so far north, because, if that were true, it was not known to any of the company for years afterward, and of course could not now [at that time] impair their feelings of confidence in, or kindness towards, him.  Moreover, the phraseology, “we thought it best to gratifie,” suggests rather considerations of policy than cordial desire, and their acquaintance, too, with the man was still young.  There is, however, no evidence that Jones’s duplicity was suspected till long afterward, though his character was fully recognized.  Gorges himself furnishes, in his writings, the strongest confirmation we have of the already apparent fact, that he was himself the prime conspirator.  He says, in his own “Narration,” “It was referred [evidently by himself] to their [the London Virginia Company’s] consideration, how necessary it was that means might be used to draw unto those their enterprises, some of those families that had retired themselves into Holland for scruple of conscience, giving them such freedom and liberty as might stand with their liking.”  When have we ever found Sir Ferdinando Gorges thus solicitous for the success of the rival Virginia Company?  Why, if he so esteemed the Leyden people as excellent colonists, did he not endeavor to secure them himself directly, for his own languishing company?  Certainly the “scruple of conscience” of the Leyden brethren did not hinder him, for he found it no bar, though of the Established Church himself, to giving them instantly all and more than was asked in their behalf, as soon as he had them upon his territory and they had applied for a patent.  He well knew that it would be matter of some expense and difficulty to bring the Leyden congregation into agreement to go to either of the Virginia grants, and he doubtless, and with good reason, feared that his repute and the character and reputation of his own Company, with its past history of failure, convict settlers, and loose living, would be repellent to these people of “conscience.”  If they could be brought to the “going-point,” by men more of their ilk, like Sir Edwin Sandys, Weston, and others, it would then be time to see if he could not pluck the ripe fruit for himself,—­as he seems to have done.

“This advice,” he says, “being hearkened unto, there were [those] that undertook the putting it in practice [Weston and others] and it was accordingly brought to effect,” etc.  Then, reciting (erroneously) the difficulties with the Speedwell, etc., he records the may-FLOWER’S arrival at Cape Cod, saying, “The . . . ship with great difficulty reached the coast of New England.”  He then gives a glowing, though absurd, account of the attractions the planters found—­in midwinter —­especially naming the hospitable reception of the Indians, despite the fact of the savage attack made upon them by the Nausets at Cape Cod, and adds:  “After they had well considered the state of their affairs and found that the authority they had