Page 21. She was the first to die of all who came in the Mayflower.

Of the

Rose Standish died January 29, 1621. one hundred and two passengers of the Mayflower, fifty-one died within a few months. Perhaps the captain was thinking of the dreadful mortality which befell the company after the exposure incident to the landing. Bradford's wife, Dorothy, fell overboard and was drowned early in December, when the exploring party, including her husband, was absent. The bill of mortality, as collected by Prince, from Bradford's pocketbook, shows that six died in December.

Page 21.

Green above her is growing the field of wheat we have sown there.

"The burials of that first winter were made on what was later known as Coale's Hill, identical with the present terrace above the rock." (Narrative and Critical History of America, iii. 273.) The tradition of the effacement of the marks of burial, lest the Indians should discover how the colony had been weakened, is preserved in Holmes's Annals. Grass, however, and not wheat, was the seed sown.

Page 23. Barriffe's Artillery Guide, and the Commentaries of Cæsar.

The inventory of Miles Standish's books may

be found in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. i. 54. The elaborate title of the military manual was: Militarie Discipline; or the Young Artillery Man, Wherein is Discoursed and Shown the Postures, both of Musket and Pike, the exactest way, &c., Together with the Exercise of the Foot in their Motions, with much variety: As also, diverse and sev eral Forms for the Imbatteling small or great Bodies demonstrated by the number of a single Company with their Reducements. Very necessary for all such as are Studious in the Art Military. Whereunto is also added the Postures and Beneficiall Use of the Halfe-Pike joyned with the Musket. With the way to draw up the Swedish Brigade. By Colonel WILLIAM BARRIFFE. Barriffe was a Puritan, and added to his title-page: "Psalmes 144: 1. Blessed be the Lord my Strength which teacheth my hands to warre and my fingers to fight." Arthur Golding was in the service of the Protector Somerset, and was a voluminous translator.

Page 24. Full of the name and the fame of the Puritan maiden Priscilla.

Among the names of the Mayflower company are those of "Mr. William Mullines and his wife, and 2 children, Joseph and Priscilla; and a servant, Robart Carter."

Page 29.

So he won the day, the battle of something-or-other.

The account of this battle may be found in Cæsar's Commentaries, Book II. chapter 10.

Page 31.

She is alone in the world; her father

and mother and brother

Died in the winter together.

"Mr. Molines, and his wife, his sone and his servant dyed the first winter. Only his daughter Priscilla survived." Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 452.

Page 42. So through the Plymouth woods Fohn Alden went on his errand.

The description of Alden's walk is circumstantial, but in point of fact, a sense of danger led the Pilgrims, at first, to reside in close contiguity with each other.

Page 44. Singing the hundredth Psalm, the grand old Puritan anthem.

The words in the version which Priscilla used sound somewhat rude to modern ears, but the music is substantially what we know as Old Hundred. Ainsworth became a Brownist in 1590, suffered persecution, and found refuge in Holland, where he published learned translations and commentaries. His version of Psalm C. is as follows:

AINSWORTH'S PSALM-Book.

PSALME 100.

SEJUT

How to Iehovah, all the earth. 2.

Serve ye Iehovah with gladnes: before

him come with finging-m rth. Know

that Iehovah he God:

1. Shout to Jehovah all the earth.

2. Serve ye Jehovah with gladness; before him come with singing-mirth.

3. Know that Jehovah he God is. It's he that made us and not we, his flock and sheep of his feeding.

4. Oh, with confession enter ye his gates, his courtyard with praising.

him, bless ye his name.

Confess to

5. Because Jehovah he good is; his mercy ever is the same, and his faith unto all ages.

Page 45.

Seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool like a snow-drift.

Mr. Longfellow received a number of letters questioning his description of Priscilla's wheel, upon the ground that while she was spinning wool, the motions and apparatus were applicable only to flax. He examined the question carefully, especially with the aid of his friend Mr. Charles Folsom, and as a considerable number of authorities

WOOL SPINNING-WHEEL.

made it appear that wool was spun upon the small treadle-wheel in Germany and the Low

FLAX SPINNING-WHEEL.

Countries, the lines were

suffered to remain as they stood. Mr. Folsom suggested to the poet the following revision:

Piled at her knee, her left hand feeding the ravenous spindle, While with her right hand she sped and stayed the wheel in its motion.

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