The Landing of the Pilgrims: Sabbath and Mayflower

Getting on board, they sailed all day along the shore in a storm of snow and sleet, making, by their estimate, a distance of forty or fifty miles, without discovering a harbor. In the afternoon, the gale having increased, their rudder was disabled, and they had to steer with oars. At length the mast was carried away, and they drifted in the dark with a flood-tide. With difficulty they brought up under the lee of a "small rise of land." Here a part of the company, suffering from wet and cold, went on shore, though not without fear of hostile neighbors, and lighted a fire by which to pass the inclement night. In the morning "they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces, and rest themselves; and, this being the last day of the week, they prepared there to keep the Sabbath."

"On Monday they sounded the harbor, and found it fit for shipping, and marched also into the land, and found divers cornfields and little running brooks, a place, as they supposed, fit for situation; .. so they returned to their ship again with this news to the rest of their people, which did much to comfort their hearts." Such is the record of that event which has made the twenty-second of December a memorable day in the calendar. (A trustworthy tradition has preserved a knowledge of the landing place, naturally an object of interest both to the inhabitants and to strangers. It was PLYMOUTH ROCK. Part of it is now embedded in a wharf.. In 1775 the rock was broken into two pieces in an attempt to remove it to the town square. The large fragment which was separated was in 1834 placed before Pilgrim Hall and enclosed within an iron railing. The tradition does not appear to have unequivocally determined who it was that landed upon the rock, whether the exploring party of ten men who went ashore at Plymouth, December 11 (Old Style), or the whole company who came into Plymouth harbor in the Mayflower on Saturday, December 16, and who, or a part of whom, "went a land" two days after. The received opinion, that the same landing-place, as being the most convenient within sight, was used on both occasions, appears altogether probable.)

No time was now lost. By the end of the week the Mayflower had brought her company to keep their Sabbath by their future home. Further examination confirmed the agreeable impressions which had been received. There was found a convenient harbor, "compassed with a goodly land." The country was well wooded. It had clay, sand, and shells, for bricks, mortar, and pottery, and stone for wells and chimneys; the sea and beach promised abundance of fish and fowl, and "four or five small running brooks" brought a supply of "very sweet fresh water." After prayer for further divine guidance, they fixed upon a spot for the erection of their dwellings, in the neighborhood of a brook "and many delicate springs," and of a hill suitable for a lookout and a defence. A storm interrupted their proceeding. When it was past, "so many of them as could went on shore, felled and carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building." Then came Sunday, when "the people on shore heard a cry of some savages, as they thought, which caused an alarm and to stand on their guard, expecting an assault; but all was quiet." They were still without the shelter of a roof. At the sharp winter solstice of New England, there was but

"A screen of leafless branches

Between them and the blast."

But it was the Lord's hallowed time, and the work of building must wait. Next followed the day solemnized, in the ancient fanes of the continent they had left, with the most pompous ritual of what they esteemed a vain will-worship. And the reader pauses to ponder and analyze the feeling of stern exultation with which its record was made: "Monday, the 25th day, we went on shore, some to fell timber, some to saw, some to rive, and some to carry; so no man rested all that day."

The first operations were the beginning of a platform for the ordnance, and of a building, twenty feet square, for a storehouse and for common occupation. Nineteen plots for dwellings were laid out, on the opposite sides of a way running along the north side of the brook. The number of plots corresponded to that of the families into which the company was now divided; the appropriation was made by lot; and the size of each plot was such as to allow half a rod in breadth, and three rods in depth, for each person included in the family. It "was agreed that each man should build his own house." "The frost and foul weather hindered them much." "Seldom could they work half the week." Time was lost in going to and from the vessel, to which in the severe cold they were obliged often to repair for lodging. They were delayed in unloading for want of boats; and stone, mortar, and thatch were slowly provided.