The1 10[th] Chapter


Showing how they sought out a place

of habitation; and what befell them

thereabout • 〜 •  〜 •  〜 • [48]


Being thus arrived at Cape Cod the 11[th] of November,2 and necessity calling them to look out a place for habitation (as well as the master’s & mariners’ Importunity); They having brought a large shallop with them out of England, stowed in quarters in the ship, they now got her out, & set their carpenters to work to trim her up, but being much bruised & shattered in the ship with foul weather, they saw she would be long in mending. Whereupon a few of them tendered themselves, to go by land and discover those nearest places, whilst the shallop was in mending; and the rather because as they went into that harbor3 there seemed to be an opening some 2 or 3 leagues off, which the master Judged to be a river.4 It was conceived there might be some danger in the attempt, yet seeing them resolute, they were permitted to go; being 16 of them5 well armed under the conduct of Captain Standish,6 having such Instructions given them as was thought meet. They set forth the 15[th] of November: and when they had marched ^about^ the space of a mile by the seaside they espied 5 or 6 persons, with a dog coming towards them who were savages; but they fled from them & ran up into the woods, and the English followed them, partly to see if they could speak with them, and partly to discover if there might not be more of them lying in ambush, but the Indians seeing them^selves^7 thus followed, they again forsook the woods, & ran away on the sands as hard as they could, so as they could not come near them; but followed them by the tract8 of their ^feet^ sundry miles, and saw that they had come the same way. So night coming on they made their rendezvous & set out their sentinels, and rested in quiet that night,9 and the next morning followed their tract till they had headed a great creek & so left the sands, & turned another way into the woods, but they still followed ^them^10 by guess, hoping to find their dwellings, but they soon lost both them, & themselves; falling into such thickets as were ready to tear their clothes, & armor in pieces; but were most distressed for want of drink, but at length they found water & refreshed themselves, being the first New England water they drunk of, and was now in their great thirst as pleasant unto them as wine, or beer, had been in foretimes. Afterwards they directed their course to come to the other shore, [49] for they knew it was a neck of land they were to cross over, and so at length got to the seaside; and marched to this supposed river, & by the way found a pond of clear fresh water,11 and shortly after had a good quantity of clear ground, where the Indians had formerly set corn, and some of their graves; and proceeding furder they saw new stubble where corn had been set the same year, also they found where lately a house had been where some planks and a great kettle was remaining, and heaps of sand newly paddled with their hands, which they digging up, they found in them diverse fair Indian baskets filled with corn, and some in ears, fair and good of diverse colours, which seemed to them a very goodly sight (having never seen any such before).12 This was near the place of that Supposed river they came to seek; unto which they went, and found it to open itself into 2 arms with a high cliff of sand in the entrance, but more like to be cricks13 of salt water than any fresh for aught they saw; and that there was good harborage for their shallop, leaving ^it^ further to be discovered by her ^their shallop^14 when she was ready.15 So their time limited them being expired, they returned to the ship, lest they should be in fear of their safety; And took with ^them^ part of the corn, and buried up the rest, and so like the men from of Eshcol carried with them of the fruits of the land, & showed their brethren;16 of which, & their return they were marvelously glad, and their hearts Encouraged.

After this the shallop being got ready they set out again, for the better discovery of this place, & the master of the ship desired to go himself, so there went some 30 men, but found it to be no harbor for ships but only for boats; there was also ^found^17 2 of their houses covered with mats, & sundry of their Implements in them, but the people were run away, & could not be seen; also there was found more of their corn, & of their beans of various colours; the corn, & beans they brought away, purposing to give them full satisfaction when they should meet with any of them (as about some 6 months afterward they did, to their good content).18 And here is to be noted a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that here they got seed to plant them corn the next year; or else they might have starved, for they had none, nor any likelihood to get any [50] till the season had been past (as the sequel did manifest); neither is it likely they had, had this, if the first voyage had not been made, for the ground was now all covered with snow, & hard frozen; but the Lord is never wanting unto his in their greatest needs, let his holy name have all the praise.

The month of November being spent in these affairs, & much foul weather falling in; the 6[th] of December19 they sent out their shallop again with 10 of their principal men,20 & some seamen,21 upon further discovery Intending to circulate that deep bay of Cape Cod; the weather was very cold, & it froze so hard as the spray of the sea lighting on their coats, they were as if they had been glazed; yet that night betimes they got down into the bottom of the bay, and as they drew near the shore they saw some 10 or 12 Indians very busy about something; we ^they^22 landed about a league or 2 from them, and had much ado to put ashore anywhere, it lay so full of flats; being landed it grew late, and they made themselves a barricado with logs & boughs as well as they could in the time, & set out their Sentinel & betook them to rest, and saw the smoke of the fire the Savages made that night. When morning was come they divided their company, some to coast along the shore in the boat, and the rest marched through the woods to see the land if any fit place might be for their dwelling; they came also to the place where they saw the Indians the night before, & found they had been cutting up a great fish like a Grampus23 being some 2 inches thick of fat like a hog, some pieces whereof they had left by the way; and the shallop found 2 more of these ^fishes^24 dead on the sands, a thing usual after in that place by reason of the great flats of sand that lie off. So they ranged up and doune25 all that day, but found no people, nor any place they liked; when the sun grew low they hasted out of the woods to meet with their shallop, to whom they made signs to come to them Into a creek hard by, the which they did at high water; of which they were very glad, for they had not seen each other all that day since the morning. So they made them a barricado (as usually they ^did^26 every night) with logs, stakes, & thick pine boughs the height of a man, leaving it open to leeward, partly to shelter them from the cold, & wind (making their fire in the middle, & lying round about it) and partly to defend them from any sudden assaults of the Savages, If they should surround them; so being very weary they betook them to rest. But about midnight [51] they heard a hideous, & great cry, and their sentinel called “Arm, arm,” so they bestirred them & stood to their arms, and shot off a couple of muskets and then the noise ceased; they concluded it was a company of wolves, or such-like wild beast; for one of the seamen told them he had often heard such a noise in Newfoundland. So they rested till about 5 of the clock in the morning,27 for the tide & their purpose to go from thence, made them be stirring betimes; so after prayer they prepared for breakfast, and it being day-dawning it was thought ^best^ to be carrying things down to the boat; but some said it was not best to carry the arms down, others said they would be the readier, for they had lapped them up in their coats from the dew; but some 3 or 4 would not carry theirs till they went themselves; yet as it fell out the water being not high enough, they laid them down on the bank side, & came up to breakfast. But presently all on the sudden they heard a great & strange cry, which they knew to be the same voices, they heard in the night, though they varied their notes, & one of their company being abroad came running in, & cried “Men, Indians, Indians”; and withal their arrows came flying amongst them, their men ran with all Speed to recover their arms, as by the good providence of God they did. In the meantime, of those that were ^there ready^28 two muskets were discharged at them, & 2 more stood ready in the Entrance of their rendezvous but were commanded not to shoot till they could take full aim at them, & the other 2 charged again with all speed, for there were only 4 had arms there, & defended the barricado which was first assaulted; the cry of the Indians was dreadful, Especially when they saw their men run out of the rendezvous, towards the shallop to recover their arms, the Indians wheeling about upon them; but some running out with coats of mail on, & cutlasses in their hands, they soon got their arms, & let fly amongst them, and quickly stopped their violence. Yet there was a lusty man, and no less valiant, stood behind a tree within half a musket shot, and let his arrows fly at them; he was seen shoot 3 arrows which were all avoided; he stood 3 shot of a musket, till one taking full aim at him, and ^made^29 the bark or splinters of ^the^ tree fly about his ears, after which he gave an Extraordinary shriek; and away they went all of them; they left some to keep the shallop, and followed ^them^ about a quarter of a mile, and shouted once or twice, and shot off 2 or 3 pieces, & so returned; this they did, that they might conceive that they were not [52] afraid of them or any way discouraged. Thus it pleased God to vanquish their enemies, and give them deliverances; and by his special providence so ^to^ dispose that not any one of them, were either hurt, or hit, though their arrows came close by them, & on every side [of] them, and sundry of their coats, which hung up in the barricado, were shot through, & through.30 Afterwards they gave God solemn thanks, & praise, for their deliverance, & gathered up a bundle of their arrows, & sent them into England afterward by the master of the ship, and called that place the First Encounter.31 From hence they departed, & coasted32 all along, but discerned no place likely for harbor; & therefore hasted to a place, that their pilot (one Mr. Coppin who had been in the Country before), did assure them was a good harbor which he had been in, and they might fetch it before night; of which they were glad, for it began to be foul weather. After some hours’ sailing, it began to snow, & rain, & about the middle of the afternoon, the wind Increased, & the sea became very rough; and they broke their rudder, & it was a much as 2 men could do to steer her with a couple of oars. But their pilot bade them be of good cheer for he saw the harbor, but the storm Increasing, & night drawing on, they bore what sail they could to get in, while they could see; but herewith they broke their mast in 3 pieces, & their sail fell overboard, in a very grown sea, so as they had like to have been cast away; yet by God’s mercy they recovered themselves, & having the flood with them, struck into the harbor. But when it came to [it], the pilot was deceived in the place, and said the Lord be merciful unto them, for his eyes never saw that place before; & he, & the master’s mate would have run her ashore, in a cove full of breakers ^before the wind^.33 But a lusty seaman which steered, bade those which rowed if they were men, about with her, or else they were all cast away; the which they did with speed, so he bid them be of good cheer, & row lustily for there was a fair sound before them, & he doubted not, but they should find one place or other, where they might ride in safety. And though it was very dark,34 and rained sore; yet in the end they got under the lee of a small Island,35 and remained there all that night in safety. But they knew not this to be an Island till morning, but were divided in their minds; some would keep [to] the boat for fear they might be amongst the Indians; others were so wet and cold, they could not endure, but got ashore, & with much ado got fire (all things being so wet), and the rest were glad to come to them, for after midnight the wind shifted to the [53] northwest, & it froze hard. But though this had been a day, & night of much trouble, & danger unto them; yet God gave them a morning36 of Comfort & refreshing (as usually he doth to his children). For the next day was a fair sunshiny day, and they found themselves to be on an Island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces, & rest themselves; and gave God thanks for his mercies, in their manifold deliverances. And this being the last day of the week, they prepared there to keep the sabbath; on Monday they sounded the harbor,37 and found it fit for shipping; and marched into the land, & found diverse cornfields, & little running brooks, a place (as they supposed) fit for situation, at least it was the best they could find, and the season, & their present necessity made them glad to accept of it.38 So they returned to their ship again with this news to the rest of their people, which did much comfort their hearts.39

On the 15[th] of December they weighed anchor to go to the place they had discovered, & came within 2 leagues of it, but were fain to bear up again; but the 16[th] day the wind came fair, and they arrived safe in this harbor. And afterwards took better view of the place, and resolved where to pitch their dwelling; and the 25[th] day began first to erect the first house, for common use to receive them, and their goods.