Of Plymouth Plantation: Book 2, Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

In England, Isaac Allerton closes the deal with investors, such that the Pilgrims will pay off their debts over six years. On November 17th, 1628, James Sherley sends the colonists notice that, although the colony has sent back beaver and otter skins, they still have “large obligations.” Yet the “adventurers,” recognizing the profitability of the colony, invest another eighty pounds in supplies for the Pilgrims. Allerton also drafts a contract allowing Sherley to act as the Pilgrims’ attorney.

Allerton returns to Plymouth in the spring with goods. He informs Bradford that he’s put Mr. Sherley in charge of their affairs. Allerton also provides the Pilgrims with a patent for the nearby region of Kennebec. Bradford notes, “Allerton had done…good and faithful service: would that he had so continued.”

Later in 1629, the Dutch visit the Pilgrims, bringing linen and sugar. The Pilgrims trade with the Dutch and buy wampum (a kind of shell used by the Indians to make beads), and the Dutch assure them that there’s much more of it in Kennebec. In the next few years, the Pilgrims begin trading with the Dutch to a much greater degree, limiting their trade with fishermen. The Pilgrims’ new interest in trading wampum also alters Indian society. Previously, the Massachusetts Indians had little wampum, but envied tribes such as the Narragansett Indians for owning so much of it. Recognizing the Indians’ desire for more wampum, the Pilgrims begin selling more of it to the Indians. The Indians then start using wampum as currency, even using it to buy guns from the French.

The relationship between Indians and guns is worth describing, Bradford says. A few years earlier, one Captain Wollaston led a settlement in Massachusetts, in which there were many “servants” (indentured servants). Mr. Morton, one of the colonists, resented that Wollaston sent so many of these servants down to Virginia. While Wollaston was in Virginia, Morton led the remaining servants in a rebellion against the temporary leader of the colony. As the new leader of his colony, Mr. Morton threw lavish parties and got his new followers drunk. To make more money, he began trading guns with the Indians, who were eager to acquire the weaponry. Countless Englishmen and Dutchmen have now been murdered by Indians, Bradford says, thanks to Morton’s trading. Morton not only sold guns to the Indians but also trained them in marksmanship.

The Pilgrims decide to write to Mr. Morton and urge him to stop selling guns to the Indians, reminding him that the King has forbidden the practice. Morton “haughtily” replies, “the king’s proclamation was no law.” Bradford decides to send Captain Standish and armed men to arrest Morton. They do so, take him to Plymouth, and eventually send him back to England. However, Morton “fooled” his guards in England, and returns to America the next year. Bradford regrets having to devote so much space to writing about “so unworthy a person.”

Returning from his latest trip to England, Allerton brings over a minister named Mr. Rogers for the Pilgrims. However, Rogers is quickly found to be “crazed in the brain,” and the Pilgrims are forced to pay to send him back to England. Allerton is harshly criticized for wasting so much of the colony’s money on such a person. In addition to bringing back goods from England, Allerton begins to sell some of his own goods to the colonists, and to settlers in other areas. In previous years, this hasn’t been a problem, but now, Allerton begins selling more and more of his goods, to the point where some of the Puritans become suspicious that he’s taking investors’ provisions and passing them off as his own.

In spite of their suspicions, the Pilgrims decide to send Allerton back to England to negotiate a new, more generous patent on Kennebec. His instructions are to renegotiate the land patent and bring back no goods other than hose, shoes, and linen.