and nursed several of them who were sick. While some went in search of a place of abode, the rest made themselves extremely troublesome guests; so that it was with great satisfaction that at length their hosts saw most of them depart to begin a plantation at Wessagusset (now Weymouth), leaving the infirm of their number to be gratuitously cared for at Plymouth. By disorder and waste, Weston's people presently fell short of provisions, and, as winter approached, they became Its disorders anxious for a further supply. They proposed to and distress. their Plymouth friends to join them in purchases November. from the Indians; and it was in their smaller vessel that Governor Bradford made the expedition, which has been mentioned, to Boston Bay and Cape Cod. But their irregular habits were not corrected, and they could no longer expect any voluntary relief from the neighboring natives, whom they had incensed by depredations on their cornfields and by other annoyances. At length, their extremity became such, that Sanders, their chief February. man, sent to inform Governor Bradford of his intention to get some corn from the Indians by force to subsist his men, while he, with a party, should sail to the eastward for a supply from the European fishing-vessels. The Plymouth people remonstrated in the strongest terms against his plan of robbery. They advised him to make shift to live, as they did, on ground-nuts, clams, and muscles, and sent him some corn from their own scanty store for his voyage.1 1623. In his absence, affairs took an alarming aspect for both settlements. Intelligence had come to Plymouth that Massasoit was desperately ill, and that a Dutch vessel was lying stranded on the Narragansett shore near his dwelling. Both these matters engaged the attention of the colonists. They owed a visit of sympathy to their friend, and they desired a conference with the Dutch seamen. 1 Winslow, Good Newes, 11-25, 34-37.- Bradford, 132. March. Second visit of Winslow Winslow, who by his residence in Holland was qualified for the latter office, was sent on the errand with "Master John Hambden, a gentleman of London." Before they reached their destination, the to Massasoit. vessel had been got off, and had sailed away. Massasoit, found lying in destitution and filth, apparently at the point of death, was relieved and at length restored to health under the treatment of Winslow, who condescended to the most humble offices of nurse and cook. In the overflow of his gratitude, the savage revealed the existence of a plot, among the tribes scattered over the Conspiracy country from Boston Bay to Martha's Vineyard, for the extirpation of the whites. The provocation was, he said, the outrages committed by Weston's people at Wessagusset; but the meditated destruction would include the colonists at Plymouth, because of the apprehension that they would attempt to protect or avenge their countrymen. of Indians. The messengers returned with these tidings of alarming import. Other circumstances confirmed the truth of the disclosure. In Standish's recent forage on the Cape, conferences of the natives there with Indian visitors from the north, and other significant movements, had not escaped his vigilance. A less circumstantial warning, but from a 1 It is a natural feeling that has made our historians desire to identify this person with the great statesman of the civil war. But such a supposition will not bear scrutiny. John Hampden could not have spared the time to be absent from England at the critical juncture of affairs between King James's fifth and sixth Parliaments; when afterwards he became conspicuous, our early writers could not have failed to notice the fact of a visit from him, had it been made; and the name borne by the stranger is inconsistent with the idea of an incognito of the illustrious patriot. Dr. Young (Pilgrims, 314, note) has suggested other considerations which alone would seem decisive against the supposition of a visit to Plymouth by the John Hampden of history. Winslow's companion was probably some passenger in one of Weston's ships. Hobbamak was their guide. Squanto had died in the previous November, while in attendance on the Governor in his expedition to Cape Cod. (Winslow, Good Newes, 18.) He had been a useful friend to the settlers, though sometimes troublesome and sometimes suspected. (Ibid., 8.) trustworthy source, had come from Boston Bay to the settlement during Winslow's absence.1 On his return to Plymouth, he found there an Indian of Cape Cod, whom Standish had known as one of the plotters at Manomet, and who was now endeavoring to prevail upon the Captain to make another visit to that region. It was not forgotten that the Indian conspiracy in Virginia had March 22. been unsuspected till it broke out in the massacre of three hundred and fifty settlers. 1622. 1623. March 23. The time for the "yearly Court Day" presently came round. The exigency seemed urgent. "The Governor communicated the intelligence to the whole comand asked their advice." The company repany, ferred the matter back to the Governor, the Assistant, and the Captain. These consulted among themselves and with others, and concluded that the preservation of the settlement depended upon energetic measures. Being guiltless of injury, they had no peaceable way to accommodation and security; having done nothing to provoke the assault which impended, they could only escape by anticipating it. To strike a blow such as their little strength was equal to, and such as would at the same time be widely known and make an effective impression, Standish was despatched by water with eight men to the cension of tral point of discontent at Wessagusset. Here the plot. he found Wituwamat, the emissary who, as he believed, had intended to murder him at Manomet. Encountering this savage and three others, Standish and two of his men put them to death, after a closely contested fight without fire-arms. One of the four they hanged. Suppres 1 Phinehas Pratt, one of Weston's company, had come to Plymouth, from Wessagusset, to give the alarm. He had been pursued by the Indians, and had escaped by losing his way. In his "Declaration," &c. (Mass. Hist. Coll., XXXIV. 484), he mentions having been met by "Mr. Hamdin" outside of the town. He lived afterwards for twenty-five years at Plymouth, and then removed to Massachusetts, where, in 1662, the General Court granted him three hundred acres of land. 2 Winslow, Good Newes, 25 - 34, 37. 1 Not far off they killed another, and Weston's men two more. The object was accomplished. The rest of the natives in terror dispersed into the woods. A prisoner made full confession of the plot. Dispersion colony. Wituwamat's head was brought to Plymouth, and set up on the fort. The courage of Weston's men gave out, and the settlement was abandoned. Some of them came to Plymouth with Standish; the rest, wish- of Weston's ing to join their friends at the Eastern fisheries, received from him gratuitously for their voyage all his corn except what sufficed to bring his own party home.2 And this was the end," so mused the Plymouth Governor, "of those that sometime boasted of their strength, being all able, lusty men, and what they would do and bring to pass in comparison of the people here, who had many women and children and weak ones among them. But a man's way is not in his own power. God can make the weak to stand." Mr. Weston, coming over soon afterwards for a better examination of his affairs, was shipwrecked between the Piscataqua and the Merrimack, and pillaged by Weston at the Indians, even to the clothes he wore. In Plymouth. this plight he found his way to Plymouth. They "pitied his case, and remembered former courtesies." Though of late he had been only an enemy and a nuisance to them, and though, in their scarcity of food, they could ill spare anything that was salable, they supplied him with a hundred and seventy pounds of beaver to trade with. "But he requited them ill; for he proved after a bitter enemy unto them upon all occasions, and never repaid them anything for it but reproaches and evil words."3 Lately a prosperous London merchant, he was now a ruined man. 1 "Concerning the killing of those poor Indians," wrote Robinson (December 19, 1623)," of which we heard first by report, and since by more certain relation, O how happy a thing had it been, if you had converted some before After this year, he disappears from the history of Plymouth. of the Coun England. Though no fatal issue, like that of the colony at Wessagusset, had followed other similar undertakings of the same period, still none yet gave promise of prospering. Gorges continued to be indefatigable, but to little effect. The corporation, of which he was the soul, had scarcely rePerplexities ceived its charter, when it was assailed by the hoscil for Now tility of the rival company of Virginia, the former propped by the favor of the king, the latter befriended by the patriotic leaders in Parliament. Remonstrances against the claim of the Council for New England to a dominion of its seas having proved ineffectual with the Privy Council, the question was transferred to the House of Commons, which passed a bill "for the freer liberty of fishing and fishing voyages to be made and performed in the sea-coasts and places of Newfoundland, Virginia, New England, and other the seacoasts and parts of America." It was arrested by the Lords or by the king, and did not become a law.1 1621. Further attempts at When King James's fifth Parliament was dissolved, and its proceedings against the Council had come to no legal issue, Gorges took courage again to prosecute his plans. Captain John Mason "had been some colonization. time governor of a plantation in the Newfoundland." He had been previously a merchant and a naval officer, and was now Treasurer of the royal navy, and Governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire. He" was himself a man of action," and well qualified for the vigorous co-operation with Gorges in which he now became engaged. He obtained from the Council a grant of March 9. the lands lying between the little river which discharges its waters at Naumkeag, now Salem, and the 1622. 1 Gorges, Brief Narration, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVI. 65, 66.- Chalmers, Political Annals, 83, 84, 100–102. — Journal of the Commons, I. 591, 592, 602, 654. |