ss for the windows, and in the spring were able to buy corn of the
Indians, who pitied their sufferings, for in the space of a few weeks
one-half of the Pilgrims had died. At one time there were but seven well
persons in the colony. Among those who passed away was John Carver, the
first governor.

[Illustration: LANDING OF MYLES STANDISH.]

The survivors held their ground with grim heroism, and by-and-by other
immigrants arrived, and the growth and prosperity, though slow, was
certain. It had no charter, but was governed by an agreement which had
been drawn up and signed in the cabin of the _Mayflower_, about the time
the bleak coast of New England was sighted. For sixty years after the
settlement of Plymouth, its history was uneventful. It was never very
large, but the real work which it accomplished was in bringing
thousands of other colonists to follow it to New England, who were
opponents of the Established Church, and who gave to that section of our
country a distinctive character of its own.

MYLES STANDISH.

It is an interesting coincidence that while Virginia had her Captain
John Smith, Plymouth possessed a character quite similar in the person
of Captain Myles Standish. He was the military leader of the colony,
with a courage that was absolutely fearless. He has been described as a
very small man, with a "long, yellow beard," and a temper as inflammable
as gunpowder. Nothing would rouse his anger sooner than to hear any slur
upon his stature. A big, hulking Indian, belonging to a party much
larger than Standish's, once looked down upon the diminutive Englishman,
and, with a curl of his lip, referred to him as too small to fight. The
next day, in a fight that arose with the chiefs, Standish killed the
insulting Indian with his own knife. All readers are familiar with the
beautiful poem of Longfellow, which tells how Standish employed John
Alden to woo Priscilla, the "loveliest maid of Plymouth," for him, and
he did it with such success that Alden won her for himself.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony included the part of the present State of
Massachusetts from the neighborhood of Boston northward. It was founded
by Puritans, who, it will be remembered, had not separated wholly from
the Church of England, but opposed many of its ceremonies. In the civil
war with England they sided with the Parliament and were subjected to
the same persecution as the Separatists. In 1628 a number o