It was on November 11, 1620, that the Pilgrim Fathers, as they have come to be known to history, united in an agreement which was the foundation of constitutional government in America. They had been brought, rather as it seemed by Divine Providence than by their own guidance, to a more northern shore than that to which they had intended voyaging, and they had determined to make that place their colonial abode. Tradition records that the first to step on the famous Plymouth Rock was a woman, Mary Chilton by name, and the circumstance has brought her name down to us of this day. It would not seem a difficult manner of attaining immortality, that of stepping from a boat to a rock; most women, being gifted with the ordinary means of locomotion, could do as much; but circumstances decide the value of every action, and so Mary Chilton achieved fame by one of the simplest and most natural acts of her whole existence. There are those who deny the very existence of Mary Chilton and sneer at the tradition that makes a woman lead the way to the florescence of American nationality; and it must be confessed that Mary Chilton, having taken the step which was to preserve her from forgetfulness, disappears as completely as if she had never lived. But we like to think the legend true, for it was most appropriate that a woman should head the march to that land where women were destined to be such a controlling force and where, as in no other country, women were to lead in many of the greatest movements that have crowned the civilization of our own day. One likes to believe in Mary Chilton; and it is something in favor of the story that the name of James Chilton is found attached to the document which has already been referred to and that it would be quite in keeping with Puritan superstition to send a young and pure maiden before them as their advance guard into the unknown land which was to be won by strength of soul as well as of arm.
At least we know that there were women, and those in due proportion, among the settlers. The total number of pilgrims has always been stated as small, and the Mayflower, their little vessel, is said to have been of but one hundred and eighty tons burden; but it is evident that there has been error in both these matters, judging by the large number of New Englanders whose ancestors "came over in the Mayflower." If half these genealogical tracings are founded on fact, the supposed tiny Mayflower must have been the forerunner of our present huge ocean liners; but, be this as it may, we have record that the first of these many descendants was born on the day following the arrival of the vessel. It was not a girl this time, as had been the case with the first child born of English parents on Virginia soil; it was a boy, and he was appropriately named Peregrine, which signifies "pilgrim." While not directly germane to our subject--save so far as having been born of woman makes all men contributory to the history of women--it may be interesting to state that this first child of the Pilgrims lived to the age of eighty-three years, and died at Marshfield, where later died the greatest of New Englanders.
The influence of the women of the colonists was doubtless great in maintaining the courage and constancy of the men; but, as was the case with the early settlers in Virginia, we have little or no particular record of the feminine portion of the settlement. We are told of Priscilla, "the Puritan Maiden" in Longfellow's poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish, and we are entirely at liberty to account her a real personage if we desire to do so. It is at least certain that Miles Standish was the valiant captain pictured by the poet and that John Alden to whom the poet ascribes the office of deputy-wooer was one of the Pilgrim Fathers--whether the latter in esse or in futuro we are not told, though knowledge on this point might have bearing upon the authenticity of the story of Priscilla and if the rest of the legend is not true it is at least well imagined. Moreover, it may be asserted that it is true in the deeper sense of truth, whether or not it be loyal to mere fact. The picture drawn for us of the Puritan maiden is typically true and therefore worthy of quotation even in a volume dedicated to the Muse of history rather than to her of poesy:
"Ever of her he thought, when he read in his Bible on Sunday
Praise of the virtuous woman, as she is described in the Proverbs--
How the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her always,
How all the days of her life she will do him good and not evil,
How she seeketh the wool and the flax and worketh with gladness,
How she layeth her hand to the spindle and holdeth the distaff,
How she is not afraid of the snow for herself or her household,