A Long and Arduous Journey - Essay Example

Pilgrims It was a month ago today that we first arrived on this new continent of America. It had been a long and arduous journey that started long before the actual sea voyage. I remember the days when we lived in the East Midlands in England. As I watched the last ship return to Europe I acutely remembered my childhood time there and picking apricots from my grandmother’s farm. For many years my life there followed this tranquility and I spent many such summers with my family in such peace and happiness and worship. We are of the Christian faith, but our understanding is a pure one. We understand the absolute sovereignty of the Lord. We know that total depravity is what we are born into and where we will stay; it is only through the grace of the Lord our God that we will find our salvation. Ours is not a revolutionary spirit but a true and clear faith in the Bible and the word of our God. We practiced our faith in harmony with the land in our East Midland home until we came under extreme pressure for our beliefs. I believe the people of the land felt threatened by the reality of our existence and belief. Their existence in sin cannot persist when faced with the true way of the Lord. We knew that we must leave, so we traveled to Holland in the Netherlands. Holland was a land of great tolerance, but it was not our home. The culture of our youth was being eroded and our traditions and beliefs were disintegrating into the Netherlands culture. It was then that we realized we needed an entirely new place where we could establish our lives and our culture. In 1617 our congregation member William Bradford suggested we move to this new land. There was much strife and argument, but eventually the congregation agreed. It was in accord with the government of England that we would be granted passage to the new world, and be granted the ability to live in peace, acceptance, and with abundant resources. In 1620, 102 members of the congregation boarded the Mayflower for this new continent. On November 20th after a challenging yet exciting sea voyage we first spotted land. The land we spotted was confirmed to be Cape Cod. While it was located within the New England territory that we had agreed and been recommended to land at, the waters and rocks made it difficult to adequately land. As a result the ship was navigated around toward the Hudson River, but only encountered further difficulties. Finally, we anchored near a large rock still in the New England region and departed our ship. While the ship was in transit the question of fair and adequate laws was raised in the new land. A handful of passengers had noted that when they arrived there would be no laws and could do as they please. In order to avoid these complications a compact was developed that outlined a number of rules for the good of the colony and it was voted on and accepted by the majority of the community; it became referred to as the Mayflower Compact. Upon landing we chose congregation member John Carver as the first governor of the new colony. Upon finally arriving on land we settled into our new arrangements. While it was a relief to finally have arrived at the destination, there were tremendous challenges awaiting ahead of us. The first concern was notably developing food and shelter, as it was not certain that we would have enough food to make us through the remaining months. Certainly our provisions were going fast and the need to develop a new form of subsistence was pressing. Members of our ship had made an expeditionary journey a few days prior and came across an abandoned native land at which they were able to procure a small amount of food. William Bradford wrote about this journey in his journal for the rest of the colonist to read, “They also found two of the Indians houses covered with mats, and some of their implements in them; but the people had run away and could not be seen. They also found more corn, and beans of various colours. These they brought away, intending to give them full satisfaction (repayment) when they should meet with any of them.” While they found a small amount of food it was hardly enough to get us very far on the new land. We spent the first few days unloading the ship and developing temporary structures that we could house our belongings and shelter us from the forces of weather that would surely be attacking us soon. These first few days were replete with great hope and joy and wonder at arriving in this new world. While I had on my mind the knowledge that there were great challenges ahead, they were lost in the overwhelming optimism of finally having landed and viewing and exploring this new and uncharted land for the first time; we would finally achieve the freedom and tolerance that had escaped us for so long in England and set humanity on a new course of faith and enlightenment. These first few days were perhaps the most exciting time of my life. It was not too long before our optimistic outlook would be shattered and replaced with a stark reality of the situation and challenges ahead. During one of the early nights as we sat around the campfire and told stories about the old world an acute sound of crying and shrieking was heard in the distance. Myself and a number of others quickly grabbed our rifles and set about the perimeter of our newly established encampment searching for what could be the cause of these sounds. This would be the first direct contact we would have with the native population, yet nothing was found. As we sat around the fire during the night proceeding we realized what the sounds were. A small band of natives emerged upon us and began attacking with bows and arrows. It was terrifying and only through the grace of our Lord were we able to fend them off and make way for safety. It was not known how the native population would react to our presence and by this encounter we realized it would not be as welcomed as hoped. It would not be for another few months before we would come into contact with the natives again. As the time progressed we had challenges developing farmland and shelter so everyone chose to stay on the ship for the first few months while a suitable living arrangement could be developed. We realized that winter was coming and it would be an incredible challenge to our existence, as our food supply was rapidly diminishing and we had not yet developed adequate farmlands. The weather here was much different than expected and a great degree more challenging than in Europe. The sleet and snow that was endured caused greatly increased the required time it took to build the shelters we so desperately needed. As time gradually went by and the winter was approaching we realized that we would face our most challenging period. The food supplies were all but drained and our clothing was not adequate to withstand the harshness of the New England climate. It was during this period that a number of deaths occurred. Tragically my own child died due to unknown health conditions. The lack of fruits and vegetables surely contributed to these conditions among the members of the colony. In all it was reported that eleven of the thirty-one children that had originally made it through the initial voyage died during this first winter. While these were tragic circumstances, the women of the colony did everything they could do to stave off the infections and diseases, many of them developing medicine from herbs. In all it wasn’t enough, and perhaps most tragically, fourteen of the eighteen women that had made it through the initial voyage died. The children whose parents died were taken in by outside families as servants. They were treated like a member of the family. There wasn’t a day that passed during this winter period that I didn’t curse my choice in traveling to this new land, and question the very purpose of the universe in forcing me from my native world of the East Midlands to such a barren world. Myself and the surviving members of the congregation would gather every evening and read passages from the Bible. We recalled the Book of Job and the tribulations that the Lord placed Job in on his path to salvation. Outwardly I showed grace and understanding of the Lord’s mission during this period, but inwardly I lambasted the higher power than would kill my child. It was perhaps at the most tragic time during our winter that we came into contact with an Indian named Squanto. He first emerged near our settlement and a few children. A week later he emerged again and made contact with a few individuals. Over the next few weeks we developed a trusting friendship with him and gradually began trading random goods and trinkets. Slowly Squanto introduced us to further members of the native population; they began showing us means of catching eel and growing corn that perhaps saved our very existence. We soon realized that one of the intentions of this native population was towards our guns. They communicated to us that there was a rival tribe they were in contention with and that they needed our help. We were not soldiers, but we needed to survive. On one fateful night we accompanied this Indian population into the night with our weapons in tow and ambushed the rival tribe. The raid went as the Indians hoped. Our relationship with them would blossom over the coming months and it was clear that without them we would have died. In celebration of our new bond we enjoyed a great feast of thanks in which corn and eel and maise, and a variety of crops that were gotten through the natives’ aid. While a challenging road await us, we would never suffer the rampant death due to insufficient health of that first winter. In the following years the colony would grow into this new world, and in part we would finally achieve that sense of freedom and salvation that had been so elusive in the old world. Bibliography Bradford, William. (2006). Of Plymouth Plantation. Dover Publications. Philbrick, Nathaniel. (2007). Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin. Stratton, Eugene. (1986). Plymouth Colony: Its History and People. Ancestry Publishing. Various. (2007). The Mayflower Papers: Selected Writings of Colonial New England. Penguin. Read More