CHAPTER VI
Oldham and Lyford expelled—Lyford’s Past—Reply of Settlement to Adventurers’ Charges—Support from friendly group of Adventurers—Loss of two ship-loads of cargo—Captain Standish in England: 1625.
At the spring of the year, about the time of their elections, Oldham came back again, and, though his sentence forbade his return without obtaining leave, his effrontery and the ill counsel of others led him to ignore it, and at the same time to give rein to his unruly passion beyond all reason and decency, so that some strangers who came with him were ashamed of his outrage, and rebuked him, but all reproofs were but as oil to the fire, and enflamed his anger the more. He called them all good-for-nothings, and a hundred rebels and traitors, and I know not what. So they locked him up till he was tamer, and then he was made to pass down a line of guards, each of whom was ordered to give him a thump on the breech with the butt-end of his musket. Then he was conveyed to the water-side, where a boat was ready to take him away, and they bid him go and mend his manners.
Whilst this was going on Mr. William Pierce and Mr. Winslow came up from the shore, having arrived from England; but the others were so busy with Oldham that they never saw them until they thus came upon them. They told them not to spare either him or Lyford, for both had behaved villainously. But to make an end of Oldham I will here briefly relate what befell him in the future. After the removal of his family, he encountered difficulties and about a year afterwards, towards winter, he sailed for Virginia; but it pleased God that the ship was in great danger, and he and the other passengers despaired of life, many resorting to prayer and the examination of their consciences and confession of such sins as burdened them. Mr. Oldham then made a free and ample confession of the wrongs he had done to the people and the church here saying that, as he had sought their ruin, so God had now met with him and might destroy him; aye, and he feared they all fared worse on account of his presence. He prayed God to forgive him, and made vows that if the Lord spared his life, he would repent. This I learned by reliable report of some who are still living at the Bay, and themselves shared the dangers of the shoals of Cape Cod and heard his very words. It pleased God to spare their lives, though they lost their voyage; and ever after Oldham behaved decently to them, acknowledging the hand of God to be with them. He seemed to respect them honestly, and so far made his peace with them that after a time he had liberty to come and go at his pleasure. He went afterwards to Virginia, and there fell very ill; but he recovered and came back again to his family at the Bay, and lived there till many people had come over. At length, going trading in a small vessel among the Indians, and being weakly manned, upon some quarrel they knocked him on the head with a hatchet, so that he fell down dead and never spoke again. Two little boys that were related to him were saved, though injured, and the vessel was recovered from the Indians by another inhabitant of the Bay of Massachusetts. Oldham’s death was in fact one cause of the subsequent Pequot war.
Now as to Mr. Lyford. His time having expired, his sentence was to be carried out. He was so far from fulfilling their hopes of amendment, that he had doubled his offence, as shown. But behold the hand of God upon him, wherein the Psalmist is verified (Psa. vii, 15): He hath made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the pit he made. He thought to bring disgrace upon them but instead he discloses his own shame to all the world. When he was confronted with his second letter, his wife was so stirred by his doings that she could no longer conceal her grief, and opened her mind to one of the deacons and some of her friends, and later to Mr. Pierce, on his arrival. She said that she feared some great judgment of God would fall upon the family, because of her husband; and now that they were about to remove she feared she would fall into the Indians’ hands and be defiled by them as he had defiled other women, recalling God’s threatened judgment upon David (II Sam. xii, 11): I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour. Then she disclosed how he had wronged her, and that he had a bastard by another woman before they were married. She had had some inkling of it when he was courting her, and told him what she had heard rumoured; but he not only stiffly denied it, but to satisfy her took a solemn oath; so she consented to marry him. Afterwards she found it was true, and reminded him of his oath; but he prayed her to pardon him, and pleaded that otherwise he would not have won her. And yet even after this she could keep no maid-servant but he would be meddling with them, and sometimes she had taken him in the act. The woman was a respectable matron, of good behaviour all the while she was here, and spoke out of the sorrow of her heart, sparingly, but circumstantially. What seemed to affect her most was his easy repentances, followed by a speedy return to the old paths.
This was all borne out by the reports of Mr. Winslow and Mr. Pierce on their return. Mr. Winslow informed them that they had had the same trouble with Lyford’s friends in England as with himself and his friends here,—his adherents crying out that to deal thus with a minister and a godly man was a great scandal, and threatening to prosecute them for it. So it was all referred to a further meeting of most of the adventurers there, who agreed to choose two eminent men as arbitrators. Lyford’s faction chose Mr. White, a counsellor at law; the others chose the Rev. Mr. Hooker, the minister. In the meantime God in His providence had disclosed Lyford’s evil career in Ireland to some friends of the company, who made it known to Mr. Winslow, and mentioned two godly witnesses who would testify upon their oath. The fact was, that when Lyford was in Ireland, he had wound himself into the esteem of several worthy reformers, who, burdened with the ceremonies in England, found greater liberty of conscience there. Amongst them were the two men who gave evidence; and amongst others there was an honest young man who intended to marry, and had set his affection on a certain girl who lived there. But preferring the fear of God to all other things, before he suffered his affection to run too far he resolved to take Mr. Lyford’s advice and judgment about the girl,—since he was the minister of the place,—and so spoke of it to him. He promised to inform him faithfully, but wished to get to know her better first, and have some private talk with her. In conclusion he recommended her highly to the young man as a very fit wife for him. So they were married. But some time afterwards the woman was much troubled in mind and afflicted in conscience, and did nothing but weep and mourn; and it was long before her husband could find out the cause. But at length she told him,—praying him to forgive her,—that Lyford had overcome her and defiled her before marriage. The circumstances I forbear; suffice it, that though he satisfied his lust upon her, he endeavoured to hinder conception. The young husband then took some godly friends with him to confront Lyford with this charge. At length he confessed it with a great deal of seeming repentance and sorrow, but he was forced to leave Ireland, partly for shame and partly for fear of further punishment; and so, coming to England, unhappily he was hit upon as a suitable minister for the colony and sent out to them. The arbitrators with great gravity declared that his recent offences there gave them cause enough to deal with him as they had done; but these disclosures made him unfit ever to bear ministry any more, what repentance soever he should pretend.
From here Lyford went to Nantasket, on the Bay of the Massachusetts, where Oldham lived with some of his friends. Thence he removed to Naumkeag, since called Salem; but later, whether for hope of greater profit or what I know not, he forsook the friends who had stuck to him, and went down to Virginia, where shortly after he died; and so I leave him to the Lord. His wife afterwards returned to this country; thus much of this matter.
Though the storm had blown over, the effects which followed it were serious; for the company of adventurers broke up in consequence, and the majority wholly deserted the colony as regards any further supplies. Furthermore, some of Lyford’s and Oldham’s friends fitted out a fishing ship on their own account, and arriving ahead of the ships that came to the plantation, took away their dock and other necessary preparations that they had made for their fishing at Cape Ann the year before at great expense and would not restore it unless they would fight for it. However, the Governor decided to send some of the settlers to help the fishermen build a new one, and let them keep it. This fishing ship also brought Lyford’s and Oldham’s contingent some supplies, but of little value; but they were unsuccessful in their fishing, and they could make no return for the supplies sent, so after this year their friends in England never looked after them again.
This ship also brought from some of the adventurers their reasons for having abandoned the colony, and offers of reuniting again upon certain conditions. They are long and tedious, and most of them have already been touched upon.
Their answer was in part as follows:
In charging us with having dissembled with his majesty and the adventurers in our original declaration of general agreement with the French Reformed Church, you do us wrong, for we both hold with and practice the beliefs of the French and other Reformed Churches as published in the Harmony of Confessions, according to our means, in effect and substance. But in attempting to tie us to the French practices in every detail, you derogate from the liberty we have in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul would have none follow him but wherein he followed Christ; much less ought any Christian or Church in the world to do so. The French may err, we may err, and other Churches may err, and doubtless do in many circumstances. The honour of infallibility, therefore, belongs only to the word of God and the pure testament of Christ, to be followed as the only rule and pattern for direction by all Churches and Christians. It is great arrogance for any man or Church to think that he or they have so sounded the word of God to the bottom as to be able to set down precisely a Church’s practices without error in substance or circumstance, and in such a way that no one thereafter may digress or differ from them with impunity. Indeed it is not difficult to show that the Reformed Churches differ from each other in many details.
The rest I omit for brevity’s sake; and so leave these men and their doings, and return to the rest of the adventurers, who were friends of the company and stuck to them. I will first insert some of their letters; for I think it best to render their minds in their own words:
Letter to the Colonists at New Plymouth, from the Adventurers in England who remained friendly to them:
To our Loving Friends, etc.
Though what we feared has happened, and the evil we tried to avert has overtaken us, still we cannot forget you or our friendship and fellowship of some years’ standing, and though its expression has been small, our hearty affection towards you, unknown by face, has been no less than to our nearest friends or even to ourselves. And though your friend Mr. Winslow can tell you the state of things here, lest we should seem to neglect you, to whom by a wonderful providence of God we are so nearly united, we have thought well to write and let you know what has happened here and the reasons for it, and our intentions and desires concerning you for the future.
The old basis of partnership is entirely dissolved, and we are left to bethink ourselves what course to take in the future, that your lives and our money be not lost.
The causes of these alterations are as follows: First and mainly, the many losses and crosses at sea and the abuses of seamen have incurred such heavy expenses for us that we could not continue without impoverishing ourselves, unless our means had been greater and our associates had stuck together. Secondly, there has been a faction against you, which, though influenced to abandon you mainly for want of money, pretended to charge you with being Brownists, etc. But how you or we ought to turn all this to account remains to be considered; for we know the hand of God to be in all these things, and no doubt He would admonish us hereby to see what is amiss.
While we ourselves are ready to take every opportunity to further so hopeful an enterprise, it must rest with you to put it on its feet again. And whatever else may be said, let your honesty and conscience remain approved, and lose no jot of your innocence amidst your crosses and afflictions; and surely if you behave yourselves wisely and go on fairly, you will need no other weapon to wound your adversaries; for when your righteousness is revealed as the light, they, who have causelessly sought your overthrow, shall cover their faces with shame.
We think it only right that everything belonging to the common stock shall be kept together and increased, rather than dispersed for any private ends whatever; and that after your necessities are met, you shall send over such commodities as the country affords, to pay the debts and clear the engagements here, which amount to not less than £1400. Let us all endeavour to keep an honest course, and see what time will bring forth, and what God in His providence will work for us. We are still convinced that you are the people who must make the settlement a success when all others fail and return; and your experience of God’s providence and preservation of you is such that we hope your hearts will not fail you, though your friends should forsake you,—which we ourselves will not do whilst we live and your honesty of purpose remains unchanged.
We have sent you some cattle, clothes, stockings, shoes, leather, etc. We have consigned them to Mr. Allerton and Mr. Winslow as our agents, at whose discretion they are to be sold in exchange for commodities. Go on, good friends, comfortably; pluck up your spirits and quit yourselves like men in all your difficulties, that, notwithstanding all the threats of men, your good work may continue; for in as much as it is for the glory of God and the good of our countrymen, it is a better course for a man to run than to live the life of Methuselah in wasting the plenty of a tilled land or eating the fruit of a grown tree.
With hearty salutations to you all, and hearty prayers for you all, we lovingly take our leaves, this 18th of Dec., 1624.
Your assured friends to our power,
J. S. W. C. T. F. R. H. etc.
This letter shows the state of affairs of the colony at this time. They bought the goods, but at dear rates. The adventurers put 40% on them for profit and risk outward bound; and for risk on the goods sent back in payment, homeward bound, they added another 30%,—in all 70 per cent. This seemed unreasonable to some, and too oppressive, considering the case of the purchasers. The cattle were most valuable; the other things were neither of the best quality nor at the best prices.
They also sent over two fishing ships on their own account. One was the pinnace, which was wrecked the previous year here, and saved by the planters, and which, after she reached home, was attached by one of the company for a private debt, and had now been sent out again on his account. The other was a large ship, well fitted, with an experienced captain and crew of fishermen, to make a fishing cruise, and then to go to Bilbao or Sebastian to sell her fish. The pinnace was ordered to load with codfish, and to bring home to England the beaver received for the goods sold to the plantation. This big ship was well laden with good dry fish, which at market prices would have yielded £1800. But as there was a rumour of war with France, the captain feared to carry out his orders, and on getting over, put first into Plymouth, and afterwards into Portsmouth, and so met with a heavy loss, being obliged to sell at lower prices. The pinnace met with no better success. She was laden with a cargo of codfish caught on the banks, as full as she could float; and besides she had some 800 lbs. of beaver, as well as other furs to a good value, from the plantation. The captain seeing so much lading, wished to put aboard the bigger ship, for greater safety; but as Mr. Winslow, their agent in the business, was bound in a bond of £500 to send it to London in the small ship, there was some discussion between the captain and him about it. But he told the captain he must obey his orders about it, or ignore them at his peril. So the furs went in the small ship, and he sent bills of lading in both. The captain of the big ship was so careful, both vessels being so well-laden, that he towed the small ship at his stern all the way over. So they went joyfully home together, and had such fine weather that he never cast her off till they were well within the England channel, almost in sight of Plymouth. But even there she was unhappily taken by a Turkish man of war, and carried off to Saller, where the captain and crew were made slaves, and many of the beaver skins were sold for 4d. a piece. Thus all their hopes were dashed, and the joyful news they meant to carry home was turned to heavy tidings. Some thought this was the hand of God in punishment for their too great exaction of the poor colony; but God’s judgments are unsearchable, nor dare I make bold with them. However, it shows us the uncertainty of all human things, and how foolish it is to take pleasure in them or trust to them.
In the big ship Captain Standish was sent over from the settlement, with instructions and letters both to their friends of the company and to the honourable Council of New England. They requested the company, since they only meant to let them have goods for sale, that they might have them upon easier terms, as they would never be able to bear such high interest or allow so much per cent; and that they should send goods which were useful and suitable to them. They wished the company to be informed of the contents of the letter to the Council of New England. This letter sought the Council’s favour and help, and asked that the adventurers who had forsaken them might be brought to order and not keep the colony bound while they themselves went free; and that they might either stand by their former agreement, or else reach some fair conclusion by dividend or composition. But he arrived at a very bad time, for the country was full of trouble, and the plague very deadly in London, so that no business could be done. However, he spoke with some of the honoured Council, who promised all possible help to the colony. Several of the friendly adventurers were so reduced by their losses last year, and now by the ship taken by the Turks, and the decreased profits on their fish, and such multitudes in London were dying weekly of the plague, that all trade was dead and little money was available; so that with great difficulty he raised £150 (and spent a good deal of it in expenses) at 50 per cent, which he expended on trading goods and such other commodities as he knew they needed. He returned as passenger on a fishing ship, having made good preparations for the settlement that was afterwards made with the adventurers.
In the meantime it pleased the Lord to give the plantation peace and health and contented minds, and so to bless their labours that they had sufficient corn, and some to spare for others, besides other food. After harvest this year, they sent out a boat-load of corn 40 or 50 leagues to the eastward, up a river called the Kennebec. The boat they sent was one of the two shallops their carpenter had built them the year before; for they had nothing bigger. They laid a little deck over her midships to keep the corn dry, but the men had to make the best of all weathers without shelter,—and that time of year it begins to be rough. But God preserved them and gave them success. They brought home £700 worth of beaver, besides some other furs, having little or nothing else for trading with but this corn which they themselves had raised out of the earth. This voyage was made by Mr. Winslow and some of the old standers, for they had no sailors.