THEY CUT TIMBER FOR BUILDING. 169 X. could not get a land, nor they come to us aboard. CHAP. This morning goodwife Alderton' was delivered of a son, but dead born. 1620. 23. Saturday, the 23d, so many of us as could went on Dec. shore, felled and carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building. Sunday, the 24th, our people on shore heard a cry 24. of some savages, as they thought, which caused an alarm and to stand on their guard, expecting an assault; but all was quiet.2 Monday, the 25th day, we went on shore, some to 25. fell timber, some to saw, some to rive, and some to carry ;3 so no man rested all that day. But, towards night, some, as they were at work, heard a noise of some Indians, which caused us all to go to our muskets; but we heard no further. So we came aboard again, and left some twenty to keep the court of guard. That night we had a sore storm of wind and rain. Monday, the 25th, being Christmas day, we began to drink water aboard. But at night the master caused us to have some beer; and so on board we had divers times now and then some beer, but on shore none at all. Tuesday, the 26th, it was foul weather, that we could not go ashore. 26. 27. Wednesday, the 27th, we went to work again. Thursday, the 28th of December, so many as could 28. went to work on the hill, where we purposed to build 170 HOUSE LOTS LAID OUT. CHAP. Our platform for our ordnance,' and which doth comX. mand all the plain and the bay, and from whence we 1620. may see far into the sea, and might be easier impaled, Dec. 29. 30. having two rows of houses and a fair street. So in the afternoon we went to measure out the grounds, and first we took notice how many families there were, willing all single men that had no wives to join with some family, as they thought fit, that so we might build fewer houses; which was done, and we reduced them to nineteen families. To greater families we allotted larger plots; to every person half a pole in breadth, and three in length; and so lots were cast where every man should lie; which was done, and staked out. We thought this proportion was large enough at the first, for houses and gardens to impale them round, considering the weakness of our people, many of them growing ill with colds; for our former discoveries in frost and storms, and the wading at Cape Cod had brought much weakness amongst us, which increased so every day more and more, and after was the cause of many of their deaths. Friday and Saturday we fitted ourselves for our labor; but our people on shore were much troubled and discouraged with rain and wet that day, being very stormy and cold. We saw great smokes of fire made by the Indians, about six or seven miles from us, as we conjectured.* 1 Vestiges of this fortification are still visible on the Burial hill. See Holmes's Annals, i. 163. 2 I think there is something omitted here. The house-lots were not laid out on the hill, but in front of it, on Leyden-street, which runs from the Town Square to Water street. The single lots were 8 feet front by 49 in depth. 4.66 Here," says Prince, p. 169, "Governor Bradford ends his First Book, containing ten Chapters, in fifty-three pages folio." I conceive that much of this Relation is in substance, and often in language, Gov. Bradford's History. STANDISH GOES IN SEARCH OF THE INDIANS. 171 X. Jan. Monday, the 1st of January, we went betimes to CHAP. work. We were much hindered in lying so far off from the land, and fain to go as the tide served, that 1621. we lost much time; for our ship drew so much water 1. that she lay a mile and almost a half off,' though a ship of seventy or eighty tons at high water may come to the shore. Wednesday, the 3d of January, some of our people 3. being abroad to get and gather thatch, they saw great fires of the Indians; and were at their corn-fields, yet saw none of the savages, nor had seen any of them since we came to this bay. Thursday, the 4th of January, Captain Miles Stand- 4. ish, with four or five more, went to see if they could meet with any of the savages in that place where the fires were made. They went to some of their houses, but not lately inhabited; yet could they not meet with any. As they came home, they shot at an eagle and killed her, which was excellent meat; it was hardly to be discerned from mutton. Friday, the 5th of January, one of the sailors found 5. alive upon the shore a herring, which the master had to his supper; which put us in hope of fish, but as yet we had got but one cod; we wanted small hooks.2 Saturday, the 6th of January, Master Marten was 6. very sick, and, to our judgment, no hope of life. So Master Carver was sent for to come aboard to speak 1 Being a vessel of 180 tons, she probably anchored in the Cow Yard, an anchorage near Clark's island, which takes its name from a cow whale which once came into it, and was there killed. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 182, and Thacher's Plymouth, p. 331.-"The year begins with the death of De gory Priest." Bradford, in Prince, This was a singular oversight. 172 DISCOVERY OF BILLINGTON SEA. CHAP. With him about his accounts; who came the next X. 1621. Jan. 8. morning. Monday, the 8th of January, was a very fair day, and we went betimes to work. Master Jones sent the shallop, as he had formerly done, to see where fish could be got. They had a great storm at sea, and were in some danger. At night they returned with three great seals,' and an excellent good cod, which did assure us that we should have plenty of fish shortly. This day Francis Billington, having the week before seen from the top of a tree on a high hill a great sea,2 as he thought, went with one of the master's mates to see it. They went three miles and then came to a great water, divided into two great lakes; the bigger of them five or six miles in circuit, and in it an isle of a cable length square; the other three miles in compass, in their estimation. They are fine fresh water, full of fish and fowl. A brook issues from it; it will be an excellent place for us in time. They found seven or eight Indian houses, but not lately inhabited. Seals still haunt the harbour of Plymouth and the Bay of Cape Cod. The beautiful pond, so accurately described in the text, bears the appropriate name of Billington Sea. In the first century it was called Fresh Lake. It is about two miles southwest from the town, proving that the distances in this Relation are overstated; and in it are two small islands. It is now, as at first, embosomed in a wilderness of woods. The eagle still sails over it, and builds in the branches of the surrounding forest. Here the loon cries, and leaves her eggs on the shore of the smaller island. Here too the beautiful wood-duck finds a sequestered retreat; and the fallow deer, mindful of their ancient haunts, still resort to it to drink and to browse on its 3 margin. See page 149, and Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 181, and Thacher's Plymouth, p. 320. Town Brook. It passes through the town, and empties into the harbour a little south of Forefathers' rock. It has proved an "excellent place" indeed, its stream supplying an unfailing water power for numerous manufactories. In 1636, it was "concluded upon by the Court, that Mr. John Jenney shall have liberty to erect a mill for grinding and beating of corn upon the brook of Plymouth." Before the brook was so much impeded by dams, vast quantities of alewives passed up through it annually to Billington Sea. In a single season 800 barrels have been taken. See Thacher's Plymouth, p. 321, 332; Plymouth Colony Laws, p. 56. THEY BEGIN TO BUILD HOUSES. 173 X. When they saw the houses, they were in some fear; CHAP. for they were but two persons, and one piece.1 Jan. Tuesday, the 9th of January, was a reasonable fair 1621. day; and we went to labor that day in the building 9. of our town, in two rows of houses, for more safety. We divided by lot the plot of ground whereon to build our town, after the proportion formerly allotted. We agreed that every man should build his own house, thinking by that course men would make more haste than working in common.3 The common house,1 in which for the first we made our rendezvous, being near finished, wanted only covering, it being about twenty foot square. Some should make mortar, and some gather thatch; so that in four days half of it was thatched. Frost and foul weather hindered us much." "Jan. 8, this day dies Mr. Christopher Martin." Bradford, in Prince, p. 182. He was the ninth signer of the Compact, and one of the few distinguished with the title of Mr. He was not one of the Leyden church, but came from Billerica, in Essex, and was associated with Cushman and Carver to provide means for the voyage. He brought his wife and two children, with him, one of whom, Solomon, died Dec. 24. See pages 78 and 169. The houses were built on each side of Leyden street, which extends from the First Church to the harbour. The first entry in the records of Plymouth Colony is an incomplete list of "The Meersteads and Garden-plotes of those which came first, layed out, 1620." Edward Winslow, in his Letter at the end of this Relation, says, "We have built seven dwelling-houses, and four for the use of the plantation." The highway led to the Town Brook. See Hazard's State Papers, i. 100. 4 On the spot where it is sup- 5 Providentially it was a very mild winter. See page 105. The ice often remains in the harbour from Christmas to March; but at this time it appears not to have been frozen. In Dec. of 1831 and 1834 the harbour and shores were an expanse of ice and snow, and the thermometer several degrees |