The King and Council are really possessed of their preposterous loyalty and irregular proceedings, and are incensed against them; and although they be so opposite to the Catholic axioms, yet they will be compelled to perform them, or at leastwise suffer them to be put in practice to their sorrow. In matter of restitution and satisfaction, more than mystically, it must be performed visibly, and in such sort as will be subject to the senses, in a very lively image. My Lord of Canterbury, with my Lord Privy Seal, having caused all Mr. Cradock's letters to be viewed, and his apology for the brethren particularly heard, protested against him and Mr. Humphreys, that they were a couple of imposterous knaves; so that, for all their great friends, they departed the Council-chamber in our view with a pair of cold shoulders. I have staid long, yet have not lost my labor, although the brethren have found their hopes frustrated; so that it follows by consequence that I shall see my desire upon mine enemies; and if Jo. Grant had not betaken himself to flight, I had taught him to sing clamari in the Fleet before this time; and if he return before I depart, he will pay dear for his presumption. For here he finds me a second Perseus; I have uncased Medusa's head, and struck the brethren into astonishment. They find, and yet will more to their shame, that they abuse the word, and are to blame to presume so much; that they are but a word and a blow to them that are without. Of these particulars I thought good, by so convenient a messenger, to give you notice, lest you should think I had died in obscurity, as the brethren vainly intended I should, and basely practised, abusing justice to their sinister practices, as by the whole body of the committee it was, una voce, concluded to be done, to the dishonor of his Majesty. And as for Ratcliff, he was comforted by their Lordships with the cropping of Mr. Winthrop's ears, which shews what opinion is held amongst them of K.1 Winthrop, with all his inventions, and his Amsterdam fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages, and other abusive ceremonies, which do exemplify his detestation to the Church of England, and the contempt of 1 King. Sav. Win. ii. 191.—H. his Majesty's authority and wholesome laws, which are and will be established in those parts, invita minerva. With these I thought to salute you as a friend, by an epistle, because I am bound to love you as a brother by the Gospel, resting Your loving friend, || Dat.|| 1 mo. || Maii,|| 1634. THOMAS MORTON.1 Yet notwithstanding all these vain boastings of his, he lived to see all his hopes frustrate, and his great brags vanish into the air; for after all his vain attempts, he came back to New England without money or friends. He was kept in prison about a year, in expectation of evidence out of England, and then called before the Court again, and after some debate what to do with him, he was fined £100 and set at liberty; for having nothing, he would have been but a charge to have kept him longer under such restraint, and they did not think meet to inflict corporal punishment upon him, because of his age, being at this time both old, and laboring under many infirmities of body, but chose rather to give him his liberty, that he might procure his fine, or, at least, go out of the jurisdiction, as he did soon after, for he removed to Agamenticus, where he lived poor and despised, and died within two years after. February 26, 1644, the country's ammunition, for greater security, was sent to Roxbury, and ordered to be lodged in the house of J. Johnson, the Surveyor General; but by some unknown accident the house was fired at noonday, and all that belonged to his dwelling-house was, together with the country's store of seventeen barrels of powder, destroyed by the said fire, none of the inhabitants daring to lend any helping hand to save their neighbor's goods, for fear of losing their own lives; and if the wind had not been favorable it might have endangered all the houses adjoining; but God doth often in judgment remember mercy. Every one was ready to make their observations of By comparing this letter with the version in Sav. slight variations will appear.-H. * John.-H. [at] Win. ii. 190-1, some 'April 6, 1645.—н. that accident, amongst which, as to the particular case, these seemed to be very obvious to wise men: First, There was not that due care taken to pay for it, which ought, the debt being of divers years standing. Secondly, The overruling party in the Court had denied a supply to some of their neighbors' not long before, in some distress, which is not according to our Savior's rule, who requires that he that hath two coats should give, or lend, to him that hath none. Thirdly, Some were apt to think it was a great oversight to place their powder and ammunition so far out of the centre of the country, (if any exigent should have fallen out that should have required a present supply of ammunition,) and more confidence, possibly, was put in the officer than he deserved to be betrusted with such a charge, he having never really approved himself of more fidelity or ability than other men, to discharge the trust committed to him. Much hurt was about the same time done by fire in other places, as at Mr. Downing's farm, at Salem. That which was most remarkable happened in the journey of some of Hingham towards Seakonk, to make preparation for a new Plantation there. The place was not long before concluded by the Commissioners to belong to Plymouth, yet was it granted to some of the Massachusetts, with their consent, for a Plantation. Mr. Peck, and three others of said Hingham, were removing thither, and making their stage in an Indian wigwam by the way, by some occasion or other it took fire, and though they were four there present, and labored to the utmost to prevent the damage of the fire, yet were three of their horses consumed thereby, and the value of 50 in goods. In the year 1645,3 the Swedes' fort at Delaware was burnt down, with all the buildings in it, and all their powder and goods blown up. It happened in the night, by the negligence of a servant, who fell asleep leaving a candle burning. At Hartford and at Hingham, also, were houses burnt down that year. ' In Plymouth, and also in Virginia. Sav. Win. ii. 211.-H. CHAP. L.1 The Colonies of Connecticut and New Haven disturbed by the Dutch, at Manhatoes, and the Swedes, at Delaware Bay, during this lustre, from 1641 to 1645. THE Dutch, who had seated themselves upon Hudson's River, about the same time that the English began to plant at Patuxet or Plymouth, were the first that discovered the River of Connecticut, and gave some intimation thereof to their friends at Plymouth, but it being neglected by them, they took possession of it themselves, which they were not willing to quit to the use of the Massachusetts, although they had made no other use thereof, but for a place whereon to build an house for trading with the Indians. On that occasion, in June, 1641, letters came from the Governor of Connecticut to the Massachusetts to advise about the difference between them and the Dutch. The Dutch Governor3 had pressed them hard for his' interest in all Hartford, &c., to which he could lay no other claim but by the law of possession, or primer seisin; at least he demanded so much as one could see from their trading-house, alleging they had purchased so much of the Pequots, and threatened force of arms to make it good. They of the river alleged their purchase of other Indians, the true owners of the place, with other arguments of Patents, both of Saybrook and of the Massachusetts, &c. The Governor1 and Council returned answer without determining the case on either side, but advising to a more moderate way, viz. of yielding more land to the Dutch house, for they had left them but thirty acres. But the Dutch would not be satisfied, but prepared to send soldiers to be billeted at their house there. But it pleased the Lord to disappoint their purpose at that time, for the Indians falling out with them, killed some of their men at the Fort of Aurania, whereby they were forced to keep their soldiers at home to defend themselves. And a gentleman3 at that time going for England, that 1 XLIX in the MS.-H. Bellingham.-H. John Haynes.-H. • Rev. Hugh Peter. Sav. Win. ii. 32; see page 371.—н. 3 Kieft.- -H. pretended to be well acquainted with the West India Company in Holland, undertook to pacify the matter, but he not carrying over a commission with him from Hartford, the said Company would not treat with them, by which means the controversy still remained, and their claim was pursued as earnestly as before, though it was for the present, on the forementioned occasion, not so effectually carried on as else it might have been. 3 But July 22, 1643, a Dutch slopp arrived at Boston, with letters written in Latin, and signed by the Secretary there in the name and by the command of the Governor and Senate, directed to the Governor and Senate [of'] R. P. of New England, wherein, first, he congratulates their late confederation, then he complains of unsufferable wrongs done to their people at Connecticut, and more of late than formerly, and of misinformation given by some of the Massachusetts to the States' ambassadors in London, and desires to know by a categorical answer, whether they will aid or desert them of Hartford, ||that so|| they may know their friends from their enemies, &c. To which answer was returned by the Governor, and as many of the magistrates as could on the sudden be called together, that they desired the continuance of that good correspondency which had been betwixt them, ever since their arrival in those parts, and that their chief Council, to which their letters were directed, being far distant, they that were then present could return no other answer at that time, which they might look upon rather as a declaration of their particular conceptions, than any determination from the chief authority of the place, from which they should receive further answer in time convenient; intimating also their grief for the difference there was between them and their brethren at Hartford, which they conceived might be composed by arbitrators, either in England, or in Holland, or here, as those of Hartford had offered; and that, by their confederations, they were bound to seek the good and safety of each other as their own, which they hoped need not hinder the continuance of the wonted amity between themselves and those of the Manhatoes ; || so that || 1, Supplied from Winthrop.-H. In Winthrop these letters are U. P., (which is, undoubtedly, the correct reading,) standing, as I sup pose, for United Provinces.-H. Winthrop.-H. |