Pub. Aug:1826, for the Congregational Mag. by B.J. Holdsworth, St Paul's Church Yard, London

THE voyage of Mr. Bradford and his friends proved difficult and dangerous. The unwillingness of the master of one of the vessels to fulfil his engagement, compelled them to crowd their whole party into one ship. Subsequently to this, they met with such dreadful storms as to occasion some deliberations on the propriety of returning; but, continuing their course, they arrived at length on the shores of North America. Their design was to have settled in the vicinity of the river Hudson; but some Dutch enterprizers, having determined on fixing themselves on this spot, persuaded the master of the ship to convey the English Puritans to another part of the coast. They landed at Cape Cod, on the 9th of November; and, on reaching the shore, they immediately fell on their knees, with praises and prayers to Him whom they had fled into the wilderness to serve, and whose providence was their only resource.

The perfidiousness of the captain, in conveying them to a distance from the Hudson, was overruled for the preservation of those pious settlers; for the Indians in the neighbourhood of that river were too numerous and powerful to have allowed, without an almost miraculous interposition, the Occupancy of this feeble band; NEW SERIES, No. 20.

whilst the Indians about the Cape had been afflicted with a dreadful pestilence, and the country was in some measure cleared for these Christian confessors.

A great personal suffering occurred to Mr. Bradford, on his arrival at Cape Cod. His beloved wife, falling overboard, was drowned in the harbour.

was

But this good woman "taken away from the evil to come." Inexpressible were the sufferings endured by these pious people during the winter on which they were now entering: hardships, which were especially felt, as the most of those who bore them had, in their own country, been accustomed to comforts, speedily induced disease; and in the course of two or three months more than half of these weary pilgrims had fled from the wilderness to heaven. At the close of the winter, scarcely fifty remained alive; and, out of this fifty, there were sometimes not five in a ca pacity to tend the sick.

Yet, severe as were the distresses of these holy sufferers, their trials were not unaccompanied by mercies. But for the mortality which they so greatly deplored, they would, in all probability, have been subjected to the horrors of famine; while, throughout this gloomy

3 E

winter, the Indians, who, though greatly reduced, were powerful, compared with the settlers, were providentially withheld from attacking this small and sickly band. Nor was the state of their personal religion among the least of their mercies. A ready submission to the divine will, and a joyful anticipation of the heavenly country, tranquillized their minds, while a benevolent endeavour to diminish each others' distresses gave employment to their hands. Thus happy and thus active, scarcely a murmur was heard against the men whose unrighteous severities had driven them from the land of their fathers, and the comforts of life.

Through the good providence of God, the severities of the winter ceased at an earlier period than is usual in New England. With the advancing spring, the sickly colonists gathered strength, and proceeded with the heavy labours which a supreme love to God, and a supreme regard to conscience had imposed on them.

So far were these pious settlers from despising all law and order, that one of their first concerns was the establishment of a form of government. On November 11th, 1620, they "signed an instrument, as a foundation of their future and needful government; wherein, declaring themselves the loyal subjects of the crown of England, they did combine into a body politic, and solemnly engage submission and obedience to the laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officers, that, from time to time, should be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony;" and immediately afterwards they chose Mr. John Carver to be their Governor. This gentleman died in the course of the next year, when Mr. Bradford was elected unanimously to fill the same office; an office to which, with an exception of five times, he was chosen

Some few of the church at Leyden followed their brethren into the wilderness; but the lamented death of Mr. Robinson, combined with other disastrous events, prevented the re-union which was originally contemplated. In the mean time, the Christians at New Plymouth were favoured with the able and acceptable services of Mr. William Brewster, the ruling elder of the church at Leyden, of which they still considered themselves as members; but they had no pastor till the year 1629, when Mr. Ralph Smith undertook the office. So rapidly did the population increase, and so eminently did true religion advance with it, that in the thirteen years which followed this period, not only had the feeble band of settlers become multiplied into the occupants of several towns, but these towns were blessed with more than twelve ministers, of

* The paganism of the great body of American Indians is, perhaps, the greatest reproach of Transatlantic Christians. Good, and in many instances wise, as were the early settlers, some of them seem to have too far regarded "the they were allowed to execrate, than as bloody savages" rather as demons whom brethren whom they were bound to pity. The weak contempt of a sable skin, which still exists in the United States, and which forbids, almost impiously, in the house of prayer, is probably a an Indian or a Negro to sit beside a white result of the unworthy prejudices of former days.

"were stars of the

whom some first magnitude."

Of the character of Mr. Bradford as a Governor, few memorials remain, beside his repeated election to the office, and the prosperity of the people over whom he was appointed to watch. Not many years after the settlement of New Plymouth, the increase of oppressions in England, occasioned the colonization of Massachusetts; a country whose superior and growing importance seemed to throw the little settlement of Plymouth into the shade. For two years after Mr. Bradford was invested with the Government, the subsistence of the people was principally derived from the ocean; often were they reminded of a scriptural promise, which they had scarcely noticed, when surrounded by plenty, "they shall seek of the abundance of the seas." But the governor wisely encouraged agriculture, and in order to its im

"It was,

The colonizers of Massachusetts are described as "gentlemen of ancient and worshipful families, and ministers of the gospel, then of great fame at home, and merchants, husbandmen, artificers to the number of some thousands." indeed, a banishment rather than a removal, which was undergone by this glorious generation, and you may be sure, sufficiently afflictive to men of estate, breeding, and conversation." "By computation, the passage of the persons that peopled New England, cost at least ninetyfive thousand pounds; the transportation of their first small stock of cattle, great and small, cost no less than twelve thousand pounds, besides the price of the cattle themselves; the provisions laid in for subsistence, till tillage might produce more, cost forty-five thousand pounds; the materials for their first cottages cost eighteen thousand pounds; their arms, ammunition, and great artillery, cost twenty-two thousand pounds;" the whole amounting to one hundred and ninety-two thousand pounds; an immense sum in those days. "About a hundred and ninety-eight ships were employed in passing the perils of the seas, in the accomplishment of this renowned settlement, whereof but one miscarried in those perils."--Mather's New England, Book I.

p. 17.

provement, induced the colonists to relinquish the community of goods, which subsisted in the early period of their settlement, to divide the land, and thus to fix the boundaries, and to acknowledge the rights of private property.

This good man was eminently disinterested. A patent was given to the Colony in his name, and in that of his heirs, associates, and assigns; but when the population had increased, and the General Court requested a surrender of the patent into their hands, Mr. Bradford, forgetting the claims which might have been urged on the ground of former sufferings, instantly complied; only reserving to himself the land, which by the general agreement had become his.

But the disinterestedness of this excellent man did not impede his temporal prosperity. He was accustomed devoutly to say, that "he had forsaken friends, houses, and lands, for the sake of the gospel, and the Lord gave them to him again."

Active as must necessarily have been the scenes of Mr. Bradford's life, he found leisure for study. To a knowledge of the French and Dutch, he added that of the Latin, Greek, and especially of the Hebrew language. He was well acquainted with history and philosophy, and considering his attainments and his connexions, the reader will be prepared to hear that he was a skilful theologist. But his chief praise was, that he was a real and an exemplary Christian; a Christian who lived in a devout intercourse with God, who adorned his profession by all the lovely graces of the gospel.

The health of Mr. Bradford was, for some months before his death, in a declining state; but he was not seriously unwell till within three days of his removal. During the night which followed the first of these days, his consolations