thatched with dried marsh-grass, or with the bark of trees. That each
man shall have so much of this thatching as he may need, the governor
and chief men of the village have set aside a certain portion of the
salt marsh nearby, where any one may go to reap that which is needed
for his own dwelling; but no more.
[Illustration]
In time to come, so father says, we shall have chimneys built of brick
or stone, for when our settlement is older grown some of the people
will, in order to gain a livelihood, set about making bricks, and
already has Governor Winthrop sent out men to search for limestone so
we may get mortar. But until that time shall come, we have on the
outside of our houses what are called chimneys, which are made of logs
plastered with clay, or of woven reeds besmeared both as to the
outside and the inside with mud, until they are five or six inches
thick.
GUARDING AGAINST FIRES
It needs not for me to say that these chimneys are most unsafe, for
during our first winter in this new town of Boston, hardly a week
passed but that one or another caught fire; and among the first laws
which our people passed was one providing for the appointment of
firewardens, who should have the right, and be obliged, to visit every
kitchen, looking up into the chimneys to see if peradventure the
plastering of clay had been burned away.
Because of the number of these fires, and the likelihood that they
would continue to visit us frequently, another law was made, obliging
every man who owned a dwelling of logs to keep a ladder standing
nearby, so that it might be easy to get at the thatched roof if the
flames fastened upon it; and, as soon as might be, iron hooks with
large handles were made to be hung on the outside of the buildings,
for the purpose of tearing off the thatch when it was burning.
It has also been decided that when we have a church, as we count on
within a year, a goodly supply of ladders and buckets shall be kept
therein for the use of the entire town, and then, when a fire springs
out, our people will know where to go for tools with which to fight
against it.
OUR OWN NEW HOME
It must not be supposed that because of our dwellings being unsightly
on the outside, they are rough within, for such is not the case. Many
of the settlers, as did father, brought over glass for the windows,
therefore we are not forced to put up with oiled paper, as are a great
many people living in this New World.
It was partly the dampness inside our homes, so Governor Winthrop
believed, which caused the sickness in Charlestown, and therefore it
was that my father insisted we should have a floor of wood, instead of
striving to get along with bare ground which had been beaten hard. Our
floor is made of planks, roughly hewn, it is true, but nevertheless it
serves to keep our feet from the ground. We have on the door real iron
hinges, instead of leather, or the skins of animals, as we saw in
Salem.
Save for the roughness of the floor and the walls, the inside of my
father's house is much the same as we had in England, for he, like all
of Governor Winthrop's company who were able to do so, brought over
the furnishings of the old home, and while some of the things look
sadly out of place here, they provide us with a certain comfort which
would have passed unheeded in the other country, because there we were
not much better off in this world's goods than were our neighbors.
[Illustration]
Here, when I see a table made only of rough boards spread upon
trestles, I can get much pleasure out of the knowledge that we brought
with us those tables which we had been using in England, and, when our
dinner is spread, save for the difference in the food, I can well
fancy myself in the old home. We have our ware of pewter and of
copper, and our trencher bowls are of the best that can be hewn from
maple knots.
In order that the walls and crevices, filled with moss and plastered
over with clay, may not offend the eye, mother has put up all the
hangings which she brought with her, and these, with some skins my
father bought at Salem, hide entirely that which is so unsightly in
other dwellings.
Contrasting our home with many which we saw in Salem, or in
Charlestown, I am come to believe my lines are truly cast in pleasant
places, and I strive to be thankful to God for having given me the
father which I have.
THE FASHION OF THE DAY
I am afraid it may be almost sinful for me so to set my mind upon the
garments which one wears, and yet I cannot but contrast my father with
some of the common men in the village.
The ruff which he wears around his neck is always well starched,
clean, and stands out in beautiful proportions. On his low, peaked
shoes, mother ever has fixed rosettes, or knots made of ribbon. His
doublet, which is gathered around the waist with a silken belt, is
slashed on the sleeves to show the snowy linen beneath. His trunk
hose, meaning those which reach from his waist to his knees, are of
the finest wool. His stockings, when he is dressed to meet with the
Council, are of silk, while his mandilion, or cloak, is always of silk
or velvet.
[Illustration]
Perhaps one may think such attire hardly befitting a wild place like
this, yet I know of nothing which serves to set off a man's figure,
making him seem of importance in the world, better than that he be
clad with due regard to the fashion of the day. Master Winthrop would
not present the gentlemanly appearance which he does if he wore, as do
the common people here, a band, or a flat collar with cord and
tassels, breeches of leather, and a leather girdle around his waist.
If he had, as do they, heavy shoes with heels of wood, or if his
clothing were fastened together with hooks and eyes, instead of silken
points, and if his hat were of leather, would we be pleased to call
him Governor?
My mother often says that it is unseemly in a child like me to speak
of the clothing worn by gentlemen, and yet I have noticed often and
again, that she is as careful of my father's attire when he goes out
of doors as she was at home in England, where all gentlemen were
dressed becomingly.
Verily one need not go abroad in tatters, or oddities, simply because
of having come into this New World, where much of work is required,
and he who cares for his personal appearance, to my way of thinking,
is to be given due credit.
Surely so the Massachusetts Bay Company thought, for they furnished to
every man who came from England to settle here, save it be those who
could afford such things for themselves, four pairs of shoes and the
same number of stockings; four shirts; two suits of doublet, and hose
of leather lined with oiled skin; a woolen suit, lined with leather,
together with four bands and two handkerchiefs, a green cotton
waistcoat, two pairs of gloves, a leather belt, a woolen cap and two
red knit caps, a mandilion lined with cotton, and also an extra pair
of breeches. Of course such an outfit was for the common people, not
the gentlefolk.
[Illustration]
In our company, the boys are clothed exactly as are their fathers, and
many of them present a most attractive appearance, although my mother
would not think it proper for me to say so, much less to put it down
in writing.
MY OWN WARDROBE
It surely cannot be wrong for me to think of that which I wear, for if
the good Lord has given me a comely body, why shall I not array it
properly? Or if it be wrong, why did my father buy for me those
things, a list of which I am here setting down, not from vanity, but
simply to show how kind were my parents?
I had a cap ruffle and a tucker, the lace of which cost five shillings
a yard; eight pairs of white kid gloves, with two pairs of colored
gloves, two pairs of worsted hose and three pairs of thread, a pair
of laced silk shoes, and a pair of morocco shoes, not to speak of four
pairs of plain Spanish shoes, or two pairs made of calf-skin for every
day use; a hoop coat and a mask to wear when the wind blows too
roughly, and a fan for use when the sun is hot. Susan had two
necklaces, one of garnet and one of jet; but I had only garnets. Then
I have a girdle with a buckle of silver; a mantle and coat of
lutestring; a piece of calico to be made up when mother has time; four
yards of ribbon for knots or bows, and one and one-half yards of best
cambric. All these were bought especially for me when we left home,
and surely it can be no sin that I take pride in them.
MASTER JOHNSON'S DEATH
It was shortly after coming to this town of Boston that we heard of
the death of Master Johnson, Lady Arabella's husband. A friendly man
was he, ever ready with a kindly word for us children, and we would
have mourned his loss much more, but for knowing that it pleased him
right well to go out of this world of sorrow, that he might join his
wife in God's country.
Susan and I had hoped we should hear of no more deaths among those we
cared for, after having come into this last place of abode, and the
news of Master Johnson's taking away caused her superstitious fears to
break out anew; but I reminded her that we were in God's keeping,
whatsoever might befall, and that for us to look forward into the
morrow, searching for evil, was the same as an injustice to our Maker,
who would do toward us whatsoever seemed good in His sight.
As I look back now upon the time when our town of Boston first came
into being, I can understand how well it is for us that we may not
read the future. Had we at that time, when the winter was coming on,
known how much of sorrow and of suffering was in store for us, before
the earth would be freed from its bonds of ice, then I believe of a
verity we must have given up in despair.
However, it is not for me to look ahead even in this poor attempt at
setting down what we did in the new land. Rather let me go back to our
home life, and tell somewhat concerning the odd dishes which were
frequently set on our table.
MANY NEW KINDS OF FOOD
There is little need for me to say that we had lobsters in abundance,
and of such enormous size that one was put to it to lift them. I have
heard it said that twenty-pound weight was not unusual, and whosoever
might could catch, in traps made for the purpose, all the lobsters he
would.
[Illustration]
As for other fish, I can not set down on one page of this paper, the
many kinds with which the housewife might provide herself for a
trifling sum of money. We often had eels roasted, fried, or boiled,
because of father's being very fond of them, and mother sometimes
stuffed them with nutmegs and cloves, making a dish which was not to
my liking, for it was hot to the tongue.
Some of the good wives in Salem had shown my mother how to prepare
nassaump, which those who first came to Salem learned from the Indians
how to make: It is nothing but corn beaten into small pieces, and
boiled until soft, after which it is eaten hot, or cold, with milk or
butter.
Nookick is to my mind more of a dainty than a substantial food, and
yet father declares that on a very small quantity of it, say three
great spoonfuls a day, a man may travel or work without loss of
strength. It is made by parching the Indian corn in hot ashes, and
then beating it to a powder. Save for the flavor lent to it by the
roasting, I can see no difference between nookick, and the meal made
from the ground corn.
Mother makes whitpot of oat meal, milk, sugar and spice, which is much
to my taste, although father declares it is not unlike oatmeal
porridge such as is eaten in some parts of England; but it hardly
seems to me possible, because of one's not putting sugar and spice
into porridge.
We often have bread made of pumpkins boiled soft, and mixed with the
meal from Indian corn, and this father much prefers to the bread of
rye with the meal of corn; but the manner of cooking pumpkins most to
my liking, is to cut them into small pieces, when they are ripe, and
stew during one whole day upon a gentle fire, adding fresh bits of
pumpkin as the mass softens. If this be steamed enough, it will look
much like unto baked apples, and, dressed with a little vinegar and
ginger, is to me a most tempting rarity. But we do not often have it
upon the table because of so much labor being needed to prepare it.
Yokhegg is a pudding of which I am exceedingly fond, and yet it is
made of meal from the same Indian corn that supplies the people
hereabout with so much of their food. It is boiled in milk and
chocolate, sweetened to suit one's taste after being put on the table,
and while to English people, who are not accustomed to all the uses
which we make of this wheat, it may not sound especially inviting, it
most truly is a toothsome dainty.
[Illustration]
The cost of setting one's table here is not great as compared with
that in England, for we may get a quart of milk by paying a penny, or
a dozen fat pigeons, in the season, for three pence, while father has
more than once bought wild turkeys, to the weight of thirty pounds,
for two shillings, and wild geese are worth but eight pence.
THE SUPPLY OF FOOD
The season had come when, if we had been in England, the people would
have been gathering the harvest; but here we had none, having come so
late in the year that there was no time to plant, and, consequently,
we had no crops.
I had never before realized how necessary it is for people that the
earth shall yield in abundance; but I came to know it now right well
through hearing father, as he talked with mother regarding the fears
which the chief men of the colony had concerning the supply of food.
Of course, girls such as Susan and I would not have been likely to
learn anything of the kind, save that matters had come to such a pass
as made the situation serious, in which case it was no more than
natural we should hear our parents talking about it.
It seems, from what I learned, that a portion of the provisions
brought from England were spoiled during the voyage, and also, that
many of our people had taken with them no more than enough to sustain
life for a month or two, believing that in this New World food of all
kinds would be found in abundance.
Then again, many had bartered provisions, which they should have kept
for the winter use, with the Indians in exchange for beaver skins,
thinking thereby to make much money. So general had this traffic
become, that early in September the Governor gave strict orders
against it, and it was also ordered that no person in the town be
allowed to carry out therefrom anything eatable.
But yet the store of food grew smaller and smaller, for there were
many mouths to feed, and it seemed as if we children were more often
hungry because of knowing that there was little to be had.
Susan reminded me of what she was pleased to call the "omen," when it
was as if the first of our duties in the New World had been to bury
two members of the company, and as the days wore on I began really to
believe it a sin to harbor such thoughts.
As it had been in Charlestown, so did it come to be here in Boston,
when the rains of autumn set in.
Many of the dwellings had not been built with due regard to sheltering
those who were to live therein, and because of the dampness--although
mother says it was owing quite as well to the homesickness and gloom
which came upon us when the leaves in the forest turned brown, and
yellow, and golden in token of the dying year--the people sickened.
However it was, much of sickness prevailed among us in Boston, until
the time came when my father and mother, to both of whom God had
allowed good health, were absent from home day after day, nursing
those of our neighbors who were unable to aid themselves.
[Illustration]
THE SAILING OF THE "LYON"
It seemed at this time as if the Lord had set His face against the
rearing of a nation in this new land, which he had given to the brown
men for their homes, and Susan and I were not the only ones who came
to believe we were offending Him in some way by thus having come here.
Then Governor Winthrop caused it to be known throughout the town that
he had hired Captain Pierce, of the ship _Lyon_, which was then in
Salem Harbor, to go with all haste to the nearest town in England,
there to get for us as much of food as could be bought.
This news cheered the people somewhat, for now was the season when the
winds blew strong, and it was believed the ship would have speedy
passage. Indeed, some of the women declared she must return before the
middle of October, and said so much concerning such possibility, that
in time they came to believe it true. Therefore, when the month of
October had nearly passed, their disappointment was great, and they
were more despondent than at first.
THE FAMINE
[Illustration]
Each day saw the store of provisions in the town grow smaller. Every
family husbanded that which could be eaten, with greatest care,
putting no more on the table than was absolutely necessary for a
single meal, and those things which we had considered dainties, were
no longer prepared.
Then came the Angel of Death, and man after man, woman after woman,
laid themselves down to die, not from being starved, but, so Governor
Winthrop declared, from having sickened through scurvy, which had come
upon them during the voyage, after which, falling into discontent and
giving way to home-sickness, they no longer struggled to live.
Before October had come to an end, food was so scarce in Boston that
the poorer people had nothing save acorns, clams, and mussels to eat.
During the summer it had seemed as if the sea were actually filled
with fish, and yet now, when every boat that could be found in the
town and nearby had been sent out, it was difficult for our men to
take even fifty pounds weight in a day.
As Susan said, even the fish forsook us, as the clams and mussels
would have done had they legs or fins.
The fowls of the forest also appeared to have departed, and by
November the most any family could boast of was meal boiled in salt
and water. In more happy days I would have turned up my nose at such
food, and yet now it was like unto some sweet morsel, for so scanty
had our store become that my mother would cook for each meal no more
than half as much as we could have eaten.
I have heard father say that for a bushel of flour which had been
brought from England, he paid in those dark days fourteen shillings,
and there was so little of it even at such price, that mother saved
what store we had that it might be made into gruel, or something
dainty, which the sick could keep upon their stomachs.
THE SEARCH FOR FOOD
Then it was that our pinnace was made ready for a voyage, and with
five of the strongest men on board, was sent along the coast to trade
with those Indians who called themselves Narragansetts, taking with
them everything in the way of trinkets which was in the general store,
or could be gathered up from among the housewives.
[Illustration]
Great was our rejoicing, five days later, when the men came back,
bringing with them an hundred bushels of Indian corn. This seemed like
a large amount of food, and yet, so many were the mouths to be fed
from it, it was, so father said, scarce enough to hold life in our
bodies three days, if so be it had been divided equally among all.
Father told us that three men, who were of the poorer people, had
walked all the way from Boston town to Plymouth; but even there, where
a harvest had been gathered, they could get no more than one
half-bushel of meal made from Indian corn.
It was a time of famine such as I pray God we may never know again. In
my home, until these dreary days, there had been no scarcity of food,
and yet again and again did I save a crust of rye bread, thinking it a
dainty to be nibbled upon slowly so that I might have longer the
pleasure of eating.
THE STARVATION TIME
It was as if the ship _Lyon_, on whose return a few weeks before we
had counted so hopefully, was gone, never to come back.
Even the children watched the direction of the winds, saying on this
day that it was a favoring one if the _Lyon_ were on her course for
Boston, and on the morrow mourning because of the breeze being
against her.
Yet she came not, nor did we hear aught concerning her, or any other
from the world beyond us.
We were alone in what was much the same as a wilderness, and all those
around upon whom we had counted to aid us in time of distress were in
nearly the same dismal straits as were we.
Even the Indians declared that they were hard pressed for something to
eat, and more than once did they come in twos or in threes to beg from
us who were starving, something that could be eaten.
Susan and I, as we sat clasped in each other's arms hungry, and pining
for the home over-seas which we had left, came to fancy that the
famine which held possession of the land was like unto some terrible
monster who hung above us as a cloud, settling slowly but surely day
after day, until the hour would come when his terrible fangs would be
securely fastened upon us.
During the month of January the deaths through scurvy, if that indeed
were the cause, grew less; but all believed that in the stead of being
removed by disease, our people were slowly perishing from starvation.
All the food in Boston was brought together, and portioned out, so
that no one, whether he had of money, or was penniless, should suffer
more than another. And yet again and again in the night have I been
awakened by the gnawing of hunger in my stomach.
[Illustration]
With the beginning of January, Governor Winthrop appointed a day on
which we should all fast and pray, as if indeed we had been doing
other than fasting throughout the long, dreary winter. On this day
every man, woman, and child in Boston town was to spend his or her
time in praying to the Lord to deliver us from our affliction.
We no longer hoped for the coming of the _Lyon_. Surely she must have
been destroyed by the tempest, otherwise had we seen her before this,
for nearly five months had gone by since she left Salem Harbor.
A DAY TO BE REMEMBERED
It was on the fifth day of February, which is the same as if I had
said Saturday, and the fast was to be kept on the next Thursday. Susan
had come to my home on Friday night to sleep in my bed with me, so
that we might have such poor comfort as could be found in each other's
company when we were nigh to starving.
She had awakened before the day dawned on this Saturday morning, which
will be remembered by me so long as the Lord permits that I live, and
moaned in distress because of the desire for food, until I opened my
eyes, fretting because of not being allowed to sleep yet longer, for
while I slumbered the pangs of hunger were not known.
Seeing me awake, Susan began to speak of the fast day on the following
Thursday, saying that if we had no food whatsoever during the
twenty-four hours, at a time when we were so near to starvation,
surely would we die, and she was going back to what she called the
omens, which came to us shortly after we arrived, when we were
startled by a loud shouting in the street next beyond, where could be
had a view of the sea.
THE COMING OF THE "LYON"
Dimly, like one in a dream, for there was no thought in my mind this
might be a signal that our time of trial was come to an end, I
wondered how it was that any in this famine-stricken Boston of ours
could raise their voices as if in joy, until I heard father cry out
from the living-room below:
"The _Lyon_ has arrived! The _Lyon_ has arrived!"
[Illustration]
It might be that I could give you, by the aid simply of words, some
faint idea of how we suffered during the time of starvation, of
sickness, and of death; but it is impossible for me to set down that
which shall picture the heartfelt rejoicings and fervent thanksgiving
that were ours at thus knowing we were soon to have enough with which
to drive death from our doors.
It was a time of the wildest excitement. I hardly know what Susan and
I did or said on that day, save that we dressed hurriedly, running
down to the very shore of the cove, finding there nearly every person
in Boston, and stood with the water lapping our feet as we watched the
oncoming of the ship which was bringing relief.
Never before had I thought a vessel could be beautiful; but I have not
seen a fairer sight than was the _Lyon_ on that morning, and before
night came, our stomachs, which had been crying out in distress
because of lack of food, were groaning through being overly well
filled.
The time of famine had passed, at least for this season, and it was as
if the sick began to gain new life, and health, and strength, simply
through knowing that we were no longer in such dire straits.
ANOTHER THANKSGIVING DAY