June 12, 1621
Dearest Sister Martha, We just traded with some Native tribes. It was very bad. At first we would have gotten 50 beaver skins but now we have 1 barrel and 10 skins. We went down a lot. Poor little Robert died. He was to ill because he got it from Alice. Alice is all better. We made a peace treaty with the natives. Now we can't hurt the natives or we will be turned into the natives for a punishment and if they hurt us they will be turned into us for a punishment. Each group, the pilgrims and the natives, will help each other if an attack happens. We cant have any weapons at meetings or trading incase somebody goes out of there mind. We have now lost 25 colonists. It has not been very fortunate for us. Hope your life is going better than ours, Miriam
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12/21/1620
Dearest Sister Martha, We have just built our settlement. We only have 5 houses. For the houses Richard and I had to work very hard. Agnes and Robert helped and poor Alice is coming down with a cold. People are helping her and she is getting better very quickly. One of the 5 houses is ours. We only have 3 houses now because of the common house which is where we store our food and tools, and our house which is where we live. Our house is small and very tight and soon we might have another family living with us. We must care for all the ill colonists and we have and get them well before we loose any more colonists. We might need a couple families per house or some people might have to live outside in even more fear of a Native's attack. We have now lost 20 colonists in all. On the good side we have now made a compact. It is called the Seapower compact. It was made so the over all boss will know the power he has over us as well as our rights and when we can help him. Richard is struggling with all the work he has to do. Food is somewhat hard to find. Its getting close to Christmas and I am scared the Natives are going to attack on Christmas, the best day of the year. Agnes is doing o.k. We are all still in fear of all of us getting very ill, or half of us meeting our death. This is a very scary place we have settled, and now we just aren't sure about this land. We must all live in peace or face the consequences. Hope I can see you soon, Mary November 15, 1620,
Dearest Sister Martha, We have just landed in the new world with a somewhat smile on our faces. We hit a tremendously destructive storm. It cracked our main beam and we had to put it back together. We used a giant screw we had found in Holland. We all got seasick. Some of us died. We lost 2 colonists. We all suffered by not being allowed to go up onto the top deck, except to empty our chamber pots. It was a terrible voyage. On the other hand, we were offered a piece of land to settle on and have been pretty well since then. We are living in fear of a Native American attack. It could happen at any moment. We had pretty nice food on our voyage but it wasn't first class because it had to be stored on the ship. It was the worst. Hope I stay alive, Mary Dearest sister Martha,
I am leaving for a new world in soon. I am traveling with my husband Richard, my beloved daughters Agnes and Alice, and my son Robert. We left England because we were forced to worship King James. We wanted to be separate from the dreaded church of England. We are about to leave Holland because all of the adults and children forgot the english customs and the english language. We agreed to leave for the new world because we wanted to be free like a passenger pigeon but we still wanted to have the amazing english customs. I am really worried about leaving and the hard journey ahead of us and how we will survive in the new world. We are all backed and worried for the journey. Hopefully we will all survive the land and make it through a year and not lose any members of our beloved family. We should all come back alive. I'll miss you, Mary |