Plymouth Plantation

Landing At Plymouth

The party rested on Cape Cod for a month. After several exploration trips, and upon the advice of a seaman who had visited the coast with Captain John Smith, Plymouth Harbor (so named by Smith) was chosen on December 21 as the site of settlement. On December 26, the Mayflower anchored offshore. Only a few Indians had been seen, although there were many cleared fields in the area. There was no interference as the Pilgrims began building their town, New Plymouth.

Early Years

Over the first winter half of the Pilgrims died. In the spring two English-speaking Indians appeared—Samoset, who had known English fishermen in Maine, and Squanto, who had been kidnapped and taken to Spain six years before and had lived in England after his escape. Squanto told the Pilgrims that the cleared fields had been been those of his tribe, the Patuxet, which had been wiped out by a plague during his absence. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant and cultivate corn, and served as interpreter between them and Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, who became their ally. When the harvest was in that autumn, the Pilgrims celebrated a feast of thanksgiving.

The Mayflower had departed for England in April, and in November the Fortune arrived with 35 new settlers and a land grant for “Plimouth Plantation” under the charter of Gorges' Council for New England. The colony, which up to then had lacked permission to be located where it was, now had legal status. Fur trade with neighboring Indians was started, under Squanto's guidance. Crops for the first two summers were not adequate, however, and the second and third winters were periods of great privation.

Later Arrivals

In the summer of 1623 Anne and Little James brought 60 more colonists, many from the Green Gate congregation. In 1629 several ships sailing to new Massachusetts Bay Colony brought settlers from Plymouth, and in 1630 the last group from Leiden arrived on the Handmaid. In the next few years various individuals from the Green Gate church and from the merchant adventurers' company came to join the colony.