Land cleared, and hath beene planted with Corne three or four yeares agoe, and there is a very sweet brooke runnes vnder the hill side, and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunke, and where we may harbour our Shallops and Boates exceeding well, and in this brooke much good fish in their seasons: on the further side of the river also much Corne ground cleared, in one field is a great hill, on which wee poynt to make a platforme, and plant our Ordinance, which will command all round about, from thence we may see into the Bay, and farre into the Sea, and we may see thence Cape Cod: our greatest labour will be fetching of our wood, which is halfe a quarter of an English myle, but there is enough so farre off; what people inhabite here we yet know not, for as yet we haue seene none."

Even in the bleak winter the spot evidently had genuine attractions and promised reasonable safety, convenience, and comfort. The cause of the dearth of a native population, as they learned before many months, was the fact that nearly all the Indians thereabouts had died of an epidemic, which the Pilgrims called the plague, about four years previous, the way

thus having been cleared providentially for the comparatively unopposed settlement of the Mayflower colony. Nevertheless, not yet being aware of this and having already received clear proofs of the reluctance of the natives to welcome them and even of active hostility towards them, they naturally were afraid of being attacked and felt compelled to be continually on their guard.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE BEGINNING OF THE COLONY.

IT

T was now midwinter and the region presented its least winsome aspect, but their general impressions continued favorable as their knowledge of the locality increased, and neither any regret because of their decision not to settle on the end of Cape Cod nor any desire to try their fortune elsewhere is recorded. Preliminary explorations made near Plymouth were confined almost wholly to Clark's Island and the shores of the bay. No one ventured far inland for fear of attack by Indians, but, so far as they went, they saw no inhabitants. They found the country "goodly," having a rich soil and with disused cornfields and ample forests, with "4. or 5. small running brookes of very sweet fresh water . . . the best water

that ever we drunke," and the bay a most hopefull place," with "innumerable store of fowl, and excellent good, and cannot be but of fish in their seasons," with "abundance of Musles, the greatest & best that ever we saw," and "Crabs and Lobsters, in their time infinite." Their choice being thus confirmed, they finally, after prayer for divine direction, chose a favorable spot for building.

This decision was made on Wednesday, December 30, and some of the company camped on shore that night.1 But the hardships of the season at once befell them afresh. A severe storm prevented work and even forbade communication between ship and shore, until Saturday, January 2, 1621, when as many of them as could went on shore and "felled and carried tymber, to provide themselves stuffe for building." It was necessary, of course, to put up some sort of dwellings and, in order to make as few houses as possible serve their purpose at first, they

assigned the unmarried men to the different families, thus reducing the number of houses to be built to nineteen, which, as there were but eighteen married couples, apparently includes, as Bradford describes it, "the common house, in which for the first, we made our Rendevous," 2 a building which was erected first of all in order to shelter the workers, the balance of the company continuing on the Mayflower.

They also determined to form a street with houses upon each side, the present Leyden Street, and they staked out the land in plots. The areas of these inclosures were proportioned to the sizes of the families, "to every person half a pole in breadth, and three in length." This gave to Carver's household, for example, in which were eight persons, a lot of sixtysix feet by forty-nine and a half feet. This seems a small allowance for so numerous a family, especially in view of the abundance of land; and Bradford touchingly suggests the trials which they were ex