If there be a desire to travel, we must either walk, or sail in boats,
and one may not go far on foot in either direction along the coast,
without coming upon streams or brooks over which has been felled a tree
to serve as bridge. Now father thinks a bridge of that kind is all
that may be necessary, because of his footing being so sure; but you
know that women are more timid, and it is difficult to walk above the
rushing streams on so slight a support as a round log.
[Illustration]
Because of having made our plantation near to a deserted Indian
village, there were paths through the woods in every direction, and
these we used whenever making an excursion in search of bayberry plums,
or herbs of any kind.
The Indians, after Squanto had made us friendly with the great chief
Massasoit, were ready to sell us boats, and queer sorts of ships would
they seem in your eyes. One kind is made of the bark taken from the
birch tree in great sheets, sewn together with sinews of deer, and
besmeared with fat from the pitch pine.
[Illustration]
I have seen one that would carry with safety four people, so light that
I myself could lift it, but no man may use one of these bark vessels
without first having been taught how to sail it, for they are so like
a feather on the water that the slightest movement oversets them.
For my part, I feel more secure in what our people call a dugout, which
is made with much labor by the Indians, and is, as Captain Standish
says in truth, "a most unwieldy ship."