Ans: Their answer was as before, that it was a calumny, for they had many amongst them whom they liked well, and were glad of their company; and should be of any such who came to them.
3. That they took exception to him for these two doctrines from II Sam. xii, 7. First, that ministers must sometimes apply their teaching in particular to special persons; secondly, that great men may be reproved as well as humble.
Ans: Their answer was that both these charges were without truth or colour of truth—as was proved to his face—and that they had taught and believed this long before they knew Mr. Lyford.
4. That they tried to ruin the private settlers, as was proved by this: they would not allow any of the colony either to buy or sell with them, or to exchange one commodity for another.
Ans: This was a most audacious slander, and void of all truth as was proved to him before all, for any of them bought, sold or exchanged with them as often as they pleased—and also both lent and gave to them, when they wanted; and this the private settlers themselves could not deny, but freely confessed in open court. But the ground whence this slander arose made it much worse; for he was at the council with them, when a man was called before them, and was questioned for receiving powder and biscuit out of the company’s supplies from the gunner of the small ship, which he had arranged should be put in at his window in the night; and also for buying salt of one who had no right to it. Lyford not only backed this defaulter—who was one of these private settlers—by excusing and extenuating him; but upon this ground he built this mischievous and false slander; that because they would not suffer a private settler to buy stolen goods, ergo, they sought their utter ruin: Bad logic for a divine!
5. Next he accused them of forcing men to become private settlers, on their own resources, and then seeking to starve them, and deprive them of all means of subsistence.
Ans: To this it was answered, he did them manifest wrong, for they had turned none upon their own resources who had not of their own importunity and earnest desire urged and constrained them to do it. They appealed to the persons themselves for the truth of it, and they testified against him before all present, and that they had no cause to complain of any hard or unkind usage.
6. He accused them with unjust distribution, and wrote that it seemed strange that some should be allowed 16 lbs. of meal per week, and others only 4 lbs. And then adds floutingly: it seems that some men’s bellies and mouths are very little and slender compared with others!
Ans: This might seem incomprehensible to those to whom he wrote his letters in England, and who did not know the reason for it; but to him and others it was well understood. The first comers had no allowance at all, but lived on their own corn. Those who came in the Anne the August before, and had to live thirteen months on the provisions they brought, had as good an allowance of meal and peas as would go round. A little while before harvest, when fish and fruits were to be got, they had only 4 lbs., being at liberty to make their own provisions in addition. But some of those who came last, such as the ship-builder, the salt men, and others who were to follow constant employment and had not an hour’s time from their labour to provide food besides their allowance,—such workers had at first 16 lbs. allowed them, and afterwards, when fish and other food could be got, they had 14 lbs., 12 lbs., or some of them 8 lbs., as occasion required. But those who had time to plant corn for themselves, even though they received but 4 lbs. of meal a week from the store, lived better than the others, as was well known. And it must be remembered that Lyford and his family had always the highest allowance.
He accused them of many other things in his letters such as of great waste of tools and utensils—though he knew that an honest man was appointed to look after these very things; and of this, when it came to be examined, all the instances he could give was, that he had seen an old hogshead or two fall to pieces, and a broken hoe or two left carelessly in the fields. But he had written such things as these to cast disgrace and prejudice upon them thinking that what came from a minister would pass for true. He told them that Winslow had said that there were not above seven of the adventurers who sought the good of the colony; and he ended by saying that the faction here matched the Jesuits for cunning.