Trouble at Plymouth

It was near to two months before we got news from our venture, and then it was not of the kind to please us.

I know not all the details of the unfortunate happenings, because they were kept to a certain degree secret; but John, who has a successful way of picking up gossip, has told me this much:"

It appears, according to his story, that the strait-laced people in Plymouth did not give to the crew of the pinnace as hearty a welcome as they believed should have been accorded them, and our people, having drunk too large a quantity of strong waters with certain seamen of Massachusetts Bay, behaved themselves unseemly, being disorderly in the streets and uttering many oaths in public.

At the same time Christopher Marten was taken sorely sick with a fever, and therefore unable to restrain the seamen, who speedily quarreled with certain of the Puritans. The result was that the Plymouth people put Master Marten under arrest that he might be answerable for the appearance of the men for punishment, if it should be decided by the magistrates that a serious offense had been committed.

All this, however, did not prevent the sale of the grain at a fair price, and by the time the Dove's  cargo had been taken out and the master of the pinnace paid therefor, Christopher Marten was dead.

When he was no longer on earth, the magistrates of Plymouth had much their own way, and our seamen were laid under such heavy fines for using oaths on the streets, as well as for assaulting some of the people, that it would have been better had we kept our corn at home.

That which served to make bad blood twixt us of Maryland and the people of Plymouth was, that after due trial, the magistrates decided there was not sufficient proof against our seamen for punishment in prison, yet at the same time did they lay such fines as seemed to us much too great, and there was no little talk among us of St. Mary's, when the Dove  returned, as to the sharp practices of those Englishmen in the Massachusetts Province.