Explorations in New England

The two ships sailed for America on the 6th of August. The Speedwell was soon reported to be too leaky to proceed, and both vessels went back to Dartmouth. She was repaired, and when again she was well out upon the Atlantic she was reported to be unseaworthy, and returned. It was believed that her captain and some of the company lost courage, and untruly reported her to be in a dangerous condition. She did not again sail for the Western world. The more courageous of her company joined those on the May-Flower, and on the 6th of September the latter sailed from Plymouth with forty-one men as settlers with their families, numbering in all one hundred-and-one souls. Among these were William Brewster and his numerous family, and William Bradford, of Scrooby; John Carver, a deacon in the Church at Leyden; young Edward Winslow and his bride, the richest couple of the flock; Miles Standish, a fiery little soldier, and his beautiful wife Rose; John Alden, the youngest of the Pilgrims, being only twenty-one years of age, and a favorite of Standish; John Allerton and Dr. Edward Fuller, all of whom were distinguished in the history of the colony.

After a boisterous voyage of sixty-three days, the May-Flower arrived off Cape Cod. Her destination was some "point near Hudson's River, but within the territory of the London Company" -- somewhere on the shores of New Jersey. Turning southward, the ship encountered "perilous shoals," perhaps those off Nantucket, when she was made to retrace her line, double the headland, and come to anchor in the bay inclosed by the long peninsula of Cape Cod sixty miles in length, in what is now the roadstead of Province-town. The weather was fine and the air was crisp, for it was early in November. To prevent anarchy when they should from a settlement, the following instrument was drawn up, and on a little table in the cabin of the May-Flower was signed by the entire company of forty-one adult masculine emigrants:

"In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are here underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience, In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the region of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620."

This was the first constitution of government ever signed by a whole people. More than a month passed after this act before the Pilgrims landed. Explorations of the coasts of the great Bay were made in search of a good place for a settlement. In a shallop and on foot the explorers wandered, often suffering much from the biting cold of winter, which came early with binding frost, and blinding, hindering snow. They saw few natives, and these were shy or hostile. They found some graves; some remains of human habitations; many deserted wigwams; some heaps of maize or Indian corn, and some tokens of civilized visitors here and there, when they touched the shores. They were assailed by a few savages who knew the English as kidnappers, for it was only a few years before that Hunt had carried away more than a score of their people. At length the explorers came to a snug harbor, and landed upon a rock on the site of Plymouth, almost due west across the water from where the May-Flower lay. It seemed a goodly place for a settlement, and they chose it as such. That landing took place on the 22d of December, 1620. It was an important event in the history of New England, and since the year 1767 its anniversary has been celebrated; and fragments of the rock--"Plymouth Rock," which has been called the "Blarney Stone of New England,"--are preserved on the spot with care.

The May-Flower was now immediately brought across and anchored in the harbor, when her precious cargo of human beings, men, women, and children--the seed of a nation--were landed. There had been an addition made to the number of the emigrants since the explorers departed, for the wife of William White had given birth to a boy, who was named Peregrine. The good ship that brought them safely across the stormy Atlantic was safely moored; and in grateful recollection of the hospitalities they had received at the port from which they had sailed from England, they named the spot Plymouth.