CHAP. looked to the colonists for their supply. The interVIII. course between the Plymouth colony and the Indians soon assumed the character of commercial familiarity. The exchange of European manufactures for beaver and other skins, was almost the only pursuit which promised to be lucrative. The spot to which Providence had directed the planters, had, a few years before, been rendered entirely a desert by a pestilence, which had likewise swept over the neighboring tribes, and desolated almost the whole sea-board of New England. 1620. Where the Pilgrims landed, there were the traces of a previous population, but not one living inhabitant. 1621. Smokes from fires in the remote distance alone in 16. dicated the vicinity of natives. Miles Standish, “the best linguist" among the Pilgrims, as well as the best soldier, with an exploring party, was able to discover Feb. wigwams, but no tenants. Yet a body of Indians from abroad was soon discovered, hovering near the settlement, though disappearing when pursued. The 17. colony, therefore, assumed a military organization; and Standish, a man of the greatest courage, the devoted friend of the church, which he never joined, was appointed to the chief command. But dangers were not at hand. Mar. 16. One day, Samoset, an Indian who had learned a little English of the fishermen at Penobscot, boldly entered the town, and, passing to the rendezvous, exclaimed, in English, "Welcome, Englishmen." He belonged to the Wampanoags, a tribe which was destined to become memorable in the history of New England. In the name of his nation, he bade the strangers possess the soil, which there was no one of the original occupants alive to claim. After some THE OLD COLONY AND THE NATIVES. 317 VIII. 22. little negotiation, in which an Indian, who had been CHAP. carried away by Hunt, had learned English in England, and had, in an earlier expedition, returned to 1621. his native land, acted as an interpreter, Massasoit himself, the sachem of the tribe possessing the country north of Narragansett Bay, and between the rivers of Providence and Taunton, came to visit the Pil- Mar. grims, who, with their wives and children, now amounted to no more than fifty. The chieftain of a race as yet so new to the Pilgrims, was received with all the ceremonies which the condition of the colony permitted. A treaty of friendship was soon completed in few and unequivocal terms. The par ties promised to abstain from mutual injuries, and to deliver up offenders; the colonists were to receive assistance, if attacked; to render it, if Massasoit should be attacked unjustly. The treaty included the confederates of the sachem; it is the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in New England; it was concluded in a day, and, being founded on reciprocal interests, was sacredly kept for more than half a century. Massasoit desired the alliance, for the powerful Narragansetts were his enemies; his tribe, moreover, having become habituated to some English luxuries, were willing to establish a traffic; while the emigrants obtained peace, security, and the opportunity of a lucrative commerce. An embassy from the little colony to their new ally, July. performed, not with the pomp of modern missions, but through the forests and on foot, and received, not to the luxuries of courts, but to a share in the abstinence of savage life, confirmed the treaty of amity, and prepared the way for a trade in furs. The marks. of devastation from a former plague were visible CHAP. Wherever the envoys went, and they witnessed the extreme poverty and feebleness of the natives. VIII. 1621. Aug. The influence of the English over the aborigines was rapidly extended. A sachem, who menaced their safety, was himself compelled to sue for mercy; and Sept. nine chieftains subscribed an instrument of submission 18. to King James. The Bay of Massachusetts and harbor of Boston were fearlessly explored. Canonicus, the wavering sachem of the Narragansetts, whose territory had escaped the ravages of the pestilence, had 1622. at first desired to treat of peace. A bundle of arrows, 1623. wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake, was now the token of his hostility. But when Bradford stuffed the skin with powder and shot, and returned it, his courage quailed, and he desired to be in amity with a race of men whose weapons of war were so terrible. The hostile expedition which caused the first Indian blood to be shed, grew out of a quarrel, in which the inhabitants of Plymouth were involved by another colony. For who will define the limits to the graspings of Mar. avarice? The opportunity of gain by the fur-trade had been envied the planters of New Plymouth; and Weston, who had been active among the London adventurers in establishing the Plymouth colony, now desired to engross the profits which he already deemed secure. A patent for land near Weymouth, the first 1622 plantation in Boston harbor, was easily obtained; and a company of sixty men were sent over. Helpless at their arrival, they intruded themselves, for most of the summer, upon the unrequited hospitality of the people of Plymouth. In their plantation, they were soon reduced to necessity by their want of thrift; their injustice towards the Indians provoked hostility; 66 DISSOLUTION OF THE PARTNERSHIP. 319 VIII. and a plot was formed for the entire destruction of the CHAP English. But the grateful Massassoit revealed the design to his allies; and the planters at Weymouth 1623 were saved by the wisdom of the older colony and the intrepid gallantry of Standish. It was "his capital exploit." Some of the rescued men went to Plymouth; some sailed for England. One short year saw the beginning and end of the Weymouth plantation. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public," observes the childless Lord Bacon, with complacent self-love, "have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men." Weston's company, after having boasted of their strength, as far superior to Plymouth, which was enfeebled, they said, by the presence of children and women, owed their deliverance to the colony that had many women, children, and weak ones with them. to The danger from Indian hostilities was early removed; the partnership with English merchants occasioned greater inconvenience. Robinson and the rest of his church, at Leyden, were suffering from deferred hopes, and were longing to rejoin their brethren in America. The adventurers in England refused to provide them a passage, and attempted, with but short success, to force upon the colonists a clergyman more 1624 friendly to the established church; thus outraging at 1626 once the affections and the religious scruples of those whom they had pledged themselves to cherish. Divisions ensued; and the partners in England, offended by opposition, and discouraged at the small returns from their investments, deserted the interests of their associates in America. A ship was even despatched to rival them in their business; goods, which were sent for their supply, were sold to them CHAP. at an advance of seventy per cent. The curse of VIII. usury, which always falls so heavily upon new settlements, did not spare them; for, being left without help from the partners, they were obliged to borrow money at fifty per cent. and at thirty per cent. interest. At last, the emigrants themselves succeeded in purchasing the entire rights of the English adventurers; the common property was equitably divided, and agriculture established immediately and completely on the basis of private possessions. For a six years' monopoly of the trade, eight of the most enterprising men assumed all the engagements of the colony; so that the cultivators of the soil became really freeholders; neither debts nor rent day troubled them. The colonists of Plymouth had exercised selfgovernment without the sanction of a royal patent. Yet their claim to their lands was valid, according to the principles of English law, as well as natural justice. They had received a welcome from the abo1621. rigines; and the council of Plymouth, through the mediation of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, immediately issued a patent to John Pierce for their benefit. But the trustee, growing desirous of becoming lord pro1623. prietary, and holding them as tenants, obtained a new charter, which would have caused much difficulty, had not his misfortunes compelled him to transfer his rights to the company. When commerce extended to the Kennebec, a patent for the adjacent territory was 1633. easily procured. The same year, Allerton was again sent to London to negotiate an enlargement of both the grants; and he gained from the council of Pymouth concessions equal to all his desires. But it 1 Gorges' Description, 24. Briefe Narration, c. xxii. |