As the column advanced, the first division that appeared was composed of the able-bodied men of Salem and the neighboring towns, armed, arranged into ranks, and discharging the honorable duty of an escort. Then followed the civil fathers of the place, the Endicotts and the Hathornes; and then the Governor, preceded by his halberdiers, and followed by his suite; after them the principal inhabitants of the town, the Downings, the Bishops, the Sharps, the Higginsons, the Browns, and the Pickerings; and a promiscuous assemblage of persons, gathered from the surrounding country, brought up the rear.

The Governor was invested with all the interest which birth, rank, accomplishments, and office could impart; and we may fancy to ourselves the admiration with which he was received to the hospitalities of the place. We cannot doubt that every door was thrown open to receive him. It is probable that he took up his quarters in the family of Endicott. All Salem thronged, that day and evening, to express their salutations. The aged and the grave revered him for his virtues and his piety; and, when we consider that he was in the bloom of early manhood, and remarkable for his personal graces, and that it was, moreover, understood that his heart was as yet unpledged, we may be authorized to consider it more than possible that he was regarded by some with

a still livelier interest. Salem had even then established the character, which its fair daughters have ever since preserved. One of the sons of Winthrop had already been captivated by the charms of an Endicott. But great and potent as is the witchery of the place, the young ruler of the people, on this occasion, resisted its spell. He was armed and entrenched within the engrossing cares of state, and the higher interests of the

church.

Soon after his return to Boston, the occurrences commenced, which brought on the Pequot War. It is not necessary to the ends of this memoir to relate them at length. By the combined influence of Vane and Williams, many of the Indian tribes were withheld from joining in hostilities against the English. On the 24th of August, Endicott sailed on his expedition to Block Island, from which he returned on the 14th of September, having gained some trifling advantage over the enemy, without suffering any loss on his part. On the 21st of October, the Sachem of the Narragansetts came to Boston, on the invitation of Governor Vane, accompanied by two sons of Canonicus, Cutshamakin, another sachem, and twenty other Indians. These noble sons of the forest were received with great civility and treated with marked attention. They dined in the same room with the Governor, and held a

long and friendly conference with him, the result of which was a treaty of peace and amity with the English. When the object of their visit was accomplished, they marched back to their native wilds, having been attended to the borders of the town by a file of soldiers, who gave them a salute at parting, by discharging a volley of musketry.*

* Savage's edition of Winthrop, Vol. I. p. 198.

CHAPTER IV.

Antinomian Controversy.― Religious Opinions of the Colonists. - Mrs. Anne Hutchinson's Arrival in Boston. Her Weekly Meetings for Females. - Regarded with Jealousy. Accused of Heresy. - Violent Contentions on her Account. · Her Tenets and Conduct. Her Character.

In the latter part of the summer, letters were received from Governor Vane's family in England, urgently pressing his immediate return to that country. He laid them before the Council, together with a request to be permitted to resign his office forthwith. But such obstacles were thrown in his way, particularly by the remonstrances of the Boston Church, of which he was a member, that he felt constrained to abandon his purpose, and continue in the government until the expiration of the year.

In the mean time the celebrated Antinomian controversy was reaching its crisis in the colony, and had already swept away every other interest from the feelings and thoughts of the people.

The religious opinions of the first generation of Pilgrims were mostly of the same stamp. The

doctrines, as professed by the Reformed churches, were received with almost unanimous consent in New England. And although the principles of Protestantism were held in deserved reverence by the people, they did not in all instances act up to them, but were liable to the inconsistency, which has more or less marked all Protestants. They permitted themselves to regard with very great jealousy and aversion the exercise of free inquiry, whenever it threatened to lead to results different from their own.

It seems to have been the custom in Boston for the brethren of the church to meet every week, for the purpose of impressing still more deeply upon their minds the discourses and other exercises of the previous Lord's day.

During the administration of Governor Vane, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson arrived from England, and became a member of the church. Her husband was a gentleman of respectable standing, and her brother-in-law, Mr. Wheelwright, sustained a most estimable character as a Christian minister.

It was the fortune of this remarkable woman to raise a contention and kindle a strife in the infant commonwealth of Massachusetts, which has secured to her name a distinction as lasting as our annals, and rendered her the heroine of a passage in our history, as wonderful, and curious, and tragical, as any it contains. She was possessed of