THE PILGRIMS PROPOSE TO LEAVE HOLLAND. 45 IV. reasons, the chief of which I will here recite and CHAP. briefly touch. Ruth, i. 14. 1. And first, they found and saw by experience 1617. the hardness of the place and country to be such, as few in comparison would come to them, and fewer that would bide it out and continue with them. For many that came to them, and many more that desired to be with them, could not endure the great labor and hard fare, with other inconveniences, which they underwent and were contented with. But though they loved their persons, and approved their cause, and honored their sufferings, yet they left them as it were weeping, as Orpah did her mother-in-law Naomi, or as those Romans did Cato in Utica, who desired to be excused and borne with, though they could not all be Catos. For many, though they desired to enjoy the ordinances of God in their purity, and the liberty of the Gospel with them, yet, alas, they admitted of bondage, with danger of conscience, rather than to endure these hardships; yea, some preferred and chose prisons in England rather than this liberty in Holland, with these afflictions. But it was thought, that if a better and easier place of living could be had, it would draw many and take away these discouragements; yea, their pastor would often say, that many of those that both writ and preached now against them, if they were in a place where they might have liberty, and live comfortably, they would then practise as they did. Plutarch says, in his Life of Cato the Younger, that the three hundred Roman citizens who were with him in Utica, intending to send messengers to Cæsar to intercede in their behalf, "implored him to trust them and make use of 46 IV. THE REASONS FOR REMOVAL. CHAP. 2. They saw, that although the people generally bore all their difficulties very cheerfully and with a 1617. resolute courage, being in the best of their strength, yet old age began to come on some of them; and their great and continual labors, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before the time; so as it was not only probably thought, but apparently seen, that within a few years more they were in danger to scatter by necessity pressing them, or sink under their burdens, or both; and therefore, according to the Prov. divine proverb, that "a wise man seeth the plague when it cometh, and hideth himself," so they, like skilful and beaten soldiers, were fearful either to be entrapped or surrounded by their enemies, so as they should neither be able to fight nor fly; and therefore thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any could be found. xxii. 3. 3. As necessity was a taskmaster over them, so they were forced to be such not only to their servants, but in a sort to their dearest children; the which, as it did a little wound the tender hearts of many a loving father and mother, so it produced also many sad and sorrowful effects. For many of their children, that were of best dispositions and gracious inclinations, having learned to bear the yoke in their youth, and willing to bear part of their parents' burden, were oftentimes so oppressed with their heavy labors, that although their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed under the weight of the same, and became decrepit in their early youth; the vigor of nature be We know the age of but few of the Pilgrims. Carver was probably one of the oldest. In 1620 Elder Brewster was 56 years old, Robinson 45, Bradford 32, Edward Winslow 26, and John Howland 28. THE REASONS FOR REMOVAL. ing consumed in the very bud, as it were. 47 But that CHAP. IV. which was more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children, by 1617. these occasions, and the great licentiousness of youth in the country, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away by evil examples unto extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reins on their necks, and departing from their parents. Some became soldiers, others took them upon far voyages by sea, and other some worse courses tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of their parents and dishonor of God; so that they saw their posterity would be in danger to degencrate and be corrupted. 4. Lastly, (and which was not the least,) a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ in these remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but as stepping-stones unto others for performing of so great a work. These, and some other like reasons,' moved them Edward Winslow, in his Brief Narration, mentions three other reasons; first, their desire to live under the protection of England and to retain the language and the name of Englishmen; second, their inability to give their children such an education as they had themselves received; and third, their grief at the profanation of the sabbath in Holland. This violation of the sabbath attracted the attention of the Synod of Dort, which assembled in 1618. The Dutch ministers acknowledged the great difficulty they met with in withdrawing the people on Sun days from their sports or their or- 48 IV. THEY TURN THEIR EYES TO AMERICA. CHAP. to undertake this resolution of their removal, the which they afterward prosecuted with so great difficulties; 1617. as by the sequel will appear. The place they had thoughts on were some of those unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants, where there are only salvage and brutish people, which range up and down little otherwise than the wild beasts. This proposition being made public, and coming to the scanning of all, it raised many variable opinions amongst men, and caused many fears and doubts amongst themselves. Some, from their reasons and hopes conceived, labored to stir up and encourage the rest to undertake and prosecute the same; others, again, out of their fears, objected against it, and from the Synod of Dort, p. 8. These reasons for their removal, their high attainments in spiritual knowledge would be lost, if they remained longer in a strange land." And Burke, in his account of the European Settlements in America, says that " though in a country of the greatest religious freedom in the world, they did not find themselves better satisfied than they had been in England. They were tolerated indeed, but watched; their zeal began to have dangerous languors for want of opposition; and being without power or consequence, they grew tired of the indolent security of their sanctuary." These sneers are as contemptible as they are unjust. It is to be regretted that any respectable writer in this country should have incautiously given currency to such misrepresentations. Chief Justice Marshall perceived and corrected the error into which he had been led by following such unworthy authorities. Compare his Life of Washington, i. 90, (first ed.) with his History of the American Colonies, p. 78. REASONS AGAINST REMOVAL. IV. 49 sought to divert from it, alleging many things, and CHAP. those neither unreasonable nor unprobable; as that it was a great design, and subject to many inconceivable 1617. perils and dangers; as, besides the casualties of the seas, (which none can be freed from,) the length of the voyage was such as the weak bodies of men and women and such other persons, worn out with age and travail, (as many of them were,) could never be able to endure; and yet if they should, the miseries of the land which they should be exposed unto would be too hard to be borne, and likely, some or all of them, to consume and utterly to ruinate them. For there they should be liable to famine, and nakedness, and the want, in a manner, of all things. The changing of the air, dict, and drinking of water would infect their bodies with sore sicknesses; and all those which should escape or overcome these difficulties should yet be in continual danger of the salvage people, who are cruel, barbarous, and treacherous, being most furious in their rage and merciless where they overcome, not being content only to kill and take away life, but delight to torment men in most bloody manner that may be, flaying men alive with the shells of fishes, cutting off the joints and members of others by piecemeals, and broiling them on the coals, and causing men to eat the collops of their flesh in their sight whilst they live; with other cruelties horrible to be related. And surely it could not be thought but the hearing of these things could not but move the bowels of men to grate "Immensus ultrà, utque sic dixerim, adversus occanus raris ab orbe nostro navibus aditur? Quis porro, præter periculum horridi et ignoti maris, Asià, aut Africâ aut Italiâ relictâ, Germaniam peteret, |