Page:Under Dispute (1924).pdf/19

 journ of their leaders in Holland. Moreover, unlike their Boston neighbours, the Pilgrims were plain, simple people; "not acquainted," wrote Governor Bradford, "with trades nor traffique, but used to a countrie life, and the innocente trade of husbandry." They even tried the experiment of farming their land on a communal system, and, as a result, came perilously close to starvation. Only when each man cultivated his own lot, that is, when individualism supplanted socialism, did they wring from the reluctant soil food enough to keep them alive.

To the courage and intelligence of the Pilgrim and Puritan leaders, Governor Bradford and Governor Winthrop, the settlers owed their safety and survival. The instinct of self-government was strong in these men, their measures were practical measures, their wisdom the wisdom of the world. If Bradford had not made friends with the great