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thy live, but after death their debts can not bee payd, and the
children have a litle land left, and must trust to the How!
Another sort of people gets an Estate by the rule of right and
wronge with an intent to bee gone out of this distracted Country:
and thus the poore Country is robbed, cheated by the suppe-
riours and inferiours, every one serving their owne turne, with-
out any true feare and worship of God, which denotes that the
Country is but in a feeble minority, and onely a good poore
man's Country, with their labour for their paines, and therefore
wants nurrishinge or els the one will overthrow the other, for
what can be expected otherwise then that God will destroy
that people that serves Baalam and Belzebub and woolves in
sheepes cloaths, tho a great many heas no children for
posterity, will you not give som leave to bee Godly minded
your hould with that maxim, to keep people in Awe, is to keep
them poor, will not houlde longe, nor maintaine the Country,
neither is profitable to your reelm of England. Will you over-
press poore people in their infancy ? This is the way to ex-
asperate men's spirits, to depopulate the Country in stead of
increasinge, and iff the proprietary could give us the reall
for owr Estates, a great many protestants would leave the
Country to him and his papists. Which is the very Neetle the
politik compass turns uppon viz. either to turne papists, or to
be turned and banished out of the Country in tyme to com by
degrees. Which is a miserable extreamity, the poore inhab-
itants are and see themselves involved viz. with oppression and
warr from within, and Hazard of life and Estate by Indians
from without, and att horn.
Wee doe not exclaime against reall and necessary Taxes
and Duties, without which the Country can not subsist, but
against sutch Fines and leavis that are onely to maintaine my
Lord and his Champions in their prince-ship, and not the
peoples good nor the Country's welfare.) for now the Country
is divided in factions and affections, the papists and other turn-
coats sworne for the proprietary vapour and domineere, and
those wch houlds to swear fidelity and alleagiance and supprem-
acy to the king and kingdom of England onely are clouded
under the out cry of ill membres, and handled accordingly.
Consider further, that notwithstanding all the great reve-
nues, taxes and leavys the Country stands & remains still in
the same continuall danger and unprovidetnes as before, and
worse, especially those that lives on the heads of the Rivers
and the Bayes, where the people must worke with their guns in
the field with a perpetuall fear, for now the Indians seeinge a
1000 Englishmen not over com a 100 in a cowpenn with stek-
kadoes, when thy were besieged all the winter over, 10. Indians
will now scare (a plague a 100) inhabitants in the sumer by
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P. R. O.
Colonial
Papers.
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