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[Illustration: Copyright by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth, Mass.
BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM BRADFORD. AUSTERFIELD, ENGLAND.]
WILLIAM BRADFORD
OF PLYMOUTH
BY
ALBERT H. PLUMB
[Illustration]
BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY RICHARD G. BADGER
All Rights Reserved
Made in the United States of America
The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.
TO ALL DESCENDANTS OF
WILLIAM BRADFORD
AND TO ALL WHO ADMIRE THIS LEADER OF NEW ENGLAND'S FOUNDERS THIS CONCISE
AND UNPRETENTIOUS RECORD OF HIS LIFE AND ACTS IS
DEDICATED
IN THE HOPE THAT BY HIS EXAMPLE WE MAY BE INSPIRED AND STRENGTHENED, THE
BETTER TO DO OUR OWN PART IN NOBLE LIVING AND IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC
ACHIEVEMENTS
PREFACE
It is a pleasing task to record afresh the life course of one of those
whom the poet Whittier characterized as "the noblest ancestry that ever
a people looked back to with love and reverence."
The leading authorities, particularly the Pilgrim narrators themselves
and those more nearly contemporary with them, have contributed to this
biography. Though early Plymouth events and the career of Bradford are
inseparably connected, the colonial history is here limited and made
subservient to the personal consideration, with regret that there do not
appear more obtainable data of this nature. Undoubtedly the Governor's
modest reticence largely accounts for this. We can only be thankful that
we have what we have.
ALBERT H. PLUMB.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I
THE BOY 11
II
THE PILGRIM 23
III
THE GOVERNOR: EARLY DUTIES 41
IV
THE GOVERNOR: LATER ADMINISTRATION 61
V
THE GOVERNOR: LAST ACTS 89
WILLIAM BRADFORD OF PLYMOUTH
I
THE BOY
_Earth's transitory things decay,
Its pomps, its pleasures pass away;
But the sweet memory of the good
Survives in the vicissitude._
J. BOWRING.
The world has nothing more worthy of our regard than its unconscious
heroes. Though many can discern their own true importance, a peculiar
charm invests such as do not realize it, even if they are told. They
seem to think others would have done better in their place, and they
lightly estimate their services, at less than their fellow-men accredit
them. His ideal of duty captivates the doer more than his own agency
therein. The noblest men are made by the contemplation of their models.
Like the great Apostle, they are not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision. Among earth's worthies, modest and unconscious of greatness,
there stands the figure of William Bradford.
We find him first as a native of Austerfield, England, on the south
border of Yorkshire. There is no official record of his birth. But in
addition to his own declaration of age when first married, the clearly
legible record of his baptism, March 19, 1589, would indicate that by
the modern calendar he was born in 1590. The garments worn by him at the
chapel March 19-29, being a short white linen covering and mitts which
came for exhibition to Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, are the
apparel of a small babe.
The affirmation of Bradford, as a man thoroughly established in his
integrity and his accuracy of statement, this declaration in the
important matter of his marriage contract when he was required to
subscribe his own signature, must be accepted as more weighty than the
opinions given by others regarding his age in later years of his life,
and the posthumous inscription placed long afterward on his monument. It
is unlikely that he was consulted about his age, for any future epitaph,
since even the necessary making of his will was deferred to the day of
his death. Not long before his nuptials on December 10-20, 1613, he
averred that he was twenty-three; and, supposing an error of his quite
improbable here, our conclusion appears justified that he was born in
1590 by the Gregorian calendar. We also have no reason to doubt an old
claim that his natal month was the same as his baptismal, March.
Besides, the rule existed then, that the rite should be administered one
week after birth. If this contemporary custom was followed, William saw
the light of day March 12, 1589, by Old Style, or March 22, 1590, New
Style.
It is unfortunate that the baptismal font, despite efforts to purchase
it back, has not yet, to our knowledge, been yielded by the Methodist
church in Lound, Nottinghamshire, and restored to its proper place at
Saint Helen's in Austerfield. The Austerfield font at present we do not
accept as the genuine original. That original one at Saint Helen's about
the time of our Civil War seems to have been a victim to the generally
weaker antiquarian interest then, and it was replaced by a high basin.
It came back soon but evidently was unused, lying upon the floor aside.
Then a sexton was ordered to take out and sell superfluous articles.
After resting on an estate as a garden stone, it was given to a lady
from Austerfield, who loaned it indefinitely to the church mentioned. It
is a large Norman bowl, rough-hewn and of ancient aspect, which when in
use was for convenience set upon a wooden block.
When the tolling bells above the small stone chapel summoned the
Bradford family and friends to the solemn service, little did they
discern, with all their natural affection, any unusual significance in
that consecration of a life to be expended far from the quiet hamlet of
old England in a growing community of New England.
As the child came to an age of sufficient understanding, how strongly
must this humble shrine have appealed to him, with the development of
his proclivities guided by one circumstance after another! It was
erected during the twelfth century, in the centre of the village, when
the rustic parish was presented by a person of rank for the support of a
chaplain. Doubtless the lad's eyes often scrutinized the zigzag Norse
symbol of lightning, and other ornamentation, carved upon the double
arch under which he was wont to enter.
The whole region was rich in historic interest to any reflective mind.
It was the battle ground of Briton, Roman and Anglo-Saxon. It formed the
heart of the Danish territory, opposite their native continental shores.
The Robin Hood marauders operated through this sparsely settled North of
England, where the last of several uprisings against the South was
attempted only about a score of years before Bradford's birth. The
people were comparatively rude and uneducated, with few schools; and
papal influence yielded more slowly away from the governmental
headquarters. If Mary Queen of Scots had not been executed shortly
before the Puritan churches arose, it is difficult to see how or when
they could have lived so near her seat of power. But Elizabeth, in her
laudable aim to uplift the nation by improving the people and repressing
the nobles, encouraged the incoming of tens of thousands of Dutch, of
whom many flocked to the fair lowlands east and north, imparting their
tolerant ideas, bestowing names upon numerous localities, and producing
a marked effect in the speech and blood of the inhabitants. The Queen
required every family of Hollanders to take an English apprentice in
their imported arts and crafts. Thus England changed rapidly from a
country merely agricultural to one also manufacturing, where industry
was pursued in weaving cloth and in glass, pottery, iron and various
metals, wrought not in factories at first but in private houses as once
was commonly done in New England.
The religious effect of this immigration was not in the royal reckoning;
for much as Elizabeth hated the papacy, she despised its counterpart, as
quite too good for her liking, namely, the body of her subjects which
represented an intelligent faith, and holy practice according to the
accepted dictates of a revered, studied and intensely cherished Sacred
Scripture. Though she could do no more than patronize, from political
motives, any order of spiritual devotion as long as she herself would
not learn to love devoutly, she failed to realize that the infusion of
the virile Puritan element, regardless of racial strain, in the field of
religion saved her authorized church from relapsing into Romanism. Her
successor, James, was a fit son of Mary of Scotland, in his intolerance
towards Puritans, Protestants though they were.
Austerfield itself, though having less than three hundred residents, was
the scene of a great session in 702, when the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the bishops of almost all England met with King Aldfrid to hear the
complaint of Wilfred the Bishop of York, who was so ardent a Romanist
that the former king had deposed him. The English under Aldfrid won
against the papal party, but before the venerable Wilfred died he was
restored to office and canonized, and the first Puritan assembly after
coming to Scrooby gathered awhile in a stone church named for him.
Bradford's native town also, despite its quiet rural beauty, lay upon
the Great Northern Road to Scotland, as now on the railroad named after
it the express comes thundering by from the grimy granite houses of
Edinboro, bound for the mighty metropolis before midnight of the
afternoon it started. But the old dirt road was only a few feet wide,
almost a stranger to horse-drawn vehicles, especially pleasure
carriages, even the ladies of the Elizabethan era using mostly their
mounts, as those in America later rode on their pillions.
More agreeable, locally, were the meadow paths along the Idle, and other
leisurely streams of this boy's neighborhood. His family name was
originally applied to those who lived at some convenient Broad Ford,
many desirable crossings having some descriptive or defining term, like
Ox Ford and Cam Bridge.
His taste for Latin might well have been intensified by the very name of
his Austerfield, which, earlier than the Anglo-Saxon localities, was
probably named for the imperial Roman commander Ostorius, who had a
defensive earthwork at his station near here. Its remains attested its
military importance. And though the northern peasantry in young
William's time were so untutored or morally lax, or both, that they were
unacquainted with even their English Bible, it is not strange if these
historical associations induced the more intelligent and refined yeomen
to possess Latin books. It has been supposed that his own family owned
them, with English works, all of which were rare and costly; and in
addition to this likelihood, it is known that Rev. Mr. Silvester of
Alkly had a classical collection in his own library. As this clergyman
was a family friend and the guardian of William's cousins, the
Austerfield boy would naturally become a visitor at the neighboring
parsonage.
Wills and records indicate that the Bradfords in general were of good
repute and moved in the best society of that too decadent period. The
Austerfield branch were yeomen, once so important in the English commons
that they ranked next to the gentry.
At the north end of the village the house still stands which tradition
claims as our Bradford's birthplace. It is of substantial brick,
exceedingly rare in his day and a sign of social distinction. Many
houses of the time were quite attractive in appearance with their red
roofs, green shutters and yellow doorsteps. This is a ruddy cottage from
fluted tiling down to the grass, and sufficiently large to comprise two
tenements now.
The boy's grandfather William and maternal grandfather John Hanson were
the only mentioned owners of property in their small town in 1575, and
he inherited in time a good patrimony. His father William died in 1591,
his mother Alice soon after, and the paternal grandfather, in whose care
he was left, expired not until January of 1596, the only ancestor the
third William would be likely to remember. Then the simple life and talk
of the farm ceased, on the part of those who would converse with the lad
on their common interests and show the most of natural affection toward
him. The charge over his life by his uncles Thomas and Robert was one of
legal imposition rather than a matter of love. Robert naturally wished
him to be a farmer, but permitted him to study when he proved not very
rugged at first.
Before he was twelve, an illness of long continuance coming upon him,
youthful intelligence and spiritual sensitiveness were developed in him
untroubled by temptations more liable in physical vigor. Denied the
warmth of family affection, and for a season the wholesome sports of
youth, while naturally made more serious also as an orphan, the boy
delighted in the contemplation of religious truth, particularly in Bible
study; and this became with him a lifelong habit.
Over the line in Nottinghamshire a few miles away, lay another small
town, Scrooby, where one William Brewster was postmaster, well qualified
as a collegiate and public official, to teach history and civil
government. He occupied an ancient manor and commodious hostelry which
royalty had twice coveted. Within its spacious halls were wont to gather
a few earnest souls who were discontented with the empty formalism so
common in religious profession at that time, and they were restive under
the super-abundant authority of the state in church matters. They
insisted on freedom of the individual conscience, from either civil or
ecclesiastical domination, and were also convinced that genuine
Christianity called for a Christlike life. This was nothing less than
Puritanism, which as a term was originally coined by its foes in
contempt, but later became a name of honor and glory. Though long in
preparing, since Wycliffe gave to the English people the Holy Scriptures
in their own familiar speech, this movement was only now coming to its
full fruition; and the group of earnest worshipers in Scrooby, who had
first organized at Gainsboro in 1602, composed the earliest Puritan
church to stand and prosper, others following in a multitude as the
cause gained momentum.
Brewster was made Elder at Scrooby, and the boy Bradford was one of the
charter members. He accepted the instruction of kind friends who were
glad to satisfy his eager thirst for spiritual knowledge. Conspicuous
among these was Rev. Richard Clyfton of Babworth, who ministered to the
new church for a short time until their permanent pastor was secured,
the devout and learned John Robinson. But before the church was formed
in Gainsboro and Scrooby, when Bradford was hardly twelve he walked
every Sunday over the fields to Babworth, six or seven miles from
Austerfield, joining Brewster at Scrooby on the way. The Elder was made
Postmaster in the year his future Governor was born, and the two
Williams were lifelong intimates. Religiously he was like a father to
the boy.
With this unchecked expansion of his soul, young William's intellect was
also awakened. Though at first forbidden advanced schooling, he became a
self-taught man, a thoughtful student of history, philosophy and
theology, proficient also in linguistics, as the classic Latin and
Greek, and late in life, the original Hebrew of the Old Testament.
His joining with the Separatists from the Established State Church of
England was an act which offended his relatives and early acquaintances,
who tried in vain to make him abandon his stand; for he could not,
consistently with his convictions, comply with their desires. It was
observed that "neither could the wrath of his uncles, nor the scoff of
his neighbors, now turned upon him as one of the Puritans, divert him
from his pious inclinations". Thus he answered them, "To keep a good
conscience and walk in such a way as God has prescribed in his word is a
thing which I shall prefer above you all, and above life itself."
Government officers soon discovered this company of Dissenters, stopped
their meetings, and proceeded to make arrests. In the autumn of 1607
when seventeen years of age, Bradford and his associates endeavored to
go over to Holland, where religious liberty was allowed. He was one of
the chief advocates of this measure. But the ship master that was to
take them betrayed their plan to the authorities, who sent the Puritans
into prison at Boston in Lincolnshire. Next spring the same attempt was
made, unsuccessfully again; for their rulers neither granted them
freedom at home nor emigration abroad. But before that year of 1608
passed, the victims of persecution escaped one after another, by various
means, across the water to Amsterdam. Bradford's ship encountered a
seven days' storm and was driven out of its course hundreds of miles,
close to Norway, even the mariners giving up in despair. The Pilgrims
remained calm, though unused to the sea; and our hero was heard to
repeat in prayer, with his companions, "Yet, Lord, thou canst save."
On reaching Holland, an envious passenger accused him as having fled
from England as a culprit, and he was taken before the magistrates, who,
however, willingly released him when the truth was known.
Leyden was the Pilgrims' rendezvous. The place was congenial to the
ardent spirit of this youth, and he became a student at the University
there. He must have heard in England as a boy, how the martyr John
Bradford, chaplain to Edward VI and one of the most acceptable preachers
in the realm, because of his religious principles had been burned to
death, in the reign of Bloody Mary. And the people of Leyden could
recite for sympathetic ears, the tales of heroic and successful
resistance against King Philip of Spain only thirty years before these
Puritan refugees from intolerance arrived.
William now went about to earn a living. As an apprentice to a French
Protestant, he learned the trade of dying silk, and doubtless, beside
his Dutch, acquired here his thorough familiarity with the French
language so widely used even in those days.
II
THE PILGRIM
_The best inheritance they have left us is the New England
conscience. The Puritan's habit of self-examination and prayer
has left its impress on the habit of thought of the great nation
that has risen where he showed the way._
Governor Guild of Massachusetts, at the four hundredth
anniversary of the birth of Calvin, in Geneva, Switzerland,
July 9, 1909.
_Religious faith must ever be the motive power of humanity, and
whatever might become of despotism, with or without, it is
absolutely essential to democracy._
Governor Hughes of New York, at the Champlain Tercentenary,
Vermont, July 9, 1909.
_Religion is the only thing upon which to rest our salvation in
these times. It is religious principles to which our
Commonwealth owes its greatness._
Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, at the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the Lord's Day League, Boston, 1920.
On reaching the age of twenty-one, our Bradford became the possessor of
his native estate in England, which he sold, as then useless for him to
hold. But well he knew, that the recantation of his faith would restore
him to independence and presumably to the favor of the Austerfield
community. What lay in the future for him he could not conceive. He took
the sale money and ventured in some commercial enterprise, but did not
prosper in it. His career was to be of more importance than the business
of a merchant.
After turning twenty-two, he was admitted, on proof and security, a
citizen of Leyden, as William Bradford, Englishman. In the end of the
next year his marriage bans were published, and he was registered as a
worker in fustian, a coarse cloth of cotton and flax. On December 20,
1613, he wedded Dorothy May, aged sixteen, formerly of Cambridge, and
probably the granddaughter of John May, Bishop of Carlisle in 1577. Her
autograph, "Dority May," appears in her marriage contract. Bradford,
when in America later, had friendly correspondence with her father in
Holland.
While in Leyden now, he had the joy of perceiving the rapid growth of
the Puritan fellowship there, numbering finally almost three hundred.
Purchasing considerable land, they settled in a community by themselves.
Robinson, their spiritual head, was held in much esteem throughout the
city, for his noble character and fine abilities. Bradford in written
eulogy ascribes to him "y^e tender love & godly care of a true pastor."
Yet in spite of the hospitality of Holland, the condition was not normal
nor the prospects ideal, for an English settlement among those of
foreign speech. The rising generation would naturally affiliate with
their neighbors, entering the Dutch army and society; and the outcome
promised to be a blend of blood and customs. The truce between Holland
and Spain would be over in 1619; and the Thirty Years War was already
rising in Europe. Wishing to preserve their national character and
distinct religious order, they meditated emigration as a colony. In this
the foreign missionary motive was also strong, freely acknowledged, and
always remembered. "A great hope & inward zeall they had," Bradford
later recorded, "of laying some good foundation, or at least to make
some way thereunto, for y^e propagating & advancing y^e gospell of y^e
kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of y^e world; yea, though they
should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for y^e performing of
so great a work."
They were dissuaded from the tropical enticements of Spanish American
neighborhoods by the recollection of Spain's interests and ambitions
there. The vote was indeed close, to go to any part of the strange
western world; and our hero, being in favor of it, may have been
required to turn the hesitating weight of opinion that way.
But if residence in the British dominion, near or far, was preferable,
some sort of recognition by the English government was necessary. This
was a hard thing to secure, yet King James finally gave a reluctant
verbal consent to their desired settlement in some remoter territory,
where they would afford him and his servile clericals the least
annoyance, while helping to establish the empire as respectable and
industrious citizens.
Royal toleration having been cautiously granted, the next task was to
secure financial patronage. It was a task indeed, yet the Pilgrims, as
these Separatist Puritans now called themselves, were happy in finding
not only creditors who risked loans for mercantile considerations
solely, but distinguished persons who were in sympathy with their
Christian zeal and purity, as Sir Robert Naunton, Secretary of State to
the King, and particularly Sir Edwin Sandys, a most worthy and
influential man. For three years, however, the business negotiations
dragged on, whose dreary details we will not rehearse, between the
Puritans with their friends on one side, and on the other the failing or
insecure London and old Plymouth colonial companies, the proffered Dutch
sponsors whose kindness nevertheless looked to the Hudson and New
Amsterdam, and finally the company of Merchant Adventurers, to whom the
enterprising but unscrupulous Thomas Weston introduced the Pilgrims. He
was useful to them in this crisis, because he procured their financial
backing and made possible the journey to America. This benefit Bradford
never forgot, despite all the falsehood, treachery, and ingratitude
which Weston developed, who almost caused the ruin of the undertaking
after he was weary of it and involved in difficulties through his
mismanagement.
The colonial plan was that the younger and more able of the Leyden
community should go overseas at first, to prepare the way for the
others; and it was well that Bradford and the most of his
fellow-voyagers had the advantage of youthful prime, for the stern days
of pioneering.
The parting from their friends, on the embarkation at Delft Haven, was a
sad experience, between the doubtful attractiveness of a distant savage
land and the fact that it was likely to be, as it proved, a final
leavetaking for many. Pastor Robinson, on his knees at the quay, poured
out fervent petitions for their comrades about to go, commending them to
divine protection. So affecting was the scene, that even the Dutch
strangers beholding were moved to tears. Our Forefather wrote concerning
this, "so they left the goodly and pleasant city, which had been their
resting-place near twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and
looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens,
their dearest country and quieted their spirits."
The Speedwell which conveyed them came in a few days to Southampton, to
find the Mayflower from London waiting for them, with their brethren of
England. Picture the youthful adventurers in their ardor to set forth as
pioneers to a land of comparative freedom. But the sailing was badly
delayed, to their weariness and loss, while they protested against
impossible terms of subservience to the Merchant Adventurers, who would
have deprived the prospective planters of their independence. Then a
hundred pounds extra was required "to clear things at their going away";
and to raise this amount they had to sell some of their provisions,
their leather for mending shoes, swords, muskets, much armor and various
things seemingly indispensable.
Before setting sail, a letter was received from Pastor Robinson, in
which he mingled encouragement and sound counsel, urging them to fortify
their souls by prayer, to preserve unity, exercise mutual patience and
forbearance in their close relationship, and to submit to their own
rules and chosen officers. Other wise advice was opportunely given,
which was well received and profitably followed.
About the middle of August the colonists launched forth. But their
relief on going was short, for, by enough evidence and subsequent
confession, the Speedwell was tampered with by her false and timorous
Captain Reynolds, so that the vessels put back to port for another
tedious period, eleven days, ostensibly for repairs. Starting a second
time, Reynolds' ship sprang a leak again, and though three hundred miles
out they were obliged to return. The creeping Speedwell was therefore
abandoned, her passengers and cargo transferred to the Mayflower
according to that larger ship's capacity; and after much kindness and
acceptable entertainment by certain friends at old Plymouth, the
Pilgrims, one hundred and two in number, ventured out the third time,
and not in vain. This was September 6, or 16 by New Style.
Mild weather and favoring winds were theirs at first, and the
equinoctial rudeness tarried till the voyagers were nearly halfway
across the Atlantic. Then they paid dearly for the wicked delays imposed
upon them, for a succession of storms soon broke upon them in October.
The west wind rushed upon them from the American north coasts, as if to
forbid their approach. The mariners were once more in doubt about
proceeding, as the upper works were strained, and a main beam amidships
had cracked and bent. But by means of a huge iron screw, it was restored
to position; and the discontented crew stood to their duty, since also
the western shore was about as near as England. Sometimes drifting under
bare poles over high seas, the top-heavy, overloaded vessel nevertheless
refused to founder, and late in October fair weather returned.
After dawn one November morning they sighted land, and recognized Cape
Cod, well known to previous mariners. This landfall was evidently the
Highlands of Truro. Steering south-west while well out, they encountered
the shoals off Chatham, at the elbow of the Cape, and resolved to
abandon the run under New England to the Hudson. Captain Jones
practically took the matter into his own hands, and conveyed the
sea-weary voyagers back and around the tip of the Cape, anchoring in the
nearest available harbor, at present Provincetown, on Saturday, November
21, New Style.
Bradford says that before entering the harbor, they drew up a compact as
"y^e first foundation of their governments in this place," to which he
and all the men of the incipient Colony affixed their signatures. This
classic document of essential democracy was a swift and prudent
precaution against insubordination, which a few ultra-independent souls
had threatened to show, declaring that on landing they would do as they
pleased, since in New England they were not under the authority of their
patent for Virginia. It was English territory, however, and in the
beginning of the statement they professed themselves "loyal subjects" of
King James. Better to have the protection of an unsympathetic sovereign
than to become the prey of a lawless and irresponsible anarchy. Thus
"before they came ashore," they secured themselves against despotism's
opposite extreme. It was a timely act, done on the day of debarkation.
The Mayflower boxed the compass, rounding the tip of the Cape and
feeling her way in the circular harbor there. The inner beaches are
shallow, and it seems even the longboat, though launched three-quarters
of a mile off, could not be brought near the strand. The men were
obliged to wade a bow-shot or two, landing at the insular Long Point,
toward the sea, and carrying back to the boat swamp-cedar, as fire-wood
aboard was gone. The exposure caused illness at this season, which with
later aggravations proved fatal to some. Bradford escaped the "lung
woe," but contracted an acute and critical form of rheumatism, or
confirmed it after the chilly discomforts of the bunks and the sweeping
gales of the voyage.
Yet despite this prolonged cold foot-bath in American brine, he records
that "being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land;
they fell upon their knees and blessed y^e God of heaven; who had
brought them over y^e vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from
all y^e periles and miseries thereof; againe to set their feete on y^e
firm and stable earth, theire proper element."
Though the Mayflower must have anchored before noon on Saturday, the
first full day after arrival was Sunday, and these Pilgrims strangers
had an opportunity to refresh themselves and prepare their souls for
the strenuous business ahead. Also throughout that initial week of life
in America, the weather was mellow and open. Several weeks were required
for repairing the colonists' shallop, which was a means of more delay in
the already very late season. But meanwhile, on the last Wednesday of
November an exploring party started out with Capt. Jones and some
seamen; and in the afternoon sixteen intending settlers followed, armed
and under command of Myles Standish, Masters Bradford, Hopkins and
Edward Tilley "being joined to him for council." They saw Indians, whom
they followed for several miles, but could not come up with them.
Finding much corn buried, they brought some of it to the ship and later
paid the natives for it, after using it for seed. But in this and
another trip on the narrow part of the Cape, they discovered no locality
which suited them for settlement.
As December came in, the protracted mildness changed to a sudden and
intense cold, the ground freezing to a foot's depth, wind and snow also
impeding their operations, while in the boats the congealed spray on
their coats looked like a covering of glass. To add to the awkwardness
of the situation, Capt. Jones threatened to put ashore the whole company
with their families and scanty possessions, and return to England at
once because of the late season and his diminishing food supply, unless
they succeeded in finding a place for habitation. At this juncture
Second Mate Coppin suggested that they look for a harbor somewhere
around in Cape Cod Bay, which he remembered visiting on a fishing
vessel. Accordingly, when December was now half through, ten of the
Pilgrims, including Bradford, went in their repaired shallop with eight
mariners, in search of that location, skirting the inner shores.
They camped the first night on the south of the Bay, building a
barricade of logs and boughs, as a shelter also against the wind, open
on one side with a fire in the centre. Their defense was useful, for
unawares they had come close to a settlement of Nauset Indians, a tribe
which had suffered cruelty at the hands of infamous Capt. Hunt who
kidnapped some of them and sold them abroad as slaves. Intent on
revenge, they approached within hearing of the English sentry, about
midnight; but on his raising the alarm, they made no attack then, and
the voyagers returned to their needed sleep, not being sure whether the
noise was caused by man or beast.
On awakening Friday morning, December 18, they united in prayer for
heavenly leading and protection, and encouraged one another. While
breakfast was preparing, some of them went down to put their muskets in
the shallop, but on the remonstrance of a few who retained their arms,
the rest were laid on the bank above the boat. They had no sooner
returned to their camp than they were startled by the ringing war-whoop,
and one of their own number came running from the woods, calling to
them, "Men, men! Indians, Indians!" A shower of arrows sought the
barricade, transfixing some of the hanging coats. Fortunately the
prudent four who had kept their weapons made good use of them, and some
who had armor donned it and with their swords accompanied their comrades
in a rush to the bank for the muskets, the Indians racing to intercept
them but in vain. The weapons carelessly left were now discharged with a
quieting effect, the savages soon retreating, without losses on either
side. To increase their fear, the colonists pursued them a little way,
shouting and firing. Then, thanking God for their deliverance, they
embarked and went up the west shore northward.
It was an uninviting coast. But Robert Coppin encouraged them in the
hope of reaching before dark that harbor he had visited, though these
were the shortest days of the year and thick weather was setting in
fast, followed by snow and rain in the afternoon, a south-east storm
rising. Their rudder broke under the strain, and two men were required
to steer with oars the heavy shallop, which someone has considered as
about thirty feet in length. It was shelterless, without deck or house.
Finally their pilot gave the cheering news that he could discern the
harbor. As the daylight was lessening and the tempest increasing, they
risked too much sail with the intention of clearing the rocks at the
entrance while they could see. Suddenly the overburdened mast snapped in
three pieces and the sail went overboard, nearly capsizing the little
vessel. Righting her quickly, and riding in by the oars with the tide
aiding, their guide, however, failed to recognize the place in the
deepening twilight. Trying to run ashore in the cove of Saquish, the
breakers were so huge and thunderous there, that a seaman, wisely
foreseeing disaster, protested and they turned away. But soon was heard
a gentler wash against some protected beach, to which the oarsmen
pulled. Grounding the keel, some of them gladly leaped out, feeling with
inexpressible relief the solid strand beneath their feet. The others,
remembering the encounter of early morning, remained in the shallop till
after midnight, when a bitter clearing wind drove them ashore to the
fire which their fellows had managed to kindle. There they all awaited
the dawn.
With the welcome day the north-west wind went down, and the sun added
its warmth to the fire. They were pleased to find themselves upon an
island, and they used that Saturday to dry out their soaked belongings
and prepare their muskets, while taking a good look at the harbor. On a
rock upon this Clarke's Island, are the words inscribed from their
record, "On the Sabboth day wee rested." And with grateful joy they held
their customary service, in the shelter of the boulder.
Monday they sounded the harbor, as Bradford relates, and found it fit
for shipping. Then they landed, bringing the boat by a large rock,
whence they could more conveniently step ashore. The place proved
uninhabited, but with desirable clearings, showing signs of rather
recent occupancy. Marching about, they discovered the various natural
advantages, including a number of brooks. They were satisfied that the
location would be suitable for settlement. So passed December 21, our
Forefathers' Day.
It was good news which this advance party brought back to the Mayflower,
and they all prepared to come to Plymouth, as they called it, because it
had already been so named by Captain John Smith a few years before; and
thus they also remembered the old Plymouth where they last beheld
England, and were kindly entertained.
Sad intelligence, however, awaited William Bradford. His wife Dorothy
May, doubtless oppressed with loneliness in his absence, perhaps
pensively and by herself looking for his return at the high stern's rail
near the ladies' cabins, in weariness and weakness might easily have
fallen asleep as in a rolling cradle, especially if seeking the relief
of the salt ozone after nausea. In such case losing her balance, she
fell overboard and was drowned, probably the stern's height making the
water's concussion sufficient to produce instantaneous unconsciousness.
On Christmas Day in our reckoning, the fifteenth in theirs, the
Mayflower set sail for Plymouth, but contrary winds beat her back to
her old anchorage. Next day, Saturday, the attempt was successful,
barely; for within half an hour after arrival an adverse gale sprang up
outside. But the sickle-shaped harbor held them safely. The long voyage
was ended at last, a few days before the second decade of the
seventeenth century closed.
It went out in a cold rain-storm, with the life of another Pilgrim, for
mortality had already commenced. Furious winds and driving rain, again
deep snow followed by bitter cold, with consequent increase of sickness,
hindered the colonists in their efforts to build log houses there in the
dead of winter.
New Year's Day, 1621, a tempestuous Friday, beheld a new-born babe, but
unbreathing; and the first Sabbath ashore witnessed the seventh death in
America, a toll of the dread Harvester which continued through all that
winter, until seven times seven and two more expired, or almost half
their whole company, while the Mayflower crew lost in the same
proportion of fifty per cent. The vessel was retained till April, not
only because adequate habitations could not be constructed soon enough
under such fearful circumstances, but because there were not enough
sailors in health to man the ship.
Only four of the eighteen wives were spared. Five of the children died,
yet fifteen survived. Bradford records concerning the survivors of this
perilous enterprise, in uncertain exile compelled by persecution, "of
these in the time of most distress, there was but six or seven sound
persons who, to their great commendations be it spoken, spared no pains,
night or day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health,
fetched them wood, made their fires, dressed their meat, made their
beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a
word did all the homely and necessary offices for them; and all this
willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least, showing
herein their true love unto their friends and brethren."
This first month of the year and of the Colony brought Bradford himself
a severe illness, in which an accident also threatened his life. A month
from the original Forefathers' Day "the common house" was completed,
where the workers slept and supplies from the ship were deposited. In
this building, small like the seven dwellings that followed, lay in
weakness Masters Carver and Bradford, one the Pilgrims' first Governor,
even from sea-faring days, the other soon to be his successor. Early one
Sunday morning the thatch roof caught fire and burned, though the house
underneath was saved. The occupants escaped, though not without grave
danger from explosion because of powder stored there.
The plan of the little village was laid out Januuary seventh. Its main
thoroughfare was simply called the Street, then, successively, First,
Great, and Broad Street; but as late as 1823 it took the name of
Leyden. On either side of it, less than a score of plots were set off
for the various families. The distribution was by lot, though larger
households received larger areas, according to the number of their
members. The whole tract was enclosed next year within a stout palisade,
about a mile in circuit, after signs of native hostility had made them
more watchful than ever. On the hill at the head of the street a wooden
fort was built, with which Bradford was said to be much pleased, as it
was comparatively large and imposing. On its flat roof ordnance was
installed, commanding the whole port. The interior was used for Sabbath
congregations, and was the most commodious place for any public
assembly.
Almost from the first they had heard now and then a strange clamor on
the outskirts, and occasionally they had caught sight of one or more
savages lurking about. Several attempts to hold a general meeting had
been prevented by the appearance of red men, including an agreeable
visit from Samoset, a chief from the north who had learned sufficiently
from English fishermen to enable him to converse with the Pilgrims and
give them much valuable information. And within a week from that, the
head of all the Old Colony tribes, Massasoit, came with about sixty men,
forty of whom tarried outside while he and the others approached unarmed
into the midst of ready firearms and within the secure walls of a house.
Here was offered and received the mutual covenant of a friendship that
proved lasting. Both contracting parties remained ever faithful to this
solemn treaty.
After the departure of Massasoit, the colonists held their first full
convention, choosing officers and making a few statutes such as were
then needed. John Carver, their excellent deacon and the senior of them
all, was re-elected Governor, to continue for one year, the regular time
limit adopted.
But the Mayflower had not long sailed away, in the middle of April,
before Carver succumbed to an early heat, as he toiled with his younger
comrades in their planting; and the messenger of death released him from
those initial responsibilities, which had weighed heavily upon him. His
obsequies were performed with appropriate dignity, the seaside
resounding with volleys discharged in his honor above the grave.
Then the reduced Colony assembled again, and voted to place William
Bradford in the office vacated by their worthy first leader.
III
THE GOVERNOR: EARLY DUTIES
_They are dead, God rest their souls, but their lives are still
the strength of ours.... Let us stand aside in silent veneration
of their heroic characters and achievements, and thank God who
strengthened them for labors we cannot even comprehend._
JANE G. AUSTIN, in "Standish of Standish."
_All great & honorable actions are accompanied with great
difficulties, and must be enterprised and overcome with
answerable courages._
WILLIAM BRADFORD.
The new executive was still handicapped by the weakness of convalescence
after his critical illness, though the election had been postponed till
he was better; and he was aided by Isaac Allerton, a colonist of means
and ability who was chosen as Governor's Assistant. At the chief
magistrate's request, five assistants were given him in 1624, and the
number was increased to seven in 1633 when his successor Edward Winslow
was elected, "Mr. Bradford having been governor about ten years, and
now by importunity got off," as Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony wrote in his manuscript history of New England. The
importunity was Bradford's, not the little Colony's; for he urged
rotation of office, saying of the appointment, "If it is any honor or
benefit, it is fit others should be made partakers of it; if it is a
burden (as doubtless it is), it is but equal others should help to bear
it, and this is the end of Annual Elections."
Consequently Thomas Prince, a later settler, was voted to this position
in 1634 and '38, and Mr. Winslow again in '36 and '44, three times in
all. After that, for thirteen consecutive springs, Mr. Bradford was
placed in the gubernatorial chair, and but for his decease then, he
would probably have continued long therein. As it was, he held the
office thirty full years. And in every instance when his request for a
successor was heard, the ballot made him chief of assistants, or Deputy
Governor. What clearer evidence could be furnished us, as to the
sentiment of the people, both in their small original company and as
numbers increased?
His administration exhibited a happy blending of his constitutional
mildness and moderation, combined with a firmness that could not be
shaken, a patience that would not wear out, and an optimistic hope that
was based upon his Christian faith. Offenders against the law and the
community's peace felt his determination, but no one was more ready to
pardon the humbled and restore to them the full privileges of
citizenship. In matters of diplomacy and difficult correspondence,
including delicate foreign relations, he was tactful yet insistent upon
principle, defending with a keen sense of justice the honor of the
colonial state. Conventional courtesies did not deceive him, where
opposition lay concealed; yet he modestly disowned sincere and merited
praise when he considered it unwarranted. Scrupulous not to exceed his
prerogatives, he was ready to surrender what some in his place would
have thought their proper rights. In a word, he did not hold his office
anxiously. To him it was not a prize, a dear object for ambition to gain
and shrewd policy to perpetuate, even when the Plymouth Colony grew in
size and dignity. He mentions his first election only, in particular,
adding "once for all," that he was returned "sundry years together."
There was indeed need for strength and calmness; and the unfailing
fortitude, coupled with a cool, clear foresight, gave assurance to the
people alike during sudden but transient alarms and prolonged periods of
impending disaster. Thus their confidence was not disappointed, but was
strengthened with every fresh proof. Others had the same high spirit,
for it was a noble democracy; but in all such situations courageous
leadership cannot fail to have a steadying effect upon the body politic.
America did not outgrow this need, and this benefit, in the later days
of Washington and Lincoln. It is not at all strange that in the
formative, we may say experimental years of New England, an
unpretentious but wise and kind administration should have been
gratefully appreciated and sustained, by the popular suffrage annually
accorded.
As an instance of Bradford's repeated defense of the Colony in its
course of action, this letter may suffice, which was addressed to Weston
in answer to the latter's complaint that the Mayflower carried a light
return cargo of pelts: