wherein there is a word to Plymouth and a word to Boston and a word to
New England with sundry useful verses."

The family record, from Governor Bradford's birth, was contained in a
Bible printed 1592 in old English.

Posterity is vastly indebted to William Bradford as the resident
historian of Plymouth Colony, throughout its first quarter of a century.
His narration of the Pilgrim story begins almost with the seventeenth
century, before the exodus to Holland. He makes no entries beyond 1646,
although, in the same neat handwriting, these dates are added--"Anno
1647. And Anno 1648." Similarly, 1639 and '40 had been joined together,
the author expressing his opinion that they did not cover enough matters
of importance for separate treatment. But two years after the last date
mentioned in the main volume, he concludes an Appendix with these words:

"And of the old stock (of one & other) ther are yet living this present
year, 1650, nere 30 persons. Let the Lord have y^e praise, who is the
High Preserver of men."

In the opening chapter, we find on a reverse page a note dated during
that last year of the continuous record, 1646, wherein he says--"when I
first begane these scribled writings (which was aboute y^e year 1630,
and so peeced up at times of leasure afterward)." It would seem that no
season of sufficient leisure arrived even to begin, before that
strenuous first decade had nearly elapsed.

It is consistent with the unfailing humility that graced the people's
chosen and beloved leader that, although as such he necessarily had a
most important part in the affairs of the Colony, he speaks of his
official self, when this is unavoidable, in an impersonal manner only;
and he rather rarely introduces the pronoun "I," or even its inclusive
plural "we," but usually employs the third person.

The language of this monumental work is that of a careful recorder,
plain and unaffected, having a lucid simplicity combined with the
replete vocabulary of a reflective literary mind. The style is dignified
and chaste, neither labored nor strained. Its fluent grace and ease of
diction compels and sustains the interest of the reader, whatever page
he may peruse. It is a model specimen of Elizabethan literature. The
account proceeds with a thoughtful deliberation and river-like momentum
of progressiveness. One realizes the faithful and honest
comprehensiveness of his memory's scrutiny, obeying the habitual call of
his conscience, whi