Present site of Albany.

The govern

ment of this colony was

a relic of the

mediæval manorial system.

not pass. Ships of a hundred and a hundred and twenty tons can come up to it.

There are two things in this settlement (which is called Renselaerswick, as if to say, settlement of Renselaers, who is a rich Amsterdam merchant) Ist, a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivels. This has been reserved, and is maintained by the West India Company. This fort was formerly on an island in the river; it is now on the mainland, towards the Hiroquois [Iroquois], a little above the said island. 2d, a colony sent here by this Renselaers, who is the patron.-This colony is composed of about a hundred persons, who reside in some twenty-five or thirty houses built along the river, as each found most convenient. In the principal house lives the patron's agent; the Minister has his apart, in which service is performed. There is also a kind of Bailiff here, whom they call the Seneschal, who administers justice. Their houses are merely of boards and thatched, with no mason work except the chimneys. The forest furnishing many large pines, they make boards by means of their mills, which they have here for the purpose.

They found some pieces of ground all ready, which the savages had formerly cleared, and in which they sow wheat and oats for beer, and for their horses, of which they have great numbers. There is little land fit for tillage, being hemmed in by hills, which are poor soil. This obliges them to separate, and they already occupy two or three leagues of country.

Trade is free to all; this gives the Indians all things cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, and being satisfied provided he can gain some little profit.

The Jogues Papers; translated by John Gilmary Shea, in New
York Historical Society, Collections, Second Series (New
York, 1857), III, Part I, 215-218 passim.

By

17. Planting of Massachusetts (1627–1631) GOVERNOR

TOUCH

THOMAS

DUDLEY

soldier, stew

ard of the

Earl of Lei

cester, and governor of

Massachusetts: a good type of the Puritan. He came over in Winthrop's company.

extreme

The settle-
Massachu-

ment of

best example in the period of intelligent colonization by a wealthy See Contemch. xvi. poraries, I,

setts is the

company.

OUCHING the plantacon which wee here haue begun, (1576-1652), it fell out thus about the yeare 1627 some freinds beeing togeather in Lincolnesheire, fell into some discourse about New England and the plantinge of the gospell there; and after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons by l'res [letters] & messages to some in London & the west country where it was likewise deliberately thought vppon [upon], and at length with often negociation soe ripened that in the year 1628. wee procured a patent from his Matie for our planting between the Matachusetts Bay, and Charles river on the South; and the River of Merimack on the North and 3 miles on ether side of those Rivers & Bay, as allso for the government of those who did or should inhabit within that compass and the same year we sent Mr. John Endecott & some with him to beginne a plantacon & to strengthen such as he should find there which wee sent thether from Dorchester & some places adioyning [adjoining]; ffrom whom the same year receivinge hopefull news. The next year 1629 wee sent diverse shipps over with about 300 people, and some Cowes, Goates & horses many of which arrived safely. Theis [these] by their too large comendacons [commendations] of the country, and the comodities thereof, invited us soe strongly to goe on that Mr. Wenthropp of Soffolke (who was well knowne in his owne country & well approved heere for his pyety, liberality, wisedome & gravity) comeinge in to us, wee came to such resolution that in April 1630, wee sett saile from Old England with 4 good shipps. And in May following 8 more followed, 2 haveing gone before in Ffebruary and March, and 2 more following in June and August, besides another set out by a private merchant. Theis 17 Shipps arrived all safe in New England, for the increase of the plantacon here theis

Practically the present

boundaries

of Massa

chusetts.

Endicott Salem. John Wintrop.

settled at

See

below, Nos. 21, 28.

I.e. to release

them from re

paying their

passage money by service.

I.e. to Boston Harbor.

Medford, on the Mystic River.

Named after the reigning king.

yeare 1630
Our 4 shipps which sett out in Aprill
arrived here in June and July, where wee found the colony in
a sadd and unexpected condicon aboue 80 of them beeing
dead the winter before and many of those aliue weake and
sicke all the corne & bread amongst them all hardly suffi-
cient to feed them a fortnight, insoemuch that the remainder
of 180 servents wee had the 2 years before sent over, come-
inge to vs for victualls to sustaine them wee found ourselves
wholly unable to feed them by reason that the p'visions
[provisions] shipped for them were taken out of the shipp
they were put in, and they who were trusted to shipp them
in another failed us, and left them behind; whereupon
necessity enforced us to our extreme loss to giue them all
libertie; who had cost us about: 16 or 20 £s [sterling] a
person furnishing and sending over. But bearing theis
things as wee might, wee beganne to consult of the place of
our sitting downe: ffor Salem where wee landed, pleased us
not. And to that purpose some were sent to the Bay to
search vpp the rivers for a convenient place; who vppon
their returne reported to haue found a good place vppon
Mistick; but some other of us seconding theis to approoue
[approve] or dislike of their judgement; we found a place
[that] liked vs better 3 leagues vp Charles river - And
there vppon vnshipped our goods into other vessels and
with much cost and labour brought them in July to Charles
Towne; but there receiveing advertisements by some of the
late arived shipps from London and Amsterdam of some
Ffrench preparations against vs (many of our people brought
with vs beeing sick of ffeavers [fevers] & the scurvy and
wee thereby vnable to car[r]y vp our ordinance and baggage.
soe farr) wee were forced to change counsaile and for our
present shelter to plant dispersedly, some at Charles Towne
which standeth on the North Side of the mouth of Charles
River; some on the South Side thereof, which place we
named Boston (as wee intended to haue done the place wee

first resolved on) some of vs vppon Mistick, which wee named Meadford; some of vs westwards on Charles river, 4 miles from Charles Towne, which place wee named Watertoune; others of vs 2 miles from Boston in a place wee named Rocksbury, others vppon the river of Sawgus betweene Salem and Charles Toune. And the westerne men 4 miles South from Boston at a place wee named Dorchester. This dispersion troubled some of vs, but helpe it wee could not, wanting abillity to remove to any place fit to build a Toune vppon, and the time too short to deliberate any longer least [lest] the winter should surprize vs before wee had builded our houses. . . . of the people who came over with vs from the time of their setting saile from England in Aprill 1630. vntill December followinge there dyed by estimacon about 200 at the least Soe lowe hath the Lord brought vs! Well, yet they who survived were not discouraged but bearing God's corrections with humilitye and trusting in his mercies, and considering how after a greater ebb hee had raised vpp our neighbours at Plymouth we beganne againe in December to consult about a fitt place to build a Toune [town] vppon, leaveinge all thoughts of a fort, because vppon any invasion wee were necessarily to loose our howses when we should retire thereinto; soe after diverse meetings at Boston, Rocksbury and Waterton on the 28th of December wee grew to this resolucon to bind all the Assistants (Mr. Endicott & Mr. Sharpe excepted, which last purposeth to returne by the next shipps into England) to build howses at a place, a mile east from Waterton neere Charles river, the next Springe, and to winter there the next yeare, that soe by our examples and by removeinge the ordinance and munition thether, all who were able, might be drawne thether, and such as shall come to vs hereafter to their advantage bee compelled soe to doe; and soe if God would, a fortifyed Toune might there grow vpp, the place fitting reasonably well thereto. . . .

After a town in England, from which many of

them had

come. Roxbury.

Most of them from Dorchester, England.

had come

This place

was Newtowne, later called Cambridge.

According to Winthrop and Bradford, the

But now haueing some leasure to discourse of the motiues for other mens comeinge to this place or their abstaining from it, after my breif manner I say this That if any come hether [hither] to plant for worldly ends that canne live well at home hee co[m]mits an errour of which hee will soon repent him. But if for spirittuall [ends] and to better their that noe particular obstacle hinder his removeall, he may

Puritans and

Pilgrims

came over

condition;

they might

have had toleration in Holland.

Other accounts of New England in Old South Leaflets, Nos. 7, 8, 21, 22, 5054, 67, 68; Am. Hist. Studies,

No. 2.

Written in 1679 by JASPAR DANKERS and PETER SLUYTER, who came

over to find

finde here what may well content him: vizt: materialls to build, fewell [fuel] to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to ffish in, a pure ayer [air] to breath[e] in, good water to drinke till wine or beare canne be made, which togeather with the cowes, hoggs and goates brought hether allready may suffice for food, for as for foule [fowl] and venison, they are dainties here as well as in England. Ffor cloaths and beddinge they must bring them with them till time and industry produce them here. In a word, wee yett enioy [enjoy] little to bee envyed but endure much to be pittyed in the sicknes & mortalitye of our people.

...

The shipp now waites but for wind, which when it blowes there are ready to goe aboard therein for England . . . Mr. Coddington and many others, the most whereof purpose to returne to vs againe, if God will. In the meane time wee are left a people poore and contemptible yet such as trust in God, and are contented with our condition, beeinge well assured that hee will not faile vs nor forsake vs.

Thomas Dudley, Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, March, 1631; edited by J. Farmer, in Force, Tracts, etc. (Washington, 1838), II, No. iv, 7-18 passim.

18. Conditions of Maryland (1632)

As

S regards its [Maryland's] first discoverer and possessor, that was one Lord Baltimore, an English nobleman, in the time of Queen Maria. Having come from