The news of this fatal stroke that the Lord has brought upon me and you will probably come to your ears before this comes to your hands, and therefore I need not enlarge on particulars, etc. Almost all my worldly belongings have been take away,—and yours also in a great measure, by this and your various former losses. It is time to look about us, before the wrath of the Lord break forth in utter destruction. The good Lord give us all grace to search our hearts and try our ways, and turn unto the Lord and humble ourselves under His mighty hand and seek atonement.... Dear friends, know that all your beaver and books of account are swallowed up in the sea; your letters remain with me and shall be delivered if God bring me home. But what more should I say? By this we have lost our worldly goods—yet a happy loss if our souls are the gainers. There is more in the Lord Jehovah than ever we had in this world. O that our foolish hearts could be weaned from things here below, which are vanity and vexation of spirit; and yet we fools catch after shadows that fly away and are gone in a moment!... Thus with my continual remembrance of you in my poor desires to the Throne of Grace, beseeching God to renew His love and favour towards you all, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, both in spiritual and temporal good things, as may be most to the glory and praise of His name and your everlasting good, so I rest, Your afflicted brother in Christ, WILLIAM PIERCE. _Virginia, Dec. 25th, 1632._ CHAPTER XIV Trouble about the accounts of the Partnership—Roger Williams—Establishment of a trading-house on the Connecticut River—Trouble with the Dutch there—Fever at New Plymouth—Scourge of Flies: 1633. This year Mr. Edward Winslow was chosen governor. By the first return of ships they received letters from Mr. Sherley about Mr. Allerton’s further ill-success, and the loss by Mr. Pierce, with many sad comments. But there was little hope of getting anything out of Mr. Allerton or of their accounts being either eased or rectified by them over there. They saw plainly that the burden of it all would be thrown upon their backs. The special passages of his letters I will insert here, for though I am weary of this tedious and uncomfortable subject, yet for the truth’s sake I am compelled to fully ventilate matters which have resulted in so much trouble and so many hard censures on both sides. I do not wish to be partial to either side, but to disclose the truth as nearly as I can, in their own words, and so leave it to the unbiased judgment of any who shall come to read them. _James Sherley in London to the Colony at New Plymouth_: Loving Friends,