promise of
free grace with such assurance and joy as he never since doubted of his
good estate, neither should he, though he should fall into sin.~.~.~.
The Lord's day following he made a speech in the assembly, showing that
as the Lord was pleased to convert Paul as he was in persecuting, etc.,
so he might manifest himself to him as he was taking the moderate use
of the creature called tobacco." The gallant captain, being banished
the colony, betook himself to the falls of the Piscataquack (Exeter, N.
H.), where the Rev. John Wheelwright, another adherent of Mrs.
Hutchinson, had gathered a congregation. Being made governor of this
plantation, Underhill sent letters to the Massachusetts magistrates,
breathing reproaches and imprecations of vengeance. But meanwhile it
was discovered that he had been living in adultery at Boston with a
young woman whom he had seduced, the wife of a cooper, and the captain
was forced to make public confession, which he did with great unction
and in a manner highly dramatic. "He came {346} in his worst clothes
(being accustomed to take great pride in his bravery and neatness),
without a band, in a foul linen cap, and pulled close to his eyes, and
standing upon a form, he did, with many deep sighs and abundance of
tears, lay open his wicked course." There is a lurking humor in the
grave Winthrop's detailed account of Underhill's doings. Winthrop's
own personality comes out well in his _Journal_. He was a born leader
of men, a _conditor imperii_, just, moderate, patient, wise, and his
narrative gives, upon the whole, a favorable impression of the general
prudence and fair-mindedness of the Massachusetts settlers in their
dealings with one another, with the Indians, and with the neighboring
plantations.

Considering our forefathers' errand and calling into this wilderness,
it is not strange that their chief literary staples were sermons and
tracts in controversial theology. Multitudes of these were written and
published by the divines of the first generation, such as John Cotton,
Thomas Shepard, John Norton, Peter Bulkley, and Thomas Hooker, the
founder of Hartford, of whom it was finely said that "when he was doing
his Master's business he would put a king into his pocket." Nor were
their successors in the second or the third generation any less
industrious and prolific. They rest from their labors and their works
do follow them. Their sermons and theological treatises are not
lit