On the day that this Social Compact was signed, the Pilgrims set on shore a party of explorers, consisting of sixteen armed men, under the command of Captain Miles Standish, not far from the present site of Provincetown, at the end of Cape Cod. On Monday some of the women went ashore and inaugurated the New England "washing-day," while the men "refreshed themselves," as their journal says they had "great need" of both changes from the long confinement of shipboard. On Wednesday, Standish started out with his exploring party again, landing at "Long Point," and soon encountered the first savages, who fled at their approach. On the seventeenth of December a third exploring party of eighteen, including Standish, and William Bradford, afterwards for eighteen years governor of the colony, left the ship and soon came in sight of the Indians again. A day or two later they have a skirmish with them, one being slightly wounded. On Saturday, December 19, they explored "Clark's Island," and on the next day, they rested and engaged in social worship. On the twenty-first, being Monday, they sounded the harbor, and landed on the mainland, setting their feet on a large rock embedded in the sand just at the water's edge. This rock has become historic Viliam Bradford and is protected with care, a costly canopy of stone free opening of their patented and purchased territory as a place of refuge to all sorts of consciences, but designed it, as a man designs his house, as a place of peace, comfort and discipline, for those who are of one mind, and feeling, and interest." They are not to be condemned for inconsistency, therefore, in not tolerating those who differed from them. having been erected over it, as Alexis de Tocqueville says, "The feet of a few outcasts having pressed it for an instant, it becomes famous."* The next day the party returned to the vessel which was still anchored at the end of the Cape, and were greeted with joy by their fellow-pilgrims who feared that they had been lost. Bradford was saddened by the news that his wife had fallen overboard and been drowned the day after his departure. On Friday, December 25th, the Mayflower sailed for Plymouth harbor, and anchored inside of Clark's Island the next day. After long examination, it was determined to establish the town on the mainland, and by the fourth of January (1621) some of the women and children landed for the first time at Plymouth. Even after that the ship remained the home of most of the voyagers, who did not all disembark until the thirty-first of March, 1621. During the time that had elapsed since the arrival of the Mayflower, the deaths among the Pilgrims had averaged one every three days, and now of one hundred and two persons there remained scarcely one half. Forty-four died within four months, and seven more before the first year had ended. Still, their hearts were strong, and they saw the Mayflower leave them on her return voyage, on the fifth of April, without a desire to seek again their more comfortable homes. We have seen that at a very early period the settlers came in contact with the Indians, but friendly rela * In an elaborate article published in the Atlantic (Nov., 1881) Mr. S. H. Gay denies that the exploring party landed on the historic rock on Dec. 21, 1620, but this view is not supported by other investigators. |