76

THE PATENT IS SENT OVER TO LEYDEN.

CHAP. of this patent, which had cost them so much labor and

V.

charge; as by the sequel will appear.1

1619. This patent being sent over for them to view and

consider, as also the passages about the propositions between them and such merchants and friends as should either go or adventure with them, and especially with them on whom they did chiefly depend for shipping and means, whose proffers had been large, they were requested to fit and prepare themselves with all speed.

A right emblem it may be of the uncertain things of this world, that when men have toiled themselves, they vanish into smoke.

mentioned by Peter Martyr, "per-
ceiving her husband now furnish-
ing himself to depart to the un-
known coasts of the new world,
and those large tracts of land and
sea, she spake these words unto
him Whithersoever your fatal des-
tiny shall drive you, either by the
furious waves of the great ocean,
or by the manifold and horrible
dangers of the land, I will surely
bear you company. There can no
peril chance to me so terrible, nor
any kind of death so cruel, that
shall not be much easier for me to
abide, than to live so far separate
from you." Her husband survived
her only a month:

i. 34; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 15, 17; Mather's Magnalia, i. 71, 126; Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 36, 40; Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's Decades, p. 84, (ed. 1577.)

The whole of this paragraph is contained, almost word for word, in Hubbard's History, p. 47, which is conclusive proof that he had seen Bradford's History. See Note 2 on page 58. Hubbard says, p. 50, "that a patent, as is afore said, was obtained, is published in print, and affirmed by such as yet survive of the first planters; but where it is, or how it came to be lost, is not known to any that belong to the said colony." Hubbard wrote his History before 1682. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. p. iii. — Grahame, i. 410, errs in asserting that Hubbard's History has never been published; and also in stating that Gov. Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony has been published.

2

Prince, p. 155, quoting from Gov. Bradford's MS. history, inserts after consider, "with several proposals for their transmigration, made by Mr. Thomas Weston, of London, merchant, and other friends and merchants as should either," &c.

THE PILGRIMS KEEP A FAST.

V.

77

xxiii.

3, 4.

Upon a receipt of these things by one of their mes- CHAP. sengers, they had a solemn meeting and a day of humiliation, to seek the Lord for his direction. And 1620. their pastor took this text. "And David's men said 1 Sam. unto him, See, we be afraid here in Judah. How much more, if we come to Keilah, against the host of the Philistines. Then David asked counsel of the Lord again." From which text he taught many things very aptly, and befitting their present occasion and condition, to strengthen them against their fears and perplexities, and encouraging them in their resolutions [and then conclude how many and who should prepare to go first; for all that were willing could not get ready quickly. The greater number being to stay, require their pastor to tarry with them; their elder, Mr. Brewster, to go with the other; those who go first to be an absolute church 2 of themselves, as well as those that stay; with this proviso, that as any go over or return, they shall be reputed as members, without further dismission or testimonial; and those who tarry, to follow the rest as soon as they can.

1 Winslow, in his Brief Narrative, says," the youngest and strongest part to go; and they that went should freely offer themselves."

The Church at Plymouth thus became the First Independent or Congregational Church in America. Of course the statement of Holmes in his accurate Annals of America, i. 160, that "the adventurers and their brethren remaining in Holland were to continue to be one church," is incorrect; and the position of Upham, in his eloquent Century Lecture, at Salem in 1829, that the first church in Salem is "the First American Congregational Church," cannot be maintained. Even if the first colonists

had not been an absolute church
of themselves," yet before the for-
mation of Higginson's church at
Salem, a majority of the Leyden
congregation had actually arrived
at Plymouth, as appears from the
note on page 36. Nor is there any
ground for Palfrey's intimation, in
his Centennial Discourse at Barn-
stable, p. 9, that "the first church
in Barnstable is the representative
of the first Congregational Church
established in England," since it
appears from p. 21-24, of this vol-
ume, that the exception, on the pre-
sumed absence of which he builds
this opinion, was an actual fact,
namely, that "Robinson's church,
now surviving in that of Plymouth,

36

78

CHAP.

V.

THE PILGRIMS PREPARE TO LEAVE HOLLAND.

Mr. Weston1 coming to Leyden, the people agree with him on articles both for shipping and money to 1620. assist in their transportation; then send Mr. Carver and Cushman to England to receive the money and provide for the voyage; Mr. Cushman at London, Mr. Carver at Southampton. Those who are to go first prepare with speed, sell their estates, put their money into the common stock to be disposed by their managers for making general provisions. There was also one Mr. Martin2 chosen in England to join with Mr. Carver and Cushman. He came from Billerica, in Essex; from which county came several others, as also from London and other places, to go with them.]3

In the foregoing five Chapters the reader may take a view of some of the many difficulties our blessed predecessors went through in their first achievement of this weighty enterprise of removal of our Church into these American parts. The immediate following relations in Mr. Bradford's book, out of which divers of these matters are recollected, do more especially con

was organized on Congregational
principles before he left the mother
country for Holland." With the
History of Gov. Bradford to support
her claims, the First Church at
Plymouth cannot recognise the
pretensions of any other American
church to priority of existence.

1 Thomas Weston was one of
the most active of the merchant
adventurers, and Hubbard says, p.
72, that he had disbursed £500 to
advance the interest of Plymouth
colony. Edward Winslow says,
in 1622, "he formerly deserved
well of us," and Bradford, in 1623,
that he "becomes our enemy on
all occasions." He employed se-
veral vessels in trade and fishing
on the coast of New England. His

unsuccessful attempt to establish a rival colony at Wessagussett, now Weymouth, will be related hereafter. He visited Plymouth twice in 1623, and again in 1624, and then sailed for Virginia. He died at Bristol, (Eng.) in the time of the civil war. See Prince, pp. 216, 222, 224.

2 This was undoubtedly Mr. Christopher Martin, who, with his wife and two children, came over in the Mayflower. His name stands the ninth in the subscription to the Compact signed at Cape Cod, Nov. 11, 1620, and he died Jan. 8, 1621.

The passage included in brackets is taken from Prince, p. 156, who copied it from Bradford's MS.

CONDITIONS AND LETTERS.

79

V.

cern the conditions of their agreement with several CHAP. merchant adventurers towards the voyage, &c. as also several letters sent to and fro from friend to friend 1620. relating to the premises, which are not so pertinent to the nature of this small History. Wherefore I shall here omit to insert them,' judging them not so suitable to my present purpose; and here also cease to follow the foregoing method by way of Chapters.2

It is much to be regretted that Morton did not see fit to copy these letters. It will be seen, a few pages further on, that he again testifies that "their transactings with the merchant adventurers were penned at large in Mr. Bradford's book." Though omitted in this copy," the Conditions" were fortunately preserved from oblivion by Hubbard, and we are thus enabled to present them in the next Chapter. They are undoubtedly the most valuable portion of Hub

bard's History, and their existence
in it puts it beyond a doubt that he
had both seen and used Bradford's
MS. notwithstanding Prince's as-
sertion to the contrary. See Note 2
on page 58.

2 For the sake of uniformity I
have taken the liberty still" to fol-
low the foregoing method by way
of chapters," and the rather as I
find that Morton has preserved in
his Memorial, pp. 30, 37, and 67,
the original titles of three of Gov.
Bradford's chapters.

28

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONDITIONS OF THEIR AGREEMENT WITH SEVERAL
MERCHANT ADVENTURERS TOWARDS THE VOYAGE.

CHAP.
VI.

[ABOUT this time they were informed by Mr. Weston and others, that sundry honorable lords and worthy 1620. gentlemen had obtained a large patent from the King for the more northerly part of America, distinct from the Virginia patent, and wholly excluded from their government, and to be called by another name, viz. NEW ENGLAND.' Unto which Mr. Weston and the chiefest of them began to incline, thinking it was best for them to go thither; as for other reasons, so chiefly

1 On the 23d of July, 1620, King
James gave a warrant to his soli-
citor, Sir Thomas Coventry, to
prepare a new patent for the incor-
poration of the adventurers to the
northern colony of Virginia, be-
tween 40 and 48 degrees north,
which patent the king signed on
Nov. 3, styling them "The Council
established at Plymouth, in the
county of Devon, for the planting,
ruling, ordering, and governing
of New England, in America,"
which is the great civil basis of all
the future patents and plantations,
that divide this country. Prince,
p. 160. See the patent in Hazard,
i. 104; and the warrant in Mass.
Hist. Coll. xxvi. 64.

The name of New England was first given, in 1614, by the famous Capt. John Smith, to North Virginia, lying between the degrees of 41 and 45. In that year he ranged along the coast, from the Penobscot to Cape Cod, in a small boat, with eight men. "I took the description" he says "of the coast as well by map as writing, and called it New England. At my humble suit, Charles, Prince of Wales, was pleased to confirm it by that title." Smith, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiii. 20. This map was published with his "Description of New England," in 1616. They are both reprinted in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiii. 1, and xxvi. 95-140.