Virginia, those that were well and sound were carried to the place designed to plant, leaving their diseased and infirm at Plymouth till the rest were settled, and fitted with housing to receive them. But as Solomon saith, "wisdom is good with an inheritance," which was much wanting at this time, either in him that undertook or in those that were sent to manage the inheritance of this patent, by which means the whole soon after came to nothing; for the company ordered to plant the said patent land proving unruly, and being destitute of a meet person to govern and order them, they fell first into dissoluteness and disorder, then into great want and misery, at last into wickedness, and so into confusion and ruin, as came to pass soon after; which followeth nextly to be related, premising only a short passage or two, which will but make way thereunto. By the vessel which brought the seven men bound for Virginia, as was mentioned before, was sent a courteous letter from one Hudson, master of one of the fishing ships about the eastern parts, giving them notice of the late massacre at Virginia, in the spring of this year, advising them to beware, according to old rule, by other men's harms; which seasonable hint was wisely improved by those of Plymouth in raising an edifice thereupon, which served them as well for a meeting-house wherein to perform their publick worship, as for a platform to plant their ordnance upon, it being built with a flat roof, and battlements for that purpose; for at this time they were filled with rumors of the Narragansetts rising against them, as well as alarmed by the late massacre at Virginia. The courteous letter of the said Hudson did encourage those of Plymouth to return a thankful acknowledgment by Mr. Edward Winslow, sent by a boat of their own, with intent also to procure what provisions he could of that ship or any other in those parts; the plantation at that time being in great want thereof, to which they received a very comfortable return from the said master, who not only spared what he could himself, but wrote also in their behalf to other vessels upon the coast to do the like, by which means the plantation was well supplied at that time,

which yet was soon spent by the whole company, that had no other relief to depend upon. Their fear also for the following year increasing with their present wants, for a famine was threatened by a great drought which continued that summer from the third week in May to the middle of July; their corn beginning to wither with the extremity of parching heat, accompanying the great want of rains, which occasioned the poor planters to set a day apart solemnly to seek God by humble and fervent prayer in this great distress; in answer whereunto the Lord was pleased to send them such sweet and gentle showers in that great abundance that the earth was thoroughly soaked therewith, to the reviving of the decayed corn and other withering fruits of the earth, so that the very Indians were astonished therewith to behold it, that before were not a little troubled for them, fearing they would lose all their corn by the drought, and so would be in a more suffering condition for want thereof than themselves, who, as they said, could make a shift to supply themselves of their wants with fish and other things, which the English they could not well do; yea some of them were heard to acknowledge the Englishmen's God's goodness, as they used to speak, that had sent them soft, gentle rains, without violence of storms and tempests, that used to break down their corn, the contrary which they now to their great astonishment beheld. It was observed that the latter part of the summer was followed with seasonable weather, amounting to the promised blessing of the former and latter rain, which brought in a plentiful harvest, to their comfort and rejoicing; the which was now more welcome in that the merchants, that at first adventured, and on whom they relied for their continual supply, had now withdrawn their hands, nor had they ever after this time from any of them supply to any purpose; for all that came afterwards was too short for the passengers that came along therewith, so as they were forced to depend wholly on that they could raise by their own industry, by themselves. And that which was raised out of the field by their labour, for want of skill either in the soil or in the sort of grain, would hardly make one year

reach to another; so if they could not supply themselves otherwise they many times were in want and great sufferings for provisions. But at this time for encouragement, another comfortable supply was occasionally brought in by oneCapt. Jones, that a little before came into the harbour with intent and order to discover the harbours between this place and Virginia. He had much trading stuff, with which he might have furnished the plantation, but he took his advantage by their wants to raise his price at cent per cent, yet exacting in exchange coat beaver at three shillings per pound, which more than trebled his gain, with which it is well if his ship was not overburthened, and no doubt his conscience was, if it were not lightened by repentance, before the storm of death approached. However, the planters, that by their necessity were driven by him to buy at any rates, found means thereby for a present relief. The Memorial of Plymouth Colony makes more honourable mention of one Mr. Pory, formerly Secre tary in Virginia, who taking our new plantation onward in his way to Virginia, returned to governour and church a very grateful letter of the acknowledgment of the good he received by the perusal of some of Mr. Ainsworth's and Mr. Robinson's works, which it seems were not so common in the world as they have been since; and in way of his requital after his return, procured no small advantage to the plantation of New Plymouth, and amongst persons that were not of the meanest rank. But by this time Mr. Weston's plantation at Weymouth had made havock of all their provisions; and whatever their boastings were, what great matters they would do, and never be brought into such streights as they found their friends at Plymouth in, at their first coming amongst them, yet now they saw poverty and want coming upon them like an armed man; wherefore, understanding that their friends at Plymouth had supplied them formerly with trading stuff for the procuring of corn from the Indians, wrote to the governour that they might join with them, offering their small ship to be inproved in that service, requesting the loan or sale of so much of their trading stuff as their price might come

to, which was agreed unto on equal terms; but going folout in this expedition, by cross winds and foul weather, and bending their course southward, they were driven in at Manomet, whereby they procured the corn they desired; but lost their interpreter, quanto, who there fell sick and died. Not long before his death he desired the governour of Plymouth, who at that time was there present, to pray for him, that he might go to the place where dwelt the Englishmen's God, of whom it seems this poor Indian or heathen had a better opinion than one of the Spanish Indians had of the Spaniards' God; who upon his death bed inquiring of some of their religion whither the Spaniards went when they died, and being told they went to heaven, replied, that he would go to the contrary place, whether purgatory or hell, imagining the place to be more desirable where he might be sure to find fewest of them. Thus we see blind heathens are apt by their natural consciences, to judge both of men's religions and worship, and the God to whom it is performed, according to their lives and manners that profess it. But after their return with a considerable quantity of corn, which with frugal improvement might have answered the necessities of both their plantations for a long time, before the month of February was ended, John Sanders, that was left as the guide or overseer of Mr. Weston's plantation, sent a sorrowful messenger to the colony at Plymouth, informing of their great straits they were in for want of corn, and that they had tried to borrow corn of the Indians and were denied; to know whether he might take it by force for the relief of his company, till he returned with supply from the ships eastward, whither he was then bound. It is more than probable that the poor heathen judged of them by their former manners to be like the wicked, Solomon speaks of, that borroweth and payeth not again, which made them so unwilling to lend. Yet as to case of conscience propounded by the men of this new plantation, an ordinary casuist might easily have resolved it at home, especially at that time, when it might have endangered the welfare of both plantations, those Indians

that lived in or about the Massachusetts being so exasperated by some of their former pranks, stealing their corn, &c. that they were in great danger of being all cut off by them. Yea, it is reported by some that survived sometime after the planting of the Massachusetts colony, that they were so base as to inform the Indians that their governour was purposed to come and take their corn by force, which made them combine against the English. Certain it is, they were so provoked with their filching and stealing, that they threatened them as the Philistines did Samson's father-in-law, after the loss of their corn; insomuch that the company, as some report, pretended in way of satisfaction to punish him that did the theft, but in his stead hanged a poor, decrepit old man, that was unserviceable to the company, and burthensome to keep alive, which was the ground of the story with which the merry gentleman that wrote the poem called Hudibras did, in his poetical fancy, make so much sport. Yet the inhabitants of Plymouth tell the story much otherwise, as if the person hanged was really guilty of stealing, as may be were many of the rest, and if they were driven by necessity to content the Indians, at that time to do justice, there being some of Mr. Weston's company living, it is possible it might be executed not on him that most deserved, but on him that could be best spared, or who was not like to live long if he had been let alone. In conclusion, the people of Weston's plantation were brought to that extremity by their folly and profuseness, that they were all beggared by parting with all they had, to get a little relief from the Indians at any rate, and some of them starved. One going to get shell fish on the flats at low water was so enfeebled with hunger that he could not get his feet out of the mud, but stuck there fast till he died. Others that were more hale and strong lived by stealing from the Indians, with which they were so provoked, that they entered into a general conspiracy against all the English, as those of Plymouth understood by the persons whom they sent to visit and relieve Massasoit, of whom they heard in the following year that he was dangerously sick. Conceiving that