“Actions rare and sudden, do commonlyProceed from fierce necessity.”Sir William Davenant.
“Actions rare and sudden, do commonlyProceed from fierce necessity.”Sir William Davenant.
“Actions rare and sudden, do commonly
Proceed from fierce necessity.”
Sir William Davenant.
Two or three days after the return of Winslow and Hopkins from Massasoit’s forest rendezvous, the routine life of the colonists was broken by the sudden disappearance of one of the younger members of the Plymouth commonwealth. John Billington was nowhere to be found. Though he was a vicious lad, the pest of the colony, his absence caused great anxiety. Whither had he gone? Was he drowned? Had he been kidnapped? Had he wandered away and lost his course in the tangled cross-paths of the forest?
Though the season, already declining towards autumn, called for the active labor of the settlers, the supposed peril of the lost boy swallowed up all other considerations, and a squad of ten men was recruited to go in search of him.[230]The clumsy shallop was rigged, and, led by Standish, all embarked. They had not sailed far ere a sudden squall, accompanied by a severe thunderstorm, peculiar to the season and the latitude, struck them,as it were, with clenched fists. A water-spout, the first they had ever seen, flung up the hissing sea to a sheer height of fifty feet within a stone’s toss of the shallop, already half capsized.[231]Drenched and weary, they landed in Cummaquid, now Barnstable harbor, where they bivouacked.[232]Here an Indian runner, despatched by Massasoit, met them, and said that the lad they sought might be found at Nauset, some miles farther down the coast. In the morning, as they were about to embark, they espied two Indians, strangers, whom they hailed. Squanto and another friendly sachem named Tokamahamon were with the scouting party, and they now acted as interpreters. These natives corroborated Massasoit’s report of the whereabouts of young Billington; and at their invitation, six of the Englishmen accompanied them to an interview with their chief, Iyanough, who lurked in the vicinity. When they met the sagamore, they found him to be a handsome man, in the May of youth, courteous in his manners, and unlike an Indian save in his costume.[233]The entertainment to which he invited his pale-face guests was in harmony with his decorous appearance, being various and abundant.[234]
While they were feasting, they saw an old, withered squaw, who seemed bowed down beneath the weight of a hundred years, hobbling eagerly towardsthe spot of green sward where they reclined. She had never seen an Englishman, and was naturally curious to gaze upon the pale-face strangers. On reaching their vicinage she became intensely excited, and commenced to howl and rave and weep, pausing between each sob to curse her chieftain’s guests. The Pilgrims were astonished. They asked why the old squaw cried and cursed, and were told that Hunt had kidnapped three of her sons, at the same time that he had carried Squanto into Spanish servitude. They told the old squaw, through an interpreter, that Hunt was a bad man, condemned by all good Englishmen; said that they would not do so wicked an act for all the skins in New England; and to convince her of their sincerity, gave her some trinkets, which served to placate her exuberant wrath.[235]
Taking a friendly leave of Iyanough, the Pilgrims returned to the shallop, and at once set sail for Nauset, the Indian name of what is now the pleasant village of Eastham. On their arrival, the shallop was surrounded by a swarm of natives, who greatly annoyed them by their officious offers of assistance.[236]Standish was impelled to keep on the alert by the remembrance that this tribe was the one which had assailed the English coasting party in December, 1620.[237]Among these savages the Pilgrims found the long-sought owner of the corn which they had taken from the burial-mound; hewas invited to visit Plymouth, where he was promised ample payment.[238]
Towards evening, a sagamorenamed Aspinetcame to them, bringing with him the lost lad. He had wandered over the hills and through the woods for five days, living upon the berries and wild fruit of the season. Finally he reached an Indian village at Menomet, where Sandwich is now located; and here the Indians had sent him to the Nausets, among whom he was now found.[239]
The boy was decked out in the tawdry Indian style when Aspinet delivered him to the settlers, and several pounds of beads hung suspended from his neck.[240]
Standish rewarded the sachem for his care of the boy; he also distributed some presents among his tribe. Here a rumor of war between the Narragansetts and Massasoit reached them; and Aspinet also said that the great sagamore had been captured by his vengeful foemen.[241]Apprehensive for the welfare of the colony, and conscious that they ought to render Massasoit assistance in case he had been unjustly attacked, the Englishmenbade Aspinet a hastybut cordial farewell, and instantly reëmbarked.[242]
Plymouth was regained without further adventure. Their return was welcome, for these ten constituted half the martial force of the commonwealth; and in their absence the remaining settlershad learned of dangerous intrigues against their peace, stirred by a sachem called Corbitant, an ally of Massasoit’s, but never a friend to the Pilgrims.[243]
“The flying rumors gathered as they rolled;Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;And all who told it added something new,And all who heard it made enlargement too;In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew.”[244]
“The flying rumors gathered as they rolled;Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;And all who told it added something new,And all who heard it made enlargement too;In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew.”[244]
“The flying rumors gathered as they rolled;
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new,
And all who heard it made enlargement too;
In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew.”[244]
At first this startling intelligence was flung into the ears of the settlers: “The Narragansetts have invaded Massasoit’s territory; the sagamore is either a prisoner or has fled; an attack upon Plymouth may immediately be expected.”[245]
Squanto, Tokamahamon, and a warrior named Habbamak, who had come to live among the colonists, “a proper, lusty man, of great account for his valor and parts among the Indians,”[246]were at once despatched to reconnoitre. Hardly had they disappeared in the skirting forests ere word was brought that Massasoit was safe, that the Narragansetts were not near, but that Corbitant was using every wile to detach the sagamore from the English alliance, while he threatened death toSquanto, Tokamahamon, and Habbamak, the counsellors of the sachem who were so actively friendly to the Pilgrims.[247]
Events hustled each other; for scarcely had the settlers time to breathe freer after this recital, ere “Habbamak came running in all sweating,” andinformed the clustering colonists that he and his two friends had been surprised and overpowered at Namasket by Corbitant; that he had managed to escape, but that he feared Squanto and Tokamahamon were dead, as he saw Corbitant press a knife to their breasts, and say, “If Squanto were dead, these English would lose their tongue.”[248]
The Pilgrims never appear to greater advantage than in moments of trial; they are always equal to the occasion;
“Like a ball that boundsAccording to the force with which ’twas thrown;So in affliction’s violence, he that’s wise,The more he’s cast down, will the higher rise.”[249]
“Like a ball that boundsAccording to the force with which ’twas thrown;So in affliction’s violence, he that’s wise,The more he’s cast down, will the higher rise.”[249]
“Like a ball that bounds
According to the force with which ’twas thrown;
So in affliction’s violence, he that’s wise,
The more he’s cast down, will the higher rise.”[249]
’Twas so with the Pilgrims. Danger seemed powerless to abash them. They “walked softly before the Lord,” but they “feared no evil.” They were profoundly penetrated with John Marston’s maxim: “Through danger safety comes; through trouble rest.”
So now in this strait, they wasted no time in technical deliberation. Justice to themselves, to Squanto, to Massasoit, demanded action, prompt, efficient. Impunity was a bounty on offence. They were too weak to dare let an insult go unpunished. Besides, it was remembered that “if they should suffer their friends and messengers to be thus wronged, they would have none to cleave unto them, or bring them intelligence, or do them any good service afterwards, while next their foes wouldfall upon themselves. Whereupon it was resolved to send Standish and fourteen men well armed, and to go and fall upon the Indian village at Namasket at night; and if they found that Squanto was killed, to cut off Corbitant’s head, but not to hurt any not concerned in the murder. Habbamak was asked if he would go and be their guide. He said he would, and bring them to the very spot, and point out Corbitant. So they set out on the evening of August 14th, 1621.”[250]
The night was dark and tempestuous. Habbamak himself was often puzzled to find the path, and at times groped blindly. Towards midnight the little army halted and made a supper in the dark. As they were now near Namasket, the final preparations for the assault were made. Knapsacks were thrown aside, and each man received his specific directions. The plan was to surround the wigwam of Corbitant and seize him ere he could escape. None were to be injured unless an attempt to escape was made.[251]
The march was now resumed. Cautiously and silently they trod in the footsteps of their dusky guide, casting furtive glances into the enveloping gloom, and pausing momentarily to listen and to watch. At length the Indian village was reached. There it lay, calm and oblivious of danger, the eyes of its inmates sealed in sleep. Softly but swiftly the assailants stole like spectres half round thedrowsy town, and instructed by Habbamak, the wigwam of the hostile sachem was surrounded. Then came another brief pause, and each man’s heart seemed throbbing in his throat, so new and so exciting was the situation. The signal followed; the hut was entered; its inmates, still half asleep, were deprived of speech by fright and drowsiness. Soon, however, they regained their senses, and great commotion ensued. Standish asked if Corbitant was there. Unable or unwilling to reply, several of the aroused Indians essayed to pass the guard. Then the guns of the invaders increased the hubbub, and flashed angrily in the pitchy darkness. The women, rushing to Habbamak, called him “Friend, friend!” The boys, noticing that no injury was attempted against the squaws, shouted, “I am a girl, I am a girl!”[252]
After a time silence was regained. Standish, speaking through the lips of Habbamak, explained the object of the assault, and again demanded to know the whereabouts of Corbitant. Reassured, the Indians said that the wily sachem, fearing some revengeful action, had decamped; that Squanto and Tokamahamon had not yet been murdered, but were held as captives in a neighboring wigwam.[253]
The friendly sachems were speedily released, and while their deliverers heartily rejoiced over their escape, they regretted that of Corbitant.[254]The whole party breakfasted with Squanto; after which the Namasket Indians were assembled, andStandish informed them of his determination to hunt Corbitant, and to punish all who should plot evil against the colony, or who should presume to contend against the authority of Massasoit. He also regretted that any had been wounded in the night attack, and invited those who pleased to accompany him back to Plymouth, where an English physician would heal their hurts. Three, two men and a squaw, accepted this invitation, and tarrying until their wounds were dressed, medicined, and cured, they were then dismissed in peace.[255]
This expedition, so successful and so bloodless, had a prodigious effect. By some system of primitive telegraphing, the news of it, and of the awful fire-weapons of the pale-faces, spread throughout the forests. The red men did not want such “medicine men” for their foes. Nine sachems, representing jurisdictions which extended from Charles River to Buzzard’s Bay, came to Plymouth and made their submission.[256]The Indians of an island which the settlers had never seen, sent to sue for their friendship;[257]and Corbitant himself, though too shy to come near Plymouth in person, used the mediation of Massasoit to make his peace.[258]
The result was, broader amity and firmer peace. But the Pilgrims conquered as much by their moderation and self-command as by their energeticheroism. The anxious care with which they treated the injured warriors of their midnight raid, and the candor of their speech, placated resentment and inspired respect. Still the basis of this feeling was a knowledge that the white men would not suffer insult; and it has been finely said, that if we justly estimate it, there was more of sound policy and gallant daring in the midnight raid of this handful of strangers, than has marked many a deed of arms which historians have delighted to record, and to which nations still look back with exultant pride.[259]
Just as autumn began to smile, the Pilgrims made another expedition. This had a twofold purpose: to explore the country, and to cement a peace with the northeastern tribes.[260]
Entering the shallop at midnight, Standish and nine others, with three Indians to interpret, of whom Squanto was one, embarked with the ebb-tide.[261]They sailed along the coast to the bay on which Boston now stands, called in the contemporaneous record,Massachusetts Bay.[262]“On the second morning after leaving Plymouth, they landed upon a beach under a cliff, and received the submission of a chief on promising to be ‘a safeguard from his enemies.’ They surveyed the ‘fifty islands’ of Boston harbor; and passing the night onboard their boat, went on shore again the following day and walked a few miles into the country. They observed land which had been cultivated, two forts in decay, untenanted huts, and other tokens of recent depopulation. They noted ‘the fair entrance’ of the river Charles, and ‘harbors for shipping’ than which ‘better could not be.’ They conciliated the few natives whom they met, and traded with them for some skins. They learned that the principal personage in the neighborhood was the female chief, or ‘squaw sachem’ of the Massachusetts; that this tribe had suffered from the hostile incursions of the Tarratines, and that its people owed a certain allegiance to Massasoit. The third evening, by ‘a light moon,’ the party set sail for home, which they reached before the following noon. The accounts they brought of the seat of their explorations naturally led their friends to ‘wish they had been seated there;’”[263]but “the Lord, who assigns to all men the bounds of their habitations,” remarks Bradford, “had appointed it for another use.”[264]The party “found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, for which let his holy name have the praise for ever to all posterity.”[265]
Standish and his friends had returned on the 22d of September. Their services were needed; the nodding crops were to be reaped, and all “begannow to gather in the small harvest they had.”[266]The husbandry of the year proved a prosperous beginning. The rivers supplied manure in abundance, and the weather had been not unfavorable.[267]“All the summer there was no want.” While “some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised” in domestic avocations, in “fishing for cod and bass and other fish, of which they took great store, giving every family its portion.”[268]
When the fields were gleaned, the pease turned out “not worth the gathering, the sun having parched them in the blossom;” the barley was “indifferent good;” and there was “a good increase of Indian corn.” “They had about a peck of meal a week to a person; or now, since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.”[269]
Seven substantial dwelling-houses had been built, “and four for the use of the plantation,” while others were being constructed. Fowl were so abundant in the autumn, that “four men in one day killed as much as, with a little help besides, served the community almost a week.” “There was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison.” The fowlers had been sent out by the governor, “that so they might, after a special manner, rejoice together, since they had gathered the fruit of their labors;” this was the origin and the first celebration of the national festivalof New England, the autumnalTHANKSGIVING. On that occasion of hilarity they “exercised their arms,” and for three days “entertained and feasted” Massasoit and some ninety of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to the festivity. Health was restored; household fires were blazing brightly; and in good heart and hope the lonely but thankful settlers disposed themselves to meet the rigor of another winter.[270]
“Here was free range; the hunter’s instincts could bourgeon and grow; the deer that browsed, the fish that swam, the fowl that flew, were free to all—might be captives to each man’s bow and spear. Here were ‘herring, cod, and ling,’ ‘salt upon salt,’ ‘beavers, otters, furs of price,’ ‘mines of gold and silver,’ ‘woods of all sorts,’ ‘eagles, gripes, whales, grampus, moose, deer,’ ‘bears, and wolves,’ ‘all in season, mind you, for you cannot gather cherries at Christmas in Kent.’ Who then would live at home in degradation, only to eat, and drink, and sleep and to die?”[271]