of such as may be skilful to lead our Israel in this their peregrination; and when God shall take you hence, to receive the crown of your labours and travels. So prayeth,

Your Worship’s humble servant,
Nathaniel Morton.

To the

Christian Reader

GRACE AND PEACE BE MULTIPLIED; WITH PROFIT BY THIS FOLLOWING NARRATION

Gentle Reader,

I have for some length of time looked upon it as a duty incumbent, especially on the immediate successors of those that have had so large experience of those many memorable and signal demonstrations of God’s goodness, viz. the first beginners of this plantation in New England, to commit to writing his gracious dispensations on that behalf; having so many inducements thereunto, not only otherwise, but so plentifully in the sacred Scriptures, that so, what we have seen, and what our fathers have told us, we may not hide from our children, showing to the generations to come the praise of the Lord. Psal. 1xxviii. 3, 4. That especially the seed of Abraham his servant, and the children of Jacob his chosen, may remember his marvellous works (Psal. cv. 5, 6) in the beginning and progress of the planting of New England, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; how that God brought a vine into this wilderness; that he cast out the heathen and planted it; that he made room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land; so that it hath sent forth its boughs to the sea and its branches to the river. Psal. 1xxx. 8, 9. And not only so, but also that he hath guided his people by his strength to his holy habitation, and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance (Exod. xv. 13), in respect of precious gospel enjoyments. So that we may not only look back to former experiences of God’s goodness to our predecessors¹

So then, gentle Reader, thou mayest take notice, that the main ends of publishing this small history, is, that God may have his due praise, his servants, the instruments, have their names embalmed, and the present and future ages may have the fruit and benefit of God’s great work, in the relation of the first planting of New England. Which ends, if attained, will be great cause of rejoicing to the publisher thereof, if God give him life and opportunity to take notice thereof.

The method I have observed, is (as I could) in some measure answerable to the ends aforenamed, in inserting some acknowledgment of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and truth upon special occasions, with allusion to the Scriptures; and also taking notice of some special instruments, and such main and special particulars as were perspicuously remarkable, in way of commendation in them, so far as my intelligence would reach; and especially in a faithful commemorizing, and declaration of God’s wonderful works for, by, and to his people, in preparing a place for them by driving out the heathen before them; bringing them through a sea of troubles; preserving and protecting them from, and in those dangers that attended them in their low estate, when they were strangers in the land; and making this howling wilderness a chamber of rest, safety, and pleasantness, whilst the storms of his displeasure have not only tossed, but endangered the overwhelming of great states and kingdoms, and hath now made it to us a fruitful land, sowed it with the seed of man and beast; but especially in giving us so long a peace, together with the gospel of peace, and so great a freedom in our civil and religious enjoyments; and also in giving us hopes that we may be instruments in his hands, not only of enlarging of our prince’s dominions, but to enlarge the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, in the conversion of the poor blind natives.