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Miles Standish has been called the “Hero of New England”. Like many other heroes and great men, he was rather diminutive in person. Hubbard, the historian, has said of him, “A little chimney is soon fired: so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very small stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper.” He was born in Lancashire, England, about the year 1584. He was a soldier by profession, and was serving in the Netherlands when Mr. Robinson, with his Pilgrim flock, settled at Leyden. There he joined the Pilgrims, and came with them to America, in the Mayflower. When that vessel anchored in Cape Cod Bay, and it was thought expedient to explore the bleak shore to find a good landing-place, Standish was among the first to volunteer for the service. He was one of those who passed the first Christian Sabbath, after their arrival, in deep snow upon a barren island in Plymouth harbor; and he was the second man who stepped upon Plymouth Rock.
Miles Standish was very serviceable to the English when the Indians showed signs of hostility and they relied much upon his military skill and personal bravery. Wherever the duties of his profession called him, there he was always found. Two years after the establishment of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, he was called to protect a new colony at Wissagusset (later known as Weymouth), who had exasperated the Indians by begging and stealing. They had been sent over by a wealthy London merchant, and most of them were quite unfit for the business of founding a state.
The Indians resolved to destroy them, but through the agency of Massasoit, a firm friend of the English, the conspiracy was revealed to the Plymouth people in time for Captain Standish to march there with a small company and avert the attack. When he arrived, his anger was fiercely kindled by the insolence of Pecksuot, the chief, and his followers. Pecksuot sharpened his knife in the presence of Standish and said, “Though you are a great captain, you are but a little man; and though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage.”(Our Countrymen, p.14).
Standish had the wisdom to check his resentment, but the next day, when the chief and a great number of his followers were in a room with the white people, the captain gave a signal, and five of the savages were killed. Standish snatched Pecksuot’s knife from him and with it slew its owner. When Mr. Robinson (the original Pastor of the Pilgrims, and who remained in Holland) heard of this event, he wrote to the Church of Plymouth to refrain from following Captain Standish because of his bad temper.
After this, Captain Standish settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about 1631, and a place near where he resided is still called Captain’s Hill. During almost the whole time of his residence in the colony, he was an assistant magistrate. He died at his house in Duxbury in the year 1656.
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