“I charge you,” said he, “before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has yet more truths to break forth out of his holy word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go no further than the instruments of their reformation. Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole council of God. I beseech you, remember it; ’tis an article of your church covenant—that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you, from the written word of God.”
On the 21st of July, the Pilgrims left Leyden, being accompanied by their brethren as far as Delft harbour, where many met them from Amsterdam, to take leave and see them depart; and early the next morning, “after a night spent in friendly and pleasant Christian converse, the wind being fair, they went on board, their friends accompanying them, and Robinson and they who were with him falling down on their knees, he commended them with watery cheeks and most fervent prayer to God; then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leave, and with a prosperous wind arrived at Southampton, where they found the larger ship from London, with the rest of their company, waiting for them.”
On the 5th of August, the two ships, the Speedwell and Mayflower, set sail from Southampton, but had not proceeded far before the smaller vessel, belying her name, proved leaky, and both returned to Dartmouth for her repair. Again they weighed anchor, and having advanced about one hundred leagues beyond the Land’s-End, the captain of the Speedwell, either having lost courage or the ship being really unseaworthy, declared that they must return or sink. They returned to Plymouth, and however grievous and discouraging it was, determined to part with the ship and all those whose hearts failed them, and taking in the rest, with such provisions as they could well stow in the larger vessel, resolved to proceed on the voyage alone.
After another sad parting the Mayflower again set sail, having on board 101 souls, not alone resolute men, but brave-hearted women, their wives, some far advanced in pregnancy, children and infants. A richer freight, fraught with more momentous consequences to humanity, never crossed the ocean.
Midway on the Atlantic they encountered fierce storms, which so much damaged the ship, that their arrival on the other side seemed hardly possible. “But a passenger having brought a great iron screw from Holland, they with it raised the beam into its place, and then, committing themselves to the Divine will, proceeded.”
On the 10th of November, after a voyage of sixty-three days, they entered the harbour of Cape Cod, when, falling on their knees they blessed God for having brought them safely across the great waters. Far-seeing and prudent as well as religious in all their actions, and in order to avoid any after dissatisfaction, they did not leave the ship until they had formed themselves into a body-politic, by a solemn contract, to which they set their hands. “In the name of God, amen,” says this remarkable document, the register of the birth of popular, constitutional liberty in the New World, “we, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage, to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body-politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furthering of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”
This instrument being signed by forty-one persons as representatives of their families and descendants, John Carver, “a pious and well-approved gentleman,” was chosen their governor for the first year.
It was the original intention of the emigrants to establish themselves in the district of Virginia, but stress of weather, or the ignorance of the pilot, or as some say the treachery of the captain of the Mayflower, who was bribed by the Dutch to take the vessel north of their plantation, or more probably the overruling hand of Providence, they now found themselves, at the commencement of winter, on a bleak, barren and unknown coast, which the inclement season forbade them to leave.
On Saturday, the 13th of November, the “people went ashore to refresh themselves, the whales playing round about them; and they being obliged to wade a bowshot or two to get to land, which was covered with snow, and the weather being freezing, many took grievous colds and coughs which ere long caused their death. Death was their welcome to this dreary coast, which thus was early hallowed by the graves of their friends. After resting on the sabbath-day, sixteen of their company again went on shore, well armed, to search for a convenient place of settlement. Many days were thus spent to no purpose, during which they suffered greatly, lodging in the woods and travelling over dreary country among Indian graves, into which they dug, and finding several baskets full of Indian corn, carried them away with them, and this served as seed-corn for the next harvest.”
On the 27th they proceeded into Cape Cod Bay; again landed, but it blew, snowed and froze all day and night; the ground was hard frozen and covered many inches deep with snow; they were tired with travelling up and down the steep hills and valleys; they dug in divers places, “but found no more corn, nor any thing else but graves.” What an omen this for the superstitious, if there were any such among them! Two Indian wigwams they saw, but no natives; and thus, with nothing comfortable to relate, they returned on the 1st of December to their ship. In the midst of these dreary prospects it is recorded that Mrs. Susanna White was delivered of a son, the first-born of European parentage in New England. He was called Peregrine, and lived to be eighty-four. In the meantime death was busy in the little company, and the next entry after this birth records four deaths.