Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/80

 foundations of the colony. Five weeks were thus spent, and it was not till Monday, December 11th, O. S., or more correctly, the 21st of December, that this band of pioneers set foot on the far-famed Plymouth Rock. Remembering the kindness which they had received at Plymouth, in England, the name was bestowed upon the infant settlement.

The whole company were landed at this point, on the report of the exploring party, and they immediately set about erecting habitations to shelter them from the weather. A bold hill, commanding a look-out over the bay, offered a vantage ground for their fort, which was garnished with a few small pieces of ordnance; at its foot two rows of huts were laid out and staked—the habitations of nineteen families. The winter had now set in, with severity and sternness, and their labors at felling trees and constructing their rude habitations were carried on in the midst of constant storms of rain and sleet; already had the seeds of mortal disease been implanted; by privations and exposure to the rigor of the season, by wading through the icy water from the ship to the land, the strong man became weak as a child, and the delicate frame of woman sunk under the double pressure of mental anxiety and physical exhaustion. During this first winter they faded gradually away; and one of the first entries was the following:—"January 29, dies Rose, the wife of Captain. Standish." Bradford's wife had perished by drowning. But not to follow the melancholy chronicle of bereavements, suffice it to say, that during these three dreary months one half their number were cut off. That winter they had to form seven times more graves for the dead than habitations for the living. They were buried on the bank not far from the landing—a spot still to be venerated—and, lest the Indians should take courage to attack the survivors from their weakened state, the soil which covered the graves of their beloved relatives was carefully beaten down and planted with a crop of corn.

During the winter the colonists saw but little of the Indians, although they were not without occasional alarm. Early in the spring, when they were beginning again to have hope of success, an Indian one morning walked boldly into the village, and saluted them in tolerable English, "Welcome, Englishmen!" He was a sagamore or petty chief, named Samoset, and informed them that a great plague had recently raged among the Indians on these shores; this circumstance, leaving the country entirely open to settlement, is noted by the early New England historians, as a special providence in behalf of the infant colony. By means of Samoset and other friendly Indians, intercourse was opened, and finally a treaty of amity agreed upon with Massasoit, head chief of the Pokanokets or Wampanoags, who were immediate neighbors of the colonists.

Carver was reëlected governor, but died a few weeks after. Bradford was chosen his successor. The Mayflower set sail for England in April of this year; and the colonists, taking heart as the mild weather