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Title: The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton with Introductory
Matter and Notes

Author: Thomas Morton

Editor: Charles Francis Adams

Release date: February 14, 2017 [eBook #54162]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton
with Introductory Matter and Notes, by Thomas Morton and Charles
Francis Adams

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Transcriber's Note
A table of contents detailing the chapters of the original book is located at the end of the
text.
This book is a 19th century edition of a 17th century original, along with extensive
commentary. The 19th century edition used different page numbering. To facilitate internal
references to specific pages, the original 17th century page numbers have been
incorporated into the text enclosed by curly braces, e.g. {123}. References to these
numbers in the text have been kept as printed, e.g. *123.
Click on the illustration on page 12 to see a higher-resolution image.

Publications of the Prince Society.

THE NEW ENGLISH CANAAN.

THE
Publications of the Prince Society.
Established May 25th, 1858.

THE NEW
ENGLISH CANAAN.

Boston:
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY,
By John Wilson and Son.
1883.

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES.

THE

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN
OF
THOMAS MORTON.

WITH INTRODUCTORY MATTER AND NOTES
BY
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr.

Boston:
PUBLISHED BY THE PRINCE SOCIETY.
1883.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
The Prince Society,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Editor:
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page
Preface v-vi
Thomas Morton of Merry-Mount 1-98
Bibliography of New English Canaan 99-105
New English Canaan 106-345
Book I. The Origin of the Natives; their Manners and
115-78
Customs
Book II. A Description of the Beauty of the Country 179-242
Book III. A Description of the People 243-345
Table of Contents of the New English Canaan 347-9

Officers of the Prince Society 353
The Prince Society, 1883 354-8
Publications of the Prince Society 359
Volumes in Preparation by the Prince Society 360
Index 361-81

PREFACE.
EFORE undertaking the present work I had no
experience as an editor. It is unnecessary for me to say,
therefore, that, were I now to undertake it, I should
pursue a somewhat different course from that which I
have pursued. The New English Canaan is, in many
respects, a singular book. One of its most singular
features is the extent of ground it covers. Not only is it
full of obscure references to incidents in early New
England history, but it deals directly with the aborigines, the trees, animals,
fish, birds and geology of the region; besides having constant incidental
allusions to literature,—both classic and of the author’s time,—to
geography, and to then current events. No one person can possess the
knowledge necessary to thoroughly cover so large a field. To edit properly
he must have recourse to specialists.
It was only as the labor of investigation increased on my hands that I
realized what a wealth of scientific and special knowledge was to be
reached, in the neighborhood of Boston, by any one engaged in such
multifarious inquiry. Were I again to enter upon it I should confine my own
labors chiefly to correspondence; for on every point which comes up there
is some one now in this vicinity, if he can only be found out, who has made

a study of it, and has more information than the most laborious and skilful
of editors can acquire.
In this edition of the New Canaan I have not laid so many of these
specialists as I now wish, under requisition; and yet the list is a tolerably
extensive one. In every case, also, the assistance asked for has been
rendered as of course, in the true scientific spirit. My correspondence has
included Messrs. Deane, Winsor and Ellis on events in early New England
history; Professor Whitney on geographical allusions; Professors Lane and
Greenough, Dr. Everett and Mr. T. W. Higginson, on references to the Greek
and Latin classics, or quotations from them; and the Rev. Mr. Norton on
Scriptural allusions. Mr. J. C. Gray has hunted up for me legal precedents
five centuries old, and Mr. Lindsay Swift has explained archaic expressions,
to the meaning of which I could get no clew. On the subject of trees and
herbs I called on Professors Gray and Sargent; in regard to birds, Mr.
William Brewster was indefatigable; Mr. Allen, though in very poor health,
took the chapter on animals; Professor Shaler disposed of the geology;
Messrs. Agassiz and Lyman instructed me as to fish, and Professor Putnam
as to shell-heaps. I met some allusions to early French and other explorers,
and naturally had recourse to Messrs. Parkman and Slafter; while in regard
to Indian words and names, I have been in constant correspondence with the
one authority, Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull, who has recognized to the fullest
extent the public obligation which a mastery of a special subject imposes on
him who masters it.
In closing a pleasant editorial task, my chief regret, therefore, is that the
notes in this volume contain so much matter of my own. They should have
been even more eclectic than they are, and each from the highest possible
authority on the subject to which it relates.
C. F. A., Jr.

Quincy, Mass., April 4, 1883.

MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT.
In the second book of his history of Plymouth Plantation, Governor
Bradford, while dealing with the events of the year 1628 though writing at a
still later period, says:—
“Aboute some three or four years before this time, ther came
over one Captaine Wolastone (a man of pretie parts), and with
him three or four more of some eminencie, who brought with
them a great many servants, with provisions and other
implaments for to begine a plantation; and pitched themselves in
a place within the Massachusets, which they called, after their
Captains name, Mount-Wollaston. Amongst whom was one Mr.
Morton, who, it should seeme, had some small adventure (of his
owne or other mens) amongst them.”[1]
There is no other known record of Wollaston than that contained in this
passage of Bradford.[2] His given name even is not mentioned. It may be
surmised with tolerable certainty that he was one of the numerous traders,
generally from Bristol or the West of England, who frequented the fishing
grounds and the adjacent American coast during the early years of the
seventeenth century. Nothing is actually known of him, however, until in
1625 he appeared in Massachusetts Bay, as Boston Harbor was then called,
at the head of the expedition which Bradford mentions.

His purpose and that of his companions was to establish a plantation and
trading-post in the country of the Massachusetts tribe of Indians. It was the
third attempt of the kind which had been made since the settlement at
Plymouth, a little more than four years before. The first of these attempts
had been that of Thomas Weston at Wessagusset, or Weymouth, in the
summer of 1622. This had resulted in a complete failure, the story of which
is told by Bradford and Winslow, and forms one of the more striking pages
in the annals of early New England. The second attempt, and that which
next preceded Wollaston’s, had closely followed the first, being made in the
summer of 1623, under the immediate direction of the Council for New
England. At the head of it was Captain Robert Gorges, a younger son of Sir
Ferdinando Gorges. Weston’s expedition was a mere trading venture,
having little connection with anything which went before or which came
after. That of Gorges, however, was something more. As will presently be
seen, it had a distinct political and religious significance.
Robert Gorges and his party arrived in Boston Bay in 1623, during what is
now the latter part of September. They established themselves in the
buildings which had been occupied by Weston’s people during the previous
winter, and which had been deserted by them a few days less than six
months before. The site of those buildings cannot be definitely fixed. It is
supposed to have been on Phillips Creek, a small tidal inlet of the
Weymouth fore-river, a short distance above the Quincy-Point bridge. The
grant made to Robert Gorges by the Council for New England, and upon
which he probably intended to place his party, was on the other side of the
bay, covering ten miles of sea-front and stretching thirty miles into the
interior. It was subsequently pronounced void by the lawyers on the ground
of being “loose and uncertain,” but as nearly as can now be fixed it covered
the shore between Nahant and the mouth of the Charles, and the region
back of that as far west as Concord and Sudbury, including Lynn and the
most thickly inhabited portions of the present county of Middlesex.
Reaching New England, however, late in the season, Gorges’s first anxiety
was to secure shelter for his party against the impending winter, for the
frosts had already begun. Fortunately the few savages thereabouts had been
warned by Governor Bradford not to injure the Wessagusset buildings, and
thus they afforded a welcome shelter to the newcomers. These were people
of a very different class from those who had preceded them. Among them

were men of education, and some of them were married and had brought
their wives. Their settlement proved a permanent one. Robert Gorges, it is
true, the next spring returned to England disgusted and discouraged, taking
back with him a portion of his followers. Others of them went on to
Virginia in search of a milder climate and a more fertile soil. A few,
however, remained at Wessagusset,[3] and are repeatedly referred to by
Morton in the New Canaan[4] as his neighbors at that place.
When, therefore, Wollaston sailed into the bay in the early summer of 1625,
its shores were not wholly unoccupied. His party consisted of himself and
some three or four partners, with thirty or more servants, as they were
called, or men who had sold their time for a period of years to an employer,
and who stood in the relation to him of apprentice to master. Rasdall,
according to Bradford, was the name of one of the partners, and Fitcher
would seem to have been that of another. Thomas Morton, the author of the
New English Canaan, was a third.
Not much more is known of Morton’s life prior to his coming to America
than of Wollaston’s. He had certainly an education of that sort which was
imparted in the schools of the Elizabethan period, for he had a smattering
knowledge of the more familiar Latin authors at least, and was fond of
classic allusion. Governor Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln,
says that while in England he was an attorney in “the west countries.”[5] He
further intimates that he had there been implicated in some foul
misdemeanor, on account of which warrants were out against him.
Nathaniel Morton in his Memorial[6] says that the crime thus referred to was
the killing of a partner concerned with him, Thomas Morton, in his first
New England venture. Thomas Wiggin, however, writing in 1632 to Sir
John Cooke, one of King Charles’s secretaries for foreign affairs and a
member of the Privy Council, states, upon the authority of Morton’s “wife’s
sonne and others,” that he had fled to New England “upon a foule suspition
of murther.”[7] While, therefore, it would seem that grave charges were in
general circulation against Morton, connecting him with some deed of
violence, it is necessary to bear in mind that considerable allowance must
be made before any accusation against him can be accepted on the word of
either the Massachusetts or the Plymouth authorities, or those in sympathy
with them. Yet Morton was a reckless man, and he lived in a time when no
great degree of sanctity attached to human life; so that in itself there is

nothing very improbable in this charge. It is possible that before coming to
America he may have put some one out of the way. Nevertheless, as will
presently be seen, though he was subsequently arrested and in jail in
England, the accusation never took any formal shape. That he was at some
time married would appear from the letter of Wiggin already referred to,
and the allusions in the New Canaan show that he had been a man
passionately fond of field sports, and a good deal of a traveller as well. He
speaks, for instance, of having been “bred in so genious a way” that in
England he had the common use of hawks in fowling; and, in another place,
he alludes to his having been so near the equator that “I have had the sun
for my zenith.”[8] On the titlepage of his book he describes himself as “of
Cliffords Inne gent.,” which of course he would not have ventured to do had
he not really been what he there claimed to be; for at the time the New
Canaan was published he was living in London and apparently one of the
attorneys of the Council for New England.[9] Bradford, speaking from
memory, fell into an error, therefore, when he described him as a “kind of
petie-fogger of Furnefells Inne.”[10] That in 1625 he was a man of some
means is evident from the fact that he owned an interest in the Wollaston
venture; though here again Bradford takes pains to say that the share he
represented (“of his owne or other mens”) was small, and that he himself
had so little respect amongst the rest that he was slighted by even the
meanest servants.
In all probability this was not Morton’s first visit to Massachusetts Bay.
Indeed, he was comparatively familiar with it, having already passed one
season on its shores. His own statement, at the beginning of the first chapter
of the second book of the Canaan, seems to be conclusive on this point. He
there says: “In the month of June, Anno Salutis 1622, it was my chance to
arrive in the parts of New England with thirty servants, and provision of all
sorts fit for a plantation; and, while our houses were building, I did
endeavor to take a survey of the country.”[11] There was but one ship which
arrived in New England in June, 1622, and that was the Charity;[12] and the
Charity brought out Weston’s party, which settled at Wessagusset,
answering in every respect to Morton’s description of the party he came
with. Andrew Weston, a younger brother of the chief promoter of the
enterprise, had then come in charge of it, and is described as having been “a
heady yong man and violente.”[13] After leaving Weston’s company at

Plymouth, the Charity went on to Virginia, but returned from there early in
October, going it would seem directly to Boston Bay and Wessagusset.[14]
One part of the colonists had then been there three months, and it was
during those three months that Morton apparently took the survey of the
country to which he refers. As the Wessagusset plantation was now left
under the charge of Richard Greene, it would seem that young Weston went
back to England in the Charity, and the inference is that Morton, who had
come out as his companion, went back with him.
In any event, the impression produced on Morton by this first visit to New
England was a strong and favorable one. It looked to him a land of plenty, a
veritable New Canaan. Accordingly, he gave vent to his enthusiasm in the
warm language of the first chapter of his second book.[15] With the
subsequent fate of Weston’s party he seems to have had no connection. He
must at the time have heard of it, and was doubtless aware of the evil
reputation that company left behind. This would perfectly account for the
fact that he never mentions his having himself had anything to do with it.
Yet it may be surmised that he returned to England possessed with the idea
of connecting himself with some enterprise, either Weston’s or another,
organized to make a settlement on the shores of Boston Bay and there to
open a trade in furs. He had then had no experience of a New England
winter; though, for that matter, when he afterwards had repeated
experiences of it, they in no way changed his views of the country. To the
last, apparently, he thought of it as he first saw it during the summer and
early autumn of 1622, when it was a green fresh wilderness, nearly devoid
of inhabitants and literally alive with game.
News of the utter failure of Weston’s enterprise must have reached London
in the early summer of 1623. Whether Morton was in any way personally
affected thereby does not appear, though from his allusions to Weston’s
treatment by Robert Gorges at Plymouth, during the winter of 1623-4, it is
not at all improbable that he was.[16] During the following year (1624) he is
not heard of; but early in 1625 he had evidently succeeded in effecting
some sort of a combination which resulted in the Wollaston expedition.
The partners in this enterprise would seem to have been the merest
adventurers. So far as can be ascertained, they did not even trouble
themselves to take out a patent for the land on which they proposed to

settle,[17] in this respect showing themselves even more careless than
Weston.[18] With the exception of Morton, they apparently had no practical
knowledge of the country, and their design clearly was to establish
themselves wherever they might think good, and to trade in such way as
they saw fit.
When the party reached its destination in Massachusetts Bay, they found
Wessagusset still occupied by such as were left of Robert Gorges’s
company, who had then been there nearly two years. They had necessarily,
therefore, to establish themselves elsewhere. A couple of miles or so north
of Wessagusset, on the other side of the Monatoquit, and within the limits
of what is now the town of Quincy, was a place called by the Indians
Passonagessit. The two localities were separated from each other not only
by the river, which here widens out into a tidal estuary, but by a broad basin
which filled and emptied with every tide, while around it were extensive
salt marshes intersected by many creeks. The upland, too, was interspersed
with tangled swamps lying between gravel ridges. At Passonagessit the
new-comers established themselves, and the place is still known as Mount
Wollaston.
In almost all respects Passonagessit was for their purpose a better locality
than Wessagusset. They had come there to trade. However it may have been
with the others, in Morton’s calculations at least the plantation must have
been a mere incident to the more profitable dealing in peltry. A prominent
position on the shore, in plain view of the entrance to the bay, would be
with him an important consideration. This was found at Passonagessit. It
was a spacious upland rising gently from the beach and, a quarter of a mile
or so from it, swelling into a low hill.[19] It was not connected with the
interior by any navigable stream, but Indians coming from thence would
easily find their way to it; and, while a portion of the company could always
be there ready to trade, others of them might make excursions to all points
on the neighboring coast where furs were to be had. Looking seaward, on
the left of the hill was a considerable tidal creek; in front of it, across a clear
expanse of water a couple of miles or so in width, lay the islands of the
harbor in apparently connected succession. Though the anchoring grounds
among these islands afforded perfect places of refuge for vessels,
Passonagessit itself, as the settlers there must soon have realized, labored,
as a trading-point, under one serious disadvantage. There was no deep water

near it. Except when the tide was at least half full, the shore could be
approached only in boats. On the other hand, so far as planting was
concerned, the conditions were favorable. The soil, though light, was very
good; and the spot, lying as it did close to “the Massachusetts fields,” had
some years before been cleared of trees by the Sachem Chickatawbut, who
had made his home there.[20] He had, however, abandoned it at the time
when the great pestilence swept away his tribe, and tradition still points out
a small savin-covered hummock, near Squantum, on the south side of the
Neponset, as his subsequent dwelling-place. Morton says that
Chickatawbut’s mother was buried at Passonagessit, and that the Plymouth
people, on one of their visits, incurred his enmity by despoiling her grave of
its bear skins.[21] So far as the natives were concerned, however, any settlers
on the shores of Boston Bay, after the year 1623, had little cause for
disquietude. They were a thoroughly crushed and broken-spirited race. The
pestilence had left only a few hundred of the whole Massachusetts tribe,
and in 1631 Chickatawbut had but some fifty or sixty followers.[22] It was a
dying race; and what little courage the pestilence had left them was
effectually and forever crushed out by Miles Standish, when at
Wessagusset, in April, 1623, he put to death seven of the strongest and
boldest of their few remaining men.
Having selected a site, Wollaston and his party built their house nearly in
the centre of the summit of the hill, on a gentle westerly slope. It
commanded towards the north and east an unbroken view of the bay and all
the entrances to it; while on the opposite or landward side, some four or five
miles away, rose the heavily-wooded Blue Hills. Across the bay to the north
lay Shawmut, beyond the intervening peninsulas of Squantum and
Mattapan. Wessagusset was to the south, across the marshes and creeks, and
hidden from view by forest and uplands.

Mount Wollaston.[23]
During their first season, the summer of 1625, Wollaston’s party must have
been fully occupied in the work of building their houses and laying out their
plantation. The winter followed. A single experience of a winter on that
shore seems to have sufficed for Captain Wollaston, as it had before
sufficed for Captain Gorges. He apparently came to the conclusion that
there was little profit and no satisfaction for him in that region.
Accordingly, during the early months of 1626, he determined to go
elsewhere. The only account of what now ensued is that contained in
Bradford; for Morton nowhere makes a single allusion to Wollaston or any
of his associates, nor does he give any account of the origin, composition or
purposes of the Wollaston enterprise. His silence on all these points is,
indeed, one of the singular features in the New Canaan. Such references as
he does make are always to Weston and Weston’s attempt;[24] and he seems
to take pains to confound that attempt with Wollaston’s. Once only he
mentions the number of the party with which he landed,[25] and the fact that
it was subsequently dissolved;[26] but how it came to be dissolved he does
not explain. The inference from this is unavoidable. Morton was free
enough in talking of what he did and saw at Passonagessit, of his revels
there, of how he was arrested, and persecuted out of the country. That he
says not a word of Wollaston or his other partners must be due to the fact
that the subject was one about which he did not care to commit himself.
Nevertheless Bradford could not but have known the facts, for not only at a
later day was Morton himself for long periods of time at Plymouth, but

when the events of which he speaks occurred Bradford must have been
informed of them by the Wessagusset people, as well as by Fitcher. As we
only know what Bradford tells us, it can best be given in his own words:—
“Having continued there some time, and not finding things to
answer their expectations, nor profit to arise as they looked for,
Captain Wollaston takes a great part of the servants and
transports them to Virginia, where he puts them off at good
rates, selling their time to other men; and writes back to one Mr.
Rasdall, one of his chief partners and accounted their merchant,
to bring another part of them to Virginia likewise; intending to
put them off there, as he had done the rest. And he, with the
consent of the said Rasdall, appointed one Fitcher to be his
Lieutenant, and govern the remains of the plantation till he, or
Rasdall, returned to take further order thereabout. But this
Morton, abovesaid, having more craft than honesty, in the
others’ absence watches an opportunity, (commons being but
hard amongst them,) and got some strong drink and other
junkets, and made them a feast; and after they were merry, he
began to tell them he would give them good counsel. ‘You see,’
saith he, ‘that many of your fellows are carried to Virginia; and
if you stay till this Rasdall returns, you will also be carried away
and sold for slaves with the rest. Therefore, I would advise you
to thrust out this Lieutenant Fitcher; and I, having a part in the
plantation, will receive you as my partners and consociates. So
may you be free from service; and we will converse, trade, plant
and live together as equals, and support and protect one
another:’ or to like effect. This counsel was easily received, so
they took opportunity and thrust Lieutenant Fitcher out a-doors,
and would suffer him to come no more amongst them; but
forced him to seek bread to eat, and other relief, from his
neighbors, till he could get passage for England.”[27]
Wollaston’s process of depletion to Virginia had reduced the number of
servants at Passonagessit from thirty or thirty-five, as Morton variously
states it,[28] to six at most.[29] It was as the head of these that Morton
established himself in control at Merry-Mount, as he called the place,[30]
sometime, it would seem, in the summer of 1626. He had now two distinct

objects in view: one was enjoyment, the other was profit; and apparently he
was quite reckless as to the methods he pursued in securing either the one
or the other. If he was troubled by his former partners appearing to assert
their rights, as he probably was, no mention is made of it. There were no
courts to appeal to in America, and those of Europe were far away; nor
would it have been easy or inexpensive to enforce their process in New
England. Accordingly nothing more is heard of Wollaston or Rasdall,
though Bradford does say that Morton was “vehemently suspected for the
murder of a man that had adventured moneys with him when he first
came.”[31] There is a vague tradition, referred to John Adams, that
Wollaston was subsequently lost at sea;[32] but as a full century must have
elapsed between the occurrence of the event and the birth of John Adams,
this tradition is quite as unreliable as traditions usually are.
Passionately fond of field sports, Morton found ample opportunity for the
indulgence of his tastes in New England. He loved to ramble through the
woods with his dog and gun, or sail in his boat on the bay. The Indians, too,
were his allies, and naturally enough; for not only did he offer them an open
and easy-going market for their furs, but he was companionable with them.
They shared in his revels. He denies that he was in the habit of selling them
spirits,[33] but where spirits were as freely used as Morton’s account shows
they were at Merry-Mount, the Indians undoubtedly had their share. Nor
were his relations confined to the Indian men. The period of Elizabeth and
James I. was one of probably as much sexual incontinency as any in
English history. Some of the earlier writers on the New England Indians
have spoken of the modesty of the women,—Wood, in his Prospect, for
instance, and Josselyn, in the second of his Two Voyages.[34] Morton,
however, is significantly silent on this point, and the idea of female chastity
in the Indian mind, in the rare cases where it existed at all, seems to have
been of the vaguest possible description.[35] Morton was not a man likely to
be fastidious, and his reference to the “lasses in beaver coats”[36] is
suggestive. Merry-Mount was unquestionably, so far as temperance and
morality were concerned, by no means a commendable place.[37]
Morton’s inclination to boisterous revelry culminated at last in that
proceeding which scandalized the Plymouth elders and has passed into
history. In the spring of 1627 he erected the May-pole of Merry-Mount. To

erect these poles seems at that time to have been a regular English
observance, which even the fishermen on the coast did not neglect. When,
for instance, the forerunners of Weston’s colony at Wessagusset reached the
Damariscove Islands, in the spring of 1622, the first thing they saw was a
May-pole, which the men belonging to the ships there had newly set up,
“and weare very mery.”[38] There is no room for question that in England,
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, May-day festivities were
associated with a great deal of license. They were so associated in the minds
of Governor Bradford and his fellows. Christmas was at least a Christian
festivity. Not so May-day. That was distinctly Pagan in its origin. It
represented all there was left of the Saturnalia and the worship of the
Roman courtesan. May-day and May-day festivities, accordingly, were
things to be altogether reformed. They were by no means the innocent,
grateful welcoming of spring which modern admirers of the so-called good
old times—which, in point of fact, were very gross and brutal times—are
wont to picture to themselves. “I have heard it credibly reported,” wrote
Stubbes in his Anatomy of Abuses, “(and that viva voce) by men of great
gravitie, credite and reputation, that of fourtie, three score, or a hundred
maides goyng to the woode over night [a-Maying], there have scarcely the
thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled.”[39] All this it is
necessary to now bear in mind, lest what Bradford wrote down in his
history of Morton’s doings should seem grotesque. He was speaking of
what represented in his memory a period of uncleanness, a sort of carnival
of the sexes.
Morton’s own account of the festivities at Merry-Mount on the May-day of
1627, which came on what would now be the 11th of the month, will be
found in the fourteenth chapter of the third book of the Canaan.[40] It does
not need to be repeated here. Bradford’s account was very different:
“They allso set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing aboute it
many days togeather, inviting the Indean women, for their
consorts, dancing and frisking togither, (like so many fairies, or
furies rather,) and worse practises. As if they had anew revived
and celebrated the feasts of the Roman Goddes Flora, or the
beasly practieses of the madd Bacchinalians. Morton likwise (to
shew his poetrie,) composed sundry rimes and verses, some
tending to lasciviousnes, and others to the detraction and

scandall of some persons, which he affixed to this idle or idoll
May-polle.”[41]
Morton’s verses can be found in their proper place in the New Canaan, but
the principal charge now to be made against them is their
incomprehensibility. Judged even by the standard of the present day, much
more by that of the day when they were written, they are not open to
criticism because of their “lasciviousnes.” They are decent enough, though
very bad and very dull. As to the “detraction and scandall of some persons,”
alleged against them,—if indeed they contained anything of the sort,—it
was so very carefully concealed that no one could easily have understood it
then, and Morton’s own efforts at explanation fail to make it intelligible
now.
The festivities around the May-pole were, however, but Morton’s
amusements. Had he confined himself to these he might, so far as the
people at Plymouth at least were concerned, to the end of his life have lived
on the shores of Boston Bay, and erected a new pole with each recurring
spring. The only resistance he would have had to overcome would have
been a remonstrance now and then, hardly less comical than it was earnest.
The business methods he pursued were a more serious matter. He had come
to New England to make money, as well as to enjoy the license of a frontier
life. He was fully alive to the profits of the peltry trade, and in carrying on
that trade he was restrained by no scruples. The furs of course came from
the interior, brought by Indians. In his dealings with the Indians Morton
adopted a policy natural enough for one of his reckless nature, but which
imperilled the existence of every European on the coast. The two things the
savages most coveted were spirits and guns,—fire-water and fire-arms.
Beads and knives and hatchets and colored cloth served very well to truck
with at first. But these very soon lost their attraction. Guns and rum never
did. For these the Indians would at any time give whatever they possessed.
The trade in fire-arms had already attained some proportions when, in 1622,
it was strictly forbidden by a proclamation of King James, issued at the
instance of the Council for New England. The companion trade in spirits,
less dangerous to the whites but more destructive to the savages, was
looked upon as scandalous, but it was not prohibited. Morton cared equally
little for either law or morals. He had come to New England for furs, and he
meant to get them.

“Hearing what gain the French and fishermen made by trading
of pieces, powder and shot to the Indians, he, as the head of this
consortship, began the practice of the same in these parts. And
first he taught them how to use them, to charge and discharge,
and what proportion of powder to give the piece, according to
the size and bigness of the same; and what shot to use for fowl
and what for deer. And having thus instructed them, he
employed some of them to hunt and fowl for him, so as they
became far more active in that employment than any of the
English, by reason of their swiftness of foot and nimbleness of
body; being also quick sighted, and by continual exercise well
knowing the haunts of all sorts of game. So as when they saw
the execution that a piece would do, and the benefit that might
come by the same, they became mad, as it were, after them, and
would not stick to give any price they could attain to for them;
accounting their bows and arrows but bawbles in comparison of
them.”[42]
This was Bradford’s story, nor does Morton deny it. That he would have
denied it if he could is apparent. The practices complained of were
forbidden by a royal proclamation, issued at the instance of Sir Ferdinando
Gorges. In his speech in defence of the great patent, before the House of
Commons in Committee of the Whole, in 1621, Gorges had emphatically
dwelt on the sale of arms and ammunition to the savages as an abuse then
practised, which threatened the extinction of the New England settlements.
[43]
Fifteen years later, when he wrote the New Canaan, Morton was a
dependent of Gorges. The fact that he had dealt in fire-arms, in
contemptuous defiance of the proclamation, was openly charged against
him. He did deny that he had sold the savages spirits. These, he said, were
the life of trade; the Indians would “pawn their wits” for them, but these he
would never let them have. In the matter of fire-arms, however, he
preserved a discreet and significant silence. He made no more allusion to
them than he did to Wollaston or his partners at Merry-Mount.
In the whole record of the early Plymouth settlement, from the first
skirmish with the Cape Cod savages, in December, 1620, to the
Wessagusset killing, there is no mention of a gun being seen in an Indian’s
hands. On the contrary, the savages stood in mortal terror of fire-arms. But

now at last it seemed as if Morton was about not only to put guns in their
hands, but to instruct them in their use.
“This Morton,” says Bradford, “having thus taught them the use
of pieces, he sold them all he could spare; and he and his
consorts determined to send for many out of England, and had
by some of the ships sent for above a score. The which being
known, and his neighbors meeting the Indians in the woods
armed with guns in this sort, it was a terror unto them, who lived
straglingly, and were of no strength in any place. And other
places (though more remote) saw this mischief would quickly
spread over all, if not prevented. Besides, they saw they should
keep no servants, for Morton would entertain any, how vile
soever, and all the scum of the country, or any discontents,
would flock to him from all places, if this nest was not broken;
and they should stand in more fear of their lives and goods (in
short time) from this wicked and debauched crew than from the
savages themselves.”[44]
Thus, in the only branches of trade the country then afforded, Morton was
not only pressing all the other settlers hard, but he was pressing them in an
unfair way. If the savages could exchange their furs for guns, they would
not exchange them for anything else. Those not prepared to give guns might
withdraw from the market. The business, too, conducted in this way, was a
most profitable one. Morton says that in the course of five years one of his
servants was thought to have accumulated, in the trade in beaver skins, no
less than a thousand pounds;[45] and a thousand pounds in 1635 was more
than the equivalent of ten thousand now. This statement was undoubtedly an
exaggeration; yet it is evident that at even ten shillings a pound in England,
which Morton gives as the current price, though Bradford says he never
knew it less than fourteen, beaver skins, which cost little or nothing in
America, yielded a large profit. As Morton expressed it, his plantation
“beganne to come forward.”[46] When, in 1625, the Plymouth people found
their way up into Maine,[47] and first opened a trade with the savages there,
Morton was not slow in following them. In 1628 they established a
permanent station on the Kennebec,[48] yet apparently as early at least as

1627, if not in 1626, Morton had forestalled them there, and hindered them
of a season’s furs.[49]
The injury done to the other settlers in a trading point of view, however,
serious as it unquestionably was, became insignificant in comparison with
the consequences which must result to them from the presence on the coast
of such a resort as Merry-Mount. The region was vast, and in it there was
no pretence of any government. It was the yearly rendezvous of a rough and
lawless class of men, only one step removed from freebooters, who cared
for nothing except immediate gain. Once let such a gathering-place as that
of which Morton was now head become fixed and known, and soon it
would develop into a nest of pirates. Of this there could be no doubt; the
Plymouth people had good cause for the alarm which Bradford expressed. It
mattered not whether Morton realized the consequences of what he was
doing, or failed to realize them; the result would be the same.
It gradually, therefore, became apparent to all those dwelling along the
coast, from the borders of Maine to Cape Cod, that either the growing
nuisance at Merry-Mount must be abated, or they would have to leave the
country. The course to be pursued in regard to it was, however, not equally
clear. The number of the settlements along the coast had considerably
increased since Wollaston’s arrival.[50] The Hiltons and David Thomson had
established themselves at Dover Neck and Piscataqua as early as 1623; and
sometime in 1625 apparently, Thomson, bringing with him his young wife
and a servant or two, had moved down into Boston Bay, and established
himself, only a mile or two away from Mount Wollaston, on the island
which still bears his name. He had died a little while after, and in 1628 his
widow was living there alone, with one child and some servants. In 1625 or
1626 the Wessagusset settlement had divided. Those of Gorges’s following
who remained there had never been wholly satisfied. It was no place for
trade. Accordingly Blackstone, Maverick and Walford, the two last being
married and taking their wives with them, had moved across the bay, and
established themselves respectively at Shawmut or Boston, at Noddle’s
Island or East Boston, and at Mishawum or Charlestown. Jeffreys, Bursley
and some others had remained at Wessagusset, and were Morton’s
neighbors at that place, whom he says he was in the custom of visiting from
time to time, “to have the benefit of company.”[51] At Hull, already known
by that name,[52] there were the Grays and a few other settlers. These had

been joined by Lyford and Oldham and their friends, when the latter were
expelled from Plymouth in the spring of 1625; but the next year, finding the
place probably an uninviting one, Lyford had crossed over to Cape Ann,
and thence a year later passed on to Virginia. Oldham still remained at
Nantasket.
Such were those neighbors of Morton, the chiefs of the straggling
plantations, referred to by Bradford as being of “no strength in any place.”
Together they may possibly have numbered from fifty to an hundred souls.
The Plymouth settlement was, comparatively speaking, organized and
numerous, consisting as it did of some two hundred persons, dwelling in
about forty houses, which were protected by a stockade of nearly half a
mile in length. Nevertheless even there, by the summer of 1627, the alarm
at the increase of fire-arms in the hands of the savages began to be very
great. They had spread “both north and south all the land over,”[53] and it
was computed that the savages now possessed at least sixty pieces. One
trader alone, it was reported, had sold them a score of guns and an hundred
weight of ammunition. Bradford thus takes up the story:—
“So sundry of the chiefs of the straggling plantations, meeting
together, agreed by mutual consent, to solicit those of Plymouth,
(who were then of more strength than them all,) to join with
them to prevent the further growth of this mischief, and suppress
Morton and his consorts before they grew to further head and
strength. Those that joined in this action, (and after contributed
to the charge of sending him to England,) were from Piscataqua,
Naumkeag, Winnisimmet, Wessagusset, Nantasket, and other
places where any English were seated. Those of Plymouth being
thus sought to by their messengers and letters, and weighing
both their reasons and the common danger, were willing to
afford them their help, though themselves had least cause of fear
or hurt. So, to be short, they first resolved jointly to write to
him, and, in a friendly and neighborly way, to admonish him to
forbear these courses; and sent a messenger with their letters to
bring his answer. But he was so high as he scorned all advice,
and asked—Who had to do with him?—he had and would trade
pieces with the Indians in despite of all: with many other
scurrilous terms full of disdain.

“They sent to him a second time, and bade him be better
advised, and more temperate in his terms, for the country could
not bear the injury he did; it was against their common safety,
and against the King’s proclamation. He answered in high terms,
as before; and that the King’s proclamation was no law:
demanding, what penalty was upon it? It was answered, more
than he could bear, his Majesty’s displeasure. But insolently he
persisted, and said the King was dead, and his displeasure with
him; and many the like things; and threatened, withal, that if any
came to molest him, let them look to themselves; for he would
prepare for them.”[54]
However it may have been with the position he took as a matter of public
policy, Morton at least showed himself in this dispute better versed in the
law of England than those who admonished him. On the first of the two
points made by him he was clearly right. King James’s proclamation was
not law. This had been definitely decided more than fifteen years before,
when in 1610, in a case referred to all the judges, Lord Coke, in reporting
their decision, had stated on his own authority that “the King cannot create
any offence, by his prohibition or proclamation, which was not an offence
before, for that was to change the law, and to make an offence, which was
not; for ubi non est lex, ibi non est transgressio; ergo, that which cannot be
punished without proclamation cannot be punished with it.”[55]
In regard to the second point made by Morton, that the King’s proclamation
died with him, the same distinction between statutes and proclamations, that
the former were of perpetual obligation until repealed and that the latter lost
their force on the demise of the crown,—this distinction was, a century and
a half later, stated by Hume[56] to have existed in James’s time. Lord Chief
Justice Campbell has, however, exclaimed against the statement as a display
of ignorant “audacity,” and declares that he was unable to find in the
authorities a trace of any such doctrine.[57] On this point, therefore, the law
of Thomas Morton was probably as bad as that of David Hume.
Nevertheless the passage in Bradford affords a curious bit of evidence that
some such distinction as that drawn by Hume, though it may not have got
into the books, did exist in both the legal and the public mind of the first
half of the seventeenth century.

Whether Morton’s law on the subject of proclamations was or was not
found mattered little however. It was not then to be debated, as the question
with the settlers was one of self-preservation. The Plymouth magistrates
had gone too far to stop. If they even hesitated, now, there was an end to all
order in New England. Morton would not be slow to realize that he had
faced them down, and his insolence would in future know no bounds.
“So they mutually resolved to proceed, and obtained of the
Governor of Plymouth to send Captain Standish, and some other
aid with him, to take Morton by force. The which accordingly
was done; but they found him to stand stiffly in his defence,
having made fast his doors, armed his consorts, set divers dishes
of powder and bullets ready on the table; and, if they had not
been over armed with drink, more hurt might have been done.
They summoned him to yield, but he kept his house, and they
could get nothing but scoffs and scorns from him; but at length,
fearing they would do some violence to the house, he and some
of his crew came out, but not to yield, but to shoot. But they
were so steeled with drink as their pieces were too heavy for
them; himself, with a carbine (overcharged and almost half
filled with powder and shot, as was after found) had thought to
have shot Captain Standish; but he stept to him, and put by his
piece and took him. Neither was there any hurt done to any of
either side, save that one was so drunk that he ran his own nose
upon the point of a sword that one held before him as he entered
the house; but he lost but a little of his hot blood.”[58]
Morton’s own account of “this outragious riot,” as he calls it, is contained in
the fifteenth chapter of the third book of the New Canaan.[59] It differs
considerably from Bradford’s, but not in essentials. He says that the
occurrence took place in June; and as Bradford’s letters of explanation, sent
with the prisoner to England, are dated the 9th of June,[60] it must have been
quite early in the month. He further says that he was captured in the first
place at Wessagusset, “where by accident they found him;” but escaping
thence during the night, through the carelessness of those set on guard over
him, he made his way in the midst of a heavy thunder-storm to Mount
Wollaston, going up the Monatoquit until he could cross it. The whole
distance from point to point was, for a person familiar with the country,

perhaps eight miles. Getting home early the next morning he made his
preparations for resistance in the way described by Bradford. Of the whole
party at Merry-Mount more than half, four apparently, were then absent in
the interior getting furs. This fact, indeed, was probably well known to his
neighbors, who had planned the arrest accordingly. Standish, having eight
men with him, followed Morton round to Mount Wollaston, probably by
water, the morning succeeding his escape; and what ensued seems to have
been sufficiently well described by Bradford. One at least of the Merry-
Mount garrison got extremely tipsy before the attacking party appeared, and
Morton, seeing that resistance was hopeless, surrendered, after in vain
trying to make some terms for himself.
Having been arrested he was at once carried to Plymouth, and a council was
held there to decide upon the disposition to be made of him. According to
his own account certain of the magistrates, among whom he specially
names Standish, advocated putting him to death at once, and so ending the
matter. They were not in favor of sending him to England. Such a course as
this was, however, wholly out of keeping with the character of the
Plymouth colony, and it is tolerably safe to say that it was never really
proposed. Morton imagined it; but he also circumstantially asserts that
when milder councils prevailed, and it was decided to send him to England,
Standish was so enraged that he threatened to shoot him with his own hand,
as he was put into the boat.[61]
Either because they did not care to keep him at Plymouth until he could be
sent away, or because an outward-bound fishing-vessel was more likely at
that season to be found at the fishing-stations, Morton was almost
immediately sent to the Isles of Shoals. He remained there a month; and of
his experiences during that time he gives a wholly unintelligible account in
the New Canaan.[62] At last a chance offered of sending him out in a
fishing-vessel bound to old Plymouth, England. He went under charge of
John Oldham, who was chosen to represent the associated planters in this
matter, and who carried two letters, in the nature of credentials, prepared by
Governor Bradford, the one addressed to the Council for New England and
the other to Sir Ferdinando Gorges personally.[63] In these letters Bradford
set forth in detail the nature of the offences charged against Morton, and
asked that he might be brought “to his answer before those whom it may
concern.” These letters were signed by the chiefs of the several plantations,

at whose common charge the expenses of Oldham’s mission, as well as
Standish’s arrest, were defrayed, and towards this charge they contributed
as follows, though Bradford says the total cost was much more:—
£ s
From Plymouth, 210
„ Naumkeag, 110
„ Piscataqua, 210
„ Wessagusset, 2
„ Nantasket, 110
„ David Thomson’s widow, 15
„ William Blackstone, 12
„ Edward Hilton,[64] 1
£12 7
Oldham and Morton reached Plymouth during the later summer or early
autumn of 1628. They must, therefore, have passed the outward-bound
expedition of Endicott, the forerunners of the great Puritan migration of
1630-7, in mid-ocean, as on the 6th of September the latter reached
Naumkeag. The grant of the Massachusetts Company, which Endicott
represented, had been regularly obtained from the Council for New
England, and bore date the 19th of March, 1628. It covered the sea-front
within the space of three English miles to the northward of the Merrimack
and to the southward of the Charles, “or of any and every part of either of
these streams;” while it extended “from the Atlantick and Western Sea and
Ocean on the East Parte, to the South Sea on the West Parte.” It also
included everything lying within the space of three miles to the southward
of the southernmost part of Massachusetts, by which was meant Boston
Bay.[65] It was clear, therefore, that Mount Wollaston was included in this
grant.
Morton’s establishment was thus brought within Endicott’s government. Its
existence and character must already have been well known in England, and
it is not at all improbable that its suppression had been there decided upon.
Whether this was so or not, however, Endicott certainly learned, as soon as
he landed at Naumkeag, of the action which had been taken three months
before. It commended itself to him; though he doubtless regretted that more

condign punishment had not been administered to Morton and his crew on
the spot, and did not delay to take such steps as were still in his power, to
make good what in this respect had been lacking. As Bradford says,
“visiting those parts [he] caused that May-polle to be cutt downe, and
rebuked them for their profannes, and admonished them to looke ther
should be better walking; so they now, or others, changed the name of their
place againe, and called it Mounte-Dagon.”[66]
Morton and Oldham, meanwhile, were in England. As Oldham bore letters
to Gorges and landed at Plymouth, of which place the latter then was and
for many years had been the royal governor, there can be no doubt that
Morton was at once brought before him. As respects New England Gorges’s
curiosity was insatiable. Any one who came from there, whether a savage or
a sea-captain, was eagerly questioned by him; and his collection of charts,
memoirs, letters, journals and memorials, relating to the discovery of those
parts, is said to have been unequalled.[67] Oldham and Morton had lived
there for years. They knew all that was then known about the country and
its resources. They both of them had unlimited faith in its possibilities, and
talked about an hundred per cent profit within the year, as if it were a thing
easily compassed.[68] Talk of this kind Gorges liked to hear. It suited his
temperament; and it would seem not improbable that Morton soon found
this out, and bore himself accordingly.
Meanwhile it was not possible for the Council for New England and the
Massachusetts Company to long move in harmony. The former was an
association of courtiers, and the latter one of Puritans. The Council planned
to create in the New World a score or two of great feudal domains for
English noblemen; the Company proposed to itself a commonwealth there.
Accordingly difficulties between the two at once began to crop out. The
original grant to the Company of March 19, 1628, had been made by the
Council, with the assent of Gorges. The tract already conceded to Robert
Gorges, in 1622, was included in it; but Sir Ferdinando insisted that the
subsequent and larger grant was made with a distinct saving of all rights
vested under the prior one.[69] This the Company was not prepared to admit;
and, as the business of the Council was habitually done in a careless
slipshod way, the record was by no means clear. A question of title,
involving some three hundred square miles of territory in the heart of the
Company’s grant, was therefore raised at once.

Captain Robert Gorges meanwhile had died, and the title to his grant had
passed to his brother John. It would seem that Oldham, who was a pushing
man, had come out to England with some scheme of his own for obtaining a
patent from the Council, and organizing a strong trading company to
operate under it. The result was that John Gorges now deeded to him a
portion of the Robert Gorges grant, being the whole region lying between
the Charles and the Saugus rivers, for a distance of five miles from the coast
on the former and three miles on the latter. This deed may and probably did
bear a date, January 10, 1629, similar to that of another deed of a yet larger
tract out of the same grant, which John Gorges executed to Sir William
Brereton. The lands thus conveyed were distinctly within the limits covered
by the grant to the Massachusetts Company, and a serious question of title
was raised. The course now pursued by the Company could not but have
been singularly offensive to Gorges. They outgeneralled him in his own
field of action. They too had friends at court. Accordingly they went
directly to the throne. A royal confirmation of their grant from the Council
was solicited and obtained. On the 4th of March, 1629, King Charles’s
charter of the Massachusetts Company passed the seals.
It now became a race, for the actual possession of the disputed territory,
between the representatives of the Company on the one side and the Gorges
grantees on the other. The former, under advice of counsel, denied the
validity of the Robert Gorges grant of 1622. It was, they claimed, void in
law, being “loose and uncertain.”[70] They instructed Endicott to hurry a
party forward to effect an actual occupation. This he at once did; and the
settlement of Charlestown, in the summer of 1629, was the result.
Meanwhile Oldham, having in vain tried to coax or browbeat the Company
into an arrangement satisfactory to himself, was endeavoring to fit out an
expedition of his own.[71] He had not the means at his disposal; and,
convinced of this at last, he gave up the contest.
At an early stage in these proceedings he would seem to have wholly lost
sight of so much of the business he had in hand as related to Thomas
Morton. Bradford’s expression, in referring to what took place, is that
Morton “foold” Oldham.[72] Morton himself, however, says[73] that Oldham
did the best he could, and tried to set the officers of the law at work, but
was advised that Morton had committed no crime of which the English
courts could take cognizance. He had at most only disregarded a

proclamation. All this seems very probable. Nevertheless, for violating a
proclamation, he could at that time have been proceeded against in the Star
Chamber. It is true that in their decision in 1610, already referred to,[74] the
twelve judges had said, “Lastly, if the offence be not punishable in the Star
Chamber, the prohibition of it by proclamation cannot make it punishable
there.”[75] This, however, was the language of the bench in the days of
James, when Coke was Chief Justice. In 1629 the current of opinion was
running strongly in the opposite direction. Sir Nicholas Hyde, as Chief
Justice, was then “setting law and decency at defiance” in support of
prerogative,[76] and a few years later Sir John Finch was to announce “that
while he was Keeper no man should be so saucy as to dispute these orders”
of the Lords of the Council.[77] Law or no law, therefore, Morton could
easily have been held to a severe account in the Star Chamber, had Gorges
been disposed to press matters against him there. He clearly was not so
disposed. The inference, therefore, is that Morton had succeeded in
thoroughly ingratiating himself with Gorges; and Oldham, as he was now a
grantee of Gorges’s son, did not see his account in pressing matters.
Accordingly Bradford’s letters and complaints were quietly ignored; and his
“lord of misrule,” and head of New England’s first “schoole of
Athisme,”[78] escaped without, so far as could be discovered, even a rebuke
for his misdeeds.
Nor was this all. Isaac Allerton was at that time in London, as the agent of
the Plymouth colony. The most important business he had in hand was to
procure a new patent for the Plymouth people, covering by correct bounds a
grant on the Kennebec, with which region they were now opening a
promising trade. They also wanted to secure, if possible, a royal charter for
themselves like that which had just been issued to the Massachusetts
Company. In the matter of the patent, Allerton had to deal with the Council
for New England; the granting of the charter lay at Whitehall. Altogether it
was a troublesome and vexatious business, and the agent soon found that he
could make no headway except through favor. The influence of Gorges
became necessary. In the light of subsequent events it would seem
altogether probable that Morton now made himself useful. At any rate,
when Allerton returned to New England, in 1629, with the patent but
without a charter, he astonished and scandalized the Plymouth community
by bringing Morton back with him. They apparently landed sometime in

August,[79] and we have two accounts of Morton’s reception at Plymouth;
one his own, and the other Governor Bradford’s. Both are characteristic.
Morton says that
“Being ship’d againe for the parts of New Canaan, [he] was put
in at Plimmouth in the very faces of them, to their terrible
amazement to see him at liberty; and [they] told him hee had not
yet fully answered the matter they could object against him. Hee
onely made this modest reply, that he did perceave they were
willfull people, that would never be answered: and he derided
them for their practises and losse of laboure.”[80]
Bradford, looking at the transaction from the other point of view, says:—
“Mr. Allerton gave them great and just ofence in bringing over
this year, for base gaine, that unworthy man, and instrumente of
mischeefe, Morton, who was sent home but the year before for
his misdemenors. He not only brought him over, but to the
towne, (as it were to nose them,) and lodged him at his owne
house, and for a while used him as a scribe to doe his
bussines.”[81]
In view of Morton’s escape from all punishment in England, and his return
a little later to Mount Wollaston, Bradford speaks of the trouble and charge
of his arrest as having been incurred “to little effect.”[82] This, however, was
not so. On the contrary, it is not often that an act of government repression
produces effects equally decisive. The nuisance was abated and the danger
dispelled; the fact that there was a power on the coast, ready to assert itself
in the work of maintaining order, was established and had to be recognized;
and, finally, a wholly unscrupulous competitor was driven out of trade.
These results were well worth all that Morton’s arrest cost, and much more.
It does not appear how long Morton now remained at Plymouth. It could
not, however, have been more than a few weeks before Allerton, who
himself went back to England the same season, was, as Bradford puts it,
“caused to pack him away.” He then returned to Mount Wollaston, where he
seems to have found a remnant of his old company,—apparently the more
modest of them and such as had looked to their better walking. Hardly,
however, had he well gotten back when he was in trouble with Endicott.

The first difficulty arose out of the jealousy which existed between the “old
planters,” as they were called, and those who belonged to the Massachusetts
Company. The old planters were the very men who had associated
themselves, eighteen months before, to bring about the suppression of the
establishment at Mount Wollaston. Now they also were beginning to feel
the pressure of authority, and they did not like it. In their helpless anger
they even spoke of themselves as “slaves” of the new Company.[83] They
could no longer plant what they chose or trade with whom they pleased.
On these points Endicott had explicit instructions. They were contained in
the letters of Cradock of April 17 and May 28, 1629, which are to be found
in Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, and contain the policy of the
company, set forth in clear vigorous English. In pursuance of those
instructions, Endicott seems to have summoned all the old planters dwelling
within the limits of the patent to meet in a General Court at Salem,
sometime in the latter part of 1629. There he doubtless advised them as to
the policy which the Company intended to pursue; and Morton says that he
then tendered all present for signature certain articles which he and the Rev.
Samuel Skelton had drawn up together. The essence of those articles was
that in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as political, the tenor of God’s word
should be followed.[84] The alternative was banishment.
Morton claims that he alone of those present refused to put his hand to this
paper, insisting that a proviso should first be added in these words, “So as
nothing be done contrary or repugnant to the laws of the Kingdom of
England.” These are almost the exact words of King Charles’s charter;[85]
and it would seem as though Morton, in proposing them, sought an
opportunity to display his legal acumen. Whether his suggestion was
adopted, and the articles modified accordingly, does not appear. It probably
was, though the change was not one which Endicott would have looked
upon with favor. If he assented to it he certainly did so grimly. The matter
of regulating the trade in beaver skins was next brought up. This was
intended to be a Company monopoly, to meet the charge of providing
churches and forts.[86] It was accordingly proposed that a sort of general
partnership for the term of one year should be effected to carry it on.
Morton says that on this matter also he stood out, and it seems altogether
probable that he did. It is safe to say that he was there to make whatever
trouble he could. On the other hand it was not possible for Endicott to

mistake his instructions. They were as plain as words could make them. He
was to see to it that “none be partakers of [the Company’s] privileges and
profits, but such as be peaceable men, and of honest life and conversation,
and desirous to live amongst us, and conform themselves to good order and
government.” And further, if any factious spirit developed itself he was
enjoined “to suppress a mischief before it take too great a head ... which, if
it may be done by a temperate course, we much desire it, though with some
inconvenience, so as our government and privileges be not brought in
contempt.... But if necessity require a more severe course, when fair means
will not prevail, we pray you to deal as in your discretions you shall think
fittest.” Such instructions as these, in Endicott’s hands to execute, boded ill
for Morton.
Matters soon came to a crisis. Morton paid no regard to the Company’s
trade regulations. The presumption is that he was emboldened to take the
course he now did by the belief that he would find support in England. He
unquestionably was informed as to all the details of the trouble between the
Massachusetts Company and the Council for New England, and knew that
Oldham, whom he by the way speaks of as “a mad Jack in his mood,”[87]
held a grant from John Gorges, and was straining every nerve to come out
and take adverse possession of the territory covered by it. He probably
hoped, day by day, to see Oldham appear at the head of a Gorges
expedition. There is reason to suppose that he was himself at this time an
agent of Gorges,—that, indeed, he had come back to New England as such,
and was playing a part very much like that of a spy. He was certainly in
such correspondence with Sir Ferdinando as the means of communication
permitted, and the confidant of his plans.[88]
When, therefore, he offered all the opposition to Endicott which he dared,
and thwarted him so far as he could, he was not acting for himself alone. He
represented, in a degree at least, what in England was a powerful
combination. Accordingly, with an over-confidence in the result born of his
sanguine faith in the power and influence of his patron, he now seems to
have gone back to the less objectionable of his old courses. He did not
renew the trade in fire-arms and ammunition, for he probably had none to
spare, and experience had taught him how dangerous it was. He did,
however, deal with the savages as he saw fit, and on his own account,
openly expressing his contempt for Endicott’s authority, and doing all he

could to excite the jealousy and discontent of the “old planters.”[89] His own
profits at this time were, he says, six and seven fold.
This state of things could not continue. Accordingly, as the year drew to a
close, Endicott made an effort to arrest him. Morton, however, was now on
his guard. Getting wind of what was intended, he concealed his ammunition
and most necessary goods in the forest; and, when the messengers, sent
across the bay to seize him, landed on the beach at the foot of Mount
Wollaston, he was nowhere to be found. He says that they ransacked his
house, and took from it all the provender they could find; but when they
were gone he replenished his supplies with the aid of his gun, and “did but
deride Captain Littleworth, that made his servants snap shorte in a country
so much abounding with plenty of foode for an industrious man.” This
happened about Christmas, 1629.[90]
Could Endicott now have laid hands upon him there can be little room for
doubt that Morton would have been summarily dealt with; but for the
present the deputy-governor’s attention was otherwise occupied. This was
that winter of 1629-30, the famine and sickness of which came so near to
bringing the Salem settlement to a premature end. During that struggle for
existence the magistrate had no time to attend to Morton’s case. But he was
not the man to forget it.
With the following summer the great migration, which was to fix the
character of New England, began. Instead of a vessel fitted out for Oldham
under the patronage of Gorges, the Mary & John, chartered by the
Massachusetts Company and having on board 140 passengers from the
West of England, anchored off Hull on the 30th of May. A fortnight later
Governor Winthrop reached Salem, and on the 17th of June he also came
into Boston Harbor; and Morton, from Mount Wollaston, must have
watched his vessel with anxious eyes as, in full view from his house, it
made its way up the channel to the mouth of the Mystic. He must also have
realized that its appearance in those waters boded him no good.
In a few days more the whole fleet, numbering twelve sail in all, was at
anchor off Charlestown, and the work of discharging passengers was going
actively on. Of these there were nearly a thousand;[91] and now the busy and
fatal summer experience of 1630 was fairly entered upon.

For a few weeks longer Morton continued to live undisturbed at Mount
Wollaston. The confusion and bustle of landing, and afterwards the terror
and sense of bereavement which followed hard on pestilence, protected
him. It was not until the 23d of August, or the present 2d of September, that
the magistrates held any formal session. They then met at the great house at
Charlestown,[92] as it would seem, Winthrop, Dudley, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
Bradstreet and others being present. After some more important business
had been disposed of, “It was ordered, that Morton, of Mount Woolison,
should presently be sent for by processe.”[93] Of the circumstances of his
arrest under the warrant thus issued Morton has given no account.
Apparently he felt it was useless to try to evade the messengers, and
resistance was wholly out of the question. At the next session of the
magistrates, held two weeks later, on what would now be the 17th of
September, he was formally arraigned. In addition to those already named
as being at the earlier meeting, Endicott was now present. He had probably
come down from Salem to give his personal attention to Morton’s case. It
must from the outset have been apparent to the prisoner that the tribunal
before which he stood was one from which he had nothing to hope. The
proceedings were in fact summary. It would seem, from his own account of
them,[94] that he endeavored to humble himself, and, that failing, he made a
sort of plea to the jurisdiction of the Court. Neither submission nor plea
produced any effect. On the contrary he was apparently cut short in his
defence and his protest by impatient exclamations, and even bidden to hold
his peace and hearken to his sentence. It appears in the records as
follows:—
“It is ordered by this present Court, that Thomas Morton, of
Mount Walliston, shall presently be sett into the bilbowes, and
after sent prisoner into England, by the shipp called the Gifte,
nowe returning thither; that all his goods shalbe seazed upon to
defray the charge of his transportation, payment of his debts,
and to give satisfaction to the Indians for a cannoe hee unjustly
tooke away from them; and that his howse, after the goods are
taken out, shalbe burnt downe to the ground in the sight of the
Indians, for their satisfaction, for many wrongs hee hath done
them from tyme to tyme.”[95]

Unfortunately, Winthrop’s admonitory remarks in imposing this sentence
have not been preserved. There is, however, in the New Canaan, an
expression which apparently formed a part of them.[96] It is that in which it
is assigned as a reason for the destruction of the house at Mount Wollaston,
that “the habitation of the wicked should no more appear in Israel.” In
compliance with the terms of this sentence, Morton was set in the stocks;
and while there, he tells us, the savages came and looked at him, and
wondered what it all meant. He was not, however, sent back to England in
the Gift, as the master of that vessel declined to carry him; for what reason
does not appear. It was not in fact until nearly four months after his arrest
that a passage was secured for him in the Handmaid. Even then, Maverick
afterwards stated that Morton, obdurate to the last, refused to go on board
the vessel, upon the ground that he had no call to go there, and so had to be
hoisted over her side by a tackle.[97] His house also was burned down; but
the execution of this part of his sentence, he asserts,—and his assertion is
confirmed by Maverick,—was vindictively delayed until he was on his way
into banishment, when it was executed rather in his sight, it would seem,
than in that of the savages. Of the voyage to England there is an account in
the New Canaan that is rather more rambling and incoherent than is usual
even with Morton.[98]
The Handmaid appears to have been unseaworthy, and insufficiently
supplied. She had a long and tempestuous passage, in the course of which
Morton came very near starving, no provision having been made for his
subsistence except a very inadequate one out of his own supplies.
The second arrest of Morton was equally defensible with the first.
According to his own account he had systematically made himself a thorn
in Endicott’s side. He had refused to enter into any covenants, whether for
trade or government, and he had openly derided the magistrate and eluded
his messengers. This could not be permitted. He dwelt within the limits of
the Massachusetts charter, and the Company was right when it instructed
Endicott that all living there “must live under government and a like law.” It
was necessary, therefore, that Morton should either give in his adhesion, or
that he should be compelled to take himself off. This, however, was not the
ground which the magistrates took. Nothing was said in the sentence of any
disregard of authority or disobedience to regulation. No reference was made
to any illicit dealings with the Indians, or to the trade in fire-arms. Offences

of this kind would have justified the extreme severity of a sentence which
went to the length of ignominious physical punishment, complete
confiscation of property and banishment; leaving only whipping, mutilation
or death uninflicted. No such offences were alleged. Those which were
alleged, on the contrary, were of the most trivial character. They were
manifestly trumped up for the occasion. The accused had unjustly taken
away a canoe from some Indians; he had fired a charge of shot among a
troop of them who would not ferry him across a river, wounding one and
injuring the garments of another; he was “a proud, insolent man” against
whom a “multitude of complaints were received, for injuries done by him
both to the English and the Indians.”[99] Those specified, it may be
presumed, were examples of the rest. They amount to nothing at all, and
were afterwards very fitly characterized by Maverick as mere pretences.
Apparently conscious of this, Dudley, the deputy-governor, in referring to
the matter a few months later in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, says
that Morton was sent to England “for that my Lord Chief Justice there so
required, that he might punish him capitally for fouler misdemeanors there
perpetrated.” Bradford also, in referring to the matter, states that Morton
was “vehemently suspected” of a murder, and that “a warrant was sent from
the Lord Chief Justice to apprehend him.”[100]
There can be no doubt that there was a warrant from the King’s Bench
against Morton in Winthrop’s hands,[101] but in all probability it was
nothing more nor less than a sort of English lettre de cachet. Morton’s
record in New England was perfectly well known in London at the time
Winthrop was making his preparations to cross. His relations with Oldham
and Gorges must often have been discussed at the assistants’ meetings, and
they were not ignorant of the fact that he had gone back to Plymouth with
Allerton. They must have suspected that he went back as an agent or
emissary of Gorges, and they may have known that he so went back. In any
event, they did not propose to have him live within the limits of their patent.
He was an undesirable character. The warrant, therefore, was probably
obtained in advance, on some vague report or suspicion of a criminal act, to
be at hand and ready for use when needed.[102] It could not legally run into
New England, any more than it could into Scotland or Ireland.[103] Then,
and at no later time, would Winthrop have recognized it in any other case;

and, even in this case, no reference is made to it in the colony records. Had
it been so referred to, it might have been cited as a precedent.
Moreover such a requisition, though it might have warranted the return of
Morton to England, certainly did not warrant the confiscation of all his
property and the burning of his house in advance of trial and conviction
there. In point of fact the requisition was a mere pretext and cover. The
Massachusetts magistrates, so far as Morton was concerned, had made up
their minds before he stood at their bar. He was not only a “libertine,” as
they termed it, but he was suspected of being a spy. His presence at Mount
Wollaston they did not consider desirable, and so they proposed to purge the
country of him; and if not in one way, then in another. His case is not
singular in Massachusetts annals; it is merely the first of its kind. It
established a precedent much too often followed thereafter. Morton was one
of those who, as it was expressed in a tract of the time printed in London,
“must have elbow-roome, and cannot abide to be so pinioned with the strict
government in the Commonwealth, or discipline in the church. Now why
should such live there? As Ireland will not brooke venomous beasts, so will
not that land [New England] vile persons and loose livers.”[104]
Many times, in the years which followed, the country was purged of other
of these “vile persons and loose livers,” in much the same way that it was
now purged of Morton. It may, however, well be questioned whether it ever
derived benefit from the process. Certainly Morton’s case was as strong as
any case well could be. There was absolutely nothing to be said in his favor.
He was a lawless, reckless, immoral adventurer. And yet, as the result will
show, in sending Morton back to England, the victim of high-handed
justice, the Massachusetts magistrates committed a serious blunder. They
had much better have left him alone under the harrow of their authority. At
Mount Wollaston he was at worst but a nuisance. They drove him away
from there and sent him back to London; and at Whitehall he became a real
danger. This part of history is now to be told.
Bradford says, and he is generally correct in his statements, that when at
last Morton reached England “he lay a good while in Exeter jail.”[105] There
is no allusion to anything of the sort in the New Canaan; and it would not
seem that he could have been very long a prisoner, as the next assizes and
jail-delivery must have set him free. There could have been nothing on
which to make him stand a trial. Accordingly the following year he was at

liberty and busily concerned in Gorges’s intrigues for the overthrow of the
Massachusetts charter.
The house in which Gorges lived—as formerly it had been the point of
gathering of all who had visited the American coast, or could add anything
to the stock of information concerning it—was now the headquarters for
those who had any complaint to make or charges to prefer against the
magistracy of Massachusetts. Acting in concert with Captain John Mason,
the patentee of New Hampshire, he was exerting himself to the utmost to
secure a revocation of King Charles’s charter. The attack was made on the
19th of December, 1632, and it was a formidable one. It assumed the shape
of a petition to the Privy Council, asking the Lords to inquire into the
methods through which the royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay had
been procured, and into the abuses which had been practised under it.
Besides many injuries inflicted on individuals in their property and persons,
the Company was also charged with seditious and rebellious designs,
subversive alike of church and of state. The various allegations were based
on the affidavits of three witnesses,—Thomas Morton, Philip Ratcliff and
Sir Christopher Gardiner. Behind these was the active and energetic
influence of Gorges and Mason.[106]
It is not necessary in this connection to go into any detailed statement of the
wrongs complained of by Ratcliff and Gardiner. They were of the same
nature, though even more pronounced than those of Morton. The country
had in fact been purged of all three of these individuals. The original
document in which they set forth their cases, and made accusation against
the magistrates, has unfortunately been lost. In referring to it afterwards
Winthrop said that it contained “some truths misrepeated.”[107] Apart from
severe judgments on alleged wrong-doers, including whipping, branding,
mutilating, banishment and confiscation of property, the burden of the
accusation lay in the disposition to throw off allegiance to the mother
country, which was distinctly charged against the colony.
A harsh coloring was doubtless given in the petition to whatever could be
alleged. So far as casting off their allegiance to the mother country was
concerned, nothing can be more certain than that neither the leaders nor the
common people of New England entertained at that time any thought of it;
but it is quite equally certain that the leaders at least were deeply
dissatisfied with the course public affairs were then taking in England. They

were Puritans, and this was the period of the Star Chamber and the High
Commission. No parliament had been called since 1629, and it was then
publicly announced at Court that no more parliaments were to be called.
There is no reason to suppose that the early settlers of Massachusetts were a
peculiarly reticent race. On the contrary it is well known that they were
much given to delivering themselves and bearing evidence on all occasions;
and in doing so they unquestionably railed and declaimed quite freely
against those then prominent in the council-chamber and among the
bishops. That there was a latent spirit in New England ripe for rebellion was
also, probably, asserted in the lost document. However Winthrop might
deny it, and deny it honestly, this also was true; and subsequent events, both
in Massachusetts and in England, showed it to be so. In the light of their
sympathies and sufferings, Morton and Gardiner probably realized the drift
of what they had heard said and seen done in New England a good deal
better than Winthrop.
The result of the Morton-Gardiner petition was the appointment of a
committee of twelve Lords of the Council, to whom the whole matter was
referred for investigation and report. The committee was empowered to
send for persons and papers and a long and apparently warm hearing
ensued. The friends of the Company found it necessary to at once bestir
themselves. Cradock, Saltonstall and Humfrey filed a written answer to the
complaint, and subsequently, at the hearing, they received efficient aid from
Emanuel Downing, Winthrop’s brother-in-law, and Thomas Wiggin, who
lived at Piscataqua, but now most opportunely chanced to be in London.
At the Court of Charles I. everything was matter of influence or purchase.
The founders of Massachusetts were men just abreast of their time, and not
in advance of it. There is good ground on which to suspect that they did not
hesitate to have recourse to the means then and there necessary to the
attainment of their ends. It has never been explained, for instance, how the
charter of 1629 was originally secured.[108] When Allerton, at the same
time, tried to obtain a similar charter for the Plymouth colony, he found that
he had to buy his way at every step, and Bradford complained bitterly of the
“deale of money veainly and lavishly cast away.”[109] That the original
patentees of Massachusetts bribed some courtier near the King, and through
him bought their charter, is wholly probable. Every one bribed, and almost
every one about the King took bribes. That the patentees had powerful

influence at Court is certain; exactly where it lay is not apparent. The Earl
of Warwick interested himself actively in their behalf. It was he who
secured for them their patent from the Council for New England. But
Warwick, though a powerful nobleman, was “a man in no grace at Court;”
on the contrary, he was one of those “whom his Majesty had no esteem of,
or ever purposed to trust.”[110] Winthrop says that in the Morton-Gardiner
hearing his brother-in-law, Emanuel Downing, was especially serviceable.
[111]
Downing was a lawyer of the Inner Temple.[112] There is reason to
suppose that he had access to influential persons,—possibly Lord
Dorchester may have been amongst them.[113] However this may be,
whether by means of influence or bribery, the hearing before the Committee
of the Privy Council was made to result disastrously for the complainants.
Gorges took nothing by his motion. In due time the Committee reported
against any interference with the Company at that time. Such grounds of
complaint as did not admit of explanation they laid to the “faults or fancies
of particular men,” and these, they declared, were “in due time to be
inquired into.” King Charles himself also had evidently been labored with
through the proper channels, and not without effect. Not only did he give
his approval to the report of the Committee, but he went out of his way to
further threaten with condign punishment those “who did abuse his
governor and the plantation.”
Gorges’s carefully prepared attack had thus ended in complete failure. The
danger, however, had been great, nor was its importance underestimated in
Massachusetts. This clearly appears in Winthrop’s subsequent action; for
when, four months later, in May, 1633, information of the final action of the
Council reached him, he wrote a letter of grave jubilation to Governor
Bradford, giving him the glad news, and inviting him to join “in a day of
thanksgiving to our mercifull God, who, as he hath humbled us by his late
correction, so he hath lifted us up, by an abundante rejoysing in our
deliverance out of so desperate a danger.”[114]
Though badly defeated, and for the time being no doubt discouraged,
Gorges and Morton were not disposed to desist from their efforts. As the
latter expressed it, they had been too eager, and had “effected the business
but superficially.”[115] They had also committed the serious mistake of
underestimating the strength and influence of their antagonists. If Gorges,
however, was at home anywhere, he was at home just where he had now

received his crushing defeat,—in the antechambers of the palace. All his life
he had been working through Court influences. Through them, after the
Essex insurrection, he had saved his neck from the block. If Court influence
would have availed to secure it, in 1623 he would have pre-empted the
whole territory about Boston Bay as the private domain of himself and his
descendants. At Whitehall he was an enemy not lightly to be disregarded;
and this Winthrop and his colleagues soon had cause to realize.
Thwarted by strong influences in one direction, Gorges went to work to
secure stronger influences in another direction. He knew the ground, and his
plan of operations was well conceived. To follow it out in detail is not
possible. Here and there a fact appears; the rest is inference and surmise.
The King was the objective point. Of him it is not necessary here to speak
at length, for his character is too well understood. Dignified in his bearing,
and in personal character purer than his times,—a devout, well-intentioned
man,—Charles was a shallow, narrow-minded bigot, with a diseased belief
in that divinity which doth hedge a king. He would have made an ideal,
average English country gentleman. After the manner of small, obstinate
men, he believed intensely in a few things. One was his own royal
supremacy and his responsibility, not to his people but to his kingship. He
was nothing of a statesman, and as a politician he was his own worst
enemy. His idea of government was the Spanish one: the king had a prime-
minister, and that prime-minister was the king’s other and second self. In
Charles’s case Buckingham was at first prime-minister; and, when
Buckingham was assassinated, he was in due time succeeded by Laud.
Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, had not died until August 4, 1633, and a
few days later Laud was appointed to succeed him. He thus became primate
almost exactly eight months after the first attack on the charter. It was
through him that Gorges now went to work to influence the King and to
control the course of events in New England. His method can be explained
in four words: Laud hated a Puritan.
At first the secret connection of Gorges and Morton with the events which
now ensued is matter of pure surmise. There is no direct evidence of it in
the records or narratives. At a later period it becomes more apparent. As a
matter of surmise, however, based on the subsequent development of
events, it seems probable that in February, 1634, the attention of the
Archbishop, and through him that of the Privy Council, was called to the

large emigration then going on to New England of “persons known to be ill-
affected and discontented, as well with the civil as ecclesiastical
government.”[116] As Gorges himself expressed it, “numbers of people of all
sorts flocked thither in heaps.”[117] Several vessels, already loaded with
passengers and stores, were then lying in the Thames. An Order in Council
was forthwith issued staying these vessels, and calling upon Cradock to
produce the Company’s charter. So far as the vessels were concerned it soon
appeared that the Company was still not without friends in the Council; and,
“for reasons best known to their Lordships,” they were permitted to sail.[118]
Doubtless this detention, as the subsequent more rigid restraint, was
“grounded upon the several complaints that came out of those parts of the
divers sects and schisms that were amongst them, all contemning the public
government of the ecclesiastical state.” Ratcliff was now looked upon as a
lunatic,[119] and Gardiner had disappeared. Morton alone remained; and it is
safe to surmise that he was the fountain-head of these complaints, as Gorges
was the channel which conveyed them to Laud. As respects the charter,
Cradock made reply to the order for its production that it was not in his
hands,—that Winthrop, four years before, had taken it to New England. He
was directed to send for it at once. Here the matter rested, and to all
appearances Gorges had met with one more check. The release of the
vessels was ordered on the last day of February, 1634.
A new move on the chess-board was now made by some one. Who that
some-one was is again matter of surmise. Hitherto the few matters which
from time to time came up, relating to the colonies, had been considered in
the full Privy Council. There the Massachusetts Company had shown itself
a power. Special tribunals, however, were at this juncture greatly in vogue
at Whitehall. The Council of the North, the Star Chamber, the Court of High
Commission, were in full operation. To them all political work was
consigned, and in the two last Laud was supreme. Up to this time, however,
the need of any special tribunal to look after the affairs of the colonies had
not made itself felt. The historians of New England have philosophized a
great deal over the considerations of state which, during the reign of
Charles, dictated the royal policy towards New England;[120] but it is more
than doubtful whether considerations of state had anything to do with that
policy. The remoteness and insignificance of early New England, so far as
the English Court was concerned, is a thing not easy now to realize. It may

be taken for certain that King and Primate rarely gave a thought to it, much
less matured a definite or rational policy. Their minds were full of more
important matters. They were intent on questions of tonnage and poundage,
on monopolies, and all possible ways and means of raising money; they
were thinking of the war with Spain, of Wentworth’s Irish policy, of the
English opposition, and the Scotch church system. So far as New England
was concerned they were mere puppets to be jerked to and fro by the strings
of Court influence,—now granting a charter at the instance of one man, and
then restraining vessels at the instance of another,—defending “our
governor” one day, and threatening to have his ears cropped the next.
In certain quarters it seems now, however, to have been decided that this
condition of affairs was to continue no longer. A special tribunal should be
created, to take charge of all colonial matters. This move seems to have
grown out of the Order in Council of February 21, and to have been
directed almost exclusively to the management of affairs in New England,
whence complaint mainly came. Accordingly, on the 10th of April, a
commission passed the great seal establishing a board with almost
unlimited power of regulating plantations. Laud was at the head of it. There
would seem to be every reason to assume that this tribunal was created at
the suggestion of Laud, and in consequence of the undecided course
pursued by the Council as a whole, two months before, in the matter of the
detained vessels. A further inference, from what went before and what
followed, is that Laud’s action was stimulated and shaped by Gorges. He
was the active promoter of complaints and scandals from New England. In
other words, the organization of this colonial board, through Laud’s
influence and with Laud supreme in it, was Gorges’s first move in the next
and most formidable attack on the charter of the Massachusetts Bay.
The plan now matured by Gorges was a large one. He had no idea of being
balked of the prize which it had been the dream and the effort of his life to
secure. He meant yet to grasp a government for himself, and an inheritance
for his children, in New England. So far as the settlement of that country
was concerned, what he for thirty years had been vainly ruining himself to
bring about was now accomplishing itself; but it was accomplishing itself
not only without his aid, but in a way which gravely threatened his interests.
The people who were swarming to New England refused to recognize his
title, and abused and expelled his agents. It was clear that the Council for

New England was not equal to dealing with such a crisis. It was necessary
to proceed through some other agency. The following scheme was,
therefore, step by step devised.
The territory held under the great patent of the Council for New England
extended from Maine to New Jersey. This whole region was, by the action
of the Council, to be divided in severalty among its remaining members,
and the patent was then to be surrendered to the King, who thereupon was
to confirm the division just made.[121] The Council being thus gotten out of
the way, the King was to assume the direct government of the whole
territory, and was to appoint a governor-general for it. Sir Ferdinando
Gorges was to be that governor-general.[122] He would thus go out to his
province clothed with full royal authority; and the issue would then be, not
between the settlers of Massachusetts, acting under the King’s charter, and
that “carcass in a manner breathless,” the Council for New England, but
between a small body of disobedient subjects and the King’s own
representative. The scheme was a well-devised one. It was nothing more
nor less than the colonial or New England branch of Strafford’s
“Thorough.” It was a part, though a small part, of a great system.
The first step in carrying out the programme was to secure the appointment
of the Commission of April 10. The influence of the Archbishop being
assured, there was no difficulty in this. The board was composed of twelve
members of the Privy Council. Laud himself was at the head of it, and with
him were the Archbishop of York, the Earls of Portland, Manchester,
Arundel and Dorset, Lord Cottington, Sir Thomas Edmunds, Sir Henry
Vane, and Secretaries Cooke and Windebank. Any five or more of these
Commissioners were to constitute a quorum, and their powers were of the
largest description. They could revoke all charters previously granted,
remove governors and appoint others in the places of those removed, and
even break up settlements if they deemed it best so to do. They could inflict
punishment upon all offenders, either by imprisonment, “or by loss of life
or member.” It was in fact a commission of “right divine.” It embodied the
whole royal policy of King Charles, as formulated by Wentworth and
enforced by Laud. The new Commission was not slow in proceeding to its
appointed work, and the potency of Gorges’s influence in it was shown by
his immediate designation as governor-general.[123] How close Morton then
stood to him may be inferred from the following letter, which shows also

that he was well informed as to all that was going on.[124] It was written
exactly three weeks after the appointment of the Commission, and was
addressed to William Jeffreys at Wessagusset:—
My very good Gossip,—If I should commend myself to you,
you reply with this proverb,—Propria laus fordet in ore: but to
leave impertinent salute, and really to proceed.—You shall
hereby understand, that, although, when I was first sent to
England to make complaint against Ananias and the brethren, I
effected the business but superficially, (through the brevity of
time,) I have at this time taken more deliberation and brought
the matter to a better pass. And it is thus brought about, that the
King hath taken the business into his own hands. The
Massachusetts Patent, by order of the council, was brought in
view; the privileges there granted well scanned upon, and at the
council board in public, and in the presence of Sir Richard
Saltonstall and the rest, it was declared, for manifest abuses
there discovered, to be void. The King hath reassumed the
whole business into his own hands, appointed a committee of
the board, and given order for a general governor of the whole
territory to be sent over. The commission is passed the privy
seal, I did see it, and the same was 1 mo. Maii sent to the Lord
Keeper to have it pass the great seal for confirmation; and I now
stay to return with the governor, by whom all complainants shall
have relief:[125] So that now Jonas being set ashore may safely
cry, repent you cruel separatists, repent, there are as yet but forty
days. If Jove vouchsafe to thunder, the charter and kingdom of
the separatists will fall asunder. Repent you cruel schismatics,
repent.[126] These things have happened, and I shall see,
(notwithstanding their boasting and false alarms in the
Massachusetts, with feigned cause of thanksgiving,) their
merciless cruelty rewarded, according to the merit of the fact,
with condign punishment for coming into these parts, like
Sampson’s foxes with fire-brands at their tails.[127] The King
and Council are really possessed of their preposterous loyalty
and irregular proceedings, and are incensed against them: and
although they be so opposite to the catholic axioms, yet they

will be compelled to perform them, or at leastwise, suffer them
to be put in practice to their sorrow. In matter of restitution and
satisfaction, more than mystically, it must be performed visibly,
and in such sort as may be subject to the senses in a very lively
image. My Lord Canterbury having, with my Lord Privy Seal,
caused all Mr. Cradock’s letters to be viewed, and his apology in
particular for the brethren here, protested against him and Mr.
Humfrey, that they were a couple of imposterous knaves; so
that, for all their great friends, they departed the council
chamber in our view with a pair of cold shoulders. I have staid
long, yet have not lost my labor, although the brethren have
found their hopes frustrated; so that it follows by consequence, I
shall see my desire upon mine enemies: and if John Grant had
not betaken him to flight, I had taught him to sing clamavi in the
Fleet before this time, and if he return before I depart, he will
pay dear for his presumption. For here he finds me a second
Perseus: I have uncased Medusa’s head, and struck the brethren
into astonishment. They find, and will yet more to their shame,
that they abuse the word and are to blame to presume so much,
—that they are but a word and a blow to them that are without.
Of these particulars I thought good, by so convenient a
messenger, to give you notice, lest you should think I had died
in obscurity, as the brethren vainly intended I should, and basely
practised, abusing justice by their sinister practices, as by the
whole body of the committee, una voce, it was concluded to be
done, to the dishonor of his majesty. And as for Ratcliffe, he was
comforted by their lordships with the cropping of Mr.
Winthrop’s ears: which shows what opinion is held amongst
them of King Winthrop with all his inventions and his
Amsterdam fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages,
and other abusive ceremonies, which do exemplify his
detestation to the Church of England, and the contempt of his
majesty’s authority and wholesome laws, which are and will be
established in these parts, invitâ Minervâ. With these I thought
fit to salute you, as a friend, by an epistle, because I am bound
to love you, as a brother, by the gospel, resting your loving
friend.

THOMAS MORTON.[128]
Dated 1 Mo. Maii, 1634.
Morton is always confused and inaccurate in his statements, and this letter
afforded no exception to the rule. It is impossible to be quite sure of what
particular occasions he refers to in it. He may in the same breath be
speaking of different things. Whether, for instance, the hearing to which he
alludes, at which the patent “was brought in view,” was the same or another
meeting from that in which Cradock’s letters were produced, is not clear. It
would seem as though he were speaking of the February hearing before the
whole Council, and yet he may be describing a subsequent hearing in April
before the Lords Commissioners. He speaks of the “council chamber” and
of “the whole body of the Committee,” and then alludes to the presence of
Saltonstall, Humfrey and Cradock. Now these persons were before the
Council in the hearing of 1632, and they may all of them, as Cradock
certainly was, have been before it in February 1634; but Humfrey could
hardly have appeared before the Lords Commissioners, as he seems to have
sailed for New England early in the month during which they were
appointed. The meeting which Morton describes, therefore, was probably
that of February 28, 1634; and it would seem to have savored strongly of
the Star Chamber and High Commission. Cradock and Humfrey were
apparently scolded and abused by Laud in the style for which he was
famous, and the admission by the former, that the charter had gone to
America, had led to his being called “an imposterous knave,” and sharply
told to send for it back at once. The well-known foibles of the Primate had
been skilfully played upon by accounts of Winthrop’s “Amsterdam
fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages, and other abusive
ceremonies;” and they had much the effect that a red flag is known to have
on a bull. Nothing was now heard of the King’s intention of severely
punishing those who abused “his governor;” but, on the contrary, Ratcliffe
was “comforted with the cropping of Mr. Winthrop’s ears.” Gorges was
governor-general, and with him Morton expected soon to depart.
Cradock’s letter, enclosing the order of the Council for the return of the
charter, reached Boston in July. Winthrop was then no longer governor,
having been displaced by Dudley at the previous May election. As is well
known to all students of New England history, the famous parchment, still
in the office of the secretary of the Puritan Commonwealth, was not sent

back.[129] It is unnecessary, however, to here repeat the story of the struggle
over it. Presently Governor Edward Winslow of Plymouth was despatched
to England, as the joint agent of the two colonies, to look after their
endangered interests. He reached London in the autumn of 1634, bringing
with him an evasive reply to the demand contained in Cradock’s letter.
Winslow sailed in the middle or latter part of July, and a few days later, on
the 4th of August,[130] Jeffreys came over from Wessagusset to Boston,
bringing to Winthrop the letter which he had shortly before received from
Morton. It was the first intimation the magistrates had of the Commission
and of the appointment of a governor-general. Winthrop communicated the
news to Dudley and the other members of the Council, and to some of the
ministers; and, doubtless, for a time they all nursed an anxious hope that the
exaggerations in the letter were even greater than they really were. The
General Court met on the 25th of August. While it was still in session,
vessels arrived bringing tidings which dispelled all doubt, and confirmed
everything material that Morton had said. He whom the magistrates had so
ignominiously punished, and so contemptuously driven away, was evidently
in a position to know what those in authority intended. It began to be
evident that the Massachusetts magistrates had underestimated an opponent.
A full copy of the Order in Council establishing the board of Lords
Commissioners of Plantations, was now received, and the colonists were
further advised, through their private letters, that ships were being
furnished, and soldiers gotten ready for embarkation in them. It was given
out that these troops and vessels were intended for Virginia, whither a new
governor was about to be sent; but Winthrop wrote that in Massachusetts
the preparation was “suspected to be against us, to compel us by force to
receive a new governor, and the discipline of the church of England, and the
laws of the commissioners.[131]”
The answer which best expressed the spirit of the colony, in reply to Laud’s
threats, was now found, not in the missive which Winslow had in charge,
but in the act of Morton’s old oppressor, Endicott, when a few weeks later
at Salem he cut the red cross from the standard. It was an act, however,
which seemed to indicate that there was more truth than Winthrop was
disposed to admit in Gardiner and Morton’s charge that “the ministers and
people did continually rail against the state, church and bishops.”[132] Six

months of great alarm and strenuous preparation now ensued. Steps were
taken to get together arms and ammunition, and defences were ordered at
Dorchester and Charlestown, as well as at Castle Island. The magistrates
were even empowered to impress laborers for the work. In January the
ministers were summoned to Bolton, and the question formally submitted to
them: “What ought we to do if a general governor should be sent out of
England?” The reply was that “we ought not to accept him, but defend our
lawful possessions if we are able.” In April a rumor of strange vessels
hovering off Cape Ann threw the whole province into a tumult. It was
supposed that Governor-general Gorges, with Morton in his train, was at the
harbor’s mouth. It proved to be a false alarm, and after that the excitement
seems gradually to have subsided.
This was in the spring of 1635. Meanwhile Winslow had reached England
sometime early in the previous autumn. Though he had not brought the
charter with him, its production does not seem to have been again
immediately called for. He probably held out confident assurances that it
would be sent over in the next vessel, as soon as the General Court met; but
it is also probable that, in view of the course which had now been decided
upon, an examination of it was no longer deemed necessary. The ensuing
spring, that of 1635, had been fixed upon by Gorges and Mason as the time
for decisive action. The charter was then to be vacated, and Gorges was to
go out to New England with a force sufficient to compel obedience. All this,
however, implied considerable preparation. Shipping had to be provided in
the first place. A large vessel was accordingly put upon the stocks. Rumor
said, also, that the new governor-general was to take out with him a force of
no less than one thousand soldiers.[133] Whether this was true or not, there
can be little doubt that all through the winter of 1634-5 active preparations
were on foot in England intended against the Massachusetts colony.
Besides watching these proceedings Winslow had other business in London
which required his appearance before the Lords Commissioners. He had
presented to them a petition on behalf of the two colonies for authority to
resist certain Dutch and French encroachments. This proceeding Winthrop
had not thought well advised,[134] as he very shrewdly argued that it implied
an absence of authority without such special authorization, and might thus
be drawn into a precedent. Winslow, however, had none the less submitted
the petition, and several hearings were given upon it. Fully advised as to

everything that was going on before the Lords Commissioners, Gorges did
not favor this move. It authorized military or diplomatic action, the conduct
of which by right belonged to him as governor-general of the region within
which the action was to be taken. He accordingly went to work to
circumvent Winslow. What ensued throws a great deal of light on Morton’s
standing at the time, and the use that was made of him; and it also explains
the significance of certain things in the New Canaan.
Laud, it will be remembered, was the head and moving spirit of the Lords
Commissioners. His word was final in the Board. Upon him Gorges
depended to work all his results; which included not only his own
appointment as governor-general, with full power and authority as such, but
also the necessary supply of men and money to enable him to establish his
supremacy. To secure these ends it was necessary to play continually on the
Primate’s dislike of the Puritans, and his intense zeal in behalf of all Church
forms and ceremonies, including the use of the Book of Common Prayer.
The whole political and historical significance of the New Canaan lies in
this fact. It was a pamphlet designed to work a given effect in a particular
quarter, and came very near being productive of lasting results. Dedicated in
form to the Lords Commissioners, it was charged with attacks on the
Separatists, and statements of the contempt shown by them to the Book of
Common Prayer. Finally it contained one chapter on the church practices in
New England, which was clearly designed for the special enlightenment of
the Archbishop.[135] In this chapter it is set down as the first and
fundamental tenet of the New England church “that it is the magistrate’s
office absolutely, and not the minister’s, to join the people in lawful
matrimony;” next, that to make use of a ring in marriage is a relic of
popery; and then again “that the Book of Common Prayer is an idol; and all
that use it idolaters.” It now remains to show how cunningly, when it came
to questions of state, Laud was worked upon by these statements, and what
a puppet he became in the hands of Gorges and Morton.
Winslow’s suit had prospered. He had submitted to the Lords
Commissioners a plan for accomplishing the end desired without any
charge being imposed on the royal exchequer, and he was on the point of
receiving, as he supposed, a favorable decision. Suddenly the secret strings
were pulled. Bradford best tells the story of what ensued.

“When Mr. Winslow should have had his suit granted, (as
indeed upon the point it was,) and should have been confirmed,
the Archbishop put a stop upon it, and Mr. Winslow, thinking to
get it freed, went to the Board again. But the Bishop, Sir
Ferdinando and Captain Mason had, as it seems, procured
Morton to complain. To whose complaints Mr. Winslow made
answer to the good satisfaction of the Board, who checked
Morton, and rebuked him sharply, and also blamed Sir
Ferdinando Gorges and Mason for countenancing him. But the
Bishop had a further end and use of his presence, for he now
began to question Mr. Winslow of many things, as of teaching in
the church publicly, of which Morton accused him and gave
evidence that he had seen and heard him do it; to which Mr.
Winslow answered that sometimes (wanting a minister) he did
exercise his gift to help the edification of his brethren, when
they wanted better means, which was not often. Then about
marriage, the which he also confessed, that, having been called
to place of magistracy, he had sometimes married some. And
further told their lordships that marriage was a civil thing, and
he found nowhere in the word of God that it was tied to
ministry. Again they were necessitated so to do, having for a
long time together at first no minister; besides, it was no new
thing, for he had been so married himself in Holland, by the
magistrates in their Stadt-House. But in the end, to be short, for
these things the Bishop, by vehement importunity, got the Board
at last to consent to his commitment. So he was committed to
the Fleet, and lay there seventeen weeks, or thereabout, before
he could get to be released. And this was the end of this petition
and this business; only the others’ design was also frustrated
hereby, with other things concurring, which was no small
blessing to people here.”[136]
For the time being, however, “the others’ design,” as Bradford describes
Gorges’s scheme, so far from being frustrated, moved on most
prosperously. All the friends and agents of the colony were now driven from
the field. Cradock, Saltonstall and Humfrey had departed the council-
chamber with “a pair of cold shoulders.” Winslow was a prisoner. Morton
had demonstrated that his boast in the letter to Jeffreys, that he would make

his opponents “sing clamavi in the Fleet,” was not an idle one. He had not
exaggerated his power. Gorges’s course was now clear, and his plan
developed rapidly. At a meeting of those still members of the Council for
New England, held at Lord Gorges’s house on the 3d of February, 1635, the
next step was taken. The redivision of the seacoast was agreed upon. It was
now divided into eight parcels, instead of twenty as at the original abortive
division of 1623; and these parcels were assigned to eight several persons,
among whom were the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, and the
Earls of Arundel, Carlisle and Sterling. Arundel alone of these was one of
the Lords Commissioners. Gorges received Maine as his portion; and
Mason got New Hampshire and Cape Ann. Massachusetts, south of Salem,
was assigned to Lord Gorges.
The division thus agreed on was to take effect simultaneously with the
formal surrender by the Council of its great patent. Ten weeks later, on the
18th of April, at another meeting at Lord Gorges’s house, a paper was read
and entered upon the records, in which the reasons for surrendering the
patent were set forth. At a subsequent meeting on the 26th a petition to the
King was approved, in which it was prayed that separate patents might be
issued securing to the associates in severalty the domains they had assigned
to each other. A declaration from the King was also then read, in which the
royal intention of appointing Sir Ferdinando Gorges governor-general of
New England was formally announced. Speaking by the mouth of the King,
the Primate did not propose “to suffer such numbers of people to run to
ruin, and to religious intents to languish, for want of timely remedy and
sovereign assistance.” Curiously enough, also, this typically Laudian
sentiment was enunciated at Whitehall the very day, the 26th of April, 1635,
upon which, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Marblehead fishermen had
brought in word of strange vessels hovering mysteriously upon the coast,
causing the Governor and assistants to hurry to Boston and an alarm to be
spread through all the towns.[137]
Before proceeding to eject the present occupants of the New England soil,
or to force them to some compromise as an alternative thereto, it remained
for the grantees of the now defunct Council to perfect their new titles.
Proceedings to this end were not delayed. The division had been agreed
upon on the 3d of February, and on the 26th of April the new patents had
been petitioned for. Ten days later Thomas Morton was “entertained to be

solicitor for confirmation of the said deeds under the great seal, as also to
prosecute suit at law for the repealing of the patent belonging to the
Massachusetts Company. And is to have for fee twenty shillings a term, and
such further reward as those who are interested in the affairs of New
England shall think him fit to deserve, upon the judgment given in the
cause.” A month later, on the 7th of June, 1635, the formal surrender of its
patent by the Council took place.[138]
Morton, however, was not destined to land at Boston in the train of
Governor-general Gorges. The effort of 1634-5 was a mere repetition, on a
larger and more impressive scale, of the effort of 1623. The latter had
resulted in the abortive Robert Gorges expedition, and the former now set
all the courts at Westminster in solemn action. Neither of them, however,
came to anything. They both failed, also, from the same cause,—want of
money. The machinery in each case was imposing, and there was a great
deal of it. Seen from New England it must have appeared simply
overpowering. The King, the Primate, the Lords Commissioners, the
Attorney General, the Court of King’s Bench, the Great Seal, and a
governor-general representing the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton
and the Earls of Arundel, Carlisle and Sterling, royal proprietors, were all at
work together to bring about the destruction of an infant colony. When,
however, it came to accomplishing anything in a practical way, it grew
apparent by degrees that behind all this tremendous display of machinery
there was nothing but Sir Ferdinando Gorges,—an active-minded,
adventurous soldier, skilled in Court ways, persistent and full of resource,
but with small means of his own, and no faculty of obtaining means from
others. When it became therefore a question of real action, calling for the
sinews of war, the movement flopped dead in 1635, just as it had stopped in
1623. In 1635 it is true, Gorges had the assistance of Captain John Mason,
who was an energetic man with means at his command, and it was through
him that a ship was to be provided.[139] The building of this ship, however,
without doubt strained to the utmost the resources of all concerned; and
when, in launching, it suffered a mishap, again probably from insufficient
means, they could not make the damage good. The royal exchequer was
then as empty as Gorges’s own purse. The King was living on
benevolences, and on fines levied upon the great nobles for encroachments
on the royal forests. The writs to collect ship-money were issued in this

very year. The next year public offices were sold. Under these
circumstances no assistance could for the present be looked for from
Charles or Laud. As for the noble associates, among whom the New
England coast had just been parcelled out, while perfectly willing to accept
great domains in America, they would venture nothing more to take actual
possession of them in 1635 than they had ventured in 1623. Nothing at all
was to be obtained from that quarter. Speaking of Gorges and Mason, and
the failure of their plans at this time, Winthrop wrote, “The Lord frustrated
their design.” This was the pious way of putting it. In point of fact,
however, the real safety of Massachusetts now depended on more homely
and every-day considerations. Gorges and Mason could not raise the money
absolutely necessary to carry their design out.
Nevertheless, though this delay was disappointing, there was no occasion
for despair. Things moved slowly; that was all. Gorges represented the New
England part of that royal system which was to stand or fall as a whole. In
the spring and summer of 1635 it looked very much as if it was destined to
stand. There was then no thought of a parliament at Court, or expectation of
one among the patriots. The crown lawyers were hunting up precedents
which would enable the King to levy taxes to suit himself. Wentworth had
brought Ireland into a state of perfect subjection. Laud was supreme in
England. The prospects for “Thorough” were never so good. If “Thorough”
prevailed in England it would in Massachusetts. There could be no doubt of
that. Meanwhile, though lack of ready means had put it out of Gorges’s
power to go to New England at once, there was no break or delay in legal
proceedings. In June, 1635, the attorney-general filed in the King’s Bench a
writ of quo warranto against the Massachusetts Bay Company. This was the
work which Thomas Morton had a month before been “entertained to
prosecute,” and the promptness of the attorney-general would seem to
indicate that on Morton’s part at least there was no failure in activity. The
plan was to set the charter aside, not because of any abuse of the powers
lawfully conferred in it, but on the ground that it was void ab initio. Every
title to land held under it would thus be vitiated. In answer to the summons
some of the original associates came in and pleaded, while others made
default. Cradock made default. In his case, therefore, judgment was given at
the Michaelmas, or September term, 1635, and the charter was declared
void, all the franchises conveyed in it being resumed by the King.[140] This
portion of the legal work in hand, therefore, that more particularly entrusted

to Morton, seems to have been promptly and efficiently done. As respects
the patents for the domains granted under the last partition, things do not
seem to have moved so rapidly, for towards the close of November a
meeting of the associates of the now dissolved Council was held at the
house of Lord Sterling, and a vote passed that steps should be taken to get
patents to the individual patentees passed the seals as soon as possible.
Morton was in fact reminded of his duties.
A heavy blow was however impending over Gorges. He himself was now
an elderly man, verging close upon seventy years.[141] He could not have
been as active and as energetic as he once had been, and even his sanguine
disposition must have felt the usual depressing influence of hope long
deferred. Mason had of late been the mainstay of his enterprise. Only a year
before, that resolute man had sent out a large expedition, numbering some
seventy men, to Piscataqua, and he was contemplating extensive
explorations towards Lake Champlain. Morton eulogized him as a “very
good Commonwealth’s man, a true foster-father and lover of virtue,”[142]
and Winthrop referred to him as “the chief mover in all the attempts against
us.”[143] In December, 1635, Mason died,[144] and not improbably it was the
anticipation of his death which led to that meeting of the Council at which
the speedy issuing of the individual patents was urged. However this may
be, the loss of Mason seems to have been fatal to Gorges’s hopes; it was the
lopping off of the right arm of his undertakings. From that time forward
there was obviously no source from which he could hope to get the money
necessary to enable him to effect anything, except the royal treasury. Of
this, for two or three years yet, until the Scotch troubles destroyed the last
chance of the success of the ship-money scheme, there seemed a very good
prospect. Gorges, however, could not afford to wait. His remaining time
was short. Accordingly, after Mason’s death, little is heard of him or of the
Lords Commissioners.
During the next seven years, consequently, the traces of Morton are few.
There is a passing glimpse obtained of him in March, 1636, through a letter
from Cradock to Winthrop,[145] from which it appears he was then in
London and actively scheming against the Massachusetts Company. He
would seem at this time to have been in the pay of one George Cleaves, a
man of some importance and subsequently quite prominent in the early
history of Maine. Cleaves apparently had proposed some scheme to

Cradock touching the Massachusetts Company, and Morton came to see
him about it. Thereupon Cradock says, “I having no desire to speak with
Morton alone put him off a turn or two on the exchange, till I found Mr.
Pierce,” etc. Further on in the same letter he speaks of his “greyffe and
disdayne” at the abuse heaped on the Company, and of the “heavey
burdens, there lode on me by T. M.;” and adds, “God forgive him that is the
cause of it.”
Early in 1637, and in consequence probably of the quo warranto
proceedings, a commission of some sort would appear to have been granted
to certain persons in New England for the government of that country.[146]
How or under what circumstances this was obtained is nowhere told. There
is a mystery about it. Gorges afterwards assured Winthrop that he knew
nothing of it,[147] and only a copy ever reached America, the original,
Winthrop says, being “staid at the seal for want of paying the fees.” He
further says that Cleaves procured this commission, as also a sort of patent,
or, as he calls it, “a protection under the privy signet for searching out the
great lake of Iracoyce.” From all this it would appear that the whole thing
was some impotent and inconsequential move on the part of Morton; for not
only does Winthrop say that the document was “staid at the seal,” but
Cradock wrote that the matter in reference to which Morton wanted to see
him, on behalf of Cleaves, related to paying the charge “in taking out
somewhat under the seale.” Gorges speaks of Morton as being at that time
Cleaves’s agent; and in the New Canaan, which either had just been
published or was then in the press, there is a glowing account of the “great
lake Erocoise,” and its boundless wealth of beaver,[148] to which apparently
the imaginative author had directed Cleaves’s attention sufficiently to
induce him to take out the “protection” which Winthrop alludes to.
The year 1637 was the turning-period in the fortunes of King Charles and of
Archbishop Laud, and consequently of Gorges and Morton. Up to that time
everything had gone sufficiently well, if not in Massachusetts, at least in
England, Ireland, and even Scotland. Now, however, the system began to
break down; giving way first, as would naturally enough be the case, at its
weakest point. This was in Scotland, where the attempt to force Episcopacy
on the people resulted in the famous “stony Sabbath” on the 23d of July.
The New Canaan was probably going through the press during the deceitful
period of profound calm which preceded that eventful day. Though now

published, there is strong internal evidence that the book was written in
1634. Not only does this appear from the extract from its last page in the
letter to Jeffreys, already referred to,[149] but in another place[150] there is
reference to the expedition of Henry Josselyn for the more complete
discovery of Lake Champlain, which is mentioned as then in preparation.
Henry Josselyn left England about the time Morton was writing to Jeffreys,
or a little earlier, and reached Piscataqua in June, 1634.[151] Mason, on the
other hand, is mentioned as then living, and as having fitted out the
expedition of Josselyn. Mason, however, it has already been seen, died in
December, 1635. Written consequently after May, 1634, the New Canaan, it
would seem, received no revision later than 1635. It represented Morton’s
feelings during the time when he was most confident of an early and
triumphant return to New England. It was published just when the affairs of
Charles and Laud were at their full flood, and before the tide had begun to
ebb.
No mention is found of the New Canaan at the time of its publication. It is
not known, indeed, that a single copy was sent out to New England. Though
it must have caused no little comment and scandal among the friends and
correspondents of the colonists, there is no allusion to it in their published
letters or in the documents of the time, and in 1644 Winthrop apparently
had never seen it. Bradford energetically refers to it as “an infamouse and
scurillous booke against many godly and cheefe men of the cuntrie; full of
lyes and slanders, and fraight with profane callumnies against their names
and persons, and the ways of God.”[152] A copy of it may, therefore, have
been brought over to Plymouth by one of the agents of the colony, and there
passed from hand to hand. It does not appear, however, that at the time it
attracted any general or considerable notice in America; while in England,
of course, it would have interested only a small class of persons.
There is one significant reference which would seem to indicate that the
publication of the New Canaan was not agreeable to Gorges. However
much he might attack the charter of the Massachusetts Company, Sir
Ferdinando always showed himself anxious to keep on friendly terms with
the leading men of the colony. In the Briefe Narration he takes pains to
speak of “the patience and wisdom of Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Humphreys, Mr.
Dudley, and others their assistants;”[153] and with Winthrop he was in
correspondence, even authorizing him and others to act for him in Maine.

He deceived no one by this, for Winthrop afterwards described him as
“pretending by his letters and speeches to seek our welfare;”[154] but he
evidently had always in mind that he was to go out some day to New
England as a governor-general, and that it would not do for him to be too
openly hostile to those over whom he proposed to rule. He regarded them as
his people. When, therefore, he had occasion to write to Winthrop in
August, 1637, though he made no reference to the New Canaan, which had
probably been published early in the year, he took pains to say that Morton
was “wholely casheered from intermedlinge with anie our affaires
hereafter.”[155]
It is however open to question whether, in making this statement, Gorges
was not practising a little of that king-craft for which his master, James I.,
had been so famous. In 1637 Morton may have been in disgrace with him;
but if so it was a passing disgrace. Four years later, in 1641, Sir Ferdinando,
as “Lord of the Province of Maine,” indulged his passion for feudal
regulation by granting a municipal charter to the town of Acomenticus, now
York. A formidable document of great import, this momentous state paper
was signed and delivered by the Lord Paramount, much as an English
sovereign might have granted a franchise to his faithful city of London; and
accordingly it was countersigned by three witnesses, one of them a member
of his own family. First of the three witnesses to sign was Thomas Morton.
[156]
He evidently was in no disgrace then.
With the exception of this signature to the Acomenticus charter, there is no
trace to be found of Morton between August 1637, when Gorges wrote that
he had “casheered” him, and the summer of 1643, when he reappeared once
more at Plymouth. During the whole of that time things evidently went with
him, as they did with Charles and Laud, from bad to worse. Once only had
the Lords Commissioners given any signs of life. This was in the spring of
1638, when on the 4th of April the Board met at Whitehall. The record of
the meeting states that petitions and complaints from Massachusetts, for
want of a settled and orderly government, were growing more frequent.
This is very possible, for the Antinomian Controversy was then at its height,
and indeed, the very day the Lords Commissioners met, Mrs. Hutchinson,
having left Boston in obedience to Governor Winthrop’s mandate a week
before, was on her way to join her husband and friends in Rhode Island.
Under these circumstances, calling to mind the futile order for the return of

the charter, sent to Winthrop in 1634 through Cradock, and taking official
notice of the result of the quo warranto proceedings, the Board resolved
upon a more decided tone. The clerk in attendance was instructed to send
out to Massachusetts a peremptory demand for the immediate surrender of
the charter. It was to be sent back to London by the return voyage of the
vessel which carried out the missive of the Board; “it being resolved,” so
that missive ran, “that in case of any further neglect or contempt by them
shewed therein, their Lordships will cause a strict course to be taken against
them, and will move his Majesty to reassume into his own hands the whole
plantation.”[157]
If, as was probably the case, Morton was the secret mover of this action, it
proved to be his last effort. It was completely fruitless also. When the order
reached Boston, sometime in the early summer of 1638, it naturally caused
no little alarm, for the apprehension of a general governor had not yet
disappeared. Indeed, on the 12th of April, “a general fast [had been] kept
through all the churches, by advice from the Court, for seeking the Lord to
prevent evil that we feared to be intended against us from England by a
general governor.”[158] With the missive of the Lords Commissioners,
however, came also tidings of “the troubles which arose in Scotland about
the Book of Common Prayer and the canons which the King would have
forced upon the Scotch churches.”[159] The result was that in August,
instead of sending out the charter, Governor Winthrop, at the direction of
the General Court, wrote “to excuse our not sending of it; for it was
resolved to be best not to send it.”[160]
Archbishop Laud molested the colony no further. Doubtless Morton yet
endeavored more than once to stir him up to action, and the next year he
received from New England other and bitter complaints of the same
character as those which had come to him before. This time it was the Rev.
George Burdet—a disreputable clergyman, subsequently a thorn in Gorges’s
side as now in that of Winthrop—who wrote to him. The harassed and
anxious Primate could, however, only reply that “by reason of the much
business now lay upon them, [the Lords Commissioners] could not at
present ... redress such disorders as he had informed them of.”[161] Events in
England and Scotland were then moving on rapidly as well as steadily to
their outcome, and Massachusetts was bidden to take care of itself.

Nothing more is heard of Morton until the summer of 1643. The Civil War
was then dragging along in its earlier stages, before Fairfax and Cromwell
put their hands to it. It was the summer during which Prince Rupert took
Bristol and the first battle of Newbury was fought,—the summer made
memorable by the deaths of Hampden and Falkland. Gorges had identified
himself with the Royalist side, and now Morton seems to have been fairly
starved out of England. When or how he came to Plymouth we do not
know; but, on the 11th of September, Edward Winslow, whom he had eight
years before “clapte up in the Fleete,”[162] thus wrote to Winthrop:—

“Concerning Morton, our Governor gave way that he should
winter here, but begone as soon as winter breaks up. Captain
Standish takes great offence thereat, especially that he is so near
him as Duxbury, and goeth sometimes a fowling in his ground.
He cannot procure the least respect amongst our people, liveth
meanly at four shillings per week, and content to drink water, so
he may diet at that price. But admit he hath a protection, yet it
were worth the while to deal with him till we see it. The truth is
I much question his pretended employment; for he hath here
only showed the frame of a Common-weale and some old sealed
commissions, but no inside known. As for Mr. Rigby if he be so
honest, good and hopefull an instrument as report passeth on
him, he hath good hap to light on two of the arrantest known
knaves that ever trod on New English shore to be his agents east
and west, as Cleaves and Morton: but I shall be jealous on him
till I know him better, and hope others will take heed how they
trust him who investeth such with power who have devoted
themselves to the ruin of the country, as Morton hath. And for
my part, (who if my heart deceive me not can pass by all the evil
instrumentally he brought on me,) would not have this serpent
stay amongst us, who out of doubt in time will get strength to
him if he be suffered, who promiseth large portions of land
about New Haven, Narragansett, &c., to all that will go with
him, but hath a promise but of one person who is old, weak and
decrepid, a very atheist and fit companion for him. But, indeed,
Morton is the odium of our people at present, and if he be
suffered, (for we are diversely minded,) it will be just with God,
who hath put him in our hands and we will foster such an one,
that afterward we shall suffer for it.”[163]
The Rigby referred to in this letter was Mr. Alexander Rigby, an English
gentleman of wealth who, besides being a strong Puritan, was a member of
the Long Parliament, and at one time held a commission as colonel in the
army. Cleaves was the George Cleaves already mentioned as having come
out in 1637, with a protection under the privy signet.[164] He had then
appeared as an agent of Gorges, but subsequently he had got possession in
Maine of the “Plough patent,” so called, under which the title to a large part

of the province was claimed adversely to Gorges.[165] This patent Cleaves
induced Rigby to buy, and the latter was now endeavoring to get his title
recognized, and ultimately succeeded in so doing. Cleaves, as well as
Morton, enjoyed the reputation of being “a firebrand of dissension,”[166]
and the two had long acted together. As Gorges had joined his fortunes to
the Royalist side, Morton clearly had nothing to gain by pretending at
Plymouth to be his agent or under his protection. So he seems to have tried
to pass himself off as a Commonwealth’s man, commissioned by Rigby to
act in his behalf. Winslow was probably quite right in suspecting that this
was all a pretence. Rigby’s claim was for territory in Maine. It is not known
that he ever had any interests in Rhode Island or Connecticut. There can, in
short, be little doubt that Morton was now nothing more than a poor,
broken-down, disreputable, old impostor, with some empty envelopes and
manufactured credentials in his pocket.
At Plymouth, as would naturally be supposed, Morton made no headway.
But the province of Maine was then in an uneasy, troubled condition, and
there was reported to be a strong party for the king in the neighborhood of
Casco Bay. Thither accordingly Morton seems to have gone in June, 1644.
[167]
His movements were closely watched, and Endicott was notified that
he would go by sea to Gloucester, hoping to get a passage from thence to
the eastward. A warrant for his arrest was at once despatched, but
apparently he eluded it; nor if he went there, which, indeed, is doubtful, did
Morton long remain in Maine. In August he was in Rhode Island, and on
the 5th of that month he is thus alluded to in a letter from Coddington to
Winthrop:—
“For Morton he was [insinuating] who was for the King at his
first coming to Portsmouth, and would report to such as he
judged to be of his mind he was glad [to meet with] so many
cavaliers; ... and he had lands to dispose of to his followers in
each Province, and from Cape Ann to Cape Cod was one.... And
that he had wrong in the Bay [to the] value of two hundred
pounds, and made bitter complaints thereof. But Morton would
let it rest till the Governor came over to right him; and did
intimate he knew whose roast his spits and jacks turned.”[168]

Prospering in Rhode Island no more than at Plymouth, Morton is next heard
of as a prisoner in Boston. How he came within the clutches of the
Massachusetts magistrates is not known; his necessities or his assurance
may have carried him to Boston, or he may have been pounced upon by
Endicott’s officers as he was furtively passing through the province. In
whatever way it came about, he was in custody on the 9th of September,
just five weeks from the time of Coddington’s letter to Winthrop, and the
latter then made the following entry in his Journal:[169]—
“At the court of assistants Thomas Morton was called forth
presently after the lecture, that the country might be satisfied of
the justice of our proceeding against him. There was laid to his
charge his complaint against us at the council board, which he
denied. Then we produced the copy of the bill exhibited by Sir
Christopher Gardiner, etc., wherein we were charged with
treason, rebellion, etc., wherein he was named as a party or
witness. He denied that he had any hand in the information, only
was called as a witness. To convince him to be the principal
party, it was showed: 1. That Gardiner had no occasion to
complain against us, for he was kindly used and dismissed in
peace, professing much engagement for the great courtesy he
found here. 2. Morton had set forth a book against us, and had
threatened us, and had prosecuted a quo warranto against us,
which he did not deny. 3. His letter was produced,[170] written
soon after to Mr. Jeffreys, his old acquaintance and intimate
friend.”
This passage is characteristic both of the man and of the time. The prisoner
now arraigned before the magistrates had been set in the stocks, all his
property had been confiscated, and his house had been burned down before
his eyes. He had been sent back to England, under a warrant, to stand his
trial for crimes it was alleged he had committed. In England he had been
released from imprisonment in due course of law. Having now returned to
Massachusetts, he was brought before the magistrates, “that the country
might be satisfied of the justice of our proceeding against him.” As the
result of this proceeding, which broke down for want of proof, the alleged
offender is again imprisoned, heavily fined, and narrowly escapes a
whipping. Under all these circumstances, it becomes interesting to inquire

what the exact offence alleged against him was. It was stated by Winthrop.
He had made a “complaint against us at the council board.”
“The council board” thus referred to was the royal Privy Council. It
represented the king, the supreme power in the state, the source from
whence the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company was derived. The
complaint, therefore, charged to have been made, was made to the common
superior, and it alleged the abuse, by an inferior, of certain powers and
privileges which that superior had granted. It would seem to have been no
easy task for the magistrates to point out, either to the prisoner or to the
country it was proposed to satisfy, any prescriptive law, much less any penal
statute, which made a criminal offence out of a petition to the
acknowledged supreme power in the state, even though that petition set
forth the alleged abuse of charter privileges.
But it is not probable that this view of the matter ever even suggested itself
to Winthrop and his associates. It does not seem even to have been urged
upon them by the prisoner. On the contrary he appears to have accepted the
inevitable, and practically admitted that a complaint to the king was in
Massachusetts, as Burdet had some years before asserted, “accounted a
perjury and treason in our general courts,”[171] punishable at the discretion
of the magistrates. Morton, therefore, denied having made the complaint,
and the magistrates were unable to prove it against him. The most singular
and unaccountable feature in the proceedings is that the New Canaan was
not put in evidence. Apparently there was no copy of it to be had. Could one
have been produced, it is scarcely possible that the avowed author of the
libellous strictures on Endicott, then himself governor, should have escaped
condign punishment of some sort from a bench of Puritan magistrates. But
Winthrop merely mentions that he had “set forth a book against us,” and
Maverick says that this was denied and could not be proved.[172] Had a
copy of the New Canaan then been at hand, either in Boston or at
Plymouth, a glance at the titlepage would have proved who “set [it] forth”
beyond possibility of denial.
The only entry in the Massachusetts records relating to this proceeding is as
follows:—
“For answer to Thomas Morton petition, the magistrates have
called him publicly, and have laid divers things to his charge,

which he denies; and therefore they think fit that further
evidence be sent for into England, and that Mr Downing may
have instructions to search out evidence against him, and he to
lie in prison in the mean time, unless he find sufficient bail.”[173]
This entry is from the records of the General Court, held in November
1644. Among the unpublished documents in the Massachusetts archives is
yet another petition from Morton, bearing no date, but, from the
endorsement upon it, evidently submitted to the General Court of May,
1645, six months later, when Dudley was governor. This petition is as
follows:—
To the honored Court at Boston assembled:
The humble petition of Thomas Morton, prisoner.
Your petitioner craveth the favour of this honored Court to cast
back your eies and behould what your poore petitioner hath
suffered in these parts.
First, the petitioner’s house was burnt, and his goodes taken
away.
Secondly, his body clapt into Irons, and sent home in a desperat
ship, unvittled, as if he had been a man worthy of death, which
appeared contrary when he came there.
Now the petitioner craves this further that you would be pleased
to consider what is laid against him: (taking it for granted to be
true) which is not proved: whether such a poore worme as I had
not some cause to crawle out of this condition above mentioned.
Thirdly, the petitioner craves this favoure of you, as to view his
actions lately towards New England, whether they have not been
serviceable to some gentlemen in the country; but I will not
praise my selfe.
Fourthly, the petitioner coming into these parts, which he loveth,
on godly gentlemen’s imployments, and your worshipps having
a former jelosy of him, and a late untrue intelligence of him,
your petitioner has been imprisoned manie Moneths and laid in
Irons to the decaying of his Limbs; Let your petitioner finde soe

much favoure, as to see that you can passe by former offence,
which finding the petitioner hopes he shall stand on his watch to
doe you service as God shall enable him.
Upon this document, certainly humble enough in tone, appear the following
endorsements:—
The house of Deputies desire the honored magistrates to return
them a reason, wherefore the petitioner came not to his triall the
last quarter Courte according to graunte (as they conceave) of a
former petition presented to the Courte by him.
ROBT. BRIDGES.
The reason why he came not to his tryall was the not cominge of
evidence out of England against him which we expect by the
next ship.
THO: DUDLEY Govr
The house of Deputies have made choyce of Major Gibbons,
and Captain Jennison to treate with the honored magistrates
about this petition of Morton.
ROBT. BRIDGES.
Singularly enough the Major Gibbons to whom Morton’s petition was thus
referred had, in former years, been one of his followers at Merry-Mount. He
was a man of ability and energy, the whole of whose singular career, as
traced in an interesting note of Palfrey’s, will not bear a too close scrutiny.
[174]
At the time of Morton’s arrest by Miles Standish, in 1629, Gibbons was
probably one of those belonging to the Merry-Mount company who had
then “gone up into the inlands to trade with the savages.”[175] During that
summer he experienced religion in a quite unexpected way, and now, in
1645, while his old master was rotting in the Boston jail, Gibbons was a
prosperous merchant, a deputy to the General Court, and “chief military
officer of the train-band of the town.” Higher military honors and severe
business vicissitudes were in store for him. It nowhere appears whether
under these circumstances Major Gibbons had either the will or the ability
to be of service to his former chief, and Winthrop is the only authority for
what remains of Morton’s story. It is soon told.

“Having been kept in prison about a year in expectation of
further evidence out of England, he was again called before the
court, and after some debate what to do with him, he was fined
100 pounds, and set at liberty. He was a charge to the country,
for he had nothing, and we thought not fit to inflict corporal
punishment upon him, being old and crazy, but thought better to
fine him and give him his liberty, as if it had been to procure his
fine, but indeed to leave him opportunity to go out of the
jurisdiction, as he did soon after, and he went to Acomenticus,
and living there poor and despised, he died within two years
after.”[176]
Morton himself asserted that the harsh treatment he underwent in prison,
while waiting for that evidence from England which was to convict him of
some crime, broke down his health and hastened his end. If he was indeed,
as Maverick subsequently stated,[177] kept in jail and, as he himself says, in
irons, through an entire New England winter, on the prison fare of those
days, and without either fire or bedding, this seems wholly probable.

There was about Thomas Morton nothing that was remarkable. On the
contrary he was one of a class of men common enough in the days of
Elizabeth and the Stuarts to have found their way into the literature of the
period, as well as into that more modern romance which undertakes to deal
with it. It is the Alsatian Squire and Wildrake type. Morton chanced to get
out of place. He was a vulgar Royalist libertine, thrown by accident into the
midst of a Puritan community. He was unable or unwilling to accept the
situation, or to take himself off; and hence followed his misfortunes and his
notoriety. Had he in 1625, or even in 1629, gone to Virginia or to New
York, he would have lived in quiet and probably died in poverty, leaving
nothing behind to indicate that he had ever been. As it is, he will receive a
mention in every history of America.
More recently also certain investigators, who have approached the subject
from a Church of England point of view, have shown some disposition to
adopt Morton’s cause as their own, and to attribute his persecution, not to

his immoral life or illicit trade, but to his devotion to the Book of Common
Prayer.[178] It is another article in the long impeachment of the founders of
New England, and it has even been alleged that “it still remains for
Massachusetts to do justice to Morton, who had his faults, though he was
not the man his enemies, and notably Bradford, declared him to be.”[179]
The New English Canaan is the best and only conclusive evidence on this
point. In its pages Morton very clearly shows what he was, and the nature
of “his faults.” He was a born Bohemian, and as he passed on in life he
became an extremely reckless but highly amusing old debauchee and
tippler. When he was writing his book, Archbishop Laud was the head of
the board of Lords Commissioners. On the action of that board depended all
the author’s hopes. In view of this fact, there are, in the New Canaan, few
more delightful or characteristic passages than that in which, describing his
arrest by Standish, Morton announces that it was “because mine host was a
man that endeavored to advance the dignity of the Church of England;
which they, on the contrary part, would labor to vilify with uncivil terms;
envying against the sacred Book of Common Prayer, and mine host that
used it in a laudable manner amongst his family as a practice of piety.”[180]
The part he was endeavoring to play when he wrote this passage was one
not very congenial to him, and he makes an awkward piece of work of it.
The sudden tone of sanctimony which he infuses into the words quoted,
hardly covers up the leer and gusto with which he had just been describing
the drunkenness and debauchery of Merry-Mount,—how “the good liquor”
had flowed to all comers, while “the lasses in beaver-coats” had been
welcome “night and day;” how “he that played Proteus, with the help of
Priapus, put their noses out of joint;” and how that “barren doe” became
fruitful, who is mysteriously alluded to as a “goodly creature of
incontinency” who had “tried a camp royal in other parts.” Though, from
the point of view before alluded to, it has been asserted that the
Massachusetts magistrates “invented ... insinuations respecting [Morton’s]
treatment of [the Indian] women, whom, in reality, he had fought to instruct
in the principles of religion,”[181]—though this and other similar assertions
have been made with apparent gravity, yet it is impossible to read the third
book of the New Canaan, saturated as it is with drunkenness, ribaldry and
scoffing, without coming to the conclusion that Don Quixote, Rabelais and

the Decameron are far more likely to have been in request at Merry-Mount
than the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer.
Not that the New Canaan is in itself an obscene or even a coarse book. On
the contrary, judged by the standard of its time, it is singularly the reverse.
Indeed it is almost wholly free from either word or allusion which would
offend the taste of the present day. Yet the writer of the New Canaan was
none the less a scoffer, a man of undevout mind. As to the allegation that his
devotion to the Church of England and its ritual was the cause of his arrest
by the Plymouth authorities, the answer is obvious and decisive. Blackstone
was an Episcopalian, and a devout one, retaining even in his wilderness
home the canonical coat which told of his calling.[182] Maverick and
Walford were Episcopalians; they lived and died such. The settlers at
Wessagusset were Episcopalians. In the dwellings of all these the religious
services of the times, customary among Episcopalians, were doubtless
observed, for they were all religious men. Yet not one of them was ever in
any way molested by the Plymouth people; but, on the contrary, they one
and all received aid and encouragement from Plymouth. Episcopalians as
they were, they all joined in dealing with Morton as a common enemy and a
public danger; and such he unquestionably was. It was not, then, because he
made use of the Common Prayer that he was first driven from the
Massachusetts Bay; it was because he was a nuisance and a source of
danger. That subsequently, and by the Massachusetts authorities, he was
dealt with in a way at once high-handed and oppressive, has been
sufficiently shown in these pages. Yet it is by no means clear that, under
similar circumstances, he would not have been far more severely and
summarily dealt with at a later period, when the dangers of a frontier life
had brought into use an unwritten code, which evinced even a less regard
for life than, in Morton’s case, the Puritans evinced for property.[183]
As a literary performance the New Canaan, it is unnecessary to say, has
survived through no merits of its own. While it is, on the whole, a better
written book than the Wonder-Working Providence, it is not so well written
as Wood’s Prospect; and it cannot compare with what we have from the
pens of Smith or Gorges,—much less from those of Winslow, Winthrop
and, above all, Bradford. Indeed, it is amazing how a man who knew as
much as Morton knew of events and places now full of interest, could have
sat down to write about them at all, and then, after writing so much, have

told so little. Rarely stating anything quite correctly,—the most careless and
slipshod of authors,—he took a positive pleasure in concealing what he
meant to say under a cloud of metaphor. Accordingly, when printed, the
New Canaan fell still-born from the press, the only contemporaneous trace
of it which can be found in English literature being Butler’s often quoted
passage in Hudibras, in which the Wessagusset hanging is alluded to.[184] It
is even open to question whether this reference was due to Butler’s having
read the book. The passage referred to is in the second part of Hudibras,
which was not published until 1664, twenty-seven years after the
publication of the New Canaan. It is perfectly possible that Butler may have
known Morton; for in 1637 the future author of Hudibras was already
twenty-five years old, and Morton lingered about London for six or seven
years after that. There are indications that he knew Ben Jonson;[185] and,
indeed, it is scarcely possible that with his sense of humor and convivial
tastes Morton should not often have met the poets and playwrights of the
day at the Mermaid. If he and the author of Hudibras ever did chance to
meet, they must have proved congenial spirits, for there is much that is
Hudibrastic in the New Canaan. Not impossibly, therefore, the idea of a
vicarious New England hanging dwelt for years in the brain of Butler, not
as the reminiscence of a passage he had read in some forgotten book, but as
a vague recollection of an amusing story which he had once heard Morton
tell.
It is, indeed, the author’s sense of humor, just alluded to, which gives to the
New Canaan its only real distinction among the early works relating to New
England. In this respect it stands by itself. In all the rest of those works, one
often meets with passages of simplicity, of pathos and of great descriptive
power,—never with anything which was both meant to raise a smile, and
does it. The writers seemed to have no sense of humor, no perception of the
ludicrous. Bradford, for instance, as a passage “rather of mirth than of
weight,” describes how he put a stop to the Christmas games at Plymouth in
1621. There is a grim solemnity in his very chuckle. Winthrop gives a long
account of the penance of Captain John Underhill, as he stood upon a stool
in the church, “without a band, in a foul linen cap pulled close to his eyes,”
and “blubbering,” confessed his adultery with the cooper’s wife.[186] Yet he
evidently recorded it with unbroken gravity. Then, in 1644, he mentions that
“two of our ministers’ sons, being students in the college, robbed two

dwelling-houses, in the night, of some 15 pounds. Being found out, they
were ordered by the governors of the college to be there whipped, which
was performed by the president himself—yet they were about twenty years
of age.”[187] If Morton had recorded this incident, he could not have helped
seeing a ludicrous side to it, and he would have expressed it in some
humorous, or at least in some grotesque way. Winthrop saw the serious side
of everything, and the serious side only. In this he was like all the rest. Such
solemnity, such everlasting consciousness of responsibility to God and man,
is grand and perhaps impressive; but it grows wearisome. It is pleasant to
have it broken at last, even though that which breaks it is in some respects
not to be commended. A touch of ribaldry becomes bearable. Among what
are called Americana, therefore, the New Canaan is and will always remain
a refreshing book. It is a connecting link. Poor as it may be, it is yet all we
have to remind us that in literature, also, Bradford and Winthrop and Cotton
were Englishmen of the time of Shakespeare and Jonson and Butler.

It remains only to speak of the bibliography of the New Canaan, which at
one time excited some discussion, and of the present edition. Written before
the close of 1635, the New Canaan was printed at Amsterdam in 1637. It
has been reprinted but once,—by Force, in the second volume of his
American Tracts. The present is, therefore, the second reprint, and the first
annotated edition. For a number of years it was supposed that copies of the
book were in existence with an alternative titlepage, bearing the imprint of
Charles Greene, and the date of 1632.[188] This supposition was, however,
very carefully examined into by Mr. Winsor in the Harvard University
Literary Bulletins (Nos. 9 and 10, 1878-9, pp. 196, 244), and found to be
partially, at least, groundless. It was due to the fact that Force made his
reprint from a copy of the book in his collection, now in the Library of
Congress. That copy lacked a portion or the whole of the titlepage; and the
missing parts seem to have been supplied, without mention of the fact being
made, from the entry of the book under 1632 in White Kennet’s Bibliothecæ
Americanæ Primordia. Apparently the error originated in the following
way. The New Canaan was entered for copyright in the Stationers’
Registers in London, November 18, 1633, in behalf of Charles Greene, the
printer. There is no reason to suppose that it was then completed, as it may
have been entered by its title alone. If it was, however, completed in part in
1633, the internal evidence is conclusive that it was both revised[189] and
added to[190] as late as 1634; and, indeed, the Board of Lords
Commissioners for regulating Plantations, to which it is formally dedicated,
was not created until April 10th of that year. Greene did not print the book;
though, as will presently be seen, a certain number of copies may possibly
have been struck off for him with titlepages of their own. The entry in the
Stationers’ Registers was, however, afterwards discovered, and seems then
to have supplied by inference the date of publication, which could not be
learned from certain copies, the titlepages to which were defective or

wanting. The dates given in Lowndes’s Manual would seem to be simply
incorrect.[191] Meanwhile, for reasons probably of economy, though notice
of publication had been given in London, the book was actually printed in
Holland, and the regular titlepage reads: “Printed at Amsterdam by Jacob
Frederick Stam, in the year 1637.” There are copies, however, the titlepages
of which read: “Printed for Charles Greene, and are sold in Pauls
Churchyard,” no date being given.[192] It is not known that these copies
differ in any other respect from those bearing the usual imprint. The
conclusion, therefore, would seem to be that, as already stated, a number of
copies may have been struck off for Greene with a distinct titlepage.
Properly speaking, however, there seems to have been but one edition of the
book. With the exception of the Force titlepage, which has been shown to
be erroneous, there is no evidence of any copy being in existence bearing an
earlier date than the usual one of Amsterdam, 1637.
Copies of the New Canaan are extremely rare. Savage, in his notes to
Winthrop (vol. i. p. *34), said that he had then, before 1825, never heard of
but one copy, “which was owned by his Excellency John Q. Adams.” It is
from that copy that the present edition is printed. Mr. Adams purchased it
while in Europe prior to the year 1801. It was that copy also which was
temporarily deposited in the Boston Athenæum in 1810, as mentioned in the
Monthly Anthology of that date (vol. viii. p. 420), referred to in the Harvard
University Library Bulletin, (No. 9, p. 196). The Rev. George Whitney, in
his History of Quincy written in 1826, says (p. 11) that another “copy was
lately presented to the Adams Library of the town of Quincy by the Rev.
Thaddeus Mason Harris.”[193] In addition to these, some dozen or twenty
other copies in all are known to exist in various public and private
collections in America and Europe, several of which are enumerated in the
Literary Bulletin just referred to.
Very many of the errors both in typography and punctuation, with which the
New Canaan abounds, are obviously due to the fact that it was printed in
Amsterdam. The original manuscript it would seem was no more legible
than the manuscript of that period, as it has come down to us, is usually
found to be. At best it was not easy to decipher. The copy of the New
Canaan was then put in the hands of a compositor imperfectly, if at all,
acquainted with English; and, if the proof-sheets were ever corrected by any
one, they certainly were not corrected by the author or by a proof-reader

really familiar with his writing, or even with the tongue in which he wrote.
Accordingly pen flourishes were mistaken for punctuation marks, and these
were inserted without any regard to the context; familiar words appeared in
unintelligible shapes;[194] small letters were mistaken for capitals, and
capitals for small letters, and one letter was confounded with another. In
addition to these numerous mistakes in deciphering and following the
manuscript, ordinary typographical errors are not uncommon; though in this
respect the New Canaan is less marked by blemishes than under the
circumstances would naturally be supposed.
Neither is this explanation of the curiously bad press-work of the New
Canaan a mere conjecture. One other composition of Morton’s has come
down to us in the letter to Jeffreys, preserved by Winthrop.[195] Let any one
compare this letter with a chapter from the New Canaan, and he will see at
once that, while both are manifestly productions from the same pen, they
have been preserved under wholly different circumstances. Take, for
instance, the following identical passages,—the one from the New Canaan
and the other from the letter to Jeffreys, and they will sufficiently illustrate
this point.

NEW CANAAN. LETTER TO JEFFREYS.
Book iii. Chapter 31. Savage’s Winthrop, vol.
II. p. *190.
And now mine Host being
merrily disposed, haveing So that now Jonas being
past many perillous set ashore may safely cry,
adventures in that repent you cruel
desperat Whales belly, separatists, repent, there
beganne in a posture like are as yet but forty days.
Ionas, and cryed Repent If Jove vouchsafe to
you cruell Seperatists thunder, the charter and
repent, there are as yet but kingdom of the separatists
40. dayes if Iove will fall asunder. Repent
vouchsafe to thunder, you cruel schismatics,
Charter and the Kingdome repent.
of the Seperatists will fall
a sunder: Repent you
cruell Schismaticks
repent.

The letter to Jeffreys is curiously characteristic of Morton. It is written in
the same inflated, metaphorical, enigmatic style as the New Canaan. It is,
however, perfectly intelligible and even energetic. The reason is obvious. It
was correctly copied by a man who understood what the writer was saying.
Accordingly it is as clear as Winthrop’s own text. The New Canaan would
have been equally clear had it been deciphered at the compositor’s form by
a man with Winthrop’s familiarity with English.

There is some reason to think that the fancy for exact reproduction in
typography has of late years been carried to an extreme. Not only have
peculiarities of spelling, capitalization and type, which were really

characteristic of the past, been carefully followed, but abbreviations and
figures have been reproduced in type, which formerly were confined to
manuscripts, and are certainly never found in the better printed books of the
same period. It is certainly desirable in reprinting quaint works, which it is
not supposed will ever pass into the hands of general readers, to have them
appear in the dress of the time to which they belong. Indeed they cannot be
modernized in spelling, the use of capitals, or even, altogether, in
punctuation, without losing something of their flavor. Yet, this
notwithstanding, there is no good reason why gross and manifest blunders,
due to the ignorance of compositors and the carelessness of proof-readers,
should be jealously perpetuated as if they were sacred things. This assuredly
is carrying the spirit of faithful reproduction to fanaticism. It is Chinese.
The rule followed, therefore, in the present edition has been to reproduce
the New Canaan as it appeared in the Amsterdam edition of 1637,
correcting only the punctuation, and such errors of the press as are manifest
and unmistakable. Very few changes have been made in the use of capitals,
and those only where it is obvious that a letter of one kind in the copy was
mistaken by the compositor for a letter of another kind. An example of this
is found at the top of page *14, where “Captaine Davis’ fate,” in the
author’s manuscript, is made to appear as “Captain Davis Fate,” in the
original text. The compositor evidently mistook the small f, written with the
old-fashioned flourish, for an initial capital. The spelling has in no case
been changed except where the error, as in the case already cited of “muit”
for “mint,” is manifestly due to printers’ blunders. Mistakes of the press,
such as “legg” for “logg” (p. *77) and “vies” for “eies” (p. *152), have been
made right wherever they could be certainly detected.
No conjectural readings whatever have been inserted in the text. The few
passages, not more than four or five in number, in which, owing probably to
the failure of the compositor to decipher manuscript, the meaning of the
original is not clear, are reproduced exactly. No liberties whatever have
been taken with the original edition in these cases, and all guesses which
are indulged in as to the author’s meaning, whether by the editor or others,
are confined to the notes. In a few places the text is obviously deficient.
Words necessary to the meaning are omitted in printing. Wherever these
have been conjecturally inserted, the inserted words are in brackets. In a
very few cases, words, which could clearly have found their way into the

original only through inadvertence, have been omitted. Attention is called in
the notes to every such omission.
The effort in the present edition has, in short, been to make it a reproduction
of the New Canaan; but the reproduction was to be an intelligent, and not a
servile one.

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN
OR
NEW CANAAN.
Containing an Abstract of New England,
Composed in three Bookes.

The first Booke setting forth the originall of the Natives, their Manners and
Customes, together with their tractable Nature and Love towards the
English.

The second Booke setting forth the naturall Indowments of the Country, and
what staple Commodities it yealdeth.

The third Booke setting forth, what people are planted there, their
prosperity, what remarkable accidents have happened since the first planting
of it, together with their Tenents and practise of their Church.

Written by Thomas Morton of Cliffords Inne gent, upon tenne yeares
knowledge and experiment of the Country.

Printed at AMSTERDAM,
By JACOB FREDERICK STAM.
In the Yeare 1637.

To the right honorable, the Lords and others of his Majesties most
honorable privy Councell, Commissioners, for the Government of all his
Majesties forraigne Provinces.[196]
Right honorable,
HE zeale which I beare to the advauncement of the glory
of God, the honor of his Majesty, and the good of the
weale publike hath incouraged mee to compose this
abstract, being the modell of a Rich, hopefull and very
beautifull Country worthy the Title of Natures
Masterpeece, and may be lost by too much sufferance.
It is but a widowes mite, yet {4} all that wrong and
rapine hath left mee to bring from thence, where I have indevoured my best,
bound by my allegeance, to doe his Majesty service. This in all humility I
present as an offering, wherewith I prostrate my selfe at your honorable
footstoole. If you please to vouchsafe it may receave a blessing from the
Luster of your gracious Beames, you shall make your vassaile happy, in that
hee yet doth live to shew how ready hee is, and alwayes hath bin, to
sacrifice his dearest blood, as becometh a loyall subject, for the honor of his
native Country. Being
your humors humble vassaile
Thomas Morton.

The Epistle to the Reader.

GENTLE READER,
present to the publike view an abstract of New England,
which I have undertaken to compose by the
incouragment of such genious spirits as have been
studious of the inlargment of his Majesties Territories;
being not formerly satisfied by the relations of such as,
through haste, have taken but a superficiall survey
thereof: which thing time hath enabled mee to performe
more punctually to the life, and to give a more exact
accompt of what hath been required. I have therefore beene willing to doe
my indevoure to communicat the knowledge which I have gained and
collected together, by mine owne observation in the time of my many
yeares residence in those parts, to my loving Country men: For the better
information of all such as are desirous to be made partakers of the blessings
of God in that fertile Soyle, as well as those {8} that, out of Curiosity onely,
have bin inquisitive after nouelties. And the rather for that I have observed
how divers persons (not so well affected to the weale publike in mine
opinion), out of respect to their owne private ends, have laboured to keepe
both the practise of the people there, and the Reall worth of that eminent
Country concealed from publike knowledge; both which I have abundantly
in this discourse layd open: yet if it be well accepted, I shall esteeme my
selfe sufficiently rewardded for my undertaking, and rest,
Your Wellwisher.

Thomas Morton.

In laudem Authoris.

T’ Excuse the Author ere the worke be shewne
Is accusation in it selfe alone;
And to commend him might seeme oversight;
So divers are th’ opinions of this age,
So quick and apt, to taxe the moderne stage,
That hard his taske is that must please in all:
Example have wee from great Cæsars fall.
But is the sonne to be dislik’d and blam’d,
Because the mole is of his face asham’d?
The fault is in the beast, not in the sonne;
Give sicke mouthes sweete meates, fy! they relish none.
But to the sound in censure, he commends
His love unto his Country; his true ends,
To modell out a Land of so much worth
As untill now noe traveller setteth[197] forth;
Faire Canaans second selfe, second to none,
Natures rich Magazine till now unknowne.
Then here survay what nature hath in store,
And graunt him love for this. He craves no more.

R. O. Gen.

Sir Christoffer Gardiner, Knight.[198]
In laudem Authoris.

This worke a matchles mirror is, that shewes
The Humors of the seperatiste, and those
So truely personated by thy pen.
I was amaz’d to see’t; herein all men
May plainely see, as in an inter-lude,
Each actor figure; and the scæne well view’d
In Comick,[199] Tragick, and in a pastorall strife,[200]
For tyth of mint[201] and Cummin, shewes their life
Nothing but opposition gainst the right
Of sacred Majestie: men full of spight,
Goodnes abuseing, turning vertue out
Of Dores, to whipping, stocking, and full bent
To plotting mischeife gainst the innocent,
Burning their houses, as if ordained by fate,
In spight of Lawe, to be made ruinate.
This taske is well perform’d, and patience be
Thy present comfort, and thy constancy
Thine honor; and this glasse, where it shall come,
Shall sing thy praises till the day of doome.

Sir C. G.

In laudem Authoris.

Bvt that I rather pitty, I confesse,
The practise of their Church, I could expresse
Myselfe a Satyrist, whose smarting fanges
Should strike it with a palsy, and the panges
Beget a feare to tempt the Majesty
Of those, or mortall Gods. Will they defie
The Thundring Jove? Like children they desire,
Such is their zeale, to sport themselves with fire:
So have I seene an angry Fly presume
To strike a burning taper, and consume
His feeble wings. Why, in an aire so milde,
Are they so monstrous growne up, and so vilde,
That Salvages can of themselves espy
Their errors, brand their names with infamy?
What! is their zeale for blood like Cyrus thirst?
Will they be over head and eares a curst?
A cruell way to found a Church on! noe,
T’is not their zeale but fury blinds them soe,
And pricks their malice on like fier to joyne,
And offer up the sacrifice of Kain.
Jonas, thou hast done well to call these men
Home to repentance, with thy painefull pen.

F. C. Armiger.

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN,
OR
NEW CANAAN.

The Author’s Prologue.

If art and industry should doe as much
As Nature hath for Canaan, not such
Another place, for benefit and rest,
In all the universe can be possest.
The more we proove it by discovery,
The more delight each object to the eye
Procures; as if the elements had here
Bin reconcil’d, and pleas’d it should appeare
Like a faire virgin, longing to be sped
And meete her lover in a Nuptiall bed,
Deck’d in rich ornaments t’ advaunce her state
And excellence, being most fortunate
When most enjoy’d: so would our Canaan be
If well imploy’d by art and industry;
Whose offspring now, shewes that her fruitfull wombe,
Not being enjoy’d, is like a glorious tombe,
Admired things producing which there dye,
And ly fast bound in darck obscurity:
The worth of which, in each particuler,
Who list to know, this abstract will declare.

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN,
OR
NEW CANAAN.

The first Booke.

Containing the originall of the Natives, their manners &
Customes, with their tractable nature and love towards the
English.

Chap. I.

Prooving New England the principall part of all America, and
most commodious and fitt for habitation.
He wise Creator of the universall Globe hath placed a
golden meane betwixt two extreames; I meane the
temperate Zones, betwixt the hote and cold; and every
Creature, that participates of Heavens blessings with in
the Compasse of that golden meane, is made most {12}
apt and fit for man to use, who likewise by that
wisedome is ordained to be the Lord of all. This globe
may be his glasse, to teach him how to use moderation
and discretion, both in his actions and intentions. The wise man sayes, give
mee neither riches nor poverty; why? Riches might make him proud like

Nebuchadnezar, and poverty despaire like Iobs wife; but a meane betweene
both. So it is likewise in the use of Vegetatives, that Vse of vegetatives.
which hath too much Heate or too much Colde, is said
to be venenum: so in the use of sensitives, all those Animals, of what genus
or species soever they be, if they participate of heate or cold in the
superlative are said to be Inimica naturæ, as in some Fishes about the Isle
of Sall, and those Ilandes adjoyninge between the Tropickes; their
participatinge of heate and cold, in the superlative, is Fish poysonous about
made most manifest, one of which poysoned a whole the Isle of Sall.
[202]
Ships company that eate of it. And so it is in
Vipers, Toades, and Snakes, that have heate or cold in the superlative
degree.
Therefore the Creatures that participate of heate and cold in a meane, are
best and holsomest: And so it is in the choyse of love, the middell Zone
betweene the two extreames is best, and it is therefore Zona temperata, the
called Zona temperata, and is in the golden meane; Golden meane.
and all those landes lying under that Zone, most
requisite and fitt for habitation. In Cosmography, the two extreames are
called, the one Torrida Zona, lying betweene the Tropickes, the other
Frigida Zona, lying neare the poles: all the landes lying under either of
these Zones, by reason they doe participate too {13} much of heate or cold,
are very inconvenient, and are accompanied with many evils. And allthough
I am not of opinion with Aristotle,[203] that the landes under Torrida Zona
are alltogether uninhabited, I my selfe having beene so neare the
equinoctiall line that I have had the Sunn for my Zenith and seene proofe to
the contrary, yet cannot I deny but that it is accompanied with many
inconveniences, as that Fish and Flesh both will taint in those partes,
notwithstanding the use of Salt which cannot be wanting there, ordained by
natures hande-worke; And that is a great hinderance to Salt aboundeth under
the settinge forth and supply of navigation, the very the Tropicks.
Sinewes of a florishing Commonwealth. Then
barrennesse, caused through want of raines, for in most of those partes of
the world it is seldome accustomed to raine untill the time of the Tornathees
(as the Portingals[204] phrase is, who lived there) and Raine 40. dayes about
then it will raine about 40. dayes together, which August betweene
moisture serveth to fructify the earth for all the yeare Cancer and the Line.
after, duringe which time is seene no raine at all: the

heate and cold, and length of day and night, being much alike, with little
difference. And these raines are caused by the turning of the windes, which
else betweene the Tropickes doe blow Trade, that is allwayes one way. For
next the Tropicke of Cancer it is constantly North-East, and next the
Tropicke of Capricorne it is Southwest; so that the windes comming from
the Poles, do keepe the aire in those partes coole, and make it temperate and
the partes habitable, were it not for those and other inconveniences.
{14} This Torrida Zona is good for Grashoppers: and Zona Temperata for
the Ant and Bee. But Frigida Zona [is] good for neither, as by lamentable
experience of Captaine Davis fate is manifest, who in Capt. Davis froze to
his inquest of the Northwest passage for the East India death.
trade was frozen to death.[205] And therefore, for
Frigida Zona, I agree with Aristotle that it is unfit for habitation:[206] and I
know by the Course of the cælestiall globe that in Groeneland, many
Degrees short of the Pole Articke, the place is too cold, Groene Land too cold
by reason of the Sunns absence almost six monethes, for habitation.
and the land under the continuall power of the frost;
which thinge many more Navigators have prooved with pittifull experience
of their wintringe there, as appeareth by the history. I thinke they will not
venture to winter there againe for an India mine.
And as it is found by our Nation under the Pole Sir Ferdinando
Articke, so it is likewise to be found under the Gorges the originall
Antarticke Pole; yet what hazard will not an cause of plantinge
industrious minde and couragious spirit undergoe, New England.
according to that of the Poet: Impiger extremos currit Mercator ad Indos
per mare pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes.[207] And all to gett and
hord up like the Ant and the Bee; and yet, as Salomon saith,[208] he cannot
tell whether a foole or a wise man shall enjoy it. Therefore let us leave these
two extreames, with their inconveniences, and indeavour to finde out this
golden meane, so free from any one of them. Behold the secret wisedome of
allmighty God, and love unto our Salomon, to raise a man of a lardge hart,
full of worthy abilities, to be the Index or Loadstarre, that doth point out
{15} unto the English Nation with ease and comfort how to finde it out. And
this the noble minded Gentleman, Sir Ferdinando Gorges,[209] Knight,
zealous for the glory of God, the honor of his Majesty and the benefit of the
weale publicke, hath done a great worke for the good of his Country.

And herein this, the wondrous wisedome and love of The Salvages dyed of
God, is shewne, by sending to the place his Minister, the plague.
to sweepe away by heapes the Salvages; and also
giving him length of dayes to see the same performed after his enterprise
was begunne, for the propagation of the Church of Christ.
This judicious Gentleman hath found this goulden meane to be scituated
about the middle of those two extreames, and for directions you may proove
it thus: Counting the space betweene the Line and either of the Poles, in true
proportion, you shall finde it to be 90. Degrees: then must we finde the
meane to be neare unto the Center of 90. and that is about 45. Degrees, and
then incline unto the Sotherne side of that Center, properly for the benefit of
heate, remembringe that Sol & Homo generàt hominem; and then keepe us
on that same side, and see what Land is to be found there, and we shall
easily discerne that new England is on the South side of that Center.
For that Country doth beginne her boundes at 40. New Engl. is placed
Degrees of Northerne latitude, and endes at 45. in the golden meane.
Degrees of the same latitude, and doth participate of
heate and cold indifferently, but is oppressed with neither: and therefore
may be truly sayd to be within the compasse of that golden meane, most apt
and fit {16} for habitation and generation, being placed by Allmighty God,
the great Creator, under that Zone called Zona temperata; and is therefore
most fitt for the generation and habitation of our English nation, of all other,
who are more neere neighbours to the Northerne Pole, whose Land lyeth
betweene 50. and 54. Degrees of the selfesame latitude: now this new
England, though it be nearer to the line then that old New England 10.
England by 10. Degrees of latitude, yet doth not this Degrees neerer the
exceede that other in heate or cold, by reason of the line then old England.
cituation of it; for as the Coast lyeth, being circularly
Northeast and Southwest, opposite towards the Sunnes risinge, which
makes his course over the Ocean, it can have litle or no reflecting heat of
the Sun-beames, by reason of the continuall motion of the waters makinge
the aire there the cooler and the constanter; so that for the temperature of
the Climent, sweetnesse of the aire, fertility of the Soile, and small number
of the Salvages (which might seeme a rubb in the way off an effeminate
minde,) this Country of new England is by all judicious men accounted the
principall part of all America for habitation and the commodiousnesse of

the Sea, Ships there not being subject to wormes as in Virginea and other
places, and not to be paraleld in all Christendome. The The Massachussets in
Massachussets, being the middell part thereof, is a the middel of New
very beautifull Land, not mountany nor inclininge to England.
mountany, lyeth in 42. Degrees, and 30. minutes, and
hath as yet[210] the greatest number of inhabitants; and hath a very large bay
to it divided by Islands into 4 great bayes,[211] where shippinge may safely
ride, {17} all windes and weathers, the windes in those The Windes not so
partes being not so violent as in England by many violent in New
Degrees: for there are no shrubbs seene to leane from England.
the windes, as by the Sea Coast of England I have
seene them leane, and the groundage is a sandy sleech,[212] free from rockes
to gaule Cables, but is good for anchorage: the rest of the Planters are
disperst among the Coasts betweene 41. and 44. Degrees of Latitude, and as
yet, have [made] very little way into the inland.[213] The riches of which
Country I have set forth in this abstract as in a Landskipp, for the better
information of the Travellers; which hee may peruse and plainely perceave
by the demonstration of it, that it is nothing inferior to Canaan of Israel, but
a kind of paralell to it in all points.

Chap. II.

Of the originall of the Natives.
In the yeare since the incarnation of Christ, 1622, it was my chance to be
landed in the parts of New England,[214] where I found two sortes of people,
the one Christians, the other Infidels; these I found most full of humanity,
and more friendly then the other: as shall hereafter be made apparant in
Dew-Course by their severall actions from time to time, whilest I lived
among them. After my arrivall in those partes, I endeavoured by all the
wayes and meanes that I could to find out from what people, or nation, the
Natives of {18} New England might be conjectured originlly to proceede;
and by continuance and conversation amongst them, I attaned to so much of
their language, as by all probable conjecture may make the same manifest:
for it hath been found by divers, and those of good judgement, that the
Natives of this Country doe use very many wordes, both of Greeke and
Latine, to the same signification that the Latins and The Natives have a
Greekes have done; as en animia,[215] when an Indian mixed language.
expresseth that hee doth anything with a good will;
and Pascopan[216] signifieth gredy gut, this being the Pasco Pan greedy
name of an Indian that was so called of a Child, gutt.
through the greedinesse of his minde and much eating,
for Pasco in Latine signifieth to feede, and Pan in Greeke signifieth all; and
Pasco nantum,[217] quasi pasco nondum, halfe starved, or not eating, as yet;
Equa coge,[218] set it upright; Mona[219] is an Island in Mona an Island.
their language, quasi Monon, that is alone, for an
Island is a peece or plott of ground standing alone, and devided from the
mane Land by force of water.
Cos[220] is a Whetstone with them. Hame[221] an Cos a Whetstone.
instrument to take fish. Many places doe retaine the
name of Pan, as Pantneket[222] and Matta pan,[223] so that it may be thought
that these people heretofore have had the name of Pan in great reverence
and estimation, and it may bee have worshipped Pan Pan the Shepheards
the great God of the Heathens: Howsoever they doe God.

use no manner of worship at all now: and it is most likely that the Natives
of this Country are descended from people bred upon that part of the world
which is towardes {19} the Tropicke of Cancer, for they doe still retaine the
memory of some of the Starres one that part of the Cælestiall Globe, as the
North-starre, which with them is called Maske,[224] for Maske in their
Language signifieth a Beare: and they doe divide the windes into eight
partes, and it seemes originally have had some litterature amongst them,
which time hath Cancelled and worne out of use.
And whereas it hath beene the opinion of some men, which shall be
nameles, that the Natives of New-England may proceede from the race of
the Tartars, and come from Tartaria into those partes,[225] over the frozen
Sea, I see no probality for any such Conjecture; for as Not to proceede from
much as a people once setled must be remooved by the Tartars.
compulsion, or else tempted thereunto in hope of
better fortunes, upon commendations of the place unto which they should
be drawne to remoove: and if it may be thought that these people came over
the frozen Sea, then would it be by compulsion? if so, then by whome, or
when? or what part of this mane continent may be No part of America
thought to border upon the Country of the Tartars, it is knowne to be neare
yet unknowne: and it is not like, that a people well Tartary.
enough at ease will of their one accord undertake to
travayle over a Sea of Ice, considering how many difficulties they shall
encounter with; as first, whether there be any Land at the end of their
unknowne way, no Land beinge in view; then want of Food to sustane life
in the meane time upon that Sea of Ice; or {20} how should they doe for
Fuell, to keepe them at night from freezing to death, which will not bee had
in such a place. But it may perhaps be granted that the Natives of this
Country might originally come of the scattred Trojans: For after that Brutus,
who was the forth from Aneas, left Latium upon the Why Brutus left
conflict had with the Latines, (where although hee Latium.
gave them a great overthrow, to the Slaughter of their
grand Captaine and many other of the Heroes of Latium, yet hee held it
more safety to depart unto some other place and people, then by staying to
runne the hazard of an unquiet life or doubtfull Conquest, which as history
maketh mention hee performed,) this people were dispersed: there is no
question but the people that lived with him, by reason of their conversation

with the Græcians and Latines, had a mixed language that participated of
both, whatsoever was that which was proper to their owne nation at first I
know not: for this is commonly seene where 2. nations traffique together,
the one indevouring to understand the others meaning makes them both
many times speak a mixed language, as is approoved Two nations meetinge
by the Natives of New England, through the coveteous make a mixt
desire they have to commerce with our nation and wee language.
with them.
And when Brutus did depart from Latium, we doe not finde that his whole
number went with him at once, or arrived at one place; and being put to Sea
might encounter with a storme that would carry them out of sight of Land,
and then they might sayle God knoweth whether, and so might be put upon
this {21} Coast, as well as any other. Compasse I beleeve they had none in
those dayes; Sayles they might have, (which Dædalus the first inventor
thereof left to after ages, having taught his Sonne Dædalus the first that
Icarus the use of it, who to this Cost found how used Sayles.
dangerous it is for a Sonne not to observe the precepts
of a wise Father, so that the Icarian Sea now retaines Icarus the second that
used Sayles.
the memory of it to this day,) and Victuals they might
have good store, and many other things fittinge; oares without all question
they would store themselves with, in such a case; but for the use of
Compasse, there is no mention made of it at that time (which was much
about Sauls time, the first that was made King of Troy destroyed about
Israell.) Yet it is thought (and that not without good Sauls time.
reason for it) that the use of the Loadstone and
Compasse was knowne in Salomons time, for as much as hee sent Shippes
to fetch of the gould of Ophir, to adorne and bewtify The Loadstone in
that magnificent Temple of Hierusalem by him built Salomons time.
for the glory of Almighty God, and by his speciall
appointment: and it is held by Cosmographers to be 3. yeares voyage from
Hierusalem to Ophir, and it is conceaved that such a voyage could not have
beene performed, without the helpe of the Loadstone and Compasse.
And why should any man thinke the Natives of New England to be the
gleanings of all Nations, onely because by the pronunciation and
termination their words seeme to trench upon severall languages, when time
hath not furnished him with the interpretation thereof. The thinge that must

induce a man of reasonable capacity to any maner of conjecture of {22} their
originall, must be the sence and signification of the words, principally to
frame this argument by, when hee shall drawe to any conclusion thereupon:
otherwise hee shall but runne rounde about a maze (as some of the
fantasticall tribe use to do about the tythe of mint[226] and comin.)
Therefore, since I have had the approbation of Sir Christopher Gardiner,[227]
Knight, an able gentl. that lived amongst them, and of David Tompson,[228]
a Scottish gentl. that likewise was conversant with those people, both
Scollers and Travellers that were diligent in taking notice of these things, as
men of good judgement, and that have bin in those parts any time, besides
others of lesse, now I am bold to conclude that the originall of the Natives
of New England may be well conjectured to be from the scattered Trojans,
after such time as Brutus departed from Latium.[229]

Chap. III.

Of a great mortality that happened amongst the Natives of New
England, neere about the time that the English came there to
plant.
It fortuned some few yeares before the English came to inhabit at new
Plimmouth, in New England, that upon some distast given in the
Massachussets bay by Frenchmen, then trading there with the Natives for
beaver, they set upon the men at such advantage that they killed manie of
them, burned their shipp, {23} then riding at Anchor by an Island there, now
called Peddocks Island,[230] in memory of Leonard Peddock[231] that landed
there, (where many wilde Anckies[232] haunted that time, which hee thought
had bin tame,) distributing them unto 5. Sachems, which were Lords of the
severall territories adjoyninge: they did keepe them so longe as they lived,
onely to sport themselves at them, and made these five Five Frenchmen kept
Frenchmen fetch them wood and water, which is the by the Salvages.
generall worke that they require of a servant.[233] One
of these five men, out livinge the rest, had learned so much of their
language as to rebuke them for their bloudy deede, saying that God would
be angry with them for it, and that hee would in his displeasure destroy
them; but the Salvages (it seemes boasting of their strenght,) replyed and
sayd, that they were so many that God could not kill them.[234]
But contrary wise, in short time after the hand of God The Plague fell on the
fell heavily upon them, with such a mortall stroake that Indians.
they died on heapes as they lay in their houses; and the
living, that were able to shift for themselves, would runne away and let
them dy, and let there Carkases ly above the ground without buriall. For in a
place where many inhabited, there hath been but one left a live to tell what
became of the rest; the livinge being (as it seemes) not able to bury the
dead, they were left for Crowes, Kites and vermin to The livinge not able to
pray upon. And the bones and skulls upon the severall bury the dead.
places of their habitations made such a spectacle after
my comming into those partes, that, as I travailed in that Forrest nere the
Massachussets, it seemed to mee a new found Golgatha.

{24} But otherwise, it is the custome of those Indian people to bury their
dead ceremoniously and carefully, and then to abandon that place, because
they have no desire the place should put them in minde of mortality: and
this mortality was not ended when the Brownists of new Plimmouth were
setled at Patuxet in New England: and by all likelyhood the sicknesse that
these Indians died of was the Plague, as by conference with them since my
arrivall and habitation in those partes, I have learned.[235] And by this
meanes there is as yet but a small number of Salvages in New England, to
that which hath beene in former time, and the place is 2 Sam. 24.
made so much the more fitt for the English Nation to
inhabit in, and erect in it Temples to the glory of God.

Chap. IV.

Of their Houses and Habitations.
The Natives of New England are accustomed to build them houses much
like the wild Irish; they gather Poles in the woodes and put the great end of
them in the ground, placinge them in forme of a circle or circumference,
and, bendinge the topps of them in forme of an Arch, they bind them
together with the Barke of Walnut trees, which is wondrous tuffe, so that
they make the same round on the Topp {25} for the smooke of their fire to
assend and passe through; these they cover with matts, some made of reeds
and some of longe flagges, or sedge, finely sowed together with needles
made of the splinter bones of a Cranes legge, with threeds made of their
Indian hempe, which their groueth naturally, leaving severall places for
dores, which are covered with mats, which may be rowled up and let downe
againe at their pleasures, making use of the severall dores, according as the
winde sitts.[236] The fire is alwayes made in the middest of the house, with
winde fals commonly: yet some times they fell a tree that groweth neere the
house, and, by drawing in the end thereof, maintaine the fire on both sids,
burning the tree by Degrees shorter and shorter, untill it be all consumed;
for it burneth night and day. Their lodging is made in three places of the
house about the fire; they lye upon plankes, commonly about a foote or 18.
inches aboue the ground, raised upon railes that are borne up upon forks;
they lay mats under them, and Coats of Deares skinnes, otters, beavers,
Racownes, and of Beares hides, all which they have dressed and converted
into good lether, with the haire on, for their coverings: and in this manner
they lye as warme as they desire.[237] In the night they take their rest; in the
day time, either the kettle is on with fish or flesh, by no allowance, or else
the fire is imployed in roasting of fishes, which they delight in.[238] The aire
doeth beget good stomacks, and they feede continually, and are no niggards
of their vittels; for they are willing that any one shall eate with them. Nay, if
any one that shall come into their {26} houses and there fall a sleepe, when
they see him disposed to lye downe, they will spreade a matt for him of
their owne accord, and lay a roule of skinnes for a boulster, and let him lye.
If hee sleepe untill their meate be dished up, they will set a wooden boule of

meate by him that sleepeth, and wake him saying, Cattup keene
Meckin[239]: That is, If you be hungry, there is meat for you, where if you
will eate you may. Such is their Humanity.[240]
Likewise, when they are minded to remoove, they carry away the mats with
them; other materiales the place adjoyning will yeald. They use not to
winter and summer in one place, for that would be a reason to make fuell
scarse; but, after the manner of the gentry of Civilized natives, remoove for
their pleasures; some times to their hunting places, where they remaine
keeping good hospitality for that season; and sometimes to their fishing
places, where they abide for that season likewise: and at the spring, when
fish comes in plentifully, they have meetinges from severall places, where
they exercise themselves in gaminge and playing of juglinge trickes and all
manner of Revelles, which they are deligted in; [so] that it is admirable to
behould what pastime they use of severall kindes, every one striving to
surpasse each other.[241] After this manner they spend their time.

{27} Chap. V.

Of their Religion.
It has bin a common receaved opinion from Cicero,[242] that there is no
people so barbarous but have some worshipp or other. In this particular, I
am not of opinion therein with Tully; and, surely, if hee had bin amongst
those people so longe as I have bin, and conversed so much with them
touching this matter of Religion, hee would have changed his opinion.
Neither should we have found this error, amongst the rest, by the helpe of
that wodden prospect,[243] if it had not been so unadvisedly built upon such
highe land as that Coast (all mens judgements in generall,) doth not yeeld,
had hee but taken the judiciall councell of Sir William Alexander, that setts
this thing forth in an exact and conclusive sentence; if hee be not too
obstinate? hee would graunt that worthy writer, that these people are sine
fide, sine lege, & sine rege,[244] and hee hath exemplified this thinge by a
familiar demonstration, which I have by longe experience observed to be
true.
And, me thinks, it is absurd to say they have a kinde of worship, and not
able to demonstrate whome or what it is they are accustomed to worship.
For my part I am more willing to beleeve that the Elephants (which are
reported to be the most intelligible of all beasts) doe worship the moone, for
the reasons {28} given by the author of this report, as Mr. Thomas May, the
minion of the Muses dos recite it in his continuation of Lucans historicall
poem,[245] rather then this man: to that I must bee constrained, to conclude
against him, and Cicero, that the Natives of New England have no worship
nor religion at all; and I am sure it has been so observed by those that neede
not the helpe of a wodden prospect for the matter.

Chap. VI.

Of the Indians apparrell.
The Indians in these parts do make their apparrell of the skinnes of severall
sortes of beastes, and commonly of those that doe frequent those partes
where they doe live; yet some of them, for variety, will have the skinnes of
such beasts that frequent the partes of their neighbors, which they purchase
of them by Commerce and Trade.
These skinnes they convert into very good lether, The Indians make
making the same plume and soft. Some of these good lether.
skinnes they dresse with the haire on, and some with
the haire off; the hairy side in winter time they weare next their bodies, and
in warme weather they weare the haire outwardes: they make likewise some
Coates of the Feathers of Turkies, which they weave together with twine of
their owne makinge, very prittily: these garments they weare like mantels
knit over {29} their shoulders, and put under their arme: they have likewise
another sort of mantels, made of Mose skinnes, which beast is a great large
Deere so bigge as a horse; these skinnes they commonly dresse bare, and
make them wondrous white, and stripe them with size Indians ingenious
round about the borders, in forme like lace set on by a workemen for their
Taylor, and some they stripe with size in workes of garments.
severall fashions very curious, according to the
severall fantasies of the workemen, wherein they strive to excell one
another: And Mantels made of Beares skinnes is an usuall wearinge, among
the Natives that live where the Beares doe haunt: they make shooes of Mose
skinnes, which is the principall leather used to that purpose; and for want of
such lether (which is the strongest) they make shooes of Deeres skinnes,
very handsomly and commodious; and, of such deeres skinnes as they
dresse bare, they make stockinges that comes within their shooes, like a
stirrop stockinge, and is fastned above at their belt, which is about their
middell; Every male, after hee attaines unto the age The modesty of the
which they call Pubes, wereth a belt about his middell, Indian men.
and a broad peece of lether that goeth betweene his
leggs and is tuckt up both before and behinde under that belt; and this they

weare to hide their secreats of nature, which by no meanes they will suffer
to be seene, so much modesty they use in that particular; those garments
they allwayes put on, when they goe a huntinge, to keepe their skinnes from
the brush of the Shrubbs: and when they have their Apparrell one they looke
like Irish in {30} their trouses, the Stockinges joyne so to their breeches. A
good well growne deere skin is of great account with them, and it must have
the tale on, or else they account it defaced; the tale being three times as long
as the tales of our English Deere, yea foure times so longe, this when they
travell is raped round about their body, and, with a Indians travaile with
girdle of their making, bound round about their materials to strike fire
middles, to which girdle is fastned a bagg, in which his at all times.
instruments be with which hee can strike fire upon any
occasion.[246]
Thus with their bow in their left hand, and their quiuer of Arrowes at their
back, hanging one their left shoulder with the lower end of it in their right
hand, they will runne away a dogg trot untill they come to their journey
end; and, in this kinde of ornament, they doe seeme to me to be hansomer
then when they are in English apparrell, their gesture being answerable to
their one habit and not unto ours.
Their women have shooes and stockinges to weare likewise when they
please, such as the men have, but the mantle they use to cover their
nakednesse with is much longer then that which the men use; for, as the
men have one Deeres skinn, the women have two soed together at the full
lenght, and it is so lardge that it trailes after them like a great Ladies trane;
and in time I thinke they may have their Pages to beare them up; and where
the men use but one Beares skinn for a Mantle, the women have two soed
together; and if any of their women would at any time shift one, they take
that which they intend to make use of, and {31} cast it over them round,
before they shifte away the other, for modesty, being unwilling to be seene
to discover their nakednesse; and the one being so cast The Indians ashamed
over, they slip the other from under them in a decent of their nakednesse.
manner, which is to be noted in people uncivilized;
therein they seeme to have as much modesty as civilized people, and
deserve to be applauded for it.[247]

Chap. VII.

Of their Child-bearing, and delivery, and what manner of
persons they are.
The women of this Country are not suffered to be used for procreation untill
the ripenesse of their age, at which time they weare a redd cap made of
lether, in forme like to our flat caps, and this they weare for the space of 12
moneths, for all men to take notice of them that have any minde to a wife;
and then it is the custome of some of their Sachems or Lords of the
territories, to have the first say or maidenhead of the females.[248] Very apt
they are to be with childe, and very laborious when they beare children;
yea, when they are as great as they can be: yet in that The women big with
case they neither forbeare laboure, nor travaile; I have child very laborious.
seene them in that plight with burthens at their backs
enough to load a horse; yet doe they not miscarry, but have a faire delivery,
and a quick: their women are very good midwifes, and the women very
lusty after {32} delivery, and in a day or two will travell or trudge about.[249]
Their infants are borne with haire on their heads, and are of complexion
white as our nation; but their mothers in their infancy Children bathed to
make a bath of Wallnut leaves, huskes of Walnuts, and staine the skinne.
such things as will staine their skinne for ever, wherein
they dip and washe them to make them tawny[250]; the coloure of their haire
is black, and their eyes black. These infants are carried at their mothers
backs by the help of a cradle made of a board forket at both ends, whereon
the childe is fast bound and wrapped in furres; his knees thrust up towards
his bellie, because they may be the more usefull for them when he sitteth,
which is as a dogge does on his bumme: and this cradle surely preserues
them better then the cradles of our nation, for as much as we finde them
well proportioned, not any of them crooked backed or wry legged: and to
give their charracter in a worde, they are as proper men and women for
feature and limbes as can be found, for flesh and bloud as active: longe
handed they are, (I never sawe a clunchfisted Salvadg amongst them all in
my time.)[251] The colour of their eies being so generally black made a
Salvage, that had a younge infant whose eies were gray, shewed him to us,

and said they were English mens eies; I tould the Father that his sonne was
nan weeteo, which is a bastard; hee replied titta Cheshetue squaa,[252]
which is, hee could not tell, his wife might play the whore; and this childe
the father desired might have an English name, because of the litenesse[253]
of his eies, which his father had in admiration because of novelty amongst
their nation.

{33} Chap. VIII.

Of their Reverence, and respect to age.
It is a thing to be admired, and indeede made a Age honoured among
president, that a Nation yet uncivilizied should more the Indians.
respect age then some nations civilized, since there are
so many precepts both of divine and humane writers extant to instruct more
Civill Nations: in that particular, wherein they excell, the younger are
allwayes obedient unto the elder people, and at their commaunds in every
respect without grummbling;[254] in all councels, (as therein they are
circumspect to do their acciones by advise and councell, and not rashly or
inconsiderately,) the younger mens opinion shall be heard, but the old mens
opinion and councell imbraced and followed: besides, as the elder feede and
provide for the younger in infancy, so doe the younger, after being growne
to yeares of manhood, provide for those that be aged: and in distribution of
Acctes the elder men are first served by their dispensator; and their counsels
(especially if they be powahs) are esteemed as oracles amongst the younger
Natives.
The consideration of these things, mee thinkes, should reduce some of our
irregular young people of civilized Nations, when this story shall come to
their knowledge, to better manners, and make them ashamed of their former
error in this kinde, and to {34} become hereafter more duetyfull; which I, as
a friend, (by observation having found,) have herein recorded for that
purpose.

Chap. IX.

Of their pretty conjuring tricks.
If we doe not judge amisse of these Salvages in accounting them witches,
yet out of all question we may be bould to conclude them to be but weake
witches, such of them as wee call by the names of Powahs: some
correspondency they have with the Devil out of al doubt, as by some of
their accions, in which they glory, is manifested. Papasiquineo,[255] that
Sachem or Sagamore, is a Powah of greate estimation amongst all kinde of
Salvages there: hee is at their Revels (which is the time when a great
company of Salvages meete from severall parts of the Country, in amity
with their neighbours) hath advaunced his honor in his feats or jugling
tricks (as I may right tearme them) to the admiration of the spectators,
whome hee endevoured to perswade that he would goe under water to the
further side of a river, to broade for any man to undertake with a breath,
which thing hee performed by swimming over, and deluding the company
with casting a mist before their eies that see him enter in and come out, but
no part of the way hee has bin seene: likewise by our English, in the heat of
all summer to make Ice appeare in a bowle of faire water; first, having the
water set before him, hee hath begunne his incantation according to their
usuall accustome, and before the same has bin ended a thick Clowde has
darkned the {35} aire and, on a sodane, a thunder clap hath bin heard that
has amazed the natives; in an instant hee hath shewed a firme peece of Ice
to flote in the middest of the bowle in the presence of the vulgar people,
which doubtles was done by the agility of Satan, his consort.
And by meanes of these sleights, and such like trivial things as these, they
gaine such estimation amongst the rest of the Salvages that it is thought a
very impious matter for any man to derogate from the words of these
Powahs. In so much as hee that should slight them, is thought to commit a
crime no lesse hainous amongst them as sacriledge is with us, as may
appeare by this one passage, which I wil set forth for an instance.
A neighbour of mine that had entertain’d a Salvage A Salvage entertained
into his service, to be his factor for the beaver trade a factor.
amongst his countrymen, delivered unto him divers

parcells of commodities fit for them to trade with; amongst the rest there
was one coate of more esteeme then any of the other, and with this his new
entertained marchant man travels amongst his countrymen to truck them
away for beaver: as our custome hath bin, the Salvage went up into the
Country amongst his neighbours for beaver, and returned with some, but
not enough answerable to his Masteers expectation, but being called to an
accompt, and especially for that one Coate of speciall note, made answer
that he had given that coate to Tantoquineo, a Powah: to which his master in
a rage cryed, what have I to doe with Tantoquineo? The Salvage, very angry
at the matter, cryed, what you speake? you are not a very good man; wil you
not give Tantoq. a coat? whats this? as if he had offered {36} Tantoquineo
the greatest indignity that could be devised: so great is the estimation and
reverence that these people have of these Iugling[256] Powahs, who are
usually sent for when any person is sicke and ill at ease to recover them, for
which they receive rewards as doe our Chirgeons and Phisitions; and they
doe make a trade of it, and boast of their skill where An Englishman cured
they come:[257] One amongst the rest did undertake to of a swelling.
cure an Englishman of a swelling of his hand for a
parcell of biskett, which being delivered him hee tooke the party greived
into the woods aside from company, and with the helpe of the devill, (as
may be conjectured,) quickly recovered him of that swelling, and sent him
about his worke againe.

Chap. X.

Of their duels, and the honourable estimation of victory
obtained thereby.
These Salvages are not apt to quarrell one with another: yet such hath bin
the occasion that a difference hath happened which hath growne to that
height that it has not bin reconciled otherwise then by combat, which hath
bin performed in this manner: the two champions prepared for the fight,
with their bowes in hand and a quiver full of arrowes How the Salvages
at their backs, they have entered into the field; the performe theire
Challenger and challenged have chosen two trees, duells.
standing within {37} a little distance of each other; they
have cast lotts for the cheife of the trees, then either champion setting
himselfe behinde his tree watches an advantage to let fly his shafts, and to
gall his enemy; there they continue shooting at each other; if by chaunce
they espie any part open, they endeavour to gall the combatant in that part,
and use much agility in the performance of the taske they have in hand.
Resolute they are in the execution of their vengeance, when once they have
begunne; and will in no wise be daunted, or seeme to shrinck though they
doe catch a clap with an arrow, but fight it out in this manner untill one or
both be slaine.
I have bin shewed the places where such duels have bin performed, and
have fuond the trees marked for a memoriall of the Combat, where that
champion hath stood that had the hap to be slaine in Trees marked where
the duell: and they count it the greatest honor that can they performe a duell.
be to the serviving Cumbatant, to shew the scares of
the wounds received in this kinde of Conflict, and if it happen to be on the
arme, as those parts are most in danger in these cases, they will alwayes
weare a bracelet upon that place of the arme, as a trophy of honor to their
dying day.

{38} Chap. XI.

Of the maintaining of their Reputation.
Reputation is such a thing that it keepes many men in awe, even amongst
Civilized nations, and is very much stood upon: it is (as one hath very well
noted) the awe of great men and of Kings. And, since I have observed it to
be maintained amongst Salvage people, I cannot chuse but give an instance
thereof in this treatise, to confirme the common receaved opinion thereof.
The Sachem or Sagamore of Sagus made choise, when hee came to mans
estate, of a Lady of noble discent, Daughter to Papasiquineo, the Sachem or
Sagamore of the territories neare Merrimack River, a man of the best note
and estimation in all those parts, and (as my Countryman Mr. Wood
declares in his prospect) a great Nigromancer; this A marriage.
Lady the younge Sachem with the consent and good
liking of her father marries, and takes for his wife.[258] Great entertainement
hee and his receaved in those parts at her fathers hands, where they weare
fested in the best manner that might be expected, according to the Custome
of their nation, with reveling and such other solemnities as is usuall
amongst them. The solemnity being ended, Papasiquineo causes a selected
number of his men to waite upon his Daughter home into those parts that
did properly belong to her Lord and husband; where the attendants had
entertainment by the Sachem of Sagus and his Countrymen: the solemnity
being ended, the attendants were gratified.
Not long after the new married Lady had a great {39} desire to see her father
and her native country, from whence shee came; her Lord willing to
pleasure her and not deny her request, amongst them thought to be
reasonable, commanded a selected number of his owne men to conduct his
Lady to her Father, wher, with great respect, they brought her; and, having
feasted there a while, returned to their owne country againe, leaving the
Lady to continue there at her owne pleasure, amongst her friends and old
acquaintance; where shee passed away the time for a while, and in the end
desired to returne to her Lord againe. Her father, the An ambassage sent
old Papasiquineo, having notice of her intent, sent from Papasiquineo to
some of his men on ambassage to the younge Sachem,

his sonne in law, to let him understand that his his sonne in law, a
Sachem.
daughter was not willing to absent her selfe from his
company any longer, and therfore, as the messengers had in charge, desired
the younge Lord to send a convoy for her; but hee, standing upon tearmes
of honor, and the maintaining of his reputation, returned to his father in law
this answere, that, when she departed from him, hee caused his men to
waite upon her to her fathers territories, as it did become him; but, now shee
had an intent to returne, it did become her father to send her back with a
convoy of his own people; and that it stood not with his reputation to make
himself or his men so servile, to fetch her againe. The old Sachem
Papasiquineo, having this message returned, was inraged to think that his
young son in law did not esteeme him at a higher rate then to capitulate
with him about the matter, and returne[d] him this sharpe reply; that his
daughters bloud and birth deserved more respect then to be so slighted; and,
therefore, if he would have her company, hee were best to send or come for
her.
{40} The younge Sachem, not willing to under value himselfe and being a
man of a stout spirit, did not stick to say that hee should either send her by
his owne Convey, or keepe her; for hee was determined not[259] to stoope so
lowe.
So much these two Sachems stood upon tearmes of reputation with each
other, the one would not send her, and the other would not send for her,
least it should be any diminishing of honor on his part that should seeme to
comply, that the Lady (when I came out of the Country) remained still with
her father; which is a thinge worth the noting, that Salvage people should
seeke to maintaine their reputation so much as they doe.

Chap. XII.

Of their trafficke and trade one with another.
Although these people have not the use of navigation, whereby they may
trafficke as other nations, that are civilized, use to doe, yet doe they barter
for such commodities as they have, and have a kinde Beads instead of
of beads, insteede of money, to buy withall such things Money.
as they want, which they call Wampampeak: and it is
of two sorts, the one is white, the other is of a violet coloure. These are
made of the shells of fishe. The white with them is as silver with us; the
other as our gould: and for these beads they buy and sell, not onely amongst
themselves, but even with us.
{41} We have used to sell them any of our commodities
The name of their
for this Wampampeak, because we know we can have beads Wampampeak.
beaver againe of them for it: and these beads are
currant in all the parts of New England, from one end of the Coast to the
other.
And although some have indevoured by example to have the like made of
the same kinde of shels, yet none hath ever, as yet, attained to any
perfection in the composure of them, but that the Salvages have found a
great difference to be in the one and the other; and have knowne the
counterfett beads from those of their owne making; and have, and doe slight
them.[260]
The skinnes of beasts are sould and bartered, to such people as have none of
the same kinde in the parts where they live.[261]
Likewise they have earthen potts of divers sizes, from a quarte to a gallon,
2. or 3. to boyle their vitels in; very stronge, though they be thin like our
Iron potts.
They have dainty wooden bowles of maple, of highe price amongst them;
and these are dispersed by bartering one with the other, and are but in
certaine parts of the Country made, where the severall trades are
appropriated to the inhabitants of those parts onely.

So likewise (at the season of the yeare) the Salvages that live by the Sea
side for trade with the inlanders for fresh water, reles curious silver reles,
[262]
which are bought up of such as have them not frequent in other places:
chestnuts, and such like usefull {42} things as one place affordeth, are sould
to the inhabitants of another, where they are a novelty accompted amongst
the natives of the land.[263] And there is no such thing to barter withall, as is
their Whampampeake.

Chap. XIII.

Of their Magazines or Storehowses.
These people are not without providence, though they be uncivilized, but
are carefull to preserve foede in store against winter; which is the corne that
they laboure and dresse in the summer. And, although What care they take to
they eate freely of it, whiles it is growinge, yet have lay up corne for
they a care to keepe a convenient portion thereof to winter.
releeve them in the dead of winter, (like to the Ant and
the Bee,) which they put under ground.
Their barnes are holes made in the earth, that will hold a Hogshead of corne
a peece in them. In these (when their corne is out of the huske and well
dried) they lay their store in greate baskets (which they make of Sparke[264])
with matts under, about the sides, and on the top; and putting it into the
place made for it, they cover it with earth: and in this manner it is preserved
from destruction or putrifaction; to be used in case of necessity, and not
else.[265]
[266]
{43} And I am perswaded, that if they knew the benefit of Salte (as they
may in time,) and the meanes to make salte meate fresh againe, they would
endeaver to preserve fishe for winter, as well as corne; and that if any thinge
bring them to civility, it will be the use of Salte, to have foode in store,
which is a cheife benefit in a civilized Commonwealth.
These people have begunne already to incline to the They begg Salte of the
use of Salte. Many of them would begge Salte of mee English.
for to carry home with them, that had frequented our
howses and had been acquainted with our Salte meats: and Salte I willingly
gave them, although I sould them all things else, onely because they should
be delighted with the use there of, and thinke it a commodity of no value in
it selfe, allthough the benefit was great that might be had by the use of it.

Chap. XIV.

Of theire Subtilety.
These people are not, as some have thought, a dull, or slender witted
people, but very ingenious, and very subtile. I could give maine instances to
maintaine mine opinion of them in this; but I will onely relate one, which is
a passage worthy to be observed.
[267]
{44} In the Massachussets bay lived Cheecatawback, the Sachem or
Sagamore of those territories, who had large dominions which hee did
appropriate to himselfe.
Into those parts came a greate company of Salvages from the territories of
Narohiganset, to the number of 100. persons; and in this Sachems
Dominions they intended to winter.
When they went a hunting for turkies they spreade over such a greate scope
of ground that a Turkie could hardily escape them: Deare they killed up in
greate abundance, and feasted their bodies very plentifully: Beavers they
killed by no allowance; the skinnes of those they traded away at
Wassaguscus with my neighboures[268] for corne, and They trade away
such other commodities as they had neede of; and my beavers skinnes for
neighboures had a wonderfull great benefit by their corne.
being in those parts. Yea, sometimes (like genious
fellowes) they would present their Marchant with a fatt beaver skinne,
alwayes the tayle was not diminished, but presented full and whole;
although the tayle is a present for a Sachem,[269] and is A beaver skinne with
of such masculaine vertue that if some of our Ladies his tayle on of great
knew the benefit thereof they would desire to have estimacion.
ships sent of purpose to trade for the tayle alone: it is
such a rarity, as is not more esteemed of then reason doth require.
But the Sachem Cheecatawbak, (on whose possessions they usurped, and
converted the commodities thereof to their owne use, contrary to his
likeing,) not being of power to resist them, practised to doe it by a subtile
stratagem. And to that end {45} gave it out amongst us, A subtile plot of a
that the cause why these other Salvages of the

Narohigansets came into these parts, was to see what Sachem.
strength we were of, and to watch an opportunity to
cut us off, and take that which they found in our custody usefull for them;
And added further, they would burne our howses, and that they had caught
one of his men, named Meshebro, and compelled him to discover to them
where their barnes, Magazines, or storehowses were, and had taken away
his corne; and seemed to be in a pittifull perplexity about the matter.
And, the more to adde reputation to this tale, desires that his wifes and
children might be harbered in one of our howses. This was graunted; and
my neighbours put on corslets, headpeeces, and weapons defensive and
offensive.
This thing being knowne to Cheecatawback, hee caused some of his men to
bring the Narohigansets to trade, that they might see the preparation. The
Salvage, that was a stranger to the plott, simply comming to trade, and
findding his merchants lookes like lobsters, all cladd in harnesse, was in a
maze to thinke what would be the end of it. Haste hee made to trade away
his furres, and tooke anything for them, wishing himselfe well rid of them
and of the company in the howse.
But (as the manner has bin) hee must eate some A Salvage scared.
furmety[270] before hee goe: downe hee sits and eats,
and withall had an eie on every side; and now and then saw a sword or a
dagger layd a thwart a head peece, which hee wondered at, and asked his
{46} giude whether the company were not angry. The guide, (that was privy
to his Lords plot) answered in his language that hee could not tell. But the
harmelesse Salvage, before hee had halfe filled his belly, started up on a
sodayne, and ranne out of the howse in such hast that hee left his furmety
there, and stayed not to looke behinde him who came after: Glad hee was
that he had escaped so.
The subtile Sachem, hee playd the tragedian, and fained a feare of being
surprised; and sent to see whether the enemies (as the Messenger termed
them) were not in the howse; and comes in a by way with his wifes and
children, and stopps the chinkes of the out howse, for feare the fire might be
seene in the night, and be a meanes to direct his enemies where to finde
them.

And, in the meane time, hee prepared for his Ambassador to his enemies a
Salvage,[271] that had lived 12. moneths in England, to the end it might adde
reputation to his ambassage. This man hee sends to A Salvage that had
those intruding Narohigansets, to tell them that they lived 12. Moneths in
did very great injury to his Lord, to trench upon his England sent for an
prerogatives: and advised them to put up their pipes, Ambassador.
and begon in time: if they would not, that his Lord would come upon them,
and in his ayd his freinds the English, who were up in armes already to take
his part, and compell them by force to be gone, if they refused to depart by
faire meanes.
This message, comming on the neck of that which {47} doubtlesse the
fearefull Salvage had before related of his escape, and what hee had
observed, caused all those hundred Narohigansets (that meant us no hurt) to
be gone with bagg, and baggage. And my neighboures were gulled by the
subtilety of this Sachem, and lost the best trade of A good opportunity of
beaver that ever they had for the time; and in the end traffick lost by the
found theire error in this kinde of credulity when it subtility of a Sachem.
was too late.

Chap. XV.

Of their admirable perfection, in the use of the sences.
This is a thinge not onely observed by mee and diverse of the Salvages of
New England, but, also, by the French men in Nova Francia, and therefore I
am the more incouraged to publish in this Treatice my observation of them
in the use of theire sences: which is a thinge that I should not easily have
bin induced to beleeve, if I my selfe had not bin an eie witnesse of what I
shall relate.
I have observed that the Salvages have the sence of The Salvages have the
seeing so farre beyond any of our Nation, that one sence of seeinge
would allmost beleeve they had intelligence of the better then the
Devill sometimes, when they have tould us of a shipp English.
at Sea, which they have seene {48} soener by one hower, yea, two howers
sayle, then any English man that stood by of purpose to looke out, their
sight is so excellent.
Their eies indeede are black as iett; and that coler is accounted the strongest
for sight. And as they excell us in this particular so much noted, so I thinke
they excell us in all the rest.
This I am sure I have well observed, that in the sence of smelling they have
very great perfection; which is confirmed by the opinion of the French that
are planted about Canada, who have made relation that they are so perfect
in the use of that sence, that they will distinguish between a Spaniard and a
Frenchman by the sent of the hand onely.[272] And I am Salvages that will
perswaded that the Author of this Relation has seene distinguish a
very probable reasons that have induced him to be of Spaniard from a
frenchman by the
that opinion; and I am the more willing to give credit smell of the hand.
thereunto, because I have observed in them so much as
that comes to.
I have seene a Deare passe by me upon a neck of Land, and a Salvage that
has pursued him by the view. I have accompanied him in this pursuite; and
the Salvage, pricking the Deare, comes where hee findes the view of two
deares together, leading several wayes. One, hee was sure, was fresh, but

which (by the sence of seeing) hee could not judge; A Deare pursued by
therefore, with his knife, hee diggs up the earth of one; the view of the foote,
and, by smelling, sayes, that was not of the fresh hee was found and
Deare: then diggs hee up the other; and viewing and killed.
smelling to that, concludes it to be the view of the fresh Deare, which hee
had pursued; and thereby followes the chase, and killes that {49} Deare, and
I did eate part of it with him: such is their perfection in these two sences.

Chap. XVI.

Of their acknowledgment of the Creation, and immortality of the
Soule.
Although these Salvages are found to be without Religion, Law, and King
(as Sir William Alexander hath well observed,[273]) yet are they not
altogether without the knowledge of God (historically); for they have it
amongst them by tradition that God made one man and one woman, and
bad them live together and get children, kill deare, beasts, birds, fish and
fowle, and what they would at their pleasure; and that their posterity was
full of evill, and made God so angry that hee let in the Sea upon them, and
drowned the greatest part of them, that were naughty men, (the Lord
destroyed so;) and they went to Sanaconquam, who The beleefe of the
feeds upon them (pointing to the Center of the Earth, Salvages.
where they imagine is the habitation of the Devill:) the
other, (which were not destroyed,) increased the world, and when they died
(because they were good) went to the howse of Kytan, pointing to the
setting of the sonne;[274] where they eate all manner of dainties, and never
take paines (as now) to provide it.
Kytan makes provision (they say) and saves them that The Sonne called
laboure; and there they shall live with him forever, {50} Kytan.
voyd of care.[275] And they are perswaded that Kytan
is hee that makes corne growe, trees growe, and all manner of fruits.
And that wee that use the booke of Common prayer doo it to declare to
them, that cannot reade, what Kytan has commaunded us, and that wee doe
pray to him with the helpe of that booke;[276] and doe make so much
accompt of it, that a Salvage (who had lived in my howse before hee had
taken a wife, by whome hee had children) made this request to mee,
(knowing that I allwayes used him with much more respect than others,)
that I would let his sonne be brought up in my howse, A Salvage desired to
that hee might be taught to reade in that booke: which have his sonn brought
request of his I granted; and hee was a very joyfull up to learne the booke
of common prayer.

man to thinke that his sonne should thereby (as hee said) become an
Englishman; and then hee would be a good man.
I asked him who was a good man; his answere was, hee that would not lye,
nor steale.
These, with them, are all the capitall crimes that can be imagined; all other
are nothing in respect of those;[277] and hee that is free from these must live
with Kytan for ever, in all manner of pleasure.

{51} Chap. XVII.

Of their Annals and funerals.
These people, that have by tradition some touch of the Their custom in
immortality of the soule, have likewise a custome to burryinge.
make some monuments over the place where the corps
is interred: But they put a greate difference betwene persons of noble, and
of ignoble, or obscure, or inferior discent. For, indeed, in the grave of the
more noble they put a planck in the bottom for the corps to be layed upon,
and on each side a plancke, and a plancke upon the top Their manner of
in forme of a chest, before they cover the place with Monuments.
earth. This done, they erect some thing over the grave
in forme of a hearse cloath, as was that of Cheekatawbacks mother, which
the Plimmouth planters defaced because they accounted it an act of
superstition; which did breede a brawle as hath bin before related;[278] for
they hold impious and inhumane to deface the monuments of the dead.
They themselves esteeme of it as piaculum; and have a custome amongst
them to keepe their annals and come at certaine times to lament and bewaile
the losse of their freind; and use to black their faces, which they so weare,
instead of a mourning ornament, for a longer or a At burrials, they black
shorter time according to the dignity of the person: so their faces.
is their annals kept and observed with their
accustomed solemnity. Afterwards they absolutely abandon the place,
because they suppose the sight thereof will but renew their sorrow.[279]
{52} It was a thing very offensive to them, at our first comming into those
parts, to aske of them for any one that had bin dead; but of later times it is
not so offensively taken to renew the memory of any deseased person,
because by our example (which they are apt to followe) it is made more
familiare unto them; and they marvell to see no monuments over our dead,
and therefore thinke no great Sachem is yet come into those parts, or not as
yet deade; because they see the graves all alike.

Chap. XVIII.

Of their Custome in burning the Country, and the reason
thereof.
The Salvages are accustomed to set fire of the Country in all places where
they come, and to burne it twize a yeare, viz: at the Spring, and the fall of
the leafe. The reason that mooves them to doe so, is because it would other
wise be so overgrowne with underweedes that it would The Salvages fire the
be all a coppice wood, and the people would not be Country twice a
able in any wise to passe through the Country out of a yeare.
beaten path.
The meanes that they do it with, is with certaine minerall stones, that they
carry about them in baggs made for that purpose of the skinnes of little
beastes, which they convert into good lether, carrying in the same a peece of
touch wood, very excellent {53} for that purpose, of their owne making.[280]
These minerall stones they have from the Piquenteenes, (which is to the
Southward of all the plantations in New England,) by trade and trafficke
with those people.
The burning of the grasse destroyes the underwoods, and so scorcheth the
elder trees that it shrinkes them, and hinders their grouth very much: so that
hee that will looke to finde large trees and good tymber, must not depend
upon the help of a woodden prospect to finde them on the upland ground;
[281]
but must seeke for them, (as I and others have done,) in the lower
grounds, where the grounds are wett, when the Country is fired, by reason
of the snow water that remaines there for a time, untill the Sunne by
continuance of that hath exhaled the vapoures of the earth, and dried up
those places where the fire, (by reason of the moisture,) can have no power
to doe them any hurt: and if he would endevoure to finde out any goodly
Cedars, hee must not seeke for them on the higher grounds, but make his
inquest for them in the vallies, for the Salvages, by this custome of theirs,
have spoiled all the rest: for this custome hath bin continued from the
beginninge.

And least their firing of the Country in this manner should be an occasion
of damnifying us, and indaingering our habitations, wee our selves have
used carefully about the same times to observe the winds, and fire the
grounds about our owne habitations; to prevent the Dammage that might
happen by any neglect thereof, if the fire should come neere those howses
in our absence.
{54} For, when the fire is once kindled, it dilates and spreads it selfe as well
against, as with the winde; burning continually night and day, untill a
shower of raine falls to quench it.
And this custome of firing the Country is the meanes to make it passable;
and by that meanes the trees growe here and there as in our parks: and
makes the Country very beautifull and commodious.

Chap. XIX.

Of their inclination to Drunkennesse.
Although Drunkennesse be justly termed a vice which the Salvages are
ignorant of, yet the benefit is very great that comes to the planters by the
sale of strong liquor to the Salvages, who are much taken with the delight of
it; for they will pawne their wits, to purchase the acquaintance of it. Yet in
al the commerce that I had with them, I never proffered them any such
thing; nay, I would hardly let any of them have a drame, unles hee were a
Sachem, or a Winnaytue, that is a rich man, or a man of estimation next in
degree to a Sachem or Sagamore. I alwayes tould them it was amongst us
the Sachems drinke. But they say if I come to the Northerne parts of the
Country I shall have no trade, if I will not supply them with lusty liquors: it
is the life of the trade in all those parts: for it so happened that thus a
Salvage desperately killed himselfe; when hee was drunke, a gunne being
charged and the cock up, hee sets the mouth to his brest, and, putting back
the tricker with his foote, shot himselfe dead.[282]

Chap. XX. {55}

That the Salvages live a contended life.
A Gentleman and a traveller, that had bin in the parts of New England for a
time, when hee retorned againe, in his discourse of the Country, wondered,
(as hee said,) that the natives of the land lived so poorely in so rich a
Country, like to our Beggers in England. Surely that Gentleman had not
time or leasure whiles hee was there truely to informe himselfe of the state
of that Country, and the happy life the Salvages would leade weare they
once brought to Christianity.
I must confesse they want the use and benefit of The Salvages want the
Navigation, (which is the very sinnus of a flourishing art of navigation.
Commonwealth,) yet are they supplied with all manner
of needefull things for the maintenance of life and lifelyhood. Foode and
rayment are the cheife of all that we make true use of; and of these they
finde no want, but have, and may have, them in a most plentifull manner.
[283]

If our beggers of England should, with so much ease as they, furnish
themselves with foode at all seasons, there would not be so many starved in
the streets, neither would so many gaoles be stuffed, or gallouses furnished
with poore wretches, as I have seene them.
{56} But they of this sort of our owne nation, that are fitt to goe to this
Canaan, are not able to transport themselves; and most of them unwilling to
goe from the good ale tap, which is the very loadstone of the lande by
which our English beggers steere theire Course; it is the Northpole to which
the flowre-de-luce of their compasse points. The more is the pitty that the
Commonalty of oure Land are of such leaden capacities as to neglect so
brave a Country, that doth so plentifully feede maine lusty and a brave, able
men, women and children, that have not the meanes that a Civilized Nation
hath to purchase foode and rayment; which that Country with a little
industry will yeeld a man in a very comfortable measure, without overmuch
carking.

I cannot deny but a civilized Nation hath the preheminence of an
uncivilized, by meanes of those instruments that are found to be common
amongst civile people, and the uncivile want the use of, to make themselves
masters of those ornaments that make such a glorious shew, that will give a
man occasion to cry, sic transit gloria Mundi.
Now since it is but foode and rayment that men that live needeth, (though
not all alike,) why should not the Natives of New England be sayd to live
richly, having no want of either? Cloaths are the badge of sinne; and the
more variety of fashions is but the greater abuse of the Creature: the beasts
of the forrest there doe serve to furnish them at any time when they please:
fish and flesh they have in greate abundance, which they both roast and
boyle.
{57} They are indeed not served in dishes of plate with variety of Sauces to
procure appetite; that needs not there. The rarity of the aire, begot by the
medicinable quality of the sweete herbes of the Country, alwayes procures
good stomakes to the inhabitants.
I must needs commend them in this particular, that, though they buy many
commodities of our Nation, yet they keepe but fewe, and those of speciall
use.
They love not to bee cumbered with many utensilles, and although every
proprietor knowes his owne, yet all things, (so long as they will last), are
used in common amongst them: A bisket cake given to one, that one
breakes it equally into so many parts as there be persons in his company,
and distributes it. Platoes Commonwealth is so much practised by these
people.
According to humane reason, guided onely by the light of nature, these
people leades the more happy and freer life, being They leade a happy
voyde of care, which torments the mindes of so many life, being voyd of
Christians: They are not delighted in baubles, but in care.
usefull things.
Their naturall drinke is of the Cristall fountaine, and this they take up in
their hands, by joyning them close together. They take up a great quantity at
a time, and drinke at the wrists. It was the sight of such a feate which made

Diogenes hurle away his dishe, and, like one that would have this principall
confirmed, Natura paucis contentat, used a dish no more.
{58} I have observed that they will not be troubled with superfluous
commodities. Such things as they finde they are taught by necessity to make
use of, they will make choise of, and seeke to purchase with industry. So
that, in respect that their life is so voyd of care, and they are so loving also
that they make use of those things they enjoy, (the wife onely excepted,) as
common goods, and are therein so compassionate that, They make use of
rather than one should starve through want, they would ordinary things, one
starve all. Thus doe they passe awaye the time merrily, of anothers as
not regarding our pompe, (which they see dayly before common.
their faces,) but are better content with their owne, which some men
esteeme so meanely of.
They may be rather accompted to live richly, wanting nothing that is
needefull; and to be commended for leading a contented life, the younger
being ruled by the Elder, and the Elder ruled by the Powahs, and the
Powahs are ruled by the Devill;[284] and then you may imagin what good
rule is like to be amongst them.
FINIS.

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN, {59}
OR
NEW CANAAN.

The second Booke.

Containing a description of the bewty of the Country with her
naturall indowements, both in the Land and Sea; with the great
Lake of Erocoise.

Chap. I.

The generall Survey of the Country.
N the Moneth of Iune, Anno Salutis 1622, it was my
chaunce to arrive in the parts of New England with 30.
Servants, and provision of all sorts fit for a plantation:
and whiles our howses were building, I did indeavour to
take a survey of the {60} Country: The more I looked,
the more I liked it. And when I had A famous Country.
more seriously considered of the
bewty of the place, with all her faire indowments, I did
not thinke that in all the knowne world it could be paralel’d, for so many
goodly groues of trees, dainty fine round rising hillucks, delicate faire large
plaines, sweete cristall fountaines, and cleare running streames that twine in

fine meanders through the meads, making so sweete a Their fountaines are
murmering noise to heare as would even lull the as cleare as Cristall.
sences with delight a sleepe, so pleasantly doe they
glide upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meete
and hand in hand runne downe to Neptunes Court, to pay the yearely tribute
which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the springs. Contained
within the volume of the Land, [are] Fowles in Greate store of
abundance, Fish in multitude; and [I] discovered, fowles, fish and
besides, Millions of Turtledoves one the greene turtledoves.
boughes, which sate pecking of the full ripe pleasant
grapes that were supported by the lusty trees, whose fruitfull loade did
cause the armes to bend: [among] which here and there dispersed, you
might see Lillies and of the Daphnean-tree: which made the Land to mee
seeme paradice: for in mine eie t’was Natures Masterpeece; Her cheifest
Magazine of all where lives her store: if this Land be not rich, then is the
whole world poore.
What I had resolved on, I have really performed; and I have endeavoured to
use this abstract as an instrument, to bee the meanes to communicate the
knowledge which I have gathered, by my many yeares residence in those
parts, unto my Countrymen: {61} to the end that they may the better perceive
their error, who cannot imagine that there is any Country in the universall
world which may be compared unto our native soyle. I will now discover
unto them a Country whose indowments are by learned men allowed to
stand in a paralell with the Israelites Canaan, which none will deny to be a
land farre more excellent then Old England, in her proper nature.
This I consider I am bound in duety (as becommeth a Christian man) to
performe for the glory of God, in the first place; next, (according to Cicero,)
to acknowledge that, Non nobis solum nati sumus, sed partim patria, partim
parentes, partim amici vindicant.[285]
For which cause I must approove of the indeavoures of my Country men,
that have bin studious to inlarge the territories of his Majesties empire by
planting Colonies in America.
And of all other, I must applaude the judgement of those that have made
choise of this part, (whereof I now treat,) being of all other most absolute,
as I will make it appeare hereafter by way of paralell. Among those that

have setled themselvs in new England, some have gone for their conscience
sake, (as they professe,) and I wish that they may plant the Gospel of Iesus
Christ, as becommeth them, sincerely and without satisme or faction,
whatsoever their former or present practises are, which I intend not to
justifie: howsoever, they have deserved (in mine opinion) some
commendationes, in that they have furnished the Country so commodiously
in so short a time; although it hath bin but for their owne profit, yet
posterity will taste the sweetnes of it, and that very sodainly.
{62} And since my taske, in this part of mine abstract, is to intreat of the
naturall indowments of the Country, I will make a breife demonstration of
them in order, severally, according to their severall qualities: and shew you
what they are, and what profitable use may be made of them by industry.

Chap. II.

What trees are there and how commodious.[286]
Oakes are there of two sorts, white and redd;[287] 1. Oake.
excellent tymber for the building both of howses and
shipping: and they are found to be a tymber that is more tough then the oak
of England. They are excellent for pipe-staves, and such like vessels; and
pipe-staves at the Canary Ilands are a prime commodity. I have knowne
them there at 35. p. the 1000,[288] and will purchase a fraight of wines there
before any commodity in England, their onely wood being pine, of which
they are enforced also to build shippinge; of oackes there is great
abundance in the parts of New England, and they may have a prime place in
the Catalogue of commodities.
Ashe[289] there is store, and very good for staves, oares 2. Ashe.
or pikes; and may have a place in the same Catalogue.
Elme: of this sort of trees there are some; but there 3. Elme.
hath not as yet bin found any quantity to speake of.
[290]
{63} Beech there is of two sorts, redd and white; 4. Beech.
very excellent for trenchers or chaires, and also for
oares; and may be accompted for a commodity.
Wallnutt: of this sorte of wood there is infinite store, 5. Walnutt.
and there are 4 sorts:[291] it is an excellent wood, for
many uses approoved; the younger trees are imployed for hoopes, and are
the best for that imployement of all other stuffe whatsoever. The Nutts serve
when they fall to feede our swine, which make them the delicatest bacon of
all other foode: and is therein a cheife commodity.
Chestnutt: of this sorte there is very greate plenty, the 6. Chestnuts.
tymber whereof is excellent for building; and is a very
good commodity, especially in respect of the fruit, both for man and beast.
Pine: of this sorte there is infinite store in some parts 7. Pine.
of the Country.[292] I have travelled 10. miles together

where is little or no other wood growing.[293] And of these may be made
rosin, pitch and tarre, which are such usefull commodities that if wee had
them not from other Countries in Amity with England, our Navigation
would decline. Then how great the commodity of it will be to our Nation, to
have it of our owne, let any man judge.
Cedar:[294] of this sorte there is abundaunce; and this 8. Cedar.
wood was such as Salomon used for the building of
that glorious Temple at Hierusalem; and there are of these Cedars, firre
trees and other materialls necessary for the building of many faire Temples,
[295]
if there were any Salomons to be at the Cost of them: and if any man
be desirous to finde out in what part of the {64} Country the best Cedars are,
he must get into the bottom grounds, and in vallies that are wet at the spring
of the yeare, where the moisture preserves them from the fire in spring time,
and not in a woodden prospect.[296] This wood cutts red, and is good for
bedsteads, tables and chests; and may be placed in the Catalogue of
Commodities.
Cypres:[297] of this there is great plenty; and vulgarly 9. Cypres.
this tree hath bin taken for another sort of Cedar; but
workemen put a difference betweene this Cypres, and the Cedar, especially
in the colour; for this is white and that redd white: and likewise in the
finenes of the leafe and the smoothnes of the barque. This wood is also
sweeter then Cedar, and, (as it is in Garrets[298] herball,) a more bewtifull
tree; it is of all other, to my minde, most bewtifull, and cannot be denied to
passe for a commodity.
Spruce[299]: of these there are infinite store, especially 10. Spruce.
in the Northerne parts of the Country; and they have
bin approoved by workemen in England to be more tough then those that
they have out of the east country: from whence wee have them for masts
and yards of shippes.
The Spruce of this country are found to be 3. and 4. The Spruce of this
fadum about: and are reputed able, single, to make Country are found to
masts for the biggest ship that sayles on the maine be 3. & 4. fadum
Ocean, without peesing; which is more than the East aboute.
country can afford.[300] And seeing that Navigation is the very sinneus of a

flourishing Commonwealth, it is fitting to allow the Spruce tree a principall
place in the Catalogue of commodities.
{65} Alder: of this sorte there is plenty by rivers sides,
11. Alder.
good for turners.
Birch: of this there is plenty in divers parts of the 12. Birch.
Country. Of the barck of these the Salvages of the
Northerne parts make them delicate Canowes, so light that two men will
transport one of them over Land whither[301] they list; and yet one of them
will transporte tenne or twelffe Salvages by water at a time.
Mayple:[302] of those trees there is greate abundance; 13. Maple.
and these are very excellent for bowles. The Indians
use of it to that purpose; and is to be accompted a good commodity.
Elderne:[303] there is plenty in that Country; of this the 14. Elderne.
Salvages make their Arrowes, and it hath no strong
unsavery sent like our Eldern in England.
Hawthorne: of this there is two sorts, one of which 15. Hawthorne.
beares a well tasting berry as bigg as ones thumbe, and
lookes like little Queene apples.
Vines: of this kinde of trees there are that beare grapes 16. Vines.
of three colours: that is to say, white, black and red.
[304]

The Country is so apt for vines, that, but for the fire at the spring of the
yeare, the vines would so over spreade the land that one should not be able
to passe for them;[305] the fruit is as bigg, of some, as a musket bullet, and is
excellent in taste.
Plumtrees:[306] of this kinde there are many; some that 17. Plummes.
beare fruit as bigg as our ordinary bullis: others there
be that doe beare fruite much bigger than peare plummes; their colour redd,
and their stones flat; very delitious in taste.
{66} Cheritrees there are abundance; but the fruit is as 18. Cherries.
small as our sloes; but if any of them were replanted

and grafted, in an orchard, they would soone be raised by meanes of such;
and the like fruits.
There is greate abundance of Muske Roses in divers 19. Roses.
places: the water distilled excelleth our Rosewater of
England.
There is abundance of Sassafras[307] and Sarsaperilla, 20. Sassafras and 21.
[308]
growing in divers places of the land; whose budds Sarsaperilla.
at the spring doe perfume the aire.
Other trees there are not greatly materiall to be recited in this abstract, as
goose berries, rasberies, and other beries.
There is Hempe[309] that naturally groweth, finer then our Hempe of
England.

Chap. III.

Potthearbes and other herbes for Sallets.
The Country there naturally affordeth very good pot-herbes and sallet
herbes, and those of a more maskuline vertue then any Potmarioram, Tyme,
of the same species in England; as Potmarioram, Alexander, Angellica,
Tyme, Alexander, Angellica, Pursland, Violets, and Pursland, Violets, and
Anniseeds, in very great abundance: and for the pott I Anniseeds.
gathered in summer, dried and crumbled into a bagg to preserve for winter
store.
{67} Hunnisuckles, balme, and divers other good Hunnisuckles and
herbes are there, that grow without the industry of Balme.
man, that are used when occasion serveth very
commodiously.[310]

Chap. IV.

Of Birds, and fethered fowles.[311]
Now that I have breifly shewed the Commodity of the trees, herbes, and
fruits, I will shew you a description of the fowles of the aire; as most proper
in ordinary course.
And first of the Swanne,[312] because shee is the Swannes.
biggest of all the fowles of that Country. There are of
them in Merrimack River, and in other parts of the country, greate store at
the seasons of the yeare.
The flesh is not much desired of the inhabitants, but the skinnes may be
accompted a commodity fitt for divers uses, both for fethers and quiles.
There are Geese of three sorts, vize: brant Geese[313] Geese, pide, white,
which are pide, and white Geese[314] which are bigger, and gray.
and gray Geese[315] which are as bigg and bigger then
the tame Geese of England, with black legges, black bills, heads and necks
black; the flesh farre more excellent then the Geese of England, wild or
tame; yet the purity of the aire is such that the biggest is accompted but an
indifferent meale for a couple of men. There is of them great abundance. I
have had often 1000. before the mouth of my gunne. I never saw any in {68}
England, for my part, so fatt as I have killed there in those parts; the fethers
of them makes a bedd softer then any down bed that I have lyen on, and is
there a very good commodity; the fethers of the Geese, Fethers pay for
that I have killed in a short time, have paid for all the powther and shott.
powther and shott I have spent in a yeare, and I have
fed my doggs with as fatt Geese there as I have euer fed upon my selfe in
England.
Ducks there are of three kindes, pide Ducks, gray Ducks pide, gray, &
Ducks, and black Ducks in greate abundance: the most black.
about my habitation were black Ducks:[316] and it was
a noted Custome at my howse, to have every mans Duck upon a trencher;

and then you will thinke a man was not hardly used: they are bigger
boddied then the tame Ducks of England: very fatt and dainty flesh.
The common doggs fees were the gibletts, unlesse they were boyled now
and than for to make broath.
Teales there are of two sorts, greene winged, and blew Teales, greene and
winged:[317] but a dainty bird. I have bin much blew.
delighted with a rost of these for a second course. I had
plenty in the rivers and ponds about my howse.
Widggens[318] there are, and abundance of other water Widggens.
foule, some such as I have seene, and [some] such as I
have not seene else where before I came into those parts, which are little
regarded.
Simpes[319] there are like our Simpes in all respects, Simpes.
with very litle difference. I have shot at them onely to
see what difference I could finde betweene them and those of my native
Country, and more I did not regard them.
{69} Sanderlings[320] are a dainty bird, more full Sanderlings.
boddied than a Snipe; and I was much delighted to
feede on them because they were fatt and easie to come by, because I went
but a stepp or to for them: and I have killed betweene foure and five dozen
at a shoot, which would loade me home.
Their foode is at ebbing water on the sands, of small seeds that grows on
weeds there, and are very good pastime in August.
Cranes[321] there are greate store, that ever more came Cranes.
there at S. Davids day, and not before: that day they
never would misse.
These sometimes eate our corne, and doe pay for their presumption well
enough; and serveth there in powther, with turnips, to supply the place of
powthered beefe, and is a goodly bird in a dishe, and no discommodity.
Turkies[322] there are, which divers times in great Turkies.
flocks have sallied by our doores; and then a gunne,
being commonly in a redinesse, salutes them with such a courtesie, as

makes them take a turne in the Cooke roome. They daunce by the doore so
well.
Of these there hath bin killed that have weighed forty eight pound a peece.
[323]

They are by mainy degrees sweeter then the tame Turkies of England, feede
them how you can.
I had a Salvage who hath taken out his boy in a morning, and they have
brought home their loades about noone.
{70} I have asked them what number they found in the woods, who have
[324]
answered Neent Metawna, which is a thosand that day; the plenty of
them is such in those parts. They are easily killed at rooste, because, the one
being killed, the other sit fast neverthelesse; and this is no bad commodity.
There are a kinde of fowles which are commonly Pheisants.
called Pheisants,[325] but whether they be pheysants or
no, I will not take upon mee to determine. They are in forme like our
pheisant henne of England. Both the male and the female are alike; but they
are rough footed, and have stareing fethers about the head and neck; the
body is as bigg as the pheysant henne of England; and are excellent white
flesh, and delicate white meate, yet we seldome bestowe a shoote at them.
Partridges[326] there are, much like our Partridges of Partridges bigger in
England; they are of the same plumes, but bigger in body as those of
body. They have not the signe of the horseshoe on the England.
brest, as the Partridges of England; nor are they
coloured about the heads as those are. They sit on the trees, for I have seene
40. in one tree at a time: yet at night they fall on the ground, and sit untill
morning so together; and are dainty flesh.
There are quailes[327] also, but bigger then the quailes Quailes bigger in
in England. They take trees also: for I have numbered body as those in
60. upon a tree at a time. The cocks doe call at the time England.
of the yeare, but with a different note from the cock
quailes of England.
The Larkes[328] there are like our Larkes of England in The Larkes sing not.
all respects: sauing that they do not use to sing at all.

{71} There are Owles of divers kindes: but I did never
Owles.
heare any of them whop as ours doe.
There are Crowes,[329] kights and rooks that doe differ The Crowes smell &
in some respects from those of England. The Crowes, tast of Muske in
which I have much admired what should be the cause, summer,
winter.
but not in

both smell and taste of Muske in summer, but not in
winter.
There are Hawkes in New England of 5. sorts;[330] and Hawkes of five sorts.
these of all other fether fowles I must not omitt to
speake of, nor neede I to make any Apology for my selfe concerning any
trespasse that I am like to make upon my judgement, concerning the nature
of them, having bin bred in so genious a way that I had the common use of
them in England: and at my first arrivall in those parts A Lannaret.
practised to take a Lannaret,[331] which I reclaimed,
trained and made flying in a fortnight, the same being a passenger at
Michuelmas. I found that these are most excellent Mettell, rank winged,
well conditioned, and not tickleish footed; and, having whoods, bels, luers,
and all things fitting, was desirous to make experiment of that kinde of
Hawke before any other.
And I am perswaded that Nature hath ordained them to be of a farre better
kinde then any that have bin used in England.[332] They have neither
dorre[333] nor worm to feed upon, (as in other parts of the world,) the
Country affording none; the use whereof in other parts makes the Lannars
there more bussardly[334] then they be in New England.
There are likewise Fawcons[335] and tassell gentles, Fawcons.
[336]
admirable well shaped birds; and they will tower
up {72} when they purpose to pray, and, on a sodaine when they esspie their
game, they will make such a cancellere that one would admire to behold
them. Some there are more black then any that have bin used in England.
The Tassell gent, (but of the least size,[337]) is an ornament for a person of
estimation among the Indians to weare in the knot of his lock, with the
traine upright, the body dried and stretched out. They take a great pride in
the wearing of such an ornament, and give to one of us, that shall kill them

one for that purpose, so much beaver as is worth three pounds sterling, very
willingly.
These doe us but little trespas, because they pray on such birds as are by the
Sea side, and not on our Chickens. Goshawkes there are, and Tassels.
The Tassels are short trussed bussards;[338] but the Goshawkes well
Goshawkes[339] are well shaped, but they are small; shaped.
some of white male, and some redd male, I have seene
one with 8. barres in the traine. These fall on our bigger poultry: the lesser
chicken, I thinke they scorne to make their pray of; for commonly the
Cocke goes to wrack. Of these I have seene many; and if they come to
trespasse me, I lay the law to them with the gunne, and take them dammage
fesant.
There are very many Marlins;[340] some very small, Marlins small and
and some so large as is the Barbary Tassell. greate.

I have often beheld these pretty birds, how they have scoured after the black
bird, which is a small sized Choffe[341] that eateth the Indian maisze.
Sparhawkes[342] there are also, the fairest and {73} best Sparhawkes.
shaped birds that I have ever beheld of that kinde those
that are litle, no use is made of any of them, neither are they regarded. I
onely tried conclusions with a Lannaret at first comming; and, when I found
what was in that bird, I turned him going; but, for so much as I have
observed of those birds, they may be a fitt present for a prince, and for
goodnesse too be preferred before the Barbary, or any other used in
Christendome; and especially the Lannars and Lannarets.
There is a curious bird to see to, called a hunning bird, A Hunning bird, is as
[343]
no bigger then a great Beetle; that out of question small as a Beetle. His
lives upon the Bee, which hee eateth and catcheth bill as sharp as a
needle point, and his
amongst Flowers: For it is his Custome to frequent fethers like silke.
those places. Flowers hee cannot feed upon by reason
of his sharp bill, which is like the poynt of a Spannish needle, but shorte.
His fethers have a glosse like silke, and, as hee stirres, they shew to be of a
chaingable coloure: and has bin, and is, admired for shape, coloure and size.

Chap. V.

Of the Beasts of the forrest.[344]
Now that I have made a rehearsall of the birds and fethered Fowles, which
participate most of aire, I will give you a description of the beasts; and shew
you what beasts are bred in those parts, and what my experience hath
gathered by observation of {74} their kinde and nature. I begin with the most
usefull and most beneficiall beast which is bredd in those parts, which is the
Deare.
There are in this Country three kindes of Deare, of Deare of 3. kindes.
which there are greate plenty, and those are very
usefull.
First, therefore, I will speake of the Elke, which the Mose or red deare.
Salvages call a Mose:[345] it is a very large Deare, with
a very faire head, and a broade palme, like the palme of a fallow Deares
horne, but much bigger, and is 6. footewide betweene the tipps, which grow
curbing downwards: Hee is of the bignesse of a great horse.
There have bin of them seene that has bin 18. Mose or deare greater
handfulls highe: hee hath a bunch of haire under his than a horse, the
jawes: hee is not swifte, but stronge and large in body, height of them 18.
hand fulles.
and longe legged; in somuch that hee doth use to
kneele, when hee feedeth on grasse.
Hee bringeth forth three faunes, or younge ones, at a They bringe forth
time; and, being made tame, would be good for three faunes at one
draught, and more usefull (by reason of their strength) time.
then the Elke of Raushea.[346] These are found very
frequent in the northerne parts of New England: their flesh is very good
foode, and much better then our redd Deare of England.
Their hids are by the Salvages converted into very They make good
good lether, and dressed as white as milke. lether of the hides of
Deare.
Of this lether the Salvages make the best shooes; and
use to barter away the skinnes to other Salvages that have none of that

kinde of bests in the parts where they live. Very good buffe may be made of
the {75} hids. I have seene a hide as large as any horse hide that can be
found. There is such abundance of them that the Salvages, at hunting time,
have killed of them so many, that they have bestowed six or seaven at a
time upon one English man whome they have borne affection to.
There is a second sort of Deare[347] (lesse then the redd The midling Deare or
Deare of England, but much bigger then the English fallow Deare.
fallow Deare) swift of foote, but of a more darke
coloure; with some griseld heares, when his coate is full growne in the
summer season; his hornes grow curving, with a croked beame, resembling
our redd Deare, not with a palme like the fallow Deare.
These bringe 3. fawnes at a time,[348] spotted like our fallow Deares fawnes;
the Salvages say, foure; I speake of what I know to be true, for I have killed
in February a doe with three fawnes in her belly, all heared, and ready to
fall; for these Deare fall their fawnes 2. moneths sooner then the fallow
Deare of England. There is such abundance of them that an hundred have
bin found at the spring of the yeare, within the compasse of a mile.
The Salvages take these in trappes made of their Trappes to catch the
naturall Hempe, which they place in the earth where Deare.
they fell a tree for browse; and when hee rounds the
tree for the browse, if hee tread on the trapp hee is horsed up by the legg, by
meanes of a pole that starts up and catcheth him.[349]
Their hides the Saluages use for cloathing, and will give for one hide killed
in season, 2. 3. or 4. beaver skinnes, which will yeild pounds a peece in that
Coun{76}try: so much is the Deares hide prised with them above the beaver.
I have made good merchandize of these. The flesh is farre sweeter then the
venison of England: and hee feedeth fatt and leane together, as a swine or
mutton, where as our Deare of England feede fatt on the out side: they doe
not croake at rutting time, nor spendle shafte, nor is their flesh discoloured
at rutting. Hee, that will impale ground fitting, may be brought once in the
yeare where with bats and men hee may take so many to put into that parke,
as the hides will pay the chardge of impaleinge. If all these things be well
considered, the Deare, as well as the Mose, may have a principall place in
the catalogue of commodities.

I for my part may be bould to tell you, that my howse The Humbles was the
was not without the flesh of this sort of Deare winter doggs fee.
nor summer: the humbles was ever my dogges fee,
which by the wesell[350] was hanged on the barre in the chimney, for his diet
only: for hee has brought to my stand a brace in a morning, one after the
other before sunne rising, which I have killed.
There is likewise a third sorte of deare,[351] lesse then Roe bucks or Rayne
the other, (which are a kinde of rayne deare,) to the Deare.
southward of all the English plantations: they are
excellent good flesh. And these also bring three fawnes at a time; and in this
particular the Deare of those parts excell all the knowne Deare of the whole
world.
On all these the Wolfes doe pray continually. The best Wolfes pray upon
meanes they have to escape the wolfes is by swimming Deare.
to Islands,[352] or necks of land, whereby {77} they
escape: for the wolfe will not presume to follow them untill they see them
over a river; then, being landed, (they wayting on the shore,) undertake the
water, and so follow with fresh suite.
The next in mine opinion fit to be spoaken of, is the Beaver.
Beaver;[353] which is a Beast ordained for land and
water both, and hath fore feete like a cunny, her hinder feete like a goese,
mouthed like a cunny, but short eared like a Serat. [He feeds on] fishe in
summer, and wood in winter; which hee conveyes to his howse built on the
water, wherein hee sitts with his tayle hanging in the water, which else
would over heate and rot off.
Hee cuts the bodies of trees downe with his fore-teeth, The Beavers cut
which are so long as a boares tuskes, and with the help downe trees, with his
of other beavers, (which hold by each others tayles like fore teeth.
a teeme of horses, the hindmost with the logg on his
shoulder stayed by one of his fore feete against his head,) they draw the
logg to the habitation appoynted, placing the loggs in a square; and so, by
pyling one uppon another, they build up a howse, which with boghes is
covered very strongly, and placed in some pond, to which they make a
damme of brush wood, like a hedge, so stronge that I have gone on the top
of it crosse the current of that pond. The flesh of this beast is excellent

foode. The fleece is a very choise furre, which, (before the Salvages had
commerce with Christians,) they burned of the tayle: this beast is of a
masculine vertue for the advancement of Priapus,[354] and is preserved for a
dish for the Sachems, or Sagamores; who are the princes of the people, but
not Kings, (as is fondly supposed.)
{78} The skinnes are the best marchantable commodity Beaver at 10. shil. a
that can be found, to cause ready money to be brought pound.
into the land, now that they are raised to 10. shillings a
pound.[355]
A servant of mine in 5. yeares was thought to have a In 5 yeares one man
1000. p. in ready gold gotten by beaver when hee gott together 1000 p.
dyed;[356] whatsoever became of it. And this beast may in good gold.
challenge preheminence in the Catalogue.
The Otter[357] of those parts, in winter season, hath a The Otter in winter
furre so black as jett; and is a furre of very highe price: hath a furre as black
a good black skinne is worth 3. or 4. Angels of gold. as Iett.
The Flesh is eaten by the Salvages: but how good it is I
cannot shew, because it is not eaten by our Nation. Yet is this a beast that
ought to be placed in the number amongst the Commodities of the Country.
The Luseran, or Luseret,[358] is a beast like a Catt, but The Luseran as bigg
so bigg as a great hound: with a tayle shorter then a as a hound.
Catt. His clawes are like a Catts. Hee will make a pray
of the Deare. His Flesh is dainty meat, like a lambe: his hide is a choise
furre, and accompted a good commodity.
The Martin[359] is a beast about the bignes of a Foxe. The Martin is about
His furre is chestnutt coloure: and of those there are the bignesse of a Fox.
greate store in the Northerne parts of the Country, and
is a good commodity.
The Racowne[360] is a beast as bigg, full out, as a Racowne.
Foxe, with a Bushtayle. His Flesh excellent foode: his
oyle precious for the Syattica:[361] his furre course, but the skinnes serve the
Salvages for coats, and is with those people of more esteeme then a coate of
beaver, {79} because of the tayles that (hanging round in their order) doe

adorne the garment, and is therefore so much esteemed of them. His fore
feete are like the feete of an ape; and by the print thereof, in the time of
snow, he is followed to his hole, which is commonly in a hollow tree; from
whence hee is fiered out, and so taken.
The Foxes are of two coloures; the one redd, the other The Foxes red and
gray:[362] these feede on fish, and are good furre:[363] gray.
they doe not stinke, as the Foxes of England, but their
condition for their pray is as the Foxes of England.
The Wolfes are of divers coloures;[364] some sandy The Wolfes of diverse
coloured, some griselled, and some black: their foode coloures.
is fish, which they catch when they passe up the rivers
into the ponds to spawne, at the spring time. The Deare are also their pray,
and at summer, when they have whelpes, the bitch will fetch a puppy dogg
from our dores to feede their whelpes with. They are fearefull Curres, and
will runne away from a man, (that meeteth them by chaunce at a banke
end,) as fast as any fearefull dogge.[365] These pray upon the Deare very
much. The skinnes are used by the Salvages, especially the skinne of the
black wolfe, which is esteemed a present for a prince there.
When there ariseth any difference betweene prince and The skin of a black
prince, the prince that desires to be reconciled to his wolfe a present for a
neighboring prince does endeavour to purchase it by prince.
sending him a black wolfes skinne for a present, and
the acceptance of such a present is an assurance of reconciliation betweene
them; and the {80} Salvages will willingly give 40. beaver skinnes for the
purchase of one of these black Wolfes skinnes:[366] and allthough the beast
himselfe be a discommodity, which other Countries of Christendome are
subject unto, yet is the skinne of the black wolfe worthy the title of a
commodity, in that respect that hath bin declared.
If I should not speake something of the beare,[367] I The Beares afraid of a
might happily leave a scruple in the mindes of some man.
effeminate persone who conceaved of more dainger in
them then there is cause. Therefore, to incourage them against all Feare and
Fortifie their mindes against needles danger, I will relate what experience
hath taught mee concerning them: they are beasts that doe no harme in

those parts; they feede upon Hurtleburies, Nuts and Fish, especially shell-
fish.
The Beare is a tyrant at a Lobster, and at low water will downe to the Rocks
and groape after them with great diligence.
Hee will runne away from a man as fast as a litle The Salvages seeing a
dogge. If a couple of Salvages chaunce to espie him at beare chase him like a
his banquet, his running away will not serve his turne, dogg and kill him.
for they will coate him, and chase him betweene them
home to theire howses, where they kill him, to save a laboure in carrying
him farre. His Flesh is esteemed venison, and of a better taste then beefe.
[368]

His hide is used by the Salvages for garments, and is more commodious
then discommodious; and may passe, (with some allowance,) with the rest.
The Muskewashe[369] is a beast that frequenteth the Muskewashe.
ponds. What hee eats I cannot finde. Hee is {81} but a
small beast, lesse then a Cunny, and is indeede in those parts no other then a
water Ratte; for I have seene the suckers of them digged out of a banke, and
at that age they neither differed in shape, coloure, nor size, from one of our
greate Ratts. When hee is ould, hee is of the Beavers coloure; and hath
passed in waite with our Chapmen for Beaver.
The Male of them have stones, which the Salvages, in uncaseing of them,
leave to the skinne, which is a most delicate perfume, and may compare
with any perfume that I know for goodnesse: Then may not this be excluded
the Catalogue.
This Country, in the North parts thereof, hath many Porcupines.
Porcupines,[370] but I doe not finde the beast any way
usefull or hurtfull.
There are in those Northerne parts many Hedgehoggs, Hedghoggs.
of the like nature to our English Hedghoggs.[371]
Here are greate store of Conyes[372] in those parts, of Conyes of severall
divers coloures; some white, some black, and some sorts.
gray. Those towards the Southerne parts are very
small, but those to the North are as bigg as the English Cony: their eares are

very short. For meate the small rabbit is as good as any that I have eaten of
else where.
There are Squirils of three sorts,[373] very different in Squirils of three sorts.
shape and condition; one[374] is gray, and hee is as bigg
as the lesser Cony, and keepeth the woods, feeding upon nutts.
Another is red, and hee haunts our howses and will rob us of our Corne; but
the Catt many times payes him the price of his presumption.
{82} The third is a little flying Squirill, with batlike A Flying Squirill.
winges, which hee spreads when hee jumpes from tree
to tree, and does no harme.
Now because I am upon a treaty of the beasts, I will Snakes.
place this creature, the snake, amongst the beasts,
having my warrant from the holy Bible; who, (though his posture in his
passage be so different from all other, being of a more subtile and aidry
nature, that hee can make his way without feete, and lifte himselfe above
the superficies of the earth, as hee glids along,) yet may hee not bee ranked
with any but the beasts, notwithstanding hee frequents the water, as well as
the land.
There are of Snakes divers and of severall kindes, as be with us in England;
but that Country hath not so many as in England have bin knowne.[375]
The generall Salvage name of them is Ascowke.[376]
There is one creeping beast or longe creeple, (as the The rattle Snakes.
name is in Devonshire,) that hath a rattle at his tayle
that does discover his age; for so many yeares as hee hath lived, so many
joynts are in that rattle, which soundeth (when it is in motion,) like pease in
a bladder; and this beast is called a rattle Snake; but the Salvages give him
the name of Sesick,[377] which some take to be the Adder; and it may well
be so, for the Salvages are significiant in their denomination of any thing,
and [it] is no lesse hurtfull than the Adder of England, nor no more. I have
had my dogge venomed with troubling one of these, and so swelled that I
had thought it would have bin his death: but with one Saucer of Salet oyle
powred downe his throate he {83} has recovered, and the swelling asswaged
by the next day. The like experiment hath bin made upon a boy that hath by

chaunce troad upon one of these, and the boy never the worse. Therefore it
is simplicity in any one that shall tell a bugbeare tale of horrible, or terrible
Serpents, that are in that land.[378]
Mise there are good store, and my Lady Woodbees Mise.
black gray-malkin may have pastime enough there: but
for Rats, the Country by Nature is troubled with none.[379]
Lyons there are none in New England:[380] it is Lyons alwaies in hot
contrary to the Nature of the beast to frequent places Clymats, not in cold.
accustomed to snow; being like the Catt, that will
hazard the burning of her tayle rather than abide from the fire.

Chap. VI.

Of Stones and Minerals.[381]
Now, (for as much as I have in a breife abstract shewed you the Creatures
whose specificall Natures doe simpathise with the elements of fire and
aire,) I will come to speake of the Creatures that participate of earth more
then the other two, which is stones.
And first of the Marble for building; whereof there is Marble.
much in those parts, in so much there is one bay in the
land that beareth the name of Marble harber, because of the plenty of
Marble there:[382] and these {84} are usefull for building of Sumpteous
Pallaces.
And because no good building can be made Limestone.
permanent, or durable, without Lime, I will let you
understand that there is good Limestone neere to the river of Monatoquinte,
[383]
at Uttaquatock,[384] to my knowledge; and we hope other places too,
(that I have not taken so much notice of,) may have the like, or better: and
those stones are very convenient for building.
Chalke stones there are neere Squantos Chappell,[385] Chalk.
shewed me by a Salvage.
There is abundance of excellent Slate[386] in divers Slate.
places of the Country; and the best that ever I beheld
for covering of howses: and the inhabitants have made good use of these
materials for building.
There is a very usefull Stone in the Land, and as yet Whetstones.
there is found out but one place where they may be
had, in the whole Country: Ould Woodman, (that was choaked at
Plimmouth after hee had played the unhappy Markes man when hee was
pursued by a carelesse fellow that was new come into the Land,) they say
laboured to get a patent of it to himselfe. Hee was beloved of many, and had
many sonnes that had a minde to engrosse that commodity. And I cannot
spie any mention made of it in the woodden prospect.[387]

Therefore I begin to suspect his aime, that it was for himselfe; and therefore
will I not discover it: it is the Stone so much commended by Ovid, because
love delighteth to make his habitation in a building of those materials,
where hee advises those that seeke for love to doe it, Duris in Cotibus illum.
[388]

This stone the Salvages doe call Cos;[389] {85} and of these, (on the North
end of Richmond Iland,) are store, and those are very excellent good for
edg’d tooles.[390] I envy not his happinesse. I have bin there:[391] viewed the
place: liked the commodity: but will not plant so Northerly for that, nor any
other commodity that is there to be had.
There are Loadestones[392] also in the Northerne parts Loadstones.
of the land: and those which were found are very good,
and are a commodity worth the noteing.
Iron stones[393] there are abundance: and severall sorts Ironstones.
of them knowne.
Lead ore[394] is there likewise, and hath bin found by Lead.
the breaking of the earth, which the Frost hath made
mellow.
Black Leade[395] I have likewise found very good, Blacklead.
which the Salvages use to paint their faces with.
Red Leade[396] is there likewise in great abundance. Read lead.

There is very excellent Boll Armoniack.[397] Boll.
[398]
There is most excellent Vermilion. All these things
Vermilion.
the Salvages make some litle use of, and doe finde
them on the circumference of the Earth.
Brimstone[399] mines there are likewise. Brimstone.

Mines of Tinne[400] are likewise knowne to be in those Tinne.
parts: which will in short time be made use of: and this
cannot be accompted a meane commodity.
Copper mines[401] are there found likewise, that will Copper.
enrich the Inhabitants. But untill theire younge Cattell

be growne hardy labourers in the yoake, that the Plough and the Wheate
may be seene more plentifully, it is a worke must be forborne.
[402]
{86} They say there is a Silver, and a gold mine Silver.
[403]
found by Captaine Littleworth: if hee get a patent
of it to himselfe hee will surely change his name.

Chap. VII.

Of the Fishes, and what commodity they proove.[404]
Among Fishes, first I will begin with the Codd, because it is the most
commodious of all fish, as may appeare by the use which is made of them
in forraigne parts.
The Codd fishing is much used in America, (whereof Codd.
New England is a part,) in so much as 300. Sayle of
shipps, from divers parts, have used to be imployed yearely in that trade.
I have seene in one Harboure,[405] next Richmond 15. Shipps at one time
Iland, 15. Sayle of shipps at one time, that have taken for Codd.
in them driyed Codds for Spaine and the Straights, and
it has bin found that the Saylers have made 15. 18. 20. 22. p. share for a
common man.
The Coast aboundeth with such multitudes of Codd[406] that the inhabitants
of New England doe dunge their grounds with Codd; and it is a commodity
better than the golden mines of the Spanish Indies; for without dried Codd
the Spaniard, Portingal and Italian would not be able to vittel of a shipp for
the Sea; and I am sure at the Canaries it is the principall commodity: which
place lyeth neere New Eng{87}land, very convenient for the vending of this
commodity, one hundred of these being at the price of 300. of New found
land Codds: greate store of traine oyle[407] is mayd of Oyle mayd of the
the livers of the Codd, and is a commodity that without livers of the Codd.
question will enrich the inhabitants of New England
quicly; and is therefore a principall commodity.
The Basse[408] is an excellent Fish, both fresh and A 100 Basse sould for
Salte; one hundred whereof salted, (at a market,) have 5. p.
yeilded 5. p. They are so large, the head of one will
give a good eater a dinner; and for daintinesse of diet they excell the Mary-
bones of Beefe. There are such multitudes, that I have seene stopped into
the river close adjoyning to my howse, with a sand at one tide, so many as
will loade a ship of a 100. Tonnes.

Other places have greater quantities, in so much as wagers have bin layed
that one should not throw a stone in the water but that hee should hit a fish.
I my selfe, at the turning of the tyde, have seene such multitudes passe out
of a pound, that it seemed to mee that one might goe over their backs
drishod.
These follow the bayte up the rivers, and sometimes are followed for bayte
and chased into the bayes, and shallow waters, by the grand pise:[409] and
these may have also a prime place in the Catalogue of Commodities.
The Mackarels are the baite for the Basse, and these Mackarell are baite
have bin chased into the shallow waters where so for Basse.
many thousands have shott themselves a shore with the
surfe of the Sea, that whole hogges-heads have bin taken up on the Sands;
and for length, they excell {88} any of other parts: they have bin measured
18. and 19. inches in length and seaven in breadth: and are taken with a
drayle,[410] (as boats use to passe to and froe at Sea on businesse,) in very
greate quantities all alonge the Coaste.
The Fish is good, salted, for store against the winter, as well as fresh; and to
be accounted a good Commodity.
This Sturgeon in England is regalis piscis;[411] every Sturgeon.
man in New England may catch what hee will: there
are multitudes of them, and they are much fatter then those that are brought
into England from other parts, in so much as by reason of their fatnesse they
doe not looke white, but yellow, which made a Cooke presume they were
not so good as them of Roushea: silly fellow that could not understand that
it is the nature of fish salted, or pickelled, the fatter the yellower being best
to preserve.[412]
For the taste, I have warrant of Ladies of worth, with choise pallats for the
commendations, who liked the taste so well that they esteemed it beyond
the Sturgeon of other parts, and sayd they were deceaved in the lookes:
therefore let the Sturgeon passe for a Commodity.
Of Salmons there is greate abundance: and these may Salmon.
be allowed for a Commodity, and placed in the
Catallogue.

Of Herrings there is greate store, fat and faire: and, (to Herrings.
my minde,) as good as any I have seene; and these
may be preserved, and made a good commodity at the Canaries.
{89} Of Eeles there is abundance, both in the Salt-
Great plenty of Eeles.
waters and in the fresh: and the fresh water Eele there,
(if I may take the judgement of a London Fishmonger,) is the best that hee
hath found in his life time. I have with 2.[413] eele potts found my
howsehold, (being nine persons, besides doggs,) with them, taking them
every tide, (for 4. moneths space,) and preserving of them for Winter store:
[414]
and these may proove a good commodity.
Of Smelts there is such abundance that the Salvages Smelts.
doe take them up in the rivers with baskets, like sives.
There is a Fish, (by some called shadds, by some Shadds or Allizes
allizes,)[415] that at the spring of the yeare passe up the taken to dunge
rivers to spaune in the ponds; and are taken in such ground.
multitudes in every river, that hath a pond at the end,
that the Inhabitants doung their ground with them. You may see in one
towneship a hundred acres together set with these Fish, every acre taking
1000. of them: and an acre thus dressed will produce and yeald so much
corne as 3. acres without fish: and, least any Virginea man would inferre
hereupon that the ground of New England is barren, because they use no
fish in setting their corne, I desire them to be remembred the cause is
plaine, in Virginea they have it not to sett. But this practise is onely for the
Indian Maize, (which must be set by hands,) not for English graine: and this
is therefore a commodity there.
There is a large sized fish called Hallibut, or Turbut: Turbut or Hallibut.
[416]
some are taken so bigg that two men have much a
doe to hale them into the boate; but there is {90} such plenty, that the fisher
men onely eate the heads and finnes, and throw away the bodies: such in
Paris would yeeld 5. or 6. crownes a peece: and this is no discommodity.
There are excellent Plaice,[417] and easily taken. They, Plaice.
(at flowing water,) do almost come ashore, so that one
may stepp but halfe a foote deepe and prick them up on the sands and this
may passe with some allowance.

Hake[418] is a dainty white fish, and excellent vittell Hake.
fresh; and may passe with other commodities, because
there are multitudes.
There are greate store of Pilchers:[419] at Michelmas, in Pilchers.
many places, I have seene the Cormorants[420] in
length 3. miles feedinge upon the Sent.
Lobsters are there infinite in store in all the parts of the Lobsters.
land, and very excellent. The most use that I made of
them, in 5. yeares after I came there, was but to baite my Hooke for to catch
Basse; I had bin so cloyed with them the first day I went a shore.
This being knowne, they shall passe for a commodity to the inhabitants; for
the Salvages will meete 500, or 1000. at a place where Lobsters come in
with the tyde, to eate, and save dried for store; abiding in that place,
feasting and sporting, a moneth or 6. weekes together.[421]
There are greate store of Oysters in the entrance of all Oysters.
Rivers: they are not round as those of England, but
excellent fat, and all good. I have seene an Oyster banke a mile at length.
Mustles there are infinite store; I have often gon {91} to Mustles.
Wassaguscus, where were excellent Mustles, to eate
for variety, the fish is so fat and large.[422]
Clames is a shellfish, which I have seene sold in Clames.
Westminster for 12. pe. the skore. These our swine
feede upon, and of them there is no want; every shore is full; it makes the
swine proove exceedingly, they will not faile at low water to be with them.
The Salvages are much taken with the delight of this fishe, and are not
cloyed, notwithstanding the plenty: for our swine we finde it a good
commodity.
Rarer fishes there are. Rarer fish.

Freeles there are, Cockles and Scallopes;[423] and Freele.
divers other sorts of Shellfishe, very good foode.
Now that I have shewed you what commodities are there to be had in the
Sea, for a Market; I will shew what is in the Land, also, for the comfort of

the inhabitants, wherein it doth abound. And because my taske is an
abstract, I will discover to them the commodity thereof.
There are in the rivers, and ponds, very excellent Fresh fish, Trouts,
Trouts, Carpes, Breames, Pikes, Roches, Perches, Carpes, Breames,
Pikes, Roches,
Tenches, Eeles, and other fishes such as England doth Perches, Tenches, and
afford, and as good for variety; yea, many of them Eeles.
much better; and the Natives of the inland parts doe
buy hookes of us, to catch them with: and I have knowne the time that a
Trouts hooke hath yeelded a beaver skinne, which hath bin a good
commodity to those that have bartered them away.
These things I offer to your consideration, (curteous Reader,) and require
you to shew mee the like in any part of the knowne world, if you can.

{92} Chap. VIII.

Of the goodnes of the Country and the Waters.
Now since it is a Country so infinitely blest with Foode and Fire.
foode, and fire, to roast or boyle our Flesh and Fish,
why should any man feare for cold there, in a Country warmer in the winter
than some parts of France, and neerer the Sunne: unles hee be one of those
that Salomon bids goe to the Ant and the Bee.
There is no boggy ground knowne in all the Country, Noe Boggs.
from whence the Sunne may exhale unwholsom
vapors: But there are divers arematicall herbes and Perfumed aire with
plants, as Sassafras, Muske Roses, Violets, Balme, sweet herbes.
Lawrell, Hunnisuckles, and the like, that with their
vapors perfume the aire; and it has bin a thing much observed that shipps
have come from Virginea where there have bin scarce five men able to hale
a rope, untill they have come within 40. Degrees of latitude and smell the
sweet aire of the shore, where they have suddainly recovered.[424]
And for the water, therein it excelleth Canaan by Of Waters.
much; for the Land is so apt for Fountaines, a man
cannot digg amisse: therefore if the Abrahams and Lots of our times come
thether, there needs be no contention for wells.
Besides there are waters of most excellent vertues, worthy admiration.
[425]
{93} At Ma-re-Mount there was a water, (by mee The Cure of
discovered,) that is most excellent for the cure of mellancolly at
Melancolly probatum. Maremount.

At Weenasemute is a water, the vertue whereof is to The cure of
cure barrennesse. The place taketh his name of that Barrennesse.
Fountaine which signifieth quick spring, or quickning
spring probatum.[426]
Neere Squantos Chappell,[427] (a place so by us Water procuring a
called,) is a Fountaine that causeth a dead sleepe for dead sleepe.
48. howres to those that drinke 24. ounces at a draught,

and so proportionably. The Salvages, that are Powahs, at set times use it,
and reveale strang things to the vulgar people by meanes of it. So that in the
delicacy of waters, and the conveniency of them, New Engl. excels
Canaan came not neere this Country. Canaan in fountaines.

As for the Milke and Hony, which that Canaan flowed Milke and Hony
with, it is supplyed by the plenty of birds, beasts and supplied.
Fish; whereof Canaan could not boast her selfe.
Yet never the lesse, (since the Milke came by the A plain paralell to
industry of the first Inhabitants,) let the cattell be Canaan.
chereshed that are at this time in New England, and
forborne but a litle, I will aske no long time, no more but untill the Brethren
have converted one Salvage and made him a good Christian, and I may be
bold to say Butter and cheese will be cheaper there then ever it was in
Canaan. It is cheaper there then in old England at this present; for there are
store of Cowes, considering the people, which, (as my intelligence gives,) is
12000.[428] persons: and in gods name let the people have their desire, who
write to their freinds to come out of Sodome to the land of Canaan, a land
that flowes with Milke and Hony.
{94} And I appeale to any man of judgement, whether it
The Request for the
be not a Land that for her excellent indowments of Nomination of New
Nature may passe for a plaine paralell to Canaan of Canaan.
Israell, being in a more temporat Climat, this being in
40. Degrees and that in 30.

Chap. IX.

A Perspective to view the Country by.
As for the Soyle, I may be bould to commend the The Soyle.
fertility thereof, and preferre it before the Soyle of
England, (our Native Country); and I neede not to produce more then one
argument for proffe thereof, because it is so infallible.
Hempe is a thing by Husband men in generall ageed The grouth of Hempe.
upon to prosper best in the most fertile Soyle: and
experience hath taught this rule, that Hempe seede prospers so well in New
England that it shewteth up to be tenne foote high and tenne foote and a
halfe, which is twice so high as the ground in old England produceth it;
which argues New England the more fertile of the two.[429]
As for the aire, I will produce but one proffe for the The aire.
maintenance of the excellency thereof; which is so
generall, as I assure myselfe it will suffice.
No man living there was ever knowne to be troubled No cold cough or
with a cold, a cough, or a murre; but many men, murre.
comming sick out of Virginea to New Canaan have
instantly recovered with the helpe of the purity {95} of that aire;[430] no man
ever surfeited himselfe either by eating or drinking.
As for the plenty of that Land, it is well knowne that The plenty of the
no part of Asia, Affrica or Europe affordeth deare that Land.
doe bring forth any more then one single faune; and in
New Canaan the Deare are accustomed to bring forth 2. and 3. faunes at a
time.[431]
Besides, there are such infinite flocks of Fowle and Multitudes of fish, both
in the fresh waters and also on the Coast, that the like hath not else where
bin discovered by any traveller.
The windes there are not so violent as in England; Windes.
which is prooved by the trees that grow in the face of

the winde by the Sea Coast; for there they doe not leane from the winde as
they doe in England: as we have heard before.[432]
The Raine is there more moderate then in England; Raine.
which thing I have noted in all the time of my
residence to be so.
The Coast is low Land, and not high Land: and hee is The Coast.
of a weake capacity that conceaveth otherwise of it,
because it cannot be denied but that boats may come a ground in all places
along the Coast, and especially within the Compas of the Massachusets
patent, where the prospect is fixed.[433]
The Harboures are not to be bettered for safety and Harboures.
goodnesse of ground, for ancorage, and, (which is
worthy observation,) shipping will not there be furred; neither are they
subject to wormes, as in Virginea and other places.
{96} Let the Scituation also of the Country be Scituation.
considered, (together with the rest which is discovered
in the front of this abstract,) and then I hope no man will hold this land
unworthy to be intituled by the name of the second Canaan.
And, since the Seperatists are desirous to have the The Nomination.
denomination thereof, I am become an humble Suter
on their behalfe for your consents, (courteous Readers,) to it, before I doe
shew you what Revels they have kept in New Canaan.[434]

Chap. X.

Of the Great Lake of Erocoise in New England, and the
commodities thereof.
Westwards from the Massachusetts bay, (which lyeth in 42. Degrees and 30.
Minutes of Northerne latitude,) is scituated a very spacious Lake, (called of
the Natives the Lake of Erocoise[435]) which is farre more excellent then the
Lake of Genezereth, in the Country of Palestina, both in respect of the
greatnes and properties thereof, and likewise of the manifould commodities
it yealdeth: the circumference of which Lake is reputed to be 240. miles at
the least: and it is distant from the Massachussetts bay 300. miles, or there
abouts:[436] wherein are very many faire Islands, where Fowle innumerable.
innumerable flocks of severall sorts of Fowle doe
breede, Swannes, Geese, Ducks, Widgines, Teales, and other water Fowle.
{97} There are also more abundance of Beavers, Deare and Turkies breed
about the parts of that lake then in any place in all the Country of New
England; and also such multitudes of fish, (which is a Multitudes of Fish.
great part of the foode that the Beavers live upon,) that
it is a thing to be admired at: So that about this Lake is The prime place of
the principallst place for a plantation in all New New Canaan.
Canaan, both for pleasure and proffit.
Here may very many brave Townes and Citties be erected, which may have
intercourse one with another by water, very commodiously: and it is of
many men of good judgement accounted the prime seate for the Metropolis
of New Canaan.[437] From this Lake, Northwards, is derived the famous
River of Canada, (so named of Monsier de Cane,[438] a Canada, so named of
French Lord that first planted a Colony of French in Monsier de Cane.
America, there called Nova Francia,) from whence
Captaine Kerke[439] of late, by taking that plantation, brought home in one
shipp, (as a Seaman of his Company reported in my hearing,) 25000.
Beaver skinnes.[440]
And from this Lake, Southwards, trends that goodly Patomack.
River, called of the Natives Patomack, which

dischardgeth herselfe in the parts of Virginea; from whence it is navigable
by shipping of great Burthen up to the Falls, (which lieth in 41. Degrees and
a halfe of North latitude,) and from the Lake downe to the Falls by a faire
current. This River is navigable for vessels of good Burthen; and thus much
hath often bin related by the Natives, and is of late found to be certaine.[441]
{98} They have also made description of great heards Great heards of
of well growne beasts, that live about the parts of this Beasts as bigg as
Lake, such as the Christian world, (untill this Cowes.
discovery,) hath not bin made acquainted with. These
beasts are of the bignesse of a Cowe; their Flesh being very good foode,
their hides good lether, their fleeces very usefull, being a kinde of wolle as
fine almost as the wolle of the Beaver; and the Salvages doe make garments
thereof.
It is tenne yeares since first the relation of these things came to the eares of
the English: at which time wee were but slender proficients in the language
of the Natives, and they, (which now have attained to more perfection of
English,) could not then make us rightly apprehend their meaninge.[442]
Wee supposed, when they spake of Beasts thereabouts as high as men, they
have made report of men all over hairy like Beavers, in so much as we
questioned them whether they eate of the Beavers, to which they replyed
Matta,[443] (noe) saying they were almost Beavers Brothers. This relation at
that time wee concluded to be fruitles, which, since, time hath made more
apparent.
About the parts of this Lake may be made a very greate Commodity by the
trade of furres, to inrich those that shall plant there; a more compleat
discovery of those parts is, (to my knowleadge,) undertaken by Henry
Ioseline,[444] Esquier, sonne of Sir Thomas Ioseline of Kent, Knight, by the
approbation and appointement of that Heroick and Henry Ioseline
very good Common wealths man, Captaine Iohn imployed for
Mason,[445] Esquier, a {99} true foster Father and lover discovery.
of vertue, (who at his owne chardge,) hath fitted
Master Ioseline and imployed him to that purpose; who no doubt will
performe as much as is expected, if the Dutch, (by gettinge into those parts
before him,) doe not frustrate his so hopefull and laudable designes.

It is well knowne they aime at that place, and have a possibility to attaine
unto the end of their desires therein, by meanes of the River of Mohegan,
which of the English is named Hudsons River, where the Dutch have setled
two well fortified plantations already. If that River be derived from the
Lake, as our Country man in his prospect[446] affirmes it to be, and if they
get and fortifie this place also, they will gleane away the best of the Beaver
both from the French and the English, who have hitherto lived wholely by
it; and very many old planters have gained good estates out of small
beginnings by meanes thereof.
And it is well knowne to some of our Nation that have The Dutch have a
lived in the Dutch plantation that the Dutch have great trade of Beaver
gained by Beaver 20000. pound a yeare.[447] in Hudsons River.

The Salvages make report of 3. great Rivers that issue out of this Lake, 2. of
which are to us knowne, the one to be Patomack, the other Canada: and
why may not the third be found there likewise, which they describe to trend
westward, which is conceaved to discharge herselfe into the South Sea? The
Salvages affirme that they have seene shipps in this Lake with 4. Masts,
which have taken from thence for their ladinge earth, that is conjectured to
be some minerall stuffe.
{100} There is probability enough for this; and it may well be thought that so
great a confluxe of waters as are there gathered together, must be vented by
some great Rivers; and that if the third River, (which they have made
mention of,) proove to be true, as the other two have done, there is no doubt
but that the passage to the East India may be obtained The passage to the
without any such daingerous and fruitlesse inquest by East-Indies.
the Norwest, as hetherto hath bin endeavoured: And
there is no Traveller of any resonable capacity but will graunt that about this
Lake must be innumerable springes, and by that meanes many fruitfull and
pleasant pastures all about it. It hath bin observed that the inland part,
(witnes Neepnet,[448]) are more pleasant and fertile then the borders of the
Sea coaste. And the Country about Erocoise is, (not The Country of
without good cause,) compared to Delta, the most Erocois as fertile as
fertile parte in all Ægypt, that aboundeth with Rivers Delta in Ægypt.
and Rivalets derived from Nilus fruitfull channell, like
vaines from the liver; so in each respect is this famous Lake of Erocoise.

And, therefore, it would be adjudged an irreparable oversight to protract
time, and suffer the Dutch, (who are but intruders upon his Majesties most
hopefull Country of New England,) to possesse themselves of that so
plesant and commodious Country of Erocoise before us: being, (as
appeareth,) the principall part of all New Canaan for plantation, and not
elsewhere to be paralelld in all the knowne world.

{101}

NEW CANAANS GENIVS.
EPILOGVS.

Thou that art by Fates degree,
Or Providence, ordain’d to see
Natures wonder, her rich store
Ne’-r discovered before,
Th’ admired Lake of Erocoise
And fertile Borders, now rejoyce.
See what multitudes of fish
Shee presents to fitt thy dish.
If rich furres thou dost adore,
And of Beaver Fleeces store,
See the Lake where they abound,
And what pleasures els are found.
There chast Leda, free from fire,
Does enjoy her hearts desire;
Mongst the flowry bancks at ease
Live the sporting Najades,
Bigg lim’d Druides, whose browes
Bewtified with greenebowes.
See the Nimphes, how they doe make
Fine Meanders from the Lake,
Twining in and out, as they
Through the pleasant groves make way,
Weaving by the shady trees
Curious Anastomases,
{102} Where the harmeles Turtles breede,
And such usefull Beasts doe feede
As no Traveller can tell
Els where how to paralell.
Colcos golden Fleece reject;
This deserveth best respect.
In sweete Peans let thy voyce,
Sing the praise of Erocoise,
Peans to advaunce her name,
New Canaans everlasting fame.

{103}

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN,
OR NEW CANAAN.

The Third Booke.

Containing a description of the People that are planted there,
what remarkable Accidents have happened there since they were
setled, what Tenents they hould, together with the practise of
their Church.

Chap. I.

Of a great League made with the Plimmouth Planters after their
arrivall, by the Sachem of those Territories.[449]
He Sachem of the Territories where the Planters of New
England are setled, that are the first of the now
Inhabitants of New Canaan, not knowing what they
were, or whether they would be freindes or foes, and
{104} being desirous to purchase their freindship that hee
might have the better Assurance of quiet tradinge with
them, (which hee conceived would be very
advantagious to him,) was desirous to prepare an

ambassador, with commission to treat on his behalfe, A Salvage sent an
to that purpose; and having one that had beene in Ambassador to the
England (taken by a worthlesse man[450] out of other English at their first-
comminge.
partes, and after left there by accident,) this
Salvage[451] hee instructed how to behave himselfe in the treaty of peace;
and the more to give him incouragement to adventure his person amongst
these new come inhabitants, which was a thinge hee durst not himselfe
attempt without security or hostage, promised that Salvage freedome, who
had beene detained there as theire Captive: which offer hee accepted, and
accordingly came to the Planters, salutinge them with wellcome in the
English phrase, which was of them admired to heare a Salvage there speake
in their owne language, and used him great courtesie: to whome hee
declared the cause of his comminge, and contrived the businesse so that hee
brought the Sachem and the English together, betweene whome was a firme
league concluded, which yet continueth. After which league the Sachem,
being in company with the other whome hee had freed and suffered to live
with the English, espijnge a place where a hole had been made in the
grounde, where was their store of powder layed to be preserved from
danger of fire, (under ground,) demaunded of the Salvage what the English
had hid there under ground; who answered the plague;[452] at which hee
starteled, because of the great mortality lately {105} The Sachem feared
happened by meanes of the plague,[453] (as it is the Plague.
conceaved,) and the Salvage, the more to encrease his
feare, told the Sachem if he should give offence to the English party they
would let out the plague to destroy them all, which kept him in great awe.
Not longe after, being at varience with another Sachem borderinge upon his
Territories, he came in solemne manner and intreated the governour that he
would let out the plague to destroy the Sachem and his men who were his
enemies, promising that he himselfe and all his posterity would be their
everlasting freindes, so great an opinion he had of the English.

Chap. II.

Of the entertainement of Mr. Westons people sent to settle a
plantation there.
Master Thomas Weston,[454] a Merchant of London that had been at some
cost to further the Brethren of new Plimmouth in their designes for these
partes, shipped a company of Servants, fitted with provision of all sorts, for
the undertaking of a Plantation to be setled there; with an intent to follow
after them in person. These servants at first arived at Court holy bread at
new Plimmouth, where they were entertained with Plimmouth.
court holy bread by the Brethren: they were made very
wellcome, in shew at least: there these servants goodes were landed, with
promises to be assisted in the choise of a convenient place; and still the
good cheare went forward, and the strong liquors walked. In the meane time
the Brethren were in consultation what was best for their advantage, singing
the songe, Frustra sapit, qui sibi non sapit.
{106} This plantation would hinder the present practice and future profit; and
Master Weston, an able man, would want for no supplies upon the returne
of Beaver, and so might be a plantation that might keepe them under, who
had a Hope to be the greatest: besides his people were no chosen
Seperatists, but men made choice of at all adventures, fit to have served for
the furtherance of Master Westons undertakinges: and that was as much as
hee neede to care for: ayminge at Beaver principally for the better effecting
of his purpose. Now when the Plimmouth men began to finde that Master
Westons mens store of provition grew short with feasting, then they hasted
them to a place called Wessaguscus, in a weake case, and there left them
fasting.

Chap. III.

Of a Battle fought at the Massachussets, between the English
and the French.[455]
The Planters of Plimmouth, at their last being in those parts, having defaced
the monument of the ded at Pasonagessit, (by taking away the herse Cloath,
which was two greate Beares skinnes sowed together at full length, and
propped up over the grave of Chuatawbacks mother,[456]) the Sachem of
those territories, being inraged at the same, stirred up his men in his bee
halfe to take revenge: and, having gathered his men together, hee begins to
make an oration in this manner. When last the glorious The Sachems Oration.
light of all the {107} skey was underneath this globe,
and Birds grew silent, I began to settle, (as my custome is,) to take repose;
before mine eies were fast closed, mee thought I saw a A spirit mooving the
vision, (at which my spirit was much troubled,) and, Sachem to Warre.
trembling at that dolefull sight, a spirit cried aloude
behold, my sonne, whom I have cherisht, see the papps that gave thee suck,
the hands that lappd thee warme and fed thee oft, canst thou forget to take
revenge of those uild people that hath my monument defaced in despitefull
manner, disdaining our ancient antiquities and honourable Customes? See
now the Sachems grave lies like unto the common people of ignoble race,
defaced; thy mother doth complaine, implores thy aide against this theevish
people new come hether; if this be suffered I shall not rest in quiet within
my everlasting habitation. This said, the spirit vanished; and I, all in a
sweat, not able scarce to speake, began to gett some strength, and recollect
my spirits that were fled: all which I thought to let you understand, to have
your Councell, and your aide likewise; this being spoken, straight way arose
the grand Captaine and cried aloud, come, let us to The grand Captaine
Armes, it doth concerne us all, let us bid them Battaile; makes a speech.
so to Armes they went, and laid weight for the
Plimmouth boate; and, forceinge them to forsake their landinge place, they
seeke another best for their convenience; thither the Salvages repaire, in
hope to have the like successe; but all in vaine, for the The maine Battaile.
English Captaine warily foresaw, and, perceavinge

their plot, knew the better how to order his men fit for Battaile in that place;
hee, bouldly leading his men on, rainged about the feild to and fro, {108}
and, taking his best advantage, lets fly, and makes the Salvages give
ground: the English followed them fiercely on, and made them take trees
for their shelter, (as their custome is,) from whence their Captaine let flie a
maine; yet no man was hurt; at last, lifting up his right arm to draw a fatall
shaft, (as hee then thought to end this difference), received a shott upon his
elbow,[457] and straight way fled; by whose example all the army followed
the same way, and yealded up the honor of the day to The feild wonne by
the English party; who were such a terror to them after the English.
that the Salvages durst never make to a head against
them any more.

Chap. IV.

Of a Parliament held at Wessaguscus, and the Actes.
Master Westons Plantation beinge setled at Some lazy people.
Wessaguscus, his Servants, many of them lazy persons
that would use no endeavour to take the benefit of the Country, some of
them fell sicke and died.
One amongst the rest, an able bodied man that ranged A lusty fellow.
the woodes to see what it would afford, lighted by
accident on an Indian barne, and from thence did take a capp full of corne;
the Salvage owner of it, finding by the foote some English had bin there,
came to the Plantation, and made complaint after this manner.
{109} The cheife Commander of the Company one this
A poore complaint.
occation called a Parliament of all his people, but those Edward Iohnson a
that were sicke and ill at ease. And wisely now they cheife Iudge. Maide a
must consult upon this huge complaint, that a privy hainous fact.
knife or stringe of beades would well enough have qualified; and Edward
Iohnson was a spetiall judge of this businesse; the fact was there in
repetition; construction made that it was fellony, and by the Lawes of
England punished with death; and this in execution must be put for an
example, and likewise to appease the Salvage: when straight wayes one
arose, mooved as it were with some compassion, and said hee could not
well gaine say the former sentence, yet hee had conceaved within the
compasse of his braine an Embrion that was of spetiall consequence to be
delivered and cherished; hee said that it would most aptly serve to pacifie
the Salvages complaint, and save the life of one that might, (if neede should
be,) stand them in some good steede, being younge and stronge, fit for
resistance against an enemy, which might come unexspected for any thinge
they knew. The Oration made was liked of every one, and hee intreated to
proceede to shew the meanes how this may be performed: sayes hee, you all
agree that one must die, and one shall die; this younge A fine device.
mans cloathes we will take of, and put upon one that is
old and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape A wise Sentence.
death, such is the disease one him confirmed that die

hee must; put the younge mans cloathes on this man, To hange a sick man
and let the sick person be hanged in the others steede: in the others steede.
Amen sayes one; and so sayes many more.
{110} And this had like to have prooved their finall sentence, and, being
there confirmed by Act of Parliament, to after ages for a President: But that
one with a ravenus voyce begunne to croake and bellow for revenge; and
put by that conclusive motion, alledging such deceipts might be a meanes
hereafter to exasperate the mindes of the complaininge Salvages, and that
by his death the Salvages should see their zeale to Iustice; and therefore hee
should die: this was concluded; yet neverthelesse a Very fit Iustice.
scruple was made; now to countermaund this act, did
represent itselfe unto their mindes, which was, how they should doe to get
the mans good wil? this was indeede a spetiall obstacle: for without that,
they all agreed it would be dangerous for any man to A dangerous Attempt.
attempt the execution of it, lest mischeife should befall
them every man; hee was a person that in his wrath did seeme to be a
second Sampson, able to beate out their branes with the jawbone of an
Asse: therefore they called the man, and by perswation Iesting turned to
got him fast bound in jest; and then hanged him up earnest.
hard by in good earnest,[458] who with a weapon, and
at liberty, would have put all those wise judges of this Parliament to a
pittifull non plus, (as it hath beene credibly reported,) and made the cheife
Iudge of them all buckell to him.

{111} Chap. V.

Of a Massacre made upon the Salvages at Wessaguscus.
After the end of that Parliament, some of the plantation there, about three
persons,[459] went to live with Checatawback and his Good quarters with
company; and had very good quarter, for all the former the Salvages.
quarrell with the Plimmouth planters: they are not like
Will Sommers,[460] to take one for another. There they purposed to stay
untill Master Westons arrivall: but the Plimmouth men, intendinge no good
to him, (as appered by the consequence,) came in the meane time to
Wessaguscus, and there pretended to feast the Salvages A plott from
of those partes, bringing with them Porke and thinges Plimmouth.
for the purpose, which they sett before the Salvages.
They eate thereof without suspition of any mischeife, who were taken upon
a watchword given, and with their owne knives, (hanging about their
neckes,) were by the Plimmouth planters stabd and Salvages killed with
slaine: one of which were hanged up there, after the their one weapons.
slaughter.[461]
In the meane time the Sachem had knowledge of this News carried.
accident, by one that ranne to his Countrymen, at the
Massachussets, and gave them intelligence of the newes; after which time
the Salvages there, consultinge of the matter, in the A revenge.
night, (when the other English feareles of danger were
a sleepe,) knockt them all in the head, in revenge of the death of their {112}
Countrymen: but if the Plimmouth Planters had really intended good to
Master Weston, or those men, why had they not kept the Salvages alive in
Custody, untill they had secured the other English? Who, by meanes of this
evill mannaginge of the businesse, lost their lives, and the whole plantation
was dissolved thereupon; as was likely, for feare of a revenge to follow, as a
relatione to this cruell antecedent; and when Master Weston came over hee
found thinges at an evill exigent, by meanes thereof: But could not tell how
it was brought about.

The Salvages of the Massachussets, that could not imagine from whence
these men should come, or to what end, seeing them performe such
unexpected actions; neither could tell by what name properly to distinguish
them; did from that time afterwards call the English Planters
Wotawquenange,[462] which in their language signifieth stabbers, or
Cutthroates: and this name was received by those that The Salvages call the
came there after for good, being then unacquainted English cutthroats.
with the signification of it, for many yeares following;
untill, from a Southerly Indian that understood English well, I was by
demonstration made to conceave the interpretation of it, and rebucked these
other that it was not forborne: The other callinge us by the name of
Wotoquansawge, what that doth signifie, hee said, hee was not able by any
demonstration to expresse; and my neighbours durst no more, in my
hearinge, call us by the name formerly used, for feare of my displeasure.

{113} Chap. VI.

Of the surprizinge of a Merchants Shipp in Plimmouth harbour.
This Merchant, a man of worth, arrivinge in the parts The Merchant with
of New Canaan and findinge that his Plantation was Supply.
dissolved, some of his men slaine, some dead with
sicknes, and the rest at Plimmouth, hee was perplexed in his minde about
the matter; comminge as hee did with supply, and meanes to have rased
their fortunes and his one exceedingly: and seeinge what had happened
resolved to make some stay in the Plimmouth harbour.[463] And this suted to
their purpose; wherefore the Brethren did congratulate with him at his safe
arrivall, and their best of entertainement for a swetning A glosse upon the
cast, deploring the disaster of his Plantation, and false text.
glozing upon the text, alledging the mischeivous intent
of the Salvages there, which by freindly intelligence of their neighbours
was discovered before it came to be full summed: so that they lost not all,
allthough they saved not all: and this they pretended to proceede from the
Fountaine of love and zeale to him and Christianity, and to chastise the
insolency of the Salvages, of which that part had some dangerous persons.
And this, as an article of the new creede of Canaan, would they have
received of every new commer there to inhabit, that the Salvages are a
dangerous people, subtill, secreat and mischeivous; and that it is dangerous
to live seperated, but {114} rather together: and so be under their Lee, that
none might trade for Beaver, but at their pleasure, as none doe or shall doe
there: nay they will not be reduced to any other song yet of the Salvages to
the southward of Plimmouth, because they would have none come there,
sayinge that hee that will sit downe there must come stronge: but I have
found the Massachussets Indian more full of humanity then the Christians;
and haue had much better quarter with them; yet I observed not their
humors, but they mine; althoug my great number that I landed were
dissolved, and my Company as few as might be:[464] for I know that this
falls out infallibly where two Nations meete, one must rule and the other be
ruled, before a peace can be hoped for: and for a Where two nations
Christian to submit to the rule of a Salvage, you will meet one must rule

say, is both shame and dishonor: at least it is my the other must be
ruled or no quietnes.
opinion, and my practice was accordingly, and I have
the better quarter by the meanes thereof. The more Salvages the better
quarter, the more Christians the worser quarter, I found; as all the
indifferent minded Planters can testifie. Now, whiles the Merchant was
ruminatinge on this mishapp, the Plimmouth Planters perceivinge that hee
had furnished himselfe with excellent Commodities, fit for the Merchandise
of the Country, (and holding it good to fish in trobled A Machivell plot.
waters, and so get a snatch unseene,) practised in
secret with some other in the land, whom they thought apt to imbrace the
benefit of such a cheat, and it was concluded and The Vaile.
resolved upon that all this shipp and goodes should be
confiscated, for businesse done by him, the Lord knowes when, or where:
[465]
{115} a letter must be framed to them, and handes unto it, to be there
warrant; this should shadow them. That is the first practise; they will insane
a man, and then pretend that Iustice must be done. They cause the Merchant
(secure) to come a shore, and then take him in hold, shewing they are
compelled unto it legally, and enter strait abord, peruse the Cargazowne,
and then deliver up the Charge of her to their Shipp and goodes
Confederates: and how much lesse this is then Piraty, confiscated.
let any practise in the Admiralty be judge. The
Merchant, his shipp and goodes confiscated, himselfe a prisoner and
threatned so to be sent and conveyed to England, there to receave the
somme of all that did belonge to him a malefactor, (and a great one to); this
hee, good man, indured with patience longe time, untill the best of all his
goodes were quite dispersed, and every actor [had] his When every
proportion; the Merchant was [then] inlarged; his Conspirator had his
shipp, a burthen to the owner now, his undertakinges share the shipp
in these partes beinge quite overthrowne, was delivered againe.
redelivered, and bondes of him were taken not to Bonds taken not to
prosecute: hee, being greived hereat, betakes him to prosecute.
drive a trade betweene that and Virginea many yeares.
The brethren, (sharpe witted,) had it spread by and by amongst his freinds
in England, that the man was mad. So thought his Report Mr. Weston
wife, so thought his other freindes that had it from a was mad in New
Planter of the Towne. So was it thought of those, that England.
did not know the Brethren could dissemble: why, thus

they are all of them honest men in their particular, and Honest men in
every man, beinge bound to seeke anothers good, shall particular.
in the generall doe the best hee can to effect it, and so
they may be excused I thinke.

{116} Chap. VII.

Of Thomas Mortons entertainment at Plimmouth, and castinge
away upon an Island.[466]
This man arrived in those parts, and, hearing newes of a Towne that was
much praised, he was desirous to goe thither, and see how thinges stood;
where his entertainement was their best, I dare be Brave entertainement
bould to say: for, although they had but 3. Cowes in in a wildernes.
all,[467] yet had they fresh butter and a sallet of egges
in dainty wise, a dish not common in a wildernes. There hee bestowed some
time in the survey of this plantation. His new come servants, in the meane
time, were tane to taske, to have their zeale appeare, and questioned what
preacher was among their company; and finding none, did seeme to condole
their estate as if undone, because no man among them had the guift to be in
Ionas steade, nor they the meanes to keepe them in that The meanes.
path so hard to keepe.
Our Master, say they, reades the Bible and the word of God, and useth the
booke of common prayer: but this is not the meanes, the answere is: the
meanes, they crie, alas, poore Soules where is the meanes? you seeme as if
betrayed, to be without the meanes: how can you be stayed from fallinge
headlonge to perdition? Facilis descensus averni:[468] the booke of common
prayer, sayd they, what poore thinge is that, for a man to reade in a booke?
No, no, good sirs, I would you were neere us, you Booke learning
might receave comfort by in{117}struction: give me a despised.
man hath the guiftes of the spirit, not a booke in hand.
I doe profess sayes one, to live without the meanes is dangerous, the Lord
doth know.
By these insinuations, like the Serpent, they did creepe and winde into the
good opinion of the illiterate multitude, that were desirous to be freed and
gone to them, no doubdt, (which some of them after confessed); and little
good was to be done one them after this charme was used: now plotts and
factions how they might get loose: and here was some 35. stout knaves; and
some plotted how to steale Master Westons barque, others, exasperated

knavishly to worke, would practise how to gett theire Villanous plots of
Master to an Island, and there leave him; which hee knaves.
had notice of, and fitted him to try what would be
done; and steps aborde his shallop bound for Cape Anne, to the
Massachussets, with an Hogshead of Wine; Sugar hee tooke along, the
Sailes hoist up, and one of the Conspirators aboard to steere; who in the mid
way pretended foule weather at the harboure mouth, and therefore, for a
time, hee would put in to an Island neere, and make some stay where hee
thought to tempt his Master to walke the woods, and so be gone: but their
Master to prevent them caused the sales and oares to be brought a shore, to
make a tilt if neede should be, and kindled fire, Prevented by
broched that Hogshed, and caused them fill the can discretion.
with lusty liqour, Claret sparklinge neate; which was
not suffered to grow pale and flatt, but tipled of with quick dexterity: the
Master makes a shew of keepinge round, but with And discovered in
close lipps did seeme {118} to make longe draughts, drinke.
knowinge the wine would make them Protestants; and
so the plot was then at large disclosed and discovered, and they made
drowsie; and the inconstant windes shiftinge at night did force the kellecke
home,[469] and billedge the boat, that they were forced The Shallop
to leave her so, and cut downe trees that grew by the billedged.
shore, to make Caffes: two of them went over by helpe
of a fore saile almost a mile to the maine; the other two Two men of the
stayed five dayes after, till the windes would serve to Company cast away
fill the sailes. The first two went to cape Ann by land, swim to shore upon
and had fowle enough, and fowle wether by the way; trees.
the Islanders had fish enough, shel-fish and fire to roast, and they could not
perish for lacke of foode, and wine they had to be sure; and by this you see
they were not then in any want: the wine and goodes brought thence; the
boat left there so billedgd that it was not worth the labor to be mended.

Chap. VIII.

Of the Banishment of Master Iohn Layford, and Iohn Oldam
from Plimmouth.[470]
Master Layford was at the Merchants chardge sent to A Minister required to
Plimmouth plantation to be their Pastor: But the renounce his callinge.
Brethren, before they would allow of it, would have
him first renounce his calling to the office of the Ministery, received in
England, as hereticall and Papisticall, (so hee confest,) and then to receive a
new callinge from them, after their fantasticall invention:[471] {119} which
hee refused, alledging and maintaining that his calling as it stood was
lawfull, and that hee would not renounce it; and so Iohn Oldam, his opinion
was one the affirmative; and both together did maintaine the Church of
England to be a true Church, although in some particulars, (they said,)
defective; concludinge so against the Tenents there: and by this meanes
cancelled theire good opinion amonst the number of the Seperatists, that
stay they must not, lest they should be spies: and to fall fowle on this
occation the Brethren thought it would betray their cause, and make it fall
under censure, therefore against Master Layford they had found out some
scandall to be laid on his former corse of life, to blemish that; and so, to
conclude, hee was a spotted beast, and not to be allowed where they
ordained to have the Passover kept so zealously: as for Iohn Oldam, they
could see hee would be passionate and moody, and proove himselfe a mad
Iack in his mood, and as soone mooved to be moody, and this impatience
would Minister advantage to them to be ridd of him.
Hanniball when hee had to doe with Fabius was kept in awe more by the
patience of that one enemy, then by the resolution of Impatience confuted
the whole army: A well tempered enemy is a terrible by example.
enemy to incounter. They injoyne him to come to their
needeles watch howse in person, and for refusinge give him a cracked
Crowne for presse money, and make the blood run New Plimmouth
downe about his eares; a poore trick, yet a good vaile, presse money.
though Luscus may see thorough it; and, for his further
behaviour in the Case, proceed to sentence {120} him with banishment,

which was performed after a solemne invention in this manner: A lane of
Musketiers was made, and hee compelled in scorne to The Solemnity of
passe along betweene, and to receave a bob upon the banishment.
bumme be every musketier; and then a board a shallop,
and so convayed to Wessaguscus shoare, and staid at Massachussets: to
whome Iohn Layford and some few more did resort; where Master Layford
freely executed his office and preached every Lords day, and yet maintained
his wife and children foure or five upon his industry there, with the blessing
of God and the plenty of the Land, without the helpe of his auditory, in an
honest and laudable manner; till hee was wearied and made to leave the
Country.[472]

Chap. IX.

Of a barren doe of Virginea growne fruithfull in New Canaan.
[473]

Children, and the fruit of the Wombe, are said in holy writt to be an
inheritance that commeth of the Lord; then they must be coupled in Gods
name first, and not as this, and some other, have done.
They are as arrowes in the hand of a Gyant; and happy, A great happines
saith David, is the man that hath his quiver full of comes by
them; and by that rule, happy is that Land, and blessed propagation.
to, that is apt and fit for increase of children.
I have shewed you before, in the second part of the discourse, how apt it is
for the increase of Minerals, Vegetables, and sensible Creatures.
Now I will shew you how apt New Canaan is like{121}wise for the increase
of the reasonable Creatures; Children, of all riches, being the principall: and
I give you this for an instance.
This Country of New Canaan in seaven yeares time could show more
Children livinge, that have beene borne there, then in 27. yeares could be
shewen in Virginea;[474] yet here are but a handful of weomen landed, to
that of Virginea.
The Country doth afford such plenty of Lobsters and More Children in New
other delicate shellfish, and Venus is said to be borne Canaan in 7. yeares,
of the Sea; or else it was some sallet herbe proper to then in Virginea in 27.
the Climate, or the fountaine at Weenaseemute[475]
made her become teeming here that had tried a campe royall in other partes
where shee had been; and yet never the neere, till shee came in to New
Canaan.
Shee was delivered, (in a voyage to Virginea,) about Delivered neare
Bussardes bay, to west of Cape Cod, where shee had a Bussards bay.
Sonne borne, but died without baptisme and was
buried; and being a thinge remarkable, had this Dead and buried.

Epitaph followinge made of purpose to memorize the worth of the persons.

EPITAPH.

Time, that bringes all thinges to light,
Doth hide this thinge out of sight:
Yet fame hath left behinde a story,
A hopefull race to shew the glory:
For underneath this heape of stones
Lieth a percell of small bones;
What hope at last can such impes have,
That from the wombe goes to the grave.

[476]
{122} Chap. X.

Of a man indued with many spetiall guifts sent over to be Master
of the Ceremonies.
This was a man approoved of the Brethren, both for his zeale and guiftes,
yet but a Bubble, and at the publike Chardge conveyed to New England, I
thinke to be Master of the Ceremonies betweene the Natives, and the
Planters: for hee applied himselfe cheifly to pen the Stenography one
language downe in Stenography: But there for want of guift.
use, which hee rightly understood not, all was losse of
labor; somethinge it was when next it came to view, but what hee could not
tell.
This man, Master Bubble, was in the time of Iohn Oldams absence made
the howse Chaplaine there, and every night hee made use of his guifts,
whose oratory luld his auditory fast a sleepe, as Oratory another guift.
Mercuries pipes did Argus eies: for, when hee was in,
they sayd hee could not tell how to get out; nay, hee would hardly out till
hee were fired out, his zeale was such: (one fire they say drives out
another): hee would become a great Merchant, and by any thinge that was
to be sold so as hee might have day and be trusted A great Merchant a
never so litle time: the price it seemed hee stood not third guift.
much upon, but the day: for to his freind hee shewed
commodities, so priced as caused him to blame the buyer, till the man this
Bubble did declare that it was tane up at day, {123} and did rejoyce in the
bargaine, insistinge on the day; the day, yea, marry, quoth his friend, if you
have doomesday for payment you are then well to passe. But if he had not,
it were as good hee had; they were payed all alike.
And now this Bubbles day is become a common His day made a
proverbe. Hee obtained howse roome at Passonagessit common prouerbe.
and remooved thether, because it stood convenient for
the Beaver trade: and the rather because the owner of Passonagessit had no
Corne left, and this man seemed a bigg boned man, and therefore thought to
be a good laborer, and to have store of corne; but, contrary wise, hee had
none at all, and hoped upon this freind his host: thithere were brought the

trophies of this Master Bubbles honor, his water Trophies of honor.
tankard and his Porters basket, but no provision; so
that one gunne did serve to helpe them both to meat; and now the time for
fowle was almost past.
This man and his host at dinner, Bubble begins to say His long grace made
grace; yea, and a long one to, till all the meate was the meat cold.
cold; hee would not give his host leave to say grace:
belike, hee thought mine host past grace, and further learned as many other
Schollers are: but in the usage and custome of this blinde oratory his host
tooke himselfe abused, and the whiles fell to and had halfe done before this
man Bubble would open his eies to see what stood afore him, which made
him more cautius, and learned that brevis oratio penetrat Cælum. Together
Bubbles and hee goes in the Canaw to Nut Island[477] for brants, and there
his host makes a shotte and breakes the winges of many: Bubble, {124} in
hast and single handed, paddels out like a Cow in a cage: his host cals back
to rowe two handed like to a pare of oares; and, before this could be
performed, the fowle had time to swimme to other flockes, and so to
escape: the best part of the pray being lost mayd his host to mutter at him,
and so to parte for that time discontended.

Chap. XI.

Of a Composition made by the Sachem for a Theft committed by
some of his men, shewinge their honest meaninge.
The owner of Passonagessit, to have the benefit of company, left his
habitation in the Winter and reposed at Wessaguscus, (to his cost): meane
time, in the Depth of Winter, the neighbour Salvages, accustomed to buy
foode, came to the howse, (for that intent perhaps,) and The Salvages betake
peepinge in all the windowes, (then unglased,) espied the howse & take the
corne, but no body to sell the same; and having Corne.
company and helpe at hand did make a shift to get into
the howse, and, take out corne to serve but for the present, left enough
behinde: the Sachem having knowledge of the facte, and being advertised
likewise of the displeasure that had ben conceaved by the Proprietor thereof
at this offence, prepares a Messenger, the Salvage that had lived in England,
and sends him with commission for the trespasse of his men, who had tenne
skinnes perposed {125} for it to bee payd by a day certaine: The Sachem, at
the time appointed, bringes the Beaver to Wessaguscus where the owner
lived, but just then was gone abroade: meane time the skinnes were by the
Wessaguscus men gelded, and the better halfe by them juggled away before
the owner came; and hee by the Actors perswaded to A dishonest tricke.
bee contended with the rest, who not so pleased did
draw the Sachem then to make a new agreement, and so to pay his remnant
left in hand, and tenne skinnes more by a new day asigned, and then to
bringe them to Passonagessit; but the Wessaguscus men went the day before
to the Salvages with this sayinge, that they were sent to call upon him there
for payement; and received tenne skinnes, and tooke a Salvage there to
justifie that at their howse the owner stayed the while; hee verified this,
because hee saw the man before at Wessaguscus: the Sachem did beleive
the tale, and at that time delivered up tenne skinnes on that behalfe, in full
dischardge of all demandes against the trespasse and the trespassers, to
them; who consented to him, and them, to the owner, and kept nine[478] to
themselves, and made the Salvage take the tenth, and A consenting tricke.
give the owner all that yet was to bee had, themselves The Heathen more
confessinge their demaunds for him, and that there was

but onely one as yet prepared: so that by this you may just, then the
Christians.
easily perceive the uncivilized people are more just
than the civilized.

{126} Chap. XII.

Of a voyadge made by the Master of the Ceremonies of New
Canaan to Neepenett, from whence hee came away; and of the
manifold dangers hee escaped.
This woorthy member Master Bubble, a new Master of the Ceremonies,
having a conceipt in his head that hee had hatched a new device for the
purchase of Beaver, beyond Imagination, packes up a sacke full of odde
implements, and without any company but a couple of Indians for guides,
(and therefore you may, if you please, beeleive they Two Salvage guides
are so dangerous as the Brethren of Plimmouth give it conduct Iohn, to
out,) hee betakes him to his progresse into the Inlande Neepenett alone.
for Beaver, with his carriadge on his shoulders like
Milo: his guides and hee in processe of time come to the place appointed,
which was about Neepenett,[479] thereabouts being more Beavers to be had
then this Milo could carry, and both his journey men: glad hee was good
man, and his guides were willing to pleasure him: there the Salvages stay:
night came on, but, before they were inclined to sleepe, this good man
Master Bubble had an evation crept into his head, by misapplying the
Salvages actions, that hee must needs be gone in all hast, yea and without
his errand: hee purposed to doe it so cunningely that his flight should not
{127} be suspected: hee leaves his shooes in the howse, with all his other
implements, and flies: as hee was on his way, to increase his feare,
suggestinge himselfe that hee was pressed[480] by a company of Indians and
that there shafts were let fly as thick as haile at him, hee puts of his
breeches and puts them one his head, for to save him from the shafts that
flew after him so thick that no man could perceave them, and cryinge out,
avoyd Satan, what have yee to doe with mee! thus running one his way
without his breeches hee was pittifully scratched with the brush of the
underwoods, as hee wandred up and downe in unknowne wayes: The
Salvages in the meane time put up all his implements in the sack hee left
behinde and brought them to Wessaguscus, where they thought to have
found him; but, understanding hee was not returned, were ferefull what to
doe, and what would be conceaved of the English was become of this

mazed man, the Master of the Ceremonies; and were in consultation of the
matter. One of the Salvages was of opinion the English would suppose him
to be made away; fearefull hee was to come in sight. The other, better
acquainted with the English, (having lived some time in England,[481]) was
more confident, and hee perswaded his fellow that the English would be
satisfied with relation of the truth, as having had testimony of his fidelity.
So they boldly adventured to shew what they had They take a note of
brougt and how the matter stood. The English, (when what was in the sack.
the sack was opened,) did take a note in writing of all
the particulers that were in the sack; and heard what was by the Salvages
related of the acci{128}dents: but, when his shoes were showne, it was
thought hee would not have departed without his shoes; and therefore they
did conceave that Master Bubble was made away by some sinister practise
of the Salvages, who unadvisedly had bin culpable of a crime which now
they sought to excuse; and straightly chardged the Salvages to finde him out
againe, and bring him dead, or alive, else their wifes Mr. Bubble must be
and children should be destroyed. The poore Salvages, found againe or else
being in a pittifull perplexity, caused their Countrymen they shall be
to seeke out for this maz’d man; who, being in short destroyed.
time found, was brought to Wessaguscus; where hee made a discourse of his
travels, and of the perrillous passages, which did seeme to be no lesse
dangerous then these of that worthy Knight Errant, Don Quixote,[482] and
how miraculously hee had bin preserved; and, in conclusion, lamented the
greate losse of his goods, whereby hee thought himselfe undone.
The perticuler whereof being demaunded, it appeared Not any thing
that the Salvages had not diminished any part of them; diminished.
no, not so much as one bit of bread: the number being
knowne, and the fragments laid together, it appeared all the bisket was
preserved, and not any diminished at all: whereby the Master of the
Ceremonies was overjoyed, and the whole Company made themselves
merry at his discourse of all his perrillous adventures.
And by this you may observe whether the Salvage people are not full of
humanity, or whether they are a dangerous people, as Master Bubble and
the rest of his tribe would perswade you.

{129} Chap. XIII.

Of a lamentable fit of Mellancolly that the Barren doe fell into,
(after the death of her infant, seeing herselfe despised of her
Sweete hart,) whereof shee was cured.
Whether this goodly creature of incontinency went to worke upon even
termes like Phillis, or noe, it does not appeare by any Indenture of
covenants then extant; whereby shee might legally challenge the
performance of any compleate Marriage at his hands that had bin tradeing
with her, as Demopheon here to fore had bin with his ostis.[483]
Neverthelesse, (for his future advantage,) shee indeavoured, (like Phillis,) to
gaine this Demopheon all to herselfe; who, (as it seemes,) did meane
nothing lesse by leaving her for the next commer, that had any minde to
coole his courage by that meanes; the whipping post, (as it seemes,) at that
time not being in publike use for such kinde of Cony katchers; but seeing
herselfe rejected, shee grew into such a passion of Mellancolly, on a
sodaine, that it was thought shee would exhibit a petition for redresse to
grim Pluto, who had set her a worke; and knowing that the howse of fate
has many entrances, shee was pusseld to finde the Shee cannot one the
neerest way. Shee could not resolve on a sodaine sodaine resolve which
which doore would soonest bring her to his presence dore to goe in att.
handsomely.
{130} If shee should make way with a knife, shee thought shee might spoyle
her drinking in after ages; if by poyson, shee thought it might prolonge her
passage thether; if by drowning, shee thought Caron might come the while
with his boate, and waft her out of sight; if shee should tie up her complaint
in a halter, shee thought the Ropmakers would take exceptions against her
good speede. And in this manner shee debated with herselfe, and demurred
upon the matter: So that shee did appeare willing enough, but a woman of
small resolution.
Which thing when it was publikely knowne, made many come to comfort
her. One amongst the rest was by hir requested, on her behalfe, to write to
her late unkinde Demopheon. The Gentleman, being merrily disposed, in

steed of writing an heroicall Epistle composed this Elegi, for a memoriall of
some mirth upon the Circumstance of the matter, to be sent unto hir, as
followeth:

CARMEN ELEGIACVM.

Melpomene, (at whose mischeifous love
The screech owles voyce is heard the mandraks grove,)
Commands my pen in an Iambick vaine
To tell a dismall tale, that may constraine
The hart of him to bleede, that shall discerne
How much this foule amisse does him concerne.
Alecto, (grim Alecto,) light thy tortch
To thy beloved sister next the porch
{131} That leads unto the mansion howse of fate,
Whose farewell makes her freind more fortunate.
A Great Squa Sachem can shee poynt to goe
Before grim Minos; and yet no man know
That knives and halters, ponds, and poysonous things
Are alwayes ready, when the Divell once brings
Such deadly sinners to a deepe remorse
Of conscience selfe accusing, that will force
Them to dispaire, like wicked Kain, whiles death
Stands ready with all these to stopp their breath.
The beare comes by that oft hath bayted ben
By many a Satyres whelpe; unlesse you can
Commaund your eies to drop huge milstones forth,
In lamentation of this losse on earth
Of her, of whome so much prayse wee may finde,
Goe when shee will, shee’l leave none like behinde;
Shee was too good for earth, too bad for heaven.
Why then for hell the match is somewhat even.
After this, the water of the fountaine at Ma-re Mount was thought fit to be
applyed unto her for a remedy, shee willingly used according to the quality
thereof.

And when this Elegy came to be divulged, shee was so conscious of her
crime that shee put up her pipes, and with the next shipp shee packt away to
Virginea, (her former habitation,) quite cured of her mellancolly, with the
helpe of the water of the fountaine at Ma-re Mount.

{132} Chap. XIV.

Of the Revells of New Canaan.[484]
The Inhabitants of Pasonagessit, (having translated the name of their
habitation from that ancient Salvage name to Ma-re Mount,[485] and being
resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memorial to after ages,) did
devise amongst themselves to have it performed in a solemne manner, with
Revels and merriment after the old English custome; [they] prepared to sett
up a Maypole upon the festivall day of Philip and A Maypole.
Iacob, and therefore brewed a barrell of excellent
beare and provided a case of bottles, to be spent, with other good cheare, for
all commers of that day. And because they would have it in a compleat
forme, they had prepared a song fitting to the time and present occasion.
And upon Mayday they brought the Maypole to the place appointed, with
drumes, gunnes, pistols and other fitting instruments, for that purpose; and
there erected it with the help of Salvages, that came thether of purpose to
see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of 80. foote longe was
reared up, with a peare of buckshorns nayled one somewhat neare unto the
top of it: where it stood, as a faire sea marke for directions how to finde out
the way to mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount.
And because it should more fully appeare to what end it was placed there,
they had a poem in readines made, which was fixed to the Maypole, to
shew the new name confirmed upon that plantation; which, allthough it
were made according to the occurrents {133} of the time, it, being
Enigmattically composed, pusselled the Seperatists most pittifully to
expound it, which, (for the better information of the reader,) I have here
inserted.

THE POEM.

Rise Oedipeus, and, if thou canst, unfould
What meanes Caribdis underneath the mould,
When Scilla sollitary on the ground
(Sitting in forme of Niobe) was found,
Till Amphitrites Darling did acquaint
Grim Neptune with the Tenor of her plaint,
And causd him send forth Triton with the sound
Of Trumpet lowd, at which the Seas were found
So full of Protean formes that the bold shore
Presented Scilla a new parramore
So stronge as Sampson and so patient
As Job himselfe, directed thus, The man who brought
by fate, her over was named
To comfort Scilla so Samson Iob.
unfortunate.
I doe professe, by Cupids beautious mother,
Heres Scogans choise[486] for Scilla, and none other;
Though Scilla’s sick with greife, because no signe
Can there be found of vertue masculine.
Esculapius come; I know right well
His laboure’s lost when you may ring her Knell.
The fatall sisters doome none can withstand,
nor Cithareas powre, who poynts to land
With proclamation that the first of May
At Ma-re Mount shall be kept hollyday.
{134} The setting up of this Maypole was a lamentable spectacle to the
precise seperatists, that lived at new Plimmouth. They termed it an Idoll;
yea, they called it the Calfe of Horeb, and stood at The Maypole called
defiance with the place, naming it Mount Dagon; an Idoll the Calfe of
threatning to make it a woefull mount and not a merry Horeb.
mount.
The Riddle, for want of Oedipus, they could not expound; onely they made
some explication of part of it, and sayd it was meant by Sampson Iob, the
carpenter of the shipp that brought over a woman to her husband, that had
bin there longe before and thrived so well that hee sent for her and her

children to come to him; where shortly after hee died: having no reason, but
because of the sound of those two words; when as, (the truth is,) the man
they applyed it to was altogether unknowne to the Author.
There was likewise a merry song made, which, (to make their Revells more
fashionable,) was sung with a Corus, every man bearing his part; which
they performed in a daunce, hand in hand about the Maypole, whiles one of
the Company sung and filled out the good liquor, like gammedes and
Iupiter.

THE SONGE.

Cor.

Drinke and be merry, merry, merry boyes;
Let all your delight be in the Hymens ioyes;
Jô to Hymen, now the day is come,
About the merry Maypole take Roome.
Make greene garlons, bring bottles out
And fill sweet Nectar freely about.
{135} Vncover thy head and feare no harme
For hers good liquor to keepe it warme.
Then drinke and be merry, &c.
Iô to Hymen, &c.
Nectar is a thing assign’d
By the Deities owne minde
To cure the hart opprest with greife,
And of good liquors is the cheife.
Then drinke, &c.
Iô to Hymen, &c.

Give to the Mellancolly man
A cup or two of ’t now and than;
This physick will soone revive his bloud,
And make him be of a merrier moode.
Then drinke, &c.
Iô to Hymen, &c.
Give to the Nymphe thats free from scorne
No Irish stuff nor Scotch over worne.
Lasses in beaver coast come away,
Yee shall be welcome to us night and day.
To drinke and be merry &c.
Jô to Hymen, &c.
This harmeles mirth made by younge men, (that lived in hope to have wifes
brought over to them, that would save them a laboure to make a voyage to
fetch any over,) was much distasted of the precise Seperatists, that keepe
much a doe about the tyth of Muit and Cummin, troubling their braines
more then reason would require about things that are indifferent: and from
that time sought occasion against my {136} honest Host of Ma-re Mount, to

overthrow his ondertakings and to destroy his plantation quite and cleane.
But because they presumed with their imaginary gifts, (which they have out
of Phaos box,[487]) they could expound hidden misteries, to convince them
of blindnes, as well in this as in other matters of more consequence, I will
illustrate the poem, according to the true intent of the authors of these
Revells, so much distasted by those Moles.
Oedipus is generally receaved for the absolute reader of riddles, who is
invoaked: Silla and Caribdis are two dangerous places for seamen to
incounter, neere unto Vennice; and have bin by poets formerly resembled to
man and wife. The like licence the author challenged for a paire of his
nomination, the one lamenting for the losse of the other as Niobe for her
children. Amphitrite is an arme of the Sea, by which the newes was carried
up and downe of a rich widow, now to be tane up or laid downe. By Triton
is the fame spread that caused the Suters to muster, (as it had bin to
Penellope of Greece;) and, the Coast lying circuler, all our passage to and
froe is made more convenient by Sea then Land. Many aimed at this marke;
but hee that played Proteus best and could comply with her humor must be
the man that would carry her; and hee had need have Sampsons strenght to
deale with a Dallila, and as much patience as Iob that should come there,
for a thing that I did observe in the life-time of the former.
But marriage and hanging, (they say,) comes by desteny and Scogans
choise[488] tis better [than] none at all. Hee that {137} playd Proteus, (with
the helpe of Priapus,) put their noses out of joynt, as the Proverbe is.
And this the whole company of the Revellers at Ma-re Mount knew to be
the true sence and exposition of the riddle that was fixed to the Maypole,
which the Seperatists were at defiance with. Some of them affirmed that the
first institution thereof was in memory of a whore;[489] not knowing that it
was a Trophe erected at first in honor of Maja, the Lady of learning which
they despise, vilifying the two universities with uncivile termes, accounting
what is there obtained by studdy is but unnecessary learning; not
considering that learninge does inable mens mindes to converse with
eliments of a higher nature then is to be found within the habitation of the
Mole.

Chap. XV.

Of a great Monster supposed to be at Ma-re-Mount; and the
preparation made to destroy it.[490]
The Seperatists, envying the prosperity and hope of the Plantation at Ma-re
Mount, (which they perceaved beganne to come forward, and to be in a
good way for gaine in the Beaver trade,) conspired together against mine
Host especially, (who was the owner of that Plantation,) and made up a
party against him; and mustred up what aide they could, accounting of him
as of a great Monster.
{138} Many threatening speeches were given out both against his person and
his Habitation, which they divulged should be consumed with fire: And
taking advantage of the time when his company, (which seemed little to
regard theire threats,) were gone up into the Inlands to trade with the
Salvages for Beaver, they set upon my honest host at a place called
Wessaguscus, where, by accident, they found him. The inhabitants there
were in good hope of the subvertion of the plantation at Mare Mount,
(which they principally aymed at;) and the rather because mine host was a
man that indeavoured to advaunce the dignity of the Church of England;
which they, (on the contrary part,) would laboure to vilifie with uncivile
termes: enveying against the sacred booke of common prayer, and mine
host that used it in a laudable manner amongst his family, as a practise of
piety.
There hee would be a meanes to bringe sacks to their mill, (such is the thirst
after Beaver,) and helped the conspiratores to surprise mine host, (who was
there all alone;) and they chardged him, (because they would seeme to have
some reasonable cause against him to sett a glosse upon their mallice,) with
criminall things; which indeede had beene done by such a person, but was
of their conspiracy; mine host demaunded of the conspirators who it was
that was author of that information, that seemed to be their ground for what
they now intended. And because they answered they would not tell him, hee
as peremptorily replyed, that hee would not say whether he had, or he had
not done as they had bin informed.

{139} The answere made no matter, (as it seemed,) whether it had bin
negatively or affirmatively made; for they had resolved what hee should
suffer, because, (as they boasted,) they were now become the greater
number: they had shaked of their shackles of servitude, and were become
Masters, and masterles people.
It appeares they were like beares whelpes in former time, when mine hosts
plantation was of as much strength as theirs, but now, (theirs being
stronger,) they, (like overgrowne beares,) seemed monsterous. In breife,
mine host must indure to be their prisoner untill they could contrive it so
that they might send him for England, (as they said,) there to suffer
according to the merrit of the fact which they intended to father upon him;
supposing, (belike,) it would proove a hainous crime.
Much rejoycing was made that they had gotten their cappitall enemy, (as
they concluded him;) whome they purposed to hamper in such sort that hee
should not be able to uphold his plantation at Ma-re Mount.
The Conspirators sported themselves at my honest host, that meant them no
hurt, and were so joccund that they feasted their bodies, and fell to tippeling
as if they had obtained a great prize; like the Trojans when they had the
custody of Hippeus pinetree horse.
Mine host fained greefe, and could not be perswaded either to eate or
drinke; because hee knew emptines would be a meanes to make him as
watchfull as the Geese kept in the Roman Cappitall: whereon, the contrary
part, the conspirators would be so drowsy that hee might have an
opportunity to give them a {140} slip, insteade of a tester. Six persons of the
conspiracy were set to watch him at Wessaguscus: But Mine Host got out of
hee kept waking; and in the dead of night, (one lying prison.
on the bed for further suerty,) up gets mine Host and
got to the second dore that hee was to passe, which, notwithstanding the
lock, hee got open, and shut it after him with such violence that it affrighted
some of the conspirators.
The word, which was given with an alarme, was, ô he’s gon, he’s gon, what
shall wee doe, he’s gon! The rest, (halfe a sleepe,) start up in a maze, and,
like rames, ran theire heads one at another full butt in the darke.

Theire grande leader, Captaine Shrimp, tooke on most The Captain tore his
furiously and tore his clothes for anger, to see the clothes.
empty nest, and their bird gone.
The rest were eager to have torne theire haire from theire heads; but it was
so short that it would give them no hold. Now Captaine Shrimp thought in
the losse of this prize, (which hee accoumpted his Master peece,) all his
honor would be lost for ever.
In the meane time mine Host was got home to Ma-re Mine host got home to
Mount through the woods, eight miles round about the ma-re mount.
head of the river Monatoquit that parted the two
Plantations, finding his way by the helpe of the lightening, (for it thundred
as hee went terribly;) and there hee prepared powther, three pounds dried,
for his present imployement, and foure good gunnes for him and the two
assistants left at his howse, with bullets of severall Hee provides for his
sizes, three hounderd or thereabouts, to be used if the enemies.
conspirators should pursue {141} him thether: and these
two persons promised theire aides in the quarrell, and confirmed that
promise with health in good rosa solis.
Now Captaine Shrimp, the first Captaine in the Land, (as hee supposed,)
must doe some new act to repaire this losse, and, to vindicate his reputation,
who had sustained blemish by this oversight, begins now to study, how to
repaire or survive his honor: in this manner, callinge of Councell, they
conclude.
Hee takes eight persons more to him, and, (like the nine Worthies of New
Canaan,) they imbarque with preparation against Ma-re-Mount, where this
Monster of a man, as theire phrase was, had his denne; the whole number,
had the rest not bin from home, being but seaven, would have given
Captaine Shrimpe, (a quondam Drummer,) such a wellcome as would have
made him wish for a Drume as bigg as Diogenes tubb, that hee might have
crept into it out of sight.
Now the nine Worthies are approached, and mine Host prepared: having
intelligence by a Salvage, that hastened in love from Wessaguscus to give
him notice of their intent.

One of mine Hosts men prooved a craven: the other had prooved his wits to
purchase a little valoure, before mine Host had observed his posture.
{142} The nine worthies comming before the Denne of this supposed
Monster, (this seaven headed hydra, as they termed him,) and began, like
Don Quixote against the Windmill, to beate a parly, A Parly.
and to offer quarter, if mine Host would yeald; for they
resolved to send him for England; and bad him lay by his armes.
But hee, (who was the Sonne of a Souldier,) having taken up armes in his
just defence, replyed that hee would not lay by those armes, because they
were so needefull at Sea, if hee should be sent over. Yet, to save the effusion
of so much worty bloud, as would haue issued out of the vaynes of these 9.
worthies of New Canaan, if mine Host should have played upon them out at
his port holes, (for they came within danger like a flocke of wild geese, as if
they had bin tayled one to another, as coults to be sold at a faier,) mine Host
was content to yeelde upon quarter; and did capitulate with them in what
manner it should be for more certainety, because hee knew what Captaine
Shrimpe was.
Hee expressed that no violence should be offered to Captaine Shrimpe
his person, none to his goods, nor any of his promiseth that no
Howsehold: but that hee should have his armes, and violence should bee
offered to his person.
what els was requisit for the voyage: which theire
Herald retornes, it was agreed upon, and should be performed.
But mine Host no sooner had set open the dore, and issued out, but instantly
Captaine Shrimpe and the rest of the worties stepped to him, layd hold of
his armes, and had him downe: and so eagerly was every {143} man bent
against him, (not regarding any agreement made with such a carnall man,)
that they fell upon him as if they would have eaten him: some of them were
so violent that they would have a slice with scabbert, and all for haste; untill
an old Souldier, (of the Queenes, as the Proverbe is,) The Worthies rebuked
that was there by accident, clapt his gunne under the for their unworthy
weapons, and sharply rebuked these worthies for their practises.
unworthy practises. So the matter was taken into more
deliberate consideration.
Captaine Shrimpe, and the rest of the nine worthies, made themselves, (by
this outragious riot,) Masters of mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount, and disposed

of what hee had at his plantation.
This they knew, (in the eye of the Salvages,) would add to their glory, and
diminish the reputation of mine honest Host; whome they practised to be
ridd of upon any termes, as willingly as if hee had bin the very Hidra of the
time.

Chap. XVI.

How the 9. worthies put mine Host of Ma-re-Mount into the
inchaunted Castle at Plimmouth, and terrified him with the
Monster Briareus.
The nine worthies of New Canaan having now the Law in their owne hands,
(there being no generall {144} Governour in the Land; nor none of the
Seperation that regarded the duety they owe their Soveraigne, whose
naturall borne Subjects they were, though translated out of Holland, from
whence they had learned to worke all to their owne ends, and make a great
shewe of Religion, but no humanity,) for they were now to sit in Counsell
on the cause.
And much it stood mine honest Host upon to be very circumspect, and to
take Eacus[491] to taske; for that his voyce was more allowed of then both
the other: and had not mine Host confounded all the arguments that Eacus
could make in their defence, and confuted him that swaied the rest, they
would have made him unable to drinke in such manner of merriment any
more. So that following this private counsell, given him by one that knew
who ruled the rost, the Hiracano ceased that els would split his pinace.
A conclusion was made and sentence given that mine Host should be sent to
England a prisoner. But when hee was brought to the shipps for that
purpose, no man durst be so foole hardy as to undertake carry him.[492] So
these Worthies set mine Host upon an Island, without gunne, powther, or
shot or dogge or so much as a knife to get any thinge Mine host set upon an
to feede upon, or any other cloathes to shelter him with Island without
at winter then a thinne suite which hee had one at that anything, to shift for
time. Home hee could not get to Ma-re-Mount. Upon himselfe.
this Island hee stayed a moneth at least, and was releeved by Salvages that
tooke notice that mine Host was a Sachem of Passonagessit, and would
bringe bottles of strong liquor to him, and unite themselves {145} into a
league of brother hood with mine Host; so full of humanity are these
infidels before those Christians.

From this place for England sailed mine Host in a Plimmouth shipp, (that
came into the Land to fish upon the Coast,) that landed him safe in England
at Plimmouth: and hee stayed in England untill the ordinary time for
shipping to set forth for these parts, and then retorned:[493] Noe man being
able to taxe him of any thinge.
But the Worthies, (in the meane time,) hoped they had bin ridd of him.

Chap. XVII.

Of the Baccanall Triumphe of the nine worthies of New Canaan.
The Seperatists were not so contended, (when mine Host of Ma-re-Mount
was gone,) but they were as much discontended when hee was retorned
againe: and the rather because theire passages about him, and the businesse,
were so much derided and in songes exemplified: which, (for better
satisfaction of such as are in that kinde affected,) I have set forth, as it was
then in use by the name of the Baccanall Triumphe, as followeth:

[494]
{146} THE POEM.

I sing th’ adventures of nine Master Ben: Iohnson.
worthy wights,
And pitty ’tis I cannot call them Knights,
Since they had brawne and braine, and were right able
To be installed of Prince Arthures table;
Yet all of them were Squires of low degree,
The Magi tould of a prodigeous birth
That shortly should be found upon the earth,
By Archimedes art, which they misconster
Vnto their Land would proove a hiddeous monster;
Seaven heades it had, and twice so many feete,
Arguing the body to be wondrous greate,
Besides a forked taile heav’d up on highe
As if it threaten’d battell to the skie.
The Rumor of this fearefull prodigy
Did cause th’ effeminate multitude to cry
For want of great Alcides aide, and stood
Like People that have seene Medusas head.
Great was the greife of hart, great was the mone,
And great the feare conceaved by every one
Of Hydras hiddeous forme and dreadfull powre,
Doubting in time this Monster would devoure
All their best flocks, whose dainty wolle consorts
It selfe with Scarlet in all Princes Courts.
Not Iason nor the adventerous youths of Greece
Did bring from Colcos any richer Fleece.
In Emulation of the Gretian force
These Worthies nine prepar’d a woodden horse,
{147} And, prick’d with pride of like successe, divise
How they may purchase glory by this prize;
And, if they give to Hidreas head the fall,
It will remaine a plat forme unto all
Theire brave atchivements, and in time to comme,
Per fas aut nefas, they’l erect a throne.
Cloubs are turn’d trumps: so now the lott is cast:
With fire and sword to Hidras den they haste,
Mars in th’ assendant, Soll in Cancer now,

Mars in th assendant, Soll in Cancer now,
And Lerna Lake to Plutos court must bow.
What though they [be] rebuk’d by thundring Iove,
Tis neither Gods nor men that can remove
Their mindes from making this a dismall day.
These nine will now be actors in this play
And Sumon Hidra to appeare anon
Before their witles Combination:
But his undaunted spirit, nursd with meate
Such as the Cecrops gave their babes to eate,
Scorn’d their base accons; for with Cecrops charme
Hee knew he could defend himselfe from harme
Of Minos, Eacus, and Radamand,
Princes of Limbo; who must out of hand
Consult bout Hidra, what must now be done:
Who, having sate in Counsell, one by one
Retorne this answere to the Stiggean feinds;
And first grim Minos spake: most loving freinds,
Hidra prognosticks ruine to our state
And that our Kingdome will grow desolate;
But if one head from thence be tane away
The Body and the members will decay.
[495]
{148} To take in hand, quoth Eacus, this taske,
Is such as harebraind Phaeton did aske
Of Phebus, to begird the world about;
Which graunted put the Netherlands to rout;
Presumptious fooles learne wit at too much cost,
For life and laboure both at once hee lost.
Sterne Radamantus, being last to speake,
Made a great hum and thus did silence breake:
What if, with ratling chaines or Iron bands,
Hidra be bound either by feete or hands,
And after, being lashd with smarting rodds,
Hee be conveyd by Stix unto the godds
To be accused on the upper ground
Of Lesæ Majestatis, this crime found
T’will be unpossible from thence, I trowe,
Hidra shall come to trouble us belowe.

This sentence pleasd the friends exceedingly,
That up they tost their bonnets, and did cry,
Long live our Court in great prosperity.
The Sessions ended, some did straight devise
Court Revells, antiques and a world of joyes,
Brave Christmas gambols:[496] there was open hall
Kept to the full, and sport, the Divell and all:
Laboure’s despised, the loomes are laid away,
And this proclaim’d the Stigean Holliday.
In came grim Mino, with his motly beard,
And brought a distillation well prepar’d;
And Eacus, who is as suer as text,
Came in with his preparatives the next;
Then Radamantus, last and principall,
Feasted the Worthies in his sumptuous hall.
{149} There Charon Cerberous and the rout of feinds
Had lap enough: and so their pastims ends.
THE ILLVSTRATIONS.

Now to illustrate this Poem, and make the sence more plaine, it is to be
considered that the Persons at Ma-re-Mount were seaven, and they had
seaven heads and 14. feete; these were accounted Hidra with the seaven
heads: and the Maypole, with the Hornes nailed neere the topp, was the
forked tayle of this supposed Monster, which they (for want of skill)
imposed: yet feared in time, (if they hindred not mine Host), hee would
hinder the benefit of their Beaver trade, as hee had done, (by meanes of this
helpe,) in Kynyback river finely, ere they were awares; who, comming too
late, were much dismaide to finde that mine Host his boate had gleaned
away all before they came; which Beaver is a fitt companion for Scarlett:
and I beleeve that Iasons golden Fleece was either the same, or some other
Fleece not of so much value.
This action bred a kinde of hart burning in the Plimmouth Planters, who
after sought occasion against mine Host to overthrowe his undertakings and
to destroy his Plantation; whome they accoumpted a maine enemy to theire
Church and State.

{150} Now when they had begunne with him, they thought best to proceede:
forasmuch as they thought themselves farre enough from any controule of
Iustice, and therefore resolved to be their owne carvers: (and the rather
because they presumed upon some incouragement they had from the
favourites of their Sect in England:) and with fire and sword, nine in
number, pursued mine Host, who had escaped theire hands, in scorne of
what they intended, and betooke him to his habitation in a night of great
thunder and lightening, when they durst not follow him, as hardy as these
nine worthies seemed to be.
It was in the Moneth of Iune that these Marshallists had appointed to goe
about this mischeifous project, and deale so crabbidly with mine Host.
After a parly, hee capitulated with them about the quarter they proffered
him, if hee would consent to goe for England, there to answere, (as they
pretended,) some thing they could object against him principall to the
generall: But what it would be hee cared not, neither was it any thing
materiall.
Yet when quarter was agreed upon, they, contrary wise, abused him, and
carried him to theire towne of Plimmouth, where, (if they had thought hee
durst have gone to England,) rather then they would have bin any more
affronted by him they would have dispatched him, as Captaine Shrimp in a
rage profest that hee would doe with his Pistoll, as mine Host should set his
foote into the boate. Howsoever, the cheife Elders voyce in that place was
more powerfull than any of the rest, who concluded {151} to send mine Host
without any other thing to be done to him. And this being the finall
agreement, (contrary to Shrimpe and others,) the nine Worthies had a great
Feast made, and the furmity[497] pott was provided for the boats gang by no
allowance: and all manner of pastime.
Captaine Shrimpe was so overjoyed in the performance of this exployt, that
they had, at that time, extraordinary merriment, (a thing not usuall amongst
those presisians); and when the winde served they tooke mine Host into
their Shallop, hoysed Saile, and carried him to the Northern parts; where
they left him upon a Island.

Chap. XVIII.

Of a Doctor made at a Commencement in New Canaan.[498]
The Church of Plimmouth, having due regard to the weale publike and the
Brethren that were to come over, and knowing that they would be busily
imployed to make provision for the cure of Soules, and therefore might
neglect the body for that time, did hold themselves to be in duety bound to
make search for a fitting man, that might be able, (if so neede requir’d,) to
take the chardge upon him in that place of imployment: and therefore called
a Counsell of the whole Synagoge: amongst which A Councell called.
company, they chose out a man that long time had bin
nurst up in the tender bosome of the Church: one that had {152} speciall
gifts: hee could wright and reade; nay, more: hee had tane the oath of
abjuration, which is a speciall stepp, yea, and a maine degree unto
perferment. Him they weane, and out of Phaos boxe[499] fitt him with
speciall guifts of no lesse worth: they stile him Doctor, and forth they send
him to gaine imployement and opinion.
What luck is it I cannot hit on his name: but I will give you him by a
periphrasis, that you may know him when you meete him next.
Hee was borne at Wrington, in the County of Somerset, where hee was bred
a Butcher. Hee weares a longe beard, and a Garment like the Greeke that
beggd in Pauls Church.[500] This new made Doctor, comes to Salem to
congratulate:[501] where hee findes some are newly come from Sea, and ill
at ease.
He takes the patient, and the urinall: eies the State there; finds the Crasis
Syptomes, and the attomi natantes: and tells the patient that his disease was
winde, which hee had tane by gapeing feasting over board[502] at Sea; but
hee would quickly ease him of that greife, and quite expell the winde. And
this hee did performe, with his gifts hee had: and then hee handled the
patient so handsomely, that hee eased him of all the winde hee had in an
instant.

And yet I hope this man may be forgiven, if hee were made a fitting Plant
for Heaven.
How hee went to worke with his gifts is a question; yet hee did a great cure
for Captaine Littleworth, hee cured him of a disease called a wife:[503] and
yet I hope this man may be forgiven, if shee were made a fitting plant for
heaven.
{153} By this meanes hee was allowed 4. p. a moneth, and the chirgeon’s
chest, and made Phisition generall of Salem: where hee exercised his gifts
so well, that of full 42. that there hee tooke to cure, there is not one has
more cause to complaine, or can say black’s his eie. This saved Captaine
Littleworths credit, that had truck’d away the vittels: though it brought forth
a scandall on the Country by it: and then I hope this man may be forgiven,
if they were all made fitting plants for Heaven.
But in mine opinion, hee deserves to be set upon a palfrey and lead up and
downe in triumph throw new Canaan, with a coller of Iurdans about his
neck, as was one of like desert in Richard the seconds time through the
streets of London, that men might know where to finde a Quacksaluer.[504]

Chap. XIX.

Of the silencing of a Minister in new Canaan.[505]
A silenced Minister, out of coveteousnesse,[506] came over into new Canaan
to play the spie: Hee pretended, out of a zealous intent to doe the Salvages
good, and to teach them. Hee brought a great Bundell of Horne books with
him, and carefull hee was, (good man,) to blott out all the crosses of them,
for feare least the people of the land should become Idolaters. Hee was in
hope, with his gifts, to prepare a great auditory against greate Iosua should
arive there.
{154} Hee applyed himselfe on the weeke dayes to the trade of Beaver, but it
was, (as might seeme,) to purchase the principall benefite of the Lande,
when the time should come; for hee had a hope to be the Caiphas of the
Country: and well hee might, for hee was higher by the head than any of his
tribe that came after him.
This man, it seemes, played the spie very handsomely; for in the exercise of
his guifts on the Lords day at Weenasimute,[507] hee espied a Salvage come
in with a good Beaver coate, and tooke occasion to This Caiphas that
reproove the covetous desire of his auditory to trade condemneth
for Beaver on those dayes; which made them all use so Covetousnesse, and
much modesty about the matter for the present, that committeth
it
himselfe.
hee found opportunity, the same day, to take the
Salvage a side into a corner, where (with the helpe of his Wampampeack
hee had in his pocket for that purpose in a readinesse,) hee made a shifte to
get that Beaver coate, which their mouthes watered at; and so deceaved
them all.
But shortly after, when Iosua[508] came into the Land, hee had soone spied
out Caiphas practice, and put him to silence; and either hee must put up his
pipes and be packing, or forsake Ionas posture, and play Demas part
alltogether.[509]

{155} Chap. XX.

Of the Practise of the Seperatists to gett a snare to hamper mine
Host of Ma-re-Mount.
Although the nine Worthies had left mine Hoste upon an Island,[510] in such
an inhumane manner as yee heard before; yet when they understood that
hee had got shipping and was gone to England of his owne accord, they
dispatched letters of advise to an Agent they had there: and by the next
shipp sent after to have a snare made, that might hamper mine Host so as
hee might not any more trouble theire conscience: and to that end made a
generall collection of Beaver to defray the chardge, The generall
[511]
and hee was not thought a good Christian that collection made.
would not lay much out for that imployment.
Some contributed three pounds, some foure, some five pounds; and
procured a pretty quantity by that Devise, which should be given to a
cunning man that could make a snare to hamper him.
The Agent, (according to his directions,) does his endeavoure, (in the best
manner hee could,) to have this instrument made: and Noe cost spared for
used no little diligence to have it effected.[512] His the getting of a
reputation stood upon the taske imposed upon him skillfull man.
against mine Host, the onely enemy (accounted) of
their Church and State.
Much inquiry was made in London, and about, for a skillfull man that
would worke the feate. Noe cost {156} was spared, for gold hee had good
store: first hee inquires of one, and then another: at the last hee heard newes
of a very famous man, one that was excellent at making subtile instruments,
such as that age had never bin acquainted with.
Hee was well knowne to be the man, that had wit and wondrous skill to
make a cunning instrument where with to save himselfe and his whole
family, if all the world besides should be drown’d; and this the best; yea,
and the best cheap too, for, no good done, the man would nothing take.

To him this agent goes, and praies his aide: Declares his cause, and tells the
substance of his greivance, all at large, and laid before his eies a heape of
gold.
When all was shewd, that could be she’d, and said, what could be said, and
all too little for to have it done, the agent then did see The heape of gold.
his gold refused, his cause despised, and thought
himselfe disgraced to leave the worke undone: so that hee was much
dismaid, yet importun’d the cunning [man], who found no reason to take
the taske in hand.
Hee thought, perhaps, mine Host, (that had the slight to escape from the
nine Worthies, to chaine Argus eies, and by inchauntment make the doores
of the watch tower fly open at an instant,) would not be hampered, but with
much a doe: and so hee was unwilling to be troubled with that taske.
The agent wondring to see that his gold would doe no good, did aske the
cunning man if hee could give him no advise? who said, hee would: and
what was that, thinke you? To let mine Host alone. Who, {157} being ship’d
againe for the parts of New Canaan, was put in at Mine Host arrived
Plimmouth in the very faces of them, to their terrible againe in Plimmouth.
amazement to see him at liberty: and told him hee had
not yet fully answered the matter they could object against him. Hee onely
made this modest reply, that hee did perceave they were willfull people, that
would never be answered: and derided them for their practises and losse of
laboure.[513]

Chap. XXI.

Of Captaine Littleworth his new devise for the purchase of
Beaver.
In the meane time, whiles these former passages were, there was a great
swelling fellow, of Littleworth, crept over to Salem, (by the helpe of Master
Charter party,[514] the Tresorer, and Master Ananias Charter party
Increase,[515] the Collector for the Company of Treasorer.
Seperatists,) to take upon him their imployments for a
time.
Hee, resolving to make hay whiles the Sonne did shine, first pretended
himselfe to be sent over as cheife Iustice of the Massachussets Bay and
Salem, forsoth, and tooke unto him a councell; and a worthy one no doubt,
for the Cowkeeper of Salem was a prime man in those imployments; and to
ad a Majesty, (as hee thought,) to his new assumed dignity, hee caused the
Patent of the Massachussets, (new brought into the Land,) to be carried
where hee went in his progresse to and froe, as an embleme of his authority:
which {158} the vulgar people, not acquainted with, thought it to be some
instrument of Musick locked up in that covered case,[516] and thought, (for
so some said,) this man of little-worth had bin a fidler, and the rather
because hee had put into the mouthes of poore silly things, that were sent
alonge with him, what skill hee had in Engines, and in things of quaint
devise: all which prooved in conclusion to be but impostury.
This man, thinking none so worthy as himselfe, tooke Warrants made by
upon him infinitely: and made warrants in his owne Capt. Littleworth in
name, (without relation to his Majesties authority in his name.
that place,) and summoned a generall apparance at the
worshipfull towne of Salem:[517] there in open assembly was tendered
certaine Articles, devised betweene him and theire new Pastor Master
Eager,[518] (that had renounced his old calling to the Ministry receaved in
England, by warrant of Gods word, and taken a new one there, by their
fantasticall way imposed, and conferred upon him with some speciall guifts
had out of Phaos boxe.)[519]

To these Articles every Planter, old and new, must signe, or be expelled
from any manner of aboade within the Compas of the Land contained
within that graunt then shewed: which was so large it would suffice for
Elbow roome for more then were in all the Land by 700000. such an army
might have planted them a Colony with [in] that cirquit which hee
challenged, and not contend for roome for their Cattell. But for all that, hee
that should refuse to subscribe, must pack.
The tenor of the Articles were these: That in all {159} causes, as well
Ecclesiasticall as Politicall, wee should follow the rule of Gods word.
This made a shew of a good intent, and all the Mine Host subscribed
assembly, (onely mine Host replyed,) did subscribe: not.
hee would not, unlesse they would ad this Caution: So
as nothing be done contrary or repugnant to the Lawes of the Kingdome of
England. These words hee knew, by former experience, were necessary, and
without these the same would proove a very mousetrapp to catch some
body by his owne consent, (which the rest nothing suspected,) for the
construction of the worde would be made by them of the Seperation to
serve their owne turnes: and if any man should, in such a case, be accused
of a crime, (though in it selfe it were petty,) they might set it on the tenter
hookes of their imaginary gifts, and stretch it to make it seeme cappitall;
which was the reason why mine Host refused to subscribe.
It was then agreed upon that there should be one The Patent.
generall trade used within that Patent, (as hee said,)
and a generall stock: and every man to put in a parte: and every man, for his
person, to have shares alike: and for their stock, according to the ratable
proportion was put in: and this to continue for 12. moneths, and then to call
an accompt.
All were united, but mine Host refused: two truckmasters were chosen;
wages prefixed; onely mine Host put in a Caviat that All consented but
the wages might be paid out of the cleare proffit, mine Host.
which there in black and white was plainely put
downe.
{160} But before the end of 6. moneths, the partners in this stock, (handled
by the Truckmasters,) would have an accoumpt: some of them had
perceaved that Wampambeacke could be pocketted up, and the underlings,

(that went in the boats alonge,) would bee neere the Wiser for any thinge,
but what was trucked for Beaver onely.
The accoumpt being made betweene Captaine Insteed of proffit dis-
Littleworth, and the two Truckmasters, it was found proffit.
that instead of increasing the proffit, they had
decreased it; for the principall stock, by this imployment, was freetted so,
that there was a great hole to be seene in the very middle of it, which cost
the partners afterwards one hundred markes to stopp and make good to
Captaine Littleworth.
But mine Host, that sturred not his foote at all for the matter, did not onely
save his stock from such a Cancar, but gained sixe and seaven for one: in
the meane time hee derided the Contributers for being catch’d in that snare.

Chap. XXII.

Of a Sequestration made in New Canaan.[520]
Captaine Littleworth, (that had an akeing tooth at mine Host of Ma-re-
Mount,) devised how hee might put a trick upon him, by colour of a
Sequestration; and got some persons to pretend that hee had corne and other
goods of theirs in possession; and the {161} rather because mine Host had
store of corne and hee had improvidently truckt his store for the present
gaine of Beaver; in so much that his people under his chardge were put to
short allowance, which caused some of them to sicken with conceipt of
such useage, and some of them by the practise of the new entertained
Doctor Noddy, with his Imaginary gifts. They sent therefore to exhibit a
petition to grim Minos, Eacus and Radamant, where they wished to have
the author of their greife to be convented:[521] and they had procured it
quickly, if curses would have caused it: for good prayers would be of no
validity, (as they supposed,) in this extremity.
Now in this extremity Capt. Littleworth gave commission to such as hee
had found ready for such imployments to enter in the Commission for
howse at Ma-re-Mount, and, with a shallop, to bring corne.
from thence such corne and other utensilles as in their
commission hee had specified. But mine Host, wary to prevent eminent
mischeife, had conveyed his powther and shott, (and such other things as
stood him in most steed for his present condition,) into the woods for
safety: and, whiles this was put in practise by him, the shallop was landed
and the Commissioners entred the howse, and willfully bent against mine
honest Host, that loved good hospitality. After they had Mine Hosts corne &
feasted their bodies with that they found there, they goods carried away
carried all his corne away, with some other of his by violence.
goods, contrary to the Lawes of hospitality: a smale
parcell of refuse corne onely excepted, which they left mine Host to keepe
Christmas with.
{162} But when they were gone, mine Host fell to make use of his gunne, (as
one that had a good faculty in the use of that instrument,) and feasted his
body neverthelesse with fowle and venison, which hee purchased with the

helpe of that instrument, the plenty of the Country and the commodiousnes
of the place affording meanes, by the blessing of God; and hee did but
deride Captaine Littleworth, that made his servants snap shorte in a Country
so much abounding with plenty of foode for an industrious man, with greate
variety.

Chap. XXIII.

Of a great Bonfire made for ioy of the arrivall of great Iosua,
surnamed Temperwell, into the Land of Canaan.[522]
Seaven shipps set forth at once, and altogether arrived in the Land of
Canaan, to take a full possession thereof: What are all the 12. Tribes of new
Israell come? No, none but the tribe of Issacar, and some few scattered
Levites of the remnant of those that were descended of old Elies howse.
And here comes their Iosua too among them; and they make it a more
miraculous thing for these seaven shipps to set forth together, and arrive at
New Canaan together, then it was for the Israelites to goe over Iordan
drishod: perhaps it was, because they had a wall on the right hand and a
wall on the left hand.
{163} These Seperatists suppose there was no more difficulty in the matter
then for a man to finde the way to the Counter at noone dayes, betweene a
Sergeant and his yeoman: Now you may thinke mine Host will be hamperd
or never.
These are the men that come prepared to ridd the Land Men that come to ridd
of all pollution. These are more subtile then the the land of pollution.
Cunning, that did refuse a goodly heap of gold.[523]
These men have brought a very snare indeed; and now mine Host must
suffer. The book of Common Prayer, which hee used, to be despised: and
hee must not be spared.
Now they are come, his doome before hand was concluded on: they have a
warrant now: A cheife one too: and now mine Host must know hee is the
subject of their hatred: the Snare must now be used; this instrument must
not be brought by Iosua in vaine.[524]
A Court is called of purpose for mine host: hee there A Courte called about
convented, and must heare his doome before hee goe: mine Host.
nor will they admitt him to capitulate, and know
wherefore they are so violent to put such things in practise against a man

they never saw before: nor will they allow of it, though hee decline their
Iurisdiction.
There they all with one assent put him to silence, A divellish sentence
crying out, heare the Governour, heare the Govern: against him.
who gave this sentence against mine Host at first sight:
that he should be first put in the Billbowes, his goods should be all
confiscated, his Plantation should be burned downe to the ground, because
the habitation of the wicked should no more appeare in Israell, and {164} his
person banished from those territories; and this put in execution with all
speede.[525]
The harmeles Salvages, (his neighboures,) came the The Salvages
while, (greived, poore silly lambes, to see what they reproove them.
went about,) and did reproove these Eliphants of witt
for their inhumane deede: the Lord above did open their mouthes like
Balams Asse, and made them speake in his behalfe sentences of unexpected
divinity, besides morrallity; and tould them that god would not love them
that burned this good mans howse; and plainely sayed that they who were
new come would finde the want of such a howses in the winter: so much
themselves to him confest.
The smoake that did assend appeared to be the very Epictetus summa
Sacrifice of Kain. Mine Host, (that a farre of abourd a totius Philosophiæ.
ship did there behold this wofull spectacle,) knew not
what hee should doe in this extremity but beare and forbeare, as Epictetus
sayes[526]: it was bootelesse to exclaime.
Hee did consider then these transitory things are but ludibria fortunæ,[527]
as Cicero calls them. All was burnt downe to the ground, and nothing did
remaine but the bare ashes as an embleme of their cruelty: and unles it
could, (like to the Phenix,) rise out of these ashes and be new againe, (to the
immortall glory and renowne of this fertile Canaan the new,) the stumpes
and postes in their black liveries will mourne; and piety it selfe will add a
voyce to the bare remnant of that Monument, and make it cry for
recompence, (or else revenge,) against the Sect of cruell Schismaticks.

{165} Chap. XXIV.

Of the digrading and creating gentry in New Canaan.[528]
There was a zealous Professor in the Land of Canaan, (growne a great
Merchant in the Beaver trade,) that came over for his conscience sake, (as
other men have done,) and the meanes, (as the phrase is,) who in his
minority had bin prentice to a tombe maker; who, comming to more ripenes
of yeares, (though lesse discretion,) found a kinde of scruple in his
conscience that the trade was in parte against the second commandement:
[529]
and therefore left it off wholely, and betooke himselfe to some other
imployments.
In the end hee settled upon this course, where hee had hope of preferrement,
and become one of those things that any Iudas might An Elder.
hange himselfe upon, that is an Elder.
Hee had bin a man of some recconing in his time, (as himselfe would
boast,) for hee was an officer, just under the Exchequer at Westminster, in a
place called Phlegeton: there hee was comptroller, and conversed with noe
plebeians, I tell you, but such as have angels or their attendance, (I meane
some Lawyers with appertenances, that is, Clarks,) with whome a Iugg of
Beare and a crusty rolle in the terme is as currant as a three penny scute at
Hall time.
{166} There is another place thereby, called sticks: these are two daingerous
places, by which the infernall gods doe sweare: but this of Sticks is the
more daingerous of the two, because there, (if a man be once in,) hee cannot
tell how to get out againe handsomely.
I knew an under sheriff was in unawaires, and hee laboured to be free of it:
yet hee broake his back before he got so farre as quietus est: There is no
such danger in Phlegeton, where this man of so much recconing was
comptroller.
Hee being here, waited an opportunity to be made a Iosua displeased.
gentl. and now it fell out that a gentl. newly come into
the land of Canaan, (before hee knew what ground hee stood upon,) had

incurred the displeasure of great Iosua so highly that hee must therefore be
digraded.
No reconciliation could be had for him: all hopes were past for that matter:
Where upon this man of much recconing (pretending a graunt of the
approach in avoydance,) helpes the lame dogge over the stile, and was as
jocund on the matter as a Magpie over a Mutton.
Wherefore the Heralls, with Drums, and Trumpets, proclaiming in a very
solemne manner that it was the pleasure of great Iosua, Master Temperwell.
(for divers and sundry very good causes and
considerations, Master Temperwell thereunto especially mooving,) to take
away the title, prerogative and preheminence of the Delinquent, so
unworthy of it, and to place the same upon a Professor of more recconing:
so that it was made {167} a penall thing for any man after to lifte the same
man againe on the top of that stile, but that hee should stand perpetually
digraded from that prerogative. And the place by this meanes being voyde,
this man, of so much more reckoning, was receaved in like a Cypher to fill
up a roome, and was made a Gentleman of the first head; and his Coate of
Armes, blazon’d and tricked out fit for that purpose, in this Poem following.

THE POEM.

What ailes Pigmalion? Is it Lunacy;
Or Doteage on his owne Imagery?
Let him remember how hee came from Hell,
That after ages by record may tell
The compleate story to posterity.
Blazon his Coate in forme of Heraldry.
Hee beareth argent Put it this way.
alwaies at commaund,
A barre between three crusty rolls at hand,
And, for his crest, with froth, there does appeare
Dextra Paw Elevant a Iugg of beare.
Now, that it may the more easily be understood, I have here endeavoured to
set it forth in these illustrations following: Pigmalion was an Image maker,
who, doteing on his owne perfection in making the Image of Venus, grew to

be a mazed man, like our Gentleman here of the first head: and by the
figure Antonomasia[530] is hee herein exemplified.
Hee was translated from a tombe maker to be the {168} tapster at hell,
(which is in Westminster, under the Ex-Chequer office,) for benefit of the
meanes hee translated himselfe into New England, where, by the help of
Beaver and the commaund of a servant or two, hee was advaunced to the
title of a gentleman; where I left him to the exercise of his guifts.

Chap. XXV.

Of the manner how the Seperatists doe pay debts to them that
are without.[531]
There was an honest man, one Mr. Innocence Fairecloath,[532] by Mr.
Mathias Charterparty sent over into New Canaan, to raise a very good
marchantable commodity for his benefit; for, whiles the man was bound by
covenant to stay for a time, and to imploy such servants as did there belong
to Mr. Charterparty,[533] hee disdained the tenents of the Seperatists: and
they also, (finding him to be none,) disdained to be imployed by a carnall
man, (as they termed him,) and fought occasion against him, to doe him a
mischeife. Intelligence was conveyed to Mr. Charterparty that this man was
a member of the Church of England, and therefore, (in their account,) an
enemy to their Church and state. And, (to the end they might have some
coloure against him,) some of them practised to get into his debte, which
hee, not mistrusting, suffered, and gave credit for such Commodity as hee
had sold at a price. When the day of payment came, insteede of monyes,
hee, being at that time sick and weake and stood in neede of the Beaver hee
had contracted for, hee had an Epistle full of zealous Goode Payement.
exhortations to provide for the soule; and {169} not to
minde these transitory things that perished with the body, and to bethinke
himselfe whether his conscience would be so prompt to demaund so greate
a somme of Beaver as had bin contracted for. Hee was further exhorted
therein to consider hee was but a steward for a time, and by all likely hood
was going to give up an accompt of his stewardship: and therfore
perswaded the creditor not to load his conscience with such a burthen,
which hee was bound by the Gospell to ease him of (if it were possible;)
and for that cause hee had framed this Epistle in such a freindly maner to
put him in minde of it. The perusall of this, (lap’d in the paper,) was as bad
as a potion to the creditor, to see his debtor Master Subtilety (a zealous
professor as hee thought) to deride him in this extremity, that hee could not
chuse, (in admiration of the deceipt,) but cast out these words:
Are these youre members? if they be all like these, I beleeve the Divell was
the setter of their Church.

This was called in question when Mr. Fairecloath least thought of it. Capt.
Littleworth must be the man must presse it against him, for blasphemy
against the Church of Salem: and to greate Iosua Temperwell hee goes with
a bitter accusation, to have Master Innocence made an Blasphemy an
example for all carnall men to presume to speake the example for carnall
least word that might tend to the dishonor of the men.
Church of Salem; yea, the mother Church of all that
holy Land.
And hee convented was before their Synagoge, where no defence would
serve his turne; yet was there none to be seene to accuse him, save the
Court alone.
{170} The time of his sicknes, nor the urgent cause, were not allowed to be
urg’d for him; but whatsoever could be thought upon against him was
urged, seeing hee was a carnall man, of them that are without. So that it
seemes, by those proceedings there, the matter was adjudged before he
came: Hee onely brought to heare his sentence in publicke: which was, to
have his tongue bored through; his nose slit; his face branded; his eares cut;
his body to be whip’d in every severall plantation of their Iurisdiction; and a
fine of forty pounds impos’d, with perpetuall banishment: and, (to execute
this vengeance,) Shackles,[534] (the Deacon of Charles Towne,) was as
ready as Mephostophiles, when Doctor Faustus was bent upon mischeife.
Hee is the purser generall of New Canaan, who, (with his whipp, with
knotts most terrible,) takes this man unto the Counting howse: there
capitulates with him why hee should be so hasty for payment, when Gods
deare children must pay as they are able: and hee weepes, and sobbes, and
his handkercher walkes as a signe of his sorrow for Master Fairecloaths
sinne, that hee should beare no better affection to the Church and the Saints
of New Canaan: and strips Innocence the while, and comforts him.
Though hee be made to stay for payment, hee should not thinke it longe; the
payment would be sure when it did come, and hee should have his due to a
doite; hee should not wish for a token more; And then Notable Pay.
tould it him downe in such manner that hee made
Fairecloaths Innocent back like the picture of Rawhead and blowdy bones,
and his shirte like a {171} pudding wifes aperon. In this imployment
Shackles takes a greate felicity, and glories in the practise of it. This cruell

sentence was stoped in part by Sir Christopher Gardiner, (then present at the
execution,) by expostulating with Master Temperwell: who was content,
(with that whipping and the cutting of parte of his eares,) to send Innocence
going, with the losse of all his goods, to pay the fine imposed, and
perpetuall banishment out of their Lands of New Canaan, in terrorem
populi.
Loe this is the payment you shall get, if you be one of them they terme,
without.

Chap. XXVI.

Of the Charity of the Seperatists.
Charity is sayd to be the darling of Religion, and is indeed the Marke of a
good Christian: But where we doe finde a Commission for ministring to the
necessity of the Saints, we doe not finde any prohibition against casting our
bread upon the waters, where the unsanctified, as well as the sanctified, are
in possibility to make use of it.
I cannot perceave that the Seperatists doe allowe of helping our poore,
though they magnify their practise in contributing to the nourishment of
their Saints; For as much as some that are of the number of those whom
they terme without, (though it were in case of sicknesse,) upon theire
landing, when a little fresh {172} victuals would have recovered their
healths, yet could they not finde any charitable assistance from them. Nay,
mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, (if hee might have had the use of his gunne,
powther and shott, and his dogg, which were denied,) hee doubtles would
have preserved such poore helples wretches as were neglected by those that
brought them over; which was so apparent, (as it Lame charity.
seemed,) that one of their owne tribe said, the death of
them would be required at some bodies hands one day, (meaning Master
Temperwell.)
But such good must not come from a carnall man: if it come from a
member, then it is a sanctified worke; if otherwise, it is rejected as
unsanctified.
But when Shackles[535] wife, and such as had husbands, parents or freinds,
happened to bee sick, mine Hosts helpe was used, and instruments provided
for him to kill fresh vittell with, (wherein hee was industrious,) and the
persons, having fresh vittell, lived.
So doubtles might many others have bin preserved, but they were of the
number left without; neither will those precise people admit a carnall man
into their howses, though they have made use of his in the like case; they
are such antagonists to those that doe not comply with them, and seeke to

be admitted to be of their Church, that in scorne they say, you may see what
it is to be without.

Chap. XXVII.

Of the practise of their Church.[536]
The Church of the Seperatists is governed by Pastors, Elders and Deacons,
and there is not {173} any of these, though hee be but a Cow keeper, but is
allowed to exercise his guifts in the publik assembly on the Lords day,[537]
so as hee doe not make use of any notes for the helpe of his memory:[538]
for such things, they say, smell of Lampe oyle, and there must be no such
unsavery perfume admitted to come into the congregation.
These are all publike preachers. There is amongst these people a
Deakonesse, made of the sisters, that uses her guifts at home in an assembly
of her sexe, by way of repetition or exhortation:[539] such is their practise.
The Pastor, (before hee is allowed of,) must disclaime his former calling to
the Ministry, as hereticall; and take a new calling after their fantasticall
inventions: and then hee is admitted to bee their Pastor.
The manner of disclaimeing is, to renounce his calling with bitter
execrations, for the time that hee hath heretofore lived in it: and after his
new election, there is great joy conceaved at his commission.[540]
And theire Pastors have this preheminence above the Civile Magistrate:
Hee must first consider of the complaint made against a member: and if hee
be disposed to give the partie complained of an admonition, there is no
more to be said: if not; Hee delivers him over to the Magistrate to deale
with him in a course of Iustice, according to theire practise in cases of that
nature.[541]
[542]
{174} Of these pastors I have not knowne many: some I have observed
together with theire carriage in New Canaan, and can informe you what
opinion hath bin conceaved of theire conditions in the perticuler. There is
one who, (as they give it out there that thinke they speake it to advaunce his
worth,) has bin expected to exercise his gifts in an assembly that stayed his
comming, in the middest of his Iorney falls into a fitt, (which they terme a
zealous meditation,) and was 4. miles past the place appointed before hee
came to himselfe, or did remember where abouts hee went. And how much

these things are different from the actions of mazed men, I leave to any
indifferent man to judge; and if I should say they are all much alike, they
that have seene and heard what I have done, will not condemne mee
altogether.
Now, for as much as by the practise of theire Church every Elder or Deacon
may preach, it is not amisse to discover their practise in that perticuler,
before I part with them.[543]
It has bin an old saying, and a true, what is bred in the bone will not out of
the flesh, nor the stepping into the pulpit that can make the person fitt for
the imployment. The unfitnes of the person undertaking to be the
Messenger has brought a blemish upon the message, as Lewes the II. sent a
in the time of Lewes the Eleventh, King of France, Barber Embassador.
who, (having advaunced his Barber to place of Honor,
and graced him with eminent titles), made him so presumptuous to
undertake an Embassage to treat with forraine princes of Civile affaires.
But what was the issue? Hee behaved himselfe so {175} unworthily, (yet as
well as his breeding would give him leave,) that both The Embassage
the Messenger and the message were despised; and despised.
had not hee, (being discovered,) conveyed himselfe
out of their territories, they had made him pay for his barbarous
presumption.[544]
Socrates sayes, loquere ut te videam. If a man observe these people in the
exercise of their gifts, hee may thereby discerne the tincture of their proper
calling, the asses eares will peepe through the lyons hide. I am sorry they
cannot discerne their owne infirmities. I will deale fairely with them, for I
will draw their pictures cap a pe, that you may discerne them plainely from
head to foote in their postures, that so much bewitch, (as I may speake with
modesty,) these illiterate people to be so fantasticall, to take Ionas taske[545]
upon them without sufficient warrant.
One steps up like the Minister of Iustice with the A Grocer.
ballance onely, not the sword for feare of affrighting
his auditory. Hee poynts at a text, and handles it as evenly as hee can; and
teaches the auditory, that the thing hee has to deliver must be well waied,
for it is a very pretious thing, yes, much more pretious then gold or pearle:
and hee will teach them the meanes how to way things of that excellent

worth; that a man would suppose hee and his auditory were to part stakes
by the scale; and the like distribution they have used about a bag pudding.
Another, (of a more cutting disposition,) steps in his A Taylor.
steed; and hee takes a text, which hee divides into
many parts: (to speake truly) as many as hee list. The fag end of it hee pares
away, as a superfluous remnant.
{176} Hee puts his auditory in comfort, that hee will make a garment for
them, and teach them how they shall put it on; and incourages them to be in
love with it, for it is of such a fashion as doth best become a Christian man.
Hee will assuer them that it shall be armor of proffe against all assaults of
Satan. This garment, (sayes hee,) is not composed as the garments made by
a carnall man, that are sowed with a hot needle and a burning thread; but it
is a garment that shall out last all the garments: and, if they will make use of
it as hee shall direct them, they shall be able, (like saint George,) to terrifie
the greate Dragon, error; and defend truth, which error with her wide chaps
would devoure: whose mouth shall be filled with the shredds and parings,
which hee continually gapes for under the cutting bourd.
A third, hee supplies the rome: and in the exercise of A Tapster.
his guifts begins with a text that is drawne out of a
fountaine that has in it no dreggs of popery. This shall proove unto you,
(says hee,) the Cup of repentance: it is not like unto the Cup of the Whore
of Babilon, who will make men drunk with the dreggs thereof: It is filled up
to the brim with comfortable joyce, and will proove a comfortable cordiall
to a sick soule, sayes hee. And so hee handles the matter as if hee dealt by
the pinte and the quarte, with Nic and Froth.[546]
An other, (a very learned man indeed,) goes another A Cobler.
way to worke with his auditory; and exhorts them to
walke upright, in the way of their calling, and not, (like carnall men,) tread
awry. And if they should {177} fayle in the performance of that duety, yet
they should seeke for amendement whiles it was time; and tells them it
would bee to late to seek for help when the shop windowes were shutt up:
and pricks them forward with a freindly admonition not to place theire
delight in worldly pleasures, which will not last, but in time will come to an
end; but so to handle the matter that they may be found to wax better and

better, and then they shall be doublely rewarded for theire worke: and so
closes up the matter in a comfortable manner.
But stay: Here is one stept up in haste, and, (being not minded to hold his
auditory in expectation of any long discourse,) hee takes a text; and, (for
brevities sake,) divides it into one part: and then runnes so fast a fore with
the matter, that his auditory cannot follow him. Doubtles his Father was
some Irish footeman;[547] by his speede it seemes so. A very patorick.
And it may be at the howre of death, the sonne, being
present, did participat of his Fathers nature, (according to Pithagoras,)[548]
and so the vertue of his Fathers nimble feete being infused into his braines,
might make his tongue out-runne his wit.
Well, if you marke it, these are speciall gifts indeede: which the vulgar
people are so taken with, that there is no perswading them that it is so
ridiculous.
This is the meanes, (O the meanes,) that they pursue: This that comes
without premeditation; This is the Suparlative: and hee that does not
approove of this, they say is a very reprobate.
{178} Many vnwarrantable Tenents they have likewise: some of which being
come to my knowledge I wil here set downe: one wherof, being in publicke
practise maintained, is more notorious then the rest. I will therefore beginne
with that, and convince them of manifest error by the maintenance of it,
which is this:
That it is the Magistrates office absolutely, (and not the Tenent I.
Minsters,) to joyne the people in lawfull matrimony.
[549]
And for this they vouch the History of Ruth, saying Boas was married
to Ruth in presence of the Elders of the people. Herein they mistake the
scope of the text.
2. That it is a relique of popery to make use of a ring in marriage: and that it
is a diabolicall circle for the Divell to daunce in.[550]
3. That the purification used for weomen after delivery is not to be used.
[551]

4. That no child shall be baptised whose parents are not receaved into their
Church first.[552]

5. That no person shall be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords supper
that is without.[553]
6. That the booke of Common prayer is an idoll: and all that use it,
Idolaters.[554]
7. That every man is bound to beleeve a professor upon his bare affirmation
onely, before a Protestant upon oath.
8. That no person hath any right to Gods creatures, but Gods children onely,
who are themselves: and that all others are but usurpers of the Creatures.
9. And that, for the generall good of their Church and commonwealth, they
are to neglect father, mother and all freindship.
{179} 10. Much a doe they keepe about their Church discipline, as if that
were the most essentiall part of their Religion. Tythes are banished from
thence, all except the tyth of Mint and Commin.[555]
11. They differ from us something in the creede too, for if they get the
goods of one, that is without, into their hands, hee shall be kept without
remedy for any satisfaction: and they beleeve that this is not cosenage.[556]
12. And lastly they differ from us in the manner of praying; for they
winke[557] when they pray, because they thinke themselves so perfect in the
highe way to heaven that they can find it blindfould: so doe not I.[558]

Chap. XXVIII.

Of their Policy in publik Iustice.
Now that I have anottomized the two extreame parts of this Politique
Commonwealth, the head and the inferior members, I will shew you the
hart, and reade a short lecture over that too; which is Iustice.
I have a petition to exhibit to the highe and mighty Mr. Temperwell; and I
have my choise whether I shall make my plaint in a case of conscience, or
bring it with in the Compas of a point in law. And because I will goe the
surest way to worke, at first, I will see how others are answered in the like
kinde, whether it be with hab or nab, as the Iudge did the Countryman.[559]
Here comes Mr. Hopewell: his petition is in a case of conscience, (as hee
sayes.) But, see, great Iosua allowes conscience to be of his side: yet cuts
him off with this answere; Law is flat against him. Well let {180} me see
another. I marry: Here comes one Master Doubt-not: his matter depends, (I
am sure,) upon a point in Law: alas, what will it not doe, looke ye it is
affirmed that Law is on his side: but Conscience, like a blanket, over
spreades it. This passage is like to the Procustes of Roome, mee thinks; and
therefore I may very well say of them,
Even so, by racking out the joynts & chopping of the head,
Procustes fitted all his guests unto his Iron bedd.
And, if these speede no better, with whome they are freinds, that neither
finde Law nor Conscience to helpe them, I doe not wonder to see mine Host
of Ma-re-Mount speede so ill, that has bin proclaimed an enemy so many
yeares in New Canaan to their Church and State.

Chap. XXIX.

How mine Host was put into a whales belly.
The Seperatists, (after they had burned Ma-re-Mount they could not get any
shipp to undertake the carriage of mine Host from thence, either by faire
meanes or fowle,) they were inforced, (contrary to their expectation,) to be
troubled with his company:[560] and by that meanes had time to consider
more of the man, then they had done of the matter: wherein at length it was
discovered that they, (by meanes of their credulity of the intelligence given
them in England of the matter, and the false Carecter of the man,) had runne
themselves headlonge into an error, and had done that on a sodaine which
they repented at leasure, but could not tell which way to help it {181} as it
stood now. They could debate upon it and especially upon two difficult
points, whereof one must be concluded upon: If they sent mine Host away
by banishment, hee is in possibility to survive, to their disgrace for the
injury done: if they suffer him to stay, and put him in statu quo prius, all the
vulgar people will conclude they have bin too rashe in burning a howse that
was usefull, and count them men unadvised.
So that it seemes, (by theire discourse about the matter,) they stood betwixt
Hawke and Bussard: and could not tell which hand to incline unto. They
had founded him secretly: hee was content with it, goe which way it would.
Nay Shackles[561] himselfe, (who was imployed in the burning of the
howse, and therefore feared to be caught in England,) and others were so
forward in putting mine Host in statu quo prius, after they had found their
error, (which was so apparent that Luceus eies would have served to have
found it out in lesse time,) that they would contribute 40. shillings a peece
towards it; and affirmed, that every man according to his ability that had a
hand in this black designe should be taxed to a Contribution in like nature:
it would be done exactly.
Now, (whiles this was in agitation, and was well urged by some of those
partys to have bin the upshot,) unexpected, (in the depth of winter, when all
shipps were gone out of the land,) in comes Mr. Wethercock, a proper
Mariner; and, they said, he could observe the winde: blow it high, blow it

low, hee was resolved to lye at Hull[562] rather than incounter such a storme
as mine Host had met with: and this was a man for their turne.
{182} Hee would doe any office for the brethren, if they (who hee knew had
a strong purse, and his conscience waited on the strings of it, if all the zeale
hee had) would beare him out in it: which they professed they would. Hee
undertakes to ridd them of mine Host by one meanes or another. They gave
him the best meanes they could, according to the present condition of the
worke, and letters of credence to the favoures of that Sect in England; with
which, (his busines there being done, and his shipp cleared,) hee hoyst the
Sayles and put to Sea: since which time mine Host has not troubled the
brethren, but onely at the Counsell table: where now Sub iudice lis est.

Chap. XXX.

Of Sir Christopher Gardiner Knight, and how hee spedd
amongst the Seperatists.
Sir Christopher Gardiner,[563] (a Knight, that had bin a traveller both by Sea
and Land; a good judicious gentleman in the Mathematticke and other
Sciences usefull for Plantations, Kimistry, &c. and also being a practicall
Enginer,) came into those parts, intending discovery.
But the Seperatists love not those good parts, when they proceede from a
carnall man, (as they call every good Protestant); in shorte time [they] had
found the meanes to pick a quarrell with him. The meanes is that they
pursue to obtaine what they aime at: the word is there, the meanes.
So that, when they finde any man like to proove an enemy to their Church
and state, then straight {183} the meanes must be used for defence. The first
precept in their Politiques is to defame the man at whom they aime, and
then hee is a holy Israelite in their opinions who can spread that same
brodest, like butter upon a loafe: no matter how thin, it will serve for a
vaile: and then this man, (who they have thus depraved,) is a spotted
uncleane leaper: hee must out, least hee pollute the Land, and them that are
cleane.
If this be one of their guifts, then Machevill[564] had as good gifts as they.
Let them raise a scandall on any, though never so innocent, yet they know it
is never wiped cleane out: the staind marks remaines; which hath bin well
observed by one in these words of his,
Stick Candles gainst a Virgin walls white back;
If they’l not burne yet, at the least, they’l black.
And thus they dealt with Sir Christopher: and plotted by all the wayes and
meanes they could, to overthrow his undertakings in those parts.
And therefore I cannot chuse but conclude that these Seperatists have
speciall gifts: for they are given to envy and mallice extremely.

The knowledge of their defamacion could not please the gentleman well,
when it came to his eare; which would cause him to make some reply, as
they supposed, to take exceptions at, as they did against Faire cloath:[565]
and this would be a meanes, they thought, to blow the coale, and so to
kindle a brand that might fire him out of the Country too, and send him
after mine Host of Ma-re-Mount.
They take occasion, (some of them,) to come to his howse when hee was
gone up into the Country, and {184} (finding hee was from home,) so went to
worke that they left him neither howse nor habitation nor servant, nor any
thing to help him, if hee should retorne: but of that they had noe hope, (as
they gave it out,) for hee was gone, (as they affirmed,) to leade a Salvage
life, and for that cause tooke no company with him: and they having
considered of the matter, thought it not fit that any such man should live in
so remoate a place, within the Compas of their patent. So they fired the
place, and carried away the persons and goods.
Sir Christopher was gone with a guide, (a Salvage,) into the inland parts for
discovery: but, before hee was returned, hee met with a Salvage that told
the guide, Sir Christopher would be killed: Master Temperwell, (who had
now found out matter against him,) would have him dead or alive. This hee
related; and would have the gentleman not to goe to the place appointed,
because of the danger that was supposed.
But Sir Christopher was nothing dismaid; hee would on, whatsoever come
of it; and so met with the Salvages: and betweene them was a terrible
skermish: But they had the worst of it, and hee scaped well enough.
The guide was glad of it, and learnd of his fellowes that they were promised
a great reward for what they should doe in this imployment.
Which thing, (when Sir Christopher understood,) hee gave thanks to God;
and after, (upon this occasion to sollace himselfe,) in his table booke hee
composed this sonnet, which I have here inserted for a memoriall.

{185} THE SONNET.

Wolfes in Sheeps clothing, why will ye
Think to deceave God that doth see
Your simulated sanctity?
For my part, I doe wish you could
Your owne infirmities behold,
For then you would not be so bold.
Like Sophists, why will you dispute
With wisdome so? You doe confute
None but yourselves. For shame, be mute,
Least great Jehovah, with his powre,
Do come upon you in a howre
When you least think, and you devoure.
This Sonnet the Gentleman composed as a testimony of his love towards
them, that were so ill-affected towards him; from whome they might have
receaved much good, if they had bin so wise to have imbraced him in a
loving fashion.
But they despise the helpe that shall come from a carnall man, (as they
termed him,) who, after his retorne from those designes, finding how they
had used him with such disrespect, tooke shipping, and disposed of
himselfe for England; and discovered their practises in those parts towards
his Majesties true harted Subjects, which they made wery of their aboade in
those parts.

{186} Chap. XXXI.

Of mine Host of Ma-re-Mount how hee played Ionas after hee
had bin in the Whales belly for a time.
Mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, being put to Sea, had delivered him, for his
releefe by the way, (because the shipp was unvitteled, and the Seamen put
to straight allowance, which could hold out but to the Canaries,) a part of
his owne provision, being two moneths proportion; in all but 3. small
peeces of porke, which made him expect to be famished before the voyage
should be ended, by all likelyhood. Yet hee thought hee would make one
good meale, before hee died: like the Colony servant in Virginea, that,
before hee should goe to the gallowes, called to his wife to set on the
loblolly pot, and let him have one good meale before hee went; who had
committed a petty crime, that in those dayes was made a cappitall offence.
And now, mine Host being merrily disposed, on went the peeces of porke,
wherewith hee feasted his body, and cherished the poore Sailers; and got
out of them what Mr. Wethercock, their Master, purposed to doe with him
that hee had no more provision: and along they sailed from place to place,
from Iland to Iland, in a pittifull wether beaten ship, where mine Host was
in more dainger, (without all question,) then Ionas, when hee was in the
Whales belly; and it was the great mercy of God that they had not all
perished. Vittelled they were but for a moneth, when they wayd Ancor and
left the first port.
{187} They were a pray for the enemy for want of powther, if they had met
them: besides the vessell was a very slugg, and so unserviceable that the
Master called a counsell of all the company in generall, to have theire
opinions which way to goe and how to beare the helme, who all under their
hand affirmed the shipp to be unserviceable: so that, in fine, the Master and
men and all were at their wits end about it: yet they imployed the
Carpenters to search and caulke her sides, and doe theire best whiles they
were in her. Nine moneths they made a shifte to use her, and shifted for
supply of vittells at all the Islands they touched at: though it were so
poorely, that all those helpes, and the short allowance of a bisket a day, and

a few Lymons taken in at the Canaries, served but to bring the vessell in
view of the lands end.
They were in such a desperat case, that, (if God in his greate mercy had not
favoured them, and disposed the windes faire untill the vessell was in
Plimmouth roade,) they had without question perished; for when they let
drop an Anchor, neere the Island of S. Michaels,[566] not one bit of foode
left, for all that starving allowance of this wretched Wethercock, that, if hee
would have lanched out his beaver, might have bought more vittells in New
England then he, and the whole ship with the Cargazoun, was worth, (as the
passingers hee carried who vittelled themselves affirmed). But hee played
the miserable wretch, and had possessed his men with the contrary; who
repented them of waying anchor before they knew so much.
Mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, (after hee had bin in {188} the Whales belly,)
was set a shore, to see if hee would now play Ionas, so metamorphosed with
a longe voyage that hee looked like Lazarus in the painted cloath.
But mine Host, (after due consideration of the premisses,) thought it fitter
for him to play Ionas in this kinde, then for the Seperatists to play Ionas in
that kinde as they doe. Hee therefore bid Wethercock tell the Seperatists,
that they would be made in due time to repent those malitious practises, and
so would hee too; for hee was a Seperatist amongst the Seperatists, as farre
as his wit would give him leave; though when hee came in Company of
basket makers, hee would doe his indevoure to make them pinne the basket,
if hee could, as I have seene him. And now mine Host, being merrily
disposed, haveing past many perillous adventures in that desperat Whales
belly, beganne in a posture like Ionas, and cryed, Repent you cruell
Seperatists, repent; there are as yet but 40. dayes, if Iove vouchsafe to
thunder, Charter and the Kingdome of the Seperatists will fall asunder:
Repent you cruell Schismaticks, repent. And in that posture hee greeted
them by letters retorned into new Canaan; and ever, (as opportunity was
fitted for the purpose,) he was both heard and seene in the posture of Ionas
against them, crying, repent you cruel Seperatists, repent; there are as yet
but 40. dayes; if Iove vouchsafe to thunder, the Charter and the Kingdome
of the Seperatists will fall a sunder: Repent, you cruell Schismaticks,
repent. If you will heare any more of this proclamation meete him at the
next markettowne, for Cynthius aurem vellet.[567]

A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS
OF THE THREE BOOKES:

The Tenents of the first Booke.

Chapters.

1. Prooving New England the principall part of all America, and most
commodious and fit for a habitation and generation.

2. Of the originall of the Natives.

3. Of a great mortallity happened amongst the Natives.

4. Of their howses and habitations.

5. Of their Religion.

6. Of the Indians apparrell.

7. Of their Childbearing.

8. Of their reverence and respect to age.

9. Of their Juggelling tricks.

10. Of their Duelles.

11. Of the maintenance of their reputation.

12. Of their Traffick and trade one with another.

13. Of their Magazines and Storehowses.

14. Of theire Subtilety.

15. Of their admirable perfection in the use of their sences.

16. Of their acknowledgement of the creation and immortality of the Soule.

17. Of their Annalls and Funeralls.

18. Of their Custome in burning the Country.

19. Of their Inclination to drunckennes.

20. Of their Philosophicall life.

The Tenents of the second Booke.

Chap.

1. The generall Survey of the Country.

2. What trees are there and how commodious.

3. What Potherbes are there and for Sallets.

4. Of the Birds of the aire and fethered Fowles.

5. Of the Beasts of the Forrest.

6. Of Stones and Mineralls.

7. Of the Fishes and what commodity they proove.

8. Of the goodnes of the Country and the Fountaines.

9. A Perspective to view the Country by.

10. Of the great Lake of Erocoise.

The Tenents of the third Booke.

Chap.

1. Of a great legue made betweene the Salvages and English.

2. Of the entertainment of Master Westons people.

3. Of a great Battaile fought betweene the English and the Indians.

4. Of a Parliament held at Wessaguscus.

5. Of a Massacre made upon the Salvages.

6. Of the Surprizing of a Marchants Shipp.

7. Of Thomas Mortons Entertainement and wrack.

8. Of the banishment of Iohn Layford and Iohn Oldam.

9. Of a barren doe of Virginea growne Fruithfull.

10. Of the Master of the Ceremonies.

11. Of a Composition made for a Salvages theft.

12. Of a voyage made by the Master of the Ceremonies for Beaver.

13. A lamentable fitt of mellancolly cured.

14. The Revells of New Canaan.

15. Of a great Monster supposed to be at Ma-re-Mount.

16. How the nine Worthies of New Canaan put mine Host of Ma-re-Mount
into an inchaunted Castle.

17. Of the baccanall Triumphe of New Canaan.

18. Of a Doctor made at commencement.

19. Of the silencing of a Minister.

20. Of a practise to get a snare to hamper mine host of Ma-re-Mount.

21. Of Captaine Littleworths devise for the purchase of Beaver.

22. Of a Sequestration in New Canaan.

23. Of a great bonfire made in New Canaan.

24. Of the digradinge and creatinge of Gentry.

25. Of the manner how the Seperatists pay their debts.

26. Of the Charity of the Seperatists.

27. Of the practise of their Church.

28. Of their Policy in publik Iustice.

29. How mine Host was put into a Whales belly.

30. How Sir Christopher Gardiner, Knight, speed amongst the Seperatists.

31. How mine Host of Ma-re-Mount played Jonas after hee got out of the
Whales belly.

FINIS.

THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

OFFICERS
OF
THE PRINCE SOCIETY.
1883.
President.
THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Vice-Presidents.
JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M. Boston, Mass.
WILLIAM B. TRASK, Esq. Boston, Mass.
THE HON. CHARLES H. BELL, LL.D. Exeter, N.H.
JOHN MARSHALL BROWN, A.M. Portland, Me.
Corresponding Secretary.
THE REV. HENRY W. FOOTE, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Recording Secretary.
DAVID GREENE HASKINS, Jr., A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
Treasurer.
ELBRIDGE H. GOSS, Esq. Boston, Mass.

THE PRINCE SOCIETY.
1883.
The Hon. Charles Francis Adams, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., A.B. Quincy, Mass.
Thomas Coffin Amory, A.M. Boston, Mass.
William Sumner Appleton, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Walter T. Avery, Esq. New York, N.Y.
Mr. Thomas Willing Balch Philadelphia, Pa.
George L. Balcom, Esq. Claremont, N.H.
Charles Candee Baldwin, M.A. Cleveland, Ohio.
Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esq. New York, N.Y.
James Phinney Baxter, A.M. Portland, Me.
The Hon. Charles H. Bell, LL.D. Exeter, N.H.
John J. Bell, A.M. Exeter, N.H.
Samuel Lane Boardman, Esq. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. James Ware Bradbury, LL.D. Augusta, Me.
J. Carson Brevoort, LL.D. Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D. Boston, Mass.
Sidney Brooks, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Horace Brown, A.B., LL.B. Salem, Mass.

Mrs. John Carter Brown Providence, R.I.
John Marshall Brown, A.M. Portland, Me.
Joseph O. Brown, Esq. New York, N.Y.
Philip Henry Brown, A.M. Portland, Me.
Thomas O. H. P. Burnham, Esq. Boston, Mass.
George Bement Butler, Esq. New York, N.Y.
The Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, A.M. Chelsea, Mass.
The Hon. William Eaton Chandler, A.M. Washington, D.C.
George Bigelow Chafe, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Clarence H. Clark, Esq. Philadelphia, Pa.
Gen. John S. Clark Auburn, N.Y.
The Hon. Samuel Crocker Cobb Boston, Mass.
Ethan N. Coburn, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
Jeremiah Colburn, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Deloraine P. Corey, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Erastus Corning, Esq. Albany, N.Y.
Ellery Bicknell Crane, Esq. Worcester, Mass.
Abram E. Cutter, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
William M. Darlington, Esq. Pittsburg, Pa.
John Ward Dean, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Charles Deane, LL.D. Cambridge, Mass.
Edward Denham, Esq. New Bedford, Mass.
John Charles Dent, Esq. Toronto, Canada.
Prof. Franklin B. Dexter, A.M. New Haven, Ct.
The Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D. Boston, Mass.
Samuel Adams Drake, Esq. Melrose, Mass.
Henry Thayer Drowne, Esq. New York, N.Y.
Henry H. Edes, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
Jonathan Edwards, A.B., M.D. New Haven, Ct.
William Henry Egle, A.M, M.D. Harrisburgh, Pa.
Janus G. Elder, Esq. Lewiston, Me.
Samuel Eliot, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Alfred Langdon Elwyn, M.D. Philadelphia, Pa.
James Emott, Esq. New York, N.Y.

The Hon. William M. Evarts, LL. D. New York, N.Y.
Joseph Story Fay, Esq. Woods Holl, Mass.
John S. H. Fogg, M.D. Boston, Mass.
The Rev. Henry W. Foote, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Samuel P. Fowler, Esq. Danvers, Mass.
James E. Gale, Esq. Haverhill, Mass.
Isaac D. Garfield, Esq. Syracuse, N.Y.
Marcus D. Gilman, Esq. Montpelier, Vt.
The Hon. John E. Godfrey Bangor, Me.
Abner C. Goodell, Jr., A.M. Salem, Mass.
Elbridge H. Goss, Esq. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. Justice Horace Gray, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
William W. Greenough, A.B. Boston, Mass.
Isaac J. Greenwood, A.M. New York, N.Y.
Charles H. Guild, Esq. Somerville, Mass.
David Greene Haskins, Jr., A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
The Hon. Francis B. Hayes, A.M. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes, LL.D. Fremont, Ohio.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
W. Scott Hill, M.D. Augusta, Me.
James F. Hunnewell, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
Theodore Irwin, Esq. Oswego, N.Y.
The Rev. Henry Fitch Jenks, A.M. Lawrence, Mass.
The Hon. Clark Jillson Worcester, Mass.
Mr. Sawyer Junior Nashua, N.H.
George Lamb, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Edward F. De Lancey, Esq. New York, N.Y.
William B. Lapham, M.D. Augusta, Me.
Henry Lee, A.M. Boston, Mass.
John A. Lewis, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Ph.D. Boston, Mass.
Orsamus H. Marshall, Esq. Buffalo, N.Y.
William T. R. Marvin, A.M. Boston, Mass.
William F. Matchett, Esq. Boston, Mass.

Frederic W. G. May, Esq. Boston, Mass.
John Norris McClintock, A.M. Concord, N.H.
The Rev. James H. Means, D.D. Boston, Mass.
George H. Moore, LL.D. New York, N.Y.
The Rev. James De Normandie, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Prof. Charles E. Norton, A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
John H. Osborne, Esq. Auburn, N.Y.
George T. Paine, Esq. Providence, R.I.
Nathaniel Paine, Esq. Worcester, Mass.
John Carver Palfrey, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Daniel Parish, Jr., Esq. New York, N.Y.
Francis Parkman, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Augustus T. Perkins, A.M. Boston, Mass.
The Rt. Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., LL.D. Davenport, Iowa.
William Frederic Poole, LL.D. Chicago, Ill.
Rear Admiral George Henry Preble, U. S. N. Brookline, Mass.
Samuel S. Purple, M.D. New York, N.Y.
Edward Ashton Rollins, A.M. Philadelphia, Pa.
The Hon. Nathaniel Foster Safford, A.M. Milton, Mass.
Joshua Montgomery Sears, A.B. Boston, Mass.
John Gilmary Shea, LL.D. Elizabeth, N.J.
The Hon. Mark Skinner Chicago, Ill.
The Rev. Carlos Slafter, A.M. Boston, Mass.
The Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Charles C. Smith, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Oliver Bliss Stebbins, Esq. Boston, Mass.
George Stevens, Esq. Lowell, Mass.
George Stewart, Jr., Esq. Quebec, Canada.
Russell Sturgis, A.M. London, Eng.
William B. Trask, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Joseph B. Walker, A.M. Concord, N.H.
William Henry Wardwell, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Miss Rachel Wetherill Philadelphia, Pa.
Henry Wheatland, A.M., M.D. Salem, Mass.

John Gardner White, A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
William Adee Whitehead, A.M. Newark, N.J.
William H. Whitmore, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Henry Austin Whitney, A.M. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Ph.D. Boston, Mass.
Henry Winsor, Esq. Philadelphia, Pa.
The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Charles Levi Woodbury, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Ashbel Woodward, M.D. Franklin, Ct.
J. Otis Woodward, Esq. Albany, N.Y.

LIBRARIES.

American Antiquarian Society Worcester, Mass.
Amherst College Library Amherst, Mass.
Astor Library New York, N.Y.
Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, France
Bodleian Library Oxford, Eng.
Boston Athenæum Boston, Mass.
Boston Library Society Boston, Mass.
British Museum London, Eng.
Concord Public Library Concord, Mass.
Eben Dale Sutton Reference Library Peabody, Mass.
Free Public Library Worcester, Mass.
Free Public Library of Toronto Toronto, Canada.
Gloucester Public Library Gloucester, Mass.
Grosvenor Library Buffalo, N.Y.
Harvard College Library Cambridge, Mass.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa.
Library Company of Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pa.
Library of Parliament Ottawa, Canada.
Library of the State Department Washington, D.C.
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec Quebec, Canada.

Long Island Historical Society Brooklyn, N.Y.
Maine Historical Society Portland, Me.
Maryland Historical Society Baltimore, Md.
Massachusetts Historical Society Boston, Mass.
Mercantile Library New York, N.Y.
Minnesota Historical Society St. Paul, Minn.
Newburyport Public Library, Peabody Fund Newburyport, Mass.
New England Historic Genealogical Society Boston, Mass.
Newton Free Library Newton, Mass.
New York Society Library New York, N.Y.
Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore Baltimore, Md.
Plymouth Public Library Plymouth, Mass.
Portsmouth Athenæum Portsmouth, N.H.
Public Library of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio.
Public Library of the City of Boston Boston, Mass.
Redwood Library Newport, R.I.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin Madison, Wis.
State Library of Massachusetts Boston, Mass.
State Library of New York Albany, N.Y.
State Library of Rhode Island Providence, R.I.
State Library of Vermont Montpelier, Vt.
Williams College Library Williamstown, Mass.
Woburn Public Library Woburn, Mass.
Yale College Library New Haven, Ct.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
New England’s Prospect.
A true, lively and experimentall description of that part of America,
commonly called Nevv England: discovering the State of that Countrie,
both as it stands to our new-come English Planters; and to the old Natiue
Inhabitants. By William Wood. London, 1634. Preface by Charles Deane,
LL.D.
The Hutchinson Papers.
A Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of the Colony of
Massachusetts-Bay. Reprinted from the edition of 1769. Edited by William
H. Whitmore, A.M., and William S. Appleton, A.M. 2 vols.
John Dunton’s Letters from New England.
Letters written from New England A.D. 1686. By John Dunton in which are
described his voyages by Sea, his travels on land, and the characters of his
friends and acquaintances. Now first published from the Original
Manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Edited by William H.
Whitmore, A.M.
The Andros Tracts.

Being a Collection of Pamphlets and Official Papers issued during the
period between the overthrow of the Andros Government and the
establishment of the second Charter of Massachusetts. Reprinted from the
original editions and manuscripts. With a Memoir of Sir Edmund Andros,
by the editor, William H. Whitmore, A.M. 3 vols.
Sir William Alexander and American Colonization.
Including three Royal Charters, issued in 1621, 1625, 1628; a Tract entitled
an Encouragement to Colonies, by Sir William Alexander, 1624; a Patent,
from the Great Council for New England, of Long Island, and a part of the
present State of Maine; a Roll of the Knights Baronets of New Scotland;
with a Memoir of Sir William Alexander, by the editor, the Rev. Edmund F.
Slafter, A.M.
John Wheelwright.
Including his Fast-day Sermon, 1637; his Mercurius Americanus, 1645, and
other writings; with a paper on the genuineness of the Indian deed of 1629,
and a Memoir by the editor, Charles H. Bell, A.M.
Voyages of the Northmen to America.
Including extracts from Icelandic Sagas relating to Western voyages by
Northmen in the tenth and eleventh centuries, in an English translation by
North Ludlow Beamish; with a Synopsis of the historical evidence and the
opinion of Professor Rafn as to the places visited by the Scandinavians on
the coast of America. Edited, with an Introduction, by the Rev. Edmund F.
Slafter, A.M.
The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain.
Including the Voyage of 1603, and all contained in the edition of 1613, and
in that of 1619; translated from the French by Charles P. Otis, Ph.D. Edited,
with a Memoir and historical illustrations, by the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter,
A.M. 3 vols.
New English Canaan, or New Canaan.
Containing an abstract of New England, composed in three books. I. The
first setting forth the Originall of the Natives, their Manners and Customes,
together with their tractable Nature and Love towards the English. II. The
Natural Indowments of the Countrie, and what Staple Commodities it

yieldeth. III. What People are planted there, their Prosperity, what
remarkable Accidents have happened since the first planting of it, together
with their Tenents and practice of their Church. Written by Thomas Morton
of Cliffords Inne, Gent, upon ten Years Knowledge and Experiment of the
Country, 1632. Edited, with an Introduction and historical illustrations, by
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., A.B.

VOLUMES IN PREPARATION.

1. Captain John Mason, the founder of New Hampshire, including his Tract
on Newfoundland, 1620, the several American Charters in which he was a
Grantee, and other papers; and a Memoir by the late Charles W. Tuttle,
Ph.D. Edited, with historical illustrations, by John Ward Dean, A.M.
2. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, including his Tract entitled A Brief Narration,
1658, American Charters granted to him, and other papers; with historical
Illustrations and a Memoir by the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M.
3. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, including his Discourse to prove a Passage by the
North-West to Cathaia and the East Indies; his Letters Patent to discover
and possess lands in North America, granted by Queen Elizabeth, June 11,
1578. With historical Illustrations and a Memoir.
4. Sir Walter Ralegh and his Colony in America. Containing the Royal
Charter of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Ralegh for discovering and
planting of new lands and countries, March 25, 1584, with letters,
discourses, and narratives of the Voyages made to Virginia at his charges,
with original descriptions of the country, commodities, and inhabitants.
Edited, with a Memoir and historical illustrations, by the Rev. Increase N.
Tarbox, D.D.

INDEX.

INDEX.
A.
Aberdecest, 130, n.
Acomenticus:
charter granted to, by Gorges, 81;
Morton dies at, 91.
Adams, John:
on name of Merry-Mount, 14, n.;
on fate of Wollaston, 15;
on Thomas Morton, 95, n.;
injuries to library of, 101, n.
Adams, John Q., 101.
Adders, 213.
Ælianus, 345, n.
Air of New England, 121, 137, 177, 190.
Alcides, 292.
Alecto, 275.
Alexander, Sir William, quoted, 140, 167.

Alder, the, 186.
Allen, J. A., notes on wild animals of New England by, 199-215.
Allerton, Isaac:
his course toward Morton in England, 35, 303;
his mission to England in 1629, 36;
carries Morton back to Plymouth, 36;
tries to obtain charter for Plymouth, 52;
brings over goods, 289, n.
Allize, 225.
Alsatian Squire, the, 92.
Amphitrite, 277, 281.
Animals, wild of New England, chapter on, 199-215.
Antinomian controversy, 81, 323, n.
Antonomasia, 316.
Anúnime, 123, n.
Arbor-vitæ, 185, n.
Archimedes, 291.
Argus eyes, 303.
Aristotle, cited, 117, 118.
Armoniack, 219.
Arms. (See Fire-arms.)
Arthur’s Table, King, 290.
Arundel, Earl of, 60, 70.
Ascowke, 213.
Ash, the, 183.
Aspinwall, William, 319, n.
Audubon, John James, quoted, 131, n., 192, n.
Auk, the great, formerly found in Boston Bay, 131, n.

B.
Bacchanal Triumph, poem, 290-4.
Bagnall, Walter, 22, 206, n., 218, n.
Baptism, 331, n.
“Barren doe, the,” 94, 264-6, 272-7.
Barrowe, Henry, on Common Prayer, 332, n.
Bass, 222.
Beach, the, 183.
Bears: used by Indians, 142-4;
value of skins of, 205;
description of, 209;
Indian methods of hunting, 210;
flesh of, 210.
Beaver: value of skins of, 22, 205, 295;
gain in, 32, 282;
regulation of trade in, 39, 306;
virtues of tails of, 162, 205;
description of, 204;
muskrats passed for, 211;
Dutch trade in, 239, n.;
a theft compounded in, 269;
plenty of, at Nipnet, 270;
compared to Jason’s Fleece, 295.
Bible, the, 94, 212, 260.
Bibliography of New Canaan, 99.
Billington, John, 217.
Birch, the, 186.
Birds, chapter on, 189-99.
Black-lead, 219.
Blackstone, William: moves from Wessagusset to Boston, 24;

contributes to Morton’s arrest, 30;
an Episcopalian, 94.
Bluefish, 222.
Bole Armoniack, 219.
Book of Common Prayer, 22, 68, 82, 168, 260, 283, 311;
an idol, 69, 332;
Morton persecuted for using, 92-5.
Book of Sports, 260, n.
Boston Bay: savages about in 1625, 11;
settlers about in 1628, 24;
description of in 1630, 122;
great auks seen in, 131, n.;
French vessel wrecked in, 131, n.
Bradford, John, on Common Prayer, 332, n.
Bradford, Governor William: cited, 1, 6, 13, 18, 20, 22, 25, 27, 31, 35,
36, 37, 46, 49, 52, 79, 92, 133, n., 205, n., 217, n., 323, n., 325, n., 330,
n., 332, n.;
letters of, on arrest of Morton, 30;
generally correct, 49;
literary skill of, 96;
absence of humor in, 97, 98;
referred to as Rhadamant, 291, n.
Brant, 189, 268.
Breames, 227.
Brereton, Sir William, grant to, from John Gorges, 34.
Brewster, William, notes on birds by, 189-99, n., 226, n.
Briareus, 288.
Bridges, Robert, 90.
Bright, Rev. Francis, 300, n., 325, n.
Brimstone, 220.