Pilgrim
leader not only accepted the situation, as his duty was, but did so with
good grace, providing for the entertainment of Gorges and his
considerable company during a fortnight after their arrival in
September, an act of hospitality which was acknowledged with thanks.

With the new dignitary were families intended to replace, at
Wessagusset, now Weymouth, those who had been there long enough to
provoke the natives into the insurrection against all whites.

Before they sailed up the coast, Thomas Weston also came into port, just
at the wrong juncture for him. All his fraudulent villainy was charged
against him by Robert Gorges, including the wrongs done to the latter's
distinguished father. Bradford here displayed his forgiving spirit by
interceding in behalf of Weston, though he himself and all Plymouth had
suffered because of his actions. Clemency being obtained, Weston thought
himself free and, instead of showing gratitude, indulged in the spiteful
expressions so congenial to his nature. Thereupon Gorges in righteous
wrath vowed he would either curb or banish him; and he would have done
so had not Bradford, secretly entreated by the wretch, again procured
his release with much difficulty. This and other favors granted to him,
when in dire straits or personal peril, were ignored by Weston, who
from a safe distance still proved his inherent depravity by reviling the
Pilgrims.

A single American winter sufficed for Gorges and the bulk of the
Wessagusset colony. Relinquishing his magisterial powers, necessity
compelled him to return home before spring, accompanied by some of his
people. Others were carried to Virginia, only a few remaining in
Weymouth. Thus quickly terminated the assumption of external, delegated
authority at Plymouth as a separate Colony, the British government being
usually content to grant, though unofficially and by sufferance, its
autonomy, even to the choice of its chief executive, which was not the
case at Massachusetts Bay.

In an opportune time when opposition among the English patrons was
developing against the New England Separatists, Winslow did his part
well in defending, abroad, the Colony from its unfriendly critics, who
had misrepresented it from the time of the Mayflower's return with her
rough, profane crew, to the reprobate malcontents who had to be
deported. And now, when the Charity went back in which Winslow had
returned, having left her cargo of necessities such as much ne