and Oldham. tition for forgiveness, accompanied with a passionate acknowledgment of the falsehood of what he had Conviction written, and of the lenity of his sentence. Old- of Lyford ham, with some followers, went to Nantasket, the southern cape of Boston Bay, where the Plymouth people had built a trading-house for their convenience in visiting the Indians of that region. Aug. 22. 1625. Lyford was not reclaimed. In a letter to the Adventurers he repeated his injurious representations respecting the state of things at Plymouth. It was brought to the Governor by the person to whom it had been intrusted for conveyance. Bradford took no notice of it till the following spring, when Winslow returned from a second visit to England, with March. information, that, while there, he had ascertained and disclosed to the Adventurers certain discreditable facts in Lyford's early life, which "struck all his friends mute, and made them all ashamed." He was now deposed from the ministry, to which on his professions of penitence he had been restored, and went to join Oldham at Nantasket.1 Oldham had lately ventured on a visit to Plymouth, whence, having indulged himself there in opprobrious language, he was expelled with ignominious ceremony. 2 of the part Winslow brought further discouraging accounts of the state of affairs among the Adventurers. "As there had been a faction and siding amongst them now more Disruption than two years, so now there was an utter breach nership of and sequestration." The amount of money due Adventurers. in London was not less than fourteen hundred pounds sterling. Some of the partners remained friendly to the colony, and wrote in terms of confidence and cheer; though, with the cattle, tools, and clothing which they sent, orders 3 1 From Nantasket Lyford went for a little time to Cape Ann, and thence to Virginia, where he shortly after died. Bradford, 171-196. 3 Letter of Shirley and others (Bradford, 199). came for their sale at what the planters considered an exorbitant advance. From this time, the original partnership of the company of Adventurers to Plymouth was dissolved, two thirds of those in London withdrawing from their connection with the colonists. 1625. at Mount Wollaston Ann. Two other settlements had meanwhile been attempted; one by a Captain Wollaston, with some thirty or forty persons, on a bluff which still bears his name, on Transactions the sea-shore in what is now the town of Quin1 cy; the other, as much as a year earlier, on the and at Cape promontory known, since Captain Smith's voyage, as Cape Ann. Of the spasmodic experiments made by the Council of New England for giving value to their property, one had been a distribution of its territory among individual members of the corporation. Twenty noblemen and gentlemen divided among themselves in severalty the country along the coast from the Bay of Fundy to Narragansett Bay. The region about Cape Ann fell to the lot of Edmund, Lord Sheffield, who sold a patent for it to Cushman and Winslow and their associates at New Plymouth.3 It was probably in the summer before this transaction, that 1622. 1624. Jan. 1. 4 1 Bradford, 235; Dudley's Letter to fishing ships made such good returns, the Countess of Lincoln. 2 This project is sketched in the "Briefe Relation" of the "President and Council of New England," quoted above (p. 208, note). "Two parts of the whole territory," they say (31, 32), "is to be divided between the patentees into several counties, to be by themselves or their friends planted, at their pleasure or best commodity; the other third part" was to afford a "revenue for defraying of public charge." Connected with this plan was (Ibid.) that of the appointment of a General Governor, which has been mentioned in its place (see above, pp. 206, 208, note). Smith says (True Travels, &c., 46), "The at last it [New England] was engrossed by twenty patentees, that divided my map into twenty parts, and cast lots for their shares." And Purchas (IV. 1872) has a map representing this division. 3 The indenture between Lord Sheffield, of the one part, and Winslow and Cushman of the other, has been recently brought to light by Mr. John Wingate Thornton, who has illustrated it in a printed treatise, accompanied by an engraved fac-simile. 4"About the year 1623, some Western merchants bethought themselves" of this undertaking. "The next year they bought and repaired "a Flemish " a few persons from the West of England sat down at Cape Ann for purposes of planting and fishing. They appear to have acknowledged the rights of the Plymouth people, when made known to them;1 and the fishermen of the two parties carried on their operations amicably side by side, till Lyford brought his disturbing presence among them from his retreat at Nantasket. A London vessel in the service of those Adventurers who were friendly to him having arrived at the place, the crew took possession of a fishing-stage belonging to the Plymouth settlers, and "would not restore the same except they would fight for it." Contrary to the wish of Standish, who had come from Plymouth to set things right, pacific counsels prevailed, and the dispute was quieted by an engagement of the crew to help in building another stage for the owners, in place of that which had been in question. 1624. Prosperous condition of Plymouth was now in a thriving condition, if its prosperity was on no imposing scale. A year earlier, according to what Smith had learned, there were "about a hundred and eighty persons; some cattle and goats, but many swine and poultry; thirty- Plymouth. two dwelling-houses; ..... the town impaled about half a mile compass; in the town, upon a high mount, a fort well built with wood, loam, and stone; also a fair watch-tower; ..... and this year they had freighted a ship of a hundred and eighty tons."2 Fifty English ships were on the coast fly-boat" for the voyage. And "the third year, 1625," they despatched two vessels to Cape Ann. (Planters' Plea, Chap. VII., VIII.) 1 Smith, Generall Historie, 247. 2 Ibid. Captain John Smith was a more careful inquirer or reporter than Sir William Alexander, who in the same year wrote: "Four years since, a ship going for Virginia coming by chance to harbor in the southwest part of New England near Cape Cod, the company whom she carried for plantation, being weary of the sea, and enamored with the beauty of the bounds that first offered itself unto them, gorgeously garnished with all wherewith pregnant nature, ravishing the sight with variety, can grace a fertile field, did resolve to stay." (Map and Description of New England, 30.) — Gorges had received accounts of the same too partial character "They landed their people [at Plymouth], many of them weak and feeble through the length of the navigation, the leakiness of the ship, and want 1625. engaged in fishing, and every ship was an enlargement of their market for purchases and sales. "It pleased the Lord to give the plantation peace and health and contented minds, and so to bless their labors as they had corn sufficient, and some to spare to others, with other food; neither ever had they any supply of food but what they first brought with them." Returning from a voyage made "to the eastward, up a river called Kennebec,” in an open boat, “Mr. Winslow and some of the old standards, for seamen they had none, brought home seven hundred pounds of beaver, besides some other furs, having little or nothing else but this corn, which themselves had raised out of the earth," to trade with.1 1 The brightening prospect of the colonists, on the one hand, and the unsatisfactory state of their affairs with the remaining English partners on the other, encouraged a desire to rid themselves of a connection which had been so fruitful of inconvenience, and Standish was despatched to England to obtain a supply of goods, and learn what terms could be made for a release. He returned the following spring, having "taken up a hundred April. and fifty pounds (and spent a good deal of it in expenses) at fifty per cent., which he bestowed in trading goods and such other most needful commodities as he knew requisite for their use." He brought the mournful 1626. 1625. intelligence of the death of Robinson at Leyden March 1. in the year before; and of that of Cushman, whom they had been expecting presently to welcome. The loss of Cushman was painfully felt. He had been Death of "as their right hand with their friends the Adventurers, and for divers years had done and agitated Cushman. all their business with them to their great advan Robinson and of of many other necessaries such undertakings required. But they were not many days ashore before they had gotten both health and strength, through the comfort of the air, the store of fish and fowl, with plenty of wholesome roots and herbs the country afforded," &c. (Briefe Narration, Chap. XXII.) 1 Bradford, 204. 2 Ibid. 1 2 tage." Such was Bradford's tribute to his old friend, though Bradford as well as others had been greatly dissatisfied with his management and concealment of that part of the negotiation by which they lost the benefit of two favorite stipulations. But Robinson was mourned with a peculiar sorrow. His powerful ascendency over the minds of his associates, acquired by eminent talents and virtues, had been used disinterestedly and wisely for their good. With great courage and fortitude, he had equal gentleness and liberality; and his accomplishments of understanding and the generosity of his affections inspired mingled admiration and love. Though he passed his life in the midst of controversy, it was so far from narrowing his mind, that his charity towards dissentients distinguished him among the divines of his day, as much as his abilities and learning. It is less remarkable that he became constantly more tolerant as he grew older. The recent competition in the fishery, on the part both of their English associates and of others, having led the colonists to regard that investment of their labor as less profitable, they turned their attention to "trading and planting," and were so successful, that, before the close of the year, they had nearly extricated themselves from debt, including the obligation lately incurred for them by Standish, and had stored "some clothing for the people and some commodities beforehand." In conjunction with the planters at Piscataqua, they made purchases of a quantity of merchandise from some English at Monhegan, and from a French ship wrecked near that island, to the amount of five hundred pounds. During the winter, they had the society of the passengers and crew of a vessel bound to Virginia, which, falling short of provisions, had put in at the south side of Cape Cod, and had sent to them for succor; 1 Bradford, 207. 2 See above, p. 155. 3 "The ship [a vessel in the employ of some of the Adventurers] came on 4 5 fishing, a thing fatal to this plantation.” (Bradford, 158.) 4 Ibid., 208–210. |