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pany, to return to Plymouth. Here they disembarked the few who were too fearful to see the adventure to an end, and on the 6th of September, the remainder, one hundred and one in number, going aboard the May-Flower, bade their final farewell to England. The weather, for a time pleasant, at length, with the approach of winter, became adverse, bringing "many contrary winds and fierce storms, with which their ship was shrewdly shaken." The May-Flower began to leak, and one of her main beams bent and cracked. Despite these discouragements, it was resolved to hold on. One of the passengers, by good fortune, had taken among his effects a large screw, "by means of which the said beam was brought into his place again. And so," continues the pilgrim journalist, "after many boisterous stormes, in which they could make no sail, but were forced to lie at hull for many days together, after long beating at sea, they fell in with the land called Cape Cod; the which being made and certainly known to be it, they were not a little joyful."

On the 10th of November, after a weary passage of sixty-three days, the ship doubled the extremity of Cape Cod, and anchored in a good harbour, on which Provincetown now stands. It had been agreed that the pilgrims should be landed somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Hudson, but the captain of the May-Flower, bribed, it is said, by the Dutch, who were jealous of intrusion on their territories, pleading the low state of the provision as an excuse, insisted on landing them immediately. Being compelled to comply, and finding themselves without the limits of the Virginia Company's jurisdiction, and thus destitute of a government, they at once set to work to construct one; and, on the very day after their arrival, (November 11th,) with a reservation of allegiance to the crown, proceeded to erect a democracy in its simplest and most explicit sense. All the men of the company, forty-one in number, signed the following brief but comprehensive instrument:

"In the name of God, amen; we, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together, into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due obedience and submission."

Such was the plain and simple form of the first written constitution, emanating from the popular will, ever adopted in America. It may be regarded as the basis of that vast superstructure of freedom which has since been gradually reared in the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. John Carver, a gentleman of high integrity and amiable character, and one of the chief promoters of the enterprise, was forthwith chosen governor-an office which, in the present juncture of affairs, could have offered little temptation to ambition. "In the early history of New England, it may be remarked, we do not find, as in that of nearly all other European settlements, the name of any one man greatly conspicuous above his companions, or exclusively iden tified with the foundation of the commonwealth. The names of Cortes and Pizarro, of Champlain and Penn and Smith, are each inseparably associated with the history of the countries whose destinies, for good or evil, they had so large a share in shaping; while, in the less ambitious annals of Puritan colonization, the memories. of Carver, Bradford, and Winslow-of Endicott and Winthrop-of Standish, Mason, and Church, with those of many other associate worthies, are fused and blended with the common history of the country. "The cause of this distinction is not difficult to define. Principle, rather than personal ambition, whether of the more selfish or generous kind, was the main spring and prompting motive of the actors who figured in those once neglected scenes of enterprise; and all thought of private advancement or renown was for the time merged in a spirit of community, such as only the strong prompting of religious enthusiasm can maintain."

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CHAPTER III.

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DREARY APPEARANCE OF NEW ENGLAND.-EXPLORING PARTY. -STRANGE INJUSTICE TO THE INDIANS. THE VOYAGE TO PLYMOUTH HARBOUR. -SKIRMISH WITH THE SAVAGES. SETTLEMENT OF PLYMOUTH FOUNDED.-GREAT SUFFERING AND MORTALITY AMONG THE PILGRIMS.

URGED by the impatience of the master of the May-Flower, the little band of exiles busied themselves in finding a place for immedi ate disembarkation and settlement. Nothing could have been more

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