As they walked slowly on, noting all the strange things they met, they found a deer trap. One of their number wrote down afterward just what happened at this point: “As we wandered we came to a tree where a young sapling was bowed [bent] down over a bow and some acorns strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said it had been to catch some deer. So as we were looking at it, William Bradford, being in the rear, when he came and went about, it gave a sudden jerk up and he was caught by the leg. It [the deer trap] was a pretty device, made with a rope of their own making and having a noose as well made as any ropemaker in England can make.” Even those solemn Pilgrims had to laugh to see Brother Bradford with one foot up in the air and his head on the ground!
The men returned to the ship and reported what they had seen. When the shallop was completed they sailed away in that, and went farther on little voyages of discovery; but Cape Cod is a long peninsula, and they went back and forth several times between the land and their ship, which remained at anchor near the end of the Cape.
One time they came back from their site-hunting and found that another Pilgrim had been born in the Mayflower. This baby (William White was its father) was the first white child born in this part of America. They named the baby Peregrinus, the Latin word for Pilgrim; so he was called Peregrine White.
There was a mischievous small boy in the Mayflower—“that Billington boy,” the Pilgrims called him—who found some gunpowder and proceeded to make trails of it on the deck, then touched a live coal to it and made it flash up. So young Francis Billington made the first fireworks in New England. He also shot off a musket. There were two kinds of musket; one called the matchlock, lighted by punk or “slow match” (there were no friction matches for two hundred years after that); and the other kind called the snaphance, or flintlock. While playing with fire, “that Billington boy” flashed a line of powder which ran back to the kegs of gunpowder and came very near blowing up the Mayflower and all on board!
Another time the home hunters had had a hard day, and, being tired and hungry, made their camp and went to rest after placing men on guard. Bradford wrote in his journal:
“About midnight we heard a great and hideous cry; and our sentinels called, ‘Arm, arm!’ So we bestirred ourselves, and shot off a couple of muskets, and the noise ceased. We concluded that it was a company of wolves or other wild beasts, for one told us he had heard such a noise in Newfoundland.
“About five in the morning we began to be stirring; and two or three [men who] doubted whether their pieces would go off or no, made trial of them, and shot them off, but thought nothing at all. After prayer we prepared ourselves for breakfast, and for a journey; and, it being now twilight in the morning, it was thought meet [best] to carry the things down to the shallop.
“Anon, all of a sudden, we heard a great and strange cry, which we knew to be the same voices, though they varied their notes. One of the company came running in and cried, ‘They are men! Indians! Indians!’ and withal their arrows came flying amongst us.
“Our men ran with all speed to recover their arms, as by the good Providence of God they did. In the meantime, Captain Myles Standish, having a snaphance ready, made a shot; and after him another. After they two had shot, other two of us were ready, but he wished us not to shoot till we could take aim, for we knew not what need we should have; and there were four only of us which had their arms there ready.
“Our care was no less for the shallop; but we hoped all the rest would defend it. We called unto them to know how it was with them; and they answered, ‘Well, well!’ everyone; and, ‘Be of good courage!’ We heard three of their pieces go off; and the rest called for a firebrand to light their [punk] matches [for their matchlock muskets]. One took a log of the fire on his shoulder, and went and carried it unto them. The cry of our enemies was dreadful, especially when our men ran out to recover their arms. Their note was after this manner, ‘Woach! woach! ha ha hach woach!’ ”