43. The Pilgrims. Persecuted for their religion in England, the Pilgrims first went to Holland. There they wandered from place to place, finally settling in the city of Leiden. But they saw that they could not keep their own language and customs among the Dutch, so they decided to go to America and found a colony of their own. John Carver, William Bradford, William Brewster, and Edward Winslow were the leaders of the little band that had chosen to go on the long and dangerous journey. The parting was sad. Eyes were wet with weeping and voices were choked with sorrow as the last words were spoken before going on board the Speedwell. Even the Dutch bystanders were moved to tears. Listen to the words of Bradford: "So they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting place nearly twelve years; but they knew they were Pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits."

The Speedwell carried them across to England, where they found the Mayflower.

In August, 1620, the two ships spread their sails for America. Twice they were forced to return—once after they had sailed three hundred miles—because the Speedwell was leaking, and her captain declared she would sink before reaching America.

Finally the Mayflower, with one hundred two Pilgrims on board, started alone. Not many days passed before great storms overtook her. The waves rolled over her deck and threatened to swallow her. For many days the passengers had to spend nearly all the time below deck, not knowing what moment would be their last. Strained by the storm, the Mayflower also began to leak, but the stout-hearted Pilgrims would not turn back.

44. Landing of the Pilgrims in America. For days at a time, during the storm, the ship could not use her sails and was driven far out of her course, to the northward. The Pilgrims had intended to land near the mouth of the Hudson, but on November 20, 1620, the little band of exiles found themselves looking with glad hearts upon the sandy but heavily-wooded shores of Cape Cod. How they poured out their hearts in gratitude that they had crossed the stormy sea in safety! The men all gathered in the little cabin of the Mayflower to sign a compact or an agreement in regard to the government of the colony. Then they elected John Carver their first governor.

Everybody was now anxious to get on shore. Captain Miles Standish, with an exploring party of sixteen men, each armed with a sword and a musket and equipped with a corselet, waded ashore through the ice-cold water and disappeared in the dark forest in search of a good place to plant the colony.

For three days they tramped through forests, up and down hills, and along the sandy coast, but found no suitable place. They found springs, however, and ponds of fresh water, and some Indian mounds containing stores of corn. What should they do, take the corn, or leave it and run the risk of starvation? They decided to take only enough to plant in the spring. They afterwards paid the owners double for what they had taken.

Everywhere they saw flocks of wild fowl, good for food, and the tracks of wild deer. While Bradford was examining an Indian snare set for game he found himself suddenly swinging by one leg in the air. They had a hearty laugh, and learned a new lesson in the art of catching game!

Twice again Standish led his little company to search out a place. On the third trip, as they were at breakfast, their ears were suddenly filled with the most fearful shouts. A shower of arrows fell near them. It was an Indian attack. Captain Standish and his men seized their guns and fired at the red men as fast as they could. Happily, the Indians, frightened by the roar and smoke of English muskets, ran away before any one was killed on either side.

On this trip they found the harbor of Plymouth, which John Smith had explored and named several years before. Its shore was now to become their home. They immediately hastened back to the ship to tell the good news, and in a few days the Mayflower carried the Pilgrims into Plymouth Harbor. The little party landed on December 21, 1620, and that day is still celebrated as "Forefathers' Day." The story is that when they landed they stepped on a large stone—a bowlder, itself a "pilgrim"—brought there by the mighty ice sheet ages ago. This bowlder is called "Plymouth Rock," and may still be seen in Plymouth.

45. Their Home in the Forest. Although it was winter, the men immediately began to chop down trees and build a great log storehouse which could be used for a hospital and for worship.

Then they began building their own homes. They cut down the trees, sawed off the logs, hewed them roughly, and then dragged them by hand to the place where the house was to stand. When the logs were ready the men lifted them up by hand, or when the walls grew too high for lifting they slid them up "skids."

The roof was made of boards which had been split from logs of wood. These were held in place by smaller logs. The wind and rain were kept out by "chinking" or daubing the cracks between the logs with mortar. The windows were few and small, for they had no glass and used oiled skins instead.

This first winter in America was the saddest the Pilgrims had ever seen. Their storehouse was turned into a hospital. They had been used to the gentler winters of England and Holland. Before the warm days of spring came, one half of the little band had perished, among them Governor Carver. But the Pilgrims bore brave hearts, and not a man or woman among those left went back to England when the Mayflower sailed.

46. Friendship with the Indians. Brave Miles Standish kept his little army—what was left of it—ready for any danger. He built a fort on a hill, and mounted the cannon brought over in the Mayflower.

But the Indians were not so bad after all, for had it not been for them, the Pilgrims would have had a much harder time. One day while the leaders were talking over military affairs, they saw a fine-looking Indian coming toward them. He called out in the English language, "Welcome! Welcome!" This was a double surprise. The Indian was Samoset, who had already saved the lives of two white men taken by the Indians.

In a few days Samoset brought other Indians, dressed in deer and panther skins. They made the Pilgrims think of gypsies seen in Holland. Their long black hair was braided and ornamented with feathers and foxtails. They sang and danced for the Pilgrims.

When Samoset came again, he brought Squanto, an Indian who had been captured and carried to London, and who could speak English. They gave the news that the great Indian chief, Massasoit, was coming to visit his strange neighbors.

A messenger was sent to welcome him and to give him presents. Massasoit, and twenty other Indians without bows and arrows, were met by Captain Standish, and escorted into the presence of Bradford, the longtime governor of Plymouth. They agreed not to harm each other, and to be friends forever.

Squanto taught the Pilgrims many new things. He showed them how to raise corn by putting dead fish in the hill when planting corn, how to hoe the corn while growing, and how to pound the corn to make meal. Indian corn proved to be the Pilgrims' best food crop.

They had no means of fishing, but Squanto taught them how to catch eels by wading into shallow water, and treading them out with their feet. From the Indians the white men also learned how to make Indian shoes or moccasins, and snowshoes, birch-bark canoes, and other useful things.

The first summer was now over and the Pilgrims' first harvest had been gathered. Their houses had been repaired, and the health of the settlers was good. Fish and wild game were plentiful. They decided that the time for rejoicing and thanksgiving had also come, and invited Massasoit and his warriors to join them in the celebration.

For three days the games, military movements, feastings, and rejoicing went on, and at the end the Pilgrims and Indians were better friends than before. This was the beginning of our custom of having a day of thanksgiving each year.

For a whole year the Pilgrims had not heard a word from the great world across the sea. How eager they must have been for just one word from their old homes! One day the Indians sent runners to tell them that a ship was in sight. The cannon boomed on the hilltop. Captain Standish and his men ran for their guns and stood ready to defend the colony against Spaniards or French. But it was a ship with news and friends from Leiden and England.

After a few weeks this ship returned to England loaded with furs, clapboards, and sassafras to pay those English merchants who had furnished the Pilgrims the Mayflower to bring them to America.

An Indian chief, not far away, decided that he would rather fight with the Englishmen than be friendly with them. So he sent a bundle of arrows, wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin, to the governor of Plymouth. Squanto told the Pilgrims that this was an Indian's challenge to war.

The Pilgrims were men of peace, but they were not cowards. Governor Bradford filled the skin with powder and shot and sent it back to the hostile chief. But the Indians would not touch it and the chief would not permit it to be left in his wigwam an hour, but sent it from place to place, until it again reached Plymouth.

Thus the Pilgrims went on year by year, living in peace when they could, but fighting when they must. Every year or so new settlers came from their old homes, and the colony grew slowly, but steadily.

After a few years the new King of England was so hard upon the Puritans in England that thousands of them followed the example of the Pilgrims and came to America, and planted many other colonies in New England. But none have held so warm a place in the hearts of Americans as the little band brought to the New World by the Mayflower.

47. The Puritans. While the Pilgrims were planting their home on the lonely American shore, the Puritans in England were being cruelly persecuted by Charles I. So great became their sufferings and dangers that the Puritan leaders decided to go to America, where they could worship as they pleased. Charles I, fortunately, gave them a very good charter. But even before this, some of the Puritans had already planted a colony at Salem.

48. John Winthrop. The Puritan leaders elected John Winthrop governor of the new colony. In the spring of 1630, nearly ten years after the Mayflower sailed, more than seven hundred Puritans, in eleven ships, bade good-by to their beautiful English homes, crossed the ocean, and settled in what is now Boston.

John Winthrop, the leader and governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, the name given to the Salem and Boston settlements, was then about forty years old, and had been in college at Cambridge, in England. He was a man of high social position.

The Puritans who came with Winthrop were people of property, and not only parted from friends and kindred when they came to the wild shores of America, but both men and women gave up lives of comfort and pleasure for lives of suffering and hardship. In America, the men had to cut down trees, work in the fields, and fight Indians. Only brave men and women act in this way. But no one among them gave up more or was willing to suffer more than their leader. The people elected him governor almost every year until his death, in 1649.

John Winthrop was a firm man with many noble qualities, and not once, while governor, did he do anything merely to please the people if he thought it wrong.

When a leading man in the colony sent him a bitter letter, he returned it saying that he did not wish to keep near him so great a cause of ill feeling. This answer made the writer Winthrop's friend. When food was scarce in the colony, Winthrop divided his last bit of bread with the poor, and worked with his laborers in the fields.

While Winthrop was ruling the colony, hundreds of settlers came and settled many other towns around Boston, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony grew large in the number of its people. Later the old Plymouth Colony was united with it to form one colony. But these settlers did not always agree, especially in regard to religion and government.

THE NEW ENGLAND SETTLEMENTS