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MILES STANDISH AND THE PILGRIMS

Standish: Born about 1584 — Died 1656

 

 

 

 

The breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast,

And the woods against a stormy sky

Their giant branches tossed;

 

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark

 

On the wild New England shore.

Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod.

They left unstained what there they found,

—   Freedom to worship God.

—MRS. HEMANS'S "The Landing of the Pilgrims."

CAN you picture a short man with broad shoulders, blue eyes, and reddish hair; with muscles as strong as iron, and face bronzed by exposure to wind and sun? He is dressed in a doublet, close-fitting knee breeches, and high leather boots. His breastplate is of steel, and by his side there hangs a sword, curved at the point and ornamented with Arabic letters.

This man is Miles Standish, a brave, true-hearted English soldier who in 1620 came to America with the Pilgrims, the first English settlers on the "stern and rock-bound" New England coast.

Captain John Smith has often been called the Father of Virginia, because his hardihood, pluck, and common sense saved the life of the first Virginia settlement. In the same way Miles Standish may be regarded as one of the fathers of Massachusetts.

He was fond of fighting and of adventure, and he came to America for no other reason than to help the Pilgrims in their task of making a new home in the forest wilds. He did not share the religious beliefs that drove this little body of emigrants to America. He came as their friend and helper, and his sagacity and bravery in dealing with the Indians once saved their lives, as we shall read later in this chapter.

The Standish family had lived for many years at Duxbury Hall, Lancashire, England, and many of its members had been knighted for brave deeds. Miles fought with the English army in France and Holland, where he proved his worth and was made a captain. He happened to be living in Leyden, Holland, when the Pilgrims fled from England to that country, and Standish and his wife, Rose, became their warm friends.

What was it that led these English men and women to abandon their homes and seek shelter first in Holland and then in America? It was the desire for freedom to worship God in whatever way they chose.

In common with most rulers of his time King James was tyrannical in matters of religion. He would not permit his subjects to use a form of service that differed in any way from that of the Established, or Episcopal, Church, and everyone was made to pay a fine if he did not attend church. There were many who preferred a simpler service, and at last they left the Church and dared to worship in their own way. For this they were called Separatists, because they "separated" from the established form of worship.

The king was so angry with the Separatists that he punished them in every possible manner. He even went so far as to throw some of them into prison, where they languished and died. Others were driven from place to place by his persecutions, so they came finally to be called Pilgrims or Wanderers.

A small band of these people collected at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, but the tyranny of King James pursued them. Many were seized and put into prison, and all were hunted and persecuted in one way or another. They therefore resolved, in 1608, to forsake their country and take refuge in Holland, where they knew that they would find the religious liberty they desired.

The Dutch treated the Pilgrims kindly. For twelve years, first at Amsterdam and later at Leyden, the little English community lived in peace. But there were reasons why the Pilgrims did not care to remain permanently in Holland. In spite of all they had suffered, they still loved their country, and wished their children to grow to manhood and womanhood using the speech and customs of England. This they could not while they remained in Holland, surrounded by people who spoke the Dutch language and whose manners and habits were Dutch.

So at last this little band of exiles resolved to make another effort to find a suitable home. "Let us cross the ocean," said they," and found a new England in America. There land is plentiful and we may live unmolested. “We shall have freedom to worship as we wish, and opportunity to bring up our children in accordance with our own ideas."

They therefore procured permission from the London Company to settle on the coast of what is now New Jersey. The Pilgrims well knew that a difficult and dangerous undertaking lay before them, and it was thought unwise for the whole Leyden community to go. Among the men and women chosen to make the experiment were Miles and Rose Standish.

When the little Speedwell sailed out of Delft Haven with her brave company, sad and tearful were the partings of families and friends. Even the Dutch on-lookers wept in sympathy. At Southampton, England, the Speedwell was joined by the Mayflower, and both ships set out to cross the ocean; but after they had "gone to sea again about one hundred leagues without the Land's End," the Speedwell began to leak so badly that it was necessary to put back.

The disheartened Pilgrims were obliged to admit that she was totally unfit for the long and perilous voyage. So the Speedwell was abandoned. Some of her passengers remained behind in England, and the rest crowded on board the Mayflower, raising the number of passengers to about one hundred.

In the pleasant month of September in the year 1620, this good ship with her precious cargo again left Southampton. For many long weeks she was tossed by heavy gales and towering waves. Only a few men dared venture on deck; the rest were crowded into the ill-ventilated cabin, far too small for the number it sheltered.

The intention had been to land near the Delaware River, but the captain was carried out of his course, and on the 21st of November found himself among the shoals of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Through Captain John Smith's explorations of the New England coast the Pilgrims had heard of the cold winters in that region. They had, therefore, wished to settle farther south; but all were eager to begin life in the new home and it was decided to remain at Cape Cod. At what point should they land? There must be an abundant supply of fresh water, and soil free from rocks and stones.

For four or five weeks the Mayflower skirted the coast in the neighborhood of Provincetown, while a few of the men in a shallop explored the shore. The little shallop ran upon "dangerous shoals and roaring breakers"; but, with rudder lost and mast and sail gone, it kept to its task until a spot had been selected.

Miles Standish was the man who chose the site for the new settlement. The land had been cleared to some extent by the. Indians, and there was a spring of pure water near. Moreover, while exploring inland, the Pilgrims had discovered several mounds which were found to contain a quantity of corn. This was indeed a welcome sight, and the Englishmen had great need of it before the winter was over. To their credit be it said that some time afterward they found the Indians to whom the corn belonged and paid them for it.

This place was down on Captain Smith's map as Plymouth, and here the people of the Mayflower came ashore on the 21st of December, 1620.

While near Provincetown they had drawn up in the cabin of the Mayflower a solemn compact in which the Pilgrims agreed to enact just and equal laws, which all should obey for the general good of the colony. John Carver was chosen governor.

The water at Plymouth was so shallow that even the shallop could not run up to the bank, and the Pilgrims stepped first on a rock, and then to solid ground. There is still shown at Plymouth a rock which is said to be the one which the Pilgrims used as a stepping-stone.

The little band of wanderers came ashore in a storm of sleet and wind. The snow lay deep upon the winter woods, the ground was frozen, and the Pilgrims suffered intensely while they cut down trees and built a log house. At first they all lived together in one cabin.

Soon food became scarce, and many fell sick from lack of nourishment or from exposure. Throughout that first hard winter Miles Standish showed that he could be gentle and tender as well as brave. At one time there were only six or seven well people in Plymouth, and Standish was one of these.

He helped prepare what little food there was, and carefully nursed the sick. Before the spring sun shone, more than one half of the Pilgrims had been laid beneath the snow, and among them was Rose Standish, the wife of the brave captain.

Though no Indians came to molest them, the Pilgrims lived in constant fear of attack. Graves were smoothed to a level with the ground, and over them in the spring. corn was planted, in order that the natives might not know how many white men had died. The guns of the Pilgrims were their constant companions, and were carried even to the church services, held in the little cabin that served as both church and fort.

At last the dreary winter was over. With the coming of the warm sunshine, the blooming of flowers, and the singing of birds, the Pilgrims took heart. When the Mayflower sailed for home, not one of the number would return. To persevere in the face of all obstacles is the Pilgrims' great lesson to America.

The settlers were astonished one day at having an Indian rush into their settlement and cry, "Welcome, Englishmen!" This was Samoset, who had learned a few words of English from fishermen. Soon Samoset made a second visit, and this time brought an Indian named Squanto, who had been captured and taken to England, where he learned the language and habits of civilized people.

Then Massasoit, chief of the tribe of Wampanoag, appeared with fifty or sixty warriors gaily decorated with paint and feathers. Squanto acted as interpreter, and the palefaces and redskins had a friendly conference. According to the Indian custom, a pipe of peace was smoked; then an agreement was made by which the Indians and the English promised to treat each other as friends.

This treaty of peace was kept for fifty years. The Indians not only did no harm to the white people, but helped them in every way, and Squanto expressed a wish to live with the Pilgrims. He died among them, and his last words were:" Pray that the Indian Squanto may go to the white man's heaven."

About twenty miles from Plymouth there dwelt a tribe of Indians that hated Massasoit. These were the Narragansett, and their chief was Canonicus. "Why should I let these paleface friends of my enemy live in peace?" thought Canonicus.

Accordingly he sent to the Pilgrims a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake. This was a declaration of war. Governor Bradford, who had succeeded Governor Carver, and Miles Standish were not men to be frightened easily; they filled the skin with powder and shot and sent it back.

It happened that Canonicus had heard of the wonderful guns of the white men, and he had no desire to get in their way. When he found, therefore, that the Englishmen were willing to fight, he gave up the idea of attack.

One day Massasoit came with a thrilling piece of news — some Indians of still another tribe were plotting to massacre the white settlers. Captain Standish assembled a company of men well armed with muskets and swords, and marched to meet the savages. We may read about it in Longfellow's poem:

"Meantime the stalwart Miles Standish

was marching steadily northward,

Winding through forest and swamp,

and along the trend of the seashore.

After a three days' march he came to an Indian encampment

Pitched on the edge of a meadow,

between the sea and the forest;

Women at work by the tents,

and the warriors horrid with war-paint

Seated about a fire, and smoking and talking together;

Who, when they saw from afar the sudden approach of the white men,

Saw the flash of the sun on breastplate and saber and musket, Straightway leaped to their feet,

and two from among them advancing

Came to parley with Standish,

and offer him furs as a present;

Friendship was in their looks,

but in their hearts there was hatred."

Pecksuot, the Indian leader, grew very insolent when he saw that the white captain was a man of small stature. He called Standish a boy, and said that his place was at home helping the women, and not fighting Indians. Standish quickly decided that, if there had to be bloodshed, the sooner it was over the better, and it was not long before the savages were so astonished by the power of this "Little Captain" that they decided to keep peace.

When the golden autumn came the Pilgrims had reason to be happy and grateful. A separate log house had been built for each family, the cornfields had prospered, and game was plentiful. They decided to have a feast and to ask Massasoit and his people to come and join them. The Indians brought deer, the Pilgrims shot wild turkey, there was seafood and corn in abundance; and thus began the custom of setting aside a day of Thanksgiving each year.

Other Pilgrims from Holland soon joined the first Plymouth settlement and it grew and prospered. The energetic Captain Standish did his full share of work of every kind, and after a time he went back to England to borrow money to help the colonists.

The log cabins of the Pilgrims were very simple; they had fireplaces and chimneys of rough stone. Oiled paper was used for window-panes, and chests which the emigrants had brought with them from England served as chairs and benches.

After cabins were built the Pilgrims' next care was to erect a church and schoolhouse, and not much time was allowed the children for play by these serious, hard-working fathers and mothers.

Every Sunday morning the people were called to worship by the beating of a drum. A sentinel in a suit of armor stood near the meeting-house to watch for Indians and, if necessary, to give the alarm to the worshipers. As the men filed into the building they left their muskets with the sentinel.

Sometimes the services lasted three or four hours. A constable with a long wand, on one end of which was a hare's foot, was on duty to keep the worshipers awake. It is said that when grown-up persons went to sleep, the constable would touch them gently on the forehead with the hare's foot; but if a child nodded, he was rapped with the other end of the wand, not so gently.

After the Plymouth colony was well established, Miles Standish planted a little settlement nearby, which he named Duxbury in memory of his English home. Here he died after a long and useful life.

In Duxbury there has been erected to his memory a granite monument one hundred feet high, with a statue of the heroic captain looking out over the sea he so daringly crossed to help others find a home of freedom. If you ever visit Plymouth, do not fail to look at the interesting relics of the Pilgrims preserved there. You will find among them the trusty sword of Miles Standish.

Miles Standish
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