Part 7

[47]Possibly an illusion, possibly Block Island. It appears as _Cabeleaus Eyleut_ (?) on the “Carte Figurative” (1616), reproduced in T. A. Janvier, _The Dutch Founding of New York_ (1903), between pages 20 and 21.

[48]Pory was mixed up. Boston Bay was _Graaf Hendrycks Bay_; Casco Bay (or sometimes the water between Cape Ann and Portsmouth, N. H.), _Graaf Willem_’s; Port Royal is now Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia. The Dutch names in the text have been left in the half-translated state in which Pory wrote them. In modern Dutch, “States Hooke” would be _Staten Hoek_.

[49]_Aquamachukes_ on the “Figurative Map” (1616), _Aquauachuques_ on map by Vander Donck (1656), reproduced in J. Winsor (ed.), _Narrative and Critical History of America_ (1884), IV, 433, 438.

[50]Weston’s rowdy crew at Wessagussett.

[51]Damariscove Island, off Boothbay, Me.

[52]Plymouth, England.

[53]Huckleberries.

[54]“Hugh” in the manuscript.

[55]This river is not identifiable. It may be an error in copying “Pentagoet,” the French name for the Penobscot.

[56]Flat, open.

[57]Gloucester or Annisquam.

[58]“Anna” in the manuscript.

[59]The _Bona Nova_ was a ship often employed in the Virginia trade. Nothing further is known about Swabber and the dead man.

[60]Indians.

[61]Goods for barter.

[62]Indians who performed the massacre of 1622 in Virginia.

[63]Edward Winslow, who left Plymouth for England on the _Anne_, Sept. 10, 1623.

[64]The other ship was the _Anne_, of 140 tons, William Peirce, master. The Company of Adventurers for New Plymouth (sometimes called by variants of this name) was the organization of merchants who helped finance the Plymouth settlement. They “adventured” their money; the Pilgrims were “planters,” although in modern estimation they were more adventurous.

[65]The only passenger known to have a name similar to Jennings was John Jenny, who lived to be an important man in the Plymouth Colony. This woman may have been one in his series of wives.

[66]Indian name for Plymouth.

[67]Double his money.

[68]Monhegan and Damerill’s Cove (Damariscove) are islands off the coast of Maine, each with a well-protected small harbor. Pemaquid is the peninsula east of Boothbay, Me.; Sagadahoc is the extension of the Kennebec River below its junction with the Androscoggin. Anquam is Gloucester or Annisquam on Cape Ann, Mass. The Isles of Shoals are off New Hampshire.

[69]A fishing stage, built over rock ledges near some convenient harbor, was a scaffold or “wharf built of spruce trees, boards, and beach stones where the fish could be cleaned,” salted and cured in the sun. The fishermen raced from Europe to get the best places, so a ship already in New England waters could hope to beat them all. S. E. Morison, _The Story of the “Old Colony” of New Plymouth_ (1956), 122. The new year began on March 25 in the Old Style dating system.

[70]“Alcerme” in the manuscript. Both Altham and Capt. John Smith believed that alkermes berries existed in North America. Perhaps they thought cranberries were the same things. Actually, alkermes berries are insects (species _coccus ilicis_) which live in the bark of the kerm oak, a tree found around the Mediterranean Sea. The pregnant females have a bright red color, and juice squeezed from them was used as a dye and a cordial, especially in times when they were still thought to be a vegetable.

[71]A master salter went over on the _Anne_, but he proved a better talker than practitioner of his business. The Pilgrims gave him a lot of help, but he made no salt. In spite of the logic of the idea, saltmaking never became important in the Plymouth Colony.

[72]Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

[73]“Bowle alminact” in the manuscript. The term had many variants, but referred to an astringent earth found in Armenia, used as a styptic.

[74]Capt. Thomas Dermer made two voyages of exploration along the Atlantic coast between Monhegan and Virginia in 1619 and 1620, employed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others interested in developing New England. He learned much and tried to establish peace with the Indians, but in his dealings with those near Narragansett Bay (where he liberated some French mariners) and Martha’s Vineyard, he may have stirred up fear of the English. He was mortally wounded in a fight with Epenow, an Indian who had once been a captive of Sir Ferdinando and shown off as a curiosity in England. W. F. Gookin, _Capawack alias Martha’s Vineyard_, 14-17.

[75]This is not impossible with Indian corn, but exceedingly unlikely.

[76]Hobomok was a Wampanoag, from west of Plymouth; Squanto, the last of the Indians formerly living around Patuxet, had died in 1622.

[77]William Bradford married his second wife, Alice, daughter of Alexander Carpenter, widow of Edward Southworth, Aug. 14, 1623.

[78]Saw. “Say” is an obsolete equivalent.

[79]Thomas Weston, the London merchant who originally promoted the Company of Adventurers for New Plymouth in 1620. He wanted profit from the business and, when his patience wore thin with a complete settlement, sent out the private all-male colony which Altham here refers to. Without family considerations, the men were expected to stick to money-making activities like trade with the Indians and grow food for themselves in their spare time. The colony was planted at Wessagusset in present Weymouth, Mass., after sixty or so “lusty men” had lived at the charge of the Pilgrims during the summer of 1622. Weston was devoted to America as well as profit and shady deals, though, and went to Virginia and Maryland as a planter for several years before dying in England, deep in debt. C. M. Andrews, _Colonial Period of American History_ (1934), 1, 261-265, 330-331.

[80]Capt. Standish and his company went to the Wessagusset settlement to warn the men of the conspiracy. After days of cautious waiting and veiled exchange of threats with some of the leading Massachusetts Indians, Standish got four of them into a room with about an equal number of his men and assassinated three, including Pecksuot and Wituwamat, whose head he took to Plymouth. In other ambuscades, with some aid by Weston’s men, the Pilgrim expeditionary force killed several others. The Wessagusset settlers, who had been reduced to great want and dependence on the Indians, abandoned their place, most going to the Maine coast to work for the fishermen and get passage back to England. The story is told most fully in Edward Winslow, “Winslow’s Relation,” in Young (ed.), _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers_ (“Everyman’s Library,” 1936), 313-332, or some other edition of Winslow’s _Good News from New England_.

[81]Flag.

[82]Adventurers and Planters were both members of the Company under the terms of the agreement made in 1620. Settlers were accounted as having put in the value of a £10 share.

[83]Ralph Hawtry, husband of Altham’s sister Mary.

[84]Samuel Purchas, _Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes_ (London, 1625), 4 vol. The books had been announced as early as 1621.

[85]The Leventhorpes were neighbors and close friends of the Althams. Sir Edward Altham married one of Sir John’s daughters. Sir John Fowle had married another daughter. “My brother Thomas” was the son and heir of Sir John Leventhorpe. Mary Leventhorpe was another daughter.

[86]Margaret Wolley at least had him in her will, proved in 1635, eight months before Altham’s death.

[87]Mr. Denn was rector in Latton, a man of Puritanical leanings. Stracy was a tenant of the Althams; Mr. Bland, a minister and family friend; Watson, a London gunsmith; Wells, a tenant of the Althams.

[88]James Sherley, goldsmith and treasurer of the Company of Adventurers.

[89]On this voyage, Altham went as far as the Narragansett Indians; that is, at least to western Rhode Island of today.

[90]Before experience showed the falsity of the idea, promoters of colonies in America thought of the settlements as glorified trading posts. This plan did work in Asia and logically ought to have in America if, as men like Altham or other Adventurers thought, profit was to be gained by trade and farming be only a spare-time adjunct.

[91]Not all went back. Nor was the damage so great; three or four houses burned down. The common store house and its contents were saved by means of good organization and wet cloths, although the fire started in an adjoining shed. Bradford said the blaze was started by some sailors from a ship in the service of the Council for New England. The men, who wanted a cheerful atmosphere for a carousal, built a big fire which may have gone out of control. Evidence also turned up to show that the storehouse was deliberately lit. Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_, 136-137.

Furthermore, the town was more than restored quite soon. Captain John Smith printed a description of Plymouth in 1624 which, in addition to information about the government and economy of the settlement, reported that “At New Plymouth is about 180 persons, some cattle and goats, but many swine and poultry; thirty-two dwelling houses, whereof seven were burnt the last winter, and the value of five hundred pounds in other goods. The town is impaled about half a mile in compass. In the town upon a high mount they have a fort well built with wood, loam and stone, where is planted their ordnance; also a fair watchtower, partly framed, for the sentinel.” This passage, in original spelling, may be found in “Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles,” edition of 1624, reprinted in Edward Arber and A. G. Bradley (eds.), _Travels and Works of Captain John Smith_ (1910), II, 782.

[92]Plymouth. The ship was anchored outside Plymouth harbor when the storm blew up and almost drove her on the flats called Brown’s Islands.

[93]Englishmen of the seventeenth century thought life barely possible without beer.

[94]Altham’s nephews, sons of Sir Edward.

[95]See notes 21, 23, 25 to preceding letter.

[96]Old family servants. See preceding letter.

[97]On the _Charity_.

[98]The troublemaker probably was one of the men drowned in the wreck of the _Little James_ (see below). The sailors of the pinnace, however, had been discontented since early in the voyage. They believed they had signed on for privateering, to get their pay in shares of prize ships. After a near mutiny at Plymouth, Gov. Bradford helped arrange regular wages for them, and kept them on the ship for the exploration of southern New England, but they still insisted that they would not go on a fishing voyage. “A Letter of William Bradford and Isaac Allerton, 1623,” _American Historical Review_, VIII (1902-03), 296.

[99]William Peirce was to be shipmaster of the _Charity_ on her return voyage. Edward Winslow had returned from England on that ship.

[100]In 1624 all goods in the general storehouse at Plymouth belonged to the Company.

[101]Probably they took supplies from the trading post near the mouth of the Piscataqua River (near modern Portsmouth, N. H.) kept by David Thompson. In his will, Altham left 40s. to a mistress Thomson in New England, presumably the man’s widow, as repayment of a debt she did not know of.

[102]At Damariscove Island, off Maine. The harbor usually gave ships good protection in rough weather.

[103]“A sentence written lengthways in the margin, and not completed.” J. F. Jameson, in Massachusetts Historical Society, _Proceedings_, XLIV, 184n.

[104]’Ere.

[105]From Plymouth.

[106]Probably master of a fishing vessel from Barnstaple, Devonshire, England. “Bastable,” however, is to be found on Cape Ann on Capt. John Smith’s map of New England (1614 and later versions), and there were more or less permanent residents on Cape Ann by 1624.

[107]Bradford, who wrote over twenty years after the event, remembered the salvage episode as though Altham had not been involved: “... some of the fishing masters said it was a pity so fine a vessel should be lost and sent them [i.e., the Plymouth settlers] word that if they would be at the cost, they would both direct them how to weigh her and let them have their carpenters to mend her. They thanked them and sent men about it, and beaver to defray the charge, without which all had been in vain. So they got coopers to trim I know not how many tun of cask, and being made tight and fastened to her at low water, they buoyed her up; and then with many hands hauled her on shore in a convenient place where she might be wrought upon. And then hired sundry carpenters to work upon her, and other to saw plank, and at last fitted her and got her home.” Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_, 163.

[108]One of the passengers on the _Mayflower_, “Richard Gardiner became a seaman and died in England or at sea.” Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_, 447.

[109]La Rochelle. This meant that the ship was owned and manned by French Protestants. La Rochelle was a Huguenot stronghold under the Edict of Nantes and became the center of resistance to royal attempts to revise the privileges of Protestants. English public opinion backed the Huguenots and tended to regard the people of La Rochelle as partners in an international religious struggle. When it came to national rights over trade, however, French Protestants were to be treated as foreigners, though with more consideration than Catholics.

[110]Codfish “caught close to shore, landed within a couple of days, and lightly salted and cured largely in the sun.” Morison, _Story of the “Old Colony” of New Plymouth_, 122.

[111]Letter of marque.

[112]To seek profit in fishing.

[113]Dawson, surgeon on the _Little James_, used language such that Altham “and others durst not go to sea with [him]; ... such that we were constrained to dismiss him,” and replace him with a man from the _Anne_. “A Letter of William Bradford and Isaac Allerton, 1623,” _Am. Hist. Rev._, VIII, 300.

[114]Peirce and the _Charity_ had gone to the fishing areas about the time of the wreck.

[115]Oil extracted from fat-fleshed fish by heat or pressure. Fish other than cod had little market in Europe. In later centuries, the term, “train-oil,” was given to whale oil.

[116]Of Gibraltar.

[117]Besides Robert Cushman, several of these men were probably Adventurers for New Plymouth—Thomas Brewer, William Collier, John Thornell, John Pocock.

[118]English opinion, including Gov. Bradford’s at this time, agreed that profit from New England would come by fishing. Many made money in this way, but the New Plymouth Company lost heavily by it.

[119]Mr. Pemberton, apparently a New Plymouth Adventurer and merchant, sent his ship under the sponsorship of the Dorchester Adventurers, the company founded under the inspiration of Rev. John White of Dorchester, which became the ancestor of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Pemberton probably was a close relative of another Adventurer, John Pemberton, a minister and enemy of the Leyden congregation Separatist element among the Plymouth settlers. John Pemberton received letters from John Lyford against the religious practices and government at Plymouth, and was a leader in the factional strife in the Company of Adventurers which led to its big split in 1625 after a debate over Lyford.

[120]At Gloucester on Cape Ann, Mass.

[121]_Hopewell_, William Peirce, master.

[122]Lyford and Oldham, whose letters of complaint Bradford seized in 1624, continued their machinations against the Pilgrim church and government. Lyford had repented spectacularly after his first exposure, but went back to work, still believing he had more friends in the colony than dared speak up. He called down a list of complaints from the Pemberton party among the Adventurers, but only as they withdrew from the Company. Lyford and Oldham were exiled by the colonial government, Lyford leaving after a second exposure and Oldham after a period of near insanity, on the day when Altham arrived the second time.

[123]The fools merely wanted to draw more capital to the sinking enterprise; the knaves had ulterior motives, probably inspired by Lyford’s suggestion that every man sent to the settlement at Plymouth be given rights as an Adventurer (by juggling the accounts) in order to outvote the Bradford regime.

[124]Argall, formerly associated with the Virginia Company, had become a leading member of the Council for New England. Other Council members took grants of land for themselves; Argall may have planned to, but he died on an English expedition to attack Cadiz in 1626.

[125]Because of the debts contracted in their name by their agents and the London merchants, the Plymouth settlers had to remain in the Company as reorganized by a minority of the Adventurers headed by James Sherley. Between July and October, 1626, Isaac Allerton, as the colony’s agent, arranged a deal to buy the interests of the remaining Adventurers (including Altham) on an installment plan. Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_, 182-186; Bradford, “Letter Book,” Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st ser., III, 48.

[126]Wary, circumspect.

[127]Hawtry’s son-in-law, a lawyer.

[128]Plymouth, England.

[129]Blommaert was a merchant in Amsterdam and a director of the West India Company, 1622-29, 1636-42.

[130]The official name of the Hudson River for several years (named after Maurice, Prince of Orange). “Mauritse” in the original.

[131]Sandy Hook. [J. F. J.]

[132]Sandy Hook Bay. [J. F. J.]

[133]The Narrows, between Staten Island and Brooklyn.

[134]Long Island.

[135]Montauk Point.

[136]Wampum.

[137]The Siwanoys lived north of Long Island Sound, from the Bronx to Norwalk, Conn.; the Shinnecocks inhabited the east end of Long Island. “Souwenos,” in the original, is a name applied promiscuously by early Dutch cartographers.

[138]No doubt in the missing portion; the Pequots are apparently meant. [J. F. J.] The Pequots lived to the west of Narragansett Bay, in the eastern part of Connecticut.

[139]Probably the Kill van Kull and the Passaic or Hackensack River was thought to connect with the Wallkill River and Rondout Creek.

[140]Delaware River.

[141]In Holland. [J. F. J.]

[142]A morgen is about two acres. [J. F. J.]

[143]East River. The West India Company’s six farms lay east of the present Bowery, and extended from a fresh-water swamp occupying the site of the present Roosevelt and James Streets northward to Eighteenth or Twentieth Street. [J. F. J.]

[144]Governor’s Island.

[145]I.e., both Fort Amsterdam and the little island itself. Blommaert’s Vly was a low, damp depression running northeast and southwest about on the line of the present Broad Street. [J. F. J.]

[146]This name applies more properly to one of the Indian dialects spoken in the vicinity of Manhattan. J. G. Wilson (ed.), _The Memorial History of the City of New York_ (1892), I, 49.

[147]The fish. [J. F. J.]

[148]Blackstone River, Upper Narragansett Bay, and Sakonnet River.

[149]The short cut across the base of Cape Cod, now taken by ships through the Cape Cod Canal, was used by the Plymouth settlers and the Indians, who went up Scusset creek on the north side and down the Manomet River on the southwest. The site of the trading post built on the Manomet, near Buzzard’s Bay, has been excavated and the house restored. It is in the town of Bourne and can be reached as follows: “after crossing the Bourne Bridge over the Canal [heading toward Cape Cod], turn sharp right; next, bear left at a fork and follow Shore Road to signs indicating the Post; turn right under the railroad bridge and follow a dirt road through woods to the Post.” Morison, _Story of the “Old Colony” of New Plymouth_, 131n.

[150]Narragansett Bay.

[151]Cape Cod, especially Monomoy Point.

[152]In New Netherland and western New England, especially the Connecticut valley.

[153]De Rasieres, however, protested to Gov. Bradford that he had not walked “so far this three or four years, wherefore I fear my feet will fail me; so I am constrained to entreat you to afford me the easiest means” to get from the Aptucxet trading post to Plymouth. So the Governor sent a boat to pick him up at Scusset. Bradford, “Letter Book,” Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st ser., III, 54.

[154]On an east-and-west line from the outer tip of Cape Cod.

[155]Plymouth Beach. [J. F. J.]

[156]The Gurnet and Saquish Head.

[157]He reverses the actual bearings; and the street first mentioned was longer, 1,150 feet. [J. F. J.]

[158]A double share. [J. F. J.]

[159]In 1626, Isaac Allerton on behalf of the Plymouth settlers, agreed to buy the interests of the remaining London Adventurers for £1800, which De Rasieres translated into guilders by a simple formula. In July 1627, though De Rasieres may not have been well informed of the event, a group of leading men in the Colony, led by Bradford, became “Undertakers” for six years to pay this debt (and about £600 in other debts owed by the Colony) by means of a monopoly on the external trade of the settlement, including all dealings with the Indians. According to the agreement, each colonist who was a Freeman of the Company (i.e., had agreed to the purchase in 1626 and acquired rights to a share in the division of lands) made an annual payment to the Undertakers of three bushels of corn or six pounds of tobacco as they might specify. Bradford, _Of Plymouth Plantation_, 184-188, 194-196.

Index

A Allerton, Isaac, 77 animals near Plymouth, 79-80 _Anne_, 23 Annisquam, Massachusetts, 6, 17, 25 Anquam, 6, 17, 25 Aptucxet trading post, 74 Argall, Sir Samuel, 15, 55 _Arms of Amsterdam, The_, 65

B Bacco, Terrill, 51 birds near Plymouth, 10, 11, 78-80 Bradford, William, 29, 31, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50, 63, 76-78 Brewer, Thomas, 51 Bridge, James, 21, 42, 43, 48, 52

C Canonicus, 12 Capawack, _see_ Martha’s Vineyard Cape Ann, 6, 17, 42-44, 46, 54 Cape Cod, 5, 11, 14, 16, 74 _Charity_, 42 Clarke, John, 5 Cod Island, 15 Cohasset, Massachusetts, 11 Collier, William, 51 Corbitant, 12 Company of Adventurers for New Plymouth, 21-24, 30, 32, 35, 43, 47, 51, 53-56, 77 Council for New England, 4, 15, 55 Cushman, Robert, 51

D Damariscove Island, 15, 25, 44 Damerill’s Cove, _see_ Damariscove Island Dawson, Thomas, 49 Dermer, Thomas, 12, 27 _Discovery_, 5 Dutch in North America, 12, 26, 36, 63, 65, 67-69 Dutch West India Company, 63, 64, 68

E Eastham, Massachusetts, 11 Epenow, 12, 27

F Ferrar, John, 5 fish and fishing, near Plymouth, 7-10, 14, 25, 38, 75-76; off northern New England, 14, 25, 42-44, 54-56 Fletcher, Thomas, 22 French in New England and Canada, 12, 13, 15-16, 32 fur trade in New England, 26, 36, 58, 74

G Gardiner, Richard, 47 Gibbs, John, 14 Gloucester, Massachusetts, 6, 25 Goffe, Thomas, 22 Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 12, 15, 27

H Hawes, Nathaniel, 33, 57 Hobomok, 29, 31 _Hopewell_, 54, 57 Hudson River, 12, 15, 26, 65-68 Hunt, Thomas, 11-12

I Indians near Plymouth, 11-13, 16-18, 27-32, 77-79 Isles of Shoals, 25

J Jenny, John, 24 Jones, Christopher, 5 Jones, Thomas, 5, 10