their descendants were declared to be entitled to all the rights of natural born subjects.h

The patent being obtained, the governor and council began with ardour, to give effect to the views of the grantees. A fresh embarkation was determined on, to support the expenses of which it was resolved, that every person subscribing fifty pounds, should be entitled to two hundred acres of land as the first dividend. Five vessels were procured, which sailed from the isle of Wight in May, carrying about two hundred persons, with such articles as were proper for making a new settlement. In June, they reached Salem, where they found Endicot, to whom they brought a confirmation of his commission as governor. The colony now consisted of three hundred persons, of whom one hundred removed to Charlestown, and the remainder continued at Salem.

Religion having stimulated them to emigrate from their native land, constituted the first object of their care in the country they had adopted. Being zealous puritans, they concurred in the institution of a church, in which was established that form of policy, which was believed best to agree with the divine will as revealed in the scriptures, and which has since been denominated independent. A confession of faith was drawn up to which the majority signified their assent; and an association was then formed, in which they covenant with the Lord and with each other, to

Robertson....Chalmer....Hutchinson.

walk together in all his ways as he should be pleased to reveal himself to them. Pastors and other ecclesiastical officers were chosen, who were installed into their sacred offices, by the imposition of the hands of the brethren.i

A church being thus formed, several were received as members, who gave an account of their faith and hope as christians, and those only were admitted into the communion, whose morals and religious tenets were approved by the elders. From the form of public worship which was instituted, they discarded the liturgy as well as all ceremonies deemed useless, and reduced it to the lowest standard of calvinistic simplicity.*

Pleased with the work of their hands, and believing it themselves to be perfect, they could not tolerate a different opinion in others. Just escaped from persecution, they demonstrated that it was not the principle but its application which they condemned, and became persecutors themselves. Some few of their number, attached to the ritual of the church of England, were dissatisfied with its total abolition, and withdrawing from communion with the church, met apart to worship God in the manner they deemed most proper. At the head of this small party were two of the first patentees who were also of the council. They were called before the governor, who, being of opinion that their non-conformity and conver

sation tended to sedition, sent them to England. Deprived of their leaders, the opposition ceased.'

The ensuing winter brought with it the calamities which had been uniformly sustained by the first emigrants into a wilderness, where the cold was severe, and the privations almost universal. In the course of it, nearly half their number perished, "lamenting that they did not live to see the rising glories of the faithful." The fortitude, however, of the survivers was not shaken, nor were their brethren in England deterred from joining them. Religion supported the colonists under all their difficulties; and the then intolerant spirit of the English hierarchy, at the head of which was placed the rigid Laud, exacting a strict conformity to its ceremonies, diminished, in the view of the puritans in England, the dangers and the sufferings to be encountered in America, and disposed them to forego every other human enjoyment, for the consoling privilege of worshipping the Supreme Being according to their own opinions. Many persons of fortune had determined to seek, in the new world, that liberty of conscience which was denied them in the old; but foreseeing the misrule inseparable from the residence of the legislative power in England, they demanded, as a previous condition to their emigration, that the powers of government should be transferred to New England, and be exercised in the colony. The company had already incurred expenses for which they saw

1 Robertson.... Chalmer....Hutchinson.

no prospect of a speedy retribution, and, although they doubted the legality of the measure, were well disposed to obtain such important aid by embracing it. A general court was therefore convened, by whom it was unanimously resolved "that the patent should be transferred, and the government of the corporation removed from London to Massachussetts Bay." It was also agreed that the members of the corporation remaining in England, should retain a share in the trading stock and profits, for the term of seven years."

Having effected this important revolution in their system of government, such great exertions for emigration were made, that early in the following year fifteen hundred persons, among whom were several of family and fortune, embarked on board seventeen vessels, at an expense of upwards of twenty thousand pounds, and arrived at Salem in July, (1630). Dissatisfied with this situation, they explored the country in quest of better stations, and settling in many places around the bay, they laid the foundations of several towns, and among others of Boston.

The difficulty of obtaining subsistence, the difference of their food from that to which they had been accustomed, the intense cold of winter, against which they had not sufficient means of protection, were still severely felt by the colonists, and still continued to carry many of them to the grave; but that enthusiasm which had

m Robertson.... Chalmer....Hutchinson.

2

impelled them to emigrate preserved all its force, and they met, with a firm unshaken spirit, the calamities which assailed them. Our admiration of their fortitude and of their principles sustains, however, no inconsiderable diminution, from observing the sternness with which they denied to others that civil and religious liberty, which, through so many dangers and hardships, they sought with such laudable zeal for themselves. At a meeting of their general court early in the year, (1631) it was decreed that none should be admitted as freemen, or permitted to vote at elections, or be capable of being chosen as magistrates, or of serving as jurymen, but such as had been received into the church as members. Thus did men who had braved every hardship for freedom of conscience deprive, without reluctance, of the choicest rights of humanity, all those who dissented from the opinion of the majority on any article of faith, or point of church discipline.

The numerous complaints of the severities exercised by the government of Massachussetts, which were made by persons expelled for nonconformity in matters of religion, and by many dissatisfied by other means, added to the immense emigration of persons noted for their enthusiasm, and for their hostility to the existing system in England, seem at length to have made some impression on Charles; and, on the 21st of February, (1633) an order was made by the king in council, to stop the ships at that time ready to sail, freighted with passengers and provisions for New England. This order, however, seems never to