it was ever ready to make sale of patents, which
sales, owing to Parliamentary opposition to their claims, soon became
their only source of revenue.[326] They sold to some gentlemen of
Dorchester a belt of land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
and extending three miles south of the River Charles, and three miles
north of _every_ part of the River Merrimac. Other associates in the
enterprise were sought and found in and about London: Winthrop, Johnson,
Pinchon, Eaton, Saltonstall, Billingham, famous in colonial annals.
Endicott, the first governor of the new colony, was one of the original
purchasers of the patent. They were all kindred spirits, men of
religious fervor, uniting the emotions of enthusiasm with unbending
resolution in action.

The first winter brought to these colonists the usual privation,
suffering, and death, but a now rapidly-increasing emigration more than
filled up the places of all casualties. From this period, many men of
respectability and talent,[327] especially ministers of the Gospel,
sought that religious freedom[328] in America which was denied them at
home. A general impulse was given among the commercial and industrious
classes; vessels constantly crowded from the English ports across the
Atlantic, till at length the court took the alarm. A proclamation was
issued "to restrain the disorderly transportation of his majesty's
subjects, because of the many idle and refractory humors, 'whose only or
principal end is to live beyond the reach of authority.'" It has long
been a popular story that eight emigrant ships were seized when on the
point of sailing for America, and the passengers forced to land; among
whom were John Hampden,[329] Sir Arthur Hazlerig, and Oliver Cromwell.
This tale has, however, been proved untrue by modern historians.[330]

Notwithstanding these unjust and mischievous prohibitions, a
considerable number of emigrants still found their way across the
Atlantic. But when the outburst of popular indignation swept away all
the barriers raised by a short-sighted tyranny against English freedom,
many flocked hack again to their native country to enjoy its
newly-acquired liberty. (1648.) The odious and iniquitous persecution of
the Puritans resulted in a great benefit to the human race, and gave the
first strong impulse to the spirit of resistance that ultimately
overthrew oppression. It caused, also, the colonization of New England
to be effected by a class of men far