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twg_000012924400 | enough for twelve men, evidently carrying out the time-honored policy of Dugald Dalgetty and of the camel, to lay in as there is opportunity provision not only for the present, but the future. Dinner ended, both red and white men assembled in the open space before mentioned, now in Plymouth called the Town Square, and the Indians grouping themselves in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924401 | the centre began what may be called a dance, although from the gravity of their faces and solemnity of their movements the elder was seized with a suspicion that fairly turned him pale. "Are the heathen creatures practicing their incantations and warlock-work in our very midst, and on the Lord's Day?" demanded he. "Stephen Hopkins, thou knowest their devices, how | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924402 | is it?" "Nay, Elder," replied Hopkins chuckling in spite of his efforts at Sunday sobriety. "It is a feast-dance, a manner of thanksgiving"-- "A sort of grace after meat," suggested Billington in an aside; but the elder heard him, and turning the current of his wrath in that direction exclaimed,-- "Peace, ribald! Thou art worse than the heathen in making | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924403 | sport of holy things." "I knew not yon antics were holy things, Elder," retorted the reckless jester; but Standish ranging up alongside of him muttered,-- "One word more and thou 'lt deal with me, John Billington," and though the reprobate affected to laugh contemptuously he remained silent. To the solemn feast-dance succeeded a more lively measure accompanied with barbarous sounds | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924404 | intended for singing, and the performance ended with gestures and pantomime obviously suggesting a treaty of amity and peace, as indeed Samoset presently interpreted it, closing the scene with the offer of such skins as the men wore upon their arms, and promises of more furs in the near future. But the Sunday-keeping Pilgrims would not enter even into the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924405 | semblance of trade upon that day, and, although they could not explain the reason to the Indians, made them understand that their dances, their singing, and their gifts, which were of course to be repaid, were all impossible for them to consider upon that day, and that, in fact, the sooner they withdrew from the village the better their hosts | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924406 | would be pleased. Adding however the wisdom of the serpent to the guilelessness of the dove, they coupled with this dismissal a very earnest invitation for the savages to return on the morrow and bring more skins, indeed all that they could spare, the white men promising to purchase them at a fair price. The Indians listened gravely to so | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924407 | much of this harangue as Samoset translated to them, and the five new-comers at once, and with no ceremony of farewell, glided one after the other down the path leading past the spring to Watson's Hill, and were no more seen; but Samoset throwing himself upon the ground pressed his hands upon his stomach moaning loudly and declaring himself in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924408 | great agony. "He has a colic from over-feeding. Give him a dose of strong waters and capsicum," said the elder compassionately; and Standish with a grim smile remarked, "Truly the man hath been an apt scholar in the ways of civilization. He minds me of a varlet of mine own, whose colics I effectually cured after a while by mingling | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924409 | a certain drug with the strong waters he craved. 'T was better than a sea-voyage for clearing his stomach." "Nay, Captain, we'll not deal so harshly with the poor fellow at the beginning, whatever may come at the end," said the Governor smiling. "Howland, get the man his dram, and if he will not go, put him to sleep in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924410 | Hopkins's house and under his ward." . PRISCILLA MOLINES' LETTER. "John Alden, the captain says thou 'rt a ready writer. Didst learn that along with coopering?" "Nay, Mistress Priscilla, I was not dubbed cooper until I was a se'nnight old, or so." "Oho! Then thy schoolcraft all came in the first week of thy life. Eh?" "Have thy way, Priscilla. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924411 | Thou knowst well enow thou canst not anger me." "Truly? Well I never cared to see a man maiden-meek. But thou canst write?" "Ay, and so canst thou, I have heard." "Heed not all thou hearest, John; no, nor believe all thou seest." "But what about my pencraft? Can I do aught for thee, Priscilla?" "Mayhap." "And what is it, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924412 | maid? Well thou knowest that it is more than joy for me to do thy bidding." "Nay, I know not what feeling 'more than joy' can be, unless haply it topple over t' other side and become woe, and I would be loth to breed thee woe." "And I am as loth to let thee; but still thou dost it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924413 | and will do it." "Verily!" "Ay, verily; but what is thy bidding, Priscilla? for I have an errand on hand." "And what weighty matter claims thee for its guardian?" "Nay, 't is no such weighty matter, nor is it a secret. The governor will have me warn the men to gather in the Common house to-morrow to complete the affairs | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924414 | twice broken off by the visit of our red-skinned neighbors." "And mark my words, John, they'll come again to-morrow so sure as you try to hold council. 'T is a fate, and you'll not escape it." "Pooh, child! Dost believe in signs and fates?" "My forbears did. Haply thou hadst none, and so escaped the corruption of such folly." "Nay | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924415 | now, Priscilla, each one of us has just as many grandsires as another all the way back to Adam, only some of us have had more important matter in hand than to reckon up their names, and 't will never spoil a night's rest for me that I know not if my great-grandam was Cicely or Phyllis. But tell me, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924416 | mistress, what my pen can do for thee?" "Thy pen! Then 't is not thy heart or thy hand that is at my service?" and Priscilla raised a pair of such melting and velvety brown eyes to the somewhat offended face of the young giant that he at once tumbled into the depths of abject submission, and trying to seize | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924417 | her hand exclaimed,-- "Oh sweetheart, thou knowest only too well that hand and heart and all I have are thine if thou wilt but take them." "Nay, John, thou must not speak so, no, nor touch my hand until I give it thee of mine own free will"-- "Until? Nay, that means that some time thou wilt give it!" "Well, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924418 | then, I don't say until, and if thou dost pester me I'll say never. And I'll ask John Howland to write my letter." "Stay, stay Priscilla! If 't is a letter to be written let me write it, for I was the first one asked, and I'll not pester thee, lass. I am a patient man by nature, and I'll | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924419 | bide thy good pleasure." "There, now, that's more sensible, and as my own time runs short as well as thine, sit down at the corner of the table here--hast thy ink-horn with thee? Ay, well, here is paper ready, and we have time before I must make supper." "Yes, an hour or more," said John looking at some marks upon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924420 | the window ledge cut to show the shadows cast at noon, at sunrise, and at sunset at this time in the year. Priscilla meantime had arranged the writing materials upon the corner of the heavy oaken table with its twisted legs and cross pieces still to be seen in Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth as Elder Brewster's table, and drawing up | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924421 | two new-made oaken stools, for the elder's chair in the chimney-corner was not to be lightly or profanely occupied, she said,-- "Come now, Master Alden, I am ready." "I would thou wert ready," murmured John, but as the blooming face remained bent over the table, and the very shoulders showed cold indifference, he continued hastily as he seated himself,-- "And | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924422 | so am I ready. To whom shall I address the letter?" "Methinks I would first put time and place at the head of the sheet. So have I noted that letters are most commonly begun." "Ay. Well, then, here is:-- "'The Settlement of New Plymouth, March the 21st inst. A. D. .'" For thus in Old Style did John Alden | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924423 | count the date we now should set at March 31st, . And having written it in the queer crabbed Saxon script we find so hard to decipher he inquired,-- "And what next, Mistress Priscilla?" "Next, Master John, thou mayest set down,"-- "'My well beloved'"-- "Well, who is thy well beloved?" demanded John pen in hand and flame on cheek. "Nay, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924424 | the name is of no importance," replied Priscilla coldly. "Let us go on." "Very well, 'My well beloved,' is set down." "'I promised thee news of my welfare so soon as opportunity should serve to send it.'"-- "Well?" --"'And now I would have thee know that I find none to take thy place in my heart or eyes'"-- The young | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924425 | man laid down his pen, and with a sterner look upon his face than the teasing girl had ever seen there, rose from the table saying,-- "I did not deem thee so unmaidenly, Priscilla, as to ask a man who loves thee to write thy love-messages to one thou favorest more highly. 'T is not well done, mistress, neither modest | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924426 | nor kind." "I wonder at thy hardihood, John Alden, putting such reproach upon me. Never think again that I will listen to thy wooing after such insult, and thou stupid oaf, did I not tell thee that the letter was to Jeanne De la Noye, my dear girl-friend in Leyden?" "Nay, thou toldst me no such thing." "Well, I tell | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924427 | thee now, and thou mayst put Jeanne after 'my well-beloved' at the top, an' thou wilt. Art satisfied now, thou quarrelsome fellow?" "Satisfied that thou wilt bring me to an untimely grave, thou wicked girl!" "Well, then sit down and finish my letter before thou seekest that same grave, for the shadow creeps on apace. Nay, now, I will be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924428 | good, good John." "Ah well-a-day, I am indeed an oaf, as thou sayest, to be so wrought upon by a coy maid's smiles or frowns, but have thy will mistress, have thy will." "Nay now, John, cannot a big, brave fellow like thee take a poor maid's folly more gently? Think then, dear John, of how forlorn a maid it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924429 | is; think of the graves under yon springing wheat"-- "There, there, dear heart, forgive my rude brutishness; forgive me, sweet one, or I shall go out and do some injury to myself or another, thou hast so stirred my sluggish heart"-- But a peal of laughter, rich and sweet as a bob-o-link's song, cut short his speech, and Priscilla dashing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924430 | away the tears that hung in her archly curved eyelashes exclaimed,-- "_Thy_ sluggish heart, John! Why, thy heart is like an open tub of gunpowder, and all my poor thoughtless words seem sparks to kindle it! Well, then, sith both are sorry, and both fain would be friends, let us get on with my fond messages to Jeanne and her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924431 | sister Marie, or I shall have to put away my paper hardly the worse for thy work." "Well, then, thou honey bee, as sweet as thy sting is sharp, what next?" "Tell her in thine own words how long we were cooped in yon vile-smelling old tub, and how when we landed, Mary Chilton and not I was first of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924432 | all the women to leap upon the rock we call our threshold; and oh John, tell her how I am orphaned of father and mother and brother, and even the dear old servant who carried me in his arms, and many a time in Leyden walked behind us three malapert maids--oh me, oh me!"-- She turned away to the window | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924433 | and bowed her face in her hands, smothering the sobs that she could not quite restrain. John sat still, looking at her, his own eyes dim and his face very pale. At this moment the door was suddenly thrust open, and Standish entered the room exclaiming,-- "Is Alden here?" "Ay, Captain," replied the young man rising and coming forward. Standish | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924434 | cast a hasty glance at the figure of the young girl, another at the young man's face, and motioned him to follow outside. "Hast thou done aught to offend Mistress Molines?" demanded he as John drew the door close after him. "Not I," replied he somewhat indignantly. "She asked me to write for her to some maid of her acquaintance | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924435 | in Leyden, and when it came to telling of her orphanage and desolate estate her woman-heart gave way, and she was moved to tears." "Ay, ay, poor child! 'T is sad enow, but we will put all that right presently--yes, I promised William Molines, and so let him die at ease, and I will keep my word to the dead. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924436 | A husband and a home, and haply a troop of little rogues and wenches at her knees will soon comfort her orphanhood, eh, John?" "I know not, sir--I--doth she know of this compact betwixt her father and you?" "Come, now, thou 'rt not my father confessor, lad, nor yet my general," replied Standish with peremptory good humor. "Get thee back | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924437 | to thy pencraft, and when it is done come to me at the Fort, I have work for thee." "Yes, sir." And the young man turned again into the house where Priscilla, quite calm, but a little subdued in manner, awaited him. "And now wilt thou set thy name at the foot, Priscilla?" asked the scribe when the fourth side | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924438 | of the paper was nearly covered. "Let me see. Ah, there is yet a little room. Say, 'My friendly salutation to thy brothers, Jacques, Philip, and little Guillaume; and now I think on 't, Jacques asked me to advise him if this were a good place for a young man to settle, and as I promised, I will now bid | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924439 | thee say that to my mind it is a place of goodly promise, and I were glad indeed to see all my friends of the house of De la Noye coming hither in the next ship.'" "I have heard ere now that the pith of a woman's letter was in the post scriptum, just as the sting of a honey | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924440 | bee cometh at the latter end," said John dryly. "And now wilt thou sign?" "Yes. Give me the quill. _Ciel_, how it sputters and spatters! 'T is a wondrous poor pen, John." "It served my turn well enow," replied John surveying with a grim smile the childish signature surrounded with a halo of ink-spatters; but as not one third of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924441 | the women in the company could have done as well, Priscilla felt no more chagrin at not being a clerk, than a young lady of to-day would at not knowing trigonometry. "And now address it to the Sieur Jacques De la Noye for Mademoiselle Jeanne De la Noye, and I will trust thee to put it with the letters already | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924442 | writ to go by the Mayflower. And thank thee kindly, John, for thy trouble." "Thou 'rt more than welcome, Priscilla." "But why so grave upon 't, lad?" "'The heart knoweth its own bitterness,' and mine hath no lack of bitter food, Priscilla." "Nay, perhaps thou turn 'st sweet into bitter. A kind word to the brother of my gossip Jeanne"-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924443 | "Ah, that's not all, nor the worst. But there, I'll fetch thee some water from the spring." And seizing the bucket, the young man went hastily out, leaving Priscilla staring at the folded letter upon the table, while she half murmured,-- "Handsome Jacques with his quick wit and gentle breeding, and our brave Captain, the pink of knightly chivalry, and--John!"-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924444 | . AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY. Priscilla's prophecy proved a true one, for hardly were the one-and-twenty men of the colony assembled around the table in the Common house to hold a final Council upon their new orders, than young Cooke came rapping at the door to announce that a large body of Indians had appeared on Watson's Hill, and seemed advancing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924445 | on the village. The Council once more was hastily broken up, Carver only pausing to say with a glance around the circle,-- "It is clearly understood that Captain Standish is in full control of all military proceedings in this community, and we are all bound to follow his orders without cavil or delay." "Ay," responded a score of deep-throated voices | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924446 | lacking that of Myles himself, who said,-- "The governor's authority is above that of the commandant unless martial law be proclaimed, and I shall be the first man to submit to it." "'When gentlefolks meets, compliments passes,'" muttered Billington with a sneer, while Edward Dotey and Edward Lister, nominally servants to Stephen Hopkins, but already ruffling with the best, tittered | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924447 | and nudged each other as they followed their betters out of the house. Now Dame Nature in compounding a leader does not often omit to furnish him with five extra-keen senses, as well as a certain sixth sense called intuition, quickwittedness, or, if you please, instinct; and Standish, born for a leader, was fully furnished forth with all six of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924448 | these videttes, and seldom failed to see, hear, and understand all that went on in his vicinity. So did he now, and although his stern visage showed no shadow of change, he inwardly made the comment,-- "Hopkins's varlets, eh? Like master, like man. And Billington--wait a bit, Master Poacher!" "Ah, here is our friend Samoset coming up the hill, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924449 | another with him," remarked Bradford as the little group of authorities paused at the head of the path leading to the spring and to Watson's Hill. "Tisquantum, I'll be bound. He looks to have a certain veneer of civilization over his savagery," remarked Winslow, and in another minute the two savages arrived within speaking distance, and the stranger tapping his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924450 | breast grandiloquently exclaimed,-- "This is Tisquantum, friend of Englishmen." "Tisquantum is welcome, and so is Samoset," replied Carver gravely. "Have they brought furs to truck for the white men's goods?" But hereupon Squanto, as Tisquantum (He-who-is-angry) was familiarly designated, began a long and very flowery harangue, from which the Pilgrims gathered that the present was more of a diplomatic and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924451 | international affair than a trading expedition, and that Massasoit, the sachem or chief of all this region, had come in royal progress, attended by his brother Quadequina and sixty chosen warriors, to greet the white men, and to settle upon what terms he would admit them to his territory. So soon as the importance of this embassage was made plain, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924452 | the Pilgrims prepared to meet the occasion with suitable formalities, and while Samoset and Squanto refreshed themselves in Stephen Hopkins's house, Standish hastened to put his entire command under arms, excepting the elder, who constituted the reserved force only to be called out in great emergencies. The military band, composed of four of the well-grown lads of the colony, Giles | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924453 | Hopkins, Bartholomew Allerton, John Crakstone, and John Cooke, was also called out and equipped with its two drums, a trumpet, and a fife, while a house just roofed in and not yet portioned into rooms, was hastily prepared as an audience chamber by clearing it of litter, and spreading at the upper end a large green rug belonging to Edward | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924454 | Winslow, and various cushions and mats, while a high-backed settle in the place of honor covered with some scarlet broadcloth cloaks stood ready to receive the king and the governor in equal honor. Everything being thus in readiness, Samoset and Squanto were dispatched with a courteous message to the king as the Pilgrims chose to translate the Indian term of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924455 | sachem, inviting him to a conference, but the envoys, soon returning, brought an intricate greeting, from which Winslow the diplomatist at last evolved the meaning that Massasoit declined to trust himself among the white men without adequate hostages for his safety, and desired that one of the principal of the strangers should come to him while Samoset and Squanto remained | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924456 | in the village. "Zounds! And does the barbarian fancy that two of his naked salvages count as one of our meanest, not to say our principal men!" exclaimed Standish angrily, but Winslow interposed,-- "If the governor and the brethren consider me as a fit man to answer the demand I will go and convey what message is decided upon to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924457 | this potentate, and if he accepts me will remain as hostage while he visits the settlement." "Nay, Winslow, I claim the post of danger, if danger there be. It is the right of mine office," exclaimed Standish. "Not so, Captain; thy duty is to do us right in a quarrel, mine to keep us out of a quarrel. Each man | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924458 | to his own work, say you not so Governor?" "Master Winslow is right, Captain Standish, and furthermore we need your protection here, should an attack be made upon the village." "I submit, and my good will go with thee, Master Ambassador," replied Standish cordially; "but be sure if thy skill at keeping the peace fails of saving thy scalp, thou | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924459 | shalt have a royal guard of salvages to escort thee whither thou wilt go." "Gramercy for thy courtesy good my Valiant," replied Winslow in the same tone. "But I hope my wit shall avail to save my scalp." And a few moments later the courtly Winslow, armed cap-a-pie and carrying a haversack of gifts at his back, strode down the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924460 | hill, and across the brook to a point where a knot of dusky warriors awaited him, and with them passed out of sight, leaving his comrades to an hour of extreme solicitude and impatience. Although out of sight their comrade, however, was in reality close at hand, for Massasoit had with Indian cunning selected a spot for the interview whence | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924461 | himself unseen he could through the branches of the shielding shrubbery overlook the approach from the village, and perceive any movement upon the side of the other party long before it could be made effectual. Standing in the middle of a little glade to receive Winslow, resting lightly upon the strung bow in his right hand, Massasoit presented the ideal | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924462 | figure of an Indian chief, uncorrupted by the vulgar vices of civilization. Lofty of stature and of mien, his expression grave and even haughty, his frame replete with the easy strength of vigorous maturity, he looked, as Winslow decided in the first quick glance, more worthy to be the king of red men than James the First of England did | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924463 | to be the king of white men. For costume the Indian wore buckskin leggings, highly ornamented moccasons, a belt with fringe several inches long, and a curious skin, dressed and ornamented upon the inside with elaborate designs, slung over his left shoulder by way of cloak. He also wore a necklace of white beads carved from bone, and depending from | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924464 | it at the back of his neck a pouch from which as a mark of royal favor he occasionally bestowed a little tobacco upon his followers, most of whom were provided with pipes. In his carefully dressed hair the chief wore three beautiful eagle-feathers, and his comely face was disfigured by a broad stripe of dark red or murray-colored paint. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924465 | Removing his hat and bowing courteously before this grave and silent figure, Winslow unfastened his haversack, and produced two sheath knives and a copper chain with a glittering pendant which might have been of jewels, but really was of glass. These he laid at one side, and at the other a pocket-knife with a brilliant earring. Finally he set by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924466 | themselves a parcel of biscuit, a little pot of butter, and a flask of strong waters. Having arranged all these matters with great deliberation under the gravely observant eyes of the king, Winslow stood upright and demanded who could speak English. It proving that nobody could, another delay ensued while a _pniese_, or as we might say a noble of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924467 | the king's suite, was dispatched to the village to summon Squanto and to remain as hostage in his place. During the half hour of this exchange, Massasoit remained standing precisely as Winslow had found him with his warriors half hid among the trees as motionless as himself. Winslow leaning against a great white birch on the edge of the little | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924468 | glade rested his left hand upon the hilt of his sword, and setting the other upon his hip imitated the immobility of the savages, and in his glistening steel cap and hauberk, his gauntlets and greaves, his bristling moustache and steady outlook, presented the fitting counterpart to the savage grandeur of Massasoit. It was one of those momentary tableaux in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924469 | which History occasionally foreshadows or defines her policy, and had an artist been privileged to study the scene he should have given us a noble picture of this first meeting of the Powers of the Old World and the New. Squanto at last returned, and Massasoit for the first time opening his lips said gravely,-- "Tell the white man he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924470 | is welcome." "Thank your king for his courtesy," replied Winslow bowing toward the chief; "and tell him that my sovereign lord and master King James the First of Great Britain salutes him by me, and will be ready to make terms of peace and amity with him." Waiting a moment for this message to be delivered the ambassador went on,-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924471 | "And tell him furthermore, that Governor Carver, the chief man of our settlement, is desirous of seeing him, and of arranging with him terms of alliance and of trade. Our desire is to purchase peltrie of every sort, and we are ready to pay for all that we receive, but it is best that the governor and the king should | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924472 | arrange these matters together. Meantime the governor begs your king's acceptance of this little gift," designating the two knives, the copper chain, and the provisions, "for his own use; while to his brother the Prince Quadequina he offers this knife for his pocket,--nay,--for his girdle, and this jewel for his ear. And if the king will now go to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924473 | village to confer with our governor, I, who am not ranked the lowest among our company, will remain here as surety until his return." This speech having been somewhat lamely and laboriously translated into the vernacular by Squanto, Winslow wiped his brow and wished that it consisted with his dignity to throw off his armor and stretch himself upon the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924474 | pine needles at his feet, but it evidently did not; and in a moment or two Squanto delivered to him the king's reply that he was very willing to become an ally of King James, and that he would go into the village to meet the governor leaving Winslow as guest of Quadequina, but that first he was ready to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924475 | exchange for some very valuable peltrie the armor and weapons now worn by his guest, and as he observed by the other men of the colony. To this proposition Winslow returned a most decided negative, adding that among his people no soldier relinquished his weapons except with his life, which chivalrous boast Squanto after a moment's consideration translated,-- "White man | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924476 | says these things to him all one as red man's scalp-lock to him," and Massasoit replied by a guttural sound sometimes rendered "Hugh!" although no letters can express it, and its intent is to convey comprehension, approbation, contempt, or assent, according to the intonation. In the present instance it conveyed approbation mingled with disappointment, and Massasoit drawing forward his tobacco | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924477 | pouch filled his pipe, lighted it with a sort of slow match made of bark, and having drawn two or three whiffs passed it to Winslow who gravely accepted it. Next the chief tasting the dainties offered him by one of his officers distributed the remainder among his followers, excepting the flask of gin, which having cautiously tried he laid | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924478 | aside, evidently not understanding it, and unwilling to offend the donor by showing his distaste for it. And here let it be said that Massasoit, although he learned to drink the "fire-water" of the white men, never became its victim like so many of his brethren. These ceremonies over, Winslow, already a little uneasy lest Standish and his musketeers should | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924479 | come to seek him and disturb the harmony he was endeavoring to establish between this dusky potentate and his own people, suggested to Squanto that the governor would be growing impatient to receive his guest, and that the day was getting on. This hint the interpreter conveyed in his own fashion to the king, who simply drawing his puma robe | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924480 | a little farther forward, muttered a word to Quadequina who stood beside him, and moved toward the village followed by about twenty warriors. Winslow, somewhat startled by the suddenness of this departure would have followed at least for a few steps, but Quadequina, a younger and handsomer copy of his brother, stopped him by a single finger laid upon his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924481 | breast, and a few guttural sounds which Squanto paused to interpret as a direction that the white man should remain where he was until the return of the sachem. "Certainly. It is as a hostage that I am here. I would but move to a spot whence I may see the progress of his majesty and his greeting. Tell the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924482 | prince that he has my parole not to escape." But neither the words nor the spirit of this chivalrous utterance were familiar to Squanto, across whose red and yellow and oily countenance a gleam of humor shot and was gone, while he gravely reported to Quadequina,-- "The white man does but place himself to see the head men of his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924483 | village fall to the ground before Massasoit and his sachems. He trembles before Quadequina and entreats his kindness." "Hugh! I think thou liest, Squanto," sententiously replied the young sachem. "I see no trembling in this warrior's face, nor do I believe his people will fall down before Massasoit. Go, and see that thou dost speak more truly in the sachem's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924484 | presence, or he will hang thy scalp in his wigwam to-night." Squanto a little depressed at this suggestion, attempted no reply, but hastened after the chief who already was nearing the brook, while from the side of the town approached Standish, preceded by drum and fife and followed by six musketeers. Arriving first at the dividing line the captain halted | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924485 | his men, and summoning Squanto by name, bid him demand that the twenty followers of the king should leave their bows, arrows, and tomahawks where they now stood and come over unarmed, adding that the importance of their hostage might well cover this further concession. Massasoit after gazing for a moment into his opponent's face conceded the point without parley, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924486 | and at a sign from him the warriors threw their weapons in a pile and followed him unarmed through the shallow ford of the brook. Standish meantime deployed his men into guard of honor so that the chief passed between two lines of men who presented arms, and closing in behind him escorted him with drum and fife to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924487 | unfinished house where he was seated in state at one end of the settle, and his followers upon the cushions at the right hand of the Green Rug, which may be said to have distinguished this meeting as the Cloth of Gold, just a hundred years before, had that of the interview between Henry VIII. and Francis I. Hardly was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924488 | the chief seated when the sonorous sounds of the trumpet, well supported by the larger drum, replaced the shriller notes of fife and small drum, and Governor Carver in full armor and wearing a plumed hat, made his appearance, followed by six more musketeers, the two guards exhausting pretty nearly the whole available force of the Pilgrim army at this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924489 | time. Massasoit rose as the governor approached, and when Carver extended his hand laid his own in it, each potentate saluting the other with a punctilious gravity much to be admired. Carver then seated himself at the other end of the settle, and turning to Howland, who stood as a sort of Aid at his elbow, he requested some strong | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924490 | waters to be brought that he and the king might pledge health and amity to each other. This request having been foreseen was immediately complied with, and a great silver loving-cup with two handles and filled with a compound of Holland gin, sugar, and spice, with a moderate amount of water, was brought and presented to the governor who tasted | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924491 | decorously, and then passed it to the sachem, who seizing both handles carried it to his mouth and drank with an air of stern determination, as one who would not allow personal distaste to interfere with public obligations. The cup was then passed to the other guests, and replenished more than once until all had tasted, Squanto remarking to his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924492 | next neighbor as he handed him the cup,-- "It is the witch water to make a man brave that I have told you of drinking in the house of Slaney in the land of these Englishmen." "Hugh! It is like the sun in summer," muttered the neighbor passing it on in his turn. "John Howland!" whispered a low voice at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924493 | the unglazed window near which the young man stood, and as he leaned hastily out he nearly bumped heads with pretty Elizabeth Tilley, who laughing said,-- "Nay, 't is no such great alarm, but Priscilla bade me tell thee to keep an eye upon the governor's loving-cup, lest some of these wild men steal it." "Nay, they have no pockets | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924494 | to hide it in," replied John laughing. "Still I will have an eye to it, for we have none so much silverware in the colony that we should be willing to spare it." The ceremony of welcome over, the business of the meeting began, and Massasoit, albeit a little incommoded by his strange potation, showed himself both dignified and friendly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924495 | in his intentions. Carver on his side was as honorable as he was shrewd, and in the course of an hour the first American International Treaty was harmoniously concluded, and so much to the advantage of both sides, that not only was it sacredly observed in the beginning, but nineteen years later, when Massasoit felt his own days drawing to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924496 | a close, he brought his sons, Alexander and Philip, to Plymouth, where this "Auncient League and Confederacy" was formally renewed and ratified before the court then in session. Business over, the sachem produced his pipe, filled it, smoked a little, and passed it to the governor, and in this manner it went round the assembly, red men and white together | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924497 | each taking a few whiffs, and when it was empty returning it to Massasoit, who seemed to be custodian of the tribal stock of tobacco. Facts are stubborn things and History is sacred, and the scene just described is in all its details simple matter of History, but is it not a singular irony of fate that we who spend | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924498 | our lives in a crusade against strong drink and tobacco must, nevertheless, despair of rivaling the virtues of these men, who began their solemn covenant with the savages they had come to Christianize, by giving them gin, and ended it by accepting from them tobacco? After the Council came a feast of the simple dainties furnished by the Pilgrim commissariat, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924499 | and after that an informal mingling of the two companies, during which the Indians examined and essayed to sound the trumpet whose notes had so startled them, although the fife had seemed to them only the older brother of the whistles they so often made of willow twigs. Before Massasoit took leave he requested that Winslow might remain while Quadequina | 60 | gutenberg |
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