A. D. 1621. 307 



fecretarles of ftate, being a favourer of the puritans, was very aflifting 

 herein, by obtaining the king's patent for planting there : and accord- 

 ingly, this year, they fettled at a place near Cape Cod, which they named 

 New Plymouth, and by a formal inftrument declared themfelves fub- 

 jeds of the crown of England, and folemnly engaged themfelves to an 

 abfolute fubmiflion to fuch laws and rules as fhould be eftabliflied for 

 the good of the colony ; and they eleded their own governor, for one 

 year only. 



For fome years, however, they underwent confiderable hardfhips, and 

 lofl half of their number by iicknefs ; yet, receiving annual fupplies of 

 people from England, thereby, and by exchanging knives, icillars, 

 needles, &c. with the Indians for corn, and for furs, fifli, and ikins, 

 which they fcnt home to England, they were enabled in five years time 

 to clear and cultivate as much land as produced corn enough, and to 

 fpare, of their own growth. And the mad periecution of the puritans 

 in England by the fpiritual courts continuing, numbers of them, with 

 their families and fortunes, from time to time, increafed this colony. 

 Thus, out of the great evil of perfecution and ill-judged reftraints for 

 confcience fake, have fprung up much good to the Britifli empire in 

 America. For by the great numbers of honeft and induftrious people 

 driven into that wildernefs, with their efteds, they were enabled to clear 

 and cultivate a noble province in a fhort fpace, which otherwife might 

 pofTibly have remained to this day thin, weak, and defencelefs againft 

 the Indians and the French of Canada. Thofe new-comers obtained two 

 patents of the Plymouth council, for poflefling the country of the 

 Mafllichufet's Bay, granted in 1627 and 1628, to Sir John Rofwell, Sir 

 John Young, and fundry other gentlemen of character : in the year fol- 

 lowing, fix ihips went thither, carrying 350 paflengers and 115 head of 

 cattle, befides goats, rabbits, &c. And thefe lafl were fent by thofe 

 called the London adventurers; who, in the year 1630, fent ten fliips 

 for the Maflachufet's colony, with 200 paflengers, many of whom were 

 perfons of confiderable fafhion ; who, to avoid perfecution at home, 

 chofe to fettle in that wildernefs : and yet, to their everlafting reproach, 

 they were fcarcely warm in that afylum, before they ran madly into 

 the crime, with which they had before juftly upbraided the preiatical 

 party, bv fetting on foot a cruel perfecution ot their proteftant brethren 

 and fellow planters, for mere ipeculative, and mollly unintelligible, 

 points ; whereby, and by their nonfenfical and barbarous treatment of 

 poor old women, under the denomination of witches, they greatly ob- 

 ftruded the growth of a colony fo well begun, by cruelly putting to 

 death fome, and by driving out others, of the foberefi; and bell: of their 

 people ! But, to the honour of the prefent generation be it recorded, 

 that they are of a much more moderate and charitable difpolirion, and 

 are univerfullv aihamed of that violent Ipirit of their forefathers. The 

 1 ' Q^q 2 



