Amidst the storm they sang, And the stars heard and the sea; And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang To the anthem of the free! The ocean eagle soared From his nest by the white wave's foam; And the rocking pines of the forest roaredThis was their welcome home! There were men with hoary hair There was woman's fearless eye, Lit by her deep love's truth; There was manhood's brow serenely high, What sought they thus afar? — The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? - Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trode! They have left unstained what there they found Freedom to worship God. THE FIRST LANDING AT PLYMOUTH1 WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590-1657) Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. And no marvel if they were thus joyful, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on the coast of his own Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remain twenty years on his way by land, than pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious and dreadful was the same unto him. But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor people's present condition; and so I think will the reader too, when he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now 1 William Bradford was second governor of Plymouth Colony. He was chosen to this office after the first governor, Carver, had died from the hardships of the first winter. Bradford remained in office for twelve years, or until 1633. His "History of Plymouth Plantation," from which this selection is taken, was written during the latter years of his life, though often erroneously called "The Log of the Mayflower." Early Massachusetts historians quoted from the manuscript until as late as 1767. After this time the manuscript disappeared and was taken to England_during_the period of the Revolutionary War. It was discovered in 1855 in the library of the diocese of London and was first published by the Massachusetts Historical Society in the following year. In 1897 the original manuscript was given by the authorities of the Church of England to the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was published by that state in the following year. From this edition the excerpt given here is taken. no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise. And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men ? and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face; and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. If it be said they had a ship to succor them, it is true; but what heard they daily from the master of the company? but that with speed they should look out a place with their shallop, where they would be at some near distance; for the season was such as he would not stir from thence till a safe harbor was discovered by them where they would be, and he might go without danger; and that victuals consumed apace, but he must and would keep sufficient for themselves and their return. Yea, it was muttered by some, that if they got not a place in time, they would turn them and their goods ashore and leave them.. What could now sustain them but the spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice, and looked on their adversity, etc. Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good, and his mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry, and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness, and his wonderful works before the sons of men. NEW ENGLAND CIVILIZATION 1 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891) The history of New England is written imperishably on the face of a continent, and in characters as beneficent as they are enduring. In the Old World national pride feeds itself with the record of battles and conquests; battles which proved nothing and settled nothing; conquests which shifted a boundary on the map, and put 1 From "New England Two Centuries Ago" in “Literary Essays by James Russell Lowell," Vol. II of Lowell's Prose Works (Riverside Edition). Copyright, 1890, by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Used by permission of the publishers. one ugly head instead of another on the coin which the people paid to the tax gatherer. But wherever the New Englander travels among the sturdy commonwealths which have sprung from the seed of the Mayflower, churches, schools, colleges, tell him where the men of his race have been, or their influence has penetrated; and an intelligent freedom is the monument of conquests whose results are not to be measured in square miles. Next to the fugitives whom Moses led out of Egypt, the little shipload of outcasts who landed at Plymouth two centuries and a half ago are destined to influence the future of the world. Looked at on the outside, New England history is dry and unpicturesque. There is no rustle of silks, no waving of plumes, no clink of golden spurs. Our sympathies are not awakened by the changeful destinies, the rise and fall, of great families, whose doom was in their blood. Instead of all this, we have the homespun fates of Cephas and Prudence repeated in an infinite series of peaceable sameness, and finding space enough for record in the family Bible; we have the noise of ax and hammer and saw, an apotheosis of dogged work, where, reversing the fairy tale, nothing is left to luck, and if there be any poetry, it is something that cannot be helped, the waste of the water over the dam. Extrinsically, it is prosaic and plebeian; intrinsically, it is poetic and noble; for it is, perhaps, the most perfect incarnation of an idea the world has ever seen. That idea was not to found a democracy, nor to charter the city of New Jerusalem by an act of the General Court,1 as gentlemen seem to think whose notions of history and human nature rise like an 1 The legislative body of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. |