Chapter IV: Introduction: vii (4)

[101]Probably they took supplies from the trading post near the mouth of
the Piscataqua River (near modern Portsmouth, N. H.) kept by David
Thompson. In his will, Altham left 40s. to a mistress Thomson in New
England, presumably the man’s widow, as repayment of a debt she did
not know of.

[102]At Damariscove Island, off Maine. The harbor usually gave ships
good protection in rough weather.

[103]“A sentence written lengthways in the margin, and not completed.”
J. F. Jameson, in Massachusetts Historical Society, _Proceedings_,
XLIV, 184n.

[104]’Ere.

[105]From Plymouth.

[106]Probably master of a fishing vessel from Barnstaple, Devonshire,
England. “Bastable,” however, is to be found on Cape Ann on Capt.
John Smith’s map of New England (1614 and later versions), and there
were more or less permanent residents on Cape Ann by 1624.

[107]Bradford, who wrote over twenty years after the event, remembered
the salvage episode as though Altham had not been involved: “...
some of the fishing masters said it was a pity so fine a vessel
should be lost and sent them [i.e., the Plymouth settlers] word that
if they would be at the cost, they would both direct them how to
weigh her and let them have their carpenters to mend her. They
thanked them and sent men about it, and beaver to defray the charge,
without which all had been in vain. So they got coopers to trim I
know not how many tun of cask, and being made tight and fastened to
her at low water, they buoyed her up; and then with many hands
hauled her on shore in a convenient place where she might be wrought
upon. And then hired sundry carpenters to work upon her, and other
to saw plank, and at last fitted her and got her home.” Bradford,
_Of Plymouth Plantation_, 163.

[108]One of the passengers on the _Mayflower_, “Richard Gardiner became
a seaman and died in England or at sea.” Bradford, _Of Plymouth
Plantation_, 447.

[109]La Rochelle. This meant that the ship was owned and manned by
French Protestants. La Rochelle was a Huguenot stronghold under the
Edict of Nantes and became the center of resistance to royal
attempts to revise the privileges of Protestants. English public
opinion backed the Huguenots and tended to regard the people of La
Rochelle as partners in an international religious struggle. When it
came to national rights over trade, however, French Protestants were
to be treated as foreigners, though with more consideration than
Catholics.

[110]Codfish “caught close to shore, landed within a couple of days, and
lightly salted and cured largely in the sun.” Morison, _Story of the
“Old Colony” of New Plymouth_, 122.

[111]Letter of marque.

[112]To seek profit in fishing.

[113]Dawson, surgeon on the _Little James_, used language such that
Altham “and others durst not go to sea with [him]; ... such that we
were constrained to dismiss him,” and replace him with a man from
the _Anne_. “A Letter of William Bradford and Isaac Allerton, 1623,”
_Am. Hist. Rev._, VIII, 300.

[114]Peirce and the _Charity_ had gone to the fishing areas about the
time of the wreck.

[115]Oil extracted from fat-fleshed fish by heat or pressure. Fish other
than cod had little market in Europe. In later centuries, the term,
“train-oil,” was given to whale oil.

[116]Of Gibraltar.

[117]Besides Robert Cushman, several of these men were probably
Adventurers for New Plymouth—Thomas Brewer, William Collier, John
Thornell, John Pocock.

[118]English opinion, including Gov. Bradford’s at this time, agreed
that profit from New England would come by fishing. Many made money
in this way, but the New Plymouth Company lost heavily by it.

[119]Mr. Pemberton, apparently a New Plymouth Adventurer and merchant,
sent his ship under the sponsorship of the Dorchester Adventurers,
the company founded under the inspiration of Rev. John White of
Dorchester, which became the ancestor of the Massachusetts Bay
Company. Pemberton probably was a close relative of another
Adventurer, John Pemberton, a minister and enemy of the Leyden
congregation Separatist element among the Plymouth settlers. John
Pemberton received letters from John Lyford against the religious
practices and government at Plymouth, and was a leader in the
factional strife in the Company of Adventurers which led to its big
split in 1625 after a debate over Lyford.

[120]At Gloucester on Cape Ann, Mass.

[121]_Hopewell_, William Peirce, master.

[122]Lyford and Oldham, whose letters of complaint Bradford seized in
1624, continued their machinations against the Pilgrim church and
government. Lyford had repented spectacularly after his first
exposure, but went back to work, still believing he had more friends
in the colony than dared speak up. He called down a list of
complaints from the Pemberton party among the Adventurers, but only
as they withdrew from the Company. Lyford and Oldham were exiled by
the colonial government, Lyford leaving after a second exposure and
Oldham after a period of near insanity, on the day when Altham
arrived the second time.

[123]The fools merely wanted to draw more capital to the sinking
enterprise; the knaves had ulterior motives, probably inspired by
Lyford’s suggestion that every man sent to the settlement at
Plymouth be given rights as an Adventurer (by juggling the accounts)
in order to outvote the Bradford regime.

[124]Argall, formerly associated with the Virginia Company, had become a
leading member of the Council for New England. Other Council members
took grants of land for themselves; Argall may have planned to, but
he died on an English expedition to attack Cadiz in 1626.

[125]Because of the debts contracted in their name by their agents and
the London merchants, the Plymouth settlers had to remain in the
Company as reorganized by a minority of the Adventurers headed by
James Sherley. Between July and October, 1626, Isaac Allerton, as
the colony’s agent, arranged a deal to buy the interests of the
remaining Adventurers (including Altham) on an installment plan.
Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_, 182-186; Bradford, “Letter
Book,” Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st ser., III, 48.

[126]Wary, circumspect.

[127]Hawtry’s son-in-law, a lawyer.

[128]Plymouth, England.

[129]Blommaert was a merchant in Amsterdam and a director of the West
India Company, 1622-29, 1636-42.

[130]The official name of the Hudson River for several years (named
after Maurice, Prince of Orange). “Mauritse” in the original.

[131]Sandy Hook. [J. F. J.]

[132]Sandy Hook Bay. [J. F. J.]

[133]The Narrows, between Staten Island and Brooklyn.

[134]Long Island.

[135]Montauk Point.

[136]Wampum.

[137]The Siwanoys lived north of Long Island Sound, from the Bronx to
Norwalk, Conn.; the Shinnecocks inhabited the east end of Long
Island. “Souwenos,” in the original, is a name applied promiscuously
by early Dutch cartographers.

[138]No doubt in the missing portion; the Pequots are apparently meant.
[J. F. J.] The Pequots lived to the west of Narragansett Bay, in the
eastern part of Connecticut.

[139]Probably the Kill van Kull and the Passaic or Hackensack River was
thought to connect with the Wallkill River and Rondout Creek.

[140]Delaware River.

[141]In Holland. [J. F. J.]

[142]A morgen is about two acres. [J. F. J.]

[143]East River. The West India Company’s six farms lay east of the
present Bowery, and extended from a fresh-water swamp occupying the
site of the present Roosevelt and James Streets northward to
Eighteenth or Twentieth Street. [J. F. J.]

[144]Governor’s Island.

[145]I.e., both Fort Amsterdam and the little island itself. Blommaert’s
Vly was a low, damp depression running northeast and southwest about
on the line of the present Broad Street. [J. F. J.]

[146]This name applies more properly to one of the Indian dialects
spoken in the vicinity of Manhattan. J. G. Wilson (ed.), _The
Memorial History of the City of New York_ (1892), I, 49.

[147]The fish. [J. F. J.]

[148]Blackstone River, Upper Narragansett Bay, and Sakonnet River.

[149]The short cut across the base of Cape Cod, now taken by ships
through the Cape Cod Canal, was used by the Plymouth settlers and
the Indians, who went up Scusset creek on the north side and down
the Manomet River on the southwest. The site of the trading post
built on the Manomet, near Buzzard’s Bay, has been excavated and the
house restored. It is in the town of Bourne and can be reached as
follows: “after crossing the Bourne Bridge over the Canal [heading
toward Cape Cod], turn sharp right; next, bear left at a fork and
follow Shore Road to signs indicating the Post; turn right under the
railroad bridge and follow a dirt road through woods to the Post.”
Morison, _Story of the “Old Colony” of New Plymouth_, 131n.

[150]Narragansett Bay.

[151]Cape Cod, especially Monomoy Point.

[152]In New Netherland and western New England, especially the
Connecticut valley.

[153]De Rasieres, however, protested to Gov. Bradford that he had not
walked “so far this three or four years, wherefore I fear my feet
will fail me; so I am constrained to entreat you to afford me the
easiest means” to get from the Aptucxet trading post to Plymouth. So
the Governor sent a boat to pick him up at Scusset. Bradford,
“Letter Book,” Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st ser., III, 54.

[154]On an east-and-west line from the outer tip of Cape Cod.

[155]Plymouth Beach. [J. F. J.]

[156]The Gurnet and Saquish Head.

[157]He reverses the actual bearings; and the street first mentioned was
longer, 1,150 feet. [J. F. J.]

[158]A double share. [J. F. J.]

[159]In 1626, Isaac Allerton on behalf of the Plymouth settlers, agreed
to buy the interests of the remaining London Adventurers for £1800,
which De Rasieres translated into guilders by a simple formula. In
July 1627, though De Rasieres may not have been well informed of the
event, a group of leading men in the Colony, led by Bradford, became
“Undertakers” for six years to pay this debt (and about £600 in
other debts owed by the Colony) by means of a monopoly on the
external trade of the settlement, including all dealings with the
Indians. According to the agreement, each colonist who was a Freeman
of the Company (i.e., had agreed to the purchase in 1626 and
acquired rights to a share in the division of lands) made an annual
payment to the Undertakers of three bushels of corn or six pounds of
tobacco as they might specify. Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_,
184-188, 194-196.

Index

A
Allerton, Isaac, 77
animals near Plymouth, 79-80
_Anne_, 23
Annisquam, Massachusetts, 6, 17, 25
Anquam, 6, 17, 25
Aptucxet trading post, 74
Argall, Sir Samuel, 15, 55
_Arms of Amsterdam, The_, 65

B
Bacco, Terrill, 51
birds near Plymouth, 10, 11, 78-80
Bradford, William, 29, 31, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50, 63, 76-78
Brewer, Thomas, 51
Bridge, James, 21, 42, 43, 48, 52