The New Colony outstrips Plymouth—Intense Interest in the Colonies felt in England—Higginson’s Tract—Men of Wealth and Position prepare to emigrate—One Thing makes Them Hesitate—Character of the Charter—The “Open Sesame”—Alienation of the Government of the Company—A Daring Construction changes a Trading Corporation into a Provincial Government—Joy of the Would-be Emigrants—The Election—An Extensive Emigration set Afoot—The Fleet of Ten Vessels—In the Cabin of the “Arbella”—Winthrop—Dudley—Humphrey—Johnson—Saltonstall—Eaton— Bradstreet—Vassall—The Women of the Enterprise—The Lady Arbella Johnson—The Farewell at Yarmouth—On the Atlantic 274 CHAPTER XXIII. “Land ho!”—The Supper at Salem—Sickness—Explorations—The Settlement at Cambridge—Busy Days—Death—The Last Hours of Francis Higginson—Death of Arbella Johnson—Grief and Death of her Husband—The Mortality List—Cambridge partially Deserted—Settlement of Boston—The Original Occupant of Shawmut Peninsula—Blackstone’s Oddities—The “Lord-Bishops” and the “Lord-Brethren”—Activity of the Colonists—The View from Beacon Hill—Winthrop’s Cheery Letter to his Wife 286 CHAPTER XXIV. Fundamental Law of the Colonies of Massachusetts Bay—Earliest Legislation—First General Assembly—The Democratic Tendency—The Test of Citizenship—Reflections—Animadversions on the Theocratic Plan—The Acorn and the Oak 293 CHAPTER XXV. Life in the Wilderness—Winthrop’s Adventure—The False Alarm—The Settlers and the Wolves well frightened—The Courtship of Miles Standish—Alden’s Wedding—Morton once more at “Merry-Mount”—An Execution—Radcliff, and his Punishment—The Mysterious Stranger—A Knight of the Holy Sepulchre astray in the Wilderness—The Three Wives—The Pursuit—An Unmasked Jesuit—The “Italian Method” tabooed in New England—Satan’s Ill-manners—Utopia—A Sentence from Demosthenes—Great Combat between a Mouse and a Snake—Its Significance—Fresh Arrivals—Eliot—Roger Williams-Attachment of the Pilgrims to their Rocky Refuge—How New England looked to a Puritan—How it looked to a Churchman—A Difference of Standpoint—The Brood of _Townlets_—The Western Wilds no longer Tenantless 299 CHAPTER XXVI.