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1621.]

THE FIRST WINTER AT PLYMOUTH.

399 nity were in danger of being burnt out of their poor shelters on shore, the thatched roofs of their two buildings, one for the well, the other for the sick, taking fire by accident and being consumed. Lurking savages were sometimes seen in the neighborhood, but they made no attempt to molest the new comers. Precautions, however, were taken against any attack from them, and Miles Standish, who had been a soldier in the Low Countries, was entrusted with the conduct of military affairs, as he was generally with the command of all expeditions.

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CHAPTER XV.

THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH.

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THE COMING OF FRIENDLY INDIANS.-SAMOSET AND SQUANTO.-CAPTAIN DERMER'S PREVIOUS VISIT TO PLYMOUTH.-STANDISH'S VISIT TO BOSTON HARBOR.- REINFORCEMENTS FROM ENGLAND. - THE FIRST CHRISTMAS AT PLYMOUTH.-HOSTILE MESSAGE FROM THE NARRAGANSETTS.- ARRIVAL OF WESTON'S COLONISTS. THEIR SETTLEMENT AT WESSAGUSSET. AN INDIAN CONSPIRACY. - STANDISH'S EXPEDITION AND THE PLOT DEFEATED. - THE GRIEF OF PASTOR ROBINSON. - ARRIVAL OF ROBERT GORGES.-FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND IN PLYMOUTH.-JOHN PEIRCE'S PATENT. - THE LYFORD AND OLDHAM CONSPIRACY. THEIR BANISHMENT. BREAKING-UP OF THE LONDON COMPANY.-THE PILGRIMS THROWN ON THEIR OWN RESOURCES. THE FISHING STATION AT CAPE ANN.-ENCOUNTER BETWEEN CAPTAIN STANDISH AND MR. HEWES.- THE DORCHESTER SETTLEMENT AT CAPE ANN.CONANT'S CHARGE OF IT, AND HIS REMOVAL TO NAUMKEAG. - SETTLEMENTS ABOUT BOSTON HARBOR. - MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT. - STANDISH'S ARREST OF MORTON.

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New events came with the spring to the colony at Plymouth, as well as health and hope. In March a naked Indian stalked boldly in

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among them, and greeted them in a few English words, which he had learned from the fishermen and other voyagers on the coast of Maine,

1621.]

FIRST INTERCOURSE WITH INDIANS.

401

Indian

his home being on the Pemaquid. This man's name was Samoset, but why he was so far from home is not clear. He may The visit of have been brought and left in the neighborhood by Captain a friendly Dermer, who had twice been upon this coast, making his Samoset. second voyage only the previous summer. On his first voyage he visited the place, "which," he said, "in Captain Smith's map is called Plimouth. And," he adds, "I would that the first Plantation might here be seated, if there come to the number of Fifty persons, or upwards." 1

From this Samoset they learned that the Indian name of the place they had settled upon was Patuxet, and that about four years before all the inhabitants had been swept off by a plague.2 He told them who were their nearest Indian neighbors -Massasoit's people, the Wampanoags, and the Nausets on Cape Cod. It was these Nausets with whom the Pilgrims had their harmless fight soon after landing, and who were most inimical to the English because seven of their tribe were kidnapped by Hunt in 1614, the other twenty being taken from Patuxet Plymouth.

Samoset brought to the settlement some of the friendly Indians, and

Squanto.

among them Tisquantum or Squanto, one of those whom TisquanWeymouth took to England, fifteen years before, and gave tum or to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. It had been this man's fortune to be again kidnapped, this time by Hunt, and to fall into the hands of Dermer, who brought him home to Patuxet," my savage's native "my country," Dermer writes, where he found "all dead," nearly two years before. It was fortunate for the new-comers that their first intercourse with the Indians was through these two men, who were friendly to the English and could speak their tongue. One immediate

1 Bradford says of this letter that it is "a relation written by him [Dermer], and given me by a friend, bearing date June 30 Ano 1620. In which relation to his honored friend he hath these passages of this very place." Morton in the Memorial, copies verbatim from Bradford. "I will first begin [says the letter] with that place from whence Squanto or Tisquantum was taken away, which in Captain Smith's map is called Plimouth : and I would that Plimouth had the same commodities. I would that the first Plantation might here be seated if there come to the number of 50 persons or upward." Morton evidently mistakes in supposing this letter of June 30, 1620, referred to the visit of that spring. It was in the summer of 1619 that Dermer was at Plymouth.

2 There can be no doubt from the concurring testimony of several of the writers of that period, that such a pestilence prevailed throughout New England a few years before the settlement of Plymouth. The story was that a party of Frenchmen, trading on the coast of Massachusetts, aroused the enmity of the natives, who fell upon and killed all but five whom they kept as servants. None of them lived long, and the last survivor predicted to the Indians, just before his death, that God was so angry with them for their bloody and cruel deed that He would destroy them all. The Indians answered that they were so many God could not kill them. The prediction, nevertheless, was fulfilled, and the more pious of the early settlers believed that the pestilence was sent as a special providence to rid the country of the heathen and make room for the coming of a Christian people.

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good result followed, for the natives brought, within a few days, the most powerful Sagamore of that region, Massasoit, with whom the colonists made a treaty both offensive and defensive. They were not much impressed with the dignity of this first Indian king whom they met, for he was distinguished from his followers only by a string of white bone beads about his neck; his face was painted of a sad red, and both face and head were well oiled so that he "looked greasily."

Squanto became at once an intimate and valued friend. He taught them how to plant maize, and to manure it with the alewives which in April came up the brook in great numbers to spawn; and these he showed them how to take. It was a service of no slight value, for the wheat and peas, and other English seed the colonists sowed, proved almost worthless, either from defect in cultivation, or from delay in planting. Later in the season the Indian guided two ambassadors, Winslow and Hopkins, across the country to Massasoit's chief village, Pokanoket, now Warren, Rhode Island, to confirm the treaty of peace and friendship made with him at Plymouth. The pleasant weather between seed-time and harvest was wisely used in learning the character of the surrounding region, in making the acquaintance of the nearest native tribes, and in acquiring an influence over them.

Visit to Pokanoket and other places.

The cape was explored; Boston Harbor was visited, and the sight of its islands, then covered with woods, its sheltered coves, and its navigable streams, into which fish of every kind known on that coast swarmed in their season, excited keen regret that their lines had not fallen in such pleasant places. The health of the colonists was now so completely established that ten men could be spared to go off upon some of these excursions-half, at least, of their effective force, for the whole colony, including women and children, was reduced to about fifty persons, and seven small houses held them all. Those left at home were employed in fishing and tending the few acres of the expected harvest. Of food there was abundance; game was plentiful, especially wild turkeys, which long since disappeared from the Atlantic sea-coast, and deer, which to this day roam in the woods from Plymouth to Cape Cod.1

In November came the first reinforcement of thirty-five persons in the ship Fortune. She brought also a new patent, issued to John

1 In the autumn of this year the Governor (says Winslow, in Mourt's Relation) “sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labours." This is thought to be the origin of the New England festival of Thanksgiving. But special reference to such a day by name comes the next year, at the same season, for a fruitful harvest, when, says Morton in his Memorial, "for which mercy, in time convenient, they also solemnized a Day of Thanksgiving unto the Lord."

A PATENT FROM THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY.

403

John Peirce.

1621.] Peirce and associates by the Plymouth Company, which had received its charter the November previous, and had given to the New Patent Plymouth Puritans the first patent it granted. It was the granted to first time the exiles had heard from England, and the letters were filled with complaints from the London adventurers that the Mayflower, which had returned in the spring, had come without a cargo. To such ungenerous reproaches Bradford - who was now governor - replied in terms as pathetic as they were dignified, that "it pleased God to vissite us with death daily, and with so generall a disease, that the living were scarce able to burie the dead; and the well not in any measure sufficiente to tend the sick." This second ship, however, was laden with lumber and some peltries, but unfortunately only a small part of her cargo ever reached England, as she was taken by the French on the homeward passage.

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The second winter passed without unusual hardship or sickness;

/ En witnes whereof the said President & Counsell haue to the one pt of this pnte Indenture sett their seales And to th'other pt hereof the said John Peirce in the name of himself and his said Associate haue sett to his seale geven the day and yeeres first aboue written/

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1 This patent is preserved at Plymouth, Mass., and is the oldest document now in existence relating to her history, as well as the first known grant made by the Plymouth Company. It is published in full in vol. ii., Fourth Series, Mass. Hist. Coll., from which we copy the fac-similes of the signatures of the President and Council who signed it, namely, the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, Lord Sheffield, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

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