pect unto them. And for mens wives to be commanded to
doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, washing
their cloaths, etc., they deemd it a kind of slaverie,
neither could many husbands well brooke it.

During the two years that followed, so evident was the failure of the
joint undertaking that efforts were made on both sides to bring it to
an end; for the merchants, with no profit from the enterprise, were
anxious to avoid further indebtedness; and the colonists, wearying of
the dual control, wished to reap for themselves the full reward of their
own efforts. Under the new arrangement of small private properties, the
settlers began "to prise corne as more pretious than silver, and those
that had some to spare begane to trade one with another for small
things, by the quart, pottle, and peck, etc., for money they had none."
Later, finding "their corne, what they could spare from ther
necessities, to be a commoditie, (for they sould it at 6s. a bushell)
[they] used great dilligence in planting the same. And the Gov[erno]r
and shuch as were designed to manage the trade, (for it was retained for
the generall good, and none were to trade in particuler,) they followed
it to the best advantage they could; and wanting trading goods, they
understoode that a plantation which was at Monhigen, and belonged to
some marchants of Plimoth [England] was to breake up, and diverse
usefull goods was ther to be sould," the governor (Bradford himself) and
Edward Winslow "tooke a boat and some hands and went thither.... With
these goods, and their corne after harvest they gott good store of
trade, so as they were enabled to pay their ingagements against the
time, and to get some cloathing for the people, and had some comodities
beforehand." Though conditions were hard and often discouraging, the
Pilgrims gradually found themselves self-supporting and as soon as this
fact became clear, they sent Isaac Allerton to England "to make a
composition with the adventurers." As a result of the negotiations an
"agreement or bargen" was made whereby eight leading members of the
colony bought the shares of the merchants for L1800 and distributed the
payment among the settlers, who at this time numbered altogether about
three hundred. Each share carried with it a certain portion of land and
livestock. The debt was not finally liquidated until 1642.

By 1630, the Plymouth colony was fairly on its feet and beginning to
grow in "o