Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

[1622 A.D.] receive the significant token of the governor, or to let it remain in their houses; and it was finally sent back to Plymouth.

A rival settlement was attempted in the immediate neighbourhood of the Plymouth colony. Thomas Weston, London merchant, originally concerned in the adventure to Plymouth, having obtained a separate patent for a tract of land on Massachusetts Bay, sent two ships, with fifty or sixty men, to settle a plantation. Many of the adventurers being sick on their arrival, became dependent on the hospitality of the Plymouth people, with whom they remained through the summer of 1622. They afterwards established themselves at Wessagusset, or Weymouth; but their affairs never prospered. Their treatment of the Indians was such as to provoke their hostility; and a plot was laid for the extirpation of all the English settlers. This conspiracy extended to many tribes, and came to the knowledge of Massasoit, who revealed it to Edward Winslow and John Hampden, when they were paying him a friendly visit, and relieving him from a dangerous illness. The great sachem advised them to kill the leading conspirators, as the only means of safety (1623).

The governor, on learning the impending danger, instantly committed the affair to Standish; directing him to take with him as many men as he chose, and if he should be satisfied of the existence of the plot, to fall upon the conspirators. Standish took but eight men for the expedition, and arriving at Weymouth, learned from the people enough of the insolent behaviour and threats of the Indians to satisfy him of their hostile intentions. Indeed, those who came to the place insulted and defied him. His only difficulty now was to bring a sufficient number of the Indians together to commence the attack. At length, when Wittuwumet and Pecksuot, two of the boldest and most powerful chiefs, were together in the same room, with a youth of eighteen, the brother of Wittuwumet, and another Indian, "putting many tricks on the weaker sort of men," the captain having about as many of his own party with him, according to Winslow,t "gave the word, and the door being shut fast he began himself with Pecksuot, and snatching the knife from his neck, after much struggling, killed him therewith; the rest killed Wittuwumet and the other man; the youth they took and hanged.' It is incredible how many wounds these men received before they died; not making any fearful noise, but catching at their weapons and striving to the last. Hobomoc (Standish's Indian guide and interpreter) stood by as a spectator, observing how our men demeaned themselves in the action; which being ended, he, smiling, broke forth and said: 'Yesterday Pecksuot bragged of his own strength and stature, and told you that though you were a great captain yet you were but a little man; but to-day I see you are big enough to lay him on the ground.""

By Standish's order, several other Indians were subsequently killed; but the women were sent away uninjured. This exploit of Standish so terrified the other Indians who had conspired with the Massachusetts, or Massachusencks, as Winslow calls them, "that they forsook their houses, running to and fro like men distracted; living in swamps, and other desert places, and so brought diseases upon themselves, whereof many died, as Canacum sachem of Manomet, Aspinet of Nauset, and Iaough of Matachiest." The plantation of Weston was broken up and the settlers dispersed, within one year after it

[These bloody proceedings excited some misgivings in the mind of John Robinson, who, though still in Holland, extended a pastor's oversight to the colony, which he intended presently to join. Oh, how happy a thing it would have been," he wrote in a letter to the colonists, "that you had converted some before you killed any.". - HILDRETH."]

[1623-1627 A.D.]

begun. Some of the people returned to England, and others remained in the country. Weston did not come to America himself till after the dispersion of his people, some of whom he found among the eastern fishermen; and from them he first heard of the ruin of his enterprise. In a storm he was cast away on the coast south of the Piscataqua, and robbed by the Indians of all which he had saved from the wreck. By the charity of the inhabitants of Piscataqua, he was enabled to reach Plymouth, where he obtained some pecuniary aid, and "he never repaid the debt but with enmity and reproach."z The situation of the colonists in the spring of 1623 was peculiarly distressing. By the scantiness of their crops and the prodigality of their neighbours, their granaries were exhausted and they

were reduced to want. The narrative of their sufferings is affecting and thrilling. "By the time their corn was planted, their victuals were spent, and they knew not at night where to have a bit in the morning, nor had they corn or bread for three or four months together." Elder Brewster lived upon shell-fish. With only oysters and clams at his meals, he gave thanks that he could "seek of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand." Tradition affirms that at one time there was but a pint of corn left in the settlement, which, being divided, gave to each person a proportion of five kernels. In allusion to this incident, at the bi-centennial celebration, in 1820, when much of the beauty, fashion, wealth, and talent of Massachusetts had congregated at Plymouth, and orators had spoken, and poets sang the praises of the Pilgrims; amidst the richest viands, which had been prepared to gratify the most fastidious epicure to satiety, five kernels of parched corn were placed beside each plate, "a simple but interesting and affecting memorial," says Baylies, "of the distresses of those heroic and pious men who won this fair land of plenty, and freedom, and happiness, and yet, at times, were literally in want of a morsel of bread."q

[graphic]

EDWARD WINSLOW

(1595-1655)

Another rival colony was attempted in the neighbourhood of the Plymouth settlers, by John Pierce, in whose name their first patent had been taken out. He procured another patent of larger extent, intending to keep it for his own benefit; but his treachery met its punishment. Having embarked with a company of one hundred and nine persons, his vessel was dismasted and driven back to Portsmouth. His property was purchased by the Plymouth settlers, and the passengers and goods being embarked in another vessel, arrived safely at Plymouth, in July, 1623. The connection of the Pilgrims with the trading company in London, who were their partners in the scheme of colonisation, was attended with many inconveniences. To meet their engagements the colonists were obliged to submit to the payment of excessive usury, and to trade at a serious disadvantage. One of their number, Isaac Allerton, was sent to London in 1626. He returned in the spring of 1627, having obtained a loan of two hundred pounds at thirty per cent. interest, and laid it out in goods suitable for the supply of the colony.2

[1627-1630 A.D.] At the end of the seven years originally limited in the agreement between the Plymouth colonists and the London adventurers, the London partners agreed to sell out their interest for £1,800, or about $9,000, to be paid in nine annual instalments. Eight of the principal colonists, in consideration of a six years' monopoly of the Indian traffic, gave their private bonds for the amount. The joint-stock principle was now abandoned; a division was made of the movable property; and twenty acres of land, nearest the town, were assigned in fee to each colonist.

The soil of New Plymouth was very poor; some not very successful attempts were made at the cultivation of tobacco; but the chief reliance to pay for cloths and other goods from England was the peltry collected by trade with the Indians. To save the voyage round Cape Cod, and to facilitate the traffic with the Indians on Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound, a trading house was built at the head of Buzzard's Bay. A grant was also obtained from the council for New England of a large tract at the mouth of the Kennebec, where a post was established, and a lucrative traffic opened with the eastern Indians. A friendly message brought by Secretary De Razier [or De Rasieres] had been received in October, 1627, from the Dutch at the mouth of the Hudson. From these Dutchmen the use of wampum was learned, soon found very serviceable in the trade with the eastern Indians. There was not yet capital enough to engage in the cod fishery, but a step was made toward it in the establishment of a salt work.

Straggling settlers, with or without grants from the council for New England, were now fast planting themselves along the coast. East of the Piscataqua, obscure hamlets of fishermen were established in 1625 at Agamenticus, now York, and at the mouth of the Saco. A party of some thirty persons, under a Captain Wollaston, had set up a plantation in Massachusetts Bay, not far from Wissagusset, at a place which they called Mount Wollaston, now Quincy. This plantation presently fell under the control of one Morton, "a pettifogger of Furnival's Inn," or, as he describes himself, "of Clifford's Inn, gentleman." He changed the name to Merry Mount; sold powder and shot to the Indians; gave refuge to runaway servants; and set up a May-pole, upon which occasion he broached a cask of wine and a hogshead of ale, and held a high revel and carousal. The people of Plymouth were requested by the other settlers to interfere; and Morton was seized by the redoubtable Standish, and sent prisoner to England in 1628. Eight plantations, from Piscataqua to Plymouth, some of them only single families, contributed to the expense.

Though their number did not yet amount to three hundred, the Plymouth colonists considered themselves now firmly established. "It was not with them as with other men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish themselves at home again"; so they stated in their application to the council for New England for a new patent. They presently obtained it (June 13th, 1630), with an assignment as boundaries, on the land side, of two lines, the one drawn northerly from the mouth of the Narragansett river, the other westerly from Cohasset rivulet, to meet "at the uttermost limits of a country or place called Pocanoket." The tract on the Kennebec was also included in this grant.

This patent gave a title to the soil; but prerogatives of government, according to the ideas of the English lawyers, could only be exercised under a charter from the crown. A considerable sum was spent in the endeavour to obtain such a charter, but without success. Relying, however, upon their original compact, the colonists gradually assumed all the prerogatives of

[graphic][subsumed]

PILGRIM EXILES WATCHING FOR THE ARRIVAL OF THE PROVISION-SHIP (After the painting by George Henry Boughton, R A.)

« ElőzőTovább »