100 



ling nor Misers /o7- cmr shallops. And, indeed, fad we not been in a 

 place where divers sor£ of shell-fish are, that laiay be^ taken with fbe 

 hand, we must have periled, unless God had raised some unknown 

 or extraordinary means for onr preservation." These are interesting 

 iacts, and afford us accurate knowledge of what was passing on the 

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

 of praiseworthy humanity on the part of the fishermen, and explain 

 .the causes of the distress for food which prevailed at Plymouth. 



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

 ton's ships, entered the harbor,; with some fifty or sixty men, who, re- 

 lates Winslow, "vi'ere received into our town with whatsoeror courtesy 

 our mean condition would afford." 



The calamities of the Pilgrims were not at an end. In 1623, witli- 

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

 writes the quaint Hubbard, "none of the best." Yet "it was the jyrin- 

 cipal ■sujrpo'rt 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, they 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 the weary and stricken Pilgrims, now presented himself be- 

 Ibre 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- 

 facture, and the year following despatched two others with fish and 

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

 In 1626 they opened a trade 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 

 had been stated in terms of earnest complaint by Governor Bradford, 

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



