119 



accordingly, on a common stock, sent over several persons, who began 

 a plantation at Cape Ann,* and held this place of the Plyuiouth 

 settlers, for wlioni they set up here a fishing stage." 



We have thus tlie positive declarations that the success of the English 

 merchants in fishing about the island of Munhegan, in Maine, and of 

 the l^'lgrims at Plj'moulh, were the original and moving causes of 

 attempting to settle a second colony in New England. As the good 

 minister Robinson was the principal f()und(T of the first, so tlie pastor 

 White was like instrumental in promoting tlie last. The gcner;d ac- 

 curacy of Hul:>bard and Hohnes will not be disputed. The latter, in 

 this particular case, must have been well informed. Ipswich, of which 

 town he was the minister, was a noted and favorite station f{)r the 

 English fishing ships that came to the coast previous to the colonization 

 of jNIassachusetts ; and, aside from the facilities of acquiring informa- 

 tion from that source, he was pcrson;dly acquainted with lloger Conant, 

 the great actor in the events of which we are now to speak.t 



In the fisher}' at Cape Ann, the minister White seems to have had a 

 personal interest. In 1625, Conant, at his instance, was appointed to 

 succeed Tylly and Gardener in the management of the company's con- 

 cerns diere. Conant was already in New England. He arrived at 

 Plymouth in 1623; but unhappy there, and averse to the rigid views 

 of the IMlgrims, thougli himself a religious man, had removed thence to 

 Nantaskct. He undertook the fishery, which, proving unprofitable, 

 was abandoned. " He disliked the place as much as the merchants 

 disliked the business ;" and, pleased with Naumkeak, (Salem,) re- 

 moved there. Deserted by his employers, and helpless mid hordes of 

 savages, he was advised, implored, and warned to quit the country. 

 Discomfiture and ruin had attended the efforts of some of the best men 

 in Enoland to colonize Newfoundland ; death and other sad calamities 

 had put an end to the colony attempted in Maine; the plantation at 

 Weymouth had ])roduccd a harvest of sorrow and povertv to its pro- 

 jector ; the colony at Plymouth survived, but a single boat and net had 

 alone saved it from utter extmction ; and now, the destiny of Massa- 

 chusetts was suspended upon the decision of an ejected manager of a 

 fishery. Conant knew and said that he staid at his post at the hazard 



* Cdllf^fl Gloncostpr in 1642. 



+ Tlic llcv. Williiiiu Ilubbanl was born in Eii<;laiul in 1021, and eaino to Auit'iica with Lis 

 father in lt):{."j. lIi-waK tjradiiateil at Harvard I'liivcrsity, in the tirst class, in 1()4"J. He was 

 Bfttliid at Ii>swicli, MassaciiuHctts, and died tiii-re in 1701, agi-d >^'A years. His History (if New 

 Enclaiid rcniaiued in niannscriiit nntil 1:-<1."), wiien it was pubiislied iiy tiie ilnssaclnisett.s His- 

 torical Siiciety, as a jiart of their (.'(dlections. 



"The most oritrinal and valuable ]»art of Hutdiard's historj'," remarks Dr. Yonnir, in tho 

 Chronicles of Massacluiseits, is the chapter " in which he ^ives ws a siatenient id'liicrs in rela- 

 tion to flu- first settlements (It C'ajie .\nn and Salem, which can Ite liiund nowhere else." Tlieso 

 facts fhelc;inie<l Doctor inclines to believe Hubbard obtained from Conant himsell'. " Living 

 nt Ipswich, he must have licen ac(|ii;iinfed with this jirnniiiient <dd planter, who resided but a 

 few miles from him, at IJeveriy, and who Kurvived till HiT'.l. Somo of the facts which he re- 

 lates he could hardly have obfaineil from any otlu'r source." * * "We may 

 therefore consider that * * * we have Ko;;fr Conant's own narrative, as taken down by 

 Hubbard in the conversations which ho held with him when collecting the nuiterial.s for his 

 history." 



Conant is everywhero spoken of in terms of reH|>ect, and was an excellent man. '• Tho 

 Bni)erior condition of the persons who came over with iLu charter ciust a sluule ui)on him, and 

 he lived iu obscurity." 



