ther will you be swayed by misreports, beside your ordinary course, but will persuade who may be, to patience and peace, and to the bearing of labours and crosses in love together.

I hope the failings of your friends, here, will make you the more friendly one to another, that so all our hopes may not be dashed. Labour to settle things both in your civil and religious courses, as firm and as full as you can. Lastly, I must entreat you still, to have a care of my son as your own; and I shall rest bound unto you; I pray you let him sometimes practice writing. I hope the next ships to come to you; in the mean space and ever, the Lord be all your direction and turn all our crosses and troubles, to his own glory, and our comforts, and give you to walk so wisely, and holily, as none may justly say, but they have always found you honestly minded, though never so poor. Salute our friends, and supply, I pray you, what is failing in my letters. From London, December 22, A. D. 1624.

The following note was by Gov. Bradford:

"These were his last letters. And now we lost the help of a wise and faithful friend; he wrote of the sickness and probability. of the death of another; but knew not that his own was so near; what cause have we therefore ever to be ready! He proposed to be with us the next ships, but the Lord did otherwise dispose; and had appointed him a greater journey to a better place. He was now taken from these troubles, into which (by this division) we were so deeply plunged. And here I must leave him to rest with the Lord. And will proceed with other letters, which will further show our proceedings and how things went on." (Hist. Coll. 1st Series, Vol. 3, pp. 34 and 35.)

In June, 1625, Gov. Bradford wrote to Mr. Cushman the following letter. We omit portions of it as being unimportant.

Gov. Bradford to Robert Cushman.

"Loving and kind Friend:

I would most heartily thank you; and would be right glad to see you here and many others of our old and dear friends, that we might strengthen and comfort one another, after our many troubles, travails and hardships. I long greatly for friends of Leyden, but I fear I shall not now, scarce ever see them, save in Heaven; but the will of the Lord be done. We have rid ourselves of the company of many of those who have been so troublesome to us; though I fear we are not rid of the troubles themselves.

We have sent by this first ship a good parcel of commodities, to wit: as much beaver and other furs as will amount to upwards of £277 sterling at the rates they were sold the last year, in part of payment of those goods they and you sent to be sold to us. But except we may have things, both new, serviceable, and at better rates, we shall never be able to rub through; therefore, if we could have some ready money disbursed to buy things at the best hand, it would be greatly in our way. Our people will never agree any way again to unite with the company who have cut them off with such reproach and contempt, and also returned their bills and all debts in their hands. But as for those, our loving friends, who have and do stick to us, and are deeply engaged for us, and are most careful of our goods, for our parts we will ever be ready to do any thing, that should be thought equal and mete.

But I think it will be best to press a clearance with the company; either by coming to a dividend or some other indifferent course or composition; for the longer we hang and continue in this confused and lingering condition, the worse it will be, for it takes away all heart and courage, from men to do anything. For notwithstanding our persuasion to the contrary, many protest they will never build houses, fence grounds or plant fruits for those, who not only forsake them, but use them as enemies, lading them with reproach and contumely. Nay, they will rather ruin that which is done, than they should possess it. Whereas if they knew what they should trust to, the place would quickly grow and flourish with plenty; for they never felt the sweetness of the country till this year; and not only we, but all planters in the land begin to do it.

Your son and all of us are in good health (blessed be God); he received the things you sent him. I hope God will make him a good man. My wife remembers her love unto you and thanks you for her spice. Billington still rails against you and threatens to arrest you. I know not wherefore: he is a knave and so will live and die.1

The Lord hath so graciously disposed, that when our opposites thought that many would have followed their faction, they so distracted their palpable dishonest dealings, that they stuck more firmly unto us and joined themselves to the Church. But time cuts me off; for other things I refer you to my other more general and longer letters; and so with my renewed salutations, and best love remembered unto you, I commend you and all our affairs

1 The prophecy was fulfilled, for he was hung (the first execution in the Colony) Oct. 1630, for waylaying and shooting a young man by the name of Newco

men.

to the guidance of the Most High, and so rest your assured loving friend, WILLIAM BRADFORD.

New Plymouth, June 9, 1625.

[Mr. Cushman died before this letter arrived.] "1

"April, 1626. Capt. Standish arrives from England, bringing intelligence of the death of Mr. John Robinson, who died Tuesday, March 1st, (O. S.,) 1625."2

"Our Captain also brings us notice of the death of our ancient friend Mr. Cushman, who was as our right hand with the Adventurers and who for divers years had managed all our business with them to our great advantage. He had wrote to the Governor a few months before (see his last letter p. 74) of the severe sickness of Mr. James Sherley, who was a chief friend of the Plantation."3

As

The exact date of Robert Cushman's death is not known. his last letter bore date, 22d Dec., 1624, and as he died a few weeks before Mr. Robinson, who deceased March 1st, we may therefore reasonably conclude that he died in Jan. or Feb. 1625.4

For the purpose of showing the high estimation in which Mr. Robert Cushman has been held, we shall give extracts from the writings of his contemporaries and from more recent historical works.

Says Gov. Bradford, in 1625, speaking of his death: "And now we lost a wise and faithful friend. He proposed to be with us the next ship, but the Lord did otherwise dispose, and had appointed him a greater journey to a better place.

He was our right hand with the Adventurers; who for divers years has managed all our business with them to our great advantage."

Hon. John Davis, a Judge of the U. S. District Court of Mass. in a "Biographical Sketch" of Robert Cushman, published with an edition of his sermon in 1785, remarks, - "Robert Cushman was one of the most distinguished characters among the collection

1 Bradford's Letter Book in Mass. Hist. Coll. v. 3.

See Roger White's letter to Gov. Bradford, in Young's Chronicles.

3 Gov. Bradford's Journal.

In regard to his age at the time of his death, we think, from a variety of cir cumstances, that he was somewhere between 40 and 50 years. In 1621, he had a son 14 years of age. See note on page 9.

of worthies, who quitted England on account of their religious difficulties and settled with Mr. John Robinson, their Pastor, in the city of Leyden, in 1609."

"The news of his death and Mr. Robinson's, arrived at the same time at Plymouth, by Capt. Standish, and seem to have been equally lamented by their bereaved and suffering friends here. He was zealously engaged in the success of the plantation; a man of activity and enterprise; well versed in business; respectable in point of intellectual abilities; well accomplished in scriptural knowledge; an unaffected professor and a steady, sincere practicer of religion."

And in a note to the foregoing at the time of the publication of another edition of that sermon, in 1846, Dr. N. B. Shurtleff of Boston, who seldom errs in any matters relating to the Plymouth Pilgrims, remarks,-"It seems to be a mistaken idea that Mr. Cushman started in the smaller vessel, which put back on account of its proving leaky. This mistake has arisen from the fact that Mr. C. was left in England in 1620 and did not come over in the Mayflower with the first emigrants. The fact is that Mr. Cushman procured "the larger vessel," the Mayflower, and its pilot at London and left in that vessel; but in consequence of the unsoundness of "the smaller vessel," the Speedwell, it became necessary that a part of the Pilgrims should be left behind, and consequently Mr. C. was selected as one who would be best able to keep together that portion of the flock left behind. Although Mr. Cushman did not come over in the Mayflower, yet such was the respect for him among those who did come, that his name is placed at the head of those who came in that ship, in the allotment of land (in 1623) at a time when he was not in New England."

And at a later period (1846) Judge Davis remarked in a letter to Charles Ewer, Esq., the publisher of a new edition of Mr. Cushman's sermon, "That discourse is a precious relic of ancient times; the sound good sense, good advice and pious spirit which it manifests, will, it may be hoped, now and in all future time, meet with approval and beneficial acceptance in our community."

Says the venerable Dr. Dwight, formerly President of Yale

College, in a volume of his travels in the United States, published in 1800,"By me the names of Carver, Bradford, Cushman and Standish, will never be forgotten until I lose the power of recol lection."

Allen's Biographical Dictionary, under the head of Robert Cushman, has the following: "He was distinguished in the history of Plymouth Colony; was one of those worthies who quitted England on account of liberty of conscience. He was a man of activity and enterprise; respectable for his talents and virtues; well acquainted with the scriptures and a professed disciple of Jesus Christ."

-

Russell's "Recollections of Plymouth," published in 1846, speaking of Robert Cushman, says, "Perhaps no individual of the Rev. Mr. Robinson's Church, possessed in a higher degree the qualifications required for discharging the important duties incident to the trust assigned him."

Hubbard's History of New England, says, "Robert Cushman, was an active and faithful instrument for the public good." From the Ecclesiastical History of Massachusetts, published in Mass. Hist. Coll. v. 7,-" Robert Cushman,

one of the most important and worthy characters among those who formed the first settlement (at Plymouth). His sermon, preached to our venerable fathers, in 1621, contains the best advice, and may be read by their posterity for other reasons besides this, that it is a curiosity worth preserving among the ancient things of this country."

Baylies' History of New Plymouth, says of Robert Cushman, "He was a learned, acute, sagacious and enterprising person. He had great knowledge of human nature, and was a sincere and pious christian. While at Plymouth he delivered a discourse, which is a performance of uncommon merit."

At the second celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims, by the Old Colony Club, Dec. 22, 1770, after their dinner, several appropriate toasts were delivered by Dr. Lazarus Le Baron of Plymouth. The sixth was as follows:

"6. To the memory of Mr. Robert Cushman, who preached the first Sermon in New England."