In today's encore excerpt - the discovery of America. Author Tony Horwitz muses on the discovery of America after hearing from a Plymouth Rock tour guide named Claire that the most common question from tourists was why the date etched on the rock was 1620 instead of 1492:

 

" 'People think Columbus dropped off the Pilgrims and sailed home.' Claire had to patiently explain that Columbus's landing and the Pilgrims' arrival occurred a thousand miles and 128 years apart. ...

 

"By the time the first English settled, other Europeans had already reached half of the forty-eight states that today make up the continental United States. One of the earliest arrivals was Giovanni da Verrazzano, who toured the Eastern Seaboard in 1524, almost a full century before the Pilgrims arrived. ... Even less remembered are the Portuguese pilots who steered Spanish ships along both coasts of the continent in the sixteenth century, probing upriver to Bangor Maine and all the way to Oregon. ... In 1542 Spanish conquistadors completed a reconnaissance of the continent's interior: scaling the Appalachians, rafting the Mississippi, peering down the Grand Canyon and galloping as far inland as central Kansas. ...

 

"The Spanish didn't just explore: they settled from the Rio Grande to the Atlantic. Upon founding St. Augustine, the first European city on U.S. soil, the Spanish gave thanks and dined with Indians - fifty-six years before the Pilgrim Thanksgiving at Plymouth. ... Plymouth, it turned out, wasn't even the first English colony in New England. That distinction belonged to Fort St. George in Popham, Maine. Nor were the Pilgrims the first to settle Massachusetts. In 1602 a band of English built a fort on the island of Cuttyhunk. They came not for religious freedom but to get rich from digging sassafras, a commodity prized in Europe as a cure for the clap. ...

 

"The Pilgrims and later the Americans who pushed west from the Atlantic didn't pioneer a virgin wilderness. They occupied a land long since transformed by European contact. ... Samoset, the first Indian the Pilgrims met at Plymouth, greeted the settlers in English. The first thing he asked for was beer."

Author: Tony Horwitz

Title: A Voyage Long and Strange

Publisher: Henry Holt

Date: Copyright 2008 by Tony Horwitz

Pages: 3-6

the most common question from tourists was why the date etched on the rock was 1620 instead of 1492:

 

" 'People think Columbus dropped off the Pilgrims and sailed home.' Claire had to patiently explain that Columbus's landing and the Pilgrims' arrival occurred a thousand miles and 128 years apart. ...

 

This should be surprising... But it really isn't.

There was a recent special on the Discovery channel about the history of beer, which was pretty interesting. The show mentioned that instead of water, the pilgrims brought barrels of beer on the journey due to the fact that it wouldnt be contaminated due to its alcohol. It was also believed that the reason the pilgrims stopped at Plymoth was because they ran out of beer.

pilgrams?

pilgrams?

 

Haha, I assumed the puritans, too, would not have beer on them. I rec' the wordy shipmates highly for stuff on this. It was really funny and also pretty interesting.

There was a recent special on the Discovery channel about the history of beer, which was pretty interesting. The show mentioned that instead of water, the pilgrims brought barrels of beer on the journey due to the fact that it wouldnt be contaminated due to its alcohol. It was also believed that the reason the pilgrims stopped at Plymoth was because they ran out of beer.

 

Was it How Beer Saved the World? If so, some of facts are...questionable.

Was it How Beer Saved the World? If so, some of facts are...questionable.

 

It was, and some of their "facts" didn't quite seem right

The history of Thanksgiving and just the relationship between settlers and Indians in general is pretty poorly taught.

It was, and some of their "facts" didn't quite seem right

 

To be fair, they did bring beer and it was because of water contamination which has a deep history in itself. The beer would have been "small beer" with about 3% or less abv. They drank a ton of it. Like a gallon per person per day. But that is not why they stopped. Its not like you get off a ship and restock beer anyway. They would have to brew it. Plus there would plenty of clean water on land. They didn't have enough food and people were very sick and the seas were not particularly calm.

 

The history channel had a great documentary called the Untold Story of the Mayflower which was excellent. Long but excellent.

Edited November 24, 201114 yr by G&T