In late October 1621, the 53 residents of Plymouth sat down to a festive meal, saying many prayers of thanks for their very survival. They were joined by scores of indigenous people to whom the colonists owed much for helping them through that first awful winter.
The winter in what would later become southeast Massachusetts had been deadly. Half of the original Mayflower passengers had died of illness and exposure during the voyage and in the first few months after the vessel’s arrival in mid-December.
The Mayflower Pilgrims had paid dearly for their small foothold in the New World.
