1. The second English colony in America was founded, in 1620, by a very different class of persons from those reckless adventurers who, in Elizabeth's reign, threw away their lives in Virginia. The founders of New England, as this second colony was named, were a devoted band of earnest persons, knit together by religious ties, who went out there as pilgrims in search of a land where they could enjoy religious freedom.
2. The "Pilgrim Fathers," as many love to call them, belonged to the religious body known as "Puritans." The Puritans thought that the English Church needed further reform, and many of them refused to attend divine worship in the parish churches as the law directed. For their disobedience, they had been fined and in other ways punished. When James I. came to the throne, they hoped to be left free to worship God as they thought best. In this they were, unhappily, doomed to disappointment.
3. King James was exceedingly bitter against the Puritans, and said, "I will make them conform, or harry them out of the land." And out of the land the more zealous resolved to go. They first sought an asylum in Holland; but they could not feel at home there, for the language and manners of the Dutch seemed to them harsh and uncouth. At last they were moved to make real English homes for themselves across the Atlantic.
4. They knew from the reports that had come to them that they must expect much toil and suffering. "But we are well weaned," wrote their pastor, "from the delicate milk of the mother-country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land; the people are industrious and frugal. We are knit together as a body in a most sacred covenant of the Lord, by virtue whereof we hold ourselves strictly tied to all care of each other's good and of the whole. It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage."
5. Accordingly, a little company of one hundred and twenty, including men, women, and children, set sail from Plymouth in the Mayflower, bound for the country round the river Hudson. But the captain of the Mayflower, either mistaking his course, or driven out of it, brought his ship to anchor in the harbour of Cape Cod, on a barren and bleak coast in Massachusetts. The country was then buried in snow, and the whole winter was before them. There were none to show them kindness or bid them welcome, but they were not disheartened.
6. The first thing was to choose a good spot for the settlement. An exploring party landed, but after several days discovered nothing of value but a heap of maize in a deserted Indian village. Many graves were scattered about the country, but no Indians were seen. They afterwards learnt that a pestilence had swept off the Indians in that part, so that no difficulty arose from the hostility of the natives.
7. Meanwhile the carpenter had been busy repairing their large boat or shallop. As soon as it was ready a party set off to explore the coast. The cold was so severe that the spray of the waves froze as it fell on them, making their clothes like coats of steel. On the third day, the pilot of the shallop, who had been in those regions before, assures them that they can reach a good harbour before nightfall. After some hours' sailing, a storm of snow and rain breaks upon them: the sea swells, the rudder breaks, the boat must now be steered with oars; the storm increases and night is at hand. To reach the harbour before dark, as much sail as possible is borne; the mast breaks into three pieces and the sail falls overboard. But the tide is favourable, and as darkness sets in, they enter a fair harbour, and step ashore wet, and cold, and weak.
8. Morning, as it dawned, showed the place to be a small island in a well-sheltered bay. Here they remained for a day to recruit, and as the next day was the "Christian Sabbath," they felt bound to rest and "keep it holy." On Monday the exploring party made their way to the mainland. The granite boulder on which they stepped on landing has ever since been treasured by their descendants. Here the "Pilgrim Fathers" resolved to settle. They called the town, which in time grew up on this spot, New Plymouth, in memory of the port from which they had last set sail.
9. No holiday-task lay before the settlers. Huts had to be built in the intervals of rain and snow. Meanwhile the Mayflower was their home, but so ill provided were they for enduring the rigours of winter that by cold or famine half the company were cut off before the spring. In April, the vessel which had sheltered them so long sailed away for England, leaving the survivors ready to bear their hard lot with a stout heart. Thrifty and industrious as they were, their progress was very slow; and at the end of ten years they numbered only three hundred souls. They had, however, struck deep root and remained steadfast. "Let it not be grievous unto you," some of their brethren in England had written to them in the midst of their sufferings, "that yours has been the task to break the ice for others. The honour shall be yours to the world's end."