10. Our hazard is greater than theirs. A. True, but doe they put us upon it? doe they urge or egg us? hath not ye motion & resolution been always in our selves? doe they any more then in seeing us resolute if we had means, help us to means upon equall termes & conditions! If we will not goe, they are content to keep their moneys.

Thus I have pointed at a way to loose those knots, which I hope you will consider seriously, and let me have no more stirr about them.

Now furder, I hear a noise of slavish conditions by me made; but surly this is all I have altered, and reasons I have sent you. If you mean it of ye 2. days in a week for perticuler, as some insinuate, you are deceived; you may have 3. days in a week for me if you will. And when I have spoken to ye adventurers of times of working, they have said they hope we are men of discretion & conscience, and so fitt to be trusted our selves with that. But indeed ye ground of our proceedings at Leyden was mistaken, and so here is nothing but tottering every day, &c.

As for them of Amsterdam, [i.e. the members of Rev. Henry Ainsworth’s church there] I had thought they would as soon gone to Rome as with us; for our libertie is to them as ratts bane, and their riggour as bad to us as ye Spanish Inquisition. If any practise of mine discourage them, let them yet draw back; I will undertake they shall have their money againe presently paid hear. Or if the Company think me to be ye Jonas, let them cast me of before we goe; I shall be content to stay with good will, having but ye cloaths on my back; only let us have quietnes, and no more of these clamors; full little did I expect these things which are now come to pass, &c.
Yours,
R. CUSHMAN.

V
THE LETTER OF ROBERT CUSHMAN TO THE LEYDEN LEADERS, LONDON

(Sunday, June 11/21, 1620.)
Salutations, &c. I received your letter [of May 31/June 10] yesterday,
by John Turner, with another ye same day from Amsterdam by Mr. W.
savouring of ye place whenc it came. And indeed the many discouragements
I find her,[London] togeather with ye demurrs and retirings ther,[Leyden]
had made me to say, I would give up my accounts to John Carver, & at his
comeing aquainte him fully with all courses, and so leave it quite, with
only ye pore cloaths on my back. But gathering up my selfe by further
consideration, I resolved yet to make one triall more, and to acquainte
Mr. Weston with ye fainted state of our bussines; and though he hath been
much discontented at some thing amongst us of late, which hath made him
often say, that save for his promise, he would not meadle at all with ye
bussines any more, yet considering how farr we were plunged into maters,
& how it stood both on our credits & undoing, at ye last he gathered up
him selfe a litle more, & coming to me 2. hours after, he tould me he
would not yet leave it. And so advising togeather we resolved to hire a
ship, and have tooke liking of one till Monday, about 60. laste, for a
greater we cannot gett, excepte it be tow great; but a fine ship it is.
And seeing our neer freinds ther are so streite lased, we hope to assure
her without troubling them any further; and if ye ship fale too small, it
fitteth well yt such as stumble at strawes already, may rest them ther a
while, least worse blocks come in ye way ere 7. years be ended. If you
had beaten this bussines so throuly a month agoe, and write to us as now
you doe, we could thus have done much more conveniently. But it is as it
is; I hope our freinds they, if they be quitted of ye ship hire, will be
indusced to venture ye more. All yt I now require is yt salt and netts
may ther be boughte, and for all ye rest we will here provid it; yet if
that will not be, let them but stand for it a month or tow, and we will
take order to pay it all. Let Mr. Reinholds tarie ther, and bring ye
ship to Southampton. We have hired another pilote here, one Mr. Clarke,
who went last year to Virginia with a ship of kine.
You shall here distinctly by John Turner, who I thinke shall come hence
on tewsday night. I had thought to have come with him, to have answered
to my complaints; but I shal lerne to pass litle for their censurs; and
if I had more minde to goe & dispute & expostulate with them, then I have
care of this waightie bussines, I were like them who live by clamours &
jangling. But neither my mind nor my body is at libertie to doe much,
for I am fettered with bussines, and had rather study to be quiet, then
to make answer to their exceptions. If men be set on it, let them beat
ye eair; I hope such as are my sinceire freinds will not thinke but I can
give some reason of my actions. But of your mistaking aboute ye mater,
& other things tending to this bussines, I shall nexte informe you
more distinctly. Mean space entreate our freinds not to be too bussie in
answering matters, before they know them. If I doe such things as I
canot give reasons for, it is like you have sett a foole aboute your
bussines, and so turne ye reproofe to your selves, & send an other, and
let me come againe to my Combes. But setting aside my naturall
infirmities, I refuse not to have my cause judged, both of God, & all
indifferent men; and when we come togeather I shall give accounte of my
actions hear. The Lord, who judgeth justly without respect of persons,
see into ye equitie of my cause, and give us quiet, peacable, and patient
minds, in all these turmoils, and sanctifie unto us all crosses
whatsoever. And so I take my leave of you all, in all love & affection.
I hope we shall gett all hear ready in 14. days.
Your pore brother,
ROBART CUSHMAN.
[London]
June 11. 1620 [O.S.].

VI
A LETTER OF MR. JOHN ROBINSON TO JOHN CARVER,/h3
JUNE 14. (N.S.), 1620

[Professor Arber (“The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers,” p. 317) has
apparently failed to notice that in the original MS. of Bradford,
this letter is dated “June 14, 1620, N. Stile,” which would make it
June 4., O.S., while Arber dates it “14/24 June,” which is
manifestly incorrect. A typographical error in Arber (p. 317)
directs the letter to “Leyden” instead of to London. ]

June 14. 1620. N. Stile.

My dear freind & brother, whom with yours I alwaise remember in my best
affection, and whose wellfare I shall never cease to comend to God by my
best & most earnest praires. You doe throwly understand by our generall
letters ye estate of things hear, which indeed is very pitifull;
espetialy by wante of shiping, and not seeing means lickly, much less
certaine, of having it provided; though withall ther be great want of
money & means to doe needfull things. Mr. [Edward] Pickering, you know
before this, will not defray a peny hear; though Robert Cushman presumed
of I know not how many 100li. from him, & I know not whom. Yet it seems
strange yt we should be put to him to receive both his & his partners
[William Greene’s] adventer, and yet Mr. Weston write unto him, yt in
regard of it, he hath drawne upon him a 100li. more. But they is in this
some misterie, as indeed it seems ther is in ye whole course. Besids,
wheras diverse are to pay in some parts of their moneys yet behinde, they
refuse to doe it, till they see shiping provided, or a course taken for
it. Neither doe I thinke is ther a man hear would pay anything, if he
had againe his money in his purse. You know right well we depended on
Mr. Weston alone, and upon such means as he would procure for this
commone bussines; and when we had in hand an other course with ye
Dutchmen, broke it of at his motion, and upon ye conditions by him
shortly after propounded. He did this in his love I know, but things
appeare not answerable from him hitherto. That he should have first have
put in his moneys, is thought by many to have been but fitt, but yt I can
well excuse, he being a marchante and haveing use of it to his benefite;
whereas others, if it had been in their hands, would have consumed it.
But yt he should not but have had either shipping ready before this time,
or at least certaine means, and course, and ye same knowne to us for it,
or have taken other order otherwise, cannot in my conscience be excused.
I have heard yt wen he hath been moved in the bussines, he hath put it of
from him selfe, and referred it to ye others; and would come to Georg
Morton [in London] & enquire news of him aboute things, as if he had
scarce been some accessarie unto it. Wlether he hath failed of some helps
from others which he expected, and so be not well able to goe through
with things, or whether he hath feared least you should be ready too
soone & so encrease ye charge of shiping above yt is meete, or whether he
hath thought by withhoulding to put us upon straits, thinking yt therby
Mr. Brewer and Mr. Pickering would be drawne by importunitie to doe more,
or what other misterie is in it, we know not; but sure we are yt things
are not answerable to such an occasion. Mr. Weston maks himselfe mery
with our endeavors aboute buying a ship, [the SPEEDWELL], but we have
done nothing in this but with good reason, as I am perswaded, nor yet
that I know in any thing els, save in those tow: ye one, that we imployed
Robart Cushman, who is known (though a good man & of spetiall abilities
in his kind, yet) most unfitt to deale for other by reason of his
singularitie, and too great indifferancie for any conditions, and for (to
speak truly) that we have had nothing from him but termes & presumptions.
The other, yt we have so much relyed, by implicite faith as it were, upon
generalities, without seeing ye perticuler course & means for so waghtie
an affaire set down unto us. For shiping, Mr. Weston, it should seeme,
is set upon hireing, which yet I wish he may presently effecte; but I see
litle hope of help from hence if so it be. Of Mr. [Thomas] Brewer, you
know what to expecte. I doe not thinke Mr. Pickering will ingage,
excepte in ye course of buying [ships?] in former letters specified.
Aboute ye conditions, you have our reason for our judgments of what is
agreed. And let this spetially be borne in minde, yt the greatest pane
of ye Collonie is like to be imployed constantly, not upon dressing they
perticuler land & building houses, but upon fishing, trading, &c. So as
ye land & house will be but a trifell for advantage to ye adventurers,
and yet the devission of it a great discouragmente to ye planters, who
would with singuler care make it comfortable with borowed houres from
their sleep. The same consideration of comone imploymente constantly by
the most is a good reason not to have ye 2, daies in a week denyed ye few
planters for private use, which yet is subordinate to comone good.
Consider also how much unfite that you & your liks must serve a new
prentishipe of 7. years, and not a daies freedome from taske. Send me
word what persons are to goe, who of usefull faculties, & how many, &
perticulerly of every thing. I know you wante not a minde. I am sorie
you have not been at London all this while, but ye provissions could not
want you. Time will suffer me to write no more; fare, you & yours well
allways in ye Lord, in whom I rest.
Yours to use,
JOHN’ ROBINSON.