“ After 1624, at Bradford’s suggestion, a board of five and later seven assistants was chosen annually to share the executive responsibility. Bradford’s rule was firm and judicious, and to his guidance more than to that of any other man the prosperity of the Plymouth Colony was due. His tact and kindness in dealing with the Indians helped to relieve the colony from the conflicts with which almost every other settlement was afflicted. ”

“ The manuscript disappeared from Boston during the War of Independence, was discovered in the Fulham library, London, in 1855, and was returned by the bishop of London to the state of Massachusetts in 1897. This work has been of inestimable value to writers on the history of the Pilgrims, and was freely used, in manuscript, by Morton, Hubbard, Mather, Prince and Hutchinson. ”