[For the National Magazine.] REMINISCENCES OF THE PILGRIMS MASSASOIT. old Baron Steuben, whom we have been accustomed to look upon as the ne plus ultra of old-fashioned military tactics, had not been present on this extraordinary oc N the 22d of March, 1621, a most in-casion? Surely Captain Standish and his "Old Plymouth Colony." On a hill (now called Watson's Hill) overlooking the entire settlement, and but a short distance from the humble dwellings of the pilgrims, stood a company of men most formidable, and exceedingly warlike in their appearance. This company consisted of the venerable, peace-loving Indian sachem, Massasoit, his brother, and sixty of his best warriors. They were all armed with deadly weapons, such as bows and arrows, tomahawks and scalping-knives; and with their faces painted with almost every variety of color, some black, some red, some yellow, and some white; some with crosses, and other antic works; some were dressed in skins, and some were naked: all tall and mighty men." 66 The pilgrims, as they rose at early dawn, were startled at the appearance of this new and strange company. Only one hundred and one days had elapsed since they landed on "Plymouth Rock," and during that time they had passed through the most distressing scenes. Sickness and death had made terrible havoc among them, and nearly one-half of their number were now no more. Most of the survivors were feeble and sick, and but few were prepared to meet so formidable an enemy as these apparently hostile strangers. But something must be done; a crisis had arrived. The pressing emergency called for immediate and extraordinary exertions. Accordingly the best preparations were made to meet the supposed conflict. Captain Miles Standish, a man of great courage, and ready for almost any emergency, mustered his company-but alas, what a company! Six feeble and sickly musketeers composed the whole; but undaunted, he resolved to make the best of his condition. Orders were given as if they were designed for an army of thousands, and the company showed off finely by "facings and wheelings," and handling of matchlocks.* What a display! Pity that A matchlock was a musket lighted by a match attached to a spring. To fire the piece, the "touch-pan" was previously opened; and on springing the match, its lighted end would be brought in contact with the pan. ideas of his favorite science. What the savages thought of the wonderful performance has never been told, but they must have been amused. The fears of the affrighted pilgrims were soon allayed. Massasoit had not come for war: his noble soul abhorred bloodshed. Peace was his object. Though a heathen, and chief of one of the most warlike Indian tribes, he took the earliest opportunity to visit the pilgrims, and propose to them terms of continued friendship and peace. He had heard of his new neighbors, and he knew they were few, weak, and feeble. He could have exterminated them with a blow. But he cherished toward them the highest respect, and bid them a hearty welcome to the new world. His object now was to form a treaty of peace with the English. The manner in which the parties were introduced to each other, and the ceremonies which followed, are worthy of being told. Mr. Edward Winslow, a man of note among the pilgrims, first approached the heathen strangers, carrying a pair of knives, a chain, and a jewel, for Massasoit, and a knife and jewel for his brother; "also a pot of strong water, with some biscuit and butter for a treat, which were readily accepted. Winslow remaining as a hostage, Massasoit, with twenty armed men, descended the hill toward the pilgrims. Captain Standish marched with his company to the brook at the foot of the hill to meet Massasoit, and gave him a military salute, which was politely responded to. The distinguished visitor was then conducted to an unfinished building, hastily prepared, with a green rug and three or four cushions.' Governor Carver then approached, followed by the band, consisting of a drum and a trumpet, and the military company. The governor and the king saluted each other by kissing hands, when Carver took a seat and called for strong water' and 'fresh meat,' of which they all partook, and then proceeded to talk of peace and mutual protection. After signing the treaty, Governor Carver conducted his guest back to the brook, and took leave of him." Massasoit's brother, Quadequina, and others, came down the hill, were received and treated in the same manner, and dismissed. Thus ended the novel ceremonies connected with the formation of one of the most important treaties, one to which, under the divine blessing, the pilgrims were indebted for most invaluable privileges, and even life itself. From this time, friendly relations were maintained between Massasoit and the "Plymouth Colony" for forty years. The former resided within the limits of what is now the town of Warren,* Rhode Island, being about fifty miles from Plymouth. Deputations were frequently interchanged, and this had a most happy influence in promoting peace and kindly feeling. Massasoit and some of his men were often entertained by the pilgrims with great pomp, and feasted on the best which the colony afforded. The pilgrims were also received at Sowamset with the most ardent affection, and welcomed to the most liberal hospitality of the sachem's humble dwelling. Some of these visits were seasons of thrilling interest. The following account of one of them is given by Mr. Winslow, and will be interesting to the reader. Mr. John Hamden, and an Indian guide named Hobbamock, accompanied Mr. Winslow to Sowamset : "News came to Plymouth that Massasoit was like to die. Now it being a commendable manner of the Indians, when any, especially of note, are dangerously sick, for all that profess friendship to them to visit them in their extremity; therefore it was thought meet, that as we had ever professed friendship, so we should now maintain the same by observing this laudable custom. To that end, myself having formerly been there, the governor again laid this service upon myself, having one master John Hamden for my consort, and Hobbamock for our guide. So we set forward, and lodged the first night at Namasket, (now Middleborough, Massachusetts.) The next day, about one o'clock, we came to a ferry in Conbatant's country. There they told us that Massasoit was dead, and had that day been buried. This news struck us blank, but especially Hobbamock, who desired we might return with all speed. Considering now that, he being dead, Conbatant was the most likely to succeed him, and that we were not above three miles from Mattapuyst, his dwelling-place, I thought Massasoit's residence was not Mount Hope, as many have supposed, but Sowamset, now Warren, Rhode Island. "King Philip," his son, resided at Mount Hope. This ferry was across Taunton River. Conbatant was sachem of another tribe. no time so fit as this to enter into more friendly terms with him and the rest of the sachems, and I resolved to put it in practice; so we went toward Mattapuyst. In the way, Hobbamock broke forth into these speeches: My loving sachem! my loving sachem! Many have I known, but never any like thee!' And turning to me, he said: While I live, I shall never see his like among the Indians: he was no liar; he was not bloody and cruel like other Indians; in anger and passion he was soon reclaimed; easy to be reconciled toward such as had offended him; he governed his men better with few strokes than others did with many, truly loving where he loved,' continuing a long speech with signs of unfeigned sorrow. "We came to Mattapuyst, and went to the sachem's place, but Conbatant was not at home. The sachem's wife gave us friendly entertainment. Here we inquired concerning Massasoit: they thought him dead, but knew not certainly. About half an hour before sunset we were told that he was not yet dead, though there was no hope we should find him living. Upon this we were much revived, and set forward with all speed. us. "When we came thither, we found the house so full of men as we could scarce get in, though they used their best diligence to make way for Thus they were in the midst of their charms for him, making such a hellish noise that it distempered us that were well, and therefore unlikely to ease him that was sick. When they had made an end of their charming, one told him that his friends, the English, had come to see him. Having understanding left, but his sight was wholly gone, he asked, 'Who has come? They told him. He desired to speak with me. When I came to him he put forth his hand, which I took. Then he said twice, Art thou Winslow?' I answered, Yes. Then he added, 'O, Winslow, I shall never see thee again !' "Then I called Hobbamock, and desired him to tell Massasoit that the governor sent me with such things for him as he thought most likely to do him good, and whereof, if he pleased desired. Having a confection of many comfortto take, I would presently give him, which he him some, which I could scarcely get through able conserves, on the point of my knife I gave his teeth. When it was dissolved in his mouth he swallowed it, when those who were about him much rejoiced, saying he had not swallowed anything in two days before. His mouth was exceedingly furred, and his tongue swelled in such a manner that it was impossible for him to eat such meat as they had. I washed his mouth and scraped his tongue, after which I gave him more of the confection, which he swallowed with more readiness. Then he de siring to drink, I dissolved some of it in water, and gave him. Within half an hour this after his sight began to come to him, which wrought a great alteration in him. Presently gave him and us good encouragement. "He requested me, that the day following, I would take my piece and kill him some fowl, and make him some English pottage, such as he had eaten at Plymouth, which I promised. In the meantime I must needs make him some without fowl. I caused a woman to bruise some corn, take the flour from it, and set over the broken corn in a pipkin, for they have earthen pots of all sizes. When the day broke we went out, it being now March, to seek herbs, but could find none but strawberry leaves, of which I gathered a handful and put into the same; and because I had nothing to relish it, I went forth again, and pulled up a sassafras root, and sliced a piece thereof, and boiled it till it had a good relish, and then took it out. The broth being boiled, I strained it through my handkerchief, and gave him at least a pint, which he drank, and liked it well. After this his sight mended more and more; he also took some rest. Insomuch as we with admiration blessed God for giving his blessing to such raw and ignorant means, himself and all of them acknowledging us the instruments of his pre servation. "Many, while we were there, came to see him; some, from a place not less than a hundred miles. To all that came, one of his chief men related the manner of his sickness; how near he was spent; how his friends, the English, came to see him; and how suddenly they recovered him to his present strength. He said, 'Now I see the English are my friends, and love me; and while I live, I will never forget this kindness they have showed me.' After a few days, Winslow and his companions returned, and related the scenes they had witnessed, and the wonderful recovery of the sachem in the colony, where there was great rejoicing. Massasoit lived thirty-eight years after this visit of the English, and died in 1661, at the advanced age of more than eighty years. But little is known of this distinguished sachem; but from the items of history respecting him, we learn that he governed the tribe called the Wampanoags, who occupied a large tract of country extending over nearly the whole south-eastern part of Massachusetts, from Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod. He "possessed the elements of a great mind and a noble heart." He was kind and affectionate, and was always ready to sympathize with and relieve the afflicted. His attachments were strong, and his friendships enduring. His treaties, as we have seen, were sacred; and though he lived forty years after his first visit to Plymouth, yet the treaty signed on that occasion he maintained inviolate to the day of his death. He protected the pilgrims in their weak and defenseless state, informed them of threatening dangers, and, in several instances, prevented other Indian tribes from attacking them. Trumbull, in his work on Indian Wars, pays him the following just tribute: "He seems to have been a most estimable man. He was just, humane, and beneficent; true to his word, and in every respect an honest man." His memory should be cherished and loved by every American; and though we may not honor him as a Christian hero. we may regard him as one of the best of pagan chieftains, and especially as having contributed much to the safety and happiness of our pilgrim forefathers. TAULER. BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. TAULER, the preacher, walked, one autumn day, And as he walked he prayed-even the same Slowly his calm blue eyes. "I thank thee, son; But all my days are good, and none are ill.” Wondering thereat, the preacher spake again: "God give thee a happy life." The old man smiled: "I never am unhappy." Tauler laid His hand upon the stranger's coarse gray sleeve: "Tell me, O father, what thy strange words mean. Surely man's days are evil, and his life And that which is not, sharing not his life, Which long has followed, whispering through the dark Strange terrors, drags it, shrieking, into light: What if God's will consign thee hence to hell ?" "Then," said the stranger, cheerily, "be it so. He goes; and better fire-walled hell with him of philosophy and theology were quite grown up, and carried nothing in their pockets save fragments of tobacco. They never had any store of eatables about them, for it was their custom to devour on the spot whatever in that way they could lay their hands on. They smelt so strongly of pipes and votki, that the odor often attracted the wistful noses of the peasants passing by. The square in front of the convent was usually filled with itinerant Set like the white moon, where the hills of dealers in bread, cakes, water-melons, vines Tears sprang in Tauler's eyes. A sudden light, said: "My prayer is answered. God hath sent the man Slope to the Rhine, he bowed his head and patties seasoned with honey and poppyseeds, and various other dainties peculiar to the cuisine of Lower Russia. These merchants were in general women, and vied with each other in the loudness of their commendations of their respective wares. Barely, however, did they address themselves to either the philosophers or the theologians, for these gentlemen usually contented themselves with taking gratuitous samples of the good things, and that by handfuls. Long sought, to teach me, by his simple trust, tower, Jewelled with sunbeams on its mural crown, As yonder tower outstretches to the earth A STUDENTS IN LOWER RUSSIA. FROM THE RUSSIAN. S soon as the seminary bell, which hung before the door of the convent at Kiev, ❘ began to ring, pupils were seen arriving from all parts of the town. Those belonging to the grammar-class were still children, most of them having soiled and torn clothes, and their pockets filled with marbles, whistles, fragments of pastry, and, in the season, with young sparrows, whose shrill cry not seldom brought on their captors blows of the ferule, or even a flogging with a leathern strap. The rhetoricians were older, walked more steadily, and had decidedly fewer rents in their garments; but they frequently bore on their countenances ornaments in the shape of figures of rhetoric, imprinted by each other's energetic fists. The students On reaching the seminary, the crowd divided into classes, which assembled in large low rooms, with small windows, large doors, and old blackened benches. These were soon filled with divers and confused buzzings. The monitors made the pupils recite their lessons; while the sharp and piercing voice of a grammarian was answered in precisely the same key by the vibration of a cracked pane in one of the windows. In another corner resounded the deep bass voice of a thicklipped rhetorician, reciting his morning's lesson. The monitors, while they listened to the repetitions, kept one eye peering under the bench, to try if they could discover in the pupils' pockets any delicacy that might be turned to their own account. When all this learned, although rabble rout, arrived somewhat early, or when the professors came later than usual, then, by general consent, commenced a mêlée, in which every one took part, even the censors, whose duty it was to maintain order. Generally, two of the elder theologians were the arbiters of the combat, and decided whether each class should fight on its own account, or whether all the students should divide themselves into two great parties-the bursars and the paying students. The grammarians were usually the first to commence; then came philosophy, with long black mustaches; and theology, in enormous Cossack pantaloons. The battle almost always ended in favor of the latter branch of study; and philosophy went back to its class rubbing its sides, and sat down panting on the bench. Enter the professor, who, having in his youth taken a constant and active part in such pastimes, had now no difficulty in discovering on the flushed faces of his auditors abundant indications of the heat of the conflict. And while he administered strokes of the rod to the fingers of rhetoric, another professor, in another division, slapped the hands of philosophy with a flat wooden ruler. As to the theologians, they each received what their head-professor called a measure of dried peasthat is to say, a good dose of blows applied with a leathern strap. On holidays, the bursars and the scholars were in the habit of going about the town carrying little theaters of puppets. Sometimes, in their own persons, they acted a comedy, and received as a recompense a piece of cloth, a bag of maize, half of a roasted goose, or something of that nature. In whatever other particulars the students might differ among themselves, in one point there was an astonishing uniformity among them-and that was in the voracious extent of their appetite. It would be impossible to calculate how many kalatches* each of them could manage to swallow for his supper. Sometimes a party of them would make a foray on the kitchen-gardens in the neighborhood, and then a rich tureen of vegetable soup would smoke beneath their hungry noses. All the students wore long black gowns, which came down to their heels. The vacation was the great event of the year. It commenced in June, when the pupils were all sent back to their parents. Then every high-road was covered with grammarians, rhetoricians, theologians, and philosophers. Some went on a visit to their companions; but the elder students generally sought for places-that is to say, they went to give lessons to the sons of the rich country farmers, and received in return a pair of new boots, or perhaps a half-worn coat. Until they obtained a place, they lived, ate, and slept in the fields, each one carrying a bag containing a shirt and a pair of stockings. Some of the more economical carried their boots slung on a stick over their shoulder; and when the roads were muddy, they tucked their wide trowsers up to the knees, and boldly paddled through the puddles. Whenever they descried a village in the distance, they left the high-road, and placing themselves in single-file before the best-looking house in the place, chanted in chorus, and with deafening loudness, a religious carol The master of the house, an old Cossack laborer, would perhaps listen to them with his head leaning on his hand, and then say to his wife: "Wife, what the students are chanting must be very edifying. Give them a good lump of hog's lard, and whatever eatables besides you have to spare." Then very likely a basket of cakes, some loaves of rye-bread, a piece of lard, and perhaps a fowl with its claws tied together, would be poured into the singers' everopen bag. Then they would gayly go on their way, until by degrees the numbers diminished, and all were finally dispersed, to meet again at the reopening of the classes. THE ELOQUENCE OF FLOWERS. THE all-bountiful hand of Providence has scattered the path of our days with innumerable pleasant things, if we would but enjoy them. Among all these, there are few more so than a walk in the flower-garden before breakfast on a lovely morning. To see those mute and still, though not motionless creatures-we mean the blossoms-opening their painted bosoms to the beneficent rays which give them their color and their loveliness, welcoming the calm blessing of the light, as if with gratitude, and seeking, in their tranquil state of being, for nothing but the good gifts of God-might well afford a monitory lesson. Everything in nature has its homily to the eager hunters after fictitious enjoyment. How calm do the blossoms stand in their loveliness! how placid in their limited fruition of the elements that nourish them! How, in their splendid raiment, do they sparkle in the sun! how do they drink up the cup of dew, and gratefully give back honey and perfume in return! I would say, avoid that man, or that woman, who can see nothing beautiful in buds, blossoms, flowers, and children. His, indeed, must be a most • Little flour-cakes, eaten steeped in milk, depraved taste, or a very base heart.— butter, or honey. Kidd's Journal. |