The Mayflower and Her Log Part 23

SAt.u.r.dAY, Feb. 17/27 At anchorage. All the colonists on the ship able to go on sh.o.r.e went this morning to attend the meeting for the establishment of military orders among them. They chose Captain Standish their captain, and gave him authority of command in affairs. Two savages appeared on the hill, a quarter of a mile from the plantation, while the Planters were consulting, and made signs for Planters to come to them. All armed and stood ready, and sent two towards them, Captain Standish and Master Hopkins, but the natives would not tarry. It was determined to plant the great ordnance in convenient places at once. Fetched wood and water.

SUNDAY, Feb. 18/28 At anchor in Plymouth harbor. The Feb.

tenth Sunday in this harbor. Many sick, both on board the ship and on sh.o.r.e.

MONDAY, Feb. 19/Mar. 1 At anchorage. Got one of the great guns on sh.o.r.e with the help of some of the Planters.

TUESDAY, Feb. 20/Mar. 2 At anchorage. Getting cannon ash.o.r.e and mounted.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 21/Mar. 3 At anchorage. The Master, with many of the sailors, went on sh.o.r.e, taking one of the great pieces called a minion, and with the Planters drew it up the hill, with another piece that lay on the sh.o.r.e, and mounted them and a saller and two bases--five guns --on the platform made for them. A hard day's work. The Master took on sh.o.r.e with him a very fat goose he had shot, to which the Planters added a fat crane, a mallard, and a dried neat's tongue (ox tongue), and Planters and crew feasted together. When the Master went on sh.o.r.e, he sent off the Governor to take the directions of Master Mullens as to his property, as he was lying near to death,--as also Master White.

Master Mullens dictated his will to the Governor, which he noted down, and Giles Heale, the chirurgeon, and Christopher Joanes, of the crew, witnessed, they being left aboard to care for the sick, keep the ship, etc. Master Mullens and Master White both died this day. Two others also died.

Got the men aboard about nightfall.

THURSDAY, Feb. 22/Mar. 4 At anchorage. Large burial-party went ash.o.r.e with bodies of Masters Mullens and White, and joined with those on sh.o.r.e made the chief burial thus far had. The service on sh.o.r.e, the most of the people being there, Master Mullens being one of the chief subscribing Adventurers, as well as one of the chief men of the Planters, as was Master White. Their deaths much deplored.

FRIDAY, Feb. 23/Mar. 5 At anchorage. Party from the ship went on sh.o.r.e to help finish work on the ordnance.

SAt.u.r.dAY, Feb. 24/Mar. 6 At anchorage. Same. Fetched wood and water.

SUNDAY, Feb. 25/Mar. 7 At anchorage in Plymouth harbor. Eleventh Sunday in this harbor. Mistress Mary Allerton, wife of Master Isaac Allerton, one of the chief men of the colonists, died on board this day, not having mended well since the birth of her child, dead-born about two months agone.

MONDAY, Feb. 26/Mar. 8 At anchor in harbor. Burying-party went ash.o.r.e to bury Mistress Allerton, services being held there.

TUESDAY, Feb. 27/Mar. 9 At anchorage. The sickness and deaths of the colonists on sh.o.r.e have steadily increased, and have extended to the ship, which has lost several of its petty officers, including the master gunner, three quarter-masters, and cook, and a third of the crew, many from scurvy.

[There can be no doubt that both planters and ship's crew suffered severely from scurvy. The conditions all favored it, the sailors were familiar with it, and would not be likely to be mistaken in their recognition of it, and Dr. Fuller, their competent physician, would not be likely to err in his diagnosis of it. Tuberculosis was its very natural a.s.sociate.]

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 28/Mar. 10 At anchorage. The last day of the month.

The fifty-third day the ship has lain in this harbor, and from the present rate of sickness and death aboard, no present capacity or prospect of getting away, those better being yet weak. The Planters have lost seventeen this month, their largest mortality.

THURSDAY, Mar. 1/11 At anchorage. Bl.u.s.tering but milder weather.

FRIDAY, Mar. 2/12

At anchorage. Same.

SAt.u.r.dAY, Mar. 3/13 At anchorage. Wind south. Morning misty [foggy]. Towards noon warm and fine weather. At one o'clock it thundered. The first heard. It rained sadly from two o'clock till midnight. Fetched wood and water.

SUNDAY, Mar. 4/14 At anchor in Plymouth harbor. The twelfth Sunday in this harbor. Cooler. Clear weather.

MONDAY, Mar. 5/15 At anchorage. Rough weather.

TUESDAY, Mar. 6/16 At anchorage. Same.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 7/17 At anchor in harbor. Wind full east, cold but fair. The Governor went this day with a party of five, to the great ponds, discovered by one of the ship's mates and Francis Billington. Some planting done in the settlement.

THURSDAY, Mar. 8/18 At anchor in harbor. Rough easterly weather.

FRIDAY, Mar. 9/19 At anchorage. Same. Many sick aboard.

SAt.u.r.dAY, Mar. 10/20 At anchorage. Same. Fetched wood and water.

SUNDAY, Mar. 11/21 At anchorage, Plymouth harbor. The thirteenth Sunday the ship has lain in this harbor. Many of crew yet ill, including boatswain.

MONDAY, Mar. 12/22 At anchorage. Easterly weather.

TUESDAY, Mar. 13/23 At anchorage. The sickness and mortality on ship and on sh.o.r.e continue.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 14/24 At anchorage. Same.

THURSDAY, Mar. 15/25 At anchorage. Same.

FRIDAY, Mar. 16/26 At anchorage. A fair, warm day, towards noon. The Master and others went ash.o.r.e to the general meeting. The plantation was startled this morning by a visit from an Indian who spoke some English and bade "Welcome." He is from Monhiggon, an island to the eastward some days' sail, near where Sir Ferdinando Gorges had a settlement. He was friendly, and having had much intercourse with Englishmen who came to fish in those parts, very comfortable with them. He saw the ship in the harbor from a distance and supposed her to be a fishing vessel. He told the Governor that the plantation was formerly called "Patuxet"

[or Apaum], and that all its inhabitants had been carried off by a plague about four years ago. All the afternoon was spent in communication with him. The Governor purposed sending him aboard the ship at night, and he was well content to go and went aboard the shallop to come to the ship, but the wind was high and water scant [low], so that the shallop could not go to the ship. The Governor sent him to Master Hopkins's house and set a watch over him.

SAt.u.r.dAY, Mar. 17/27 At anchor in harbor. The Master and others came off to the ship. Samoset the Indian went away back to the Ma.s.sasoits whence he came. A reasonably fair day. Fetched wood and water.

SUNDAY, Mar. 18/28 At anchor in Plymouth harbor. The fourteenth Sunday the ship has lain at this anchorage. A fair day. The sickness stayed a little. Many went on sh.o.r.e to the meeting in the common-house. Samoset the savage came again, and brought five others with him.

[This Sunday visit was doubtless very much to the dislike of the good brethren, or at least of the leaders, but policy dictated every possible forbearance. Their consciences drew the line at trade, however, and they got rid of their untimely visitors as soon as possible without giving offense. Ma.s.sasoit's men seem to have shown, by leaving their peltry with them, a confidence in their new white neighbors that is remarkable in view of the brevity of their friendship.]

They left their bows and arrows a quarter of a mile from the town, as instructed.

The Planters gave them entertainment, but would not truck with them.

["Truck--to trade." All early and modern lexicographers give the word, which, though now obsolete, was in common use in parts of New England fifty years ago.]

They sang and danced after their manner, and made semblance of amity and friendship.

They drank tobacco and carried pounded corn to eat. Their faces were painted. They brought a few skins which they left with the Planters, and returned the tools which Captain Standish and Francis Cooke left in the woods. The Planters dismissed them with a few trifles as soon as they could, it being Sunday, and they promised soon to return and trade. Samoset would not go with them, feigning sick, and stayed.

Those on sh.o.r.e from the ship came off to her at night.

MONDAY, Mar. 19/29 At anchorage. A fair day. The Planters digging and sowing seeds.

TUESDAY, Mar. 20/30 At anchorage. A fine day. Digging and planting of gardens on sh.o.r.e. Those sick of the crew mending.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 21/31 At anchorage. A fine warm day. Beginning to put ship in trim for return voyage.

Bringing ballast, etc. Some, including the Masters-mates, went on sh.o.r.e, who on return reported that the Planters sent the Indian Samoset away. A general meeting of the Planters was held at the common-house, to conclude laws and orders, and to confirm the military orders formerly proposed, and twice broken off by the savages coming, as happened again. After the meeting had held an hour or so, two or three savages appeared on the hill over against the town, and made semblance of daring the Planters.

Captain Standish and another, with their muskets, went over to them, with the two Masters-mates of the ship, who were ash.o.r.e, also armed with muskets. The savages made show of defiance, but as our men drew near they ran away. This day the carpenter, who has long been ill of scurvy, fitted the shallop to carry all the goods and furniture aboard the ship, on sh.o.r.e.

THURSDAY, Mar. 22/Apr. 1 At anchorage. A very fair, warm day.

At work on ship getting ready for sea, bringing ballast aboard, etc. Another general meeting of the Planters which all able attended. They had scarce been an hour together when Samoset the Indian came again with one Squanto, the only native of Patuxet (where the Planters now inhabit) surviving, who was one of the twenty captives carried away from this place by Captain Hunt, to England. He could speak a little English.

They brought three other Indians with them.

They signified that their great Sagamore, Masasoyt, was hard by, with Quadequina his brother, and all their men. They could not well express what they would in English, but after an hour the king came to the top of the hill, over against the plantation, with his train of about sixty men. Squanto went to him and brought a message that one should be sent to parley with him, and Master Edward Winslow went, to know hisnmind, and signify the wish of the Governor to have trading and peace with him, the Governor sending presents to the king and his brother, with something to eat and drink.

[Edward Winslow gives us here another proof of that rare self-sacrifice, that entire devotion to his work, and that splendid intrepidity which so signally characterized his whole career. At this most critical moment, the fate of the little colony trembling in the balance, when there was evident fear of treachery and surprise on the part of both the English and the savages; though the wife of his youth lay at the point of death (which came but two days later), and his heart was heavy with grief; forgetting all but the welfare of his little band of brethren, he goes forward alone, his life in his hand, to meet the great sachem surrounded by his whole tribe, as the calm, adroit diplomatist, upon whom all must depend; and as the fearless hostage, to put himself in p.a.w.n for the savage chief.]

The king, leaving Master Winslow with brother, came over the brook, with some twenty of his men, leaving their bows and arrows behind them, and giving some six or seven of their men as hostages for Master Winslow. Captain Standish, with Master Williamson, the ship's-merchant, as interpreter,

[It would seem from the frequent mention of the presence of some of the ship's company, Master Jones, the "Masters-mates," and now the "ship's-merchant," that the ship was daily well represented in the little settlement on sh.o.r.e. The presence of Master Williamson on this occasion is perhaps readily accounted for. Every other meeting with the Indians had been unexpected, the present one was antic.i.p.ated, and somewhat eagerly, for upon its successful issue almost everything depended. By this time Standish had probably become aware that Tisquantum's command of English was very limited, and he desired all the aid the ship's interpreter could give. By some means, the sachem and the colonists succeeded in establishing on this day a very good and lasting understanding.]