Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims
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CHAPTER VIII.
BURYING HILL.
Much has been said and written of the Sunday spent by the advanced guardof Pilgrims upon Clarke's Island, and a very modern tradition points tothe great rock in the centre of the island as the scene of theirdevotions. Nothing, however, is less probable than that this handful ofmen, with no pastor or even presiding elder among them, should leavetheir encampment under the bluff, and the neighborhood of their boat, totravel inland to this bleak and exposed bowlder, there to set one oftheir number to exhort the rest. Carver certainly was a deacon ofRobinson's congregation, yet this office gave him no spiritualauthority, but rather the duties of a warden in the mother church, norwas the governor a man to assume any authority not his own; so althoughhe led the informal service held in that sheltered nook, upon the shore,Winslow and Bradford and Hopkins were the chief speakers, while JohnHowland in his melodious and powerful voice raised a psalm that made thewelkin ring, and Richard Warren stoutly cried Amen to all the rest.
Standish, his arms folded and one hand resting upon the hilt of Gideon,stood a little apart, his head reverently bared in the prayers, and witha rough attempt at melody echoing Howland's psalm; but during theexhortations or prophesyings, he strode softly up and down the beach,or mounting upon the bluff swept sea and land with the keen glances ofeyes that nothing escaped. Occasionally a fervent word would be sped inhis direction from one or another, and many a prayer, as before andafter that hour, was urged that this bulwark of the church against hersecular foes might become her obedient son. When thus exhorted or prayedfor the captain's face became a study, sometimes so impenetrably obtuse,sometimes so rigid in its obstinacy, sometimes touched with shrewdamusement, and sometimes moved to tender sympathy, but never toconviction or even doubt, and as the years went on, those who loved himmost, even Bradford and Alden and Brewster, ceased all effort to bringthis precious comrade into their own fold, but learned to accept him ashe was.
Monday broke with clear and gracious skies and a sea only pleasantlyrippled with its late commotion. Refreshed and cheered by their longrest the Pilgrims were early afoot, and at a good hour the cleaned andfurbished arms were packed in the shallop, the sail, bent to its newmast, was unfurled to its fullest spread, and the eighteen men, each athis own post, eager and hopeful. It had been resolved to proceed nofarther in search of Coppin's harbor, which afterward proved to be CutRiver and the site of Marshfield, but to explore the landlocked harborlying before them.
Carefully sounding as she went, the shallop felt her way through the CowYard or Horse Market, around Beach Point, and having the flood tide withher rode triumphantly over Dick's Flat and Mother White's Guzzle, untilfinally, with furled sails and her head to the wind, she lay within abiscuit toss of the shore.
"See, there are cleared fields and a river full of fish, and all thingsready to our hand," cried Howland excitedly.
"Bring her up to the beach, then, and we will land and explore," repliedCarver, smiling at the young man's enthusiasm.
"There is a rock a few rods ahead set ready for a stepping-stone,"announced Howland standing in the bows.
"Lay her up to it, men," growled English, and in a moment the bows ofthe shallop caressingly touched the cheek of that great gray Rock,itself a pilgrim, as has well been said, from some far northern shore,brought here by the vast forces of Nature, and laid to wait in grandpatience, until the ages should bring it a name, a use, and a nation'slove and honor.
"Jump then, lad, and see thou jump not five fadom deep, as thou didstout there in mid-seas!" cried Hopkins, and Howland leaping lightly fromthe boat to the rock cried in his blithe voice,--
"And I seize this mainland for King James, even as Master Clarke did yonisland."
"Only thou dost not claim it for thine own under the king as he did,"replied Coppin.
"It seemeth to me," said Carver as he stepped on shore, "as if thisplace were fairly laid down on Smith's map that we were studying. Thinkyou not so, Master Winslow?"
"Ay, I believe it is the place he hath called Plymouth after our Englishtown."
"Why, then, if we are minded to tarry here, it were well befitting thatwe should continue the name, for our Plymouth brethren cheered andcomforted us marvelously in our sad outsetting," replied the governor,and Bradford added,--
"They were in very truth kinder than our own."
"'T is a better harbor than English Plymouth can boast," said Coppinturning to survey the bay.
"Harbor! English Plymouth's harbor is no better than a slaughter pen!Not less than ten good ships were pounded to pieces there in the lastyear," said the sailor Alderton.
"Yes, 't is worse than the Goodwin Sands, if that can be," echoedEnglish.
"While here is a haven most artificially contrived for safety, with itsoverlapping arms and islands," cried Clarke.
"Ay, the islands, Clarke's Island above all, are such as all Englandcannot match!" jeered Coppin, while Howland, followed by the rest, beganto climb the bluff in front of them, choosing almost by instinct theeasy ascent around its base, now known as Leyden Street. A little abovethe future site of the Common house they paused to take breath and toconsult.
"Yes, here is cleared land enow for any crop we can plant in a year tocome," said Dotey, looking approvingly along Cole's Hill.
"And I hear the tinkle of water falling upon water," cried Bradfordgazing down toward the outlet of Town Brook. "There must be springsyonder."
"But fuel would needs be lugged on men's backs further than I for onecould fancy," grumbled Hopkins glancing at the woods nowhere very near.
"We can scarce hope for arable land and dense forest in one plot ofground," remarked Winslow dryly.
"Let us march into the land and explore it fully," suggested Carver."Every man should carry his piece with lighted match, but the rest ofthe gear may well be left in the boat under charge of the shipmen.Master Gunner I advise thee to stay behind also. If we meet with theIndians and there is any opening for trucking I promise thee thy fullshare and advantage."
"He who stays by the stuff shall share with him who goeth to thebattle," quoted Standish, who was well versed in what may be called themilitary history of the Bible.
"'T is a venerable law, Captain, and out of a faultless code," repliedCarver reverently.
"Come on, then, brethren!" cried Hopkins striding up the steep face ofBurying Hill. The rest followed, and on the crest stopped to admire themagnificent view spread out in the clear light of the wintry morning.
"Yon is a sightly point for a town," said Warren pointing to Watson'sHill.
"Too far from the shore," replied Carver.
"And from those tinkling springs for whose water I already am athirst,"added Bradford.
"Hm! hm!" growled Standish plucking at his beard and pacing to and fro;"here is the place for a stronghold, Master Carver, just here where weare standing. See you now, from a breastwork thrown up hereabout andmounted with a minion or two a man could sweep off an army. 'T is but apretty shot to the rock whereon we landed, and where any but a foolwould choose to land, since it is the only dry-shod landing on thebeach; and here we have Bradford's springs well in range, and thisascent by which we have clomb thither. Why, it is a little Gibraltarready to our hand. Then if the salvages approach by land, from yon fairhill which Warren advises, our heavier guns will meet them half way,and our smaller metal mow them down at close quarters. We are well setforth in gun-metal, Governor, for I saw to it myself; not only minions,but sakers and falcons and bases, not to mention each man's piece, whichI fain would have had all snaphances like mine own. Ay, we are wellarmed, and here is our fortalice."
"But not to my mind our dwelling, Captain," replied Carver pleasantly."Mind you, half our company are women and children, and it were hard forthem to be cooped up in a fort or to descend and climb again this shrewdascent whenever they were athirst. I say not but that a fortificationhere were admirable when we come at it, but methinks our dwellings werebetter placed under its protection than within it."<
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"Along this course we have just trod from the rock," suggested Winslow.
"And tending toward the springs," added Bradford with a smile.
"Nay, man, come and drink since thou 'rt so sore athirst," cried Hopkinsclapping him on the back. "If 't were a spring of Hollands now, or evena double strike of English ale, I'd race thee for it, but never yet didI find my stomach clamor for cold water."
"'T is very delicate water for all that," declared Bradford as the twomen, stumbling down the steep descent of Spring Lane, reached andstooped to drink of the spring at its foot.
"Too delicate for me," retorted Hopkins; "fitter for maids than men."
"Well, beer is brewed of water as well as of barley and hops," declaredBradford; "and thou 'st only to raise the grain and this fair springwill turn it into beer for thee at thy pleasure."
"And here be blackberry briers for my dame to brew her wild-berry wines,and lo you now, this is sassafras whose roots are worth their weight ingold to the chirurgeons, and these are strawberry leaves."
"And we have seen cherry and plum stocks in abundance the way we came,"declared Bradford as the rest of the party straggled down the hill.
"Excellent sand and gravel for building," said Warren crumbling the soilaround the spring. "Ay, and here is clay to shape into pots and panswhen the goodwives have broken all they bring."
"Methinks it hath a look of fuller's clay, and so is almost as well forus as soap," said Howland taking up some and washing his hands in thebrook. "There, now, see you its use!"
"Have with you, friend," cried Winslow, daintiest of the pioneers."Surely cleanliness being next to godliness tendeth somewhat to the samesatisfaction!"
The exploration, carried as far as Eel River at the south and Murdoch'sPond westerly, lasted until night, when the Pilgrims bivouacked on theshore, supping merrily on some great clams dug by the sailors and wildfowl shot by Howland and Dotey. Before they slept under the shelteringbrow of Cole's Hill it was pretty well decided that Plymouth, as theybegan at once to call it, should be their permanent dwelling-place, moreespecially as in their day-long explorations they had seen no natives oreven their dwellings, and the site seemed for some reason abandoned totheir occupancy.
But the joyous return with good news to those on board the Mayflower wasturned into grief and dismay by the tidings awaiting the explorers.
Dorothy Bradford was dead. How it could have happened, or just when, noone knew, but on the very day after her husband's departure she had gonequietly on deck while the rest of the company were at supper and neverwas seen again; nor till the sea gives up its dead shall any know thestory of that poor overwrought soul's last fierce struggle and defeat.
Nor can we speak of the young husband's anguish, and it may beself-reproach, in that awful hour. He speaks not himself of this matterin his journal, save in briefest words; nor dare we intrude upon suchmatters as lie between a man and his God. But this we may say, that asJacob, wrestling with the angel and overcoming, went halting all hisdays from the wound of that strange conflict, so Bradford's face when heagain took his place among his fellows told of years forever consumed inone terrible struggle.