He was not the agent of the church, nor, properly, of the colony, but only of the commercial Undertakers. Nor had he been in any way authorized or requested by the church to select and introduce a minister; "for they had been so bitten by Mr. Lyford that they desired to know the person well whom they should invite among them." But, advised perhaps by some friend or friends in London, he assumed the responsibility of bringing with him a young man named Rogers, who, he thought, might be acceptable and useful in the ministry of the Word. The young man was received by the church as kindly as Lyford was at his coming; for they could not refuse to try what he could do as a preacher. "But they perceived, upon some trial, that he was crazed in his brain; so they were fain to send him back again the next year, and lose all the charge that was expended in his hitherbringing." Nothing more is known of the unfortunate young man, save that "after his return he grew quite distracted." It is not strange that "Mr. Allerton was much blamed" for imposing such a burden upon his brethren, "they having charge enough otherwise."

Notwithstanding this mistake, and some other things in which the proceedings of the agent were not satisfactory, his associates did not withdraw their confidence from him. "Because love thinks no evil, nor is suspicious, they took his fair words for excuse, and resolved to send him again this year, ... considering how well he had done the former business, and what good acceptation he had with their friends there; and also seeing sundry of their friends from Leyden were sent for who might be much furthered by his means."

The London partners were hearty in their co-operation; and before the end of another summer thirty-five of the Leyden remnant arrived at Plymouth. A letter from Sherley to Bradford said of them, in a tone of exultation: "Here are now many of your and our friends from Leyden coming over [May 25 June 4, 1629]. Though, for the most part, they be but a weak company, yet herein is obtained a good part of

that end which was first aimed at, and which hath been so strongly opposed by some of our former Adventurers. But God hath his working,... which man can not frustrate." Another but less numerous company of the sojourners at Leyden came over early in the next year. At their departure from England, Sherley, knowing that the hope of effecting the transportation of those exiles was one reason why Bradford and the others had undertaken to pay the debts of the colony, expressed his hearty approval. "In the agreement you have made with the generality," said he, "you have done very well both for them and you, and also for your friends at Leyden.... We are willing to join with you, and, God directing and enabling us, will be assisting and helpful to you, the best we possibly can. Had you not taken this course, I see not how you could have accomplished the end which you first aimed at, and which some others endeavored these years past." As a partner with the Undertakers, he was aware that what they were then doing would not be commercially profitable; "for," said he, "most of those who came in May last unto you, as also of these now sent, though (I hope) honest and good people, are not like to be helpful to raise profit, but . . . must somewhile be chargeable to you and us." But "the burden," he intimated, would be not on the colony, but on the Undertakers, and "you," he added, “will so lovingly join together in affection and counsel that God, no doubt, will bless and prosper your honest endeavors."

It was, indeed, a "burden" on the Undertakers. The cost of transporting those two companies from Holland to England, and thence across the Atlantic, with other expenses incident, was more than five hundred and fifty pounds. Arriving at Plymouth after the planting-time, in two successive years, the first company in August and the second in May, their "corn and other provisions" must be supplied-in the first instance more than a year, in the other almost a year and a half-from harvests which they had not planted: a charge which was little less than the cost of their removal.

"All they could do in the mean time was to get them some housing, and to prepare them grounds to plant on against the season.' What added to the burden, those who selected the second company "sent all the weakest and poorest," thinking that, "if these were got over, the rest might come when they would." "Yet," says Bradford, "they were such as feared God, and were to us both welcome and useful, for the most part." So the migration of the exiles, by companies, from Leyden to Plymouth was ended.

Some of those at Plymouth who, though not of the Pilgrim Company, had become partners in "the generality," began to murmur at the great cost of bringing over that Leyden remnant; for, though they were told that "the burden lay on other men's shoulders," were they not bound to pay the stipulated "three bushels of corn or six pounds of tobacco" to the Undertakers? To remove their discontent, it was generously promised that, unless the six years' profits of the trade should prove insufficient for the payment of the debts, the tax should never be demanded, and that promise "gave them good content." It is no more than a modest appreciation of the truth, when Bradford, having told by what efforts and sacrifices the removal of those who had been so long detained in Holland was at last accomplished, asks that it may be noted as "a rare example of brotherly love and of Christian care" on the part of the Pilgrim Church "in performing their promises and covenants to their brethren." His devout spirit saw-and can not we see?" that there was more than of man in these achievements." It was God's grace, he thought, that had "stirred up the hearts of such able friends to join with them in such a cause and to cleave so faithfully to them in so great adventures "—friends whose faces the most of them had never seen. Let God be praised!

1 Bradford's "Letter-Book.”. -Mass. Historical Collections, iii., 65, 66, 68--70.

Plymouth was now passing through the tenth year of its struggle for existence; and in that conflict it had gained the victory. Whether it should remain on the soil which the Pilgrims, by persistent labor, had conquered from the wilderness and were converting into fruitful fields, was no longer a doubtful question. The body politic constituted by a few homeless Englishmen in the cabin of the Mayflower, and maintaining itself under the simplest form of democracy, was an established fact. The Governor of Plymouth, deriving his authority from God through a yearly election by the people, was a functionary recognized by his Majesty's Council for New England. The trade of the colony with the Indians, with English vessels resorting to the New England fisheries, and with merchants in London, was prospering, and was lifting it out of its pecuniary troubles. The Hollanders who were trying to make a New Amsterdam at the mouth of the Hudson had sought the friendship of the Englishmen at New Plymouth, who had once lived in their country, and with whom they could hold communication in their own language; and the Leyden exiles, now fathers of a growing commonwealth, had enjoyed the opportunity of manifesting their grateful remembrance of the hospitality that sheltered them in Holland. Plymouth, in its tenth year and with its growing prosperity, was still a Separatist colony, with only a voluntary church that acknowledged no jurisdiction of Cæsar or of Parliament over the things that are God's, and no dominion of either a priestly or a preaching clergy over the Lord's free people. A bishop's commissary had been sent to New England, but did not venture to show his commission at Plymouth. Puritanism had struggled pertinaciously to capture the obnoxious Brownist colony, and had given up the conflict. Though Robinson had died in his exile-broken-hearted but for his trust in God-some of his children, and all but a remnant of his flock, had come at last into the New England which he so longed for; and the church which, with "hope deferred," waited in vain for

his coming, had found a pastor to serve it in the ministry of
word and doctrine, and to be associated with Brewster in its
government.

To explain how the church found a minister whom it could
venture to place in the pastoral office, we must go back to a
date at which we may take up the story of what Puritanism
attempted, with higher aims and on a grander scale, after its
ignominious failure to circumvent the Separatism of Plym-
outh.

[The foregoing signatures (in fac simile) are not without value as an illustration of our story. William Bradford," "Edw. Winslow," "Willm. Brewster," "Myles Standish," and "Isaac Allerton" are names with which the reader has become familiar. "John Bradford" was the son of William, left behind when the Mayflower sailed from England, but afterward brought over. "Tho. Prence" (or Prince), afterward a son-in-law of Brewster, and Governor of the colony, came in the Fortune, 1621. "Nathaniel Morton," afterward Secretary of the colony, and author of "New England's Memorial," came, at twelve years of age, with his father, George Morton, in the Anne, 1623. "Thomas Cushman" came, a boy of fourteen years, with his father in the Fortune; he was left under the care of Governor Bradford, and at the death of Brewster, twenty-eight years later, he became the Ruling Elder. "John Winslow," a brother of Edward, came in the Fortune. "Constant Southworth" and "Tho. Southworth" were the step-sons of Governor Bradford.]

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