THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS.
=40. The Old-Time Idea about Kings.=--We shall do well to remember that in
England, about three hundred years ago, the sovereign's will commonly
had the force of law. Many people really thought there was such
sacredness about a royal ruler that whatever he commanded must be right,
whatever he forbade must be wrong. Indeed, there was a proverb, "The
king can do no wrong." He had his own kind of church and his own mode of
worship. Everybody must attend that sort of church and practise that
form of worship, or be punished.
=41. Sturdy Englishmen dare to disobey the King.=--But there were, after
all, many honest, sturdy people in England who did not accept this
notion about the king. They did not like his style of religion, and they
would not pretend to like it. Besides, they felt that they had a right
to meet quietly by themselves, publicly in their own churches, or
privately in their own homes, and worship in their own way.
But these people were regarded with suspicion. Presently a number of
them were seized and thrown into loathsome jails; not a few were heavily
fined or made to suffer bodily harm; some died on the gallows; and all
this because, in spiritual affairs, they had dared to disobey the
monarch.
=42. The Pilgrims seek a Home in Holland; the First Attempt a
Failure.=--Those who were brave enough to oppose the king's despotism in
religious matters were at first styled Separatists, because they
separated from the "established church." Afterwards some of them came to
be called familiarly Pilgrims, because they wandered from place to place
on the way "to heaven, their dearest country," as they said. They longed
to go where they could be free to worship God as they pleased.
At last a company of them hired a vessel to take them just across the
North Sea to Holland. They chose Holland, because in that country all
people were allowed to worship as they thought best.
But just before the hour at which they had intended to embark, watchful
officers found them, seized most of their money and goods, dragged them
back, and put them in prison. It was indeed a pretty hard lot, punished
if they stayed in the country, and punished if they tried to get away!
=43. The Second Attempt Successful.=--The next year the Pilgrims again
tried to leave their native land. This time they succeeded. Taking their
wives and little ones, these resolute men, led by their pastor, the good
John Robinson, went as strangers and pilgrims to Holland. From time to
time the same refuge was sought by other persecuted people, till many
hundreds had settled in the old city of Leyden. Here they first
exercised that freedom of faith which had been denied them in the land
of their birth, and now they first experienced the delight of holding
their religious meetings without fear.
They were so industrious and honest that their Dutch neighbors took very
kindly to them.
[Illustration: A PILGRIM COLONIST.]
But when they had lived in Holland about twelve years, they decided to
remain no longer. Their children were learning the Dutch language, and
they themselves were slowly becoming foreigners. They were not pleased
with such results, for they still regarded themselves as Englishmen,
still loved the English people, the English ways of living, and the
glorious memories of their mother country.
About this time people were beginning to go to the New World beyond the
ocean, and these Pilgrims made up their minds to leave Holland and seek
a dwelling place in far-off America.
There were then about a thousand of them living in Holland. Nearly a
hundred of the young and strong were selected to go in advance and make
a beginning in the New World. They managed to charter for this purpose
two small vessels, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. In July, 1620, the
Speedwell sailed from Delftshaven; the Mayflower was chartered to sail
from an English port.
A very pathetic parting it was for these poor exiles upon the shore of
Holland, clasping their friends' hands for the last time, and looking
upon the dear faces they were to see no more. With their beloved
minister, Elder John Robinson, they knelt upon the sand while he prayed
earnestly for God's blessing upon their perilous undertaking. The
Pilgrims stopped at Plymouth, England, on the way, and as the Speedwell
seemed to be unseaworthy, they all, with others of the same faith who
joined the company there, went on board the Mayflower. In this one
vessel, after many delays, the one hundred and two people that finally
made up the Pilgrim company sailed from Plymouth in September, 1620, on
their long and dangerous voyage.
=44. The Pilgrims' Voyage across the Stormy Atlantic.=--Crowded upon their
little craft, this devoted company of men, women, and children had a
dreary and anxious voyage of nine weeks. During severe weather the seas
sometimes ran so high that for days the Mayflower was driven at the
mercy of wind and waves, while all of the company, except the sailors,
were compelled to remain, shivering and seasick, below the deck. In the
foul air were bred the germs of quick consumption, the disease which
carried off so many of this "Pilgrim band" during their first winter on
the wild New England shore.
=45. An Incident of the Voyage.=--During one of these storms a lively
young man named Howland fell overboard and would have been lost had he
not seized a rope which was trailing in the sea. Bradford quaintly says
in his journal that the young fellow "was sundry fathoms under water,"
but that he held on until "he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim
of the water," and with the aid of a boat-hook was at last safely landed
on deck. Howland was none the worse for his cold bath. He lived to sign
the compact at Cape Cod, and became a most useful citizen of the new
commonwealth, and the ancestor of many families.
=46. Arrival on the Bleak New England Coast.=--How often, in the last days
of that dismal voyage, did the Pilgrims gaze far into the west, always
hopeful, but no doubt sometimes dreading the future! As the weeks passed
by, the weather became very cold, and they had scanty means for warming
their cabin. When they neared the coast a driving storm compelled them
to change their course, so that instead of going up the Hudson River as
they had intended, they were forced into Massachusetts Bay, as it is now
called, and along the icy shores of Cape Cod.
All the coast was white with snow, and the future looked cheerless and
dark. There were no light-houses to warn them of dangerous shoals, no
life-saving men patrolling the beach to help shipwrecked mariners. No
one stood on the barren sandy shore to welcome them; they felt that they
were indeed strangers in a strange land.
=47. They sign a Compact in the Mayflower's Cabin.=--Inside the curved
point of Cape Cod, in a small bay which is now the harbor of
Provincetown, the Mayflower first dropped anchor. While there, John
Carver and William Bradford wrote a formal agreement for the government
of the company, and all of the forty-one men signed it.
This compact was drawn up and signed on a chest belonging to Elder
Brewster, which afterwards served as a table in his family. During the
first winter, when food was very scarce and the Pilgrims were obliged
to live almost entirely upon clams, the good Elder never failed to ask a
blessing upon their scanty meals, and to thank God, "who had yet given
them of the treasures hid in the sand."
[Illustration: PILGRIM ELDER ASKING A BLESSING.]
By the compact it was agreed that all were to have equal rights. They
pledged themselves to help and to defend each other, and to obey such
laws as they might make for the good of the colony. They then chose John
Carver for their first governor.
=48. They explore the Cape Cod Shore under the Lead of Captain Miles
Standish.=--A small party soon landed and tramped along for miles looking
for a suitable place to make a home. They could nowhere find good
drinking water. For three or four weeks the Mayflower with its precious
cargo sailed along the inner coast, trying to find a safe and inviting
harbor. Small parties often went ashore to explore the country.
One day a company of sixteen, led by Captain Standish, went ashore to
spend a number of days exploring a little way inland. This Captain
Standish, although one of the company, was not really a Pilgrim in his
way of living, nor in his religious views. His business was that of a
soldier, an employment more common then than now. He had met some of the
Pilgrims in Holland and was much pleased with their simple habits and
honest ways. When they were preparing to sail to the New World, he
thought it likely that they would need a soldier to show them how to
fight. So he came with them, and they soon were glad to have just such a
man. It was indeed well he did come, for he was often the most useful
member of the whole colony.
While the Mayflower lay at anchor in Provincetown harbor, and the
explorers were searching for a landing-place, a baby boy--the first New
England child of English parentage--was born on board of the vessel.
They gave him the quaint name of Peregrine. At Plymouth you may still
see the cradle in which little Peregrine White was rocked.
=49. Their Travels along the Shore of Cape Cod Bay, and what they
find.=--They discovered the remains of a hut which seemed to have been
recently occupied. So they surmised that Indians were living somewhere
in the vicinity. They came upon some piles of roasted acorns, and the
next day they caught a glimpse of a few savages and a deer. Soon
afterwards they saw a dog and more Indians. "The wild men ran away and
whistled the doggie after them." One day they discovered two or three
mounds of earth. One of these contained rude mats and an earthen dish.
They dug into other mounds and unearthed the skeletons of a grown person
and a child, a box containing Indian bows and arrows and spears with
flint points.
[Illustration: THE MILES STANDISH HOUSE.]
=50. They find Baskets of Indian Corn.=--In another place they noticed
heaps of sand freshly smoothed over. On scraping away the earth, what
should they find but Indian baskets full of corn! They had never seen
any such grain. They were delighted with the sight of the bright-colored
kernels, some red, some yellow, and others blue. The baskets were round,
narrow at the top, and contained about three bushels each. They carried
to the vessel all the corn they found, for they were in sore need of
food; but they were careful to save enough for seed in the spring. They
were honest men, and when long afterwards they found the Indians who had
buried the corn, they paid them a fair price for it.
[Illustration: LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH.]
One day these Pilgrim wanderers shot three fat geese and six ducks.
These they ate with wonderful relish, or "with soldier stomachs," as
their story says. At another time, as they were tramping through the
woods, William Bradford, not very careful, perhaps, as to where he was
stepping, suddenly found his foot entangled in a queer way. When his
companions came to help him out, they found he had been caught in a deer
trap set by the Indians!
=51. First Attack by Indians.=--One morning, just after their night's
sleep by a camp fire, and while engaged in their prayers, the weary men
were startled by a wild cry, very different from anything they had ever
heard. For a moment even Captain Standish was alarmed. It was an Indian
war-whoop; and the cry was followed by Indian arrows. Standish and his
men now fired their guns at the Indians. The firing caused the savages
to run away in great astonishment. They had never known of guns, and
were greatly afraid of these strangers who could instantly make thunder
and lightning. The Pilgrims had never before been targets for arrows, so
they kept these strange weapons, which were pointed with eagles' claws
or sharp pieces of deer's horn, as curiosities.
=52. The Search for a Home.=--The Pilgrims were very anxious to get
settled as soon as possible; yet when Sunday came they stopped all work
and spent the day in reading the Bible, in singing their hymns, and in
prayer. For nearly a month they sought, with much weariness and in
bitter cold, a place suitable for settlement. It must have been a cruel
and pitiful work for those poor men. They waded knee-deep in the snow;
slept unprotected under the wintry sky; often suffered from hunger; and,
for fear of Indians, were always compelled to keep anxious watch.
[Illustration: FIRST ATTACK BY THE INDIANS.]
After a tedious search along the shore of what is now Massachusetts Bay,
these stout-hearted wanderers at last found a sheltered place where, not
far from the shore, there was an abundant spring of good water. Near by
were some old cornfields that had formerly been used by the Indians.
Here they decided to land. The water being shallow, the vessel was
anchored nearly a mile from the beach. The Pilgrims were brought in
their boat, a few at a time, from the vessel to the landing-place. To
reach the shore, it is said that they found it convenient to step upon a
large stone. This is now known as Plymouth Rock. It is claimed that the
first English woman to set foot upon this stone on the Plymouth shore
was Mary Chilton.
=53. The Famous Plymouth Rock.=--Plymouth Rock is not very large; but it
is sacred in the eyes and the hearts of every American. Every year
thousands go to look upon "the stepping-stone of New England"; to linger
by the graves of the Pilgrims; and to see in Pilgrim Hall the many
curious interesting things which once belonged to those pioneers of
western civilization.
[Illustration: CANOPY OVER PLYMOUTH ROCK.]
From the name of the last town they had left in England, the Pilgrims
named this, the first spot in Massachusetts settled by white men, New
Plymouth. The date of the landing was December 21, 1620, and its
anniversary is now celebrated as "Forefathers' Day."