SOURCE: “The Puritan Myth and the Indian in the Early American Novel,” in Pembroke Magazine, Vol. 7, 1976, pp. 237-44.

In the following essay, McCullough and Dodge examine the Puritans' belief in themselves as agents of God, and how this conviction helped justify their destruction of the “heathen” Native Americans. The authors also investigate the manner in which this belief system informed early American fiction.

William Bradford relates that on November 16, 1620, Miles Standish and fifteen other “well armed” Pilgrims left the Mayflower anchored off Cape Cod and set out to explore the new land. The next day they discovered a deserted Indian village and dug up a cache of corn, some of which they brought back to the Mayflower.

Following this, a larger expedition was sent out, and according to Bradford:

ther was also found 2 of their houses covered with matts, and sundrie of their implements in them, but the...