Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
shot Captaine Standish; but he stept to him, & put by his peece, & tooke him.
Neither was ther any hurte done to any of either side, save yt one was so drunke
yt he rane his owne nose upon ye pointe of a sword yt one held before him as he
entred ye house; but he lost but a litle of his hott blood. Morton they brought away
to Plimoth, wher he was kepte, till a ship went from ye Ile of Shols for England,
with which he was sente to ye Counsell of New-England; and letters writen to give
them information of his course & cariage; and also one was sent at their comone
charge to informe their Hors more perticulerly, & to prosecute against him. But
he foold of ye messenger, after he was gone from hence, and though he wente for
England, yet nothing was done to him, not so much as rebukte, for ought was
heard; but returned ye nexte year. Some of ye worst of ye company were disperst,
and some of ye more modest kepte ye house till he should be heard from. But I
have been too long aboute so un-worthy a person, and bad a cause.
This year Mr. Allerton brought over a yonge man for a minister to ye people
hear, wheather upon his owne head, or at ye motion of some freinds ther, I well
know not, but it was without ye churches sending; for they had bene so bitten
by Mr. Lyford, as they desired to know ye person well whom they should invite
amongst them. His name was Mr. Rogers; but they perceived, upon some triall,
that he was crased in his braine; so they were faine to be at further charge to send
him back againe ye nexte year, and loose all ye charge that was expended in his
hither bringing, which was not smalle by Mr. Allerton’s accounte, in provissions,
aparell, bedding, &c. After his returne he grue quite distracted, and Mr. Allerton
was much blamed yt he would bring such a man over, they having charge enough
otherwise.
Chapter XXIII
Also ye people of ye plantation begane to grow in their owtward estats, by
reason of ye owing of many people into ye cuntrie, espetially into ye Bay of ye
Massachusets; by which means corne & catle rose to a great prise, by wch many
were much inriched, and comodities grue plentifull; and yet in other regards this
benete turned to their hurte, and this accession of strength to their weaknes. For
now as their stocks increased, and ye increse vendible, ther was no longer any
holding them togeather, but now they must of necessitie goe to their great lots;
they could not other wise keep their katle; and having oxen growne, they must
have land for plowing & tillage. And no man now thought he could live, except he
had catle and a great deale of ground to keep them; all striving to increase their
stocks. By which means they were scatered all over ye bay, quickly, and ye towne,
in which they lived compactly till now, was left very thine, and in a short time
allmost desolate. And if this had been all, it had been less, thoug to much; but ye
church must also be devided, and those yt had lived so long togeather in Christian
& comfortable fellowship must now part and suer many divissions. First, those
that lived on their lots on ye other side of the bay (called Duxberie) they could
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