CH. VI.] LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. fury the Mayflower encountered; and it was not till the 9th of November that they came in sight of the coast of New England, at no great distance from Cape Cod. As their object had been to settle near the Hudson River, the course of the ship was turned to the south; getting entangled, however, among the shoals, they bore up again, and came to anchor in Cape Cod harbor.* Weary of the discomforts of the crowded Mayflower, they were all eager to land; but as they were out of the limits of the Virginia Company, and as there were some signs of insubordination among a portion of the emigrants, it was judged best to enter into a voluntary compact as a basis of social polity, and to appoint a governor. John Carver was chosen to act as governor for the term of one year, and the whole company of the men—who, with their wives and children, amounted to one hundred and one souls-affixed their signatures to the following document: "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., *The story which has often been told, to the injury of the Dutch, that they bribed the master of the Mayflower not to land the company on the Hudson, is without solid foundation. It seems to have origi nated in the ill feeling which sprung up at a subsequent date between the New England colonists and the Dutch. Grahame (History, vol. i., p. 144,) repeats the story as if it were undoubtedly true. Bancroft (History, &c., vol. i., p. 309,) leaves the matter somewhat in doubt. 66 55 'Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour 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 order 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, 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. Cape Cod, 11th November, in the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, 18, and of Scotland, 54. Anno Domini 1620." An exploring party was sent out directly. The country was covered with pine forests, and here and there a deserted wigwam was found, but rarely did they get sight of any of the natives. A quantity of Indian corn was discovered buried in the sand in baskets, which proved a very timely supply of seed for the following spring. Winter came upon them in all its severity; and as it was absolutely necessary to fix upon some spot for a settlement, the hardiest of the company, despite the cold and the fatal exposure, undertook the labor of searching out a good harbor and convenient place where they might begin to lay the foundations of the colony. Five weeks were thus spent, and it was not till Monday, December 11th, O. S., or more correctly, the 21st of December, 1620. that this band of pioneers set foot on the far-famed Plymouth Rock. Remembering the kindness which they had received at Plymouth, in England, the name NEW PLYMOUTH was bestowed upon the infant settlement. The whole company were landed at this point, on the report of the exploring party, and they immediately set about erecting habitations to shelter them from the weather. A bold hill, commanding a look-out over the bay, offered a vantage ground for their fort, which was garnished with a few small pieces of ordnance; at its foot two rows of huts were laid out and staked -the habitations of nineteen families. The winter had now set in, with severity and sternness, and their labors at felling trees and constructing their rude habitations were carried on in the midst of constant storms of rain and sleet; already had the seeds of mortal disease been implanted; by privations and exposure to the rigor of the season, by wading through the icy water from the ship to the land, the strong man became weak as a child, and the delicate frame of woman sunk under the double pressure of mental anxiety and physical exhaustion. During this first winter they faded gradually away; and one of the first entries was the following:-" January 29, dies Rose, the wife of Captain Standish." Bradford's wife had perished by drowning. But not to follow the melancholy chronicle of bereavements, suffice it to 1621. say, that during these three dreary months one half their number were cut off. That winter they had to form seven times more graves for the dead than habitations for the living. They were buried on the bank not far from the landing-a spot still to be venerated-and, lest the Indians should take courage to attack the survivors from their weakened state, the soil which covered the graves of their beloved relatives was carefully beaten down and planted with a crop of corn. During the winter the colonists saw but little of the Indians, although they were not without occasional alarm. Early in the spring, when they were beginning again to have hope of success, an Indian one morning walked boldly into the village, and saluted them in tolerable English, "Welcome, Englishmen !" He was a sagamore or petty chief, named Samoset, and informed them that a great plague had recently raged among the Indians on these shores; this circumstance, leaving the country entirely open to settlement, is noted by the early New England historians, as a special providence in behalf of the infant colony. By means of Samoset and other friendly Indians, intercourse was opened, and finally a treaty of amity agreed upon with Massasoit, head chief of the Pokanokets or Wampanoags, who were immediate neighbors of the colonists. Carver was reëlected governor, but died a few weeks after. Bradford was chosen his successor. The May- 1621. flower set sail for England in April of this year; and the colonists, taking heart as the mild weather ap Cư. VI.] PROGRESS OF NEW PLYMOUTH. 57 proached, sent out a party to explore significant hint of what the whites Weston, who had taken an active part in fitting out the Plymouth colony, was dissatisfied with the pecuniary results of that undertaking, and accordingly resolved to found a separate planThe Fortune had brought over new tation for his own advantage. He sent mouths, and no provisions; the result out some sixty men, chiefly indented serwas a famine of several months' dura- vants, to begin the settlement. They tion; all had to be put on half allow- were fellows of indifferent character ance; the corn was all eaten, and the at best, who, after intruding upon the colonists were reduced to the scantiest people of Plymouth for two or three rations-chiefly of fish, or to such pre- months, and eating or stealing half carious supplies as were occasionally their provisions, attempted a settleobtained from passing vessels at an ex- ment at Wissagusset, now Weymouth, orbitant cost. No cattle had been yet on the south shore of Massachusetts imported; their agricultural instru- Bay. Having soon exhausted their ments were scanty and rude, and they own stock, they began to plunder the were almost destitute of boats and Indians, who formed a conspiracy to tackle to enable them to profit by the cut them off. The plot was revealed shoals of fish which abounded on the by the dying sachem Massasoit. Here coasts. Mortality and distress had pre- there was fresh cause to deplore that vented them from subduing the soil hasty spirit of revenge which had, in men, toiling at the rude labors of a first almost every instance, sown the seeds settlement, "often staggered for want of lasting hatred and hostility in the Inof food." Nor were they without ap- dian breast. Captain Standish, brave prehensions of attack from the In- but greatly wanting in discretion, surdians. On one occasion, Canonicus, prised Wituwamot, the chief of this sachem of the powerful Narragansetts, conspiracy, and put him to death on who were enemies of the Wampanoags, the spot, together with several of his sent, by way of defiance, to New Indians. When Robinson heard of Plymouth, a bundle of arrows, tied up this, he wrote back to the colonists, with the skin of a rattlesnake. Brad-"Oh how happy a thing had it been, ford lost no time in returning the same had you converted some, before you skin, stuffed with powder and ball-a had killed any!" The plantation at VOL. I.-10 |