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The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton with Introductory Matter and Notes Flashcards

Thomas Morton · Public domain edition · 369 cards · 99 chapters

Thomas Morton's New English Canaan describes Indigenous life and the Plymouth settlers' practices, and the editor's notes trace the earlier Massachusetts plantations and Morton's takeover at Passonagessit. The deck covers the people, settlements, and disputes surrounding Morton's account.

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Chapter 1 · Question

According to Bradford, who came to Massachusetts with Captain Wollaston around 1625?

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Section 14 cards

According to Bradford, who came to Massachusetts with Captain Wollaston around 1625?
Bradford states that about three or four years before 1628, Captain Wollaston, 'a man of pretie parts,' arrived with three or four others of some eminence, bringing many servants and provisions to begin a plantation at Mount-Wollaston. Among them was one Mr. Morton, who 'had some small adventure (of his owne or other mens) amongst them.'
Chapter 1
What does the editor say is unknown about Captain Wollaston besides Bradford's passage?
The editor notes there is no other known record of Wollaston than Bradford's passage; even his given name is not mentioned. It may be surmised he was one of the numerous traders, generally from Bristol or the West of England, who frequented the fishing grounds and adjacent American coast in the early seventeenth century.
Chapter 1
What were the first two plantation attempts in Massachusetts before Wollaston's, and how did they differ?
The first was Thomas Weston's at Wessagusset (Weymouth) in summer 1622, a mere trading venture that completely failed. The second, in summer 1623, was led by Captain Robert Gorges under the Council for New England; unlike Weston's, it had distinct political and religious significance. Wollaston's was the third such attempt since Plymouth.
Chapter 1
How does the editor characterize the scope of the New English Canaan and the editing method needed?
The editor calls it a singular book covering vast ground: obscure references to early New England history, the aborigines, trees, animals, fish, birds, geology, classic and contemporary literature, geography, and current events. He argues no one person can cover such a field and that a proper editor must have recourse to specialists.
Chapter 1

Section 24 cards

Where did Robert Gorges's party settle in 1623, and why was shelter available?
They occupied the buildings Weston's people had used the previous winter and deserted less than six months before, probably on Phillips Creek near the Weymouth fore-river. Frosts had begun, but Governor Bradford had warned nearby Indians not to injure the Wessagusset buildings, so the newcomers found welcome shelter.
Chapter 2
What became of Robert Gorges's settlement after its first winter?
It proved permanent, though Gorges himself returned to England the next spring, disgusted and discouraged, taking some followers. Others went to Virginia seeking a milder climate and more fertile soil. A few remained at Wessagusset and are repeatedly mentioned by Morton in the New Canaan as his neighbors there.
Chapter 2
What charges were circulated against Morton before he came to America?
Dudley said Morton was an attorney in England's west countries and hinted he was implicated in a foul misdemeanor with warrants out. Nathaniel Morton claimed he killed a partner in his first New England venture; Wiggin, citing Morton's wife's son, said he fled on suspicion of murder. The author argues allowance must be made for hostile sources, though no formal charge took shape.
Chapter 2
What evidence suggests Morton visited Massachusetts Bay before 1625?
Morton states that in June 1622 he arrived in New England with thirty servants and provisions, surveying the country while houses were built. The only ship arriving that June was the Charity, which brought Weston's party to Wessagusset. The author infers Morton came as young Weston's companion and returned with him to England.
Chapter 2

Section 32 cards

Why did the Wollaston party settle at Passonagessit instead of Wessagusset?
When the party reached Massachusetts Bay, they found Wessagusset still occupied by survivors of Robert Gorges's company, who had been there nearly two years. They therefore had to establish themselves elsewhere. They chose Passonagessit, about two miles north across the Monatoquit, within what is now Quincy, and the place is still known as Mount Wollaston.
Chapter 3
What disadvantage did Passonagessit have as a trading point?
The chapter states that Passonagessit labored under one serious disadvantage as a trading-point: there was no deep water near it. Except when the tide was at least half full, the shore could be approached only in boats. In other respects it suited the party's purpose, with a prominent shore position in view of the bay entrance and good, though light, soil for planting.
Chapter 3

Section 44 cards

How did Morton gain control of the Passonagessit plantation from Lieutenant Fitcher?
While Wollaston and Rasdall were absent, Morton, described as having "more craft than honesty," feasted the remaining servants with strong drink and junkets. He warned they would be sold as slaves in Virginia like their fellows, and advised them to thrust out Lieutenant Fitcher. They did so, barring him from the group and forcing him to seek relief from neighbors until he could get passage to England.
Chapter 4
What did Morton offer the servants in exchange for ousting Fitcher?
Morton counseled the servants to expel Lieutenant Fitcher, promising that since he held a part in the plantation he would receive them as partners and consociates. They would be free from service, and together they would converse, trade, plant, and live as equals, supporting and protecting one another. The text notes this counsel "was easily received."
Chapter 4
According to the chapter, why did May-day festivities scandalize Bradford and the Plymouth elders?
The chapter argues May-day was distinctly Pagan in origin, unlike Christmas, representing what remained of the Saturnalia and worship of the Roman courtesan. In England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, May-day was associated with great license; the author cites Stubbes claiming scarcely a third of maids going a-Maying returned undefiled. To Bradford, Morton's May-pole revived a carnival of the sexes.
Chapter 4
What does the chapter say about Morton's relations with the Indians at Merry-Mount?
The author states the Indians were Morton's allies: he offered them an open, easy-going market for furs and was companionable with them, and they shared in his revels. Morton denies habitually selling them spirits, though the author notes spirits were freely used at Merry-Mount. The author also observes Morton was significantly silent on Indian female modesty, unlike Wood and Josselyn, and calls Merry-Mount not commendable in temperance or morality.
Chapter 4

Section 54 cards

Why does the text say Morton's verses were criticized, and what is the actual verdict on them?
The text says the principal charge against Morton's verses is their incomprehensibility, not their lasciviousness. Judged by the standard of the day or the present, they are decent enough, though very bad and very dull. Any detraction or scandal alleged against them was so carefully concealed that no one could understand it then, and Morton's own explanations fail to make it intelligible now.
Chapter 5
What trade practices did Morton pursue that alarmed other settlers, according to Bradford?
Morton traded spirits and guns to the Indians for furs. The firearms trade had been strictly forbidden by a proclamation of King James in 1622, issued at the instance of the Council for New England. Bradford says Morton taught the Indians to use pieces, sold them all he could spare, and sent for more from England. The text notes Morton denied selling spirits but kept a discreet silence about firearms.
Chapter 5
How did Morton's firearms trade affect the Plymouth settlers' sense of security?
Bradford says that when neighbors met Indians in the woods armed with guns, it was a terror to them, since they lived stragglingly and were of no strength in any place. They feared the mischief would spread if not prevented. They also feared losing servants, because Morton would entertain any, however vile, and that discontents would flock to him, making them fear his crew more than the savages.
Chapter 5
What evidence does the text give about the profitability of Morton's beaver trade?
Morton says that in five years one of his servants was thought to have accumulated no less than a thousand pounds in the beaver skin trade, which the text calls undoubtedly an exaggeration but notes a thousand pounds in 1635 was worth more than ten thousand now. Beaver skins cost little or nothing in America and sold at ten shillings a pound in England, though Bradford says he never knew it less than fourteen.
Chapter 5

Section 64 cards

Why did Plymouth and the coastal settlements fear Merry-Mount's growth?
The chapter says the region had no real government, and Merry-Mount was a yearly rendezvous for a rough, lawless class only one step from freebooters who cared only for immediate gain. If such a gathering place became fixed, it would develop into a nest of pirates. The author argues the Plymouth people had good cause for Bradford's alarm, whether or not Morton realized the consequences.
Chapter 6
What did the scattered coastal settlements decide about Morton, and who joined?
The chiefs of the straggling plantations met and agreed to ask Plymouth, stronger than them all, to help suppress Morton and his consorts before they grew stronger. Contributors included Piscataqua, Naumkeag, Winnisimmet, Wessagusset, Nantasket and other English-seated places. Plymouth, though least fearful, agreed to help, and they first sent letters admonishing Morton in a friendly, neighborly way.
Chapter 6
How did Morton answer the settlers' two warnings?
To the first letter Morton scorned all advice, asked who had to do with him, and said he had and would trade pieces with the Indians despite all. To the second he said the King's proclamation was no law and demanded what penalty it carried; told of the King's displeasure, he said the King was dead and his displeasure with him, and threatened to prepare for anyone who molested him.
Chapter 6
Was Morton legally correct that the King's proclamation was not law?
The chapter says Morton was clearly right on that point. In 1610, in a case referred to all the judges, Lord Coke reported their decision that the King cannot create an offence by proclamation which was not an offence before, since that would change the law. On Morton's second point, that the proclamation died with the King, the chapter says his law was probably bad, though such a distinction existed in the legal and public mind.
Chapter 6

Section 74 cards

How was Morton captured at Mount Wollaston according to Bradford's account?
Standish and about eight men were sent by the Governor of Plymouth to take Morton by force. Morton had fortified his house, armed his followers, and set out powder and bullets, but his men were so drunk their weapons were too heavy. Morton tried to shoot Standish with an overcharged carbine, but Standish deflected the piece and captured him. No one was hurt except one drunk man who ran his nose onto a sword.
Chapter 7
What did Morton claim happened at the Plymouth council after his arrest?
Morton asserted that some magistrates, especially Standish, wanted him put to death immediately rather than sent to England. The chapter's author judges this wholly out of keeping with Plymouth's character and says it was probably never really proposed, calling it Morton's imagination. Morton also claimed Standish threatened to shoot him as he was put into the boat.
Chapter 7
How was Morton sent to England, and who accompanied him?
Morton was first sent to the Isles of Shoals for about a month, then put on a fishing vessel bound for old Plymouth, England. John Oldham was chosen to represent the associated planters and carried two letters from Governor Bradford, one to the Council for New England and one to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, asking that Morton answer the charges. The plantations shared the expenses.
Chapter 7
What did Endicott do about Mount Wollaston after landing at Naumkeag?
Endicott learned of the action taken three months earlier and approved of it, though he wished harsher punishment had been given on the spot. He visited the settlement, cut down the Maypole, rebuked the residents for their profaneness, and admonished them to behave better. The place was then renamed Mount Dagon, as Bradford records.
Chapter 7

Section 84 cards

Why did Morton escape punishment in England despite Plymouth's complaints?
The author argues Morton ingratiated himself with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was not disposed to press matters against him in the Star Chamber. Oldham, now a grantee of Gorges's son, also saw no advantage in pursuing Morton. Though Morton could have been proceeded against for violating a proclamation, Bradford's letters and complaints were quietly ignored, and Morton escaped without even a rebuke.
Chapter 8
What conflict arose between the Council for New England and the Massachusetts Company?
The Council was an association of courtiers planning feudal domains for English noblemen; the Company was Puritans proposing a commonwealth. A title dispute arose over roughly three hundred square miles within the Company's grant, tied to the earlier Robert Gorges grant of 1622. The Company denied that grant's validity as 'loose and uncertain,' went directly to the throne, and obtained a royal charter confirmed on March 4, 1629.
Chapter 8
How did the race for possession of the disputed territory end?
The Company instructed Endicott to hurry a party forward to effect actual occupation, resulting in the settlement of Charlestown in summer 1629. Oldham tried to coax or browbeat the Company into a satisfactory arrangement and then to fit out his own expedition, but lacked the means. Convinced at last, he gave up the contest, leaving the Company in possession.
Chapter 8
How did Morton come to return to New England in 1629?
Isaac Allerton, Plymouth's London agent, needed a new patent covering the Kennebec grant and hoped for a royal charter, but found he could make no headway except through Gorges's favor. The author argues it is altogether probable Morton made himself useful in this. When Allerton returned in 1629 with the patent but no charter, he brought Morton back, scandalizing the Plymouth community.
Chapter 8

Section 94 cards

Why does the author reject Bradford's claim that Morton's arrest was 'to little effect'?
The author argues the arrest was highly effective: it abated the nuisance, dispelled the danger, established that a power on the coast would assert order, and drove an unscrupulous competitor out of trade. He insists these results were worth all the arrest cost and more, directly contradicting Bradford's dismissal of the effort.
Chapter 9
What did Endicott require of the old planters at the Salem General Court, and what was the alternative?
Endicott summoned the old planters to a General Court at Salem in late 1629 and tendered articles he and Rev. Samuel Skelton drew up, whose essence was that in all causes, ecclesiastical and political, God's word should be followed. The alternative to signing was banishment. Morton claims he alone refused, demanding a proviso that nothing be done contrary to the laws of England.
Chapter 9
What instructions did Endicott receive from Cradock's letters regarding the Company's privileges and factious spirits?
Cradock's letters of April 17 and May 28, 1629, stated that none should share the Company's privileges and profits but peaceable, honest men desirous to live among them and conform to good order. If a factious spirit arose, Endicott was to suppress it before it grew too great a head, preferring temperate means but permitted severity if necessity required.
Chapter 9
Why does the author suspect Morton acted as an agent of Gorges rather than for himself alone?
The author supposes Morton was informed of the trouble between the Massachusetts Company and the Council for New England, knew Oldham held a grant from John Gorges and sought adverse possession, and hoped to see a Gorges expedition appear. He corresponded with Sir Ferdinando and was confidant of his plans, so his opposition to Endicott represented a powerful English combination.
Chapter 9

Section 104 cards

How did Morton avoid arrest when Endicott's messengers came about Christmas 1629?
Morton got wind of the intended arrest and hid his ammunition and most necessary goods in the forest. When the messengers landed at the foot of Mount Wollaston he was nowhere to be found. They ransacked his house and took what provender they could, but he later replenished his supplies with his gun and mocked Captain Littleworth for making his servants go short in a country so abounding with food.
Chapter 10
What did the Court order in Morton's September 1630 sentence?
The Court ordered that Morton be set in the bilboes and sent prisoner to England on the ship Gift; that all his goods be seized to pay for his transportation, his debts, and satisfaction to the Indians for a canoe he unjustly took; and that his house be burnt to the ground in sight of the Indians for the many wrongs he had done them.
Chapter 10
According to the chapter, why does the author call the charges against Morton mere pretences?
The author argues the sentence mentioned no disregard of authority, no illicit dealings with the Indians, and no firearms trade, though such offences would have justified its severity. The alleged offences were trivial: taking a canoe, firing among Indians who would not ferry him, and being a proud, insolent man. The author notes Maverick later called these mere pretences, and that Dudley instead cited a request from the Lord Chief Justice.
Chapter 10
How was Morton actually transported to England after his arrest?
The Gift's master declined to carry him, for reasons not stated. Nearly four months after his arrest a passage was secured on the Handmaid. Maverick stated Morton refused to board, claiming he had no call to go, and had to be hoisted over the side by a tackle. The Handmaid was unseaworthy and poorly supplied, and Morton nearly starved on the long, tempestuous voyage.
Chapter 10

Section 114 cards

Why did the Massachusetts magistrates likely obtain the warrant against Morton in advance?
The author argues the warrant was probably obtained beforehand on vague report or suspicion, to be ready when needed, because the magistrates considered Morton an undesirable character and did not want him within their patent. He was suspected of being Gorges's agent and a spy, and the author says they had made up their minds before he stood at their bar.
Chapter 11
What did the author say the requisition did NOT legally justify?
The author argues that even if the requisition warranted returning Morton to England, it did not warrant confiscating all his property and burning his house before trial and conviction there. He calls the requisition a mere pretext and cover, and notes the warrant could not legally run into New England any more than into Scotland or Ireland.
Chapter 11
What did Morton, Ratcliff, and Gardiner petition the Privy Council to do in December 1632?
Acting with Gorges and Captain John Mason, they petitioned the Privy Council to inquire into how the Massachusetts Bay charter was procured and into abuses under it, charging injuries to persons and property and seditious designs against church and state. The allegations rested on affidavits from Morton, Philip Ratcliff, and Sir Christopher Gardiner.
Chapter 11
How does the author assess the charge that New England intended to throw off allegiance?
The author says nothing is more certain than that neither leaders nor common people then thought of casting off allegiance, but it is equally certain the leaders were deeply dissatisfied with affairs in England during the Star Chamber era. He argues a latent spirit ripe for rebellion did exist, and that Morton and Gardiner probably read New England's mood better than Winthrop.
Chapter 11

Section 124 cards

What did the Privy Council committee report about complaints against the Massachusetts Company?
The committee reported against any interference with the Company at that time. Complaints that could not be explained were attributed to the "faults or fancies of particular men," which were to be inquired into in due time. King Charles approved the report and even threatened punishment for those who abused his governor and the plantation.
Chapter 12
Who aided Cradock, Saltonstall and Humfrey at the Morton-Gardiner hearing?
They filed a written answer to the complaint and received efficient aid at the hearing from Emanuel Downing, Winthrop's brother-in-law and a lawyer of the Inner Temple, and from Thomas Wiggin, who lived at Piscataqua but happened to be in London at the time.
Chapter 12
How did Gorges pursue his aims after his defeat before the Privy Council?
Gorges shifted to stronger influence elsewhere, targeting the King through Archbishop Laud, who became primate about eight months after the first attack on the charter. The author argues Laud hated a Puritan, and that Gorges used this channel to influence Charles and control New England events.
Chapter 12
Why were emigrant vessels in the Thames stayed in February 1634, and what happened to them?
An Order in Council stayed vessels loaded with passengers and stores, citing emigration of persons ill-affected toward civil and ecclesiastical government, and called on Cradock to produce the charter. The Company still had friends in the Council, and for reasons best known to their Lordships the vessels were permitted to sail, with release ordered the last day of February, 1634.
Chapter 12

Section 134 cards

What body did the April 10 commission establish, and who headed it?
A board with almost unlimited power to regulate plantations, established by a commission passing the great seal on April 10. Laud was at its head. The author argues it was created at Laud's suggestion, prompted by the Council's undecided handling of the detained vessels two months earlier, and that Laud's action was stimulated and shaped by Gorges.
Chapter 13
What was Gorges's larger scheme behind the new colonial board?
The Council for New England's territory from Maine to New Jersey was to be divided among its remaining members, the patent surrendered to the King, and the King to govern directly through a governor-general—Gorges himself. This would shift the conflict from the settlers versus the weakened Council to disobedient subjects versus the King's own representative. The author calls it the New England branch of Strafford's 'Thorough.'
Chapter 13
What powers did the Commissioners of April 10 hold?
The board comprised twelve Privy Council members, with any five or more forming a quorum. Their powers were of the largest description: they could revoke all previously granted charters, remove governors and appoint replacements, break up settlements if deemed best, and punish offenders by imprisonment or by loss of life or member. The author calls it a commission of 'right divine.'
Chapter 13
How does the author characterize Charles and Laud's attention to New England?
The author argues that considerations of state had little to do with royal policy toward New England. The remoteness and insignificance of early New England to the English Court is hard now to realize; King and Primate rarely gave it a thought, their minds being full of tonnage and poundage, monopolies, money-raising, the Spanish war, Wentworth's Irish policy, the English opposition, and the Scotch church system.
Chapter 13

Section 143 cards

What did Morton claim the King's council declared about the Massachusetts Patent?
Morton writes that the Massachusetts Patent was brought before the council, its privileges examined, and declared void for manifest abuses discovered, in the presence of Sir Richard Saltonstall and others. He adds that the King reassumed the whole business, appointed a committee, and ordered a general governor sent over, with the commission already passed the privy seal.
Chapter 14
According to the editor, how were Cradock and Humfrey treated at the hearing?
The editor says Cradock and Humfrey were apparently scolded and abused by Laud in his famous style. Cradock's admission that the charter had gone to America led to his being called an imposterous knave and sharply told to send for it back at once. The editor notes Laud's foibles were played upon by accounts of Winthrop's Amsterdam fantastical ordinances.
Chapter 14
What happened to the demand for the charter's return, and who was sent as agent?
Cradock's letter enclosing the Council's order for the charter's return reached Boston in July, after Winthrop had been displaced by Dudley at the May election. The famous parchment was not sent back. Governor Edward Winslow of Plymouth was despatched to England as joint agent of the two colonies, reaching London in autumn 1634 with an evasive reply.
Chapter 14

Section 154 cards

How did the Massachusetts magistrates first learn of the Commission and governor-general?
Jeffreys came from Wessagusset to Boston on August 4 and brought Winthrop the letter he had recently received from Morton. This was the first intimation the magistrates had of the Commission and the appointment of a governor-general. Winthrop then shared the news with Dudley, other Council members, and some ministers, who hoped the letter's exaggerations exceeded the reality.
Chapter 15
What did the ministers reply when asked what to do if a general governor were sent?
Summoned to Bolton in January, the ministers were formally asked: 'What ought we to do if a general governor should be sent out of England?' They replied that 'we ought not to accept him, but defend our lawful possessions if we are able.' The author presents this as the colony's answer to Laud's threats, alongside Endicott cutting the red cross from the standard at Salem.
Chapter 15
What was the political purpose of the New Canaan, according to the chapter?
The author argues the New Canaan was a pamphlet designed to work a given effect in a particular quarter—specifically to play on Archbishop Laud's dislike of Puritans and zeal for Church forms. Dedicated to the Lords Commissioners, it attacked Separatists, noted their contempt for the Book of Common Prayer, and included a chapter on New England church practices meant to enlighten Laud.
Chapter 15
Why did Winthrop think Winslow's petition to the Lords Commissioners was ill-advised?
Winslow presented a petition on behalf of the two colonies for authority to resist Dutch and French encroachments. Winthrop argued it was not well advised because it implied an absence of authority without such special authorization, and might thus be drawn into a precedent. Winslow submitted it anyway, and several hearings were given upon it.
Chapter 15

Section 164 cards

Why was Winslow committed to the Fleet, and for how long?
The Bishop questioned Winslow about teaching publicly in the church and performing marriages, both of which Morton accused him of and Winslow confessed, arguing marriage was civil and he had been so married himself in Holland. By vehement importunity the Bishop got the Board to consent to his commitment; Winslow lay in the Fleet about seventeen weeks before release.
Chapter 16
How was the New England seacoast divided in February 1635?
At a meeting at Lord Gorges's house on 3 February 1635, the Council for New England agreed to redivide the seacoast into eight parcels instead of twenty as in the abortive 1623 division, assigned to eight persons including the Duke of Lenox, Marquis of Hamilton, and Earls of Arundel, Carlisle and Sterling. Gorges received Maine; Mason got New Hampshire and Cape Ann; Massachusetts south of Salem went to Lord Gorges.
Chapter 16
What did Morton's commission as solicitor require him to do?
Ten days after the new patents were petitioned for, Thomas Morton was entertained as solicitor for confirmation of the deeds under the great seal and to prosecute suit at law for repealing the Massachusetts Company's patent. His fee was twenty shillings a term plus further reward from those interested in New England affairs, upon judgment given in the cause.
Chapter 16
Why did the 1634-5 effort against Massachusetts ultimately fail?
The author argues it failed for want of money, as the 1623 effort had. Despite the King, Primate, Lords Commissioners, courts and a planned governor-general, behind the machinery stood only Gorges, with small means and no faculty for obtaining them. Mason helped and a ship was provided, but launching damage could not be repaired; the exchequer was empty and noble associates would venture nothing.
Chapter 16

Section 174 cards

What legal action did the attorney-general file against the Massachusetts Bay Company in June 1635?
In June 1635 the attorney-general filed a writ of quo warranto in the King's Bench against the Massachusetts Bay Company. The plan was to set the charter aside not for abuse of lawful powers but on the ground that it was void ab initio, which would vitiate every land title held under it. Cradock made default, and at the Michaelmas term judgment declared the charter void, resuming its franchises to the King.
Chapter 17
Why did Mason's death in December 1635 damage Gorges's enterprise?
Mason had been the mainstay of Gorges's enterprise, having sent some seventy men to Piscataqua a year before and contemplating explorations toward Lake Champlain. The chapter states his death seems to have been fatal to Gorges's hopes, the lopping off of the right arm of his undertakings. From then on Gorges had no source of money except the royal treasury, and he could not afford to wait.
Chapter 17
What does the chapter conclude about when The New Canaan was written versus published?
The chapter argues the book was written in 1634, citing internal evidence: an extract from its last page in the letter to Jeffreys, a reference to Henry Josselyn's expedition as then in preparation, and Mason mentioned as still living though he died in December 1635. Written after May 1634, it received no revision later than 1635 and was published in 1637, before the tide of Charles and Laud's fortunes turned.
Chapter 17
What does the chapter say about the 1637 commission and Morton's role in it?
Early in 1637, probably because of the quo warranto proceedings, a commission for governing New England appears to have been granted, but the chapter calls it mysterious: Gorges denied knowledge of it, only a copy reached America, and Winthrop said the original was stayed at the seal for unpaid fees. Cleaves procured it and a protection under the privy signet for searching out the great lake. The chapter calls the whole thing an impotent move by Morton.
Chapter 17

Section 184 cards

How did contemporaries in New England receive Morton's New Canaan?
The chapter says no mention of the New Canaan survives from its publication, and no copy is known to have been sent to New England. Winthrop apparently had never seen it by 1644. Bradford called it an infamous and scurrilous book full of lies and slanders against godly men. A copy may have reached Plymouth through a colony agent and passed hand to hand, but it drew no general notice in America.
Chapter 18
What did Gorges tell Winthrop about Morton in August 1637?
Writing to Winthrop in August 1637, Gorges made no reference to the New Canaan but took pains to say Morton was wholly 'casheered' from meddling in any of his affairs thereafter. The chapter notes it is open to question whether Gorges was practicing king-craft here, since Morton later signed the 1641 Acomenticus charter as first witness, showing he was in no lasting disgrace.
Chapter 18
What did the Lords Commissioners demand of Massachusetts in April 1638?
Meeting at Whitehall on 4 April 1638, the Lords Commissioners resolved on a more decided tone and instructed their clerk to send Massachusetts a peremptory demand for immediate surrender of its charter, to return by the same vessel. They warned that further neglect would bring a strict course and a move to have the King reassume the whole plantation into his own hands.
Chapter 18
How did Massachusetts respond to the 1638 demand for its charter?
The order reached Boston in early summer 1638 and caused alarm, since fear of a general governor persisted; a general fast had been kept in April to seek the Lord against that feared evil. But with the missive came news of troubles in Scotland over the Book of Common Prayer. In August, by direction of the General Court, Winthrop wrote to excuse not sending the charter, since it was resolved best not to send it.
Chapter 18

Section 194 cards

What did Morton claim about his authority when he appeared at Plymouth?
The letter says Morton showed only "the frame of a Common-weale and some old sealed commissions, but no inside known." Winslow suspected Morton was pretending to be commissioned by Rigby, a Commonwealth's man, rather than an agent of Gorges. The editor notes Rigby's claim was for territory in Maine, and there is no known Rigby interest in Rhode Island or Connecticut.
Chapter 19
Why did Winslow want Morton removed from Plymouth?
Winslow wrote that Morton was "the odium of our people" and warned that if he were suffered to stay, he would gain strength in time. He called Morton a serpent and said it would be just with God to punish the colony for fostering him. The editor notes Morton made no headway at Plymouth.
Chapter 19
What charges did Winthrop record against Morton at the Boston court?
Winthrop listed Morton's complaint against the colony at the council board, which Morton denied, and the bill by Sir Christopher Gardiner naming Morton as party or witness, which Morton said was only as a witness. To prove him the principal, Winthrop cited Gardiner's kind treatment, Morton's book and threatened quo warranto, and his letter to Mr. Jeffreys.
Chapter 19
What happened to Morton after the September 1644 court hearing?
The editor says the proceeding broke down for want of proof, yet Morton was again imprisoned, heavily fined, and narrowly escaped a whipping. Earlier he had been set in the stocks, had his property confiscated, and his house burned before his eyes, then was sent to England for trial and released there in due course of law.
Chapter 19

Section 204 cards

Why did the General Court keep Morton imprisoned in 1644?
The magistrates called Morton publicly, laid various charges against him which he denied, and decided to send to England for further evidence, instructing Mr Downing to search it out. The record states he was to lie in prison in the meantime unless he found sufficient bail.
Chapter 20
What did Morton's undated petition to the May 1645 General Court ask for?
Morton recounted his sufferings: his house burnt and goods taken, his body put in irons and sent home in an unvictualled ship. He asked the Court to weigh charges against him that were unproved, to note his recent serviceable actions, and to pass by former offence, promising to stand on his watch to do them service.
Chapter 20
Why was the New Canaan not used as evidence against Morton?
The chapter says the most singular feature of the proceedings is that the book was not put in evidence, apparently because no copy was to be had. The author argues a copy would have proved from the titlepage who set it forth, and the avowed author of libellous strictures on Endicott could scarcely have escaped punishment.
Chapter 20
How did the Court finally dispose of Morton's case?
According to Winthrop, after about a year in prison awaiting evidence, Morton was called before the court, fined 100 pounds, and set at liberty. The Court thought it unfit to inflict corporal punishment on him, being old and crazy, and Winthrop says the aim was to leave him opportunity to go out of the jurisdiction, which he did, dying within two years at Acomenticus.
Chapter 20

Section 214 cards

What type of man does the chapter say Morton was, and why did he become notorious?
The author argues Morton was a vulgar Royalist libertine of the Alsatian Squire and Wildrake type, a man of no remarkable qualities. Thrown by accident into a Puritan community, he was unable or unwilling to accept the situation or leave, and so his misfortunes and notoriety followed. Had he gone to Virginia or New York, the author says, he would have lived quietly and died in poverty, leaving no trace.
Chapter 21
What evidence does the chapter use to reject the claim that Morton's arrest was due to his devotion to the Book of Common Prayer?
The author calls the answer obvious and decisive: Blackstone, Maverick, Walford, and the Wessagusset settlers were all Episcopalians who observed the customary services, yet none was molested by Plymouth; all received aid and encouragement. They joined in treating Morton as a common enemy and public danger. The author concludes Morton was driven out because he was a nuisance and a source of danger, not because he used the Common Prayer.
Chapter 21
How does the chapter characterize the New English Canaan as a literary work?
The author argues the book survived through no merits of its own. It is better written than the Wonder-Working Providence but not as well as Wood's Prospect, and cannot compare with Smith, Gorges, Winslow, Winthrop, or Bradford. Morton rarely states anything correctly, is the most careless and slipshod of authors, and takes positive pleasure in concealing his meaning under metaphor. It fell still-born from the press.
Chapter 21
What does the chapter say about the tone and content of the New English Canaan's third book?
The author argues the third book is saturated with drunkenness, ribaldry, and scoffing, and that Don Quixote, Rabelais, and the Decameron were far more likely to have been in request at Merry-Mount than the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer. Yet the author insists the book is not obscene or even coarse by the standard of its time, being almost wholly free from offensive word or allusion; Morton was nonetheless a scoffer of undevout mind.
Chapter 21

Section 224 cards

What gives New Canaan its only real distinction among early New England works?
The author argues it is Morton's sense of humor. Other writers like Bradford and Winthrop showed simplicity, pathos, and descriptive power but never anything meant to raise a smile. Their solemnity, though grand, grows wearisome, and the author calls New Canaan a refreshing book and a connecting link reminding us Bradford, Winthrop, and Cotton were Englishmen of Shakespeare's time.
Chapter 22
When and where was New Canaan printed, and how many reprints preceded this edition?
Written before the close of 1635, it was printed at Amsterdam in 1637 by Jacob Frederick Stam. It was reprinted only once, by Force in the second volume of his American Tracts. The present edition is therefore the second reprint and the first annotated one. Some copies bear a Charles Greene titlepage with no date, but no copy is known with a date earlier than 1637.
Chapter 22
What did Mr. Winsor conclude about the supposed 1632 Greene titlepage?
Winsor examined the claim in the Harvard University Literary Bulletins (1878-9) and found it partially, at least, groundless. Force's reprint came from a copy lacking part or all of the titlepage, and the missing parts seem to have been supplied without notice from the 1632 entry in White Kennet's Bibliothecae Americanae Primordia. The book was entered in the Stationers' Registers in 1633 for Charles Greene.
Chapter 22
Why does the chapter say New Canaan abounds in typographical and punctuation errors?
The chapter attributes many errors to printing in Amsterdam. The manuscript was not easy to decipher, and the compositor was imperfectly, if at all, acquainted with English. Proof-sheets, if corrected at all, were not corrected by the author or anyone familiar with his writing. Pen flourishes were mistaken for punctuation, words appeared in unintelligible shapes, and letters were confused.
Chapter 22

Section 234 cards

Why is the letter to Jeffreys clearer than the New Canaan text?
The editor argues the letter to Jeffreys is intelligible and energetic because it was correctly copied by a man who understood what Morton was saying, making it as clear as Winthrop's own text. The New Canaan would have been equally clear, the editor contends, had it been deciphered at the compositor's form by someone with Winthrop's familiarity with English.
Chapter 23
What editorial rule governed the reproduction of the New Canaan in this edition?
The editor reproduces the New Canaan as it appeared in the Amsterdam edition of 1637, correcting only punctuation and manifest, unmistakable printers' errors. Very few capitals were changed, and spelling only where errors like "muit" for "mint" were plainly printers' blunders. The editor states the aim was an intelligent, not servile, reproduction.
Chapter 23
How does the editor handle unclear or deficient passages in the original text?
No conjectural readings are inserted in the text. The four or five passages whose meaning is unclear are reproduced exactly, with all guesses confined to the notes. Where words necessary to the meaning are omitted, conjecturally inserted words appear in brackets, and inadvertent omissions are flagged in the notes.
Chapter 23
What does the editor criticize about extreme typographic reproduction?
The editor argues the recent fancy for exact reproduction has gone too far, with abbreviations and figures reproduced that belonged to manuscripts and never appeared in better printed books of the period. While quaint works should keep their period dress, the editor insists gross blunders from ignorant compositors and careless proofreaders should not be jealously perpetuated as if sacred, calling that fanaticism and "Chinese."
Chapter 23

Section 243 cards

According to Morton's Prologue, what would make Canaan most fortunate?
The author argues that Canaan is rich by nature, but would be most fortunate when most enjoyed—that is, if well employed by art and industry. Without that cultivation, its fruitful womb produces admirable things that die and lie bound in dark obscurity, like a glorious tomb rather than a benefit.
Chapter 24
What does Morton say about Aristotle's view of the Torrid Zone?
Morton says he does not agree with Aristotle that the lands under the Torrid Zone are altogether uninhabited, since he himself has been so near the equinoctial line that the sun was his zenith and seen proof to the contrary. Still, he admits that zone brings many inconveniences.
Chapter 24
How does Morton explain the trade winds and the rains between the Tropics?
Morton says the rains are caused by the turning of the winds, which otherwise between the Tropics blow Trade, always one way: constantly northeast next the Tropic of Cancer and southwest next the Tropic of Capricorn. Winds coming from the poles keep the air cool and make those parts temperate and habitable, were it not for other inconveniences.
Chapter 24

Section 254 cards

Why does Morton agree with Aristotle that the Frigida Zona is unfit for habitation?
Morton cites the fate of Captain Davis, who was frozen to death while seeking the Northwest passage for the East India trade. He adds that in Greenland, many degrees short of the Pole, the sun is absent almost six months and the land lies under continual frost. He says many other navigators proved this by wintering there, and thinks they will not venture to winter there again for an India mine.
Chapter 25
How does Morton locate New England within the 'golden mean' of latitude?
Morton counts 90 degrees between the Line and either Pole, places the mean near 45 degrees, then inclines toward the southern side for heat. He says New England runs from 40 to 45 degrees north latitude, participating in heat and cold but oppressed by neither, so it lies in the Zona temperata. Old England lies between 50 and 54 degrees, making New England about 10 degrees nearer the line.
Chapter 25
Why does Morton say New England's climate is not hotter than Old England's despite being 10 degrees closer to the line?
Morton argues the coast lies circularly northeast and southwest, opposite toward the sun's rising, so it receives little or no reflected heat because the continual motion of the waters makes the air cooler and more constant. He also claims the winds there are not so violent as in England, since no shrubs are seen leaning from the wind as on the English sea coast.
Chapter 25
What evidence does Morton offer that the New England natives' language contains Greek and Latin words?
Morton says he learned enough of the language through conversation to conjecture origins, and that others of good judgment found the natives use many words of Greek and Latin to the same signification. His examples include 'en animia' for doing something with good will, 'Pascopan' for greedy gut (from Latin pasco, to feed, and Greek pan, all), 'Pasco nantum' as half starved, 'Equa coge' as set it upright, and 'Mona' as island, quasi Monon, alone.
Chapter 25

Section 264 cards

What evidence does Morton give that New England natives once revered Pan?
Morton notes that many places retain the name of Pan, such as Pantneket and Matta pan, so he suggests these people formerly held Pan in great reverence and may have worshipped him as the heathen god. He adds, however, that they use no manner of worship at all now.
Chapter 26
Why does Morton reject a Tartar origin for New England natives?
Morton argues a settled people must be removed by compulsion or tempted by better fortunes. Crossing a frozen sea would require compulsion, yet no one knows who compelled them, when, or what part of the continent borders Tartary. He also cites lack of visible land, food, and fuel on such a journey.
Chapter 26
What does Morton claim about sails, the compass, and ancient voyages?
Morton credits Daedalus as the first inventor of sails and Icarus as the second user, and says Brutus's people might have had sails, oars, and victuals but no compass. He dates Troy's destruction to about Saul's time, yet argues the loadstone and compass were known in Solomon's time because the three-year voyage to Ophir required them.
Chapter 26
On whose testimony does Morton conclude the natives descend from scattered Trojans?
Morton says he has the approbation of Sir Christopher Gardiner, a knight who lived among the natives, and David Tompson, a Scottish gentleman likewise conversant with them, both scholars and travelers diligent in noticing these things. On their judgment he boldly concludes the natives' origin may be conjectured from scattered Trojans after Brutus left Latium.
Chapter 26

Section 274 cards

What happened to the living when the plague struck the Indians, according to Morton?
Morton writes that the hand of God fell heavily on them and they died in heaps in their houses; the living who could shift for themselves ran away and let the dying lie, leaving corpses unburied above ground. In some places only one survived to tell what became of the rest, and the dead were left for crows, kites and vermin.
Chapter 27
How did the Indians customarily bury their dead, and why abandon the place?
Morton says it is their custom to bury the dead ceremoniously and carefully, then abandon that place, because they do not want the place to remind them of mortality. He contrasts this careful custom with the plague time, when the living were seemingly unable to bury the dead at all.
Chapter 27
How does Morton explain the reduced number of Indians in New England?
Morton says the mortality was not ended when the Brownists of New Plymouth settled at Patuxet, and by all likelihood the sickness was the Plague, as he learned by conference with the Indians since his arrival. By this means, he argues, there is as yet but a small number of Salvages in New England compared to former times, making the place fitter for the English to inhabit.
Chapter 27
What is Morton's opinion on whether the New England natives have religion?
Morton argues against Cicero's view that no people is so barbarous as to lack some worship, and against those who say the natives have a kind of worship they cannot name. He concludes the Natives of New England have no worship nor religion at all, citing Sir William Alexander's description of them as sine fide, sine lege, & sine rege.
Chapter 27

Section 281 cards

How are Indian infants carried and raised according to the chapter?
The author says infants are born with hair and white complexion like Europeans, but mothers wash them in a bath of walnut leaves and husks to stain their skin tawny forever. Infants are carried on their mothers' backs in a cradle made of a board forked at both ends, bound in furs with knees thrust toward the belly. The author claims this cradle preserves them better than English cradles, finding none crooked-backed or wry-legged.
Chapter 28

Section 294 cards

How did Indians show respect for age in councils and at meals?
The younger were always obedient to elders and followed their counsel without grumbling. In councils the young men's opinions were heard, but the old men's opinion and counsel were embraced and followed. In distribution of food, the elder men were first served by their dispensator, and the counsels of elders, especially powahs, were esteemed as oracles among the younger natives.
Chapter 29
What tricks did Papasiquineo the Powah perform to amaze spectators?
Morton reports that Papasiquineo claimed he would go underwater to the far side of a river too broad to cross in one breath, but actually swam over while casting a mist before the spectators' eyes. He also, in summer heat, made a piece of ice appear floating in a bowl of water after an incantation, which Morton attributes to the agility of Satan.
Chapter 29
Why was giving a coat to Tantoquineo so offensive to the English factor?
A neighbor hired a native as a factor for the beaver trade and gave him goods, including one coat of special esteem. The factor returned with too little beaver and said he had given the coat to Tantoquineo, a powah. His master cried in rage, 'what have I to doe with Tantoquineo?' The native was angry, asking whether he would not give Tantoquineo a coat, since slighting a powah was thought nearly sacrilege.
Chapter 29
How was a duel between two Salvages conducted, and how was victory honored?
Two champions, each with bow and quiver, chose two trees a little distance apart and cast lots for the chief tree. Each stood behind his tree, watching for an advantage to shoot and gall the enemy, continuing until one or both were slain. The surviving combatant counted it the greatest honor to show the scars of wounds received, wearing a bracelet on the arm as a trophy of honor to his dying day.
Chapter 29

Section 304 cards

Why did the young Sachem refuse to send a convoy for his wife?
He argued that when she left him he had provided an escort to her father's lands, as was proper; now that she wished to return, it was her father's place to send her back with his own people. He held that fetching her himself, or sending his men, would be servile and diminish his reputation.
Chapter 30
How did the dispute between the two Sachems over the wife's return end?
Neither would yield: the young Sachem would not send for her, and Papasiquineo would not send her back, each fearing a loss of honor by seeming to comply. The author reports that when he left the country the Lady still remained with her father, and he notes it as worth remarking that native people maintain reputation so much.
Chapter 30
What is wampampeak, and what are its two sorts?
Wampampeak is a kind of bead the people use instead of money, made from shells of fish. It comes in two sorts: white, which the author says is to them as silver is to us, and violet-colored, which is as our gold. With these beads they buy and sell among themselves and with the English.
Chapter 30
What happened when some tried to counterfeit wampampeak?
Some endeavored by example to make the like from the same kind of shells, but none ever attained perfection in composing them. The native people found a great difference between the two and knew the counterfeit beads from their own, and the author says they slight them.
Chapter 30

Section 314 cards

How did Native Americans store dried corn, and under what condition was it used?
They placed husked, well-dried corn in large baskets made of Sparke, lined and covered with mats, and set these into holes in the earth holding about a hogshead each, then covered them with earth. Morton says this preserved the corn from destruction or putrefaction, and it was to be used only in case of necessity, not otherwise.
Chapter 31
What does Morton argue salt could do for Native peoples?
The author argues that if they knew the benefit of salt and how to make salted meat fresh again, they would preserve fish for winter as they do corn, and that if anything brings them to civility it will be the use of salt to keep food in store, which he calls a chief benefit in a civilized commonwealth. He notes many had begun begging salt from him.
Chapter 31
How did Cheecatawback trick the Narohiganset visitors into leaving?
Unable to resist them by force, Cheecatawback spread word that the Narohigansets came to spy and cut off the English, and asked that his wives and children be harbored in an English house. The English armed themselves; a trader saw them in harness and fled. He then sent a man who had lived twelve months in England to warn the intruders off, and all hundred departed.
Chapter 31
What did the English neighbors lose because of Cheecatawback's stratagem?
Morton says the hundred Narohigansets, who meant the English no harm, left with bag and baggage, and his neighbors were gulled by the Sachem's subtlety and lost the best trade of beaver they ever had for the time. In the end they found their error in this kind of credulity when it was too late.
Chapter 31

Section 324 cards

What evidence does Morton give for the exceptional eyesight of the native people?
Morton claims the native people could sight a ship at sea one or even two hours before an Englishman standing by to look out. He attributes this to their eyes being black as jet, a color he says is accounted strongest for sight, and notes the French in Nova Francia made similar observations.
Chapter 32
How did a native hunter distinguish between two deer tracks using his senses?
Morton describes a hunter who found two deer tracks leading different ways and could not tell by sight which was fresh. He dug up earth from one track, smelled it, and judged it not the fresh deer; digging the other, he viewed and smelled it, concluded it was the fresh deer he had pursued, followed the chase, and killed it.
Chapter 32
What religious tradition does Morton say the native people hold about creation and the soul?
Morton reports by tradition that God made one man and one woman, told them to live together and kill game at pleasure; their posterity grew evil, so God let the sea drown the wicked, who went to Sanaconquam, while the good went to Kytan's house at the sunset, eating dainties without labor. Kytan makes corn, trees, and fruits grow.
Chapter 32
Why did a native man ask Morton to raise his son, and what did he call a good man?
Knowing Morton used him with more respect than others, the man asked that his son be brought up in Morton's house to learn to read the Book of Common Prayer, believing the boy would thereby become an Englishman and a good man. Asked who a good man was, he answered: one who would not lie nor steal.
Chapter 32

Section 334 cards

Why do the Salvages burn the country twice a year?
The author states they burn the country twice yearly, at spring and at the fall of the leaf, because otherwise it would be overgrown with underweeds and become all coppice wood, so that people could not pass through the country except along a beaten path. He adds that this firing makes the country passable and beautiful, with trees growing here and there as in English parks.
Chapter 33
How do the Salvages start fires, and where do the stones come from?
They carry certain mineral stones in bags made of little beasts' skins converted into good leather, along with a piece of touchwood of their own making. The author says they obtain these mineral stones by trade and traffic with the Piquenteenes, who live to the southward of all the plantations in New England.
Chapter 33
Where must one look for large timber and cedars, and why?
The author argues that burning the grass destroys underwoods and scorches elder trees, shrinking them and hindering growth. So anyone seeking large trees and good timber must not rely on a wooden prospect on upland ground, but must search the lower, wet grounds and valleys, where moisture and snow water keep the fire from doing harm.
Chapter 33
How do the English protect their habitations from these fires?
The author says that to prevent damage and danger to their habitations, the English carefully observed the winds around the same times and fired the grounds about their own habitations, so that if fire came near their houses in their absence, no damage would happen through neglect. Once kindled, fire spreads both against and with the wind, burning night and day until rain quenches it.
Chapter 33

Section 344 cards

How do the people Morton describes share food and goods among themselves?
Morton says that although each proprietor knows his own property, all things are used in common as long as they last. A biscuit cake given to one person is broken into as many equal parts as there are people in his company and distributed. He compares this practice to Plato's Commonwealth. He adds that they share everything except the wife, and would rather all starve than let one starve through want.
Chapter 34
How do these people drink, and what ancient example does Morton cite for it?
Their natural drink comes from the crystal fountain, which they take up in their hands joined close together, taking a great quantity at a time and drinking at the wrists. Morton says seeing this feat made Diogenes throw away his dish, confirming Natura paucis contenta, and use a dish no more. The example illustrates contentment with few things.
Chapter 34
What does Morton argue about the happiness of these people compared with Christians?
The author argues that, judged by human reason guided only by the light of nature, these people lead a happier and freer life, being void of care, which torments the minds of many Christians. They delight not in baubles but in useful things, and are better content with their own lot than with the pomp they see daily before their faces.
Chapter 34
How does Morton describe the rule and order among these people?
Morton says they may be accounted to live richly, wanting nothing needful, and commended for a contented life. The younger are ruled by the elder, the elder by the Powahs, and the Powahs by the Devil. He then invites the reader to imagine what good rule is likely to be among them, a wry closing remark rather than praise.
Chapter 34

Section 354 cards

What four sorts of walnut trees does Morton report, and how are young walnut trees used?
Morton states there is infinite store of walnut wood in four sorts. He says the younger trees are used for hoops and are the best material for that purpose of all other stuff. The nuts, when they fall, feed swine, which he claims makes the most delicate bacon of all food, calling it a chief commodity.
Chapter 35
How does Morton distinguish cypress from cedar, and which does he prefer?
Morton says cypress is vulgarly taken for another sort of cedar, but workmen distinguish them, especially by color: cypress is white and cedar red. Cypress also has a finer leaf and smoother bark, is sweeter than cedar, and, citing Gerard's herbal, is more beautiful. He says cypress is, to his mind, the most beautiful of all.
Chapter 35
What does Morton claim about the size and quality of New England spruce for ship masts?
Morton says spruce grows in infinite store, especially in the northern parts, and English workmen approved it as tougher than East Country spruce, from which masts and yards are obtained. He reports the spruce of this country are found to be three and four fathoms about and reputed able, single, to make masts for the biggest ship on the main ocean without peesing, more than the East Country can afford.
Chapter 35
According to Morton, why don't vines overrun the land, and how large is the fruit?
Morton says the country is so apt for vines that, but for the fire at spring of the year, the vines would so overspread the land that one could not pass for them. He reports the fruit of some is as big as a musket bullet and excellent in taste. He notes vines bearing grapes of three colors: white, black, and red.
Chapter 35

Section 364 cards

What three sorts of geese does Morton describe in New England?
Morton lists brant geese (pied), white geese (larger), and gray geese, which are as big or bigger than English tame geese with black legs, bills, heads, and necks. He claims their flesh is far more excellent than English geese, wild or tame, and that they exist in great abundance—he often saw 1000 before the mouth of his gun.
Chapter 36
How did goose feathers serve as an economic commodity for Morton?
Morton argues the feathers were a very good commodity: they made a bed softer than any down bed he had lain on, and the feathers from geese he killed in a short time paid for all the powder and shot he spent in a year. He also fed his dogs with geese as fat as any he had eaten himself in England.
Chapter 36
What does Morton report about the turkeys he encountered?
Morton says turkeys came in great flocks past their doors and were easily shot, with some killed weighing forty-eight pounds each. He claims they are many degrees sweeter than English tame turkeys however fed, and that a Native man and his boy could bring home loads by noon, reporting 'Neent Metawna'—a thousand that day. They were easily killed at roost because the others sat fast.
Chapter 36
How do New England partridges and quails differ from English ones?
Morton says partridges resemble English ones in plumage but are bigger, lack the horseshoe mark on the breast, and differ in head coloring; they sit in trees—he saw 40 in one tree—but come down at night. Quails are also bigger than English ones, take to trees (he counted 60 on one), and the cocks call with a different note than English cock quails.
Chapter 36

Section 374 cards

What does Morton claim about the quality of New England hawks compared to English ones?
The author argues that Nature ordained New England hawks to be of a far better kind than any used in England, because they have neither dorre nor worm to feed upon, since the country affords none. He says this absence makes English lanners more bussardly than those in New England.
Chapter 37
How do Indians use the smallest tassell gent, and what do they pay for one?
The smallest tassell gent is worn as an ornament by a person of estimation among the Indians, placed in the knot of his lock with the train upright and the body dried and stretched out. They take great pride in it and willingly give an Englishman who kills one for that purpose so much beaver as is worth three pounds sterling.
Chapter 37
What are the size, horns, and breeding habits of the Mose or Elke?
The Elke, called a Mose by the Salvages, is a very large deer with a fair head and broad palm like a fallow deer's horn but much bigger, six feet wide between the tips, which curve downward. It is the size of a great horse, some seen eighteen handfulls high, and brings forth three faunes at a time.
Chapter 37
How do the Salvages catch the midling deer, and how many fawnes does it bear?
The Salvages take the midling deer in traps made of their natural hemp, placed in the earth where they fell a tree for browse; when the deer treads on the trap it is horsed up by the leg by means of a pole that starts up and catches it. Morton reports killing in February a doe with three fawnes in her belly, all haired and ready to fall, though the Salvages say four.
Chapter 37

Section 384 cards

How do the natives value a deer hide compared to beaver skins?
The chapter states the natives use deer hides for clothing and will give two, three, or four beaver skins for one deer hide killed in season. Each beaver skin yields pounds apiece in that country, so the deer hide is prized above the beaver. The author says he made good merchandise of these hides.
Chapter 38
How do beavers build their houses, according to the chapter?
The author describes beavers cutting down trees with fore-teeth as long as boar tusks. Other beavers hold each other's tails like a team of horses, the hindmost steadying the log against his head with a forefoot, and they drag it to the site. They place logs in a square, pile them up, cover with boughs, and build a brushwood dam strong enough to walk across.
Chapter 38
What does the chapter say about the otter's fur and flesh?
The otter in winter has fur as black as jet, a fur of very high price; a good black skin is worth three or four angels of gold. The natives eat the flesh, but the author cannot say how good it is because his nation does not eat it. He still counts the otter among the country's commodities.
Chapter 38
Why do natives esteem raccoon-skin coats above beaver coats?
The raccoon is as big as a fox with a bushy tail; its flesh is excellent food and its oil precious for sciatica. Its fur is coarse, but the skins serve natives as coats, and they value them more than beaver coats because the tails hanging round in order adorn the garment. Its forefeet are like an ape's, and it is tracked by print in snow to a hollow tree, then fired out.
Chapter 38

Section 392 cards

How is a black wolf skin used between princes, and what is it worth to the Salvages?
When a prince wants reconciliation with a neighboring prince, he sends a black wolf's skin as a present, and acceptance of it assures reconciliation between them. The Salvages will willingly give 40 beaver skins to purchase one black wolf skin. The author notes that although the beast itself is a discommodity, its skin deserves to be called a commodity.
Chapter 39
What does the author claim about rattlesnakes' rattle, their danger, and his remedy for bites?
The rattle at the tail reveals the snake's age: as many years as it has lived, so many joints in the rattle, which sounds like peas in a bladder when in motion. The Salvages call it Sesick, which some take to be the adder; the author says it is no more hurtful than England's adder. His dog, venomed and swollen, recovered after one saucer of salet oil, and a boy who trod on one was never the worse.
Chapter 39

Section 404 cards

What does Morton claim about the quality and use of New England slate?
The author states there is abundance of excellent slate in many parts of the country, calling it the best he ever saw for covering houses, and notes that inhabitants have made good use of these materials for building.
Chapter 40
Why does Morton refuse to reveal the location of the whetstone quarry?
He suspects Old Woodman sought a patent to engross the commodity for himself and his many sons, and since Morton finds no mention of it in the wooden prospect, he begins to suspect that aim was self-serving, so he will not disclose the place.
Chapter 40
What does Morton say must happen before copper mines are worked?
He says copper mines will enrich the inhabitants, but until their young cattle be grown hardy laborers in the yoke, so that the plough and wheat may be seen more plentifully, the work must be forborne.
Chapter 40
How does Morton describe the abundance and value of cod?
He calls cod the most commodious of all fish, reports 300 sail of ships yearly in the trade and 15 sail in one harbor, and says inhabitants dung their grounds with cod, arguing it is better than the golden mines of the Spanish Indies.
Chapter 40

Section 413 cards

What does Morton claim about using fish to fertilize Indian maize?
Morton states that shads or allizes run up rivers in spring in such multitudes that inhabitants dung their ground with them. He claims a hundred acres in one township might be set with these fish, each acre taking 1000, and that an acre so dressed yields as much corn as three acres without fish. He notes this practice applies only to Indian maize, not English grain, and that Virginians lack the fish to do it.
Chapter 41
How does Morton describe the abundance and use of lobsters in New England?
Morton says lobsters are infinite in store throughout the land and very excellent. He admits that for five years his main use of them was baiting his hook to catch bass, having been cloyed with them on his first day ashore. He adds that the Salvages will gather 500 or 1000 at a place where lobsters come in with the tide, eating and drying them for store while feasting and sporting for a month or six weeks.
Chapter 41
What does Morton say about the size and use of halibut or turbot?
Morton describes a large fish called halibut or turbot, some so big that two men have much ado to haul them into the boat. He says there is such plenty that fishermen eat only the heads and fins and throw away the bodies, though such fish in Paris would yield five or six crowns apiece. He concludes this is no discommodity.
Chapter 41

Section 424 cards

What effect does the fountain near Squantos Chappell have on those who drink from it?
According to the chapter, drinking 24 ounces at a draught causes a dead sleep lasting 48 hours, with the effect scaling proportionally. The Salvages who are Powahs use it at set times and thereby reveal strange things to the common people. The author cites this as evidence that New England excels Canaan in the delicacy and convenience of its waters.
Chapter 42
What evidence does the author give that New England's soil is more fertile than England's?
The author argues hemp prospers best in the most fertile soil, and experience shows New England hemp grows ten to ten and a half feet high — twice the height reached in old England. He offers this as an infallible proof that New England's soil is more fertile than that of his native country, and he commends the soil before England's.
Chapter 42
What claims does the author make about New England's air and its health effects?
The author asserts no man living there was ever known to be troubled with a cold, cough, or murre, and that many men coming sick out of Virginia to New Canaan instantly recovered through the purity of the air. He also claims no man ever surfeited himself by eating or drinking there, offering the air's excellence as generally acknowledged.
Chapter 42
Why does the author argue New England deserves the name of a second Canaan?
The author appeals to any man of judgement, arguing New England's excellent natural endowments make it a plain parallel to Canaan of Israel, being in a more temperate climate at 40 degrees versus Canaan's 30. He notes Canaan's milk and honey are supplied by plenty of birds, beasts, and fish, and asks readers to consent to the name before showing the Separatists' revels.
Chapter 42

Section 434 cards

What did early English settlers mistakenly think the natives meant by beasts 'as high as men'?
The English supposed the natives were describing men covered all over with hair like beavers, and even asked whether they ate beavers. The natives answered 'Matta' (no), saying the creatures were almost 'Beavers Brothers.' The author notes the English were then but slender proficients in the native language, so they could not rightly apprehend the meaning.
Chapter 43
Who was appointed to undertake a more complete discovery of the Lake region, and by whom?
Henry Ioseline, Esquire, son of Sir Thomas Ioseline of Kent, Knight, undertook the discovery with the approval and appointment of Captain John Mason, Esquire, who fitted and employed him at his own charge. The author says Ioseline will perform as expected unless the Dutch get into those parts first and frustrate his hopeful designs.
Chapter 43
How much did the Dutch reportedly gain yearly from beaver trade on Hudson's River?
The author states it is well known to some of our nation who lived in the Dutch plantation that the Dutch gained 20,000 pounds a year by beaver. He warns that if the Dutch fortify the lake region too, they will glean away the best of the beaver from both the French and English, many of whom gained good estates from small beginnings by that trade.
Chapter 43
What did the author argue about a possible passage to the East Indies via the lake?
The author argues that if the third river the natives describe, trending westward, proves true as the other two did, then passage to the East India may be obtained without the dangerous and fruitless quest by the Northwest. He reasons so great a conflux of waters must be vented by great rivers, and compares the country about Erocoise to Delta in Egypt.
Chapter 43

Section 444 cards

How did Plymouth treat Weston's servants upon their arrival?
They were welcomed with apparent hospitality—"court holy bread"—while the Plymouth leaders privately consulted their own advantage, fearing Weston's plantation would hinder their profit. They fed the servants well and promised help choosing a place, but then hurried them, weakened by short provisions, to Wessaguscus and left them fasting.
Chapter 44
What provoked the Sachem to war against Plymouth?
Plymouth men had defaced a monument at Pasonagessit by removing a hearse cloth—two great bearskins sewn together—propped over the grave of Chuatawbacks' mother. The Sachem, enraged, gathered his men and delivered an oration claiming a spirit urged revenge for the defaced monument and disdained ancient customs.
Chapter 44
How did the battle between the English and the Sachem's men end?
The Sachem's men forced the Plymouth boat from its landing place, but the English captain anticipated their plot and ordered his men well. The English fired and made the Indians give ground; the Indian captain, lifting his arm to shoot, was struck on the elbow and fled, and his army followed, yielding the day to the English.
Chapter 44
What sentence did the Wessaguscus Parliament pass on the corn thief?
The corn thief was judged by Edward Johnson; the taking was construed as felony, punishable by death under English law, to serve as an example and appease the Indian complainant. One man proposed hanging a sick, dying man in the young thief's clothes instead, saving a strong man fit for defense; all agreed.
Chapter 44

Section 454 cards

How did the judges get the condemned man bound before hanging him?
They called the man and, by persuasion, got him fast bound in jest; then they hanged him up hard by in good earnest. They feared attempting execution while he was free, since he seemed a second Samson able to beat out their brains with the jawbone of an ass, and they agreed it would be dangerous without his goodwill.
Chapter 45
What did the Plymouth planters do to the Salvages at Wessaguscus?
They came to Wessaguscus pretending to feast the local Salvages, bringing pork and other provisions. The Salvages ate without suspicion; on a watchword given, the Plymouth planters stabbed and killed them with their own knives hanging about their necks. One of the slain was hanged up there after the slaughter.
Chapter 45
Why does the author criticize Plymouth's handling of the Wessaguscus killings?
The author argues that if Plymouth had really intended good to Master Weston or those men, they would have kept the Salvages alive in custody until the other English were secured. Because of this evil managing, the other English lost their lives and the whole plantation dissolved, likely from fear of revenge.
Chapter 45
What name did the Massachusetts Salvages give the English after the massacre?
From that time they called the English planters Wotawquenange, which in their language signifies stabbers or cutthroats. Later arrivals accepted the name for years without knowing its meaning, until a southerly Indian who understood English explained it to the author by demonstration; he rebuked the others, who then feared to use it in his hearing.
Chapter 45

Section 464 cards

What did the Plymouth Planters want every new settler to accept about the Salvages?
The author says the Plymouth group pressed newcomers to accept as an article of the new creed of Canaan that the Salvages are a dangerous people, subtle, secret and mischievous, and that it is dangerous to live separated rather than together, so all should be under their protection and none might trade for beaver except at their pleasure.
Chapter 46
How did the Plymouth Planters seize the Merchant's ship and goods?
The author argues they secretly conspired with others, resolved that the ship and goods should be confiscated for business done by him at an unknown time and place, framed a letter as their warrant, had the Merchant come ashore and taken into hold, then boarded, perused the cargo, and delivered charge of it to their confederates.
Chapter 46
How did Morton say he got better quarter from the Massachussets Indians than from Christians?
The author argues he found the Massachussets Indian more full of humanity than the Christians and had much better quarter with them. He says he observed not their humors but they his, and that his practice was for a Christian to submit to the rule of a Salvage, holding that where two nations meet one must rule and the other be ruled before peace can be hoped for.
Chapter 46
How did Morton's men plot against him, and how did he foil them?
About 35 men plotted to steal Master Weston's barque or lure their Master to an island and leave him. Warned of it, he sailed his shallop toward Cape Anne with a hogshead of wine and sugar, one conspirator steering. At an island the conspirator feigned foul weather; Morton brought ashore sails and oars, broached the wine, and made the men drink until the plot was disclosed.
Chapter 46

Section 474 cards

What did the Brethren require of Master Layford before accepting him as pastor at Plimmouth?
They required him first to renounce his calling to the ministry received in England as heretical and Papistical, and then to receive a new calling from them after their own invention. Layford refused, maintaining his calling was lawful. John Oldam agreed with him, and both maintained the Church of England was a true Church, though defective in some particulars.
Chapter 47
How was John Oldam's banishment carried out, according to the chapter?
A lane of musketiers was made, and he was compelled in scorn to pass along between them, receiving a blow on the bum from every musketier. He was then put aboard a shallop and conveyed to Wessaguscus shore, staying at Massachussets. Earlier, for refusing to come to their watch house, he was given a cracked crown for press money, making blood run about his ears.
Chapter 47
What claim does the chapter make about children born in New Canaan versus Virginea?
The chapter states that in seven years New Canaan could show more children living born there than Virginea could show in twenty-seven years, despite New Canaan having only a handful of women landed compared to Virginea. It attributes this to the country's plenty of lobsters and shellfish, or a sallet herb, or the fountain at Weenaseemute.
Chapter 47
What happened to the woman delivered near Bussardes bay, and what epitaph was made?
She was delivered in a voyage to Virginea about Bussardes bay, west of Cape Cod, where she had a son born, but the child died without baptism and was buried. The chapter says an epitaph was made to memorialize the worth of the persons, beginning 'Time, that bringes all thinges to light, / Doth hide this thinge out of sight.'
Chapter 47

Section 484 cards

Why did Master Bubble move to Passonagessit?
Bubble obtained house room at Passonagessit and removed there because it stood convenient for the beaver trade. He was also drawn by the hope that the owner, a big-boned man, would be a good laborer with store of corn; but the owner had no corn at all and instead hoped for help from his guest. The trophies brought were only Bubble's water tankard and porter's basket, with no provisions.
Chapter 48
What happened when Bubble said grace at dinner?
At dinner Bubble began to say grace, a long one, until all the meat was cold, and he would not give his host leave to say grace. His host, taking himself abused, fell to eating and had half done before Bubble opened his eyes. Bubble then became more cautious and learned that brevis oratio penetrat Caelum, a short prayer pierces Heaven.
Chapter 48
How did the Sachem respond to his men's theft of corn?
The Sachem, learning of the theft and the proprietor's displeasure, sent a messenger (the Salvage who had lived in England) with commission for his men's trespass: ten skins to be paid by a certain day. At the appointed time he brought the beaver to Wessaguscus, but the owner was abroad, and the Wessaguscus men took the better half of the skins by juggling before the owner came.
Chapter 48
What did Bubble do when he fled from the Salvages at Neepenett?
Bubble, misapplying the Salvages' actions, resolved to flee without his errand, leaving his shoes and implements in the house. Imagining arrows flew at him like hail, he put off his breeches and set them on his head, crying 'avoyd Satan, what have yee to doe with mee!' and ran without his breeches, scratched by the underwoods. The Salvages packed his implements and brought them to Wessaguscus.
Chapter 48

Section 494 cards

What did the examination of the biscuits show about the Salvages?
When the particular was demanded, it appeared the Salvages had not diminished any part of the provisions, not so much as one bit of bread. The number being known and the fragments laid together, all the biscuit was preserved and none diminished at all. The Master of the Ceremonies was overjoyed, and the whole company made merry at his discourse of his perilous adventures.
Chapter 49
Why did the Barren doe fall into melancholy, and how was she cured?
Seeing herself rejected by her sweetheart Demopheon, she fell into a sudden passion of melancholy and debated ways to reach Pluto's house—by knife, poison, drowning, or halter—but could not resolve. Many came to comfort her, and a merry gentleman composed an elegy instead of the requested letter. Afterwards the water of the fountain at Ma-re Mount was applied as a remedy, and she packed away to Virginia quite cured.
Chapter 49
How did the inhabitants of Pasonagessit celebrate renaming their home Ma-re Mount?
Resolved to confirm the new name for a memorial to after ages, they devised solemn revels after the old English custom. They brewed a barrel of excellent beer, provided a case of bottles and good cheer for all comers, prepared a fitting song, and on May Day erected a goodly pine tree eighty feet long with a pair of buckshorns near the top, helped by Salvages who came to watch.
Chapter 49
What did the poem fixed to the Maypole do to the Separatists?
The poem was made according to the occurrents of the time and fixed to the Maypole to show the new name confirmed upon the plantation. Being enigmatically composed, it puzzled the Separatists most pitifully to expound it. The author inserts it for the better information of the reader; it ends by proclaiming that the first of May at Ma-re Mount shall be kept holiday.
Chapter 49

Section 504 cards

What did the Plymouth separatists call Morton's Maypole, and what did they name the place?
The precise separatists at New Plymouth termed the Maypole an idol and called it the Calfe of Horeb; they named the place Mount Dagon and threatened to make it a woeful mount rather than a merry mount. The author presents this as their hostile reaction to harmless mirth by young men hoping for wives to be brought over.
Chapter 50
How did the separatists misinterpret the riddle fixed to the Maypole?
Lacking an Oedipus to expound it, they explained part of it as referring to Sampson Job, carpenter of the ship that brought over a woman to her husband. The author says they guessed this only from the sound of two words, and that the man they applied it to was altogether unknown to the author.
Chapter 50
What did the revellers sing about in the Maypole song, and how was it performed?
A merry song was sung with a chorus, each man bearing his part, performed in a dance hand in hand about the Maypole while one of the company sang and filled out the good liquor. The song urges drinking and merriment in Hymen's joys, calls Nectar the chief of good liquors to cure grief, and welcomes lasses in beaver coast night and day.
Chapter 50
Why did the separatists conspire against Morton's plantation at Ma-re Mount?
The author argues the separatists envied the plantation's prosperity and its promising beaver trade, so they conspired against the owner, mustered aid, and treated him as a great monster. They threatened to burn his person and habitation, and seized him at Wessaguscus while his company was inland trading with the Salvages for beaver.
Chapter 50

Section 513 cards

Why did the conspirators resolve what Morton should suffer regardless of his answer?
The chapter states they had resolved what he should suffer because, as they boasted, they had become the greater number: they had shaken off their shackles of servitude and become masters and masterless people. Their strength, compared to earlier times when the host's plantation was as strong as theirs, made them seem like overgrown bears.
Chapter 51
What terms did Morton capitulate for before opening his door?
Morton yielded on quarter and capitulated in writing-like certainty because he knew what Captain Shrimp was. He expressed that no violence should be offered to his person, his goods, or his household, and that he should keep his arms and what else was requisite for the voyage. The herald returned that it was agreed and would be performed.
Chapter 51
Who intervened when the nine worthies fell upon Morton?
As Morton issued out, Captain Shrimp and the rest laid hold of his arms and had him down, some so violent they would have a slice with scabbard. An old soldier of the Queen's, there by accident, clapped his gun under the weapons and sharply rebuked these worthies for their unworthy practices, so the matter was taken into more deliberate consideration.
Chapter 51

Section 524 cards

What sentence did the nine worthies give Morton, and what did they actually do?
They sentenced Morton to be sent to England as a prisoner, but when he was brought to the ships no man dared undertake to carry him. So the worthies set him on an island without gun, powder, shot, dog, or even a knife, with only the thin suit he wore. He could not get home to Ma-re-Mount.
Chapter 52
How was Morton sustained during his month on the island?
Morton stayed on the island at least a month and was relieved by Salvages, who recognized him as a Sachem of Passonagessit. They brought bottles of strong liquor and united themselves into a league of brotherhood with him. The author remarks that these infidels were so full of humanity, before those Christians.
Chapter 52
How did Morton leave the island and what happened in England?
Morton sailed from the island for England in a Plymouth ship that had come to fish on the coast, landing him safe at Plymouth in England. He stayed until the ordinary time for shipping set forth for these parts, then returned. The author says no man was able to tax him of anything.
Chapter 52
According to the poem, what did the worthies fear and how did they plan to handle Hydra?
The poem says rumor of a monstrous Hydra-like prodigy terrified the multitude, and the nine worthies, seeking glory, resolved with fire and sword to go to Hydra's den. In their council Minos, Eacus, and Radamantus debate; Radamantus proposes binding Hydra with chains or iron bands and conveying him by Styx to be accused of laesae majestatis.
Chapter 52

Section 533 cards

How does Morton explain the 'Hydra' and 'forked tail' imagery applied to Ma-re-Mount?
Morton says the seven persons at Ma-re-Mount had seven heads and fourteen feet, so they were called a Hydra with seven heads. The Maypole, with horns nailed near the top, was said to be the forked tail of this supposed monster—an image he says was imposed on them for want of skill.
Chapter 53
What happened after Morton capitulated on the quarter offered to him?
Morton says that although quarter was agreed, they abused him contrary to it and carried him to Plymouth. There Captain Shrimp threatened to shoot him as he entered the boat, but the chief Elders' voice prevailed and concluded to send him to England. The nine then feasted, and later left Morton on an island in the northern parts.
Chapter 53
How does Morton describe the man made 'Doctor' at Salem and his cures?
Morton says the Plymouth church chose a man bred a butcher at Wrington, Somerset, styled him Doctor, and sent him to Salem. There he diagnosed a patient's illness as wind and expelled it, and Morton jokes he cured Captain Littleworth of 'a disease called a wife.' He was allowed four pounds a month and made Physician General of Salem.
Chapter 53

Section 544 cards

How did the 'Caiphas' figure trick his congregation out of a beaver coat?
On the Lord's day at Weenasimute he reproved his auditory for covetous desire to trade for beaver on those days, making them modest about it. Then the same day he took the Salvage aside into a corner and, using Wampampeack he had ready in his pocket, got the beaver coat their mouths watered for, thus deceiving them all.
Chapter 54
What did the separatists do in England to try to 'hamper' mine Host?
After learning he had gone to England of his own accord, they sent letters to their Agent and made a general collection of beaver to pay for a snare to hamper him. Some gave three, four, or five pounds; no one was thought a good Christian who would not lay out much for that employment.
Chapter 54
Why did the famous 'cunning man' refuse the agent's heap of gold?
He was renowned for making subtle instruments, including one to save himself and his family if all the world were drowned, and would take nothing where no good was done. He found no reason to take the task, thinking mine Host, who had escaped the nine Worthies and chained Argus's eyes, would not be hampered but with much ado.
Chapter 54
What did Captaine Littleworth require of every Planter at Salem?
He made warrants in his own name without relation to his Majesty's authority and summoned a general appearance at Salem. There he tendered Articles devised with Master Eager; every Planter, old and new, must sign or be expelled from any abode within the compass of the land in that grant, which was so large it would suffice for more than were in all the Land by 700000.
Chapter 54

Section 554 cards

Why did mine Host refuse to subscribe to the articles?
Mine Host refused unless a caution was added: that nothing be done contrary or repugnant to the Laws of the Kingdom of England. He knew from prior experience that without this clause the agreement would prove a mousetrap, since the Separatists would construe the words to serve their own turns and could stretch a petty crime into a capital one.
Chapter 55
What terms were agreed for the general trade and stock?
It was agreed there would be one general trade within the patent and a general stock, with every man putting in a part. Each man received equal shares for his person, while stock shares followed the ratable proportion contributed. The arrangement was to continue for twelve months before an account was called. All were united except mine Host, who refused.
Chapter 55
What happened when the stock's account was made after six months?
Before six months ended, partners demanded an account, suspecting wampum could be pocketed and underlings would know little beyond what was trucked for beaver. The account between Captain Littleworth and the two truckmasters showed profit decreased, not increased. The principal stock was so fretted that a great hole appeared, costing partners one hundred marks to make good to Littleworth.
Chapter 55
How did Captain Littleworth take mine Host's corn and goods?
Littleworth devised a sequestration, getting persons to pretend mine Host held their corn and goods. Commissioners entered the house at Ma-re-Mount and carried away his corn and other goods by violence, leaving only a small parcel of refuse corn. Mine Host had already conveyed his powder and shot into the woods for safety, and afterward used his gun to feast on fowl and venison.
Chapter 55

Section 564 cards

What sentence did the Governor pronounce against Morton's host at first sight?
The Governor ordered that the host be put first in the bilboes, that all his goods be confiscated, that his plantation be burned to the ground because the habitation of the wicked should no more appear in Israel, and that his person be banished from those territories, all executed with speed.
Chapter 56
How did the Native neighbors respond to the burning of the host's house?
The author says the harmless Native neighbors came grieving and reproved the colonists for their inhumane deed, speaking on God's behalf. They said God would not love those who burned this good man's house, and that the newcomers would find the want of such houses in winter, which the colonists themselves confessed to him.
Chapter 56
How did the host react as he watched his plantation burn from aboard ship?
The author says the host, watching the woeful spectacle from afar aboard a ship, knew not what to do in his extremity but bear and forbear, as Epictetus says, since it was bootless to exclaim. He considered these transitory things to be but ludibria fortunae, as Cicero calls them, and nothing remained but bare ashes as an emblem of their cruelty.
Chapter 56
How was the former tomb maker advanced to the title of gentleman in New Canaan?
A zealous professor, once apprentice to a tomb maker and later a comptroller near the Exchequer, helped a newly arrived gentleman over the stile after that man incurred Joshua's displeasure. Heralds proclaimed the delinquent's title taken away and placed on this professor of more reckoning, who was made a Gentleman of the first head.
Chapter 56

Section 574 cards

What punishment was imposed on Master Fairecloath for blasphemy against Salem's church?
The sentence was to have his tongue bored through, nose slit, face branded, ears cut, and body whipped in every plantation of the jurisdiction, plus a forty-pound fine and perpetual banishment. Sir Christopher Gardiner intervened, and the sentence was partly stopped: with the whipping and cutting of part of his ears, he was sent away losing all his goods, paying the fine, and banished in terrorem populi.
Chapter 57
How does the author contrast the Separatists' charity toward saints versus those 'without'?
The author argues the Separatists help only their own members, citing sick newcomers denied fresh victuals who might have recovered. He says Morton himself, denied gun, powder, shot, and dog, would have preserved such neglected wretches. Yet when Deacon Shackles' wife and others with relatives fell sick, Morton's help and instruments were used and they lived. He concludes they reject a carnal man's charity as unsanctified.
Chapter 57
How is the Separatist church governed and who may preach publicly?
It is governed by Pastors, Elders, and Deacons. Any of these, even a cow keeper, may exercise his gifts in the public assembly on the Lord's day, provided he uses no notes for memory, since such things 'smell of Lampe oyle.' All are public preachers. A Deaconess chosen from the sisters uses her gifts at home among her sex by repetition or exhortation.
Chapter 57
What must a Pastor do before being admitted, and what authority does he hold over the Magistrate?
He must disclaim his former calling to the ministry as heretical, renouncing it with bitter execrations for the time he lived in it, then take a new calling after their inventions; his new election brings great joy. Pastors also precede the Civil Magistrate: the Pastor first considers a complaint against a member and may admonish him, or else deliver him to the Magistrate for justice.
Chapter 57

Section 584 cards

How does Morton illustrate that an unfit messenger disgraces the message?
Morton cites the case of a French king who elevated his barber to honor and titles, after which the barber presumptuously undertook an embassy to foreign princes. He behaved so unworthily that both messenger and message were despised, and he had to flee their territories or pay for his barbarous presumption. Morton uses this to argue that stepping into the pulpit does not make a person fit for the employment.
Chapter 58
What trades does Morton use to mock the preaching styles of unlearned ministers?
Morton caricatures preachers by trade: a grocer who balances and weighs his text like a bag pudding; a tailor who divides a text into many parts and promises a garment as armor against Satan; a tapster who offers the cup of repentance by pint and quart; and a cobbler who urges walking upright and seeking amendment before the shop windows shut. He argues these gifts are ridiculous though the vulgar admire them.
Chapter 58
What is the first unwarrantable tenet Morton attributes to these people?
Morton states that in public practice they maintain it is absolutely the magistrate's office, not the minister's, to join people in lawful matrimony. They cite the history of Ruth, saying Boas was married to Ruth in the presence of the elders. Morton argues they mistake the scope of the text. He then lists further tenets, including rejecting the marriage ring and the purification of women after delivery.
Chapter 58
Which practices do the listed tenets condemn as popish or idolatrous?
The tenets call it a relic of popery to use a ring in marriage, calling it a diabolical circle for the devil to dance in; reject purification for women after delivery; bar baptism of children whose parents are not first received into their church; exclude those 'without' from the Lord's supper; and label the Book of Common Prayer an idol and all who use it idolaters.
Chapter 58

Section 594 cards

According to Morton, what do the Separatists believe about who has a right to God's creatures?
Morton lists as their eighth tenet that no person has any right to God's creatures except God's children, meaning themselves, and that all others are merely usurpers of the creatures. He presents this as one of the Separatists' distinctive doctrines, framing it as an exclusive claim to rightful ownership of created things.
Chapter 59
What does Morton say about the Separatists' view of church discipline and tithes?
Morton says they make much ado about church discipline, as if it were the most essential part of their religion. He adds that tithes are banished from their church, all except the tithe of Mint and Commin, an allusion to the Pharisees' scrupulous tithing of small herbs.
Chapter 59
How does Morton describe the Separatists' manner of praying, and what is his own view?
Morton says they differ in the manner of praying because they wink when they pray, thinking themselves so perfect in the high way to heaven that they can find it blindfold. He closes with 'so doe not I,' distancing himself from that practice and implying he does not share their confidence.
Chapter 59
How does Morton describe the Separatists' treatment of Sir Christopher Gardiner?
Morton says the Separatists love not good parts when they proceed from a carnal man, as they call every good Protestant. Finding means to pick a quarrel with Gardiner, they first defame the man at whom they aim, then call him a spotted unclean leaper who must be removed lest he pollute the land.
Chapter 59

Section 604 cards

What did the Separatists do to Sir Christopher's house while he was away?
While Sir Christopher was inland with a Native guide, some Separatists came to his house, found him absent, and left him neither house, habitation, nor servant. They fired the place and carried away the persons and goods, claiming it was unfit for such a man to live within their patent.
Chapter 60
What warning did Sir Christopher receive before meeting the Native people?
A Native told his guide that Sir Christopher would be killed, because Master Temperwell wanted him dead or alive and a great reward was promised. The guide urged him not to go to the appointed place, but Sir Christopher was undismayed and went on anyway, surviving a skirmish in which the Native people had the worst of it.
Chapter 60
Why did Sir Christopher compose the sonnet inserted in the chapter?
After learning of the promised reward and giving thanks to God, he composed the sonnet in his table book to solace himself. It calls his enemies wolves in sheep's clothing and simulated sanctity, wishing they could see their own infirmities. The author says he wrote it as a testimony of love toward those ill-affected to him.
Chapter 60
What happened to mine Host of Ma-re-Mount on the voyage, and how did he help the sailors?
The ship was unvictualled and the seamen on short allowance. Mine Host gave a part of his own two months' provision, three small pieces of pork, and made one good meal, cherishing the poor sailors. The vessel was unserviceable, they were victualled but a month, and only God's mercy and fair winds brought them to Plymouth.
Chapter 60

Section 613 cards

After leaving the whale's belly, what role does mine Host say he will play?
Morton writes that mine Host, after considering matters, decides it fits him better to play Jonah in this manner than for the Separatists to play Jonah in theirs. He bids Wethercock tell the Separatists they will be made to repent their malicious practices in due time, and he too, since he was a Separatist among Separatists as far as his wit allowed.
Chapter 61
What warning does mine Host cry in the posture of Jonah?
Merrily disposed after many perilous adventures in the whale's belly, mine Host cries in the posture of Jonah: "Repent you cruell Seperatists, repent; there are as yet but 40. dayes, if Iove vouchsafe to thunder, Charter and the Kingdome of the Seperatists will fall asunder." He repeats this greeting by letters returned into New Canaan and whenever opportunity allowed.
Chapter 61
Where does the chapter tell readers to hear more of the proclamation?
The chapter closes the proclamation by saying that if readers wish to hear more of it, they should meet him at the next market town, adding the Latin tag "Cynthius aurem vellet." The section then ends, followed by the table of contents of the three books and the Prince Society officers list for 1883.
Chapter 61

Section 624 cards

What does Section 62 list as the two main categories of supporters of the Society?
Section 62 presents two lists: a long roster of individual members (patrons and subscribers) with their names, titles, and hometowns, and a separate list of libraries that received or supported the Society's publications. Together these lists document the Society's individual and institutional backing.
Chapter 62
Which libraries outside the United States appear in the library list?
The library list includes several foreign institutions: the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the British Museum in London, the Free Public Library of Toronto, the Library of Parliament in Ottawa, and the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. The rest are American libraries and historical societies.
Chapter 62
What publications of the Society are listed at the end of the chapter?
The chapter lists three Society publications: William Wood's "New England's Prospect" (London, 1634), with a preface by Charles Deane; "The Hutchinson Papers," reprinted from the 1769 edition and edited by William H. Whitmore and William S. Appleton in two volumes; and John Dunton's "Letters from New England" (1686), first published from the Bodleian manuscript and edited by Whitmore.
Chapter 62
How is John Dunton's Letters from New England described in the publication list?
The entry describes letters written from New England in 1686, in which Dunton recounts his voyages by sea, his travels on land, and the characters of his friends and acquaintances. It notes they were first published from the original manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and edited by William H. Whitmore.
Chapter 62

Section 634 cards

What does the entry for Acomenticus record about Thomas Morton?
The index states that a charter was granted to Acomenticus by Gorges, and that Morton dies at Acomenticus. These two facts are listed under the Acomenticus entry, tying Morton's death to that place.
Chapter 63
According to the index, what did John Adams comment on regarding Morton?
The index lists John Adams as commenting on the name of Merry-Mount, on the fate of Wollaston, and on Thomas Morton himself. It also notes injuries to Adams's library. These are index references, not quotations of Adams's views.
Chapter 63
What does the index say about the beaver's tail and trade?
The index notes the virtues of beaver tails, describes the beaver, and mentions that muskrats were passed off for beaver. It also records the value of beaver skins, regulation of the trade, Dutch trade in beaver, and plenty of beaver at Nipnet.
Chapter 63
How does the index describe the Book of Common Prayer and Morton's use of it?
The index lists the Book of Common Prayer with many page references, calls it an idol, and states that Morton was persecuted for using it. It also links the prayer book to Barrowe and Bradford's comments on it.
Chapter 63

Section 643 cards

What did the Council for New England do with its patent, and when?
The chapter's index records that the Council for New England surrendered its patent in 72 (page 72). Earlier it had given a patent to the Company of Massachusetts Bay (31), quarreled with that company (33), and divided New England (70). The surrender is listed among the Council's actions alongside its grants and proclamations.
Chapter 64
Why was Morton's use of the Common Prayer significant in Massachusetts?
The index states that Morton's use of the Book of Common Prayer was the cause of his persecution (92, 260, 283), and that the Book's treatment in Massachusetts was a matter of contention (69). It also notes that Morton advanced the dignity of the Church of England in New England (283).
Chapter 64
What role did John Endicott play regarding Morton?
Endicott arrived at Salem (31), visited Mount Wollaston (32), occupied the Gorges grant (34), and attempted to re-arrest Morton (43). He issued a warrant to arrest Morton (86) and was governor (88). Morton derided him (45) and libeled him in New Canaan (88, 304), calling him Littleworth.
Chapter 64

Section 654 cards

How does Morton's index characterize Gorges's influence on Laud's New England policy?
The index states that Sir Ferdinando Gorges shapes Laud's policy toward New England and represents "thorough" in New England. It also notes that Gorges works through Court influences, renews complaints against Massachusetts, and is appointed by the King as governor-general, though his plans fail for want of money and are fatally undermined by Mason's death.
Chapter 65
What does the index say about Morton's popularity with Indians and their reproof of his punishment?
The index records Morton's popularity with the Indians and notes that Indians witnessed Morton's punishment and reproved it. It also lists Indian complaints against Plymouth's portrayal of them, their hospitality, their games, and their trade, presenting them as a people with their own customs rather than simply as subjects of English judgment.
Chapter 65
What does the index claim about the origin of the Indians?
The index traces the origin of the Indians to Hebrew tribes and to the Jews, and to the Israelites, with cross-references to pages 129 and 160. It also notes supposed resemblances of Indian words to Greek and Latin, and lists their language, religion, dress, and customs as separate topics.
Chapter 65
What does the index record about Laud's role and Morton's relations with him?
The index says Archbishop Laud becomes Primate, heads the Lords Commissioners, is played upon by Gorges, and deals with Morton at pages 68, 93, and 322-34. It notes Laud's fortunes turn, that he orders Common Prayer to be used, and that New England is not to be suffered to languish.
Chapter 65

Section 664 cards

What did Endicott do to the Merry-Mount May-pole?
The chapter's index records that the May-pole of Merry-Mount was cut down by Endicott. It also notes the custom of erecting May-poles and lists the May-day festivities at Mount Wollaston, where the pole stood, as an occasion the author associates with immorality.
Chapter 66
How was marriage regarded in Massachusetts according to the chapter?
The chapter states that marriage in Massachusetts was a civil contract, and separately notes that ministers did not marry in New England. It also records that baptism there was limited to the franchise. These points appear in the index entries on Massachusetts church practices and ministers.
Chapter 66
What happened to Morton after his arrest by Standish?
According to the index, Morton was arrested by Standish, escaped, was taken to Plymouth, and sent to England. The chapter also notes the cost of his arrest and that he was not proceeded against. Later he returned to New England, was re-arrested, tried, sentenced, and sent back to England.
Chapter 66
What does the chapter record about the Lords Commissioners of Plantations?
The chapter notes the appointment of the board, who composed it, and its powers. News of the appointment reached Massachusetts, and the board held its last meeting. Morton depended on the Commissioners and dedicated New Canaan to them.
Chapter 66

Section 674 cards

What does the index indicate about the publication and reception of New Canaan?
The index notes that no copies of New Canaan got to New England, that its publication was not agreeable to Gorges, and that it was referred to by both Bradford and Winthrop. It also lists its political significance, its ribaldry, criticism of it, its humor, and its bibliography and printing details.
Chapter 67
How does the index characterize New England's natural environment and its people's health?
The index lists New England's location and temperature, winds not violent, plenty, air, beauty, perfumed air, natural waters, rainfall, coast and harbors, and fertility. It states the people of New England never have colds, and notes the fecundity of women in New England.
Chapter 67
What does the index record about the pestilence among Indians in 1616-7?
The index lists pestilence among Indians in 1616-7 at pages 11, 120, and 130-4, notes its nature at 133 n., and records Squanto's fraud about it at 245. It also notes that Indians about Plymouth were destroyed by pestilence at 133 n.
Chapter 67
What does the index say about John Oldham's activities and treatment?
The index records Oldham at Hull, taking Morton to England, his promises of gain in New England, his trading scheme, not pressing matters against Morton, receiving a grant from John Gorges, trying to organize an expedition, being called 'a jack in his mood,' and his treatment at Plymouth.
Chapter 67

Section 684 cards

What does the index entry for Miles Standish say about his role at Wessagusset?
The index states that Standish kills Indians at Wessagusset, with cross-references to pages 11 and 247, note. It also notes he was sent to arrest Morton, threatened to shoot him, and was called Captain Shrimpe and Minos.
Chapter 68
How does the index characterize Winthrop's treatment of the gentry and of Ratcliff?
Under Winthrop, the index says he degrades gentry (page 313) and has Ratcliff whipped (page 320). It also notes he is referred to as Temperwell and called Joshua, and that he imposed sentence on Morton and had a warrant for his arrest.
Chapter 68
What does the index say about Morton's trade practices regarding Massachusetts Company regulations?
It states that regulations of the Massachusetts Company are disregarded by Morton, citing pages 40, 306, and 308. It also notes profits of trade in New England and that liquor was the life of trade with Indians, with a cross-reference to fire-arms.
Chapter 68
What does the index record about Squanto's connection to Chickatawbut and his kidnapping?
The index lists Squanto at page 271, note, says he was made use of by Chickatawbut (page 164), and notes he was kidnapped (page 244, note). It also mentions Squanto's Chappel with chalkstones and a fountain.
Chapter 68

Section 692 cards

What does Trumbull say about the Indian name Passonagessit?
Trumbull calls Passonagessit a puzzle, noting Morton could not write even the simplest Indian word without a blunder. He finds no trace of 'sea,' 'water,' or 'mount' in it, and hesitantly suggests that if it stands for Pasco-naig-es-it it means 'at a place near the little point,' though he lacks local topographical knowledge to be sure.
Chapter 69
What does the editor conclude about Captain Wollaston's identity?
The editor notes Smith mentions a Captain Wolliston as lieutenant of an English pirate in 1615, and suggests this was probably the same man who gave his name to the hill on Quincy Bay ten years later, since two sea-adventurers of that name at once is unlikely. The editor stresses that this identification is pure surmise, not established fact.
Chapter 69

Section 702 cards

What does Le Jeune say about the speech of Algonquin girls and young women among themselves?
Le Jeune says that girls and young women are outwardly very modestly covered, but that among themselves their talk is foul, "like sewers" ("leurs discours sont puants, comme des cloaques"). Parkman adds that the social manners of remote tribes of the present time correspond perfectly with Le Jeune's account of those of the Montagnais.
Chapter 70
What does Parkman say about chastity as a virtue among Indian tribes?
Parkman states that chastity in women was recognized as a virtue by many tribes (Jesuits in North America, p. xxxiv). The editor cites this alongside Williams and Le Jeune, and points readers to Parkman and to Father Carheil's letter for the general subject of morality among young Indian women, especially near trading-posts.
Chapter 70

Section 714 cards

Why did Morton address William Jeffreys so familiarly in his letter?
The editor suggests Jeffreys, a Robert Gorges Company man who had helped fund Morton's 1628 arrest, had likely grown jealous of the Massachusetts Company like other old planters. By 1630 Jeffreys was corresponding with Gorges and complaining openly. The editor argues Morton, elated and vain, hoped the letter would be shown to Winthrop and others.
Chapter 71
What does the editor conclude about Morton's motive for writing the letter?
The editor argues Morton was sure of his position and elated with a sense of his own importance, unable to contain himself. He wanted old American acquaintances to know what an important personage he had become, probably hoping they would show the letter to Winthrop and everyone else. The editor calls it a childish outbreak of delight and vanity.
Chapter 71
Why does the editor find the dates surrounding Gorges's commission confusing?
The letter is dated May 1, and the commission is said to have passed the great seal that same day. But a year later the King's intention to appoint Gorges was formally announced. The editor suggests colonial business was handled carelessly and irregularly, with some proceedings begun but not carried out and other things done twice.
Chapter 71
What does John Adams's 1802 note say were Morton's serious offenses?
Adams doubts that being a Churchman or reading the Book of Common Prayer was any great offense, though Morton's fun, songs, and revels were provoking. Adams says Morton's commerce with the Indians in arms and ammunition, and his instructions to those savages in their use, were serious and dangerous offenses that struck at the lives of the new-comers and threatened all the plantations.
Chapter 71

Section 724 cards

How does this edition mark a corrected misprint from the 1637 text?
The editor prints the misprinted word as it appears in the original between brackets, as a foot-note, wherever an apparently obvious misprint in the 1637 text has been corrected. The note cites 'seth' as an example, and similar bracketed forms appear for 'Connick,' 'stife,' and 'muit.'
Chapter 72
What does Professor J. D. Whitney say about the Isle of Sall and poisonous fish?
Whitney writes that several islands bear the name Sall, and Morton's is probably the one off Cuba's north shore. Much has been written about poisonous fishes near Cuba; the illness is called ciguatera and the fish ciguato. What is definitely known is that many species there are believed liable to an unknown disease, and those who eat diseased fish may be attacked by ciguatera.
Chapter 72
How does the editor distinguish Davis's and Hudson's voyages, which Morton confounds?
Davis made three voyages in 1585-6-7, discovering his straits on the first, then five to the East Indies, dying in a fight with Japanese off Malacca. Hudson made four voyages between 1607 and 1610; on the last his crew mutinied and set him adrift in an open boat on July 22, 1610, and he was never heard of again. The editor suggests Hudson's fate is what Morton had in mind.
Chapter 72
What does the editor say about Sir Ferdinando Gorges's career and death?
Gorges was born about 1560 of an old West Country family. He served under Essex at Rouen in 1591, was appointed governor of Plymouth by Elizabeth, and was concerned in Essex's insurrection in 1601, testifying against the Earl. He later procured the great patent of the Council for New England in 1620 and sent the Robert Gorges expedition in 1623. He took the royal side in the Civil War, was captured at Bristol in 1645, and was probably buried May 14, 1647.
Chapter 72

Section 734 cards

According to Eliot's vocabulary, what does paskanontam mean, and how does it relate to Morton's term?
Eliot's paskanontam means 'he suffers from hunger' or 'is starving,' and is translated as 'halfe starved.' From paskuppoo, 'he eats hungrily,' comes the verbal form Paskup-wen or Paskuppoo-en, 'a starving eater'—which the notes identify as Morton's 'greedy gut.'
Chapter 73
What correction does the editor make to Morton's claim that certain words mean 'set it upright'?
The editor states flatly, 'I can make nothing of these words. They certainly do not mean set it upright.' The note offers no alternative translation, simply rejecting Morton's gloss as unsupported by the Algonquian vocabulary cited elsewhere in the notes.
Chapter 73
According to Winslow, what did the Indians call the north star, and how does Trumbull correct this?
Winslow reports that the Indians knew the north star and called it maske, 'the bear.' Trumbull corrects him: maske was the name for Ursa Major or Charles's Wain, not the North Star, and nearly all Algonkin tribes used it; the Micmacs still call that constellation Mooin, 'the bear.'
Chapter 73
What was Morton's theory of Indian origins, and how does the editor judge his method against Milton's?
Morton conjectured the natives descended from scattered Trojans after Brutus left Latium, reasoning that some companions might have been storm-driven to this coast. The editor calls this 'humorous satire' on the historical methods of his time, yet argues Morton's method was superior to Milton's, since Morton premises what he does not find rather than reciting Geoffrey of Monmouth's kings.
Chapter 73

Section 744 cards

What did the French survivor's book supposedly tell the Indians?
Pratt reports that one French captive among the Indians read much in a book, said by some to be the New Testament. Asked what it said, he told them it indicated a people like Frenchmen would come into the country and drive out the Indians. Mather repeats a similar account, adding that the Indians blasphemously replied God could not kill them.
Chapter 74
What evidence argues against smallpox as the 1616-17 pestilence?
The chapter notes no contemporaneous writer calls the disease smallpox, though all knew the disease well. Dermer called it 'the plague'; Bradford called it 'an infectious fever.' Dr. Fuller, the first New England physician, died of it and could hardly have failed to recognize smallpox. In 1633-4 smallpox did rage, and Bradford says Indians feared it more than the plague.
Chapter 74
What happened to the two French vessels lost between 1614 and 1619?
One was wrecked on Cape Cod; most of its crew were killed by the Indians and the rest enslaved, with two later redeemed by Captain Dermer. The other was captured by the Indians in Boston Bay and burned, with Pratt saying all the crew were killed. The chapter says Morton seems mistaken in his account.
Chapter 74
What does the chapter say about the Great Auk on the New England coast?
The chapter says 'Auckies' is a sailor's corruption of Auks, probably the Great Auk (Alca impennis), now supposed extinct but formerly common on the New England coast. Audubon in 1838 quoted an old gunner who remembered 'Penguins' plentiful about Nahant. Putnam cites bones from shell-heaps at Marblehead, Ipswich, and Plum Island.
Chapter 74

Section 754 cards

What does the text conclude about the nature of the 1616-7 pestilence among the Indians?
The text states the pestilence of 1616-7 was clearly not the small-pox. It was more probably, as Bradford says, "an infectious fever," or some form of malignant typhus, attributed to the wretched sanitary condition of over-crowded Indian villages, which had grown crowded owing to the prosperous condition of the tribes that Smith describes from his 1614 visit to the coast.
Chapter 75
How does Roger Williams describe the Indians' use of fire when sleeping?
Roger Williams, in his Key, gives the Indian phrase meaning "let us lay on wood." He says they do this plentifully when lying down to sleep winter and summer, having abundance and laying on abundance, their fire serving instead of bed-clothes. Anyone lodging with them must turn often to the fire if the night is cold, and whoever wakes first must repair the fire.
Chapter 75
How did Hopkins and Winslow describe their lodging with Massasoit in June 1621?
They said Massasoit offered no victuals, having none, as he had newly come home. He laid them on the bed with himself and his wife, they at one end and the two at the other, the bed being only planks a foot from the ground with a thin mat. Two chief men pressed upon them for want of room, so they were worse weary of their lodging than their journey.
Chapter 75
What does Wood say about the Indians' eating habits at home?
Wood says that at home they will eat till their bellies stand South, ready to split with fulness, it being their fashion to eat all at sometimes and sometimes nothing at all in two or three days, wise providence being a stranger to their wilder days. The text notes Wood's account of the Indians is usually the best.
Chapter 75

Section 763 cards

What does Wood report about Indian hospitality toward strangers?
Wood says the Indians are "as free as Emperors" to countrymen and English alike, stranger or acquaintance, counting it a discourtesy not to eat their delicacies and broth of fish, fowl, and beasts boiled together. Roger Williams adds that they rose at night to prepare him refreshment and lay abroad so strangers could have room.
Chapter 76
What does the editor say about Morton's treatment of Wood's authority?
The editor calls the passage one of the few unintelligible in the book, and says Morton seems to have wished to depreciate Wood as an authority on New England. Playing on Wood's name and book title, Morton implied Wood held a more elevated view of Indian religion than facts or informed judgment justified.
Chapter 76
What do Parkman and Palfrey conclude about the "devout Indian"?
Parkman concludes that the primitive Indian yielding homage to an All-pervading Omnipotent Spirit is "a dream of poets, rhetoricians and sentimentalists." Palfrey agrees, declaring the devout Indian of the "untutored mind" as fabulous as the griffin or the centaur. Winslow had earlier said the Indians had no religion, then retracted in Good News.
Chapter 76

Section 773 cards

According to the chapter, why do Indians refuse to adopt English apparel?
Wood is quoted saying the chief reasons are that their women cannot wash English clothes when soiled, and their means will not stretch to buy new ones when the old wear out. They believe the English will not be liberal enough to furnish them as gifts, so they prefer going naked to being lousy and to making their bodies more tender by a new habit that poverty would force them to abandon.
Chapter 77
What does the chapter say about Morton's red cap and Sachem's privilege claims?
The editor states that under these circumstances it is unnecessary to say that Morton's statements about the red cap and the Sachem's privilege are pure fiction. The editor adds that what Parkman says of the Hurons is probably true of the Massachusetts: their women were wantons before marriage and household drudges after it.
Chapter 77
What did seventeenth-century writers believe about why Indian children were born white?
The chapter says the idea that the Indian was born white was commonly held in the first half of the seventeenth century. Lechford says children are born white but are daubed with oil and colors presently; Josselyn mentions dyeing them with boiled hemlock-bark liquor. Strachey says they dye themselves tawny with a kind of arsenick stone, esteeming that color the best beauty.
Chapter 77

Section 782 cards

What did Morton and other writers claim about Indian powaws and the Devil?
Morton says of Indian conjurers that some correspondence they have with the Devil is beyond doubt. Wood says their charms produce wonders through the Devil's help by God's permission; Smith says their chief god is the Devil; Mather says the devil seduced America's first inhabitants; Winthrop records that Indians pawawing in the 1638 freshet had five fetched away by the Devil.
Chapter 78
Why does the editor doubt the story of the young Sachem of Saugus and the lady?
Drake says Winnepurkitt, the young Sachem of Saugus, was born in 1616 and succeeded Montowampate as Sachem in 1633, while Morton declares that when he left the country in 1630 the lady remained still with her father. The editor concludes the whole story is highly inconsistent with Indian life and habits and at variance with facts and dates.
Chapter 78

Section 793 cards

Why did Lawson say wampum was rarely counterfeited?
Lawson argues it cost the English five to ten times more to counterfeit wampum than they could get for it, so counterfeiting did not pay. The Indians, by contrast, set no value on their time, so making it cost them nothing and they had no competitors to fear or rivals who would take the manufacture out of their hands.
Chapter 79
What did Parkman say wampum was to the Indians?
Parkman says wampum was at once their currency, their ornament, and their pen, ink and parchment. He describes its uses among the Hurons and Iroquois, but adds that the art of working it soon fell into disuse, because traders brought them better wampum than their own, besides abundant imitations in glass and porcelain.
Chapter 79
What did Roger Williams record about Indian beliefs on creation and the afterlife?
Williams says the Indians related from their fathers that Kantántowwit made one man and woman of a stone, and disliking them broke them in pieces, then made another man and woman of a tree, the fountains of all mankind. They believed souls go to the southwest, while great and good men and women go to Cantántowwit's house, hoping for carnal joys; murderers, thieves and liars wander restless abroad.
Chapter 79

Section 804 cards

What did Parkman say about the primitive Indian's belief in immortality and future reward?
Parkman states that the primitive Indian believed in the immortality of the soul, but did not always believe in a state of future reward and punishment. He notes that a Jesuit's report of an Indian denying a future life would be difficult to match with another instance. The editor contrasts Arnold's romantic view with Palfrey's realistic view of this question.
Chapter 80
How does Dodge reconcile the conflicting accounts of Indian honesty and theft?
Dodge says all these authors are both right and wrong: within their own bands Indians are perfectly honest, and theft is the sole unpardonable crime, severely punished. But this exceptional honesty extends no further than the immediate band. To all outside it, Dodge says, the Indian is one of the most arrant thieves in the world, and the quality is held in high estimation.
Chapter 80
What does Gookin say about the origin of drunkenness among the Indians?
Gookin says this beastly sin of drunkenness could not be charged upon the Indians before the English and other Christian nations — Dutch, French, and Spaniards — came to dwell in America. He says these nations, especially the English in New England, have cause to be greatly humbled before God for being instrumental in causing the Indians to commit this great evil.
Chapter 80
How does the editor compare Morton's natural history chapters with Wood's and Josselyn's works?
The editor says these chapters are among the earliest memoranda on Massachusetts trees, animals, birds, fish, and geology. Wood's New England's Prospect (1634) was the only earlier similar publication. Morton's acquaintance with the country was earlier and longer than Wood's, but the New Canaan was published three years after the Prospect and followed it closely. Josselyn's works alone pretend to scientific nomenclature.
Chapter 80

Section 814 cards

What tree species does the editor say the White and Red Oak entries include?
The editor states that the White Oake includes, no doubt, Quercus alba and bicolor, while the Redd Oake includes Quercus rubra, tinctoria and coccinea. These identifications are offered as editorial notes on Morton's tree list rather than as Morton's own botanical claims.
Chapter 81
What does Wood say about the Cedar tree, and how does the editor read Morton's response?
Wood's Prospect says the Cedar is not of great growth, not above a foot and a half square, and not very high, supposing them inferior to the Cedars of Lebanon. The editor calls Morton's remark a clearly contemptuous reference to Wood.
Chapter 81
What does the editor conclude about Morton's claim of ten-foot hemp in New England?
The editor notes Morton again cites hemp's growth as evidence of soil fertility, claiming ten to ten and a half feet. He adds that hemp is not native to New England or America, so it must have grown from seed brought by colonists, and that any field reaching such height in eastern Massachusetts is very questionable.
Chapter 81
How does Professor Gray characterize Morton as a botanist and his herb list?
Gray says that unlike Josselyn, the author evidently was not an herbalist and wrote at random. He suggests Morton's pot-marjoram, thyme and balm were represented by American sweet herbs such as pennyroyal, wild basil and Monarda, and calls the anniseed mention a random statement founded on nothing in particular.
Chapter 81

Section 824 cards

Why does the editor reject Merriam's identification of Morton's Simpe as the Woodcock?
The editor argues Merriam is doubtless in error: a keen sportsman like Morton would not shoot woodcock merely out of curiosity and say he "more did not regard them," and Josselyn separately lists "Widgeons, Simps, Teal" among ducks. The disparaging tone also rules out a simple misprint for Snipes.
Chapter 82
What does the chapter say about the Wild Turkey's abundance and disappearance in New England?
Early writers describe the Wild Turkey as abundant, but it disappeared almost as rapidly as the Indians before white settlement. Peabody in 1839 still reported occasional birds in western mountains and the Holyoke range; total extinction probably followed a few years later. Josselyn by 1670 already called it very rare.
Chapter 82
How does the chapter treat Morton's claim about turkey weights?
The editor calls Morton's figure probably an exaggeration: Audubon mentions one at thirty-six pounds, but ordinary full-grown males weigh fifteen to twenty pounds, and twenty-five is unusually large. Yet the editor notes other contemporary authorities, including Wood and Josselyn, fully bear Morton's statement out.
Chapter 82
What bird does the chapter suppose Morton's "Pheasant" to be, and what problem arises?
Ornithologists suppose it was the Prairie Hen or Pinnated Grouse (Cupidonia cupido), once common near Boston and still on Martha's Vineyard. The problem: that species has dark, not "white flesh" as Morton described, so the identification is not fully secure.
Chapter 82

Section 834 cards

What bird does the editor believe Morton's 'lanarius' reference actually denotes?
The editor notes that the male of Falco lanarius is a European falcon, and that the American Prairie Falcon is not known east of Illinois. He concludes that the bird Morton refers to is doubtless the Duck Hawk (Falco peregrinus), an allied species not uncommon in New England.
Chapter 83
What does the term 'tercel' mean in falconry, and which bird is probably meant here?
Tercel (also tiercel or tiërcel) is the male of any hawk, so called because he is a third smaller than the female, or because some believed every third bird hatched was male. In falconry it almost always refers to the male Goshawk; with 'gentil' added it meant the female or young. The bird alluded to is probably the American Goshawk.
Chapter 83
Why does the editor doubt that the Marsh Hawk committed the poultry raids attributed to it?
The editor suggests that if Morton uses 'tassel' in its usual sense, the name may refer to the Marsh Hawk (Circus cyaneus Hudsonius), whose adult male is New England's whitest hawk and whose young or female may be the reddest. The Marsh Hawk does not prey on full-grown poultry, so it may have been credited with depredations committed by other species, an injustice still common.
Chapter 83
How do early writers like Josselyn describe the hummingbird, and what did Downing request?
Josselyn calls it the least of birds, little bigger than a dor, with variable glittering colors; it feeds on honey sucked from blossoms with its long needle-like bill, sleeps all winter, breeds in small silk-like nests, and lays three or four eggs no bigger than a white pea. Downing asked Winthrop to send him one, perfect in its feathers, in a little box.
Chapter 83

Section 844 cards

According to Wood, how many deer could be killed in a day on Deer Island, and why did deer swim there?
Wood states that some killed sixteen deer in a day on Deer Island in Boston harbor. The island was so named because deer often swam thither from the mainland when chased by wolves; the animals sought the sea so they could swim to islands when pursued.
Chapter 84
What birth numbers does the chapter give for Virginia Deer fawns, and how do seventeenth-century accounts compare?
The chapter states the number of fawns at a birth is commonly two, sometimes one, and more rarely three. It notes, however, that three is given as the usual number in various seventeenth-century accounts of New England, Virginia, and elsewhere — so the modern figure and the old reports disagree.
Chapter 84
What does the chapter say about the 'third sort of Deere' the author describes?
The editor states the 'third sort of Deere,' of which the author evidently had no personal knowledge, is doubtless a myth. The Virginia Deer is the only small deer found in the United States south of New England and east of the Mississippi. The southern habitat and 'lesse then the other' description rule out the Caribou, which the name 'rayne deare' might otherwise suggest.
Chapter 84
What prices for beaver does the chapter cite from Bradford and Josselyn?
Bradford, writing of 1636, gives coat beaver usually at 20s. per pound, some at 24s., and the skin at 15 or 16s., never under 14s. Josselyn in 1671 notes a black bear skin formerly worth forty shillings could then be had for ten. Virginia prices from 1650 are also listed, including full-grown beaver skins at 7s. apiece.
Chapter 84

Section 854 cards

How does the editor identify Morton's 'Hedgehogg' and correct his claim?
The editor states the 'Hedgehogg' is the same animal as the Porcupine, the Canadian Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatus). Morton is in error, the editor argues, in regarding it as 'of the like nature to our English Hedgehoggs,' since the English Hedgehog belongs to a very different order of mammals and has no representative in America.
Chapter 85
What does the editor say about Morton's mention of black hares or conies?
The editor calls the reference to black conies an error: wild black hares are unknown except in rare cases of Melanism, and there is no species of hare that is black. The 'Conyes' are hares—the little Gray Hare or Wood Rabbit in the south, and the Varying Hare in the north, brown in summer and white in winter.
Chapter 85
How does the editor distinguish the Red Fox from the Gray Fox in Morton's text?
The Red Fox is the common Red Fox (Vulpes vulgaris, var. Pennsylvanicus). The Gray Fox is doubtless the Virginian or Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargentatus) of the South and West, formerly in New England but nearly extirpated. The editor infers this from Josselyn's account of the 'Jaccal,' not from Morton's text, and links the weak scent to the Gray Fox.
Chapter 85
What did the Indians tell Williams about black foxes, and what did Josselyn say of their skins?
According to Williams's Key, the Indians said they had often seen black foxes but never could catch any, calling them Manittóoes—gods, spirits, or divine powers, as they said of everything they could not comprehend. Josselyn says black fox-skins once fetched fifty or sixty pounds but now twenty shillings, and none in New England are perfectly black, only silver-haired.
Chapter 85

Section 864 cards

What are the three sorts of squirrels Morton lists, and what is the 'batlike winge'?
The three sorts are the Gray Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis), the Red Squirrel or Chickaree (S. Hudsonius), and the Flying Squirrel (Sciuropterus volucellus). The editor notes a fourth kind, the Striped Squirrel or Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), is not mentioned. The 'batlike winges' are neither batlike nor true wings, but a narrow furred membrane running along the body's sides from fore to hind limbs.
Chapter 86
How did early European accounts exaggerate the rattlesnake, and what did Higginson claim about its bite?
The editor says the first European stories of the Rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) were greatly exaggerated: it was described as a huge reptile that could fly and poison by its breath. Higginson (1630) claimed rattlesnakes would fly upon a man and sting him so mortally he would die within a quarter hour, unless he had snake-weed root to bite on.
Chapter 86
What did Morton say about rats in the country, and which rats were introduced later?
Morton stated that 'but for Rats, the Country by Nature is troubled with none,' and the editor calls this quite right. The Black Rat (Mus rattus) was introduced quite early, but the Gray, Wharf, or Norway Rat (Mus decumanus) probably did not appear until fully a century after Morton wrote. The common House Mouse is called an exotic pest not yet present then.
Chapter 86
What animal did the 'lions' reported in New England woods actually turn out to be?
The editor says the vague stories of lions seen or heard in New England woods, from Plymouth's 'two lions roaring exceedingly' to Josselyn's 1639 report of a young lion killed at Pascataway, referred to the Panther or Catamount (Felis concolor). Josselyn argued lions were probable because jackals existed; Wood told of Virginians seeing an old lion that had lost its jackal.
Chapter 86

Section 873 cards

What did Morton imply by calling Billington "Ould Woodman"?
The editor finds the passage unusually confused and cannot say whether Morton meant a clumsy joke or a malicious insinuation. He suggests Morton may have intended to link William Wood, author of New England's Prospect, to "Old Woodman" hanged at Plymouth, but concludes the passage is muddled, not necessarily malicious.
Chapter 87
What evidence connects Walter Bagnall to Morton's Mount Wollaston company?
Winthrop records Bagnall's 1631 murder at Richmond Island by Indians, noting he had lived there alone three years and was "a wicked fellow" who "had much wronged the Indians." The editor reasons Bagnall was likely one of Morton's servants: at Mount Wollaston two years until 1628, then three years at Richmond Island, matching Morton's "five years" in the fur trade.
Chapter 87
What was found on Richmond Island in 1855, and how is it linked to Bagnall?
On May 11, 1855, a ploughshare turned up an old stone pot containing fifty-two coins, none later than 1631. Mr. Willis, historian of Portland, expressed the belief that the money was connected with the fate of Walter Bagnall, killed by Sagamore Squidraket and his party on October 3, 1631.
Chapter 87

Section 884 cards

What does Professor Shaler conclude about Morton as an observer and storyteller?
Shaler says the general impression is that Morton was a bad observer but not more untruthful than most seventeenth-century travellers. He notes Morton never claims to have seen gold or silver himself and limits hearsay to a single mine. Except for the extraordinary whetstone material, possibly Maypole humor, Shaler calls it a rather sober and reasonable story for its time.
Chapter 88
According to the notes, where does metallic gold actually occur nearest to Massachusetts Bay?
The notes state that metallic silver could not have been known to the natives, and that the nearest localities for metallic gold are the streams of Vermont, New Hampshire, and western Maine, where placer gold occurs in considerable quantities and some auriferous quartz veins are known. Copper in metallic form does not occur about Massachusetts Bay, though a little has been found in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
Chapter 88
What does the chapter say about the first American mention of cod-liver oil?
A note remarks that this is perhaps the first mention in America of cod-liver oil, now so much used in medicine. The surrounding notes also discuss the local cod, those breeding close to shore, which have much decreased, partly from over-fishing and partly from the falling-off of their food in the form of young fishes coming to the sea from rivers and brooks.
Chapter 88
How does the chapter explain the decrease of local cod near shore?
The note states this proves the local cod, those that breed close to the shore, have much decreased, and this partly by over-fishing and partly by the falling-off of their food in the form of young fishes coming to the sea from rivers and brooks. It is offered as evidence from Morton's account rather than as a modern stock assessment.
Chapter 88

Section 894 cards

What did Morton claim about New England's climate compared to Virginia's?
The editor notes that Morton was a staunch New Englander who, in this and neighboring chapters, lost no opportunity to assert the superiority of the Massachusetts climate and products over those of Virginia. The editor adds that this advocacy led Morton into ludicrously wild statements, and that a strong spirit of emulation existed in the early seventeenth century between advocates of the two regions as colonization sites.
Chapter 89
What did Thomas Wiggin and Governor Winthrop each report about Massachusetts population?
Wiggin wrote in November 1622 that the English at Massachusetts numbered about 2,000, young and old. Winthrop, writing May 22, 1634, said no survey had been taken but estimated 'about 4000 soules and upwarde.' The editor concludes that in spring 1634 there may have been about 5,000 in all New England, and by the 1637 publication of the New Canaan, as many as 12,000.
Chapter 89
How did the editor assess Morton's derivation of the name Canada?
The editor says Morton's derivation of 'Canada' from the Caen brothers deserves about the same weight as his derivations of Pantucket and Mattapan — that is, little. The Caen brothers, William and Emery, were prominent in Canadian settlement from 1621 but did not plant a French colony, nor did Canada or its river take their name. Josselyn made a similar claim forty years later.
Chapter 89
What did the editor conclude about when the books of the New Canaan were written?
The editor reasons that the Second Book originally ended with this chapter, the next being an afterthought written before December 1635. Since Wood's Prospect appeared in 1634 and the first two books constantly reference it, they were probably written that year. The Third Book, lacking such allusions, was likely written earlier, perhaps 1633, and completed by May 1634.
Chapter 89

Section 904 cards

What errors does the editor say Morton makes about the Potomac and the falls?
The editor says Morton writes at random, confusing the Potomac with the Hudson, though Morton later states Hudson facts correctly. The latitude given matches Poughkeepsie and Cleveland, not the Potomac, which never reaches 40°. The falls are probably Niagara, then undiscovered, though vaguely reported by Indians and shown on Champlain's 1629 map.
Chapter 90
Where did Morton likely get his interior information, and when?
The editor argues Morton picked up loose stories about interior rivers, falls, lakes and islands from seamen and others on Kirk's expedition, probably in London, and likely saw Champlain's 1629 map at Gorges's house. The editor says Morton obtained this little knowledge in England after returning in 1631, since Massachusetts Indians knew little of the remote interior and no inland exploration had been attempted by 1630.
Chapter 90
How does the editor correct Morton's account of Samoset and Squanto?
The editor says Morton confounds Samoset with Squanto. Squanto was kidnapped by Hunt and had been in England, but it was Samoset who entered Plymouth on 26 March 1621 and said 'wellcome in the English phrase.' Squanto was a native of Plymouth; Samoset belonged at Pemaquid, Maine. The editor also says Dr. Dexter errs in claiming Squanto was a Weymouth captive of 1605.
Chapter 90
What does the editor say about Morton's account of the Standish skirmish at Wessagusset?
The editor calls Morton's account wholly confused and misleading. The skirmish was between Plymouth men under Miles Standish and Massachusetts Indians near Wessagusset, right after Pecksuot and Wituwamat were killed in March 1623. The correct account is in Young's Chron. of Pilg. The editor finds it inexplicable that Morton describes it as a battle between the English and the French.
Chapter 90

Section 912 cards

How does the editor explain Morton's attribution of the jester story to Will Sommers?
The editor argues Morton got it wrong. Sommers had been dead eighty years or more when Morton wrote. The story likely came from Armin's Nest of Ninnies (1608), where it is told of Jack Oates, an earlier fool, who boxed an earl's ear for saluting Lady Hollis and excused himself by saying he could not tell ear from hand.
Chapter 91
What does the editor say about Weston's arrival at Plymouth in 1623?
The editor argues Morton's account is wrong. Weston, in trouble over selling ordnance to the French, hid and came out disguised as a blacksmith on a fishing vessel. Wrecked near the Merrimac, stripped to his shirt by savages, he reached Plymouth in absolute destitution—not, as Morton says, 'with supply and means to have raised their fortunes.' Bradford's account reads more like the truth.
Chapter 91

Section 923 cards

According to the editor, what was the purpose of the chapter on Weston's men at Plymouth?
The editor argues the chapter has no historical value and was introduced simply to work on Archbishop Laud's church prejudices against the Puritans. He notes its combination of "the booke of common prayer" and "claret sparklinge neate," which suggests the Book of Sports as well as the Word of God.
Chapter 92
What does the editor say about Morton's claim of twenty-seven years since Virginia's settlement?
The editor calls it one of Morton's preposterous statements. Virginia's settlement dated from 1607, so twenty-seven years was equivalent to saying "up to the time at which he was writing," about 1634. By then Virginia was not only a much older settlement but had a population largely in excess of New England's.
Chapter 92
What does the editor conclude about Morton's dating of the "35 stout knaves" and the "three cows"?
The editor says the only time 35 men were landed at Plymouth as described was July 1622, when the Charity brought Weston's company. But Morton mentions three cows at Plymouth, which indicates his arrival was after spring 1624, when Winslow brought three heifers and a bull. The editor concludes Morton confused events of different years.
Chapter 92

Section 934 cards

What does the editor conclude about Morton's marginal note naming Ben Jonson?
The editor rejects both the theory that Jonson wrote all the verses and the theory that Morton falsely implied Jonson wrote them all. He argues Morton paraphrased the first five lines of a Jonson work, then abandoned it at line six and continued in his own style, properly crediting Jonson for the borrowed lines.
Chapter 93
How does the editor decode the allegory of Morton's poem?
The editor identifies the 'nine worthy wights' as Standish and his arrest party, the 'prodigeous birth' as the Mount Wollaston plantation, the 'seven heads' as the seven persons there at the arrest, the 'forked tail' as the Maypole with its antlered top, and the fear of the Hydra devouring flocks as apprehended competition in the fur trade.
Chapter 93
Whom does the editor identify as Minos, Eacus, and Radamant in the poem?
The editor says Standish is designated as Minos and recommends death. He supposes Eacus means Dr. Samuel Fuller, who stood next to Standish among the assistants and whose voice Morton says was more allowed than both the others. 'Sterne Radamant' is clearly Bradford, 'the cheif Elder.'
Chapter 93
What does the editor say about the historical reliability of Morton's account of his arrest and escape?
The editor notes Morton confounds his 1628 Plymouth experience with his later Boston experience, since in 1630 the master of the Gift refused to carry him back. He also says no vessel probably left Plymouth for England in June 1628, and that Morton did not return to Massachusetts until the close of the next summer with Allerton.
Chapter 93

Section 944 cards

What does Morton's name 'Iosua Temperwell' designate?
The editor explains that under the name Iosua Temperwell, Morton always designates Governor John Winthrop. The name appears in Morton's satirical chapter, where he also calls the region's minister a Caiaphas. The editor notes Winthrop 'spied out Caiphas practise,' and the minister had to go. The identification is supplied by the editor's note, not stated in Morton's own text.
Chapter 94
What did Roger Clerk claim the rolled parchment was good for?
The editor records that in 1382 Roger Clerk gave Roger atte Hacche a bit of old parchment rolled in cloth of gold, claiming it was good for his wife's ailments. Arraigned, Clerk said a good charm for fevers was written on it, but no words were found. He was judged ignorant of physic and surgery and paraded with the parchment and a whetstone hung about his neck.
Chapter 94
What is known about Dr. Samuel Fuller's background and death?
The editor says Fuller came over on the Mayflower, and that his birth in Somerset and training as a butcher appear only from Morton's text. At Plymouth he was the colony's physician, a magistrate, and a church deacon. He died there of an infectious fever in 1633. Bradford's epitaph calls him godly and forward to do good, much missed after his death.
Chapter 94
What was Paul's Walk in the reign of Charles I?
The editor explains that Paul's Walk was the name for the central nave of old St. Paul's, which in the reign of Charles I was much what a business arcade is now. He cites a vivid description with extracts from writers of the time in W. H. Ainsworth's romance Old St. Paul's, and also refers readers to Gardiner's Charles I.
Chapter 94

Section 954 cards

Whom does Morton designate by the name Matthew Cradock, and what was his role?
Morton uses the name for Matthew Cradock, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who never came to America. Cradock was a wealthy London merchant who subscribed largely to the company's funds. The editor cites Dr. Young's note in the Chron. of Mass. for further detail on him.
Chapter 95
What was the 'covered case' associated with Winthrop's charter, and where is it kept?
The covered case in which Governor Winthrop is supposed to have brought over the charter of 1629 is still kept in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth at the State House in Boston. It is a flat, narrow wooden box about 2 feet 10 inches long, 3-1/2 inches wide and 3 inches deep, with a circular annex for the seal, covered in stamped leather now brown and mouldered with age. The editor notes some features raise doubts about so early a date.
Chapter 95
Who was Innocence Fairecloath, and what was his sentence?
Innocence Fairecloath is Morton's name for Philip Ratcliff, a servant or agent of Governor Matthew Cradock. Convicted ore tenus of malicious and scandalous speeches against the government and the church of Salem, he was sentenced in June 1631 to be whipped, have his ears cut off, fined 40 l., and banished. The severity caused scandal in England after his return.
Chapter 95
How does Morton's tone toward Winthrop differ from his tone toward others?
The editor notes that Morton, much as he disliked Winthrop, always refers to him with a certain restraint of tone and insinuation, unlike the treatment he gave others such as Endicott, Fuller and Standish. The arrival of Winthrop's fleet in June 1630 is referred to here, and Iosua Temperwell is intended for Governor Winthrop.
Chapter 95

Section 964 cards

Who does the editor suggest Morton may mean by 'Shackles'?
The editor suggests Morton may refer to William Aspinwall, the deacon of the Charlestown church at the time Morton was arraigned and punished. Aspinwall was a man of prominence in the settlement, and the Boston church in June 1631 had only one deacon, Aspinwall. The editor notes this is possible but not certain.
Chapter 96
Why does the editor call this chapter the most significant in the book?
The editor argues the chapter is a political pamphlet aimed at Archbishop Laud's well-known prejudices. Morton dedicated his book to the Lords Commissioners of Foreign Plantations, and at the time the Commissioners, especially Laud, were moving to vacate the Massachusetts charter. The editor says this connection alone gives the chapter historical value; otherwise it contains nothing new.
Chapter 96
What evidence does the editor give that no deaconess was ever regularly chosen in New England?
The editor cites Lechford, who said no Massachusetts church had a deaconess as far as he knew, and Palfrey, who met no instance of the office actually instituted in New England. Bradford's 1648 Dialogue describes an ancient widow serving as deaconess at Amsterdam, but the editor infers Plymouth never had one, since the old men describe it as strange to the young.
Chapter 96
What does the editor say was not a function of the deaconess?
The editor says it does not seem to have been even theoretically a function of the deaconess to use her gifts at home in an assembly of her sex by way of repetition or exhortation, as Morton claims. That would pertain rather to the office of teacher. Such female meetings existed and figured in the Antinomian controversy, but the deaconess did not officiate at them.
Chapter 96

Section 974 cards

How did the Court answer Mrs. H.'s appeal to Titus ii. 3-5?
The Court replied that the Apostle's meaning allowed older women to teach younger women privately and upon occasion, but that this gave no warrant for set meetings for that purpose. The Court added that she presumed to teach many older than herself and did not teach what the Apostle commands, namely to keep at home.
Chapter 97
What rule did the Court cite against Mrs. H. teaching, and how did she reply?
The Court cited I Timothy ii. 12, 'I suffer not a woman to teach,' telling her she had a plain rule against it and must have a rule to act in faith. Mrs. H. answered that the passage is meant of teaching men, narrowing the prohibition rather than accepting it.
Chapter 97
According to the notes, what did Bradford say about the first marriage at Plymouth?
Bradford records that the first marriage there, on May 12, 1621, was, following the laudable custom of the Low Countries where they had lived, thought most requisite to be performed by the magistrate as a civil thing, on which questions about inheritances depend. He notes it is nowhere found in the gospel to be laid on ministers as part of their office.
Chapter 97
What does the editor say about the reliability of Morton's account of church practices?
The editor says the three following pages are largely the fruit of Morton's imaginative powers, intended for the special edification of Archbishop Laud. He adds that Plymouth was less well supplied with preachers than Massachusetts towns, so the allusions probably drew most on incidents Morton witnessed in the Plymouth meeting-house, though he could have had no agreeable recollections of Boston and Charlestown meeting-houses.
Chapter 97

Section 984 cards

What did Dr. John Reynolds object to at the Hampton Court conference of 1603?
At the Hampton Court conference held before James I in January 1603, Dr. John Reynolds, spokesman for the Puritans, specifically excepted to practices of the English Church as "reliques of popery," including the ring in marriage and the churching of women by the name of purification. The editor notes the "diabolical circle" argument against the ring is not found elsewhere and seems tied to Romish traditions in the Puritan mind.
Chapter 98
How did early New England restrict baptism and the franchise for non-communicants?
The editor states the children of non-communicants in early New England could not be baptized, though baptism was allowed if either parent was a church member. This became a leading cause of political agitation, referenced in the 1646 Childs petition. By 1670, four fifths to five sixths of adult male inhabitants of Massachusetts lacked the franchise as non-communicants.
Chapter 98
How did early reformers and Separatists describe the Mass and Book of Common Prayer?
The editor notes early reformers applied harsh epithets to the Mass: Calvin called it "an execrable idol," Hooper "a wicked idol," and John Bradford "an abominable idol of bread." Barrowe's Brief Discovery called the Book of Common Prayer "a detestable idol" drawn from the pope's mass-book. Barrowe was one of three Separatist martyrs venerated at Plymouth, so Morton's claim about Plymouth's view was likely accurate.
Chapter 98
What did Archbishop Laud do about the Book of Common Prayer on emigrant ships in 1634?
The editor states that in March 1634 ships loaded with emigrants for New England were stopped in the Thames by order of the Privy Council and not allowed to proceed until the masters bound themselves to have the Book of Common Prayer used at morning and evening service during the voyage. The editor attributes this to Laud, the special champion of Church of England ritual, and suggests Morton influenced him.
Chapter 98

Section 994 cards

What does the phrase 'hab, nab' mean, and what is its probable derivation?
According to the editor's note, 'hab, nab' means 'hit or miss, at a venture, at random.' It is probably derived from 'habbe, nabbe,' meaning 'to have or not to have,' as cited from Nares's Glossary. The note also observes that Morton's allusion to Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub is not wholly correct, since the Countryman, not the Justice, makes the remark.
Chapter 99
Why was Nantascot renamed Hull, and what does the editor infer from Morton's text?
By an order of the General Court of May, 1644, 'Nantascot shall be called Hull,' per the Records. Savage and Whitmore think the name came from Hull in Yorkshire. The editor notes that Morton's text suggests the place had been locally known by that name among the 'old planters' before the settlement of Boston.
Chapter 99
Who was Sir Christopher Gardiner, and what did the editor do with his note?
Gardiner suddenly appeared in Massachusetts in May, 1630, and returned to England in 1632, arriving in August. He is supposed to have come out as an agent or emissary of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The editor began a note on Gardiner and 'how hee spedd amongst the Seperatists,' but the subject grew into a separate study published in the Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., January, 1883.
Chapter 99
What does the editor say about Morton's allusion to 'Phaos box' and Aelian's account of Phaon?
The editor had been unable to explain two references to gifts from 'Phaos box.' Lindsay Swift supplied a reference to Aelian's Varia Historia, which the editor thinks probably the allusion Morton had in mind. In Aelian, Venus gave Phaon an alabaster of ointment that made him most beautiful; he was later killed in adultery. The editor says this suggests Morton's familiarity with classic authors was greater than he had credited.
Chapter 99

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All questions and answers

According to Bradford, who came to Massachusetts with Captain Wollaston around 1625?

What does the editor say is unknown about Captain Wollaston besides Bradford's passage?

What were the first two plantation attempts in Massachusetts before Wollaston's, and how did they differ?

How does the editor characterize the scope of the New English Canaan and the editing method needed?

Where did Robert Gorges's party settle in 1623, and why was shelter available?

What became of Robert Gorges's settlement after its first winter?

What charges were circulated against Morton before he came to America?

What evidence suggests Morton visited Massachusetts Bay before 1625?

Why did the Wollaston party settle at Passonagessit instead of Wessagusset?

What disadvantage did Passonagessit have as a trading point?

How did Morton gain control of the Passonagessit plantation from Lieutenant Fitcher?

What did Morton offer the servants in exchange for ousting Fitcher?

According to the chapter, why did May-day festivities scandalize Bradford and the Plymouth elders?

What does the chapter say about Morton's relations with the Indians at Merry-Mount?

Why does the text say Morton's verses were criticized, and what is the actual verdict on them?

What trade practices did Morton pursue that alarmed other settlers, according to Bradford?

How did Morton's firearms trade affect the Plymouth settlers' sense of security?

What evidence does the text give about the profitability of Morton's beaver trade?

Why did Plymouth and the coastal settlements fear Merry-Mount's growth?

What did the scattered coastal settlements decide about Morton, and who joined?

How did Morton answer the settlers' two warnings?

Was Morton legally correct that the King's proclamation was not law?

How was Morton captured at Mount Wollaston according to Bradford's account?

What did Morton claim happened at the Plymouth council after his arrest?

How was Morton sent to England, and who accompanied him?

What did Endicott do about Mount Wollaston after landing at Naumkeag?

Why did Morton escape punishment in England despite Plymouth's complaints?

What conflict arose between the Council for New England and the Massachusetts Company?

How did the race for possession of the disputed territory end?

How did Morton come to return to New England in 1629?

Why does the author reject Bradford's claim that Morton's arrest was 'to little effect'?

What did Endicott require of the old planters at the Salem General Court, and what was the alternative?

What instructions did Endicott receive from Cradock's letters regarding the Company's privileges and factious spirits?

Why does the author suspect Morton acted as an agent of Gorges rather than for himself alone?

How did Morton avoid arrest when Endicott's messengers came about Christmas 1629?

What did the Court order in Morton's September 1630 sentence?

According to the chapter, why does the author call the charges against Morton mere pretences?

How was Morton actually transported to England after his arrest?

Why did the Massachusetts magistrates likely obtain the warrant against Morton in advance?

What did the author say the requisition did NOT legally justify?

What did Morton, Ratcliff, and Gardiner petition the Privy Council to do in December 1632?

How does the author assess the charge that New England intended to throw off allegiance?

What did the Privy Council committee report about complaints against the Massachusetts Company?

Who aided Cradock, Saltonstall and Humfrey at the Morton-Gardiner hearing?

How did Gorges pursue his aims after his defeat before the Privy Council?

Why were emigrant vessels in the Thames stayed in February 1634, and what happened to them?

What body did the April 10 commission establish, and who headed it?

What was Gorges's larger scheme behind the new colonial board?

What powers did the Commissioners of April 10 hold?

How does the author characterize Charles and Laud's attention to New England?

What did Morton claim the King's council declared about the Massachusetts Patent?

According to the editor, how were Cradock and Humfrey treated at the hearing?

What happened to the demand for the charter's return, and who was sent as agent?

How did the Massachusetts magistrates first learn of the Commission and governor-general?

What did the ministers reply when asked what to do if a general governor were sent?

What was the political purpose of the New Canaan, according to the chapter?

Why did Winthrop think Winslow's petition to the Lords Commissioners was ill-advised?

Why was Winslow committed to the Fleet, and for how long?

How was the New England seacoast divided in February 1635?

What did Morton's commission as solicitor require him to do?

Why did the 1634-5 effort against Massachusetts ultimately fail?

What legal action did the attorney-general file against the Massachusetts Bay Company in June 1635?

Why did Mason's death in December 1635 damage Gorges's enterprise?

What does the chapter conclude about when The New Canaan was written versus published?

What does the chapter say about the 1637 commission and Morton's role in it?

How did contemporaries in New England receive Morton's New Canaan?

What did Gorges tell Winthrop about Morton in August 1637?

What did the Lords Commissioners demand of Massachusetts in April 1638?

How did Massachusetts respond to the 1638 demand for its charter?

What did Morton claim about his authority when he appeared at Plymouth?

Why did Winslow want Morton removed from Plymouth?

What charges did Winthrop record against Morton at the Boston court?

What happened to Morton after the September 1644 court hearing?

Why did the General Court keep Morton imprisoned in 1644?

What did Morton's undated petition to the May 1645 General Court ask for?

Why was the New Canaan not used as evidence against Morton?

How did the Court finally dispose of Morton's case?

What type of man does the chapter say Morton was, and why did he become notorious?

What evidence does the chapter use to reject the claim that Morton's arrest was due to his devotion to the Book of Common Prayer?