“Look here, upon this picture, and on this.”Shakspeare,Hamlet.
“Look here, upon this picture, and on this.”Shakspeare,Hamlet.
“Look here, upon this picture, and on this.”
Shakspeare,Hamlet.
It was towards the close of May, 1622, that the seven pioneers from Weston’s fishing-smack had landed at Plymouth. About a month later, in the end of June or beginning of July, a new colony arrived. Two vessels, the “Charity” and the “Swan,” rounded Cape Cod and anchored off the Pilgrim settlement.[367]They brought out a fresh batch of home letters, which Bradford and his coadjutors eagerly opened, hoping to discover the hidden meaning of these strange movements.
Weston’s missive was first searched. It was to this effect: “The ‘Fortune’ is arrived, whose good news touching your estate and proceedings I am very glad to hear. And howsoever she was robbed on the way by the Frenchmen, I hope your loss will not be great, for the conceit of a vast return doth animate the merchants. As for myself, I have sold my adventure and debts unto them, so I am quit of you and you of me. Now, though I have nothing to pretend as an adventurer among you, yet I will advise you a little for your good, if you can apprehend it. I perceive and know as well as any onethe disposition of the Merchant-adventurers, whom the hope of gain hath drawn on to this they have done; yet that hope will not draw them much farther. Besides, most of them are against the sending of the Leyden congregation, for whose cause this business was first begun; and some of the most religious of the company except against them for their creed.”[368]
This presaged disaster, and Weston’s desertion after his volunteer promises, made the Pilgrims profoundly sad. Next a letter from two of the Merchant-adventurers was read. This warned the colonists to beware of Weston, as one who sought his own single end, and “whom the company had bought out and were glad to be quit of.”[369]
Then a letter from their old friend Cushman was opened. “Weston,” he said, “hath quite broken off from our company, and hath now sent two small ships on his own venture for a new plantation. The people which they carry are no men for us, wherefore I pray you, entertain them not. If they offer to buy any thing of you, let it be such as you can spare, and make them give the worth of it. ’Tis like they will plant to the south of the cape. I fear these people will deal harshly with the savages. I pray you signify to Squanto that they are a distinct body from us, and that we have nothing to do with them, neither must be blamed for their faults, nor can warrant their fidelity.”[370]
Weston had overhauled these letters, and so become familiar with their contents. After criticising them severely, he added: “Now if you be of the mind of these writers, deal plainly with us, and we will seek our residence elsewhere. If you are friendly, as we have thought you to be, give us the entertainment of friends. I shall leave in the country a little ship—if God send her safe thither—with mariners and fishermen, who shall coast and trade with the savages and the old plantation. It may be that we shall be as helpful to you as you to us. I think I shall see you in person next spring.”[371]
The Pilgrims were in a quandary. They stood on the verge of starvation. The recent comers had brought out no stock of provisions, but were dumped destitute upon the charity of those whom they had come to supplant. “As for the harsh censures and suspicions intimated in these letters,” remarks Bradford, “they desired to judge as charitably and wisely of them as they could, weighing them in the balance of love and reason; and though the epistles of warning came from godly and loving friends, yet they conceived that many things might arise from over-deep jealousy and fear, together with unmeet provocation; though they well saw that Weston pursued his own ends, and was embittered in spirit. All these things they pondered and well considered, yet concluded to give his men friendly entertainment; partly in regard to that gentleman’s past kindness, and partly in compassion to the people who were nowcome into the wilderness—as themselves were—and were by their ships to be presently put ashore; for they were to carry other passengers into Virginia;[372]and they were altogether unacquainted, and knew not what to do. So, as they had received Weston’s former company of seven men, and victualed them as their own, now they also received these, being about sixty lusty men, and gave housing for themselves and their goods; and many, being sick, had the best the place could afford them.”[373]
Of course, so great and unexpected an accession of numbers added vastly to the embarrassment of the Pilgrims, and “amidst these straits, and the desertion of those from whom they had expected a supply, when famine began to pinch them sore they knew not what course to take.” But God stood behind the cloud, “keeping watch above his own.” One day a boat came into Plymouth, and brought word of a massacre in Virginia,[374]and gave a warning to the New England colonists. The kind sender of this message was captain of a fishing-smack then fishing off the Maine coast.[375]
When this boat returned, “the governor sent back a thankful answer, as was meet, and also despatched the shallop of the colony in its company, in which was Edward Winslow, whose object was tosecure what provisions he could from the fishermen. He was kindly received by the mentor captain, who not only spared what he could of his own stock, but wrote others to do the same. By these means Winslow got some good quantity, and returned in safety; whereby the plantation had a double benefit; first, a refreshing by the food brought; and secondly, they knew the way to those parts for their benefit hereafter. Still, what was got and this small boat brought, being divided among so many, came but to little, yet, by God’s blessing, it upheld them till harvest.”[376]The daily allowance was a quarter of a pound of bread to each person; and this the governor doled out, for had it not been in his custody, it would have been eaten up and all had starved; but thus, with what eels they could catch, they “made pretty shift till corn was ripe.”[377]
The Pilgrims soon perceived the truth of Cushman’s estimate of the character of Weston’s colonists, and found, indeed, that “they were not the men for them.” In the lump they were a rude, profane, improvident, thievish set, and peculiarly unfit to be the founders of a state.[378]They ate of the bounty of their entertainers, wasted their corn, brought riot and profanity into the quiet, devout homes of the Pilgrims, and repaid kindness by backbiting and reviling.[379]Their coming was purely a business affair. It was a speculation. It was entirelydestitute of every religious element, though it abounded with irreligious ones. Fearing neither God nor man, they hated the Puritans, and ought never to be confounded with the Forefathers.[380]They were, in fact,
“A lazy, lolling sort,Unseen at church, at senate, or at court,Of ever-listless loiterers, that attendNo cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend.”[381]
“A lazy, lolling sort,Unseen at church, at senate, or at court,Of ever-listless loiterers, that attendNo cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend.”[381]
“A lazy, lolling sort,
Unseen at church, at senate, or at court,
Of ever-listless loiterers, that attend
No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend.”[381]
These godless drones remained at Plymouth most of the summer, until their ships came back from Virginia.[382]Then, under Weston’s direction, or that of some one whom he had set in authority over them, these pests removed into Massachusetts Bay, and selecting a spot called by the Indians Wessagusset, now Weymouth, they essayed to plant a settlement.[383]“Yet they left all their sickly folks with us, to be nursed and cared for,” says Bradford, “till they were settled and housed. But of their stores they gave us nothing, though we did greatly want, nor any thing else in recompense of our courtesy; neither did we desire it, for ’twas seen that they were an unruly company, having no good government,—sure soon to fall into want by disorder.”[384]
Such a colony “was not, nor could it come to good.” Mismanagement and lazy improvidence invited penury. Ere long they ran foul of the Indians; already the bane of the Pilgrims, they speedily became a pest among the savages, whom they robbedand swindled without conscience. In this way they exasperated the Indians, and by their bad courses were nigh bringing ruin on their neighbors as well as on themselves.[385]On one occasion they stood provisionless. They could expect no succor from the natives, and they had despoiled every Indian corn-field in their vicinity. In this extremity, Sanders, their chief man, sent to inform Bradford of his intention to get some corn from the Indians by force. The Pilgrims sent back a strong protest against the pillage; advised the new planters to make shift to live, as they did, on ground-nuts,clams, and mussels; and from their own well-nigh exhausted storehouse sent their disorderly and wasteful rivals a supply of corn.[386]
This stock was soon gone; then the Westonians desired the Pilgrims to unite with them in an expedition to the Indian settlements on the coast-line, in search of corn, beans, and other kindred commodities. They, not unwilling to assist the needy planters in all honest ways, assented, and terms of agreement were signed designating the division of the articles obtained.[387]Detachments from both colonies embarked in the “Swan,” the smaller of Weston’s vessels, and the shallop was also taken. Squanto accompanied the forage as interpreter.[388]The Indians were very shy and could hardly be approached. But finally the kindness and tact ofBradford and Standish thawed their icy reserve, so that the enterprise was crowned with success. Twenty-seven hogsheads of corn and beans were bought.[389]Owing to the stranding of the shallop, the Plymouth governor was compelled to foot it home, some fifty miles; but he “received all the respect that could be from the Indians on the journey.”[390]
The “Swan” returned, a day or two later, with the provisions, and, after their distribution, Weston’s men sailed from Plymouth in her to their plantation.[391]
This was destined to be Squanto’s last service. A violent fever, which struck him on the expedition, soon laid him low. “Pray for me,” said the dying Indian to Governor Bradford, “pray for me, that I may go to the white man’s God in heaven.” Shortly after, he distributed various trinkets among his English friends as memorials, and expired.[392]Despite his pranks and vanity, Squanto was a true friend to the Pilgrims, and his loss was a severe blow to the colonial interests.[393]
Immediately on recovering from the fatigue incident to the late voyage, the Pilgrims went out into their fields to reap the harvest. The crop was slender, owing partly to the ignorance of the planters of the culture of Indian corn; partly to their many other employments; but chiefly to their inabilityproperly to attend it, caused by weakness from want of food.[394]
It was apparent that famine must be entailed upon the next year also, unless some other source of supply should be opened. This seemed impossible. There were no markets; and they were out of trinkets for their Indian traffic. “Behold now another providence of God,” says Bradford; “a ship sent out by English merchants to discover all the harbors betwixt Virginia and the shoals of Cape Cod, and to trade along the coast where it could, entered our bay. She had on board a store of beads—which were then good trade—and some knives, but the crew would sell nothing save in the bunch and at high prices. However, we bought of them, and by this means were fitted again to trade for beaver and for corn with the red men.”[395]
In this same summer a new fort was built, “both strong and comely, which was a sure defence.” Isaac De Rasières, who visited Plymouth at a somewhat later day, has left this description of the block-citadel: “Upon the hill they have a large square house, with a flat roof, made of thick-sawn planks, stayed with oak-beams. On the top are ranged six cannon, which shoot iron-balls of four or five pounds, and command the surrounding country. The lower part they use for their church, where preaching is had on Sundays and the usual holidays. The settlers assemble by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of thecaptain’s door; they have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, three abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum. Behind comes the governor, in a long robe; beside him on the right hand walks the preacher, and on the left hand the captain, with his side arms and cloak on, and with a small cane in his hand. So they march in good order, and on reaching the fort each sets his arms down near him and within easy grasp.”[396]
An open Bible in one hand, a shotted musket in the other—such was the manner in which the Pilgrim fathers went to church.