Directly from the mouth of the said Riuer called Coahassett als
Conahassett towards the West so farr up into the Main Land Westwards
as the Vtmost Limitts of the said place or Country Commonly called
Pokenacutt als Sowamsett Do Extend togeather with one half of the s^d
Riuer called Narragansett and the s^d Reuolett or Runlett called
Coahassett als Conahassett and all Lands Riuers waters hauens Ports
Creeks ffihings fowlings and all hereditaments Proffitts Commodityes
and Imoluments Whatsoeuer Scituate Lyeing and being or ariseing within
or betweene the said Limitts or bounds or any of them." For trading
purposes the patent also gave them a tract extending fifteen miles in
breadth on each bank of the Kennebec.

Among the "scattered beginnings" in the neighborhood of Plymouth, the
most interesting, because the most contrasted with the Puritan colony
at Plymouth, was Captain Wollaston's settlement, established in 1625 a
little north of Wessagusset. His men were, for the most part,
servants, and Wollaston finding, soon after his arrival, that they
could be used to better advantage in Virginia, transported some of
them to that colony.

During his absence one Thomas Morton, a lawyer of Clifford's Inn,
asserted his authority, freed the rest of the settlers, and engaged in
a successful traffic with the Indians for beaver and other skins. This
circumstance was itself calculated to excite the jealousy of the
Plymouth settlers, but the ceremonies and customs at "Merry Mount,"
which name Morton gave to the settlement in lieu of "Mount Wollaston,"
caused them to regard him with even greater disgust. He instituted the
Episcopal service and planted a May-pole eighty feet high, around
which, for many days together, the settlers "frisked" hand-in-hand
with the Indian girls.

As Morton was outside of the Plymouth jurisdiction, the colonists
there had no right to interfere except in self-defence. But the
Plymouth people asserted that Morton sold arms to the Indians and
received runaway servants. This made him dangerous, and all the other
"straggling settlements," though, like Morton's, of the church of
England, united with the people at Plymouth in suppressing Morton's
settlement. In June, 1628, a joint force under Captain Miles Standish
was sent against Merry Mount, and Morton was captured and shipped to
England in charge of John Oldham, who had made his peace with
Plymouth, and now took with him letters to the Council for New England