John Winthrop was born in the County of Suffolk, England, in 1588, the year
of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. He was a wealthy, well-educated
Puritan, the owner of broad estates. As he paced the deck of the _Arbella_,
the night before he sailed for Massachusetts, he knew that he was leaving
comfort, home, friends, position, all for liberty of conscience. Few men
have ever voluntarily abandoned more than Winthrop, or clung more
tenaciously to their ideals.
After a voyage lasting more than two months, he settled with a large number
of Puritans on the site of modern Boston. For the principal part of the
time from his arrival in 1630 until his death in 1649, he served as
governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Not many civil leaders of any age
have shown more sagacity, patriotism, and tireless devotion to duty than
John Winthrop.
His _Journal_ is a record of contemporaneous events from 1630 to 1648.
The early part of this work might with some justice have been called the
_Log of the Arbella_.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF BEGINNING OF MS. OF WINTHROP'S "JOURNAL"]
TRANSLITERATION OF FACSIMILE OF WINTHROP'S "JOURNAL"
"ANNO DOMINI 1630, MARCH 29, MONDAY.
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