THE PILGRIMS OF NEW ENGLAND

CHAPTER I.

‘The breaking waves dashed high
On a stern and rock-hound coast:
And the woods against a stormy sky,
Their giant branches tost.
And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er,
When a hand of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.’ HEMANS.

It was, indeed, a ‘stern and rock-bound coast’ beneath which the
gallant little Mayflower furled her tattered sails, and dropped her
anchor, on the evening of the eleventh of November, in the year 1620.
The shores of New England had been, for several days, dimly descried by
her passengers, through the gloomy mists that hung over the dreary and
uncultivated tract of land towards which their prow was turned; but the
heavy sea that dashed against the rocks, the ignorance of the captain
and his crew with regard to the nature of the coast, and the crazy
state of the deeply-laden vessel, had hitherto prevented their making
the land. At length the ship was safely moored in a small inlet,
beyond the reach of the foaming breakers; and the Pilgrim Fathers
hastened to leave the vessel in which they had so long been imprisoned,
and, with their families, to set foot on the land that was henceforth
to be their home. Cold, indeed, was the welcome which they received
from their adopted country; and cheerless was the view that met their
gaze, as they landed on a massy rock of granite, at the foot of a
precipitous cliff, and looked along the barren, inhospitable shore, and
over the dark waters which they had so lately crossed.

But hope was strong in the hearts of these exiles; and the faith that
had led them to seek these untrodden shores, had not deserted them
during their long and tempestuous voyage; and they looked upward
through the gloom and dreariness that surrounded them, and fixed their
trusting eyes on Him who had guided them in safety over the great deep,
and brought them at length to a resting-place. Their first act was to
kneel down on the cold rock, and offer up their prayers and praises to
that God for whose sake they had given up country, and friends, and
home, and to whose service they now dedicated themselves and their
children: and strikingly grand must have been that act of worship. The
manly voices of the sturdy Pilgrims rose in deep and solemn unison,
followed by those of the women and children, and resounded along the
silent coast, while the heavy urges of the receding tide kept up a
hoarse and monotonous accompaniment. Then arose a hymn of
thanksgiving--and the rocks and the neighboring hills re-echoed the
exulting strain, that seemed to drown the voices of the wind and the
waves, and to rise unmixed to heaven. It was the triumph of faith--the
holy and heartfelt expression of undying trust and confidence in God!
Surely, at that time, the Pilgrims were meet objects for the admiring
gaze of men and angels! But they were not always so.

It was on the shore of Cape Cod Bay that the new settlers had landed,
in the inlet now called New Plymouth Harbor: but this was not the place
of their original destination. They had intended to steer for the
mouth of Hudson's River, and to have fixed their habitation in that
less exposed and inhospitable district. But the Dutch had already
conceived the project, which they afterwards accomplished, of settling
in that part of the new continent; and it is supposed that the captain
of the Mayflower was bribed by them to convey the English emigrants
further to the north; so that the first American land which they beheld
was Cape Cod. They found that the place where they had landed was
beyond the precincts of the territory which had been granted to them;
and even beyond that of the Company from which they derived their right
of colonization; and after exploring hastily the neighboring coast, and
finding it dreary and unpromising, they again embarked, and insisted on
the captain's conveying them to the district which they had first
desired to reach. They sailed to the south, and many days were lost in
endeavoring to find a more convenient spot for their settlement: but it
was in vain. The shoals and the breakers with which the coast was
lined, presented obstacles that were insurmountable at that advanced,
and unusually inclement, season; and, weary and disheartened, they
returned to the place of their first landing. There they fixed their
abode, and there they founded the infant city of New Plymouth. It was a
desolate situation, and one that subjected the new settlers to many
trials and privations; for the nearest English settlements then
established were upwards of five hundred miles distant.

THE PILGRIMS OF NEW ENGLAND