idle and dissolute persons then in the custody of the Knight Marshal. These men, dispersed through the colony, became a useful and acceptable addition of labourers, and were the first convicts transported to America.

CHAPTER III.

From the embarkation of the Plymouth Company to the close of the Pequot War.

We have seen with what slow and difficult steps, the first, or southern colony, although supported by individuals of great wealth and influence in the nation, advanced to a firm and secure establishment. Let us now employ our attention in viewing the establishment of the Plymouth Company. King James first granted Letters Patent to this company, in 1606, to possess all the lands in America, lying between 34 and 45 degrees of North latitude.— They applied for leave to go under the royal sanction, but were refused. At length they obtained permission from the Virginia company to make a settlement near the mouth of Hudson river. It was resolved that part of the congregation should remove first, and the remaining part with their pastor after the new settlement had commenced. This produced a scene at parting, not to be described. They took their leave of one another, which proved to be their last leave, with many of them. They sailed from Holland to Southampton, in England, where they met the other ships, and their friends who were to accompany them from England in July 1620.

On the fifth of August they sailed from Southampton, but on account of bad weather and the leakiness of one of their vessels, they were obliged twice to put back.The poorer vessel they were compelled to leave, while as many as could be accommodated, one hundred and one persons of the adventurers, entered on board the other ship, and took their last leave of the land of their fathers, on the sixth of September. Called to go out into a place which they should after receive for an inheritance, they

obeyed; and they went out, not knowing whither they

went.

After a tedious voyage, safely housed in the ark which God in his providence had directed them to prepare, protected by Him who directs the storm, on the tenth of November they arrived at Cape Cod. The Dutch, intending to keep Hudson's river, had bribed the ship master to carry these adventurers so far northward, that they should not find their intended place of residence. They had found land, and it was too late in the season to put to sea again; they were in a good harbour, but on a most barren and inhospitable shore.

On their arrival, they stepped upon the strand, and with bended knees gave thanks to God who had preserved their number entire, and brought them in safety to these unhallowed shores Being without the limits of their patent, as to civil government, they were in a state of nature. They therefore procured and signed a civil compact, by which they severally bound themselves to be obedient to all ordinances made by the body, acknowledging the King of Great Britain to be their lawful sovereign They say in the preamble, Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, &c. This instrument was executed on board their ship on the eleventh of November. Mr. John Carver, a man of distinguished abilities and eminent piety, was chosen their governor.

66

The prospects now before them were such as to appal any other than our fathers. In a most howling wilderness, inhabited by pagan savages and wild beasts, a dreary winter approaching, no shelter from the tempest, and as yet, no place of abode. They had one resting place, and that was all. Their trust was in Him who hath said to his chosen, The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy them.

After several unsuccessful attempts to find a convenjent place for their residence, a party sent out for discovery, entered the harbour of Plymouth. In a severe storm

L

on a December night, having with their little barque narrowly escaped a shipwreck, they were cast upon an island in the harbour. This was on Friday night. The next

day they dried their clothes, concluding to remain on this little island till after the Sabbath. This little band, about twenty in number, observed the next day as a Sabbath, which was the first Sabbath ever observed in a religious manner on the New England shore. Having examined the harbour, they returned to the ship, which weighed anchor and brought their consecratad cargo in safety. Here these pious pilgrims landed on the twenty-second of December, 1620. They called the place Plymouth, the name of the town from which they last sailed in England. They now had a country and a home, but they had a better country on high.

They had now to contend with the inclement seasons, with innumerable privations, in a constant fear of a savage foe. But God had prepared their way before them. A desolating plague, which prevailed among the natives about three years before, had nearly depopulated those parts of the country. On this account, they received very little molestation from the savages for many years. Had they been carried to Hudson's river, according to their intention, where the savages were numerous, there is much reason to believe the little colony would have been cut off. Infinite wisdom directed their course to their

prepared habitation. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, how thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and planted them.

The severities of the season, their unwholesome food, and their incessant labours, brought upon this little flock a general and very mortal sickness, so that forty-six of their number died before the opening of the ensuing spring. Of those who survived, the most had been severely sick. Who can contemplate this little band, in an uncultivated wilderness, with no promise of support from their mother country, exposed to the inclement skies of a dreary winter, with scanty supplies of food, utterly unskilled and destitute of the means for the cultivation of a new country, with no security for future harvests; surrounded with a savage enemy whose seats and prowess

they could not know; visited with a raging disease, committing, at times, two or three in a day to the grave; of the living, scarcely enough who had strength to perform the rites of sepulture;-without despondency, firmly determined to abide the just appointments of Heaven, and not admire a virtue which the religion of the Lord Jesus alone can furnish, and a patriotism to which the canonized heroes of Rome could never attain? Had their object been to obtain a property for themselves and for their posterity, or to obtain a name among the heroes of enterprize, they had sunk under their sufferings Their souls were strengthened with other prospects. They confided in the wisdom of Heaven; they firmly believed that the Most High would here plant and maintain his church; that he would make the American wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord Buoyed up by faith, strengthened by the promises, obstacles vanished before them. They knew God had often led his church into the wilderness, but he had never forsaken her. raised up the righteous man from the east, brought him to a strange country, the Canaanite was then in the land, but he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.

He

On the fifth of April after their arrival, the Plymouth Company were called to mourn the loss of their excellent governor, and a deacon of the church, Mr. Carver. Mr. Bradford, a gentleman of distinguished worth, was chosen to succeed him, and excepting four years, he was annually elected to the office till his death, in 1657. A little before the death of Mr. Carver, the Indian Sachem, Massasoit, came into Plymouth in a friendly manner, and entered into a treaty of friendship with the colony, which he observed inviolaby till his death. He was father of the famous Sachem, King Philip.

After the first desolating sickness, the people of Plymouth were, generally, very healthy, and the most of the first planters who survived that epidemic, lived to old age. Their privations, however, and their sufferings, inseparable from the circumstances of their situation, were great in the extreme. Their property was, principally, held in common stock for the support of the whole. And the

wants of the few first years, consumed most of their stores. Through fear of the natives, having received some threatening intimations from some of the tribes, they were necessitated to erect a fort, to empale their whole village, and to keep a constant guard.-In their excursions to find a proper place for settlement, while their ship lay at the Cape, they found about ten bushels of Indian corn which had been buried, for which they afterwards paid the owners, which helped to preserve their lives the first winter, and afford them seed for planting in the ensuing spring. Some friendly Indians taught them the manner of raising their corn, but their crop was very unequal to their necessities. Mr. Hutchinson is of opinion that no English grain was raised in the colony previous to the year 1633; when a few ears of rye were produced. The first domestic cattle were brought to the colony in 1624; previous to which, they had none for milk or labour. The most credible historians affirm that these pilgrims subsisted in repeated instances, for days and weeks together, without bread, feeding upon the wild nuts of the woods, and shell fish. Their difficulties for clothing were equally greatSome of the ancient writers intimate, that the great mortality in the first winter appears to have been the means, under a wise Providence, of preserving the colony from perishing by famine.

The second summer after their arrival, the settlement was threatened with a famine by a severe drought. From the third week in May to the middle of July, there was no rain. Their corn, for which they had made their utmost exertions, withered under the heat of a scorching sun, the greater part of it appeared irrecoverably lost.The Indians, seeing their prospects, observed they would soon be subdued by famine, when they should find them an easy prey. A public Fast was appointed and observed with great solemnity The morning and most of the day was clear and hot, but, towards evening, the clouds collected, and like the gracious influences of God, the rain descended in moderate, yet copious showers. This revived their expiring crop, and produced a plentiful harvest. After which they observed a day of public Thanksgiving. I believe this to be the origin of our annual Thanksgiv ings. This event made an astonishing impression on the