117 



dressed the deacon in a loud voice, ' If you do, jj'ou are a plaguy cun- 

 ning man.' " 



I will onlj^ add that the words, '■^Iwill make you Jishcrs of men ^ M'ere 

 used as the text at the ordination of Mr. Tucke ; and that among the 

 votes passed by the inhabitants at the time of his settlement, was one 

 imposing a fine of "forty shilhngs old tenor" on all who "every fall, 

 when he has his wood to carry home, is able to come, but will not 

 come." 



Such is a rapid view of affiiirs at the eight islands that he off the 

 entrance of the Piscataqua, while they belonged to the British crown. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



From 1614 to the Revolutionary Controversy. 



The settlement of Massachusetts is to be traced directly to the fish- 

 eries. Lest this statement should be thought too broad, and to need 

 quahfication, I will cite from the best authorities extant to sustaip it. 

 And first, Hubbard, who says the " occasion" of planting this colony 

 was, that, " As some merchants from the west of England Ind a long 

 time frequented the parts about Monhegan, for the taking of fish, &c., 

 so did others, especially those of Dorchester, make the like attempt 

 upon the northern promontory of Massachusetts Bay, in probability first 

 discovered by Captain Smith before or in the year 1G14," and called 

 Cape Ann, in honor of the royal consort of King James. " Here," he 

 continues, " did the aforesaid merchants first erect stages whereon to 

 make their fish, and yearly sent their ships thither for that end, for 

 some considerable time, until the fame of the plantation at New Ply- 

 mouth, with the success thereof, was spread abroad through all the 

 western parts of England," Sec. Again, he says that, " On this con- 

 sideration it was that some merchants and other gentlemen about Dor- 

 chester did, about the year 1624, at the instigation of Mr. Wliite,* the 



* The Rev. John 'White (as stated in the Chronicles of Massachusetts) was bom in 1575, and 

 in 1605 became rector of a parish in Dorchester. He removed from that place, and was ab- 

 sent for several years, but retunied to Dorchester, and died there in 1643. In the ci\'il M'ars 

 in England he took sides with the Puritans. He was one of the assembly of divines of West- 

 nuuster, and " showed himself one of the most leai'ued and moderate amons them, and his 

 judgment was much relied on therein." Calleuder, in his Historical Discourse on Rhode 

 Island, calls him the " fither of the Massachusetts colony." His name often occurs in the 

 meetings of the Massachusetts Company in London. The church in which he preached in 

 Dorchester was demolished in 18-24. That city, the " cradle of the Massachusetts coluiiy," 

 Bends rwo members to Parliament ; it is on the river Frorae, 120 miles from London. 



The " Planter's Plea," a tract which was printed iu London in 163'), soon after Wiuthrop 

 and his company sailed for Massachusetts, has generally been ascribed to Mr. White. A chap- 

 ter of this tract is to be found in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts. It fully warrants tlie 

 statements iu the text in relation to the original objects of colonization, as the following ex- 

 tracts will show : 



" About the year 1623," says Mr. "White, or the writer of the Plea, " some western merchants, 

 who had continued a trade of fishing for cod and bartering- for furs in those parts for divers 

 years before, conceiving that a colony planted on the coast might fiuther them in those em- 

 plopnents, bethought themselves how they might bring that project to effect, and communi- 

 cated their purpose to others, alleging the conveniency of compassing their project with a 

 sniaU charge, by the opportunity of their fishing trade, in which they accustomed to double- 

 man their ships, that, by the help of many hands, they might despatch their voyage and lade 

 their ship with fish while the fishing season lasted, which could not be done with a bare sailing 



