CHAPTER III.

The Indians formidable. First settlers defenceless. Treaty with Massasoit. Narraganset war. Peace made with several tribes. Pocahontas. Massacre in Virginia. Plymouth fortified. Indian conspiracy defeated. Colony increased. New England peopled by persecution. Another conspiracy defeated. Capt. Standish. No gener

al wars.

To the early settlers in New-England the wars with the savages were of all events the most dreadful and alarming. Not only were the hearts of women and children affrighted, but also the minds of men the most courageous were appalled. The rumours of wars took away all thoughts both of safety and comfort. The art and secrecy with which their attacks were made, and the new species of barbarity with which they were waged, were enough to render the savages the most formidable foes. The first planters, few in number, and ignorant alike both of the residence and the multitudes of the barbarians, were always in fear, always in alarm, suffering many present evils, but apprehending still worse to come. By day, while their bodies were wasted by the pressures of want, sickness and labor, in order to procure a scanty subsistence, their minds were tortured with the dread of sudden assaults, or fatal ambush. By night, the same frightful images lingered in their fancies, when the senses were sealed in sleep, and reason could not regulate the disturbed visions of minds, which brooded over the ideas of tomahawk and scalping knife, of houses set in flames and near connections massacred, of midnight silence and sleep waked by the sound of the war whoop, and the dreadful picture of returnless captivity.

The little colony of Plymouth did not appear to possess the means of defence. They had not crossed the Atlantic with any idea of forcing their way by conquest and the sword. In numbers, they were but a family; and the pesti lence had destroyed nearly one half even of them; while, wasted by the pale diseases, the rest had scarcely the shapes

of men. At one period, there were not five persons with strength and health sufficient to make defence. By acts of justice and kindness alone they ever had expected to make their way in the new world. The Indians, on the contrary, were numerous; and the bare idea of being ignorant of their numbers rendered them formidable. Disease had indeed carried off vast multitudes of them to the grave; but still they swarmed in the wilderness. They filled the countries from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans; and hundreds of thousands were to be seen from the regions of the lakes of the north to the seas of the south. Had they known either their own physical strength, or final dangers from the Europeans, they might have swallowed them up in a moment. But the arm of the Almighty seemed to offer the christian pilgrims a sure protection; and, driving out the heathen before them prepared the way for the people of God.

Peace with the natives, if kind treatment and justice could effect it, was an important object with this little colony.

But the natives seemed averse from all intercourse, till the 16th of March, 1621, when a sturdy Indian was seen stalking into the midst of the settle aent at Plymouth. He had been acquainted with the fisherman at Monhigan, and could speak broken English. His name was Samoset. After having given useful information, he was dismissed with several presents. He gave an account of the Indian tribes, their numbers, and of the pestilence, of which four years before every man, woman and child had died in the place where they then were. Six days after this, he returned with one Squanto, whom Hunt had sold as a slave into Spain, and who had thus escaped the mortality of his tribe. Massasoit soon appeared on a hill with 60 men. This man was the grand sachem of a wide dominion. After taking proper measures of security and making presents of a few knives and trinkets, they were presented to governor Carver. A green rug and a few cushions were spread for the company to sit on. 'A pot of strong water" was given the Indian king, "who drank a great draught, that made him sweat all the while after." Victuals, biscuit and butter were set before them. The result of this interview was a treaty of friendship. Both sides agreed to avoid injuries, to punish offenders, to restore stolen property and to aid in all wars which were justifiable. Massasoit and his successors observed this treaty for 50 years, and it was of great service to the Plymouth colony. Squan

to preferred to continue with the colony, and taught them how to plant corn, and where to take fish.

This treaty was displeasing to the other Indian nations. The Narragansets declared war on Massasoit. Much blood flowed among the natives; but the Plymouth company hav· ing joined their faithful ally, their fire arms soon decided the contest. Canonicus, the terrific sachem of the Narragansets, filled with dismay, soon sought safety in peace.

Through the influence of Massasoit, a large number of other sachems in the vicinity became friendly to the English settlers. The Islands in Massachusetts Bay had formerly been cleared of their wood and been filled with a great population; but was, and still more a late dreadful pestilence, had rendered them entirely desolate. For a time, therefore, the natives seemed well pleased with their new neighbors. In their estimation, the smallest presents of European manufactures, such as beads, knives, nails and ornaments were of great value. On receiving these, they sung, they danced, they could not contain their joy, they were among the happiest beings in existence.

This scene was too pleasing to last long. The southern regions had been already distressed by the ravages of war and the work of death. The natives, however, in the south had their successive periods of friendship and hostility.

One of the most memorable instances of friendly dispositions toward the English is that of the amiable Pocahontas. Her father, Powhatan, was the most powerful king in that country. Capt. Smith, who had long been known as one of the most successful warriors against him, had by misfortune fallen into his power. He was by order of Powhatan about to be led to death. He was doomed to lay his head upon a stone and to have his brains beat out with a club. His head was bowed down to receive the fatal blow, when Pocahontus, the king's beloved daughter, now only 13 years of age, rushed between him and the executioner, folded his head in her arms, and, laying her own upon it, saved his life. After this, in 1612, she was seized by an English captain, by the name of Argal, and carried into Jamestown. During her residence there, she was married to Mr. Rolfe, an Englishman, on whose heart she had made a deep impression. Some of the most distinguished families in Virginia are the fruits of this marriage, at the same time, it was the means of reconciling Powhatan to the English.

After the death of this sachem, his successors formed a conspiracy to massacre all the white people in one day. The plot was managed with peculiar secrecy and address. With every appearance of friendship, 347 persons were killed in one hour, and almost at the same instant of time. A discovery by a friendly Indian, who had not a heart to butcher his master by whom he had been treated as a son, prevented more extensive massacres.

The news of this massacre in Virginia created great alarm in the minds of the people at Plymouth. This alarm was increased by the warlike attitude of the Narraganset Indians. Their grand sachem, Canonicus, had sent to the colony a significant emblem of war, a bundle of arrows bound up with the skin of a serpent.' The governor did not hesitate to return the skin filled with powder and balls. This display of spirit saved the colony from a present war. This massacre and the message, however, were sufficient to show the necessity of fortifications. Though enfeebled by famine, they surrounded the town with a stockade and four flankers; and, dividing the company into four squadrons, they were on guard by rotation by day and by night.

A conspiracy, however, had actually been formed. Durring the sickness of Massasoit, a disclosure had been made of it. John Hampden, afterwards the distinguished opposer of the arbitrary demands of king Charles, was sent with presents and cordials for his relief. In return for the cure the medicine effected, and for the kindness shown, this Indian chief gave information of a conspiracy formed for the total extirpation of all the English. Capt. Standish carried into execution the plans of the governor, which once more saved the colony.

Squanto himself, although at heart friendly to the English, had acted an improper part. To increase his popularity with his red brethren and to procure presents from them, he had often sent word to them, that the white people were about to go and destroy them, but that he would use his influence to prevent it. In order to ingratiate himself with the English likewise, he had told the Indians, that the former kept the plague buried in a cellar, which they could send out when they pleased, to destroy their enemies.

In 1624, a bull and 3 heifers were the first cattle brought into the colony. The inhabitants also were increased by new adventurers. The whole number of souls in the planta

tion in the year 1629, did not, however, exceed 300. About this time, the puritans in England began to be persecuted with new virulence. These puritans now consisted of opposers to despotic monarchy as well as of dissenters from the established religion. This persecution kindled into a flame, which consumed thousands in England, and drove others to settle in New-England and in other parts of America. The far famed Oliver Cromwell himself was on the point of embarking for America. Alarmed at the rapid emigration from the mother country, an order of government suspended the departure of still more. In the spring of 1630, 1500 persons had come over to settle at Salem and Charlestown, in Massachusetts. Some of these had come from no ble families, "from a paradise of plenty and pleasure into a wilderness of wants. Another conspiracy of the Indians as far as Narraganset was now discovered by John Sagamore, a friendly Indian.

Among those highly distinguished at this time for courage, activity and acts of heroism, Capt. Miles Standish was the most celebrated. Being a man of little stature, Pecksuot, an Indian chief of a hostile disposition and of great strength, size and courage, had used several threats and was ready to proceed from words to blows. Wittawamet and another Indian, sons of war, actually whetted their knives before him, boasting of them that they had already killed both English and French. Wittawamet said of his, "by and by, it should see and eat, but not speak.' The next day, there being about an equal number of Indians and English in a room together, Capt. Standish fastened the door, seized Pecksuot, took his knife from him, and plunged it into his body, while the rest killed Wittawamet, and hanged a young Indian. In this struggle, there was no noise, but what the work of death made unavoidable. The Indians received an incredible number of wounds, and did not cease to struggle but with the extinction of life itself.

At another time, an Indian was about to take his life, while he was drinking a cup of water given him for the purpose; but Capt. Standish perceiving his design, drawing suddenly his sword, cut off his head with one stroke. Numerous were the acts of heroism he performed, so that he has been styled by a late writer, "the Washington of the New-Plymouth Company."