The Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World

by Nathaniel Philbrick

  Their second night at sowams proved to be as sleepless as the first. Even before sunrise, the two Englishmen decided that they best be on their way, “we much fearing,” Winslow wrote, “that if we should stay any longer, we should not be able to recover home for want of strength.”

  Massasoit was “both grieved and ashamed that he could no better entertain” the Pilgrims, but that did not prevent the visit from ending on a most positive note. squanto, it was decided, would remain at Pokanoket so that he could go from village to village to establish trading relations for the Pilgrims, who had brought necklaces, beads, and other goods to exchange with the Indians for furs and corn. It may also have been that Massasoit wanted the chance to speak with the interpreter alone. Until squanto returned to Plymouth, another Indian named Tokamahamon would serve as the Englishmen’s guide.

  Two days later, on the night of saturday, July 7, after a solid day of rain, Winslow and Hopkins arrived back at Plymouth. They were wet, weary, and famished, but they had succeeded in strengthening their settlement’s ties with Massasoit and the Indians to the west. It would be left to a boy—and a Billington at that—to do the same for the Indians to the east.

  ◆◆◆ Back in January, fourteen-year-old Francis Billington had climbed into a tree near the top of Fort Hill. Looking inland to the west, he claimed he saw “a great sea.” Like his father, the Billington boy had already developed a reputation as a troublemaker. When the Mayflower had still been at anchor in Provincetown Harbor, he had fired off a musket in his family’s cabin that had nearly blown up a barrel of gunpowder, which would have destroyed the ship and everyone aboard. Given the boy’s history, no one seemed to take his claim about a large inland sea very seriously. Eventually, however, someone agreed to accompany the teenager on a trip into the woods. About two miles in, they came upon a huge lake that was “full of fish and fowl.” Even William Bradford, who had no great love of the Billington family, had to admit that the lake would be “an excellent help to us in time,” particularly since it was the source of Town Brook. To this day, the lake, which is close to five miles around, is known as the Billington sea.

  In late March, Francis’s father, John, had berated Miles standish and narrowly escaped public punishment. Toward the end of July, Francis’s older brother John Jr. got into some trouble of his own. Not long after the return of Winslow and Hopkins, the sixteen-year-old lost his way in the woods somewhere south of the settlement. For five days, he wandered, living on nuts, roots, and anything else he could find until he stumbled on the Indian village of Manomet, some twenty miles from Plymouth. Instead of returning the boy to the English, the Manomet sachem, Canacum, passed him to the Nausets of Cape Cod—the very people who had attacked the Pilgrims during the First Encounter back in December. The Nausets, led by sachem Aspinet, were also the ones whose corn pits and graves the Pilgrims had disturbed. With the boy in their possession, the Nausets were able to send an unmistakable message to the English: “You stole something of ours; well, now we have something of yours.”

  ◆ Nineteenth-century photograph along the border of the Billington Sea.

  Eventually word came back from Massasoit that Billington was alive and well and living with the Nausets. The Pilgrims had no choice but to return to the scene of their earlier crime.

  Bradford ordered a party of ten men—more than half the adult males in the settlement—to set out in the shallop with both squanto, who had recently returned from his trading mission in the region, and Tokamahamon as guides. Not long after departing from Plymouth in the shallop, they were hit by a tremendous thunderstorm that forced them to stop at Cummaquid, a shallow harbor near the base of Cape Cod.

  At dawn the next morning, they found themselves stuck in the tidal flats. They could see several Indians collecting lobsters, and squanto and Tokamahamon went to speak with them. The Pilgrims were soon introduced to the Indians’ sachem, Iyanough. still in his twenties, he impressed them as “very personable, courteous, and fair conditioned.”

  At Cummaquid, they discovered that all was not forgotten on Cape Cod when it came to past English injustices in the region. An ancient woman, whom they judged to be a hundred years old, made a point of seeking out the Pilgrims “because she never saw English.” As soon as she set eyes on them, she burst into tears, “weeping and crying excessively.” They learned that three of her sons had been captured seven years before by Thomas Hunt, and she still mourned their loss. “We told them we were sorry that any Englishman should give them that offense,” Winslow wrote, “that Hunt was a bad man, and that all the English that heard of it condemned him for the same.”

  Iyanough and several others offered to accompany them to Nauset, about twenty miles to the east. Unlike the winter before, when the shores of Cape Cod had been empty of people, the Pilgrims found Indians almost everywhere they looked. They brought the shallop to within wading distance of shore at First Encounter Beach, where they’d been attacked about six months before by the Nausets. They were soon approached by a huge number of Indians. Given their history in this place, the Pilgrims ordered the crowd to back away from the boat. They could only hope that their alliance with Massasoit kept them safe. With their muskets ready, they insisted that only two Indians approach at a time. One of the first to come forward was the man whose corn they had stolen. The Pilgrims arranged to have him visit their settlement, where they promised to pay him back for his loss.

  It was growing dark by the time Aspinet arrived with more than a hundred Nauset men, many of whom must have participated in the First Encounter back in December. Half the warriors remained on shore with their bows and arrows while the others waded out to the boat unarmed. One of Aspinet’s men carried John Billington Jr. in his arms. Looking none the worse for his time in captivity, the teenager wore a string of shell beads around his neck. The Pilgrims presented Aspinet with a knife, and peace was declared between the two peoples. From the Pilgrims’ perspective, it was a great relief to have finally righted the wrongs they’d committed during their first weeks in America.

  But Aspinet had some disturbing news. The Narragansetts were said to have killed several of Massasoit’s men and taken Massasoit himself captive. “This struck some fear in us,” Winslow wrote. If the Narragansetts should decide to attack their settlement, it would be a catastrophe: There were only about half a dozen men back at Plymouth. They needed to return as quickly as possible, for if Massasoit had indeed been captured, they were, according to the terms of the treaty, at war with the most powerful tribe in the region.

  ◆◆◆ Massasoit had indeed been taken, temporarily it turned out, by the Narragansetts. But the Pilgrims soon learned that the greatest threat was not from the Narragansetts but from the Pokanokets’ supposed allies. For those who had opposed Massasoit’s treaty with the Pilgrims, this was just the opportunity they had been looking for. One sachem in particular—Corbitant from the village of Mattapoisett just to the east of Massasoit’s headquarters at sowams—was attempting to use the sachem’s troubles to break the Pokanoket-English alliance. Corbitant had arrived at the nearby village of Nemasket and was now attempting to “draw the hearts of Massasoit’s subjects from him.” Bradford decided to send squanto and Tokamahamon to Nemasket to find out what Corbitant was up to.

  The next day, one of Massasoit’s men, a warrior named Hobbamock who spoke some English, arrived at Plymouth, gasping for breath and covered in sweat. He’d just run the fifteen miles from Nemasket, and he had terrible news. squanto, he feared, was dead. When Hobbamock had last seen the interpreter, one of Corbitant’s warriors had been holding a knife to his chest. If squanto was dead, Corbitant told the Indians at Nemasket, “the English had lost their tongue.” Bradford immediately called a meeting of his advisers.

  The Pilgrims were men of God, but this did not mean they were against using force. This was their chance to show the Indians the consequences of challenging the English—either directly or indirectly through one of their allies.

  They decided to
hit Corbitant quickly and to hit him hard. standish volunteered to lead ten men on a mission to Nemasket. If squanto had in fact been killed, they were to seize Corbitant. And since he’d been disloyal to Massasoit, Corbitant was to suffer the same gruesome fate of all notorious traitors back in England: standish was to cut off his head and bring it back to Plymouth for public display.

  They left the next morning, Tuesday, August 14, with Hobbamock as their guide. Hobbamock was a pniese—a warrior of special abilities and stamina (it was said a pniese could not be killed in battle) who was responsible for collecting tribute from other tribes for his sachem. From the start, standish and Hobbamock had much in common, and the two warriors quickly developed a close relationship. soon after they left Plymouth, it began to rain. About three miles from Nemasket, they ventured off the trail and waited for dark. In the summer rain, standish told his men about his plan. Hobbamock was to lead them to Corbitant’s wigwam around midnight. Once standish had positioned them around the dwelling, he and Hobbamock would charge inside and take Corbitant. The men were instructed to shoot any Indians who attempted to escape. For those with no previous military experience, it sounded terrifying, and standish did his best to give his men some confidence. soon “all men [were] encouraging one another to the utmost of their power.”

  After a last, quick meal, it was time for the assault. In the starless dark, Hobbamock directed them to the wigwam. The dwelling was probably larger than most, with a considerable number of men, women, and children inside, sleeping on the low platforms built along the interior walls. By this late hour, the central fire had dwindled to a few glowing embers. The drum of rain on the wigwam’s reed mats masked the sounds of the Pilgrims taking their positions. standish burst in, shouting Corbitant’s name. It was very dark inside, and with Hobbamock acting as his interpreter, the Pilgrim captain demanded to know where the sachem was. But the people inside the wigwam were too terrified to speak. some leaped off their sleeping platforms and tried to force their way through the walls of the wigwam. soon the guards outside were shooting off their muskets as the people inside screamed and wept. several women clung to Hobbamock, calling him friend. What had been intended as a bold strike against the enemy was threatening to become a chaotic mess.

  Gradually they learned that Corbitant had been at Nemasket, but no one was sure where he was now. They also learned that squanto was still alive. Hobbamock pulled himself up through the wigwam’s smoke hole and, balancing himself on the roof, called out for the interpreter. Tokamahamon, it turned out, was also alive and well.

  The next morning, they discovered that Corbitant and his men had fled, probably for their home at Mattapoisett. standish delivered the message to the residents of Nemasket that “although Corbitant had now escaped us, yet there was no place should secure him and his from us if he continued his threatening us.” A man and a woman had been wounded that night, and the Pilgrims offered to bring them back to Plymouth for medical attention. The following day the Pilgrims’ self-taught surgeon, samuel Fuller, tended to the Indians’ injuries, and they were free to return home.

  Over the next few weeks, Bradford learned of the reaction to standish’s midnight raid. Just as his military officer had predicted, the show of force—no matter how confused—had won the Pilgrims some new respect. several sachems sent their “gratulations” to Governor Bradford. Epenow, the Martha’s Vineyard sachem who had attacked Thomas Dermer, made overtures of friendship. Even Corbitant let it be known that he now wanted to make peace. By this time, Massasoit was back in sowams, and with the Pilgrims having proven themselves to be loyal supporters, “a much firmer peace” existed throughout the region.

  On september 13, nine sachems—including Corbitant, Epenow, Massasoit’s brother Quadequina, and Canacum, the sachem who had sent John Billington Jr. to the Nausets—journeyed to Plymouth to sign a new treaty. About this time, Bradford determined that an expedition should be sent north to the land of the Massachusetts. squanto had warned them that the Massachusetts, who lived in the vicinity of modern Boston, “had often threatened us.” It was time to make peace with them as well.

  They soon discovered where they should have settled. As they sailed their shallop across the huge bay that is modern Boston Harbor, they were filled with envy. Instead of the shallow water of Plymouth Harbor, here was a place where ships of any size could venture right up to land. Instead of little Town Brook, there were three navigable rivers that came together at an easily defensible neck of high ground known as shawmet.

  This was a place where an English settlement might grow into a major port, with rivers providing access to the fur-rich interior of New England. But the thought of relocating themselves after so much loss and sacrifice was too much for the Pilgrims to bear. They decided to stay put. It would be left to others to transform this place into the “city on a hill” called Boston. The Pilgrims’ ambitions were more modest. They were quite content with a village by a brook. The important thing was their spiritual life, and for that to flourish as it once had in Leiden, they needed their minister, John Robinson, and the rest of the congregation to join them in the New World.

  ◆ An early-twentieth-century depiction of the First Thanksgiving. Note how the myths of the Pilgrims have taken hold: in addition to the inaccuracies of dress, it was the Indians who fed the Pilgrims by providing five freshly killed deer.

  ◆◆◆ We do not know the exact date of the celebration we now call the First Thanksgiving, but it was probably in late september or early October, soon after their corn, squash, beans, barley, and peas had been harvested. It was also a time during which Plymouth Harbor played host to a tremendous number of migrating birds, particularly ducks and geese, and Bradford ordered four men to go out “fowling.” It took only a few hours for Plymouth’s hunters to kill enough ducks and geese to feed the settlement for a week. Now that they had “gathered the fruit of our labors,” Bradford declared it time to “rejoice together ... after a more special manner.”

  ◆ A cooking pot that may have come to America with Miles and Rose Standish.

  The term Thanksgiving was not used by the Pilgrims themselves. Instead of a spiritual ceremony, the gathering had more in common with a traditional English harvest festival—a secular celebration that dated back to the Middle Ages in which villagers ate, drank, and played games.

  Despite what many people think today, the Pilgrims did not spend the day sitting around a long table draped with a white linen cloth, clasping each other’s hands in prayer as a few curious Indians looked on. Instead of an English affair, the First Thanksgiving soon became an overwhelmingly Native celebration when Massasoit and a hundred Pokanokets (more than twice the entire English population of Plymouth) arrived at the settlement and provided five freshly killed deer. Even if all the Pilgrims’ furniture was brought out into the sunshine, most of the celebrants stood, squatted, or sat on the ground as they gathered around outdoor fires, where the deer and birds turned on wooden spits and where pottages—stews into which varieties of meats and vegetables were thrown—cooked invitingly.

  In addition to ducks and deer, there was, according to Bradford, a “good store of wild turkeys” in the fall of 1621. Turkeys were not new to the Pilgrims. When the conquistadors arrived in Mexico in the sixteenth century, they discovered that the Indians of Central America possessed turkeys as well as gold. The birds were brought to spain as early as the 1520s, and by the 1540s they had reached England. By 1575, the Central American turkey had become common at English Christmases. The wild turkeys of New England were bigger and much faster than the birds the Pilgrims had known in Europe and were often pursued in winter when they could be tracked in the snow.

  The Pilgrims may have also added fish to their meal of birds and deer. In fall, there were plenty of striped bass, bluefish, and cod. Perhaps most important to the Pilgrims was that with a recently harvested barley crop, it was now possible to brew beer. Alas, the Pilgrims were without pumpkin pies or cranberry sauce. There were also no forks,
which did not appear at Plymouth until the last decades of the seventeenth century. The Pilgrims ate with their fingers and their knives.

  Neither Bradford nor Winslow mention it, but the First Thanksgiving coincided with what was, for the Pilgrims, a new and startling phenomenon: the turning of the green leaves of summer to the yellows, reds, and purples of a New England autumn. In Britain, the cloudy fall days and warm nights cause the autumn colors to be rather dull. In New England, on the other hand, the sunny fall days and cool but not freezing nights unleash brilliant colors within the tree leaves, with oaks turning red, brown, and russet; hickories golden brown; birches yellow; red maples scarlet; sugar maples orange; and black maples glowing yellow. It was a display that must have contributed to the enthusiasm with which the Pilgrims later wrote of the festivities that fall.

  ◆◆◆ The First Thanksgiving marked the conclusion of a remarkable year. Eleven months earlier the Pilgrims had arrived at the tip of Cape Cod, fearful and uninformed. They had spent the next month angering every Native American they happened to come across. By all rights, none of the Pilgrims should have survived the first winter. Like the French sailors before them, they all might have been either killed or taken captive by the Indians.

  That it had worked out differently was a testament not only to the Pilgrims’ grit, resolve, and faith, but to their ability to take advantage of some extraordinary good fortune. Massasoit’s decision to offer them assistance had saved the Pilgrims’ lives, but there had already been several instances in which they could have squandered the opportunity the sachem had given them. Placing their faith in God, the Pilgrims might have insisted on isolating themselves. But by becoming an active part of the diplomatic process in southern New England—by sending Winslow and Hopkins to sowams, by paying back the Nausets for the corn, and most important, by making clear their loyalty to Massasoit at the “hurly-burly” in Nemasket—they had taken charge of their own destiny in the region.