64 Singing Valleys 



in diverce colleurs, which seemed to them a very goodly sight 

 (haveing never seen any shuch before). 



So their time being expired they returned to the ship, and took 

 with them parte of the corne and buried up the rest, and so like 

 the men from Escholl carried with them of the fruits of the land, 

 and showed their brethren, of which, and their return, they were 

 marvelously glad. 



Later, in summing up the value to the Pilgrims of this 

 chance discovery, Bradford spoke of it as "a spetiall provi- 

 dence of God, and a great mercie to this poor people that 

 here they got them seed to plant them corne the next year, 

 or els they must have starved, for they had none, nor any 

 liklyhood to get any till the season had been past." 



Before they settled at Plymouth, three weeks later, the 

 ground was covered with snow, and had frozen. Under lower- 

 ing skies and sleety rains that froze their hands, they broke 

 the stiff earth and set the logs of the fort. They built the 

 palisade which was all that intervened between them and the 

 wintry wilderness. From the fringes of the woods dark faces 

 peered at them. Finally, however, curiosity and greed over- 

 came caution; the Indians approached the palisade. Trade 

 began; an offering of an iron pot for a jacket of beaver skins. 

 A basket of corn for a pewter spoon. 



The Massachusetts Indians had no such supplies of corn as 

 John Smith had found in the granaries of the Virginia villages. 

 Their sandy fields, which the squaws cultivated with clamshell 

 hoes, yielded sufficient for their own needs, and little more. 

 They did not build granaries, but caches in the ground, such 

 as Standish's party had stumbled on. These were lined with 

 dry grass, the corn was put in baskets and covered over with 

 mats woven of sweet grass. Then earth was heaped over all. 

 Primitive root cellars, very little different from these, were 

 part of the equipment of many a New England farm until 

 half a century ago. 



Squanto joined the despairing colony some time late in the 

 winter, when death was taking heavy toll of their number. 



