Note 183 — MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT. (continued 2)

“Such a rake as Morton, such an addle-headed fellow as he represents himself to be, could not be cordial with the first people from Leyden, or with those who came over with the patent, from London or the West of England. I can hardly conceive that his being a Churchman, or reading his prayers from a Book of Common Prayer, could be any great offence. His fun, his songs and his revels were provoking enough, no doubt. But his commerce with the Indians in arms and ammunition, and his instructions to those savages in the use of them, were serious and dangerous offences, which struck at the lives of the new-comers, and threatened the utter extirpation of all the plantations.” (Notes of John Adams, 1802.)