Doe they urge or egg us? hath not ye motion & resolution been
always in our selves? doe they any more then in seeing us resolute if we
had means, help us to means upon equall termes & conditions! If we will
not goe, they are content to keep their moneys.
Thus I have pointed at a way to loose those knots, which I hope you will
consider seriously, and let me have no more stirr about them.
Now furder, I hear a noise of slavish conditions by me made; but surly
this is all I have altered, and reasons I have sent you. If you mean it
of ye 2. days in a week for perticuler, as some insinuate, you are
deceived; you may have 3. days in a week for me if you will. And when I
have spoken to ye adventurers of times of working, they have said they
hope we are men of discretion & conscience, and so fitt to be trusted our
selves with that. But indeed ye ground of our proceedings at Leyden was
mistaken, and so here is nothing but tottering every day, &c.
As for them of Amsterdam, [i.e. the members of Rev. Henry Ainsworth's
church there] I had thought they would as soon gone to Rome as with us;
for our libertie is to them as ratts bane, and their riggour as bad to us
as ye Spanish Inquisition. If any practise of mine discourage them, let
them yet draw back; I will undertake they shall have their money againe
presently paid hear. Or if the Company think me to be ye Jonas, let them
cast me of before we goe; I shall be content to stay with good will,
having but ye cloaths on my back; only let us have quietnes, and no more
of these clamors; full little did I expect these things which are now
come to pass, &c.
Yours,
R. CUSHMAN.
V
THE LETTER OF ROBERT CUSHMAN TO THE LEYDEN LEADERS, LONDON
(Sunday, June 11/21, 1620.)
Salutations, &c. I received your letter [of May 31/June 10] yesterday,
by John Turner, with another ye same day from Amsterdam by Mr. W.
savouring of ye place whenc it came. And indeed the many discouragements
I find her,[London] togeather with ye demurrs and retirings ther,[Leyden]
had made me to say, I would give up my accounts to John Carver, & at his
comeing aquainte him fully with all courses, and so leave it quite, with
only ye pore cloaths on my back. But gathering up my selfe by further
consideration, I resolved yet to make one triall more, and to acquainte
Mr. Weston with ye fainted state of our bussines; and though he hath been
much discontented at some thing amongst us of late, which hath made him
often say, that save for his promise, he would not meadle at all with ye
bussines any more, yet considering how farr we were plunged into maters,
& how it stood both on our credits & undoing, at ye last he gathered up
him selfe a litle more, & coming to me 2. hours after, he tould me he
would not yet leave it. And so advising togeather we resolved to hire a
ship, and have tooke liking of one till Monday, about 60. laste, for a
greater we cannot gett, excepte it be tow great; but a fine ship it is.
And seeing our neer freinds ther are so streite lased, we hope to assure
her without troubling them any further; and if ye ship fale too small, it
fitteth well yt such as stumble at strawes already, may rest them ther a
while, least worse blocks come in ye way ere 7. years be ended. If you
had beaten this bussines so throuly a month agoe, and write to us as now
you doe, we could thus have done much more conveniently. But it is as it
is; I hope our freinds they, if they be quitted of ye ship hire, will be
indusced to venture ye more. All yt I now require is yt salt and netts
may ther be boughte, and for all ye rest we will here provid it; yet if
that will not be, let them but stand for it a month or tow, and we will
take order to pay it all. Let Mr. Reinholds tarie ther, and bring ye
ship to Southampton. We have hired another pilote here, one Mr. Clarke,
who went last year to Virginia with a ship of kine.
You shall here distinctly by John Turner, who I thinke shall come hence
on tewsday night. I had thought to have come with him, to have answered
to my complaints; but I shal lerne to pass litle for their censurs; and
if I had more minde to goe & dispute & expostulate with them, then I have
care of this waightie bussines, I were like them who live by clamours &
jangling. But neither my mind nor my body is at libertie to doe much,
for I am fettered with bussines, and had rather study to be quiet, then
to make answer to their exceptions. If men be set on it, let them beat
ye eair; I hope such as are my sinceire freinds will not thinke but I can
give some reason of my actions. But of your mistaking aboute ye mater,
& other things tending to this bussines, I shall nexte informe you
more distinctly. Mean space entreate our freinds not to be too bussie in
answering matters, before they know them. If I doe such things as I
canot give reasons for, it is like you have sett a foole aboute your
bussines, and so turne ye reproofe to your selves, & send an other, and
let me come againe to my Combes. But setting aside my naturall
infirmities, I refuse not to have my cause judged, both of God, & all
indifferent men; and when we come togeather I shall give accounte of my
actions hear.
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