Such Early Mention Is Found Of The Nets, "Seynes," Etc., Of Their Fishing
Equipment, As To Leave No Room For Doubt That Store Of Them Was Brought
In The Ship.
They seem to have been unfortunate in the size of their
fish-hooks, which are spoken of as "too large" even for cod.
They must,
as Goodwin remarks, "have been very large." Window also says, "We wanted
fit and strong seines and other netting."
They seem to have relied upon their muskets to some extent for wild fowl
(as witness Winslow's long and successful shot at a duck, on his visit to
Massasoit), as they undoubtedly did for deer, etc. They were apparently
fairly well supplied with them, of either the "matchlock" or "snaphance"
(flintlock) pattern, though the planters complained to the Merchant
Adventurers (in their letter of August 3, from Southampton), that they
were "wanting many muskets," etc. That they had some "fowling-pieces" is
shown by the fact that young Billington seems (according to Bradford) to
have "shot one off in his father's cabin" aboard ship in Cape Cod harbor,
and there are several other coeval mentions of them.
The arms and accoutrements (besides ordnance) of the MAY-FLOWER Pilgrims,
known on the authority of Bradford and Winslow to have been brought by
them, included muskets ("matchlocks"), "snaphances" (flintlocks), armor
("corslets," "cuirasses," "helmets," "bandoliers," etc.), swords,
"curtlaxes" (cutlasses), "daggers," powder, "mould-shot," "match"
(slow-match for guns), "flints," belts, "knapsacks," "drum," "trumpet,"
"manacles," "leg-irons," etc., etc. "Pistols" (brass) appear in early
inventories, but their absence in the early hand-to-hand encounter at
Wessagussett indicates that none were then available, or that they were
not trusted.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 251 of 340
Words from 70328 to 70606
of 94513
