The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-05-11

u1 In order to understand how well th,
C pilgrims managed their affairs, it i
n necessary to know something Of tina
n part OF the coast of Massachusett
t where their lot was cast.
t | suppose many people besides my
: self, after walking about old Plymouth
Massachusetts,. have thought what ,
z pity it was the Pilgrim Fathers haC
= not sailed a few miles further north
and discovered the fine, commodiou
/, and beautiful harbot Of Boston. No
j, that plymouth and the waters abou
] il are notmost@pleasant and inviting
' If Mrs. Hemans had ever seen tha
coast, she would not have described i
| as 'tsturn and rock bound" There i
not rock anywhere about Plymouth
/ Harbor, unless it be a few small boul
: ders scattered at long intervals along
the beach The very rock upon which
, the Pilgrims are supposed first to have
set foot, which Is now covered by {
granite monument, is a boulder-''ar
emigrant like themselves" brought
to that shore by floating ice. The
Harbor, however, is shallow, and b.
comes shallower every year, and the
soil is so sandy that if the Indians had
not taught them to plant a good fat
fish in every hill of corn, they would
have gone hungry longer than they did.
They were not ill-pleased with their
new home, and they may we'll be ex.
cused for thinking that Providence had
prepared it specially for them. l nev-
er saw so curious harbor. 1t does
not look like the work of nature, but
seems as if it hac been constructed by
an engineer in pursuance of an Act OF
Congress-. The. harbor is formed by
a natural breakwater-a long, narrow
beach, eighty yards wide, and three
miles long, running almost parallel
with the shore, about half mile from
Lit. This thin strip of beach, within
the memory of living men, was dense
ly covered with trees, the roots of
which protected it: but these have
been cut down, and the ocean is max
ing inroads in consequence. AS you
stand upon Forefathers' Rock, when
an easterly wind has been blowing,
you can hear the waves laundering apd
roaring on the other side of tie beach,
like ten thousand furions animals, ca
ger to leap over the barrier and rush
ravenous upon the town. The noise is
the more impressive from the fact that
the ocean is hidden from view by the
long line of beach. As stood there,
during the gales Of last Septemb Der, l
could not but think how often the Pill
,,r;,oS ,,,rof boyo IistopaJ 70 tho so1,a
sounds, and felt, as they listened, that
Providence, ages before, had drawn
that line of sandy barrier across the
bay on purpose to protect His Dwna-=
Nevertheless it, must haye been hard
to row mile and half to the deep
soundings where the May Flower lay
at anchor. near the end of this natur-
al breakwater; and the soil of Ply
mouth is SO little productive, that to
this day large portion of it is not culti-
waited, and furnishes only a crep of
firewood every thirty years. The town
ship is dotted all over with large ponds.
When there are a great many islands
i'll a lake, or ponds in county, people
usually say that there is one for every
day of the year. accordingly, when
the reader gives himself the great
pleasure OF visiting the cradle Of New
England, he may expect to be inform
ed that there are three hundred and
sixty-five ponds in Plymouth and he
will be safe in believing one third of
the story. Under the sand in all this
region, there is u stratum of clay,
which prevents the water from sinking
into the earth, and in this way these
numberless ponds are formed. On the
highest ground of Plymouth; when the
is very clear, the entire
outline of Cape Coda wave of sand
curving sixty miles out into the sea
can be discerned: and the same move
ment of the waters which produced
Cape Cod, covered the original clay of
with sand. -eE
There they were then, in the spring
of 1921, little colony of fifty persons;
some of them in debt for their passage,
and the colony owing considerable
sum to the proprietors of the soil In |
london for even this sand, thnly j
covered with soil and grass, was not
their own Let us see how Edward
Winslow led them to swift and great
prosperity.
Their sole capital to begin with, in
the spring of 1921, besides their i'm
plements of husbandry, was a few
bushels of Indian corn, obtained from
an Indian depository on Cape Cod,
several months before. This had been
saved to plant in the spring;
but it would have availed them little
if they had not from the first adopted
the policy of strict honesty toward the
Indians. Winslow and others had
taken this corn with the intention OF
paying for it as sool as they should
discover the owner, and this intention
they carried out Early in the spring
they were visited by the Indian chiefs
Squanto and Massasoit, to
whom they gave liberal gifts; and they
made with Massasoit, the principal
chief of the country, a treaty of friend
ship, which was SO faithfully kept on
,he part of the pilgrims, that they en-
Dyed unbroken peace with the Indians
.or twenty four years. During all that
period, there was a continual inter-
change OF good offices between the two
aces. If the Indians taught the white
men to put fish in every hill Of corn,
he whites supplied he Indians with
noes, which enabled them to raise
vice as much corn as they had form
,rly done.
When the corn was planted and
,rowing well, Edward Winslow and
1ne of his friends, guided by "a friendly