New-Englands plantation

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
The main text of this book is a facsimile reproduction of printed documents from around 1630, and include many printing errors from those original documents. Spelling and punctuation are very inconsistent. These issues have been left unchanged in this etext to maintain the authenticity of the original works.
The character ſ (long-form s) has been replaced by the modern s.
Some characters and groups of characters have an overline, similar to a macron. These will display on this device as m n o u (m n o and u with overline) co os oe mo (co os oe and mo with overline) con (con with overline)
PUBLICATIONS OF THE ESSEX BOOK AND PRINT CLUB No. I
New-Englands PLANTATION WITH The Sea Journal and Other Writings By Rev. Francis Higginson First Minister of the Plantation at Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony The Essex Book and Print Club SALEM MASSACHUSETTS 1908
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE COPIES PRINTED AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS FOR THE ESSEX BOOK AND PRINT CLUB
“New-Englands Plantation,” a tract published in London early in 1630, contains the earliest printed account of the colony established by Endecott in 1628, at Neihum-kek, now Salem. A description of the natural conditions surrounding the new settlement is also preserved, the narrative presenting, in the quaint phrase of the original, “a short and true description of the commodities and discommodities of that countrey.” The tract was written by the Reverend Francis Higginson, who came in the emigration following Endecott, and who was eminently fitted, both by education and profession, to prepare for the friends in England a faithful account of the life in the new country, not only to gratify a natural curiosity, but also to attract a further emigration.
Francis Higginson probably was born in Claybrooke Parish, Leicester, England, in 1587-88. He received his degree of M.A. in 1613 at Jesus College, Cambridge, and two years later he was settled over Claybrooke Parish, where he preached with distinction until at last his nonconformity brought him into danger of imprisonment. About that time “The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England” obtained a charter from Charles I, and Higginson was invited to join the party which was being organized to make the first settlement in the new country. As minister he was to have equal political authority with the members of the governing council. He accepted the invitation, and with his family landed safely at Neihum-kek, now Salem, Massachusetts, on June 30, 1629, and on the 6th of August following, was ordained teacher of the church, with Samuel Skelton as pastor. By virtue of his office he became not only a spiritual guide but a leader among his people, more especially during the trying winter and spring following the arrival of the ships. The exposure and the privations endured during that time proved too severe, and consumption laid hold upon him. He died August 6, 1630, “in the prime of his life and on the threshold of a great career,” leaving a widow and eight children, one of whom also became a minister and served the Salem church for nearly fifty years.