THE PILGRIMS' FIRST YEAR IN NEW ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. LANDING AT CAPE COD. November, 1620. First sight of the coast. - Joy of the passengers. - Attempt to reach the Hudson. -The ship in peril. -Determination to land. - Come to anchor in the bay. -The bay and shore described. Guided by Providence. Mr. Everett's view. - Religious service on board. Great length of their voyage. - Unexpected delays. sea. A party go ashore. · -Place of first landing. with wood. The soil rich and well wooded.- First footsteps of the Pilgrims here.· Present appearance of the place. -A monument needed at Long Point. Provincetown and the hills. -De Storms at Boat returns lightful sea-view. How slow yon tiny vessel ploughs the main ! Amid the heaving billows now she seems A toiling atom, then from wave to wave Leaps madly, by the tempest lashed, -or reels, Half wrecked, through gulfs profound. -Moons wax and wane. (7) But still that lonely traveller treads the deep. I see an ice-bound coast, toward which she steers L. H. SIGOURNEY. Ar day-break, on Thursday the 9th of November, A. D. 1620, old style, the Pilgrims in the Mayflower first saw the shores of New England. They readily knew where they were; for the two mates of the ship had been on the coast before; and since the discovery of Cape Cod, by Captain Goswold, in 1602, many vessels had visited it to fish, and to trade with the Indians. The land first seen, was probably the extreme northern part of the Cape. These beaches and hills of moving sand, as the traveller now finds them, without a tree or scarcely a shrub, much comforted the Pilgrim voyagers. They describe the Cape as a "goodly land and wooded to the brink of the sea; "and add," it caused us to rejoice together and praise God that had given us again to see land." As it is the intention of the Pilgrims to settle near the mouth of the Hudson, they pursue their voyage" to the southward," hoping soon to reach a river, which they suppose to be "ten leagues" south. About noon, they fall among roaring shoals and breakers," which lie off the southern extremity of the Cape, between the main land and the Island of Nantucket. Finding themselves" in great hazard" and, toward night, "the wind being contrary," they "put round again for the Bay of Cape Cod ;" and on Saturday morning, November 11th, "ride in safety in Provincetown Harbor," as that beautiful bay is now called, from the town which skirts its crescent shore. The Pilgrims were much pleased with their place of anchorage. They call it a "good harbor and pleasant |