Nothing of importance having been discovered this day, they returned to the shallop which had come ashore at their calling. “So being weary and faint,—for we had eaten nothing all day,—we fell to make our rendezvous and get firewood and we fed upon such victuals as we had, and betook us to our rest, and we had set out our watch.”
Fri. Dec. 18
In the early morning of the 18th, they had their first encounter with the Indians “some thirty or forty of them, though some thought that they were many more.” Many arrows were shot but “none of them either hit or hurt us, though many came close by us and on every side of us and some coats which hung up in our barricade were shot through and through.” But after several shots were fired at them, they all left with apparently no casualties. This was the first actual encounter with the Indians.
During the day the reunited party skirted the coast, the wind increasing during the afternoon to gale force. The boat’s rudder was broken and the mast split and they were dependent upon their oars for steering. In this condition they were driven across the bay toward Saquish where the high seas prevented landing. By skillful maneuvering however they managed to round Saquish head and “although it was very dark and rained sore, yet in the end they got under the lee of a small island,[7] and remained there all the night in safety.”
Sat. Dec. 19
“Yet, God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshment for the next day was a fair and sunshiny day and they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces and rest themselves. And this being the last day of the week, they prepared there to keep the Sabbath.”
The Historic Landing
Sun. Dec. 20
Mon. Dec. 21
This Sabbath was spent on Clark’s Island where they rested and held service. “On Monday they sounded the harbor and found it fit for shipping, and marched into the land,[8] and found divers cornfields, and little running brooks, a fit place for situation; at least it was the best they could find, and the season, and their present necessity, made them glad to accept it. So they returned to their ship again with this news to the rest of their people, which did much comfort their hearts.”
The romance surrounding the Rock that has become famous in history is not easily discredited. The fact is, that Elder Thomas Faunce, who was born in Plymouth in 1647 and died in 1746 at the age of ninety-nine years, made a statement a few years prior to his death, at a time when removal or covering of the rock was under contemplation, protesting vigorously at what he considered the desecration of an object of deep veneration. He stated in the presence of many hearers that his father, John Faunce, who came over in the ship Anne, had told him that it was on that rock that the Pilgrims landed as stated by them to him. It is further probable that they may have imparted this information to him directly as a number of the Mayflower passengers lived for many years subsequent to his birth.