78

CHAP.

THE PILGRIMS PREPARE TO LEAVE HOLLAND.

Mr. Weston1 coming to Leyden, the people agree V. 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. Martin 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.

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

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
on page 58.

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.

CHAPTER VI.

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

CRAP.

[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 solicitor, Sir Thomas Coventry, to prepare a new patent for the incorporation of the adventurers to the northern colony of Virginia, between 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.

THE PILGRIMS MEET WITH DISCOURAGEMENTS.

81

VI.

for the hope of present profit, to be made by fishing' CHAP. on that coast. But in all business the active part is most difficult, especially when there are many agents 1620. that may be concerned. be concerned. So it was found in them; for some of them who should have gone in England, fell off, and would not go. Other merchants and friends, that proffered to adventure their money, withdrew and pretended many excuses; some disliking they went not to Guiana; others would do nothing unless they went to Virginia; and many who were most relied on refused to adventure if they went thither. In the midst of these difficulties, they of Leyden were driven to great straits; but at the length, the generality was swayed to the better opinion. Howbeit, the patent for the northern part of the country not being fully settled at that time, they resolved to adventure with that patent they had, intending for some place more southward than that they fell in their voyage, at Cape Cod, as may appear afterwards.

upon

The CONDITIONS, on which those of Leyden engaged with the merchants, the adventurers, were hard enough

' Edward Winslow says, in his Brief Narrative, that on King James asking the agents of the Pilgrims "what profits might arise in the part they intended, it was answered, Fishing."

I know not what authority Hutchinson had for asserting, ii. 472, that "their views when they left England were rather to establish a factory than a colony. They had no notion of cultivating any more ground than would afford their own necessary provisions, but proposed that their chief secular employment should be commerce with the natives." This seems inconsistent with the views with which they 'eft Holland; and the simple fact

of their bringing their wives and
children with them is conclusive
evidence that they came to estab-
lish a permanent colony, in which
the several occupations of farming,
fishing, and trading, would each
have its proper place.

Little is known of these mer-
chant adventurers. Capt. John
Smith, a good authority in such
matters, writing in 1624, says that
"the adventurers which raised the
stock to begin and supply this plan-
tation, were about seventy, some
gentlemen, some merchants, some
handicraftsmen, some adventuring
great sums, some small, as their
estates and affection served. These
dwell most about London. They

82

VI.

THE CONDITIONS OF THE PARTNERSHIP

CHAP. at the first for the poor people, that were to adventure their persons as well as their estates. Yet were their 1620. agents forced to change one or two of them, to satisfy the merchants, who were not willing to be concerned with them; although the altering them without their knowledge or consent was very distasteful to them, and became the occasion of some contention amongst them afterwards. They are these that follow.

1. The adventurers and planters do agree, that every person that goeth, being sixteen years old and upward, be rated at ten pounds, and that ten pounds be accounted a single share.

2. That he that goeth in person, and furnisheth himself out with ten pounds, either in money or other provisions, be accounted as having twenty pounds in stock, and in the division shall receive a double share.

3. The persons transported and the adventurers shall continue their joint stock and partnership the space of seven years, except some unexpected impediments do cause the whole Company to agree otherwise; during which time all profits and benefits that are gotten by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means, of any other person or persons, shall remain still in the common stock until the division.

4. That at their coming there they shall choose out such a number of fit persons as may furnish their ships

are not a corporation, but knit to-
gether by a voluntary combination
in a society without constraint or
penalty, aiming to do good and to
plant religion." Smith's Gen. Hist.
of Virginia, ii. 251. Some of these
merchants, as appears from the
Correspondence with them pre-

served by Gov. Bradford, were very friendly to the Colony, and a few came over and settled in it. Others were unreasonable, clamorous, and hostile. Their names in 1626 are preserved. See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 27-34, 48.