CHAPTER II


COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623


Spring and summer came to bless them for their endurance and
unconscious heroism. Then they could appreciate the verdict of their
leaders, who chose the site of Plymouth as a "hopeful place," with
running brooks, vines of sassafras and strawberry, fruit trees, fish
and wild fowl and "clay excellent for pots and will wash like soap."
[Footnote: Mourt's Relation] So early was the spring in 1621 that on
March the third there was a thunder storm and "the birds sang in the
woods most pleasantly." On March the sixteenth, Samoset came with
Indian greeting. This visit must have been one of mixed sentiments for
the women and we can read more than the mere words in the sentence,
"We lodged him that night at Stephen Hopkins' house and watched him."
[Footnote: Mourt's Relation.] Perhaps it was in deference to the women
that the men gave Samoset a hat, a pair of stockings, shoes, a shirt
and a piece of cloth to tie about his waist. Samoset returned soon
with Squanto or Tisquantum, the only survivor of the Patuxet tribe of
Indians which had perished of a pestilence Plymouth three years
before. He shared with Hobomok the friendship of the settlers for many
years and both Indians gave excellent service. Through the influence
of Squanto the treaty was made in the spring of 1621 with Massasoit,
the first League of Nations to preserve peace in the new world.

Squanto showed the men how to plant alewives or herring as fertilizer