I confefs when I was first informed of the date which your inftrument bears, I thought that it must be a forgery, but I must now give you my fecond thoughts upon it.

The very aged gentlewomen, his two daughters, I look upon as very incompetent witneffes to determine the time of their father's first coming over into America. I have difcourfed the more fenfible and capable of them, namely, Mrs. Pierfon, who tells me that her father's coming over with his family was in the fame ship with Mr. Samuel Whiting, the minister of Lynn, and others, who, we are all fure, came in the year 1636,* but he tells me fhe is not fure her father never vifited America before, only the does not remember she ever heard him fpeak of it. And yet there are fhrewd indications of the gentleman's being here, before the year which they tell us of; I suppose you are furnished with them.

Your inftrument cannot be invalidated, but by fome demonftration that Mr. Whelewright was at home in Lincolnshire, all the year 1629. We know there were many voyages taken, between England and thefe parts of America, before that year. In the year 1624, we find Mr. Roger Conant managing a plantation, very little to the fouthward of Pafcataqua. It is no improbable thing, that fuch an active and live

7

+

ly

* Mr. Whelewright is first mentioned in Winthrop's journal in 1636, as brother to the famous Anna Hutchinfon, the patronefs of Antinomian tencts,

ly man as Mr. Whelewright, might step over hither to see how the land lay, before his trans portation of his family. *

The inftrument of 1629, has upon it fuch irrefragable marks of antiquity, that if it be a forgery, it must be a very ancient one. It has almoft as many marks of 1629 as there be years in the number, of which you need no recitation of mine; you are much better able than I am, to amplify upon them.

About an hundred and twenty years ago, there were found certain manufcripts, in fome vaults, near Granada, in Spain, which, it was affirmed, were fifteen hundred years old; and they fang te deum for the difcovery. But the Dominicans presently difcovered them, from the language and the intent of them, to be a modern fraud of the Francifcans. All the wit of man cannot perceive the least symptom of a modern fraud in your inftrument. The gentleman who litt upon it, is as honeft, upright and pious a man as any in the world, and would not do an ill thing to gain a world. But the circumftances of the inftrument itself, alfo, are fuch, that it could not be lately counterfeited. If it were a forgery, Mr. Whelewright himfelf must be privy to it. But he was always a gentleman of the most unfpotted morals imaginable; a man of a most unblemifhed reputation. He would fooner have undergone

* See Vol. I. Appendix p. ix,

dergone martyrdom, than have given the least connivance to any forgery.

There was a time, in the year 1637, when he was perfecuted with too much violence, in the Massachusetts Colony, but it was only for a disturbance made about certain fpeculations, which were thought to be of an antinomian tendency. His worst enemies never looked on him as chargeable with the least ill practices.

The blinding heat of those troubles procured an order for his remove out of the colony. 'Tis remarked in the books then published, that he did not go to Rhode-Ifland, the most inviting part of the country, whither all they went who were cenfured at the fame time with him. No, he removed then into Hampshire, which would invite one to think that he had a peculiar interest in that Province.

I have heard, that when he was a young fpark at the Univerfity, he was noted for a more than ordinary stroke at wrestling; and that afterward waiting on CROMWELL, with whom he had been contemporary at the Univerfity, Cromwell declared to the gentlemen then about him that he could remember the ' time when he had been more afraid of meeting Whelewright at football, than of meeting

any army fince in the field; for he was in

fallibly fure of being tript up by him.'

I know not whether the inftrument of his, now in your hands, will have as good an efficacy as the owner had. You will doubtlefs think it has, if, in wrestling with your adverfaries, it trip up their cause, and give them a fall. I fhould abhor, that the caufe of my best friends, and a very good cause, ever fhould be ferved by any means; yet indire I verily think this inftrument ought very much to be considered, and to have a very great weight allowed unto it.

ཏི

T

Sir, I wish you a good voyage, and a good iffue, and fubfcribe,

Your fincere servant,

CO. MATHER.

P. S. I forgot to tell you that when my parent lay at Plymouth, bound for NewEngland, on March 24, 1691-2, Mr. Sherwell, a minifter then living there, told him that his grandfather and one Mr., Coleman and another, had a patent for that which Mr. Mafon pretended unto at Pafcataqua. You may do well to inquire further concerning it.

Lieut.

No. II.

Lieut. Governor VAUGHAN's Speech at the Council Board, Sept. 24, 1717. (Vol. II, p. 22.)

GENTLEMEN,

You

OU cannot but believe that I am informed of many things fpoken to my prejudice. When private whifpers, defamatory to me are handed forward, I pafs them over with flight and difregard, and believe that every thing hitherto defigned against me has turned to my advantage, and will still do fo. But when matters are carried farther, wherein the honor of the Crown, and the intereft of the King's Majefty is especially ftruck at; when revenge's mother utters bold challenges, raifeth batteries, and begins to cannonade the powers established by my fovereign, I acknowledge myfelf alarmed, which I fhall in no wife tolerate or endure; as I am honored of the King, I will do my utmost to support it, and not let his commiflion be vilified at the rate fome will

have it. To have a due deference paid to it, is what the King requires and expects, efpecially from his minifters; and to have them ftudious of leffening the authority therein granted, is an aggravated fault, and I cannot but wonder at the arrogance and pride of thofe who

do