CHAP. XXIII.
The Proceedings and present Estate of New England, since 1624.
to this present 1629.
When I went first to the North part of Virginia, where the Westerly Colony had been planted, it had dissolved it self within a Year, and there was not one Christian in all the Land. I was set forth at the sole Charge of four Merchants of London; the Country being then reputed by your Westerlings, a most Rocky Barren, Desolate Desart; {MN-1} but the good Return brought from thence, with the Maps and Relations I made of the Country, which I made so manifest, some of them did believe me, and they were well embraced both by the Londoners and the Westerlings, for whom I had promised to undertake it, I thinking to have joined them all together, but that might well have been a work of Hercules. Betwixt them long there was much contention; the Londoners indeed went bravely forward; but in three or four Years, I and my Friends consumed many hundred Pounds amongst the Plimothians, who only fed me with delays, promises and excuses, but no Performance of any thing to any purpose. In the interim, many particular Ships went thither, and finding my Relations true, and that I had not taken that I brought home from the French Men, as had been reported; yet further, for my Pains to discredit me, and my calling it New-England, they obscured, and shadowed it, with the Title of Canada, till at my humble suit, it pleased our most Royal King Charles, whom God long keep, bless and preserve, then Prince of Wales, to confirm it with my Map and Book, by the Title of New England; the gain thence returning, did make the same thereof so increase, that thirty, forty, or fifty sail went Yearly only to Trade and Fish; but nothing would be done for a Plantation, till about some Hundred of your Brownists of England, Amsterdam and Leyden, went to New Plimouth, whose humorous Ignorances, caused them for more than a Year to endure a wonderful deal of misery, with an infinite patience; saying my Books and Maps were much better cheap to teach them than my self; {MN-2} many other have used the like good Husbandry, that have payed soundly in trying their self-will'd conclusions; but those in time doing well, divers others have in small handfuls undertaken to go there, to be several Lords and Kings of themselves, but most vanished to nothing; notwithstanding the Fishing Ships, made such good returns, at last it was ingrossed by twenty Patentees, that divided my Map into twenty parts, and cast Lots for their shares; but Money not coming in as they expected, procured a Proclamation, none should go thither without their Licences to Fish; but for every thirty Tuns of Shipping, to pay them five Pounds; besides, upon great Penalties, neither to Trade with the Natives, cut down Wood for their Stages, without giving satisfaction, though all the Country is nothing but Wood, and none to make use of it, with many such other pretences, for to make this Country plant it self, by its own Wealth: Hereupon most Men grew so discontented, that few or none would go; so that the Patentees, who never a one of them had been there, seeing those Projects Would not prevail, have since not hindred any to go that would, that within these few last years, more have gone thither than ever.
{MN-1} Considerations about the loss of time.
{MN-2} The effect of negardliness.
{MN} Now this Year 1629, a great company of People of good Rank, Zeal, Means, and Quality, have made a great Stock, and with six good Ships in the Months of April and May, they set Sail from Thames, for the Bay of the Massachusets, otherwise called Charles's River; viz. the George Bonaventure, of twenty pieces of Ordnance, the Talbot nineteen, the Lions-whelp eight, the May-flower fourteen, the Four Sisters fourteen, the Pilgrim four, with three hundred and fifty Men, Women, and Children; also an hundred and fifteen head of Cattel, as Horse, Mares, and neat Beast; one and forty Goats, some Conies, with all Provision for Houshold and Apparel; six pieces of great Ordnance for a Fort, with Muskets, Pikes, Corselets, Drums, Colours, with all Provision necessary for a Plantation, for the good of Man; other Particulars I understand of no more, than is writ in the general History of those Countries.
{MN} A new Plantation 1629.
But you are to understand, that the noble Lord chief Justice Popham, Judge Doderege; the Right Honourable Earls of Pembroke, Southampton, Salisbury, and the rest, as I take it, they did all think, as I and them went with me, did; That had those two Countries been planted, as it was intended, that no other Nation should complant betwixt us. If ever the King of Spain and we should fall foul, those Countries being so capable of all Materials for shipping, by this might have been Owners of a good Fleet of Ships, and to have relieved a whole Navy from England upon occasion; yea, and to have furnished England with the most Easterly Commodities; and now since, seeing how conveniently the Summer Isles fell to our shares, so near the West-Indies, we might with much more facility than the Dutch Men have invaded the West-Indies, that doth now put in practice, what so long hath been advised on, by many an honest English States-man.
{MN} Those Countries, Captain Smith oft times used to call his Children that never had Mother; and well he might, for few Fathers ever payed dearer for so little content; and for those that would truly understand, how many strange Accidents hath befallen them and him; how oft up, how oft down, sometimes near despair, and ere long flourishing, cannot but conceive Gods infinite Mercies and Favours towards them. Had his Designs been to have perswaded Men to a Mine of Gold, though few doth conceive either the charge or pains in refining it, nor the power nor care to defend it; or some new Invention to pass to the South Sea, or some strange Plot to invade some strange Monastery, or some portable Country, or some chargeable Fleet to take some rich Carocks in the East-Indies; of Letters of Mart to rob some poor Merchants; What multitudes of both People and Money would contend to be first imployed? But in those noble endeavours (now) how few of quality, unless it be to beg some Monopoly; and those seldom seek the common good, but the Commons Goods, as you may read at large in his general History, pag. 217, 218, 219, his general Observations and Reasons for this Plantation; for yet those Countries are not so forward, but they may become as miserable as ever, if better courses be not taken than is; as this Smith will plainly demonstrate to his Majesty, or any other noble Person of Ability, liable generously to undertake it; how within a Short time to make Virginia able to resist any Enemy, that as yet lieth open to all, and yield the King more Custom within these few years, in certain staple Commodities, than ever it did in Tobacco; which now not being worth bringing home, the Custom will be as uncertain to the King, as dangerous to the Plantation.
{MN} Notes of inconveniency.