Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647

Weston's colony continues to struggle, which Bradford attributes to disorganization and lax morals. Some of the settlers there even begin to steal from local tribes, so relations between the settlers and the Native Americans deteriorate. A coalition of tribes colludes to plan an attack on both settlements, but Massasoit reveals the plans to the Pilgrims, who round up and kill some of the "chief conspirators" (74). In the end, the second settlement simply fizzles out since Weston never sends the supplies he promised them. Weston himself does come over, however, and encounters a series of misfortunes including a shipwreck and the theft of all his belongings. As a result, he has no choice but to seek help from the settlers at Plymouth, who take pity on him and give him beaver skins to take back to England: "Thus they helped him when all the world failed him…. […] But he requited them ill, proving himself a bitter enemy upon every opportunity, and never repaying them to this day—except in reproaches and calumnies" (75).

Since the Pilgrims realize they can no longer rely on Weston to send supplies, they decide to try to increase their crop yields by having each family plant and tend their own corn rather than farming a common area.