They never repented of having left their comfortable houses at Leyden, or reproached Heaven for their afflictions; but, full of faith in God's mercy and of hope in themselves, they endured patiently hunger, cold, and sickness, waiting for the better time to

come.

When the chief of a savage tribe of Indians sent a bundle of arrows wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin to Plymouth-which was the Indian way of declaring war-the Governor, WILLIAM BRADFORD, an undaunted man, filled the skin with gunpowder and balls and sent it back. They say that the Indians fancied these balls and powder were fatal charms, and were frightened by them. But I think it very likely that the bold face and firm voice of William Bradford and the other pilgrims had something to do with their fright. At all events, the Indians thought better of the matter and made no attack.

Massasoit was always friendly. He fell ill, and WINSLOW, One of the pilgrims, went to see him. He found the chief surrounded by strange fellows of his own tribe, who called themselves pow-wows, and fancied they could cure diseases by screeching and howling, and wriggling their bodies in a ridiculous manner. When Winslow saw this, he took the powwows by the shoulders and pushed them out of the wigwam; then kneeling beside the sachem, gave him medicine and soon cured him.

Massasoit was so grateful for this that he revealed to Winslow a plot that had been formed among the Indians to surprise and massacre a party of white men who had settled in Massachusetts Bay at a place

they called Weymouth. These Weymouth settlers were not pilgrims; and it is said they had behaved badly to the Indians, robbing them of their corn and plundering their villages. But still they were white men, and the colony at Plymouth could not allow them to be butchered.

So a messenger was sent in great haste to Weymouth to warn the settlers of their danger; and Captain MILES STANDISH- a little man, but very fiery and courageous-was dispatched with eight others to give battle to the Indians. They soon found them, full of threats and boasts, and sharpening their weapons for the proposed massacre. Little Miles Standish was quicker than they, however; for seizing his opportunity he rushed upon the leader, killed him with a single blow of a knife, and his comrades dispatched two others. This bold act terrified the Indians; they ran away, and Miles Standish stuck the head of the dead Indian on a pole, and carried it back to Plymouth. Thus the settlers were saved, and the Indians taught to fear the white men.

When the news of the exploit reached Leyden, that good man, John Robinson, whose heart was always with the pilgrims, wrote out to them: "Oh, how happy a thing it would have been that you had converted some before you had killed any!"

In the fourth year after the arrival of the pilgrims, they obtained cattle from England, many of their friends from Leyden joined them, more houses were built, a fort was erected for protection against the Indians, and each man planted a certain quantity of corn. The settlement at Plymouth began to look

cheerful, and instead of starving, the pilgrims were able to give corn to the Indians in exchange for furs, and to relieve many of their distressed countrymen, who came to settle on the shores of New England.

By degrees, little trading and fishing posts sprung up all along the coast. But of all the Englishmen who built themselves log-cabins on the shores, and cleared the woods, and hunted game, and planted corn, there were none so brave, or so persevering, or so manly as the stout old pilgrim fathers of Plymouth.

VOL. I-D

CAPTAI

CHAPTER IV.

APTAIN JOHN SMITH, of whom you have heard so much, had a friend named HENRY HUDSON, a bold mariner like himself, who accompanied him on his first voyage to Virginia. This Henry Hudson, after his return home, fell athinking of what he had seen, and began to fancy that Columbus was right after all, and that there must be an opening or passage somewhere in the continent of America through which ships could pass, and so take a short cut to China and the East Indies. He went about telling every one this must be the case, and finding plenty of people to believe him; for there were no maps of America at that time, and no one knew that the land stretches from the regions where the ice never melts to the straits of Magellan, far away in the south.

But when Hudson asked the people to whom he told his story to give him money to fit out a ship to find this passage, they one and all buttoned up their pockets, and said they had none to spare.

Then Hudson crossed over to Holland, and tola the same things there. At that time the Dutch were a great nation. Their ships were on every sea, their cities were among the finest in Europe, their merchants rolled in wealth, their sailors were the boldest in the world. The idea of being the first to

discover the new passage to China was quite to their taste, and without delay they gave Hudson a yacht called the HALF MOON, with which he set sail for America.

In due time the Half Moon came in sight of land, and coasted along the shore in search of the opening that was to lead to China. After much sailing, Hudson was sure he had found the inlet he was in search of. His ship lay at the place now called Sandy Hook. He sailed into the bay (which is now the Bay of New York) and saw, as he says, both shores "pleasant with grass, and flowers, and goodly trees, and very sweet smells came from them." Indians in canoes paddled out to meet him, and sold him oysters, and beans, and corn; and though some of them one evening took a fancy to shoot arrows at the Dutch vessel, and killed one of the sailors, most of the natives seemed glad to see the white men.

Passing Staten Island and New York-which were then wild and covered with wood-Hudson advanced up the river which bears his name till it became so shallow that the Half Moon could proceed no further. He then saw that this could not be the passage to China, and returned the way he came.

On his way to Holland he touched at Dartmouth, in England, and the English, who by this time had repented of losing so bold a sailor, would not allow him to leave them again. They fitted him out a ship, and he sailed away, for the fourth time in his adventurous life, always with the old idea of finding a passage to China.

This time he found his way into Hudson's Bay-