THE PILGRIM FATHERS! planted the seeds of the Plymouth Colony, amid the

December snows, in 1620. Eight years afterward other emigrants, with John Endicott at their head, as governor, founded the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, at Salem. In 1629, John Winthrop, a wealthy Puritan, resolved to convert his large estate into money, and link his fortunes with this new colony. He was chosen to succeed Endicott, as governor, before he left England, and soon after his arrival in June, 1630, he chose the peninsula of Shawmut, on

1. In the year 1608, John Robinson, a pious pastor of a flock in the north of England, who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Church, fled, with his people, to Holland, to avoid persecution. They felt that they were only Pilgrims, and assumed that name. Toward the close of 1620, about 100 of them, including women and children, arrived on the shores of Cape Cod Bay in the ship May Flower, and planted a colony where the town of Plymouth now stands. They are known as The Pilgrim Fathers.

10

WILLIAM BREWSTER.

which the city of Boston now stands, for a residence, because pure water gushed from its hills. There he founded the future metropolis of New England.'

2

John Winthrop was born in Groton, Suffolk county, England, on the 12th of June, 1587, and was educated for the profession of the law. Theological studies possessed greater charms for him, and the peculiar seriousness of his mind led him to Puritanism, as he found it at the beginning of King Charles' reign. Because of his many admirable qualities, he was chosen governor under the charter granted in 1629, and was therefore really the first governor of Massachusetts, notwithstanding the earlier services of Endicott, as head of the actual settlers.

Winthrop held his first court, composed of deputy-governor Dudley and members of the Council, on the 23d of August, 1630, under a large tree at Charlestown; and the first topic brought under consideration was a suitable provision for the support of the gospel. Mr. Winthrop was a man of great benevolence. It was his practice to send his servants among the people at meal-time, on trifling errands, with instructions to report the condition of their tables. When informed of any who appeared to want, he always sent a supply from his own abundance. He was also merciful as a magistrate, for he considered it expedient to temper the severity of law with more lenity in an infant colony than in a settled state. Because of his lenity toward offenders, he was charged, in 1636, of dealing "too remissly in point of justice." The ministers decided that "the safety of the gospel" required more rigor; and, contrary to the motions of his own liberal heart, he was obliged to yield. So zealous were the chief men of the colony in favor of rigorous discipline, that deputy Dudley, a bigot of the strictest stamp, was chosen governor, in place of Winthrop, in 1634; but the latter was re-elected in 1637, and held the office of chief magistrate most of the fime, until his death.

Governor Winthrop came to America a wealthy man, but died quite poor. His benevolent heart kept his hand continually open, and he dispensed comforts to the needy, without stint. He regarded all men as equally dear in the eyes of their Maker, yet his early education blinded him to the dignity of true democracy. He regarded it with much disfavor; and when the people of Connecticut asked his advice concerning the organization of a government, he replied, "The best part of a community is always the least, and of that least part the wiser are still less." He had little faith in "the people." Worn out with toils and afflictions, this faithful and upright magistrate entered upon his final rest on the 26th of March, 1649, at the age of sixty-one years.

WILLIAM BREWSTER.

ONE of the noblest of the Pilgrim Fathers, was William Brewster, the spiritual

guide of those who landed on Plymouth Rock, in bleak December, 1620. He was born in England in 1560, and was educated at Cambridge. William Davidson, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to Holland, was his friend and patron in youth. When a wicked policy caused the Queen to disgrace and even destroy innocent men, Davidson, who had been appointed Secretary of State, was a great sufferer. Brewster, with a grateful loyalty, adhered to him as long as

1. Boston was so named in honor of John Cotton, minister of Boston, England, who came to Americs in 1633, and was appointed teacher in the church in Winthrop's capital.

2. Those who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Church of England, and professed great purity of life, as well as of doctrine, were called PURITANS, in derision. It has since become an honorable title.

he could serve him, and then retired among his friends in the North of England. His religious zeal there burned brightly, and his hand and purse were ever open in well-doing. He finally became disgusted with the assumptions and tyranny of the Established Church, and joined a society of separatists, under the pastoral care of John Robinson. Mr. Brewster's house was their Sabbath meeting-place for worship; and when, finally, these non-conformists were obliged to flee from hierarchical persecution, that good Christian attempted to leave friends and country, and follow. He was arrested, with others, and imprisoned at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1607; but as soon as he obtained his liberty, he sailed for Holland. His estate had become exhausted, and at Leyden he opened a school for instruction in the English language. He also established a printing-press there, and published several books.

Mr. Brewster was greatly beloved, and was chosen an elder in the church at Leyden, over which his old pastor presided. It was in that capacity that he sailed, with "the youngest and strongest" of Mr. Robinson's flock, in the May Flower, late in 1620. He suffered and rejoiced with the PILGRIMS, in all their strange vicissitudes; and for almost nine years, he was the only regular dispenser of the Word of Life to the Puritans, in the little church at Plymouth. He preached twice every Sunday; but could never be persuaded to administer the sacraments. It was in that church at Plymouth that the largest liberty was first granted to the laity. It was a common practice for a question to be propounded on the Sabbath, and all who felt "gifted" were allowed to speak upon it. This liberty finally became a great annoyance to the ministers, and much difficulty ensued. It had free scope while Elder Brewster officiated, but when Rev. Ralph Smith was settled as pastor over the Plymouth church, he endeavored to check it. Elder Brewster died on the 16th of April, 1644, at the age of eighty-three years.

THE

STEPHEN DA Y.

HE first printer who practiced his art within the domain of the United States was Stephen Day, a native of London. The Rev. Jesse Glover, one of the earliest patrons of Harvard College, presented that institution with a font of type, and others contributed money to buy a press. In 1638, Mr. Glover, then

in London, engaged Day to accompany him to America, to take charge of the printing-house at Cambridge. Glover died on the voyage, but Day arrived in safety, with his patron's widow and children, and commenced work in January, 1639. His first production was The Freeman's Oath; and soon afterward he printed an Almanac made by a mariner named Pierce, in which the year begins with March. The first book-the first one printed in America-was the Psalms in Meter, containing three hundred pages, and was known as The Bay Psalm Book. He printed several Almanacs, and also some astronomical calculations by Urian Oakes, then a youth, and afterward President of Harvard College.

Day was an unskilful printer; yet, being the only one in the colony, he was so much esteemed, that the general court of Massachusetts granted him three hundred acres of land, in 1641. He frequently complained that his printing was unprofitable. He continued in the business until the beginning of 1649, when his establishment went into the hands of Samuel Greene, who came to Cambridge with his parents at the age of sixteen years. Greene continued the business until near the close of the century, and many writers have spoken of him as the first printer. Day expired at Cambridge, on the 22d of December, 1668, at the age of about fifty-eight years.

Beniamin Shuvoh

BENJAMIN CHURCH.

[EXT to Miles Standish, the warrior-pilgrim of the May Flower, Benjamin

NEXhurch was the most distinguished military hero in early New England

history. He was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1639, and was instructed in the trade of a carpenter, by his father. He went to Duxbury to reside, and was pursuing his vocation there when King Philip's war broke out.' That great chief of the Wampanoags had long kept inviolate the treaty made with the white people by his father, Massasoit; but when provocations multiplied-when he saw spreading settlements reducing his domains, acre by acre, breaking up his hunting grounds, diminishing his fisheries, and menacing his nation with servitude or annihilation,-his patriotism was aroused, and he willingly listened to the hot young warriors around him, who counselled a war of extermination against the English. Philip struck the first blow at Swanzey, thirty-five miles south-west from Plymouth; and for almost a year this dreadful war went on, and extended even to the valley of the Connecticut river. Nearly all of the New England tribes joined Philip in his enterprise. The white people banded, and struck the savages with vigorous blows in all directions. Among their

1. Philip was a son of Massasoit, and he and his brother were named respectively Philip and Alexander, by the white people, in compliment to their bravery. Because, after the death of his father, he became chief sachem of his powerful tribe, he was called King Philip.-See page 38.

leaders, Captain Church was the bravest of the brave; and in the Spring of 1676 he completely broke the power of the New England tribes. Almost three thousand Indians had been slain or had bowed in submission, and Philip was a hunted fugitive. He was chased from place to place, and refused to yield. He cleft the head of a warrior who dared to propose submission; and a curse upon the white people was ever upon his lips. At length the "last of the Wampanoags" was compelled to yield to the pressure of circumstances, He went stealthily back to the home of his fathers, at Mount Hope. Soon his wife and son were made prisoners, and his spirit drooped. "Now my heart breaks," said the brave warrior; "I am ready to die." A few days afterward a faithless Indian shot him, in a swamp, and Captain Church, with his own sword, cut off the dead sachem's head. Lacking the magnanimity of a true soldier, the professed Christian leader disfigured the senseless body, then quartered it, and hung it upon trees, declaring, "Forasmuch as he caused many an Englishman's body to lie unburied and rot above the ground, not one of his bones shall be buried." The chieftain's head was carried to Plymouth on a pole, where it was exposed for several years, and his right hand was sent to the governor of Massachusetts. The rude sword of Church which cut off Philip's head is now a cherished relic in the library of the Historical Society of the "Old Bay State." If we censure Church's want of magnanimity as a soldier, what shall we say of the Christian charity of the Plymouth people in the disposal of King Philip's It was a subject for serious consideration. Some of the elders of the church proposed putting him to death; while the more merciful ones proposed to sell him into slavery in Bermuda. The most profitable measure appeared the kindest, and the innocent child was sold into perpetual bondage.

son.

Captain Church lived many years after the war, at different places in the vicinity of Narraganset Bay, in Rhode Island. His last place of residence was Little Compton, where, on the 17th of January, 1718, he was thrown from a horse. He was very corpulent, and the shock of his fall ruptured a blood vessel, which caused his death in the course of a few hours, at the age of seventynine years.

MILES STANDISH.

"Hero of New England," as Captain Standish is called, was, like many

heroes

torian, says, when speaking of him, "A little chimney is soon fired: so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very small stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper." He was born in Lancashire, England, about the year 1584. He was a soldier by profession, and was serving in the Netherlands when Mr. Robinson, with his PILGRIM flock, settled at Leyden. There he joined the Puritans, and came with them to America, in the May Flower. When that vessel anchored in Cape Cod Bay, and it was thought expedient to explore the bleak shore to find a good landing-place, Standish was among the first to volunteer for the service. He was one of those who passed the first Christian Sabbath, after their arrival, in deep snow upon a barren island in Plymouth harbor; and he was the second man who stepped upon Plymouth Rock.

Standish was very serviceable to the English when the Indians showed signs of hostility, and they relied much upon his military skill and personal bravery. Wherever the duties of his profession called him, there he was always found. Two years after the establishment of the Puritans at Plymouth, he was called to