perils of the deep, it prostrated, for a time, the regal government of England, and ultimately broke the blood-stained sceptre of the disastrous house of Stu

art.

The two great parties which divided the church, and alternately bore sway, from the abolition of pontifical power, until the revolution, were Protestants and Papists; but the former soon separated into two other sects, or denominations, called Conformists and Puritans. The Puritans rejected the old catholic ceremonies, as unscriptural, and were in favor of apostolical purity, in discipline, worship and doctrine; but they long continued to remain in the established church, believing, that their being restrained by human laws, neither destroyed their rights, or christian character. At length, so oppressive became the exactions and penalties of the Government, that some of the more independent ministers, with their adherents, renounced all connexion with the church, and formed others, under the name of Separatists; but they were speedily compelled to seek refuge from persecution, on the European continent, where the great Luther had first unfurled the standard of the Reformation. The colonists of Plymouth were of this exiled sect; while the settlers of Massachusetts Bay were Puritans, who had been brought up in the national Church, and lived in communion with her, until hierarchal tyranny became so rigorous and uncompromising, that they also, were obliged to flee to this common refuge of liberty, from the unrelenting wrath of the vindictive Whitgift, the furious Bancroft, and of the merciless and remorseless Laud.

2

In 1617, Robinson's church, which was established at Leyden, sent agents to London, to treat with the Virginia Company, for a place of settlement in North America; and an arrangement having been completed, after much trouble and delay, the first expedition under Governor Carver, left England in August, 1620, and landed at Plymouth, the following December.

The privations and sufferings of this pious pilgrim band, on these bleak and savage shores, might have appalled stouter hearts and more energetic minds. Cold, hunger, sickness, despondence and death came upon them, in all their horrors. In less than three months half their numbers perished. With what fond, yet sad recollection, did they look out upon that wilderness of waters, which separated them from their own dear England; and how withering was the dreary prospect which surrounded them; how mournful their humble dwellings, how poignant their griefs, and how deep their sorrows, during that long tempestuous and melancholy winter. Not a ray of joy beamed upon the care-worn brows of those holy adventurers, and nothing but a firm confidence, in the mercy and protection of God, prevented all from sinking down, in absolute despair. A zealous devotion to the rights of conscience, a sanguine be lief in the sacredness of their cause, and the consolatory reflection, that they were opening the way for propagating the sublime precepts of Christianity, in the remotest ends of the earth, gave encouragement to hope, and cheered them on, in their perilous career. Athwart the impending gloom, they beheld the far-distant glimmerings of a glorious future, and with apos

tolic resolution, triumphantly reared the first column of civil and religious freedom, on the snow-capt heights of New-England.

The various and wondrous rumours, from this western world, so full of peril and of promise,— came like prophetic whisperings to the much wronged, long-suffering, yet steadfast Puritans of the old. They hailed them as the enunciation of an exodus, by which alone they could be delivered from the onerous grievances of mental bondage, and those wanton acts of cruelty and injustice, which stigmatized the character of the reigning monarch. Glowing with the enthusiasm of that age of general excitement,—that era of discovery, many soon came to the determination of encountering the present hardships, that they might participate in the prospective benefits of emigrants. If no divine messenger, lawgiver and leader, like him from Horeb, came with the glad tidings of emancipation, they doubted not their fortunate destinies; the route had been designated, as by the finger of the Almighty; freedom waved them onward, and they resolved to go forth, to this great Canaan of universal refuge, where they might realise the full enjoyment of all their rights.

These bright conceptions were so fraught with alluring incentives to vigorous action, and practical illustration, that a plan was projected, as early as 1627, by a number of respectable gentlemen of Lincolnshire, for forming a settlement in Massachusetts Bay; and being joined by other distinguished adventurers of London and Dorsetshire, it was ultimately matured, and a grant was obtained, on the 19th of March, 1628, of all the land, from three miles south

of Charles river, to three miles north of Merrimac river, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

*

In June, 1628, Captain John Endicott was sent to Salem,† where he arrived in September with a small party, "to make way for settling a colony there." The following year, he was joined by about three hundred emigrants.

Scarcely had these pioneers of civilization landed, before they began to experience the disastrous consequences of great exposure, fatigue, the want of wholesome food and comfortable dwellings: still so favorable was the information, which was transmitted to the company, as to soil, climate, general aspect of the country, and the advantages which it offered to the enterprizing and industrious, it was determined, at a meeting held in London on the 29th of August, 1629, "that the patent and government of the plantation should be transferred to New-England."§

In conformity to this arrangement, preparations were commenced in October, for sending out a large colony; and John Winthrop having been elected Governor, and Thomas Dudley Deputy Governor, a fleet of fourteen sail left England before the end of May, 1630, in which were embarked fifteen hundred passengers.

The Governor arrived at Salem in the Arabella on the 12th of June, and the remaining ships soon after reached their destination. Not being pleased with the location of that town, a large number of the emi

Seventeen sail arrived during the year. Dudley's Letter to the Countess of Lincoln. His. Col. 1 Se. vol. 8.

grants removed to Charlestown,* while the others were dispersed over the country, from Saugust to Dorchester, and settlements were speedily commenced at Medford, Watertown, Cambridge, Boston, and Roxbury.

The emigrants who accompanied Governor Winthrop, experienced many of the calamities which were encountered by their compatriots, who had joined the preceding expeditions under Carver and Endecott. They were alike afflicted with those fatal diseases which result from great and unaccustomed labour, the deprivations of abundant and healthy food, appropriate raiment, and adequate protection from the vicissitudes and inclemencies of the weather. Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, describes the effects of these chastening adversities with the resignation, fortitude and hopes of a christian champion. "Of the people who came over with us, from the time of their setting sail from England to December, there died, by estimation, 200 at the least; so low hath the Lord brought us. Well, yet they who survived were not discouraged, but bearing God's corrections with humility, and trusting in his mercies, and considering how, after a lower ebb, he had raised up our neighbors, at Plymouth, we began to consult about a fit place to build a town upon."§

There was considerable difficulty in selecting a site for the capital of the colony, as the inhabitants of each settlement gave a preference to their own location. To decide this important question, "the