ze and other grain were sown in the fields that had been richly
manured with fish, to ensure an abundant crop;[*] and the laborers
returned in a body to the village, led by their venerable and respected
President; but no sooner had Carver re-entered his dwelling than he
swooned away and never recovered his consciousness. In a few days he
breathed his last, to the unutterable grief of his widow, and the deep
regret of all the settlers, whose love and confidence he had won during
his brief government, by his clear-sighted wisdom and his universal
kindness.

[Footnote: It was the custom of the Indians to manure their fields with
_shads_ or _allezes,_ a small fish that comes up the rivers in vast
numbers at the spawning season. About a thousand fish were used for
every acre of land; and a single alleze was usually put into every
corn-hill, when they buried their grain for winter consumption;
probably as a charm to keep off the evil demons and hostile wandering
spirits.]

As his funeral procession wound up the hill, tears might be seen on the
cheek of many a sturdy Pilgrim; and sobs and lamentations broke forth
from the women and children. After his remains were laid in their
resting-place, a fervent prayer was offered up by Brewster (whose age
and character caused him to be regarded as the pastor of the colony,
although he had never been called to the ministry after the custom of
the Puritans); and then a hymn was sung by the united voices of the
whole congregation.

When this simple ceremony was over, and the grave of the departed
President was closed, and laid level with the surrounding ground--in
order to conceal it from the prowling Indians--the assembly repaired to
the fort, or store-house, that stood on the summit of the hill, and
which also served the purpose of a meeting-house or chapel. Its rude
end unadorned simplicity suited, the peculiar ideas of the Puritans,
who, in their zeal to escape from the elaborate ornaments and pompous
ceremonial employed by the Papists, had rushed into the opposite
extreme, and desired that both their place of worship, and their mode
of performing it, should be divested of every external decoration and
every prescribed form. The more their place of meeting for prayer
resembled an ordinary habitation, the better they considered it suited
to the sacred purpose; and they were, therefore, perfectly satisfied to
possess no other church than the rude fort, built of logs and posts,
and u