Read The Landing of the Pilgrims Online
Authors: James Daugherty
The Landing of the Pilgrims (14 page)
Some urged Standish to throw the goods out of the storehouse before the fire reached it. But as the Captain scanned the evil faces of the drunken seamen, he saw that they were hungry for loot and at once he ordered his soldiers to guard the storehouse and allow no one to enter.
Furiously the men of Plymouth beat at the flames and the women brought water and wet blankets. Someone yelled mockingly, “Look out, take a good look around and you will see some who are not your friends.” The rumor spread that the fire was the result of a wicked plot to rob the storehouse.
The flames reduced everything around the storehouse to smoldering embers, but the building itself was saved. The blackened framework of the adjoining houses stood stark against the dying fires. In the ruins of the house where the fire had started, a smoldering firebrand was found against the wall where it had been thrust in among dried leaves. It could not possibly have come there by accident. This discovery was certain evidence of
the hand of villainy. Whatever had been the evil intent, Plymouth had again been saved from ruin.
The burned houses were those assigned to newcomers who were not of the company. As these people were now homeless, most of them took passage on the
Anne
for England. For which there was small regret either among those who left or those who stayed.
As the
Anne
with her villainous crew dropped below the horizon, Governor Bradford turned back toward the town with a sigh of relief. By the grace of God, Plymouth had frustrated Indians, traitors, rogues, drought, fire, and starvation. The settlers had begun a great work, and none would leave it until it was finished or the doing was passed on to those who would follow.
(September 1623)
Bradford had grown weary of the complaining and accusing letters from the merchant Adventurers in England; weary of waiting for supply ships that brought more hungry mouths to feed, but never a barrel of flour.
He must send someone to London to tell the truth about Plymouth. It must be someone who could wheedle out of those scheming tradesmen the tools and supplies to keep the Plymouth folk alive in a desolate land.
Winslow could tell the story, for he had lived every grim day of it. This man who had dealt with Indians in the forests of new England could surely deal with the schemers of old England.
More important, Winslow had written a day-by-day story of New Plymouth from the beginning. This he would have printed in London for all
England to read. Being something of a merchant himself and a good advertiser, Winslow shrewdly called the pamphlet “Good News from New England.” It was a stirring tale manfully told and ended with these stout words:
If ever any people in these later Ages, were upheld by the Providence of God, after a more special manner than others: then we: and therefore are the more bound to celebrate the memory of His goodness, with everlasting thankfulness.
For in these for named straits, such was our state, as, in the morning, we had often our food to seek for the day: and yet performed the duties of our Callings. I mean the other daily labors, to provide for aftertime. And though, at some times, in some season, at noon, I have seen men stagger, by reason of faintness for want of food: and yet ere night by the good Providence and blessing of God, we have enjoyed such plenty, as though the windows of heaven had been opened unto us.
How few, weak and raw were we at our first beginning, and there settling: and in the midst of barbarous enemies! Yet God wrought our peace for us.
How often have we been at the pit’s
brim, and in danger to be swallowed up: yea, not knowing until afterward that we were in peril? And yet God preserved us. Yea, and from how many that we yet know not of: He that knoweth all things best can tell.
So that when I seriously consider of things, I cannot but think that God hath a purpose to give that land, as an inheritance, to our nation.
He knew that this would sound well in Puritan ears, and so with this first American scripture in his pocket he went aboard the
Swan
.
From the ship’s deck he watched New Plymouth recede slowly into the blue haze of the New England coast. The coast itself faded and soon vanished as the west wind filled the sails of the
Swan
bound for England.
(1648)
After Plymouth had prospered, mischievous men had come seeking to sow strife and discord for their own gain. But the Lord’s faithful had stood together in unity and had undone their wicked designs. These schemers and rioters had been patiently reproved. Those who had been found guilty after a fair trial had been put out of the colony or sent back to England.
Children had been born in Plymouth, like their fathers and mothers before them. These boys and girls were the grandchildren of the First Comers. There were still living in the year 1648 thirty of the Old Stock who had come in the
Mayflower
.
The seed of Liberty had taken root in this New England earth. A tree had sprung up that would someday fill the whole world. Truth seekers, like the fowls of the air, would find shelter in its
branches. Each year, thousands were coming in crowded ships. New England was dotted with growing towns as far as the Connecticut Valley. Even beyond, young men with axes and plows and Bibles were pushing into the westward forest, saying:
“It is not with us as with other men whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home again.”
About the Author
James Henry Daugherty was one of the outstanding author-illustrators of the twentieth century. Born in 1889 in North Carolina, he studied art in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Europe. The author started his long and prolific career doing advertising drawings in New York City. Soon afterward, he moved on to illustrating magazines, including
The New Yorker
, and painting large murals. He came into his own writing and illustrating books for young people—creating drawings for more than ninety books before his death in 1974.
Among the many books Mr. Daugherty wrote and illustrated are
Daniel Boone
, a Newbery Medal winner, and
Andy and the Lion
, a Caldecott Medal runner-up.