PREFACE.

THE author of these pages feels great pleasure in acknowledging his obligations to the public that the whole of the first edition, consisting of 1250 copies, was disposed of within a few months after publication. The present impression is considerably enlarged and improved, and will present a full, and he trusts, a correct narrative of the pilgrimage of our puritan fathers, and a just delineation of their characters. From them we inherit civil and religious foundations, incomparably the wisest and best that ancestors ever bequeathed to their posterity. It is from their wisdom and virtue that we derive instruction pertaining to the radical principles which are recognized at the present day as the immutable laws of the rights of man, and their glorious achievements were highly prized and firmly sustained by the sages of our revolution, in 1776. Their ardent zeal and heavenly temper prompted them to labor in the perilous field of liberty, and their spirits, sustained by a holy trust, must have traced through the eye of faith the glorious destiny of future generations. While we trace, in their struggle for religious and political freedom, our inestimable institutions, and witness that their efforts in the noble cause are triumphant, we almost wish that they might awake to a second existence. But who can know the felicity the good spirits may now enjoy, as from their heavenly seat, they look down upon the scene of their trials, their sufferings, and their death, and see that the land they loved is free and happy?

"Go call thy sons; instruct them what a debt

They owe their ancestors; and make them swear
To pay it, by transmitting down entire

Those sacred rights to which themselves were born."

Akenside.

To this edition of the work is added a concise history of the aborigines of New England and of their wars with the English, together with anecdotes and biographical sketches of their chiefs. This part of the work comes from original authority, and is closely connected with the history of our fathers while in their forlorn condition. It forms a distinct treatise at the end of the volume. This production is now submitted to the candid judgment of the public; the materials are derived from the most authentic sources, and are condensed in as limited a space as would consist with propriety and convenience. It is hoped that the reader will not complain of redundancy. Minuteness of detail is indispensable in the delineation of individual character, or in a faithful relation of transactions under the most trying circumstances. Should errors be detected in this compilation, the author would only observe, that perfect works come only from perfect wisdom, but if assiduity and care can bring any work to a respectable standard of correctness, he may, in this instance, have some grounds to hope for public approbation. JAMES THACHER.

PLYMOUTH, Sept. 1st, 1835.