st
and weakest should follow at a future date. If the Lord "frowned" upon
their proceedings the first emigrants were to return, but if he
prospered and favored them they were to "remember and help over the
ancient and poor." As the emigrants proved the minority, it was agreed
that the pastor should remain in Holland, and that Mr. Brewster, the
elder, should accompany those who were to leave. Each party was to be an
absolute church in itself; and as any went or came they were to be
admitted to fellowship without further testimonies. Thus the church at
Plymouth was the first in New England established upon the basis of
Independent Congregationalism.

Early the next spring Mr. Weston visited Leyden to conclude the
arrangements for "shipping and money," and Messrs. Carver and Cushman
returned with him to England to "receive the money and provide for the
voyage." The latter was to tarry in London, and the former was to
proceed to Southampton; Mr. Christopher Martin, of Billerrica, in Essex,
was to join them; and from the "county of Essex came several others, as
also from London and other places."

Pending these negotiations, the property of those who were to embark was
sold, and the proceeds were added to the common fund, with which
vessels, provisions, and other necessaries were to be obtained. But Mr.
Weston already half repented his engagements, and, more interested in
trade than in religion, he informed his associates that "sundry
honorable lords and worthy gentlemen" were treating for a patent for New
England, distinct from the Virginia patent, and advised them to alter
their plans and ally with the new company. At the same time their agents
sent word that "some of those who should have gone fell off and would
not go; other merchants and friends that professed to adventure their
money withdrew and pretended many excuses: some disliking they went not
to Guiana; others would do nothing unless they went to Virginia; and
many who were most relied on refused to adventure if they went thither."
Such discouragements would have disheartened men of a less sanguine
temperament, and for a time the Pilgrims were "driven to great straits";
but as the patent for New England had not passed the seals, it was
deemed useless to linger longer in uncertainty, and they "resolved to
adventure with that patent they had."

Their greatest hardship was the compact with the merchants. The Pilgrims
were poor and their funds were limited. They h