The settlers, apparently, did not have time to house themselves properly before winter came on, and many, particularly of the poor, had to face the icy winds of a New England January with no better shelter than a canvas tent.[330] Provisions, even in England, were exceedingly scarce and dear that year, partly, some claimed, because of the large quantities taken out by emigrants to New England and the other plantations.[331] Massachusetts had evidently not received her share, if such had been the case, and famine soon faced the settlers, who were forced to live partly on mussels and acorns.[332] Even upon their arrival in the summer, food had been so scarce that they had been forced to give their liberty to a hundred and eighty servants, entailing a loss of between three and four hundred pounds.[333] The cold, which had held off until December 24, suddenly came on in extreme severity, and “such a Christmas eve they had never seen before.” The contrast with the Christmas Day which the Warwick settlers were passing at Providence, in the Caribbean, was complete; and Humphrey and Downing, who were in frequent conference with the earl and with Rich, kept writing to advise Winthrop to move the colony farther south, if only to the Hudson River.[334] At a critical moment, the ship Lion, which Winthrop had had the foresight to send at once to England for provisions, arrived with a new supply; but so deep was the discouragement, that many returned in her to the old home, never to come back. Others, however, were of sterner stuff, and took passage in the same boat to fetch their families.[335] Footnote 330: J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. I, p. 52. Footnote 331: _Cal. St. Pap., Dom., 1628-9_, p. 266; _Acts Privy Council, Colonial_, vol. I, p. 154. Footnote 332: R. Clap, Memoirs, in Young, _Chron. Mass._, p. 352. Footnote 333: Dudley's Letter, _Ibid._, p. 312. Footnote 334: Letters in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, Series IV, vol. VI, pp. 3, 8, 38. Footnote 335: Hutchinson, _History_, vol. I, p. 29. For details of the first winter, as noted by one of the poorer emigrants, _cf._, Letter to Wm. Pond from his son, _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, Series II, vol. VIII, pp. 471 _ff._