At this period trifling incidents assume a character of importance far transcending their intrinsic interest, inasmuch as they serve to indicate that active and energetic spirit, that patient fortitude, that stern yet submissive religion, which taught the pilgrims to endure and to hope, and while they relied on divine protection, not to neglect the human means.'

So full of dangers was this period, that it was only by the consummate prudence of Bradford, the matchless valor of Standish, and the incessant enterprise of Winslow, that the colony was saved from destruction.

The submissive piety of Brewster, indeed, produced a moral effect as important in its consequences, as the active virtues of the others.

These were the men who produced a greater revolution in the world than Columbus. He in seeking for India discovered America. They in pursuit of religious freedom established civil liberty, and meaning only to found a church, gave birth to a nation, and in settling a town commenced an empire.

The colonists after surmounting the earliest difficulties, suppressing the faction of Oldham and Lyford, and quieting the natives by exciting their fears, and winning their affections, undertook, in 1636, to establish a criminal code; to define and limit the power and authority of their rulers, and to ascertain and declare the extent of their own rights and privileges by law.

In 1639, a change was effected in the government which at the time scarcely attracted notice, it being considered as an affair of convenience only; and yet it substituted a representative for an actual democracy, by vesting in the deputies of seven towns the power which had been previously exercised by the whole people-the extension of the settlements virtually prevented

them from exercising their legislative rights in person, and to distribute legislative power in fair and equal proportions it became necessary to delegate it.

Having, under the patent of 1629, obtained (as they supposed) a title to the soil comprised within their limits, the colonists proceeded as their increasing population required, to occupy vacant lands, and to extinguish the Indian title to others by mutual agreement, and by the payment of an equivalent.

The surrender of the patent (which had been taken in the name of Governor Bradford) to the whole company, and the issuing of the charters to the several towns in the colony in 1640, terminates the first period of this history.

From 1641 to 1675, a period of more than thirty four years, the history of the colony (with one exception) presents but few momentous events. During this second period, a profound peace was maintained with the natives. English settlements incorporated as towns were extended in every direction, and the territory was nearly covered by English grants. There were no domestic feuds or ecclesiastical controversies. Sectarians it is true occasionally disturbed the tranquillity of the inhabitants of this little commonwealth; but persecution with them assumed its mildest form, and their annals have escaped that deep and indelible stain of blood, which pollutes the pages of the early history of their sterner and more intolerant brethren of Massachusetts.They were somewhat apprehensive of the commissioners who were sent out by King Charles II. to examine the condition of the colonies, and to correct abuses, but in Plymouth there were no complaints, because there were no wrongs. In 1643 a union or confederation was effected between the colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven, to which at first

Saybrook, then a separate and independent settlement on Connecticut river and which had been granted to Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brook, and Sir Richard Saltonstall, was admitted as a party, but which soon after lost its distinctive political character by a union with Connecticut. The principal objects of this confederation were to secure a harmonious cooperation in religious affairs;-to adopt means for the surrender of servants, criminals, and fugitives from justice, escaping from one jurisdiction into another by establishing an alliance offensive and defensive to provide for the common defence in war, for which soldiers were to be raised and money assessed in ascertained proportions, and for the prevention of wars, no colony was to wage one individually or without the consent of six out of the eight commissioners.

The spirit of enterprise which found its first employment in controversies with the natives took another direction, and in the prosecution of commerce found the real source of prosperity and wealth. Frugal and prudent from necessity, and industrious from habit, the colonists continued to advance by sure and certain steps in their career of successful exertion, until the breaking out of that horrible war which bears the name of its author, and which terminates the second and commences the third period of this history.

Romantic indeed is the history of this third period, full of incident, exciting events, and high and heroic action. The war which fills this period of colonial history was a contest for existence. It was the death struggle between the white and the red races, and the fate not only of Plymouth but of all New England was involved in the issue. Philip, the Tecumseh of his age, was the chief of a confederacy which embraced nearly all the tribes of New England; but his own residence and that of his native

tribe was within the territorial jurisdiction of Plymouth, and therefore much of the danger and much of the suffering which were occasioned by the war, fell upon that colony.-The whole population were transformed into soldiers.-Every settlement contained garrisoned houses, and the martial spirit was kindled even in the bosoms of the women and children. The success of the English gave to them the disposal of the remaining lands of the Indians. They permitted a few miserable natives to hold some narrow possessions on sufferance, (an evidence of their conquest and debasement,) within that ample domain, once the heritage of their ancestors. Their numbers lessened.-They mingled with the blacks their distinctive character was lost, and the only physical evidences which now remain of a 'previous people,' are their uncoffined skeletons, which are occasionally exhumed, as though fate had determined to deny even to their bones, a resting place in that soil over which they once had roamed, the proud and solitary lords of the primeval forest.

The dominion of the colony was now firmly established, and the colonists were relieved from all apprehensions of Indian hostility, and the fourth period in their history commences.

During that period they in common with the other colonies of New England, suffered under the oppression of Sir Edmund Andross, and rejoiced in his overthrow. The revolution of 1688, restored them to independence. After the accession of William and Mary to the throne of Great Britain, but little regard was manifested for their peculiar rights, and as a measure of political convenience this colony was annexed to the younger but more powerful sister colony of Massachusetts in 1692, having existed as an independent government for a period of seventyone years.

The people of Plymouth submitted to this arrangement with reluctance, but as the evil was unavoidable, they bore the loss of their independence with equanimity, and deported themselves as loyal subjects of the crown, and as good citizens of the Province, and as the laws, religion, customs, and principles of the Massachusetts' colonists were nearly similar to their own, they soon amalgamated and became one people.

It would be presumptuous perhaps to call this humble work a history: its relations are so minute, and to many may appear so trifling, that the common usage of the world would require that it should assume no higher name than that of memoir, yet a narrative of the earliest settlement of Rome or England as circumstantial, as minute, and as accurate as that which now exists respecting the settlement of New Plymouth, would be prized by scholars and antiquarians as the most precious of all the treasures of history. Events which are obscured by the duskiness of antiquity excite an indescribable, peculiar, romantic, and mysterious interest, and could the very field be now pointed out through which a Roman consul had guided the plough :-could the very spot be ascertained where a Dictator had entered the eternal city in all the honors of a lawful triumph:- could the wild, dark haunts of the Druids be opened to the light, or the places identified where the soil of England had been pressed by the feet of Julius Cesar, or of Hengist and Horsa, or of William the Conqueror, the enthusiasm of the age would consecrate such ground, and no divine information would be required to proclaim its holiness.

An attempt to arrange events which now are scattered through various books, although it may at best be considered but an effort at compilation, is entitled as the author apprehends to some