The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
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to plant corn, dropping the kernels in a hill and putting in a herring to fertilize it. The brooks and rivers were alive with fish, and through the summer they had sufficient food, such as it was. Their corn and barley ripened; they dried the fish which they caught; ducks and geese reared their young along the marshes; in the woods were deer and wild turkeys.
Massasoit came one morning with ninety men to visit the Pilgrims. The Indians went into the woods and killed five deer; the Pilgrims contributed fish and corn, and for three days they held a feast, giving thanks to God for all his goodness — the first Thanksgiving in the Western world.
An Indian came to the settlement with the startling news that there was a vessel across the bay, in the harbor at the end of the Cape. And now from the hill the governor could see the white sail; the ship was steering toward them. Was it a French ship? If so, it was an enemy. The settlers were out in the fields and woods.
“Fire a cannon to call them home,” was the order of the governor.
The roar of the gun echoed along the shores, and the men and boys seized their guns, ready to fight if need be. Nearer came the ship, with the banner of England floating at the mast-head. It was the Fortune, sent out by the London merchants. Robert Cushman and some of their fellow-pilgrims from Holland were on board; also some wild fellows who had come as adventurers. Instead of bringing supplies, of which the settlers were in great need, there was not food enough on the ship to last the crew on their return voyage, and the settlers had to supply them.
Thomas Weston, who thought of nothing but getting great interest on his money, sent a letter complaining that the settlers had not sent him any beaver-skins in the Mayflower.
The selfish man could not see that the Pilgrims had all they could do to keep soul and body together during the first dreary winter, instead of hunting beaver and catching fish. They had been very industrious, however, so that they were able to load the Fortune with lumber and furs to the value of five hundred pounds.
They gave the Indians knives, beads, trinkets, fish-hooks, and blankets in exchange for furs. The Indians used sea-shells strung upon a string for money; they called it “wampum:” its value depended upon the length of the string. It was easy to obtain such money, and its value soon declined.
Christmas came. We think of it as the most delightful day of the year, but the Pilgrims associated it with the Church of Home, the Jesuits, the Church of England, and with all the persecutions they had endured. They had suffered a great deal at the hands of the Bishop of England, who made Christmas a holy day. The Pilgrims did not so recognize it, and went on with their work. The wild fellows that came in the Fortune refused to work.
“It is against our conscience,” they said.
“If it is a question of conscience, I will excuse you,” said the governor.
The Pilgrims went out into the woods, attending to their labor, but when the governor came home at noon the new-comers were playing ball, and seeing which could throw an iron bar farthest. He took the bar and ball away from them, and ordered them into the house.
“If it is against your conscience to work to-day, it is against my conscience to allow you to play while others work.” There could be no fooling with such a governor.
Those plain men and women from Scrooby had become exiles for conscience’ sake, and they had discovered a great truth, that no man has a right to control another’s convictions of duty and obligations toward God. Popes, bishops, kings, usurped authority over men’s convictions; but they recognized the right of every man to think for himself in matters of religion, with due regard in their actions to the rights of others. Governor Bradford respected the scruples of the dissolute fellows who came in the Fortune, so long as they regarded Christmas as a holy day; but when they made it a holiday, and began a carouse, it was an offence against the convictions and rights of the community who had elected him their governor, and it was his duty to put a stop to it. It was the rule of the majority. The new State, with no authority from king, bishop, or pope, but from the people, deriving their ideas from the Bible, recognizing what was just and right between man and man, and obligation to God, emancipating itself from the Past, inaugurated its mighty Future.
Thomas Weston, thinking that there was a chance to make money by fishing, and trading with the Indians, sent out forty men at his own expense to make a settlement at Weymouth, twenty miles north of Plymouth; but instead of attending to business they idled their time away. When their provisions failed, they stole the Indians’ corn.
To the honest, hard-working men at Plymouth that was not only an offence but a crime. What should they do? Weymouth was outside of their grant, and they had no jurisdiction over the territory; but if the reckless fellows were allowed to go on, would not the Indians rise in their anger, and destroy them all?
If they had no authority from the king to interfere, they had the authority which God gives to every man — that of preserving his own life.
One of the Indians, Wituamit, had already killed two white men, and was planning to massacre all at Plymouth and Weymouth. Governor Bradford ordered Captain Standish to settle matters. He was a small man. He had fought the Spaniards in Holland, and was not afraid of Indians or anybody else. He selected eight men. It is said that he made a bowl of smoking-hot punch before starting.
“‘Twas on a dreary winter’s eve, the night was closing dim,
When old Miles Standish took the bowl and filled it to the brim;
The little captain stood and stirred the posset with his sword,
And all his sturdy men-at-arms were ranged about the board.”
Captain Standish and his men sailed out of Plymouth harbor, steered north past the rocky shore of Cohasset, entered Massachusetts Bay, and found the Sparrow Mr. Western’s vessel at anchor, with no one on board. The half-starved men were wandering along the beach searching for clams, or in the woods digging ground-nuts. They were very much frightened when informed of the plans of the Indians to kill them all. The Indians sent a challenge to Captain Standish through Hobbamoc, a friendly Indian who lived with the Pilgrims.
“Tell the captain that we are not afraid of him!” they said, ready for a fight.
Captain Standish gave them all the fighting they wanted. He ran his sword through Teoksuat and Wituamit. His men killed another, and hung a fourth. In all, seven Indians were killed, and their conspiracy was nipped in the bud. It was the sword against the tomahawk. The victory struck the Indians with terror.
The Pilgrims supplied Weston’s men with food, and sent them back to England.
Captain Wollaston made a settlement not far from Mr. Weston’s. One of the colonists was Thomas Morton, a lawyer from London, who came to America to enjoy unrestrained license where no justice of the peace could reach him. The forty men who accompanied him were as reckless as himself. They sold the Indians rum, guns, and ammunition. They set up a pole eighty feet high, with deer-horns on the top, hanging garlands around it on the first day of May, holding a grand revelry, drinking rum, firing their guns, and dancing with the half-naked Indian women. They called the place Merry Mount.
Such revelry was an offence to the staid and sober people at Plymouth. Governor Bradford sent a remonstrance to Morton; but what cared the London lawyer for that? He was beyond the reach of courts of justice, and would carouse as he pleased. He was outside of Governor Bradford’s territory and jurisdiction; besides, who was Governor Bradford? He had no commission from the king or anybody else; be was only elected by the people. The people! they had no authority! Ah! a new order of things was beginning in human government, as Thomas Morton soon discovered. Captain Standish and a little handful of resolute men from Plymouth made their appearance at Wollaston. Morton’s men were in a log-house. It was strong as a fort; they had plenty of powder, and three hundred bullets. They took a drink of mm, and stood ready to pick off the little captain and his men whenever they should make their appearance. The man who had fought the Spaniards, who had cut off Wituamit’s head and carried it in triumph to Plymouth, was not at all afraid of the swaggering lawyer and his drunken crew.
“Surrender, or I will burn the house down over your heads!”