"A little chimney is soon fired: so was the Plymouth Captain, a man of very small stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper."
"The Hero of New England."
In
Lancashire,
England, in about
the Year of Our Lord 1584,
Miles Standish was born.
An
English soldier by profession, Miles was serving in the
Netherlands when
John Robinson and his
flock of
Pilgrims were driven to
Holland. Though he was probably not a Puritan himself, he joined with the wayward
Puritans and made the
arduous voyage to the
New World.
When the
Mayflower anchored in
Cape Cod Bay, it was thought best to explore the bleak shore in search of a landing place. Among those to volunteer to scout, Miles was one of the first. He and the rest of the party spent their first
Christian Sabbath in America in deep snow, on a barren island in
Plymouth Harbor. Also, he was the second white man to set foot on
Plymouth Rock.
Standish was very functional to the English when the
Indians proved to be
inhospitable. His nation relied much on his skills and bravery to protect the Plymouth colony. Wherever his duties called him, there he could be found. Two years after the establishment of
Plymouth by the Pilgrims, he was called upon to protect an
upstart colony by the name of
Wissagusset (later to be known as
Weymouth). This
colonial town had aggravated the native inhabitants by constant begging and stealing. The population of Wissagusset was primarily people sent from
London by a wealthy merchant, and were unfit for founding and forming a stable state.
Though the Indians had decided to destroy the colony, a friend of the English
empire,
Massasoit, spread word of
impending doom in time for Miles Standish and a small company to march to Wissagusset to avert the attack. After English forces reached their destination, Miles' temper was kindled by the disrespect of
Pecksuot, the chief of the angered tribe, during a
parley. During this, Pecksuot sharpened his knife in front of Standish and said to him:
"Though you are a great captain, you are but a little man; and though I be no sachem, I am a man of great strength and courage."
While Standish was at that time able
curb his
rage, such the case would not be the order of the following day. When the
tribal and colonial leaders were in a room with many of their men, Captain Standish gave a signal and five
natives were slain. Miles took the knife Pecksuot had been sharpening the previous day and
killed its owner. When
Mr. Robinson heard of this
atrocity, he wrote to the
Church of Plymouth, urging the people to forbear following the Captain because of his short fuse.
In 1631, after the ordeal, Miles Standish
settled Duxbury,
Massachusetts. During the years of 1644-49, he served as
treasurer of the colony, and held several posts during and afterward. For most of his residence in Duxbury, he also served as assistant
magistrate.
Captain Miles Standish merged with the
infinite in AD 1656, in his home in Duxbury. To this day, an area near his former residence is called
Captain's Hill.