Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery

by N. D'Anvers

A few days after this first interview, Samoset brought some other friendly Indians to Plymouth, including a certain Squanto, who had been taken to England by Weymouth fifteen long years before, and brought back by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The presence of Samoset and Squanto in their midst was fruitful of the best results to the colonists. By their means, a treaty, offensive and defensive, was made between the white men and the greatest chief of the neighborhood, a stately warrior named Massasoit, dwelling at a village on Rhode Island; and, free from the fear of surprises, the colonists were now able to extend their plantations and sow seed for future needs. Small parties were detailed to explore the bay, the site of the modern Boston was visited, and the close of the first summer found the affairs of Plymouth in a very flourishing condition.

In November, 1621, a reinforcement of thirty-five emigrants arrived from England in the ship Fortune, and the first fruits of the labors of the early colonists, consisting of timber and furs, were sent home in her. The second winter passed over successfully, but the spring of 1622 opened gloomily. A terrible massacre of the whites had taken place in Virginia, and, encouraged by the success of their brethren in the south, the Narragansetts of Massachusetts sent a message of defiance to the colonists of Plymouth, thinking that the time had come to possess themselves of the goods of the intruders in their land. The war-challenge of the red men consisted in the sending to the camp of the enemy of a bundle of arrows bound together with a rattlesnake’s skin; the reply of the English was the return of the same skin full of powder and ball—a silent indication that they were ready for the arrows, which the Indians did not fail rightly to interpret.

A lull ensued, and the English were beginning to hope that the real exchange of arrows and shot would not come off, when there arrived from England a little party of emigrants who were not Puritans, and who, while they consumed the stores of their fellow-countrymen, did nothing to help to replace them, and, moreover, imbittered their relations with the Indians by stealing their corn and carrying off their women. After much mischief had been done, the governor, Bradford, who had taken the place of Carver on his death in the previous spring, succeeded in weeding out the evil-doers from among his flock, but not, unfortunately, in warding off the results of their misconduct. At their young settlement of Weymouth, on the northern shores of the Bay of Plymouth, the new colonists behaved in a manner which excited alike the anger and contempt of the natives. It was decided that they should be exterminated, and as their white comrades at Plymouth would doubtless try to avenge them, these must be slain at the same time.

All was ready for the massacre of both parties, when Massasoit, who had made the first treaty with Carver, was taken dangerously ill. Knowing nothing of the plot laid by him against them, the English of Plymouth sent two of their members, Edward Winslow and John Hamden, to express their sympathy with him, and, if possible, relieve his sufferings. Arrived, all unsuspicious of the danger they were running, at the village of Pokanoket, on Rhode Island, the two Christian emissaries found Massasoit in what seemed a dying condition, but Winslow suggested several remedies, which had an apparently miraculous effect. The strength of the dying chief returned to him, and, to the astonishment of all, he sat up and called for food, which he had not been able to swallow for several days. In a short time he was completely restored to health, and in his gratitude to his visitors he revealed to them the plot against the two colonies, adding that he had been urged to join in it himself, but had refused. He recommended the white men to return home without delay, and to defeat the plot against their people by slaying the ringleaders, whose names he gave at once.

Back again in their camp, Winslow and Hamden lost no time in laying the information of which they were possessed before their leaders, and it was at once resolved to send out a small party under Miles Standish, first to warn the colonists at Weymouth, and then to get the Indians named by Massasoit into their power.

MILES STANDISH’S SWORD, POT, AND PLATTER—PRESERVED IN PILGRIM HALL, NEW PLYMOUTH.

With eight men—he refused to take more, lest his object should be guessed at by the natives—Miles Standish started on his hazardous enterprise in a little shallop, and went by sea to Weymouth, where he found the colonists in a terrible condition, scarcely able to subsist on the scanty supplies which were all they had brought with them, and subject to perpetual insults from the Indians, who appeared to be determined to get as much sport as possible out of them before the final blow was struck.

Having relieved the immediate necessities of his unlucky fellow-countrymen, and directed them to keep together as much as possible, Standish endeavored to open negotiations with the Indians, but they had lost all fear of the white men, and met his advances with ridicule. Seeing that it was absolutely necessary to make an example, although hitherto no blood had been shed by the Puritans, the Christian captain succeeded in enticing two of the ringleaders, Peeksuot and Wituwamat by name, into a house, and there slew them, assisted by two or three of his men. The result was what he had anticipated—the heads being gone, the minor members of the conspiracy fled. A few English, who had neglected the advice to keep together, were murdered, and one or two other Indians fell in a fitful struggle between scattered parties at isolated points. The general massacre was averted, however, and out of consideration for the benefit to all obtained by his severe measure, Captain Miles Standish was forgiven by his superiors for the shedding of blood, though, on hearing of the affair, Mr. Robinson wrote from Holland, “Concerning the killing of those poor Indians ... oh, how happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you had killed any.”