Document t4.

Hardship of the First American Settlers.

William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (1650-51)

Being thus passed the vast ocean… they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather beaten bodies: no houses or much less towns to repair to seek for succour. It is recorded in the Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them; but these savage barbarians when they met with them were readier to fill their sides of arrows than otherwise. And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country them to be sharp and violent, and sublect to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places much more to search an unknown coast. Besides what could they see bit a hideous and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weather beaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world… what could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace?

ESERCIZI.:

Focus on communicated:

a-      When the pilgrim fathers landed in America, they didn’t find friends to welcome them nor inns and houses.

b-      The natives they met were Barbarians unlike the inhabitants of Malta who were helped by the local people.

c-      Moreover, it was winter which is a sharp and violent season in America.

d-      Around them they could only see hideous and desolate wilderness.

e-      They felt hopeless because unlike Moses, they couldn’t clamp up Pisgan and get a view of this wildness a more godly country.

f-       The landscape in front of them was a wide and savage hue.

g-      The ocean behind them was as a main bar and gulf.

h-      They knew they were separated from all the civil pass of the world and only God could sustain them with his grace.