John Winthrop First Governor of the Masschusetts Colony

THE COMING MAN 21
France. All North Germany lay torn and bleeding
under the feet of Wallenstein and Tilly. To some
watchers — Winthrop one of them — there was at
home and abroad an outlook only of ruin.
While he lived in the breath of all that tempest, to
what extent or in what manner he participated in it
has passed out of knowledge. His " Experiencia," as
we have remarked, supplies next to no information
on the point; his letters very little, not much more
than is to be gathered from casual references to
current news,—
assembling of Parliament ; ending of
Spanish Match "
treaty newes from Bohemia is ;
very
baddj" "the Duke is gone to Portsmouth;" "2 or
3 Londoners coinitted aboute the Loane," — mere
references, usually without comment, yet with impli-
cation of his sympathies. His only correspondence
of the period that has come to light, it is to be borne
in mind, is that of a domestic nature, — mostly
letters written during business sojourns in London,
to his wife, or to his young sons away from home,
in which naturally he would not discuss themes
of church and state. His other correspondence,
which one must think was copious, is irrecoverably
lost.
But there are two facts of record to be adduced that
carry with them the inference that he was on terms of
personal acquaintance and friendship with the chiefs
of the Puritan party, and in their councils. One is,
that Isaac Johnson, a foremost adventurer of the Mas-
sachusetts Bay Company, the wealthiest of them all,
Earl of Lincoln's son-in-law, in a will he made before