The winter proved remarkably mild[3] for the American climate, though excessively severe to an English constitution; and what with disorders brought upon them through uncommon labors and fatigues, and their being exposed to the rigors of the season; and what with the scurvy and other diseases occasioned by a tedious voyage, and the want of proper accommodations while making it, they buried by the end of March, 1621, forty-four of their little society, of whom one-and-twenty were subscribers to the _contract_. The number of their dead increased to fifty by the beginning of November, when, to their great joy a vessel arrived with thirty-five settlers from London. It was years before their plantation amounted to three hundred people; when nearly so, the council established at _Plymouth_, in the county of _Devon_, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of _New-England_, in _America_, granted them a _patent_, [Jan. 13, 1630] by which their lands were secured against all English claims.—Be it noted, that they early agreed with, and satisfied the _Indian_ proprietors. It would have been astonishing, had not these planters brought with them opinions favorable to liberty. The arbitrary proceedings of _Elizabeth_ and _James_, produced a spirit of enquiry; and induced the sufferers and others to canvass the equity of those powers which were so improperly exercised. When the film of prejudice was removed, it was easy to discern that tyranny, whether in church or state, could not be vindicated by reason or revelation; and that Heaven’s permitting it, was no more a countenance to that, than any other wickedness. Beside, the _Plymouthians_ had lived for many years among a people who had been engaged in a bloody war with a cruel unrelenting tyrant, whose sovereignty they had renounced. The frequent conversation that must have passed between the Dutch and English refugees, must have improved the attachment of the last to the cause of freedom. It might also have been hinted to them, that it began to be the sentiment of some English nobles and principal commoners, that in case of a removal to America, persons, without any charter from the crown, were at liberty to establish what form of government they pleased; and to set up a new state, as fully to all intents and purposes, as though they were making their first entrance into civil society.