97 



€ount of "the ycarclv proceedings of this counlrv in fishing and plant- 

 ing," from 1G14 to 1G30. 



What conclusions may we fairly draw fi-om these facts? In the 

 second part of this report we have seen that at the very time the Pil- 

 grims embarked, a company chartered by James claimed the sole 

 ownership of the American seas, and that a great excitement existed 

 in England in consequence of this monopoty; and we have here seen 

 that accounts of Gosnold's voyage had been printed eighteen, and of 

 Waymouth's fifteen years. Is it possible to escape the conviction that 

 our fathers knew and acted upon a knowledge of all these things? 

 That they were in possession of Smith's map, and some of his books, 

 we have his own express declaration ; while in his last work, published 

 eleven years after their settlement at Plymouth, he speaks of their 

 ''^thinking to finde'''' matters '•'' better than he had adciscd tJtem ;''"' and he 

 evidently plumes himself upon the idea that he had been an efficient 

 instrument in directing their emigration to the land he had praised so 

 much, and had striven so hard to people. In the chapter headed 

 "New England's yearly trials — The planting new PJimouth — Sup- 

 prisals prevented — Their wonderful industry and fishing," he dis- 

 courses about the English ships that had made "exceeding good voy- 

 ages" on the coast; and adds, seemingly, as the results produced by 

 their success, that "at last, upon these inducements, some well-disposed 

 Brounists,* as they are tearmed, with some gentlemen and merchants 

 of Layden and Amsterdam, to save charges, would try their oune con- 

 clusions, ihounh with 2;ieat losse and much miserie, till time had taught 

 them to see their oune error; for such humorists wnll never beleeve 

 well, till they bee beaten with their oune rod." In the next chapters 

 he refers to their prosperous condilion, (1G24,) and says: "Sin-ce they 

 have made a salt worke, wherewith they preserve all the fish they 

 take, and have fraughted this yeare a ship of an hundi^ed and four score 

 tun, living so -well, they desire nothing but more company; and what- 

 ever they take, returne commodoties to the value." The declarations 

 of this distinguished pioneer of civilization in this hemisphere are en- 

 titled to respect, and in almost any olher case would be considered as 

 conclusive. 



But there is other evidence. Weston, an English merchant engaged 

 in the fisheries, who soon after the settlement of Pl3'mouth attempted 

 to found a rival colony at Weymouth, and who came in person to New 

 England to correct the irregularities of his fishermen, had much influ- 

 ence in directing the affairs of the Pilgrims, and in selecting the place 

 to which they shc;uld remove from Holland. He made them an ad- 

 vance in money, engaged to provide vessels for their vo3'age, and ad- 

 vised them to come to that part of America with which he kept up an 

 intercourse, "as for other reasons, so cJiiefiy for- the hope of present profit 

 to he made by fishing.'" And, besides, we know that they entered into 

 a sort of copartnership indenture with merchants, who, like Weston, 

 made them advances, and agreed to allow these merchants a share ot 

 the fruits of their industry. "This indenture provides in terms for the 

 prosecution of the fisheries and the employment of fishermen; and the 



* One of tlie names of the Puritans. 



