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In 1622 …
Relations with the Poconoquets deteriorated thanks to Squanto’s manipulation, and Bradford’s unwillingness to turn over his friend for execution. The Pilgrims built a fort, and the town was overrun by “strangers” who didn’t share the original settlers’ Calvinist inclinations. Food became a problem again with the influx of new settlers, and the Plymouth settlers got alarming news from Virginia.
Transcript
A couple weeks after the first Thanksgiving, Bradford heard that a ship had appeared at Provincetown Harbor. This was just months after the Mayflower had departed, and they weren’t expecting a supply ship, so they worried it was the French. This was a very normal initial reaction to ships approaching, just one I haven’t mentioned because it’s never particularly important. Regardless, it’s an interesting aspect of colonial life in all early colonies. Any given ship could be coming to help you, or destroy you, or, well, neither in most cases. This is one of those cases.
So, they fired their cannon, and Standish assembled the men into a fighting force, but the ship landed, and it turned out that it was an English vessel with 37 passengers and no supplies. This doubled the size of the colony.
They weren’t Leideners, though. Apart from Cushman, Brewster’s son and Winslow’s brother, they were predominantly young, single “strangers.” They were mostly poor artisans and workers, like carriage makers and ribbon weavers, and mostly men, though four female teenage orphans came. Before they were willing to land in Plymouth, they made the ship’s captain promise to take them to Virginia if conditions in Plymouth were terrible, but when they landed, everything looked promising.
The Pilgrims didn’t like the new arrivals, though. They were always skeptical of “strangers,” and Bradford saw these colonists as particularly wild. Worse, though, after counting their food supplies, they found that even eating half of their present rations, they’d only have six months of corn left, meaning another winter without enough food.
The ship also brought a letter from Weston, addressed to the now-dead Carver. It criticized the Pilgrims for having failed to send back goods on the Mayflower, and said that they hadn’t failed because they were incapable. They had failed to do so because they spent all their time bickering, talking and voting rather than working. They didn’t know what it took to survive in the wilderness, and the Merchant Adventurers were the ones paying the price – literally. “I know your weakness was the cause of it, and I believe more weakness of judgment than weakness of hands. A quarter of the time you spent in discoursing, arguing and consulting would have done much more.” It also emphasized that the Pilgrims must pay back the Merchant Adventurers in goods before they tried to get rich.
Bradford was furious, and replied acknowledging that the investors hadn’t gotten any return on their investment, but that their potential losses were only financial, whereas the Pilgrims had been dying, and the loss of industrious men like Carver couldn’t be valued at any price.
You can see both sides of the story, and though Cushman was one of the Leideners, he actually supported Weston. He’d been watching Weston’s finances collapse in a way that Bradford didn’t fully understand, and he’d also watched Weston try to remain a dependable backer, despite his problems, and promise he would never quit the business, even if everyone else did. Cushman tried to convince Bradford to trust Weston and sign the new agreement, but the event pushed a permanent wedge between Bradford and Cushman.
The last thing the Fortune brought was a new patent, secured from the Council for New England.
Two weeks later, on December 13, 1621, the Fortune left, carrying 500 pounds of beaver skins and sassafrass obtained from the Indians, as well as oak clapboards. It would be enough to cut their existing debt in half, which should convince the adventurers to continue investing. Cushman returned to England, but left his 14 year old son, Thomas, in Bradford’s care. The ship also carried the text that would later come to be known as Mourt’s Relation.
On the way back to England, though, the Fortune made a common navigational error which put it off the coast of La Rochelle in France instead of England. At the time, the French King and Huguenots were in the middle of a fight, which made the appearance of English vessels extremely suspicious. Every English vessel approaching the port was liable to search and seizure in case it was ferrying supplies to the Huguenot rebels, so when the Fortune approached, a French Warship stopped and boarded the ship. The governor seized the guns, cargo and rigging, and threw the ship’s master in jail, while Cushman and the crew remained under guard on board the vessel. 13 days later, he let the ship go, with the copy of Mourt’s Relation, but minus the valuable cargo. It was a common error, and the fallout was just bad luck – well, bad Fortune.
When they got to London, though, they realized just how damaging the event had been. You remember that the alum racket had blown up in Weston’s face the previous summer. Well, since that time, Weston had desperately continued his tactic of writing IOUs and trading, but he was past the point of no return. He had expected the Pilgrims’ friend Pickering to guarantee his debts, but his ties with the wealthy brownist were weakening. Pickering felt that Weston was taking advantage of him by continuing to issue bills of exchange, which he expected Pickering to honor. Weston, well, continued. His life was in a downward spiral, and he was using whatever tools he had to slow the decline. In early 1622, the two had a heated argument in London and the relationship was over. Then, a Shrewsbury draper named John Vaughan sued Weston for payment for a consignment of Welsh cotton. Other individuals started to come after Weston for unpaid debts, and the authorities started to come after him for his unpaid fines and customs duties.
So, Weston sold his share in the Plymouth venture for whatever someone would pay him, and got one last patent. This one would allow him to sell guns in the Atlantic. However, right after he did this, the man who had run the alum monopoly reported Weston’s newest activities to the crown, and the authorities came after him for that, too. But … he was gone. He had vanished along with some of the people who worked with him. They found one of his crewmembers, named Philemon Powell, who was posing as the purser of a ship of eight colonists bound for New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. They detained and interrogated powell, but he refused to talk, saying that by law no servant could be made to give evidence against his master. This allowed Weston to evade arrest, and Weston actually surfaced and petitioned for the man’s release, saying that he was losing five pounds per day that Powell was detained. They let Powell go, the Charity made its way to America, and Weston again disappeared.
The remaining investors had to figure out what to do next. Some were close friends of Pickering and wanted to sue Weston. Sherley and Pocock started leading the Merchant Adventurers, though, and paid to send 20 tons of supplies and 30 passengers to Plymouth. Then, Cushman approached John Peirce, who had obtained the 1621 Council for New England patent, and Peirce agreed to help finance another voyage. Together, they raised 400 pounds. This was enough to buy 30 tons of supplies and trading goods, as well as a ship called the Paragon. Peirce wasn’t giving a donation, though, this was an investment, and he wanted an insurance policy. He asked the Council for New England to amend the original patent in a way that made him and his business partners the landlords of Plymouth Colony.
The Paragon nearly sank, though, twice, nearly ending the mission. Then, when Peirce didn’t get the vessel repaired and sent out again within 14 days, Pocock and Sherley sued him. And then Peirce started demanding recrimination in the courts. They weren’t happy about his patent adjustment, and neither were the settlers. The authorities held up the original patent, but the dispute continued until Peirce died.
Back in Plymouth, after the Fortune left, rumors spread that the Narragansett sachem, Canonicus, was preparing to attack the settlement. Toward the end of November, a Narragansett messenger arrived at Plymouth with a bundle of arrows wrapped in a rattlesnake’s skin for Squanto. Squanto was away, so he happily gave it to the Pilgrims instead. When Squanto returned, he told the English that the arrows were nothing more than a challenge. Bradford filled the skin with gunpowder and bullets, and sent it back to Canonicus, who was terrified. He refused to touch it, and it passed around from village to village until it finally made its way back to Plymouth. I don’t know if Bradford knew the extent of the threat he was making, but the level of fear instilled was clear.
For Standish, the event was evidence that the settlement needed a wall, specifically an 8 foot high, 2,700 foot long wall around the town. The settlers were on half rations, the majority weren’t Pilgrims and had no real inclination to answer to Pilgrim leadership, and they didn’t have the right tools for the job, or horses to move the wood. Still, he convinced Bradford it was a worthwhile project, and they started building.
In a town with an ever-growing non-Puritan, non-Brownist population, Christmas brought a predictable conflict. The Strangers wanted to celebrate Christmas, and told Bradford that it was “against their consciences” to work on Christmas. Bradford wasn’t pleased, but he gave them the day off while he and the others went out for the usual day’s work. When they returned at noon, and found the Strangers celebrating Christmas the way it was celebrated in England – with sports and games – it was too much. Bradford confiscated the balls and bats, told them it wasn’t fair for them to play while others worked, and if they wanted to spend Christmas quietly praying at home, they could, but there would be no gaming or outdoor celebrations. This was not a free colony, it was a democratic colony.
Anyway, the wall was coming along nicely, and Standish developed a manpower plan. Standish then organized the colony’s military. He divided the men into four companies, each with its own commander, and assigned positions and duties to each in the event of an attack. He drilled the men regularly, and set up contingency plans in case he was away from the settlement during an attack.
They needed to start trading for some food, though, so Standish prepared to take a group of people to trade with the Massachusetts. As they were planning the mission, though, Hobbamock appeared and told Bradford and Standish that the Massachusetts had united with the Narragansetts and were planning to attack Standish’s party. When Standish was dead, they could attack the settlement.
Here’s where it gets odd, though. Hobbamock said that Squanto was in on the plot, and that he had been secretly meeting with Indians throughout the region.
The English needed food. They couldn’t just huddle within the walls of the settlement. This was a very confusing turn of events, so they set up a meeting to discuss what to do next.
Bradford had developed a close relationship with Squanto, and depended on his experience, judgment and quite frankly companionship. Meanwhile, Standish and Hobbamock were close friends. The two Indians were rivals, and it was quite possible that Hobbamock was misrepresenting Squanto’s actions. Bradford and Standish decided to talk to them, compare notes, and play up the competition between them to try to figure out what was going on.
So, they re-planned the mission, and Standish took 10 men, as well as both Squanto and Hobbamock, in the shallop toward Massachusetts. A few hours after they left, though, one of Squanto’s family members appeared outside the town, completely exhausted, and with his head and face covered in blood. Between gasps for breath, he told Bradford that he’d just come from Nemasket, and that the Narragansetts had teamed up with the Poconoquets for an assault on Plymouth. He said he, as a member of Squanto’s family, had spoken in the Pilgrims’ defense and had, as a consequence, been struck on the head.
The story just didn’t quite make sense, and at the very least, there were some aspects of the story that looked suspicious. Massasoit suddenly turning against the English and joining the Narragansetts was odd, if not for reasons of loyalty, then for strategic reasons. Plus, there were some odd parallels between his story and the story of Hobbamock’s escape from Corbitant. Plus, the message was timed for the moment at which the English were at their most vulnerable, and it looked staged, even calculated.
Bradford ordered the cannons to be fired as a warning signal, and hopefully to get Standish to return to Plymouth. At the very least, though, everyone working in the countryside could return to the town. Fortunately, Standish did hear, and immediately turned around.
Hobbamock insisted that Squanto’s relative’s claims were all lies. Massasoit would have consulted him if he were planning anything. He was one of the sachem’s most trusted confidants, unlike Squanto. They sent his wife to Poconoquet to determine whether there was any truth to Squanto’s relative’s claims. She didn’t find anything amiss, and told Massasoit why she was there. Massasoit was furious. He assured Bradford that he would warn him of any possible threats to Plymouth if they arose. They did have a treaty, after all.
Further investigation into the issue showed that Squanto had been working to overthrow Massasoit. He’d been telling villages throughout the region the same lie he once told Massasoit, that the English possessed the plague and that they could unleash it at will. Furthermore, he said that they were planning to do just that, but that if a village sent him tribute, he could convince them to hold off. People were beginning to look to Squanto instead of Massasoit for protection. If he could get the English to attack Massasoit, he could take complete power of the region. So it was all a set up.
This was just the beginning of the problem, though, because under the terms of the treaty, Bradford had to turn Squanto over to Massasoit for punishment. But, Bradford didn’t want to. He considered Squanto a close friend, and someone he and the Pilgrims depended on as an interpreter and guide. Forget the fact that he had just endangered both the English and Massasoit, as well as peace in the region, that he’d tried to get them to kill their greatest ally. Forget the fact that if this were England, Squanto’s crimes would be punishable by hanging, drawing and quartering, and that they really were terrible, and that after these actions there’s no way the Pilgrims should have trusted anything Squanto said or did. Turning Squanto over to be killed wasn’t something Bradford wanted to do, and evidently, he was willing to break his treaty with Massasoit to avoid it.
To an extent, I can sympathize with this. Squanto was someone he’d known for over a year, whose company he’d enjoyed, and who had taught the Pilgrims to plant corn. Plus, well the Pilgrims did tend to look very strongly to their leaders and advisors for guidance, even in Leiden, and in fact even in England. Now, he was in the position of having to turn Squanto over, not just for a trial, but for execution. You can see how he wouldn’t want to make that call. This is one of the many downsides of Bradford and the Pilgrims being ordinary farmer-types, not trained soldiers, not experienced explorers. It’s one of the tough aspects of diplomacy, but it was a very important thing for Bradford to do, and Bradford couldn’t.
He kept Squanto in his original position, even when Massasoit appeared in Plymouth and demanded he be killed, and even when Massasoit returned to Poconoquet and sent a messenger reiterating his demands. Bradford had made his choice, and though he acknowledged that Squanto deserved to die, he said that Squanto was vital to the health of the plantation, and that he couldn’t be executed. And he reiterated it again when Massasoit’s messenger returned with several warriors, their sachem’s knife, and instructions to return with Squanto’s head and hands. Massasoit even offered to give Bradford furs, just for adhering to the treaty and turning someone over who had endangered them both for his own power.
Bradford refused the payment, but brought Squanto to talk to the emissaries from Poconoquet. Squanto insisted that none of this was his fault, that Hobbamock was the one who had orchestrated the whole thing. It was utterly impossible that the story was true. A boat appeared in the distance, and Bradford told the Poconoquets that he wouldn’t surrender Squanto until he could determine the nationality of the boat, because if he boat was French, they might be on the verge of attack. Massasoit’s men, again, left furious at the delay tactic and went to tell their leader. Squanto remained alive, though.
And as for the boat, it was a shallop from an English fishing vessel, called the Sparrow, hired by Weston. It carried 50-60 passengers, again without supplies, but with a rather rushed and rambling letter to Bradford listing his excuses, his enemies, pledges of help, and an admission that the latest reinforcements weren’t exactly England’s finest. “Now,” he said. “I will not deny that there are many of our men rude fellows, as these people term them, yet I presume they will be governed by such as I set over them, and I hope not only to be able to reclaim them from the profaneness that may scandalize the voyage, but by degrees to call them to God.”
Bradford was furious. He offered the men the requested hospitality, lowered rations even more, and hid the letter from everyone but his most trusted associates. Spring brought an influx of fresh fish into the streams, but the Plymouth settlers had absolutely no idea of how to fish. They couldn’t even catch enough to feed themselves, much less themselves and the new arrivals. The new arrivals then ruined the corn crop by eating the immature cornstalks which had been planted.
A few weeks later, more settlers appeared on the Swan and Charity. One of these was a lawyer named Thomas Morton.
Soon, though, Weston’s men left Plymouth and founded their own village, which they’d gotten a patent for, at a place called Wessagussett. The Plymouth for was just about completed, and the new settlers began building their own fort about 20 miles away. The corn crop had been disastrously insufficient, but Winslow took the shallop to Maine to get some food, and then in November Plymouth and Wessagussett teamed up to take Wessagussett’s 30 ton Swan on a trading voyage south of Cape Cod, led by Standish.
Right before the ship was set to sail, though, Standish got sick enough he couldn’t go, so Bradford went with Squanto instead. They traded with a local tribe, but as they were preparing to leave the area, Squanto suddenly fell ill, started bleeding from the nose, and was soon dead. It seems likely that he was poisoned, especially because poison was a form of assassination used by New England’s tribes. Winslow seemed to think that Squanto and Massasoit had made peace with each other, but it’s hard to imagine that that was the case. Bradford claimed that as Squanto was dying, he asked him to “pray for him that he might go to the Englishman’s God in Heaven,” and bequeathed his things to his English friends as remembrances of his love. But, Squanto was dead, and the relationship with Massasoit was damaged, so it was a lose-lose situation for Bradford and Plymouth.
When Standish recovered, he and Bradford went on another trading expedition, this time to the west, and with the coldness and reservation, they started to realize just how much they and Weston’s men had antagonized the natives.
This was a year after the first Thanksgiving, and things couldn’t be more different. Relations with Massasoit were strained, and rumors were that the Massachusetts wanted to attack. Plenty had been replaced by poverty, and instead of a Godly haven in the wilderness, the Pilgrims were surrounded by the kinds of people they’d left England and Leiden to get away from. They also worried that those people’s behavior would degrade relations with the natives even more. And, it was about this time that they got some truly alarming news from Virginia.