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Page 34
"In y^e name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall
subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y^e Grace of
God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y^e faith,
&c., having undertaken, for y^e glorie of God, and advancemente of y^e
Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant
y^e first colonie in y^e Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these
presents solemnly & mutualy in y^e presence of God, and one of
another, covenant & combine our selves together into a civill body
politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y^e
ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame
such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices,
from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^e
generall good of y^e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission
and obedience. In witness wherof we have hereunder subscribed our
names at Cape-Codd y^e 11. of November, in y^e year of England, Franc,
& Ireland y^e eighteenth, and of Scotland y^e fiftie fourth. An^o:
Dom. 1620."
[1] William Bradford had already been a leading member of a little
dissenting congregation in England, when, in 1608, it fled from
England to Holland, and in 1620 settled at Plymouth, Mass. A year
after the arrival at Plymouth Bradford was elected Governor of the
Colony, and, with the exception of two short intervals, held this
office until his death nearly forty years afterward.
Bradford's "History of Plymouth" is a classic in New England
historical literature--the foundation-stone, in fact, of the
history of New England. A curious item in the survival of the
manuscript is that, at the time of the evacuation of Boston by the
British, during the Revolution, it disappeared mysteriously, to be
discovered eighty years afterward in the palace of the Bishop of
London. More than forty years after this discovery, the manuscript
was restored by the diocese of London to the commonwealth of
Massachusetts, which now preserves it in the State Library in
Boston.
[2] Now known as Provincetown, where a lofty monument on a hilt
back of the harbor, dedicated in 1910, commemorates the landing
there of the Pilgrim Fathers. While the Mayflower lay in this
harbor, Paregrine White was born, the first child of English
parentage born in New England.
[3] The landing at Plymouth was effected on December 21.
THE FIRST NEW YORK SETTLEMENTS
(1623-1628)
BY NICHOLAS JEAN DE WASSENAER[1]
We treated in our preceding discourse of the discovery of some rivers
in Virginia; the studious reader will learn how affairs proceeded. The
West India Company being chartered to navigate these rivers, did not
neglect so to do, but equipped in the spring [of 1623] a vessel of 130
lasts, called the _New Netherland_ whereof Cornelis Jacobs of Hoorn
was skipper, with 30 families, mostly Walloons, to plant a colony
there. They sailed in the beginning of March, and directing their
course by the Canary Islands, steered towards the wild coast, and
gained the westwind which luckily (took) them in the beginning of May
into the river called, first Rio de Montagnes, now the river
Mauritius, lying in 40-1/2 degrees. He found a Frenchman lying in the
mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the King of France
there; but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by
commission from the Lords States General and the directors of the West
India Company; and in order not to be frustrated therein, with the
assistance of those of the _Mackerel_ which lay above, they caused a
yacht of 2 guns to be manned, and convoyed the Frenchman out of the
river, who would do the same thing in the south river, but he was also
prevented by the settlers there. This being done, the ship sailed up
to the Maykans, 44 miles, near which they built and completed a fort
named "Orange," with 4 bastions, on an island, by them called Castle
Island....
Respecting these colonies, they have already a prosperous beginning;
and the hope is that they will not fall through provided they be
zealously sustained, not only in that place but in the South river.
For their increase and prosperous advancement, it is highly necessary
that those sent out be first of all well provided with means both of
support and defense, and that being freemen, they be settled there on
a free tenure; that all they work for and gain be theirs to dispose of
and to sell it according to their pleasure; that whoever is placed
over them as commander act as their father not as their executioner,
leading them with a gentle hand; for whoever rules them as a friend
and associate will be beloved by them, as he who will order them as a
superior will subvert and nullify everything; yea, they will excite
against him the neighbouring provinces to which they will fly. `Tis
better to rule by love and friendship than by force....
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