Bradford's history is a blend of fact and interpretation. The Bradford journal records not only the events of the first 30 years of the Plymouth Colony, but also the reactions of the colonists. That makes historians regard this book as the preeminent work of 17th century America. Bradford's journal is a simple yet vivid story. Though Bradford never made an effort to publish the manuscript, he did intend for it to be preserved and read by others: 'I have been the larger in these things, and so shall crave leave in some like passages following, (though in other things I shall labour to be more contract) that their children may see with what difficulties their fathers wrestled in going through these things in their first beginnings, and how God brought them along notwithstanding all their weaknesses and infirmities.' Artist Bio Author: William Bradford (1590-1657) was an English Separatist migrating on the Mayflower in 1620 to Plymouth Colony, and became its governor for thirty years. Harold Paget (1876-) was an American historian.