The Pilgrim Story

BEING LARGELY A COMPILATION FROM THE DOCUMENTS OF GOVERNOR BRADFORD AND
GOVERNOR WINSLOW, SEVERALLY AND IN COLLABORATION; TOGETHER WITH A LIST
OF MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS.

Compiled and written by
WILLIAM FRANKLIN ATWOOD

ILLUSTRATED BY LEO SCHREIBER

Published by MPG Communications, Plymouth, Mass.

Copyright 1940
By
PAUL W. BITTINGER
Plymouth, Mass.

CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER I
Scrooby: Persecution 7

CHAPTER II
Escape: Holland 11

CHAPTER III
Holland: An Alien Peace 15
Historic Decision 16

CHAPTER IV
London: Preparation 20
Articles of Agreement 22
False Accusations 23
The Embarkation 25
Voyage and Arrival 26
Signers of the Compact 28
First Town Meeting 30
Search for Permanent Settlement 30
The Shallop Arrives 32
Historic Landing 33
Permanent Settlement 35

CHAPTER V
A New Home 37
First Winter Losses 40

CHAPTER VI
Samoset’s Visit 42
Treaty with Massasoit 44
The First Marriage 47
The First Duel 47
Visit to Massasoit 47
Arrival of Hobamock 48
The Fortune Arrives 49
Pierce’s Attempt 49

CHAPTER VII
Preparations for Winter 51
The First Thanksgiving 51
Bradford’s Letter 53

CHAPTER VIII
Indian Trouble 56

CHAPTER IX
Consolidation 61
Arrival of the Anne and the Little James 62
The First Cattle 64
The Wollaston Incident 67
The First Settled Minister 69
The First Capital Offence 69
Increase of Obligations 69
Roger Williams 70
Winslow Elected Governor 71
Boundaries Established 71
New England Confederacy 72
Conclusion 73
List of Mayflower Passengers 74
List of Fortune Passengers 75
List of Little James Passengers 75

Index to Illustrations

NOTE—Many well-known pictures of the Pilgrims have grossly
misinterpreted their true spirit. A “Signing of the Compact” or a
“Departure from Delfthaven,” for example, that employs the sentimental
piety, the eyes and arms raised to heaven, of Italian Baroque art,
(that Jesuitical, most Catholic art), fails to reflect the real spirit
of the Protestant Pilgrims. The use of the gracefully reclining and
swooning figures of Italianate renaissance art is likewise
inappropriate.

Reacting sharply from this, the illustrations in the book portray in
the modern spirit both the activities of the Pilgrims and their
settings with strict realism.

Unsparing effort in consulting authorities, old documents, prints, and
actual scenes was expended to secure convincing authenticity.

Stock Scene, showing church attended by Brewster and approximate
location of the stocks in Scrooby 7
Birdseye view of Brewster Manor in Scrooby 9
Church at Scrooby 10
Capture of escaping Pilgrims by an English mob 11
Love Scene, showing actual bridge and the Cloth Hall in Leyden,
headquarters of the guild of woolen workers, of whom the
Pilgrims were a part 15
Destruction of Brewster’s printing shop 18
Cushman before the Merchant Adventurers 20
Embarkation, showing buildings and actual wharf from which the
Pilgrims departed 24
Sighting of Provincetown, showing deck construction of Mayflower
type of boat 26
Signing the Compact 29
The first building, showing position in relation to Town Brook and
Pilgrim Spring 37
The First Street, in its true topographical setting 39
Samoset’s Visit 42
The Treaty with Massasoit, in its actual setting, “an unfinished
building” 45
A Good Harvest 51
Thanksgiving Feast 54
The Snakeskin Warning 56
Capt. Standish Slays Pecksuot 58
The First Cattle 61

PREFACE

No phase of early American history presents a finer example of faith,
fortitude and determination of purpose than the story of that little
band of devout souls who landed at Plymouth in the winter of 1620 and to
whom we refer as the Pilgrims.

In the following limited pages the writer attempts to present something
of the conditions obtaining in England prior to the Departure, also
something of the struggles, privations, courage and forbearance during
the first years of the settlement at Plymouth.

In so doing dependence is placed particularly upon the contemporaneous
writings of Bradford and Winslow, both members of the Mayflower party.

With the vast bibliography relating to the Pilgrim history, together
with the requirements of brevity, it is indeed fortunate that we are
able to look to those who played such an important part in this historic
episode and who were thoughtful enough to leave a record for posterity.

It is difficult to epitomize a story so broad and sweeping in its
ramifications, its religious and material aspects and its touch of
romanticism. Consequently it is intended to include only such events as
may prove of interest and value to the reader as adduced from the
recognized authorities.

These authorities as before indicated are:

Bradford, William: History of Plimouth Plantation. (Printed from the
original manuscript in 1898 under the supervision of the
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.)
Young, Alexander: Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers. (1880.) Including
Mourt’s Relation (London 1622) by William Bradford and Edward
Winslow in collaboration; Good News from England, Winslow’s
Journal of 1622-23 (London 1624); Winslow’s Relation and
Winslow’s Brief Narrative.
Hazard, Ebenezer; Hazard’s Historical Collections, Vol. 1. Including
Old Colony and Plymouth Records, Philadelphia (1812).

Note:—With regard to the original manuscript of Bradford’s History of
Plymouth Plantation, it may be stated that it was first obtained by
Thomas Prince, the historian, from Judge Sewall, to whom it was “lent
but only lent” by Major John Bradford of Kingston, son of Major William
Bradford, formerly Deputy Governor of the Plymouth Colony, and grandson
of Governor William Bradford.

This precious document which seems to have passed through several hands,
finally found refuge, together with Prince’s library, in the tower of
the Old South Church in Boston, whence it later disappeared.

In 1856 it was found in the library of the Lord Bishop of London, at
Fulham Palace. A transcript was made and it was printed in Boston the
same year, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

In 1897 the original manuscript was brought to this country by the Hon.
Thomas F. Bayard, our Ambassador to England at the time, to whom it had
been delivered by the Rt. Rev. Mandell Creighton, Lord Bishop of London.
Much credit is due to the late Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts,
to the former Bishop of London, Dr. Temple, who later became the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and the aforementioned Ambassador Bayard, who
were all in accord as to the right and justice of the transfer.

This historic document now reposes in the state library in the State
House in Boston, priceless in both historic and sentimental value.

W. F. A.

FOREWORD
Expansion on Cape Cod

The early settlements on Cape Cod all came about under the aegis of the
parent colony in Plymouth. Several times in Pilgrim chronicles we read
how Captain Myles Standish was sent to Sandwich, Barnstable and Yarmouth
on tours of inspection and to supervise the division of lands purchased
for little or nothing by the newcomers from the remnants of an Indian
population decimated years before by disease.

Direct Pilgrim influence on the religious life, the administration and
the courts of the Cape settlements continued from the earliest
beginnings at Sandwich in 1637, with steadily diminishing strength,
until the election of Thomas Prence of Eastham as Governor of Plymouth
Colony in 1657. Meanwhile the parent settlement itself was coming under
the domination of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its Puritan
hierarchs. The Plymouth connection finally lapsed, for all practical
purposes, in 1685, when Plymouth Colony was divided up into Plymouth,
Barnstable and Bristol Counties.

First Cape settlement was in 1637, when a band of Puritan families from
Saugus and Lynn on the North Shore got permission from the Pilgrim
Fathers to migrate to the precincts of the Plymouth Colony, of which the
Cape was a part. Some Pilgrim families from Duxbury and Plymouth came
along with these first settlers to carve out homesteads in the Sandwich
area.

Next towns to be settled were Yarmouth and Barnstable, in 1639, an
earlier attempt to populate the Mattacheesett section of what is now
Barnstable having failed.

Yarmouth was a direct offshoot of Pilgrim Plymouth, and prominent among
its settlers was Giles Hopkins, son of Stephen Hopkins, who came over
with his father on the Mayflower.

Barnstable, at its inception, was dominated by the personality of the
Rev. John Lothrop, a very strongminded man of dissident Pilgrim
persuasion who, together with fifty of his parishioners, had once served
two years in jail in England for religious schism. For a time the spirit
of controversy continued in the new Cape Colony, fanned by the radical
views of Marmaduke Matthews, a firebrand Welshman. But by the time
Captain Myles Standish and two companions came down from Plymouth in
1643 to divide up the salt hay marshes, cleared farmlands and woods of
Barnstable into legally recorded homesteads, the colony had settled down
and become absorbed with more workaday matters.

Last of the very early Cape Cod towns to be settled was Eastham in 1644,
by a party led by the Rev. John Mayo, bearer of another of the names
later to become famous on the Cape in its great mercantilist period.

Falmouth, in 1686, fissioned off quite directly from Plymouth, and was
incorporated in 1686, originally under the name of Succonesset. Harwich
officially came into being in 1694, as an offshoot from Barnstable, and
very much later, in 1803, gave rise to Brewster. Dennis, meanwhile, had
fissioned from Yarmouth in 1794. But by this time Pilgrim origins and
influence were but the dimmest of memories.

Also influential on the early Cape, after the middle 1650’s, were the
Quakers, at first persecuted, but eventually accepted as a manifestly
superior kind of people. They, too, quickly merged during the following
century into the Cape Cod way of life, and became indistinguishable from
families of Pilgrim or Puritan origin.

[Illustration: Stock Scene, showing church attended by Brewster and
approximate location of the stocks in Scrooby]

CHAPTER I

Scrooby: Persecution

The Pilgrim story may well begin from the period of the Reformation or
the ascendency of the Protestant Church in England. Previous to 1600
much friction had existed between the Crown and the Papacy in matters
ecclesiastical and civil. The process of reform however had been
crystalizing during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This came to
culmination in the establishment of the English Church (known as the
Church of England) as the official or state church of which the King was
to be the temporal head with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual
head or primate.

But still there was friction. It was like a house divided against
itself. There were those who could not conscientiously subscribe to the
laws and rituals laid down by the established church. They were
dissenters or non-conformists and are best described by Bradford as
follows: “The one side labored to have the right worship of God and
discipline of Christ established in the Church, according to the
simplicity of the gospel, without the mixture of men’s inventions, and
to have and be ruled by the laws of God’s word, dispensed in those
offices and by those officers of Pastors, Teachers and Elders, etc.,
according to the Scriptures.”

“The other party endeavored to have episcopal dignity (after the popish
manner) with their large power and jurisdiction still retained.”

Note: In the subject matter in quotations, the spelling of some words
has been changed to the modern form without otherwise affecting the
text.

This strained and anomalous situation led to the founding of the
Separatist Church in 1602 in the Old Hall in Gainsborough, with John
Smyth as pastor.

Smyth was highly esteemed by the non-conformist group. He was a graduate
of Cambridge, “an eminent man in his time,” and his pastorate at
Gainsborough extended from 1602 until 1606 when he was forced to retire.

The Scrooby fraternity, an off-shoot from Gainsborough, was presided
over by Richard Clyfton as first pastor. Prominent among the
non-conformists at Scrooby were William Brewster, born in Scrooby in
1560, William Bradford, born in Austerfield, a village three miles
distant, in 1588, and John Robinson, born in Lincolnshire about 1576.
Robinson received orders from the Church of England, was suspended for
non-conformity and later joined the Congregation at Scrooby where he was
made pastor.

This triumvirate became the ruling spirits of the Scrooby community,
Brewster became the Elder of the Church and later the religious leader
of the Plymouth settlement, of which Bradford became Governor. Robinson,
to whom both looked for inspiration and guidance, was destined by
circumstances to remain in Holland where he had later been forced to
take refuge.

These independent thinkers who firmly asserted their right to worship
according to their belief, were brought into constant conflict with the
constituted authorities of the Church of England. As Bradford says:
“This contention was so great, as neither the honour of God, the common
persecution, nor the mediation of Mr. Calvin and other worthies of the
Lord in those places, could prevail with those thus episcopally minded,
but they proceeded by all means to disturb the peace of this poor
persecuted church, even so far as to charge (very unjustly and ungodly,
yet prelate like) some of their chief opposers, with rebellion and high
treason….” And then regarding their treatment he says: “They could not
long continue in any peaceable condition but were hunted and persecuted
on every side.”

[Illustration: Birdseye view of Brewster Manor in Scrooby]

From 1603 when King James I succeeded Elizabeth who had reigned as Queen
during the preceding forty-five years, conditions grew increasingly
worse until as Bradford continues:

“Seeing themselves thus molested and that there was no hope of their
continuance there, they resolved to go into the Low Countries, where
they heard was freedom of religion for all men; as also how sundry from
London, and other parts of the land had been exiled and persecuted for
the same cause, and were gone thither and lived at Amsterdam and in
other places of the land. So after they had continued together about a
year, and kept their meetings every sabbath, in one place or other,
exercising the worship of God amongst themselves, notwithstanding all
the diligence and malice of their adversaries, they seeing they could no
longer continue in that condition, they resolved to get over into
Holland as they could which was in the year 1607-1608.”

[Illustration: Church at Scrooby]

[Illustration: Capture of escaping Pilgrims by an English mob]

CHAPTER II

Escape: Holland

_The Migration to Holland_ was not accomplished without its set-backs
and misgivings. In the first place it was unlawful under an old statute
which made emigrating without authority a penal crime. They were several
times intercepted in their attempt to depart from English soil. But they
were determined in purpose and brave in heart.

“Being thus constrained to leave their native country, their lands and
livings, and all their friends and familiar acquaintance, it was much,
and thought marvellous by many. But to go into a country they knew not,
but by hearsay, where they must learn a new language, and get their
livings they knew not how, it being a dear place, and subject to the
miseries of war,[1] it was by many thought an adventure almost
desperate, a case intolerable, and a misery worse than death; especially
seeing they were not acquainted with trades nor traffic, (by which the
country doth subsist) but had only been used to a plain country life and
the innocent trade of husbandry. But these things did not dismay them,
(although they did sometimes trouble them,) for their desires were set
on the ways of God, and to enjoy his ordinances. But they rested on his
providence, and knew whom they had believed. Yet this was not all. For
although they could not stay, yet were they not suffered to go; but the
ports and havens were shut against them, so as they were fain to seek
secret means of conveyance, and to fee the mariners, and give
extraordinary rates for their passages. And yet were they oftentimes
betrayed, many of them, and both they and their goods intercepted and
surprised, and thereby put to great trouble and charge; of which I will
give an instance or two, and omit the rest.”

“There was a great company of them purposed to get passage at Boston, in
Lincolnshire; and for that end had hired a ship wholly to themselves,
and made agreement with the master to be ready at a certain day, and
take them and their goods in, at a convenient place, where they
accordingly would all attend in readiness. So after long waiting and
large expenses, though he kept not the day with them, yet he came at
length, and took them in, in the night. And when he had them and their
goods aboard, he betrayed them, having beforehand complotted with the
searchers and other officers so to do; who took them and put them into
open boats, and there rifled and ransacked them, searching them to their
shirts for money, yae, even the women, further than became modesty; and
then carried them back into the town, and made them a spectacle and
wonderment to the multitude, which came flocking on all sides to behold
them. Being thus by the catchpole officers riffled and stripped of their
money, books and much other goods, they were presented to the
magistrates, and messengers sent to inform the Lords of the Council of
them; and so they were committed to ward. Indeed the magistrates used
them courteously, and showed them what favor they could; but could not
deliver them until order came from the Council table. But the issue was,
that after a month’s imprisonment the greatest part were dismissed, and
sent to the places from whence they came; but seven of the principal men
were still kept in prison and bound over to the assizes.”

In the spring of 1608 another attempt was made to embark and another
Dutch shipmaster engaged. This second party assembled at a point between
Grimsby and Hull not far from the mouth of the Humber. The women and
children arrived in a small bark which became grounded at low water and
while some of the men on shore were taken off in the ship’s boat they
were again apprehended. And to quote again:

“But after the first boat-full was got aboard, and she was ready to go
for more, the master espied a great company, both horse and foot, with
bills and guns and other weapons: for the country was raised to take
them.”

“But the poor men which were got on board were in great distress for
their wives and children, which they saw thus to be taken, and were left
distitute of their helps, and themselves also not having a cloth to
shift them with, more than they had on their backs, and some scarce a
penny about them, all they had being on the bark. It drew tears from
their eyes, and anything they had they would have given to have been on
shore again. But all in vain; there was no remedy; they must thus sadly
part; and afterwards endured a fearful storm at sea, being fourteen days
or more before they arrived at their port; in seven whereof they neither
saw sun, moon, nor stars, and were driven to the coast of Norway; the
mariners themselves often despairing of life, and once with shrieks and
cries gave over all, as if the ship had been foundered in the sea, and
they sinking without recovery. But when man’s hope and help wholly
failed, the Lord’s power and mercy appeared for their recovery; for the
ship rose again, and gave the mariners courage again to manager her; and
if modesty would suffer me, I might declare with what fervent prayers
they cried unto the Lord in this great distress, (especially some of
them,) even without any great distraction.”[2]

Those left ashore were in a pitiable state, women were left without
their husbands and children without their fathers, their property had
been sold in anticipation of a safe departure and the situation was, for
a time at least, desperate. But a kind Providence intervened and while
their purpose was thus hindered, they finally were united at Amsterdam.
As Bradford states: “Notwithstanding all these storms of opposition,
they all got over at length, some at one time and some at another, and
yet met together again, according to their desires, with no small
rejoicing.”

Let us pause here a moment and reflect. In our contemplation of the
present and concern for the future, we must not be unmindful of the
past. It was not easy to make final decision in such matter as
permanently breaking away from homes, relatives and friends, not to
mention the material factors involved. Fortunately however for them and
for us, this devout band was imbued with enduring faith. Faith fortified
by grim determination.

Thus they planned and executed. They left the land of their nativity.
They braved the perils of an unknown ocean and a still more unknown
future that they might find a refuge free from religious bondage and
where they might worship God according to their conscience. This they
accomplished in the face of almost insurmountable hardships.

They made concord with the Indians, they builded homes, they framed laws
and agreements in accordance with the time and the necessity. They
established a governmental process sufficient for their needs, an
outgrowth of the government of their religious life in which decisions
were made by the will of the majority. They paved the way for future
generations. They suffered much. They attained much. They left a
heritage that must not be sacrificed.

We of today are faced with ominous problems. A re-dedication to the
faith, vision and determination of our fathers, will be America’s
salvation.

[Illustration: Love Scene, showing actual bridge and the Cloth Hall
in Leyden, headquarters of the guild of woolen workers, of whom the
Pilgrims were a part]

CHAPTER III

Holland: An Alien Peace

They remained in Amsterdam about a year when for both material and
spiritual reasons they decided to move to Leyden 22 miles distant. They
had come into some contention with the church that had established
itself before them which seemed difficult to settle to their
satisfaction and their means of livelihood had become so restricted that
they were threatened with poverty. “For these and some other reasons
they removed to Leyden, a fair and beautiful city. But being now here
pinched, they fell to such trades and employments as they best could,
valuing peace and their spiritual comfort above any other riches
whatsoever; and at length they came to raise a competent and comfortable
living, but with hard and continual labor.”

The Final and Historic Decision

Some eleven or twelve years were spent in Leyden where they enjoyed
“much sweet and delightful society and spiritual comfort together, in
the ways of God, under the able ministry and prudent government of Mr.
John Robinson and Mr. William Brewster, who was an assistant unto him in
the place of an Elder, unto which he was now called and chosen by the
church; so as they grew in knowledge and other gifts and graces of the
spirit of God; and lived together in peace, and love, and holiness.”

Yet while they seemed to have more spiritual freedom and to have enjoyed
the society of their Dutch neighbors and had established a good credit
among them, they were confronted with the fear of final absorption in an
alien country. They preferred to maintain their language and traditions
as English men and women. Moreover, King James was beginning to exercise
an unwarrantable influence in the Low Countries. This went to the
extreme of confiscating their types[3] and presses and the suppression
of the religious matter printed and issued by William Brewster, the
Elder of the Leyden congregation. A compelling force seemed to drive
them on to seek some place of permanent settlement. And to quote from
Bradford:

“Although the people generally bore all their difficulties very
cheerfully and with a resolute courage, being in the best of their
strength, yet old age began to come on some of them; and their great and
continual labors, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before the
time; so as it was not only probably thought, but apparently seen, that
within a few years more they were in danger to scatter by necessity
pressing them, or sink under their burdens, or both; and therefore,
according to the divine proverb, that ‘a wise man seeth the plague when
it cometh, and hideth himself,’ so they, like skilful and beaten
soldiers, were fearful either to be entrapped or surrounded by their
enemies, so as they should neither be able to fight nor fly; and
therefore thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better
advantage and less danger, if any could be found.”

“Lastly (and which was not the least,) a great hope and inward zeal they
had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make way thereunto,
for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ in
these remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but as
stepping-stones unto others for performing of so great a work.”

“The place they had thoughts on were some of those unpeopled countries
of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of
all civil inhabitants, where there are only savage and bruitish people,
which range up and down little otherwise than the wild beasts. This
proposition being made public, and coming to the scanning of all, it
raised many variable opinions amongst men, and caused many fears and
doubts amongst themselves. Some from their reasons and hopes conceived,
labored to stir up and encourage the rest to undertake and prosecute the
same; others again, out of their fears, objected against it, and sought
to divert from it, alleging many things, and those neither unreasonable
nor unprobable: as that it was a great design, and subject to many
inconceivable perils and dangers; as, besides the casualties of the
seas, (which none can be freed from,) the length of the voyage was such
as the weak bodies of women and other persons worn out with age and
travail, (as many of them were,) could never be able to endure; and yet
if they should, the miseries of the land which they should be exposed
unto would be too hard to be borne, and likely, some or all of them, to
consume and utterly to ruinate them. For there they should be liable to
famine, and nakedness, and the want, in the manner, of all things.”

[Illustration: Destruction of Brewster’s printing shop]

“It was answered, that all great and honorable actions were accomplished
with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with
answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not
desperate, and the difficulties were many, but not invincible; for
although there were many of them likely, yet they were not certain. It
might be that some of the things feared might never befall them; others,
by providence, care and use good of means, might in a great measure be
prevented; and all of them through the help of God, by fortitude and
patience, might either be borne or overcome. True it was that such
attempts were not to be made and undertaken but upon good ground and
reason, not rashly or lightly, as many have done for curiosity or hope
of gain, etc. But their condition was not ordinary. Their ends were good
and honorable, their calling lawful and urgent, and therefore they might
expect a blessing of God in their proceeding; yea, although they should
lose their lives in this action, yet they might have comfort in the
same; and their endeavours would be honorable.”[4]

“They lived here but as men in exile and in a poor condition; and as
great miseries might possibly befall them in this place; for the twelve
years of truce were now out,[5] and there was nothing but beating of
drums and preparing for war, the events whereof are always uncertain.
The Spaniard might prove as cruel as the savages of America, and the
famine and pestilence are sore here and there, and their liberty less to
look out for remedy.”

“After many other particular things answered and alleged on both sides,
it was fully concluded by the major part to put this design in
execution, and to prosecute it by the best means they could.”

[Illustration: Cushman before the Merchant Adventurers]

CHAPTER IV

London: Preparation

The coast of North America was not entirely unknown. There had been
several attempts at settlement and exploration. One by Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1584. He had taken possession under a patent confirmed by act
of Parliament, of the territory from the Carolinas north to Virginia,
the name Virginia being given the new country in honor of the Virgin
Queen.

In 1606 another party under command of Capt. John Smith sailed in three
small vessels under authority of a charter granted by James I. They
landed at a point in Chesapeake Bay, thirty-two miles from the mouth of
the James river in Virginia and established a settlement called
Jamestown.

In 1614 Smith made a voyage to the North Virginia coast at which time he
made a comprehensive map calling this section New England. Upon his
return to England he showed this map to Charles I, then a prince, who in
applying the names of English towns to points along the coast gave the
place which was to become the Pilgrim settlement the name of Plymouth,
which it has since retained.

There were many matters of moment to be settled before the Pilgrims
could depart their native shores. The liquidation of what property they
had acquired was to be augmented by further financing. It was necessary
to obtain a patent to any land they might acquire for settlement and the
matter of how many and who should go first had to be determined.

“Those that stayed, being the greater number, required the pastor to
stay with them; and indeed for other reasons he could not then well go,
and so it was the more easily yielded unto. It was also agreed on by
mutual consent and covenant that those who went should be an absolute
church of themselves, as well as those that stayed, seeing in such a
dangerous voyage, and a removal to such a distance, it might come to
pass that they should (for the body of them) never meet again in this
world. Yet with this proviso, that if any of the rest came over to them,
or of the other returned upon occasion, they should be reputed as
members without further admission or testimonial. It was also promised
to those that went first, by the body of the rest, that if the Lord gave
them life and means, and opportunity, they should come to them as soon
as they could.”

The next step was to secure a patent. Already letters-patent had been
granted two companies of Englishmen to territory 100 miles in width on
the Atlantic coast of North America from the 34th to the 45th degrees
north latitude. These were designated as the South and North Virginia
companies. Through emissaries sent to England a patent was obtained
bearing date of Feb. 12th, 1620. This patent was issued to John Pierce
and Associates and covered territory in the vicinity of the Virginia
Capes. As it happened the Pilgrims settled outside the limits defined
therein and another patent was granted covering the territory around
Cape Cod Bay. This patent bears the date of June 1st, 1621, and was
issued by the Council of New England which had been created by royal
authority to succeed the North Virginia Company after the departure of
the Pilgrims from England.

It shows the signatures of the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton,
the Earl of Warwick, Lord Sheffield and Sir Ferdinand Gorges. Several
parts of this ancient document have broken away, including the seal of
Hamilton and the seal and signature of John Pierce, the party of the
second part thereto. This valuable document, the oldest state document
in New England, was brought over in the Fortune in 1621 and now reposes
in Pilgrim Hall.

Arrangements were concluded with a group of London business men who
styled themselves the Merchant Adventurers who were in sympathy with the
movement and who had agreed to finance the expedition. Perhaps they are
best described by Capt. John Smith who wrote in 1624:

“The adventurers which raised the stock to begin and supply this
plantation, were about seventy, some gentlemen, some merchants, some
handicraftsmen, some adventuring great sums, some small, as their
estates and their affection served. These dwelt most about London. They
are not a corporation, but knit together by a voluntary combination in a
society without constraint or penalty, aiming to do good and to plant
religion.”

Articles of Agreement

The Articles of Agreement entered into with the Merchant Adventurers
were as follows:—

“1. The adventurers and planters do agree, that every persons that
goeth, being aged sixteen years and upward, be rated at ten pounds, and
ten pounds to be accounted a single share.

2. That he that goeth in person, and furnisheth himself out with ten
pounds, either in money or other provisions, be accounted as having
twenty pounds in stock, and in the division shall receive a double
share.

3. The persons transported and the adventurers shall continue their
joint stock and partnership together the space of seven years, (except
some unexpected impediments do cause the whole company to agree
otherwise,) during which time all profits and benefits that are got, by
trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means, of any
person or persons, shall remain in the common stock until the division.

4. That at their coming there they choose out such a number of fit
persons as may furnish their ships and boats for fishing upon the sea;
employing the rest in their several faculties upon the land, as building
houses, tilling and planting the ground, and making such commodities as
shall be most useful for the colony.

5. That at the end of the seven years, the capital and profits, viz.,
the houses, lands, goods and chattels, be equally divided among the
adventurers and planters; which done, every man shall be free from other
of them of any debt or detriment concerning the adventure.

6. Whosoever cometh to the colony hereafter, or putteth any into the
stock, shall at the end of the seven years be allowed proportionally to
the time of his so doing.

7. He that shall carry his wife and children or servants, shall be
allowed for every person now aged 16 years and upward, a single share in
the division; or if he provide them necessaries, a double share, or if
they be between 10 years old and 16 then two of them to be reckoned for
a person, both in transportation and division.

8. That such children as now go and are under the age of 10 years, have
no other share in the division, but 50 acres of unmanured land.

9. That such persons as die before the seven years be expired, their
executors to have their part or share at the division, proportionally to
the time of their life in the colony.

10. That all such persons as are of this colony are to have their meat,
drink, apparel and all provisions out of the common stock and goods of
the said colony.”

False Accusations

It has been declared by some commentators that this agreement savored of
communism. This interpretation is however unfair. As a matter of record
it was not entirely satisfactory to the colonists but was imposed upon
them by the Merchant Adventurers who, looking to the final liquidation
of their advancements, preferred to hold the community as a whole to
meet the obligation. Several letters written by Robert Cushman to his
associates in Leyden tend to substantiate this view and emphasize that
he had made the best possible terms under the circumstances.

[Illustration: Embarkation, showing buildings and actual wharf from
which the Pilgrims departed]

Pertinent to the foregoing it is interesting to quote from Young’s
Chronicles, page 84, as follows:—“There is no foundation for this
charge. The Plymouth people were not ‘misguided by their religious
theories,’ nor influenced by an ‘imitation of the primitive Christians,’
in forming their joint stock company. They entered into this hard and
disadvantageous engagement with the Merchant Adventurers not
voluntarily, but of necessity, in order to obtain shipping for
transporting themselves to America; and they put their own little
property into a common fund in order to purchase provisions for the
voyage. It was a partnership that was instituted, not a community of
goods, as that phrase is commonly understood.”

The Embarkation

A small vessel of about sixty tons called the Speedwell and commanded by
Captain Reynolds was secured in Holland and another, somewhat larger,
the Mayflower, of London, commanded by Captain Jones. The Speedwell left
Delft-Haven in July, 1620, with a company of thirty, including William
Bradford, William Brewster, John Carver, Edward Winslow, Isaac Allerton,
Samuel Fuller and John Howland. Captain Myles Standish was also a member
of the company although not of the congregation. He was a soldier whose
value to the Colony proved outstanding. They left with the blessing of
John Robinson who intended to follow but whose dreams were never to be
realized.

Note: Dates following accord with the modern calendar except those
marked O.S. indicating Old Style.

The first party reached Southampton where the Mayflower awaited them
with ninety passengers. On the fifteenth of August both vessels set sail
but had gone but a short distance when the Speedwell began to leak. They
put back to Dartmouth where eight days were spent in repairs when the
ships again put to sea. They had covered scarcely three hundred miles
when the Speedwell again began leaking. Both vessels turned back,
putting into Plymouth harbor where the leaking craft was abandoned. Here
eighteen of her passengers decided not to continue.

[Illustration: Sighting of Provincetown, showing deck construction
of Mayflower type of boat]

Voyage and Arrival

The Mayflower with its added burden, now numbering one hundred and two
souls, left Plymouth September 16th, 1620, and began its historic
journey westward. For a goodly part of the voyage of over two months
duration the ship was buffeted by equinoctial winds and high seas and,
as they neared the coast, a death is recorded, that of William Butten, a
youth, servant of Samuel Fuller. The records also disclose the birth of
a son, Oceanus, to Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins. “After long beating at
sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod; the which being
made and certainly known to be it, they were not a little joyful. After
some deliberation had amongst themselves and with the master of the
ship, they tacked about and resolved to stand for the southward (the
wind and weather being fair) to find some place about Hudson River for
their habitation.

“But after they had sailed the course about half the day, they fell
amongst dangerous shols and roaring breakers, and they were so far
entangled therewith as they conceived themselves in great danger; and
the wind shrinking upon them withall; they resolved to bear up again for
the Cape, and thought themselves happy to get out of those dangers
before night overtook them, as by God’s providence they did. And the
next day they got into the Cape Harbor where they rode in safety.”

It was the 21st of November (present calendar) when the Mayflower
dropped anchor in the sheltered and quiet waters of Provincetown Harbor
and one may well imagine the happiness and gratitude of these weary
voyagers when they sighted this haven of refuge and were once more able
to place their feet upon dry land. As Bradford records: “Being thus
arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their
knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast
and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries
thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their
proper element.”

On Monday the 23rd a landing was made, the men to make repairs to the
shallop and the women to wash, thus establishing Monday as the generally
accepted “Washday.”

The Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed in all probability before
Mayflower dropped anchor in Provincetown Harbor. This document was
partly the result of friction that had arisen during the voyage and the
intimation that some among them might exercise their individual liberty
without restraint and against the peace and welfare of the community as
a whole. The text follows with Bradford’s explanatory note:

“I shall a little return back and begin with a combination made by them
before they came ashore, being the first foundation of their government
in this place; occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous
speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall from them
in the ship—That when they came ashore they would use their own liberty;
for none had power to command them, the patent they had being for
Virginia, and not for New England, which belonged to another Government,
with which the Virginia Company had nothing to do. And partly that such
an act by them done (this their condition considered) might be as firm
as any patent, and in some respects more sure.”

The Compact

“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal
subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God,
of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, defender of the faith, etc.,
having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancement of the
Christian faith, and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant
the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents
solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another,
covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for
our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends
aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just
and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to
time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good
of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof, we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod,
the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord,
King James of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of
Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domino. 1620.”

Signers of the Compact

The earliest known list of the signers of the Compact is that contained
in Morton’s “New-Englands Memoriall,” published in 1669. The names
follow:

John Carver
William Bradford
Edward Winslow
William Brewster
Isaac Allerton
Myles Standish
John Alden
John Turner
Frances Eaton
James Chilton
John Crakston
Degory Priest
Thomas Williams
Gilbert Winslow
Edmund Margeson
Peter Brown
Richard Britterige
George Soule
Edward Tilley
John Tilley
Francis Cooke
Thomas Rogers
John Billington
Moses Fletcher
John Goodman
Samuel Fuller
Christopher Martin
William Mullins
William White
Richard Warren
John Howland
Stephen Hopkins
Thomas Tinker
John Rigdale
Edward Fuller
Richard Clark
Richard Gardiner
John Allerton
Thomas English
Edward Doty
Edward Leister

[Illustration: Signing the Compact]

“After this they chose, or rather confirmed, Mr. John Carver (a man
godly and well approved amongst them) their Governor for that year.”

This meeting, held in the cabin of the Mayflower, is generally accepted
as the first New England town meeting, although on the 27th of February
following, a meeting, later referred to, was held in the common house
for the purpose of establishing a military guard at which Myles Standish
was chosen captain.

On April 2nd another meeting was held on “common business” and at which
laws “convenient for the common state” were passed.

From these first meetings evolved our present form of town meeting,
held, and elections made, according to the will of the majority.

Search for Permanent Settlement

On November 25th, a party of sixteen men under the leadership of Captain
Standish set out on foot looking for a place for permanent settlement
“having such instructions as was thought meet.” They had proceeded but a
short distance when they met a small party of Indians who fled upon
approach. They were followed for some miles, when, darkness coming on,
they made camp for the night.

[Sidenote: Nov. 26 to 28]

The following day further exploration was made. Some Indian corn was
discovered, also fresh water from which they drank being sorely in need
thereof “this being the first New England water drunk of.”

Returning from the vicinity of Truro and the Pamet River to which their
exploration had taken them, they saw deer and “great flocks of wild
geese and ducks, but they were fearful of us.”[6] Also signs of Indian
habitation and “heaps of sand newly padled with their hands, which they,
digging up, found in them divers fair Indian baskets filled with corn,
and some in ears, fair and good, of divers colors, which seemed to them
a goodly sight (having never seen any such before). So their time
limited to them being expired, they returned to the ship, lest they
should be in fear of their safety; and took with them part of the corn
… of which on their return they were marvellously glad….”

The days immediately following were occupied in completing repairs to
the shallop, in cutting wood and getting tools in readiness, in
anticipation of a permanent landing.

With this in view a party of thirty set forth on Dec. 7, “for the better
discovery of this place.” They found signs of Indian habitation also
“more of their corn and of their beans of various colors. The corn and
beans they brought away proposing to give them good satisfaction when
they should meet with any of them (as about 6 months afterward they did,
to their good content).” “And here it is to be noted a special
Providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people that here they
got seed to plant them corn the next year or else they might have
starved, for they had none, nor any likelihood to get any until the
season had been past (as the sequel did manifest).”

Not finding the desired harborage or place for permanent settlement this
party returned to the Mayflower.

During their absence and while the Mayflower lay in the Harbor of
Provincetown, a son was born to Susanna White, wife of William White. He
was named Peregrine.

THE SHALLOP ARRIVES AT PLYMOUTH
The Landing

[Sidenote: Wed. Dec. 16]

On the sixteenth of December another party set out in the shallop “upon
further discovery intending to circulate that deep bay of Cape Cod.”
This party consisted of Myles Standish, John Carver, William Bradford,
Edward Winslow, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Howland, Richard
Warren, Stephen Hopkins, Edward Dotey, John Allerton, Thomas English,
the ship’s mates, Mr. Clark and Mr. Coppin, and the master gunner and
three sailors.

“The weather was very cold and it froze so hard as the spray of the sea
lighting on their coats, they were as if they had been glazed.”

Proceeding as far as Wellfleet they discovered a party of “ten or twelve
Indians very busy about a black thing,—what it was we could not
tell,—until afterwards they saw us, and ran to and fro, as if they had
been carrying something away. We landed a league or two from them where
we made us a barricade and got firewood and set out sentinels and betook
us to our lodging, such as it was.” This landing was at Eastham ten
miles distant.

[Sidenote: Thurs. Dec. 17]

When morning came the company was divided, eight cruising along shore in
the shallop while the remainder explored the land bordering thereon.
They came to the spot “where they saw the Indians the night before and
found they had been cutting up a great fish like a grampus.” (small
whale or blackfish).

Nothing of importance having been discovered this day, they returned to
the shallop which had come ashore at their calling. “So being weary and
faint,—for we had eaten nothing all day,—we fell to make our rendezvous
and get firewood and we fed upon such victuals as we had, and betook us
to our rest, and we had set out our watch.”

[Sidenote: Fri. Dec. 18]

In the early morning of the 18th, they had their first encounter with
the Indians “some thirty or forty of them, though some thought that they
were many more.” Many arrows were shot but “none of them either hit or
hurt us, though many came close by us and on every side of us and some
coats which hung up in our barricade were shot through and through.” But
after several shots were fired at them, they all left with apparently no
casualties. This was the first actual encounter with the Indians.

During the day the reunited party skirted the coast, the wind increasing
during the afternoon to gale force. The boat’s rudder was broken and the
mast split and they were dependent upon their oars for steering. In this
condition they were driven across the bay toward Saquish where the high
seas prevented landing. By skillful maneuvering however they managed to
round Saquish head and “although it was very dark and rained sore, yet
in the end they got under the lee of a small island,[7] and remained
there all the night in safety.”

[Sidenote: Sat. Dec. 19]

“Yet, God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshment for the next
day was a fair and sunshiny day and they found themselves to be on an
island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix
their pieces and rest themselves. And this being the last day of the
week, they prepared there to keep the Sabbath.”

The Historic Landing

[Sidenote: Sun. Dec. 20
Mon. Dec. 21]

This Sabbath was spent on Clark’s Island where they rested and held
service. “On Monday they sounded the harbor and found it fit for
shipping, and marched into the land,[8] and found divers cornfields, and
little running brooks, a fit place for situation; at least it was the
best they could find, and the season, and their present necessity, made
them glad to accept it. So they returned to their ship again with this
news to the rest of their people, which did much comfort their hearts.”

The romance surrounding the Rock that has become famous in history is
not easily discredited. The fact is, that Elder Thomas Faunce, who was
born in Plymouth in 1647 and died in 1746 at the age of ninety-nine
years, made a statement a few years prior to his death, at a time when
removal or covering of the rock was under contemplation, protesting
vigorously at what he considered the desecration of an object of deep
veneration. He stated in the presence of many hearers that his father,
John Faunce, who came over in the ship Anne, had told him that it was on
that rock that the Pilgrims landed as stated by them to him. It is
further probable that they may have imparted this information to him
directly as a number of the Mayflower passengers lived for many years
subsequent to his birth.

This information has passed from generation to generation. “Plymouth
Rock has now become a symbol of the Pilgrim venture into the unknown of
their day and has inspired present-day Americans with a new Faith in
democracy and in the American way of living.”

It was during their absence on December 17th, that Dorothy Bradford,
wife of William Bradford, was drowned in Provincetown harbor.

[Sidenote: Fri. Dec. 25
Sat. Dec. 26]

On the 25th, they set out in the Mayflower for Plymouth, but the wind
being unfavorable, they failed to make the harbor and put back to
Provincetown. “But it pleased God, the next day being Saturday, the wind
came fair, and we put to sea again and came safely into a safe harbor.”
This was the first arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth. Sunday was
spent on the ship.

A Permanent Settlement

It is evident that they were favorably impressed both with the security
of the harbor and the general surroundings, although there was some
division of opinion as to the best location for a permanent settlement
as the following discloses: “This bay is a hopeful place, innumerable
store of fowl, skate, cod, turbot and herring we have tasted of;
abundance of muscles, the greatest and best that ever we saw; crabs and
lobsters, in their time infinite.”

[Sidenote: Mon. Dec. 28]

“Monday we went aland manned with the master of the ship and three or
four of the sailors. We marched along the coast in the woods seven or
eight miles, but saw not an Indian nor an Indian house; only we found
where formerly had been some inhabitants, and where they had planted
their corn.”

“We found not any navigable river but four or five small running brooks
of very sweet fresh water, that all ran into the sea.”

They speak of the trees, the herbs and the soil, some sandy and some
rich and fertile. They also speak of the streams that are beginning to
fill with fish. That night they returned to the ship, “many being weary
with marching.”

[Sidenote: Tues. Dec. 29]

The next day being Tuesday, Dec. 29, the party divided, some going on
foot and some in the shallop. They came to a creek and “went up three
English miles, a very pleasant river[9] at full sea. This place we had a
great liking to plant in, but that it was so far from our fishing, our
principal profit, and so encompassed with woods that we should be in
much danger of the savages. Some of us, having a good mind for safety,
to plant in the greater isle,[10] we crossed the bay, which is there
five or six miles over. We judged it cold for our corn and some part
very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, and of great
security.”

That night they returned again to the Mayflower determined to settle the
next day on a permanent location.

[Sidenote: Wed. Dec. 30]

The final selection of a place for settlement is described as follows:
“After our landing and viewing of the places, so well as we could, we
came to a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main land, on the
first place, on a high ground, where there is a great deal of land
cleared, and hath been planted with corn three or four years ago; and
there is a very sweet brook, runs under the hillside, and many delicate
springs of as good water as can be drunk, and where we may harbor our
shallops and boats exceeding well; and in this brook much good fish in
their seasons; on the further side of the river also much corn-ground
cleared. In one field is a great hill, on which we point to make a
platform, and plant our ordinance, which will command all round about.”

“So there we made our rendezvous, and a place for some of our people,
about twenty, resolving in the morning to come all ashore and to build
houses.”

[Illustration: The first building, showing position in relation to
Town Brook and Pilgrim Spring]

CHAPTER V

A New Home

From the foregoing the reader will readily recognize Coles Hill and
Burial Hill and the site of the first fort, marked now by an appropriate
tablet. Also Town Brook and the adjacent spring which has quenched the
thirst of many a modern day pilgrim as well as residents of this
historic town.

[Sidenote: 1621 Sat. Jan. 2 to Sat. Jan. 9]

During Dec. 31, and Jan. 1, a violent storm prevailed and it was
Saturday, Jan. 2, before work on shore could be started. In the several
days following trees were felled, timbers shaped, and work begun on the
Common House and the “platform” or fort on the hill.

[Sidenote: Mon. Jan. 11
Mon. Jan. 18]

Allotments of land were made, first by taking notice of “how many
families there were, willing all single men that had not wives, to join
with some family as they thought fit, that so we might build fewer
houses; which was done and we reduced them to nineteen families.” Friday
and Saturday being stormy and Jan. 10 being the Sabbath, work was
resumed on Monday, Jan. 11. During this period the greater number were
living on the Mayflower which presumably anchored in the lower harbor,
necessitated going to and fro and in bad weather seriously interfered
with work on shore. It was on Monday, the 18th, that Francis Billington
made a visit to the “great sea” as he thought and which he had seen from
a tree the week previous. This fine pond of sparkling water “full of
fish and fowl” thus derived its name Billington Sea.

After some interruptions occasioned by bad weather, work was again
resumed on the 19th. “We agreed that every man should build his own
house, thinking by that course men would make more haste than working in
common.”

[Sidenote: Tues. Jan. 19 to Fri. Mar. 26]

With this end in view work was resumed and “we went to labor that day in
the building of our town, in two rows of houses for more safety. We
divided by lot the plot of ground whereon to build our town, after the
proportion formerly allotted. The common house in which for the first we
made our rendezvous, being near finished, wanted only covering, it being
only about twenty foot square. Some should make mortar, and some gather
thatch; so that in four days half of it was thatched.”

During this period William Bradford was seriously ill which caused much
concern. Two of the colony became lost in the nearby woods and after a
night’s exposure to cold, found their way back in an exhausted
condition. Indians were seen upon several occasions. The roof of the
Common House was set on fire by a spark but fortunately only the thatch
burned. John Goodman was attacked by “two great wolves” but succeeded in
fighting them off. A shed was built for common storage. On Sunday, Jan.
31st, they held their first meeting on land. A heavy wind on Sunday,
Feb. 14th, did some damage to their houses and on Friday, Feb. 19th, the
roof of the little house they had built for their sick caught fire but
no serious damage resulted. “That evening the master going ashore,
killed five geese, which he friendly distributed among the sick people.”

[Illustration: The First Street, in its true topographical setting]

On Friday, Feb. 26th, a party of twelve Indians were seen near the
plantation and on the same day the tools of Captain Myles Standish and
Francis Cooke, who had been at work in the woods, were stolen during
their absence.

On the morning of the next day, Saturday, Feb. 27th, a meeting was
called, Myles Standish was chosen Captain and given authority to command
in military affairs. Two Indians were seen on this day “upon the top of
a hill” (Watson’s Hill) but upon the approach of Captain Standish and
Stephen Hopkins, they ran away.

These frequent visitations caused much alarm among the colonists and
“caused us to plant our great ordinances in most convenient places.”

On Saturday, Mar. 13th, they experienced their first thunderstorm. This
occurred in the afternoon following a day of sunshine and warmth while
“birds sang in the woods most pleasantly.”

On Wednesday, Mar. 17th, though the weather was cold, it was fair and
they planted their garden seed.

Their Great Losses

Nothing has been said thus far about the crushing losses the first
winter this little colony sustained through exposure and disease. Their
sufferings must have been well nigh indescribable, yet history records
very little complaint. William Bradford bore his sufferings with the
rest and it seems fitting to quote here his vivid description:

“But that which was most sad and lamentable was, that in two or three
months time half of their company died, especially in January and
February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other
comforts, being infected with the scurvy and other diseases, which this
long voyage and their inaccommodate condition had brought upon them; so
as there died sometimes two or three a day, in the aforesaid time; that
of 100 and odd persons, scarce 50 remained. And of these in the time of
most distress, there was but 6 or 7 sound persons, who, to their great
commendations be it spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but with
abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood,
made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their
loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a word did all the
homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs
cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully,
without any grudging in the least, showing herein their true love unto
their friends and brethren. A rare example and worthy to be remembered.
Two of these seven were Mr. William Brewster, their reverend elder, and
Myles Standish, their Captain and military commander, unto whom myself
and many others, were much beholden in our low sick condition. And yet
the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this general calamity they were
not at all infected either with sickness or lameness. And what I have
said of these, I may say of many others who died in this general
visitation, and others yet living, that while they had health, yea, or
any strength continuing, they were not wanting to any that had need of
them. And I doubt not but their recompence is with the Lord.”

They who died the first winter were buried on Coles Hill. A fitting
memorial now marks the spot.

[Illustration: Samoset’s Visit]

CHAPTER VI

Samoset’s Visit

[Sidenote: Fri. Mar. 26]

On Friday, Mar. 26, an Indian walked boldly into the settlement. He
saluted them in English and bade them “Welcome.” He explained that his
home was in Maine where he had learned some English from the captains of
fishing vessels that frequented the coast in the vicinity of Monhegan
Island, lying half way between the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers and
about twelve miles off the coast. From him they gathered much
information. “He discoursed of the whole country and of every province
and of their sagamores and their number of men and strength.”

“He told us that the place where we now live is called ‘Patuxet’ and
that about four years ago all the inhabitants died of an extraordinary
plague and there is neither man, woman nor child remaining, as indeed we
have found none; so there is none to hinder our possession, or lay claim
unto it.”

The night Samoset stayed at the house of Stephen Hopkins where they
“watched him,” being suspicious of the scattering bands previously seen.
He had told them of another Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of
the place who had been in England and could speak better English than
himself and whom he would later bring with him.

[Sidenote: Sat. Mar. 27]

The following day he returned to the Wampanoags whence he had come. This
tribe, with the Nausets, occupied the territory lying between
Narragansett Bay and Cape Cod. He also spoke particularly of the Nausets
to the southeast who were one hundred strong while the former numbered
approximately sixty. Massasoit was the Sachem or overlord of the Indians
in the territory stated. It appeared that the Nausets were much provoked
against the English, having been deceived by a Captain Hunt who “got
them under cover of trucking with them, twenty out of this very place
and seven men from the Nausets, and carried them away and sold them for
slaves.”

It seems that the Indian Squanto who was one of the number had
fortunately made his escape and had been returned through the good
offices of certain Englishmen who were friendly to the colonists.

On Sunday, March 28, Samoset again appeared, bringing with him five
others. They brought with them a few skins but, it being the Sabbath, no
trading was done. However, they accepted the hospitality of the
settlement and “did eat liberally of our English victuals.” They also
returned the tools which had been taken from the woods during the
absence of the settlers. That night they departed with a promise to come
again. Samoset, who was reluctant to go, remained until Wednesday, May
31.

[Sidenote: Thur. April 1]

On April 1, he returned with Squanto. They reported that Massasoit,
their great sagamore, with his brother Quadequina was near with all
their men. “They could not express well in English what they would, but
after an hour the King came to the top of a hill (Watson’s Hill) over
against us and had in his train sixty men, that we could well behold
them, and they us. We were not willing to send our governor to them and
they were unwilling to come to us.”

Squanto was accordingly sent to confer with them and returned with word
that they should send one to “parley with him.” Edward Winslow was
selected to go that they might “know his mind and signify the mind and
will of our governor which was to have trading and peace with him.”

Hostages were exchanged and Captain Standish with a half dozen armed men
met them at the brook (Town Brook) whence they were “conducted to a
house then in building where we placed a green rug and three or four
cushions.” Here they were met by the governor and others and after due
felicitations and assurances of friendship were exchanged, a treaty
which may well have marked the first diplomatic agreement in New England
history. It was faithfully observed by both parties during the reign of
Massasoit and was in force thereafter until the breaking out of the King
Philip War in 1675.

It seems of interest to state here that this outbreak was instigated by
Metacom or Philip as he was called by the English. He was the youngest
son of Massasoit and had succeeded his brother Wamsutta or Alexander as
head of the Wampanoags. But the recital of that devastating struggle is
not within the sphere of this booklet. Suffice it to say that it
resulted in the practical extermination of Indians including the
Narragansetts, who were hostile to the white settlers and who for some
years had been a perpetual and growing menace.

The Treaty With Massasoit

“1. That neither he nor any of his, should injure or do hurt to any of
their people.

2. That if any of his did any hurt to any of theirs, he should send the
offender that they might punish him.

3. That if anything were taken away from any of theirs, he should cause
it to be restored; and they should do the like to his.

4. That if any did unjustly war against him, they would aid him; if any
did war against them, he should aid them.

5. That he should send to his Neighbor-Confederates to certify them of
this that they might not wrong them, but might be likewise comprised of
these Conditions of Peace.

6. That when his men came to them upon any occasion, they should leave
their bows and arrows behind them as we should do our pieces when we
came to them.

Lastly, that doing thus, King James, their Sovereign Lord, would esteem
him his friend and ally.”

[Illustration: The Treaty with Massasoit, in its actual setting, “an
unfinished building”]

Early in April John Carver was re-elected governor and laws and
regulations were made for the conduct of the colony. During this month
Governor Carver died. He had come “out of the field very sick, it being
a hot day; he complained greatly of his head and lay down, and within a
few hours his senses failed, so as he never spoke more until he died.
Whose death was much lamented, and caused great heaviness amongst them
as there was cause. He was buried in the best manner they could, with
some volleys of shot by all that bore arms; and his wife, being a weak
woman, died within 5 or 6 weeks after him.”

William Bradford was chosen governor in his stead, and not having fully
recovered from his recent severe illness, wherein he had been near the
point of death, Isaac Allerton was chosen to be an assistant “unto him
who, by renewed election every year, continued sundry years together.”

It may be stated that Bradford was re-elected to the same office no less
than 30 times, for a total term of 33 years—every year from 1622.[11] He
was Governor of Plimoth Colony continuously from 1627-1656 inclusive
excepting for five years when he “by importunity gat off.”

On April 15th, the Mayflower left on her return voyage to England.
During this month the first offence is recorded, that of John Billington
who had defied the authority of Captain Standish. It seems however that
the offence was more a matter of words or “opprobrious speeches” than of
deeds.

The First Marriage

[Sidenote: May 22]

The first marriage in the colony took place on the 22nd of May, that of
Edward Winslow to Susanna White, widow of William White. This marriage
was performed “according to the laudable custom of the Low Countries in
which they had lived, was thought most requisite to be performed by the
magistrate, as being a civil thing, upon which many questions about
inheritances do depend, with other things most proper to their
cognizance and most consonant to the scriptures (Ruth 4) and nowhere
found in the gospel to be laid on the ministers as a part of their
office.”

The First Duel

[Sidenote: June 28]

What is recorded as the first duel fought in New England was between
Edward Dotey and Edward Leister, servants of Mr. Hopkins. They fought
with sword and dagger and both were wounded, one in hand and the other
in the thigh. This was the second offence for which punishment was
invoked by the entire company. It was ordered that their heads and feet
be tied together and to so lie for twenty-four hours. Their sufferings
being great however they were released by the governor “upon their
promise of better carriage.”

Winslow and Hopkins Visit Massasoit

The months of July and August were featured by several events of
interest. On July 12, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins paid a visit to
Massasoit taking with them clothing and other small gifts which the
chieftain gladly accepted. They learned that the Wampanoags had been
greatly reduced by the plague that had visited them prior to the coming
of the colonists, “wherein thousands of them died, they not being able
to bury one another; their skulls and bones were found in many places,
lying still above aground, where their houses and dwellings had been, a
very sad spectacle to behold.”

It was learned also that the Narragansetts “lived but on the other side
of that great bay and were a strong people and many in number, living
compact together and had not been at all touched by this wasting
plague.”

During the last of July John Billington, Jr., became lost in the woods
lying to the south of the settlement and was forced to subsist for
several days on berries and whatever nature afforded. He came in contact
with an Indian plantation below Manomet whence he was conducted to the
Nausets on the Cape. Word reached Massasoit who, in turn, informed the
Plymouth company as to his whereabouts. A party of ten men was
despatched in the shallop by the Governor and he was located and
returned to the colony apparently none the worse for the experience.

Arrival of Hobamack

It was about this time that Hobamack, another Indian, came to live at
the settlement. He was a friend of Squanto and “faithful to the English
until he died.” During a visit to Nemasket (Middleboro) they came into
conflict with a sachem named Corbitant who was a minor sachem under
Massasoit and who was held to be deceitful both to his superior and the
whites. Hobamack was seized and held against his will by Corbitant but
being of great strength he broke away making his escape to Plymouth.
Fearing that Squanto might have been killed “it was resolved to send the
Captain and 14 men well armed” to investigate and to seek retribution if
harm had befallen him. They entered the house of Corbitant who at the
moment was away while others in attempting to leave against the
Captain’s orders, were injured and were later taken to Plymouth where
their injuries were treated to their apparent satisfaction. Squanto was
uninjured and made his way back to the settlement. Corbitant later
explained that his actions were only in the nature of threats and that
he intended no harm. He also sought the mediation of Massasoit to regain
the friendship of the whites.

[Sidenote: Sept. 28]

On September 28th a party of ten men with Squanto for guide and
interpreter, set out in the shallop to explore in and around
Massachusetts Bay. They made friendly contact with the Indians of the
neighborhood and returned with “A good quantity of beaver.”

The Fortune Arrives

[Sidenote: Nov. 19]

On November 19th the Fortune, a vessel of small tonnage, arrived
bringing Robert Cushman and thirty-five others. They brought practically
no provisions except some clothing but being mostly able-bodied young
men the colony was thus augmented in man power of which it had been much
depleted, there remaining but fifty of the original colony at this time.
They came to settle permanently and were made welcome.

Pierce’s Attempt Fails

Let us now step ahead a few months. As the patent to the lands they now
occupied arrived on the Fortune, it is not irrelevant to mention here
the abortive attempt of John Pierce to get control of the Plymouth
colony. On April 20, 1622, Pierce obtained another patent, superseding
the first, broader in scope and running to himself, his heirs,
associates and assigns forever.

As an evidence of his intention let us quote from a letter from one of
the English company to Governor Bradford—“in regard he, whom you and we
so confidently trusted, but only to use his name for the company, should
aspire to be lord over us all, and so make you and us tenants at his
will and pleasure, our assurance or patent being quite void and
disannuled by his means.” etc. The adventurers protested in vain and it
is further stated that he demanded “500 pounds which cost him but 50
pounds” for the surrender of the patent.

Whether or not this or any sum was paid there seems to be no record.
However the same letter states that “with great trouble and loss we have
got Mr. John Pierce to assign over the grand patent to the company,
which he had taken in his own name and made quite void our former
grant.”

Furthermore the records of the Council for New England which appear in
Palfrey’s History of New England furnish the following: “Whereas there
were several differences between John Pierce citizen and clothmaker of
London and the Treasurer and other the associates of him the said John
Pierce that were undertaken with him for the settling and advancement of
the plantation at Plymouth, in the parts of New England, said
differences, after the full hearing and debating thereof before us were
finally concluded upon by the offer of the said John Pierce, and mutual
adoption of the said Treasurer and Company then present, in behalf of
themselves and the rest of said Company, that the said associates with
their undertakers and servants now settled or to be settled in Plymouth
aforesaid should remain and continue tenants unto the Council
established for the managing of the aforesaid affairs of New England,
notwithstanding a grant, bearing date the 20th of April, 1622, by said
Pierce obtained without the consent of the said associates, from the
said Council, contrary to a former grant to the said Pierce made in
behalf of himself and his said associates dated the 1st of June, 1621.”

Thus the new patent was cancelled and the patent dated June 1st, 1621,
remained in force.—Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth. Wm. T. Davis, 1883. p.
45.

[Illustration: A Good Harvest]

CHAPTER VII

Preparations for Winter

The harvest season drawing near, attention was given to gathering their
crops and to putting their houses in readiness for the approaching
winter. While some were thus engaged others were employed in fishing and
their store of cod, bass and other fish seems to have been plentiful,
for “‘every family had their portion.’” Of water-fowl, wild turkeys and
venison, there seems, at this time, to have been an abundance. They had
a peck of meal a week to a person, also Indian corn in like proportion
of which they had planted some twenty acres with six acres of barley and
peas.

The First Thanksgiving

[Sidenote: Nov. 1621]

“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling,
that so we might after a special manner, rejoice together after we had
gathered the fruits of our labors. These four, in one day, killed as
much fowl as, with a little help besides, served the company almost a
week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms,
many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest
king Massasoit with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained
and feasted;[12] and they went out and killed five deer, which they
brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the
captain and others.”

The quotations in the few preceding paragraphs are from Bradford’s
history, and, more especially from Winslow’s letter to a friend in
England. This letter was sent when the Fortune made its return voyage.
It further stated that since their arrival in the new country in spite
of their reduced numbers, they had succeeded in building seven
dwelling-houses and four for the use of the Plantation; that they had
made friends with the Indians in the immediate vicinity and that they
“walked as peacefully and safely in the woods as in the highways in
England.”

It is presumable that this letter was inspired, at least in part by the
letter from Mr. Weston which had arrived with the Fortune. Weston was
one of the Adventurers who had helped to finance the Plymouth colony.
His letter which follows is cold and unsympathetic and according to both
Bradford and Winslow he seems to have been a man of questionable
sincerity as his unsuccessful attempt to establish a rival colony at
Weymouth might indicate.

Weston’s letter said in part:—“That you sent no lading in the ship is
wonderful, and worthily distasted. I know your weakness was the cause of
it, and I believe more weakness of judgment than weakness of hands. A
quarter of the time you have spent in discoursing, arguing and
consulting, would have done much more. If you mean, bona fide, to
perform the conditions agreed upon, do us the favor to copy them out
fair, and subscribe them with the principal of your names. And likewise
give us account as particularly as you can how our moneys were laid out.
And consider that the life of the business depends on the lading of this
ship.” etc.

If Weston had been acquainted with the condition of the Plymouth colony,
their great depletion and hardships the first winter (and it is
reasonable to suppose that he was, upon the return of the Mayflower) his
letter seems unnecessarily harsh and unjust. It was addressed to Mr.
Carver, the news of whose death had not yet reached England.

Governor Bradford’s letter in reply to which he added an itemized
accounting, follows in part. His dignified reproof, his presentation of
conditions obtaining in the colony, the extenuating circumstances, I
think the reader will agree cannot reasonably be omitted from this brief
chronicle.

Bradford’s Letter

“Sir: Your large letter written to Mr. Carver, and dated the 6 of July,
1621, I have received the 10 of November, wherein (after the apology
made for yourself) you lay many imputations upon him and us all.
Touching him, he is departed this life, and now is at rest in the Lord
from all those troubles and incumbencies with which we are yet to
strive. He needs not my apology; for his care and pains were so great
for the common good, both ours and yours, as that therewith (it is
thought) he oppressed himself and shortened his days; of whose loss we
cannot sufficiently complain. At great charges in this adventure, I
confess you have been, and many losses may sustain; but the loss of his
and many other honest and industrious men’s lives, cannot be valued at
any price. Of the one, there may be hope of recovery, but the other no
recompence can make good. But I will not insist in generals but come
more particularly to the things themselves. You greatly blame us for
keeping the ship so long in the country, and then to send her away
empty. She lay 5 weeks at Cape Cod, whilst with many a weary step (after
a long journey) and the endurance of many a hard brunt, we sought out in
the hard winter a place of habitation. Then we went in so tedious a time
to make provision to shelter us and our goods, about which labor, many
of our arms and legs can tell us to this day we were not negligent. But
it pleased God to visit us then, with death daily, and with so general a
disease, that the living were scarce able to bury the dead; and the well
not in any measure sufficient to tend the sick. And now to be so greatly
blamed, for not freighting the ship, doth indeed go near us, and much
discourage us. But you say you know we will pretend weakness; and do you
think we had not cause? Yes, you tell us you believe it, but it was more
weakness of judgement than of hands. Our weakness herein is great we
confess, therefore we will bear this check patiently amongst the rest,
till God send us wiser men. But they which told you we spent so much
time in discoursing and consulting, etc., their hearts can tell their
tongues they lie. They cared not, so they might salve their own sores,
how they wounded others. Indeed, it is our calamity that we are (beyond
expectation) yoked with some ill-conditioned people, who will never do
good, but corrupt and abuse others, etc.”

[Illustration: Thanksgiving Feast]

Unfortunately the Fortune on her return was overhauled by French pirates
and all her cargo of value taken. Robert Cushman, who was aboard on his
return to England, later wrote “By God’s providence we got well home the
17th[13] of February. Being robbed by the Frenchmen by the way, and
carried by them into France, and were kept there 15 days and lost all
that we had that was worth taking; but thanks be to God, we escaped with
our lives and ship.”

[Illustration: The Snakeskin Warning]

CHAPTER VIII

Indian Trouble

After the departure of the Fortune the Plymouth colony faced a serious
situation. Their provisions were not sufficient to meet the demands of
their suddenly increased numbers and the threat of attack hovered over
their little community.

The Narragansetts were not friendly with Massasoit and they resented the
intrusion of the white settlers. Their chief Canonicus by way of warning
sent a bundle of arrows wrapped in snake skin to which the Governor
replied by returning the skin with bullets wrapped therein, together
with the admonition that if they would prefer war to peace, they “could
begin when they would.” They however took the precaution to strengthen
their defences and the settlement was “impaled round by the beginning of
March.”

Captain Standish had, in the meantime, on advice of the Governor,
divided his small forces into “four squadrons and every one had their
quarter appointed unto which they were to repair upon any sudden alarm.
And, if there should be any cry of fire, a company were appointed for a
guard, with muskets, while others quenched the same, to prevent Indian
treachery.”

[Sidenote: 1622]

In May the Sparrow, a fishing vessel, arrived bringing seven more
passengers. In July two more vessels, the Charity, and the Swan,
belonging to Mr. Weston, arrived with about sixty men who were left at
the Plymouth settlement. They remained there through the summer when,
upon the return of one of Weston’s ships from Virginia, they were
transferred to Weymouth, their original destination.

These ships had brought the information that Mr. Weston had withdrawn
from the Merchant Adventurers and had acquired a patent to land in the
vicinity of Massachusetts Bay, that the men sent over were destined
therefore, that they were a rough lot and, according to a letter from
Mr. Cushman “were no men for them.” They were, however, as well provided
for as the circumstances under this added burden and their strained
supply of provisions would permit, until their removal to the Weymouth
Colony.

After their departure and when the supply of food was well nigh
exhausted, a fishing vessel came into the harbor, from which they were
able to secure a small supply of provisions that helped sustain them
until the next harvest. This vessel also brought report of the Indian
massacre in Virginia.

It was during the succeeding weeks that the fort was built on the hill
(Burial Hill). As Bradford says, “This summer they built a fort of good
timber both strong and comely, which was of good defence, made with a
flat roof and battlements on which their ordinance were mounted and
where they kept constant watch, especially in time of danger. It served
them also for a meeting-house and was fitted accordingly for that use.
It was a great work for them in this weakness and time of wants; but the
danger of the time required it, and both the continual rumors of the
fears from the Indians here, especially the Narragansetts, and also the
hearing of that great massacre in Virginia, made all hands willing to
despatch the same.”

[Illustration: Capt. Standish Slays Pecksuot]

The next harvest turned out to be a poor one owing partly to their
weakened condition and to other necessary work that they were called
upon to do. But again Providence came to the rescue. Another ship, the
Discovery, Captain Jones (Not Captain Christopher Jones of the
Mayflower) came into the harbor. She had been sent out from England to
“discover all the harbors between this and Virginia and the sholes of
Cape Cod and to trade along the coast where they could.”

From this ship they obtained articles which they in turn were able to
exchange with the Indians for corn which they sorely needed and for
beaver skins to apply to their obligations to the Adventurers.

The Swan, having been left by Mr. Weston at Weymouth and the colony
there being destitute of provisions, arrangement was made with the
Plymouth Colony to join them in a trading expedition along the Cape.
This was made under the direction of Governor Bradford who went with
them, taking Squanto as guide. At Chatham Squanto was stricken with
fever and died, wherein they sustained a great loss. They succeeded in
getting “about 26 or 28 hogsheads of corn and beans from the Indians,”
after which “the Governor took a few men and went to the inland places,
to get what he could, and to fetch it home at the spring, which did help
them something.”

[Sidenote: 1623]

The Plymouth Colony had been warned as to the type of men who composed
the Weymouth Colony. As it turned out, they were constantly fomenting
discord with the Indians and some even went so far as betray the
friendship of their Plymouth neighbors. They were repeatedly in want of
food and other supplies although having been at first well provided.

Bradford states: “Many sold their clothes and bed coverings; others (so
base were they) became servants to the Indians and would cut them wood
and fetch them water for a cap full of corn; others fell to plain
stealing, both night and day from the Indians, of which they grievously
complained.”

About this time word came that their friend Massasoit was gravely ill.
Following the Indian custom, Edward Winslow, together with one John
Hamden, with Hobomock for guide, went to his aid and through their
ministrations he recovered.

From Massasoit they learned of the conspiracy among the Indians which
had spread to the Cape Indians and which he had been unable to stop.
This conspiracy engendered by the treatment of the Indians by the Weston
colony provided that the colony should be wiped out and that the
Plymouth colony being likely to seek revenge, should also be
exterminated.

“He advised them therefore to prevent it, and that speedily, by taking
of some of the chief of them, before it was too late, for, he assured
them of the truth thereof.”

Whereupon, this news reaching Plymouth, Captain Myles Standish set out
with eight men for Weymouth where he “found them in miserable
condition.” The Indians were openly defiant and insulting. The meeting
resulted in the killing of several Indians including a large brave named
Pecksuot whom Captain Standish killed in hand to hand combat. Those who
remained of the Weston colony thought it best to take their leave and in
the Swan sailed away for the fishing grounds off the coast of Maine
provisioned with corn from the scanty store remaining with Standish.
Thus the Weston colony came to end.

Weston returning later, fell into the hands of the Indians who stripped
him of his belongings and reduced him to such extent that he appealed to
the Plymouth Colony for help. They gave him a generous supply of beaver
skins which he was able to exchange for supplies from the other vessels
along the coast which was “the only foundation for his future course.”

[Illustration: The First Cattle]

CHAPTER IX

Consolidation

Again the colony was facing a shortage of food and ways and means were
discussed for raising larger and better crops. This brought about a
change of the policy which had been imposed upon them in the last clause
of their contract with the Merchant Adventurers. It was a practical
repudiation of a policy that destroyed individual initiative. It is
expressed in Bradford’s own words as follows:—“So they began to think
how they might raise as much corn as they could and obtain a better crop
than they had done. At length, after much debate of things, the Governor
(with the advice of the chief amongst them) gave way that they should
set corn every man for his own and in that regard, trust to themselves.
And so assigned to every family a parcel of land according to a
proportion of their number for that end. This had very good success, for
it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted
than otherwise would have been. The women now went willingly into the
field, which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have
compelled, would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”

“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried
sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the
vanity of that conceit of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of
later time; that the taking away of property and bringing in community
into a commonwealth, would make them happy and flourishing as if they
were wiser than God. For this community was found to breed much
confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been
to their benefit and comfort. For the young men that were most able and
fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time
and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any
recompence. The strong had no more of victuals and clothes than he that
was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought
injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labor,
victuals and clothes, etc., with the younger, thought it some indignity
and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do
service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes,
etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well
brook it.”

In this way provision was made for their future needs, as “God in his
wisdom saw another course fitter for them.”

Arrival of Anne and Little James

In the summer of 1623 two vessels arrived, the Anne and the Little
James. They brought about a hundred additional members to the Plymouth
Colony, some being the wives and children of those already here. The
Anne the larger vessel, having been chartered by the Adventurers,
returned on September 20th, laden with clapboards and beaver. “Mr.
Winslow was sent over with her to inform of all things, and procure such
things as were thought needful for their present condition.”

During the period before the harvest, the enlarged community subsisted
mainly upon fish and shell fish, the latter apparently being in
abundance. The one boat was used in turn by different groups that all
might share in the labor in proportion to their number. An occasional
deer made a welcome addition to their larder, and, as those who had
lately arrived had brought provisions sufficient to sustain themselves,
they were able to carry on until the new harvest.

This was evidently an abundant one, for as Bradford describes it; “By
this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them
plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the
hearts of many, for which they blessed God. And the effect of their
particular planting was well seen, for all had, one way and other,
pretty well to bring the year about, and some of the abler and more
industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any general want or
famine has not been amongst them since to this day.”

[Sidenote: 1624]

The harvest under the new conditions having proved a success it was
followed by an equal division of land. “And to every person was given
only one acre of land, to them and theirs, as near the town as might be
and they had no more until the seven years had expired. The reason was
that they might be kept close together both for more safety and defence,
and the better improvement of the general employments.”

Early this year, the time of election of officers having arrived and the
members of the colony having increased, it was considered advisable to
provide more assistance to the Governor. “The issue was, that as before
there was but one assistant, they now chose 5, giving the Governor a
double voice; and afterwards they increased them to 7, which course hath
continued to this day.”

In the spring Edward Winslow returned from England. His mission had two
objectives, viz., to acquaint the Merchant Adventurers with the exact
condition of the Plymouth Colony, their progress and their needs and to
obtain certain necessary supplies. He reported dissension among the
English company as a result of which, one faction sent over a Mr. Lyford
who with one John Oldham, who had come over in the Anne, attempted to
create an unfavorable impression in their report to the Adventurers.
Letters of Oldham were intercepted, and, faced with the proof of their
duplicity, which they couldn’t deny, they were forced to leave the
colony.

A ship-carpenter arriving on the ship with Mr. Winslow, proved of great
value. He had completed the building of several small craft when he was
stricken with fever. Bradford says of him: “He quickly built them 2 very
good and strong shallops (which after did them great service) and a
great and strong lighter, and had hewn timber for 2 catches; but that
was lost, for he fell into a fever and though he had the best means the
place could afford, yet he died.”

The First Cattle

An important acquisition to the colony was brought over by Mr. Winslow.
This consisted of three heifers and a bull, “the first beginning of any
cattle of that kind in the land.” Of the increment of this small herd,
mention is made later.

Mr. Winslow, who had gone back to England in the fall of 1624 now
returned. He brought a letter from some of their friends in the English
company to the effect that the company was dissolved and that the
agreement by which they were sharers and partners was no longer in
effect and that ways and means should be devised whereby their
advancements would be secured. This letter states: “Now we think it but
reason, that all such things that there appertain to the general, be
kept and preserved together and rather increased daily, than anyway be
dispersed, and, after your necessities are served, you gather together
such commodities as the company yields and send them over to pay debts
and clear engagements here, which are not less than 1400 pounds.”

Two vessels had been sent over to expedite their settlement. The larger
a cargo of dried fish, but because there was threat of war with France
the master “neglected (through timerousness) his order and put first
into Plymouth and after into Portsmouth.” This was much to their loss
for the cargo “would have yielded them (as such fish was sold that
season) 1800 pounds, which would have enriched them.”

The smaller vessel, the Little James, (before mentioned) with a cargo of
700 lbs. of beaver skins, was captured by a Turkish man-of-war.

Captain Standish had left on the larger vessel with letters and
instructions to arrange with the Council of New England and those of the
company “which still clave to them” for easier terms in their purchase
of supplies and future transactions. They had sustained heavy losses
although there were some redeeming offsets as: “after harvest this year,
they sent out a boat’s load of corn 40 or 50 degrees to the eastward up
a river called Kenebeck (Kennebec); it being one of those two shallops
which their carpenter had built them the year before. God preserved them
and gave them good success for they brought home 700 lbs. of beaver
besides some other furs.”

[Sidenote: 1626]

In April Captain Standish returned bringing news of the death of their
former pastor, John Robinson, also that of Robert Cushman who had been
active in the affairs of the colony. The year thus had a cloudy
beginning. They had been unsuccessful in their fishing enterprises and
had turned to the intensive cultivation of corn which not only served
them as a food staple but as a medium of exchange, as money they had
little of.

At a time when they were in need of equipment to carry on their work to
the best advantage, they heard that a plantation at Monhegan, owned by a
Plymouth (England) company, of Merchants, was to “break up and divers
useful goods sold.” Whereupon Governor Bradford and Mr. Winslow “took a
boat and some hands and went thither.” These goods they bought in part
with another party. They also acquired a “parcel of goats which they
distributed at home as they saw need and occasion.”

They also obtained some rugs and other commodities from a French ship
that had been cast away on the coast, all of which added to their
material comfort.

They had been paying a high rate of interest to the English company and
they “sent Mr. Allerton into England to make a composition upon as good
terms as he could (unto which some way had been made the year before by
Captain Standish) but yet enjoined him not to conclude absolutely until
they knew the terms.” They also gave him a commission to secure further
supplies for the colony.

[Sidenote: 1627]

Mr. Allerton returned from England with the needed supplies, also the
agreement which he had affected with the remaining members of the
English company. The essence of this agreement was that upon the payment
of 1800 pounds, in yearly installments of 200 pounds, the Plymouth
Colony would be relieved of their obligations. While this was approved
by “all the plantation and consented unto” it was actually assumed by
seven or eight “in behalf of the rest.”

The second allotment of land was made in January of this year, on the
basis of first, that the original allotment wherein one acre was given
to every person, should stand, and, second, that this, the second
division, “should consist of twenty acres to every person, and to
contain five in breadth and four in length; and so accordingly to be
divided by lot, to every one which was to have a share therein.” There
followed several provisions, one to the effect “that fowling, fishing
and hunting be free.”

In May a division of cattle was made from the three cows and bull
brought over in 1624 there had been a substantial increase “which arose
to this proportion: a cow to six persons or shares, and two goats to the
same, which were first equalized for age and goodness and then allotted
for; single persons consorting with others, as they thought good and
smaller families likewise; and swine though more in number, yet by the
same rule.”

Mr. Allerton was again sent to England with power to conclude the
contract previously alluded to, with certain provisions. These
provisions, while still obligating “William Bradford, Captain Myles
Standish, Isaac Allerton, etc.” in the performance thereof, gave them a
tangible means of securing themselves. They also sent “what beaver skins
they could spare to pay some of their engagements and to defray his
charge.” He was also authorized to “procure a patent for a fit trading
place in the river of Kenebeck.” He was to express further the hope that
their friends in Leyden might join them, in which case “they should
thankfully accept of their love and partnership herein.”

[Sidenote: 1628]

Early in the spring of 1628 Mr. Allerton returned with the report that
he had effected an arrangement whereby: “William Bradford, Governor of
Plymouth in N. E., in America, Isaac Allerton, Myles Standish, William
Brewster and Ed. Winslow of Plymouth, aforesaid, merchants, do by these
presents for us and in our names, make, substitute and appoint James
Sherley, Goldsmith, and John Beachamp, Salter, citizens of London, our
true and lawful agents, factors, substitutes and assignees,” etc., etc.

He also brought a “reasonable supply of goods for the plantation and
without those great interests as before is noted.” And he “had settled
things in a good and hopeful way.”

He had obtained a patent for a trading post at Kennebec, “but it was so
ill bounded, as they were fain to renew and enlarge it the next year.”

It developed that Mr. Allerton had been taking advantage of his
opportunity in his visits to England, to trade on his own account thus
acquiring the profit that should by right, go to the company. These
transactions were first overlooked for he had been of “good and faithful
service.”

About this time trading was inaugurated with the Dutch of New Amsterdam
who had previously approached the Plymouth colony with that end in view.
It was during this period that wampum was developed, both as a commodity
and as a medium of exchange.

The Wollaston Incident

The life of the colony was broken by some disquieting incidents. From
the settlements at Wollaston (now a part of Quincy) came reports of
trouble. Captain Wollaston, the founder of this colony, had departed for
Virginia with some of his retainers, leaving one Fitcher to govern in
his place. Among those of his party left behind was a Thomas Morton who,
“having more craft than honesty, persuaded them to ‘thrust out
Fitcher.’” Whereupon, “they fell to great licentiousness and Morton
became lord of misrule and maintained (as it were) a school of Atheism.”
They erected a Maypole around which they drank and danced. They
furnished firearms to the Indians and the means of moulding shot; they
danced and caroused, inviting Indian women for their consorts. This went
on until the more ordered among them appealed to Plymouth to “suppress
Morton and his consorts before they grew to further head and strength.”

Two letters of remonstrance to Morton having been received with
insolence and defiance, Captain Standish was called into action and
proceeded with some others to take Morton by force. This they did after
a show of resistance. He had “made fast his doors, armed his consorts,
set divers dishes of powder and bullets ready on the table; and, if they
had not been over armed with drink, more hurt might have been done. At
length, fearing that they would do some violence to the house, he and
some of his crew came out, not to yield but to shoot. But they were so
steeled with drink their pieces were too heavy for them and one was so
drunk that he ran his nose upon the point of a sword.” Morton was taken
to Plymouth and later sent to England, together with a report of his
conduct to the Council of New England.

[Sidenote: 1629]

In 1629 the colony received thirty-five additional members from the
Leyden Congregation. They arrived with John Endicott and his company at
Salem on the ship Mayflower (not the same Mayflower that had brought the
Pilgrims to Plymouth). A charter had been granted to Endicott for
territory in and around Massachusetts Bay. A letter came at this time
from John Sherley addressed to Governor Bradford to the effect that “Mr.
Beachamp and myself, with Mr. Andrews and Mr. Hatherly, are, with your
love and liking, joined partners with you.” etc.

On the 13th of January of this year a patent was granted to William
Bradford and Associates. This enlarged the original grant and included
territory on the Kennebec river where a trading post had already been
established. This patent, bearing the signature of the Earl of Warwick,
was later transferred to the Colony and is now in the Registry of Deeds
at Plymouth.

The First Settled Minister

The first settled minister was Ralph Smith, a graduate of Cambridge
University, England, who had come with his family to the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. He arrived in Plymouth in 1629 and served as minister until
1636. He was succeeded by John Rayner, a graduate of Magdalen College,
who continued his ministry until 1654.

During Mr. Smith’s incumbency it is probable that services were held in
both the Fort on Burial Hill and the Common House on what is now Leyden
Street as the first meeting-house which faced Town Square was not built
until 1637.

[Sidenote: 1630]

In May, 1630, the colony was further augmented by the arrival of “16 or
18” more of their Leyden brethren who had come to Boston with John
Winthrop and his company. These arrivals, while welcome, increased the
financial burden now resting heavily upon the shoulders of those who had
assumed the obligations.

First Capital Offence

This year John Billington, the elder who had before been charged with
minor offences, was tried and executed for murder. “He was arraigned by
both grand and petit jury” and “found guilty of willful murder by plain
and notorious evidence.”

Their Obligations Increase

Having become dissatisfied with the way the affairs of the colony were
being conducted in England, Mr. Winslow was sent over to effect an
accounting while Mr. Allerton was discharged.

It developed that while the indebtedness of 1800 pounds previously
assumed had been reduced to 1000 pounds, subsequent transactions engaged
in by Mr. Allerton had increased their obligations by 4700 pounds. While
it appears that Allerton had used the opportunity he enjoyed for his
personal gain, the attitude of the Plymouth Colony toward him was one of
generosity as shown by the following: “It is like, though Mr. Allerton
might think not to wrong the plantation in the main, yet his own gain
and private ends led him aside in these things; for it came to be known,
and I have it in a letter under Mr. Sherley’s hand, that in the first 2
or 3 years of his employment, he had cleared up 400 pounds and put it in
a brewhouse in London, at first under Mr. Shirley’s name, etc.”

[Sidenote: 1632]

While the colony assumed this added burden of indebtedness, their income
seems to have increased likewise. “The Lord prospered their trading” and
“they made yearly large returns.” Cattle and corn increased in value and
thus encouraged “there was no longer holding them together, but now they
must of necessity, go to their great lots; they could not otherwise keep
their cattle, and, having oxen grown, they must have land for plowing
and tillage.”

The influx into the Massachusetts Bay colony gave impulse to this
movement and to the increase in the price of cattle and products of the
plantations. It resulted in the establishments of settlements where the
quality of the soil encouraged cultivation. Thus the nucleus of future
towns began to appear with separate places of worship, in the territory
both to the north and south of Plymouth.

Roger Williams

[Sidenote: 1633]

Roger Williams, who had come from the Massachusetts Bay colony to
Plymouth, was born in Wales and matriculated at Pembroke College,
Cambridge. Historians differ somewhat as to his teachings and practice.
Perhaps Bradford understood him best. Let him speak: “Mr. Roger Williams
(a man godly and zealous, having many precious parts, but very unsettled
in judgment) came over first to Massachusetts, but upon some discontent,
left the place and came hither (where he was friendly entertained,
according to their poor ability) and exercised his gifts amongst them,
and after some time was admitted a member of the church: and his
teaching well approved, for the benefit whereof I still bless God, and
am thankful to him, even for his sharpest admonitions and reproofs, so
far as they agree with truth. He this year began to fall into some
strange opinions, and from opinion to practice; which caused some
controversy between part, by occasion whereof he left them something
abruptly.” etc.

Winslow Elected Governor

This year Edward Winslow was elected Governor. He was re-elected in
1634-1636-1638-1644, William Bradford serving from 1621 until his death
in 1657 with the exception of these five years.

Trading was now begun on the Connecticut river and a post established
there.

The Colony was attacked by an epidemic which took over twenty lives,
including that of Samuel Fuller, their physician and surgeon who “had
been a great help and comfort to them.”

[Sidenote: 1636]

In 1636 owing to the growth of the original plantation and the
establishments of separate settlements at Scituate and Duxbury, the
purely democratic rule which had obtained under the Mayflower Compact,
wherein matters pertaining to the interests of the colony were settled
in general assembly, was superseded by a law passed providing for
government by deputies representing the several towns.

[Sidenote: 1639]

In 1639 the first legislative body brought together representatives from
the towns of Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Taunton, Scituate, Duxbury
and Plymouth. Thus we have representative government in its formative
state.

Boundaries Established

[Sidenote: 1640]

In 1640 the boundaries of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies
were established. In the several patents there had been some overlapping
of territory. This resulted in considerable controversy. “The Court of
Massachusetts appointed some to range their lines according to the
bounds of their patent, and (as they went to work) they made it to take
in all Scituate and I know not how much more. Again, on the other hand,
according to the line of the patent of this place, it would take in
Hingham and much more within their bounds.”

After much discussion it was finally settled on the 9th of April and
subscribed to by William Bradford and Edward Winslow for Plymouth and
John Endicott and Israell Stoughton for Massachusetts Bay.

[Sidenote: 1643]

The death of William Brewster occurred early in 1643. Bradford speaks of
him in endearing terms: “I am to begin this year with that which was a
matter of great sadness and mourning unto them all. About the 18th of
April died my dear and loving friend, Mr. William Brewster, a man who
had done and suffered much for the Lord Jesus and the gospels sake and
had borne his part in well and woe with this poor persecuted church
above 36 years, in England, Holland and in this wilderness and done the
Lord and them faithful service in his place and calling.” etc.

New England Confederacy

Due to the plottings of the Narragansetts and what seemed to be a
general Indian conspiracy against the English settlers, it was decided
to form an alliance with Connecticut for mutual protection. This is
recorded in the Plymouth records as of June 6th, 1643, as follows: “It
is ordered and concluded by the Court that Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr.
William Collyer shall have full Commission and Authority in Name of the
whole Court to subscribe the Articles of Confederation (now read in the
Court) with the Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Haven and to
subscribe the same in name of the whole and to affix thereto the common
seal of the Government.” (sic.)—Plymouth records, Hazard’s Historical
Collection. Volume 1. p. 496.

Shortly thereafter a final liquidation of the obligations of the
Plymouth Colony to their English partners and associates was effected.
This was based upon Articles of Agreement made and signed on October
15th, 1641,[14] by “John Atwode[15] (Atwood), William Bradford, Edward
Winslow, etc.”—Page 452, Bradford’s History of The Plymouth Plantation.

In the face of the adversities that had beset them from the beginning
and from which they were never entirely free, this seems a noteworthy
achievement.

[Sidenote: 1649]

In 1649 the Town of Plymouth made choice of “seven discreet men whose
duty it was to act in behalf of the town in disposing of lands; to make
inquiry into the state and condition of the poor, to provide for their
comfortable support and to find them employment; to direct to the proper
means of relief for the aged and decrepid; and to attend to the affairs
of the town generally.”

The foregoing together with a law passed in 1665 extended the functions
of the board, “a group which may well have been the forerunner of our
present Board of Selectmen.”

Conclusion

It would be interesting to follow in detail the development of the
Plymouth Colony and its gradual transition from the primitive settlement
to the flourishing shire town of the county. But this is a Pilgrim story
and the writer bows to the limitations of time and space.

The Pilgrims sought refuge far from their homeland. They established a
separate church, but they were still subjects of the crown. They were to
know little or nothing of the future developments which were to lead
eventually to complete independence from the mother country.

Nevertheless they left an unparalleled example of devotion to a cause.
In pursuit of religious freedom, in reverence, in the exigencies of
primitive government, they sowed the seed of an ideal Americanism, that
God willing, will forever endure.

Complete Genealogical List of “Mayflower” Passengers

Prepared and reprinted through the courtesy of George Ernest Bowman,
editor of “The Mayflower Descendant”

The 50 passengers from whom descent can be proved:

John Alden
Isaac Allerton
wife Mary
daughter Mary
daughter Remember
John Billington
wife Eleanor
son Francis
William Bradford
William Brewster
wife Mary
son Love
Peter Brown
James Chilton
wife ——
daughter Mary
Francis Cooke
son John
Edward Doty
Francis Eaton
wife Sarah
son Samuel
Edward Fuller
wife ——
son Samuel
Dr. Samuel Fuller
Stephen Hopkins
2nd wife, Elizabeth
son Gyles (by 1st wife)
daughter Constance (by 1st wife)
John Howland
Richard More
William Mullins
wife Alice
daughter Priscilla
Degory Priest
Thomas Rogers
son Joseph
Henry Sampson
George Soule
Myles Standish
John Tilley, and wife ——
daughter Elizabeth
Richard Warren
William White
wife Susanna
son Resolved
son Peregrine
Edward Winslow

The 54 passengers from whom we cannot prove descent:

Bartholomew Allerton
John Allerton
John Billington
Dorothy Bradford
(1st wife of William)
Wrestling Brewster
Richard Britterige
William Butten
Robert Carter
John Carver
Katherine Carver
(wife of John)
Maid servant of the Carvers
Richard Clarke
Humility Cooper
John Crakston
son John
Edmund Margeson
Christopher Martin
wife ——
Desire Minter
Ellen More
Jasper More
(a boy) More
Joseph Mullins
Solomon Prower
John Rigdale
wife Alice
Rose Standish
(1st wife of Myles)
Elias Story
Edward Thomson
Edward Tilley
wife Ann
—— Ely
Thomas English
Moses Fletcher
Richard Gardner
John Goodman
William Holbeck
John Hooke
Damaris Hopkins
Oceanus Hopkins
John Langmore
William Latham
Edward Leister
Thomas Tinker
wife ——
son ——
William Trevore
John Turner
son ——
son ——
Roger Wilder
Thomas Williams
Elizabeth Winslow
(1st wife of Edward)
Gilbert Winslow

Those Who Came on the “Fortune,” the “Anne” and the “Little James”
_FORTUNE_

John Adams
William Basset and
wife Elizabeth
William Beale
Edward Bumpus
Jonathan Brewster
Clement Briggs
John Cannon
William Conner
Robert Cushman
Thomas Cushman
Stephen Dean
Philip De le Noye
Thomas Flavell
and son
Widow Ford and
children William, John, Martha
Robert Hicks
William Hilton
Bennet Morgan
Thomas Morton
Austin Nicolas
William Palmer and
son William Jr.
William Pit
Thomas Prince
Moses Simonson
Hugh Statie
James Steward
William Tench
John Winslow
William Wright

_ANNE and LITTLE JAMES_

Anthony Annable
Jane Annable
Sarah Annable
Hannah Annable
Edward Bangs and
wife Rebecca, two children
Robert Bartlett
Fear Brewster
Patience Brewster
Mary Buckett
Edward Burcher
Mrs. Burcher
Thomas Clarke
Christopher Conant
Hester Cooke and
three children
Experience Mitchell
George Morton
Patience Morton
Nathaniel Morton
John Morton
Sarah Morton
Ephraim Morton
George Morton, Jr.
Thomas Morton, Jr.
Ellen Newton
John Oldham and
wife and eight associates
Frances Palmer
Christian Penn
Joshua Pratt
James Rand
Cuthbert Cuthbertson and
wife Sarah and four children
Anthony Dix
John Faunce
Goodwife Flavell
Edmund Flood
Bridget Fuller
Timothy Hatherly
William Heard
Margaret Hicks
three children
Mrs. William Hilton
William Hilton, Jr.
and another child
Edward Holeman
John Jenney
wife Sarah and three children
Robert Long
Nicholas Snow
Alice Southworth
Robert Ratcliffe and wife
and two children
Francis Sprague
wife Ann and daughter Mary
Barbara Standish
Thomas Tilden and
wife and child
Stephen Tracy and
wife Triphors
Sarah Tracey
Ralph Wallen and
wife Joyce
Elizabeth Warren
Mary Warren
Ann Warren
Sarah Warren
Elizabeth Warren, Jr.
Abigail Warren
Manassah Kempton
Mr. Perce’s two servants

Footnotes

[1]The religious wars involving England, Holland and Spain.

[2]From this expression, as well as from the whole passage, there can
hardly be a doubt that Bradford himself was in the vessel. The
description is that of an eye witness.—Young’s Chronicles, p. 29.

[3]“The printing house was searched; the type, books, and papers were
seized and searched as well as sealed.”—Life and Time of William
Brewster. Rev. Ashbed Steele, A.M. p. 178. J. B. Lippincott and Co.
1857.

[4]The age of but few is known. Carver was undoubtedly the oldest. In
1620 Elder Brewster was 56 years old, Robinson 45, Bradford 32,
Edward Winslow 26, and John Howland 28.

[5]After the war had been raging for more than thirty years between
Spain and the United Provinces, by the mediation of Henry IV of
France and James I of England, a truce of twelve years was concluded
on the 9th of April, 1609. This truce expired in 1621.

[6]It appears that at other times they were more fortunate, quote: “So
we made there our rendezvous for that night under a few pine trees;
and as it fell out, we got three fat geese, and six ducks to our
supper, which we ate with soldiers’ stomachs, for we had eaten
little all that day”—Bradford’s and Winslow’s Journal (Young’s
Chronicles, p. 139).

[7]Clark’s Island, probably named after Mr. Clark of the Mayflower.

[8]Officially recognized as Forefather’s Day. The first permanent
landing.

[9]This was Jones River, probably named after the Mayflower’s captain.

[10]Clark’s Island where they spent their first Sabbath.

[11]An apparent error in this count is due to the fact that in two
years, or 1646 and 1649, no election was held; the governor simply
carried on.

[12]This is the origin of our Thanksgiving Day. As it extended over a
period of several days, it might well be termed a season of
Thanksgiving.

[13]O. S.

[14]O. S.

[15]John Atwood was a trusted friend of James Sherley and represented
him in the final adjustment. Sherley was one of the Merchant
Adventurers and a friend and benefactor of the Plymouth colony.

See letters p’s 449, 454, 478, “Bradford’s History of Plimouth
Plantation” Printed Boston 1898 from the original manuscript.