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X.

Mar.

23.

CHAP. rience. Not a moment was to be lost; they must act in self-defence. Captain Standish hastened with eight men 1628. to the assistance of those at Weymouth. He arrived in time not only to prevent the attack, but to surprise the Indians themselves. In the conflict, the principal plotting chief and some of his men were killed. This exploit taught the Indians to respect the English; many of the neighboring chiefs now sought peace and alliance. When the good pastor, Mr. Robinson, heard of this conflict, he exclaimed, "Oh that they had converted some before they killed any!" One year saw the beginning and the end of this trading establishment at Weymouth. Apprehension of danger from the natives was now removed.

As thanksgiving has now become a national festival, the manner in which it was first instituted has a peculiar interest. In the autumn of 1623, after the fruits of the harvest were gathered in, Governor Bradford sent out a company for game, to furnish dainty materials for a feast. God had blessed their labors, and this was to be a feast of THANKS-GIVING. "So they met together and thanked God with all their hearts, for the good world and the good things in it."

The merchant partners in England complained of the small profits derived from their investments. They began to neglect the interests of the colony, and to manifest their displeasure in various ways. They would not permit Robinson and his family, with the remainder of the church at Leyden, to join their friends at Plymouth. They sold the colonists goods at enormous prices, and sent a ship tc rival them in their limited fur trade. They outraged their feelings by attempting to force upon them one Lyford, a clergyman friendly to the Established Church. Lyford was expelled from Plymouth, not on account of his religious views, but, according to Bradford, for conduct injurious to the colony and immorality.

In time industry and frugality triumphed; the Pil

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

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73

grims in five or six years were able to purchase the entire CHAP. stock of those who were annoying them in this ungenerous

manner.

The stock and the land were equitably divided, Nov. and the arrangement of private property fully carried out, 1627 each one becoming the owner of a piece of land.

Though the Pilgrims had no charter, they formed a government upon the most liberal principles. They had a governor, who was chosen by the people, and whose power was limited by a council of five. For more than eighteen years the whole male population were the legislators.

They were the pioneers of religious freedom--the openers of an asylum in the New World, to which the persecuted for religion's sake, and political opinions, have been flocking from that day to this. Says Governor Bradford, in his history of the colony: "Out of small beginnings great things have been produced, by His hand that made all things out of nothing; and as one small candle will light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea to our whole nation."

1640.

XI.

CHAPTER XI.

COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

A Company organized.-Settlement of Salem.-The Charter transferred.Boston and Vicinity settled.-Encouragements.-Disputes.--Roger Williams; his Banishment; he founds Providence.-Discussions renewed.-Anne Hutchinson.-Settlement of Rhode Island. The Dutch at Hartford; Disputes with.-Migrations to the fertile Valley of the Connecticut; Hooker and Haynes.-Springfield.-Fort at Saybrooke.-Pequods become hostile.-Expeditions against them; their utter Ruin.— Rev. John Davenport.-Settlement of New Haven.-Sir Ferdinand Gorges.-New Hampshire.-The United Colonies.-The Providence Plantations. Educated Men.-Harvard College.-The Printing Press. — Common Schools.-Grammar Schools.-Quakers; Persecution of.-Eliot the Apostle.-The Mayhews.-Progress.

CHAP. PERSECUTION raged through the reign of James, and threatened to continue through the reign of his son and 1624. successor, Charles I.

The various accounts sent to England by the colonists at Plymouth, excited great interest, especially in the minds of the Puritans. They listened to them as to a voice from Heaven, calling upon them to leave their native land, and join their brethren in these ends of the earth. This was not wild enthusiasm, but the calm promptings of duty.

Pamphlets were published giving descriptions of the land of promise; it promised not wealth and ease, but only peace and quietness. There were many who preferred these, with toils and privations in the wilds of America, to religious persecutions in their own land.

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