sion. As John Winthrop put it when he was leaving England and was soon to
be governor of the colony, “We shall be as a city upon a hill; the eyes of all
people are upon us.”
The physical embodiment of the “city upon a hill” was to be Boston,
which the settlers began to lay out in 1630. The choice of the name Massa-
chusetts was apposite, since in the Natick Indian dialect it meant “at the
great hill.” From the beginning, the Puritans would congregate in towns
and so emphasized the creation of governments based on town meetings.
Within a few years, they had established more than a score of settlements
along the coastline. And they quickly began to fill these settlements with
immigrants. Although about one in each four of those who went with
Winthrop died in the first winter, and others were discouraged and turned
back, by the summer of 1631 they numbered over 2,000. Numbers
counted, but also important was the fact that the English Puritans were rich
and disciplined. They were in word and in deed establishing themselves as
not only a city on a hill but also the kingdom that owned the hill.
Early Days in the Colonies 125