Carver, exerted himself
with zeal and benevolence to lesser the misery of his people; but with
so little effect, that when the spring at length set in, and the
captain of the Mayflower prepared to return to England, the little band
of settlers was found to be reduced to one half the original number;
and these were weakened by illness, and by want of proper nourishment.

But great as were their difficulties and sufferings, their faith and
resolution never failed; and when the Mayflower again set sail for
England, not one of the fifty emigrants who remained expressed a desire
to return.

CHAPTER III.

'What men were they? Of dark-brown color,
With sunny redness; wild of eye; their tinged brows
So smooth, as never yet anxiety
Nor busy thought had made a furrow there.
. . . . . . . Soon the courteous guise
Of men, not purporting nor fearing ill,
Won confidence: their wild distrustful looks
Assumed a milder meaning. MADOC.

We have said that the band of the exiles was reduced to half the number
that had, six months before, left the shores of Europe, so full of hope
and of holy resolution; and still, in spite of all their outward trials
and difficulties, the hope and the resolution of the survivors were as
high and as firm as ever. They trusted in the God whom they had served
so faithfully; and they knew that, in his own good time, he would give
them deliverance. But their days of darkness were not yet over. The
inclemency of the winter had indeed passed away, and the face of nature
began to smile upon them; yet sickness still prevailed, and the many
graves that rose on the spot which they had chosen for a burial ground,
daily reminded them of the losses that almost every family had already
sustained. The grief that had thus been brought upon them by death was
also greatly aggravated by the harassing attacks of the Indians, who
Were evidently still lurking in the neighboring woods; and who now
frequently came in small parties, and committed depredations of every
kind that lay in their power. Their real but concealed object was to
capture Rodolph, either alive or dead; for nothing short of his
destruction, or at least that of some member of his family, could
satisfy the bereaved Chief for the loss of his son. He, therefore,
left a party of his bravest and most subtle warriors in an encampment
about a day's journey from the Christian village, with orders to make
frequent visits to the settlement, and l