This article is about the Plymouth Colony and surviving their first winter from 1620-21. William Bradford the narrator tells us how difficult it is to survive and how 100 out of 150 people died within the first winter. One thing that interests me is that the contact between the Colony and the Indians does not seem threatening in fact it shows they're in alliance with each other:
1 That neither he nor any of his should injure or do hurt to any of their people.
2 That if any of his did any hurt to any of theirs, he should send the offender that they might punish
him.
3 That if anything were taken away from any of theirs, he should cause it to be restored, and they
should do the like to his.
4 If any did unjustly war against him, they would aide him; if any did war against them, he should aid
them.
5 He should send to his neighbors confederates [allies] to certify them of this, that they might not
wrong them, but might be likewise comprised [informed] in the conditions of peace.
6 That when their men came to them, they should leave their bows and arrows behind them.1
The Indians also show hospitality and show the Colony how to grow the crops as their crops are dying. It also interests me how the Indians learnt some English to communicate with the Colony which shows them willing to make a bond with the Colony.
It makes you wonder how this relationship and possibly many others break down and then the English eventually turn against them and cause genocide.
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