gave them occasion to put him upon seeking sureties for his good behaviour, which being not able to do, he removed to Rhode Island, where he behaved himself so insolently, that they were forced to condemn him to the whipping post, as was mentioned before, and then to banishment. In the year 1638, there was a necessary and exemplary piece of justice done in Plymouth upon three men that were executed for robbing a poor Indian near Providence, according to that ancient law of divine institution; Gen. ix. 6. "He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed;" for they murdered the poor Indian whom they robbed. Thus went on the affairs of this small colony of New Plymouth, not by wealth, nor by might or strength of man, but by the special presence and blessing of Almighty God, in some convenient measure of prosperity till the year 1643, at which time they were furnished with many worthy ministers in their several townships, as namely : Mr. Charles Chauncey, Mr. Edward Bulkley, Mr. Marmaduke Matthews. These were dispersed over the whole colony in several plantations, as at Plymouth town, Duxbury, Taunton, Scituate, Barnstable, Sandwich, Eastham, Yarmouth, Rehoboth, all that were erected before the year 1645. But the inhabitants being but few, and the encouragement but small, and the difficulties wherewith they were to conflict in the first setting up of new plantations very great, they, many of them, were removed, some back into old England, others into the neighbour colonies, and some into their eternal rest, not long after. But the sorest loss that hitherto befel them, was in the year 1643 by the death of Mr. Brewster, one that did, (if any other in his age,) deserve the name of a ruling elder, being able to rule both his own house and * Lothrop. En. the church of God, and do much that might and did go for labour in the word and doctrine. Mr. Bradford and Mr. Brewster were the two main props and pillars of their colony, yet after the removal of them, others were raised up, who hitherto have been able to carry on the work of their generation to the honour of Almighty God, and the prosperity of their jurisdiction, viz. Mr. Thomas Prince, and Maj. Josiah Winslow, who succeeded the former in the chiefest place of govern. ment. In the year 1664, it pleased his majesty to send over commissioners to take cognizance of the estate of the several colonies in New England, who came to Plymouth the same year and presented the governour of that colony with a gracious letter from his majesty, the contents of which are as followeth, much after the same tenour with those which were commended to the rest of the colonies, and therefore, that which was directed to this colony may serve for a specimen for the rest, therein to manifest his majesty's particular care and gracious inclination towards these remote plantations in America, the whole whereof from Acady, or Nova Scotia, on the south side of Canada, to Florida, is become subject to his majesty's power and absolute government, without the interposition of the interest of any foreign prince or state. His majesty's commissioners had an honourable reception at Plymouth, according to the capacity of the inhabitants, and as is said, those honourable gentlemen did very much and very kindly resent it. The like was tendered them at the Massachusetts, but they were not so propitious to that colony, upon the account forementioned; in which, if there were any failure upon any mistaken ground, it is hoped his majesty hath grace enough, notwithstanding all he hath expended upon the subject of his three kingdoms, yet left in his royal heart to obliterate the remembrance thereof, and not impute iniquity to his servants, who were not willingly led into an errour of that high nature. To our trusty and well beloved, the governour and council of New Plymouth, Greeting. CHARLES REX. Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. We need not enlarge upon our care of, and affection to that our plantation of New Plymouth, when we give you such a testimony and manifestation of it in the sending of those gentlemen, persons well known unto us, as deserving from us, our trusty and well beloved Col. Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, knight, George Cartwright, Esq. and Samuel Maverick, Esq. our commissioners to visit you, and other our plantantations in those parts of New England, and to give us a full and particular information and account of your present state and condition, and how the same may be advanced and improved by any further acts of grace and favour from us towards you; and that both you and all the world may know and take notice, that we take you into our immediate protection, and will no more suffer you to be oppressed or injured, by any foreign power or ill neighbours, than we shall suffer our other subjects, that live upon the same continent with us, to be so injured and oppressed. And as our care and protection will, (we doubt not,) be sufficient, with God's blessing, to defend you from foreign force, so our care and circumspection is no less, that you may live in peace amongst yourselves, and with those our other subjects, who have planted themselves in your neighbour colonies, with that justice, affection, and brotherly love, which becomes subjects born under the same prince, and in the same country, and of the same faith and hope in the mercies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And to the end, that there may be no contention and difference between you, in respect of the bounds and jurisdiction of your several colonies, the hearing and determining whereof we have referred to our commissioners, as the right appears by clear evidence and testimony before them, or that they can settle it by your mutual consent and agreement; otherwise, in cases of difficulty, they shall present the same to us, who will determine according to our own wisdom and justice. The address you formerly made to us, gave us so good satisfaction of your duty, loyalty, and affection to us, that we have not the least doubt that you will receive these commissioners in such manner as becomes you, and so may manifest your respect and affection towards us, from whom they are sent. They will let you know the resolution we have to preserve all your liberties and privileges, both ecclesiastical and civil, without the least violation, which we presume will dispose you to manifest, by all ways in your power, loyalty and affection to us, that all the world may know, that you do look upon yourselves as being as much our subjects, and living under the same obedience under us, as if you continued in your natural country; and so we bid you farewell. Given at our court at Whitehall, April 23, 1664, in the sixteenth year of our reign. By his majesty's special command. HENRY BENNETT. CHAP. LXXVIII. The country about Hudson's river, when first discovered and planted; what changes have passed over them, since their first planting to this present time. THE most fertile and desirable tract of land in all the southerly part of New England, is that which lieth about the greatest river in all those parts, called Hudson's river, at the first called New Netherlands, from the people that first possessed it. That great river was first discovered by Capt. Hudson in the year 1610, from whom it received its name. The reason why it was not first seized into the possession of the English, seems to be the many sad disasters they met withal, in their first attempts that way in 1607, and some years after, which discouraged those of our nation from further prosecuting any design of that nature till the year 1620, when some of the separations of Leyden, in Holland, put on a fresh resolution to transplant themselves into some part of America. Their intent was to have pitched upon some piace about Hudson's river, but they were therein supplanted by some of the Dutch, amongst whom they sojourned, which hired the master of the ship to bend his course more northward, which to gratify their fraudulent interlopers, Jones, their mercenary pilot, performed, and forced them in at Cape Cod, having at that time an intent to make a plantation about Hudson's river themselves, which they soon after accomplished, although their pretence was only to make use of the harbour for a supply of fresh water for their ships, as they passed to and from the West Indies; but took such liking to the place, that they there settled a plantation; for those that began 1614, were routed by Sir Samuel Argall, soon after the other bega at Cape Cod. On which consideration, that providence is the more remarkable, that hath of late brought it under the English in the year 1664, having been in the hands of the Dutch above forty years before. At the first settling of their plantation there, they always held a friendly correspondence with the English at New Plymouth; thereby, as it were, proffering them a mess of pottage instead of the birthright of the land, which, by an under contrivance, they had before subtilely deprived them of. It was quietly possessed by the Dutch a long time, till of late, when beginning to stand upon terms, and upon masteries, with our royal sovereign Charles the Second, (whose royal predecessors had not only been their great benefactors, but their chief upholders, when casting off the Spanish yoke, they began to set up for themselves,) it was happily surrendered, or surprized, by the English, under the conduct of Col. Nichols, in the behalf of his royal highness the duke of York. Under the government of the said Col. Nichols it continued until the year before our last quarrel with the Dutch, when Gen. Nich ols, weary of his confinement there, resigned up his place in the government of the Dutch plantation to Col. Lovelace, who held it till the year 1673, when in his absence from the fort, and chiefest place of strength, it was unhappily surprised by Mons. Colve, under a Dutch commission, who held it for a while, to the no small damage of the English in those parts, till it was again restored to the absolute possession of the English, upon their last treaty of peace between the two nations. |