Tues. Dec. 29
The next day being Tuesday, Dec. 29, the party divided, some going on foot and some in the shallop. They came to a creek and “went up three English miles, a very pleasant river[9] at full sea. This place we had a great liking to plant in, but that it was so far from our fishing, our principal profit, and so encompassed with woods that we should be in much danger of the savages. Some of us, having a good mind for safety, to plant in the greater isle,[10] we crossed the bay, which is there five or six miles over. We judged it cold for our corn and some part very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, and of great security.”
That night they returned again to the Mayflower determined to settle the next day on a permanent location.
Wed. Dec. 30
The final selection of a place for settlement is described as follows: “After our landing and viewing of the places, so well as we could, we came to a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main land, on the first place, on a high ground, where there is a great deal of land cleared, and hath been planted with corn three or four years ago; and there is a very sweet brook, runs under the hillside, and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunk, and where we may harbor our shallops and boats exceeding well; and in this brook much good fish in their seasons; on the further side of the river also much corn-ground cleared. In one field is a great hill, on which we point to make a platform, and plant our ordinance, which will command all round about.”
“So there we made our rendezvous, and a place for some of our people, about twenty, resolving in the morning to come all ashore and to build houses.”
The first building, showing position in relation to Town Brook and Pilgrim Spring