Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

William Bradford decided to send a delegation to Massasoit in July. Ever since Massasoit’s visit, Native Americans had been visiting the Pilgrims frequently. These visits were straining the Pilgrims’ food supply. In order to address this issue, the Pilgrims decided to give Massasoit a chain. If someone visited with the chain, they would be received. If not, they would be turned away. Edward Winslow led the delegation, which also included Stephen Hopkins and Squanto. Massasoit greeted the three men and, though there were festivities at the arrival of the Pilgrims, both of the Pilgrims soon wanted to leave, as they were nearly starved and had been offered little food. Also, they were unable to sleep as there were lice and fleas on the ground.

Though the Pilgrims established a peace with Massasoit and the Pokanokets, an event at the end of July served to strain Native American relations. Sixteen-year-old John Billington got lost one day and was found by Canacum, the sachem of the Manomet. Instead of giving the Pilgrim boy to Massasoit, an ally, Canacum gave Billington to Aspinet, the sachem of the Nausets, the group that the Pilgrims had stolen the corn from on Cape Cod and who attacked the Pilgrims on First Encounter Beach. Massasoit finally learned of Billington’s whereabouts, and a meeting was arranged. When the two sides met, the boy was returned, and the Pilgrims agreed to repay what they stole. With this tense incident resolved, the Pilgrims had successfully made peace with another group of Native Americans.

Philbrick also explains that the first Thanksgiving was probably held in September or October, after the harvest, but that the exact date is unknown. The gathering probably bore little resemblance to modern depictions of it. Thanksgiving was a secular, harvest festival celebrated in England. During the first American Thanksgiving, the Native Americans outnumbered the Pilgrims, and brought a lot of food to the event. People stood around open fires where meat was being cooked. Food included cod, other fish, ducks, geese, and deer. The celebration was noteworthy in that the Pilgrims had arrived eleven months prior, at which time they were on the brink of starvation. Initially, they had no concept of how to survive in the New World. If it was not for the help of the Native Americans, the Pilgrims might not have survived. Philbrick ends the chapter by foreshadowing conflict between the two communities with the revelation that both sides were being controlled by a patiently plotting Squanto.

A ship appeared near Provincetown Harbor in the middle of November, causing the Pilgrims considerable alarm. The Pilgrims were not expecting supplies to be delivered by the Adventurers, and worried that the ship might be French. The New World was still a “lawless” place, and the French could easily have sent a contingent to destroy Plymouth before the settlement even began. When the vessel eventually sailed into Plymouth Harbor, the Pilgrims were relieved to find that it was another English ship, the Fortune. The ship was carrying thirty-seven passengers, and though the Pilgrims were happy to have more manpower, the new arrivals also impacted their food supplies, as their numbers nearly doubled. Winter was again approaching, and the Pilgrims were still in starvation mode, given what little food they had left. The Pilgrims also received a scathing letter from Weston that admonished them for not sending goods with the Mayflower when it returned. The Pilgrims had been toiling in the New World for a year now, but still had very little to show for their hard work. Though angry, the Pilgrims filled the Fortune with whatever goods they could spare, thus reducing their debt by half, and the ship set sail for England on December 16.

Soon afterwards, the Pilgrims learned that the powerful Narragansetts were angry with them for their alliance with the Pokanoket. It was believed that the Narragansetts would attack. The Pilgrims once again brandished their guns and used a show of force to try and quell the unease. Though the Narragansetts backed off, the Pilgrims realized that they were vulnerable to attack. Though they had muskets, they took too long to reload. To help defend themselves, it was decided that an eight-foot wall should be built to enclose both the settlement and the area where the cannons were kept. This would entail building a wall more than half a mile long. The defense was necessary, but convincing the Pilgrims to undertake its construction was difficult, as they were still suffering from malnutrition, disease and starvation. The unwillingness to work was most evident amongst the Strangers. Even when the Separatists worked on Christmas, the Strangers refused to help them. The Pilgrims returned from a long day of work to find the Strangers reveling, and put an immediate stop to it. Though the Strangers were frustrated by the Separatists’ intolerance, the wall was eventually built by March of the next year, and Miles Standish also developed a plan to defend the town in case of attack.

The Pilgrims traded with other Native groups, like the Massachusetts. This was a lucrative trade as the Pilgrims were able to get furs. As the Pilgrims prepared for one such trading expedition, a feared Pokanoket warrior named Hobbamock, who was staying with the Pilgrims, informed Bradford and Standish that the Massachusetts people had joined forces with the Narragansetts and were planning an ambush. The Native Americans planned to kill Standish and his men when they left the settlement, after which the settlement itself would be destroyed. Hobbamock also informed the two Pilgrim leaders that Squanto was in on the plot. The Pilgrim leaders met and, though under threat of imminent attack, did not want to raise the alarm or appear weak. They decided to continue with the trading expedition. Most troubling for Bradford was that he trusted Squanto. In the same way that Standish and Hobbamock had become friends, Bradford and Squanto had grown close. The two Pilgrim leaders knew there was animosity between the two Native Americans, and so decided to keep an eye on their Native friends as everything unfolded. Philbrick notes that the Pilgrims mistakenly believed that both Squanto and Hobbamock were named after the devil.

The trading party left in April, and included Standish, as well as Squanto and Hobbamock. After the group left, a member of Squanto’s family suddenly appeared at the settlement with blood all over his face. He told the Pilgrims that he had been attacked by the Pokanokets, that the Pokanokets had joined with the Narragansetts, and were on their way to destroy the settlement. The Pilgrims were shocked; the story made no sense to them. They were on good terms with Massasoit and could not conceive of him wanting to harm them. Also, the fact that Squanto’s family member arrived right after the trading party left seemed to indicate that Hobbamock had been right about Squanto. The Pilgrims sounded the canon to warn the other Pilgrims to return to the settlement.

Standish and his men had had to wait for the winds to die down before leaving for the trading expedition, and were just preparing to depart when they heard the cannon sound. The ship immediately turned around and headed for the settlement. The ship’s return shocked Squanto, who was indeed behind the attempted attack. It was later revealed that Squanto had wanted to overthrow Massasoit and become a sachem. Bradford was saddened by Squanto’s betrayal, though not enough to have him executed. According to the treaty the Pilgrims signed with the Pokanokets, Bradford should have turned Squanto over to Massasoit. Bradford, however, had grown fond of Squanto, and found him invaluable as a translator. Bradford’s refusal to turn Squanto over to him angered Massasoit, who suggested that Bradford execute Squanto himself to make things right. However, Bradford refused, and while the two sides were trying to determine Squanto’s fate, another ship from England arrived. The Pilgrims learned that Weston had given up on them and had secured a patent for a new colony, close to the Pilgrims’ settlement, and had sent about sixty settlers to the Pilgrims so that they might help the new settlers become acquainted with their new land.

Though Bradford and the Pilgrims were angered by Weston’s duplicity, they felt responsible for the new settlers. Though they wore mostly rough and potentially dangerous young men, they were still Englishmen, and their manpower was useful. The arrival of more people meant that the Pilgrims were once again reduced to starvation rations. To add to this dilemma, the Pilgrims learned that the Fortune had been captured by the French just before reaching English waters, meaning that the fruits of their toil had been taken by the French, and they were once again heavily in debt. Around the same time, Bradford received word from a fishing vessel farther north that Jamestown had recently been attacked by Native Americans, and that over three hundred settlers had been killed. Bradford realized that the Pilgrims were in a precarious position. Their relationship with Massasoit and the Pokanokets was fraying as a result of his refusal to have Squanto executed. The Narragansetts and Massachusetts were also angry with them, meaning they faced threats from three sides.

On receiving this troubling news from England and from farther north, Bradford and the Pilgrim leaders decided that they needed to reinforce their defenses by building a fort. Though they were still close to starvation, they knew their survival also depended on being able to repel any Native American attack. Winslow sailed to Maine and secured as much food as he could for the Pilgrims. In time, Weston’s group of settlers left and established their own settlement farther north, which became known as Wessagussett. The settlers there also began building a fort, as they were deep in Massachusetts territory. Though the two groups were radically different, they realized that they still needed to depend on each other for survival.

Bradford later went on an expedition to visit some of the local tribes and brought Squanto with him to act as an interpreter. Since his duplicity had been revealed, Squanto had been trying to get back on good terms with the Pilgrims, though few trusted him. When Bradford and Squanto were about to leave a village in Pleasant Bay, Squanto became sick with “Indian sickness” and eventually died. Bradford and others thought Squanto died from an illness, as he had the symptoms of a well-known disease. However, Philbrick suggests that Squanto may have died from poisoning. Several prominent Native American “movers and shakers” were killed during the seventeenth century, with poison often being the culprit. One theory is that Massasoit had Squanto killed. Without Squanto, the Pilgrims had to depend on Hobbamock to act as their intermediary with Massasoit. Hobbamock was a warrior who was fiercely loyal to Massasoit and did not employ subtle diplomacy, as Squanto had done. This change in the way things were done would later harm the Pilgrims.