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Show SIMPLE RECORD OF FIRST THANKSGIVING When the Devout Pilgrims Showed Their Gratitude for Their Blessings. . "ytTIt harvest being gotten in. 5 B our Pvernor William Brad-, ford sent four men on fouling, foul-ing, so that we might after a more special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much foule as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a weeke. At which time, amongst other recreation, recrea-tion, we exercised' our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fine deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor and upon the captain Miles Standish and others." Such is the historic record of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth colony 291 years ago. Less than a year before the Mayflower, bearing its little band of 102 Pilgrims, anchored off the rock-bound rock-bound New England coast. Alone in the boundless wilderness of the New World the heroic Puritans struggled through the relentless winter, battling with snow and wind, savage foes, hunger, hun-ger, sickness, and death Itself. In three months their number was almost one-half of the entire company. But with the spring time life looked more kindly upon the exiles; summer smiled on their corn fields, and autumn brought abundant harvest. A few little dwellings had been built, and preparations prepa-rations had been made for others, making mak-ing a tiny oasis of homes on the desert of the New World. Then It was that Governor Bradford Issued his first proclamation, and the Pilgrims and their Indian guests partook of that first and now historic American feast. |