the ship, they had come here resolved to make America their home. Their nearest civilized neighbors were a few Dutch on the Hudson and the Virginia colonists five hundred miles south of them.

81. The Pilgrims and the Indians. — Governor Carver made a treaty with Massasoit, chief of a small neighboring tribe of Indians. The treaty, though not ratified by any oath, was faithfully kept on both sides. Two years later (1623) the Indians of a tribe at Weymouth, about thirty miles north of Plymouth, conspired to kill off a small independent colony of English who had settled at that point (1622) and had provoked the savages by their bad conduct. Massasoit warned the Plymouth settlers of the plot, and told them that if successful the same tribe would next attack them. Captain Myles Standish, small of stature but great of heart, with eight followers, marched against the savages and soon brought back the head of one of the leaders. It was the first and last Indian war in which the Pilgrims took part until they rose to put down King Philip (1675) more than half a century later. The Indians, in fact, were most helpful; they showed the colonists how to plant corn, trap game, and catch fish to the best advantage.

82. The Pilgrim Republic"; freedom of worship; Government. The settlers at Plymouth, though acknowledging themselves subjects of King James, practically formed themselves into a little republic. Their Church was bound by no creed. Its members simply signed a covenant by which they pledged themselves "as the Lord's free people . . . to walk in all his ways made known, or to be made known to them." 124 Politically all were equal. In the outset they assembled in town-meeting to make necessary laws, to choose officers for the colony, and to act as a court of justice. Newcomers might vote (1636) if a majority of the original colonists admitted them as freemen; but it was decreed that no one should settle within the limits of Plymouth except by permission of the Governor or two of his Assistants." To-day the

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Government of the United States, following that wise precedent, determines what emigrants may or may not land on our shores.

In time the growth of the colony made it inconvenient for the whole population to gather in a single town-meeting, and each of the different settlements (1638) sent two representatives to Plymouth to act for them. But even then the body of the people expressly retained the right to repeal the laws made by their representatives.126

Later (1644), the right to vote for a representative was limited to those who took the oath of fidelity to the colony, - those who refused to do so were ordered to leave the settlement." 127

After the coming of the Quakers into the neighboring colony of Massachusetts Bay, a statute (1658) was enacted declaring that persons of that faith and all others who " opposed the good and wholesome laws of the colony" ... "the true worship of God," or who refused to do military service, should be denied the right of suffrage.128 Finally (1671), fifty years after the founding of Plymouth, suffrage, though not limited by church membership, was restricted to persons "of sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion, and such as have also £20 of ratable [taxable] estate." 129 The sturdy independence of the colonists manifested itself in a declaration which the legislature of the "Pilgrim Republic" made in 1671. That body then resolved that "as free-born subjects of the State of England . . . no act . . . shall be . . . imposed upon us at present or to come, but such as shall be made . . . by consent of the body of freemen or their representatives, legally assembled." 130

83. The merchant adventurers"; Myles Standish goes to England; the Pilgrims become free men. The growth of the colony was very slow. Lack of capital prevented the settlers from engaging in cod-fishing, and the chief exports were furs obtained from the Indians. The "merchant adventurers," who were grievously disappointed at the small returns received, at length refused to do anything more to aid the colonists,

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though they insisted on holding them to their labor contract." Governor Bradford wrote that the "adventurers finally threatened in their anger "that if we ever do grow to any good estate they will nip us in the head." 132

In these straits the Plymouth people sent Captain Myles Standish (1625) to England to seek help. He could not get the contract cancelled, but succeeded at length in borrowing £200 for the use of the colonists at thirty per cent interest.133

The next year (1626) the "merchant adventurers" sold out their share to the colonists for £1800,- equal probably to at least $20,000 now, to be paid in nine annual installments. The whole colony went to work with a will, and in six years had discharged the debt and were free men. In future all that they earned was their own. Meanwhile they tried to obtain a royal charter which should give them power to regularly organize a government. In this they failed; but they obtained. a patent from the Council of New England which granted them a certain fixed territory (1629), but nothing more.

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84. The Massachusetts Bay Colony absorbs Plymouth Colony (1691). In 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Company settled Boston. The growth of the new colony was comparatively rapid, and after a time the people of Massachusetts endeavored to secure the annexation of Plymouth. But the Plymouth people preferred to stand by themselves; as one of their chief men quaintly said: the best of them had no desire "to trot after the Bay horse." Massachusetts, however, succeeded in her plans, and in 1691 a royal charter consolidated the two colonies. This, of course, ended the history of Plymouth as a distinct colony. But the little Pilgrim Republic had made its record and could afford to merge its political life in that of the stronger and richer Puritan commonwealth.

The Pilgrims were the first settlers who obtained a permanent foothold on the New England coast. In religious matters they showed remarkable tolerance. They too were the first colonists of the New World who established the management of all public

affairs in town-meeting. Thereby they laid the foundation in America of that democratic system which ripened in time into "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

IVa.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY (1630).

85. The Puritan emigration to New England; John Endicott; charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony. - The emigration of the Pilgrims to America (1620) was the forerunner of a far greater emigration on the part of the Puritans ten years later.

Political and religious persecution drove them to seek a refuge in New England. John Endicott, a Puritan of the Puritans, conducted the first party of emigrants (1628) to a point on the shores of Massachusetts to which they gave the biblical name of Salem. In his fiery zeal Endicott (1635) slashed the red cross out of the English flag, because it seemed to him an emblem of popery; and he shipped two members of his council back to England for insisting on making use of the Episcopal prayer-book in public worship.

The year after Endicott sailed, a number of wealthy and influential Puritans obtained a royal charter 135 granting them all the territory in New England lying between a point three miles north of the River Merrimac and a point three miles south of the River Charles. Westward the grant extended to the Pacific.186 This charter empowered the Massachusetts Bay Company of England (1) to make laws, provided they should not be "contrary to the laws of England"; (2) to carry on trade; (3) to drive out obnoxious persons and intruders. Nothing was said about the establishment of any form of worship or of religious liberty. It was practically the charter of a trading company, and it seems to have been understood that the government of the colony was to remain in the hands of the corporation in England.187

86. John Winthrop; settlement of Boston (1630); large emigration; the Puritan church; Puritan government.John Winthrop, a man of wealth and education, was elected (1629) governor of the Company. Believing, as he said, that the Puritans had "no place left to fly unto but the wilderness," 138 he quietly took the charter with him and led a large number of emigrants (1630) from England to Massachusetts. Not liking Salem, Winthrop went to Charlestown; a little later the colonists moved across the river to the three-peaked peninsula of Shawmut, which they named (1630) Boston.189

One of the first acts of the settlers was to form a covenant

of these ministers." 141 Before the end of the year a thousand emigrants, bringing many "indented servants" (§ 42), arrived, and in the course of the next ten years (1630-1640) more than twenty thousand colonists settled in New England. They were men who came not from hope of gain, but to obtain that religious and political liberty which was denied them at home. They represented the flower of English Puritanism.

Meanwhile, the original colonists (that is, the stockholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company) had established a government which was practically independent of both King and Parliament. By the provisions of the charter the freemen were to elect a governor, deputy-governor, and a council of eighteen assistants. This governing body was to meet in a "general court" and make all needful laws, not contrary to the laws of England.142

87. Alteration in the form of government; limitation of suffrage; the "freeman's oath."-At the first meeting of the General Court (1630) the form of government was altered. The freemen then agreed to surrender a part of their political