[502] [Smith gave an abstract of Mourt in his Generall Historie; then Purchas, vol. iv., condensed it; and this condensation was reprinted, with notes, in 1802, by Dr. Freeman in Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 203; but in 1819 Dr. Freeman and Judge Davis procured from a copy in the Philadelphia Library the parts omitted by Purchas in Ibid., xix. 26. (Cf. Proceedings, i. 279.) Dr. Young first printed it entire in his Chronicles. Dr. Cheever, in 1848, gave it with disorderly and homiletical editing in his Journal of the Pilgrims. Dr. Dexter used Charles Deane’s copy. There are other copies in the Carter-Brown and S. L. M. Barlow libraries. (Cf. Brinley Catalogue, no. 1,909; Menzies Catalogue, no. 1,447; Crowninshield Catalogue, no. 742; and N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1849, p. 282, and 1866, p. 281.) Rich, in his 1832 Catalogue, 164 and 171, priced a copy at £2 2s., and in his 1844 Catalogue at £1 8s.; Quaritch recently held one at £36. Doctors Young and Dexter agree that “G. Mourt” must represent George Morton. A previous note has given Dr. Dexter as the best authority for tracing the localities named in this journal. See, also, Freeman’s Cape Cod and De Costa’s Footprints of Miles Standish.
Mourt makes no record of the landing from the “Mayflower” being upon a rock, nor does he indicate the precise spot, or fix a commemorative day. In an earlier note mention has been made of a recent controversy on these points. Mr. Gay found an earlier opponent than Dr. Dexter in Mr. William T. Davis, Boston Daily Advertiser, Nov. 17, 1881, to which Mr. Gay replied, Nov. 30, 1881; and again Mr. Davis rejoined, Dec. 3, 1881. As to the mistake of celebrating the 22d instead of the 21st December, which arose from the Committee of the Old Colony Club adding for the change of style one day too many, a Committee of the Pilgrim Society in 1850 recommended a change in the commemoration day; but though for a few years followed, it has not effected a permanent compliance, and by a recent vote of the Society the 22d has been re-established. The 1850 Report was printed. (Cf. N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., iv. 350, 369) Mr. Gay, in the Popular History of the United States, i. 393, takes another view of the mistake. It was in 1769 that the Plymouth people determined to institute a celebration, and fixed upon the day, December 11, Old Style, when the exploring party from the “Mayflower,” then in Provincetown harbor, first landed on the mainland and explored it.
Attempts have been made to trace the earlier and later career of the “Mayflower.” Mr. Hunter, in an appendix to his Founders of New Plymouth, p. 186, has shown how common the name was. She is thought to have been identical with one of Winthrop’s fleet ten years later; but the slaver “Mayflower,” with which she has been sometimes identified, was a larger vessel. Cf. N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1871, p. 91, and 1874, p. 50; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, April 12, 1588.
Of Samoset, the Indian whom the colonists first encountered after landing, there are accounts in Dexter’s edition of Mourt’s Relation; Sewall’s Ancient Dominion of Maine, p. 101; Popham Memorial, by Professor Johnson, p. 297; Thornton’s Pemaquid, p. 54; and in Maine Hist. Coll., v. 186.
Mourt’s Relation and Winslow’s Good News give the earliest accounts of the Indians in the Pilgrims’ neighborhood, who had been nearly exterminated by a recent plague. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., v. 130.) Of Massasoit and his family,—this chief being the nearest sachem,—Fessenden’s History of Warren, R. I., gives an account. See also E. W. Peirce’s Indian History, Biography, and Genealogy pertaining to the good Sachem Massasoit and his descendants, North Abington, 1878. Drake, in his Book of the Indians, book ii. chap. ii., and in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1858, p. 1, examines the colonists’ relations with the Indians. See Congregational Quarterly, i. 129, for a paper, “Did the Pilgrims wrong the Indians?” Their efforts to Christianize them are examined in the Appendix to the Congregational Board’s edition of Morton’s Memorial.
It was at Plymouth (1631-1633) that Roger Williams drew up his treatise attacking the validity of the titles acquired under the patents granted by the king, in accordance with the common-law principle as understood at the time. Acceptance of his views as to the sole validity of the Indian title would have disturbed the foundations of the colony’s government; and it was not without satisfaction that the authorities saw Williams return to the Bay, where his factious and impracticable views on civil policy, quite as much or even more than any views on theology, led to his subsequent banishment. The later history of Williams was Massachusetts’ best vindication. Charles Deane has thoroughly examined his position as regards the patent, with an amplitude of references, in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., February, 1873.—Ed.]
[503] [The bibliography of this famous discourse is traced in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg, April, 1861, p. 169; and in the Hist. Mag., ii. 344; iv. 57; v. 89. Cf. Sabin’s Dictionary, v. 156. Dr. Dexter notes three copies,—his own, the Bodleian’s, and Charles Deane’s. The sermon has been several times reprinted; is given in part by Dr. Young; also in the Cushman Genealogy, and was photo-lithographed (60 copies), in 1870, from Dr. Dexter’s copy, then in Mr. Wiggin’s hands, with a historical and bibliographical preface by Charles Deane. Dexter, Congregationalism, App., p. 30, gives the reprints.—Ed.]
[504] [It was printed in London in 1624. There are copies in Charles Deane’s and the Carter-Brown collections. Rich (1844), £1 8s. Purchas, vol. iv., abridged it; and his abridgment was printed in Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 239, with omissions supplied in xix. 74; cf. also Proceedings, i. 279. Young first printed it entire in his Chronicles, from a copy formerly in Harvard College Library; it is also in the Appendix of the Congregational Board’s edition of Morton’s Memorial.—Ed.]
[505] [See a memoir of Judge Davis by Convers Francis, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., x. 186.—Ed.]
[506] [The second edition, Boston, 1721, had a supplement by Josiah Cotton, with changes of title, indicating perhaps successive impressions. The third edition appeared in 1772, at Newport. In 1826 an edition appeared at Plymouth, followed the same year by Judge Davis’s at Boston. The last edition was issued by the Congregational Board in 1855, with notes and appendix of Bradford’s account of the church from the Colony records, and Winslow’s visit to Massasoit, from his Good Newes. The Harvard College copy of the 1669 edition has autographs of “W. Stoughton” and “John Danforth.” The Prince Library copy is imperfect, restored in manuscript, and has Prince’s notes. There were different imprints to the 1721 edition, the Harvard copy reading, “Reprinted for Daniel Henchman;” Charles Deane’s copy has “Reprinted for Nicholas Boone;” otherwise the two seem to be alike. See Brinley Catalogue, nos. 329, 330; Dexter’s Congregationalism, App. p. 94; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., vi. 427; Tyler’s American Literature, i. 126.—Ed.]