THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 41 



with her products of the sea, he adds, "for though our 

 bays and creeks are full of bass and other fish, yet, for 

 want of fit and strong seines and other netting, they for 

 the most part, brake through, and carried all away before 

 them. And though the sea was full of cod, yet we had 

 neither tackling nor hawsers for our shallops. And, in- 

 deed, had we not been in a place where divers shell fish are, 

 that may be taken with the hand, we must have perished 

 unless God had raised some unknown or extraordinary 

 means for our preservation." 1 



Weston, the enterprising English merchant, engaged in 

 the fisheries, and had attempted the settlement of a colony 

 at Weymouth, a few miles north of Plymouth, but the at- 

 tempt was a failure. Apparently his colonists lacked 

 economy. When their store of goods was used up they sold 

 their clothing to the Indians for food; some became serv- 

 ants of the Indians, others became avowed thieves. They 

 deserted their dwellings, scattered up and down the coast 

 in small groups, and were reduced to extreme want. 

 Bradford records that "one in geathering shell fish was 

 so weake as he stuck fast in ye mudd, and was found dead 

 in ye place.' Captain Standish with some men from the 

 Plymouth colony was sent to the relief of Weston's men. 

 He found them in wretched condition and offered to take 

 them back to Plymouth. They preferred to attempt to 

 reach England by going to the coast of Maine, there to 

 hire out as fishermen on some vessel, and to return to their 

 homes with the return of the vessel. This was the second 

 attempt at colonization in Massachusetts that resulted in 

 failure. 



While the year 1623 was disastrous to the colony of 

 Weston at Weymouth it was one of extreme need at Ply- 

 mouth also. Their provisions became exhausted; their 



i E. Winslow's Relation, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st series, VIII, 

 pp. 246-247. 



