The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
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were no idlers in the party. All hands knew how to work, and labor was a duty which they owed to one another and to God. They cut down the trees, split them into planks, and built a house for the storing of their goods, making the roof flat, and mounting their cannon upon it. They laid out a street at the foot of the hill and built their houses, covering them with thatch, for they had not learned to peel the bark from the oak-trees or split the pines into shingles. Death came. Degory Priest was the first to be laid beneath the earth, January 1st, 1621. On Sunday, January 14th, the thatch on their common house, in which was stored all their goods, caught fire, and they had hard work to put it out; if that had been consumed, quite likely they would have been compelled to return to England, or else would have perished. On the 29th of January a great grief came to Captain Standish. His beautiful young wife, Rose, had been fading day by day; the hardships were too great for her. Possibly she pined for the green fields and pleasant home far away. She had never been in Holland, but joined the Pilgrims at Southampton. But heaven was nearer than her old home. With tearful eyes and swelling hearts they carried her to the burying-place upon the hill, and made this entry in their journal, mournful in its briefness: “Jan. 29, Died, Rose, wife of Captain Standish.”
The Pilgrims were greatly surprised, one day, at seeing an Indian march boldly into their settlement and hear him say, “Welcome, Englishmen!” His name was Samoset. He had been to Pemmaquid, to Sir Fernando Gorges’s colony. The Pilgrims treated him kindly, and he soon brought another Indian, Squanto, who had been kidnapped by the villain Hunt. He had been in London, and could speak English. Samoset informed them that four years before a terrible disease had destroyed nearly all the Indians in that region. Massasoit, the chief of the Indians, came with sixty warriors. Governor Carver sent Edward Winslow to meet him, and assure him of the friendship of the Pilgrims. Captain Standish, with six men carrying their guns, escorted the chief into one of the houses, and spread out a yellow rug and cushion for a seat. The governor came in state, the drummer beating his drum, the trumpeter blowing a trumpet, attended by all the soldiers with their muskets. The governor and chief kissed each other’s hands, then they ate and drank together, and agreed to be friends forever. Massasoit never broke his pledge, neither did the Pilgrims violate theirs; but so long as he lived they were true friends.
Spring came, with its smiling sun; but of the one hundred and one who had landed in December, forty-six were at rest beneath the ground on Burial Hill, with the earth smoothed over them, that the Indians might not count the graves and discover how many had died. They had drooped, one by one, through the hardships of the long passage and want of food.
The Pilgrims caught fish and lobsters, and, when the tide was out, gathered clams along the sandy beach. From the mud-flats they obtained eels. Now and then they killed a deer. They had so little to eat that they staggered, through faintness. When spring came, they planted corn upon the graves of the dead, that the Indians might not discover where they had been buried.
Through these months the Mayflower had been swinging at anchor in the harbor, but the time had come for the departure of the vessel.
Though everything wore so gloomy a prospect, though they were so few in number, and death was thinning their ranks, they had no thought of returning to England. Many months would pass before the ship would come back, and none but God knew what might happen the while. The vessel might go down in mid-ocean, and then their friends in England never would hear from them.
With tearful eves they stood upon the hill above the graves of their loved ones, and saw the white sails fade away. When the ship disappeared, they went calmly about their work. Their destiny was fixed. It is well for the world that such heroic souls have no fear of the future. They might die, but Truth and Liberty were eternal!
The next day after the departure of the Mayflower their beloved governor was suddenly taken ill, his sickness ending in death. But the State did not die. The people elected William Bradford as his successor. A new truth dawned upon the world — that so long as there are people to rule themselves, there will be a State.
Chapter VIII
First Years at Plymouth
“There can be no lawful marriage without a priest to perform the ceremony: marriage is a sacrament,” said the Churches of Rome and England. But the men and women who had established themselves in the wilderness at Cape Cod rejected all ecclesiastical authority. Edward Winslow had laid his beloved wife, Elizabeth, down to sleep on Burial Hill, and Susanna White, with two children — the youngest born while the Mayflower was at Cape Cod — had no one to care for her: why should not he be her helper and husband? “You cannot be married without a minister,” said the laws of England. “We will be married, as were Boaz and Ruth, in the presence of the people,” said the Pilgrims.
So Edward Winslow and widow White joined hands before the newly-elected governor, William Bradford, and were married.
What audacious things that little company were doing! forming a constitution to guide them, electing their own officers, ordaining their own minister, marrying themselves without the aid of minister or priest. What a cutting loose from the customs, traditions, and usurpations of the ages!
They had no laws except of their own making, based on their sense of Justice and Right. No edict from King James could have added anything to the validity of their laws; nor could any high constable make them more effective. They recognized their governor as head of the State, and entitled to honor and respect. On Sunday, Captain Standish, with the trumpeter, drummers, and the settlers carrying their guns, escorted the governor to meeting; not because he was William Bradford, but because he represented what they reverenced — law and order.
When gathered in their little meeting-house, they listened with great respect to William Brewster’s preaching, because they had elected him to expound to them the truths of the Bible. William Brewster had no authority except what they had delegated to him: he was their minister, nothing more.
Not all of the settlers were Pilgrims. Stephen Hopkins had two servants, who were bound to him for a term of years, and who were foolish enough to attempt to settle a quarrel by fighting a duel with swords, which Governor Bradford looked upon as a crime against the peace and dignity of the State. He made the whole community a court, and it was voted that the two be tied neck and heels together for twenty-four hours, with nothing to eat or drink. The Pilgrims could tolerate no duels. If they were quick to punish, they were also tender-hearted; for, when the offenders had endured the punishment one hour, and promised to behave themselves. Governor Bradford ordered their release. In every prison in England and throughout Europe were terrible instruments of torture designed to inflict pain; but reformation, instead of pain, was the Pilgrim’s idea of punishment. Governor Bradford was no milksop, but as courageous as he was tender-hearted.
Canonicus, one of the Narragansett Indians, regarded the English as intruders, and tied the skin of a rattle-snake around a bundle of arrows, and sent it to Governor Bradford as a declaration of his hostility. Governor Bradford filled the skin with powder and bullets and sent it back, which so frightened Canonicus that he would not touch it, and it was brought back to the settlement.
Of the one hundred and one who landed from the Mayflower, only fifty remained when spring opened. The Indians knew how weak they were, for nearly every day some of the Indians came to see them, and were always kindly treated.
“We never have paid the Indians for the corn which we took on Cape Cod,” said Governor Bradford; and to make amends, and cement the friendship that had sprung up, he sent Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins to make Massasoit a present.
With Squanto to guide them, they travelled through the wilderness forty miles. Massasoit was delighted to see them. Winslow and Hopkins saluted him by firing their guns, gave him a red coat trimmed with lace, and pat a copper chain around his neck. Massasoit gave them some com to plant, renewed his agreement to always be their friend, and confirmed it by smoking the pipe of peace. Massasoit had very little to eat. His wigwam was swarming with fleas, and Winslow and Hopkins were glad enough to get back to the settlement.
Squanto