CHAPTER XV.
Removal to Duxbury.
Friendship Between Captain Standish and Mr. Brewster.—Character of Mr. Brewster.—His Death and Burial.—Mode of Worship.—Captain’s Hill.—Difficulty with the Narragansets.—Firmness and Conciliation.—Terms of Peace.—Plans for Removal from Plymouth.—Captain Standish’s Home in Duxbury.—Present Aspect of the Region.
It is greatly to the credit of Captain Miles Standish, the puritan soldier, that his life-long friend was William Brewster, the puritan divine. Their farms in Duxbury were side by side. The scene upon which this noble Christian man looked, in the evening of his eventful life, must have been one full of peaceful beauty, as he stood, staff in hand, upon the threshold of his lowly, yet comfortable cottage. His peaceful home was situated about three miles across the bay from the village of Plymouth. By land it was a roundabout route of nearly eight miles. His farm was on a picturesque peninsula shooting out southerly into the placid waters of Plymouth Bay. In his life of fourscore years and four, he had witnessed the long reigns of three of the most remarkable of the English sovereigns.
The days of his early manhood were passed through scenes of persecution and suffering, whose vicissitudes were painful and agitating in the extreme. His mental energies had been strengthened by the discipline of adversity and severe afflictions. As an exile, he had encountered poverty and had been exposed to the most severe deprivations and toils. He had landed, with a feeble band, in this New World when it was but a howling wilderness, and where the utmost courage and prudence were requisite, to save the little colony from utter extinction by a savage foe.
He had lived to see the colony securely established, to see the Indians to a very great degree conciliated, and not a few of them brought under the influence of Christian example and instruction. From one little settlement, of seven log huts, he had seen others springing up all around, till eight flourishing towns were established, with eight churches, under eight pastors. He had seen the colony reduced to but fifty souls, men, women and children. And, ere he died, the census reported a population of eight thousand, with a well-defined government, a free constitution and established laws. Infant colonies were rising in various points to a vigorous manhood, and were uniting in a confederacy, already sufficiently powerful to repel all native foes, and which gave promise of being able, ere long, to maintain independence against the machinations of all foreign enemies.
A system of common schools was established, which even then was the glory of New England. Harvard University, modelled after the renowned university of Cambridge in England, was already beginning to train young men for the highest offices in the church and the state. Thus freedom, education and religion were walking hand in hand. In the retrospect of his path through life, this thoughtful, devout and hopeful man could contemplate the stern conflicts, the cruel errors, and the heroic deeds of one of the most important eras in the world’s history. Though he had sown in tears, he could hopefully look forward to the time when his children, and his children’s children should reap in joy. In speaking of the death of this eminent man, Governor Bradford writes, under date of the year 1643:[49]
“I am to begin this year with that which was a matter of great sadness and mourning unto them all. About the 18th of April died their reverend elder, and my dear and loving friend, Mr. William Brewster, a man who had done and suffered much for the Lord Jesus and the gospel’s sake, and had borne his part in weal and woe with this poor persecuted church above thirty-six years in England, Holland, and in this wilderness, and done the Lord and them faithful service in his place and calling. And notwithstanding the many troubles and sorrows he passed through, the Lord upheld him to a great age. He was near fourscore years of age, if not all out, when he died.[50] He had this blessing added by the Lord to all the rest, to die in his bed, in peace among the midst of his friends, who mourned and wept over him, and ministered what help and comfort they could unto him, and he again recomforted them while he could.
“His sickness was not long, and till the last day thereof, he did not wholly keep his bed. His speech continued till somewhat more than half a day, and then failed him. About nine or ten o’clock that evening he died, without any pangs at all. A few hours before his death he drew his breath short, and some few minutes before his last he drew his breath long, as a man falling into a sound sleep, without any pangs or gaspings, and so sweetly departed this life unto a better. I would now demand of any, what was he the worse for any former sufferings? What do I say—worse? Nay, sure he was the better, and they now added to his honor. ‘It is a manifest token,’ saith the apostle, ‘of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer; seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.’ What though he wanted the riches and pleasures of the world in this life, and pompous monuments at his funeral, yet the just shall be blessed, when the name of the wicked shall rot, with their marble monuments.”
A very pleasing account is given by Prince, of the mode in which public worship was conducted by these Christians, who were anxious in all things to be conformed to the habits of the disciples in apostolic days. The customs they observed have been transmitted to the present times in our meetings for conference and prayer. On Thursday, the 25th of October, 1632, Governor Winthrop, with Mr. Wilson, who was pastor of the church in Boston, with several other Christian friends, made a visit to Plymouth. They were received with great hospitality. Governor Bradford, Rev. Mr. Brewster, the ruling elder, and several others of the prominent men of Plymouth, came some distance out from the village to meet their friends, who probably travelled on foot. They were conducted to the house of Governor Bradford, where most of them were entertained during their stay. They were, however, every day invited to dinner parties at the houses of the more opulent of the villagers.