The will was made May 9, Old Style, the very day of his decease, when he "feeling himself very weake and drawing on to the conclusion of his mortal life spake as followeth." In the beginning of this testament he was described as "weake in body but in p^{pct} memory," and he named the sole executrix as "my dear and loving wife Alice Bradford." Thus the dictated statement closes: "I commend to your wisdome some small bookes written by my owne hand to bee improved as you shall see meet. In speciall I comend to you a little book with a black cover, wherein there is a word to Plymouth and a word to Boston and a word to New England with sundry useful verses." The family record, from Governor Bradford's birth, was contained in a Bible printed 1592 in old English. Posterity is vastly indebted to William Bradford as the resident historian of Plymouth Colony, throughout its first quarter of a century. His narration of the Pilgrim story begins almost with the seventeenth century, before the exodus to Holland. He makes no entries beyond 1646, although, in the same neat handwriting, these dates are added--"Anno 1647. And Anno 1648." Similarly, 1639 and '40 had been joined together, the author expressing his opinion that they did not cover enough matters of importance for separate treatment. But two years after the last date mentioned in the main volume, he concludes an Appendix with these words: "And of the old stock (of one & other) ther are yet living this present year, 1650, nere 30 persons. Let the Lord have y^e praise, who is the High Preserver of men." In the opening chapter, we find on a reverse page a note dated during that last year of the continuous record, 1646, wherein he says--"when I first begane these scribled writings (which was aboute y^e year 1630, and so peeced up at times of leasure afterward)." It would seem that no season of sufficient leisure arrived even to begin, before that strenuous first decade had nearly elapsed. It is consistent with the unfailing humility that graced the people's chosen and beloved leader that, although as such he necessarily had a most important part in the affairs of the Colony, he speaks of his official self, when this is unavoidable, in an impersonal manner only; and he rather rarely introduces the pronoun "I," or even its inclusive plural "we," but usually employs the third person.