A Book of American Explorers

by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Wednesday, the 6th of December [1620], we set out, being very cold and hard weather. We were a long while, after we launched from the ship,before we could get clear of a sandy point[403] which lay within less than a furlough of the same; in which time two were very sick,and Edward Tilley had liked to have sounded[404] with cold. The gunner also was sick unto death;but hope of trucking[405] made him to go, and so remained allthat day and the next night. At length we got clear of the sandy point, and got up our sails, and, within an hour or two, we got under the weather-shore, and then had smoother water and better sailing. But it was very cold; for the water froze on our clothes, and made them many times like coats of iron.

GOVERNOR WINSLOW.

GOVERNOR WINSLOW.

We sailed six or seven leagues by the shore, but saw neither river nor creek. At length we met with a tongue of land, being flat off from the shore,with a sandy point.[406] We bore up to gain the point,and found there a fair income[407] or road of a bay, being a league over at the narrowest, and some two or three in length; but we made right over to the land before us, and left the discovery of this income till the next day.As we drew near to the shore,[408] we espied some ten or twelve Indians very busy about a black thing,—what it was we could not tell,—till afterwards they saw us, and ran to and fro, as if they had been carrying something away. We landed a league or two from them, and had much ado to put ashore anywhere, it lay so full of flat sands. When we came to shore, we made us a barricado, and got firewood, and set out sentinels, and betook us to our lodging, such as it was. We saw the smoke of the fire which the savages made that night, about four or five miles from us.

In the morning we divided our company, some eight in the shallop; and the rest on the shore went to discover this place.But we found it only to be a bay,[409] without either river or creek coming into it. Yet we deemed it to be as good a harbor as Cape Cod; for they that sounded it found a ship might ride in five fathom water. We on the land found it to be a level soil, though none of the fruitfulest.We saw two becks[410] of fresh water, which were the first running streams that we saw in the country; but one might stride over them. We found also a great fish,called a grampus,[411] dead on the sands. They in the shallop found two of them also in the bottom of the bay, dead in like sort. They were cast up at high water, and could not get off for the frost and ice. They were some five or six paces long, and about two inches thick of fat, and fleshed like swine. They would have yielded a great deal of oil, if there had been time and means to have taken it. So we, finding nothing for our turn, both we and our shallop returned.

We then directed our course along the sea-sands to the place where we first saw the Indians. When we were there, we saw it was also a grampus which they were cutting up. They cut it into long rands, or pieces, about an ell long, and two handful broad. We found here and there a piece scattered by the way, as it seemed, for haste. This place the most were minded we should call the Grampus Bay, because we found so many of them there. We followed the track ofthe Indians’ bare feet a good way on the sands. At length we saw where they struck into the woodsby the side of a pond.[412] As we went to view the place, one said he thought he saw an Indian house among the trees, so went up to see. And here we and the shallop lost sight one of another till night, it being now about nine or ten o’clock:so we light[413] upon a path, but saw no house, and followed a great way into the woods. At length we found where corn had been set, but not that year.

Anon we found a great burying-place, one part whereof was encompassed with a large palisado,like a churchyard with young spires,[414] four or five yards long, set as close one by another as they could, two or three foot in the ground. Within, it was full of graves, some bigger, and some less.Some were also paled[415] about, and others had like an Indian house made over them, but not matted. These graves were more sumptuous thanthose at Cornhill;[416] yet we digged none of them up, but only viewed them, and went our way. Without the palisado were graves also, but not so costly. From this place we went and found more corn-ground, but not of this year. As we ranged, we light on four or five Indian houses which had been lately dwelt in; but they were uncovered, and had no mats about them, else they were like those we found at Cornhill, but had not been so lately dwelt in. There was nothing left but two or three pieces of old mats, and a little sedge.Also, a little further, we found two baskets full of parched acorns hid in the ground, which we supposed had been corn when we began to dig the same. We cast earth thereon again, and went our way. All this while we saw no people.

We went ranging up and down till the sun began to draw low, and then we hasted out of the woods, that we might come to our shallop, which, when we were out of the woods, we espied a great way off, and called them to come unto us; the which they did as soon as they could, for it was not yet high water. They were exceeding glad to see us; for they feared because they had not seen us in so long a time, thinking we would have kept by the shore-side. So, being both weary and faint,—for we had eaten nothing all day,—we fell to make our rendezvous, and get firewood, which always costs us a great deal of labor. By that time we had done, and our shallop come to us, it was within night; and we fed upon such victuals as we had, and betook us to our rest, after we had set our watch. About midnight we heard a great and hideous cry; and our sentinels called, “Arm, arm!” So we bestirred ourselves, and shot off a couple of muskets, and the noise ceased. We concluded that it was a company of wolves or foxes; for one told us he had heard such a noise in Newfoundland.