Page:Columbus and other heroes of American discovery; (IA columbusotherher00bell).pdf/112

 in remembrance of the port in the south of England from which the little vessel had made her final start.

TOMB OF THE MATE OF THE "MAYFLOWER."

On Christmas Day, 1620, after the site for the erection of the first house of the new settlement had been chosen at a spot called by the Indians Patuxet, and christened Plymouth by the new-comers, the main body of the emigrants went on shore. Many are the traditions which have gathered round the rock—of which a portion is still shown to visitors—on which these founders of a great nation first set foot, and in all of them the names of the governor, Carver, and the military captain, Standish, stand out as those of men who were equal to every emergency. A dreary winter, with starvation and disease staring the settlers in the face at home, and hostile Indians hovering about in the outskirts of the little encampment, ready to take advantage of any sign of weakness, was succeeded by a somewhat brighter spring, and toward the end of March, 1621, as the leaders of the colony were discussing their future plans in full conclave, an incident occurred which inspired them with new hope of the successful realization of those plans.

A naked Indian suddenly stalked into the midst of the white men, and greeted them in their native tongue with the words, "Welcome, Englishmen!" "The sensation caused by this may be imagined. The Indian, who said his name was Samoset, was eagerly plied with questions, and told how he had been one of the men carried into slavery by Hunt, who, it will be remembered, had accompanied John Smith on his visit to Maine. After many vicissitudes, Samoset had got back to his native land, and, hearing from his comrades that some white men had settled at Patuxet, he had come to make their acquaintance, and to inquire if they came with peaceable intent or as man-stealers. Convinced that they were certainly not the latter,