7. THE MAYFLOWER AND THE PILGRIMS
Over one hundred years after Columbus discovered America a little ship, the Mayflower, sailed away from England. About one hundred people came with it, who were called “Pilgrims.” They went first from England to Holland, and then left their homes across the sea to find a new home where they would be free to worship God, and rule themselves in the way they wished. The tiny Mayflower was tossed like an egg-shell on the rough waves. It took more than two months for it to cross the ocean. The storms drove it from its course, so that instead of landing farther south, as they intended, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. There in the little cabin on the Mayflower forty-four men signed an agreement to make good laws and obey them. A little girl was the first Pilgrim to step off the Mayflower upon the rock which is now called “Plymouth Rock.” As soon as all had landed, they gathered about that huge boulder, and kneeling down thanked God for their deliverance from the perils of the sea. Indians from behind the hilltop peeped out at the strange visitors, and then ran away, disappearing so completely that they were not seen again for a long time. Two little baby boys were born on the Mayflower. What funny names they had! One was called “Peregrine,” which means “wandering,” and the other was called “Oceanus,” because he was born on the ocean. Should you ever go to the town of Plymouth you will find, in Pilgrim Hall, the very cradle in which little Peregrine White was rocked so many years ago. And you will see “Plymouth Rock,” now carefully sheltered, near the place where the Pilgrims landed in 1620, on December 22, which day, each year, is celebrated in New England as “Forefathers’ Day.”
The breaking waves dash’d high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods, against a stormy sky,
Their giant branches toss’d;
And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o’er—
When a band of exiles moor’d their bark
On the wild New England shore.