Sheathed in the panoply of their principles, busied in the multifarious activities of their daily employments, and solaced by faith, the Pilgrims “made shift to live in these hard times.” _Peregrini Deo cura_, runs the old Latin phrase; and this exiled band of worshippers proved that strangers are indeed peculiar objects of God’s care. CHAPTER III. THE DECISION. “Can ye lead out to distant colonies The o’erflowings of a people, or your wronged Brethren, by impious persecution driven, And arm their breasts with fortitude to try New regions—climes, though barren, yet beyond The baneful power of tyrants? These are deeds For which their hardy labors well prepare The sinewy arms of Albion’s sons.” DYER. Although the Pilgrims resided at Leyden in honor, and at peace with God and their own consciences, many circumstances conspired to render them anxious and uneasy. The horizon of the Netherlands grew gloomy with portents of war. The famous truce between Holland and the Spaniard drew near its conclusion.[72] The impatient demon of strife stood knocking at the door. Homesickness gnawed at their hearts. Dear, cruel England filled their thoughts. The language of the Dutch had never become pleasantly familiar.[73] Frequently “they saw poverty coming on them like an armed man.” Many of their little band were taken from them by death. “Grave mistress Experience having taught them many things,” some of their “sagest members began both deeply to apprehend their present dangers and wisely to foresee the future, and to think of timely remedy.” They inclined to removal, “not out of any newfangledness or other such like giddy humor, by which men are oftentimes transported to their great hurt and danger, but for sundry weighty and solid reasons.”[74] These have been often recited, and they completely vindicate the project to remove.