The Pilgrims land at Plymouth.

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"The bay is a most hopeful place, with innumerable fowls and fish. The 18th they continued to explore the country, well pleased. "The 20th of December, after landing and viewing the places again as well as they could, they came to a conclusion, by most voices, to settle ou the main land, on the high ground, which had been planted with corn, three or four years before, where is a sweet brook and many delicate springs of good water." This night they remained on shore, twenty in number. But a storm rising, it was so tempestuous for two days, that there was no intercourse between the people on shore and those in the vessel.

Saturday the 23d, they began to cut timber and provide materials for building. This business found them employment, when the weather would permit, till about the 19th of February. The single persons united with the families, which were nineteen in all. Each family built its own cottage; but they all engaged in building a store house twenty feet square, for common use. From the time of their arrival on the coast till the day of their permanent landing, the weather was unusually stormy and severe. The men, who were employed in exploring the harbours to find the best place for settlement, were exposed to extreme hardships from watchings and fastings, wet and cold. Here we find one cause of the mortal sickness which afterwards prevailed. During the month of December, six of their number died, and many others sickened of grievous colds, of which they never recovered.

On the Lord's day, the 31st of December, they, for the first time, attended public worship on shore, and named the place PLYMOUTH, partly because the harbour had been so named by Captain Smith, and partly from gratitude for the kind treatment they had received at Plymouth, the last port from which they sailed in England. The rock on which they first stepped has been divided, and one part of it placed in the centre of the town, where it is known by the name of "Forefather's Rock."

The anniversary of their landing has been observed by their immediate descendants at Plymouth, as a religious festival. A discourse is delivered adapted to the occasion; after public worship, more forcibly to impress their minds with the circumstances of their meritorious forefathers, clams, fish, ground ntus, and victims from the forest, constitute a part of their grateful repast. For a number of years the same anniversary

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Roaring of Lions supposed to be heard.

has been celebrated in Boston by the descendants of the Plymouth pilgrims, and others. Here too the festal board dis plays the style of other times: treasures which had been hidden in the sand, and game from the woods mingle with other provisions of the table. It is a festival rational, and happy in its tendency. It reminds the guests of the virtues and sufferings of their fathers; by a comparison of circumstances it excites transports of gratitude, elevates the affections, and mends the heart.

On the 12th of January, John Goodman and Peter Brown, walking into the woods to gather thatch, lost themselves; after wandering all the afternoon they were obliged, though slenderly clothed, to make the ground their bed; it snowed, and the cold was severe. Their distress in the night was increased by hearing, as they supposed, three lions roaring; one of which they thought was very near them. In their terror they resolved to climb a tree, though an intolerably cold lodging place. They stood ready to ascend when the lions. should come, and continued walking round the tree all night, which probably saved their lives. In the afternoon, from a hill, they saw the islands in Plymouth harbour, and in the evening reached their friends, fainting with hunger and cold. Goodman's feet were so frozen that they were obliged to cut off his shoes. Not only these, but many of the first settlers imagined they heard lions roar. The wolf is not known in England, and it is not strange they should mistake his howlings for the roaring of a lion, which was also a creature unknown to them. Wood says, "I will not say that I ever saw lions myself, but some affirm they have seen a lion at Cape Ann. Some, likewise, being lost in the woods, have heard such terrible roarings as have made them much aghast, which must be either lions or devils, there being no other creatures, which use to roar."

In February they had time to arrange their military concerns. MILES STANDISH was chosen Captain, and received authority to command in military affairs. The 3d of March they found that the winter was past, "the birds sung in the woods most pleasantly," it thundered, and there was a steady rain. For this climate, the winter, providentially, had been remarkably mild. Still it was a dismal winter to them. Never did human beings suffer more, nor display greater fortitude and christian magnanimity.

The whole company that landed consisted of but one hun

Sufferings of the Pilgrims.

dred and one souls; their situation was distressing, and their prospects truly dismal and discouraging. Their nearest neighbours, except the natives, were the Dutch settlers at Albany and Bergen, a French settlement at Port Royal, and one of the English at Virginia; the nearest of these was two hundred miles from them, and utterly incapable of affording them any relief in a time of famine or danger. Wherever they turned their eyes, distress was before them. Persecuted for their religion in their native land; grieved for the profanation of the holy sabbath, and other licentiousness in Holland; fatigued by their long and boisterous voyage; disappointed, through the treachery of their commander, of their expected country; forced on a dangerous and inhospitable shore in the advance of a cold winter; surrounded with hostile barbarians, without any hope of human succour in case of an attack; denied the aid or favour of the court of England; without a patent; without a public promise of a peaceable enjoyment of their religious liberties; worn out with toil and sufferings; without convenient shelter from the rigour of the weather. Such was the situation, and such the prospects of these pious solitary christians. And to add to their distresses, a general and very mortal sickness prevailed among them, which swept off forty-six of their number, before the opening of the next spring. Some part of the time two and three died in a day. At times there were not five well enough to nurse the sick. To support them under these trials, they had need of all the aids and comforts which christianity affords, and these were sufficient. The free and unmolested enjoyment of their religion reconciled them to their humble and lonely situation. They bore their hardships with unexampled patience, and persevered in their pilgrimage of almost unparalleled trials, with such resignation and calmness, as gave proof of great piety, and unconquerable virtue. Immediately after landing, they began to lay out the town into streets, and lots, and to erect buildings for their accommodation. They first erected a store house with a thatched roof, in which they deposited, under a guard, their whole stock of ammunition and provisions. On the 14th of January, the thatched roof of the store house accidentally caught fire, and was consumed; but by the timely exertions of the people, the lower part of the building with its contents, which were indispensable to the support of the infant colony, was preserved.

On the 3d of November, 1620, King James, being informed

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Charter of King James.

that an extensive country in America had lately been depopu lated by a mortal sickness, and that no part of it was then inhabited by the subjects of any christian prince, and being desirous to advance the christian religion, and extend the boundaries of his own dominions, signed a patent, incorporating the Duke of Lenox, the Marquisses of Buckingham and Hamilton, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, Sir Francis Gorges, with thirty-four others and their successors, styling them," The council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing, of New England in America." To this council he granted all that part of America which lies between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude. They were invested with powers of jurisdiction over the country, and authorized to exclude all others from trading within their boundaries, and from fishing in the neighbouring seas. This charter was the great civil basis of all the subsequent grants and patents to the settlers of New England. "This charter, (says Minot, the correct historian of Massachusetts) from the omissions of several powers necessary to the future situation of the colony, shews how inadequate the ideas of the parties were to the important consequences which were about to follow from such an act. The governor, with the assistants and freemen of the company, it is true, were empowered to make all laws not repugnant to those of England; but the power of imposing fines, imprisonment, or other lawful correction, is expressly given in the manner of other corporations of the realm; and the general circumstances of the settlement, and the practice of the times, can leave us no doubt that this body politic was viewed rather as a trading company, residing within the kingdom, than what it very soon became, a foreign government exercising all the essentials of sovereignty over its subjects. "for

In 1623, December 30, the council of New England, and in respect of the good and special service done by Ferdinando Gorges, knight, to the plantation, from the first attempt thereof, and also for many other causes hereunto moving, and likewise for and in consideration of the payment of one hundred and sixty pounds into the hands of our treasurer by Robert Gorges, son of the said Ferdinando Gorges, granted and confirmed unto the said Robert Gorges, his heirs and assigns for ever, all that part of the main land in New England, aforesaid, commonly called or known by the name of Messahuset lying on the north east of the bay called Massachusetts,

Massasoit visits the Settlement.

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together with all the coasts and shores along the sea for ten English miles, in a straight line towards the north east, and thirty English miles into the main land through all the breadth aforesaid, with all the islands within three miles of the main, excepting such as have been granted to others."

On the 16th of March, 1621, the inhabitants at Plymouth were alarmed at seeing a sturdy Indian walk into their settlement, and passing by the houses, go directly where the people were collected. He saluted them in broken English, and bid them welcome. He was affable, told them his dwelling was five days travel from thence, that he was a sagamore or prince, He understood the geography of the country, gave an account of the different tribes, their sagamores, and number of men. He had been acquainted with the English, who had taken fish at Monhigan, and knew the names of their captains. He was naked, excepting a leather belt about his waist, with a fringe a span wide. He had a bow and two arrows; was tall and straight, his hair long behind, and short before. They kindly entertained him, and gave him a horseman's coat. He tarried all night, and informed them that the place where they were, was Patuxet, and that about four years before, all the inhabi tants had died; that not a man, woman, or child survived. He received, on going away, a knife, a bracelet, and ring, and promised in a few days to return again. He returned according to promise, and brought five others with him. They sung and danced, and were very friendly and familiar.

The 22nd of March, their first visitant, Samoset, came again and brought Squanto, or Tisquantum, with him, who had been carried away by Hunt, and sold in Spain, whence he got to London, and thence to America. He, by this event, escaped the universal mortality of his tribe at Patuxet. Three others accompanied them, and gave information that Massasoit was near. He soon appeared on the top of a hill with sixty men. Mr. Edward Winslow was sent to treat with him, carrying to the king two knives and a copper chain, with a jewel in it; to Quadequina, his brother, a knife, a jewel for his ear, a pot of strong water," some biscuit and butter. After their acceptance of the presents, and saluting them with love and peace, and receiving them as allies, they were desired to visit the governor; when the king, with twenty attendants, proceeded to the governor, leaving their bows and arrows, Mr. Winslow remaining with the rest, as a hostage; the English keeping six or seven of them. Capt. Standish and Mr.

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