The Puritans who settled Boston in 1630 came to the New World with
plenty of supplies and equipment. There were more than a thousand new
colonists in the Massachusetts Bay settlements by the end of the year.
These people had the strength of numbers and did not suffer the terrible
privations of the Plymouth colony, but they still had to beat back the
wilderness and squeeze a living from the thin soil of New England.
What William Bradford was to the Plymouth colony, John Winthrop was to
Massachusetts Bay. Both colonies were fortunate in having good,
resourceful governors. John Winthrop was re-elected governor many times
between the time his flagship, the _Arbella_, dropped anchor in Boston
harbor and his death in 1649.