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THE MAYFLOWER SAILS FOR ENGLAND.

199

X.

spring advancing, it pleases God the mortality begins CHAP. to cease, and the sick and lame recover; which puts new life into the people, though they had borne their 1621. sad affliction with as much patience as any could do.

The first offence since our arrival is of John Billington, who came on board at London, and is this month convented before the whole company for his contempt of the Captain's lawful command with opprobrious speeches, for which he is adjudged to have his neck and heels tied together; but upon humbling himself and craving pardon, and it being the first offence, he is forgiven.1

5.

April 5. We despatch the ship with Captain Jones, April who this day sails from New Plymouth, and May 6 arrives in England.2

While we are busy about our seed, our governor, Mr. Carver, comes out of the field very sick, complains

causes seem to be, the want of warm lodging and good diet, to which Englishmen are habituated at home. Those of Plymouth, who landed in winter, died of scurvy, as did our poorer sort, whose housing and bedding kept them not sufficiently warm."

Holmes, in his Annals, i. 168, says, "tradition gives an affecting. picture of the infant colony during this critical and distressing period. The dead were buried on the bank, at a little distance from the rock where the fathers landed; and, lest the Indians should take advantage of the weak and wretched state of the English, the graves were levelled, and sown for the purpose of concealment. This information I received at Plymouth from the late Ephraim Spooner, a respectable inhabitant of that town, and deacon of the church, who accompanied me to the spot where those first interments were made. Hu

man bones have been washed out
of the bank, within the memory of
the present generation. Deacon
Spooner, then upwards of 70 years
of age, had his information from
Mr. Thomas Faunce, who was a
ruling elder in the first church in
Plymouth, and was well acquainted
with several of the first settlers.
Elder Faunce knew the rock on
which they first landed; and hear-
ing that it was covered in the erec-
tion of a wharf, was so affected,
that he wept. His tears perhaps
saved it from oblivion. He died
Feb. 27, 1746, aged 99." See note1
on page 161.

1

See note on page 149.
2 It is a circumstance worthy of
notice, that notwithstanding the
hardships, privations, and mortality
among the Pilgrims, not one of
them was induced to abandon the
enterprise and return home in the
Mayflower.

200

DEATH OF GOVERNOR CARVER.

CHAP. greatly of his head. Within a few hours his senses

X. fail, so as he speaks no more, and in a few days after

April.

His

1621. dies, to our great lamentation and heaviness. care and pains were so great for the common good, as therewith, it is thought, he oppressed himself and shortened his days; of whose loss we cannot sufficiently complain; and his wife deceases about five or six weeks after.1

"Before I pass on, I may not omit to take notice of the sad loss the church and this infant commonwealth sustained by the death of Mr. JOHN CARVER, who was one of the deacons of the church in Leyden, but now had been and was their first governor. This worthy gentleman was one of singular piety, and rare for humility, which appeared, as otherwise, so by his great condescendency, whenas this miserable people were in great sickness. He shunned not to do very mean services for them, yea, the meanest of them. He bare a share likewise of their labor in his own person, according as their great necessity required. Who being one also of a considerable estate, spent the main part of it in this enterprise, and from first to last approved himself not only as their agent in the first transacting of things, but also all along to the period of his life, to be a pious, faithful, and very beneficial instrument. He deceased in the month of April in the year 1621, and is now reaping the fruit of his labor with the Lord." MS. Records of Plym. Ch. vol. i. p. 27. See also Morton's Memorial, p. 68.

It is supposed that Carver's death was occasioned by a stroke of the sun; and yet, as Baylies observes, "it is not a little remarkable that such an effect should have been produced in this climate in the month of April." Morton says, "he was buried in the best man

ner they could, with as much solemnity as they were in a capacity to perform, with the discharge of some volleys of shot of all that bare arms."

Nothing is known of Carver previous to his appointment in 1617 as one of the agents of the Church at Leyden. Nor is any thing known of his immediate descendants. It will be seen by the Compact, p. 121, that there were 8 persons in his family. He lost a son Dec. 6, and his daughter Elizabeth married John Howland. See note on page 149. The name of Carver does not appear in the assignment of the lands in 1623, nor in the division of the cattle in 1627; nor does it appear at any subsequent time in the annals of the Colony. "His children attained no civil honors; they rose to no distinction; but less fortunate than the children of the other governors, they remained in obscurity, and were unnoticed by the people." William, the grandson (or nephew) of the governor died at Marshfield, Oct. 2, 1760, at the age of 102. Not long before his death, this grandson, with his son, his grandson, and great grandson, were all at work together without doors, and the great great grandson was in the house at the same time. Many of the name are still living in various parts of the Old Colony. The town of Carver in Plymouth County will help to perpetuate it. Compare Hutchinson's Mass. ii. 456,

THE FIRST MARRIAGE AND DUEL.

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X.

1621.

Soon after we choose Mr. William Bradford our CHAP. governor and Mr. Isaac Allerton his assistant, who are by renewed elections continued together sundry years. May May 12. The first marriage in this place is of Mr. 12. Edward Winslow to Mrs. Susanna White, widow of Mr. William White.1

18.

June 18. The second offence is the first duel fought Ju ne in New England, upon a challenge at single combat with sword and dagger, between Edward Doty and Edward Leister, servants of Mr. Hopkins. Both being wounded, the one in the hand, the other in the thigh, they are adjudged by the whole company to have their head and feet tied together, and so to lie for twentyfour hours, without meat or drink; which is begun to be inflicted, but within an hour, because of their great pains, at their own and their master's humble request, upon promise of better carriage, they are released by the governor.]

with Mitchell's Hist. of Bridgewater, pp. 129 and 362; and see Baylies Plymouth, i. 71, and Belknap's Am. Biog. ii. 179-216.

1 Wm. White died Feb. 21, and Edward Winslow's first wife, March 24.

26

CHAPTER XI.

A JOURNEY TO PACKANOKICK, THE HABITATION OF THE
GREAT KING MASSASOYT; AS ALSO OUR MESSAGE, THE
ANSWER AND ENTERTAINMENT WE HAD OF HIM..

CHAP.

June.

It seemed good to the company, for many considerXI. ations, to send some amongst them to Massasoyt, the 1621. greatest commander amongst the savages bordering upon us; partly to know where to find them, if occasion served, as also to see their strength, discover the country, prevent abuses in their disorderly coming unto us, make satisfaction for some conceived injuries to be done on our parts, and to continue the league of peace and friendship between them and us. For these and the like ends, it pleased the governor to make choice of Steven Hopkins and Edward Winsloe to go unto him ; and having a fit opportunity, by reason of a savage called Tisquantum, that could speak English, coming

There can hardly be a doubt that the narrative of this expedition was written by Winslow. He and Hopkins were the only persons engaged in it, and of course one of them must have written it. That the author was Winslow, and not Hopkins, is rendered highly probable by the circumstance that Hopkins's name is mentioned first.

The peculiar mode in which certain words are spelt corresponds with the manner in which they are spelt in Winslow's Good News from New England. Thus the name of their Indian interpreter is in both papers invariably called Tisquantum, whilst Bradford writes it Squanto. In both narratives too we read Paomet instead of Pamet.

EMBASSY TO MASSASOIT.

203

XI.

unto us, with all expedition provided a horseman's CHAP. coat of red cotton, and laced with a slight lace, for a present, that both they and their message might be the 1621. more acceptable amongst them.

The message was as follows: That forasmuch as his subjects came often and without fear upon all occasions amongst us, so we were now come unto him; and in witness of the love and good-will the English bear unto him, the governor hath sent him a coat, desiring that the peace and amity that was between them and us might be continued; not that we feared them, but because we intended not to injure any, desiring to live peaceably, and as with all men, so especially with them, our nearest neighbours. But whereas his people came very often, and very many together unto us, bringing for the most part their wives and children with them, they were welcome; yet we being but strangers as yet at Patuxet, alias New Plymouth,' and not knowing how our corn might prosper, we could no longer give them such entertainment as we had done, and as we desired still to do. Yet if he would be pleased to come himself, or any special friend of his desired to see us, coming from him they should be welcome. And to the end we might know them from others, our governor had sent him a copper chain; desiring if any messenger should come from him to us, we might know him by bringing it with him, and hearken

1

Capt. John Smith, in his map of New England, published in 1616, had given the name of Plymouth to this place. Morton says in his Memorial, p. 56, "The name of Plymouth was so called, not only for the reason here named, but also because Plymouth, in Old England, was the last town they left in their

native country; and for that they
received many kindnesses from
some Christians there." Smith
says its Indian name was Acco-
mack, and calls it "an excellent
good harbour." The natives also
called it Apaum. See Mass. Hist.
Coll. xxiii. 1, and xxvi. 97, 119.

June.

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