American Leaders and Heroes Part 7

[5] According to tradition, the Pilgrims, in landing, stepped on a small granite bowlder, since known as Plymouth Rock. The date of landing, December 21, is called Forefathers' Day.

They first erected a rude log-house, twenty feet square, which would serve for a common storehouse, for shelter, and for other purposes, and began the building of five separate private dwellings. They built also a hospital and a meeting-house.

The houses were all alike in form and size. After cutting down trees and sawing logs of suitable length, the men dragged them by hand along the ground--for there were no horses or other beasts of burden--and laid them one upon another, thus forming the walls. Probably the chimneys and fireplaces were of stone, the crevices being plastered with mortar made by mixing straw and mud, and oil paper taking the place of gla.s.s for windows. At the best, these log-houses were poor makeshifts for dwellings in the severe winter weather along the bleak New England coast.

For furnishing these simple homes, the Pilgrims had brought over such articles as large arm-chairs, wooden settles, high-posted beds, truckle-beds for young children, and cradles for babies. Every home had also its spinning-wheel. The cooking was done in a big fireplace. Here the housewife baked bread in large ovens, roasted meat by putting it on iron spits which they had to keep turning in order to cook all sides of the roast alike, and boiled various kinds of food in large kettles hung over the fire.

As there were no friction matches in those days, it was the custom to kindle a fire by striking sparks with a flint and steel into dry tinder-stuff. Having once started a fire,--which was no easy matter,--they had to be very careful not to let it go out, and for that reason covered the coals at bedtime with ashes.

In the place of candles or lamps, pitch-pine knots furnished light at night. We can well imagine the Pilgrim boys and girls resting on the settles in the evening, and reading by the blaze from the huge fireplace.

In this first winter lack of good food and warm clothing, exposure to the cold, and various kinds of hardship bred disease in the little colony. At one time only seven men were well enough to take care of the sick and suffering. One of these seven was the fearless soldier, Miles Standish. He now became a tender nurse, and joined with William Bradford and Elder Brewster in making fires, washing clothes, cooking food, and in other plain household duties.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Matchlock Gun.]

By spring about half of the colonists, including Governor Carver and Rose Standish, wife of Captain Miles Standish, had died. Notwithstanding all the sufferings, however, not one of the Pilgrims went back on the Mayflower when she sailed for England. But so weak had the colony become through loss of able-bodied men, that corn was planted on the graves to keep the Indians from learning how many had died.

One day in early spring, the Pilgrims were startled by the sudden appearance of an Indian, Samoset by name, who cried in English, "Welcome, Englishmen." A week later he returned with a friend, named Squanto,[6] who had formerly lived at Plymouth with other Indians, all of whom had been swept away by a plague.

[6] Squanto had been taken to England by some white men in 1614.

Squanto was glad to get back to his old home once more. He afterward came to live with the Pilgrims, acting as their messenger and interpreter and showing them how to hunt and how to catch fish. From him they learned how to plant corn. Putting one or two herring as a fertilizer in every hill, they would watch for a while to prevent the wolves from digging up and eating the fish, and in due time would have an abundant return.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Group of Pilgrim Relics.]

About a week after Samoset's first appearance, he returned and announced the approach of Ma.s.sasoit, an Indian chief living at Mount Hope, some forty miles southwest of Plymouth. Captain Miles Standish marched out with his men to escort the Indian chief to meet Governor Carver in an unfinished house. The Pilgrims had spread upon the floor a green mat, which they covered with cushions for the chief and the governor. When the chief, who was a man of fine presence and dignified bearing, was seated upon the cushions, Governor Carver was escorted to the place of meeting by the Pilgrim soldiers, amid the beating of drums and the blowing of trumpets. After the governor had kissed the chief's hand, the two men agreed to be friends and keep peace between the white men and the red. The friendship thus romantically begun lasted for more than fifty years. Before Ma.s.sasoit's departure the Pilgrims gave him two skins and a copper necklace.

As summer came on the condition of the Pilgrims improved. There was much less sickness, and food was more easily obtained. On the arrival of autumn the corn and barley planted by the Pilgrims yielded a good return, and ducks, geese, wild turkeys, and deer could be secured by hunting. When Ma.s.sasoit with ninety men came to see the Pilgrims in the autumn, the Indians brought some deer and the Pilgrims furnished food from their supplies, so that a three days' feast was held. This was the first celebration of the New England Thanksgiving.

But not all of the Indian neighbors were so friendly as Ma.s.sasoit and his tribe. Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts, sent to Plymouth an insolent greeting in the form of a number of arrows tied with a snake's skin. The Pilgrims on their part stuffed the snake's skin full of powder and bullets, and in defiance sent it back to Canonicus. So deeply impressed were the Indians by this fearless act that they let the whites alone.

Believing it wise to be prepared against Indian attacks, however, the Pilgrims surrounded the settlement with palisades, and erected on "Burial Hill" a building, on the flat roof of which cannon were placed, the room downstairs serving as a meeting-house.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pilgrims Returning from Church.]

Energetic in practical affairs, they were equally zealous in religious observance; for they were very regular in their church attendance. Their Sabbaths began with sundown on Sat.u.r.day and lasted until sundown on Sunday. The beating of a drum on Sunday morning was the signal for the men to meet at the door of Captain Miles Standish's house, from which they marched three abreast, followed by their governor in a long robe, with the minister on his right and Miles Standish on his left.

After the men came the women, then the children, and last of all the servants. On entering the church they sat in order of rank, the old men in one part of the church, the young men in another, mothers with their little children in a third, young women in a fourth, and the boys in a fifth.

The services lasted all the morning; then, after an intermission for lunch at noon, they began again and continuing all the afternoon. But on the coldest days of winter only foot-stoves were used to heat the meeting-house. Nor was this the only discomfort the Pilgrims had in their church worship. For even these good people found it sometimes hard to remain awake during the long services. And it was the duty of the constable to see that all kept their eyes open. If this official saw a boy asleep he rapped him with the end of a wand; if he saw a woman nodding he brushed her gently with a hare's foot, which was on the other end of the wand.

The Pilgrims held their town meetings in the meeting-house, where they held their religious services. At town meetings all the men wore their hats. In voting they used corn and beans, a grain of corn meaning yes and a bean meaning no.

Such was the life of the little company of true-hearted men and women at Plymouth. Small in number as they were, they remained brave in spirit, amid surroundings which tested all their powers of endurance. For several years Miles Standish did valiant service there, and then went to live at Duxbury, where he was soon joined by some of his Pilgrim friends, among whom was John Alden. Here the good captain remained the rest of his life, except when he was needed as military leader by the colony. He died many years later,--in 1656,--leaving behind him a good name with the Pilgrims and the rest of the world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Brewster's and Standish's Swords.]

REVIEW OUTLINE

THE ENGLISHMEN WHO SETTLED IN NEW ENGLAND.

PURITANS AND SEPARATISTS.

THE SEPARATISTS ESCAPE TO HOLLAND.

THE PILGRIMS LEAVE HOLLAND FOR AMERICA.

DIFFICULTIES IN THEIR WAY.

THE VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER.

MILES STANDISH MADE MILITARY LEADER.

THE STOUT-HEARTED CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH.

THE GRIM PILGRIM SOLDIERS.

CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH HEADS A SECOND EXPLORING PARTY.

INDIAN MOUNDS; BRADFORD IN THE DEER-TRAP.

A DANGEROUS EXPEDITION.

A NIGHT IN THE WOODS; INDIANS.

A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE ON THE STORM-SWEPT SEA.

A SUITABLE PLACE FOR SETTLEMENT.

LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS AT PLYMOUTH.

THE BUSY BUILDERS OF LOG-HOUSES.

IN THE HOMES OF THE PILGRIMS.

THE SUFFERING PILGRIMS.

SAMOSET; SQUANTO; Ma.s.sASOIT VISITS THE PILGRIMS.

A THANKSGIVING FEAST.

INDIAN ENEMIES.

THE PILGRIMS AT CHURCH SERVICES.

THE MEETING-HOUSE.

DEATH OF CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH.

TO THE PUPIL

1. What do you admire in the character of Miles Standish, and what did he do for the Pilgrims at Plymouth?

2. Trace on the map the wanderings of the Pilgrims.

3. Write an account of the "Dangerous Expedition" of the ten picked men who set out on December 16th, in search of a place for settlement. Picture to yourself the following: the party lying by the big fire under the trees with the barricade about them; the Pilgrims on their way to church; and Ma.s.sasoit entertained by Governor Carver.

4. Describe a Pilgrim dwelling and its furniture.

5. Compare the Pilgrims with the Jamestown settlers.

CHAPTER VII

Roger Williams and the Puritans

[1599-1683]