Governor Winthrop and the Indians

The Arabella arrived at Salem in June. They found there neither a church nor town. A rather stately house, in which the governor lived, and a few hovels, constituted the shelter of the settlers, among cornfields. Death had been busy, during the previous winter and spring, with the older settlers, and many of the survivors were weak and sick. Provisions were scarce. Disease attacked the new comers, and before the close of autumn, of a thousand emigrants who had arrived that year, two hundred were in their graves. The charming Arabella Johnson-the "queen of the colony"-who came from a home of luxury, died within a month after her arrival; and grief for her loss consigned her husband to the grave a few weeks after-ward.

Winthrop sought a more attractive place than Salem for the seating of his colony. Endicott's people had built some huts at Charlestown, whither some of Winthrop's people went. Others seated themselves at Dorchester, Roxbury, Watertown, and Cambridge. It was proposed to found the capital of the colony at Charlestown, and there the first court of the assistants was held late in August. But an epidemic disease, caused, it was supposed, by unwholesome water at Charlestown, induced the governor and magistrates, and others of the settlers, to remove to the peninsula of Shawmut, the site of Boston, where they found an abundance of pure spring water. There they built cottages and founded the capital of New England. The peninsula was composed of three considerable hills, and was called Tri-mountain for some time. The capital was named Boston, in commemoration of the native place of some of the emigrants from Lincolnshire. At the close of 1630, a large number of new emigrants had arrived, and the settlement on Shawmut was greatly increased. During the season, seventeen ships had brought almost fifteen hundred emigrants from England.

From the beginning the people were jealous of the power of the magistrates and ministers. They well knew the tendency toward tyranny of men exercising unrestrained control, and they thought it wise to assert popular rights-the rights of the people-at the outset. At a general court of the magistrates or assistants, in May, 1631, it was agreed that thenceforth all the officers of the government should be chosen annually by the freemen of the colony. These consisted of only men who were members in good standing of some church. This was an attempt to establish a sort of religious aristocracy for the control of the state, for, of the whole population, only one hundred and eighteen person were qualified to be freemen, according to the prescription. This intimate relation between church and state gave rise to many disorders, and it was dissolved in 1665.

There was another change in 1634, when a representative government was established, the second in America. There were now eight distinct settlements in Massachusetts, and the growth of the colony was more rapid and sturdy than that of Plymouth. Winthrop, whom the people re-elected, ruled wisely. Like Bradford, he courted the friendship of the surrounding Indians, and chiefs and sachems dined at his table. There might have been seen a sagamore from the Mohegans on the distant Hudson River to tell him of the beautiful Connecticut Valley, and invite him to send settlers there. There, also, might have been seen the son of the aged Canonicus: his nephew Miantonomoh, the brilliant young chief of the Narragansets, and the representatives of the Nipmucs and Wampanoags with Massasoit, the good chief of the latter nation. Winthrop also cultivated friendly relations with the neighboring settlements and distant colonies. He journeyed on foot from Shawmut to Plymouth, to exchange courtesies with Governor Bradford; and he sent messengers to New Netherland to have a friendly talk there with the authorities about the occupation of a part of the Connecticut Valley. His policy was peace and good-fellowship. A ship, trafficking with corn, that came from Virginia, met a friendly greeting when she sailed into Boston harbor.