n
the afternoon Mr. Roger Williams, according to their custom, propounded
a question, to which their pastor, Mr. Smith, spoke briefly. Mr.
Williams prophesied the topic he had submitted; and after, the Governor
of Plymouth spoke to the question; after him, the Elder; then some two
or three more of the congregation. Then the Elder desired the Governor
of Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When
this was ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of
the contribution, upon which the Governor and all the rest went down to
the deacon's seat and put into the bag, and then returned."

Edward Winslow also once described another feature of their worship:

"We refresht ourselves ... with synginge of Psalmes, making joyfull
melodie in our hartes, as well as with y^e voice, there being manie in
y^e congregation verie experte in musick."

V

THE GOVERNOR: LAST ACTS

_I venture the prophecy that for countless years to come and to
untold thousands these mute pages shall eloquently speak of high
resolve, great suffering and heroic endurance made possible by
an absolute faith in the over-ruling providence of Almighty
God._

Governor Roger Wolcott of Massachusetts, at the Bradford
History Presentation, May 26, 1897.

_Quae patres difficillime adepti sunt nolite turpiter
relinquere._
(_What the Fathers with greatest difficulty effected do not
basely abandon._)

Inscription on the monument of William Bradford
at Plymouth.

_Sicut patribus, sit Deus nobis._
(_As with the Fathers, so may God be with us._)

SEAL OF BOSTON.

In their personal visitation the colonial leaders had opportunity to
confer on matters of mutual interest, before there was any thought of
their respective territories becoming merged indissolubly into a noble
Commonwealth. In 1630 Bradford had received in his name a patent, which
ten years later the Plymouth court requested to have; but on his ready
compliance, it returned the same at once to him, to whom and his heirs
it had been made out by the authorities in England. This charter
specified the area of the Old Colony, which, under the jurisdiction of
Plymouth, extended from Scituate, considerably below Boston harbor, to
Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, with Cape Cod on the east. Not long
after this it included ten towns.

Soon a decided forward step was taken, toward un