921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Sevent_ Generafion. 249
roic life for freedom,- to Miles Standish, who
was truly the soldier of the Pilgrims. Born
of a good family of Lancashire, he entered the
army, and served as an officer under the Earl
of Leicester in Holland. At Leyden he be-
came acquainted with the Rev. John Robinson
and his congregation, and cast in his lot with
theirs, J not, apparently, from religious convic-
tion, for he did not join the church, but rather
from the kind of daring and chivalry that al-
ways impelled him to join a forlorn hope, to
take the side of the weak and persecuted, to
delight in peril. He was thirty-six years old,
and held the rank of captain, when he joined
the little company of Pilgrims who landed at
Plymouth, in December, i62o. He at once
took a leading place in the history of the colo-
ny. Wherever there was special danger or
labor, there was Capt. Standish in the fore-
front : he led parties in the rough exploration
of an unknown coast for days before a land
ing-place was decided upon ; he fought the In-
dians when fighting was required; he baffled
them when that was needful; he traded with
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