than the plague itself; for, usually, those of them which have this disease, have them in abundance, and for want of bedding and linen, and other necessaries, fall into a lamentable condition; for, as they lie on their hard mats, the pock breaking and running one into another, their skin cleaving by reason thereof to the mats they lie on, when they turn them, much of their skin flays off at once, and they will be all on a gore of blood, most sad and grievous to behold; and then, being very sore, what with cold and other distempers, they die like rotten sheep.

This year one Capt. Stone, who had sometimes lived at Christophers, in the West Indies, came into these parts; of whom I have nothing to speak in the way of commendation, but rather the contrary. After he had been to and fro in the country, he returned towards Virginia, with one Capt. Norton; and so it was, that, as they returned, they went into Connecticut river, where the Indians killed the said Stone as he lay in his cabin, and threw a covering over him. They likewise killed all the rest of his company, but the said Capt. Norton, he defending himself a long time in the cookroom of the bark, until, by accident, the gunpowder took fire, which for readiness he had set in an open thing before him, which did so burn and scald him, and blind his eyes, as he could make no longer resistance, but was slain also by them, and they made a prey of his goods.

It is to be observed, that the said Stone, being at the Dutch plantation, in the fore part of this year, a certain bark of Plimouth being there likewise on trading, he kept company with the Dutch governor, and made him drunk, and got leave of him, in his drunkenness, to take the said bark, without any occasion or cause given him; and so, taking his time when the merchant and some of the chief of the men were on shore, with some of his own men, made the rest of them weigh anchor, and set sail to carry her away to Virginia; but some of the Dutch seamen, who had been at Plimouth, and received kindness, seeing this horrible abuse, got a vessel or two and pursued them, and brought them back. After this he came into the Massachusetts Bay, where they commenced suit against him; but by the mediation of some it was taken up,¹⁰

1635

This year Mr. William Bradford was chosen governor of the jurisdiction of New Plimouth. Mr. Edward Winslow, Mr. Thomas Prince, Mr. William Collier, Capt. Miles Standish, Mr. John Alden, Mr. John Howland, and Mr. Stephen Hopkins, were chosen to be his assistants in government.

This year Mr. Edward Winslow took a voyage for England, on public occasions, and it came to pass that he had occasion to answer some complaints made against the country at the council board; more chiefly concerning the Massachusetts jurisdiction, which he did to good effect, and further prosecuted such things as might tend to the good of the whole; in particular, he preferred a petition to the right honourable the lords commissioners for the plantations in America, in reference unto some injuries done by the French and Dutch unto the country; which petition found good acceptance, and was in a way to a satisfactory answer. But sundry adversaries interposed, whose ends were the subversion and overthrow of the churches, at least to disturb their peace, and hinder their growth; but, by God’s providence, it so fell out in the, that end that although those adversaries crossed the petition from taking any further effect, in the end principally intended in it; yet by this, as a means, the whole plot was discovered, and those adversaries came to nothing. The particulars whereof are too long here to be inserted.

This year, on Saturday, the fifteenth day of August, was such a mighty storm of wind and rain, as none now living in these parts, either English or Indian, had seen the like; being like unto those hurricanes, or tuffins, that writers mention to be in the Indies. It began in the morning a little before day, and grew not by degrees, but came with great violence in the beginning, to the great amazement of many. It blew down sundry houses, and uncovered divers others; divers vessels were lost at sea in it, and many more