them, till they could reap a crope which was long before. Those that came in May were thus maintained upward of. 16. or .18. months, before they had any harvest of their owne, and the other by proportion. And all they could doe in the mean time was to gett them some housing, and prepare them grounds to plant on, against the season. And this charg of maintaining them all this while was litle less then the former sume. These things I note more perticulerly, for sundry regards. First, to shew a rare example herein of brotherly love, and Christian care in performing their promises and covenants to their bretheren, too, and in a sorte beyonde their power; that they should venture so desperatly to ingage themselves to accomplish this thing, and bear it so cheerfully; for they never demanded, much less had, any repaymente of all these great sumes thus disbursed. 2ly. It must needs be that ther was more then of man in these acheevements, that should thus readily stire up the harts of shuch able frinds to joyne in partnership with them in shuch a case, and cleave so faithfullie to them as these did, in so great adventures; and the more because the most of them never saw their faces to this day; ther being neither kindred, aliance, or other acquaintance or relations betweene any of them, then hath been before mentioned; it must needs be therfore the spetiall worke and hand of God. 3ly. That these poore people here in a willderness should, notwithstanding, be inabled in time to repay all these ingagments, and many more unjustly brought upon them through the unfaithfullnes of some, and many other great losses which they sustained, which will be made manifest, if the Lord be pleased to give life and time. In the mean time, I cannot but admire his ways and workes towards his servants, and humbly desire to blesse his holy name for his great mercies hithertoo. [166] The Leyden people being thus come over, and sundry of the generalitie seeing and hearing how great the charge was like to be that was that way to be expended, they begane to murmure and repine at it, notwithstanding the burden lay on other mens shoulders; espetially at the paying of the 3. bushells of corne a year, according to the former agreemente, when the trade was lett for the .6: years aforesaid. But to give them contente herein allso, it was promised them, that if they could doe it in the time without it, they would never demand it of them; which gave them good contente. And indeed it never was paid, as will appeare by the sequell. Concerning Mr. Allertons procceedings about the inlarging and confirming of their patent, both that at home and Kenebeck, will best appere by another leter of Mr. Sherleys; for though much time and money was expended aboute it, yet he left it unaccomplisht this year, and came withoute it.1 See Mr. Sherleys letter. MOST WORTHY AND LOVING FREINDS, etc. Some of your letters I received in July, and some since by Mr. Peirce, but till our maine bussines, the patent, was granted, I could not setle my mind nor pen to writing. Mr. Allerton was so turmoyled about it, as verily I would not nor could not have undergone it, if I might have had a thousand pounds; but the Lord so blessed his labours (even beyond expectation in these evill days) as he obtained the love and favore of great men in repute and place. He got granted from the Earle of Warwick and Sr. Ferdinando Gorge all that Mr. Winslow desired in his letters to me, and more allso, which I leave to him to relate. Then he 1 "From the date of the following letter and the narrative of proceedings which it details, it would seem that Governor Bradford here refers to Allerton's return in 1630 from the visit he may have made to England this year; and not to his return this year from his mission of 1628. . . . Bradford is silent as to the time of his return, but it appears that he was not prepared to come with the first company of Leyden people who left in May; though Morton, in his New English Canaan, speaks of his own return at 'the ordinary time for shipping to set forth for these parts.' If Bradford's chronology is here correctly apprehended, he makes no mention of Allerton's being sent over to England again this year, but the following letter and other evidence sufficiently indicate that he was there." DEANE. This grant from the Council for New England to the colony of New Plymouth, dated January 13, 1629–30, was made to William Bradford, his heirs, associates, and assigns. The original parchment, bearing the seal of the Council and the signature of sued to the king to confirme their grante, and to make you a corporation, and so to inable you to make and execute lawes, in shuch large and ample maner as the Massachusett plantation hath it; which the king graciously granted, referring it to the Lord Keeper 1 to give order to the the Earl of Warwick, the President, is in Plymouth. "A royal charter, so anxiously desired, so temptingly held out to them by Sherley, and for which so much money had been lavished, was never granted to the colony during its existence. The powers of government which they exercised were derived from no higher authority than that by which the compact on board the Mayflower was made in 1620." DEANE. In this grant the territorial limits are defined, and, as was most unusual in such cases, the bounds were quite accurately named and described, as they inclosed a territory known to Winslow. He had been to Massachusetts Bay, now no longer open territory, and he had visited Sowams, to the South. The western bound might have been open to dispute, as the Indians of Pokanoket would not have been able to mark the limits of their holdings. In the patent of 1630 the bounds of New Plymouth were thus described: "All that Parte of New Englande in America aforesaid, and Tracte and Tractes of Lande that lye within or betweene a certain Rivolett or Rundlett there, commonly called Coahassett, alias Conahasset, towards the north, and the River commonly called Naragansets River towards the South, and the great Westerne Ocean towards the East, and betweene and within a straight line directly extendinge upp into the maine Land towards the West, from the mouth of the said River called Naragansetts Riuer, to the vtmost Limitts and Bounds of a Cuntry or Place in New Englande, commonly called Pokenacutt, alias Sowamsett, westward, and another like straight Line, extending itself directly from the Mouth of the said River called Coahassett, alias Conahassett, towards the West soe farr upp into the maine Lande Westwards, as the utmost Limitts of the said Place or Cuntry, commonly called Pokenacutt, alias Sowamsett, doe extend togeather with one half the said Riuer called Naragansetts, and the said Rivolett or Rundlett called Coahassett, alies Conahassett." Hazard, 1. 300. звать The limits of the Kennebec grant, contained in the same document, will be found on p. 175, infra. 1 Thomas Coventry (1578-1640), now by a recent creation (April 10, 1628) Baron Coventry of Aylesborough, Worcestershire. Upon him fell the duty of expressing and defending the king's position in the controversies that arose between king and Parliament 1626-1638, after which his zeal for royal claims somewhat abated. Clarendon states that " he knew the temper, disposition, and genius of the |