A little while before the events which we have above recorded, a serious design was entertained of abandoning the location at Plymouth and removing to some place where they would find richer soil. Not only was the soil at Plymouth so barren that it would scarcely repay cultivation, but the harbor was incommodious and shallow. Several general meetings were held, and the subject was very thoroughly discussed. Many had already moved to other locations, and the church had thus become seriously weakened.
“Some,” writes Governor Bradford, “were still for staying together in this place, alleging that men and women might here live, if they would be content with their condition. And it was not for want of necessities so much they removed, as for the enriching of themselves. Others were resolute upon removal, and so signified that here they would not stay; that if the church did not remove, they must; insomuch that many were swayed, rather than that there should be a dissolution of the church, to condescend to a removal, if a fit place could be found, that might more conveniently and comfortably receive the whole, with such accession of others as might come to them, for their better strength and subsistence, and some such like cautions and limitations.”
A committee of the church was chosen, by advice of Governor Bradford, to select a place to move to. They repaired to Nauset, on Cape Cod, where is now the town of Eastham. The report they brought back was so much in favor of the place that the large majority of the church consented to remove there. But it was soon found that they had by no means improved their condition by the removal. The result is graphically described by Governor Bradford:
“Now they began to see their error, that they had given away already the best and most commodious places to others, and now wanted them themselves. For this place was about fifty miles from here, and at an outside of the country, remote from all society. Also it would prove so strait as it would not be competent to receive the whole body, much less be capable of any addition or increase. Thus, in a short time, they would be worse there than they are now here. The which, with sundry other like considerations and inconveniences, made them change their resolutions. But such as were before resolved upon removal took advantage of this agreement, and went on, notwithstanding; neither could the rest hinder them, they having made some beginning. Thus was this poor church left, like an ancient mother, grown old and forsaken of her children, though not in their affections, yet in regard to their bodily presence and personal helpfulness. Her ancient members being most of them worn away by death; and these of later times being like children translated into other families, and she, like a widow, left only to trust in God. Thus she that had made many rich became herself poor.”
It required sleepless vigilance and the wisest measures to keep peace with the Indians. There were now, in the several colonies, many individual white men who were totally unprincipled. No power of law could restrain them from insulting and abusing the Indians. The ignorant savages had very inadequate conceptions of justice, and avenged themselves upon any white men who fell into their hands. One of these miscreant white men, who was running away from Massachusetts, was killed by an Indian, in the woods between Fairfield and Stamford. No one knows whether the Indian had any provocation to commit the deed. The murderer was demanded by the Massachusetts authorities. The sachem of the tribe promised to deliver him to the English, bound. Ten Englishmen were sent to receive the prisoner. The Indians, who were in charge of the captive, as soon as they came in sight of the English party, cut his bands and he fled like a deer into the woods. Upon this the English seized eight of the Indians, including two sachems, and held them in close captivity for two days, until they received, from the chiefs, satisfactory promises that the murderer should be delivered to them.
About a week after this, a wandering Indian came to a lonely hut in Stamford, and finding a woman alone, killed her, as he supposed, and robbed the house. All the Indians in that region seemed angry, sullen, and often insulting. It was not deemed safe for the English to travel, unless well armed and in some strength. A vigilant watch had to be kept night and day. This was a very uncomfortable state of things, but no remedy could be devised for it. So many had moved from Plymouth that the little village was quite in a state of decay. Duxbury, where Miles Standish had taken his farm, was, as we have mentioned, at a distance of eight miles from Plymouth. Francis Baylies, alluding to the place in the year 1830, writes:
“The extensive pine forest, the certain evidence of sandy and barren soil, which even now almost skirts the ancient town of Plymouth on the south and the west, prevented any extension of population in that direction, and on the east the ocean was its boundary. So unconquerable is the barrenness of this region, that even now the wild deer makes his lair in the same place where deer were hunted by our forefathers two centuries ago, and a few wretched Indians inhabit the primeval woods in which their ancestors disdained to dwell.”[51]
Fear of the Indians, with whom hostilities were liable at any time to break out, prevented the colonists from selecting farms far inland. The strong settlements on Massachusetts Bay induced the Plymouth people to extend their settlements along the ocean shore in that direction. The second church of the Plymouth colony was established at Duxbury.
The house which Captain Standish occupied here during the long evening of his eventful life, was situated on the southeastern part of the peninsula, where the remains of the cellar, which he probably dug, are still to be seen. The house in Duxbury, now called the Standish House, was built by his son, Alexander, partly it is supposed from timbers taken from the old house. This fact seems to be substantiated from the appearance of the beams, which bear the traces of a peculiar saw, which was used before the introduction of saw-mills. The hearthstone also, as well as the doors and latchings, were doubtless used in the paternal home. It was by the side of that fireplace that the heroic captain sat and mused, while the storms of a New England winter shook his dwelling. The timbers are of oak, and very sound and strong.
Upon the south side of Captain’s Hill there is a large rock, called the Captain’s Chair. Near this spot the original barn was erected. The farm comprised about one hundred and fifty acres, and contained some of the most fertile land to be found in the county of Plymouth. Other parts of the town are sandy and unproductive. Clark’s Island, where the explorers of Plymouth Bay passed their first Sabbath, is said to possess, in some parts, a rich soil, which can scarcely be surpassed in any country. “While the northern and western sides offer the most desirable qualities for pasturage and grain, its southern and eastern declivities present a perfect garden, abounding with trees, through whose foliage, even during the summer’s hottest months, stir the breezes from the sea.”