The Mayflower

4.8

It was in 1620, in the time of King James I. English people did not like their king and they called him “The Foolish King of England”. Many of them even left England and went to live in other countries.

In September 1620 a small ship the Mayflower left England. There were about one hundred people aboard the ship, but even for this hundred the ship was too small. For seven long weeks the Mayflower sailed through the storms of the Atlantic Ocean, and at last the people saw land. It was North America.

It was raining and a cold wind was blowing. Sixteen men left the Mayflower and went ashore. In the evening they came back to the ship and brought some corn with them. They found the corn on the coast where the Indians had left it. Nobody in Europe had seen corn then, but when the people on board the Mayflower tried it they liked it very much.

Next day was Sunday and everybody on the Mayflower had a rest. On Monday some men went ashore again and this time they took some women with them. The women went to wash the clothes. Since that time Monday has been wash-day in America.

During the next five weeks the men from the Mayflower left the ship every day. Sometimes they did not come back for many days: they were walking along the coast and looking for a good place to live. The weather was very cold, more and more men fell ill but at last they found a good place. There was a good harbor. for ships there, some fields and forests near it and even a small river. The people began to build a village there.

By January 1621 there were already two streets in this village, and they called it “New Plymouth”. It was winter now. The people were tired and cold. They did not have enough to eat. More and more of them fell ill. There was a time when only seven men were quite well. Many people died. Sometimes two or three died in a day. When the houses were ready, the life of the people became easier; they had warm houses where they could live.

One day the people of the village suddenly saw a tall Indian who was walking along the street. They were frightened very much, but this Indian came up to them, smiled and said, “Hello, Yankee! Hello, Yankee!”

This Indian could speak English a little. He had learned the language from the sailors of a ship, which had come to this part of America a few years before. He called all Englishmen “Yankee” because he could not say the word “Englishman”.

A few days later this Indian came to the village again together with some other Indians. They came as friends and helped the white men very much. In spring the Indians showed the white men how to plant corn. But the white men forgot about this help very quickly; a few years later, when many people from Europe came to America, they began to take the land away from the Indians and to kill them.

All the Indians who came to the village of New Plymouth called the Englishmen “Yankee”, and since that time “Yankee” has been the name of a white man in America.

At last autumn came. The harvest was very good and the people of New Plymouth wanted to make a holiday dinner. They asked the Indians to this dinner, and the red men brought some wild turkeys as a present. The turkey was an American bird. Very few people in Europe had ever heard about it, but when they ate it at this dinner they liked it very much.

The people of New Plymouth called their holiday “Thanksgiving Day”. Since that time Thanksgiving Day has been a national holiday in the United States of America and since that day Americans always have turkeys for the Thanksgiving Day.