But these hardships and inconveniences of living which the New England colonists met and overcame differ but little from those experienced in every new settlement. They have been paralleled again and again wherever Englishmen or Americans have wandered. In a few years after the coming of the ships much of the rawness and discomfort must have disappeared, certainly in the early settlements, and comparative comfort must have existed in most homes. If we could now lift the roof of the average seventeenth-century house in New England it is certain that we should find disclosed not only comfortable conditions of living but in many instances a degree of luxury with fine furnishings that is appreciated by few at the present time.
Of the early days following the settlement Roger Clap, who lived at Dorchester, afterwards wrote as follows:
"It was not accounted a strange thing in those days to drink water, and to eat Samp or Homine without Butter or Milk. Indeed it would have been a strang thing to see a piece of Roast Beef, Mutton or Veal; though it was not long before there was Roast Goat. After the first Winter, we were very Healthy: though some of us had no great Store of Corn. The Indians did sometimes bring Corn, and Trade with us for Clothing and Knives; and once I had a Peck of Corn, or there abouts, for a little Puppy-Dog. Frostfish, Muscles and Clams were a Relief to Many."
When Governor Winthrop landed at Salem in June, 1630, he supped on a good venison pasty and good beer, while most of those who came with him went ashore on Cape Anne side (now Beverly) and gathered strawberries. That was a fine beginning, but when winter set in many of them were "forced to cut their bread thin for a long season" and then it was that they fully realized that "the Ditch betweene England and their now place of abode was so wide.... Those that were sent over servants, having itching desires for novelties, found a reddier way to make an end of their Master's provision, then they could finde means to get more; They that came over their own men had but little left to feed on, and most began to repent when their strong Beere and full cups ran as small as water in a large Land.... They made shift [however] to rub out the Winter's cold by the Fireside, having fuell enough growing at their very doores, turning down many a drop from the Bottell, and burning Tobacco with all the ease they could."[38]