prise, it was desirable that they should be persons not individually conspicuous, or obnoxious to displeasure in high quarters; and when Brewster, and not Robinson, accompanied the emigrants to America, it was a result, if not due to any arrangement of the Adventurers, certainly well according with their policy. Brewster was forgotten in England; nor had he ever been known as a literary champion of his sect. The able and learned Robinson was the recognized head of the English Independents. He had an English, if indeed it may not be called a European, reputation. No name could have been uttered in the courtly circles with worse omen to the new settlement than his. The case was still stronger when, having lost their way, and in consequence come to need another patent, the colony was made a dependency of the Council for New England, instead of the Virginia Company. In the Virginia Company, laboring under the displeasure of the king, and having Sandys and Wriothesley for its leaders, there was a leaven of popular sentiment. The element of absolutism and prelacy was more controlling in the counsels of the rival corporation.

From these circumstances, the quick instinct of trade took its lesson. To the favor of the Council for New England, with Sir Ferdinando Gorges at its head, and the king taking its part against Sir Edward Coke and the House of Commons, the Adventurers were looking for benefits which some of them had no mind to hazard by letting their settlement exhale any offensive odor of schism. Here it seems that we have an insight into the policy of that action to which Robinson referred, when, in a letter to Brewster, now brought by Winslow, he wrote: "I persuade myself that, for me, they of all others are unwilling I should be transported, especially such of them as have an eye that way themselves, as thinking, if I come there, their market will be marred in many regards. And for these adversaries, if they have but half the wit to their

1623.

Dec. 20.

malice, they will stop my course when they see it intended." 1

Here also we may find an explanation of the selection of a minister "not the most eminent," and such as Cushman and Winslow agreed to take only "to give content to some in London." To send a clergyman avowedly of the state Church was a course not to be thought of. The colonists could not be expected to receive him. The best method for the purpose in hand was to employ some one of a character and position suited to get possession of their confidence, and then use it to tone down their religious strictness, and, if circumstances should favor, to disturb the ecclesiastical constitution which they had set up.

As the financial prospects of the colony faded, the more anxious were the unsympathizing London partners to relieve it and themselves from the stigma of religious schism. The taunt that their colonists were Brownists depressed the value of their stock. It was for their interest to introduce settlers of a different religious character, and to take the local power, if possible, out of the hands of those who represented the obnoxious tenets. To this end, it was their policy to encourage such internal disaffection as already existed, and to strengthen it by the infusion of new elements of discord. A part even of the passengers in the first vessel, without religious sympathy with their superiors, and jealous of the needful exercise of authority, were fit subjects for an influence adverse to the existing organization. The miscellaneous importation in the Fortune followed, and the whole tenor of the discourse of Cushman, who came and went in her, shows that there were "idle drones" and "unreasonable men mixed with the nobler associates of the infant settlement. The Ann and her partner, the last vessels despatched by the Adventurers, brought new fuel for dissension in those

1 Bradford, 166.

2

was to be believed, Billington was one 2 If Lyford, the factious minister, of his allies. (Ibid., 181.)

of her company who came "on their particular." Nor does it seem hazardous to infer, alike from the circumstances of the case, and from developments which speedily followed, that some of these persons, in concert with the "strong faction among the Adventurers,” came over on the errand of subverting the existing government and order.1

.....

Lyford, the minister, began with ostentatious professions of sympathy with his new companions. "He saluted them with that reverence and humility as is seldom to be seen; .. yea, he wept and shed many tears, ..... and blessed God for this opportunity of freedom and liberty to enjoy the ordinances of God in purity among his people." He was received as a member of their church, provided with a more liberal support than any other person, and invited by the Governor, as Brewster had been, to consultations with him and the Assistants. John Oldham, who had come over in the Ann, and had experienced similar generous treatment, was "a chief stickler in the former faction among the particulars." With him, as it soon appeared, Lyford was engaged "in plotting Faction at against them, and disturbing their peace, both in Plymouth. respect of their civil and church state." When the Charity set sail for England, Bradford followed her a few 1624. miles to sea, examined letters put on board by Lyford and Oldham, and brought back to Plymouth copies of such as expressed their disaffection. He kept them private till "Lyford, with his complices, without ever speaking one word either to the Governor, church, or elder, withdrew themselves, and set up a public meeting apart, on the Lord's day, with sundry such insolent carriages, too long to relate."2

1 "Some of those that still remained here on their particular began privately to nourish a faction, and being privy to a strong faction that was among the Adventurers in England, on whom sun

July.

dry of them did depend, by their private whispering they drew some of the weaker sort of the company to their side." (Ibid., 157.)

2 Ibid., 171-175.

The Governor then summoned a General Court, and arraigned Lyford and his confederate. They denied the charge of moving sedition or conducting a calumnious correspondence, and the letters were produced to their confusion. Lyford's letters complained, that "the church would have none to live here but themselves"; that "if there came over any honest men that were not of the separation [Separatists], they would quickly distaste them”; that "they utterly sought the ruin of the particulars, as appeared by this, that they would not suffer any of the general to buy or sell or exchange with them"; that the weekly distribution of provisions was unequal and unjust; that there was "exceeding great waste of tools and vessels"; and that "the faction here might match the Jesuits for polity." And among other measures he advised, “that the Leyden company, Mr. Robinson and the rest, must still be kept back, or all would be spoiled"; that "such a number" should be "provided as might oversway them here"; and that a fit person should be sent over to supersede Captain Standish, who “looked like a silly boy." The contents of Oldham's letters are not particularly described. A third confederate, not named, informed his correspondent, that "Mr. Oldham and Mr. Lyford intended a reformation in church and commonwealth." Oldham, before the disclosure, had refused to do his military duty, drawn a weapon on the Captain, insulted the Governor, "and called them all traitors, and rebels, and other such foul language"; and it was not till "after he was clapped up awhile, he came to himself."

On the discovery of his clandestine relations to the hostile movement in England, Oldham tried to raise a mutiny on the spot; "but all were silent, being struck with the injustice of the thing." Lyford "was struck mute, burst out into tears, and confessed he feared he was a reprobate." Both were ordered to leave the colony. The sentence was remitted to Lyford, on his humble pe

and Oldham.

tition for forgiveness, accompanied with a passionate acknowledgment of the falsehood of what he had Conviction written, and of the lenity of his sentence. Old- of Lyford ham, with some followers, went to Nantasket, the southern cape of Boston Bay, where the Plymouth people had built a trading-house for their convenience in visiting the Indians of that region.

Aug. 22.

1625.

Lyford was not reclaimed. In a letter to the Adventurers he repeated his injurious representations respecting the state of things at Plymouth. It was brought to the Governor by the person to whom it ⚫had been intrusted for conveyance. Bradford took no notice of it till the following spring, when Winslow returned from a second visit to England, with March. information, that, while there, he had ascertained and disclosed to the Adventurers certain discreditable facts in Lyford's early life, which "struck all his friends mute, and made them all ashamed." He was now deposed from the ministry, to which on his professions of penitence he had been restored, and went to join Oldham at Nantasket.1 Oldham had lately ventured on a visit to Plymouth, whence, having indulged himself there in opprobrious language, he was expelled with ignominious. ceremony.2

of the part

nership of

Winslow brought further discouraging accounts of the state of affairs among the Adventurers. "As there had been a faction and siding amongst them now more Disruption than two years, so now there was an utter breach and sequestration." The amount of money due Adventurers. in London was not less than fourteen hundred pounds sterling. Some of the partners remained friendly to the colony, and wrote in terms of confidence and cheer; though, with the cattle, tools, and clothing which they sent, orders

3

1 From Nantasket Lyford went for a little time to Cape Ann, and thence to Virginia, where he shortly after died.

2 Bradford, 171-196.

3 Letter of Shirley and others (Bradford, 199).