p and sell out their trading stock. A good supply of articles
being procured, a number of debts were cleared away in consequence, and
clothing bought for those who still needed it. Little by little their
wants were being met, and actual discomfort prevented.

Also Isaac Allerton was commissioned to go to England the same year
Myles Standish came back, and with the assistance of friends over there,
a formal agreement satisfactory to the colonists was drawn up and
subscribed by forty-two Merchant Adventurers. Thereupon in 1627 Bradford
and six or seven other leading citizens ran a large venture and made
themselves personally responsible for the eventual purchase, by them and
their partners, of the revived English company's interest in the Colony,
amounting to eighteen hundred pounds, of which two hundred were to be
paid annually at the Royal Exchange in London. Next year, 1628, the
transaction was fully confirmed, with the best legal counsel available;
and the first instalment was paid. This gradual settlement was completed
three years ahead of time, with the help of a large quantity of beaver
skins.

Yet it was ten years beyond the expiration of those creditors' time
limit of nine years before the Colony was finally free from heavy
indebtedness to other parties in England, so making a financial struggle
of a quarter of a century from the landing of the Pilgrims. To the
lasting wonder of all who consider them, they exhibited alongside of
their piety, a practical business ability and perseverance, which
ultimately was not frustrated by reverses such as the seizure of
consignments by national enemies, and the loan to themselves of
absolutely necessary sums at the fearfully extortionate rate of thirty
and even fifty per cent. An indomitable tenacity, and the endurance of
rock, reposed in these gentle spirits.

To facilitate commercial progress, Governor Bradford, Captain Standish
and other competent men came before the body of colonists, recounted the
weight of debt upon them, in this matter of buying out the English
company's interest, and offered to undertake the payment of it
themselves, instead of merely being responsible for the others; only
they asked that they might have the trade of the Colony for six years,
after which it was to revert to them all, who were called the
generality. The Colony was to purchase its exemption by yearly
delivering to this internal smaller company a specified amount of
agricultural produ