172 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



racter, and on the other, of the keen, clear-sighted, common sense of the 

 representative of the colony : 



" At my presenting," writes Leverett, "your letter of the 1st of De- 

 cember, 1G56, to his Highness, he was pleased to inquire of New Eng- 

 land's condition, and what news as to the business of Jamaica ; to 

 which I gave answer according to the advice received. By his resent 

 thereof, together with what I had from him the 18th November, he 

 manifested a very strong desire in him for some leading and considera- 

 ble company of New England men to go thither; for at that time he 

 was pleased to express that lie did apprehend the people of New Eng- 

 land had as a clear a call to transport themselves from thence to Jamai- 

 ca, as they had from England to New England, in oixler to their better- 

 ing their outward condition, God having promised his people should be 

 the head and not the tail ; besides that design hath its tendency to the 

 overthrow of the man of sin ; and withal was pleased to add, that though 

 the people had been sickly, yet it was said to be a climacterical year ; 

 that others had been to view the place, as Nevis people, who, upon 

 liking, were gone down ; and Christopher's people were upon motion ; 

 and he hoped by what intelligence he had from Captain Gookin, that 

 some considerable numbers would go from New England. His High- 

 ness was pleased to hear me in what I objected. As to the bettering 

 our outward condition, though we had not any among us that had to 

 boast, as some particulars in other plantations, of raising themselves to 

 great estates, yet take the body of the people, and all things considered, 

 they lived more comfortably like Englishmen than any of the rest of the 

 plantations. To which his Highness replied that they were more industri- 

 ous, what then would they be in a better country ? To which I added, that 

 there were now in New England produced to bespeak us a Common- 

 wealth greater than in all the English plantations besides ; the which his 

 Highness granted. I objecting, the contrariety of spirits, principles, man- 

 ners, and customs of the people of New England, to them that were at 

 the island or on anv other plantations that could remove thither, so not 

 like to cement; his Highness replied that were there considerable per- 

 sons that would remove from thence, they should have the government 

 in their hands, and be strengthened with the authority of England, who 

 might be capable of giving check to the ill and vicious manners of all." — 

 (Hutchinson's History, Vol. I, p. 176.) 



We need not now speculate what might have been the effect ; a 

 people who had this consciousness of m^Lcli that hcspake them a common- 

 wealth, had they been tempted away from their own stern clime and 

 soil to dwell in a tropical island; but of this we may be assured, when 

 we look forward to the subsequent career of that people, that it was 

 happily provided that they should remain compact at home. 



In like manner at a later period of our history, all the efforts which 

 at the beginning of the revolutionary struggle were made to bring the 

 other British provinces into co-operation with the thirteen colonies 

 proved utterly ineffectual. It will be remembered, that when the first 

 general Congress met in 1774 and deliberated on plans of peaceful re- 

 sistance to the obnoxious policy of the mother-country, it was a matter 

 of solicitude to increase and fortify that resistance by enlarging the 

 sphere of it. It must be borne in mind that all that was then aimed at 



