Then, in 1629, Mr.Ralph Smith was minister, and Roger Williams assisted him.

Smith was a man of small abilities, and after enduring him for eight years they persuaded him to resign.

After Smith's resignation the office of minister at Plymouth was filled by Rev.John Rayner.[34] The educational advantages of the Plymouth colony were meagre, and the little learning that existed was picked up in the old English way by home instruction.

This deficiency was due to the stern conditions of a farmer's life on Cape Cod Bay, where the soil was poor and the climate severe, necessitating the constant labor of the whole family.
Nevertheless, the Plymouth colony was always an example to its neighbors for thrift, economy, and integrity, and it influenced to industry by proving what might be done on a barren soil.

Its chief claim to historical importance rests, of course, on the fact that, as the first successful colony on the New England coast, it was the cause and beginning of the establishment of the other colonies of New England, and the second step in founding the great republic of the United States.
[Footnote 1: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 112.] [Footnote 2: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 114-117.] [Footnote 3: Mass.Hist.Soc., _Collections_, 4th series, II., 158-163.] [Footnote 4: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 130-133; Winslow, "Relation," in Young, _Chronicles of the Pilgrims_, 280-284.] [Footnote 5: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 149-168; _Cal.