CHAPTER XVII.

The Lading of the “Anne”—Winslow departs for England—Plenty once more—Social Arrangements—Robert Gorges—Birth and Death of Another Colony at Wessagusset—Morrel’s Latin Poem—Prosperity of Plymouth—An Election—The Mishaps of a Fishing Expedition—Preparations for Planting—Winslow’s Return—What he brought—The Purpose and _Animus_ of the London Company of Merchant-adventurers—John Lyford—Circumstances of his Advent—John Oldham—The Pernicious League—Onslaught upon the Pilgrim Government—Wolves in the Sheepfold—The Intercepted Letters—An Explosion—Oldham “tamed”—Lyford’s Trial—The Sentence—Winslow’s _Exposé_ in England and America—Running the Gauntlet—Banishment of Lyford and Oldham—Effect of the Lyford Troubles—Brewster’s Ministry—An Exception to the Indian Doctrine of “Poor Pay, Poor Preach”—Tenets of the Plymouth Church—“Brown Bread and the Gospel is Good fare”—Liberty 205