George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[412] emigrate, he whose maxim¹ in life forbade retreat, and

Chap. X.} 1638

whose resolution was as fixed as it was calm, possessed energy enough to have accomplished his purpose. He undoubtedly had watched with deep interest the progress of Massachusetts; ‘the Conclusions’ had early attracted his attention;² and in 1631 he had taken part in a purchase of territory on the Narragansett.³ It has been conjectured,⁴ asserted,⁵ and even circumstantially related,⁶ that he passed a winter with the colony of New Plymouth. A person who bore the same or nearly the same name,⁷ was undoubtedly there; but the greatest patriot-statesman of his times, the man whom Charles I. would gladly have seen drawn and quartered, whom Clarendon paints as possessing beyond all his contemporaries ‘a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute,’ and whom the fervent Baxter revered as able, by his presence and conversation, to give a new charm to the rest of the Saints in heaven, was never in America. Nor did he ever embark for America; the fleet in which he is said to have taken his passage, was delayed but a few days; on petition of the owners and passengers, King Charles removed the restraint;⁸ the ships proceeded on their intended voyage; and the whole company, as it seems without diminution, arrived safely in the Bay of Massachusetts.⁹ Had Hampden and Cromwell been of the party, they too would have reached New England.