[In the following excerpt,which originally appeared in 1912, Cairns offers a broad outline of Morton's life in New England, finds him to be an irresponsible and ultimately unworthy person, and judges the account in New English Canaan to be inaccurate, carelessly written, and merely superficially humorous.]

The exact facts regarding [Morton's] life are somewhat in doubt, for his own story and that of the Puritans do not agree, and probably neither is entirely trustworthy. It is known, however, that he was a Cavalier and a member of the Church of England, who in the early years of the Plymouth settlement held a plantation and trading post at Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount. Here, with a few companions of the same sort, he traded with the Indians, and enjoyed life according to his disposition. His presence was not pleasing to the Pilgrims, who found that he interfered with their trade in beaver, and who were especially troubled because his way of life was not theirs. As good Governor Bradford complains:

They allso set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing aboute it many days togeather, inviting the Indean women, for their consorts, dancing and frisking togither, (like so many fairies, or furies rather,) and worse practises. As if they had anew revived & celebrated the feasts of the Roman Goddes Flora, or the beasly practieses of the madd Bacchanalians. Morton likewise (to shew his poetrie) composed sundry rimes & verses, some tending to lasciviousnes, and others to the detraction & scandall of some persons, which he affixed to this idle or idoll May-polle. They chainged allso the name of their place, and in stead of calling it Mounte Wollaston, they call it Merie-mounte, as if this joylity would have lasted ever.

Nothing was to be merry in the jurisdiction of Governor Bradford, and it was probably his mirth fully as much as other offenses that called down condemnation on Morton. It was charged that he sold arms to the Indians, a serious offense, though by no means uncommon. The “lascivious” verses affixed to the May-Pole are extant, and though they are poor poetry and rather foolish, they contain nothing that need offend the veriest prude. Offenses with the Indian women, hinted rather than charged, are not to be excused according to the rules of strict morality, though they were treated as a matter of course by the settlers in many parts of the country. To the Pilgrims, however, Morton's sins had no palliation; and they seized him and twice transported him to England, whence he returned to be still more harshly treated. He was never brought to trial, and indeed it is doubtful if he was guilty of any serious offense punishable under English law. While in England he allied himself with those persons who were working to secure a revocation of the charter of Massachusetts, and his book, the New English Canaan, was evidently intended to aid this party. This was probably written about 1634 or 1635, and was published at Amsterdam in 1637. It extols the country in extravagant terms, praises the Indians, and condemns the Puritans, and endeavours to show that the latter, by their intolerant exclusion of all other settlers, prevent the development of a rich and prosperous English colony.

Morton was a careless, hap-hazard writer, and to his own inaccuracies were probably added those of the foreign printer. His descriptions tend toward extravagance in a way that suggests his connection with the Elizabethan writers and the Cavaliers, rather than with the Puritans:

And when I had more seriously considered of the bewty of the place, with all her faire indowments, I did not thinke that in all the knowne world it could be paralel'd, for so many goodly groves of trees, dainty fine round rising hillucks, delicate faire large plaines, sweete cristall fountaines, and cleare running streames that twine in fine meanders through the meads, making so sweete a murmering noise to heare as would even lull the sences with delight a sleepe, so pleasantly doe they glide upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meete and hand in hand runne downe to Neptunes Court, to pay the yearely tribute which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the springs.

The most interesting part of the New English Canaan is the third section, which treats of the settlers “together with their Tenents and practise of their Church.” A vein of facetiousness runs through this which makes it amusing, even when it is manifestly unfair. Here is to be found the story, afterward used by Butler in Hudibras, of the proposition to hang an old and bedridden man in place of a young hunter who had committed a theft, because the real culprit could not be spared. The author is fond of contemptuous nicknames, and never fails to refer to Miles Standish as “Captain Shrimp.” He is master of a clever though superficial wit, which he employs time after time at the expense of his persecutors, as when he says:

And lastly they differ from us in the manner of praying; for they winke¹ when they pray, because they think themselves so perfect in the highe way to heaven, that they can find it blindfold: so doe not I.

From all that can be learned and conjectured Morton was an irresponsible, roistering sort of fellow, who took everything, even his troubles with the colonists, as a huge joke. No doubt Plymouth was well off without him, but it is hard not to give him some sympathy, and impossible not to be amused by his book. His presence in New England suggests the interesting if profitless inquiry what American history would have been if the Englishman of his type, rather than the Puritan, had dominated the Northern colonies. This thought and the picturesqueness of Merry Mount seen against the sombre Puritan background have attracted the attention of more than one romancer. Hawthorne's story “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” is well known; John Lothrop Motley's Merry Mount is a more serious though less successful attempt to use the same material. Altogether, the student of colonial literature is likely to spend more time on the New English Canaan than its merits warrant, and to conclude as Governor Bradford concluded his account of Morton and Merry Mount: “But I have been too long about so unworthy a person and bad a cause.”

Note

1. Winke—close the eyes. Morton of course read his prayerbook when he prayed.