Concerning Mr. Allerton’s accounts, they were so lengthy and intricate that they could not understand them, much less correct them, and it was two or three years before they could unravel them even imperfectly. I know not why, but he took upon himself to keep all the accounts, though Mr. Sherley, their agent, was to buy and sell all their goods, and did so usually; but it was Mr. Allerton who passed in accounts for all disbursements,—goods bought which he never saw, the expenses for the Leyden people incurred by others in his absence, for the patents, etc.,—in connection with all of which he made it appear that the balance owing to him was over £300, and demanded payment. However, on examination he was found to be over £2000 debtor to them, besides I know not how much that could never be cleared up, interest unaccounted, etc. Then they were obliged to pass bills for expenses that were intolerable. The fees for the patent came to above £500—all for nothing; £30 given at a clap, and £50 spent on a journey, etc. No wonder Mr. Sherley said that if their business had been better managed they might have been the richest English colony at that time. He even screwed up his poor old father-in-law’s account to above £200, when, alas! he, poor man, never dreamed that what he had received could be near that value, believing that many of the things brought over had been given by Mr. Allerton as presents to him and his children. Nor did they come to nearly that value in fact, the prices being inflated by interest. This year Mr. Sherley, too, sent over a cash account, showing what Mr. Allerton had received from them and disbursed, for which he referred to his accounts; besides an account of beaver sold, which Mr. Winslow and others had taken over, and a large supply of goods which Mr. Winslow had brought back, and all the disbursements for the Friendship and White Angel, and anything else he could charge the partners with. In these accounts of Mr. Sherley’s some things were obscure and some twice charged. They made them debtor to the total amount of £4770-19-2, besides £1000 still due for the purchase yet unpaid, and notwithstanding all the beaver and goods that both Ashley and they had shipped over. Into such huge sums had Mr. Allerton run them in two years, for at the end of 1628 all their debts did not much exceed £400, as will be remembered; now they amounted to as many thousands! In 1629, when Mr. Sherley and Mr. Hatherley were at Bristol, they wrote a long letter in which they gave an account of the debts and the sums that had been disbursed; but Mr. Allerton begged and entreated them to omit it. So they blotted out two lines in which the sums were mentioned, and wrote over them so that not a word could be read, to which they have since confessed. They were thus kept hoodwinked, until now they found themselves deeply in debt.