104

Nov.

THE PILGRIMS AT CAPE COD.

CHAP. heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furiVIII. ous ocean, and delivered them from all perils and mis1620. eries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. And no marvel if they were thus joyful, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on the coast of his own Italy, as he affirms he had rather remain twenty years in his way by land, than pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious and dreadful was the same to him.'

But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amazed at these poor people's condition ; and so I think will the reader too, when he well considers the same. For having passed through many

ing, to her anchorage in Province-
town harbour; and there she lies
with all her treasures, not of silver
and gold, (for of these she has
none,) but of courage, of patience,
of zeal, of high spiritual daring.
So often as I dwell in imagination
on this scene; when I consider the
condition of the Mayflower, utterly
incapable as she was of living
through another gale; when I sur-
vey the terrible front presented by
our coast to the navigator, who,
unacquainted with its channels and
roadsteads, should approach it in
the stormy season, I dare not call
it a mere piece of good fortune,
that the general north and south
wall of the shore of New England
should be broken by this extraordi-
nary projection of the Cape, run-
ning out into the ocean a hundred
miles, as if on purpose to receive
and encircle the precious vessel.
As I now see her, freighted with
the destinies of a continent, barely
escaped from the perils of the deep,
approaching the shore precisely
where the broad sweep of this most
remarkable headland presents al-
most the only point at which for
hundreds of miles she could with

any ease have made a harbour, and this perhaps the very best on the seaboard, I feel my spirit raised above the sphere of mere natural agencies. I see the mountains of New England rising from their rocky thrones. They rush forward into the ocean, settling down as they advance; and there they range themselves a mighty bulwark around the heaven directed vessel. Yes, the everlasting God himself stretches out the arm of his mercy and his power in substantial manífestation, and gathers the meek company of his worshippers as in the hollow of his hand." Edward Everett's Address at the Cape Cod Centennial Celebration at Barnstable, Sept. 3, 1839, p. 45.

Seneca says, in his 53d Epistle, that he set out to sail only from Parthenope (Naples) to Puteoli, (Pozzuoli,) and to get thither the sooner, launched out into the deep in a direct course to Nesis, (Nisida,) without coasting along the shore. This beautiful letter, which is well worth reading, may be found in Thomas Morrell's translation of the Epistles, i. 184, (London, 1786, 2 vols. 4to.)

THE PILGRIMS AT CAPE COD.

105

VIII.

Nov.

xxviii. 2.

troubles, both before and upon the voyage, as aforesaid, CHAP. they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain and refresh them, no houses, much less towns, 1620. to repair unto to seek for succour. It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that "the barbarians showed them no small Acts kindness" in refreshing them. But these salvage barbarians, when they met with them, (as after will appear,) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows, than otherwise. And for the season, it was winter; and they that know the winters of that country, know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to violent storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search out unknown coasts. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men ? and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view

"The nearest plantation to them is a French one at Port Royal, who have another at Canada; and the only English ones are at Virginia, Bermudas, and Newfoundland; the nearest of these about five hundred miles off, and every one incapable of helping them." Prince, p. 180.

2 Grahame says, i. 191, that "the intense severity of their first winter in America painfully convinced the settlers that a more unfavorable season of the year could not have been selected for the plantation of their colony." But it was not the season which they selected. They sailed from England at a very proper and favorable time, in the beginning of August, and might reasonably expect to arrive on the American coast by the middle of September, in ample season to build

2

their houses and provide for the
winter. But being obliged to put
back twice, and then meeting with
head winds, and having a boisterous
passage of sixty-four days, they
lost two months, and arrived just

as the winter set in. The winter
was more severe than they had been
accustomed to, but it was unusually
mild for this country and climate.
Dudley says, in his Letter to the
Countess of Lincoln, written in
1631, that the Plymouth colonists
"were favored with a calm winter,
such as was never seen here since."
See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 37.
Wood, too, who was here in 1633,
and published his New England's
Prospect in 1639, says, p. 5, (ed.
1764,) that "the year of New Ply-
mouth men's arrival was no winter
in comparison."

106

VIII.

1620.

Nov.

THE PILGRIMS AT CAPE COD.

CHAP. from this wilderness a more goodly country1 to feed their hopes. For which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand for them to look upon with a weather-beaten face; and the whole country being full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and salvage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. If it be said they had a ship to succour them, it is true; but what heard they daily from the master and company but that with speed they should look out a place with their shallop, where they would be at some near distance; for the season was such as he would not stir from thence until a safe harbour was discovered by them, where they would be and he might go without danger; and that victuals consumed apace, but he must and would keep sufficient for himself and company for their return. Yea, it was muttered by some, that if they got not a place in time, they would turn them and their goods on shore, and leave them. Let it be also considered what weak hopes of supply and succour they left behind them, that might bear up their minds in this sad condition and trials they were under, and they could not but be very small. It is true, indeed, the affections and love of their brethren at Leyden were cordial and entire; but they had little power to help them, or themselves; and how the case stood

In the MS. the word is company, manifestly an error of the pen. Morton, copying the same

passage into his Memorial, p. 35, reads it country, as in the text.

THE PILGRIMS AT CAPE COD.

107

VIII.

Nov.

xxvi.

5,7.

cvii. 1, 2,

between them and the merchants at their coming CHAP. away, hath already been declared. What could now sustain them but the spirit of God and his grace 1620. May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say, "Our fathers were Englishmen, which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness. But they cried unto the Lord, and Deut. he heard their voice, and looked on their adversity." And let them therefore praise the Lord because he is alm good, and his mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been thus redeemed of the Lord show how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness and his wonderful works before the children of men.2

"Divers attempts had been made to settle this rough and northern country; first by the French, who would fain account it a part of Canada; and then by the English; and both from mere secular views. But such a train of crosses accompanied the designs of both these nations, that they seem to give it over as not worth the planting: till a pious people of England, not allowed to worship their Maker according to his institutions only, without the mixture of human ceremonies, are spirited to attempt the settlement, that they might enjoy a worship purely scriptural, and leave the same to their posterity." Prince, p. 98.

"Whether Britain would have had any colonies in America, if religion had not been the grand inducement, is doubtful. One hundred and twenty years had passed,

from the discovery of the northern
continent by the Cabots, without
any successful attempt. After re-
peated attempts had failed, it seems
less probable that any should under-
take in such an affair, than it would
have been if no attempt had been
made." Hutchinson's Mass. i. 3.

2 Milton, in his treatise on Refor
mation in England, written in 1641,
thus alludes to the persecution and
exile of our New England fathers.
"What numbers of faithful and
freeborn Englishmen and good
Christians, have been constrained
to forsake their dearest home, their
friends and kindred, whom nothing
but the wide ocean, and the savage
deserts of America, could hide and
shelter from the fury of the bishops.
O if we could but see the shape of
our dear mother England, as poets
are wont to give a personal form to
what they please, how would she

4, 5, 8.

108

CHAP.

Nov.

THE MAYFLOWER AT CAPE COD.

Of the troubles that befell them after their arrival, VIII. with sundry other particulars concerning their transact1620. ings with the merchant adventurers, and many other passages not so pertinent to this present discourse, I shall refer the reader to New England's Memorial, and unto Mr. Bradford's book, where they are at large penned to his plentiful satisfaction.1

appear, think ye, but in a mourning
weed, with ashes upon her head,
and tears abundantly flowing from
her eyes, to behold so many of her
children exposed at once, and thrust
from things of dearest necessity,
because their conscience could not
assent to things which the bishops
thought indifferent? Let the astrol-
oger be dismayed at the portentous
blaze of comets, and impressions
in the air, as foretelling troubles
and changes to states; I shall be-
lieve there cannot be a more ill-
boding sign to a nation, (God turn
the omen from us!) than when the
inhabitants, to avoid insufferable

grievances at home, are enforced by heaps to forsake their native country." Works, i. 37, (Symmons's ed.)

Here we take leave of Morton's copy of Gov. Bradford's History. As the rest of it is lost, except the few scattered passages preserved by Prince and Hutchinson, and as we have a Journal of " the troubles that befell them after their arrival," written at the time, and chiefly, as I conceive, by Gov. Bradford, and much more copious and minute than the account in Morton's Memorial, the narrative will proceed in the words of that Journal.