hostility of the Spaniard as a possible danger common to each colony. He also warns the Dutch governor to beware of the jealousy of the English in Virginia, as shown by the dealings of Argall with the French. It is not unlikely that the settlers in New Netherlands. looked on Plymouth rather as an independent community than as appertaining to England. This, coupled with the dread of a Spanish attack, would explain conduct so much at variance with the jealous and exclusive policy usually adopted by the Dutch.

Soon after these letters had passed the English settlers received a formal visit from De Rasieres, the Secretary of the Dutch colony. His solemn entry, preceded by trumpeters, must have been the nearest approach to a public pageant which the little Puritan village had yet witnessed. He explained to the Plymouth settlers how profitable they would find it to barter wampum or shell-money with the Indians for furs, and encouraged them to push their trade to the north.1

with the

We have already seen how the relations of the settlers to the Indians were favourably opened by an alliance Dealings with Massasoit. Two events soon occurred Indians. which served to strengthen this friendship. The settlers were able to help Massasoit against a disaffected sachem, named Corbitant, who had made himself specially obnoxious to the English by threatening the life of their friend and interpreter Squanto.2

A further opportunity for befriending Massasoit soon arose. In the spring of 1623 news came to Plymouth that he was near death. Accordingly, Edward Winslow was sent to give help. Among the settlers he

stood second only to Bradford, both in literary power and practical capacity. Bradford, as Governor, could

1 De Rasieres' visit is described by Bradford, p. 157.

2 Winslow in Young, p. 219.

1621-3

DEALINGS WITH INDIANS.

89

not leave the settlement, and accordingly what one may call the diplomatic work of the little community, whether among the Indians or in England, was discharged by Winslow. He had already once visited Massasoit, and his clear and graphic account of his journey is among the most interesting of the records of native life left to us by the early settlers.' It brings out forcibly the wayward temper of the savage, his sudden changes from unreasoning suspicion to hearty friendship, and the mental quickness and eagerness for knowledge which were so strangely united with the ineradicable barbarism of his daily habits.

The illness of Massasoit, though far beyond the skill of the Indian doctors, yielded readily to the treatment of Winslow. The chief at once showed his gratitude by revealing to his benefactor certain evil designs which his neighbours entertained against the English.2

In Virginia the English had to deal with a single native power, whether as friend or foe. In New England it was otherwise. Besides the Pokanoket Indians under the rule of Massasoit, there were at least five other tribes between Plymouth Bay and the Connecticut. It is clear too that Massasoit's own authority was but lax, probably through that change in the system of chieftainship of which I have spoken elsewhere. This condition of things made it difficult for the settlers wholly to avoid hostility with one tribe or another, while on the other hand it lessened the danger of a united attack. The alliance with Massasoit was followed by the formal submission of nine sachems within his district. The first sign of hostility to the settlers came from the Narragansetts, a tribe on the west side of the 1 It is published in Young, ch. xi.

2 For Winslow's second visit, see Young, ch. xx.

Virginia, &c., pp. 17, 532.

4 Prince, p. 196. Winslow and Bradford both mention the fact but without specifying the number.

bay so named, facing the Pokanokets. In January 1622, their chief, Canonicus, alarmed or exasperated by the alliance of the English with his enemy Massasoit, sent Bradford a symbolical warning, a bundle of arrows wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin. The Governor, having learnt from his Indian friends that the message was meant to be hostile, replied in kind by sending back the skin stuffed with powder and ball. His prompt answer apparently awed Canonicus.1 Fortunately for the settlers of Plymouth, the territory of their friend Massasoit lay directly between them and the Narragansetts. Canonicus did not follow up nor repeat his threat, and in the next year his people were trading with the settlers for corn and furs. The men of Plymouth had other disputes with the Indians, but these rather concerned the outlying English settlers, and will be best dealt with in connexion with that part of our subject.

of the

colony.

The increase of Plymouth in point of population was slow as compared with that of the southern colonies. Extension In 1624 it only numbered a hundred and eighty inhabitants.2 By 1629 it had increased to three hundred. This paucity of population is explained by the economical and religious condition of the colony. In the south there were no limits upon territorial extension, and thus there was room for everyone who had hands with which to till the ground. The large planter would gladly find implements, food, and a hut for every labourer that would work for him. But in New England the demand for hired labour was limited by the want of capital and the smallness of the farms. The mere field-drudge, the offscouring of a great city, could find work on a tobacco plantation, but there was no

1 Winslow in Young, p. 281. 2 Smith's General History, p. 247. This is expressly stated in the patent granted in 1629 (Hazard, vol. i.

p. 300).

1627-36

UNSUITABLE SETTLERS EXCLUDED.

91

place for him in the economy of New England. The Plymouth emigrant, if he had not capital enough to become a yeoman-farmer, needed at least skill enough to become a craftsman or a ploughman. The increase of New England was therefore necessarily slower than that of the southern plantations.

Religious exclusiveness worked in the same direction. Though no formal test was required for citizenship, we may be sure that Plymouth was no place for those who were outside the pale of Puritanism. So long as the settlers were yoked with the London partners they could not be free in their choice of associates. We have already seen what trouble might arise from the accession of colonists who were wholly alien from the original emigrants, and there can be no doubt that a desire to escape from such enforced union hastened the dissolution of the partnership. One of the first results of that change was an addition of fresh emigrants from Leyden. Thirty-five came out in the May of 1629, followed by a smaller body soon after. It is hardly likely that any persons would have wished to settle in Plymouth who would have been unacceptable to the Puritan inhabitants, but if any such danger existed it was guarded against by a law passed in 1636, requiring that all who became householders should first obtain the approval of the Governor and Council.2

One incident recorded by Bradford illustrates the restrictions which the exclusiveness of the existing settlers imposed on the increase of the colony. An emigrant ship bound for Virginia was driven ashore at Plymouth. A few that carried themselves very orderly' were suffered to remain. The rest, being untoward people,' were compelled to seek their original destination.

1 Bradford, p. 165. He expressly states in a note in his letter-book (p. 7) that the second company was the smaller.

The means by which their exclusion was enforced is not specified, but may be filled in with no great effort of imagination.'

Growth of new towns.

In spite of these checks on extension the increase of trade and agriculture brought its natural result. About 1630 the settlers began to occupy the fertile pasture land, to the north of Plymouth.2 Standish seemingly took a leading part in this movement, since the newly occupied ground bore the name of Duxbury, in commemoration of his Lancashire birthplace. Many of the Plymouth settlers abandoned their allotments near the town, and it was found necessary to enact that all land so deserted should revert to the commonwealth and might be re-granted. Bradford and those in authority looked with disfavour on this tendency to spread abroad. We shall find a like feeling in the neighbouring colony of Massachusetts. It was natural enough that the first Plymouth settlers should feel peculiar affection for a home surrounded by such recollections and won at such a price. No doubt too, the jealous watchfulness of the New England government in this matter was a wholesome check upon those temptations to dispersion which a new country offers. Yet their dislike to what was only the natural and necessary growth of the colony shows how little the founders of Plymouth understood its future destiny. Besides tending to weaken the original settlement of Plymouth, the distance of the new plantation made it difficult to meet for congregational worship. The Governor and Assistants proposed a compromise. They would gratify the desire for more extended holdings by allotting to some of the richer residents land at Green Harbour, a little to the north of Duxbury, to be farmed by hired servants. This scheme would have dissociated the