Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/77

] says much in his general way of writing, of the oppression to which they were subjected, both ministers and people; and there cannot be a doubt that attempts would be made to put down the church, and those attempts, whatever they were, would be construed into acts of ecclesiastical oppression by those who deemed the maintenance of such a church an act of religious duty. And controversy, as it was in those days conducted, was likely to set neighbor against neighbor, and to roughen the whole surface of society. Much that Bradford speaks of, was probably this kind of collision, or at most acts of the neighboring justices of the peace in enforcing what was then the law. Bradford speaks of the excitement of the neighborhood when they saw so many persons of all ranks and conditions parting with their possessions, and going simultaneously to another country, of whose very language they were ignorant. Some carried with them portions of their household goods; and it is mentioned that some of them carried with them looms which they had used at home. They were not, however, allowed to go without some opposition. The principal party of them, in which were Brewster and Bradford, intended to embark at Boston, and they made a secret bargain with a Dutch captain of a vessel, to receive them on board in that port as privately as might be. The captain acted perfidiously. He gave secret information to the magistrates of Boston, and when they were embarked, and, as they thought, just upon the point of sailing, they were surprised by finding officers of the port come on board, who removed them from the vessel and carried them to prison in the town, not without circumstances of contumely. Some were sent, back to their homes; others, among whom appears to have been Brewster, were kept for many months in confinement at Boston. Some were disheartened and remained in England; but the greater part persevered and met together in Amsterdam. During the twelve years of their stay in Holland, a constant stream of disaffected persons from England set towards that country where all were permitted to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Winslow and Captain Miles Standish were, among those who joined the church of Robinson after it had left England.

It was not long before disputes and controversies arose among the non-conformists in Amsterdam. This induced Robinson, a lover of peace, to remove his congregation to Leyden, where they lived in amity and concord for a number of years. Still they were not at ease. Exiles for conscience' sake, they still felt that they were Englishmen, and they had a natural aversion to losing their birthright, and allowing their children to become absorbed among the friendly Dutch. With an eye, too, to the temporal advantages that might accrue, they turned their thoughts towards the New World, and its promise of success to enterprising and hardy emigrants. "Well weaned from the delicate milk of our mother country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land," as they express themselves in a letter to