EARLY LAWS AND ACTS OF PLYMOUTH.

473

"The town of Plymouth agreed with Abraham Jackson to ring the bell, and sweep the meeting-house, and see to locking the doors and fastening the windows, for one year, for one pound and ten shillings."

In 1726, wild cats were so abundant in the town, that a reward of ten shillings per head was voted by the court for every head brought to the assessor, and many pounds were paid annually for this purpose for some time. In 1738 the following are recorded among the laws and incidents of the town:

"The town voted that threepence per head shall be paid out of the town treasury for every full-grown rat that may be killed in the town, threepence for every blackbird, and sixpence for every crow. And in 1744 a vote passed, that every male head of a family shall procure ten grown rats' heads or ten blackbirds' heads; and each male head of a family who shall fail shall be assessed the sum of sixpence, old tenor, per head, for each head that he shall fal short of said number; and the assessors are ordered to add each delinquent's fine to his next town tax.

"A man named Crimble was indicted at Plymouth for forging a bond, but, for want of evidence, was only convicted for a cheat, and was ordered to wear said bond, with a piece of paper over it, with the word 'cheat' written thereon, and to stand on the courthouse steps half an hour. This year square-toed shoes went out of fashion, and buckles began to be worn.

In 1765, when the passing of the Stamp Act for the colonies in the British Parliament excited such opposition at Boston and elsewhere, the town of Plymouth participated in it to the fullest extent, and the sentiments entertained by the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers were worthy of the sires from whence they sprung. In their instructions to the representatives in the Legislature, they use this bold and manly language:

"We likewise," say the instructions, "to avoid disgracing the memories of our ancestors, as well as the reproaches of our own consciences and the curses of posterity, recommend it to you to obtain, if possiHe, in the honourable House of Representatives in this province, full and explicit assertions of our rights, and to have the same entered on their public records, that all generations yet to come may be convinced that we have not only a just sense of our rights and liberties, but that we never (with submission to Divine Providence) will be slaves to any power on earth."

Plymouth was among the earliest of the towns in America that took an interest in promoting the temperance reformation, which has since made such progress in every part of the Union, although there is no reason to believe that Plymouth was more afflicted than many other towns by the evil it sought to remedy. But the following record of the year 1816, dated the 17th of May in that year, is honourable to the wisdom and philanthropy of those who originated the inquiry and made the report, which is adverted to in the following extract:

"A committee, chosen by the town, to make inquiry into the conduct of retailers of spirituous liquors, reported that they are deeply impressed with the magnitude of the evil, and with the serious consequences that will probably result to the rising generation if some seasonable check VOL. II.-30

cannot be put to the practice. Aware of the odium that attaches itself to those who, from official duty, are led to oppose the views and emoluments of interested individuals, we would not leave to the fathers of the town to encounter the hydra alone; we would therefore recommend to every honest, discreet, and sober-minded inhabitant of the town to set his face against the practice, as he would regard the interest, prosperity, and comfort of his fellow-creatures, and would preserve the rising generation from moral pollution and degeneracy; and that they would unite their efforts with those of the selectmen and civil officers of the town, to discountenance and suppress this alarming, this crying sin. They would also recommend that the selectmen, overlooking all past transgressions in this respect, be enjoined peremptorily and perseveringly to withhold their approbation from any person whom they shall hereafter know, or very strongly suspect, to be guilty of a violation of the law. Your committee hope they shall be excused if they exceed the bounds of their commission when they express their firm conviction that a systematic perseverance in discharging the painful duty of putting under guardianship such citizens as are notoriously intemperate, will be one remedy, among others, of the evil in question.'"

This attention to the removal of the causes of intemperance has been continued to the present time; and one among many numerous benefits arising from this is seen in the fewness of crimes or offences, there being at present not a single tenant of the jail of Plymouth, either civil or criminal. The jaier and turnkey have nothing to do; and two large distilleries, which formerly supplied the surrounding country with rum, have been discontinued for want of custom, and their buildings are also at present unoccupied.

In 1820, the second centennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers took place at Plymouth, and on this occasion was founded The Pilgrim's Society. This was incorporated by the Legislature of the state, and resolutions were passed to buld a Pilgrim Hall, to be devoted to the annual festivities accompanying the celebration. In 1824 this edifice was erected; and a portion of the Rock, which was separated in 1774 from the parent block on the beach, and drawn by oxen to the Liberty-pole Square on the breaking out of the Revolution, was now brought to the front of the Pilgrim Hall, and there enclosed within the iron railing that now surrounds it.

There are at present no Indians living in the town of Plymouth, though there is a small tribe, or remnant of one, in the neighbourhood. So recently as the year 1803, however, there were 14 males and 35 females, adults, and 15 children under age; and their lands within the township amounted to 2683 acres, which were valued at 14,140 dollars. These Indians retained most of the characteristics of their ancestors, and were dissolute, treacherous, and ferocious. The dwindling away of their race, however melancholy as matter of sentiment, is undoubtedly a benefit to the general community, as their places are supplied by a better and more improvable class of beings.

SITUATION OF PLYMOUTH.-LANDING OF PILGRIMS. 475

CHAPTER LI.

Disadvantageous Position of the Town.-Causes of this Exception to a general Rule.First House.-First Burial-ground.-Cole's Hill-Forefathers' Rock, the first Spot of Landing.-Population. -Pursuits. - General Equality.- Churches.-Grave of Thomas Clarke, Mate of the Mayflower.-Prospect from the Summit of the Hill.Courthouse. Pilgrim Hall.- Museum.- Sargent's Picture.- Landing of the Pilgrims.-Sword of Standish.-Oriental Inscription and Talisman.-Helmet of King Philip, the Indian Chief.-Chair of Governor Carver.-Charter of Oliver Cromwell.Hotels.-Banks.-Newspapers of Plymouth.-Slow Advance of the Town.-Causes of this.-Specimens of the Poetry of the Pilgrims' Days.-Dr. Thatcher, the Historian of Plymouth.-Miss White, a Descendant of the Pilgrims.-Antiquities in her Cabinet.-Parting from Friends at Plymouth.-Return to New-Bedford.-Journey to Providence and Stonington.-Voyage by Steam-vessel to New-York.

THE situation of Plymouth is one of the very few exceptions to the admirable combination of local advantages which is generally seen in the sites of American ports and cities. The reason of this is obvious; the Pilgrim Fathers who first settled here had no choice; for, being driven unexpectedly and unintentionally, as far as they were themselves concerned, upon this part of the coast, at a season of the year when farther exploration was impracticable, they were obliged to content themselves with the spot on which their lot was thus cast.

On the certificates of membership given to those who enrol themselves in the Pilgrim Society, is an engraving, in which the dreariness and destitution of the first landing of the Pilgrims, and the snows and gloom of winter, are attempted to be portrayed, and of which the following is a faithful transcript.

hills, having before it a harbour or bay, which is formed by a long low beach of sand running almost parallel to it in front, and between it and the sea. Though this secures smooth water for the small vessels anchoring here, yet, it being what is called a dry harbour—that is, all the water leaving it at ebb tide, and exhibiting an extensive flat of sand completely dry-it is not adapted for ships of large size, and will never be frequented as a good harbour: a defect which is fatal to its maritime growth. The surrounding country at the back of the town is either stony or sandy, and affords little inducement to agricultural pursuits; while the thinness of the population, and the scantiness of water-power and fuel, offer little hope of its ever being a favourable position for manufactures.

The town can hardly be said to have any plan. The principal street runs along nearly parallel to the water, at a height of about fifty feet above its level; and from this smaller streets lead down over the declivity, at right angles with the larger one, to the wharves, along which the small vessels trading to the port are moored. The first street laid out by the Pilgrims was called by them Leyden-street, in honour of the Dutch city in which they had found an asylum before they sailed for these shores. This street still exists under its old name; and in it, near the water, is pointed out the spot where the first house was erected by the exiles in the Mayflower, when they were obliged to make one building serve the purpose of a general dwelling for the whole. This street leads downward by a spot called Cole's Hill; a mound, on the sides of which the first governor, Carver, and the fifty of his associates who died within the first year, were buried. Their graves were subsequently ploughed over by the survivers, and corn planted on them, to obliterate all traces of their burial, in order to conceal from the Indians the extent of their mortality, lest, acting on this knowledge, and knowing the amount of their loss, the Indians should be led to attack them and drive them out.

Not far from this spot, and close to the edge of the sea, is the identical rock on which the Pilgrims first set their feet when they landed from the Mayflower; but, strange to say, so little veneration was felt for this, or for anything else connected with their history, till about sixty years ago, that this spot, which is still called "Forefathers' Rock," was enclosed and built in as part of a long wharf, extending out into the sea. At present its surface is just level with the ordinary road, and carts drive to and fro over it every day, it being so completely obliterated that, unless some guide acquainted with the spot should accompany the visiter, to tell him where it lay, he might be standing on the surface of the rock without knowing it, and be looking about for the hallowed spot in vain.

In the actual "town" of Plymouth there are about 3000 inhabitants, but within the limits of the "township" there are more than

5000; and at Duxbury, an equally ancient settlement about ten miles off, on the coast, there are nearly 5000 inhabitants also.

The residents of Plymouth are chiefly engaged in the mackerel and cod fishery, coasting navigation, and some few local manufactures. These are, principally, one cotton factory, a rolling mill and nail factory, two or three forges, a blast furnace, and some ropewalks for the manufacture of cordage and twine. The condition of the people appears to be more equal here than even in American towns generally; there are none very rich, and none at all actually poor. There is a jail, which has not had an inmate for many months, and is now to let; and there is a poorhouse, but it has no occupants; while riots, crimes, and wants of any pressing nature are comparatively unknown. It may give some idea of the general prudence and carefulness of the inhabitants, to mention a most remarkable fact, namely, that while, in American cities and towns generally, fires are of such common occurrence that a week rarely passes without many houses being destroyed, and never perhaps a year, here, in Plymouth, it is now just one hundred and twenty years since any dwelling-house has been destroyed or burned by fire!

Of the public buildings there are no less than six churches to the town population of 3000, which is one to every 500 inhabitants; and in the township there are altogether eight. The Unitarians, here as in Boston, take the lead in numbers, wealth, and influence; and their church, in which the annual oration was delivered, is by far the handsomest in the place. Immediately behind it is the steep round hill chosen by the Pilgrims for their second buryingground, Cole's Hill, nearer the water, being the first; and here the gravestone of Thomas Clarke, mate of the Mayflower, who died in 1697, at the age of ninety-eight, is still legible; while the