against any of them; yet this sudden and unexpected exe- CHAP. XL cution, together with the just judgment of God upon their guilty consciences, hath so terrified and amazed them, as in like manner they forsook their houses, running to and fro like men distracted, living in swamps and other desert places, and so brought manifold diseases amongst themselves, whereof very many are dead; as Canacum, the sachem of Manomet, Aspinet, the sachem of Nauset, and Ianough, sachem of Mattachiest. This sachem in his life, in the midst of these distractions, said the God of the English was offended with them, and would destroy them in his anger; and certainly it is strange to hear how many of late have died, and still daily die amongst them. Neither is there any likelihood it will easily cease; because through fear they set little or no corn, which is the staff of life, and without which they cannot long preserve health and strength. From one of these places a boat was sent with presents to the Governor, hoping thereby to work their peace; but the boat was cast away, and three of the persons drowned, not far from our plantation. Only one escaped, who durst not come to us, but returned; so as none of them dare come amongst ton's colony. Thus complete had been the victory of the Plymouth Fate of Wes colonists, accomplished by such slight and seemingly inadequate means. But what, meanwhile, had been the fate of the wretched band of adventurers whose crimes and folly had led to such results? The dishonest speculator—who had faithlessly sought by means of this plantation to secure for himself the gains which he had become bound long before to share with the Pilgrim Fathers who first sailed in the Mayflower-came shortly afterwards, disguised like a guilty coward, to learn of the prosperity of his new colony, "who being all able men, had boasted of their strength and what they would bring to pass, in comparison with the people at Plymouth, who had many women, children, and weak ones with them." But the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weak ones were still there, strong in their honest virtue and their simple trust in the good providence of God; but the settlement of Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 344. † Prince's New England Clironicles, vol. i. p 132. CHAP. XI. Wessagusset was utterly deserted and desolate. Some had been hanged by their comrades for their crimes, more had perished by the Indian's knife, or fled to escape just vengeance, and the few that survived were indebted for their safety to the hospitable shelter of their despised and cruelly wronged neighbours. Weston's knavery and deceit. Weston himself reached the shores of America, only to receive good at the hands of those on whom he had been the means of bringing so many evils; and he showed himself the worthy originator of such a band of profligate and faithless adventurers, as had been thus speedily cast out from New England. "Shortly after Mr. Weston's people went to the eastward," says Governor Bradford, "he comes there himself with some of the fishermen, under another name and the disguise of a blacksmith; where he hears the ruin of his plantation, and getting a shallop with a man or two comes on to see how things are; but in a storm is cast away in the bottom of the bay between Pascataquak and Merrimak river, and hardly escapes with his life. Afterwards he falls into the hands of the Indians, who pillage him of all he saved from the sea, and strip him of all his clothes to his shirt. At length he gets to Pascataquak, borrows a suit of clothes, finds means to come to Plymouth, and desires to borrow some beaver of us. Notwithstanding our straits, yet in consideration of his necessity, we let him have one hundred and seventy odd pounds of beaver, with which he goes to the eastward, stays his small ship and some of his men, buys provisions and fits himself, which is the foundation of his future courses; and yet he never repaid us any thing save reproaches, and became our enemy on all occasions."* The entire history of these rival settlements furnishes a most eloquent commentary on the true elements of a nation's strength. It seems as if a great experiment had been tried on the remote shores of New England, to demonstrate the fact that virtue and true piety are the surest elements of national greatness. 66 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it ; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." * Prince's New Englana Chronicles, voi. i. p. 134. CHAPTER XII. DESPONDENCY AND THANKSGIVING. Summer is come; for every spray now springs; Winter is worn, that was the flowers' bale LORD SURREY. RETURNING spring once more brought to the Pilgrim colo- CHAP. XII nists of New England fresh privations and sorrows. Their The third carefully husbanded stores, which would have sufficed for spring. their own frugal housekeeping, had been generously squandered on the thankless settlers of Weston's colony. They had encroached even on the stores for seed, in order to minister to their necessities; and when the month of April arrived, they were compelled to abandon all other labour in order to get the seed into the ground, though at the time they had none left to furnish bread for their present necessities, and were frequently compelled to betake themselves to the sea-shore, and gather the shell-fish cast up by the tide, as the only means of furnishing their table with a meal. During the previous seasons they had sown from the public stock, and gathered in a common harvest, but now it was resolved to adopt a method which should distinguish between the idle and industrious, and leave each family dependent on the exertions of its members. A portion of land was allotted to each individual,—land being reserved for the maintenance of public officers, fishermen, and others, whose services were demanded for the general good. Great drought. CHAP. XII. The colonists resumed the labours of the field with renewed energy and zeal. The ground was speedily prepared and sown with seed; the sun smiled above, and genial showers watered the earth, filling their hearts with thankfulness in the hopes of future plenty. So it continued till the close of May. But new trials awaited them. "It pleased God for our further chastisement," says Winslow, "to send a great drought; insomuch as in six weeks after the latter setting there scarce fell any rain; so that the stalk of what was first set began to send forth the ear, before it came to half growth, and that which was later was not like to yield any at all, both blade and stalk hanging the head, and changing the colour in such manner, as we judged it utterly dead. Our beans also ran not up according to their wonted manner, but stood at a stay, many being parched away, as though they had been scorched before the fire. Now were our hopes overthrown, and we discouraged, our joy being turned into mourning." of the colo nists Governor Bradford furnishes a most touching picture of Destitution the destitution of the colony at this period. The men were divided into companies of six or seven each, who by turns went out with their boat and nets, and returned not, says he, though five or six days out; knowing there was nothing at home. To add to their sorrow the colonists learned of abundant supplies that had been shipped for them many months before, and now the shattered remnants of a wreck which were drifted into the bay, seemed to the desponding Pilgrims to furnish undoubted evidence that their friends and their long expected stores had perished together in the storm. "God," says Winslow, "seemed to deprive us of all future hopes. The most courageous were discouraged, because He who had hitherto been our shield and supporter now seemed in his anger to arm himself against us, and who can withstand the fierceness of his wrath ?" But though thus cast down and despairing, they did not abandon the ancient stronghold of faith. Privately and unitedly they offered up earnest prayers to God, with solemn Day of fast- confessions of sin. A day of fasting and humiliation was appointed by public authority, and especially set apart for casting themselves as a people on the mercy and long-suffering goodness of God, who had so often proved himself a ing and humiliation. 66 very present help in time of trouble. Such incidents as CHAP. XIL this prove, more than any thing else could do, the nature of that vital principle by which the weak and apparently helpless band of exiles, cast on the desolate shores of New England, took root and established themselves, until they grew into a powerful state, which the Old World still regards with wonder and admiration; while numerous and powerful bodies of emigrants, sustained by the wealth of England, and furnished with annual supplies by her fleets, failed to leave behind them any enduring traces of the settlements they went forth to establish. The spirit of religious faith and humble trust in the overruling providence of God never forsook the Pilgrim Fathers, and was most strongly present in their minds as a vital principle of sustaining power in those dark hours of trial when all other hope seemed vain. This it was which enabled them to surmount the difficulties and dangers, before which the bands of England's most daring adventurers had quailed; and we shall best understand its nature by recording its manifestations in the language of the old Pilgrim's narrative. These and the like considerations," says Winslow, "moved not only every good man privately to enter into examination with his own estate between God and his conscience, and so to humiliation before Him, but also more solemnly to humble ourselves together before the Lord by fasting and prayer. To that end a day was appointed by public authority, and set apart from all other employments; hoping that the same God, which had stirred us up hereunto, would be moved hereby in mercy to look down upon us, and grant the request of our dejected souls, if our continuance there might any way stand with his glory and our good. But oh the Seasonable mercy of our God! who was as ready to hear, as we to ask; for though in the morning, when we assembled together, the heavens were as clear, and the drought as like to continue as ever it was, yet, (our exercise continuing some eight or nine hours,) before our departure, the weather was overcast, the clouds gathered together on all sides, and on the next morning distilled such soft, sweet, and moderate showers of rain, continuing some fourteen days, and mixed with such seasonable weather, as it was hard to say whether our withered corn or drooping affections were most quick rain. |