American Leaders and Heroes Part 6

THE "STARVING TIME."

LORD DELAWARE ARRIVES.

DALE DOES AWAY WITH THE COMMON STOREHOUSE.

TOBACCO AND THE PLANTATION.

THE NAVIGATION LAWS INJURE THE PLANTERS.

BERKELEY ACTS LIKE A TYRANT.

THE INDIANS USE THE FIREBRAND AND THE TOMAHAWK WITH TELLING EFFECT.

NATHANIEL BACON LEADS A FORCE AGAINST THE INDIANS.

HE IS ELECTED TO THE a.s.sEMBLY.

HIS CAPTURE AND ESCAPE.

HE GETS HIS COMMISSION.

HE ATTACKS BERKELEY AT JAMESTOWN.

HIS DEATH.

A STRIKING RESULT OF BACON'S REBELLION.

TO THE PUPIL

1. What important thing was done by Sir Thomas Dale?

2. What were the Navigation Laws, and how did they affect the planters?

3. Describe Berkeley. What do you admire in Bacon?

4. Write a paragraph on each of the following topics: Bacon leads a force against the Indians; Bacon elected to the a.s.sembly; his capture and escape; he gets his commission; he attacks Berkeley at Jamestown.

5. Review the following dates: 1492, 1541, and 1607. Add to these 1676.

CHAPTER VI

Miles Standish and the Pilgrims

[1584-1656]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Miles Standish.]

Only thirteen years after Jamestown was settled, a colony of Englishmen, very different in character from the gold hunters of Virginia, landed on the Ma.s.sachusetts coast. These men came not to seek fortunes but rather to establish a community with high ideals of political and religious life. With them they brought their wives and children, and a determination to build for themselves permanent homes in the new world.

Before tracing their fortunes in America, let us glance backward a few years and see them as they were in their English homes.

At the present time people can choose their own church and worship as they please, but it was not always so, even in England. In that country, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there was much religious disturbance, and many people were punished because they would not worship as the law required. There were Englishmen who, while loving the English Church, wished to make its services more simple or, as they said, purify its forms and ceremonies. These people were for this reason called _Puritans_. Others disliked the ceremonial and doctrines of the Church so much that they wished to form a separate body and worship after their own ideas. These were called _Separatists_, or _Independents_.

The Separatists met for service on the Lord's Day in the home of William Brewster, one of their chief men, in the little village of Scrooby. For a year they tried to keep together and worship as an independent body.

But as the laws of England required that all should worship in the Established Church, they found they could not do this without being hunted down, thrown into prison, and sometimes beaten and even hanged.

They endured these persecutions as long as they could, and then some of them decided to leave their own land and seek a home in Holland, where they would be free to worship G.o.d as they pleased. James I, then King of England, being unwilling that they should go, they had much difficulty in carrying out their plan, but in 1608 they escaped and went to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam they went to Leyden, and finally from Leyden to America, by way of England. By reason of their wanderings they became known later as Pilgrims.

Since they were poor people, the Pilgrims were obliged to accept any work that would enable them to make a living. In Leyden many found employment in the manufacture of woollen goods. Here they were prosperous enough and enjoyed freedom of worship, but were unwilling to remain with the Dutch, fearing that their children would forget English.

For, although England had been unkind to them, they cherished their native language, customs, and habits of life.

They had heard much about the English colony in Virginia, and the a.s.sociation of their own people in a free land appealed strongly to their English hearts. To Virginia therefore they decided to go, believing that there they could worship in peace and harmony and bring up their children in st.u.r.dy English thought and feeling.

But it is often easier to plan than to accomplish, and so it was with these home-yearning Pilgrims. Having decided to leave Holland, they found practical difficulties to be overcome, the most serious of which were King James's opposition to their going to America and lack of funds for the long and expensive journey. He permitted them to sail, however, and agreed not to disturb them in America so long as they pleased him.

After getting the king's consent and borrowing money on hard terms, these earnest men and women made ready to sail for their new home in the forest wilds of America.

They embarked in the Speedwell, at Delft Haven, a port twelve miles from Leyden, and sailed for Southampton, on the south coast of England. Here they joined some friends who had made ready another vessel, the now historic Mayflower. But a brief delay was occasioned by lack of money.

In order to secure the necessary amount, about four hundred dollars, it was necessary to sell some of their provisions, including much of the b.u.t.ter. Funds being secured, the two vessels at last put to sea, but twice returned on account of a leak in the Speedwell. Finally, deeming that vessel unseaworthy, one hundred and two Pilgrims, including men, women, children, and servants, took pa.s.sage in the Mayflower, sailing from Plymouth, September 16, 1620.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Pilgrims in England and Holland.]

After a most trying and tempestuous voyage lasting over nine weeks, land was sighted, November 19, 1620, but instead of arriving off the coast of Virginia, as they had planned, the storm-beaten voyagers found themselves in what is now the harbor of Provincetown. Before landing they entered into a solemn agreement to make and obey such laws as should be needful for the good of the colony. John Carver was chosen governor.

Not being able on account of the shallow water to get the Mayflower to a point where they could step ash.o.r.e, the men had to carry the women in their arms and wade several rods, though the weather was so cold that their clothing, wet from the ocean spray, froze stiff. Once on land, they fell upon their knees and thanked G.o.d for bringing them in safety through the many furious storms. Then immediately the women set to work lighting fires, boiling water, and washing clothing, while the men stood on guard to repel the Indians in case they might make an attack.

It soon became clear that Cape Cod was an unfit place for a settlement, and an exploring party, with Miles Standish as military leader, was selected to look for a more suitable one.

As military leader Miles Standish at once became conspicuous in the life of the colony. He was born in Lancashire, England, in 1584, of a n.o.ble family, but was in some way deprived of his estates. Going to the Continent he became a valiant and daring soldier in the Netherlands.

Feeling a deep interest in the cause of the Pilgrims, he joined them when they sailed for America in the Mayflower, and made their fortunes his own.

Small of stature, quick-witted, hot-tempered, and ready to brave any danger, this stout-hearted man was a fitting leader for the little Pilgrim army of something like a score of men who were obliged to defend themselves and their families against wild beasts and unfriendly Indians.

Many of the Pilgrim soldiers wore armor to protect themselves against Indian arrows. In some instances this armor consisted of a steel helmet and iron breastplates, and in others of quilted coats of cotton wool.

Like Miles Standish, some of the soldiers had swords at their sides, and all carried either flintlock or matchlock muskets so big and heavy that, before they could fire them off, they had to rest them upon supports stuck into the ground for the purpose.

Standish's daring little band of soldiers explored some of the coast on the day the Mayflower anch.o.r.ed. The next Wednesday after landing they started out a second time in search of a suitable place for settlement.

As they skirted the coast, landing here and there, they saw and heard Indians, who fled at their approach.

Soon they came upon some mounds, out of which they dug bows and arrows and other utensils. These, however, they replaced, because they believed the mounds to be Indian graves. In a rude and deserted house they also found an iron kettle. Digging into still another mound these home-hunters were delighted to discover large baskets filled with ears of Indian corn--red, white, and yellow. As they were sorely in need of food after their long voyage, they took with them some of the corn, for which they were careful to pay the Indians later.

An amusing incident occurred on this otherwise serious journey. Before they got back to the Mayflower, William Bradford, who afterward became the second governor of the Plymouth Colony, met with an accident that must have caused even the stern Pilgrim soldiers to smile. Picking his way through the underbrush of the wood he stepped unwittingly into a deer-trap, and was suddenly jerked up into the air, where he dangled by one leg until his friends released him, none the worse for the ludicrous occurrence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Mayflower.]

After spending more than three weeks in vain efforts to find a place for settlement, a party of ten picked men, including Governor Carver, William Bradford, and Captain Miles Standish, set out on the afternoon of December 16th, in the midst of a driving storm, for another search.

It was so cold that the spray, falling upon them, soon covered their clothing with coats of ice, but the voyagers, though suffering terribly, pushed courageously forward.

At the close of the next day, having anch.o.r.ed in a creek, they constructed a barricade, not only as a protection from the bitter weather, but as a means of defence against the Indians. This three-sided barricade, made of boughs, stakes, and logs, was about as high as a man, and was open on the leeward side. Within this shelter they lighted a big fire, which they kept roaring all night long. Then lying down around it, with their feet toward the burning logs, they wrapped their cloaks closely about them and fell asleep beneath the trees and the open sky, one man always keeping guard.

Next morning they were astir early, ready for the stubborn work of another day. Some of them had carried their muskets down to the sh.o.r.e, leaving them there to be put aboard the boat a little later, and were returning to breakfast when the shout "Indians!" followed by a shower of arrows, greeted them. The woods seemed full of red warriors, whose blood-curdling war-whoops must have struck fear to the hearts of the small band of explorers. However, the white men bravely stood their ground, and with cool arm and steady hand so terrified the savages that they soon took to their heels.

Once out to sea again the Pilgrims encountered a furious gale that threatened to swamp their frail boat. All day long they were tossed about on the storm-swept sea, and just before dark an immense wave almost filled the boat and carried off the rudder. A little later a fierce gust of wind broke the mast into three pieces. Then without mast or rudder the dauntless men struggled at the oars until morning when they reached land and found themselves on an island which they named Clarke's Island, in honor of the Mayflower's mate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Pilgrim Settlement.]

Some further explorations revealed a suitable place for settlement. It had a good harbor, a stream of excellent drinking water near by, and at a little distance from the sh.o.r.e a stretch of high ground affording a good location for a fort. In addition to these advantages there was a large field of cleared land on which the Indians had raised corn. Much cheered with their discovery the explorers returned with their report.

After as little delay as possible, the Pilgrims landed[5] on the spot chosen for their new home,--the spot which John Smith had several years before named Plymouth. At once they set to work with heroic energy, some felling trees, some sawing, some splitting, and some carrying logs to the places of building.