cts.

This was a hazardous responsibility for the few most concerned, none of
whom were persons of real affluence; and yet they felt this was the only
feasible way to push trade, unhindered by too cumbrous an organization,
in which a number of incapable individuals, and even some less earnest,
were sure to be found. Efficiency and resolution were certainly needed;
for this little inner company dared to attempt, in two-thirds of the
time granted for the full payment of the eighteen hundred pounds, not
only the discharge of that encumbrance, but various other obligations
devolving upon the plantation, approximating six hundred pounds, or a
third of the other sum. It was a bold venture truly, in their still
limited circumstances and with the loss of valuable helpers abroad:--to
assume liabilities aggregating between two and three thousand pounds, or
more specifically, about twelve thousand dollars in our currency.
Insignificant enough for a well established community, the load was
large for these straitened pioneers in an almost unbroken wilderness,
who recently throughout several years had struggled for their very
lives. The feebleness of their condition makes their courage colossal.

Yet the Governor and his several partners in this enterprise were no
hot-headed speculators, rashly making chimerical castles in the air, or
busily blowing financial bubbles with foolhardy recklessness. They were
a brainy group, and the outcome proved their judgment sober. Having by
this time some basis of calculation, they took the long look, knew what
they were about, and, though purposing to be as prompt as possible, were
too cool to be in a hurry. Their sound discretion never failed; and they
displayed that rare balance which blends quiet repose of mind with
resistless energy.

One fortunate effect of such stress of business burdens was to develop
territorial exploitation. To fulfil their purposes, they enlarged the
area of their industry. Southward and northward their commerce spread. A
small pinnace was built and placed in Monumet river, emptying into
Buzzard's Bay. This could be reached by boat from Cape Cod Bay and
Scusset river, with some colportage overland between those two streams;
so avoiding the dangerous peninsular circumnavigation, and marking the
main course of the present Cape Cod Canal. Thus was opened all the lower
coast of New England, including the populous Narragansett Bay; access
was given to the mouth of the Connec