Bradford's history of the Plymouth settlement, 1608-1650 / Rendered into modern English by Harold Paget

by William Bradford

While things went on thus, the Governor and the people here had notice that their friend Massasoyt was sick, and near to death. They visited him, and took whatever they could to relieve him; and he recovered. He then discovered a conspiracy amongst the Indians of Massachusetts, and other neighbouring tribes with whom they had conspired, to wipe out Mr. Weston’s people, in revenge for the continual injuries they did them, taking opportunity of their weakness to do it. And believing that the people at New Plymouth would avenge their death, they decided to do the same by them, and had solicited Massasoyt to join them. He advised the New Plymouth settlement to prevent it, by speedily capturing some of the chief of the conspirators before it was too late, for he assured them of the truth of it.

This troubled them much, and they took it into serious deliberation, and upon examination found other evidence too long to relate. In the meantime one of Mr. Weston’s people came from Massachusetts, with a small pack on his back; and though he did not know a foot of the way, he got here safe. He lost his way, which was well for him, for, though pursued, he was missed. He told them here how everything stood among them, and that he dared stay no longer. He believed, by what he observed, they would all be knocked on the head shortly.

So the people at New Plymouth made the more haste, and they despatched a boat with Captain Standish and some men, who found them in a miserable condition out of which he rescued them, and killed some few of the chief conspirators among the Indians, and according to his order, offered to bring the remnant of the Weston settlement here if they thought well, in which case they should fare no worse than the colonists themselves, till Mr. Weston or some supplies came to them. Or, if they preferred any other course, he was to give them any assistance he could. They thanked him, but most of them begged he would give them some corn so that they could go with their small ship to the eastward, where they might hear of Mr. Weston or get some supplies from him, since it was the time of the year for the fishing ships to be out. If not, they would work among the fishermen for their living, and get their passage back to England if they heard nothing from Mr. Weston in the meantime. So he put aboard what they had, and he got them all the corn he could, scarcely leaving enough to bring himself home, and saw them well out of the bay, under sail at sea. Then he came back, not accepting a penny worth of anything from them. I have but touched these things briefly because they have been published in print more completely already.

This was the end of those who at one time boasted of their strength,—all able, healthy men,—and what they would do in comparison with the people here, who had many women and children and weak ones among them and who had said, on their first arrival, when they saw the want here, that they would take a very different course and not to fall into any such condition as these simple people had come to. But a man’s way is not in his own hands. God can make the weak to stand: let him also that standeth take heed lest he fall!

Shortly after, when he heard of the ruin and destitution of his colony, Mr. Weston came over with some of the fishermen, under another name, and disguised as a blacksmith. He got a boat, and with a man or two came to see how things were there. But on the way ashore he was caught in a storm, and his shallop was sunk in the bay, between Merrimac river and Piscataqua, and he barely escaped with his life. Afterwards he fell into the hands of the Indians, who robbed him of all that he had saved from the wreck, and stripped him of all his clothes to his shirt. At last he got to Piscataqua and borrowed a suit of clothes, and so came to New Plymouth. A strange alteration there was in him, to such as had seen him in his former flourishing condition; so uncertain are the mutable things of this unstable world! And yet men set their hearts upon them, though they daily see their vanity.

After many arguments and much discourse,—former troubles boiling in his mind and wrankling there, as was discerned,—he asked to borrow some beaver from them, and told them he had hopes that a ship with good supplies was on its way to him, and that then they should have anything they stood in need of. They gave little credit to his report of supplies, but pitied his condition and remembered former courtesies. They pointed out to him their own wants, and said they did not know when they might get any supplies. He well knew, also, how the case stood between them and the adventurers in England. They had not much beaver, and if they should let him have it, it would be enough to cause a mutiny among the people since there were no other means of procuring them the food and clothes which they so much wanted. Nevertheless, they told him they would help him, considering his necessity; but that it must be done secretly for the above reasons. So they let him have 100 beaver skins, which weighed 170 lbs. odd. Thus they helped him when all the world failed him; and with this he went again to the ships, and supplied his small ship and some of his men, and bought provisions and fitted himself out; and it was this supply alone which enabled him to pursue his course thereafter. But he requited them ill, proving himself a bitter enemy upon every opportunity, and never repaying them to this day,—except in reproaches and calumnies.

All this while no supplies were heard of, nor did they know when they might expect any. So they began to consider how to raise more corn, and obtain a better crop than they had done, so that they might not continue to endure the misery of want. At length after much debate, the Governor, with the advice of the chief among them, allowed each man to plant corn for his own household, and to trust to themselves for that; in all other things to go on in the general way as before. So every family was assigned a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number with that in view,—for present purposes only, and making no division for inheritance,—all boys and children being included under some family. This was very successful. It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to plant corn, while before they would allege weakness and inability; and to have compelled them would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.

The failure of this experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years, and by good and honest men proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times,—that the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort. For the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men’s wives and children, without any recompense. The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could. This was thought injustice. The aged and graver men, who were ranked and equalized in labour, food, clothes, etc., with the humbler and younger ones, thought it some indignity and disrespect to them. As for men’s wives who were obliged to do service for other men, such as cooking, washing their clothes, etc., they considered it a kind of slavery, and many husbands would not brook it. This feature of it would have been worse still, if they had been men of an inferior class. If (it was thought) all were to share alike, and all were to do alike, then all were on an equality throughout, and one was as good as another; and so, if it did not actually abolish those very relations which God himself has set among men, it did at least greatly diminish the mutual respect that is so important should be preserved amongst them. Let none argue that this is due to human failing, rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. I answer, seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.

But to return. After this had been settled, and their corn was planted in this way, all their food supplies were consumed, and they had to rely upon God’s providence, often at night not knowing where to get a bit of anything next day; and so, as one well observed, they had need above all people in the world, to pray to God that He would give them their daily bread. Yet they bore their want with great patience and cheerfulness of spirit, and that for upwards of two years; which reminds me of what Peter Martyr writes in praise of the Spaniards, in his Fifth Decade, page 208. “They,” says he, “led a miserable life five days together, with the parched grain of maize only,” and concludes, “that such pains, such labour, and such hunger, he thought none living, who was not a Spaniard could have endured.” But alas! these colonists, when they had maize,—that is Indian corn,—thought it as good as a feast; and not only lacked bread for days at a time, but sometimes for two or three months continuously were without bread or any kind of corn. Indeed, in another place,—his Second Decade, page 94, the same writer mentions how some others were even worse put to it, and ate dogs, toads, and dead men,—and so died almost all. From these extremities the Lord in His goodness kept these His people, and in their great need preserved both their lives and their health; let His name have the praise. Yet let me here make use of the same writer’s conclusion, which in a manner may be applied to the people of this colony: “That with their miseries they opened a way to these new lands; and after these hardships, with what ease other men came to inhabit them, owing it to the calamities which these forerunners had suffered; so that they who followed seemed to go, as it were, to a bride feast, where all things are provided for them.”

As for fishing, having but one boat left, and she not very well fitted, they were divided into several crews, six or seven to a crew, who went out with a net they had bought, to catch bass and other fish, each party taking its turn. No sooner was the boat emptied of what she had brought, than the next crew took her, and went out with her, not returning till they had caught something, even though it were five or six days, for they knew there was nothing at home, and to go home empty would be a great disappointment to the rest. They tried who could do best. If she stayed long or got little, then all went to seeking shell-fish, which at low water they dug out of the sands. This was what they lived on in the summer time, till God sent them better; and in winter there were ground-nuts and fowl to help them out. In the summer now and then they got a deer, one or two of the fittest being told off to hunt in the woods. What was got in that way was divided among them.