LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER III.

       Table of Contents

      First ineffectual attempts of the Plymouth company to settle the country. … Settlement at New Plymouth. … Sir Henry Rosewell and company. … New charter. … Settlements prosecuted vigorously. … Government transferred to the colonists. … Boston founded. … Religious intolerance. … General court established. … Royal commission for the government of the plantations. … Contest with the French colony of Acadié. … Hugh Peters. … Henry Vane. … Mrs. Hutchinson. … Maine granted to Gorges. … Quo warranto against the patent of the colony. … Religious dissensions. … Providence settled. … Rhode Island settled. … Connecticut settled. … War with the Piquods. … New Haven settled.

      1606

The steps by which the first, or southern colony, advanced to a firm and permanent establishment, were slow and painful. The company for founding the second, or northern colony, was composed of gentlemen residing in Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England; was less wealthy, and possessed fewer resources than the first company, which resided in the capital. Their efforts were consequently more feeble, and less successful, than those which were made in the south.[47]

The first vessel fitted out by this company was captured and confiscated by the Spaniards, who, at that time, asserted a right to exclude the ships of all other nations from navigating the American seas. Not discouraged by this misfortune, 1607the company in the following year dispatched two other vessels, having on board about two hundred persons designed to form the proposed settlement. The colonists arrived safely on the American coast in autumn, and took possession of a piece of ground near the river Sagahadoc, where they built fort St. George. Their sufferings during the ensuing winter were extreme. Many of the company, among whom were Gilbert their admiral, and George Popham their president, sank under the diseases by which they were attacked; and the vessels which brought them supplies in the following spring, brought also the information that their principal patron, Sir John Popham, chief justice of England, was dead. 1608Discouraged by their losses and sufferings, and by the death of a person on whom they relied chiefly for assistance, the surviving colonists determined to abandon the country, and embark on board the vessels then returning to England. The frightful pictures they drew of the country, and of the climate, deterred the company, for some time, from farther attempts to make a settlement, and their enterprizes were limited to voyages for the purposes of taking fish, and of trading with the natives for furs. 1614One of these was made by captain Smith, so distinguished in the history of Virginia. Having explored, with great accuracy, that part of the coast which stretches from Penobscot to Cape Cod, he delineated it on a map; which he presented to the young Prince of Wales, with descriptions dictated by a sanguine mind, in which enthusiasm was combined with genius. The imagination of the Prince was so wrought upon by the glowing colours in which Smith painted the country, that he declared it should be called New England, which name it has ever since retained.[48]

      The languishing company of Plymouth, however, could not be stimulated to engage in farther schemes of colonisation, the advantages of which were distant and uncertain, while the expense was immediate and inevitable. To a stronger motive than even interest, is New England indebted for its first settlement.

      An obscure sect, which had acquired the appellation of Brownists from the name of its founder, and which had rendered itself peculiarly obnoxious by the democracy of its tenets respecting church government, had been driven by persecution to take refuge at Leyden in Holland, where its members formed a distinct society under the care of their pastor, Mr. John Robinson. There they resided several years in safe obscurity. This situation, at length, became irksome to them. Their families intermingled with the Dutch, and they saw before them, with extreme apprehension, the danger of losing their separate identity. Under the influence of these and other causes, they came to the determination of removing in a body to America.

      1618

They applied to the London company for a grant of lands; and, to promote the success of their application by the certainty of their emigrating, they said, "that they were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. That they were knit together in a strict and sacred bond, by virtue of which they held themselves bound to take care of the good of each other, and of the whole. That it was not with them, as with other men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish themselves at home again." The only privilege on which they insisted, was a license under the great seal, to practise and profess religion in that mode, which, under the impulse of conscience, they had adopted. This reasonable and moderate request was refused. James had already established the church of England in Virginia; and, although he promised to connive at their non-conformity, and not to molest them while they demeaned themselves peaceably, he positively refused to give that explicit and solemn pledge of security, which they required. This, for a short time, suspended their removal; but the causes of their discontent in Holland continuing, they, at length, determined to trust to the verbal declarations of the King, and negotiated with the Virginia company for a tract of land within the limits of their patent.[49]

      1620

In September, they sailed from England, with only one hundred and twenty men, in a single ship. Their destination was Hudson's river; but the first land they made was Cape Cod. They soon perceived that they were not only beyond their own limits, but beyond those of the company from which they derived their title; but it was now the month of November, and consequently too late in the season again to put to sea in search of a new habitation. Settlement at New Plymouth.After exploring the coast, they chose a position for their station, to which they gave the name of New at New Plymouth. On the 11th of November, before landing, a solemn covenant was signed by the heads of families, and freemen, in which, after reciting that they had undertaken to plant a colony for the glory of God, and for the honour of their King and country, and professing their loyalty to their sovereign Lord King James, they combined themselves into a body politic, for the purpose of making equal laws for the general good.[50]

Having thus formed a compact, the obligation of which all admitted, they proceeded to the choice of a governor for one year; and to enable him the better to discharge the trust confided to him, they gave him one assistant. In 1624, three others were added; and the number was afterwards increased to seven. The supreme power resided in, and, during the infancy of the colony, was exercised by, the whole body of the male inhabitants. They assembled together, occasionally, to determine on all subjects of public concern; nor was a house of representatives established until the year 1639. They adopted the laws of England as a common rule of action, adding occasionally municipal regulations. Some of the changes in their penal code strongly marked their character and circumstances. While only a moderate fine was imposed on forgery, fornication was punished with whipping, and adultery with death.[51]

      Misguided by their religious theories, they fell into the same error which had been committed in Virginia, and, in imitation of the primitive Christians, threw all their property into a common stock, laboured jointly for the common benefit, and were fed from the common stores. This regulation produced, even in this small and enthusiastic society, its constant effect. They were often in danger of starving; and severe whipping, administered to promote labour, only increased discontent.

      The colonists landed at a season of the year which was unfavourable to the establishment of a new settlement. The winter, which was intensely cold, had already commenced;

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