CHAPTER XIII.

STRUGGLES AND SACRIFICES IN A GREAT ATTEMPT.

So long as the Pilgrims remained in Holland, they never ceased to feel that they were simply exiles from their country-strangers in a strange land. They were ever waiting, with hope deferred, for some such change in the policy of the English government as would permit them to go home. None of them could forget that the change of policy which took place when Mary was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth brought back hundreds of English fugitives from all parts of Europe. Who could tell how soon the providence. of God, in whose hand is "the king's heart as the rivers of water, and he turneth it whithersoever he will," might open the way for their return? In that hope, they labored and struggled; they ate contentedly the bread of carefulness; they bore each other's burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ; they married and were given in marriage; they greeted the birth of children in their households, and gave them to God in baptism; they buried, in hope of "a better country, even a heavenly," many an associate in testimony and in suffering, whose eyes had failed with longing for the sight of dear old England. In that hope, the church for which they had suffered, and which encircled them with the bond of its covenant, grew dearer to them year by year; the simplicity and purity of its worship, the fidelity and efficacy of its discipline, and the constant wealth of "teaching" from its honored pastor, were more and more valued by them, as showing what might be in England if liberty were there. But gradually that hope was receding. While some had found their graves in that foreign soil, others were growing old. What was to become of their children? What would become of

their church? The end of the twelve-years' truce, which had interrupted the long and terrible war of the Dutch with Spain for their independence and their religion, was drawing near; and then-what? "Taught by experience," they say, "those prudent governors [Robinson and Brewster], with sundry of the sagest members, began both deeply to apprehend their present dangers and wisely to foresee the future, and think of timely remedy."

At first, these matters were discussed in private conference among the leading minds of the community; and the more they thought and talked in such conference, the stronger did the arguments seem for attempting a removal. Twenty-five years earlier, even before the latest martyrs of Separation were put to death, the thought of migration to America had been entertained among the Separatists in England; and petition for liberty to form a Separatist colony in America had been made to Queen Elizabeth (1592), whose government was at that moment contriving the law by which every persistent Separatist should be compelled to abjure the realm. and go into banishment.1 There is no evidence that the petition was answered, nor that it received any attention from the queen or from her ministers. Evidently, those who, at that time, were most intent on expelling the "Brownists" from England, were unwilling to see them go without their being first punished by imprisonment and plundered by forfeiture of all their goods-still more unwilling that they should have their own schismatic way even in the wildernesses of America. The persecution which followed the passage of the "Act to retain the Queen's subjects in obedience defeated the proposed migration, notwithstanding the suggestion of the petitioners that in the "far country" where they desired to plant themselves, they, while worshiping God "as in conscience persuaded by his word," might "also

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Editor's Preface to Morton's "Memorial" as published by the Congregational Board of Publication. Boston, 1854.

do unto her majesty and country great good service, and in time also annoy that bloody and persecuting Spaniard about the Bay of Mexico." But, at last, the thought, which may have been in Penry's mind when he sent his dying messages to the brethren in the north countries, and which had been, so long, like a seed buried too deep to grow, came into the consultations of Robinson and Brewster, with other "sagest members" of the Pilgrim church. In view of present and impending dangers incident to their lot in Leyden, they were thinking of "timely remedy;" and what remedy was there but migration from that old world to the new? "Not out of new-fangledness, or other such like giddy humor," were they "inclined to the conclusion of removal." They found themselves urged by "sundry weighty and solid reasons which belong to history, and which they have put upon record for us.

"First, they saw, and found by experience, the hardness of the place to be such that few in comparison would come to them, and fewer would bide it out and continue with them. For many that came to them-and many more that desired to be with them-could not endure that great labor and hard fare, with other inconveniences, which they underwent and were contented with. But though they loved their persons, approved their cause, and honored their sufferings, yet they left them-as it were weeping-as Orphah did her mother-in-law Naomi; or as those Romans did Cato in Utica, who desired to be excused and borne with though they could not all be Catos. Many-though they desired to enjoy the ordinances of God in their purity, and the liberty of the Gospel with them-yet, alas! admitted of bondage, with danger of conscience, rather than to endure these hardships: yea, some preferred and chose the prisons in England rather than liberty in Holland with these afflictions. It was thought, therefore, that if a better and easier place of living could be had, it would draw many, and take away these discouragements. Yea, their pastor would often say that many of those

who both wrote and preached against them, would practice as they did if they were in a place where they might have liberty and live comfortably."

Such, then, in their own simple statement, was the first consideration urging them to a removal. Their foremost thought was for the cause in which they had suffered. Ought they not to dare-and perhaps to suffer greater things in the hope of making a refuge for others like-minded with themselves? At the same time, other considerations, drawn from their own hardships, apparently so ineffective, and from their hopes and fears for their children, pointed in the same direction.

The second "weighty and solid reason" was: "They saw that, though the people generally bore all these difficulties very cheerfully, and with a resolute courage, being in the best and strength of their years, yet old age began to steal on many of them"-even before the time, hastened by "their great and continual labors, with other crosses and sorrows;" and it was becoming evident "that within a few years more they would be in danger to scatter by necessities pressing them, or to sink under their burdens, or both. Therefore they-like skillful and beaten soldiers-thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could be found." The few who were holding these consultations were leaders; their conference was like a council of war. Willing as they were, and willing as their associates were, to struggle and suffer for the Gospel, they were not willing to throw their lives away with no advantage to the cause, if, by a timely retreat, they could gain a more hopeful position.

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The third consideration was still more urgent. What was to become of their children there in Holland? As necessity was a taskmaster over them, so they were forced to be taskmasters not only to their servants, but, in a sort, to their dearest children-which was not only painful to many a loving father and mother, but produced likewise sundry

sad and sorrowful effects. Many of their children that were of best dispositions and gracious inclinations, having learned to bear the yoke in their youth, and willing to bear part of their parents' burden, were so oppressed with their heavy labors that, though their minds were free and willing, their bodies bowed under the weight and became decrepit, the vigor of nature being consumed, as it were, in the bud. But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions and the great licentiousness of youth in that country, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses. Some became soldiers, others took them far voyages by sea; and some others, worse courses tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls." With such sad facts before them, "they saw that their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted."

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Other considerations were not without weight in their deliberations. Exiles as they were, they could not forget that they were English; and little as they owed to king or parliament, they were loyal to their native country. They could not bear the thought of losing their nationality. After all, it was their desire "to live under the protection of England, and that their children after them should retain the language and the name of Englishmen."

Nor was that all. They wanted more for their children than the inheritance of their nationality. One incident of their poverty, in that foreign land, was "their inability to give their children such an education as they had themselves received." If they could have a country of their own, even though it were in a wilderness three thousand miles away, they might have English schools for all their children.

It was characteristic of the men that the religious value of the Christian Sabbath entered into their deliberations. They had been Puritans, and, in becoming Separatists, they had not surrendered the Puritan doctrine which made the