rarchy diminished, in the view of the puritans in England, the
dangers and the sufferings to be encountered in America; and disposed
them to forego every other human enjoyment, for the consoling
privilege of worshipping the Supreme Being according to their own
opinions. Many persons of fortune determined to seek in the new world
that liberty of conscience which was denied them in the old; but,
foreseeing the misrule inseparable from the residence of the
legislative power in England, they demanded, as preliminary to their
emigration, that the powers of government should be transferred to New
England, and be exercised in the colony. The company had already
incurred expenses for which they saw no prospect of a speedy
reimbursement; and although they doubted the legality of the measure,
were well disposed by adopting it, to obtain such important aid. A
general court was therefore convened, by whom it was unanimously
resolved "that the patent should be transferred, and the government of
the colony removed from London to Massachusetts bay." It was also
agreed that the members of the corporation remaining in England,
should retain a share in the trading stock and profits for the term of
seven years.[57]

[Footnote 57: Robertson. Chalmer. Hutchison.]

{1630}

[Sidenote: Boston founded.]

Such was the effect of this revolution in the system of government,
that, early in the following year, fifteen hundred persons, among whom
were several of family and fortune, embarked, at an expense of upwards
of twenty thousand pounds, and arrived at Salem in July. Dissatisfied
with this situation, they explored the country in quest of better
stations; and, settling in many places around the bay, they laid the
foundation of several towns, and, among others, of Boston.

{1631}

The difficulty of obtaining subsistence, the difference of their food
from that to which they had been accustomed, the intense cold of the
winter, against which sufficient provision was not yet made, were
still severely felt by the colonists, and still carried many of them
to the grave; but that enthusiasm which had impelled them to emigrate,
preserved all its force; and they met, with a firm unshaken spirit,
the calamities which assailed them. Our admiration of their fortitude
and of their principles, sustains, however, some diminution from
observing the sternness with which they denied to others that civil
and religious liberty which, through so many dange