Two vessels had been chartered for the voyage: the “Speedwell,” a small ship of some sixty tons, and a larger vessel of a hundred and eighty tons, called the “Mayflower.”[117] The “Speedwell” lay moored at Delft Haven, a little seaport in the vicinity of Leyden.[118] The Pilgrims were to sail in this ship across the Channel to Southampton, where the “Mayflower” would join them, and thence they were to launch in company across the Atlantic.[119]
On the 21st of July, 1620, the exiles quitted Leyden, which had been their quiet resting-place for eleven years, and journeyed to Delft Haven. “When the ship was ready to carry us away,” wrote Edward Winslow, “the brethren that stayed at Leyden, having again solemnly sought the Lord with us and for us, feasted us that were to go, at our pastor’s house, a commodious building. Here we refreshed ourselves, after tears, with singing psalms, making joyful melody in our hearts, as well as with the voice, there being many of the congregation very expert in music; and indeed it was the sweetest melody that ever mine ears heard. After this our friends accompanied us to Delft Haven, where we were to embark, and there feasted us again. And after prayer by our pastor, when a flood of tears was poured out, they accompanied us to the ship; but we were not able to speak one to another for the abundance of sorrow to part.”[120]
Only a part of the colonists went aboard the “Speedwell” on the day of their arrival at Delft Haven; the others tarried in the town over night, spending the hours in conversation and expressions of true Christian love.[121] “The morning light must have gleamed mournfully upon their eyes through the windows of the apartments where they assembled. It told them that the last days of their pleasant intercourse with old, endeared friends had come, for the wind was fair, and the vessel was ready to weigh anchor and sail. And so they went down to the shore, where the scene at Miletus was literally repeated, save that the people were the voyagers, instead of their apostolic father. Robinson ‘kneeled down and prayed with them, and all wept sore, and fell upon his neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more; then he accompanied them to the ship.’ Even the Dutch strangers, who saw the parting, stood and wept.”[122]
Then came the shrill “Yo hoy” of the seamen; final caresses were exchanged; sail was hoisted; a salute was fired from the “Speedwell;” and while the friends on shore watched the receding vessel and strained their eye-balls to retain their vision, she glinted below the horizon, and was gone.
Southampton was safely and speedily reached; “the Speedwell entered port to join the Mayflower—ships whose names have become hallowed, and are worthy of being placed, with the Argo of the ancients, amid the constellations of heaven.”
CHAPTER V.
THE FROZEN WILDERNESS.
“Whoso shrinks or falters now,
Whoso to the yoke would bow
Brand the craven on his brow.