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DEATH OF PECKSUOT AND OTHERS.

wumet, and another Indian, "putting many tricks on the weaker sort of men," the Captain having about as many of his own party with him,* " gave the word, and the door being shut fast, he began himself with Pecksuot, and snatching the knife from his neck, after much struggling, killed him therewith; the rest killed Wittuwumet and the other man; the youth they took and hanged. It is incredible (says Mr. Winslow) how many wounds these men received, before they died; not making any fearful noise, but catching at their weapons and striving to the last. Hobamack, (Standish's Indian guide and interpreter), stood by as a spectator, observing how our men demeaned themselves in the action; which being ended, he, smiling, broke forth and said: "Yesterday Pecksuot bragged of his own strength and stature, and told you that though you were a great captain, yet you were but a little man; but, to-day, I see you are big enough to lay him on the ground."

By Standish's orders, several other Indians were subsequently killed; but the women were sent away uninjured. This exploit of Standish so terrified the other Indians who had conspired with the Massachusetts, or Massachusencks, as Mr. Winslow calls them, "that they forsook their houses, running to and fro like men distracted; living in swamps, and other desert places, and so brought diseases upon themselves, whereof many died, as Canacum, sachem of Manomet; Aspinet of Nauset, and Ianough of Matachiest. The plantation of Weston was broken up and the settlers dispersed, within one year after it begun. Some of the people returned to England, and others remained in the country. Weston did not come to America himself till after the dispersion of his people, some of whom he found among the eastern fishermen ; and from them he first heard of the ruin of his enterprise. In a storm he was cast away on the coast south of the Piscataqua, and robbed by the Indians of all which he had saved from the wreck. By the charity of the inhabitants of Piscataqua, he was enabled to reach Plymouth, where he obtained some *Winslow.

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pecuniary aid from the colonial authorities, and "he never repaid the debt but with enmity and reproach."

Another rival colony was attempted in the neighbourhood of the Plymouth settlers, by John Pierce, in whose name their first patent had been taken out. He procured another patent of larger extent, intending to keep it for his own benefit; but his treachery met its punishment in the shipwreck of the vessel in which he attempted to cross the Atlantic. Having embarked with a company of one hundred and nine persons, his vessel was dismasted and driven back to Portsmouth, His property was purchased by the Plymouth settlers, and the passengers and goods being embarked in another vessel, arrived safely at Plymouth, in July, 1623.

The connection of the pilgrims with the trading company in London, who were their partners in the scheme of colonization, was attended with many inconveniences. To meet their engagements the colonists were obliged to submit to the payment of excessive usury, and to trade at a serious disadvantage. One of their number, Isaac Allerton, was sent to London, in 1626, to "make a composition with the adventurers, to take up more money, and to purchase goods." He returned in the spring of 1627, having obtained a loan of two hundred pounds at thirty per cent. interest, and laid it out in goods suitable for the supply of the colony. On behalf of the colony, he had bought out the interest of the London partners for eighteen hundred pounds, payable in nine yearly instalments. To consummate this bargain, a few of the principal men became bound jointly on behalf of the rest; and a new stock was created and divided equitably among the settlers. This arrangement proved highly beneficial to the colony.

The portion of Mr. Robinson's congregation who had remained at Leyden, after the death of their pastor, were desirous to join their brethren in New Plymouth. As the expense of their removal was the main difficulty to be overcome, this was defrayed by the settlers, and the emigration was accomplished in 1627.

152

GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY.

By the new patent which the Plymouth colony obtained from the council for New England, in 1630, their territory was considerably enlarged, and a tract of land was obtained on Kennebec river; but the population of the colony had increased so slowly, that at this time it did not exceed three hundred. The sanction of King James to their government could never be obtained; but the new patent from the council allowed them to make ordinances and laws for the regulation. of their affairs, and the distribution of lands within the limits of the patent.

The establishment on the Kennebec was an important acquisition for the purposes of trade. Their commerce was also extended by means of an amicable intercourse with the Dutch settlers on the Hudson river.

The government of the Plymouth colony was at first a pure democracy; the whole body of freemen constituting the legislature; and the executive power being confided to a governor and a council of five, and subsequently of seven assistants, elected annually by the people. When the increase of population rendered this government too unwieldy, the representative system was adopted, each town sending members to the general court. After the revolution in England, which gave the throne to William III., a new charter for Massachusetts was issued, including the Plymouth colony (1689). In population and extent of territory, the settlement of the pilgrims was of trifling importance; but as an integral portion of the New England confederacy, it always exerted a commanding influence; and the moral effect which the character of its people and the spirit of its institutions produced on the surrounding communities, was as extensive as it was salutary and lasting.

The little colony which they established, under circumstances which would have discouraged men of less determined spirit, served as the nucleus of all the others which were planted on the soil of New England. The character of moral integrity and political firmness which characterized its leaders was stamped upon the influential class of the other

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communities which sprang up around them. It displayed itself in all the transactions with the aborigines, as well as with the mother country, from their earliest exercise of chartered rights up to the period when those rights were violated beyond endurance, and the children of the pilgrims became the Fathers of the Revolution.

In later times the spirit of the pilgrims has actuated their descendants in all that relates to the great interests of religion and education, and has pervaded their whole political and social system, preserving its moral soundness, and giving it the health and vigour which belongs only to institutions planted in the firm soil of independence, and flourishing in the bracing air of civil and religious freedom.

VOL. I. 20

Canonicus's Challenge