The Women Who Came in the Mayflower | Page 5

store of fish, sea-biscuits and cheese. We are
told [Footnote: Mourt's Relation] that Squanto brought also a dog from
his Indian friends as a gift to the settlement. Already there were, at least,
two dogs, probably brought from Holland or England, a mastiff and a
spaniel [Footnote: Winslow's Narration] to give comfort and
companionship to the women and children, and to go with the men into
the woods for timber and game.
It seems paradoxical to speak of child-life in this hard-pressed,
serious-minded colony, but it was there and, doubtless, it was normal in
its joyous and adventuresome impulses. Under eighteen years of age
were the girls, Remember and Mary Allerton, Constance and Damaris
Hopkins, Elizabeth Tilley and, possibly, Desire Minter and Humility
Cooper. The boys were Bartholomew Allerton, who "learned to sound
the drum," John Crakston, William Latham, Giles Hopkins, John and
Francis Billington, Richard More, Henry Sampson, John Cooke,
Resolved White, Samuel Fuller, Love and Wrestling Brewster and the
babies, Oceanus Hopkins and Peregrine White. With the exception of
Wrestling Brewster and Oceanus Hopkins, all these children lived to
ripe old age,--a credit not alone to their hardy constitutions, but also to
the care which the Plymouth women bestowed upon their households.
The flowers that grew in abundance about the settlement must have
given them joy,--arbutus or "mayflowers," wild roses, blue chicory,
Queen Anne's lace, purple asters, golden-rod and the beautiful sabbatia
or "sentry" which is still found on the banks of the fresh ponds near the
town and is called "the Plymouth rose." Edward Winslow tells
[Footnote: Relation of the Manners, Customs, etc., of the Indians.] of
the drastic use of this bitter plant in developing hardihood among
Indian boys. Early in the first year one of these fresh-water ponds,
known as Billington Sea, was discovered by Francis Billington when
he had climbed a high hill and had reported from it "a smaller sea."
Blackberries, blueberries, plums and cherries must have been delights

to the women and children. Medicinal herbs were found and used by
advice of the Indian friends; the bayberry's virtues as salve, if not as
candle-light, were early applied to the comforts of the households.
Robins, bluebirds, "Bob Whites" and other birds sang for the pioneers
as they sing for the tourist and resident in Plymouth today. The
mosquito had a sting,--for Bradford gave a droll and pungent answer to
the discontented colonists who had reported, in 1624, that "the people
are much annoyed with musquetoes." He wrote: [Footnote: Bradford's
History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. II.] _"They_ are too delicate and
unfitte to begin new plantations and colonies that cannot enduer the
biting of a muskeet. We would wish such to keep at home till at least
they be muskeeto proof. Yet this place is as free as any and experience
teacheth that ye land is tild and ye woods cut downe, the fewer there
will be and in the end scarce any at all." The end has not yet come!
Good harvests and some thrilling incidents varied the hard conditions
of life for the women during 1621-2. Indian corn and barley furnished a
new foundation for many "a savory dish" prepared by the housewives
in the mortar and pestles, kettles and skillets which they had brought
from Holland. Nuts were used for food, giving piquant flavor both to
"cakes" baked in the fire and to the stuffing of wild turkeys. The fare
was simple, but it must have seemed a feast to the Pilgrims after the
months of self-denials and extremity.
Before the winter of 1621-2 was ended, seven log houses had been built
and four "common buildings" for storage, meetings and workshops.
Already clapboards and furs were stored to be sent back to England to
the merchant adventurers in the first ship. The seven huts, with
thatched roofs and chimneys on the outside, probably in cob-house
style, were of hewn planks, not of round logs. [Footnote: The Pilgrim
Republic, John A. Goodwin, p. 582.] The fireplaces were of stones laid
in clay from the abundant sand. In 1628 thatched roofs were
condemned because of the danger of fire, [Footnote: Records of the
Colony of New Plymouth.] and boards or palings were substituted.
During the first two years or longer, light came into the houses through
oiled paper in the windows. From the plans left by Governor Bradford
and the record of the visit of De Rassieres to Plymouth, in 1627, one

can visualize this first street in New England, leading from Plymouth
harbor up the hill to the cannon and stockade where, later, was the fort.
At the intersection of the first street and a cross-highway stood the
Governor's house. It was fitting that the lot nearest to the fort hill
should be assigned to Miles Standish and John Alden. All had free
access