of the works of LONGFELLOW, WHITTIER, LOWELL, HOLMES, EMERSON, THOREAU, and HAWTHORNE. All editions which lack the imprint or authorization of Houghton Mifflin Company are issued without the consent and contrary to the wishes of the authors or their heirs. 211.2 Copyright, 1858, and 1873, BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Copyright, 1883, and 1888, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. Copyright, 1886, BY ERNEST W. LONGFELLOW. All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION. MILES STANDISH, born it has been conjectured about 1580, served as lieutenant in Queen Elizabeth's forces in the Netherlands, remained in or revisited that country in later years, became interested in the congregation of his countrymen at Leyden, and in their pastor, Robinson, and liking them and their principles, though he was not a member of their church, he joined the company who sailed in the Mayflower. He was not only the military leader, wise as well as valiant, of the Pilgrims, but filled more than one civil office of responsibility and trust. In 1630 he removed to Duxbury, so called from his ancestral home, and lived the remainder of his life in a house at the foot of Captain's Hill, whose name preserves the memory of his dwelling there. He died October 3, 1656, held in honor by all the colonists till the end of his days. That to the last he stoutly maintained his right to the great family inheritance which he believed should have been his, is shown in his will drawn up the year before his death, wherein he bequeaths those estates "surreptitiously detained from me" to his eldest son, as the lawful heir thereto. When, in the cabin of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims set their hands to the compact by which they solemnly combined themselves "together into a civil body politic," one of the twelve signers - there were forty. one in all who were entitled to have Mr. placed before their names, was William Mullins, whose surname, after a habit of the time, was variously spelled. On February 23, Bradford notes: "Die Mr. William White, Mr. William Mullins with two more. This month seventeen of our number die." Mr. Mullins, the father of Priscilla, is described as "a man pious and well-deserving, endowed with a considerable outward estate; and had it been the will of God that he had survived, might have proved a useful instrument in his place." In reading of the cruel hardships and sufferings of the devoted little band during that sad winter, it is some slight relief to know that it was a season of unusual mildness, "such as was never seen here since," was declared in after years. Yet at its close the governor writes: "In three months past dies half our company; the greatest part in the depth of winter; the living scarce able to bury the dead; the well not sufficient to tend the sick, there being in their time of greatest distress, but six or seven, who spare no pains to help them." Two of the seven were Mr. Brewster, their reverend elder, and Miles Standish, their captain. Early after the landing at the place selected for their habitation, they planned their village,- Fort Hill, where their cannon were to be placed, and from the foot of this hill "a fair street" running to the seashore. In this street, now called Leyden Street, but then First Street or simply The Street, only seven small dwellings, beside the Common House and storehouses, were erected during the first year. The houses and their garden plots were close together, so that for safety they could "impale them round." The weaker members of the company must have remained on the 66 Mayflower till the spring. The best description of New Plymouth, as it was then called, is that of Secretary de Rasières of the Dutch Colony, who visited it in 1627. After depicting the little town he says, "Upon the hill they have a large square house with a flat roof stayed with oak beams, upon the top of which they have six cannons, commanding the surrounding country. The lower part they use for their church, where they preach on Sundays and the usual holidays. They assemble by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of the Captain's door; they have their cloaks on and place themselves in order three abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum. Behind comes the Governor in a long robe; beside him on the right hand comes the preacher, and on the left hand the Captain, and so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him. Thus they are constantly on their guard night and day." Life was ordered with dignity and decorum in that little community of God-fearing exiles on the verge of the wilderness; but as their numbers increased and dangers lessened, it is not wonderful that many longed for more spacious habitations outside the narrow town limits, and to the regret of the good Governor even some of the "first-comers' sought wide farm lands in the country round, as did Standish, Alden, and others in founding Duxbury. In reading the modest, unadorned narratives of the historians of that small company, so much more impressive than most of the eloquent tributes of later times, like Bradford one "stands amazed at those poor people's condition." And as in simple, moving words he shows what that condition was, his closing sentences seem the only rightful ending: "Our |