Mayflower: A Story Of Courage, Community, And War Quotes
"What could now sustain them but the spirit of God and His Grace?"
"Their time in Leiden, they now realized, had been a mere rehearsal for the real adventure."
"It is not with us as with other men, whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves home again."
"They fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean."
"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."
"Whatsoever I demanded, they theIndiansthe IndianstheIndians were well satisfied with."
"A small bird is called sachem, because of its sachem or princelike courage and command over greater birds."
"We are well weaned from the delicate milk of our mother country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange and hard land, which yet in a great part we have by patience overcome."
"Their disease the plague, for we might perceive the sores of some that had escaped, who descried the spots of such as usually die."
"They knew they must make as much progress as possible on the houses—especially since, it was still assumed, the Mayflower would soon be returning to England."
"After almost five months of uncertainty and fear, the Pilgrims had finally established diplomatic relations with the Native leader who, as far as they could tell, ruled this portion of New England."
"If all the deaths had failed to inure them to grief, it had certainly alerted them to the wondrous necessity of life."
"In accordance with 'the laudable custom of the Low Countries,' Edward and Susanna were married in a civil ceremony."
"They were also behaving unusually. Instead of attempting to trade with the Indians, they kept to themselves and seemed much more interested in building a settlement."
"It was a suggestion that played on Massasoit’s worst fears. The last three years had been a nightmare of pain and loss."
"The Pilgrims knew they could not blast, fight, and kill their way to a permanent settlement in New England."
"They decided to build their houses on what is called today Cole’s Hill overlooking the salt marsh."
"So they asked to go to bed. Much to their surprise, the sachem insisted that they share the wigwam’s sleeping platform with himself and his wife."
"Bradford later singled out William Brewster and Miles Standish as sources of indomitable strength."
"For the Pilgrims, who could not have mustered more than twenty adult males and whose own military leader was not even five and a half feet tall, it must have been a most intimidating display of physical strength and power."
"He was happy, even ecstatic, to see them, but he had no food to offer."
"Although the Indians declined, they requested that the English demonstrate the accuracy of their muskets. One of them fired a round of small shot at a target, and the Natives 'wondered to see the mark so full of holes.'"
"Their second night at Sowams proved to be as sleepless as the first. Even before sunrise, the two Englishmen decided that they best be on their way, 'we much fearing,' Winslow wrote, 'that if we should stay any longer, we should not be able to recover home for want of strength.'"
"Massasoit was 'both grieved and ashamed that he could no better entertain' the Pilgrims, but that did not prevent the visit from ending on a most positive note."
"Squanto, it was decided, would remain at Pokanoket so that he could go from village to village to establish trading relations for the Pilgrims."
"Winslow and Hopkins arrived back at Plymouth. They were wet, weary, footsore, and famished, but they had succeeded in strengthening their settlement’s ties with Massasoit and the Indians to the west."
"Back in January, fourteen-year-old Francis Billington had climbed into a tree near the top of Fort Hill. Looking inland to the west, he claimed he saw 'a great sea.'"
"Like his father, the Billington boy had already developed a reputation as a troublemaker."
"Massasoit’s influence in the region was apparently not as dominant as he had led Winslow and Hopkins to believe."
"Bradford ordered a party of ten men—more than half the adult males in the settlement—to set out in the shallop with both Squanto, who had recently returned from his trading mission in the region, and Tokamahamon as guides."
"At Cummaquid they encountered disturbing evidence that all was not forgotten on Cape Cod when it came to past English injustices in the region."
"For more than a week, the ship lingered inexplicably at the tip of Cape Cod."
"In an instant, the size of the colony had almost doubled."
"The Pilgrims soon began to realize that their alliance with the Pokanokets had created serious problems with the far more powerful Narragansetts."
"They had come to America to serve God as best they knew how, and they were now dependent on two Indians named Satan."
"The Pilgrims had come to the New World to live and worship as they pleased. But with a growing contingent of Strangers in their midst, what had seemed like such a pure and straightforward goal when they were planning this endeavor back in Leiden had become more complicated."
"The Pilgrims unfurled a blood-soaked piece of linen. It was the same cloth that had once swaddled Wituwamat’s head, and it now flew bravely above the fort: a reddish brown smear against the blue summer sky."
"For all they had suffered during those first terrible winters in America, their best years were behind them, in Leiden. Never again would they know that same rapturous sense of divine fellowship that had first launched them on this quest."
"We can only wonder how different the early years of Plymouth might have been if Robinson had made it to the New World."
"The Pilgrims believed that since no Indians were presently living on the land, it was legally theirs."
"The fortunes of the colony still teetered precariously in the years ahead, the inhabitants never again starved."
"The influx of Puritan immigrants prompted the Pilgrims to rethink how the government of their settlement was organized."
"Despite Winslow’s claim that Plymouth was a place where 'religion and profit jump together,' the colony was unable to achieve any sort of long-term financial success."
"The Pilgrims had come face-to-face with a figure from a future America: the frontiersman who happily thumbed his nose at authority while embracing the wilderness."
"The Pilgrims had stumbled on the power of capitalism."
"Massasoit had entered into a devil’s bargain with the English."
"For these fierce natives, they are now so fill’d with guns and muskets, and in them so skill’d."
"By the time Bradford received word of Winslow’s passing, Elder William Brewster had been dead for more than a decade."
"In March of 1671, Hugh Cole of Swansea reported that Indians from all over the region were flocking to Mount Hope."
"It’s unclear what triggered Philip to begin preparing for war."
"Some New Englanders dared to suggest that the Indians were not entirely to blame for the threatened insurrection."
"Fearful that he was leading his men into a trap, Philip insisted that they be given several English hostages before he ventured into town."
"It did not go well for Philip. Once again, the Plymouth magistrates bullied him into submission."
"Philip was disarmed but hardly defeated. He immediately began to make plans for obtaining more muskets."
"Playing into Philip’s stratagem was English greed."
"If they did not band together now and stand up to the English, the opportunity might never come again."
"Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Governor Winslow remained hopeful that the present troubles would blow over."
"Philip had been forced to prepare for war out of political necessity."
"The vast majority of the soldiers still possessed matchlocks and pikes—weapons that soon proved completely ineffective in fighting an enemy that refused to meet them in the open field."
"As the Puritan historian William Hubbard observed, most Indians in southern New England were unsure of what to do next."
The Indians’ powwows predicted that the number of English dead would equal the number of trees "blown down in the woods."
"Instead of acknowledging the debt they owed the Narragansetts, the Puritans resolved to wipe them out."
"For eight hours they marched without stop through the drifting snow, with Moseley’s company in the lead and with the soldiers from Connecticut taking up the rear."
"No one had ever seen anything quite like it."
"It was God who led the English to the one place where there was a possibility of piercing the Indians’ defenses."
"If ever there was a defensive structure, it was this fort."
"The fire from the flankers and blockhouse was so fierce."
"The Indian captive was brought before General Winslow for interrogation."
"The colonial army was on the verge of starvation."
"Philip hoped to stage his triumphant return to the war."
"Mary Rowlandson was simply the wife of Lancaster’s minister."
"I asked them why they assaulted us with burning and killing."
"Philip was following in his father’s footsteps."
"The death of Canonchet did not end the war, but it was a considerable step thereunto."
"The Mohawks attacked his forces in Schaghticoke."
"The future of the war was in others’ hands."
"The first ones reached the Smith garrison at 2 A.M."
"The idea of sleeping in a wigwam and eating the Indians’ food was abhorrent."
"The Indians had left Philip and did not intend to return to him any more."
"I did not see anyone that is acquainted with the circumstances of that night’s march."
"They were so civil that they called after me and bid me not go near the burned houses."
"To sell souls for money seems a dangerous merchandise."
"We will never know what Massasoit’s powwows had told him about the future."
"The highest priority was to end the fighting."
"More than anything else, Church wanted the conflict to end."
"This did not mean that he felt the war was unjustified."
"By the time you have been but one day…with me, you’ll love me too."
"The English had to admit that compared to what was typical of European wars, the Indians had conducted themselves with surprising restraint."
"Atrocities were expected in both European and Native conflicts."
"The Native American population of southern New England had sustained a loss of somewhere between 60 and 80 percent."
"The winner of the conflict was determined not by military prowess but by one side’s ability to outlast the other."
"The Lord give him and us, or any that have successes on the enemy, to be humble and give God the only praise for his power."
"He had no doubt, he told his men, 'that if they would cheerfully go with him the same almighty providence that had hitherto protected and befriended them would do so still.'"
"No matter how shocking such incidents might have seemed in English eyes, they obfuscated an essential truth about King Philip’s War."