Having dispatched there, I returned home with all speed convenient, where I found the state of the Colony much weaker than when I left it; for till now we were never without some bread, the want whereof much abated the strength and flesh of some, and swelled others. But here it may be said, if the country abound with fish and fowl in such measure as is reported, how could men undergo such measure of hardness, except through their own negligence? I answer, everything must be expected in its proper season. No man, as one saith, will go into an orchard in the winter to gather cherries; so he that looks for fowl there in the summer, will be deceived in his expectation. The time they continue in plenty with us, is from the beginning of October to the end of March; but these extremities befell us in May and June. I confess, that as the fowl decrease, so fish increase. And indeed their exceeding abundance was a great cause of increasing our wants. For though our bay and creeks were full of bass and other fish, yet for want of fit and strong seines and other netting, they for the most part brake through, and carried all away before them. And though the sea were full of cod, yet we had neither tackling nor hawsers for our shallops. And indeed had we not been in a place, where divers sort of shell-fish are, that may be taken with the hand, we must have perished, unless God had raised some unknown or extraordinary means for our preservation.

In the time of these straits, indeed before my going to Munhiggen, the Indians began again to cast forth many insulting speeches, glorying in our weakness, and giving out how easy it would be ere long to cut us off. Now also Massassowat seemed to frown on us, and neither came or sent to us as formerly. These things occasioned further thoughts of fortification. And whereas we have a hill called the Mount,³³

“Some traces of the fort are still visible on the eminence called the burying-hill, directly above the meeting- house of the first church in Plymouth. After the fort was used as a place of worship, it is probable they began to bury their dead around it. Before that time the burial-place was on bank, above the rock on which the landing was made.”—Judge Davis’s note in Morton’s Memorial, p. 82.

3 Edward Winslow was, according to Hutchinson, “of a very reputable family and of a very active genius”—“a gentleman of the best family of any of the Plymouth planters, his father, Edward Winslow, Esq., being a person of some figure at Droitwich, in Worcestershire,” a town seven miles from Worcester, celebrated for its salt springs. Edward was the eldest of eight children, and was born at Droitwich Oct. 19, 1595, as appears from the following extract from the records of St. Peter’s church in that place: “1595, Oct. 20, baptized Edward, son of Edward Winslow, born the previous Friday,” which was the 19th. His mother’s name was Magdalen; her surname is unknown; she was married Nov. 3, 1594. He was not one of the original band of Pilgrims who escaped to Holland in 1608, but being on his travels, fell in with them at Leyden, in 1617, as we learn from his Brief Narration, where he speaks of “living three years under Mr. Robinson’s ministry before we began the work of plantation in New England.” His name stands the third among the signers of the Compact on board the Mayflower; and his family consisted at that time of his wife, Elizabeth, George Soule, and two others, perhaps his children, Edward and John, who died young. As has already been seen, and will hereafter appear, he was one of the most energetic and trusted men in the Colony. He went to England in 1623, 1624, 1635 and 1646, as agent of the Plymouth or Massachusetts colonies; and in 1633 he was chosen governor, to which office he was re-elected in 1636 and 1644. He did not return to New England after 1646. In 1655 he was sent by Cromwell as one of three commissioners to superintend the expedition against the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, and died at sea, near Hispaniola, on the 8th of May of that year, in his 60th year. An interesting letter,