ing similar religious views. The Puritans, as the name implies, tried to purify the English Church from what Calvin called "Popish dregs," such as making the sign of the cross, using the ring in the marriage service, and wearing the surplice. They were strict in the observance of moral, social, and religious duties, and held that creeds, ritualistic modes of worship, and the lordly pomp of bishops were opposed to the simple and equal spirit of Christianity. They were consequently persecuted by the civil authorities for their nonconformity to the views of the State Church.

In 1580 a number of the Puritans, known as Separatists, who believed in free preaching and a simpler form of worship, separated themselves from the congregations and held services in private houses. William Brewster was their ruling elder, and John Robinson, who had been suspended by the bishop, was their pastor. King James, who came to the throne in 1603, took the view that dissent would lead to disloyalty, and persecuted this reformed church.

After being continually harassed by the ecclesiastical authorities, the Separatists, with other dissenting churches, removed, in 1608, to Holland, where they found an asylum and religious toleration. They first settled in Amsterdam, and thence went to Leyden. "After residing several years in that city," says Holmes, "various causes influenced them to entertain serious thoughts of a removal to America. These causes were, the unhealthiness of the low country where they lived; the hard labors to which they were subjected; the dissipated manners of the Hollanders, especially their lax obseryance of the Lord's day; the apprehension of war at the conclusion of the truce between Spain and Holland, which was then near its close; the fear lest their young men would enter into the military and naval service; the tendency of their little community to become absorbed and lost in a foreign nation; the natural and pious desire of perpetuating a church, which they believed to be constituted after the simple and

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pure model of the primitive church of Christ; and a commendable zeal to propagate the gospel in the regions of the New World."י

The problem of getting across the Atlantic was a difficult one for a whole community, many of whom were poor. The Pilgrims sent their agents to England to see what could be done. A joint stock company was formed with about seventy London merchants, who agreed to provide the transportation. Hard terms were imposed on the colonists, which their circumstances compelled them to accept. The king signed a patent incorporating "the adventurers to the northern colony of Virginia," by which they were authorized to establish a plantation somewhere about Hudson's river.

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The Pilgrims came over from Leyden in July, 1620, to prepare for the dangerous voyage, and to take a last farewell of their native land. The parting scene at the beach in Holland is the subject of one of the great national paintings which hang in the Capitol at Washington. After a solemn service and many pathetic good-byes, they embarked from Southampton in two old-fashioned sailing ships, the "Mayflower," one hundred and eighty tons burden, and the "Speedwell," sixty tons. They were, unfortunately, obliged to return twice on account of the leakiness of the smaller vessel. At last, after many discouragements, on September 6, 1620, the "Mayflower" sailed alone with one hundred and one passengers, among them being Miles Standish and his wife Rose, Elder Brewster, Stephen Hopkins, Richard Warren, Gilbert Winslow, Jones, captain of the ship, John Alden, and Priscilla Mullens or Molines, all of whom are mentioned in our poem. Carver, Bradford, and Edward Winslow were also on board, each of whom became governor of the colony. It was a remarkable company, all with stout hearts and godly characters, and worthy to be the founders of a new nation beyond the sea.

After a stormy voyage, in the course of which their ship became leaky and at times unmanageable, they joyfully discovered land off Cape Cod. This was far northward of their destination, but owing to the advanced season of the year and the unseaworthy condition of the "Mayflower," and especially to the treachery of the captain, they dropped anchor in the harbor of Plymouth. After prayer and thanksgiving, a compact was signed by which the Pilgrims organized themselves into a body politic with Carver as first governor. On November 13th, says Bradford, "Our people went on shore to refresh themselves, and our women to wash, as they had great need." On the 15th Captain Standish and others were sent out in the shallop to fetch wood and seek a suitable spot for a settlement. On this expedition they brought back ten bushels of Indian corn.

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The feelings of these homeless wanderers are well expressed in the following letter, written by one of them from the cabin of the "Mayflower": "At last, praise be to God! we lie within sight of land, but what a land! Stern rocks with cruel waves forever dashing upon them, black forests sheltering who knows what fearful creatures and still more fearful savages; snow, ice, desolation, at every hand; no houses, no Christian people, no sign of the work of man. I had almost said no sign of the work of God. Such is our new home; and yet we have no choice but to accept it, for the captain says and swears that he will carry us no farther, and unless we settle where we will establish ourselves without more delay, he will put us ashore at the nearest point."

The final landing occurred on Thursday, December 21, 1620, on a high ground where some land had been cleared by the savages for planting corn, and a sweet brook ran under the hill-side. They selected an eminence, and erected a platform on which they planted their ordnance so as to command all the country about. This was Burial Hill, referred to in the poem, from which was an extensive prospect of Gurnet's Nose, the shore and ocean for miles around. The spot had been marked Plymouth on a chart of the coast made by Captain John Smith, and was the name of the port from which they had last sailed in England.

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Here the men erected a log-cabin "twenty feet square for their common use, to receive them and their goods." In a short time they had built three more houses for the use of the plantation and seven for individual families, which were arranged in two rows. Lots were measured off and assigned "for meersteads and garden-plots" to the nineteen families into which the hundred colonists had been grouped. They were fortunately not molested by the Indians, for a recent plague had swept away most of the natives of that region. Later, however, the settlers were frequently alarmed by the cries of the savages and the great forest fires kindled by them. The first visit from an Indian was that of the sagamore Samoset, who on March 16th walked boldly into the settlement calling out, "Welcome, Englishmen!" He was soon followed by Massasoit, the king of the neighboring tribe, who made a league of friendship with the whites which was kept inviolably for fifty years. In 1623 a formidable conspiracy against the English settlers was formed by the Massachusetts tribe, under the leadership of Wittuwamet and Pecksuot. It was promptly put down by Standish, both the chiefs being killed, and the former's head being set up on the fort. This

incident forms a part of Longfellow's plot.

The sufferings of the first winter (1620-21) failed to shake the resolution of the Pilgrims. Though frost and foul weather hindered them much in their building, it was providentially a very mild winter for that latitude,' otherwise the colony could hardly have survived. Half of the entire company died, "the greatest part," says Bradford, "in the depth of winter, wanting houses and other comforts, being infected with the scurvy and other diseases, which their long voyage and unaccommodate condition brought upon them." Dudley wrote home: "It may be said of us almost as of the Egyptians, that there is not a house where there is not one dead, and in some houses many." Wood tells us that this terrible mortality was due to their tainted sea-diet and lack of warm housing and bedding. Their sublime faith enabled them to support all these discouragements and disasters with extraordinary patience. Their manner of disposing of the dead alluded to in the poem is explained by this quotation from Dr. Holmes: "Tradition gives us an affecting picture of the infant colony during this critical and distressing period. The dead were buried on the bank, at a little distance from the rock where the fathers landed; and, lest the Indians should take advantage of the weak and wretched state of the English, the graves were levelled and sown for the purpose of concealment." "

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In spite of these accumulated hardships and appalling losses, the Pilgrims did not abandon their settlement. Strange to say, when the "Mayflower" set sail for England in April, not one took advantage of the chance to return home. Henceforth America was to be their home.

The Plymouth colony grew so slowly that by 1630 there were only three hundred persons in the community. Lack of