Saints Gathered – Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

Plymouth Rock is a serving American shrine, but the legends surrounding it, and the so-called pilgrims who stepped on it, aren’t nearly as interesting as the facts.

Contrary to popular belief, the North American coast was well known to Spanish, French, Dutch, and other English settlers before the arrival of a reformist religious sect we associate with Thanksgiving.

George Weymouth explored Maine in 1605 and brought five Indians to London. Three of them were delivered to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a harbormaster in Plymouth, England.

Contact with these congenial and dignified Native Americans so intrigued Gorges that he spent the rest of his life promoting colonization among them.

Thanks largely to the enthusiasm of Gorges, two colonies were founded in 1607: one at Jamestown, Virginia; the other in Sagadahoc, Maine. Jamestown survived, but Sagadahoc surrendered a year later when their leader, George Popham, was killed.

However, fishing expeditions to New England continued. If the loot was scarce, the Indians were often kidnapped and sold in Spain as slaves. One of them was a brave Pawtuxit named Tsquantum. He was going to play a decisive role in the survival of the Pilgrims.

It must be remembered that the religious people we today call Pilgrims were then known as “Separatists” because of their determination to secede from the Church of England. They called themselves “Santos Reunidos” and their other companions “Strangers.”

The name “Pilgrim” did not come into use until 1792, 172 years later, when a local poet called all members of the Plymouth Colony that name, whether saints or strangers.

Nor should the Pilgrims be confused with the Puritans, today’s Congregationalists, who colonized Boston in 1629. The latter were Church of England reformers and disdained the Reunited Saints.

Stylized depictions of New England settlers dressed in black, broad-brimmed hats for the men and starched coifs for the women, represent Puritans. The Plymouth colonists wore individual, coarse clothing. Only 37 members of the “Mayflower” travelers were Santos Reunidos. The other 65 were workers looking for opportunities.

A boy serving Samuel Fuller died on the 66-day voyage across the Atlantic. However, Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a son; therefore, the manifest of the 102-passenger ship was maintained.

The famous “Mayflower Compact” was signed along the way only by the minority of saints to govern themselves, not to implement democracy, as is commonly thought.

the pilgrims arrive

When the Pilgrims landed, there were thriving colonies in St. Augustine, Florida. (1565); Jamestown, Va. (1607); Port Royal, Nova Scotia (1613); Quebec, Canada (1613); and Albany, New York (1614).

The “Mayflower” voyage, sponsored by the London Company, was aimed at the Hudson River, which was considered part of the Virginia Territory. However, contrary winds carried the ship to the tip of Cape Cod, now Provincetown, Massachusetts, on November 17, 1620.

Several trips ashore were made to replenish water and firewood while the pilgrims assessed their situation.

The tangle of shoals, bad weather, and discontent among the Outsiders led them all to forgo their original destination and opt for immediate settlement. Eventually, they replaced his unexecuted charter from the London Company with a new one from Gorges’ New England Company.

After resting for a couple of searches, a group of 18 men assembled a pre-made boat and set out to reconnoitre. The captain of the “Mayflower” claimed to have visited the bay once before. He told his passengers that good colony sites were being secured nearby.

The scouting party camped overnight on Cape Cod, where they discovered several bushels of buried corn and a human skull with traces of blond hair.

On the second day, the men repulsed a dawn attack by five Indians and then skirted the coast. They were looking for a port that Coppin, the pilot of the “Mayflower,” said he had once visited. William Bradford later recounted the search:

“After a few hours of sailing, it began to snow and rain. Towards the middle of the afternoon the wind increased. The sea became very rough and we broke our rudder. It was all two men could do to steer our sloop.” with a pair of oars.

“As the storm increased and night drew near, we loaded up what sail we could while we could see. With this, we broke our mast in three pieces, and our sail fell overboard. However, by the mercy of God, we were we recover and hit the port.

“However, the pilot was deceived on the spot and said may the Lord have mercy on us, but his eyes had never seen the spot before; and that he and the captain’s mate would have brought us ashore in an inlet full of breakers before the wind.

“It was very dark and it rained a lot. However, in the end, we got into the lee of a small island and stayed there all night safely.

“The next day was a beautiful and sunny day. We found ourselves on an island, safe from the Indians, where we could dry our things, arrange our pieces and rest. This being the last day of the week, we prepared there to store the Saturday.

“On Monday, we sounded the harbor and found it fit for navigation. We proceeded inland and found several fields of corn and small streams, a place, we supposed, suitable for the situation.

“At least, it was the best we could find. The season and our present need made us glad to accept it. So we returned to our ship with the news to the rest of our people, which greatly comforted their hearts.”

In addition to the landings on November 21, there were other exploratory landings on the 28th, 29th and 30th.

Abandoned cornfields and indigenous villages were found on the mainland. A smallpox epidemic and an Indian war had wiped out coastal Pawtuxit. This was a fateful blow for the Pilgrims. They were too exhausted and few in number to face hostile natives or clear the forest in winter.

Returning to the ship, the entire company voted to build in Plymouth Harbor. The “Mayflower” weighed anchor and sailed through Massachusetts Bay.

Some of the men were so eager to get going that ten of them went ashore during the night and were waiting the next morning when the main party came ashore.

THEN the Pilgrims stepped on the great rock at the end of a channel through the oyster beds. The date was December 22, 1620.

Some women remained aboard the “Mayflower” until March 31, when the ship began its return trip home. The ship returned the following year with supplies, and then set sail for American history.

first winter

Many Pilgrims died that first terrible winter. The bodies were secretly buried so that the Indians would not detect the plight. The survivors need not have worried. An unknown friend was holding the nearest Indians 40 miles away.

Tsquantum, who was sold into Spanish slavery, managed to escape and reach Plymouth, England. There he found safety with Sir Gorges, who returned him to the United States on a fishing boat.

It was this Indian, called Squanto by the Pilgrims, who now sat in the Wampanoak lodge and counseled friendship with the colonists.

The Pilgrims were alarmed in March when Squanto, Massasoit, and 60 warriors lined up on a rise overlooking the colony. Imagine the surprise of the colonists when Squanto greeted them: “Welcome, Englishmen!”

Edward Carver, secretary of the colony, walked slowly toward the entourage, arms outstretched to show that he was unarmed.

Squanto said: “Do you dare to walk alone among us?“

Carver replied: “Where there is love, there is no fear.“

Thus began a lasting friendship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoak. Squanto made frequent visits to the colony to teach the pilgrims how to hunt, fish, plant corn with herring for fertilizer, make popcorn balls with maple syrup, and play a dice game called hubdub.

By the fall, the pilgrims had built houses and harvested a “good” crop of corn. In gratitude, they invited Massoit and Squanto to a Thanksgiving party. The two guests showed up with 60 Wampanoak braves and stayed for three days.

Squanto died a year later while leading a winter corn trading trip. He shares with Pocahontas in Jamestown the gratitude of the English colonists who probably would have perished without the help of the Indians.

RockSymbol

The pilgrims paid little attention at first to the rock on the shore on which they finally landed. It was simply a commodity used as such for many years.

In 1741 it was decided to build a pier on the canal. A log formwork was constructed and the landing rock was covered up to its upper surface. There the rock was part of a pavement to be crushed by cars.

It was during this construction that 95-year-old Elder Faunce asked to be taken to the site so he could see the rock that his father had always described to him as the “Rock of the Ancestors.”

A contemporary account relates that the old gentleman “sprinkled him with his tears and bade him an everlasting farewell.”

The emotional scene impressed Plymouthers to such an extent that the rock achieved lasting symbolism.

“Animated by the glorious spirit of liberty,“The citizens of Plymouth in 1744 decided to preserve Plymouth Rock. The great stone was lifted from its bed by cats and 30 teams of oxen.

In the process, the rock split. The larger bottom part fell back into place. The top was moved to the foot of a Liberty Pole in the public square.

Independence Day 1834 was celebrated in Plymouth by moving the top rock piece to a newly built Pilgrim Hall. During the transfer, the rock fell from a wagon and broke into two pieces. It is this repaired breach that is visible to visitors today.

The Plymouth Society bought the old pier in 1859 and built a marble canopy over the piece of Plymouth Rock embedded there.

Finally, in 1880, the upper parts of the rock were cemented to the original base. The rock was complete once more, in three sections, but a third smaller due to the loss of fragments that had broken off over the years as souvenirs. The date 1620 was carved to replace the painted numbers.

The rock was moved in 1925 to its present location under a new canopy at the high tide line. There, the famous relic is again washed by the sea twice a day.