P. 153) The Rapacity Of Jones, When In Command Of The
DISCOVERY, In His Extortionate Demands Upon The Plymouth Planters,
Notwithstanding Their Necessities.]
Threats, boorishness, and extortion, to say nothing of his exceedingly
bad record as a pirate, both in East and West Indian waters, compel a far
different estimate of him as a man, from that of Arber, however excellent
he was as a mariner.
Professor Arber dissents from Goodwin's conclusion
that Captain Jones of the DISCOVERY was the former Master of the
MAY-FLOWER, but the reasons of his dissent are by no means convincing. He
argues that Jones would not have accepted the command of a vessel so much
smaller than his last, the DISCOVERY being only one third the size of the
MAY-FLOWER. Master-mariners, particularly when just returned from long
and unsuccessful voyages, especially if in bad repute, - as was Jones,
- are obliged to take such employment as offers, and are often glad to get
a ship much smaller than their last, rather than remain idle. Moreover,
in Jones's case, if, as appears, he was inclined to buccaneering, the
smaller ship would serve his purpose - as it seems it did satisfactorily.
Nor is the fact that Bradford speaks of him - although previously so well
acquainted - as "one Captain Jones," to be taken as evidence, as Arber
thinks, that the Master of the DISCOVERY was some other of the name.
Bradford was writing history, and his thought just then was the especial
Providence of God in the timely relief afforded their necessities by the
arrival of the ships with food, without regard to the individuals who
brought it, or the fact that one was an acquaintance of former years.
On the other hand, Winslow - in his "Good Newes from New England"
- records the arrival of the two ships in August, 1622, and says, "the one
as I take [recollect] it, was called the DISCOVERY, Captain Jones having
command thereof," which on the same line of argument as Arber's might be
read, "our old acquaintance Captain Jones, you know"! If the expression
of Bradford makes against its being Captain Jones, formerly of the
MAY-FLOWER, Winslow's certainly makes quite as much for it, while the fact
which Winslow recites, viz. that the DISCOVERY, under Jones, was sailing
as consort to the SPARROW, a ship of Thomas Weston, - who employed him for
the MAY-FLOWER, was linked with him in the Gorges conspiracy, and had
become nearly as degenerate as he, - is certainly significant. There are
still better grounds, as will appear in the closely connected relations
of Jones, for holding with Goodwin rather than with Arber in the matter.
The standard authority in the case is the late Rev. E. D. Neill, D. D.,
for some years United States consul at Dublin, who made very considerable
research into all matters pertaining to the Virginia Companies,
consulting their original records and "transactions," the Dutch related
documents, the "Calendars of the East India Company," etc. Upon him and
his exhaustive work all others have largely drawn, - notably Professor
Arber himself, - and his conclusions seem entitled to the same weight here
which Arber gives them in other relations. Dr. Neill is clearly of
opinion that the Captains of the MAY-FLOWER and the DISCOVERY were
identical, and this belief is shared by such authorities in Pilgrim
literature as Young, Prince, Goodwin, and Davis, and against this
formidable consensus of opinion, Arber, unless better supported, can
hardly hope to prevail.
The question of Jones's duplicity and fraud, in bringing the Pilgrims to
land at Cape Cod instead of the "neighbor-hood of Hudson's River," has
been much mooted and with much diversity of opinion, but in the light of
the subjoined evidence and considerations it seems well-nigh impossible
to acquit him of the crime - for such it was, in inception, nature, and
results, however overruled for good.
The specific statements of Bradford and others leave no room for doubt
that the MAY-FLOWER Pilgrims fully intended to make their settlement
somewhere in the region of the mouth of "Hudson's River." Morton states
in terms that Captain Jones's "engagement was to Hudson's River."
Presumably, as heretofore noted, the stipulation of his charter party
required that he should complete his outward voyage in that general
locality. The northern limits of the patents granted in the Pilgrim
interest, whether that of John Wincob (or Wincop) sealed June 9/ 19,
1619, but never used, or the first one to John Pierce, of February 2/12,
1620, were, of course, brought within the limits of the First (London)
Virginia Company's charter, which embraced, as is well-known, the
territory between the parallels of 34 deg. and 41 deg. N. latitude.
The most northerly of these parallels runs but about twenty miles to the
north of the mouth of "Hudson's River." It is certain that the Pilgrims,
after the great expense, labor, and pains of three years, to secure the
protection of these Patents, would not willingly or deliberately, have
planted themselves outside that protection, upon territory where they had
none, and where, as interlopers, they might reasonably expect trouble
with the lawful proprietors. Nor was there any reason why, if they so
desired, they should not have gone to "Hudson's River" or its vicinity,
unless it was that they had once seemed to recognize the States General
of Holland as the rightful owners of that territory, by making petition
to them, through the New Netherland Company, for their authority and
protection in settling there. But even this fact constituted no moral or
legal bar to such action, if desirable First, because it appears certain
that, whatever the cause, they "broke off" themselves their negotiations
with the Dutch, - whether on account of the inducements offered by Thomas
Weston, or a doubt of the ability of the Dutch to maintain their claim to
that region, and to protect there, or both, neither appears nor matters.
Second, because the States General - whether with knowledge that they of
Leyden had so "broken off" or from their own doubts of their ability to
maintain their claim on the Hudson region, does not appear - rejected the
petition made to them in the Pilgrims' behalf.
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