ed of three hundred persons, one hundred of whom removed
to Charlestown.

Religion, which had stimulated them to remove from their native land,
became the first object of their care in the country they had adopted.
Being zealous puritans, they concurred in the institution of a church,
establishing that form of policy, which has since been denominated
independent. A confession of faith was drawn up to which the majority
assented; and an association was formed in which they covenanted with
the Lord, and with each other, to walk together in all his ways, as he
should be pleased to reveal himself to them. Pastors, and other
ecclesiastical officers, were chosen, who were installed into their
sacred offices, by the imposition of the hands of the brethren.[54]

[Footnote 54: Robertson.]

A church being thus formed, several were received as members who gave
an account of their faith and hope as Christians; and those only were
admitted into the communion, whose morals and religious tenets were
approved by the elders.[55]

[Footnote 55: Robertson.]

{1629}

Pleased with the work of their hands, and believing it to be perfect,
they could tolerate no difference of opinion. Just escaped from
persecution, they became persecutors themselves. Some few of their
number, attached to the ritual of the church of England, were
dissatisfied with its total abolition; and, withdrawing from communion
with the church, met apart, to worship God in the manner they deemed
most proper. At the head of this small number were two of the first
patentees, who were also of the council. They were called before the
governor, who, being of opinion that their non-conformity and
conversation tended to sedition, sent them to England. The opposition
ceased when deprived of its leaders.[56]

[Footnote 56: Robertson. Chalmer. Hutchison.]

[Sidenote: Government transferred to Massachusetts bay.]

The following winter brought with it the calamities which must be
uniformly sustained by the first emigrants into a wilderness, where
the cold is severe, and the privations almost universal. In the course
of it, nearly half their number perished, "lamenting that they did not
live to see the rising glories of the faithful." The fortitude,
however, of the survivors, was not shaken; nor were their brethren in
England deterred from joining them. Religion supported the colonists
under all their difficulties; and the intolerant spirit of the English
hie