DECIDING UPON A HOME
THEN we learned for the first time that it had not
been the plan of our people to settle in this pleasant
place. It was not to the mind of Governor Winthrop,
nor yet in accord with the belief of our people in
England, that all of us who were to form what would be
known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
should build our
homes in one spot.
Therefore it was
that our people,
meaning the elders
among the men, set
off through the forest
to search for a spot
where should be made
a new town, and we
children were allowed
to roam around the
village of Salem at
will, many of us,
among whom were
[34] Susan and I, often spending the night in the houses
of those people who were so well off in this world's
goods as to have more than one bed.
Lady Arabella Johnson and her husband had gone on
shore to live the second day after we arrived, for my
lady was far from well when she left England, and the
voyage across the ocean had not been of benefit to
her.
Our fathers were not absent above three days in the
search for a place to make our homes, and then Sarah
and I were told that it had been decided we should
live at Charlestown, where, as I have already told you,
a year before our coming, Master Endicott had sent
a company of fifty to build houses.
It pleased me to know that we were not going directly
into the wilderness, as both Susan and I had feared;
but that we should be able to find shelter with the people
who had already settled there, until our own houses
could be built.
It appeared that all the men of our company were
not of Governor Winthrop's opinion, regarding the place
for a home. Some of them, discontented with the
town of Charles, went further afoot, deciding to settle
on the banks of a river called the Mystic, while yet
others crossed over that point of land opposite where
we were to live, and found a pleasing place which they
had already named Rocksbury.
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