The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
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10th of April they saw the land fade away, and on June 6th they sighted Cape Sable, and then coasted along the shores of Maine.
The governor made this entry in his journal:
“We had warm, fair weather, and so pleasant and sweet airs as did refresh us, and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden.”
Southward they saw the Isles of Shoals, where there was a ship at anchor, the Lyon., Captain Pierce, who had been many times on the coast. Beyond the islands they beheld Cape Ann, its white ledges gleaming in the sunlight.
Out from the shore they beheld the waves breaking over “Norman’s Woe,” where many vessels since then have been wrecked. It was on those ragged ledges that the Hesperus, as described by the poet Longfellow, was torn to splinters by the angry sea;
“Fast through the midnight, dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost the vessel swept
Toward the reef of Norman’s Woe.”
The Arbella rounded the cape, and sailed proudly into Gloucester harbor. Her anchor was dropped, and the women and children hastened on shore to tread once more the green earth, to pick wild strawberries, and to sit beneath the stately trees. John Endicott arrived in his boat, and Governor Winthrop, Mr. Johnson, and Lady Arbella went with him to Salem, where they sat down to a supper of venison, pastry, and small-beer.
Governor Winthrop and John Endicott sailed down the coast past the cliffs of Marblehead, to find a place where they might build a town. They visited Noddles Island, where Samuel Maverick was living. At Mishawan they found Mr. Walford, who had been living there several years. William Blackstone, an Episcopal minister, who was not a Puritan, but who had left England because he loved solitude, had built a house on a peninsula on the opposite side of Charles River, south of Mishawan. The Indians called the place Shawmut, but the colonists renamed it Trimountain, from three hills which dotted the peninsula. Mr. Blackstone had set out an orchard and planted a garden. A sweet spring supplied him with water. He had a library of several hundred books, and for seven or eight years had been enjoying himself far from the turmoil going on in England. Mr. Blackstone wanted them to settle at Trimountain, which was a peninsula with a narrow neck, and which could be easily fortified against the Indians. The Puritans accepted the invitation, and changed the name to Boston. One of the first buildings erected was a meeting-house.
Many of the Puritans had lived in affluence in England, and it was a great change to pass from their former spacious mansions to the huts which they reared in the wilderness. Never in Old England had they seen such snows as drifted around them when winter came. Their provisions failed. Meal was so scarce, that one of the colonists wrote this to his friends in England:
“The crumbs of my father’s table would be sweet to me. Once I had a peck of corn or thereabouts for a little puppy dog.”
He obtained the meal of the Indians, who were very friendly. Sometimes the hunters killed a deer, and that gave them a bit of meat. They caught fish, and when the tide was out, the women and children used to wander along the beach and gather clams; but it was poor fare after what they had been accustomed to, and many sickened and died.
Governor Winthrop knew that provisions would be wanted, and engaged the ship Lyon, which was at the Isles of Shoals, to hasten to England for supplies.
Months passed. Day after day the famishing people looked seaward to discern, if possible, the returning ship. February 5th, 1631, was a joyful day, for the people saw the Lynn sailing into the harbor. Their provisions were almost gone. Governor Winthrop had appointed a day of fasting, but it was changed into one of thanksgiving.
On the Lyon was a young minister, Roger Williams — a man of ardent spirit, conscientious, a great lover of liberty — who could not be turned a hair-breadth from doing what he thought was right.
The hardships and suffering had been so great that, when the flowers bloomed again in spring, more than two hundred of the emigrants were at rest forever in their graves. Among the number were Isaac Johnson and Lady Arbella.
People in distress, with no one but God on whom they can call for help, do not need a prayer-book to make known their wants. Those who saw their loved ones fading away felt how unsatisfying were the prayers which the bishop had written to express their desires. The Pilgrims at Plymouth were getting along without prayer-books. Doctor Fuller, who hastened from Plymouth to help care for the sick, needed no prayer-book to read from as he visited the dying: so by various influences it came about that the colonists discontinued the use of written prayers, and became wholly independent of the Church of England, and. like the Pilgrims, managed their own affairs, calling their ministers: dismissing them when they pleased; electing their governor and his assistants in town-meeting, and conferring upon them authority to make their laws.
Chapter XI
The Puritans Take Possession of New England
The Indians who lived on the banks of the Connecticut called it Long River. They heard that there were white men at Boston and Plymouth, and one of them made a visit to Governor Winthrop.
“I will give the white men eighty beaver-skins every year if they will settle on the Long River,” he said.
He wanted the fish-hooks, hatchets, blankets, and trinkets which the white men had for sale. Governor Winthrop treated him kindly, but told him that the Boston men could not go so far away.
The Indian visited Plymouth, and Governor Winslow was so impressed with what he had to say about the country that he sailed in the Pilgrim’s little vessel around Cape Cod, past the Shoals, past Nantucket — which very few if any white men had visited — past Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island, and along the Narragansett shore to the beautiful stream, beholding fertile meadows, rounded hills, stately forest-trees, and hanging vines. There were myriads of fish in the river, and the beaver were abundant along the smaller streams. He returned to Plymouth, resolving to take possession of the valley.
He had but just turned the prow of his vessel eastward when a sail appeared in the west — a Dutch ship from Manhattan, with John Van Corlear and six men on board, sent by Wonter van Twiller to occupy the country. The lumbering craft made its way up the stream as far as Hartford, where Van Corlear built a little fort, which he called Good Hope.
The summer passed, October came, and once more the Plymouth vessel was sailing up the Connecticut, with William Holmes and a company of resolute Pilgrims on board. Van Corlear was amazed when he saw the little vessel gliding defiantly up stream, all sails set to catch the favoring wind.
“Stop!” he shouted.
“I have a commission from Governor Winslow to go up the river,”‘ was the answer of Captain Holmes.
“Haul down your colors, or I will fire!” cried Van Corlear.
“I am ordered to go up the river, and am going!” Holmes replied; and before the Dutchmen could get over their astonishment at such audacity, Captain Holmes was out of sight. He landed at Windsor, put up a house, built a palisade around it, with loop-holes in the walls, and opened trade with the Indians.
Wouter van Twiller was astounded when he heard of it. Plymouth men buying beaver-skins under his nose, as it were! He would put a stop to it. He sent seventy men to Van Corlear, with orders to drive them out of the valley. With drums beating and banners flying, the Dutch marched from Fort Good Hope to Windsor.
“You must leave here!” shouted Van Corlear to Captain Holmes.
“I am ordered to stay here, and intend to obey orders!” said Holmes.
“I shall open tire upon you, and tear down your house,” said Van Corlear.
“I shall return your fire!” said Holmes.
No doubt John Van Corlear was a brave man,