[114]Peirce and the Charity had gone to the fishing areas about the time of the wreck.
[115]Oil extracted from fat-fleshed fish by heat or pressure. Fish other than cod had little market in Europe. In later centuries, the term, “train-oil,” was given to whale oil.
[116]Of Gibraltar.
[117]Besides Robert Cushman, several of these men were probably Adventurers for New Plymouth—Thomas Brewer, William Collier, John Thornell, John Pocock.
[118]English opinion, including Gov. Bradford’s at this time, agreed that profit from New England would come by fishing. Many made money in this way, but the New Plymouth Company lost heavily by it.
[119]Mr. Pemberton, apparently a New Plymouth Adventurer and merchant, sent his ship under the sponsorship of the Dorchester Adventurers, the company founded under the inspiration of Rev. John White of Dorchester, which became the ancestor of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Pemberton probably was a close relative of another Adventurer, John Pemberton, a minister and enemy of the Leyden congregation Separatist element among the Plymouth settlers. John Pemberton received letters from John Lyford against the religious practices and government at Plymouth, and was a leader in the factional strife in the Company of Adventurers which led to its big split in 1625 after a debate over Lyford.
[120]At Gloucester on Cape Ann, Mass.
[121]Hopewell, William Peirce, master.
[122]Lyford and Oldham, whose letters of complaint Bradford seized in 1624, continued their machinations against the Pilgrim church and government. Lyford had repented spectacularly after his first exposure, but went back to work, still believing he had more friends in the colony than dared speak up. He called down a list of complaints from the Pemberton party among the Adventurers, but only as they withdrew from the Company. Lyford and Oldham were exiled by the colonial government, Lyford leaving after a second exposure and Oldham after a period of near insanity, on the day when Altham arrived the second time.
[123]The fools merely wanted to draw more capital to the sinking enterprise; the knaves had ulterior motives, probably inspired by Lyford’s suggestion that every man sent to the settlement at Plymouth be given rights as an Adventurer (by juggling the accounts) in order to outvote the Bradford regime.