4 



THE HISTORY OF 



Whatever disgusted them I cannot say, but this*^ false deUcacy creating in 

 the Indians a jealousy that the English were ill affected towards them, was 

 the cause that many of them were cut off, and the rest exposed to various 

 distresses. 



This reinforcement was landed not far from cape Cod, where, for their 

 greater security, they built a fort, and near it a small town, which, in honour 

 of the proprietors, was called New Plymouth. But they still had many dis- 

 couragements to struggle with, though, by being well supported from home, 

 they by degrees triumphed over them all. 



Their brethren, after this, flocked over so fast, that in a few years they ex- 

 tended the settlement one hundred miles along the coast, including Rhode 

 Island and Martha's Vineyard. 



Thus the colony throve apace, and was thronged with large detachments of 

 independents and presbyterians, who thought themselves persecuted at home. 



Though these people may be ridiculed for some pharisaical particularities 

 in their worship and behaviour, yet they were very useful subjects, as being 

 frugal and industrious, giving no scandal or bad example, at least by any 

 open and public vices. By which excellent qualities they had much the ad- 

 vantage of the southern colony, who thought their being members of the 

 established church suflBcient to sanctify very loose and profligate morals. 

 For this reason New England improved much faster than Virginia, and in 

 seven or eight years New Plymouth, like Switzerland, seemed too narrow a 

 territory for its inhabitants. 



For this reason, several gentlemen of fortune purchased of the company 

 that canton of New England now called Massachusetts colony. And king 

 James confirmed the purchase by his royal charter, dated March the 4th, 

 1628. In less than two years after, above one thousand of the puritanical 

 sect removed thither with considerable effects, and these were followed by 

 such crowds, that a proclamation was issued in England, forbidding any 

 more of his majesty's subjects to be shipped off. But this had the usual effect 

 of things forbidden, and served only to make the wilful independents flock 

 over the faster. And about this time it was that Messrs. Hampden and Pym, 

 and (some say) Oliver Cromwell, to show how little they valued the king's 

 authority, took a trip to New England. 



In the year 1630, the famous city of Boston was built, in a commodious 

 situation for trade and navigation, the same being on a peninsula at the bot- 

 tom of Massachusetts bay. 



This town is now the most considerable of any on the British continent, 

 containing at least 8,000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants. The trade it drives, 

 is very great to Europe, and to every part of the West Indies, having near 

 1,000 ships and lesser vessels belonging to it. 



Although the extent of the Massachusetts colony reached near one hundred 

 and ten miles in length, and half as much in breadth, yet many of its inhabit- 

 ants, thinking they wanted elbow room, quitted their old seats in the year 

 1636, and formed two new colonies: that of Connecticut and New Haven. 

 These king Charles II. erected into one government in 1664, and gave them 

 many valuable privileges, and among the rest, that of choosing their own 

 governors. The extent of these united colonies may be about seventy miles 

 long and fifty broad. 



Besides these several settlements, tliere sprang uj) still another, a little more 

 northerly, called New Hampshire. But that consisting of no more than two 

 counties, and not being in condition to support the charge of a distinct go- 

 vernment, was glad to be incorporated with that of Massachusetts, but upon 

 condition, however, of being named in all public acts, for fear of being quite 

 lost and forgotten in the coalition. 



