History of the United States

by John Clark Ridpath

A Puritan.

Relations with the Indians.

3. A month later a Wampanoag Indian, named Samoset, ran into the village and bade the strangers welcome; friendly relations were soon established with the Wampanoags. Massasoit, the sachem of the nation, was invited to visit Plymouth. The Pilgrims received him with much ceremony, and then and there was ratified the first treaty made in New England. This treaty remained inviolate for fifty years. Other chiefs followed the example of Massasoit. Nine of the tribes acknowledged the English king. One chief sent to William Bradford, who succeeded Governor Carver, a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake; but the governor stuffed the skin with powder and balls and sent it back to the chief, who did not dare to accept the challenge.

4. The summer was unfruitful, and the Pilgrims were brought to the point of starvation. New immigrants, without provisions or stores, arrived, and were quartered on the colonists during the winter. For six months the settlers were obliged to subsist on half allowance. At one time only a few grains of corn remained to be distributed, and at another there was absolute want. Then some English fishing-vessels came to Plymouth and charged the colonists two prices for food enough to keep them alive. The new immigrants remained at Plymouth until the summer of 1622, then removed to the south side of Boston harbor and founded Weymouth.

5. The summer of 1623 brought a plentiful harvest, and there was no longer any danger of starvation. The natives became dependent on the settlement for corn, and brought in an abundance of game. At the end of the fourth year, there were a hundred and eighty persons in New England. The managers, who had expended thirty-four thousand dollars on the enterprise, were discouraged, and proposed to sell out their claims to the colonists. The offer was accepted; and, in November of 1627, eight of the leading men of Plymouth purchased from the Londoners their entire interest for nine thousand dollars.

6. Before this transfer, the colony had been much vexed by the attempt to set over them a minister of the English Church. They had come to the New World to avoid this very thing. There was dissension for a while. The English managers withheld support; the stores of the colonists were sold to them at three prices; and they were obliged to borrow money at sixty per cent. But the Pilgrims would not yield, and the conflict ended with the purchase of the proprietors' rights in the colony.

Government of the Colonies.

7. In 1624 a settlement was made at Cape Ann, but after two years the cape was abandoned; the company moved farther south and founded Salem. In 1628 a second colony arrived in charge of John Endicott, who was chosen governor. In 1629 Charles I. issued a charter by which the colonists were incorporated under the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. In July two hundred immigrants arrived, half of whom settled at Plymouth, while the other half removed to the north side of Boston harbor and founded Charlestown.