monished them to look there should be better walking." The winter
proved sickly; an "infection that grew among the passengers at sea,
spread also among them ashore, of which many died, some of the scurvy,
others of an infectious fever." Endicott sent to Plymouth for medical
assistance, and Fuller, the physician of that place, made a visit to
Salem.

The New Dorchester Company, like that which had preceded it, and like
the company of London Adventurers concerned in that settlement at
Plymouth, was but a voluntary partnership, with no corporate powers. The
extensive acquaintance of Mr. White with persons disaffected to the
rulers in church and state was probably the immediate occasion of
advancing the business another step. Materials for a powerful
combination existed in different parts of the kingdom, and they were now
brought together for united action. The company, having been "much
enlarged," a royal charter was solicited and obtained, creating a
corporation under the name of the "Governor and Company of the
Massachusetts Bay in New England."

This is the instrument under which the colony of Massachusetts
continued to conduct its affairs for fifty-five years. The patentees
named in it were Roswell and his five associates, with twenty other
persons, of whom White was not one. It gave power forever to the freemen
of the company to elect annually, from their own number, a governor,
deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, on the last Wednesday of
Easter term, and to make laws and ordinances, not repugnant to the laws
of England, for their own benefit and the government of persons
inhabiting their territory. Four meetings of the company were to be held
in a year, and others might be convened in a manner prescribed. Meetings
of the governor, deputy-governor, and assistants were to be held once a
month or oftener. The governor, deputy-governor, and any two assistants
were authorized, but not required, to administer to freemen the oaths of
supremacy and allegiance. The company might transport settlers not
"restrained by special name." They had authority to admit new
associates, and to establish the terms of their admission, and elect and
constitute such officers as they should see fit for the ordering and
managing of their affairs. They were empowered "to encounter, repulse,
repel, and resist by force of arms, as well as by sea as by land, and by
all fitting ways and means whatsoever, all such person and persons as
should