Salute Mr. Weston from us, in whom we hope we are not deceived. Pray make known our present condition to him, and, if you think good, show him our letters. At least tell him that, under God, we rely much upon him and put our confidence in him; and that as you well know, if he had not joined with us, we should not have entered upon the enterprise, presuming that if he had not seen means to accomplish it, he would not have begun it. So we hope that he will so far help us that our expectations in him be not disappointed. Thus beseeching the Almighty, Who is all-sufficient to raise us out of this depth of difficulties, and to assist us herein, and to supply means by His providence and fatherly care for us, His poor children and servants, that we may with comfort behold the hand of our God for good towards us in this our enterprise, which we undertake in His name and fear; we take leave and remain,
Your perplexed, yet hopeful brethren,
SAMUEL FULLER WILLIAM BRADFORD
EDWARD WINSLOW ISAAC ALLERTON
June 10th, 1620.
Robert Cushman in England to the foregoing at Leyden:
Brethren,
I understand by letters that have come to me, that many of you greatly dislike my proceedings. Sorry I am to hear it, yet content to bear it, not doubting that partly by writing, and principally by word when we come together, I can satisfy any reasonable man. I have been persuaded by some, especially the bearer of this, to come and make things clear to you; but as things now stand I cannot be absent one day, without hazarding the whole voyage; nor do I conceive that any great good would come of it. Take then, brethren, this as a step to give you content. First, as to your dislike of the alteration of one clause in the conditions: if you see it aright, no blame can lie on me at all. The articles first brought over by John Carver were never seen by any of the adventurers here except Mr. Weston himself, when he had well considered it. £500 was withdrawn by Sir George Farrer and his brother because of it, and all the rest would have withdrawn (Mr. Weston excepted), if we had not altered the clause. Now when we at Leyden concluded upon certain points, as we did, we reckoned without our host, which was not my fault. Besides, I showed you by letter the equity of the new condition as against our inconveniences, which might be set against all the inconveniences cited by Mr. Robinson, and showed that without the alteration of that clause, we could neither have means to get there, nor supplies for our subsistence when we arrived. Yet, notwithstanding all those reasons, which were not mine, but other men’s wiser than myself, without answer to any one of them, many complaints are directed against me, of lording it over my brethren, and making conditions fitter for thieves and bondslaves than honest men. And at last came a paper of reasons against that clause in the conditions, which since they were delivered to me open, my answer shall be open to you all.
1. First, it is said that if there had been no division of houses and lands, it would have been better for the poor:—
True,—and that shows the inequality of the original conditions: we should more respect him that ventures both his money and his person, than him that ventures his person only.
2. Consider, further, that we are not giving alms, but furnishing a storehouse. No one will be poorer than his neighbour for seven years; and, from the nature of the enterprise, if any of us be rich, none of us can be poor. At any rate we must not in such an undertaking start out with the cry,—Poor, poor; mercy, mercy! Charity has its life in disasters, not in ventures.
3. This will hinder the building of good houses, which is contrary to sound politics:—