ica troubled the European scholars of that day, 
 who were ever theological. They were puzzled 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 De Bry s 
 Harlot, p. 
 10. 
 
 Note 10. 
 
20 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 An age of 
 romance 
 and adven 
 ture. 
 
 to get so many four-footed beasts and creeping 
 things into the compass of Noah s ark. Mercator, 
 the Flemish geographer, avoided this difficult em 
 barkation by concluding that America had been 
 excepted from the Deluge. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 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 peo 
 ple at the period of discovery and colony-plant 
 ing. Credulity and the romantic spirit dwell to 
 gether. The imagination in such an age usurped 
 the place of discrimination, and the wonderful be 
 came the probable. The appetite for the marvel 
 ous fostered exaggeration ; every man who had 
 sailed in foreign seas thought it shame not to tell 
 of wonders. The seventeenth century indeed be 
 trayed a consciousness of its own weakness in a 
 current proverb, " Travelers lie by license." His 
 tory and fiction had not yet been separated. Like 
 every other romantic age, the period of Elizabeth 
 and James was prodigal of daring ad venture ; every 
 notable man aspired to be the hero of a tale. Eng 
 lish 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 prac 
 tical wisdom. 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 21 
 
 ELUCIDATIONS. 
 
 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 de 
 stroys the delusion which so long gave the credit of this dis 
 covery, 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 pres 
 ence in the expeditions of his father, John Cabot, etc., p. 48. 
 
 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 phes- 
 ants, 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). 
 
 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 
 deaths 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. 
 
 I found the original of this map among the drawings made by 
 John White in the Grenville Collection in the British Museum. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note i, 
 page 3. 
 
 Note 2, 
 page 4. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 8. 
 
 Note 4, 
 page 8. 
 
22 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 It was reproduced to accompany a paper of mine on the Vir 
 ginia 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. 
 
 As late as December 5, 1621, in a letter from the Virginia 
 Company to Governor Wyatt, these words occur : " The Con 
 jectures 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 Guicci- 
 ardini 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. 
 
 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 Historic, 
 book vi). 
 
 So late as 1626, Fleet, the only survivor of the massacre of 
 Spelman s party, after spending five years in captivity among the 
 
English Notions of America. 
 
 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 re 
 lates, in his description of New Netherland, that Kieft, the di 
 rector 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. 
 
 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 Hak- 
 luyt. See also a paper by Dr. De Costa, in the Magazine of 
 American History, March, 1883, on the copy of Ingram s State 
 ment 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 dia- 
 mondes." This shows that Ingram s story had probably ab 
 sorbed 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. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 8, 
 page 15. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 Note 9, 
 page 1 8. 
 
 Note 10, 
 page 19. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 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 vom 
 iting " 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. 
 
 IN December, 1606, there lay at Blackwall, 
 below London, the Susan Constant, of one hundred 
 tons, the Godspeed, of forty tons, and the little pin 
 nace Discovery, of but twenty tons three puny 
 ships to bear across the wintry Atlantic the begin 
 ners 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, ser 
 mons 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 : some 
 times a grain of mustard seed proves a great tree. 
 Who can tell?" On the igth of that most tem 
 pestuous 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 enter- 
 
 25 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Departure 
 of the emi 
 grants. 
 
 Ld. Chan 
 cellor s 
 Speech in 
 reply to the 
 Speaker. 
 
26 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 A. D. 1606. 
 
 prise 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. 
 
 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 with 
 out 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 prod 
 uce 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. 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 2; 
 
 III. 
 
 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 emi 
 grants 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. 
 
 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 Hamp 
 ton 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Character 
 of the emi 
 grants. 
 
 Smith s 
 Gen. Hist., 
 iii, c. i and 
 c. xii. 
 Advertise 
 ments for 
 Planters of 
 New Eng., 
 P- 5- 
 Comp. 
 Brief e De 
 claration in 
 Pub. Rec. 
 Off., Sains- 
 bury i, 66 ; 
 and New 
 Life of Va. 
 
 Essay on 
 Planta 
 tions. 
 
 The arri 
 val. 
 
28 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 A. D. 1607. 
 
 Percy, in 
 Purchas, 
 p. 1689. 
 
 The first 
 meetings 
 with In 
 dians. 
 
 Percy, in 
 Purchas iv, 
 PP- 1685, 
 1686. 
 
 banks must have shown masses of the white flow 
 ers of the dogwood, mingled with the pink-purple 
 blossoms of the redbud against the dark primeval 
 forest. Wherever they went ashore the newcom 
 ers 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." 
 
 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 war 
 fare. " 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." 
 
 But the newly arrived did not find all the Indi 
 ans 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 fantas 
 tic 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 
 
> 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 face painted blue and besmeared with some glis 
 tering- 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 
 \vere " all behting 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 de 
 fended 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 ex 
 perimental potatoes, melons, and pumpkins, but 
 they postponed sowing grain until about the first 
 of June in our reckoning. 
 
 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 them- 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 A. D. 1607. 
 
 Purchas i, 
 686 and 
 following. 
 
 Founding 
 of James 
 town. 
 
 Note i. 
 
 Relatyon 
 of the Dis 
 covery of 
 our River, 
 Am. Antiq. 
 Soc.,iv, 61. 
 
 The win 
 ter of 
 misery. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 A. D. 1607. 
 
 selves in mere burrows in the ground. Ill provided 
 at the start, the greater part of their food was con 
 sumed by the seamen, who lingered to gather com 
 minuted mica for gold. In this hard environment, 
 rent by faction, destitute of a competent leader and 
 of any leader with competent authority, the won 
 der is that of this little company a single man sur 
 vived 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 " trailed out like dogs." Half of the hundred colo 
 nists 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. 
 
 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 in 
 tentions 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 Cap 
 tain 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 asso 
 ciates. It was only on the intercession of the cler 
 gyman, Hunt, that he was at length admitted to 
 the Council. 
 
 His paradoxical character has been much mis 
 understood. 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Emer 
 gence of 
 Captain 
 John 
 Smith. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 His story 
 of his own 
 life. 
 
 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 his 
 torical authority of such a man must be valid. 
 
 His character, double and paradoxical as it is, 
 presents no insoluble enigma if we consider the 
 forces of nature and of habit underlying its mani 
 festations. According to his own highly colored 
 narrative, he had fed his fervid imagination on ro 
 mances 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 ad 
 ventures to the size of those that had excited his 
 admiration. The same romantic turn of the imag 
 ination 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 valu 
 able when boldness and aggressive action are in 
 request ; to relate facts where autobiography is in 
 volved he is little fitted. 
 
 According to Smith s own narrative, he was 
 robbed and shipwrecked at sea ; he slew three in 
 fidel 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 33 
 
 off his story, he was beloved in romance fashion 
 by a fair Turkish lady, one Tragabigzanda ; be 
 friended 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 swim 
 ming without the aid of a whale, when cast over 
 board by Catholic pilgrims to appease a tempest. 
 Never any other wanderer since the safe return of 
 Ulysses passed through such a succession of mar 
 velous escapes as this young John Smith. His ac 
 cidents and achievements, even without exaggera 
 tion, were fairly notable, doubtless, but they are 
 forever obscured by his vices of narration. 
 
 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 dan 
 gerous 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. Make what reductions 
 we may, the results of his journeys and the testi 
 mony of his contemporaries show him to have been 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Interest in 
 coloniza 
 tion. 
 
 His char 
 acter. 
 
34 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Smith s 
 explora 
 tion and 
 trading. 
 
 A. D. 1607, 
 1608. 
 
 Oxford 
 
 Tract, 
 
 passim. 
 
 Gen. Hist. 
 passim. 
 
 brave, vigilant, conciliatory, and successful. In 
 labor he was indefatigable, in emergencies he 
 proved himself ready-witted and resourceful. 
 His recorded geographical observations are re 
 markably accurate considering his circumstances, 
 and his understanding of Indian life shows his in 
 telligence. 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 dif 
 ficulties a historian has to encounter in seeking to 
 discover the truth regarding the events of an age 
 much given to lying. 
 
 VII. 
 
 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 re 
 turned 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 re 
 turning to his hungry countrymen at Jamestown 
 laden with maize from the granaries of the savages. 
 Smith and his companions coasted in all seasons 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 35 
 
 and all weather in an open boat, exercising them 
 selves in morning psalm-singing and praying, in 
 manoeuvring strange Indians by blustering or point- 
 blank lying, and in trying to propagate the Chris 
 tian religion among the heathen all in turn as 
 occasion offered, like true Englishmen of the Jaco 
 bean time. 
 
 Captain Smith s earlier accounts of these achieve 
 ments in Virginia seem to be nearer the truth than 
 his later Generall Historic. As years rolled on his 
 exploits gained in number and magnitude in his 
 memory. The apocryphal story of his expound 
 ing 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 \vas written by 
 his associates and published with his authority, but 
 his captivity had grown to six or seven weeks in 
 the Generall Historic 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 cap 
 ture 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 rep 
 resenting the number of his enemies, who by this 
 simple feat of memory become ten times more re 
 doubtable than before. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 His narra 
 tive. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 His serv 
 ice to the 
 colony. - 
 
 Oxf. Tract, 
 p. 32. 
 
 Gen. Hist. , 
 bk. iii, 
 ch. v. 
 
 Historic of 
 Travaile 
 into Vir 
 ginia, p. 
 41. 
 
 Smith 
 over 
 thrown. 
 
 But it does not matter greatly whether the 
 "strangely grimmed and disguised" Indians seen 
 by Smith at one place on the Potomac, who, ac 
 cording 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 ener 
 getic 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 Chesa 
 peake Bay so well that his map was not wholly 
 superseded for a hundred and forty years. Even 
 Wingfield, who had reason to dislike Smith, recog 
 nizes 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 tra 
 duce here at home." 
 
 During the autumn of 1608 and the winter fol 
 lowing Captain Smith was sole ruler of James 
 town, 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 mor 
 tal enemies. These were the visionary and turbu- 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 37 
 
 lent 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 as 
 sault the insubordinate settlers under West near 
 the falls, and with having designed to wed Poca- 
 hontas in order to secure royal rights in Virginia 
 as son-in-law to Powhatan. 
 
 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 pre 
 dicted the coming importance of the colonial trade 
 and the part to be played by the American fish 
 eries in promoting the greatness of England by 
 " breeding mariners." He only of the men of his 
 time suspected the imperial size and future great 
 ness of North America. He urged that the colo 
 nies 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 A. D. 1609. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 His later 
 years. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 The fam 
 ine of 
 i6og- io. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
 A. D. 1609, 
 1610. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 un 
 checked hostility of the savages drove the outset- 
 tiers from Nansemond and the falls of the James. 
 The Indians found exercise for their devilish in 
 genuity in torturing those who fell into their hands 
 alive, and outraging the dead. The brave but un 
 wise 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 tor 
 tured 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 39 
 
 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 embar 
 rassed by the restraints of gentility. From this 
 horrible expedient it was but one step to the dig 
 ging 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 despair 
 ing 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 sav 
 ages, 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 A. D. 1610. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Tragicall 
 Relation, 
 1623. 
 
 Briefe Dec 
 laration, 
 1624, both 
 in British 
 Pub. Rec 
 ord Office. 
 Percy s 
 Trewe Re- 
 lacy on, 
 MS., Pet- 
 worth 
 House. 
 
 The arri 
 val of 
 Gates and 
 Somers, 
 
 1610. 
 
 A True 
 Declara 
 tion of the 
 Estate of 
 the Colony 
 of Virginia, 
 1610, p. 23. 
 
 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 James 
 town 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. 
 
 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 unin 
 habited, 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 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. Find 
 ing that their provisions would not last more than 
 two or three weeks, they abandoned the wreck of 
 Jamestown, crowding all the people into four pin 
 naces, 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 pre 
 ferred the desperate chance of a voyage in pin 
 naces on a shipless sea with but a fortnight s pro 
 vision to facing again the horrors of life at 
 Jamestown. 
 
 With all the formalities thought necessary at 
 that time, De la Warr took possession of James 
 town, 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 Pa 
 tience, the little cedar pinnace which he had built 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
 Dela 
 
 Warr s ar 
 rival, 1610. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Smith s 
 Oxford 
 Tract, so 
 called. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 Dela 
 Warr s 
 govern 
 ment, 1610. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 British Mu 
 seum, MS. 
 2i,993, 
 ff. 174, 178- 
 Instr. to 
 Gates and 
 Dela 
 Warr. 
 
 Gold-hunt- 
 ing. 
 
 wholly of the wood of that island without a parti 
 cle 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. 
 
 Jamestown was cleansed, and with a piety char 
 acteristic 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 meth 
 od 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 In 
 dian priests are not to be caught in time of war. 
 But De la Warr undertook another part of his in 
 structions. 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 43 
 
 itself. This plan originated with the London man 
 agers of Virginia affairs, and men had been sent 
 with De la Warr who were supposed to be skill 
 ful 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 fort} 7 miles above the present site 
 of Richmond. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 en 
 thusiasm 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 col 
 ony, and none more deeply, perhaps, than Prince 
 Henry, the heir apparent. At Henry s request, 
 Sir Thomas Dale, an officer who had been em 
 ployed about the prince s person, and who with 
 other English officers was now in the service of 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Brief e Dec 
 laration, 
 MS., Pub. 
 Rec. Off. 
 
 Flight of 
 
 Dela 
 
 Warr. 
 
 Sir 
 
 Thomas 
 Dale, 1611. 
 
 Docs. Rel. 
 to Col. 
 Hist. N.Y., 
 i, pp. i, 2, 
 3, 9, J o, 
 16-21. 
 
44 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 The heavy 
 hand of 
 Dale, 1611- 
 1616. 
 
 A Briefe 
 Declara 
 tion of the 
 Plantation 
 of Virginia, 
 1624, MS., 
 Pub. Rec. 
 Off. 
 
 Brit. Mu 
 seum, MS., 
 
 2i,993, f- 
 174. 
 
 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 peri 
 suaded 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 ap 
 pears to have been the ruling spirit in the colony. 
 
 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, New 
 port, was the principal reporter of Virginia affairs 
 in England and the principal agent of the company 
 in this deception. Dale s rough temper was al 
 ready 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, de 
 manding " whether it weare meant that people 
 heere in Virginia shoulde feed uppon trees." 
 
 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, franchises, 
 and immunityes of free denizens and natural-born 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 45 
 
 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 discipli 
 narian. 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 cor 
 rupt contractors was " of such qualitie as hoggs re 
 fused to eat." Sir Thomas Gates afterward made 
 oath to its badness before the Chief Justice in 
 London. 
 
 XL 
 
 Dale regarded himself as an agent of the com 
 pany. His aim was by hook or crook to make the 
 hitherto unprofitable colony pay dividends to the 
 shareholders, who were his employers. His rela 
 tion 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-sup 
 porting by clearing corn ground, he gave his first 
 attention to lading vessels with sassafras root, then 
 much prized as a medicine, and cedar timber, val 
 ued especially for its odor. 
 
 During a part of Dale s time eight or nine 
 ounces of meal and half a pint of peas was the 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Briefe Dec 
 laration. 
 
 The years 
 of slavery. 
 
4 6 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Briefe Dec 
 laration. 
 Percy to 
 Northum 
 berland, 
 Hist. MS., 
 Commis 
 sion, 
 
 Kept., iii, 
 53, 54- 
 
 Observa 
 tions and 
 Travel 
 from Lon 
 don to 
 Hamburgh, 
 P- J 3- 
 
 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 be 
 lieved to be not very far away. Dale set the Indi 
 ans 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 temer 
 ity. 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 ra 
 tions by niching 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 47 
 
 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. 
 
 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. " Aban 
 don 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. 
 
 Dale s administration was strongest on its mili 
 tary 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 forti 
 fication, and he even begged for two thousand con 
 victs 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Briefe Dec 
 laration. 
 
 Dale s 
 services. 
 
4 8 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 to Dale s military temper and the Viking 1 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 prob 
 lem. 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. 
 
 The rough-handed soldier from the Low Coun 
 tries had indeed brought the Virginia chaos into 
 order, but it was an order almost as deadly as the 
 preceding anarchy. Dale confessed that the gov 
 ernment 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 49 
 
 in 1616 with a train of Indians, including the " Prin 
 cess" Pocahontas, converted, baptized with a Chris 
 tian name as Rebecca, and wedded to an English 
 man. He added glowing reports of the country, 
 and proved all by exhibiting " at least sixteen sev 
 eral 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 pub 
 lic 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 com 
 munity, but a mere camp of unhappy men retained 
 in the country by the sheer impossibility of getting 
 away. After nine years of suffering, Virginia con 
 sisted of some three hundred and twenty-six men, 
 twenty-five women and children, and graves out 
 numbering many times over all the living souls. 
 
 Three things had been discovered in Dale s 
 time that were of importance to the colony. Dale 
 had by personal experiment learned the two fish 
 ing 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. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 10. 
 
 Note ii. 
 
 Note 12. 
 
Rise of tJie First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Argall s 
 govern 
 ment. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 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 experi 
 mental 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 polite 
 ness 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 breed 
 ing animals of the colony accumulated by Dale he 
 sold, and made no account of the proceeds. There 
 was hardly anything portable or salable in Vir 
 ginia 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 be 
 longing to Lord Rich, and sent an expedition of 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 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 con 
 trived 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 ap 
 pears to have aimed at nothing less than wrecking 
 the company and securing the land and govern 
 ment of Virginia. The first step toward this was 
 to get a charter for a private or proprietary plan 
 tation 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 pi 
 ratical 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 shad 
 owy 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 Cap 
 tain 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Lord 
 Rich s in 
 trigue. 
 
 Note 13. 
 
 itith, 142. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 The Com- 
 panie s 
 root of 
 difference. 
 MS. Rec. 
 Va. Co., 
 May 7, 
 1623. 
 
 MS. Rec. 
 Va. Co., 
 passim. 
 
 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 pre 
 text in a time of technicality and intrigue. There 
 may have been already a scheme to trade upon 
 the hereditary right of Powhatan s daughter. Po- 
 cahontas died in England, leaving an infant son. 
 Argall, on his arrival, hastened to notify the com 
 pany 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 con 
 trived 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 Com 
 pany, 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. 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 53 
 
 XIV. 
 
 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 ruin 
 ous 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 de 
 prived of the lotteries, large and small, which had 
 supplied money for sending eight hundred emi 
 grants 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 wait 
 ing longingly for its death. 
 
 But there set in once more a widespread patri 
 otic 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 en 
 terprise well beyond the danger of failure. They 
 formed auxiliary societies within the Virginia Com- 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Fall of the 
 lottery. 
 
 Note 14. 
 
 Revival of 
 
 interest, 
 
 1618. 
 
54 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 The Great 
 
 Charter, 
 
 1618. 
 
 Pub. Rec. 
 Off. Col. 
 Papers, 
 iii, 40. 
 Disc, of the 
 Old Va. 
 Co. 
 
 pany, 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. 
 
 The movement of 1618 was retarded by the dis 
 grace into which the colony had fallen. An un 
 broken 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 great 
 est 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 de 
 stroyed 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 over- 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 55 
 
 throw the ruling party had much to do with the 
 most notable change that took place in the con 
 duct of affairs in the Virginia Company at this 
 time. On the iSth of November, 1618 memora 
 ble but neglected and forgotten date the Virginia 
 Company, acting within the powers conferred on 
 it by its charter, granted to the residents in Vir 
 ginia a document styled a " Qreat^Chartgrjor Com 
 missions 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 Ameri 
 can 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 fol 
 lowed it be considered, it can hardly be accounted 
 second in importance to any other state paper of 
 the seventeenth century. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Not only did this admirable charter establish a 
 representative form of government and do away 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 15. 
 
 Division 
 of land. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 Note 1 6. 
 
 Aspinwall 
 Papers, p. 
 14, note. 
 
 True Dec 
 laration, p. 
 
 25- 
 
 The good 
 news in 
 Virginia. 
 
 Note 17. 
 
 Tragicall 
 Relation, 
 1623. 
 
 with martial law, but it fairly launched the Virgin 
 ians 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 Char 
 ter 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. 
 
 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 lib 
 erties as no man can who has not known the bitter 
 ness 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 oppres 
 sion from England. 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 57 
 
 XVII. 
 
 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 neces 
 sary to promise special rewards to the men who 
 should marry these young women. If the maids 
 were as certified, " young, handsome, and well rec 
 ommended," 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 eager 
 ly 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 set 
 tlement of America. Suitors far outnumbered the 
 women, and the latter had things pretty much their 
 own way. The first cargo of this interesting mer 
 chandise 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The send 
 ing of 
 wives to 
 Virginia. 
 
 Note 18. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Note 19. 
 
 The strug 
 gle ended, 
 1624. 
 
 to issue a proclamation threatening fine or whip 
 ping 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 re 
 plenished with women sent in the same fashion. 
 In that year, two, whose behavior during the voy 
 age 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 indi 
 cates 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. 
 
 It is not the Virginia colony alone that we have 
 seen in the crucible. The fate of English coloniza 
 tion 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 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 59 
 
 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 con 
 ceptions 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. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note i, 
 page 29. 
 
6o 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 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 in 
 formation 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. 
 
 Whether Smith was injured by gunpowder and required treat 
 ment, 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 mo- 
 mente 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 quali 
 fication 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 boast- 
 fulness, and bluntly accuses him of laying claim to credit that 
 was not his. The charge that Smith, unable to control the un 
 ruly settlers at the Falls under West, advised the Indians to at 
 tack them, is supported by Percy ; and a very different charge, 
 that he stirred up the Indians to assassinate West himself, ap 
 pears 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 out 
 rages, See also the account in the Oxford Tract, with the sig- 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 61 
 
 natures 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. 
 
 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, Gov 
 ernment, and Religion. Written by Captain Smyth, sometime 
 Governor of the Covntry. And wherevnto is annexed the pro 
 ceedings of those colonies since their first departure from Eng 
 land," 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. A history of Virginia was first proposed in a well- 
 considered speech by " Mr. Smith " at a meeting of the Virginia 
 Company, April 12, 1621. This seems to have been not Captain 
 Smith, but John Smith of Nibley. 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 there 
 fore 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. We have no 
 means of knowing whether or not this suggestion had any rela 
 tion to the production of Captain John Smith s Generall Historic, 
 the first edition of which appeared in 1624, the last two editions 
 in 1632. The book is a compilation of Smith s earlier works, some 
 what expanded, not to say inflated. The later portions are mostly 
 made up from the official and guasi -officia] pamphlets. Just what 
 was Dr. Symonds s part in the preparation of the Oxford Tract 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 38. 
 
62 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 and the Generall Historie it would be interesting to know. Its de 
 scriptive portions are of high value, and we are now able to con 
 trol its historical errors to a certain extent. Besides these three 
 works on Virginia, Smith published a Description of New Eng 
 land, 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 pub 
 lished 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 credi 
 bility 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 ad 
 venture. 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 personal morals were probably unexception 
 able. 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 mar 
 velous story) rise to three or four thousand in the Generall His 
 torie. Pocahontas becomes the central figure in incidents as told 
 in 1624 in which she had no place in 1612. There is but one al- 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 lusion 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 be 
 yond 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 in 
 strumental 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 \Vingfield 
 for the other side. Unnecessary heat has characterized some of 
 the debates about John Smith. History pitched in a shrill polem 
 ical 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 trust 
 worthiness 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 ap 
 parently 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 govern 
 ment 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 dan 
 ger of disturbance from Archer, who was " troubled with an am 
 bitious spirit." Wingfield s Discourse, 77, 94, 95. Wingfield 
 also says, " In all their disorders was Mr. Archer a ringleader." 
 He adds that Radcliffe " 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. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 In the note above, as it appeared in the first impression of 
 this volume, I attributed to Captain John Smith certain speeches 
 and motions made by a Mr. John Smyth or Smith in the Virginia 
 Company. Those who had examined the Manuscript Records 
 before me had made the same attribution. But soon after the 
 appearance of this volume I met by accident with Quaritch s 
 Rough List No. 87, and from the list of papers of John Smith of 
 Nibley therein it became probable that he and not the unfortunate 
 Captain Smith had made these wise speeches. 
 
 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 Indi 
 ans 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 chiet 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 \vas master of the 
 situation in these early years. Percy admits that the lawful au 
 thority 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. 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 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 cir 
 cumstantially and abundantly attested. In Peckard s Life of 
 Ferrar, p. 1 58, 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 in 
 credible as horrible for us to repeat to your sacred ears." 
 
 See, among other authorities, A Plaine Declaration of Barmu- 
 das, 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 Repertory 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." 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 6 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 5, 
 page 39. 
 
 Note 6, 
 page 41, 
 
 Note 7, 
 page 42. 
 
 Note 8, 
 page 42. 
 
66 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 1610, but, as Mr. Alexander Brown points out, issued in Decem 
 ber, 1609. 
 
 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 sup 
 plies 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 confi 
 dence 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 curi 
 ous 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 af 
 fairs 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 (Colo 
 nial 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 Historic, 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 mar- 
 tiall 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. 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 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 disci 
 pline 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 In 
 dia 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 i/th 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. i. 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 Vir 
 ginia in 1874 in a Senate document entitled Colonial Records of 
 Virginia. Very good abstracts of both papers appear in Sains- 
 bury s Calendar. I cite the Discourse of the Old Virginia Com 
 pany from the MS. in the British Public Record Office. I do not 
 remember to have seen it in print. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
68 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 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 coun 
 try, 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." 
 
 The Discourse of the Old Virginia Company, an exceedingly 
 interesting manuscript in the British Record Office, makes it ap 
 pear 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. 
 
 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 authori 
 ties 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. 
 
 " And to protect Captain Argall from being called to an ac 
 count 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, author 
 ity, and jurisdiction to be from hence derived or there established, 
 that so he might reign there as great and absolute master, with 
 out law or controulment, and without the fear of ever being called 
 to any future reckoning. . . . Whatsoever was remaining at that 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 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 es 
 tablished, 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 com 
 plaining to the king. 
 
 Birch s Court and Times of James the First, i, 31 1. Chamber 
 lain 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 com 
 modities 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 Can 
 terbury, February 22, 1615. There was a "running lottery" of 
 smaller adventures in Paul s Churchyard before the " great stand 
 ing 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 14, 
 page 53. 
 
;o 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 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. 
 
 My attention was first attracted to the date of the Great 
 Charter by a minute in the handwriting of Secretary Williamson 
 in the Public Record Office, as follows: "Those Adventurers & 
 Planters by Vertue ol y e sd Letfs Patent of Incorporacon &c. 
 made a Great charter of Lawes and Ordrs for ye governmt of 
 the Country. It bore date at London Nov 13 th 1618." Col. 
 Pprs. i, ii. A note to the Aspinwall Papers, 14, refers to certain 
 land grants which cite the Great Charter of November I3th. Fol 
 lowing these two authorities I gave the same date in the first and 
 second edition of this work. I was aware that Yeardley s In 
 structions, printed in the Virginia Magazine of History, are dated 
 the 1 8th, and Wyatt s Instructions refer to Yeardley s "commis 
 sion" as dated the i8th. I have now examined the land grants 
 recorded in the First Book of Patents in the office of the Regis 
 ter of Lands at Richmond. A large number of the earlier ones 
 refer to the Great Charter as authority, and they uniformly give 
 the same date, the i8th. The evidence is thus convincing in 
 favor of the later date. I defer any fuller treatment of the 
 character and influence of the charter to a later volume of this 
 series. 
 
 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 set^ 
 tiers 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. 
 
James River Experiments. 
 
 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 i8th 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. 
 
 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, I, 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." Manu 
 script 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 re 
 mainder 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 DO- 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 17, 
 page 56. 
 
 Note 18, 
 page 57- 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 mingo 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. 
 
 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 re 
 mote 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 (Sains- 
 bury, 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 iyth of the same month, June u, 
 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. 
 
 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 second 
 ary 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 in 
 tended 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. 
 
 The colonies attempted by Frobisher and Gil 
 bert were to serve as relays in the work of explora 
 tion 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 Span 
 ish intrigue and aggression, and his efforts to plant 
 colonies in the virgin land were suggested by a 
 
 73 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The chief 
 mistake. 
 
 The rival 
 ry with 
 Spain. 
 
74 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Lane to 
 Sydney. 
 Aug. 12, 
 1585. 
 Sainsbury. 
 
 Lane to 
 Walsing- 
 ham. Aug. 
 
 12, 1585. 
 
 Sainsbury. 
 
 Note i. 
 
 Delusions 
 in colony- 
 planting. 
 
 knowledge of the almost exhaustless treasure that 
 flowed into Spanish coffers from America. The op 
 portune capture of a Spanish carack bound home 
 ward 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 " ene 
 mies 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. 
 
 The prolonged movement for a colonial estab 
 lishment, 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 pas 
 sage through North America to the Pacific was 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 75 
 
 still leading explorers a merry dance when the 
 first Jamestown emigrants sailed in 1606, and gold 
 mines of comminuted mica, of iron pyrites, of In 
 dian mineral paints, and of pure fable were potent 
 attractions for some time after. The gradual in 
 crease of geographical knowledge caused the 
 "South Sea" to take shelter in the unknown re 
 gion 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. 
 
 The production of commodities which the un- 
 genial 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 Mediter 
 ranean region would have proved successful if the 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Commodi 
 ties. 
 
 For exam 
 ple, Car 
 lisle s 
 treatise, 
 Anderson s 
 Commerce, 
 year 1583. 
 
7 6 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 climate had been half as favorable to such enter 
 prises as the government. The arguments ad 
 vanced 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 silk 
 worms, in imitation of Henry IV, the reigning 
 King of France, who succeeded in producing co 
 coons in the Tuileries but not in making silk 
 culture profitable in the north of France. Mulber 
 ries 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 treach 
 erous 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 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 77 
 
 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. 
 
 Silk was little known in England at the begin 
 ning 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 establish 
 ment of silk manufacturing in England ; throw 
 sters, 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 impor 
 tation 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 sub 
 ject 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A new silk 
 fever. 
 
 Cal. Dom. 
 S. P. 
 
 James I, p. 
 428. 
 
 Pory s Re 
 port, Pub. 
 Rec. Off. 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Phil. 
 
 Trans. I, 
 
 201. 
 
 Hening i, 
 14. 
 
 Original 
 Records of 
 Colony 
 of Va. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 1655- 
 
 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 an 
 nihilate a hundred feeble projects. The real doom 
 of silk-raising, however, came from the fact that 
 the culture of tobacco in virgin soil was incalcu 
 lably 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 fur 
 nished 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 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 79 
 
 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." 
 
 By 1666 the silk delusion had passed, and the 
 Virginia Assembly repealed all acts for the en 
 couragement 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. 
 
 ill. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Comp. Va. 
 Richly Val 
 ued, 1650, 
 and Leah 
 and Ra 
 chel, 1656. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 Hening ii, 
 242. 
 
 Phil. 
 
 Trans. XI, 
 628. 
 
 Silk-grass. 
 
8o 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 A Briefe 
 and True 
 Report of 
 the New 
 Found 
 Land of 
 Virginia. 
 
 Proceed 
 ings of Va. 
 Assembly, 
 1619. 
 2d N. Y. 
 Hist. 
 Society 
 Coll. iii, 
 343. 
 
 Purchas 
 IV, p. 
 
 1777. 
 
 Instr. of 24 
 July, 1624. 
 MS. Bk. of 
 Instr. Libr. 
 of Cong. 
 
 our popular speech. Harlot, 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 Assem 
 bly, 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 diffi- 
 cultie " ; 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 re- 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 Si 
 
 suits from the yucca fiber outlasted that genera 
 tion, and was in full vigor in 1649, sixty-four years 
 after Hariot s mistake. 
 
 IV. 
 
 It was also proposed to produce wine in Vir 
 ginia 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. im 
 poverishment of the gjood 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 for 
 bidden 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. 
 
 All the commodities sought from Virginia were 
 unsuited to conditions in a new country. To the 
 folly of making such experiments at all where liv 
 ing 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. 
 7 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Wine. 
 
 MS. Rec. 
 Va. Co. i, 
 343- 
 
 Other 
 
 products 
 
 sought. 
 
82 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 Nova Brit- 
 tania. 
 
 Timber 
 and naval 
 stores. 
 
 MS. Rec. 
 Va. Co. 31 
 May and 23 
 June, 1620. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
 Plants of every clime grew rank in the imagina 
 tion 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 ex 
 presses it. Along with " orenges, limons, and al 
 monds," this official writer proposes to plant "an- 
 niseeds, 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 three 
 fold peril of death from famine, pestilence, and sav 
 age war was imminent. 
 
 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? 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 It had been found that the savages eagerly re 
 ceived glass beads in exchange for corn and pel 
 tries. 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 ma 
 terials were available at first, and it became neces 
 sary to request that sand might be sent from 
 England to make Virginia glass of at the glass 
 works in the woods near Jamestown. The Ger 
 man 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 commodi 
 ties. There was a certain fitness in intrusting these 
 creatures of the imagination to a poet. Pineap 
 ples, 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Glass- 
 making. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Iron 
 
 works. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
8 4 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK i. 
 
 Result 
 of the 
 massacre. 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 A Covnter- 
 Blaste to 
 Tobacco, 
 1604. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 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 fre 
 quent battles with the savages they spent in grow 
 ing corn and tobacco, which last, of all the things 
 tried, proved to be the only commodity profitable 
 for export. 
 
 v. 
 
 Against tobacco King James had written a 
 book. It was denounced in Parliament and re 
 garded by all public-spirited men as an evil. Nev 
 ertheless, 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 profit 
 able, to the disgust of the pedantic king and the 
 sorrow of all who had cherished hopes of beautiful 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 products from a colony upon which so much po 
 etic 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 investi 
 gation into wampum beads ; the silver mine once 
 discovered on the upper James had vanished for 
 ever; tropical fruits refused to grow; even mad 
 der and woad failed, and, though the indigo plant 
 would readily mature, nobody knew how to manu 
 facture the dye. Silk was troublesome and un 
 profitable, shipbuilding, and such coarse but patri 
 otic 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 James 
 town 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 mer 
 cenary interest in the prosperity of Virginia was 
 established. By 1624, when the Virginia Com 
 pany was dissolved, the danger that the colony 
 would be abandoned as a result of Spanish in 
 trigues, Indian massacres, or prolonged discour 
 agement had passed away. Public spirit, patriot 
 ism, 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
86 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Note 9. 
 
 Motives of 
 sentiment. 
 
 Rise of the 
 patriot 
 party in 
 the Vir 
 ginia Com 
 pany. 
 
 in England and a perdition to its inhabitants, be 
 came a sober money-making enterprise, uninterest 
 ing to enthusiasts and philanthropists. 
 
 VI. 
 
 In the preceding sections of this chapter we 
 have traced what may be called the series of com 
 mercial motives that, sometimes in succession, 
 often in co-operation, propelled the Virginia move 
 ment. The agitation for a colony was primarily 
 a commercial one. The London or Virginia Com 
 pany by which it was carried forward had been 
 organized in the form of the great trading cor 
 porations of the time, such as the Muscovy Com 
 pany and the East India Company, and it was 
 expected to yield large returns. But though com 
 mercial in form and purpose, the Virginia Com 
 pany from the outset was able to appeal success 
 fully in every emergency to motives that were far 
 from mercenary. Into the chain-threads of com 
 mercial enterprise was woven a woof of patriotic 
 feeling and religious sentiment. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Dale s empty-handed return, and Argall s home 
 coming 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 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 Johnson, and the corrupt clique of predatory mer 
 chants, 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 reso 
 luteness. These men had suffered some disap 
 pointment, no doubt, in their struggle for parlia 
 mentary freedom in England. They might have 
 succeeded better had their antagonist been a 
 strong king, but against the pusillanimity, the van 
 ity, 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 obsti 
 nacy 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 ad 
 vocates 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 am 
 bassador 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 
 
88 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Sir Edwin 
 Sandys. 
 
 Royal 
 Hist. MS. 
 Comm. 
 viii, II 45 
 
 The king s 
 interfer 
 ence. 
 
 1620. 
 
 thither, in order to be in company with the popu 
 lar Lord Southampton and the dangerous Sandys. 
 They were deep politicians, and they entertained 
 designs beyond a tobacco plantation. Their lead 
 ers, he said, were " subtle men of high courage 
 who regarded neither his master nor their own." 
 
 Sandys, as assistant to Sir Thomas Smyth and 
 virtual governor, had already succeeded in estab 
 lishing 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 ago 
 ing 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 mes 
 sage 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 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 89 
 
 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 over 
 thrown. The charter of the company was va 
 cated 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 delib 
 erate 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 na 
 tion that were to come has been almost forgotten. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 We shall not have taken a just account of Vir 
 ginia colonization if we do not reckon religious 
 motives among the many forces that carried that 
 wavering enterprise to success. From the excite 
 ment about American exploration and coloniza 
 tion the English church caught its first mission 
 ary impulse. The Indian captives brought from 
 America at various times gave to Englishmen 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 Zeal of the 
 clergy. 
 
 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 Eng 
 lish 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 Eng 
 land 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 con 
 querors 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 Cath 
 olics that they were not " converters of infidels." 
 
 Perhaps the earliest of all Anglican mission 
 aries was Robert Hunt, the first minister in Vir 
 ginia, a light shining in a dark place indeed. He 
 bore with unfaltering courage and a sweet-hearted 
 patience rarely equaled in the history of martyr 
 dom 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 influen^ 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 tial writers in favor of colonization were clergy 
 men such as Hakluyt, Symonds, Purchas, and 
 Crashaw. Other clergymen, following in the foot 
 steps of Hunt, risked life itself in the Virginia col 
 ony, while devout laymen spent their money in its 
 behalf. Thus did Anglican zeal further a colo 
 nization that, by a curious perversity of outcome, 
 resulted in founding a nation of dissenters. 
 
 IX. 
 
 In the great hall of the house of Nicholas Fer- 
 rar, a London merchant, the courts or meetings of 
 the Virginia Company were held for years. The 
 two sons of this Nicholas Ferrar, John and Nicho 
 las, served in turn as deputy governors of the Vir 
 ginia Company. This pious Ferrar family, as it 
 became influential, lent to the scheme of colonizing 
 Virginia something of the air of a project for prop 
 agating 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 roman 
 tic enthusiasm, became deputy in 1622, the pro 
 duction of silk and wine and iron and the educa 
 ting 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 set- 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 tier. 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 war- 
 ranto proceedings in 1624 the government of the 
 colony passed to the Crown, and the Ferrars had 
 no more to do with Virginia. 
 
 x. 
 
 The later career of Nicholas Ferrar the young 
 er, 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 retire 
 ment. Here this half-domestic, half-monastic com 
 munity gave alms to the poor, illuminated manu- 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 93 
 
 scripts of the Bible, and worshiped in its little 
 chapel with genuflections and other observances 
 that procured for it the nickname of the " Prot 
 estant 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 wor 
 shipers the Ferrars kept their devotions always 
 in progress. The entire Psalter was chanted anti- 
 phonally 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 disci 
 pline so austere, and he died in 1637. Little Gid 
 ding, with its "fair grove and sweet walks lat 
 ticed and gardened on both sides," was devastated 
 a few years later by the counter-zeal of the Puri 
 tans, 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 cen 
 tury its idealism in affairs, and its war to the 
 death of opposing ideals in religion ! 
 
 In the very years during which the Ferrars 
 were most active on behalf of Virginia the earliest 
 Puritan movement toward America set in. The 
 
Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 attenuated medievalism 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 ses- 
 thetic 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. 
 
 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 Ma- 
 jestie, 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 Majestic 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. 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 95 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Com 
 merce under 1620, and various state papers abstracted by Sains- 
 bury, 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. WyckofT on Silk 
 Manufacture, Tenth Census, says that experimental silkworms 
 had been taken to Mexico by the Spaniards in 1531, without any 
 permanent results. 
 
 Even in Elizabeth s time efforts had been made to procure 
 naval stores without the intervention of foreign merchants. As 
 early as 1 583, Carlisle, who was son-in-law to Secretary Walsing- 
 ham, 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. 
 
 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 
 
9 6 
 
 Rise of the First Colony. 
 
 made some stoore in a goodly howse sett up for the same pur 
 pose, 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 Colo 
 nial Documents, January 30, February 16, and number 20, pp. 
 38, 39- 
 
 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 immi 
 nent 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. 
 
 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 Likly- 
 hood 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 sup 
 posed to be from the pen of Captain Gabriel Archer. 
 
 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 prob 
 ably 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. Bar- 
 nabee 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 Lon- 
 
The Procession of Motives. 
 
 97 
 
 don, 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 Hue by that trade." He says such shops were 
 "almost in euery lane and in euery by-corner round about Lon 
 don." The Honestie of this Age, p. 30. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Soci 
 ety 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 work 
 ings of court intrigue as it affected Virginia is so fresh and de 
 tailed 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. 
 
 Hakluyt s Discourse concerneing Westerne Planting, printed 
 first in the Maine Historical Collections, second series, vol. ii, 
 page ii. "And this enterprise the princes of religion (amonge 
 whome her Majestic 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." 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Note 9, 
 paga 86. 
 
 Note 10, 
 page 89. 
 
 Note n, 
 page 90. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 THE PURITAN MIGRATION. 
 
 CHAPTER THE FIRST. 
 RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF PURITANISM. 
 
 I. 
 
 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 his 
 toric characters went about dressed like perform 
 ers 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 esti 
 mated at six thousand six hundred pieces of gold. 
 
 The love of pomp was not confined to the court ; 
 
 9 s 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 99 
 
 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 at 
 tendance 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 noble 
 men 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 Eliza 
 beth 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." 
 
 A passionate love of the theater was inevitable 
 in such a time. The best poetry then took a dra 
 matic 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note i. 
 
 Machyn s 
 Diary, 324, 
 note. 
 
 The age 
 of the 
 drama. 
 
IOO 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Display in 
 dress. 
 
 Packard s 
 Life of 
 Ferrar. 
 
 Stubbes, 
 Anatomie 
 of Abuses, 
 passim. 
 
 Note 2, 
 
 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. 
 
 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 re 
 turned from his travels decked himself in gor 
 geous 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 purchas 
 ing 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 appear 
 ing more than they were, impoverished themselves 
 in buying expensive hats and hose ; and it is re 
 corded that women suffering for the necessaries of 
 life sometimes contrived to adorn themselves with 
 velvet. For the very reason that so much impor 
 tance 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 extrava 
 gant 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 some 
 thing of his lofty rank. 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 101 
 
 II. 
 
 Along with a love for external show went a 
 scrupulous observance of decorous and often pomp 
 ous 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 exem 
 plified 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 ar 
 rived 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 starv 
 ing 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Observ 
 ance of 
 ceremo 
 nies. 
 
 Compare 
 supra, 
 p. 41. 
 
102 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 shipboard before he struck sail in front of James 
 town. 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 man 
 ner of the age. He rose at length and marched up 
 into the ruined town. As he passed into the stock 
 ade 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 au 
 thority 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, cap 
 tains, 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 en 
 able him to worship his Maker in a manner becom 
 ing the dignity of a great lord over a howling wil 
 derness. 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. 
 
 Even at a later date in the rather hungry little 
 Pilgrim colony at Plymouth almost as much cere- 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 103 
 
 mony was observed, though the people were ex 
 treme Puritans without rank. At beat of drum on 
 Sunday morning the men came to Captain Stand- 
 ish s door with their cloaks on, each bearing a mus 
 ket 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." 
 
 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 cer 
 tain occasions, was a matter for scruple and violent 
 debate, for the grave consideration of the lawgiver 
 and magistrate, and for severe penalties. 
 
 in. 
 
 In the brief Protestant reign of Edward VI 
 there were those who objected to " the vest 
 ments," and one may even find what were after 
 ward 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 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 time. The English Protestants who fled from that 
 fiery ordeal found refuge chiefly in Protestant cit 
 ies of the Continent. Strasburg, Frankfort, Basel, 
 Zurich, and Geneva were the places to which these 
 English exiles mainly resorted. Zurich and Stras 
 burg 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. 
 
 In the cities in which they found safety the 
 exiles organized English churches. More remark 
 able 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 dis 
 cussion and debate. 
 
 During the preceding reign of King Edward 
 VI, English Protestantism had been forced into 
 many compromises within itself. No form of re 
 ligious 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 105 
 
 unchained easily becomes rampant. There sprang 
 up swiftly a dispute between the church in Stras- 
 burg and the church in Frankfort on matters of 
 government. The reformatory spirit is rarely con 
 ciliatory, and in its excess and overflow it is wont to 
 be pragmatic and impertinent. Some of the reform 
 ers 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 Rich 
 ard Cox and those of John Knox the same who 
 was afterward so famous in the Scottish refor 
 mation. 
 
 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 vio 
 lence the little deceptions and unmanly treacher 
 ies 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 pro 
 duced 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 Protestant 
 ism, and to modify profoundly the history of Eng 
 land and as profoundly the history of the United 
 States. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Character 
 of the de 
 bates at 
 Frankfort. 
 
io6 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 The rise of 
 the two 
 great par 
 ties. 
 
 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 an 
 other, and in the driving away of one leading dis 
 putant after another, there appeared at length the 
 features of the two great parties of English Protes 
 tantism 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, in 
 sisted 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. 
 
 While attempting to mediate between the par 
 ties 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 107 
 
 purity of conduct as on purifying Protestant wor 
 ship from mediaeval forms. 
 
 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 congrega 
 tional independence in church government. 
 
 The petty squabbles of the English exiles, trans 
 planted 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 over 
 throw of the English monarchy, the growth of non 
 conformity, the modification of the English Con 
 stitution 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 Home 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. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Return of 
 the exiles, 
 1558. 
 
 Results. 
 
loS 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 The Puri 
 tan debate. 
 
 Certayne 
 Qvestions 
 concerning 
 silk or 
 wool in 
 the high 
 priest s 
 ephod, 
 1605. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The theological debates that fill so large a 
 place in the history of the first half of the six 
 teenth century in Europe were mainly concerned 
 with speculative dogmas. However futile contro 
 versies 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 cer 
 emonies 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 Brough- 
 ton 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 nec 
 essary to steady one s judgment of that age by 
 remembering that deeper things sometimes lay 
 concealed under these disputes regarding the con- 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 109 
 
 temptible mint and cumin of ecclesiasticism. Puri 
 tanism 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. 
 
 It was in vain that Elizabeth tried to compel 
 uniformity. The difference between the radical 
 and the conservative is constitutional, and is mani 
 fest in every period of agitation. Neither the me 
 diation of moderate men nor the compulsion of 
 authority can bring these two sempiternal divisions 
 of the human race into agreement. The conserva 
 tive English churchman limited his Protestantism 
 to the rejection of the pope s authority, and to cer 
 tain moderate reforms in church government and 
 ritual. He shuddered with alarm at every pro 
 posal 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 be 
 coming common in the vulgar tongue. He ap 
 plied biblical phraseology to the affairs of life in a 
 way that would have been impossible had he pos 
 sessed any sense of humor. He felt himself im 
 pelled 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Uniform 
 ity not 
 possible. 
 
1 10 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Growth of 
 
 party 
 
 spirit. 
 
 Puritan 
 ism the 
 party of 
 opposi 
 tion. 
 
 rags of Antichrist, was his cry. Let us get back 
 to the simplicity of the primitive ages. The An 
 glican, on the other hand, felt himself an English 
 man 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. 
 
 The party line between Anglican and Puritan 
 was not at once sharply drawn. It was only after 
 debates growing ever more acrimonious, after per 
 secutions 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 gov 
 ernment, 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 de 
 sired, " By God, I will unfrock you ! " and modera 
 tion in debate was not to be expected from lesser 
 folk. 
 
 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 move 
 ments seek shelter from the strong. Puritanism 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 ill 
 
 no doubt gathered momentum from the wide 
 spread 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 ten 
 ant, 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 \vere torn down 
 to make room for more profitable occupants of the 
 soil. The worst offenders were the greedy court 
 iers who had secured the estates of the English 
 monasteries. Workmen ruined by the dissolution 
 of the guilds were added to the ranks of the un 
 happy. All the discontent begotten of these tran 
 sitions from mediasval life tended to strengthen the 
 leading opposition and that leading opposition 
 was Puritanism. 
 
 VI. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Widening 
 the field of 
 protest. 
 
112 
 
 TJie Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Puritan 
 ism be 
 comes dog 
 matic. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
 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 Puri 
 tan side did not at first lack support even among 
 the bishops. But Elizabeth, the real founder of 
 Anglicanism, molded the church to her will, put 
 ting 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. 
 
 Most of the Puritans of Elizabeth s time, under 
 the lead of the great Cartwright, became Presbyte 
 rian in theory and sought to assimilate the Church 
 of England to the Calvinistic churches of the Con 
 tinent, holding that theirs was the very order pre 
 scribed by the apostles. Another but much smaller 
 division of the Puritans tended toward independ 
 ency, finding in the New Testament a system dif 
 ferent from that of Cartwright. Both the Pres 
 byterians and those who held to local church 
 government wished to see their own system estab 
 lished by law. Neither faction thought of toler 
 ating Anglican practices if the Anglicans could be 
 put down. The notion of a state church with pre 
 scribed forms of worship enforced by law was too 
 deeply imbedded in the English mind to be easily 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 apos 
 tles " was not an " invariable rule or law to suc 
 ceeding ages, because they acted according to the 
 circumstances of the church in its infant and perse 
 cuted 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 tend 
 ency 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 Presbyteri 
 ans and the Independents and the Catholics, these 
 in turn maintained that their favorite system of 
 church economy was warranted by divine author 
 ity, and that all others were excluded. 
 
 When the High-church leaders had reached 
 the dogmatic assertion of apostolic succession and 
 a divinely appointed episcopal form of government 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Anglican 
 ism be 
 comes 
 dogmatic. 
 
 Failure of 
 Eliza 
 beth s 
 policy. 
 
114 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK n. 
 
 Bitterness 
 of the de 
 bate. 
 
 The Mar- 
 prelate 
 tracts. 
 
 1588. 
 
 as essentials of a Christian church, the fissure be 
 tween the two ecclesiastical parties in England 
 was complete. Each had settled itself upon a sup 
 posed 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. 
 
 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 con 
 troversy 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. 
 
 The sensation produced by these violent assaults 
 is hardly conceivable now. There were no news 
 papers then, and there was but little popular lit 
 erature. 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 descend- 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 ing 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-ma- 
 gestrate, Mar-church, and Mar-commonwealth." 
 The spice of the books, that which gave them their 
 popularity, was doubtless their rollicking impu 
 dence. " 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." 
 
 The little books went everywhere. The Bishop 
 of Winchester sadly confessed that these " slander 
 ous 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The Mar- 
 prelate 
 tracts in 
 Lenox 
 Library. 
 
 An Ad 
 monition to 
 the People 
 of Eng 
 land, p. 25. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 Lenox Col 
 lection, 
 N. Y. Pub. 
 Library. 
 
 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. 
 
 Dr. Cooper, Bishop of Winchester, replied to 
 the first pamphlet somewhat ponderously, as be 
 came a bishop who feels that the proprieties for 
 bid 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." 
 
 There were not wanting many imitators of Mar 
 tin 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 117 
 
 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. 
 
 Puritanism was evolutionary from the begin 
 ning. Its earlier disputes about vestments and 
 litanies grew by degrees to a rejection of all litur 
 gies as idolatrous. Even the reading of the Bible 
 as a part of the service came at last to be repre 
 hended 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 ass- 
 thetic sense, confounding bareness with simplicity. 
 Compromises continued to be made inside the 
 church, but in the ultimate ideal of Puritan wor 
 ship 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. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Comp. 
 Bacon s 
 An Adver 
 tisement 
 touching 
 Controver 
 sies, etc. 
 
 Advance 
 of Puritan 
 opinions. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 x. 
 
 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 serv 
 ice 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 119 
 
 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 super 
 stition and wickedness " be taken down. 
 
 XI. 
 
 From denouncing constructive idolatry in or 
 gan 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 scrupulos 
 ity. 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 con 
 duct. Having set out to reform the church, it took 
 the world by the way. 
 
 As early as 1583 Philip Stubbes, a Puritan 
 lawyer, issued his hot little book, The Anatomic of 
 Abuses. It deals with the immoralities and ex 
 travagances of the time. Stubbes repeats the early 
 Puritan objection to the May-pole : it is a " stinck- 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 1549- 
 
 Rush- 
 worth, Pt. 
 Ill, vol. ii, 
 749. A. D. 
 1644. 
 
 Austerity 
 in morals. 
 
I2O 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Pickering s 
 ed.,p. 172. 
 
 yng idol," he declares, which the people bring from 
 the woods, "following 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 frol 
 ics 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 al 
 ready foreshadows later Puritanism. 
 
 This secondary development of Puritanism by 
 which its energies were turned toward the regula 
 tion 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 121 
 
 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, Salvation 
 ists, that the great unleavened mass of men is ren 
 dered gradually less sodden. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The last years of Elizabeth s long reign were 
 years of apparent Puritan decline. The old bug 
 bear 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 Catho 
 lics 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 Eng 
 land 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 ridicu 
 lous, there followed a swift reaction. The Puri 
 tans were dubbed Martinists, and henceforth had 
 to bear the odium of the boisterous vulgarity and 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Puritan 
 decline. 
 
 Supra, 
 page 115. 
 
122 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Rogers s 
 Pref. to the 
 39 Articles. 
 
 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. Hook 
 er 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 sup 
 press 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 doc 
 tors 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 pres 
 byteries which Cartwright and his friends had 
 formed within the Church of England were swept 
 out utterly by the archbishop s broom. The Puri 
 tan movement which had begun almost simultane 
 ously with Elizabeth s reign seemed to be doomed 
 to languish and die with the old queen who had 
 been its resolute and lifelong antagonist. 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 123 
 
 XIII. 
 
 For the first thirty years or more of its exist 
 ence Puritanism was mainly a bundle of negations, 
 and no bundle of mere negations is a sufficient rea 
 son 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 Protes 
 tant to most of the people by association. To find 
 additional reasons for differing from Anglican op 
 ponents was a party necessity. The new debates 
 which sprang up in the last years of the sixteenth 
 century were not deliberately planned by the Puri 
 tans, 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. 
 
 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 priest 
 hood they declared also against a doctrine known 
 in the church at least from the fifth century, that 
 the fourth commandment enforced on Christians 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Seeking a 
 
 positive 
 
 ground. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 The Puri 
 tan Sab 
 bath. 
 
124 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 Rise of the 
 strict Sab 
 bath. 
 
 the keeping sacred in some sense of Sundays and 
 other church holy days. Luther maintained that 
 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 any 
 where 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 Augs 
 burg 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 ex 
 hibition of Christian liberty in this regard. His 
 practice was conformed to his theory. It is inci 
 dentally related that when John Knox once visited 
 the Genevan reformer on Sunday, he found him 
 playing at bowls. Knox was not more a Sabba 
 tarian than Calvin. 
 
 xv. 
 
 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 12$ 
 
 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 differ 
 ence between the English and the Continental Sun 
 day 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 re 
 tained the Catholic Sunday, as they did the vest 
 ments 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 Ed 
 ward 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. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 Compare 
 Marsden s 
 Early Puri 
 tans (1850) 
 page 242, 
 where Be- 
 con s Cate 
 chism and 
 Coverdale 
 are quoted. 
 
 Robert s 
 Social 
 Hist, of the 
 Southern 
 Counties, 
 p. 239. 
 
 Note 9. 
 
126 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 Early Eng 
 lish Text 
 Society Re 
 print, 106, 
 107, 108. 
 
 is significant that one finds Sunday called the Sab 
 bath. Sabbath as applied to Sunday occurs first 
 in literature, perhaps, in 1573, and then it is con 
 sidered necessary to explain it. Bullein s Dialogue 
 against the Fever Pestilence, a work of consider 
 able popularity, first appeared as early as 1564. In 
 the edition of 1573 there was inserted a new pas 
 sage not found in the earlier issue. Mendax is re 
 lating incredible tales of travel in lands unknown, 
 after the manner of David Ingram and other re 
 turned 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 gro 
 tesque 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 ward 
 ers." " 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 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 127 
 
 in them, but onely almose, fasting and praier." 
 This is perhaps the oldest extant statement of an 
 early Puritan ideal of Sabbath-keeping. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 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 municipali 
 ties 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 fol 
 lowing 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 al 
 ready existed among the chosen few. " The Sab- 
 both 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." 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Cox s Lit 
 erature of 
 the Sab 
 bath Ques 
 tion, sub 
 anno. 
 
 Robert s 
 Southern 
 Counties, 
 pp. 238, 
 239- 
 
 1583- 
 
128 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 1588. 
 
 Bownd on 
 the Sab 
 bath. 
 
 1595- 
 
 1592. 
 
 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 peo 
 ple 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. 
 
 Dr. Bownd s book on The Sabbath of the Old 
 and the New Testament, which, if we may be 
 lieve its opponents, was nearly ten years " in 
 the hammering," was the outcome of a senti 
 ment already rising among the Puritans, and 
 not wholly confined to that party. It was pre 
 ceded 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 prac 
 tice 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 gener 
 ally in all English-speaking lands " were for the 
 first time broadly and prominently asserted in 
 Christendom " ; at least, they were here first sys 
 tematically propounded and defended. Bownd 
 held that the fourth commandment is partly moral, 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 129 
 
 in the phrase of the casuists. He shifted the obli 
 gation to the first day of the week by arguments 
 now familiar, and he laid down rules for the ob 
 servance of the day. Honest recreations and law 
 ful 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. 
 
 Such rigor fell in with the passion of that 
 age for formal observance and with the exi 
 gent 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 Sun 
 day, 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 some 
 times in the churches. As an austere reaction 
 10 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 10. 
 
 Spread of 
 
 Bownd s 
 
 opinions. 
 
 Cart- 
 wright s 
 Admoni 
 tion to Par 
 liament, 
 J 572. 
 Robert s 
 Southern 
 Counties, 
 PP- 37, 38. 
 
130 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 against frivolity, Puritanism pushed Sabbath-keep 
 ing to its extreme, reprobating even the most 
 innocent and domestic recreations, and changing 
 a day of rest and refreshment into one of alter- 
 nate periods of application to religious devotion 
 and of scrupulous vacuity. Bownd s rather ultra 
 propositions were carried yet further when re 
 produced 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, adul 
 tery, or parricide. The lack of a sense of pro 
 portion 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. 
 
 In such a time Dr. Bownd s book easily cap 
 tivated the religious public, and there arose a 
 passion for a stricter Sabbath. According to 
 Fuller, the Lord s Day, especially in towns, " be 
 gan to be precisely kept, people becoming a 
 law to themselves, forbearing such sports as yet 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 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 mor 
 ris-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 inciden 
 tally promoted morals and good order in so licen 
 tious an age. 
 
 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 Sab 
 bath, asserting that it put " an unequal lustre 
 on the Sunday on set purpose to eclipse all 
 other holy days to the derogation of the author 
 ity of the church." There were those who as 
 serted 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 Puritan 
 ism from the shifting of the ground of debate, 
 aroused Archbishop Whitgift. In 1599 he made 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Fuller s 
 Ch. Hist, 
 of Britain, 
 book ix, 
 sect, viii, 
 
 2O, 21. 
 
 Opposi 
 tion to 
 Bownd. 
 
 Fuller s 
 Church 
 History, 
 book ix, 
 sect, viii, 
 21. 
 
 Note ii. 
 
132 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK n. 
 
 Note 12. 
 
 1611. 
 
 Note 13. 
 
 Effect on 
 Puritan 
 ism. 
 
 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 enthusi 
 astic admirers and circulated " from friend to 
 friend " in manuscript. As soon as Whitgift s 
 " head was laid," a new and enlarged edition 
 was published. 
 
 The theory of a Sunday-Sabbath, which from 
 the first was not confined to the Puritans, per 
 meated English and American thought and life. 
 But from that time forward the Puritans made 
 rigid Sabbath-keeping the very mark and pass 
 word 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 migra 
 tion 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. 
 
 The Puritans protesting against Hebraism in 
 vestments, in priesthood, in liturgy, and in festivals, 
 fell headlong into the Pharisaism of the rigid Sab- 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 133 
 
 bath. 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 move 
 ment had, indeed, given it a positive party cry, 
 and had furnished it with a visible badge of 
 superior sanctity. 
 
 The Calvinistic controversy which broke out 
 almost simultaneously with that about the Sab 
 bath and prevailed throughout the reign of 
 James I, added yet one more issue, by making 
 Puritanism the party of a stern and conserva 
 tive orthodoxy, as opposed to the newer Armin- 
 ianism 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 ortho 
 dox}^, 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. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The new 
 Puritan 
 ism. 
 
134 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 ELUCIDATIONS. 
 
 Evelyn s Diary, pp. 4, 5; date, 1634: "My father was ap 
 pointed Sheriff for Surrey and Sussex before they were disjoyned. 
 He had 116 servants in liverys, everyone 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 serv 
 ants." Compare Chamberlain s remarks about Sir George Yearcl- 
 ley, 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. 1 10, 
 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 ren 
 dered 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 man 
 sion 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. 
 
 The Anatomic 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 call- 
 yng. 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 agparell he lusteth himself, 
 or can get by any kinde of meanes. So that it is very hard to 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 135 
 
 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." 
 
 A Brieff Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort, 1 564, 
 is the primary authority. It is almost beyond doubt that Whit- 
 tingham, 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 Refor 
 mation. 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 in 
 voked. " 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 ob 
 jectionable, such as kneeling at the Lord s Supper, the linen sur 
 plice, 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." 
 
 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 Cot 
 ton s Answer to Roger Williams, in a note. 
 
 That the Puritans early made common cause with the suffering 
 tenantry is not a matter of conjecture. Philip Stubbes, in 1583, 
 in the Anatomic of Abuses, pp. 126, 127, writes : " They take in 
 and inclose commons, moores, heathes, and other common pas 
 tures, 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 106. 
 
 Note 4, 
 page 106. 
 
 Note 5, 
 page in. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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 com 
 mon ; 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 Grand 
 father s Days . . . the Church-ale at Whitsuntide did the Busi 
 ness. . . . Since the Reformation and Inclosures aforesaid these 
 Parts have swarm d with poor People. The Parish of Cain pays 
 to the Poor 500^ 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, em- 
 ploy 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 Eng 
 land, 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. 
 
 In the matterof 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 1 593. After 
 the suppression of the presbyteries within the Church in the last 
 years of Elizabeth, and the crushing out of the Separatists by rig- 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 137 
 
 orous 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 gen 
 eral." 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 recog 
 nize 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 coun 
 tries drew England toward Presbyterianism, while the voice of New 
 England came from over the sea pleading for Congregationalism. 
 
 A letter of Sandys, afterward Archbishop of York, to Bullinger, 
 quoted by Marsden, Early Puritans, 57, shows that though Puri 
 tanism by 1573 had become something other than it was at 
 Frankfort, it was still mainly negative. Sandys writes : " New ora 
 tors are rising up from among us ; foolish young men who despise 
 authority and admit of no superior. They are seeking the com 
 plete 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 " presby 
 tery " 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 Sab 
 bath-keeping, church-going, " ordinances," and ascetic austerity 
 in morals that afterward became distinctive traits of the party. 
 
 Augustine and other early doctors of the Church held to a 
 Sunday-Sabbath in the fifth century, basing it largely on grounds 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 7, 
 page 123. 
 
 Note 8, 
 page 125. 
 
138 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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 au 
 thority, 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 argu 
 ments drawn from astrology. Hearne s Remains, ii, 177, cites 
 Mirandula. Legislation by Parliament regarding Sunday ob 
 servance was rare before the Reformation. A statute of 28 Ed 
 ward 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 fes 
 tivals except four Sundays in harvest. In 4 Edward IV a statute 
 was passed forbidding the sale of shoes on Sundays and certain 
 festivals. 
 
 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 of 
 fended than pleased, more dishonoured than honoured upon the 
 holy-day because of idleness, pride, drunkenness," etc. The re 
 ligious 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 para 
 dox, which the English Reformation took from the beginning, 
 
Rise and Development of Puritanism. 
 
 139 
 
 there is added in the same paragraph the following: "Yet not 
 withstanding 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 su- 
 perstitiously 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. 
 
 Dr. Bownd s Sabathum Veteris et Novi Testament! is ex 
 ceedingly 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. 
 
 It is Thomas Rogers, the earliest opponent of the doctrine of 
 Greenham and Bownd, who sees a deep-laid plot in the publica 
 tion 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 de 
 fending 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 ham 
 mering 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." Pref 
 ace to Thirty-nine Articles, paragraph 20. He also says, with 
 some wit, " They set up a new idol, their Saint Sabbath." 
 
 The doctrine of a strict Sabbath appears to have made no 
 impression in Scotland until the seventeenth century was well 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 10, 
 page 129. 
 
 Note u, 
 page 131. 
 
 Note 12, 
 page 132. 
 
140 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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, 
 1 598, twenty-four years after Knox s death : 
 
 " Item, The prouest, bailleis, and counsall ratefeis and ap 
 proves the statute maid obefoir, bering that na mercatt, nather of 
 fische nor flesche salbe on the Sabboth day in tyine 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." 
 
 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 diffi 
 culties, 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 thorough 
 paced literalist Shepard argues through fifty pages that the Sab 
 bath 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. 
 
 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 serv 
 ice, 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 writ 
 ing, 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 eccle 
 siastical organization ultimately dominated the 
 Congregationalism of New England and the non 
 conformity of the mother country. For these 
 
 141 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Impor 
 tance of 
 the Sepa 
 ratists. 
 
142 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 reasons, if for no other, Brownism, however ob 
 scure it may have been, is not a negligible element 
 in history. 
 
 II. 
 
 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 reform 
 ing 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. 
 
 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 be 
 came 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 ser 
 mons 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, principal- 
 lie owte of Northampton towne and Overston 
 aforesaid, with other townes thereaboute, there to 
 receive the sacramentes with preachers and min- 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 143 
 
 isters 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 1 his deanery of 
 Durham until his death, in 1579. ^ n J 5^3 Dr. Tur 
 ner was sneering at bishops as " white coats " and 
 "tippett gentlemen," while himself Dean of Dur 
 ham. 
 
 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 Separa 
 tist," 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Rogers s 
 Preface to 
 Articles. 
 Parker 
 Soc. ed., 
 p. 10. 
 
 The Semi- 
 Separa 
 tists. 
 
 Bancroft in 
 Barlowe s 
 Svmme 
 and Svb- 
 stance. 
 
 Heresiog- 
 raphy, p. 
 82. 
 
144 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Causes of 
 Separa- 
 
 Thomas 
 Scott in 
 Pagitt, 80. 
 
 Prayers are done, rush into our Churches to hear 
 our Sermons." 
 
 III. 
 
 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. Re 
 ligious 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 differ 
 ence 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 oc 
 cur to them that this primitive organization was 
 probably brought over from the neighboring Jew 
 ish congregations from which the converts had 
 withdrawn, and that there might not be any obli 
 gation 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 un 
 doubtedly promoted by persecution. Bradford 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 145 
 
 says that the sufferings inflicted on them by the 
 bishops helped some of the Puritans " to see fur 
 ther into things by the light of the word of God. 
 How not only these base and beggerly ceremonies 
 were unlawful!, but also that the lordly and tiran- 
 ous power of the prelats ought not to be sub 
 mitted 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 apos 
 tolic age, from which the profane should be ex 
 cluded by a strict discipline. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The beginning of Separatism has been com 
 monly 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 excommu 
 nication 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. 
 ii 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Plimoth 
 Plantation, 
 p. 8. 
 
 Robert 
 Browne 
 and 
 
 Brown- 
 ism. 
 
 1581 to 
 1586. 
 
146 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Note i. 
 
 Rise of 
 Separa 
 tism. 
 
 Barclay s 
 Inner Life, 
 PP- 13, 53- 
 
 Dialogue 
 of iS93 
 quo. by 
 Wadding- 
 ton. 
 
 Bradford s 
 Dialogue. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 Josias 
 Nichols, 
 The Plea 
 for the 
 Innocent, 
 1602, in 
 Hanbury, 
 
 Browne lingered on to an unhonored age, imperi 
 ous 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. 
 
 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 hier 
 archies 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 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 147 
 
 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." 
 
 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 an 
 other 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 com 
 pany and paying for it by a collection. They 
 responded in prayer only by spontaneous groans 
 or sobs, much after the fashion of the early Qua 
 kers, 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. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Stephen 
 Breadwell, 
 1588, in 
 Dexter, 
 
 255- 
 
 H. M. Dex- 
 ter s Con 
 gregation 
 alism, 255- 
 257. 
 
148 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 When they began to organize themselves for 
 mally 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 de 
 sired 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 Bar- 
 rowism. It was the form of church government 
 brought by the Pilgrims to Plymouth, and sub 
 stantially that which prevailed in New England 
 throughout the seventeenth century. 
 
 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 re 
 form, 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 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 149 
 
 of the pastor s wife who could never forego a 
 " toppish " hat and high-heeled shoes was the prin 
 cipal 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 remark 
 able influence on the course of history. 
 
 VI. 
 
 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 Nottingham 
 shire, lies the pleasant but commonplace village of 
 Scrooby. About a mile to the north of Bawtry is 
 Austerfield, a hamlet of brick cottages crowded to 
 gether 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 some 
 thing more than a hundred people nowadays by 
 the aid of a rather modern extension. In the sev 
 enteenth 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 un- 
 picturesque. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The cradle 
 of the Pil 
 grims. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 lies Gainsborough, from which migrated to Hol 
 land 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 Aus 
 terfield 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 vener 
 able 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 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 descendant of Governor Bradford, offered a con 
 siderable 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. 
 
 And yet, when the traveler has resumed his 
 journey, and recalls Scrooby and Bawtry and Aus 
 terfield, 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
152 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Magnalia, 
 Book II, 
 chap, i, 
 p. 2. 
 
 Elder 
 Brewster. 
 
 Itinerary, 
 i, 36, in 
 Hunter s 
 Founders, 
 p. 20. 
 
 most ignorant and licentious people," and that 
 earlier in that same century John Leland speaks of 
 " the meane townlet of Scrooby." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But Leland s description of the village sug 
 gests the influence that caused Scrooby and the 
 wheat fields thereabout to send forth, in the be 
 ginning of the seventeenth century and of a new 
 reign, men capable of courage and fortitude suffi 
 cient to make them memorable, and to make these 
 three townlets places of pilgrimage in following 
 centuries. 
 
 " 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 Eliza 
 beth disgraced Davison, in order to avoid respon 
 sibility 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 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 153 
 
 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 his 
 tory 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 minis 
 ters for many of the neighboring parishes. But 
 that which he builded the authorities tore down. 
 Whitgift was archbishop, and the High Commis 
 sion Courts were proceeding against Puritans with 
 the energy of the Spanish Inquisition. " The 
 godly preachers " about him were silenced. The 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Bradford, 
 410. 
 
 Book I, 
 chap, ii, iii. 
 
154 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Plimoth 
 Planta 
 tions, 411. 
 
 The 
 
 Scrooby 
 
 Church. 
 
 Magnalia, 
 Book II, 
 c. i, 2. 
 
 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 Sepa 
 ratism. The theory was the result of conditions, 
 as new theories are wont to be. 
 
 IX. 
 
 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 hospi 
 tality 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. Brew- 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Church. 
 
 155 
 
 ster, the nucleus of the church, became their ruling 
 elder. 
 
 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 octogena 
 rian, 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. 
 
 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 Em 
 manuel College, Cambridge, and a beneficed cler 
 gyman 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The ruling 
 elder. 
 
 Bradford s 
 Plimoth 
 Plantation, 
 408-414. 
 Hunter s 
 Founders, 
 passim. 
 Winsor s 
 Elder 
 William 
 Brewster, a 
 pamphlet. 
 F. B. Dex 
 ter in 
 Narrative 
 and Crit. 
 Hist., iii, 
 257-282. 
 
 John Rob 
 inson. 
 
1 5 6 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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 com 
 munion 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 overtop 
 ping 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 Horn- 
 beeck recalls again and again his integrity, learn 
 ing, and modesty. 
 
 Shall we say that when subjected to this great 
 
Separatism and the Scrooby Cliurch. 
 
 57 
 
 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. 
 
 The eccentricities, moral and mental, of Browne were a con 
 stant 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 re- 
 turne 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. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note i, 
 page 146. 
 
 Note 2, 
 page 146. 
 
158 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK n. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 156. 
 
 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 Han 
 bury 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. 
 
 Robinson s character may be judged from his works. His 
 good qualities are very apparent in the wise and tender letters ad 
 dressed 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 eru- 
 ditus." " Doctissimi ac modestissimi omnium separatistorum." 
 
CHAPTER THE THIRD. 
 THE PILGRIM MIGRATIONS. 
 
 I. 
 
 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 immi 
 nent, James had spoken with a different voice, but 
 the Puritans remembered his lifelong familiarity 
 with Presbyterian forms, and his strongly ex 
 pressed satisfaction with the Scottish Kirk. They 
 met him on his way to London with a peti 
 tion for modifications of the service. This was 
 known as the Millinary Petition, because it was 
 supposed to represent the views of about one thou 
 sand English divines. 
 
 In January, 1604, the king held a formal confer 
 ence 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 
 
 159 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Accession 
 of James I. 
 
 Neal, ii, 28. 
 Compare 
 Burns s 
 Prel. Diss. 
 to Wod- 
 row, Ixxiv. 
 
 Hampton 
 Court con 
 ference. 
 
i6o 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Svmme 
 and Svb- 
 stance, 
 passim. 
 
 Prel. Diss. 
 to Wod- 
 row, Ixxiv. 
 
 Ch. Hist., 
 x, vii, 30. 
 
 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 meet 
 ing, unwittingly made himself a conspicuous fig 
 ure in the history of America. The great church 
 men 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 mo 
 ment evincing any liberality of feeling. His mani 
 fest cleverness is rendered futile by his narrow and 
 ridiculous egotism, his arrogance in the treatment 
 of opponents, and his coarse vulgarity in expres 
 sion. " In common speaking as in his hunting," 
 says Fuller, " he stood not on the cleanest but near 
 est way." The Puritans were no more able to 
 answer the arguments of the king than was ^Esop s 
 lamb to make reply to the wolf. Laying down for 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 161 
 
 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 Plar- 
 rington, 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. 
 
 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 sol 
 emnly 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Nugaa 
 Antique., 
 i, 181. 
 
 The king 
 and the 
 bishops. 
 
I 62 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 Note i. 
 
 Compare 
 Nugse An- 
 tiquas, ii, 
 25, 26. 
 
 Results. 
 
 Svmme 
 and Svb- 
 stance, 35. 
 
 Compare 
 Bacon s 
 Certain 
 Considera 
 tions 
 touching 
 the better 
 Pacifica 
 tion of the 
 Church of 
 England. 
 
 time the like hath not been seen." The king 
 in his turn was naturally impressed with the sa 
 gacity 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 Ban 
 croft s accession to the primacy the lot of the Puri 
 tans 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. 
 
 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 know 
 ing it, the greatest opportunity of his reign an 
 opportunity for conciliating or weakening the Puri 
 tan 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 Rey 
 nolds 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. 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 163 
 
 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 cen 
 tury afterward. 
 
 II. 
 
 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 un- 
 tempered 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 extempo 
 rary prayers under the guidance of elders of their 
 own choice without fear of fines and prisons. 
 
 That which is most honorable to the Low Coun 
 tries, from a historical point of view, namely, that 
 their cities were places of refuge for oppressed 
 consciences, was esteemed odious and highly ridic 
 ulous in the seventeenth century. In one of the 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The storm 
 of persecu 
 tion. 
 
 Bacon s 
 Observa 
 tion on a 
 Libel. 
 
 Toleration 
 in the Low 
 Countries. 
 
164 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Errours 
 and Indura 
 tion, p. 27. 
 
 Flight of 
 the Pil 
 grims. 
 
 The Pil 
 grims in 
 Amster 
 dam. 
 
 plays of that time there is a humorous proposition 
 to hold a consultation about " erecting four new 
 sects of religion in Amsterdam." The Dutch me 
 tropolis 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 Massa 
 chusetts Puritan, inveighs against " the great min 
 gle mangle of religion " in Holland, and like a 
 burlesque prophet shrieks, "Ye Dutch, come out 
 of your hodge podge ! " Robert Baylie, in a ser 
 mon 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 Chris 
 tian world." 
 
 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. 
 
 At length by one means or another the mem 
 bers of this battered little community got away 
 and met together in Amsterdam. To plain north 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 165 
 
 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 in- 
 counter." 
 
 III. 
 
 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 Eng 
 land as Robinson s church, the agitations were 
 of a theological nature. Questions about the 
 baptism of infants and the inherent righteous 
 ness 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 pas 
 tor. Robinson saw that these controversies would 
 involve the Scrooby church if it remained in Am 
 sterdam. In Robinson the centrifugal force of 
 Separatism had already spent itself, and his prac 
 tical wisdom had set bounds to the course of his 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Bradford s 
 Plimoth 
 Plantation 
 16. 
 
 Removal 
 toLeyden. 
 
1 66 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 logic. To leave the Dutch metropolis for a small 
 er 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 Occi 
 dent." 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. 
 
 But when ten years of exile had passed the out 
 look 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 lov 
 ing father and mother " were wounded to see chil 
 dren 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 contami 
 nated by the dissoluteness of the city, others joined 
 the Dutch army or made long voyages at sea, ac 
 quiring 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 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 prevalent in Holland was not to be doubted. Hu 
 man nature can not remain always at concert pitch. 
 Intermarriages with the Dutch had already begun, 
 and all that was peculiar in the English commu 
 nity was about to be swallowed up and lost for 
 ever in the great current of Dutch life which 
 flowed about it. 
 
 Puritanism was in its very nature aggressive, 
 even meddlesome. It was not possible for a Puritan 
 church, led by such men as Robinson, and Brew- 
 ster, and Carver, and Bradford, and Winslow, to 
 remain content where national prejudices and a 
 difference in language barred the way to the exer 
 tion of influence on the life about them. With de 
 struction 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. 
 
 What suggested in 1617 the thought of migra 
 tion 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Emigra 
 tion 
 planned. 
 
 Compare 
 Winslow 
 in Young, 
 387- 
 
 Puritans 
 and Amer 
 ican set 
 tlements. 
 
 Wadding- 
 ton s Cong. 
 Hist., ii, 
 113, 114. 
 
TJie Puritan Migration. 
 
 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 wide 
 spread agitation among the Puritans in favor ol 
 emigration to Virginia, but, when only a few had 
 got away, the primate secured a proclamation pre 
 venting their escape from the means of grace pro 
 vided for them in Courts of High Commission. 
 
 The year 1617, in which the agitation for emi 
 gration began among the Pilgrims, was the year 
 after Dale s return with highly colored reports of 
 the condition of the Virginia colony. It is notice 
 able that among the books owned by Elder Brew- 
 ster 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 re 
 signed 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 en- 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 169 
 
 thusiasm, such as Whitaker s book was meant to 
 foster, and partly on the hope of new and strange 
 commodities, particularly silk. Even this silk illu 
 sion may have had its weight in a secondary way 
 with the Leyden people, for Bradford, afterward 
 governor at Plymouth, was a silk-weaver in Ley- 
 den, and there were two books on silkworms in 
 Brewster s library at his death. 
 
 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 set 
 tling as English subjects in America, or becoming 
 Dutch colonists there. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Pilgrims preferred to be English, notwith 
 standing 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Inventory 
 of books. 
 Winsor s 
 pamphlet 
 on Elder 
 Brewster. 
 
 Alterna 
 tives. 
 
 Applica 
 tion to 
 Sandys. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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 parlia 
 mentary 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-sec 
 retary under Davison was a chosen friend of San 
 dys, 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. 
 
 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 scale 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 ap- 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 171 
 
 plied to, but neither would they formally approve 
 such an arrangement. Nor can one wonder at 
 their unwillingness, since the most profound, lib 
 eral, 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. Fie 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 car 
 ried 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 passiona^and pre 
 posterous zeal, not only vails but stupefies often 
 times the Rational Powers : For cannot Dissenters 
 kill Wolves and Bears as well as Churchmen ? " 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Bacon s 
 Advice to 
 Villiers. 
 
 Archdale s 
 
 Carolina, 
 
 26. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 VII. 
 
 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 arch 
 bishops 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 planta 
 tions "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 anony 
 mously 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 with 
 out interest for three years. When we consider 
 that the ^Jgrims 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, 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 173 
 
 would be equal in purchasing power to five or six 
 thousand dollars of our money, we may readily be 
 lieve 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 Gov 
 ernment had refused a guarantee of toleration, 
 and the Dutch Government had declined to assure 
 them of protection against England. 
 
 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 represent 
 ative 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 govern 
 ment established by them in their famous Com 
 pact was precisely the provisional government 
 which the Virginia Company in the preceding 
 February had given them liberty to fqpncl " 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Authors of 
 the Plym 
 outh 
 Govern 
 ment. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 the authority derived from the charter, now in 
 valid. 
 
 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 pop 
 ular 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. 
 
 " 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 set 
 tlement. 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^iake the first break into the wilderness, 
 but courage and devotion to an idea are not com 
 mon ; courage and devotion that bring at last im 
 portant results are so rare that the student of his- 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 175 
 
 tory, however little disposed to indulge sentiment, 
 turns in spite of himself to that last all-night meet 
 ing in Pastor Robinson s large house in the Belfry 
 Lane at Leyden. " So," says Bradford, as if pen 
 ning 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 cun- 
 trie 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 spec 
 tators 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. 
 
 These things hardly pertain, perhaps, to a his 
 tory 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 him 
 self, 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 mag 
 nanimous soul. He eloquently charged them " be 
 fore God and his blessed angels to follow him no 
 further than he followed Christ." . . . He was con 
 fident " the Lord had more truth and light to break 
 forth out of his holy word." In whatever sense we 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Plimoth 
 Planta 
 tion, 59. 
 
 Robin 
 son s influ 
 ence. 
 
 Window s 
 
 Briefe 
 
 Narration, 
 
 Young, 
 
 397- 
 
176 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 take them these were marvelous words in the sev 
 enteenth century. Robinson understood the pro 
 gressive nature of truth as apprehended by the 
 human mind in a way that makes him seem singu 
 larly modern. In the same address he declared it 
 " not possible that . . . full perfection of knowl 
 edge 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 ego 
 tism. Fortunate man, who, working in one of the 
 obscurest and dustiest corners of this noisy and 
 self-seeking world, succeeded in training and send 
 ing out a company that diffused his spirit and 
 teachings into the institutions and thoughts of a 
 great people ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 On a chain of slender accidents hung the exist 
 ence of New England. Had the claims of Guiana 
 prevailed, had the tempting offers of the Dutch 
 changed the allegiance of the Robinsonian Inde 
 pendents, had the Mayflower reached her destina 
 tion 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 Eng- 
 glish 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 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 177 
 
 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 Hol 
 land 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 mo 
 ment. 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 passen 
 gers 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 nth of Decem 
 ber, O. S., 1620. 
 
 Camden has preserved to us an old English say 
 ing 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 
 13 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Morton s 
 Memorial, 
 6th edition, 
 p. 22, note. 
 
 Compare 
 Asher s 
 History of 
 W. I. 
 Company 
 in Bibl. 
 Essay. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 Elements 
 of New 
 England. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK n. 
 
 Earlier at 
 tempts to 
 colonize 
 New Eng 
 land. 
 
 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. 
 
 The unwise management that ruined nearly all 
 projects for colonization in that age and that pro 
 duced such disasters in Virginia, had defeated every 
 earlier attempt to plant English people on the New 
 England coast. Gosnold had taken a colony to Eliza 
 beth 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 col 
 onists returned the following year. In 1615 Cap 
 tain 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 dis 
 astrous 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. 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 179 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Pilgrims suffered, like their predecessors, 
 from the prevailing unskillfulness in colony-plant 
 ing. 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 Vir 
 ginia 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 sys 
 tem of partnership with mercenary shareholders or 
 "adventurers" in England that had brought dis 
 aster 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 consci 
 entious and bound together by strong religious 
 enthusiasm. It resulted, as such sinking of per 
 sonal interest must ever result, in dissensions and 
 insubordination, in unthrift and famine. 
 
 The colony was saved from the prolonged mis 
 ery that makes the early history of Virginia hor 
 rible 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 eight 
 een years old when he fled with the rest of the 
 Scrooby church to Holland. He was bred to hus- 
 
 Sufferings 
 at Plym 
 outh. 
 
i So 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK ii. t b an( } r y and had inherited some property. In Hol 
 land 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 al 
 most 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. 
 
 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 de 
 tached persons in the colony to live with fam 
 ilies, 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 suffer 
 ing 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 ne- 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 cessity 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. 
 
 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 peace 
 ful and agricultural people, and that after seventy 
 years was merged politically in its more vigorous 
 neighbor the colony of Massachusetts Bay? His 
 torical importance does not depend on population. 
 Plymouth was the second step in the founding of a 
 great nation. When Bradford and the other lead 
 ers had at last successfully extricated the little set 
 tlement 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. 
 
 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 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 Christe againe, and bid them awaie with their snivellinge : more 
 over, he wishede those who woud take away the surplice mighte 
 want linen for their own breech. The bishops seemed much 
 pleased and said his Majestic 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 sub 
 ject he brags in these words : " We haue kept suche a reuell with 
 the Puritainis heir these two clayes 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 Svb- 
 stance of the Conference, which it pleased his excellent Majestic 
 to have," etc., "Contracted by William Barlow, . . . Deane of 
 Chester " ; second, Dr. Montague s letter to his mother, in Win- 
 wood s Memorials, ii, 13-15 ; third, the letter of Patrick Galloway 
 to the Presbytery of Edinburgh, in Caldervvood, vi, 241, 242 ; and, 
 fourth, a letter from Tobie Mathew, Bishop of Durham, to Hut- 
 ton, Archbishop of York, in Strype s Whitgift appendix, xlv. 
 Compare Nugae Antique, 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 confer 
 ence, 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 Cran- 
 borne s reply, ibid., 125. 
 
 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. 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 Richard Bancroft. ... He had very high Notions with Relation 
 to the Government of both Church and State ; and was accord 
 ingly 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 actu 
 ally 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. 
 
 For Whitaker s filiation, Neill s Virginia Company, 78. Whit- 
 aker s Good Newes from Virginia is no doubt intended by the 
 entry in the inventory of Brewster s goods, " Newes from Vir 
 ginia." 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 Gen 
 esis, 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. 
 
 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 Com 
 pany, 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 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 used. Several months after, the Leyden people became inter 
 ested in a new project. On February 2, i6i9- 2o, 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 as 
 sociates. 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 ap 
 plies Bradford s words, "or rather confirmed," to this event, and 
 Deane also supposes that Bradford confuses two elections. Car 
 ver 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 preg 
 nant 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. 
 
 The charge against Sandys is in the Duke of Manchester s 
 papers, Royal Historical MS. Commission viii, II, 45. It is re 
 markable that the dominant liberal faction in the Virginia Com- 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 pany 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 arrange 
 ments 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 evi 
 dence, 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 communi- 
 tie 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 gov- 
 ernours, 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. 
 
 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 in 
 genuity 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 resolu 
 tions was, Not to make our present judgment and practice a 
 binding law unto ourselves for the future which we in like man 
 ner made continuall profession of upon all occasions." On page 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Note 6, 
 page 176. 
 
i86 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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. 
 
 Neill, in the Historical Magazine for January, 1869, and the 
 New England Genealogical Register, 1874, identifies the May 
 flower 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. 
 
 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 settle 
 ment 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. 
 
 Bradford s Plimouth Plantation, 135, 136 : " The experience 
 that was had in this commone course and condition, tried sun- 
 drie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well 
 
The Pilgrim Migrations. 
 
 evince the vanitie of that conceite of Platos and other ancients, 
 applauded by some of later times that the taking away of prop- 
 ertie, 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." 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
CHAPTER THE FOURTH. 
 THE GREAT PURITAN EXODUS. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Result of 
 the Pil 
 grim set 
 tlement. 
 
 I. 
 
 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 "step 
 ping-stones to others," as they phrased it. They 
 thought that many like-minded in matters of re 
 ligion 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 Puri 
 tans 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. 
 
 188 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 189 
 
 None the less the hope of the Pilgrims was real 
 ized ; they became stepping-stones to thousands of 
 others. Captain John Smith laughed at the "hu 
 morous ignorances " of these " Brownist " settlers, 
 but, humorous or not, ignorant or not, the " Brown- 
 ists " 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 dis 
 contented 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. 
 
 The first effect of the slender success at Plym 
 outh was to stimulate speculative and merely ad 
 venturous migration. From 1607 until the arrival 
 of the Pilgrims in 1620 no English colony had 
 landed on the northern coast; but after the Pil 
 grims came, fish-drying and fur-buying stations be 
 gan 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 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The 
 
 religious 
 
 motive. 
 
 Commer 
 cial settle 
 ments. 
 
190 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 John 
 White s 
 The Plant 
 er s Plea, 
 in Young s 
 Chronicles 
 of Mass. 
 
 Individual 
 settlers. 
 
 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 her 
 rings 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. 
 
 Solitary adventurers of the sort known on near 
 ly every frontier were presently to be found in sev 
 eral 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 posses 
 sion 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 par- 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 191 
 
 ticipated. He broke all the commandments with 
 delight, carried on a profitable trade in selling fire 
 arms to the savages in defiance of royal proclama 
 tions, 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 king 
 dom of misrule at last and broke up the perpetual 
 carnival, sending Morton to England. 
 
 The settlement of New England was thus be 
 ginning sporadically and slowly. If the Massachu 
 setts Puritans had not come, these feeble and scat 
 tered plantations might have grown into colonies 
 after a long time, as such beginnings did in New 
 Hampshire and Maine, and later in North Caro 
 lina, but having no strong neighbor to support 
 them, it is likely that they would all have been 
 driven away or annihilated by some inevitable col 
 lision with the Indians. 
 
 II. 
 
 English Puritanism throughout the reign of 
 James I had been the party of strict morals, of 
 austere and Pharisaic scrupulosity, of rigid Sab 
 bath 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 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Note i. 
 
 Puritan 
 ism at the 
 accession 
 of Charles 
 I. 
 
The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Later Pu 
 ritanism 
 conserva 
 tive. 
 
 the predominance of Parliament, and this brought 
 it to represent liberalism in politics. By his un 
 concealed partisanship, James had contrived to 
 make the Puritans a permanent opposition sus 
 pected of disliking monarchy itself. Charles I was 
 even more the antagonist of Puritanism than James. 
 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 innova 
 tion. It was no longer the party of change in re 
 ligion when Charles came to the throne. The 
 adoption of the Arminian system of doctrine by 
 many of the High-churchmen, and the reaction 
 ary 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 re 
 trogression. This compact party, powerful after 
 all its defeats, was bound by its position to cher 
 ish 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 fanati 
 cism, of an anti-Spanish foreign policy, and a do- 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 mestic policy in which repression and persecution 
 of Roman Catholics held first place. 
 
 in. 
 
 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 trans 
 lated to Bath and Wells and then to London. It 
 soon came to be understood that he was only wait 
 ing for the death of his opponent, Archbishop Ab 
 bott, 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. 
 
 Do our best, we moderns shall hardly avoid in 
 justice in our opinion of Laud. The changes of 
 time and the advance of ideas have rendered a 
 sympathetic judgment of him difficult. Ecclesias 
 tic above all, he was not, like Whitgift and Ban 
 croft, a Protestant High-churchman. He sought 
 to make the English church Catholic and medias- 
 val, 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 
 14 
 
i 9 4 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK ii. 
 
 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 pub 
 lic 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 Chris 
 tian charity ; but Laud s Christian charity, like his 
 holiness, was purely external ; it was merely quiet 
 submission to one ritual and one form of disci 
 pline. 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 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 195 
 
 a murmur. In his zeal he was reckless of personal 
 danger and sometimes unmindful of the moral com 
 plexion of his actions. His egotism was so inter- 
 blended 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 soft 
 ened 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 pos 
 sibilities, and, with a vigilance aspiring to omnis 
 cience, penetrated to the minutest details in the ad 
 ministration 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 charac 
 ter. While he had no taste for the credulous dog 
 matism 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 un 
 popularity without flinching. Stubborn and inflex 
 ible 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 insinuat 
 ing in his relations with those in power. His un 
 worthy yielding to his early patron, the Earl of 
 
 CHAP. IV 
 
196 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Letter to 
 Selden in 
 Chalmers, 
 art. Laud. 
 
 Political 
 conditions 
 promote 
 emigra 
 tion. 
 
 Gorges s 
 Briefe Nar 
 ration. 
 
 Devonshire, in a matter which concerned his eccle 
 siastical conscience, gave him a bitter and lifelong 
 repentance. His complacence to Buckingham, and 
 his servile devotion to Charles, seem a little des 
 picable. He was even willing at the last to make 
 terms with Parliament, when it became plain that 
 Parliament was the new master. Though obse 
 quious, he was the farthest possible from a coward, 
 and he accepted death on the scaffold with the 
 serene composure of a martyr. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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 them 
 selves with crushing the Separatists, but, with char 
 acteristic 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 dissolu 
 tion 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 unques- 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 tioning 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 resi 
 dence than England. 
 
 V. 
 
 The state of the church was even more a reason 
 for removal than the oppressions of the govern 
 ment. Persecution had failed to drive Puritan 
 ministers or their followers into what they deemed 
 the capital sin of schism. They hated the domina 
 tion 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 denied 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 govern 
 ment of the country. It was no modern general- 
 
198 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 ized 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. 
 
 There was one other consideration still more 
 difficult for men of our day to understand. Politi 
 cal 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 be- 
 ginnes 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 Rea 
 sons 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 domi 
 nance 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 re 
 finement of Hebraism never known to the He 
 brews. The delusion that Laud meant to hand 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 199 
 
 over the English church bound hand and foot to 
 Rome may have made such judgments seem visi 
 bly imminent. 
 
 VI. 
 
 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 ex 
 tending 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 conti 
 nent about which nothing was known but that it 
 abounded in savages. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In June a small colony was sent to Massachu 
 setts under John Endecott. The next year another 
 
200 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 company of emigrants was added. Endecott, who 
 was one of the patentees, loved a bold enterprise, 
 and readily consented to take charge of the fore 
 runners 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 ap 
 pears to have made no effort at conciliation ; he 
 promptly shipped John and Samuel Browne, pack 
 and prayer book, back to England. This was pre 
 cisely 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 philoso 
 pher of the same period. But Endecott s rash 
 action endangered the whole enterprise, which re 
 quired 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 
 
TJie Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 20 1 
 
 fancy, regardless of results. Soon after his arrival 
 he marched to the den of Morton, the profligate 
 master of " Merry mount." In the absence of Mor 
 ton he hewed down the profane Maypole in God s 
 name, and solemnly dubbed the place Mount Da- 
 gon, 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 cru 
 sade of the magistrates against the crime of wear 
 ing wigs. A strange mixture of rashness, pious 
 zeal, genial manners, hot temper, and harsh big 
 otry, 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 im 
 modestly barefaced, and in the forefront against 
 wigs, he was no soldier either in prudent conduct 
 or vigor of attack. When intrusted with the com 
 mand 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 domi- 
 
202 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Leader 
 ship of 
 Winthrop. 
 
 nant 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 seventy, Endecott showed himself capable of 
 writing one of the most cringing official letters on 
 record, as full of cant as it was of creeping ser 
 vility. 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. 
 
 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 ridicu- 
 losity of Puritanism, but whose amiable person 
 ality, magnanimity, and qualities of leadership 
 made him the principal figure in the Puritan mi 
 gration. Winthrop, like two or three of the con 
 spicuous 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. 
 
 He was a late comer in the enterprise. In the 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 203 
 
 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 Eng 
 land 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 Puri 
 tans 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 com 
 mand of the king, that high-spirited martyr to con 
 stitutional 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 in 
 terest 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 
 
204 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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. 
 
 The manuscript paper entitled Reasons for 
 New England, to which reference has already been 
 made, was widely but secretly circulated, and fre 
 quently copied, after a fashion of that time, pre 
 vailing especially in the case of tracts or books of 
 a kind to shrink from print. It contained argu 
 ments 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 vari 
 ous handwritings, and the authorship has been 
 attributed now to one, now to another ; to Win- 
 throp, to White of Dorchester, to Sir John Eliot 
 himself. It appears to have been in its earliest form 
 the production of Winthrop. There were horse 
 back journeys, some of them by night, made about 
 this time for the purpose of secret consultation. 
 
 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. Pre 
 cocious 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 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 205 
 
 young. He studied divinity, and only the dis 
 suasion 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 abound 
 ing 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 gener 
 osity 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 any 
 thing else, fitted him for his function was that all 
 his virtues were cast in Puritan molds and all his 
 prejudices had a Puritan set. 
 
 When the question of emigration was under dis 
 cussion 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. 
 
 It is a fact worthy of note that the three primary 
 steps toward the establishment of free government 
 
2O6 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Cradock s 
 plan. 
 
 Mass. Rec 
 ords, July 
 29, 1629. 
 
 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. 
 
 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, qual 
 ity 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 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 their " adventurers" in London had taught 
 wholesome lesson. Three years earlier Sir Francis 
 Wyatt, the best of all the early governors of Vir 
 ginia, had set forth in an elaborate report that the 
 principal cause of the " slow proceeding of the 
 growth of the plantation " was that the govern 
 ment had been divided between England and Vir 
 ginia. Massachusetts escaped from this embar 
 rassment. 
 
 X. 
 
 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 Puri 
 tan settlement. They sent Endecott, one of their 
 number, as agent or superintendent, with a com 
 pany 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 ren 
 dered 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, 
 
208 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 but there was as yet no provision for giving the 
 people a voice in the government. 
 
 Winthrop and his coterie of gentlemen appear 
 to have been dissatisfied with the prospect of liv 
 ing 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 enter 
 prise. He, no doubt, readily foresaw the great ad 
 vance 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 him 
 self. 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 be 
 fore the all-observing eyes of Laud, who was now 
 rising rapidly to dominant influence in the govern 
 ment. It was at this juncture probably that Cra 
 dock conceived his ingenious plan. He would re 
 sign 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 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 209 
 
 place. The meetings of the company might there 
 fore be held in Massachusetts, where the Puritan 
 ism 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. 
 
 XL 
 
 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 Win- 
 throp 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 Puri 
 tans 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 
 15 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The Cam 
 bridge 
 agree 
 ment. 
 
 1629. 
 
210 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Removal 
 of the 
 charter. 
 
 1629. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 of the Puritan churchman. The whole pledge is 
 couched in language befitting men who feel them 
 selves 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., 
 
 On the 2oth 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 pro 
 ceedings 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 main 
 tained in London, with Cradock, the former presi 
 dent, at the head. This seems to have been an 
 effectual blind, and probably the king s govern 
 ment did not know of the flight of the charter 
 until the Privy Council in 1634 summoned Cra 
 dock to bring that document to the Council Board. 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 21 I 
 
 Thomas Morton, the expelled master of Merry- 
 mount, writes of the wrath of Laud, who had been 
 foiled by this pretty ruse : " My lord of Canter 
 bury 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 arch 
 bishop found too late that he had eagerly pounced 
 upon a dummy. He devised many things after 
 ward to achieve his purpose, but the charter re 
 mained over seas. 
 
 XII. 
 
 From the point of view of our later age, the re 
 moval 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 cor 
 poration that it became a colonial government as 
 independent as possible of control from England. 
 By the admission of a large number of the colo 
 nists to be freemen that is, to vote as stock 
 holders in the affairs of the company, which was 
 now the colony itself, and a little later by the de 
 velopment of a second chamber the government 
 became representative. 
 
 But we may not for a moment conceive that 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Compare 
 Palfrey, i, 
 371, and 
 Dearie s 
 note in 
 Mass. Hist. 
 Soc. Proc. 
 1869, p. 
 185. 
 
 Hutchin- 
 son s Hist. 
 Mass., p. 
 3 1 - 
 
212 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 The main 
 purpose. 
 
 Influence 
 of Plym 
 outh. 
 
 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 inci 
 dent that occurred soon after the arrival of Win- 
 throp s company. Isaac Johnston, the wealthiest 
 man of the party, succumbed to disease and hard 
 ship, 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 pas 
 sion 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. 
 
 One salient fact in the history of the Massachu 
 setts Bay colony is the dominant influence of the 
 example of Plymouth. The Puritans of the Massa 
 chusetts colony were not Separatists. No one had 
 been more severe in controversy with the Separa 
 tists 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 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 213 
 
 emigrants published a pathetic farewell, protest 
 ing with the sincerity of homesick exiles their 
 attachment to the Church of England, "ever ac 
 knowledging that such hope and part as we have 
 obtained in the common salvation we have received 
 in her bosom and sucked at her breasts." 
 
 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 Ge 
 neva, and in Elizabeth s time they had organized 
 presbyteries. Nothing seemed more probable be 
 forehand 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. 
 
 There must have been a certain exhilarant reac 
 tion 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 intoxi 
 cation. " Every day for ten weeks together," 
 writes one passenger, they had preaching and ex 
 position. On one ship the watches were set by the 
 Puritan captain with the accompaniment of psalm- 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Differ 
 ences 
 among the 
 Puritans. 
 
 Effect of 
 emigra 
 tion. 
 
 Roger 
 Clap s 
 Memoirs, 
 40. 
 
214 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Note 9. 
 
 Rise of the 
 Congrega 
 tional 
 form in 
 New Eng 
 land. 
 
 singing. Those who all their lives long had made 
 outward and inward compromises between their 
 ultimate convictions and their obligations to antag 
 onistic authority found themselves at length utter 
 ly 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 privi 
 lege of thinking his bottom thought. The ten 
 dency 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 or 
 ganization. 
 
 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 Plym 
 outh, who, like themselves, had suffered much to 
 avoid what both Separatists and Puritans deemed 
 unchristian practices. A common creed and com 
 mon sufferings, flight from the same oppression to 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 215 
 
 find refuge in what was henceforth to be a com 
 mon 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 pre 
 vailing sickness soon persuaded the naturally rad 
 ical Endecott to the Plymouth view of church gov 
 ernment. 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 uni 
 formity 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 Robin- 
 sonian independency became the established re 
 ligion in New England, whence it was transplanted 
 to England during the Commonwealth, and later 
 became the prevailing discipline among English 
 dissenters. 
 
 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 Rob 
 inson had impressed on the Pilgrims was not so 
 easily communicated to their new neighbors who 
 had been trained in another school. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Cotton to 
 Salonstall 
 in Hutch. 
 Papers. 
 
 Hubbard s 
 Hist, of 
 New Eng., 
 117. 
 
 Note 10. 
 
216 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note i, 
 page 191. 
 
 Note 2, 
 page 193. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 199. 
 
 Note 4, 
 page 204. 
 
 ELUCIDATIONS. 
 
 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, Septem 
 ber 29 and November 24, 1630, pp. 120, 122. There are also 
 references, more or less extended, to Morton in the Massachu 
 setts Records, Winthrop s Journal, Bradford s Plimouth Planta 
 tion, Dudley s Letter to the Countess of Lincoln in Young s 
 Chronicles of Massachusetts, and in other early accounts. 
 
 Abbott s account of Laud s rise, Rush worth, 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. 
 
 Rush worth, 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 sus 
 pending 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 Planta 
 tion in America), where they hold a Plantation by Patent from 
 the King." Part II, vol. i, p. 410. 
 
 "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 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 217 
 
 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," attrib 
 uted 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 Gospel! 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 ecclesi 
 astical purpose seems to have grown rapidly when the number 
 of emigrants revealed the greatness of the opportunity. 
 
 Cotton Mather says, Magnalia, Book II, chap, iv, 3, that 
 throp was made a justice at eighteen, but Mather s account of any 
 thing 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 The government of the colony under Endecott was substan 
 tially that prescribed for " particular plantations " in the general 
 order of the Virginia Company at the time the charter for the 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Note 5, 
 page 204. 
 
 Note 6, 
 page 205. 
 
 Note 7, 
 page 208. 
 
218 
 
 The Puritan Migration. 
 
 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 1 587, 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 pre 
 scribed 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. 
 
 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 Massachu 
 setts Historical Society, and printed in the Proceedings for De 
 cember, 1869, by the late Charles Deane, shows that such a pre 
 sumption 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 head 
 quarters 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 diffi 
 culty 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. 
 
The Great Puritan Exodus. 
 
 219 
 
 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 con 
 tains 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 whatso 
 ever 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, de 
 clared 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 Massa 
 chusetts gives to Robinson s theory of conformity. 
 
 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 hear 
 ing and discerning their practice at Plymmouth : yet therein the 
 Scripture is fulfilled, The Kingdome of Heaven is like unto 
 leaven, " etc., pp, 16, 17. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Note 9, 
 page 214. 
 
 Note 10, 
 page 215. 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 CENTRIFUGAL FORCES IN COLONY-PLANTING. 
 
 CHAPTER THE FIRST. 
 THE CA THOLIC MIGRA TION. 
 
 I. 
 
 AT every new stage in the history of the Amer 
 ican settlement, we are afresh reminded that colo 
 nies 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 im 
 pelling Englishmen to emigrate. But in the seven 
 teenth 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 distrib 
 uting force on this side of the sea, producing sec 
 ondary colonies by expelling from a new plantation 
 the discontented and the persecuted to make fresh 
 breaks in the wilderness for new settlements. Con 
 necticut and Rhode Island were secondary plant 
 ings of this kind. Religious differences also made 
 
 220 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 221 
 
 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. 
 
 George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore, who j character 
 
 of George 
 
 projected the Maryland colony and left it to his caivert. 
 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 origi 
 nal 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, fit 
 ted to be the founder of representative govern 
 ment 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 Cal vert 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 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 contem 
 porary 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 Catholic Migration. 
 
 223 
 
 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 with 
 out consideration or influence. 
 
 Whatever his lack of influence in councils of 
 state, Calvert s fidelity, useful abilities, and many 
 accomplishments won the friendship of Jame^, 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 lav 
 ishly in presents and pensions to English courtiers 
 by Spain, but this Calvert denied, and one can be- 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Calvert s 
 rise. 
 
 Note i. 
 
224 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 Note 2. 
 
 The col 
 ony of 
 Avalon. 
 
 Cal. S. P. 
 America, 
 pp. 25, 26, 
 March 16, 
 1620. 
 
 lieve that a man of his fidelity to king and country 
 would be able to resist a temptation to which 
 others succumbed. 
 
 ill. 
 
 Calvert was very early interested in coloniza 
 tion. 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 ap 
 pointed 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. Cap 
 tain Whitbourne s pamphlet on Newfoundland was 
 just then circulating gratuitously by the aid of col 
 lections 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 w r eather-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 west 
 ern 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 22$ 
 
 groundless hopes of Calvert. The bleak New 
 foundland coast had already blossomed with fanci 
 ful 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. 
 
 Sir George Calvert probably drafted with his 
 own hand the hand of an expert and accom 
 plished 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 Cal 
 vert himself bettered it but little in the Maryland 
 charter of a later date. The ambiguous passages 
 in the Maryland charter, which have been ac 
 counted evidence of a design to make way for the 
 toleration or even the possible dominance of Ro 
 man 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 w r as, 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 char- 
 
 16 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 The char 
 ter of 
 
 Avalon. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
226 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Calvert s 
 conver 
 sion. 
 
 Petition 
 in Rush- 
 worth, 
 Part I, i, 
 141. Com 
 pare Neal, 
 Part II, 
 c. ii. 
 
 ter 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. 
 
 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 fa 
 voring circumstances such a man becomes a Ro 
 man Catholic by gravitation and natural affinity. 
 
 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 Eng 
 land 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." 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 227 
 
 VI. 
 
 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 in 
 volved a violation of the treaty oath of the king 
 and council, the plunging of England into a Span 
 ish war, the sacrifice of the interests of the Catho 
 lic church, and a fresh exposure of his co-religion 
 ists in England to a harsh persecution. Calvert 
 was one of that party in the junta for Spanish af 
 fairs which was unwilling to break a solemn treaty 
 in order to gratify the wounded vanity of Buck 
 ingham and Charles, and he paid dearly for his 
 firmness. To bring about his resignation, his an 
 tagonists diverted business from his office, thus 
 reducing his fees and subjecting his pride to morti 
 fication. Under this treatment it was noted by a 
 letter writer of the time that Mr. Secretary Cal 
 vert " 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 suc 
 ceeded 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 His resig 
 nation. 
 
 1624. 
 
228 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 1625. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
 Calvert 
 deserts 
 New 
 foundland. 
 
 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 re 
 ligious scruples the ostensible reason for his resig 
 nation, and he was already known to be " infinitely 
 addicted to the Catholic faith." He made no se 
 cret of his proscribed religion ; he exposed to vis 
 itors 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. 
 
 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 Jes 
 uits 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 Jew 
 ish prophet did idolatry, he found it necessary to 
 fight with French privateers bent on plunder. By 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 229 
 
 the time the almost interminable Newfoundland 
 winter had begun, he discovered that Avalon was 
 not the earthly paradise it appeared in the writ 
 ings of pamphleteers and in the letters of his 
 own officeholders interested only in the continu 
 ance 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. 
 
 He knew the conditions of that colony and the 
 opportunities it afforded. A member of the Vir 
 ginia 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 consti 
 tuted 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 " pre 
 cinct " within Virginia independent of the James 
 town 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 
 
 ! CHAP. I. 
 
 Letters of 
 Wynne, 
 Daniel, 
 and Hos- 
 kins, in 
 Whit- 
 j bourne s 
 second ed. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 Sails to 
 | Virginia. 
 
 Ryraer s 
 Fosdera, 
 torn, vii, 
 iv, 147. 
 
230 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 inde 
 pendent state a state in which the mass might 
 be said without molestation. Before another win- 
 ter 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. 
 
 Baltimore s reception in Virginia was most in 
 hospitable. 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 execu 
 tioners 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 privi 
 leges granted to Virginians by their charter from 
 the Virginia Company. This attack on their liber 
 ties 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 govern 
 ment and a close friend of the king, had come 
 among them. Baltimore might easily expect to 
 secure the governorship of Virginia itself. Per- 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 231 
 
 haps it is hardly necessary to go even so far 
 afield for a motive. The prospect of a settle 
 ment of Roman Catholics within the limits of the 
 colony was in itself enough to excite the oppo 
 sition 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 Vir 
 ginians refused permission to a company of Irish 
 Catholics to settle within their bounds. These ap 
 pear to have gone afterward to the island of St. 
 Christopher s, where again Protestant fellow-colo 
 nists fell out with them about religion, so that they 
 were finally sent to settle the neighboring island of 
 Montserrat. 
 
 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 rab 
 ble even showed their piety by railing at the newly 
 arrived papist nobleman. 
 
 A weapon of defense against Baltimore was 
 ready to hand. Three years before his coming in 
 structions had been sent from England to Yeardley 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 9. 
 
 Character 
 of the 
 early Vir 
 ginians. 
 
 Leah and 
 
 Rachel, 
 
 and De 
 
 Vries 
 
 Voyages, 
 
 passim. 
 
 Expulsion 
 of Balti 
 more. 
 
232 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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, Clai- 
 borne 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 Vir 
 ginia Council. He was disappointed and already 
 shaken in health. The members of the council, ap 
 palled 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. Im 
 mediately 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. 
 
 Baltimore s hardships during two voyages to 
 Newfoundland, and a winter in the rude abodes of 
 pioneers there, his illness during that winter, the 
 
The CatJiolic Migration. 
 
 233 
 
 constant spectacle of sickness and death about him, 
 and the disappointment caused by his rude recep 
 tion in Virginia, were enough, one would think, to 
 have broken his resolution. He went back to Eng 
 land " much decayed in his strength," as he con 
 fessed ; but, strangely enough, this accomplished 
 man of the world, whose career had been that of a 
 courtier, was far from living in ease and quiet 
 ness as his friends had expected him to do. He 
 was possessed of a passion for peopling the wilder 
 ness. He had written to the king from America 
 that he was resolved to spend " the poore remayn- 
 der " of his days in colony-planting, his " inclina 
 tions 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 ad 
 venturous 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 re 
 ligious enthusiasm. The king felt obliged to in 
 terpose 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. 
 
 Lord Baltimore was doomed never to see the 
 desire of his eyes. He died on the i$th of April, 
 1632, before the charter had passed, leaving the 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Death of 
 the first 
 Lord 
 Baltimore. 
 
234 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 The char 
 ter of 
 
 Maryland. 
 
 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. 
 
 The Maryland charter was no doubt the work 
 of George Calvert s own hand. Its main provi 
 sions 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 Mary 
 land 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 privi 
 leges 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 Mary- 
 .and appears less favorable to the Catholic re- 
 igion 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 235 
 
 charter, and a like concession is made in the Mary 
 land 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 conven 
 ient 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 Eng 
 lish and Irish Romanists was a more difficult proj 
 ect 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 permit 
 ted 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 10. 
 
 Rush- 
 worth, 
 Part I, vol. 
 i, 141, 1623. 
 
 Note ii. 
 
2 3 6 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 Dur 
 ham having been pared down by Henry VIII, the 
 charter somewhat furtively reached back after the 
 local absolutism of the middle ages by giving Bal 
 timore 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 char 
 ters than Calvert s, which stipulated that no inter 
 pretation 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. 
 
 XL 
 
 When George Calvert projected his new south 
 ern 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 237 
 
 was raised to forty the second year, and to sixty 
 for every year of conscientious abstention there 
 after. 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 con 
 vert. The man who harbored a Roman Catholic 
 neglecting to attend the parish church was to be 
 fined ten pounds a month. Marriage by a Rom 
 ish priest invalidated accruing land tenures. The 
 Catholic was not suffered to send his children be 
 yond 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. 
 
 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 
 
238 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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. 
 
 Very embarrassing to the foreign policy of 
 England was the seventy of English laws against 
 Catholics, and Lord Treasurer Burleigh found it 
 needful to publish in Elizabeth s time, for circula 
 tion in all the courts of Europe, a treatise on The 
 Execution of Justice in England and the Mainte 
 nance of Public Order and Christian Peace; and 
 in the following reign James himself turned pam 
 phleteer 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 in 
 dulgences 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 re 
 laxed, Parliament, resenting foreign dictation, de 
 manded 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 hun- 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 dred 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. 
 
 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. An 
 other 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 ex 
 haustion of Baltimore s resources and his death, 
 was unfavorable to the project of a Catholic prov 
 ince. The English government by 1634 had grown 
 more lenient toward Romanists, the co-religion 
 ists 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 
 
240 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Harl. Mis- 
 cell., ii, 
 492, and 
 following, 
 where pas 
 sages from 
 contempo 
 rary writers 
 are quoted. 
 
 Balti 
 more s 
 partners. 
 
 Note 13. 
 
 The reli 
 gious aim. 
 
 had all sails set for Rome. This illusion regarding 
 the purposes of the archbishop and his party, 
 which alarmed the Puritans, heartened the Catho 
 lics, who naturally preferred to stay at home where 
 a flood tide seemed to be setting toward Catholi 
 cism. The small Catholic migration to Maryland 
 was not to be compared with that stream of Puri 
 tan 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. 
 
 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 no 
 where recorded, and we are left to conjecture the 
 origin of their interest in Maryland. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 " 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 241 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Cal- 
 vert 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 pas 
 sengers on board, including Jesuit priests. Most of 
 the passengers were " laboring men " ; how many 
 were Catholic and how many Protestant it is im 
 possible 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 
 17 
 
242 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony -Plant ing. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Note 14. 
 
 Tolera 
 tion. 
 
 Note 15. 
 
 Toleration 
 a policy. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 pri 
 vately furnished Baltimore with arguments in de 
 fense 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. 
 
 Cecilius gave positive instruction that on ship 
 board acts of the Roman Catholic religion should 
 be performed with as much privacy as possible, so 
 as not to offend the Protestant passengers " where 
 by any just complaint may hereafter be made by 
 them in Virginia or in England." There is no pre 
 tense 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 en 
 tertained no advanced views of human liberty. 
 Had he held toleration as a theory of government, 
 his doctrine would have been more liberal than 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 243 
 
 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 pro 
 gressive thinker ; he was a conservative oppor 
 tunist. Still less was Cecilius a man likely to act 
 on general principles. 
 
 xv. 
 
 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 re 
 ligious were the Catholic pilgrims, and though the 
 form is strikingly different, the believing and zeal 
 ous 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 salva 
 tion of the Barbarians, and also to build up a king- 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Religious 
 observ 
 ance at 
 sea. 
 
 Relatio 
 Itineris, 
 p. 10. 
 
 Note 16. 
 
244 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 dom 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 repre 
 sentation was effective ; the good father had scarce 
 ly ceased speaking when the storm began to abate. 
 The Puritans when using a geographical name 
 that began with the word " saint " scrupulously un- 
 canonized 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 arch 
 angel downward. The ancient Indian designations 
 were marks of a heathenism they purposed to over 
 throw, and they began by trying to get rid of the 
 whole " bead roll of unbaptized names." No con 
 venient 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 245 
 
 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 re 
 ligious 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 re 
 lief to the pettiness of the debates and the irksome- 
 ness of the bigotries of the age. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 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 
 Maries in the charter, though represented there to 
 be the equivalent of Maryland, was significant to a 
 devout Catholic of something better than a compli 
 ment 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 in 
 fant 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. Not 
 withstanding the manifest care of the second Lord 
 Baltimore to hold the missionaries within the limits 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A Catholic 
 colony. 
 
 Compare 
 Clarke s 
 Gladstone 
 and Mary 
 land Tol 
 eration. 
 
 Maryland 
 Archives, 
 23- 
 
246 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 them 
 selves 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 miracu 
 lous, or at least of the marvelous, to help on this 
 work. One man of noble birth, who had by dissi 
 pation brought himself to desperate straits, and 
 then sunk until he became at length a bond serv 
 ant in Maryland, embraced Catholicism. After the 
 death of this convert a very bright light was some 
 times 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 who were unfaithful to Puritanism in New Eng 
 land. 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, some 
 times to that of a rather vindictive genius of the 
 place. 
 
 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 In 
 dian " king," at which the governor and other 
 distinguished men " honored by their presence the 
 Christian sacraments," the governor marching be 
 hind the neophyte in the procession. Maryland 
 was in fact openly a Catholic colony until after 
 1640. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 bigotry of its own Puritan settlers, who regarded 
 Baltimore s government as a " Babylon " to be 
 overthrown, it was never able to afford to Catho 
 lics perfect security, much less was it able to 
 promise them domination. But the Catholics in 
 cluded 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 propor 
 tion 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 gov 
 ernment 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. 
 
 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 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 opposi 
 tion to Maryland was probably embittered by the 
 hatred to Strafford and the jealousy of a Catholic 
 queen. 
 
 On his enemies in Virginia the younger Balti 
 more 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. Har 
 vey, the governor, hoping to collect money due 
 him from the royal treasury by Baltimore s assist 
 ance, was his obsequious tool, to the bitter indig 
 nation 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 conse 
 quence of the quarrel between Harvey and the 
 Virginians over Maryland there ensued a revolu 
 tion 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 re 
 venge. 
 
 Cecilius meditated even a bolder stroke. He 
 
250 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 sho\v throughout the need for extreme cau 
 tion 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 Prot 
 estants." The rulers are to instruct the Catholics 
 to be silent " upon all occasions of discourse con 
 cerning matter of religion," and those in authority 
 are to " treat the Protestants with as much mild 
 ness and favor as justice will permit." These in 
 structions 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 251 
 
 a disposition to observe this policy of conciliation 
 toward Protestants at the expense of some unfair 
 ness toward Catholics. Very early a proclamation 
 was issued for the suppression of all religious dis 
 putes, 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. 
 
 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 Ma 
 ryland government. It was enacted " that Hoi} 7 
 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 Eng 
 land " 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 re 
 ligion and for Catholic ecclesiastics. 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 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 Ad 
 miral 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 char 
 acteristic 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 Gib 
 bons, of Boston, sending him a commission under 
 the Maryland government, and offering " free lib 
 erty of religion and all other privileges " to such 
 of the New England people as were willing to re 
 move 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 pa 
 pist was to them much like pitching a tent on the 
 confines of perdition. 
 
 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 church 
 man, Sir William Berkeley, who wanted his par 
 sons to read prayers, but did not like preaching 
 ministers of any sort. He was new to his govern- 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 253 
 
 ment, 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 un 
 easy 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, con 
 tributed something to the multifarious turmoils of 
 the following years. 
 
 XX. 
 
 What we know of the petty civil wars of Mary 
 land 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 
 
254 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 Eng 
 land ; there was the tendency common in frontier 
 communities to carry debates to a violent issue ; 
 there was perhaps a natural proneness to insurrec 
 tion 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 tem 
 pest had passed for the time ; order had been re 
 established ; the Catholic and the Puritan were liv 
 ing 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. 
 
 Before this epoch Maryland toleration had been 
 merely a practical fact. It had not been theoretic 
 ally 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 prin 
 ciple 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 
 
The CatJiolic Migration. 
 
 255 
 
 account of religion no person professing to believe 
 in Jesus Christ, " and in particular no Roman Cath 
 olic." 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 Cath 
 olic 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 set 
 tlement of affairs involved the sending over of a 
 code of perpetual laws to be adopted by the Assem 
 bly. The proprietary gave orders that the gov 
 ernor 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 pass 
 ing 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 tol 
 eration, no far-reaching conclusion like that of 
 Roger Williams, that the magistrate may not take 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
2 5 6 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony -Plant ing. 
 
 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 tol 
 eration 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 fre 
 quently fallen out to be of dangerous conse 
 quence" ; 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 pre 
 cede those for toleration. Very politic is the ar 
 rangement 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. 
 
 And yet it was toleration, and the law was all 
 the more influential as an example, perhaps, be 
 cause it was only practical and quite incongruous. 
 It was eminently prudent and statesmanlike. That 
 it was not perpetually effective was the fault not 
 
The CatJiolic Migration. 
 
 257 
 
 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 phys 
 ical 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 Catho 
 lic element, which, though always rich and in 
 fluential, 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 re 
 ligious views not relished in colonies less liberal. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 13 
 
2 5 8 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Note i, 
 page 223. 
 
 Note 2, 
 page 224. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 225. 
 
 Note 4, 
 page 225. 
 
 ELUCIDATIONS. 
 
 " 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 hap 
 piest who has least to do at court " a truth which Calvert prob 
 ably had come to appreciate by that time. 
 
 " The third man who was thought to gain by the Spaniard 
 was Secretary Calvert ; and as he was the only secretary em 
 ployed in the Spanish match, so undoubtedly he did what good 
 offices he could therein for religion s sake, being infinitely ad 
 dicted to the Roman Catholic faith, having been converted there 
 unto 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. 
 
 Whitbourne gives these names. Those who believe that Cal 
 vert was already actuated by religious zeal, remind us that Glas- 
 tonbury (by a curious legendary confusion of names) was also 
 called Avalon, and that in the Christian legend Joseph of Arima- 
 thea 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 in 
 tention 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 Newfound 
 land 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 expendi 
 ture than its predecessors. Compare Whitbourne passim with 
 the statement of Sir William Alexander in his Encouragement 
 to Colonies, 1624, p. 25. 
 
 Among the papers at Landsdowne House which I was per 
 mitted 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 259 
 
 title of Abercromby s Examination, Landsdowne House, 47. 
 Abercromby was, so far as I know, the first to point out the ap 
 parently intentional ambiguity of the passages in the Maryland 
 charter that have to do with religion. 
 
 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 Cal 
 vert 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. 
 
 Fuller s oft-quoted account of the circumstances of Calvert s 
 resignation, Worthies, Nuttall s edition, iii, 417, 418, gives prob 
 ably 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 
 tnonachum, 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 Eng 
 land, 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 
 
 GHAP. I. 
 
 Note 5, 
 page 226. 
 
 Note 6, 
 page 228. 
 
260 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony -Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Note 7, 
 page 229. 
 
 Domestic Papers for 1624 and 1625 to February I2th. The cir 
 cumstantial 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. : " II Signer Cavalier Calvert 
 primo Segretario et Consigliero cli Stato, credendosi, doppo la 
 rottura de trattati, che si haveva con Spagna, (che per comanda- 
 mento di sua Maesta haveva lui solo maneggiati,) d essere eclip- 
 sato nell oppinione del Sigr. Principe et Signer Duca, et di non 
 essere piii impiegato con quella confidenza, che solevano ricorse 
 pochi giorni sono dal Signor Duca di Buchingam per fargli inten- 
 dere 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 pre- 
 sente faceva, la sua carica, perche" ne disponasse ovonque le 
 piacesse con molte altre parole tutte piene di valore et magna- 
 nimita : soggiugnendoli di piu come dicono, che essendo risoluto 
 per 1 avvenire di vivere et morire Cattolicamente, conosceva di 
 non poterlo fare nel servizio dove era senza gelosia dello stato et 
 pericolo del Parlamento. II Signor Duca ancorche non amasse 
 questo Cavaliero, ne nessuno altro che ha hauto le mani nel pa- 
 rentado 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 fran- 
 chezza et nobilta d animo, col rispetto che gli haveva mostrato, 
 1 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 alia sua religione egli 1 havrebbe protetto quanto 
 fusse mai stato possibile," etc. Salvetti, Correspondence, iii, 
 February 6, 1624-2$. 
 
 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. 
 
 Calvert attributes his deception to interested letters. The 
 principal motives to settle in Newfoundland may be seen by the 
 
Catholic Migration. 
 
 261 
 
 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 incredi 
 ble number of what-nots besides " for the generall and perpetuall 
 good of Great Britain," found in Vaughan s Golden Fleece, pub 
 lished in 1626. The nearness of Newfoundland to Ireland and 
 the comparative cheapness of transportation thither, but espe 
 cially the well-established value of its fisheries and the market 
 they afforded for the produce of the colony, were the most plausi 
 ble 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 Hands." As some of the apostles were fishermen, " New 
 foundland the grand port of Fishing was alloted to Professors 
 of the Gospell." Golden Fleece, Part Third, pp. 5 and 6 and 
 passim* 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Montser- 
 rat as " puisos ab anglis Virginias ob fidei Catholicae profes- 
 sionem." White s choice of words does not necessarily imply, I 
 suppose, an actual banishment from Virginia, but at least a re 
 fusal 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 Vir 
 ginia about this time, unless, as is rather probable, we meet 
 the same plan in another form. Sir Pierce Crosby offered to 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 8, 
 page 230. 
 
 Note 9, 
 page 231. 
 
262 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Extrucndi et fundandi eaque dedicari et sacrari 
 juxta leges Ecclesiasticas regni nostri Anglic facendas." Mary 
 land Archives. 
 
 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 ecclesi 
 astical 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 sub 
 ordinating 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 Mary 
 land, 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 contri 
 butions. 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. 
 
The Catliolic Migration. 
 
 263 
 
 As early as 1752 it was remarked that the Maryland charter 
 contained " the most extensive power of any charter in Brit 
 ish 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 parlia 
 ment. 
 
 Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, wrote to Strafford, 10 January, 
 i633~ 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 finan 
 cial risk. Strafford Papers, i, 179. Twenty years later Crom 
 well 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 ! 756 there 
 was presented to the Lord Baltimore of that day, who was a 
 Protestant, a petition from Roman Catholic residents of Mary 
 land 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. 
 
 The statement of Father Henry More, in 1642, that " in lead 
 ing the colony to Maryland by far the greater number were here 
 tics," 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 com 
 pany of 1634, as Bancroft seems to say. 
 
 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 emi 
 gration of many recusants was confidently expected. 
 
 " Nubes, terrificum in morem excresentes, terrori erant intu- 
 entibus antequam discinderentur : et opinionem faciebant pro- 
 diisse adversum nos in aciem, omnes spiritus tempestatum male- 
 ficas, et malos genios omnes Marylandiae." Relatio Itineris, 15. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Note 12, 
 page 236. 
 
 Note 13, 
 page 240. 
 
 Note 14, 
 page 242. 
 
 Note 15, 
 page 242. 
 
 Note 16, 
 page 243. 
 
264 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting 
 
 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 Manner 100 acres must be laid out for Gleabe 
 lande, if then the intention to bind them to be pastors who en 
 joy 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 In- 
 conuenient." 
 
 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 judg 
 ment 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 fami 
 lies are for the most part still of the Roman communion," p. 492. 
 
 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. 6 1 at Landsdowne House is a decision of the At 
 torney-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. 
 
 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. 
 
 Baltimore s letter bears date February 25, 1637, and is in the 
 Record Office, Colonial Papers, xiv, No. 42. The memorial ap 
 parently 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 
 
The Catholic Migration. 
 
 265 
 
 are printed in Maryland Archives, Council Proceedings, pp. 
 41, 42. 
 
 The act was one of those that for some reason ot 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. Boz- 
 man regards this law of 1639 as an attempt to establish the 
 Roman Catholic religion. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Amer 
 ican. 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. 
 
 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 be 
 longed 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 them 
 selves 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 Judg 
 ments and Consciences without being Subject to any Penaltyes 
 whatever for their soe doing." Colonial Papers, vol. xlix, Rec 
 ord Office. Compare Leah and Rachel, p. 23, where the author 
 also implies that the Act of Toleration was a concession to Puri 
 tan demands. 
 
 CHAP. 1. 
 
 Note 22, 
 page 251. 
 
 Note 23, 
 page 252. 
 
 Note 24, 
 page 254. 
 
 Note 25, 
 page 256. 
 
CHAPTER THE SECOND. 
 
 THE PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Centrifu 
 gal forces 
 in Massa 
 chusetts. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE centrifugal force of religious differences 
 acted with disastrous results in Maryland, because 
 the Catholic party, which had always a control 
 ling negative there through the proprietary, was 
 in the minority. The Massachusetts people, on 
 the other hand, were fairly homogeneous in re 
 ligious opinion, and their government was admira 
 bly compacted. In Massachusetts religious senti 
 ment was a powerful centripetal force. Magistrates 
 and ministers were nicely poised, and each order 
 relied upon the other to maintain existing condi 
 tions. If the magistrates were perplexed or were 
 seriously opposed, the elders were called in to ad 
 vise 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 con 
 sidering its smallness one might rather say it was 
 
 paddled most expertly. But in Massachusetts, as 
 
 266 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 267 
 
 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 retro 
 gression 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 Arian- 
 ism, 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. 
 
 One of the most formidable of all those who 
 ventured to assail the compact phalanx presented 
 by the secular and religious authorities of Massa 
 chusetts was Roger Williams. Williams was the 
 son of a merchant tailor of London. He mani- 
 
268 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 fested 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 re 
 nown, 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 Wil 
 liams 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 Wil 
 liams had sown must rise early. From the Charter 
 House Williams went to Pembroke College, Cam 
 bridge. 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 pas 
 sions; his integrity was an aggressive force, and 
 there was a precipitation in his decisions and ac 
 tions that was trying to his friends. From an early 
 period he showed a conscience intolerant of pru 
 dent compromises. Puritanism had contrived to 
 
The Prophet of Religions Freedom. 
 
 269 
 
 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 advance 
 ment, 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 ex 
 treme Puritans, in a private chaplaincy, and re 
 fused 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 any 
 thing 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 vic 
 tim 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 
 
2/O 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 man just setting out in life, with a young wife to 
 care for, to indulge in such extravagant luxury of 
 scruple. 
 
 III. 
 
 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 re 
 served for such as he by the Courts of High Com 
 mission and the Star Chamber. There was nothing 
 left but to betake himself to New England for 
 safety. He fled hurriedly across country on horse 
 back, feeling it " as bitter as death " that he dared 
 not even say farewell to his great patron Sir Ed 
 ward Coke, who detested schism. 
 
 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 
 excommnuicate 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 congrega 
 tion because of its position with reference to the 
 church in England. 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 271 
 
 This protest by withdrawal of communion was 
 a fundamental principle of Separatism. It was not, 
 as it appears on the surface, a manifestation of un- 
 charitableness 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 direc 
 tion of compromise where his convictions were in 
 volved, whatever might be the evils sure to result 
 from his refusal. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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, Ende- 
 cott, 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 Separa 
 tist 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 explo 
 sive forces was alarming. Williams s ecclesiastical 
 ideals were not those which the leaders of the 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
 Williams 
 at Salem. 
 
2/2 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Win- 
 
 throp s 
 Journal, i, 
 63, i 2th 
 April, 1631. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Williams 
 at Plym 
 outh. 
 
 colony had devoted their lives and fortunes to es 
 tablish. Had this young radical been less consci 
 entious, less courageous, less engagingly good and 
 admirable, there would not have been so much 
 reason to fear him. A letter was written to Ende- 
 cott protesting against Williams s ordination, be 
 cause 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 com 
 plete 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 re 
 moved to Plymouth, where the people were Sepa 
 ratists, modified by the conservative teachings of 
 John Robinson, somewhat modified also by the 
 responsibility of founding a new state, and per 
 haps by association with Puritans of the neighbor 
 ing colony. 
 
 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 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 273 
 
 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 individual 
 ism 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 lan 
 guage 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. 
 19 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Maverick s 
 Descrip 
 tion of 
 
 New Eng 
 land, 25. 
 
 Williams 
 to Win- 
 throp, 
 1632. 
 
274 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 At Plymouth Williams spoke, as he had at 
 Salem, without restraint from any motive of expe 
 diency or even of propriety. Separatist Plymouth, 
 whose days of advance were over, was a little dis 
 turbed by his speech. In his own sweet, reckless 
 way he sometimes sharply rebuked even the re 
 vered Bradford when he thought him at fault. 
 And in the interest of the aborigines and of justice 
 Williams laid before Governor Bradford a manu 
 script 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 in 
 capable of sophistication. Bradford accepted can 
 didly 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. Wil 
 liams wished to return to Salem, where he might 
 still devote himself to the neighboring Indians, and 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 275 
 
 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 Wil 
 liams. 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. 
 
 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 back 
 ground, the dwelling place of countless savages 
 and wild beasts. The population of all the settle 
 ments 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, 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Williams 
 returns to 
 Salem. 
 
 The town 
 system. 
 
276 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
 Life in the 
 Massachu 
 setts set 
 tlements. 
 
 1630 to 
 1640. 
 
 gave some play to local peculiarities and preju 
 dices. There is evidence that the central govern 
 ment 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 Massachu 
 setts, at first, something of the elasticity of a fed 
 eral government. 
 
 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 contro 
 versies in which the settlers had once borne a part 
 reached them at long intervals, like news from an 
 other planet. But most of the time these lonesome 
 settlements had no interest greater than the petty 
 news and gossip of little forest hamlets. The vis 
 itor 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 ex 
 citing, 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 Water- 
 town 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 ex- 
 
The PropJict of Religions Freedom. 
 
 277 
 
 planation 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 sta 
 ples of excitement in these half-aquatic towns ; and 
 if the inmates of a doomed boat had been particu 
 larly profane, these events were accounted edify 
 ing 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 ful 
 filled, 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 exe 
 gesis on its back. The Massachusetts mouse was 
 an auspicious creature ; it is recorded by the gov 
 ernor, and it was no doubt told along the coast, 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
278 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Self-con 
 sciousness 
 of the 
 Massachu 
 setts com 
 munity. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 that one got into a library and committed depre 
 dations 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 in 
 terests so narrow, the conflict between Williams 
 and the General Court took place. 
 
 VI. 
 
 It was a community that believed in its own 
 divine mission. It traced the existence of its set 
 tlements to the very hand of God the God who 
 led Israel out of Egypt. The New England col 
 onists never forgot that they were a chosen peo 
 ple. 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 providen 
 tial exodus was one of the capital events in human 
 history ; that it had been predesigned from eter 
 nity 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 sec 
 ond coming of Christ would take place among the 
 rocky woodlands of New England. The theocrat- 
 
The Prophet of Religions Freedom. 
 
 2/9 
 
 ical 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 Ori 
 ental intolerance which had marked that fierce 
 struggle in which the Jewish tribes finally shook 
 off image worship. 
 
 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 Lon 
 don, 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 institu 
 tions in New England, and he did much also to 
 mold the yet plastic state. Though he usually 
 avoided the appearance of personal antagonism, 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 mas 
 ter 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 domi 
 nance of ministers who virtually attained to the 
 authority of bishops. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Salem, the oldest town of the commonwealth, 
 was the most ready to pursue an independent 
 course and it was attached to Williams, whose abil 
 ity attracted new settlers and who maintained a 
 position of independence toward Cotton and the 
 authorities at Boston. To subdue the refractory 
 Salem Avas no doubt one of the secondary purposes 
 of the proceedings against Williams. There seems 
 to have been no personal animosity toward Wil 
 liams himself ; his amiable character and his never- 
 doubted sincerity were main obstacles to his pun 
 ishment. 
 
 The return of Roger Williams to such a place 
 as Salem was naturally a matter of alarm to the 
 ministers and magistrates of Massachusetts. Col 
 lision was not a matter of choice on either side. 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 281 
 
 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 as 
 serted the necessity for a complete separation of 
 religion and government in the interest of soul lib 
 erty had no place. His ideal was higher than the 
 prevailing one, but that age could not possibly rise 
 to it. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 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 Gov 
 ernor 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 per 
 haps even bound by its author in the favorite pig 
 skin 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The book 
 against 
 the patent. 
 
 Note 9. 
 
282 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 con 
 demn construed the obscure and " implicative 
 phrases " of Williams in that sense and these sup 
 posed 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 man 
 ner of that time. A month later, when the gov 
 ernor 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 mov 
 ing 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 dis 
 appear. 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 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 28 3 
 
 addressed to the king, " not without the approbation 
 of some of the chiefs of New England," whose con 
 sciences 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 destina 
 tion it would have cut a curious figure among the 
 worldly-minded state papers of the time. 
 
 It is probable that most of the land of the col 
 ony 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 ques 
 tion of right and wrong, the more he relished a 
 discussion of it. It was of a piece with his ex 
 quisite 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 keep 
 ing his conscience purer than Galahad s. 
 
 IX. 
 
 It was in the winter of i633~ 34 that the book 
 about the patent was called in question. Skelton, 
 pastor of Salem, died in the following August, 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Reply to 
 Cotton, 
 276, 277. 
 
 An ab 
 stract 
 principle. 
 
 The alarm. 
 
284 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 law 
 fulness of resistance to force. A platform was con 
 structed on the northeast side of Castle Island, and 
 a fortified house was proposed to defend the plat 
 form. 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. 
 
 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 casuis 
 try. Refinements of theology were quite as real 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 285 
 
 and substantial to the Puritan mind as trainbands 
 and fortifications. Sound doctrine and a scrupu 
 lous observance of the " ordinances " conciliated 
 God ; they were indeed more important elements 
 of public safety than drakes and demi-culverins. 
 
 The General Court of September, 1634, under 
 took to provide for the public safety in both re 
 spects. Along with regulations and provisions of 
 a military nature, it set out to remove those fla 
 grant 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. 
 
 Seeing that the millinery sins recounted in this 
 act had cried to Heaven, and that, beside the dan 
 ger from England, there was the desire of Hook- 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Reform in 
 dress. 
 
 Mass. Rec 
 ords, 3d 
 Septem 
 ber, 1634. 
 
 Compare 
 
 Ward s 
 
 Simple 
 
 Cobbler, 
 
 passim. 
 
 The fast- 
 day ser 
 mon. 
 
286 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 er s party to remove to the Connecticut, and a 
 dissension concerning the power of the Upper 
 House that threatened trouble, the Court ap 
 pointed the 1 8th 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 declara 
 tion of his far-reaching and cherished principle of 
 religious freedom, including perhaps a round de 
 nunciation 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 ortho 
 doxy of a church under the advice of the ministers, 
 were points of Massachusetts law and administra 
 tion that he denounced at various times ; and some 
 of them, if not all, were no doubt put in pillory in 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 287 
 
 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 after 
 ward attributed the beginning of the troubles that 
 led to his banishment. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Winthrop, just but gentle, narrow-minded but 
 ever large-hearted, had been superseded in the 
 governorship by Dudley, open and zealous advo 
 cate 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 minis 
 ters 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 in 
 genious inferences, and from the time of Cotton s 
 arrival there was a strong effort to secure uni 
 formity. But Cotton was timid in action, and he 
 was nothing if not orderly and ecclesiastical. Wil 
 liams was an elder, entitled as such to be pro 
 ceeded with " in a church way " first. As leader 
 and spokesman of the clergy Cotton expressed his 
 charitable conviction that Williams s "violent 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Williams 
 dealt with 
 ecclesias 
 tically. 
 
288 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 course did rather spring from scruple of con 
 science than from a seditious principle." The 
 clergy proposed to try to convert him by argu 
 ment, 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 de 
 ceived in him if they thought he would conde 
 scend 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 re 
 monstrate with a church. Cotton and Wilson, for 
 example, could appeal to the Boston church to ap 
 peal to the Salem church to appeal to Williams, 
 and in this order much of the correspondence 
 went on. 
 
 It was, perhaps, when his desire to act promptly 
 against the Salem heretic was thus foiled by Cot 
 ton s prudent and intricate orderliness in procedure 
 that Dudley relieved his emotions by what is hap 
 pily the only example of his verse that has sur 
 vived : 
 
 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. 
 
The PropJ ict of Religious Freedom. 
 
 289 
 
 XII. 
 
 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 resi 
 dents 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 Wil 
 liams might be a source of danger. 
 
 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 resi 
 dents 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note ii. 
 
 Scruples 
 small and 
 great. 
 
290 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Williams 
 inflexible. 
 
 Savage s 
 Win- 
 throp s 
 Journal, i, 
 81. 
 
 Mass. Rec. 
 i, I 35, *3 6 
 
 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 re 
 ligionists 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 free 
 dom 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 over 
 throw 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. 
 
 Williams was certainly incorrigible. Richard 
 Brown, the ruling elder of the church at Water- 
 town, seems to have submitted to the remonstrance 
 of the magistrates against his too charitable judg 
 ment 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. 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 291 
 
 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 depu 
 ties 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. 
 
 Williams remained the one resolute, stubborn, 
 incorrigible offender. Eliot, Stoughton, and Ende 
 cott, 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Mass. Rec. , 
 i, 156, 157. 
 Win- 
 throp s 
 Journal, i, 
 194. 
 
 Wil 
 liams s 
 trial. 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 self-reliant spirit was able to face isolation or ex 
 communication. The great Hooker was set to dis 
 pute 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 Qth 
 of October, 1635, he was sentenced to banishment. 
 After the manner of that curious age, his banish 
 ment 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 indi 
 viduals is, however, made one of the cardinal 
 offenses in all the trustworthy accounts given at 
 the time. With this were joined in the proceed 
 ings, 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. 
 
 The magistrates, though deeply " incensed " 
 against him, probably felt at the last some reluc 
 tance to banish such a man. Six weeks were ac 
 corded him in which to leave. Winthrop, who 
 was Williams s friend, and who seems to have been 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 293 
 
 loath to consent to his banishment, wrote to him to 
 " steer his course for Narragansett Bay," where 
 there was territory beyond the bounds of Massa 
 chusetts and Plymouth. The forest journeys or 
 boat voyages to Boston and back, the bitter con 
 troversies there, and the uproar of indignation 
 which was produced in Salem by the news of the 
 verdict, the desertion of Williams by Endecott, con 
 vinced 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 Sep 
 aratist 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 Plym 
 outh out of love for this unworldly saint, loved him 
 none the less for his courage and his sorrows. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 14. 
 
 Note 15. 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 They frequented his house on Sunday as he con 
 valesced. Indeed, the attachment to him was so 
 great that the " ordinances " which had been ap 
 pointed 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, uncon 
 vinced by the argument of the rod of justice ap 
 plied 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 ap 
 proval 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 uni 
 formity, 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 con 
 siderations, 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, 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 much taken with an apprehension of his godliness." 
 It was therefore agreed to send him to England 
 on a ship soon to sail. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 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 cir 
 cumstances, made exaggerated representations re 
 garding his physical condition. But the magistrates 
 had other information. They sent the valiant and 
 notorious Captain Underbill, in whom were min 
 gled 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 Underbill 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. Underbill found 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Escape to 
 the In 
 dians. 
 
296 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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. 
 
 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, be 
 cause 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 al 
 ready begun to build and to plant, but he removed 
 once more to the place which he named Provi 
 dence. 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 en 
 dangered. 
 
fetvt 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 297 
 
 XV. 
 
 Local jealousy and sectarian prejudice have 
 done what they could to obscure the facts of the 
 trial and banishment of Williams. It has been ar 
 gued by more than one writer that it was not a 
 case of religious persecution at all, but the exclu 
 sion 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 exclud 
 ing an uncongenial person from its territory. But 
 with what swift indignation would the Massachu 
 setts rulers of the days of Dudley and Haynes 
 have repudiated a plea which denied their magis 
 tracy ! They put so strong a pressure on Stough- 
 ton, who said that the assistants were not magis 
 trates, that he made haste to renounce his pride 
 of authorship and to deliver his booklet to be offi 
 cially burned, nor did even this prevent his punish 
 ment. The rulers of " the Bay " were generally 
 frank advocates of religious intolerance ; they re 
 garded toleration as a door set open for the devil 
 to enter. Not only did they punish for unortho 
 dox expressions ; they even assumed to inquire into 
 private beliefs. Williams was only one of scores 
 bidden to depart on account of opinion. 
 
 The real and sufficient extenuation for the con 
 duct of the Massachusetts leaders is found in the 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Wil- 
 
 liams s 
 banish 
 ment an 
 act of per 
 secution. 
 
 Note 17. 
 
 Intoler 
 ance as a 
 virtue. 
 
298 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 character and standards of the age. A few ob 
 scure and contemned sectaries Brownists, Ana 
 baptists, and despised Familists in Holland and 
 England had spoken more or less clearly in favor 
 of religious liberty before the rise of Roger Wil 
 liams, but nobody of weight or respectable stand 
 ing 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 mod 
 erate 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 Catho 
 lics 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 tol 
 eration as a great crime. It would have been won 
 derful 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 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 299 
 
 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. 
 
 This doctrine of intolerance was sanctioned by 
 many refinements of logic, such as Cotton s deli 
 cious sophistry that if a man refused to be con 
 vinced of the truth, he was sinning against con 
 science, and therefore it was not against the liberty 
 of conscience to coerce him. Cotton s moral intui 
 tions 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Simple 
 Cobbler of 
 Agawam, 
 pp. 3 and 6. 
 
 The casu 
 istry of 
 Cotton. 
 
 Note 20. 
 
 Hutchin- 
 son Papers, 
 406. 
 
3 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 aus 
 tere temper; it was rather the outgrowth of his 
 logic and his reverence for authority. He shel 
 tered 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 Wil 
 liams 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 suffi 
 cient condemnation. Its government and its very 
 religion were barbarous ; its Bible, except for mys 
 tical and ecclesiastical uses, might as well have 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 301 
 
 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 considera 
 tion, aside from those other New Testament pas 
 sages supposed to relate to a divinely appointed 
 ecclesiasticism. The humane pity of Jesus was un 
 known not only to the laws, but to the sermons of 
 the time. About the time of Williams s banish 
 ment 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 Win 
 throp, overborne by authority, confessed, ex 
 plained, 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 in 
 fallible church. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 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 ex 
 tant 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 22. 
 
 Savage s 
 Winthrop, 
 i, 211-214. 
 
 Character 
 of Wil 
 liams. His 
 scruples. 
 
 New Eng 
 land Fire 
 brand 
 Quenched, 
 246. 
 
302 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony -Plant ing. 
 
 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 an 
 noyance 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 per 
 haps what bric-a-brac is to a collector, what a well- 
 arranged altar and candlesticks are to a ritualist. 
 
 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 
 
The Prop] let of Religions Freedom. 
 
 303 
 
 mainspring of the High-church movement. Apos 
 tolic 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 vir 
 tue had trickled down through generations of bish 
 ops 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 primi 
 tive nakedness of the early Christian conventicle. 
 True to the law of his nature, Roger Williams 
 pushed this latter principle to its ultimate possi 
 bilities. 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 4>y 
 the Puritan spirit of apostolic primitivism ; he had 
 now swung round to where this spirit joined hands 
 with its twin, the aspiration for apostolic succes 
 sion. He renounced his baptism because it was 
 without apostolic sanction, and announced himself 
 of that sect which was the last reduction of Sepa 
 ratism. He became a Seeker. 
 
 Here again is a probable influence from Hol 
 land. The Seekers had appeared there long be 
 fore. 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 24. 
 
 The 
 Seekers. 
 
304 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Moral ele 
 vation of 
 Williams. 
 
 sanctioned by the " gifts " of the apostolic time. 
 The Seekers appeared in England as early as 1617, 
 and during the religious turmoils of the Common 
 wealth period the sect afforded a resting place for 
 many a weatherbeaten soul. As the miraculous 
 gifts were lost, the Seekers dared not preach, bap 
 tize, 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 roman 
 tic 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 con 
 tented uncertainty. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 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 su 
 periority for he had no large philosophical views 
 but by reason of elevation of spirit. Even the au 
 thority of Moses could not prevent him from con 
 demning 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 con 
 stantly pleads for a humane treatment of them. 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 305 
 
 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 perpet 
 ual 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." 
 
 Of his incapacity for organization or adminis 
 tration 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 
 Avhich detested schism he became an individualist. 
 Individualist in thought, altruist in spirit, secular 
 ist 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 scrupu- 
 ulosity 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. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Superior 
 to the age. 
 
306 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 His pro 
 phetic 
 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 prac 
 tical 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. Pre 
 cisely 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 
 all inability to enter into treaty with its environ 
 ment. 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. 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 307 
 
 ELUCIDATIONS. 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 Letter to John Cotton the younger, Narragansett Club Publi 
 cations, 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, I2th April, 1631, and such re 
 fusal must have had some such occasion. 
 
 "We have often tried your patience, but could never conquer 
 it," were Winthrop s words to W T illiams, who gave to Massa 
 chusetts 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. 
 
 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 Publica 
 tions, 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. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note i, 
 page 268. 
 
 Note 2, 
 page 269. 
 
 Note 3, 
 page 270. 
 
 Note 4, 
 page 271. 
 
 Note 5, 
 page 272. 
 
308 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Note 6, 
 page 276. 
 
 Note 7, 
 page 278. 
 
 Note 8, 
 page 279. 
 
 Note 9, 
 page 281. 
 
 Note 10, 
 page 288. 
 
 Note ii, 
 page 289. 
 
 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 de 
 ferred to a later volume of this series. 
 
 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. 
 
 "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 prac 
 tice in the church, if of an ecclesiastical concernment." Hubbard, 
 History of Massachusetts, 182. 
 
 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." 
 
 Cotton s Answer to Williams s Examination, 38. I have fol 
 lowed 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. 
 
 Cotton s Answer to Williams, 29. Compare also Massachu 
 setts Records of 4th March, 1633, where a mercenary inducement 
 to take the oath is offered by making the regulations for record 
 ing 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 inci 
 dental result from the oath that would be prejudicial to religious 
 freedom. This is to suppose that W T illiams needed a practical 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 309 
 
 consideration to stir him to action it is to suppose that Wil 
 liams was not Williams. Practical men were afraid the inde 
 pendence 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. 
 
 There has been much ingenious and rather uncanclid 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 banish 
 ment proceedings, the trial in July, as given by Winthrop, our 
 most trustworthy authority, are : I . 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 con 
 troversy. 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: i. The 
 denial of the authority of the patent. 2. The denial of the law 
 fulness 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 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Note 12, 
 page 292. 
 
3io 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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. 
 
 "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. Wil 
 liams shall departe out of this jurisdiccion within sixe weekes now 
 nexte ensueing, which if hee neglect to performe it shall be law- 
 full for the Gouernour & two of the magistrates to send him to 
 some place out of this jurisdiccion, not to returne any more with 
 out license from the Court." Massachusetts Records, i, 161. 
 
 Neal s History of New England, i, 143. " Sentence of ban 
 ishment 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. 
 
 The phrase occurs in Williams s noble letter to Major Mason, 
 ist Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, i, 275 and fol 
 lowing. 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. 
 
 " 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 Spir- 
 ituale 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. 
 
 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 Wil 
 liams, whose autobiographical passages always have an air of truth 
 while they are sometimes vague and often flushed by his enthusi- 
 
The Prophet of Religious Freedom. 
 
 astic 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. Hub- 
 bard was of Presbyterian tendencies and totally opposed to all 
 forms of Separatism. He appears to have recorded every exag 
 gerated rumor cherished by Williams s antagonists to his dis 
 credit. Neither in this nor in other matters can we rely much on 
 Hubbard s testimony. No critical student of history puts un 
 questioning 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 ist Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, vi, is a paper 
 that excites admiration for its broadmindedness. It contains in 
 formation 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 Narragan- 
 sett Club contain the whole controversy between Cotton and 
 Williams and all the letters of the latter now known to be ex 
 tant. I have in some cases referred to the originals, in others I 
 have used these careful reprints. Williams has been rather for 
 tunate 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 sym 
 pathy 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, Ar 
 nold 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 Wil 
 liams," 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. 
 
 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, 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 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 need 
 ful 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 particu- 
 lier in syn Religie vry zal moghen blyven, ende dat men nie- 
 mandt, ter cause van de Religie, zal moghen achterhalen, ofte 
 ondersoecken." Pieter Paulus Verklaring der Unie van Utrecht, 
 i, 229, 230. Compare Van Meteren, Nederlandsche Historic, etc., 
 iii, 254, 255, and Hooft Nederlandsche Historic, etc., Book IX, 
 where the full text of Article XIII is given. 
 
 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. 
 
The Prophet of Religions Freedom. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Ex 
 amination, 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 convic 
 tion." This logic would have amply sheltered the Spanish In 
 quisition. 
 
 Cotton s Answer to Williams s Examination, 38, 39. Cotton 
 confesses to having had further conversation of a nature unfavor 
 able 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. 
 
 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." 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Note 23, 
 page 302. 
 
 Note 24, 
 page 303. 
 
 Many of Roger Williams s scruples were peculiar, but his 
 scrupulosity was not. Cotton takes pains to call pulpits " scaf 
 folds," 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 dis 
 appear from Puritan use until about the end of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 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 ceremo 
 nies 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. 
 
 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 re 
 moval to the Connecticut instead of to some place 
 in the Massachusetts wilderness. Williams cer 
 tainly prepared a harbor for most of the Hutch- 
 insonians, and pointed the way to Gortonists, 
 Baptists, Quakers, and all others of uneasy con 
 science. 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 disinte 
 grating. 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 con- 
 gruity of the largest liberty in religion with civil 
 peace. The system which the more highly organ- 
 
 315 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Impor 
 tance of 
 the Rhode 
 Island 
 colony. 
 
3 i6 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony -Planting 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 The Con 
 necticut 
 migration. 
 
 Early life 
 of Hooker. 
 
 ized 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 Nar- 
 ragansett Bay founded itself, was stone rejected 
 that has become the head of the corner. 
 
 II. 
 
 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 Wil 
 liams, and its origins are not so easy to disentangle. 
 But it, too, has an epic interest ; one dominant per 
 sonality overtops all others in this second of ven 
 turesome westward migrations into the wilderness. 
 
 We can trace nothing of Hooker to his birth 
 place, a little hamlet in Leicestershire, except that 
 the imagery of his discourses in after life some 
 times 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 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 317 
 
 from those appointed in the calendar were read. 
 Hooker was presented to the living of Chelms- 
 ford, 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, w r here Eliot, afterward the In 
 dian 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 Commis 
 sion, whose penalties he escaped by fleeing to Hol 
 land. Thus early in his career Laud unwittingly 
 put in train events that resulted in the founding 
 of a second Puritan colony in New England. 
 
 ill. 
 
 The persecution of Hooker made a great com 
 motion in Essex, dividing attention with the polit 
 ical struggle between the king and the people about 
 tonnage and poundage. While Hooker was an 
 exile in Holland a company of people from Brain- 
 tree and other parts of Essex, near his old parish of 
 Chelmslord, 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 de 
 fensible against Indians and out of reach if a sea 
 force should be sent from England to overthrow 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 1630. 
 
 Hooker s 
 company. 
 
 Walker s 
 First 
 
 Church in 
 Hartford, 
 40. 
 
 Dudley s 
 Letter to 
 Countess 
 of Lincoln, 
 Young s 
 Chron. of 
 Mass., 320. 
 Mass. Rec 
 ords, 
 14 June, 
 1631, and 
 3 February, 
 1632. 
 
318 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Holmes s 
 Hist. Cam 
 bridge, 
 ist Mass. 
 Hist. Coll., 
 vii, 6-8. 
 
 Failure of 
 Newtown 
 as a me 
 tropolis. 
 
 Savage s 
 Win- 
 throp, 
 i, 98, 99. 
 1632. 
 
 Wonder 
 working 
 Provi 
 dence, ch. 
 xxviii. 
 
 Wood s 
 N. E. Pros 
 pect, 1634. 
 Young, 
 
 402. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 unhappi- 
 ness at New r town, 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 me 
 tropolis of New England in spite of the forces that 
 worked for Salem and Newtown. 
 
 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 Water- 
 town and Charlestown. The village was com 
 pactly 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 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 319 
 
 wooden chimneys or thatched roofs were allowed 
 in it. To this town came Hooker, and if it had con 
 tinued 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 ves 
 sels 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. 
 
 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 mos 
 quitoes 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. 
 
 " Ground, wood, and medowe " were matters of 
 dispute between Newtown and its neighbors as 
 early as 1632, and the frequent references to ques 
 tions regarding the boundary of Newtown go to 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 October, 
 1632. 
 
 Hooker s 
 
 arrival, 
 
 1633. 
 
 Wood s 
 N. E. Pros 
 pect. 
 Young, 
 397, 398. 
 
 Discon 
 tent at 
 
 Newtown. 
 
3 20 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Mass. Rec., 
 passim. 
 
 Wonder 
 working 
 Provi 
 dence, ch. 
 xxxiii. 
 
 Compare 
 Holmes s 
 History 
 of Cam 
 bridge, 
 i Mass. 
 Hist. Coll., 
 vii, pp. 1,2. 
 
 2d Mass., 
 vii, 127. 
 
 Cotton and 
 Hooker. 
 
 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 pros 
 pect 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 at 
 tention to the more profitable pursuit of cattle- 
 raising. They took unusual pains to protect their 
 valuable herd from the wolves by impaling a com 
 mon pasture. Natural meadow was the only re 
 source for hay in the English agriculture of the 
 seventeenth century, and the low grounds of Cam 
 bridge yielded a poor grass. Shrewd men in New- 
 town 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. 
 
 There is good authority for believing that a ri 
 valry 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. 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 321 
 
 To be saved, according to Hooker, one must be 
 come 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 gar 
 den of spices. He delighted in allegorical interpre 
 tations 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 expres 
 sion, 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 po 
 litical center, it is not surprising that Cotton s 
 ideals eloquently and deftly presented soon domi 
 nated the colony and that he became the Delphic 
 oracle whose utterances were awaited by the rulers 
 in emergencies. 
 
 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 concern 
 ing active and passive faith in justification. Hook 
 er maintained all by himself that there was "a 
 saving preparation in a Christian soule before un- 
 yon with Christ." The other ministers pretended 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Compare 
 
 Walker s 
 
 First 
 
 Church of 
 
 Hartford, 
 
 129^-132. 
 
 Theologi 
 cal differ 
 ences. 
 
 Note i. 
 
 22 
 
322 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Attrac 
 tions of 
 Connecti 
 cut. 
 
 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 privi 
 lege to the magistrate as was given in Massachu 
 setts. He disapproved of Cotton s aristocratic the 
 ory 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 Mas 
 sachusetts magistrates assumed the right to make. 
 
 VII. 
 
 One other potent motive there was. Stories of 
 the fertility of the " intervale " land on the Con 
 necticut 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. 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 323 
 
 VIII. 
 
 There were dangerous Pequots on the Con 
 necticut, it is true, and the Dutch had already 
 planted a trading house and laid claim to the ter 
 ritory. The Plymouth people who traded there 
 were also claimants. And, more than all, leaving 
 Massachusetts in a time of danger from the machi 
 nations of Laud would seem desertion. The gov 
 ernment of the Massachusetts Bay colony was 
 anomalous ; it partook of the character of the com 
 mercial 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 rep 
 resentative members of the General Court, but not 
 of a majority of the assistants. This precipitated 
 a debate in the colony on the constitutional ques 
 tion 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. 
 
 It is no part of our purpose to unravel the tan 
 gle of ecclesiastical and civil politics in which the 
 proposed emigration had now become involved. 
 The Dorchester church and a part of that of Water- 
 town v/ere ready to follow the lead of Hooker and 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Obstacles 
 to remov 
 al. 
 
 Savage s 
 Winthrop, 
 i, 167, 168. 
 
 Attempts 
 to prevent 
 removal. 
 
324 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 Explorers 
 and pio 
 neers. 
 
 Newtown. Days of fasting and prayer were ap 
 pointed to prevent the removal of these "candle, 
 sticks," 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. 
 
 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 west 
 ward 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 Water- 
 town 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 emi 
 grants was larger, and there was much suffering 
 during the following winter and many of the cattle 
 perished. 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 325 
 
 X. 
 
 But the unit of New England migration was the 
 church. No doubt the cohesiveness of the town 
 ships, 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 congrega 
 tion of Essex people, sold their houses and mead 
 ows and home lots and acre rights in the com 
 monage in Cambridge to a new congregation led 
 by Thomas Shepard. From Newtown and from 
 Dorchester the churches emigrated bodily pas 
 tors, teachers, ruling elders, and deacons carrying 
 their organization with them through the wilder 
 ness 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. 
 
 XL 
 
 The Connecticut rulers acted at first as a gov 
 ernment subordinate to Massachusetts ; but the set 
 tlements, except that of people from Roxbury at 
 Springfield, were south of the line of the Massa 
 chusetts 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 col 
 onies. An independent constitution was adopted 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Emigra 
 tion by 
 churches. 
 
 636. 
 
 Note 3, 
 
 The new 
 govern 
 ment. 
 
326 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Conn. 
 Hist. Soc. 
 Coll., i, 20, 
 21. 
 
 Conn. 
 Hist. Soc. 
 Coll., i, 3, 
 and ff. 
 
 Instability 
 of a the 
 ocracy. 
 
 in Connecticut, on principles which Hooker thought 
 he found in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, and 
 which were not exactly those that Cotton had man 
 aged 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 au 
 thority over Springfield, which was within its lim 
 its, 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. 
 
 In its early years Massachusetts had no rest. 
 Three profound disturbances the expulsion of 
 Williams, the secession of Hooker and his follow 
 ers, and the Hutchinsonian convulsion followed 
 one another in breathless succession, and a danger 
 ous 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 ecclesi 
 astical politics proved explosive, to the consterna 
 tion of its pious founders, who like other settlers 
 in Utopia had neglected to reckon with human 
 nature. 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 327 
 
 XIII. 
 
 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 na 
 ture 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. 
 
 But the heart will not be perpetually repressed ; 
 kept from natural pleasures, it will seek supernatu 
 ral 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 in 
 genious 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 Calvin- 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Severity 
 of Puri 
 tanism. 
 
 Reaction 
 toward a 
 subjective 
 joyous- 
 ness. 
 
328 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Magnalia 
 B. Ill, c. 
 1,32. 
 
 Compare 
 Cotton s 
 Fountain 
 of Life, 35. 
 
 Note 4. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Shepard s 
 Memoirs 
 in Young, 
 505. 
 
 ism, 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 na 
 ture 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 im 
 agery 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 diffi 
 cult of attainment. It was a paradoxical system 
 wherein men were saved by the works they the 
 oretically abjured. Conservative Puritans com 
 plained 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 ? " 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 329 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Cotton professed that he loved to sweeten his 
 mouth with a piece of Calvin before he went to 
 sleep. His emotional rendering of Calvinistic doc 
 trines 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 in 
 terest but religion, and from which ordinary di 
 versions 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 inevi 
 table. Cotton s enthusiasms were modulated by 
 the soft stop of a naturally placid temper, but 
 when communicated to others they were more dan 
 gerous. 
 
 XV. 
 
 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Cotton s 
 revival 
 ism. 
 
 Win- 
 
 throp s 
 Journal, i, 
 144. 
 
 Report of 
 Record 
 Com. ii, 5. 
 Boston 
 Town 
 Records, 
 1635. 
 Hutchin 
 son Papers, 
 p. 88. 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 Hutchin- 
 son s char 
 acter. 
 
330 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 cursed with a natural gift for leadership in an age 
 that had no place for such women. " This Master 
 piece of Womens wit," the railing Captain Johnson 
 calls her, and certainly her answers before the Mas 
 sachusetts 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 val 
 ued. Almost alone of the religionists of her time 
 she translated her devotion into philanthropic exer 
 tion. 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 hus 
 bands at home. Mrs. Hutchinson ventured to open 
 a little meeting for women. This was highly ap 
 proved at first, and grew to unexpected dimensions ; 
 fifty, and sometimes eighty, of the principal women 
 of the little town were present at her conferences. 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 331 
 
 XVI. 
 
 In these meetings she emphasized Cotton s favor 
 ite doctrine of "a covenant of grace." Her sensi 
 tive woman s nature no doubt had beat its wings 
 against the bars of legalism. She was not a phi 
 losopher, but nothing could be more truly in accord 
 with the philosophy of character than her desire to 
 give to conduct a greater spontaneity. Cotton him 
 self 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 bot 
 tom, 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 theolog 
 ical phrases for itself. Spontaneity of religious 
 and moral action represented itself to Mrs. Hutch 
 inson 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. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 Hutchin- 
 son s doc 
 trines. 
 
 Compare 
 Whele- 
 wright s 
 Sermon in 
 Proc. Mass. 
 Hist. Soc., 
 1866, 265. 
 Cotton s 
 Sermon 
 on the 
 Churches 
 Resurrec 
 tion, 1642. 
 
332 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 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 ordi 
 nances 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 hon 
 ored. Winthrop was utterly opposed to Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, in whose teachings his apprehensive 
 spirit saw full-fledged Antinomianism, and, by in 
 ference, potential anabaptism, blasphemy, and sedi 
 tion. The Hutchinsonians were partisans of Vane, 
 who adhered to their doctrine. The ministers other 
 than Cotton and Whelewright, stung by the impu 
 tation that they were under "a covenant of works," 
 rallied about Winthrop. Political cleavage and re- 
 ligious division unfortunately coincided. 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 333 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Supported by the prestige of the young gov 
 ernor and of some conspicuous citizens and inspired 
 by Cotton s metaphorical and mystical preaching, 
 which was interpreted with latitude, the enthusi 
 asm of the Hutchinsonians tended to become fanat 
 icism. We have to depend mainly on the preju 
 diced 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 be 
 lieve 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 controver 
 sial 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 utter 
 ance." 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Arrogance 
 of the 
 Hutchin 
 son party. 
 
 1636. 
 
334 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 Cotton s 
 Churches 
 Resurrec 
 tion, p. 27. 
 
 Bitterness 
 of the de 
 bate. 
 
 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. Hutch- 
 inson. 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 Apoca 
 lypse, 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. 
 
 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 indiffer 
 ent to be buffers in the religious collision. While 
 the covenant-of-grace people made themselves of 
 fensive, their opponents, Winthrop, the slighted 
 ex-governor, Wilson, the unpopular pastor, and the 
 ministers accused of being under a covenant of 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 335 
 
 works resorted to the favorite weapons of po 
 lemics. 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 eso~- 
 teric 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 An- 
 tinomian 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 deduc 
 tion, in the doctrines taught in Boston. The hear 
 ers of Mrs. Hutchinson were also accused of hav 
 ing 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 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Over 
 throw of 
 Vane, 1637. 
 
336 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 The Synod 
 of 1637. 
 
 Short 
 
 Story of 
 
 the Rise, 
 
 Reign, etc., 
 
 passim. 
 
 Win- 
 
 throp s 
 
 Journal, i, 
 
 284, and 
 
 following. 
 
 Cotton s 
 
 Way of the 
 
 Churches 
 
 Cleared, 
 
 passim. 
 
 The perse 
 cution. 
 
 Holy Ghost. Vane was defeated, and Winthrop 
 again made governor. 
 
 xx. 
 
 A great synod of elders from all the New Eng 
 land 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 ex 
 pense, that they might help the magistrates of Mas 
 sachusetts 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 quali 
 fied his assent and withheld his signature. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The field was now cleared for the orderly per 
 secution of the dissentients. Whelewright, Mrs. 
 Hutchinson s brother-in-law, had been convicted of 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 337 
 
 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, ap 
 parently until after the synod. At the November 
 court following the synod Whelewright was ban 
 ished, 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 Novem 
 ber 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 sum 
 moned to be present and advise. 
 
 During a two days trial, conducted inquisitori- 
 ally, like an English Court of High Commission, 
 Cambridge presented the spectacle of a high-spir 
 ited 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 de- 
 23 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Mass. Rec., 
 i, 207. 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 Hutchin- 
 son s trial, 
 1637. 
 
 Hutchin 
 son s Hist, 
 of Mass. 
 Bay, ii, 
 appendix. 
 
338 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony -Plant ing. 
 
 BOOK in. 
 Note 7. 
 
 fense 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. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson defended herself adroitly at 
 first, refusing to be trapped into self-condemnation. 
 But her natural part was that of an outspoken agi 
 tator, and her religious exaltation had been in 
 creased, doubtless, by persecution, for combative- 
 ness is a stimulant even to zeal. On the second 
 day she threw away " the fear of man," and de 
 clared that she had an inward assurance of her de 
 liverance, 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 reve 
 lation 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 ha-ve 
 revelations was to stand the world on its head. 
 " We do not mean to discourse with those of your 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 339 
 
 sex," etc., said VVinthrop severely to Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son during the trial. She was sentenced to ban 
 ishment, 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 retract 
 ing 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 false 
 hood, as it was deemed, she was summarily excom 
 municated. Yet nothing seems more probable than 
 that her hyperbolic utterances under excitement 
 had not stood for dogmatic opinions. Under Cot 
 ton 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 dis 
 franchise 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." 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 Hutchin 
 son is ex- 
 communi 
 cated. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 Rise, 
 Reign, 
 Ruine,etc., 
 and Win- 
 throp s 
 Journal, i, 
 309. 310- 
 
340 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Omens 
 
 and augu- 
 
 Savage s 
 Win- 
 throp s 
 Journal, i, 
 313, 3i6; 
 ii, n, and 
 Short 
 Story of 
 Rise and 
 Reign of 
 Antino- 
 
 Winthrop, 
 i, 316. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 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 elo 
 quent 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 bar 
 renness, 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 still 
 born 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 person 
 ally 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 mis 
 fortune of another kind. The wild reports that 
 were circulated regarding this event are not fit to 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 341 
 
 be printed even in a note ; the first editor of Win- 
 throp 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 inno 
 cent children " in the open assembly at Boston on 
 a lecture day," explaining the divine intent to sig 
 nalize 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 di 
 vine 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. 
 
 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. 
 
342 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Results of 
 ecclesias 
 tical gov 
 ernment. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 This famous controversy lets-in much light up 
 on the character of the age and the nature of Puri 
 tanism. 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 in 
 separable 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 Hart 
 ford 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 develop 
 ing the severity, the intolerance, and the meddle 
 some 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 pur 
 chased 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 surviv 
 ors of the first generation of New England leaders. 
 
^ 
 
Nciu England Dispersions. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 During the period of the greatest excitement 
 over the Hutchinson case John Davenport, a noted 
 Puritan minister of London, had been in Massachu 
 setts. Like many other emigrant divines of the 
 time he brought a migrant parish with him seek 
 ing 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 peo 
 ple were Londoners and bent on trade, and Massa 
 chusetts had no suitable place for their settlement 
 left. The bitterness of the Hutchinson contro 
 versy may have had influence in bringing them to 
 this decision, and the preparations of Laud to sub 
 ject 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 colo 
 ny 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. 
 
Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 per 
 haps 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 offi 
 cers 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. 
 
 The swing of the political pendulum in England 
 that served to check the Puritan exodus gave im 
 petus to a new emigration to Virginia and Mary- 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 345 
 
 land. 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 gen 
 eration 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 char 
 acter 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 pris 
 oners seem to have been sent in one detachment. 
 
 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 com 
 munes 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 Eng 
 lish held New England. English settlers " seeking 
 larger accommodations" had crossed to Long Is 
 land and were even pushing into the Dutch colony. 
 The whole Chesapeake region was securely Eng 
 lish. 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 adven- 
 
346 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 turous fur-trading. But the English had proved 
 their superior aptitude for planting compact agri 
 cultural 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 al 
 ready, 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 settle 
 ments brought about the collapse of the expanded 
 bubble of New France. 
 
 ELUCIDATIONS. 
 
 There is a paper on this debate in the British Record Office 
 indorsed by Archbishop Laud, " Rec : Octob : 7. 1637," " Propo 
 sitions wch have devided Mr. Hooker & Mr. Cotton in Newe 
 England, i. 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 opin 
 ion, 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 Au 
 gust 3oth, had adjourned late in September, and the debates 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 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, ist 
 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i, 280. 
 
 The abstract of Hooker s sermon of May 31, 1638, as de 
 ciphered 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 m Hinman s Antiquities, 20, 
 and ff., and in Trumbull s Blue Laws, 51. Compare also the 
 remarkable letter of Hooker to Winthrop in Connecticut His 
 torical 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 poster 
 ity under such government." This letter exhibits Hooker s in 
 tellect to great advantage. One is inclined to rank him above 
 most of his New England contemporaries in clearness and breadth 
 of thought. 
 
 The selling of half-developed homesteads to newcomers by 
 older settlers was of constant occurrence in all the colonies dur 
 ing the colonial period. It was a notable practice on the frontiers 
 of Pennsylvania down to the Revolution, and perhaps later. Hub- 
 bard thus describes what went on in every New England settle 
 ment : " 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. 
 
 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 An- 
 tinomianism. " And this is the very reason that this kind of doc- 
 
348 
 
 Centrifugal Forces in Colony-Planting. 
 
 trine takes so well here in London and other parts of the king- 
 dome, and that you see so many dance after this pipe, running 
 after such and such, crowding the Churches and filling the 
 doores and windowes." 
 
 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 Con 
 verted 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." 
 
 Notwithstanding his early imprudence during the partisan ex 
 citement in Boston, Whelewright was a man of sound judgment, 
 and his testimony regarding his sister-in-law is the most impor 
 tant 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 ... at 
 tended by melancholy." Mercurius Americanus, p. 7. 
 
 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 remon 
 strances against persecution. 4 Massachusetts Historical Collec 
 tions, vi, where the letters are given. 
 
 There were those who wished to give time for a second ad 
 monition before excommunication, but they were overruled, prob 
 ably 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 re 
 formed New England churches. I am unable to trace its au 
 thority. From this I quote ; " Qui pertinacitur consistorii admo- 
 nitiones rejecerit a ccena domini suspendatur. Si suspensus, post 
 
New England Dispersions. 
 
 349 
 
 iteratus admonitiones nulla poenitentias signum dederit ad ex- 
 comunicationem procedat Ecclesia." 
 
 It would be a waste of time to controvert the ingenious apolo 
 gies which have been written to prove that an inexorable necessity 
 compelled the banishment of the Antinomians. The Massachu 
 setts 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 magis 
 trates 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 Pres 
 ent Age," published in 1642. Cotton compares Jesuits and here 
 tics 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. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Note 9, 
 page 341. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbot, Abp., on Calvert s resignation, 
 259, n. 6. 
 
 Abercromby s Examination, 258, n. 4 ; 
 262, n. ii ; 263, n. 12. 
 
 Aberdeen Burgh Records, no Sabba 
 tarian 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, I. 
 
 Adam s needle and thread, garments 
 woven of fiber of, 79 ; efforts to 
 cultivate, 80. 
 
 Admonition to the People of Eng 
 land, 115, m. 
 
 Advertisements for Planters of New 
 England, 27, m. 
 
 Age of romance and adventure, an, 
 I, 2O ; of colony beginnings, 92 ; 
 dramatic and poetic to its core, 
 100. 
 
 Agrarian and industrial disturbance 
 aids the Puritan movement, in. 
 
 Ainsworth wrote tractate on the Jew 
 ish ephod, 108. 
 
 Alexander, William, Encouragement 
 to Colonies, 258, n. 3. 
 
 Alleghanies deemed almost impass 
 able, ii. 
 
 Almond, an, for a Parrat, 116. 
 
 America excited the most lively curi 
 osity, 2 ; notion that it was an Asi 
 atic peninsula, 3; search for a route 
 through, lasted one hundred and 
 fourteen years, 8; a Mediterranean 
 Sea sought in the heart of, ii; fact 
 and fable about, 14 ; excepted from 
 the Deluge, 20 ; treasure from flow 
 ing into Spanish coffers, 74 ; Hak- 
 
 luyt 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, no. 
 
 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, 
 no ; becomes dogmatic, 113 ; aided 
 by Hooker s Ecclesiastical Polity, 
 
 122. 
 
 Anglican zeal founded a nation of 
 dissenters, 91. 
 
 Animals, notions about American, 
 1 8 ; too many kinds for Noah s 
 ark, 20. 
 
 Animals for breeding, stock of, 48 ; 
 sold by Argall, 50. 
 
 Antinomianism, divergencies in di 
 rection 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 ; banish 
 ment 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 
 
 351 
 
352 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 hearty consideration from the New 
 England Puritans, 301. 
 
 Apostolic primitivism, aim of the 
 Puritan, 303 ; goal of the Separa 
 tist, 303. 
 
 Apostolic succession asserted as essen 
 tial, 113. 
 
 Archdale s Carolina, 171, m. 
 
 Archer, Gabriel, wounded by the In 
 dians, 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 fish 
 ing-banks for food, 42 ; to Mt. 
 Desert for plunder, 47 ; bad record 
 and government, 50 ; robbed Com 
 pany 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 Prot 
 estant minister or worship on board, 
 242. 
 
 Armada, the Spanish, patriotism 
 aroused by the danger from, 121. 
 
 Armenian silk-raisers brought to Vir 
 ginia, 78. 
 
 Arminian Nunnery, 93, m. 
 
 Arminianism spreads among the High- 
 Church clergy, 133, 192. 
 
 Arminians and Calvinists, Laud at 
 tempts to suppress debate between, 
 194. 
 
 Arminians excluded from toleration 
 in the Netherlands, 298, 312, n. 18. 
 
 Arnold s History of Rhode Island, 
 3ii, 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 Com 
 pany, 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 bap 
 tized, 151 ; inhabitants at Brad 
 ford s birth a most ignorant people, 
 152. 
 
 Austerity in morals a Puritan charac 
 teristic, 119. 
 
 Auxiliary societies formed, 53. 
 
 Avalon, Calvert s province in New 
 foundland called, 224, 258, n. 3 ; 
 charter of, 225, 234 ; primary de 
 sign 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 set 
 tling 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. I. 
 
 Bacon, Roger, on the Sunday ques 
 tion, 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 CAL 
 VERT, 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. 
 
Index. 
 
 353 
 
 Barlow s Svmme and Svbslance, 143, 
 m. ; 160, m. ; 162, m. ; 182, n. i. 
 
 Barrow hanged at Tyburn, 148. 
 
 Barrowism a mean between Presby- 
 terianism and Brownism, 148 ; the 
 model for the church at Scrooby, 
 
 154- 
 Bawtry, the station near Scrooby, 149, 
 
 150, 151. 
 
 Baylie, Robert, condemns the tolera 
 tion of the Dutch, 164, 311, n. 18. 
 
 Baylie s Errours and Induration, 164, 
 m. ; 311, n. 18. 
 
 Bell, ringing of only one, to call peo 
 ple to church, 129; of more than 
 one a sin, 130. 
 
 Bentley s Description of Salem, 200, 
 m. ; Historical Account of Salem, 
 3", n. 17. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, persecution of 
 Puritans in Virginia by, 252. 
 
 Bermudas, Gates and Somers ship 
 wrecked 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 serv 
 ice, reprehended by the extremists, 
 117. 
 
 Birch s Court of James I, 68, n. 10 ; 
 69, n. 14; 72, n. 19 ; 258, n. i. 
 
 Bishoprics filled by Elizabeth, 143. 
 
 Bishops, effect of the hostility of the, 
 to the Puritans, 112 ; attacked by 
 the Mar-Prelate tracts, 115 ; reac 
 tion in favor of, 121 ; had become 
 Protestant to mo^t 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 pub 
 lic meetings, 319 ; secured Cotton 
 to balance Newton s Hooker, 319. 
 
 Boston church, Roger Williams re 
 fused 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, 
 
 24 
 
 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 ; capti 
 vated the religious public, 130 ; op 
 position to, 131 ; new edition pub 
 lished, 132, 139, n. 10. 
 
 Bozman, 265, n. 22. 
 
 Bradford, William, a silk-weaver in 
 Leyden, 169 ; chosen governor at 
 Plymouth, 179 ; abolishes commu 
 nism, 180 ; of high aspiration re 
 strained 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. ; 1 66, 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 be 
 gun 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 remon 
 strance, 290. 
 
 Browne, John and Samuel, sent back 
 to England by Endecott, 200. 
 
 Browne, Robert, leader of the Sepa 
 ratists, 145 \ despised for recanting, 
 died in prison, 146 ; career lasted 
 only four or five years, 147 ; John 
 Robinson s justification of, 157, n. i ; 
 authorities on, 157, n. I ; 158, n. 2. 
 
 Brownists. See SEPARATISTS. 
 
 Brown s Genesis of the United States, 
 
 94, n. i ; 183, n. 3. 
 
 Bruce s Economic History of Virginia, 
 
 95, n. 3- 
 
 Buckingham dominant at court, 193 ; 
 
354 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 consents to sale of Calvert s secre 
 taryship, 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. I ; Har- 
 risse on, 21, n. I. 
 
 Cabot, Sebastian, not a discoverer, 21, 
 n. i ; 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 Balti 
 more, son of George Calvert, 234 ; 
 expected large Catholic migration, 
 240 ; religious aim of, 240 ; part 
 ners in financial risks, 240, 263, n. 
 13 ; policy of toleration, 242 ; or 
 ders the Catholic service to be con 
 ducted 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 modi 
 fied 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 be 
 ing bribed by Spain, 223, 258, n. i ; 
 member of Virginia Company, 1609, 
 224, 229; councilor for New Eng 
 land, 224 ; establishes colony in 
 Newfoundland, 224, 239 ; his con 
 
 version to Catholicism, 226 ; intract 
 able, 225 ; resigned secretaryship 
 and made Baron Baltimore, 228, 
 259, n. 6 ; in Newfoundland, 228, 
 229 ; sails to Virginia, 229 ; not re 
 ceived hospitably, 230 ; refuses to 
 take oath of supremacy, and leaves 
 Virginia, 232; religious enthusiasm, 
 2 33> 2 58, 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 as 
 similate the Church of England to 
 the, 112 ; controversy adds another 
 issue, 133 ; doctrines popular, 328, 
 329, 347, n. 4. 
 
 Calvinists and Arminians, Laud s at 
 tempt 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 ; de 
 nied by Gates, 65, n. 5. 
 
 Cape Anne, failure of Dorchester 
 Company s colony on, 189, 199. 
 
 Cape Cod shoals turn back the May 
 flower, 177, 186, n. 7. 
 
 Carlisle s treatise, 75, m. 
 
 Cartwright, leader of the Presbyte 
 rians, 112, 136, n. 6. 
 
 Cartwright s Admonition to Parlia 
 ment, 129, m. 
 
 Carver, John, chosen governor, 173, 
 184, n. 4. 
 
 Castle Island, platform constructed 
 on, 284. 
 
 Catholic conscience, oath made of 
 fensive to the, 237. 
 
 Catholic migration, the, 220 ; revival 
 in England, 226 ; settlers in New 
 foundland, 228, 239 ; Baltimore 
 family openly, 228, 235 ; migration 
 to Maryland small, 240 ; pilgrims 
 very religious, 243, 244, 245 ; tax 
 on Catholic servants in Maryland, 
 
Index. 
 
 355 
 
 248 ; colony in Maryland until after 
 1640, 247 ; at peace with Puritans in 
 Maryland, 254 ; element protected 
 in Maryland, 257 ; party in minor 
 ity in Maryland, 266. 
 
 Catholicism condoned, to conciliate 
 Spain, 238 ; tide toward, in Eng 
 land, 240. 
 
 Catholics, Irish, not allowed to settle 
 in Virginia, 231; Baltimore s party 
 of, repelled from Virginia, 231 ; 
 harsh laws in England against, 236, 
 2 37. 2 38 ; enforcement of penal stat 
 utes against, 239 ; co-religionists of 
 queen, 239 ; toleration and protec 
 tion to English Catholics in Mary 
 land, 242 ; no perfect security for, 
 in Maryland, 248 ; rich and influ 
 ential families of, in Maryland, 264, 
 n. 18 ; conciliation to Protestants 
 at expense of fairness toward, 251 ; 
 papist religion forbidden, 257 ; ex 
 cluded from toleration in the Neth 
 erlands, 298, 312, n. 18. 
 
 Catlet, Colonel, reaches the Allegha- 
 nies, ii. 
 
 Cattle, scarce in Massachusetts col 
 ony, 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 East 
 ward, Ho ! 23, n. 8. 
 
 Charles I, coronation robe of silk 
 for, from Virginia, 78 ; obliterated 
 by Puritanism, 133. 
 
 Charles II wore silk raised in Vir 
 ginia, 78. 
 
 Charter, the Great, granted by the 
 Virginia Company, 55, 173, 206 ; 
 only information concerning, 70, n. 
 15- 
 
 Charter for a private plantation ob 
 tained 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 grant 
 ed 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 de 
 sire 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 ; Barrow- 
 ism, the form of, brought to New 
 England, 148 ; Puritans desire to 
 make real their ideal of, 198 ; Puri 
 tan passion for, 212. 
 
 Church of England repudiated as anti- 
 christian, 147 ; divergencies in di 
 rection 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 ear 
 ly, 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 Tol 
 eration, 245, m. 
 
356 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 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 Mediter 
 ranean, 75. 
 
 Coddington s Letter, 308, n. 9. 
 
 Code of Lawes, Divine, Morall, and 
 Martiall, by Sir Thoinas 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 Wil 
 liams 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. n ; 71, n. 18 ; 
 262, n. ii ; 264, n. 21 ; 265, n. 25 ; 
 346, n. i. 
 
 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, set 
 tled 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, i ; 
 motives for founding, 73. 
 
 Colony government, primary and sec 
 ondary 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 princi 
 ples of, not understood, 76 ; an eco 
 nomic 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 Vir 
 ginia, 75, 97, n. 9. 
 
 Commons inclosed, in, 135, n. 5. 
 
 Commons Journal, 71, n. 18. 
 
 Communion, withdrawal of, a funda 
 mental principle of Separatism, 271. 
 
 Communism at Jamestown, 26, 42 ; 
 abolished, 56 ; attempted at Plym 
 outh, 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 inter 
 est, 316 ; independent constitution 
 adopted by, 325 ; accounts adverse 
 to, circulated in England, 326. 
 
 Connecticut Historical Society Col 
 lections, 326, m ; 347, n. 2. 
 
 Connecticut River, stories of the fer 
 tility of the intervale land on the, 
 
 322 ; dangerous Pequots on the, 
 
 323 ; soil did not need to be 
 "fished," 324. 
 
 Consciences, oppressed, places of ref 
 uge for, in the Low Countries, 163. 
 
 Conservative and radical, difference 
 between constitutional, 109; church 
 man 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 ; 
 
Index. 
 
 357 
 
 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, an 
 swered 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 Eng 
 land, 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 Wil 
 liams s banishment, 297 ; casuistry 
 of, 299, 313, n. 20 ; 321 ; attitude 
 toward Williams s banishment, 299, 
 300, 313, n. 21 ; source of his in 
 tolerance, 300 ; belongs among the 
 diplomatic builders of churches, 
 306 ; uncandid and halting ac 
 counts 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 gar 
 den of spices, 321 : of a sanguine 
 temperament, 328 ; his advent fol 
 lowed by widespread religious ex 
 citement, 329 ; theological differ 
 ences between his teachings and 
 those of Hooker, 346, n. I ; Model 
 of Moses his Judicials, 326 ; opin 
 ions recanted and modified by, 336 ; 
 defends Mrs. Hutchinson, 337 ; 
 persuades her to recant, 339 ; dis 
 franchises her sons, 339 ; belated 
 zeal of, against the sectaries, 341 ; 
 wallows in superstition, 341. 
 
 Cotton planted, 29. 
 
 Cotton s Answer to Williams s Ex 
 amination, 308, n. 10, ii ; 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 pro 
 jectors, 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. i. 
 
 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 Ques 
 tion, 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 governor 
 ship, 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. i. 
 
 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 ; theat 
 rical return, 48, 68, n. 10 ; glowing 
 reports of the country, 49, 168 ; 
 cruelties of, proved, 66, n. 9 ; his 
 severity, 67, n. 9 ; various authori 
 ties on, 67, n. 9. 
 
 Danvers, Sir John, interested in the 
 Virginia Company, 54 ; in power, 
 71, n. 17 ; one of the fathers of rep 
 resentative 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- 
 
358 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 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 Ar- 
 gall, 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 James 
 town, 101 ; escorted to church by 
 gentlemen and guards, 102. 
 
 Deane, Charles, Voyages of Cabot, 21, 
 n. i ; misunderstood a statement 
 by Bradford, 184, n. 4. 
 
 Debate, the Puritan, 108 ; bitterness 
 of the, 114; new issues, 123 ; ad 
 vantage 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. i ; 185, n. 6 ; " As 
 to Roger Williams," as erudite as 
 it is one-sided, 311, n. 17. 
 
 Discontent, numerous causes for, in, 
 135- n. 5. 
 
 Discourse of the Old Virginia Com 
 pany, 54, m. ; 66, n. 9 ; 68, n. n ; 
 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. i. 
 
 Dorchester Company, failure of colo 
 ny 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, de 
 nounced, 1 20 ; regulations against, 
 in Massachusetts, 285. 
 
 Drunkenness, punishment for, 342. 
 
 Dudley, a zealous advocate of reli 
 gious 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 of 
 fers to the Independents, 176 ; de 
 spised for showing toleration, 298, 
 311, n. 1 8 ; laid claim to the Con 
 necticut, 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 in 
 quisitorial, 114. 
 
 Ecclesiastical extension desired by the 
 English Church, 90 ; organization 
 of the Brownists dominant, 141 ; 
 politics explosive in Massachusetts, 
 
Index. 
 
 359 
 
 326 ; system of government, petty 
 tyranny that inheres in, 342. 
 
 Economic success of the Virginia col 
 ony assured, 49 ; adverse conditions 
 more deadly than an ungenial cli 
 mate, 78 ; problems solved by home 
 ly 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, no ; 
 molded the church to her will, 112 ; 
 her policy of repression resulted in 
 the civil war, 114 ; greatest popu 
 larity in last years of her reign, 
 
 121. 
 
 Elizabethan age, the, i ; prodigal of j 
 daring adventure, 20. 
 
 Ellis Letters, The, 182, n. I. 
 
 Ellis collection, first series, 238, m. 
 
 Elton s brief biography of Roger Wil 
 liams, 311, n. 17. 
 
 Emigrants sail for Virginia, 25 ; bad 
 character of the, 27, 59. 
 
 Emigration to New England quick 
 ened by troubles that preceded the 
 civil war, 344 ; reached greatest 
 height in 1638, 344 ; ceased entire 
 ly 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 char 
 acter of, 200 ; cut arm of cross 
 from English colors, 201 ; put Quak 
 ers to death, 202 ; impetuous radi 
 calism of, 271 ; protested against 
 the double injustice to Salem, 291 ; 
 arrested, apologized, and submitted, 
 291 ; witnesses for Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son 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 communi 
 ties, 346 ; compactness of settle 
 
 ment and increase of, decided the 
 fate of North America, 346. 
 
 English knowledge and notions of 
 America, i ; first protest against 
 oppression, 56 ; jealousy of Spain, 
 74, 94, n. I ; ecclesiastics reproached 
 by Roman Catholics, 90, 97, n. n ; 
 Church leaders not content while 
 Spanish priests converted infidels, 
 90 ; eminent clergy among the ex 
 iled, 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, i ; prospective ascendency 
 of the colonies, 345. 
 
 English Protestantism. See PROTES 
 TANTISM, ENGLISH. 
 
 Ephod of Jewish high priest, discus 
 sion of material of, 108. 
 
 Epworth, the nest of Methodism, 150. 
 
 Esquimaux kidnaped 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, i. 
 
 Excerpta de Diversis Literis, 246, m. 
 
 Excommunication dreaded by the Pu 
 ritans, 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 Massachu 
 setts, 286. 
 
 Ferrar, John, election of, 71, n. 17 ; 
 deputy governor, 91. 
 
360 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 Ferrar, Nicholas, Jr., deputy governor 
 of Virginia Company, 91 ; estab 
 lished a religious community at Lit 
 tle Gidding, 92 ; austere discipline 
 of, 93 ; mediceval enthusiasm of, 
 194. 
 
 Ferrar, Nicholas, Sr., courts of Vir 
 ginia Company held at house of, 
 91 ; gave money for educating in 
 fidels in Virginia, 91. 
 
 Ferrars, the, among the founders of 
 liberal institutions in America, 173. 
 
 Firearms, sale of, to the savages, 191, 
 216, n. i. 
 
 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 Spel- 
 man s party, 22, n. 7. 
 
 Fleet s Journal, 23, n. 7. 
 
 Flemish Protestants favored inde 
 pendency, 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, 
 
 Fox, Luke, sails to the northwest, 10. 
 
 Franck s, Sebastian, Chronica, 314, 
 n. 24. 
 
 Frankfort, disputes in the church at, 
 produced great results, 105 ; char 
 acter of debates at, 105 ; rapid 
 changes produced by the, 106, 135, 
 n. 3. 
 
 Freemen s oath extended to residents, 
 289, 308, n. ii ; opposed by Wil 
 liams, 289, 309, n. 12. 
 
 Fresh River of the Dutch, the Con 
 necticut, 324. 
 
 Frobisher s, Sir Martin, voyages, 2, 4, 
 n. I ; brilliant failure, 5 ; attempt 
 to plant a colony, 7 ; finds "gold 
 cure," 13 ; Voyages, 21, n. I. 
 
 Fuller, Thomas, judgment of Captain 
 John Smith, 63, n. 3. 
 
 Fuller s Church History, 103, m. ; 
 131, m. ; 157, n. i : 160, m. ; 
 Worthies, 259, n. 6. 
 
 Gainsborough, the hamlet of, 150. 
 
 Gammell s Life of Roger Williams, 
 311, n. 17. 
 
 Gardens, private, apportioned in Vir 
 ginia, 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 pro 
 tested 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 ; fear 
 ing his settlement at Narragansett 
 Bay, agreed to send him to Eng 
 land, 294 ; banished scores for their 
 opinions, 297 ; the real extenuation 
 for the conduct of the, 297 ; charac 
 ter 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, commis 
 sion sent to, 252. 
 
 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, on a north 
 west passage, 5 ; attempt to plant a 
 colony, 7. 
 
 Glass-blowers ran away to the In 
 dians, 83. 
 
 Glass, window, not used in the col 
 ony, 65, n. 7. 
 
 Glass-works established near James 
 town, 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, re 
 strained by law, 75. 
 
 Gold, belief in finding, in North 
 America, 12, 14, 22, n. 7 ; 75. 
 
Index. 
 
 3 6i 
 
 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 Cal- 
 vert, 226, 258, n. 2. 
 
 Goodman s Court of King James, 
 258, n. 2. 
 
 Goodwin, Thomas, and others, Apolo- 
 getical 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 Wil 
 liams, 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 Vir 
 ginia 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, in. 
 
 Haies in Hakluyt s Voyages, 5, m. 
 
 Hakluyt, Richard, a forerunner of 
 colonization, 5 ; belief of, in a pas 
 sage to the Pacific, 6 ; stories of 
 gold, 12 ; of mulberry trees, 76. 
 
 Hakluyt s Discourse on Western 
 Planting, 6, m. ; 94, n. I ; 97, n. n ; 
 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; au 
 thorities on the, 182, n. I. 
 
 Hanbury s Memorials, 157, n. i, 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 Nugos Antiquse, 116, m. ; 
 161, m. ; 162, m. ; 182, n. i. 
 
 Harrisse s, Henry, John Cabot, the 
 Discoverer of America, 21, n. i. 
 
 Hartlib s Reformed Virginia Silk 
 worm, 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 sea 
 men in Mexico, 14. 
 
 Haynes, Governor of Massachusetts, 
 332 ; pronounced sentence against 
 Williams, 347, n. i ; letter to Wil 
 liams while Governor of Connecti 
 cut quoted, 347, n. I. 
 
 Health to the Gentlemanly Profession 
 of Servingmen, 134, n. i. 
 
 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 sBampton 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 re 
 ligions " 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 new 
 comers, 325, 347, n. 3. 
 
 Hooft, Nederiandsche Historic, 312, 
 n. 18. 
 
 Hooker, Thomas, one of the greatest 
 
362 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 luminaries of the Puritans, 269 ; 
 desire of his party to move to Con 
 necticut, 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 New- 
 town, 319; rivalry with Cotton, 
 320 ; somber theology of, 320 ; dif 
 ference between his teachings and 
 those of Cotton, 321, 346, n. i ; 
 theories of civil government more 
 liberal than Cotton s, 322 ; limited 
 the power of the magistrate, 322, 
 347, n. 2 ; the real founder of Con 
 necticut, 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 ; testi 
 mony of, unreliable, 311, n. 17. 
 
 Hudson, Henry, influenced by Cap 
 tain 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 Vir 
 ginia, 90. 
 
 Hunter, Rev. Joseph, on Shake 
 speare 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 ; " mas 
 terpiece 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 ; con 
 demned by the General Court, 338 ; 
 sentenced to banishment, 339 ; re 
 canted, but was excommunicated, 
 339, 348, n. 8 ; her sons disfran 
 chised, 339 ; settled in Rhode 
 Island with her party, 340 ; ac 
 cused 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, 2i5,m. ; 299, m. ; 
 307, m. ; 329, n. i. 
 
 Hutchinson party partisans of Vane, 
 332 ; arrogance of the, 333 ; Pastor 
 Wilson condemned by, 333. 
 
 Hutchinson s History of Massachu 
 setts Bay, 211, m. ; 337, m. 
 
 Hutchinsonian controversy, the, 326, 
 327 ; the debate waxed hot, 334. 
 
 Hypocrites better than profane per 
 sons, 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 Frank 
 fort, 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 Eliza 
 beth 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 James 
 town, 39. 
 
 Indians plot destruction of the colo 
 nists, 8 ; curiosity regarding the, 15 ; 
 desire to convert, 16, 90 ; kid 
 napped 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, emu 
 lated by the settlers, 92 ; destruc- 
 
Index. 
 
 363 
 
 tion of, in Maryland and in Massa 
 chusetts 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 Puri 
 tan movement, in. 
 
 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, belief in an, 
 10. 
 
 James I framed code of laws and or 
 ders for the Virginia colony, 26 ; 
 Covnter-Blaste to Tobacco, 84 ; ob 
 stinacy of, 87 ; his accession raised 
 the hopes of the Puritans, 159 ; 
 paradoxical qualities of, 160 ; dia 
 lectic skill at Hampton Court con 
 ference, 160 ; refutes the hapless 
 Puritans, 161 ; boasts that he had 
 peppered the Puritans, 162, 182, n. 
 i ; results of his folly, 162 ; would 
 wink at but not publicly tolerate 
 the Pilgrims, 170; refused guaran 
 tee 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 Mary 
 land, 253. 
 
 James River discovered by the acci 
 dent of a storm, 27 ; settlement 
 near the falls of the, 37. 
 
 James River experiments, the, 25 ; 
 their story the overture to the his 
 tory 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. I ; some 
 drawings of, 60, n. I. 
 
 Jamestown Company, the. See VIR 
 GINIA 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 tol 
 eration, 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 Amer 
 ica, 167 ; pastor at Amsterdam, 
 168. 
 
 Johnston, Isaac, of Winthrop s com 
 pany, death of, 212. 
 
 Jones, captain of The Mayflower, con 
 duct 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 Cal 
 vin, 124. 
 
 Labor, common-stock system of, at 
 Jamestown, 26 ; abolished by dis 
 tribution of land, 56 ; failure of, at 
 Plymouth, 179; evils of, 186, n. 9. 
 
 Labor, private, more productive than 
 common-stock system, 49 ; prohib 
 ited on Sundays, 127. 
 
 Laborers, twelve so-called, in the Vir 
 ginia 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 
 
The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 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, 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 ac 
 count of Laud s rise, 216, n. 2 ; fails 
 to crush the Massachusetts Com 
 pany, 2ii ; 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 com 
 mission 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 com 
 pel Scots to use prayer book, 344. 
 
 Laws, divine, moral, and martial, 
 under which Dale oppressed Vir 
 ginia, 45, 70, n. 16 ; 132. 
 
 Leah and Rachel, 79, m. ; 265, n. 25. 
 
 Lederer, voyage of, from Virginia, 
 n, 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 tradi 
 tion, 1 06 ; omitted in many parishes, 
 142. 
 
 London Separatists, 147 ; organize a 
 church, 148 ; miserably persecuted, 
 some flee to Amsterdam, 148. 
 
 Long Island Sound, Dernier 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 Mas 
 sachusetts, 266 ; men of unusual 
 ability, 266 ; right of, to punish for 
 a religious offense, denied by Wil 
 liams, 272, 286 ; or to regulate the 
 orthodoxy of churches and the be 
 lief of individuals, 292, 309, n. 12 ; 
 310, n. 13. 
 
 Magna Charta, the, of America, 55. 
 
 Maids by the shipload sent to James 
 town, 57 ; not coerced into going, 
 72, n. 19. 
 
 Maine, French driven out of, 50 ; first 
 English colony in, 189 ; fishing vil 
 lages 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 Com 
 pany, 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 invali 
 dated 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 Wil 
 liams, 307, n. i. 
 
 Martyr, Peter, Decade III, 24, n. 9. 
 
 Maryland, Baltimore s projected colo 
 ny in, 236 ; change to, from Avalon, 
 239 ; small migration to, 240 ; pol 
 icy of toleration in, 242, 250, 265, 
 n. 25 ; committed to guardian an 
 gels, 243 ; arrival of the Catholic 
 pilgrims, 244 ; ceremonies of the 
 
Index. 
 
 365 
 
 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 serv 
 ants and convicts, 248, 264, n. 19 ; 
 opposition to Maryland, 249 ; Puri 
 tan settlers invited, 252 ; civil wars 
 of, 253, 254 ; Act of Toleration 
 passed, 255 ; again a proprietary 
 government under Calvert, 257 ; 
 disastrous results of religious differ 
 ences 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. n ; 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 commer 
 cial settlements on, 189 ; patent to 
 lands in, granted to the Massachu 
 setts 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-con 
 sciousness of the, 278 ; preparations 
 for resistance in, 284 ; failure as an 
 agricultural colony, 320; three pro 
 found disturbances in, 326 ; in com 
 motion over the Hutchinson con 
 troversy, 335. 
 
 Massachusetts Company, rise of the, 
 199, 207 ; first colony of, under John 
 Endecott, 199, 207 ; second com 
 pany 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 Charles- 
 town, 210 ; later became represen 
 tative, 211 ; relieved from strain by 
 the borough system, 276 ; a govern 
 ment of congregations, 308, n. 6 ; 
 theocratical, 279 ; religious intoler 
 ance of the, 297, 349, n. 9 ; anoma 
 lous in character, 323 ; angered by 
 Hooker s secession, 326. 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Collections, 
 310, n. 15 ; 318, m. ; 320, m. ; 347, 
 n. I ; 348, n. 7. 
 
 Massachusetts Records, 206, m. ; 285, 
 m. ; 290, m. ; 291, m. ; 308, n. n ; 
 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 Is 
 land, 190 ; Description of New Eng 
 land, 273, m. 
 
 Maydstown laid off in Virginia, 72, 
 n. 19. 
 
 Mayflower, conduct of the captain of 
 the, 177. 
 
 Maynard to Laud, 3_|4, 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 Rob 
 inson 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 set 
 tlement at, 190, 201, 216, n. i. 
 
 Metals, the precious, the only recog 
 nized 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. 
 
366 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 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 under 
 taking, 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 Eng 
 lish Church, 89, 94, n. i. 
 
 Monatesseron, the earliest English, 
 
 93- 
 
 Montserrat, island of, settled by Cath 
 olics, 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, pur 
 chased at a great sacrifice, 342. 
 
 More, Father Henry, 263, n. 14. 
 
 Morton, Thomas, and his deviltry, 
 190, 201, 216, n. i ; Memorial, 177, 
 m. ; New English Canaan, 216, n. i. 
 
 Motives for founding English colo 
 nies, 73 ; commercial and senti 
 mental, 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 cra 
 dled 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 Newfound 
 land coast, 225, 229. 
 
 Names, Indian, of places changed, 
 244. 
 
 Nansemond, settlement at, 37 ; set 
 tlers driven from, 38. 
 
 Narragansett Bay recommended to 
 Williams by Winthrop, 293 ; pro 
 posal to remove to, alanned the 
 
 magistrates, 294 ; colony on, found 
 ed 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. n ; 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 Sepa 
 ratists, 141, 146; existence of, hung 
 on a chain of accidents, 176 ; ele 
 ments of, 177 : early attempts to 
 colonize, 178; early settlements in, 
 189; great migration to, 196, 203 ; 
 capital laws of, condemned by Wil 
 liams, 304. 
 
 New England charter of 1620, 173. 
 
 New England colonists deemed them 
 selves a chosen people, 278 ; ac 
 counted other colonists the Egyp 
 tians of the New World, 278, 308, 
 n. 7 ; held to an intolerant theoc 
 racy, 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. i. 
 
 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 fish 
 eries, 261, n. 7. 
 
 New France bubble ready to collapse, 
 346. 
 
 New Haven, Davenport and his com 
 pany planted colony at, 343 ; col 
 ony united with Connecticut by 
 
Index. 
 
 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 bod 
 ily to Connecticut, 325 ; court of 
 elections held at, 335. 
 
 New World, mirages of the, 2 ; dis 
 covered because it lay between 
 Europe and the East Indies, 3 ; 
 grotesque and misleading glimpses 
 of the, 20. 
 
 New York Colonial Documents, 6, m., 
 43, ni. 
 
 New York Hist. Soc. Coll., 23, n. 7 ; 
 second series, 70, n. 15 ; 80, m. 
 
 Nichols s, Josias, Plea for the Inno 
 cent, 146, m. 
 
 Nonconformists, severe measures 
 against, 122 ; in the Church, 142. 
 
 North Carolina, coast of, called Win- 
 gandacon, 21, n. 3. 
 
 Northey, Sir Edward, decision on the 
 Maryland charter, 262, n. n. 
 
 Northwest passage, search for a, 4, 5, 
 9, 10, ii. 
 
 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 Wil 
 liams, 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 com 
 pany from Watertown, 324. 
 
 Opossum, the, described by Purchas, 
 1 8. 
 
 Opposition, Puritanism the party of, 
 no. 
 
 Original Records of Colony of Vir 
 ginia, 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, 
 9, 10 ; via the Delaware, 10 ; prox 
 imity of, to Virginia, 10, 22, n. 6; 
 to North Carolina, 1 1. 
 
 Pagitt s Heresiography, 143, m. ; 14 \, 
 m. ; 157, n. I. 
 
 Palfrey s History of New England, 
 211, m. ; 218, n. 8. 
 
 Palisades burned for firewood, 40. 
 
 Paradox, the, of colonial religious or 
 ganization, 280. 
 
 Parkinson, Marmaduke, explorer, 10. 
 
 Parliamentary freedom, struggle for, 
 87. 
 
 Parties, the two great, of Protestant 
 ism, rise of, 106 ; results, 107 ; lines 
 between, not sharply drawn at once, 
 no; controversy between, grew 
 more bitter, 114. 
 
 Party, a moderate, lamented the ex 
 cesses 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. 
 
 Pcquot 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 Vir- 
 
368 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 ginia, 28 ; on the sufferings at 
 Jamestown, 30 ; increased the hos 
 tility 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, n, 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. i ; starts agitation 
 for emigration to Virginia, 168, 183, 
 n. 2. 
 
 Peter, Hugh, rebuked Cotton for de 
 fending Mrs. Hutchinson, 337 ; 
 browbeat Mrs. Hutchinson s wit 
 nesses, 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 Auster- 
 feld cradles of the, 149 ; no tradition 
 of, lingers at Scrooby, 150 ; common 
 country folk, 151 ; flee to Amster 
 dam, 164 ; theological agitations 
 drive them to Leyden, 165 ; dan 
 ger of extinction, 166 ; intermar 
 riages with the Dutch, 167 ; emigra 
 tion to Virginia under consideration, 
 1 68, 182, n. 2 ; questioned whether 
 to be Dutch or English colonists, 
 169 ; ask aid of Edwin Sandys, in 
 securing religious liberty, 169 ; re 
 ceive two charters, a general order, 
 and a liberal patent from the Vir 
 ginia Company, 172 ; their Com 
 pact under the general order, 173 ; 
 departure from Leyden, 174 ; forced 
 to land, select Plymouth, 177 ; suf 
 fered for their ignorance of colony- 
 planting, 178 ; honor due, 186, n. 
 8 ; "stepping stones toothers," 188 ; 
 slender success of, stimulated com 
 mercial settlements, 189 ; the " large 
 patent " granted to the, through in 
 fluence 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 pro 
 hibited, 127. 
 
 Pledge signed at Cambridge by Win- 
 throp 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 ; dis 
 turbed 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 Eliza 
 beth, 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 Cal- 
 vert, 229. 
 
 Presbyterianism developed under Cart- 
 wright, 112, 136, n. 6 ; swept out by 
 \Vhitgift, 122 ; hoped for in New 
 England, 213. 
 
 Price of commodities, rise of, pro 
 moted voyages, 22, n. 5. 
 
 Private interest, even a slave s patch 
 of, put life into Virginia, 48. 
 
 Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc., Wheel 
 wright s sermon in, 331, m. 
 
 Proceedings of Virginia Assembly, 
 80, m. 
 
 Property, community of. See COM 
 MUNISM ; LABOR. 
 
 Prophet, the, and the reformer, 306. 
 
 Proportion, lack of sense of, peculiar 
 to zealots and polemics, 130. 
 
Index. 
 
 369 
 
 Protestant colonists at St. Christo 
 pher s oppose Catholic fellow-colo 
 nists, 231 ; no Protestant minister or 
 worship on ships coming to Mary 
 land, 242. 
 
 Protestant Nunnery, Ferrar s commu 
 nity at Little Gidding called the, 
 
 93- 
 
 Protestantism, English, rise of the two 
 great parties of, 106, 107 ; contro 
 versy grew more bitter, 114 ; incor 
 ruptible in Virginia, 231. 
 
 Protestantism on the Continent near 
 ly 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 ; wide 
 spread results, 107 ; Baltimore or 
 ders no scandal nor offense to be 
 given to, 250 ; his policy of concili 
 ation 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 Pa 
 pers, 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 posi 
 tions, 143. 
 
 Puritan exodus, the great, 188, 239. 
 
 25 
 
 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 lead 
 ing opposition, in ; becomes dog 
 matic, 112 ; evolutionary, 117 ; im 
 portance of secondary development 
 of, 1 20 ; apparent decline of, 121 ; be 
 gun with Elizabeth, seemed doomed 
 to die with her, 122 ; evolves new 
 issues, 123, 137, n. 7 ; opposed to 
 Arminianism, 133 ; set up the Com 
 monwealth, 133 ; threatened de 
 struction 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 ; sup 
 pression of, by Laud, 239 ; diver 
 gencies 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 ; char 
 acter of, 300, 301, 342 ; an ascetic 
 system of external duties and ab 
 stentions, 327. 
 
 Puritans, why so called, 106, 135, 
 n. 4. 
 
 Puritans, English, contempt of the, 
 for aesthetic considerations, 94 ; rev 
 erence for Bible precepts, 109 ; 
 would have no surplices, no liturgy, 
 109 ; banished the symbol with the 
 dogma, ill ; importance of efforts 
 toward the regulation of conduct, 
 1 20 ; dubbed Martinists, 121 ; dif 
 ferences 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. i ; not eager to join 
 Separatist settlers, 188 ; a power 
 ful party, 192 ; motives for emigra 
 tion, 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 ; exhila 
 rating effect of freedom from con 
 straints, 213 ; raging against indul- 
 
370 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 gence to Romanists, 235, 238 ; be 
 lieved the church under Laud would 
 become Roman Catholic, 239 ; 
 dropped " saint " from geograph 
 ical names, 244 ; rise of, to power, 
 240 ; dominant in Parliament, 252 ; 
 could not be induced to leave New 
 England for Maryland, 252 ; perse 
 cuted in Virginia, leave there for 
 Maryland, 253 ; at peace with Cath 
 olics in Maryland, 254 ; their ideas 
 rampant in Maryland, 257 ; send 
 munitions of war to New England, 
 284 ; conceived of religion as dif 
 ficult of attainment, 328. 
 Puritans of the Massachusetts colony 
 not Separatists, 212 ; pathetic fare 
 well 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, in. 
 
 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 sav 
 ages, 64, n. 4. 
 
 Ration, a day s, pitiful allowance for, 
 30, 46. 
 
 Records of Virginia Company de 
 stroyed, 54, 71, n. 17. 
 
 Recreations on Sunday, scruples re 
 garding, 127 ; forbidden by Dr. 
 Bownd, 129. 
 
 Reformers, the, of the sixteenth cen 
 tury 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 Angli 
 can church, 144. 
 
 Religious ferments, leavening effects 
 of, 121. 
 
 Religious freedom a cherished prin 
 ciple of Roger Williams, 286 ; es 
 tablished 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 Wil 
 liams, 289, 309, n. 12; mercenary 
 inducement offered to, to take the 
 freeman s oath, 308, n. n. 
 
 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 South 
 ern 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 in 
 fluence 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 " tol 
 eration of tolerable opinions," 298. 
 
Index. 
 
 371 
 
 Robinson s, John, Justification, 157, n. 
 i, n. 2 ; 219, n. g. 
 
 Rogers, Thomas, opponent of Green- 
 ham and Bownd, 139, n. n. 
 
 Rogers s Preface to Thirty-nine Arti 
 cles, 122, m. ; 139, n. n ; 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 neigh 
 borhood, 150, 151 ; influence of 
 Brewster on, 153; of John Robin 
 son, 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. n ; 
 in Scotland, 132, 139, n. 12 ; of 
 deepest hue in New England, 132, 
 140, n. 13. 
 
 Sabbath-breakers, punishments threat 
 ened 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 ; at 
 tached 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 Vir 
 ginia, 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 repre 
 sentative government in America, 
 173 ; charges against, 174, 184, n. 
 5 ; parliamentary antagonist of Cal- 
 vert, 221 ; in disfavor at court, 222 ; 
 Virginians friendly to, 230. 
 
 Sandys, George, would seek the South 
 Sea overland, 10, n ; name ap 
 pended to The Tragicall Relation, 
 66, n. 9 ; in charge of manufactur 
 ing schemes, 83. 
 
 Sandys, Sir Samuel, owned manor 
 place at Scrooby, 153, 170. 
 
 Sassafras root exported, 45, 68, n. 10 ; 
 68, n. ii. 
 
 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 Pil 
 grims at, 150; called "the meane 
 townlet" by John Leland, 152; 
 
372 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 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 Eng 
 land, 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 with 
 drawal of communion a fundamen 
 tal principle of, 271. 
 Separatist, Roger Williams conscien 
 tiously 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 ad 
 vance guard of Puritanism, 141 ; 
 regarded as criminals by the Puri 
 tans, 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 Brevvster 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 Can 
 ada, 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. i. 
 
 Servingmen in livery, 99, 134, n. I. 
 Settlements, sixteen, in Massachu 
 setts, 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 congrega 
 tion 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. i. 
 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 ef 
 forts, 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 ; ex 
 treme Congregationalism and Sep 
 aratist tendencies of, 271 ; death 
 of, 283. 
 Sloane manuscripts, British Museum, 
 
 22, n. 4. 
 
 Smith, Captain John, a trustworthy to 
 pographer, 9, 34 ; captured by In 
 dians, 9 ; views of geography of the 
 continent, 22, n. 6 ; becomes leader 
 at Jamestown, 31, 36 ; his charac 
 ter, 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 Po- 
 cahontas, 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 In 
 dians to attack settlers at the Falls, 
 37, 60, n, 2 ; a typical American 
 pioneer, 38 ; account of his writ 
 ings, 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 ; au 
 thorities in the debates about, 63, 
 n. 3 ; refusal to share his power, 
 64, n. 4 ; captured by the French, 
 178. 
 
 , Generall Historic, 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. 
 
Index. 
 
 373 
 
 Smith, 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 ; continu 
 ally searching for truth, 186, n. 6. 
 
 Smyth, Sir Thomas, governor of Vir 
 ginia Company, 70, n. 16 ; resigna 
 tion, 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 ; threat 
 ened 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 govern 
 ment 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 ; Eng 
 land s jealousy toward, 74, 94, n. i ; 
 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. i; jealousy of Virginia, 94, 
 n. i. 
 
 Spanish match, the, favored by Cal- 
 vert, 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, diffi 
 cult, 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 ; pres 
 sure put on, 297. 
 
 Strachey s Historic of Travaile into 
 Virginia, 24, n. 10 ; 36, m. ; 59, n. 
 I ; 64, n. 4 ; 65, n. 7 ; 95, n. 5 ; 97, 
 n. 9 ; 102, m. ; True Repertory, 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, Anatomic of Abuses, 
 100, m. ; 119, 127, 134, n. 2 ; 135, n. 5. 
 
 Succession, apostolic, of churchly or 
 der 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 ; Eng 
 lish reformers retained the Catholic, 
 125 ; first called Sabbath in litera 
 ture, 126; scruples regarding recrea 
 tions on, 127; brutally cruel sports 
 on the old English, 129 ; strict ob 
 servance of, carried to New Eng 
 land, 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. 
 
374 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 Sunday fishing, juries inquire into, 
 125. 
 
 Sunday morning ceremony at Plym 
 outh, 103. 
 
 Sunday-Sabbath, theory of a, not con 
 fined to the Puritans, 132 ; Augus 
 tine on, in the fifth century, 137, n. 
 8 ; 140, n. 13. 
 
 Surplices begin to be used in Vir 
 ginia, 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 sec 
 ond part of Smith s Oxford Tract, 
 61, n. 3. 
 
 Synod, the, of 1637, 336, 346, n. i. 
 
 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 ; sug 
 gested by the wreck of Gates and 
 Somers, 65, n. 6. 
 
 Tenant, the copy-hold, driven to dis 
 tress, in. 
 
 Tenantry, the suffering, Puritans make 
 common cause with, in, 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, 63, n. 
 10, n. ii ; 96, n. 7 ; more profitable 
 than silk-raising, 78 ; culture of, 
 forbidden, 8 1 ; King James s Covn- 
 ter-Blaste to, 84; John Rolfe planted 
 the first, at Jamestown, 84 ; heavy 
 duties on, 85, 96, n. 8 ; seven thou 
 sand shops in London, 97, n. 8 ; in 
 feriority 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 ; de 
 
 cried 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 fea 
 ture 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 colo 
 nial projects, 73 ; wrought mischief 
 to England, 94, n. I. 
 
 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 James 
 town, 39. 
 
 Underbill, Captain, sent after Wil 
 liams, 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, fa 
 vored the Antinomians, 267 ; an 
 ardent Puritan, 332 ; arrives in 
 Boston and is elected governor, 
 332 ; a disciple of Cotton, 333 ; de 
 feat 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 Ed 
 ward 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, 
 
Index. 
 
 375 
 
 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 sur 
 vivors in June, 1610, 40 ; arrival of 
 Gates and Somers, 40 ; Jamestown 
 abandoned, 41 ; arrival of De la 
 Warr, 41 ; De la Warr s govern 
 ment, 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 gar 
 dens allowed, 48 ; tobacco cultivated, 
 49 ; Argall s government and treach 
 ery, 50-52 ; the Great Charter, 1618, 
 55> Z 73 > jy at i ts receipt, 56 ; 
 feared re-establishment of the old 
 tyranny, 56, 70, n. 16 ; wives sup 
 plied, 57 ; the first homes, 58 ; 
 whole number of colonists, 58 ; four 
 fifths perished, 59 ; petition to the 
 king, 65, n. 5 ; began raising silk 
 worms, 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 genera 
 tion of native Virginians appears, 
 345 ; better ministers in the par 
 ishes and order in the courts, 345. 
 
 Virginia colony, map of, by John 
 White, 1586, 8, 21, 22. 
 
 Virginia Company, letter of, to Gov 
 ernor 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 pro 
 visional government, 173 ; Lord 
 Baltimore a member and councilor 
 of, 224, 229, 230 ; attempt to take 
 away privileges granted to the colo 
 nists, 230. 
 
 Virginia Company s Manuscript Rec 
 ords. 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 sSimpleCobbler,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 in 
 fluence in the company, 87 ; made 
 Governor in Chief and Lord High 
 Admiral of all plantations in Amer 
 ica, 252. 
 
 W 7 aterhouse s Declaration of Virginia, 
 22, n. 6. 
 
 Watertown church, part of, ready to 
 follow Hooker, 323 ; one of the cen 
 tres 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. 
 
 W T entworth, 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, n, m. 
 
 Wethersfield, John Oldham and his 
 company settled at, 324. 
 
 Weymouth kidnapped Maine Indians, 
 
376 
 
 The Beginners of a Nation. 
 
 Whale-fishing in Lake Ontario, u. 
 
 Whelewright, brother-in-law of Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, 336 ; banished at No 
 vember 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 assem 
 blage, 142. 
 
 Whitaker, Alexander, praises Dale, 
 66, n. 9 ; minister at Henrico, 168 ; 
 letters, 183, n. 3. 
 
 Whitaker s Good Newes from Vir 
 ginia, 66, n. 9 ; 168. 
 
 Whitbourne, Captain, pamphlet on 
 Newfoundland, 224, 258, n. 3 ; let 
 ters of Wynne and others in, 229, 
 m. 
 
 White, Father, Relatio Itineris, 243, 
 m. ; 244, m. ; 263, n. 16 ; on settle 
 ment 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 sup 
 press nonconformity, 122 ; ordered 
 Bownd s book called in, 132 ; per 
 secuted the Puritans at Scrooby, 153; 
 declared King James inspired, 161. 
 
 Whittingham, Dean of Durham, au 
 thor 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 Eng 
 land, 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 prin 
 ciple laid down by, 283 ; made 
 teacher at Salem, 284 ; fast-day ser 
 mon on eleven " public sins," 286 ; 
 dealt with ecclesiastically, 287 ; 
 scruples against enforced oaths, 
 289 ; new charges against, 289 ; 
 champion of soul liberty, 290 ; in 
 corrigible, 290, 291 ; trial and ban 
 ishment, 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 ; es 
 cape to the Indians, 295 ; abandons 
 settlement at Seekonk River and 
 founds Providence, 296 ; banish 
 ment of, an act of persecution, 297 ; 
 character of, 301, 307, n. I ; a col 
 lector 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 eleva 
 tion of spirit, 304 ; ascendency over 
 the Indians, 305 ; an individual 
 ist, 291, 305 ; superior to his age 
 and ours, 305 ; his prophetic char 
 acter, 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. n ; magnanimity 
 without a parallel, 310, n. 15 ; re 
 moval 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. I ; 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 Wil 
 liams s book, 282 ; condemned by 
 
Index. 
 
 377 
 
 the Hutchinsonians, 333 ; given to 
 rhyming prophecies, 338. 
 
 Windebank, schemes of Cecilius Cal- 
 vert 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 Wil 
 liams from Seekonk River, 296. 
 
 Winslow s Briefe Narration, 172, m. ; 
 175, m. ; 185, n. 6. 
 
 W T insor s, Justin, Elder Brewster, 155, 
 m. ; 169, m. 
 
 Winsor s Narrative and Critical His 
 tory of America, 21, n. I. 
 
 Winthrop, John, principal figure in 
 the Puritan migration, 202 ; char 
 acter 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 Narra- 
 gansett Bay to Williams, 293, 294 ; 
 lenity toward Williams rebuked, 
 301 ; moved house, begun at New- 
 town, to Boston, 318 ; antipathy to 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, 330 ; ministers 
 rally around, 332 ; again made gov 
 ernor, 336 ; chief inquisitor at the 
 trial of Mrs. Hutchinson, 338 ; evi 
 dence to prove Mrs. Hutchinson a 
 witch, 340, 341 ; wallows in super 
 stition, 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 Eng 
 land, 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, no. 
 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 govern 
 ment, 207. 
 Wyckoff, on Silk Manufacture, 95, 
 
 n. 3. 
 
 Yeardley, Sir George, arrival in Vir 
 ginia, 71, n. 17 ; knighted, 134, n. 
 i ; instructed to administer oath of 
 supremacy, 232. 
 
 Yong, Thomas, in the Delaware, 10 ; 
 seeks a Mediterranean in America, 
 n. 
 
 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," So. 
 
 Zeal, passionate, often stupefies rea 
 son, 171. 
 
 Zurich and Strasburg cities of refuge 
 for conservatives, 104 ; differences 
 between exiles at, and those of Ge 
 neva, 106, 107. 
 
 Zurich Letters, 135, n. 3. 
 
 Zwisck, Peter John, The Liberty of 
 Religion, 312, n. 19. 
 
 CHARLES ALEXANDER NELSON. 
 
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