94 ROBINSON'S LETTER OF ADVICE CHAP. offence, and will be as fuel for that fire, except you VII. diligently quench it with brotherly forbearance. And 1620. if taking of offence causelessly or easily at men's July. doings be so carefully to be avoided, how much more heed is to be taken that we take not offence at God himself; which yet we certainly do, so oft as we do murmur at his providence in our crosses, or bear impatiently such afflictions as wherewith he pleaseth to visit us. Store we up therefore patience against the evil day; without which we take offence at the Lord himself in his holy and just works. A fourth thing there is carefully to be provided for, to wit, that with your common employments you join common affections, truly bent upon the general good ; avoiding, as a deadly plague of your both common and special comfort, all retiredness of mind for proper advantage, and all singularly affected any manner of way. Let every man repress in himself, and the whole body in each person, as so many rebels against the common good, all private respects of men's selves, not sorting with the general conveniency. And as men are careful not to have a new house shaken with any violence before it be well settled, and the parts firmly knit, so be you, I beseech you, brethren, much more careful that the house of God, which you are, and are to be, be not shaken with unnecessary novelties, or other oppositions, at the first settling thereof.1 1 "Plutarch," says Jeremy Taylor, "compares a new marriage to a vessel before the hoops are on." "Therefore" Plutarch adds, "it behooves those people who are newly married to avoid the first occasions of discord and dissension; considering that vessels newly formed are subject to be bruised and put out of shape by many slight accidents; but when the materials come once to be settled and hardened by time, nor fire nor sword will hardly prejudice the solid substance." See Plutarch's Morals, iii. 17, (ed. 1694); Taylor's Works, v. 260, (Heber's ed.) TO THE WHOLE COMPANY. 95 VII. July. Lastly, whereas you are to become a body politic, CHAP. using amongst yourselves civil government, and are not furnished with any persons of special eminency 1620. above the rest to be chosen by you into office of government, let your wisdom and godliness appear not only in choosing such persons as do entirely love and will diligently promote the common good, but also in yielding unto them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administrations, not beholding in them the ordinariness of their persons, but God's ordinance for your good; nor being like the foolish multitude, who more honor the gay coat than either the virtuous mind of the man, or glorious ordinance of the Lord. But you know better things, and that the image of the Lord's power and authority, which the magistrate beareth, is honorable, in how mean persons soever. And this duty you both may the more willingly and ought the more conscionably to perform, because you are, at least for the present, to have only them for your ordinary governors which yourselves shall make choice of for that work. Sundry other things of importance I could put you in mind of, and of those before mentioned in more words. But I will not so far wrong your godly minds as to think you heedless of these things; there being also divers among you so well able to admonish both themselves and others of what concerneth them. These few things, therefore, and the same in few words, I do earnestly commend unto your care and conscience, joining therewith my daily, incessant prayers unto the Lord, that He who hath made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all rivers of waters, and whose providence is over all his works, especially over all his dear children, for good, would so guide and guard you in your 96 ROBINSON'S LETTER OF ADVICE. CHAP. ways, as inwardly by his Spirit, so outwardly by the VII. hand of his power, as that both you, and we also, for 1620. and with you, may have after matter of praising his July name all the days of your and our lives. Fare you well in Him in whom you trust, and in whom I rest An unfeigned well-wisher of your Happy success in this hopeful voyage, JOHN ROBINSON. This letter, though large, being so fruitful in itself and suitable to their occasions, I thought meet to insert in this place.' There is no date to this letter; but it was written about the same time as the one to Carver, since in that letter Robinson says, "I have written a large letter to the whole." CHAPTER VIII. OF THE TROUBLES THAT BEFELL THE FIRST PLANTERS VIII. ALL things being got ready, and every business CHAP. despatched, the company was called together, and this letter read amongst them; which had good 1620. acceptation with all, and after fruit with many. Then they ordered and distributed their company for either ship, as they conceived for the best, and chose a governor and two or three assistants for each ship, to order the people by the way, and to see to the disposing of their provisions, and such like affairs; all which was not only with the liking of the masters of the ships, but according to their desires. Which being done, they set sail from thence about the fifth of August. [But, alas, the best enterprises 5. 1 2 Smith, in his New England's Trials, printed in 1622, and Purchas, in his Pilgrims, iv. 1840, printed in 1625, say they sailed with about 120 persons." "But what befell them further upon the coast of England, will appear in the book entitled New Aug. 98 THEY ARE COMPELLED TO PUT BACK TWICE. CHAP. meet oftentimes with many discouragements. For VIII. they had not sailed far, before Mr. Reynolds, the mas1620. ter of the lesser ship, complained that he found his ship so leaky, as he durst not put further to sea. On Aug. which they were forced to put in at Dartmouth, Mr. 13. Jones, the master of the biggest ship, likewise putting 21. in there with him; and the said lesser ship was searched, and mended, and judged sufficient for the Aug. voyage by the workmen that mended her. On which both the said ships put to sea the second time. But they had not sailed above a hundred leagues, ere the said Reynolds again complained of his ship being so leaky as that he feared he should founder in the sea if he held on; and then both ships bore up again, and went in at Plymouth.' But being there searched again, no great matter appeared, but it was judged to be the general weakness of the ship. But the true reason of the retarding and delaying of matters was not as yet discerned. The one of them respecting the ship, (as afterwards was found,) was that she was overmasted; which when she came to her trim in that respect, she did well, and made divers profitable and successful voyages. But secondly, and more especially, by the deceit of the master and his company, who were hired to stay a whole As this account of the voyage is substantially Bradford's, as appears from comparing it with the extracts from his MS. in Prince, and as Morton refers to his Memorial merely to save the labor of copying, and would undoubtedly have inserted it had he caused his uncle's History to be printed, I have deemed it proper to make it a part of the narrative; enclosing it, however, in brackets to distinguish it from what is contained in the Church records. 1 Grahame, i. 190, errs in saying that "the emigrants were at first driven back by a storm, which destroyed one of their vessels;" and Gorges is wrong in stating that they sailed in three ships, "whereof two proved unserviceable, and so were left behind." See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvi. 73. |