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 the same rigorous manner as those with the Indians; and though the first result—condemnation of the conduct of the settlers by the London members of the Plymouth Company—seemed, by cutting off their supplies, to threaten their very existence, it resulted in the breaking up of a confederation which had long held within its heterogeneous elements the seeds of dissolution. Left entirely to their own resources, the Puritans developed new energies; and they were already carrying on a brisk trade with the Indians, when there came news of the settlement of some rival colonists on Cape Ann, which the Plymouth people considered to be within their territory.

Captain Standish was sent out to deal with the intruders, and found that they consisted of a little band of fishermen sent out by an obscure Company known as the Dorchester, and included among them, not only Lyford and Oldham of troublous memory, but also the sufferer for righteousness' sake, Roger Conant, who had long ago left Plymouth on account of his religious opinions, and was now a leader among the new colonists. Brought face to face with his fellow-countrymen, Standish seems to have hesitated how best to deal with them, and to have been persuaded by Conant to leave them unmolested. From this slight incident arose great results. No longer in dread of their lives, Conant and his companions presently removed from the dreary shores of Cape Ann to Naumkeag, now Salem, on the mainland, and there throve so well, that the Dorchester Company was moved to send forth others to their assistance. A patent was obtained from the original New England Company, granting to its rival a tract of country between the rivers Charles and Merrimac, and to this new home a sturdy reformer named John Endicott led forth a few Puritan pilgrims in 1628. In 1629—by which time the numbers of his colony had been doubled, though by what means is not explained—Endicott was joined by John Winthrop with no less than 800 emigrants, who, after resting a while at Salem, dispersed in small parties in various directions within the limits of the territory assigned to them, some among them settling at the Indian village of Mishawan, or the Great Spring, to which the name of Charlestown had been given by a few of Endicott's settlers a year or two before.

In the course of the ensuing year, 1630, when the Dorchester had developed into the more imposing Massachusetts Bay Company, the emigrants received many fresh additions to their numbers; and early in the summer a little party moved from Charlestown to Shawmut Point, where the modern city of Boston now stands. The capital of Massachusetts—which still re