Part 3 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Courtesy of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution_

MODEL OF THE MAYFLOWER]

The weather was cold and tempestuous, and the pa.s.sage unexpectedly long.

Half way across the Atlantic the voyagers incurred the penalty of those early delays, which now left them still at sea in the bad season. Caught by the equinoctial gales, they were sadly buffeted about, driven hither and thither by boisterous winds, tossed like a toy on the face of great rolling, breaking billows, the decks swept, masts and timbers creaking, the rigging rattling in the hard northern blast. One of the violent seas which struck them, uns.h.i.+pped a large beam in the body of the vessel, but by strenuous labour it was got into position again, and the carpenters caulked the seams which the pitching had opened in the sides and deck. Once that st.u.r.dy colonist of later years, John Howland, venturing above the gratings, was washed overboard, but by a lucky chance he caught a coil of rope trailing over the bulwark in the sea, and was hauled back into the s.h.i.+p. A birth and a death at intervals were also events of the pa.s.sage. It was not until two whole months had been spent on the troubled ocean that glad cries at last welcomed the sight of land, and very soon after, on November 21, sixty-seven days out from Plymouth, the Mayflower rounded Cape Cod and dropped anchor in the placid waters of what came to be Provincetown Harbour.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Copyright, 1890, by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_

PLYMOUTH HARBOUR, AS SEEN FROM COLE'S HILL]

FOOTNOTES:

[3] New style, which is that adopted for the dates of sailing, and arrival and landing in North American.

IV

”INTO A WORLD UNKNOWN”--TRIALS AND TRIUMPH

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_

_From a Painting_

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS]

IV

”INTO A WORLD UNKNOWN”--TRIALS AND TRIUMPH

_The breaking waves dash'd high_ _On a stern and rock-bound coast;_ _And the woods, against a stormy sky,_ _Their giant branches toss'd._--MRS. HEMANS.

We can imagine with what wondering awe and mingled hopes and fears the Pilgrims looked out over the sea upon that strange New World, with its great stretch of wild, wooded coast and panorama of rock and dune and scrub, wintry bay and frowning head-land, to which destiny and the worn white wings of the Mayflower together had brought them. With thankful hearts for safe deliverance from the perils of the sea, mindful of the past and not despairing for the future, they turned trustfully and bravely to meet the dangers which they knew awaited them in the unknown wilderness ash.o.r.e.

The point reached by the voyagers was considerably north of the intended place of settlement, the vicinity of the Hudson River; but whether accidental or designed--and some evidence there certainly was which seemed to show that the master of the Mayflower had been bribed by the Dutch[4] to keep away from Manhattan, which they wanted for themselves--the variation was a happy one for the colonists, inasmuch as it saved them from the savages, who were warlike and numerous near the Hudson, while in this district they had been decimated and scattered by disease.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Copyright, 1906, by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_

_From a Painting_

THE MARCH OF MILES STANDISH]

Now the Pilgrims were a prudent as well as a pious and plucky people, and while yet upon the water they set about providing themselves with a system of civil government. Placed as they were by this time outside the pale of recognized authority, some fitting subst.i.tute for it must be established if order was to be maintained. The necessity for this was the more imperative as there were some on board--the hired labourers, probably--who were not, it was feared, ”well affected to peace and concord.” a.s.sembled in the cabin of the Mayflower, we accordingly have the leaders of the expedition, preparing that other historical incident of the pilgrimage. There they drew up the doc.u.ment forming a body politic and promising obedience to laws framed for the common good. This was the first American charter of self-government. It was subscribed by all the male emigrants on board, numbering forty-one. Under the const.i.tution adopted, John Carver was elected Governor for one year.

The Mayflower rode at anchor while three explorations were made to discover a suitable place of settlement, one of them on sh.o.r.e under Captain Miles Standish, and two by water in the s.h.i.+p's shallop, which had been stowed away in pieces 'tween decks on the voyage. On December 21st an inlet of the bay was sounded and p.r.o.nounced ”fit for s.h.i.+pping,”

and the explorers on going inland found ”divers cornfields and little running brooks,” and other promising sources of supply. They accordingly decided that this was a place ”fit for situation,” and on December 26th the Mayflower's pa.s.sengers, cramped and emaciated by long confinement on board, leaped joyfully ash.o.r.e. Appropriately the spot was named New Plymouth, after the last port of call in Old England.

The Pilgrims landed on a huge boulder of granite, the Pilgrim Stone, still reverently preserved by their descendants: a rock which was

to their feet as a doorstep Into a world unknown--the cornerstone of a nation![5]