I just saw an article that stated surprise that when the Pilgrim Fathers landed in America they were met by indigenous Indians bearing gifts and were greeted in English…they landed in 1620, and Walter Raliegh had landed a while before [about 1585] so no doubt his sailors had communicated with the locals, i think the writers thought that the founding fathers actually found the continent…
i know Columbus never set foot on the USA but did trade all along the South American coast after first landing in the Cuban region…
I also remember reading that when Capt. Cook sailed round the southern shores of Australia he found a settlement of Vikings boiling Blubber down for oil…
i wonder how history is viewed in other countries?
there was a very interesting documentary about Cook last week. It’s during his voyages that they worked out how to ward off scurvy. Although it was somewhat accidental. He was keen to ensure his crew maintained a good diet and initially it was discovered that sauerkraut prevented scurvy. So he put this on the menu. Some crew were not impressed but he ordered violent punishment if they didn’t eat up their dinner. Someone on the ship then had a better idea. Restrict the sauerkraut to officers only so men see it as a luxury. Once that happened they were happy to eat this up. It’s one of the reasons they were able to get so far.
It’s hard to imagine the unchartered world they lived in.
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Yes Annie, they were true giants among men
this is what annoyed me about them calling the men who were lowered down to the Titanic as explorers, i feel it detracts from the great men in our past who were true explorers…
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This chap deserves a mention.
"… who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia "
Apparently not:
Plimoth Patuxet Museums | Who Were the Pilgrims?.
Arrival at Plymouth
Mayflower arrived in New England on November 11, 1620 after a voyage of 66 days. Although the Pilgrims had originally intended to settle near the Hudson River in New York, dangerous shoals and poor winds forced the ship to seek shelter at Cape Cod. Because it was so late in the year and travel around Cape Cod was proving difficult, the passengers decided not to sail further and to remain in New England. It was here, in Cape Cod Bay, that most of the adult men on the ship signed the document that we know as the Mayflower Compact. It laid the foundation for the community’s government.
A party of the most able men began exploring the area to find a suitable place to settle. After several weeks, the exploring party arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned Wampanoag community. The plentiful water supply, good harbor, cleared fields, and location on a hill made the area a favourable place for settlement.
Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620 and the colonists began building their town. While houses were being built, the group continued to live on the ship. Many of the colonists fell ill. They were probably suffering from scurvy and pneumonia caused by a lack of shelter in the cold, wet weather. Although the Pilgrims were not starving, their sea-diet was very high in salt, which weakened their bodies on the long journey and during that first winter. As many as two or three people died each day during their first two months on land. Only 52 people survived the first year in Plymouth. When Mayflower left Plymouth on April 5, 1621, she was sailed back to England by only half of her crew.
Building a Town & Relationships with Native People
Although they occasionally caught glimpses of Native People, it wasn’t until four months after their arrival that the colonists met and communicated with them. In March 1621, they made a treaty of mutual protection with the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader, Ousamequin (also known as Massasoit to the Pilgrims). The treaty had six points. Neither party would harm the other. If anything was stolen, it would be returned and the offending person returned to his own people for punishment. Both sides agreed to leave their weapons behind when meeting, and the two groups would serve as allies in times of war. Squanto, a Wampanoag man who had been taken captive by English sailors and lived for a time in London, came to live with the colonists and instructed them in growing Indian corn.
In the fall of 1621, the colonists marked their first harvest with a three-day celebration. Massasoit and 90 of his men joined the English for feasting and entertainment. In the 1800s this famous celebration became the basis for the story of the First Thanksgiving.
Over the next six years, more English colonists arrived and many of the people who had to stay behind in England or Holland when Mayflower left England were able to join their families. By 1627, Plymouth Colony was stable and comfortable. Harvests were good and families were growing. In 1627, about 160 people lived in Plymouth Colony.
More info here - the full story is far from simple:
The native inhabitants of the region around Plymouth Colony were the various groups of the Wampanoag people and other tribes, who had lived there for some 10,000 years before the Europeans arrived.
Ships from England had been fishing and trading in North America waters since the beginning of the 16th century. They would also bring Native Americans back to Europe – some as slaves – often to callously exhibit. Some were taught English so they could become interpreters in future. In 1614, six years before the Pilgrims arrived, 27 natives were seized by a man called Thomas Hunt.
The majority came from Patuxet, the very abandoned village the Pilgrims would later find, and what is now modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.
One of these was named Tisquantum (also known as Squanto). Hunt tried to sell the natives as slaves in Spain but somehow Tisquantum made his way to England, where he learned some English and was used as an interpreter in future trips to America. Eventually he found his way back to Patuxet, where tragically he found his family and village had been wiped out by disease brought by European settlers and explorers.
In the winter of 1616-17 an expedition dispatched by Sir Ferdinando Gorges found a region devastated by war and disease, the remaining people so “sore afflicted with the plague, for that the country was in a manner left void of inhabitants.” Two years later another Englishman found “ancient plantations” now completely empty with few inhabitants – and those that had survived were suffering.
The Pilgrims arrived, finally, in what is now Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, on 16th December 1620.
During March 1621, an English speaking member of the Wamponaog, named Samoset, entered the grounds of the Plymouth colony and introduced himself. He is said to have asked for a beer and spent the night talking with the settlers. Samoset, later, brought another member of his tribe – Tisquantum, whose experience meant his English was much advanced. He introduced them to the Wampanoag chief Ousamequin, chief of the Pokanoket people known as Massasoit, an important moment in developing relations.
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Thank you Omah, that reads more like the truth.
i believe there were other settlements Dutch and French also
i once met an American airman who was attending a local airshow in Doncaster, i had been attending a wedding of two friends a had a sway on, it was late on a saturday night, he asked "whats to do in this burg on a sunday…lol… so i asked if he had any interest or knowledge about his countries history, he said he was quite clued up on their history, so i asked him where did the Pilgrim Fathers journey begin… he of course said Plymouth. i told him they had met up in a village called Scrooby, just outside Doncaster, and in the church in that village was a replica of their ship the Mayflower … wow did he get excited… i dont know what time i got up Sunday, but i bet Sgt Murphy was up early…
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The Pilgrim Fathers weren’t even the first English “settlers” in North America:
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America.
The site was also not inhabited by the Native population.
By June 15, a fort was completed. The settlers were now protected against any attacks that might occur from the local Powhatan native people, whose hunting land they were living on. Relations had already been mixed between the newcomers and the Powhatan native people. On June 22, Captain Newport left for England to get more supplies for the new settlement.
Not long after Captain Newport left, the settlers began to succumb to a variety of diseases. They were drinking water from the salty or slimy river, which was one of several things that caused the death of many. The death tolls were high. They were dying from swellings, fluxes, fevers, by famine, and sometimes by wars. If not for the Powhatan native people’s help in the early years, the settlement would most likely have failed, as the English would have died from the various diseases or simply starved.
By late 1609, the relationship between the Powhatan native people and the English had soured as the English were demanding too much food during a drought. That winter of 1609-10 is known as the “Starving Time.” During that winter the English were afraid to leave the fort, due to a legitimate fear of being killed by the Powhatan native people. As a result they ate anything they could: various animals, leather from their shoes and belts, and sometimes fellow settlers who had already died. By early 1610 most of the settlers, 80-90% according to William Strachey, had died due to starvation and disease.
In May 1610, shipwrecked settlers who had been stranded in Bermuda finally arrived at Jamestown. By 1612, John Rolfe, one of many shipwrecked on Bermuda, helped turn the settlement into a profitable venture. He introduced a new strain of tobacco from seeds he brought from elsewhere. Tobacco became the long awaited cash crop for the Virginia Company, who wanted to make money off their investment in Jamestown. In 1619, the first documented Africans were forcibly captured and brought to Virginia to work the tobacco fields.
Peace between the Powhatan native people and the English, brought about by the conversion and marriage of Pocahontas (kidnapped by the English in 1613) and John Rolfe in 1614, ended in 1622. The Powhatan chief, Opechancanough, was tired of the English encroachment on Powhatan lands and planned a coordinated attack against English settlements. Jamestown escaped being attacked but 350-400 of the other 1,200 settlers were killed. Once the English regrouped they retaliated and there was fighting between the two peoples for ten years, until a tenuous peace was reached in 1632.
Not a “pretty” history … 
ETA Apologies for “banging on” but it’s a period of history that I find fascinating and, as you say, the journey of the Pilgrims began at Scrooby:
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Great post Omah. We used to visit a pub in Scrooby called ‘The Mayflower’ for Sunday lunch, but it changed hands and wasn’t as good.
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i started the thread because i think we all feel we know American history quite well [thanks to John Wayne ect] but there is so much that perhaps we werent told, much the same as our own history or even our own news, we get told what a certain group of people think we should know.
so thank OMAH, for filling spaces and correcting misinformation …
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