brethren they were contented to submit. And thus, like Gideon's army, this small number was divided, as if the Lord, by this work of his providence, thought these few too many for the great work he had to do."1 gers in the 2 The colonists,-men, women, and children,—who were now embarked on board the Mayflower, were a hundred Origin of and two in number. Concerning very few of some passen- them is it known to this day from what English Mayflower. homes they came. Bradford and Brewster alone are ascertained to have been members of the Scrooby congregation. During its residence in Leyden, that company had received numerous accessions of Englishmen, who had either passed over for the purpose of attaching themselves to it, or who, being in Holland for other purposes, had come within its attraction. Winslow, who was superior in condition to all or most of his companions,3 is believed to have become acquainted with Robinson while on his travels in Holland; and at twenty-two years of age he joined the society, three years before the emigration.* The "cautionary towns" of the Netherlands had been garrisoned by British regiments for thirty years, and Miles 1 Bradford, 69, 70.-Among those who now withdrew "out of some discontent" were "Mr. Cushman and his family, whose heart and courage was gone from them before." Martin was 66 'governor in the bigger ship," and Cushman, who was his "assistant," was displeased with his administration. (Letter of Cushman, in Bradford, 72.) Bradford, while he found some of Cushman's conduct to "discover some infirmities, as who under temptation is free?" fails not to record that "he continued to be a special instrument for their good," and "a loving friend and faithful brother unto them." 2 Of surnames borne by passengers in the Mayflower, Mr. George Sumner, who, in 1851, made diligent investiga tions in and about Bawtry, found Priest and Soule respectively within three and six miles of it, and Tinker and Lister in the town. The name Lister was on costly tombs. But Edward Lister, or Litster, who came in the Mayflower, was Mr. Hopkins's servant. 3 "A gentleman of the best family of any of the Plymouth planters." (Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts, I. 172.) "Of a very reputable family." (Ibid., II. 408.) 4 "I living three years under his ministry, before we began the work of plantation in New England." (Briefe Narration, 93.) Winslow was born at Droitwich, in Worcestershire, October 19, 1595. (Young, Pilgrims, 274.) Standish had probably been employed on this service. He was not a member of the Leyden church, nor subsequently of that of Plymouth, but appears to have been induced to join the emigrants by personal good-will or by love of adventure, while to them his military knowledge and habits rendered his companionship of great value.1 In determining the question as to which portion of the congregation should first emigrate, it was arranged for "the youngest and strongest part to go."2 The youngest and strongest would generally be those who had joined the society most recently, while they who were excused from the first enterprise by reason of their being advanced in years would, on the whole, be the same persons whose more ancient relations to Robinson in England would be a reason for their desiring, and being allowed, to decline a separation from him. The Leyden church had received members of Dutch and French birth, and, among the company in the Mayflower, Margeson was probably a Hollander.3 Warren, Hopkins, Billington, Dotey, and Lister appear to have joined the expedition in England. 1 Standish gave the name of Duxbury to the town which he began on the north side of Plymouth harbor, and an English family of the name of Standish has its ancestral seat at Duxbury Hall in Lancashire; from which coincidence it has been inferred, with much probability, that Miles Standish was of that race. (Young, Pilgrims, 125.) Morton (Memorial, 162) says: "He was a gentleman born in Lancashire, and was heir apparent unto a great estate of lands and livings." By his will, Standish devised to "his son and heir apparent" certain lands given, he says, "to me as right heir by lawful descent, but surreptitiously detained from me, my great-grandfather being a second or younger brother from the house of Standish of Standish.". Some fifteen or twenty years ago, Mr. Frank Hall Standish, "of Duxbury Hall," bequeathed a collection of pictures and engravings to King Louis-Philippe. 2 Briefe Narration, 90. 3 "Divers of their members [members of the Dutch churches] . . betook themselves to the communion of our church, went with us to New England, as Godbert Godbertson, &c. ..... One Samuel Terry was received from the French church there into communion with us. . . . . . There is also one Philip Delanoy, born of French parents, came to us from Leyden to New Plymouth." (Ibid., 95, 96.) Delanoy, since called Delano, came in the Fortune, in 1621; Godbertson, or Cuthbertson, in the Ann, in 1623. Martin came from Billerica, in Essex, from which county came several others, as also from London and other places, to go with them." Alden was of Southampton. Amsterdam probably made some contribution to the company. "Many of you," wrote Robinson to them while at Southampton, "are strangers, as to the persons, so to the infirmities, one of another, and so stand in need of more watchfulness this way."4 Little is recorded of the incidents of the voyage. The first part was favorably made. As the wanderers approached the American continent, they encountered storms which their overburdened vessel was scarcely able to sustain. Their destination was to a point near Hudson River, yet within the territory of the London Company, by which their patent had been granted. This description corresponds to no other country than the seacoast of the State of New Jersey. At early dawn of the sixty-fourth day of their voyage, they came in sight Nov. 9. of the white sand-banks of Cape Cod. In pursuance of their original purpose, they veered to the south, but, by the middle of the day, they found themselves "among perilous shoals and breakers," which caused them to retrace their course. An opinion afterwards prevailed, on questionable grounds, that they had been purposely led astray by the master of the vessel, induced by a bribe from the Dutch, who were averse to having them near 6 1 "There was one chosen in England to be joined" with Carver and Cushman. "His name was Mr. Martin. He came from Billerica," &c. (Bradford, 56.) 2 "John Alden was hired for a cooper, at Southampton, where the ship victualled, and, being a hopeful young man, was much desired, but left to his own liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed and married here" (Bradford, 449.) Tradition reports that he was the successful rival of Captain Standish with Priscilla Mullins, having been rashly sent by the Captain to that lady on the errand of Viola in "Twelfth Night." 3 Cushman, in Bradford, 53, 57. 4 Ibid., 66. 5 "To find some place about the Hudson's River for their habitations." (Ibid., 77.) 6 The "perilous shoals" were perhaps those of the island of Monomoy, near Chatham; perhaps Nantucket Shoals. the mouth of the Hudson,1 which Dutch vessels had begun to visit for trade. 1 "Their putting into this place was partly by reason of a storm, by which they were forced in, but more especially by the fraudulency and contrivance of Mr. Jones, the master of the ship, for their intention, as before noted, and his engagement, was to Hudson's River. But some of the Dutch, having notice of their intentions, and having thoughts about the same time of erecting a plantation there likewise, they fraudulently hired the said Jones by delay while they were in England, and now under pretence of the danger of the shoals, &c., to disappoint them in their going thither. .. Of this plot betwixt the Dutch and Mr. Jones, I have had late and certain intelligence." So, in 1669, wrote the honest but not over-cautious Nathaniel Morton (Memorial, p. 34), who has often been quoted since. But there is no contemporary statement to this effect, and, had the story been early received, it would seem that Morton, who was Bradford's nephew, would not have needed to have "late" intelligence of it. On the other hand, it seems singular that, when the coast had been so long known, the captain, who, if he had not before been upon it, was accompanied by persons who had been (Clark, his mate, and Coppin, if no others), should have unintentionally gone so far out of his way. And it may be, as has been surmised, that Morton had his "late" intelligence from Thomas Willett, who was in the way of good information. Four years before Morton published his book, New Amsterdam was taken by the English, and Willett was made its first Mayor, its name being then changed to New York. In the expedition, he had a command in the force raised by Plymouth, where he had been many years a magistrate, and whither he returned about the time of Morton's publication. He is first spoken of by Bradford (260) as "an honest young man, that came from Leyden," where also he might have heard the story. But, as it stands, it certainly does not rest upon sufficient evidence to entitle it to full credit. The Mayflower at Cape Cod. 1620. Nov. 11. CHAPTER V. THE narrow peninsula, sixty miles long, which terminates in Cape Cod, projects eastwardly from the mainland of Massachusetts, in shape resembling the human arm bent rectangularly at the elbow and again at the wrist. In the basin enclosed landward by the extreme point of this projection, in the roadstead of what is now Provincetown, the Mayflower dropped her anchor at noon on a Saturday near the close of autumn. The exigencies of a position so singular demanded an organization adequate to the preservation of order and of the common safety, and the following instrument was prepared and signed: ' 1 "This day, before we came to harbor, observing some not well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appearance of faction, it was thought good there should be an association and agreement, that we should combine together in one body, and to submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows, word for word." (Mourt's Relation, 3.) - "Some of the strangers among them had let fall from them in the ship, that, when they came ashore, they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them, the patent they had being for Virginia, and not for New England, which belonged to another government, with which the Virginia Company had nothing to do." (Bradford, History, 89.). Morton (Memorial, Davis's edit., 38) appends to the instrument forty-one names. He doubtless took the compact from Bradford's History or Mourt's Relation, neither of which contains names of subscribers. Bradford's list (447–450) of male passengers in the Mayflower has seven names of males, apparently adults, additional to those of the signers in Morton. They are Roger Wilder, Elias Story, Solomon Prower, John Langemore, Robert Carter, William Holbeck, and Edward Thomson. If to these be added "two seamen hired to stay a year here in the country, William Trevore and one Ely," who, "when their time was out, both returned" (Ibid., 450), we have, including the women and children mentioned by Bradford, a hundred and two for the total number of the company. The same number came to land as had left England. One (William Button) died, and one (Oceanus Hopkins) was born, on the passage. Mourt's "Relation or Journal,” quoted |