Editing Myles Standish (section)

===Dispersal of Merrymount settlers===
[[File:Aanwijzing 2 voor het hanteren van het musket - Marcheert ende draecht de furquet neffens de Musquet (Jacob de Gheyn, 1607).jpg|right|thumb|alt=A pen and ink drawing of a soldier with a large musket over his shoulder.  He wears elaborate 16th-century clothing including puffy knee breeches and a wide brimmed, tall hat with a plume. |From a 16th-century Dutch manual on the use of the [[arquebus]], a type of [[matchlock]] used by the Pilgrims]]
In 1625, another group of English settlers established an outpost not far from the site of Wessagusset, located in [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], about {{convert|27|mi|km}} north of Plymouth. The settlement was officially known as Mount Wollaston, but soon earned the nickname "Merrymount." Their leader [[Thomas Morton (colonist)|Thomas Morton]] encouraged behavior that the Pilgrims found objectionable and dangerous. The men of Merrymount built a [[maypole]], drank liberally, refused to observe the Sabbath, and sold weapons to the Indians.<ref>Philbrick, p. 163.</ref> Bradford found the weapons sales particularly disturbing and ordered Standish to lead an expedition to arrest Morton in 1628.<ref name="Schmidt161">Schmidt, p. 161.</ref>

Standish arrived with a group of men to find that the small band at Merrymount had barricaded themselves within a small building. Morton eventually decided to attack the men from Plymouth, but the Merrymount group were too drunk to handle their weapons.<ref name=Schmidt161/> Morton aimed a weapon at Standish, which the captain ripped from his hands. Standish and his men took Morton to Plymouth and eventually sent him back to England. Later, Morton wrote the book ''New English Canaan'' in which he referred to Standish as "Captain Shrimp" and added, "I have found the Massachusetts Indians more full of humanity than the Christians."<ref>Philbrick, p. 164.</ref>