generality of his companions in exile, having been brought up as a
diplomatist under Davison, when he was Secretary of State to Queen
Elisabeth. He was devoted to the cause of religious liberty; and it was
he who had assisted his friend, John Robinson, in withdrawing his
congregation from the persecution that threatened them in England, to a
peaceful asylum in Holland. At the time of the emigration to America,
he was already in the decline of life; but his energies were in no
degree weakened, and his zeal for the glory of God, and the good of his
fellow Christians, was unabated.

He desired to spend all his remaining years in promoting the welfare of
the colony, and in proclaiming the Gospel to the heathen; and while he
was ever mindful of the wants, both spiritual and temporal, of the
flock ever whom he was appointed to preside, until their pastor
Robinson could join them, he never forgot the grand object of his
voluntary exile, or ceased to pray that the Lord would be pleased to
open 'a great door and effectual,' before him, and enable him to bring
many of the savage and ignorant natives into the fold of Christ. In
all these plans he was warmly seconded by Edward Winslow, but hitherto
no such opening had appeared and the sickness and distress which
prevailed in the settlement gave full occupation to them and to their
brother elders. During all the period of Henrich's tedious illness, not
a day passed in which Brewster did not visit the suffering boy to
cheer him, to soothe him, and, above all, to prepare him for that
better world to which he then believed he was surely hastening. To
these visits Henrich looked forward with delight; and often, when
domestic business called away his mother and Janet, the minister would
remain with him for hours, seated on a low stool by of his bed, and
read to him, or talk to him, in a strain so holy and yet so cheerful,
that Edith would leave her work and softly seat herself on Henrich's