wards preserved the colony from starvation. The next day they returned, with their booty, to the ship.

Other expeditions, both by water and land, were undertaken, and fresh deposits of corn and the simple wealth of the Indians were found, and unjustly appropriated. Two wigwams were discovered and ransacked. Some of the best things we took," says the narrator-though with the saving resolve to make restitution to the owners when they could be found. A consultation was now held, concerning the place of settlement, and many thought that, for the sake of fishing* and other advantages, it would be best to fix their abode on Cape Cod; but on the suggestion of the pilot that there was a good harbor on the west side of the bay, it was concluded to examine it. On the 6th of December, Governor Carver, with Bradford, Winslow, Standish, and fourteen others, embarked for that purpose in the shallop, though the cold was so intense that the spray, falling on their clothes, was instantly turned to ice, "and made them many times like coats of iron." Following the coast southward, they sailed along it for two days, and on the morning of the 8th, while at prayers on shore, were attacked by a party of Indians. Arrows and musketry were discharged for some time, but no one seems to have been seriously hurt, and at last the assailants retreated. "The cry of our enemies," says one of the party, "was dreadful. Their

"Thirdly, Cape Cod was like to be a place of good fishing; for we saw daily great whales of the best kind for oil and bone, come close aboard our ship, and in fair weather swim and play about us; there was once one, when the sun shone warm, came and lay above water, as if she had been dead, for a good while together, within half a musket shot of the ship, at which two were prepared to shoot, to see whether she would stir or no: he that gave fire first, his musket flew in pieces: both stock and barrel; yet thanks be to God, neither he nor any man else was hurt with it, though many were there about; but when the whale saw her time, she gave a snuff and away.”— Mourt's Relation.

Fish, it would appear, in early times, were altogether too plentiful in this neighborhood; for, says one of the companions of Gosnold, "in a short time we so pestered our ship with cod fish, that we had to throw them overboard."

note was after this manner,' Woach, woach, ha ha hach woach"" -easily recognizable as the war-whoop, even at the present day.

They then proceeded, and with a fair wind sailed all day rapidly along the coast. Towards night it came on to blow; the rudder broke from its hinges; and with great ado they were fain to scud before it, steering with oars. "The seas were grown so great that we were much troubled, and in great danger; and night grew on. Anon, Master Coppin bade us be of good cheer, he saw the harbour. As we drew near, the gale being stiff, and we bearing great sail to get in, split our mast into three pieces, and were like to have cast away our shallop. Yet, by God's mercy, recovering ourselves, we had the flood with us, and struck into the harbour." Such was the first entrance of the Pilgrims into Plymouth harbour, already surveyed and named by Captain John Smith.

They returned to Cape Cod with a favorable report, and on the 16th, the ship, with all her company, except four, who had died at the Cape, entered Plymouth harbor. A site was selected for the town, and on the 22d of December, 1620, a day for ever memorable in the annals of America, the little band of Pilgrims landed on that rock, which, like the Stone of Mecca, is now the object of enthusiastic pilgrimage to their descendants.

Timber was cut, and houses, nineteen in number, were erected with all possible dispatch: but so great were the suf ferings of these unfortunate people from cold, exposure, and privation, that, before the end of February, twenty-five more had perished. Only six or seven were sufficiently strong to go out, and to wait upon the sick. Two of their number, being lost, in bitter cold weather, were almost frozen to death, and climbed into a tree, to avoid, as they supposed, "two lions, roaring exceedingly for a long time together, and a third that they thought was very near them."

Such errors in natural history were long current among the early planters of America. "I will not say," says Mr. Wood,

AR

("New England's Prospect,") "that I ever saw any myself, but some affirm that they have seen a lion at Cape Ann, which is not above ten leagues from Boston. Some likewise, being lost in the woods, have heard such terrible roarings, as have made them much aghast; which must be either devils or lions, there being no other creatures which use to roar, saving bears, which have not such a terrible kind of roaring."

"Sometimes," says Master Heriot, "the Salvages will kill a Lyon and eate him.”

CHAPTER IV.

SAMOSET "WELCOME, ENGLISHMEN "-VISIT FROM MASSASOIT-TREATY

OF FRIENDSHIP-GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE SETTLERS-DEATH OF GOVERNOR CARVER-ELECTION OF BRADFORD-FIRST DUEL

IN. NEW ENGLAND-VISIT TO MASSASOIT-IYANOUGH

TOUCHING INCIDENT-CHALLENGE FROM CANONICUS

-HIS ALARM-FORTIFICATION OF PLYMOUTH.

HITHERTO, a distant appearance of small parties of savages was all that the English had seen of their aboriginal neighbors; but on the 16th of March, 1621, a solitary Indian entered the settlement. "He very boldly came all alone, and along the houses straight to the rendezvous; where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as undoubtedly he would, out of his boldness." He was a sagamore, or petty chief, called Samoset, and he saluted the settlers in the ever-memorable words, "Welcome, Englishmen !"-which, with other scraps of the language, he had picked up from the traders at Manhegin. The next day he was dismissed, but soon returned with five others, bringing beaver-skins for traffic, and returning tools which had been lost or stolen in the woods. "They did eat liberally of our English victuals. They made semblance unto us of friendship and amity. They sang and danced after their manner, like antics."