uable cargo was a fevere blow to the Colony, He arrived in a very unfortunate time; the plague raging in London, carried off more than forty thousand people in the space of Commerce was ftagnated, the

one year.

merchants and members of the Council of New-England were difperfed and no meeting could be holden. All which Captain Standish could do, was, by private conference, to prepare the way for a corapofition with the Company of adventurers, and by the help of a few friends, with great trouble and danger, to procure a fmall quantity of goods, for the Colony, amounting to £150, which he took up at the exorbitant intereft of 50 per cent. With this infufficient but welcome fupply, he returned to Plymouth, in the fpring of 1626; bringing the forrowful news of the death of Mr. Robinfon and Mr. Cufhman.

Several attempts were, about this time, made to form plantations, within the bay of Maffachusetts, at Cape Ann and Pafcataqua.* Among thefe adventurers was one Captain Wollafton, "a man of confiderable parts, and with him three or four more of fome eminence,

Morton's Memorial, 68.

nence, who brought over many fervants, and much provisions." He pitched on the fouthern fide of the bay, at the head of the creek, and called an adjoining hill Mount Wollafton, [Quincy.] One of his company was Thomas Morton, "a pettifogger of Furnival's Inn," who had fome property of his own, or of other men committed to him. After a fhort trial, Wollafton, not finding his expectations realized, went to Virginia, with a great part of the fervants; and being better pleased with that country, fent for the reft to come to him, Morton thought this a proper opportunity to make himself head of the Company; and, in a drunken frolic, perfuaded them to depofe Filcher, the Lieutenant, and fet up for liberty and equality.

Under this influence they foon became licentious and debauched. They fold their goods to the natives for furs, taught them the ufe of arms, and employed them in hunting, They invited and received fugitives from all the neighbouring fettlements; and thus endangered their fafety, and obliged them to unite their ftrength in oppofition to them. Captain Endicott from Naumkeag made them a vifit, and gave them a fmall check, by cut

ting down a May-pole, which they had erected as a central point of diffipation and extravagance; but it was reserved for Captain Standish to break up their infamous combination. After repeated friendly admonitions, which were difregarded, at the requeft and joint expenfe* of the scattered planters, and by order of the Government of Plymouth, he went to Mount Wollafton, and fummoned Morton to furrender. Morton prepared for his defence, armed his adherents, heated them with liquor, and anfwered Standifh with abufive language.

But,

when he stepped out of his door, to take aim at his antagonist, the Captain seized his mufket with one hand, and his collar with the other, and made him prifoner. The others

* From the bill of expenfe, fent to the Council of NewEngland, may be feen the number and ability of the. plantations in 1628.

See Gov. Bradford's Letter Book in Col. Hift. Soc. iii. 63

No blood was

others quietly fubmitted. fhed, nor a gun fired. They were all conducted to Plymouth, and thence fent to England; where Morton was treated with lefs severity than he deserved, and was permitted to return and disturb the fettlements, till the establishment of the Massachusetts Colowhen he retired to Pafcataqua, and there ended his days.

ny,

After this encounter, which happened in 1628, we have no particular account of Captain Standifh. He is not mentioned in the account of the Pequot war, in 1637. He was chofen one of the magiftrates or affiftants of Plymouth Colony as long as he lived. As he advanced in years, he was much afflicted with the ftone and the ftrangury; he died in 1656, being then very old, at Duxbury, near Plymouth; where he had a tract of land, which to this day is known by the name of Captain's Hill.

He had one fon, Alexander, who died in Duxbury. The late Dr. Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College, and Mr. Kirkland, Miffionary to the Indians, were defcended from him. One of his grandfons was in poffeffion of his coat of mail, which is now fuppofed

fuppofed to be loft; but his fword is preferv ed in the Cabinet of the Hiftorical Society, of which one of his defcendants, John Thornton Kirkland, is a member. His name is ftill venerated, and the merchants of Plymouth and Boston have named their fhips after him. His pofterity chiefly refide in feveral towns of the county of Plymouth.

XXVIII.