It pleased the Lord this year to visit them with an infectious fever of which many fell very ill, and upwards of twenty persons died, men, women and children, and several of their oldest friends who had lived in Holland. Amongst them were Thomas Blossom, Richard Masterson with some others: and in the end, after he had helped others much, Samuel Fuller, their physician, who had been a great help and comfort to them, not only in his profession, but also as a deacon of the church, a godly man, always ready to serve his fellows. He was much missed after his death, and he and the rest of their brethren who died were much lamented by them. This brought much sadness and mourning among them, and caused them to humble themselves and seek the Lord; and towards winter it pleased the Lord that the sickness ceased. This disease also swept away many of the Indians from the adjoining parts. The Spring before, especially the month of May, there had been a quantity of a great sort of fly, as large as wasps or bumble bees, which came out of holes in the ground, filling all the woods, and eating the verdure. They made such a constant yelling noise that the woods rang with them, till they were ready to deafen the hearers. They have not been heard or seen before or since by the English. The Indians told them the sickness would follow, and so it did, in June, July, and August, during the greatest heat of the summer. It pleased the Lord to enable them this year to send home a great quantity of beaver, besides paying all their expenses and debts here in the country, which was a great encouragement to their friends in England. Of beaver they sent 3366 lbs., and much of it was coat beaver, which yielded twenty shillings per lb., and some of it more; and 346 otter skins which also sold at a good price—fourteen and fifteen shillings per lb. Thus much of the affairs of this year. CHAPTER XV Hocking Shot at Kennebec—Lord Say and the Settlement at Piscataqua—Mr. Alden imprisoned at Boston—The case of Hocking submitted to a Tribunal of the combined Colonies—Captain Stone and the Dutch Governor—Stone killed by Indians—Smallpox among the Indians: 1634. This year Mr. Thomas Prince was chosen Governor.