Due Friday: vocabulary 3
In class: short vocabulary quiz and five questions on the background reading, Religion in Colonial America.
Reading William Bradford's Plimouth Plantation. handout / copy below.
Homework: finish reading Plimouth Plantation for tomorrow / Thursday, October 25
Journal of the beginning and
proceedings
of the English Plantation settled
at Plymouth in NEW
ENGLAND, by certain English
Adventurers both
Merchants and others.
With their difficult passage,
their safe arrival, their
joyful building of, and
comfortable planting themselves
in the now well defended town
of NEW PLYMOUTH.
Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of
the Christian faith,
and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the
first colony in the northern
parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and
mutually in the presence of God and
one of another, covenant, and combine ourselves together
into a civil body politic, for our
better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the
ends aforesaid; and by virtue
hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal
laws, ordinances, acts,
constitutions, offices from time to time, as shall be
thought most meet and convenient for
the general good of the colony: unto which we promise all
due submission and
obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed
our names Cape Cod 11 of
November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord
King James, of England,
France, and Ireland 18 and of Scotland 54. Anno Domini 1620.
About midnight we heard a great and
hideous cry, and our sentinels called, Arm, Arm. So we bestirred
ourselves and shot off a couple of muskets, and noise
ceased; we concluded, that it was a
company of wolves or foxes, for one told us, he had heard
such a noise in Newfoundland.
About five o'clock in the morning we began to be stirring,
and two or three which
doubted whether their pieces would go off or no made trial
of them, and shot them off,
but thought nothing at all, after prayer we prepared
ourselves for breakfast, and for a
journey, and it being now the twilight in the morning, it
was thought meet to carry the
things down to the shallop: some said, it was not best to
carry the armor down, others
said, they would be readier, two or three said, they would
not carry theirs, till they went
themselves, but mistrusting nothing at all: as it fell out,
the water not being high enough,
they laid the things down upon the shore, and came up to
breakfast. Anon, all upon a
sudden, we heard a great and strange cry, which we knew to
be the same voices, though
they varied their notes, one of our company being abroad
came running in and cried,
They are men, Indians, Indians; and withal, their arrows
came flying amongst us, our
men ran out with all speed to recover their arms, as by the
good providence of God they
did. In the meantime, Captain Myles Standish, having a
snaphance ready, made a shot,
and after him another, after they two had shot, other two of
us were ready, but he wished
us not to shoot, till we could take aim, for we knew not
what need we should have, and
there were four only of us, which had their arms there
ready, and stood before the open
side of our barricade, which was first assaulted, they thought
it best to defend it, lest the
enemy should take it and our stuff, and so have the more
vantage against us, our care was
no less for the shallop, but we hoped all the rest would
defend it; we called unto them to
know how it was with them, and they answered, Well, Well
every one, and be of good
courage : we heard three of their pieces go off, and the
rest called for a firebrand to light
their matches, one took a log out of the fire on his
shoulder and went and carried it unto
them, which was thought did not a little discourage our
enemies. The cry of our enemies
was dreadful, especially, when our men ran out to recover
their arms, their note was after
this manner, Woath woach ha ha hach woach: our men were no
sooner come to their
arms, but the enemy was ready to assault them.
There was a lusty man and no whit less valiant, who was
thought to be their
captain, stood behind a tree within half a musket shot of
us, and there let his arrows fly at
us; he was seen to shoot three arrows, which were all
avoided, for he at whom the first
arrow was aimed, saw it, and stooped down and it flew over
him, the rest were avoided
also: he stood three shots of a musket, at length one took
as he said full aim at him, after
which he gave an extraordinary cry and away they went all,
we followed them about a
quarter of a mile, but we left six to keep our shallop, for
we were careful about our
business: then we shouted all together two several times,
and shot off a couple of muskets
and so returned: this we did that they might see we were not
afraid of them nor
discouraged. Thus it pleased God to vanquish our enemies and
give us deliverance, by
their noise we could not guess that they were less than
thirty or forty, though some
thought that they were many more yet in the dark of the
morning, we could not so well
discern them among the trees, as they could see us by our
fireside, we took up 18 of their
arrows which we have sent to England by Master Jones, some
whereof were headed with
brass, others with harts' horn, and others with eagles'
claws many more no doubt were
shot, for these we found were almost covered with leaves:
yet by the especial providence
of God, none of them either hit or hurt us, though many came
close by us, and on every
side of us, and some coats which hung up in our barricade,
were shot through and
through. So after we had given God thanks for our
deliverance, we took our shallop and
went on our journey, and called this place, The First
Encounter.
Saturday and Sunday reasonable fair
days. On this day came again the savage,
and brought with him five other tall proper men, they had
every man a deer's skin on him,
and the principal of them had a wild cat's skin, or such
like on the one arm; they had most
of them long hosen up to their groins, close made; and above
their groins to their waist
another leather, they were altogether like the
Irish-trousers; they are of complexion like
our English gypsies, no hair or very little on their faces,
on their heads long hair to their
shoulders, only cut before some trussed up before with a
feather, broad-wise, like a fan,
another a fox tail hanging out: these left (according to our
charge given him before) their
bows and arrows a quarter of a mile from our town, we gave
them entertainment as we
thought was fitting them, they did eat liberally of our
English victuals, they made
semblance unto us of friendship and amity; they song and
danced after their manner like
antics; they brought with them in a thing like a bow-case
(which the principal of them
had about his waist) a little of their corn pounded to
powder, which put to a little water,
they eat; he had a little tobacco in a bag, but none of them
drunk but when he listed, some
of them had their faces painted black, from the forehead to
the chin, four or five fingers
broad; others after other fashions, as they liked; they
brought three or four skins, but we
would not truck with them at all that day, but wished them
to bring more, and we would
truck for all, which they promised within a night or two,
and would leave these behind
them, though we were not willing they should, and they
brought us all our tools again
which were taken in the woods, in our men's absence, so
because of the day we dismissed
them so soon as we could. But Samoset our first
acquaintance, either was sick, or feigned
himself so, and would not go with them, and stayed with us
till Wednesday morning: then
we sent him to them, to know the reason they came not
according to their words, and we
gave him an hat, a pair of stockings and shoes, a shirt, and
a piece of cloth to tie about his
waist.
The Sabbath day, when we sent them from us, we gave every
one of them some
trifles, especially the principal of them, we carried them
along with our arms to the place
where they left their bows and arrows, whereat they were
amazed, and two of them began
to slink away, but that the other called them, when they
took their arrows, we bade them
farewell, and they were glad, and so with many thanks given
us they departed, with
promise they would come again.
Questions pertaining to "Of Plimouth Plantation"“Of Plimouth Plantation” questions Use specific textual evidence to respond to the following
1. List three reasons why the Pilgrims of Plimouth “plant[ed] the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia”.
2. What is the purpose of a covenant?
3. Why did the Pilgims of Plimouth “enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws?”
4. (thinking question; not in the text) Why was “the water not being high enough?”
5. What were the Indian’s weapons?
6. Why did the Pilgrims shoot “off a couple of muskets?”
7. (analysis question; not in text) What is the significance of some of the Indian’s weapons being “headed with brass?”
8. Why were “none of [the Pilgrims] either hit or hurt?’
9. List five descriptors of the “savage”.
10. (synthesis question) What do the following words signify in terms of the Plilgrim’s relationship with the Indians?
“…they did eat liberally of our English victuals, they made semblance of friendship and amity.”
Today Austin and Nalia need to make up the assessment given on Friday on the background reading for literature prior to 1750.