William Bradford of Plymouth

s.... Let us stand aside in silent veneration of their heroic characters and achie

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d with great difficulties, and must be enter

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ts were given him in 1624, and the number was increased to seven in 1633 when his successor Edward Winslow was elected, "Mr. Bradford having been governor about ten years, and now by importunity got off," as Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote in his manuscript history of New England. The import

ced in the gubernatorial chair, and but for his decease then, he would probably have continued long therein. As it was, he held the office thirty full years. And in every instance when his request for a successor

enship. In matters of diplomacy and difficult correspondence, including delicate foreign relations, he was tactful yet insistent upon principle, defending with a keen sense of justice the honor of the colonial state. Conventional courtesies did not deceive him, where opposition lay concealed; yet he modestly disowned sincere and merited praise when he considered it unwarranted. Scrupulous not to exceed his prerog

t was strengthened with every fresh proof. Others had the same high spirit, for it was a noble democracy; but in all such situations courageous leadership cannot fail to have a steadying effect upon the body politic. America did not outgrow this need, and this benefit, in the

action, this letter may suffice, which was addressed to Weston in answer to t

ns lives, cannot be vallewed at any prise. Of ye one, ther may be hope of recovery, but ye other no recompence can make good. But I will not insiste in generalls, but come more perticulerly to ye things them selves. You greatly blame us for keping ye ship so long in ye countrie, and then to send her away emptie. She lay 5. weks at Cap-Codd whilst with many a weary step (after a long journey) and the indurance of many a hard brunte, we sought out in the foule winter a place of habitation. Then we went in so tedious a time to make provission to sheelter us and our goods, about wch labour, many of our armes & leggs can tell us to this day we were not necligent. But it pleased God to vissite us then, with death dayly, and with so gen

they were surely serious enough: the problem of a bare subsi

lued friend and helper. Doubtless glad to return to his old home, he instructed the colonists in the cultivation of the maize, or Indian corn, an indigenous American product which has become appreciated over the world wherever it thrives. It was the Pilgrims' dependence, and a staple article of trade. The wheat and peas they brought with them failed, and without the corn, thre

ing wild fowl, and fishing, especially during the yearly herring run in the town brook up to the lovely

first they were poorly provided with deep-sea tackle and proper nets. Clams afforded a further help, the people treading and digging the flats at low tide, while eels and

rom their own allowance enough to load the Pilgrim boat. But the most of the required amount of corn was obtained by bartering various utensils and beads with the Indians, though their natural improvidence usually left them without much of a surplus in crops. In trading expeditions by land and wa

ed by flogging, for the theft of corn, some of which was occasionally abstracted even before it was ripe. Bradford's appreciative quotation of Seneca's fine aff

gaged earnestly for eight or nine hours, until a general cloudiness overspread the sky. This was followed that night by a gentle shower, which was renewed again and again, with intervals of sunshine, throughout a fortnight. The planting was saved, to the astonishment of the

ea at first, he gives no sign of approval; and when it was abandoned he observed: "The experience that was had in this comone course and condition, tried sundrie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vaniti

rt working day, a living wage whether earned or not, and an absolute democratic control over all individual ri

y, near the palisaded hamlet for convenience and better security. But on petition of the planters, Bradford directed that the allotments should be for continuous use, rather than for one year as heretofore. This encouraged those who had achieved good succ

e before long their permanent good neighbors. This desirable outcome was facilitated by a singular circumstance, the roaming of a boy who lost his way. John Billington, Jr., wandered in the woods until the Cummaquid Indians found him twenty miles down the coast. They carried him farther, to the Nausets, the very tribe of the first encounter. Bradford sent notice of the missing lad to M

asoit, were the more willing to heed their lord's pacific injunctions concerning the English, because they themselves in their weakened condition were threatened with invasion and conquest by the powerful Narragansetts. Self-preservation, as well as commercial advantage, prompted the never broken treaty made that spring. It was an idea mutually welcome, a most h

sent the famous rattlesnake skin with its challenging arrows, to Plymouth. But its speedy return filled with powder and balls and acc

f further native hostilities after the first had been suppressed. The wrath of the red northerners was fanned into fury by the wicked and abusive conduct of sixty Wessagusset settlers, a worthless and improvident lot which Thomas Weston imposed upon Plymouth in the time of scarcity

anor while at Plymouth; then they provoked their heathen neighbors, with whom they competed in bad behavior; and finally their remnant a

Colony should feel apprehensive, for the peril of extinction was real. Approximately between twenty-five and fifty thousand Indians occupied New England. Supported by limited artillery and musketry, the wooden palisade was hardly adequate against the firebrands, hatchets and arrows of bloodthirsty swarming thousands; yet it never came to the test. This i

st, while a fourth was taken alive and afterward hung. Three more warriors in the neighborhood were killed. This summary execution of only seven persons quickly prepared the way for finishing the disagreeable but necessary business without that further and abundant bloodshed, which would inevitably have ensued but for this stern action. A force of Indians who hastened to the scene were turned to flight without loss after a few shots, and the heart of opposition failed. The sudden collapse of warfare so carefully planned, is explained no

iable Governor, who in their respective dispositions may fairly be compared with Christ's leading disciples, Peter and John. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony was at its full inception in 1630, there appeared the greatest threat of native opposi

1621, the year of the treaty. Though this pleasant precedent was shrewdly cited with all openness and apparent amity, Bradford refused the petition. Then

top of the town hill. But the slightly older settlement of Salem made use of what cannon it possessed, and the booming reverberations struck such panic in the dusky breasts, that they immediately abandoned their cam

ine muscle and total absence of horses and oxen. They stood ready for work or warfare, in those uncertain years before colonial establishment. Then, just after the drouth of 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived in August with sixty persons, some of whom, however, proved so undesirable that the Colony, financially burdened though it was, willingly sent th

s colonial organization bound in partnership with the company in England. Specifications regarding

ive and imbrace them; and is to allote them competente places for habitations within ye towne. And promi

g those who in that body were friendly toward the Pilgrims and were sending them this accession of people. Th

ents to breake ye ise for others who come after with less

e God which hath so marvelously preserved from seas, foes, and famine, will still preserve you from all future dangers, and make you honourable amongst men, and glorious in blise at ye last day. And so ye Lord be with you all & send us joyf

ble man rendered a valuable service to Plymouth at that day, and to posterity ever since, by his detailed journal of events to that time, entitled Good Newes from New-England. He and Bradford, unna

ell acquainted with him, and born in the same year. Alice Carpenter was the widow of Edward Southworth a descendant of Sir Gilbert Southworth, knight of Lancaster. When a maiden

widowhood, two years after the tragic decease of Dorothy May Bradford, she received with favor

l a few years later. He himself though married died childless, after threescore years of life; and he was given the po

having then been blessed with three little ones, William, Mercy and Joseph. The Bradford household, of parents and children, therefore comprised

tly and long in labors for t

is son and namesake William, the Deputy Governor and Major, and several of his other son Joseph's seven children. His only

course of almost fourscore years; and a relative, Nathaniel Morton, Secretary of Plymouth Colony, writing verses which are copied on the first original

t time in widd

e in holyne

God's word and