Your God & ours, and y^e God of all his, bring us together if it be his will, and keep us in the mean while, and allways to his glory, and make us servisable to his majestic, and faithfull to the end. Amen. Your very loving brother, JOHN ROBINSON. Leyden, Des: 20. 1623. These things premised, I shall now prosecute y^e procedings and afairs here. And before I come to other things I must speak a word of their planting this year; they having found y^e benifite of their last years harvest, and setting corne for their particuler, having therby with a great deale of patience overcome hunger & famine. Which maks me remember a saing of Senecas, _Epis: 123_. _That a great parte of libertie is a well governed belly, and to be patiente in all wants._ They begane now highly to prise corne as more pretious then silver, and those that had some to spare begane to trade one with another for smale things, by y^e quarte, potle, & peck, &c.; for money they had none, and if any had, corne was prefered before it. That they might therfore encrease their tillage to better advantage, they made suite [116] to the Gov^r to have some portion of land given them for continuance, and not by yearly lotte, for by that means, that which y^e more industrious had brought into good culture (by much pains) one year, came to leave it y^e nexte, and often another might injoye it; so as the dressing of their lands were the more sleighted over, & to lese profite. Which being well considered, their request was granted. And to every person was given only one acrre of land, to them & theirs, as nere y^e towne as might be, and they had no more till y^e 7. years were expired. The reason was, that they might be kept close together both for more saftie and defence, and y^e better improvement of y^e generall imployments. Which condition of theirs did make me often thinke, of what I had read in Plinie[BQ] of y^e Romans first beginings in Romulus time. _How every man contented him selfe with 2. Acres of land, and had no more assigned them. And chap. 3. It was thought a great reward, to receive at y^e hands of y^e people of Rome a pinte of corne. And long after, the greatest presente given to a Captaine y^t had gotte a victory over their enemise, was as much ground as they could till in one day. And he was not counted a good, but a dangerous man, that would not contente him selfe with 7. Acres of land. As also how they did pound their corne in morters_, as these people were forcte to doe many years before they could get a mille.