THE NEW ENGLAND CHRONOLOGY. PART II-SECTION I. FROM The beginning of the Settlement of the First or Plymonth Colony at Plymouth, under Governor CARVER, December 31, 1620. ΤΟ The beginning of the Settlement of the Massachusetts or Second Colony by the arrival of Governor WINTHROP and Company at Salem, June 12, 1630. THE NEW ENGLAND CHRONOLOGY. PART II.-SECTION I. TH HROUGH a great variety of obstacles and hardships, this small and pious People are at length arrived and seated on this strange and distant shore, but yet a shore they are, by an overrulling Providence, conducted to beside their own design, though not without the secret plots of others. For as some unknown country further southward, about Hudson's river, was in their view, when they engaged in this adventurous voyage; Mr Morton, who published his "Memorial" in 1670, tells us, "He had then lately sure intelligence that the Dutch, intending to settle a colony there of their own, privately hired the Master of the ship' to contrive delays in England; then to steer them to these northward coasts; The Speedwell. and there, under pleas of shoals and winter, to discourage them from venturing further.' However, by their being guided thither; they then unknowingly escaped the much greater danger of falling among the multitudes of savages, at that time, filling the countries about Hudson's river and are landed in a place of greater safety; where a general pestilence had, two or three years before, exceedingly thinned the natives, and prepared the way for this feeble company. Being thus, beside their intention, brought to the New England coast, where their Patent gave them no right or power: they were, in a sort, reduced to a state of nature; and some of the strangers received at London, dropping some mutinous speeches as if there were now no authority over them: the People, therefore, before they landed, wisely formed themselves into a Body Politic, under the Crown of England; by the Solemn Contract hinted above, and which Governor Bradford gives us in the following terms: "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names 'Agreeable to this, we observed in the month of June this year, while the English Leydeners were preparing for their voyage, that as Captain Dermer returned from Virginia to New England, he met certain Hollanders sailing for Hudson's river, where they had had a trade for several years. are under written, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James; by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King; Defender of the Faith, &c., "Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our King and country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia; Do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves into a Civil Body Politic for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by Virtue hereof to Enact, Constitute, and Frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony. Unto which, we promise all due submission and obedience. "In witness whereof, we have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth; and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620." To this Instrument, Mr. Morton sets the Subscribers in the following order: but their names corrected with their titles and families, I take from |