reported. I never in my life remember
a more seasonable year than we have here enjoyed."

Mr. Winslow's doubt as to whether the cold of his first winter in New
England exceeded that of the ordinary winters which he had passed in
England, refutes the fictitious representations of many writers, who to
magnify the virtues and merits of the Plymouth colonists, describe them
as braving, with a martyr's courage, the appalling cold of an almost
Arctic winter--a winter which enabled the new settlers to commence their
gardens the 16th of March, and they add in their Journal: "Monday and
Tuesday, March 19th and 20th, proved fair days. We digged our grounds
and _sowed our garden seeds_."

Not one of the American United Empire Loyalists--the Pilgrim Fathers of
Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick--could tell of a winter in the
countries of their refuge, so mild, and a spring so early and genial, as
that which favoured the Pilgrim Fathers of New England during their
first year of settlement; nor had any settlement of the Canadian Pilgrim
Fathers been able to command the means of celebrating the _first_
"Harvest Home" by a week's festivity and amusements, and entertaining,
in addition, ninety Indians for three days.]

CHAPTER II.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PILGRIM[10] FATHERS DURING SEVENTY YEARS, FROM
1620 TO 1692, AS DISTINCT FROM THAT OF THE PURITAN FATHERS.

TWO GOVERNMENTS.--_Difference between the Government of the Pilgrims and
that of the Puritans_.--Most historians, both English and American, have
scarcely or not at all noticed the fact that within the present State of
Massachusetts two separate governments of Puritan emigrants were
established and existed for seventy years--two governments as distinct
as those of Upper and Lower Canada from 1791 to 1840--as distinct as
those of any two States of the American Republic. It is quite natural
that American historians should say nothing of the Pilgrim government,
beyond the voyage and landing of its founders, as it was a standing
condemnation of the Puritan government, on which they bestow all their
eulogies. The two governments were separated by the Bay of
Massachusetts, about forty miles distant from each other by water, but
still more widely different from each other in spirit and character. The
government of the Pilgrims was marked from the beginning by a full and
hearty recognition of franchise rights to all settlers of the Christian
faith; the government of the P