CHAP. right of admitting freemen according to its pleasure. IX. The manner in which that power was to be exer

THE EMIGRATION WITH JOHN WINTHROP

355

least part," yet desiring that part to be "the wiser CHAP. of the best;" disinterested, brave, and conscientious,

IX.

-his character marks the transition of the reformation 1630. into avowed republicanism; when the sentiment of loyalty, still sacredly cherished, was gradually yielding to the irresistible spirit of civil freedom.

The whole number of ships employed during the season was seventeen; and they carried over not far from fifteen hundred souls. About eight hundred—all of them Puritans, inclined to the party of the Independents; many of them men of high endowments, large fortune, and the best education; scholars, well versed in all the learning of the times; clergymen, who ranked among the most eloquent and pious in the realm-embarked with Winthrop for their asylum, bearing with them the charter, which was to be the basis of their liberties. The land was planted with a noble vine, wholly of the right seed. Religion did not expel the feelings of nature: before leaving Yarmouth, they published to the world the grounds of their removal, and bade an affectionate farewell to the church of England and to the land of their nativity. "Our hearts," say they, "shall be fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness."

The emigrants were a body of sincere believers, desiring purity of religion, and not a colony of philosophers, bent upon universal toleration. Reverence for their faith led them to a new hemisphere, where distance might protect them from inquisition; to a soil of which they had purchased the exclusive possession, with a charter of which they had acquired the entire control; for the sake of reducing to practice the doctrines of religion and the forms of civil

CHAP. liberty, which they cherished more than life itself. IX. They constituted a corporation to which they them1630. selves might establish, at their pleasure, the terms of

admission. They held in their own hands the key to their asylum, and maintained their right of closing its doors against the enemies of its harmony and its safety.

In June and July, the ships which bore Winthrop and his immediate companions, arrived to a scene of gloom; such of the earlier emigrants as had survived the previous winter, were poor and weak from sickness; their corn and bread were hardly enough for a fortnight's supply. Instead of offering a welcome, they thronged to the new-comers to be fed. Nearly two hundred servants, who had been sent over at a great expense, received their liberty, free from all engagements their labor-such was the excessive scarcity-was worth less than the cost of their main

tenance.

The selection of places for the new plantations became the immediate care. The bay and the adjoining rivers were examined: if Charlestown was the place of the first sojourning, it was not long before the fires of civilization, never more to be quenched, were kindled in Boston and the adjacent villages. Boston, especially, had "sweet and pleasant springs," "and good land, affording rich corn-fields and fruitful gardens." The dispersion of the company was esteemed a grievance; but no time was left for long deliberation, and those who had health began to build. Yet sickness delayed the progress of the work; and death often withdrew the laborer from the fruit of his exertions. Every hardship was encountered. The emigrants lodged at best in tents of cloth and in