Les 4e LCE se mettent dans la peau d’un PILGRIM et écrivent à leurs familles en Europe

September 6th, in the year of our Lord 1620

Jeremiah, dear beloved brother,

I hope you don’t think I abandoned you. I just could not fathom staying in the country because of this King. First I have been chosen by the captain of the Mayflower (it is the boat I boarded), to write in our log. I shall copy each entry in this letter during the crossing. That is all for today as I have a lot of work to do up on deck.

September 13th

It has been a week since we left, we are in the Netherlands ! But they all speak Dutch there. I reckon no one thought of that. All the kids start to pick up on their language and spoke Dutch. Sweet Lord Jesus ! We can’t stay here, we must travel somewhere else. Why not in the new world ? We shall set sail to Jamestown today !

September 27th

Sorry I didn’t write a lot during these two weeks. A godly woman passed away. Praise the Good Lord. This voyage is so very horrendous. We are all seasick and we don’t have much food. Small ale is started to lack. How are we going to fare ? I do wonder.

October 1st

A baby is born today ! The Lord speaks into mysterious ways does he not ? The baby is called Jack after his father ! We fested all afternoon. We danced with music and we share what little food what we had left. We are all merry, it gives us hope.

October 13th

I couldn’t write because a treacherous storm led us astray. We still hope we can join Jamestown but the captain say it would be too dangerous. A man fell overboard. May god be with him.

November 11th

We have arrived ! But not in Jamestown… And we don’t have any food, so today we will go scouting… Pray for me Jeremiah !

November 20th

This week the men found a little food but would not say where. We started to build a new village we called « Plymouth » as we did not know better. After all, that’s where we all came from. But oh Jeremiah, there are so many savages around here! Our governor wants to make an alliance with them. We don’t make alliance with animals, do we ! I am agaisnt it, but I know I would not be heard. I am nobody !

I do hope this letter gets to you. I gave it to a fine fellow who is sailing back with the Mayflower.

How is the family doing ? How is mother doing ? I do hope you do not think I abandonned you.

Farewell my dear brother.

Arthur Morgan from Plymouth in the « New World »

Dear beloved Douglas, 

I am writing to let you know about my trials and tribulations. Thank Heavens I am safe ! 
First, we are not in Holland with Mary and William. I know we were supposed to be in Holland but too many of our children started to Dutch. Can you imagine ? Our dear old English language butchered so ? Life there what not what we expected.

So we left Holland for the New World. In 1620, Mary, William and I found a boat in Amsterdam’s dockyard. The boat was the Mayflower. Quite a fine name. Onboard, there weren’t any bunkbeds, because it was a cargo boat. We had to sleep on pallets on the ground. I started to havd seond thoughs. Wad Holland that bad ? I reckon it was not. For sixty six days and sixty six nights, we shared this ridiculously tiny space with our fellow travellers, in extreme conditions… but God was with us. He speaks in mysterious ways, does he not ? 

There wasn’t any food, we suffered from scorbut and we hadn’t any water. There was only beer and small ale. After sixty-six days, a teacherous storm, broke out in the sky. The smartest of us decided to write The Mayflowers Compact. Indeed, we wanted to go to James Town but because of the storm, we landed North near Cape Cod. God wanted us to go there, I reckon. Rumour has it Jamestown was a dreadful place with no Governor. So we elected John Carver as our Governor. Fine fellow, but I wish it had been William Bradford.

Indeed, William took my self and other men, on land. We were scared because there were Savages. We had heard dreadful stories. Once on the beach, we found seafood and fresh still water. What a relief ! Sweet Jesus how good it felt. We enjoyed our first expedition. We finally ate real food.

The morning after, women came along and were allowed on the beach. They were anxious to  clean off. A few days later, we were short on food. Starvation was looming.

We decided to explore the forest in the front of the shore. In the forest, we wanted to search a nice clearing to set up our future camp. We stumbled upon a deserted camp where there were savages tombs. We found some corn and some dry meat. Thank god ! We knew it was not respectful and William tried to warn us should the savages come after us, but to no avail.

Suddenly, the savages who were lurkinbg in the bushes attacked us with bows and arrows. Arrows were flying everywhere with a piercing sound. We ran to the barge with all our might. Fortunately, nobody died.

We eventually found a perfect location and began to build our village. We prepared to defend ourself agaisnt the savages. Oh, but Douglas, it was such a harsh winter, and the building of our houses was so long. It was so very hard.

One day, the savages came in peace. I reckon they knew about our guns and were not ready to attack us. It was a blessing, as we had finished our food reserves. Jonh Carver signed a pact with the tribe whose name was the Wampanoag because we were starving. Their Chief is called Massassoit. He agreed to send Squanto who helped us grow crops. Thank Heavens !
He helped us to plant vegetales and corn. We could finally eat well and were thriving.

Lots of people had died Douglas. We organized so many funerals at our brand new church. Thank God Mary, William and I are doing well.

Today we invited Massassoit and the rest of the tribe to celebrate our Harvest Festival and to feast with us. Plenty of food on the tables ! What a sight ! Venison, wildfowl, seafood, corn, beans and squash, nuts and fruits, root vegetables and herbs…

I hope you are in good health. How are mother and father doing ?

I do miss you so. I shall write again when it is safe to join us. 
Your brother, Robert.

Sweet Katherine,

I am writing this letter to let you know my journey overseas. I know you don’t understand my motives and we argued a lot. But King James is not pure enough. I could not be true to my conscience and my faith. I had to leave and worship in peace. One day you will understand. May God be with you Katherine.

After I left Plymouth, on September 6th we left the Netherlands and sailed to Jamestown.

It has been such an ordeal ! But God has not forsaken me. The crossing was ghasthy because in fact, the living conditions were dreadful, it was crowded below deck. Everyone was seasick, plus we lacked food and water.

Praise the Lord, he is among us. We had fish nets to feed ourselves. 66 days later, we thought we had reached Jamestown but due to this treacherous storm, we arrived in an unknown land we eventualmly called Plymouth. God speaks in mysterious ways, does he not ? 

Upon arrival, 3 fellow travellers died including my good friend Henry and people started to get sick, probably due to the cold winter. We scouted the area and tried to find water and anything for sustenace. But to no avail…

One day, we finally found corn we stole from Savages tombs. What would the Lord think ? Or did he leave theme on our trail with a purpose ?

Sweet Kat, oh those Savages are glasty people who run and kill to save their life. The stories are true ! These sauvages are insane. They cannot be creatures of our God. They are filthy, and wear strange clothes when they are not wandering around plain naked. What a dreadul sight !

With our Governor John Carver and his right hand man William Bradford, we started to make our camp and build houses to protect ourselves from these sauvages. Some skilled men are building our Church. Sweet Lord Jesus, we have some men who are gifted to build houses and make our « new Plymouth » village look fine !

One day, as we were chopping wood and building our Church, the Savages came to Plymouth to ask for an alliance. They needed help against the Narrangasett, their rival tribe. We agree fearfully. God speaks in mysterious ways ! Never in my life would I have dreamt anything like it. Massassoit who is the king of their tribe shook hands with William.

A weird looking fellow called Squanto was sent to  help survive in this horrendous land. He taught us to plant corn.

I hope you are doing fine Katherine. In fact, how is my sister’s baby doing ? Is it boy or girl ? Are you still persecuted by King James’s men ? Did you managed to eradicate the pestilence at home ? Is my cat, Whitefoot behaving ?

I hope I shall see you soon,

Your beloved friend, Mary

Dear beloved parents,

I finally found the strength to write this letter, hoping that you are well, but also to tell you about the ordeals we experienced with Jonah. It was ghastly… some did not survive the voyage. God speaks in mysterious ways.

We had abominable conditions bellow deck, people smelled bad, people cried and got sick from seasickness. I reckon nobody had sealegs. Mind you, I got so seasick myself ! Fortunately, most of us survived but two did not. Although a baby was born.  

We had decided to settle in Virginia in Jamestown, but a terrible storm hit us, our boat titled in all directions because of the wind, which made us sail up north ; we landed on Cap Cod in Massachusetts. What a relief ! Land in sight, fianly. 

After we left England, I think you remember our problem with our religion, we settled in the Netherlands where we found refuge, we were sure we would have peace and our problem was solved, yet the children started to speak German, it was a disaster. But here in Plymouth, a lot of our problems were solved, we learned to cultivate the land, we had routines and we could worship as we wanted, whitout restrictions. We even elected a governor among us, John Carver his name was.

Our second Governor William Bradford, lost his wife who threw herself into the freezing waters and drowned, he was really sad after that. He was not the same. I wonder now if he agreed to lead us, to take his mind off mourning. 

After that, a group of men scouted the shore, Jonah and the other men let us ladies off the boat to completely wash ourselves of all the filth on our bodies after these weeks bellow deck. We were so very happy let me tell you ! The unpleasant smell bellow deck was horrendous.

We considered ousrelves very lucky to have survived because winter was fast approaching, and we were really not prepared for the cold. The men stole food from the savages camp, we knew it was wrong, but the Lord would not let us starve top death. Fortunately, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe, Massasoit, did not kill us, instead he sent us an Indian called Squanto who spoke English. He showed us how to cultivate the land and he translated our words when we spoke so the Indians understood us.

To thank God for putting us on the path of the Indians we invited them to have a big meal for our harvest festival. We really enjoyed this meal. So much food ! 

Jonah and I hope everything goes well with you, hoping to see you again soon.
Your loving daughter, Katherine.

Dear Mary,

I am so sorry to have left the country without you. I hope our children are faring well. I hope you are not persecuted by King James. I am so anxious to welcome you here ; I shall write as soon as it is safe enough. Bless your heart.

Now I am going to tell you about my crossing. It was ghastly ! We were 102 passengers in the ship’s cellar and we were malnourished because we didn’t have much food and because of this we became sick. One young woman died and I am very sorry for her. Thanks to God, we were saved! A child was born, it was incredible and he lived! The Lord speaks in mysterious ways… I had had enough of the ship but one afternoon we saw land, I was so excited.

When we arrived, 30 men went to find a place to sleep and when they came back, there were only 22 men because they were attacked by savages. The next day, we went to explore again and this time we found a place to build a village. We went back to the ship. The next time we left the ship, the rest of the passengers came with us to go to the place where we wanted to build the village. We started to build a village but we were starving, we had no food, the earth was hard and nothing grew. The Indians were our neighbors.

One day an English speaker Indian came to the village and proposed a deal. The deal was, you help us fight another tribe and we teach you how to plant corn and how to hunt the turkeys that lived in the woods. We said no because the men wanted to make the Indians believe that we weren’t weak.

Winter came. It was a disaster, 30 passengers died. The English speaker Indian came back with the same deal and this time we accepted, his name was Squanto. We protected the Indian tribe.

Spring came and Squanto taught us how to survive on these hostile lands. We planted corn and we hunted turkeys.

Autumn came, we decided to invite the Indians for a big meal to thank them. It was incredible because there was a lot of food and everyone was joyful. The Indians were very funny.

I hope you are well and that you enjoyed this letter !