Miles Standish and the Pilgrims
[1584-1656]
[Illustration: Miles Standish.]
Only thirteen years after Jamestown was settled, a colony of Englishmen,
very different in character from the gold hunters of Virginia, landed on
the Massachusetts coast. These men came not to seek fortunes but rather
to establish a community with high ideals of political and religious
life. With them they brought their wives and children, and a
determination to build for themselves permanent homes in the new world.
Before tracing their fortunes in America, let us glance backward a few
years and see them as they were in their English homes.
At the present time people can choose their own church and worship as
they please, but it was not always so, even in England. In that country,
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there was much religious
disturbance, and many people were punished because they would not
worship as the law required. There were Englishmen who, while loving
the English Church, wished to make its services more simple or, as they
said, purify its forms and ceremonies. These people were for this reason
called _Puritans_. Others disliked the ceremonial and doctrines of the
Church so much that they wished to form a separate body and worship
after their own ideas. These were called _Separatists_, or
_Independents_.
The Separatists met for service on the Lord's Day in the home of William
Brewster, one of their chief men, in the little village of Scrooby. For
a year they tried to keep together and worship as an independent body.
But as the laws of England required that all should worship in the
Established Church, they found they could not do this without being
hunted down, thrown into prison, and sometimes beaten and even hanged.
They endured these persecutions as long as they could, and then some of
them decided to leave their own land and seek a home in Holland, where
they would be free to worship God as they pleased. James I, then King of
England, being unwilling that they should go, they had much difficulty
in carrying out their plan, but in 1608 they escaped and went to
Amsterdam. From Amsterdam they went to Leyden, and finally from Leyden
to America, by way of England. By reason of their wanderings they became
known later as Pilgrims.
Since they were poor people, the Pilgrims were obliged to accept any
work that would enable them to make a living. In Leyden many found
employment in the manufacture of woollen goods. Here they were
prosperous enough and enjoyed freedom of worship, but were unwilling to
remain with the Dutch, fearing that their children would forget English.
For, although England had been unkind to them, they cherished their
native language, customs, and habits of life.
They had heard much about the English colony in Virginia, and the
association of their own people in a free land appealed strongly to
their English hearts. To Virginia therefore they decided to go,
believing that there they could worship in peace and harmony and bring
up their children in sturdy English thought and feeling.
But it is often easier to plan than to accomplish, and so it was with
these home-yearning Pilgrims. Having decided to leave Holland, they
found practical difficulties to be overcome, the most serious of which
were King James's opposition to their going to America and lack of funds
for the long and expensive journey. He permitted them to sail, however,
and agreed not to disturb them in America so long as they pleased him.
After getting the king's consent and borrowing money on hard terms,
these earnest men and women made ready to sail for their new home in the
forest wilds of America.
They embarked in the Speedwell, at Delft Haven, a port twelve miles from
Leyden, and sailed for Southampton, on the south coast of England. Here
they joined some friends who had made ready another vessel, the now
historic Mayflower. But a brief delay was occasioned by lack of money.
In order to secure the necessary amount, about four hundred dollars, it
was necessary to sell some of their provisions, including much of the
butter. Funds being secured, the two vessels at last put to sea, but
twice returned on account of a leak in the Speedwell. Finally, deeming
that vessel unseaworthy, one hundred and two Pilgrims, including men,
women, children, and servants, took passage in the Mayflower, sailing
from Plymouth, September 16, 1620.
[Illustration: The Pilgrims in England and Holland.]
After a most trying and tempestuous voyage lasting over nine weeks, land
was sighted, November 19, 1620, but instead of arriving off the coast of
Virginia, as they had planned, the storm-beaten voyagers found
themselves in what is now the harbor of Provincetown. Before landing
they entered into a solemn agreement to make and obey such laws as
should be needful for the good of the colony. John Carver was chosen
governor.
Not being able on account of the shallow water to get the Mayflower to a
point where they could step ashore, the men had to carry the women in
their arms and wade several rods, though the weather was so cold that
their clothing, wet from the ocean spray, froze stiff. Once on land,
they fell upon their knees and thanked God for bringing them in safety
through the many furious storms. Then immediately the women set to work
lighting fires, boiling water, and washing clothing, while the men stood
on guard to repel the Indians in case they might make an attack.
It soon became clear that Cape Cod was an unfit place for a settlement,
and an exploring party, with Miles Standish as military leader, was
selected to look for a more suitable one.
As military leader Miles Standish at once became conspicuous in the life
of the colony. He was born in Lancashire, England, in 1584, of a noble
family, but was in some way deprived of his estates. Going to the
Continent he became a valiant and daring soldier in the Netherlands.
Feeling a deep interest in the cause of the Pilgrims, he joined them
when they sailed for America in the Mayflower, and made their fortunes
his own.
Small of stature, quick-witted, hot-tempered, and ready to brave any
danger, this stout-hearted man was a fitting leader for the little
Pilgrim army of something like a score of men who were obliged to defend
themselves and their families against wild beasts and unfriendly
Indians.
Many of the Pilgrim soldiers wore armor to protect themselves against
Indian arrows. In some instances this armor consisted of a steel helmet
and iron breastplates, and in others of quilted coats of cotton wool.
Like Miles Standish, some of the soldiers had swords at their sides, and
all carried either flintlock or matchlock muskets so big and heavy that,
before they could fire them off, they had to rest them upon supports
stuck into the ground for the purpose.
Standish's daring little band of soldiers explored some of the coast on
the day the Mayflower anchored. The next Wednesday after landing they
started out a second time in search of a suitable place for settlement.
As they skirted the coast, landing here and there, they saw and heard
Indians, who fled at their approach.
Soon they came upon some mounds, out of which they dug bows and arrows
and other utensils. These, however, they replaced, because they believed
the mounds to be Indian graves. In a rude and deserted house they also
found an iron kettle. Digging into still another mound these
home-hunters were delighted to discover large baskets filled with ears
of Indian corn--red, white, and yellow. As they were sorely in need of
food after their long voyage, they took with them some of the corn, for
which they were careful to pay the Indians later.
An amusing incident occurred on this otherwise serious journey. Before
they got back to the Mayflower, William Bradford, who afterward became
the second governor of the Plymouth Colony, met with an accident that
must have caused even the stern Pilgrim soldiers to smile. Picking his
way through the underbrush of the wood he stepped unwittingly into a
deer-trap, and was suddenly jerked up into the air, where he dangled by
one leg until his friends released him, none the worse for the ludicrous
occurrence.
[Illustration: The Mayflower.]
After spending more than three weeks in vain efforts to find a place for
settlement, a party of ten picked men, including Governor Carver,
William Bradford, and Captain Miles Standish, set out on the afternoon
of December 16th, in the midst of a driving storm, for another search.
It was so cold that the spray, falling upon them, soon covered their
clothing with coats of ice, but the voyagers, though suffering terribly,
pushed courageously forward.
At the close of the next day, having anchored in a creek, they
constructed a barricade, not only as a protection from the bitter
weather, but as a means of defence against the Indians. This three-sided
barricade, made of boughs, stakes, and logs, was about as high as a man,
and was open on the leeward side. Within this shelter they lighted a big
fire, which they kept roaring all night long. Then lying down around it,
with their feet toward the burning logs, they wrapped their cloaks
closely about them and fell asleep beneath the trees and the open sky,
one man always keeping guard.
Next morning they were astir early, ready for the stubborn work of
another day. Some of them had carried their muskets down to the shore,
leaving them there to be put aboard the boat a little later, and were
returning to breakfast when the shout "Indians!" followed by a shower of
arrows, greeted them. The woods seemed full of red warriors, whose
blood-curdling war-whoops must have struck fear to the hearts of the
small band of explorers. However, the white men bravely stood their
ground, and with cool arm and steady hand so terrified the savages that
they soon took to their heels.
Once out to sea again the Pilgrims encountered a furious gale that
threatened to swamp their frail boat. All day long they were tossed
about on the storm-swept sea, and just before dark an immense wave
almost filled the boat and carried off the rudder. A little later a
fierce gust of wind broke the mast into three pieces. Then without mast
or rudder the dauntless men struggled at the oars until morning when
they reached land and found themselves on an island which they named
Clarke's Island, in honor of the Mayflower's mate.
[Illustration: The Pilgrim Settlement.]
Some further explorations revealed a suitable place for settlement. It
had a good harbor, a stream of excellent drinking water near by, and at
a little distance from the shore a stretch of high ground affording a
good location for a fort. In addition to these advantages there was a
large field of cleared land on which the Indians had raised corn. Much
cheered with their discovery the explorers returned with their report.
After as little delay as possible, the Pilgrims landed[5] on the spot
chosen for their new home,--the spot which John Smith had several years
before named Plymouth. At once they set to work with heroic energy, some
felling trees, some sawing, some splitting, and some carrying logs to
the places of building.
[5] According to tradition, the Pilgrims, in landing, stepped on a
small granite bowlder, since known as Plymouth Rock. The date of
landing, December 21, is called Forefathers' Day.
They first erected a rude log-house, twenty feet square, which would
serve for a common storehouse, for shelter, and for other purposes, and
began the building of five separate private dwellings. They built also a
hospital and a meeting-house.
The houses were all alike in form and size. After cutting down trees and
sawing logs of suitable length, the men dragged them by hand along the
ground--for there were no horses or other beasts of burden--and laid
them one upon another, thus forming the walls. Probably the chimneys and
fireplaces were of stone, the crevices being plastered with mortar made
by mixing straw and mud, and oil paper taking the place of glass for
windows. At the best, these log-houses were poor makeshifts for
dwellings in the severe winter weather along the bleak New England
coast.
For furnishing these simple homes, the Pilgrims had brought over such
articles as large arm-chairs, wooden settles, high-posted beds,
truckle-beds for young children, and cradles for babies. Every home had
also its spinning-wheel. The cooking was done in a big fireplace. Here
the housewife baked bread in large ovens, roasted meat by putting it on
iron spits which they had to keep turning in order to cook all sides of
the roast alike, and boiled various kinds of food in large kettles hung
over the fire.
As there were no friction matches in those days, it was the custom to
kindle a fire by striking sparks with a flint and steel into dry
tinder-stuff. Having once started a fire,--which was no easy
matter,--they had to be very careful not to let it go out, and for that
reason covered the coals at bedtime with ashes.
In the place of candles or lamps, pitch-pine knots furnished light at
night. We can well imagine the Pilgrim boys and girls resting on the
settles in the evening, and reading by the blaze from the huge
fireplace.
In this first winter lack of good food and warm clothing, exposure to
the cold, and various kinds of hardship bred disease in the little
colony. At one time only seven men were well enough to take care of the
sick and suffering. One of these seven was the fearless soldier, Miles
Standish. He now became a tender nurse, and joined with William Bradford
and Elder Brewster in making fires, washing clothes, cooking food, and
in other plain household duties.
[Illustration: A Matchlock Gun.]
By spring about half of the colonists, including Governor Carver and
Rose Standish, wife of Captain Miles Standish, had died. Notwithstanding
all the sufferings, however, not one of the Pilgrims went back on the
Mayflower when she sailed for England. But so weak had the colony become
through loss of able-bodied men, that corn was planted on the graves to
keep the Indians from learning how many had died.
One day in early spring, the Pilgrims were startled by the sudden
appearance of an Indian, Samoset by name, who cried in English,
"Welcome, Englishmen." A week later he returned with a friend, named
Squanto,[6] who had formerly lived at Plymouth with other Indians, all
of whom had been swept away by a plague.
[6] Squanto had been taken to England by some white men in 1614.
Squanto was glad to get back to his old home once more. He afterward
came to live with the Pilgrims, acting as their messenger and
interpreter and showing them how to hunt and how to catch fish. From him
they learned how to plant corn. Putting one or two herring as a
fertilizer in every hill, they would watch for a while to prevent the
wolves from digging up and eating the fish, and in due time would have
an abundant return.
[Illustration: A Group of Pilgrim Relics.]
About a week after Samoset's first appearance, he returned and announced
the approach of Massasoit, an Indian chief living at Mount Hope, some
forty miles southwest of Plymouth. Captain Miles Standish marched out
with his men to escort the Indian chief to meet Governor Carver in an
unfinished house. The Pilgrims had spread upon the floor a green mat,
which they covered with cushions for the chief and the governor. When
the chief, who was a man of fine presence and dignified bearing, was
seated upon the cushions, Governor Carver was escorted to the place of
meeting by the Pilgrim soldiers, amid the beating of drums and the
blowing of trumpets. After the governor had kissed the chief's hand, the
two men agreed to be friends and keep peace between the white men and
the red. The friendship thus romantically begun lasted for more than
fifty years. Before Massasoit's departure the Pilgrims gave him two
skins and a copper necklace.
As summer came on the condition of the Pilgrims improved. There was much
less sickness, and food was more easily obtained. On the arrival of
autumn the corn and barley planted by the Pilgrims yielded a good
return, and ducks, geese, wild turkeys, and deer could be secured by
hunting. When Massasoit with ninety men came to see the Pilgrims in the
autumn, the Indians brought some deer and the Pilgrims furnished food
from their supplies, so that a three days' feast was held. This was the
first celebration of the New England Thanksgiving.
But not all of the Indian neighbors were so friendly as Massasoit and
his tribe. Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts, sent to Plymouth an
insolent greeting in the form of a number of arrows tied with a snake's
skin. The Pilgrims on their part stuffed the snake's skin full of powder
and bullets, and in defiance sent it back to Canonicus. So deeply
impressed were the Indians by this fearless act that they let the whites
alone.
Believing it wise to be prepared against Indian attacks, however, the
Pilgrims surrounded the settlement with palisades, and erected on
"Burial Hill" a building, on the flat roof of which cannon were placed,
the room downstairs serving as a meeting-house.
[Illustration: Pilgrims Returning from Church.]
Energetic in practical affairs, they were equally zealous in religious
observance; for they were very regular in their church attendance. Their
Sabbaths began with sundown on Saturday and lasted until sundown on
Sunday. The beating of a drum on Sunday morning was the signal for the
men to meet at the door of Captain Miles Standish's house, from which
they marched three abreast, followed by their governor in a long robe,
with the minister on his right and Miles Standish on his left.
After the men came the women, then the children, and last of all the
servants. On entering the church they sat in order of rank, the old men
in one part of the church, the young men in another, mothers with their
little children in a third, young women in a fourth, and the boys in a
fifth.
The services lasted all the morning; then, after an intermission for
lunch at noon, they began again and continuing all the afternoon. But on
the coldest days of winter only foot-stoves were used to heat the
meeting-house. Nor was this the only discomfort the Pilgrims had in
their church worship. For even these good people found it sometimes hard
to remain awake during the long services. And it was the duty of the
constable to see that all kept their eyes open. If this official saw a
boy asleep he rapped him with the end of a wand; if he saw a woman
nodding he brushed her gently with a hare's foot, which was on the other
end of the wand.
The Pilgrims held their town meetings in the meeting-house, where they
held their religious services. At town meetings all the men wore their
hats. In voting they used corn and beans, a grain of corn meaning yes
and a bean meaning no.
Such was the life of the little company of true-hearted men and women at
Plymouth. Small in number as they were, they remained brave in spirit,
amid surroundings which tested all their powers of endurance. For
several years Miles Standish did valiant service there, and then went to
live at Duxbury, where he was soon joined by some of his Pilgrim
friends, among whom was John Alden. Here the good captain remained the
rest of his life, except when he was needed as military leader by the
colony. He died many years later,--in 1656,--leaving behind him a good
name with the Pilgrims and the rest of the world.
[Illustration: Brewster's and Standish's Swords.]
REVIEW OUTLINE
THE ENGLISHMEN WHO SETTLED IN NEW ENGLAND.
PURITANS AND SEPARATISTS.
THE SEPARATISTS ESCAPE TO HOLLAND.
THE PILGRIMS LEAVE HOLLAND FOR AMERICA.
DIFFICULTIES IN THEIR WAY.
THE VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER.
MILES STANDISH MADE MILITARY LEADER.
THE STOUT-HEARTED CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH.
THE GRIM PILGRIM SOLDIERS.
CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH HEADS A SECOND EXPLORING PARTY.
INDIAN MOUNDS; BRADFORD IN THE DEER-TRAP.
A DANGEROUS EXPEDITION.
A NIGHT IN THE WOODS; INDIANS.
A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE ON THE STORM-SWEPT SEA.
A SUITABLE PLACE FOR SETTLEMENT.
LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS AT PLYMOUTH.
THE BUSY BUILDERS OF LOG-HOUSES.
IN THE HOMES OF THE PILGRIMS.
THE SUFFERING PILGRIMS.
SAMOSET; SQUANTO; MASSASOIT VISITS THE PILGRIMS.
A THANKSGIVING FEAST.
INDIAN ENEMIES.
THE PILGRIMS AT CHURCH SERVICES.
THE MEETING-HOUSE.
DEATH OF CAPTAIN MILES STANDISH.
TO THE PUPIL
1. What do you admire in the character of Miles Standish, and
what did he do for the Pilgrims at Plymouth?
2. Trace on the map the wanderings of the Pilgrims.
3. Write an account of the "Dangerous Expedition" of the ten
picked men who set out on December 16th, in search of a place for
settlement. Picture to yourself the following: the party lying by
the big fire under the trees with the barricade about them; the
Pilgrims on their way to church; and Massasoit entertained by
Governor Carver.
4. Describe a Pilgrim dwelling and its furniture.
5. Compare the Pilgrims with the Jamestown settlers.