100 



ling nor halscrs for mir shallops. And, indeed, had we not been in a 

 place where divers sort ol" shell-fish are, that may be taken with the 

 hand, we must have perished, urdess Cod liad raised some unknown 

 or extraordinary means lor our preservation." These are interesting 

 facts, and afford us accurate knowled/^e of what was passing on the 

 CshiniT grounds of Maine, as well as allow us to chronicle an instance 

 of praiseworthy humanity on the part of the fit^hermen, and explairs 

 llje causes of the distress for food wliicli prevailed at Plymouth. 



While thus destitute, the Charity and the Swan, two other of Wes- 

 ton's ships, entered the harbor, with some fil't}^ or sixty men, who, re- 

 lates Winslow, "were received into our town with whatsoever cx)urtesy 

 our mean conrlition Avould afford." 



The cidamilies of the Pilgrims were not at an end. In 1623, with- 

 out relief from abroad, they were reduced to a single boat ; " and that," 

 writes the quaint Hubbard, "none of the best." Yet "?V wns the jirin- 

 cipal sv.j)port of their lives," for "it helped them to improve the net 

 wherewith they took a multitude of bass, which was their livelihood 

 all that year." "Few countries," he continues, "have this advantage. 

 Sometimes fifteen hundred of them have been stopped in a creek, and 

 taken in a tide. But when these failed, they used to repair to the 

 clam banks, digging on the shores of the sea for these fish." Neal's 

 account is similar. It is certain that they possessed but one boat, and 

 one net. Such were their resources to prevent absolute starvation; 

 and as they spread a part of the fish they caught upon their corn lands 

 as manure, the}' were compelled to watch these fields at night, during 

 seed time, to preserve them from the depredations of wolves. 



The only people near them were Weston's fishermen at Weymouth. 

 But in the course of the year, the colony there was abandoned. Some 

 perished of hunger; one exhausted his little strength in crawling to a 

 clam bank, and died upon it. Of the survivors, a part subsisted by 

 stealing from the Indians, and others endeavored to reach Monhegan, 

 thence to embark for England. Weston, hearing of these disasters, 

 and anxious to ascertain the condition of his affairs, came over in one 

 of his own fishing vessels, disguised as a blacksmith. He was ship- 

 wrecked, stripped by the Indians, and barely escaped with his life. 

 Strange are the vicissitudes of human condition: he, the English mer- 

 chant, who, in the day of his prosperity, had been the adviser and 

 patron of th(^ wear}" and stricken Pilgrims, now presented hunself be- 

 fore them at Plymouth, in garments borrowed to cover his nakedness, 

 a broken and ruined man! 



The period of extreme need soon passed away. In 1624 they sent 

 a ship to England laden with fish, cured with salt of their own manu- 

 fw.cture, and the year fallowing despatched two others with fish and 

 furs; but one, wlu n near the English coast, was captured by the Turks. 

 In 1626 they opened atrude with the fishing vessels at Monhegan, and 

 commenced voyages to different parts of Maine to procure fish and 

 'furs; and two years later, we find them selling both corn and the pro- 

 ducts of the sea to the Dutch on Hudson's river. Meantime, the 

 irregular and licentious course of the English fishermen upon the coast 

 liad been slated in terms of earnest complaint by Covernor Bradford, 

 in a letter to the council that claimed the country and its fishing 



