Plymouth now began to flourish; the land was equitably divided; each man laboured for himself and his family, burdened neither by debt to foreign usurers, nor having to provide for “quarter-day.” Their government was a pure democracy; each male inhabitant had a vote, the governor had two. Admirable and loyal as was the conduct of the Plymouth colony, and deep root as it had immediately taken in the soil to which the Indians themselves had made them welcome, they found it impossible to obtain a charter from King James. They possessed, therefore, according to English law, no right to assume a separate jurisdiction. “It was,” says Bancroft, “the virtues of the colonists alone which gave them stability.” The progress of population was slow, nevertheless their enterprise took a wide range. They were soon possessed of Cape Ann; they had an extensive domain on the Kennebec, and a settlement on the Connecticut. Numbers of their brethren followed them from Leyden; but their excellent pastor Robinson, like Moses himself, was not permitted to enter the land of promise. He died at Leyden in 1625, to the great grief of the Pilgrims, who had not appointed a minister for their church, Elder Brewster merely officiating until he should arrive and assume the ministry. His wife and children, with others, afterwards emigrated. Ten years from its first establishment, New Plymouth was possessed of only 300 inhabitants. It had grown like the oak and the teak tree, slowly, but it was firm as iron to the very core. Religious liberty was the purpose of the first settlers, and they desired no increase but of men like-minded with themselves. “Out of small beginnings,” said Governor Bradford, “great things have been produced; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea to our whole nation.” CHAPTER VIII. MASSACHUSETTS-BAY COLONY.