out reason, that by association with them the fibre of
their children's principles would become flaccid. More-
over, they had constantly present to their mind the dread
that their posterity " would in a few generations become
234 PUEITANISM
Dutch, and would lose their language and their name of
Eno'liRh," and so, " if God would be i)leased to discover
some place unto them, though in America," they might
" more glorify God, do more good to their country, better
provide for their posterity, and live to be more refreshed
by their labours than ever they could do in Holland,
where they were"; or in this way they cherished " a great
hope and inward zeal of laying some good foundation for
the propagation and advancement of the gospel in those
remote parts of the world ; yea, though they should be
but stepping-stones unto others for the performance of so
great a work."
It is not needful to enter into minute details in regard
to the negotiations which had to be conducted, and the
difficulties which had to be overcome, before the purpose
which the exiles had conceived could be carried out. As
may Ije readily imagined, a step like this was not resolved
upon without much and anxious deliberation. Fears and
lions were in the way, and there were not wanting those,
even among their own number, who prophesied failure
and disaster. Objections were heaped up even to the
danger arising from change of air and food ; and the
drinking of water instead of beer would, it was averred,
infect their bodies with sore sickness. Bolder and more
daring counsels, however, in the long-run prevailed, and
apparently with one heart and mind the exiles set them-
selves to the achievement of their great task. But so
many were the obstacles and mountains that had to be
laid low, that nearly three years elapsed before they
found themselves on board the vessel which was to carry
tlieni and their families to the New World. It was in
FOUNDING OF NEW PLYMOUTH 235
.Tune 1G20 that the step which actually committed the
pilgrims to their new venture was definitely taken. This
was the securing of the ship ā the Mayflower ā which was
to transport them across the sea. In addition to this,
the S^jeediuell, a vessel of sixty tons, was purchased in
Holland ; she was to convey the Leyden contingent to
Southampton, whence both ^'essels were to commence
their distant and adventurous voyage.
There are few scenes that figure in the pages of history
more impressive and solemn than that leave-taking be-
tween the emigrants and their friends in Leyden ā
solemn as the farewell of death itself, for it could not
but be present in the minds of both that they were
looking into each other's faces for the last time. Who
that heard it ever forgot the text from which the beloved
Pastor Eobinson ā himself restrained from being of the
number of the emigrants ā preached to them : " And
there at the river by Ahava I proclaimed a fast, that
we might humble ourselves before our God, and seek of
Him a right way for us and for our children, and for all
our substance." The fast was succeeded by a frugal feast,
and in the words of a participator and actor in the
scene : " They that stayed at Leyden feasted us that were
to go at our pastor's house (being large), where we
refreshed ourselves with our tears and singing of psalms,
making joyful melody in our hearts as well as with
the voice (there being many of the congregation very
expert in music) ; and, indeed, it was the sweetest
melody that ever mine ears heard." The Sj.)cedvjell was
anchored at Delfthaven, some fourteen miles distant,
and hither many of their brethren accompanied the
236 PUEITANISM
exiles. So " they left the goodly and pleasant city
which had been their restiug-place near twelve years."
We can imagine the feelings of the pilgrims as they
came within sight of their native land, and realised that
only for a too brief season could they look upon the old
familiar places and green fields of England. For they
loved England passionately, notwitlistanding it had been
to them a cruel stepmother : loved it " as a Eoman
loved the city of the seven hills, as an Athenian loved
the city of the violet crown." It was in connection with
this leave-taking, though tlie time at which they were
spoken is not precisely known, that Eobinson uttered
those memorable words, which have probably done more
to immortalise his name than all his ocher writings and
acts together.
The Mayflower. ā It was on the 5th August 1620
that the Maifflmrrr, a vessel of about one hundred and
eighty tons, and the SpeecUvell set sail from Southampton.
No sooner were the}" fairly embarked than the Speexhncll
was found to be so leak}" that it was unsafe for her to
proceed farther, and both vessels put l)ack to the port
of Dartmouth. Eight days were spent in making the
necessary repairs, and once more the two vessels were
unfurling their canvas to the winds. They had not got
out of sight of Land's End when the captain of the mis-
named Speedwell (intimidated, there is little doubt, by the
prospect, not only of the voyage over tlie Atlantic, but
of what awaited them on the other side) declared that he
must return or sink. The ship, he said, was not strong
enough to undertake sucli a voyage. There was no other
FOUNDING OF NEW PLYMOUTH 237
course open than for both vessels to return agam, and
this they did, this time to Plymouth. Here the Specchoell
was discharged, and it was agreed that those of the
emigrants who were least fitted " to bear the brunt of
this hard adventure" should be left behind, while the
Mayfloiccr should proceed with the rest of the company.
After the loss of much valuable time, the Mayfloiver,
with her crew of one hundred and two passengers, set
sail from Plymouth to the great Western World,
September 6th, 1620.
It is not too much to say that in a very real and pro-
found sense the Mayfloiccr carried with her the moral
destinies of the world. Her crew were not only the
pioneers of civil and religious liberty, they were the
heralds of a faith which, tested by the heroic men it
has formed, and the heroic actions it has produced,
may indeed challenge comparison with any faith by
which men have been moulded and inspired. The
struggle they were called upon to wage was a struggle
for liberty, not only in the Xew World, Ijut in the
Old ; and l^ut for the planting of Puritanism in Xew
England, the victory of Puritanism in the mother country
would have been shortlived, and shorn of its most
characteristic features and products. These expatriated
exiles ā self-expatriated by conscience and by principles
which were dearer to them than life itself ā indulged in
no vain and Utopian hopes as to that which awaited
them on the other side of the Atlantic. They saw, in the
first place, that in the absence of any existing form of
government whose protection they might invoke, it would
be necessary to set up a government of their own ; and
238 PURITANISM
seeiug that there were those among their own number
"not well affected to unity and concord," before they
came within sight of land they set to work, like the
sagacious and practical men they were, to formulate a
code of their own.
Compact on board the Mayflower. ā A compact ā
a solemn league and covenant it might well be called ā
was drawn up and signed in the cabin of the Mcvyfloiuer :
" In the name of G-od, 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 honour 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 l)ody politic for our better ordering and preserva-
tion, 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 general good of the colony. Unto whicli we
promise all due submission and obedience."
This instrument was signed by the entire body of men
who were on board the Mayflower, forty-one in number.
It has l)een truly said : " This was tlie birth of popular
constitutional liberty. The ]\Iiddle Age had been familiar
^ It would have been well for them if tliey had professed no sucli
allegiance. In this unwitting acknowledgment they -were heaping
lip trouble for themselves and their descendants (see p. 302).
FOUNDING OF NEW PLYMOUTH 239
with charters and constitutions, but they had been
merely compacts for immunities, partial enfranchise-
ments, patents of nobility, concessions of municipal
privileges, or limitations of the sovereign power in
favour of feudal institutions. In the cabin of the
Mayflower humanity recovered its rights, and mstituted
government on the basis of ' equal laws ' for ' the general
good.' " ^ Mr. John Carver, who had acted as governor
during tlie voyage, was confirmed in this office for the
first year.
It was on the 21st November 1620 that the pilgrims
set foot for the first time on the soil of the New World.
Their purpose was to find a place farther south than
that at which they landed ; but, finding themselves
among dangerous shoals, and encountering adverse
winds, they were glad to find refuge in the harbour
of Cape Cod. Just before the Mayflower dropped
anchor, " they fell upon their knees and blessed the
God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and
furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and
miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and
stable earth, their proper element." The hearts of the
emigrants must have, indeed, sunk within them as they
surveyed the bleak, l3arren, inhospitable coast on which
^ Baucroft's Histonj of the United States, vol. i. p. 234, revir-ed
edition, p. 244, Macmillaii & Co. 1876. Critics have pointed to tliis
statement of the historian of the United States as an instance of liis
entlinsiasm running away with him. Dr. Borgeaud, while allowing
that perhaps some objection may be made to it on the score of exaggera-
tion, adds : " It is not the less true that, in spite of all that ha.^
been said to lessen its importance, the agreement of the May flow- r
remains one of the most remarkable documents of modern liistory." ā
Tlir. Rise of Modern Democracy in Old and New Englund, p. 110.
240 PUKITAXISM
they found themselves landed. AVith a lively prescience
of coming evil our Lord said to His disciples : " Pray that
your flight be not in the winter." So cold was the
season, that it is told of the first party of explorers that
the spray of the sea froze as it fell on them, and made
their clothes like coats of iron. Their strength was
greatly reduced by the hardships which they had under-
gone during their rough and inclement voyage, especially
witli the scanty supply of food.
'ā¢ Short allowance of victual and plenty of nothing but gospel ;"
and now with their retreat cut off by the ocean on
one side, and their progress by the wilderness on the
other, ā especially such a waste howling wilderness as it
must then have seemed, ā their condition was as hopeless
and desperate as could well be imagined. " Because there
were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die
in the wilderness ? would to God we had died by the
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by
the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full " ā
might have been the language of the angry remonstrants
had there been some Moses to whom they could affix
the responsibility of their position ; but this was not the
temper of the gallant, intrepid. God-fearing band of men
and women who came out, like Abraham of old, not
knowing whither they were going, except that they w^ere
going at the bidding of Abraham's God. The next day
was the Sabbath, and according to their invariable custom
they rested, and observed it as a day of worship. Mon-
day had no sooner dawned than the women were astir,
impr(jving the opportunity with housewifely zeal. " Joyful
FOUNDING OF NEW PLYMOUTH 241
was that washing day, ā odours of pine and sassafras in
the air, and ' coals of juniper ' under their kettles, ā not
less joyful than toilsome, for their feet were at last on
the soil of New England." Two explorations into the
adjacent country ā one by land and the other by sea ā
were conducted without leading to any satisfactory result.
They resolved to make one more attempt to find a suit-
able harbour, and, after braving hardships and dangers
which made them well-nigh give up in despair, they ran
their boat aground in Plymouth Bay. The Mayfloiccr
" furled her tattered sails " in Plymouth Bay just five
weeks after she had anchored in Cape Cod. The name
Plymouth had been given to the bay six years before by
an earlier explorer, Captain John Smith, and seeing that
they had set sail from Plymouth, the pilgrims concurred
in the retention of the name.
It was on the 21st of December 1620 that the
pilgrims disembarked in Plymouth Bay. There is prob-
ably no more sacred spot in the world than Plymouth
Rock, which commemorates the landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers on the wild New England shore.
"... Plymouth Rock, tliat had been to their feet as a doorstep
Into a wild unknown, tlie corner-stone of a nation."
" Setting rhetorical exaggeration aside, we need not
doubt that in watching that sad yet hopeful procession
of men, women, and children, we are witnessing one of
the great events and one of the heroic scenes of history."^
''' The consequences of that day," says the historian of the
United States, " are constantly unfolding themselves as
^ The United States: An Outline of Political History^ 1492-1871,
by Goldwin Smith, D.C.L., p. 4.
i6
242 PURITANISM
time advances. It was the origin of Xew England ; it
was the planting of New England institutions as the
pilgrims landed. Their institutions were already per-
fected. Democratic liberty and independent Christian
worship at once existed in America." Plymouth Eock,
famous throughout the world as the stepping-stone
upon which the pilgrims landed, still occupies the
same position as when the pilgrims' shallop first grazed
its side. The only alteration is that it has been raised
somewhat, and is now covered by an architectural
canopy of granite. De Tocqueville says : " This rock
has become an object of veneration in the United
States. I have seen bits of it preserved in several towns
of the Union. Does not this sufficiently show that all
human power and greatness is in the soul of man ? Here
is a stone which the feet of outcasts pressed for an instant ;
mid this stone has become famous ; it is treasured by a
great nation ; its very dust is shared as a relic. And
what has become of the gateways of a thousand palaces ?
Who cares for them ? " ^
The numbers of the little company had been greatly
reduced by disease and death, and those who were spared,
unprovided with anything but the barest necessaries of
life, were ill-fitted to encounter the cold and rigour of
the New England winter. So rapid was the mortality,
that, when spring returned, and " the birds sang in the
woods most pleasantly," scarce fifty of the original
hundred remained. " In those hard and difficult begin-
nings there were discontents and murmurings among
some, and mutinous speeches and carriage in others ; but
1 De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. i. p. 29.
FOUNDING OF NEW TLYMOUTH 243
they were soon quelled and overcome by the wisdom,
patience, and just and equal carriage of things by the
governor and better part." So passed the sorrowful first
winter in Plymouth, but the spirit of the little company
was unbroken. In April the Mayfloivcr was despatched
home to England, yet, notwithstanding the losses they
had sustained, and the hardships and privations they
were still enduring, not one of the brave company signi-
fied their willingness to return.
" Oh, strong liearts and true ! not one went back in the Mayiioicer.
No I not one looked back who had set liis hand to that ploughing."
Governor Carver was among those who had succumbed
to the fatal cold and hardships, and William Bradford,
who had been a member of the little Church in Scrooby,
was chosen to fill his place. He was governor of Ply-
mouth for nearly thirty years, and to his gra^^hic and
picturesque chronicle we are indebted chiefly for what
we know of the migration from Scrooby, the transplant-
ing of the Church to Holland, and the settlement of the
Fathers in New Plymouth. The other notable leaders
in the colony were ā William Brewster, the hospitable
provider of the first place of meeting in Scrooby, and
the stout Puritan soldier, Miles Standish, whose court-
ship is so quaintly related by Longfellow.
The Pilgrims entered into friendly relations with the
various tribes of Indians round about them. One tribe
alone refused their overtures, and showed their hostile
intentions by sending a bundle of new arrows tied up
in a rattlesnake's skin. The said skin was stuffed by
Miles Standish full of powder and shot, and sent back
as the response and challenge of the young colony,
244 PURITANISM
and this the messenger was directed to carry back to
the Indian sachem. Yet it would appear that at one
time the colonists were only saved from extermination
by an epidemic of sickness which broke out among
tlie Indians ; but for this they had all probably been
tomahawked to death. Their number increased very
slowly, as compared with what might have been expected.
At the end of ten years the colony contained no more
than three hundred souls. It was all the settlers could
do to wring from the infertile soil the means of subsistence.
Inured to hardship and privation liy their sojourn in
Holland, as well as by their previous manner of life, they
were well-fitted ā better fitted probably than any similar
number of men that could have been selected from the
population of England ā to encounter the rigour of the
climate, and to perform the hard task of colonisation.
Such heartening as the friends they had left behind had
it in their power to give, they received from time to
time. " Let it not be grievous to you that you have
been instrumental to break the ice for others. The
honour shall be yours to the world's end." ^ " Out of
small beginnings," said Bradford, " great things have
been produced ; and as one small candle may light a
thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many :
yea, in some sort, to our whole nation."
The Pilgrim Fathers the founders of a new empire.
ā The attempt has sometimes been made to belittle the
^ "To the world's end the honour is theirs. If Columbus dis-
covered the New Continent, they discovered the New World." ā The
United States : An Outline of Political History, by Goldwin Smith, p. 5.
FOUNDING OF NEW PLYMOUTH 245
importance of Xew Plymouth, and the position of the
Fathers in relation to the future of America. Mr. Doyle ^
says " that if the Plymouth settlement had never been
made, the political life of New England would in all
probal_)ility have taken the same form, and run the same
course as it did." This is like saying that if Columbus
had not discovered America, it would very probably have
been discovered. But how does Mr. Doyle know that
the political life of New England would have run the
same course without the Fathers as it did run ? He
will say perhaps that the character of the men who
afterwards colonised Massachusetts lends support to his
conjecture ; but suppose these had not been the Puritans
they were, suppose the first settlers had been Eoyalists,
as was the case in Virginia, is it likely that democracy
would have taken root as it did, or that free institutions
would have spread over America as they have done
to-day ? In making the assertion he does, Mr. Doyle
most seriously underestimates the influence of New Ply-
mouth upon the settlers in Massachusetts. He forgets
that Independency became the religion of the latter,
and that, though in time the colony of New Plymouth
became incorporated with Massachusetts, it parted with
its autonomy, as Greece parted with her independence
by inoculating her conquerors with her own ideas,
manners, and character. There can be no doubt that
the Pilgrims were historically, and in the most real
and unimpeachable sense, the founders of the American
Eepublic. " In pursuit of religious freedom, they estab-
1 TJie Emjlish in America : The Puritan Colonies, by J. A. I)oyle,
vol. i. p. 61.
246 PURITANISM
lished civil liberty, and meaning only to found a Church,
gave birth to a nation, and in settling a town, commenced
an empire."
Congregationalism or Independency was in Xew
Plymouth the prevailing form of Church government,
and the special character it assumed was that which had
been impressed upon it by the revered and trusted
Robinson. William Brewster was the ruling elder of
the Church, and there being as yet no ordained minister
among the little band of emigrants, he performed all the
duties of this office, except the administration of the
sacraments. It cannot be said, however, that in the
young rising colony the principles of Separatism won
their way and triumphed without a struggle. The
devoted band of men and women who had joined them-
selves in Church covenant at Leyden, with John Eobinson
as their pastor, did not constitute the whole company
that had come over in the Mayflower. In England the}'
had been joined by others ; others again came over after-
wards to New England, some of them not of the most
reputable sort, and made common cause with the colonists
of New Plymouth. Among these were a number of Con-
forming Puritans, and these, instigated by their friends
and sympathisers in England, sought to subvert the
constitution of the Church at Plymouth, and " capture "
it in the interest of their own anti-Separatist principles.
In this, however, they were signally defeated, and at the
end of ten years, after fortune and prosperity had begun
to smile upon their labours, and the Fathers had suc-
ceeded in quelling all opposition, and living down all
FOUNDING OF NEW PLYMOUTH 247
serious prejudice, it fell out that the little handful of
men and women gathered into the Church at Scrooby,
and there cradled, and afterwards nurtured into strength
at Leyden, became the nucleus of the first Free Church
of America, the founders of a new free commonwealth
of Churches, destined to sow over a vast continent the
seed of religious faith and religious liberty.
Growing prosperity of Plymouth. ā In 1627 the
partnership with the " Adventurers," or merchants in
London who had advanced the money necessary to enable
the Fathers to emigrate, came to an end. The whole of
their stock and interest in the colony were made over to
the settlers, and they were relieved of the burden of
pecuniary obligation which for seven years had been
weighing heavily upon them. The sun of prosperity
had begun at last to shine upon them; the wilderness-
had become a fruitful field, and gave promise of yet
further increase of growth and fruitfulness. There is no
better or more pleasing picture of the condition and
appearance of New Plymouth than that furnished by
Isaac de Easieres, secretary of the Dutch colony at New
Netherlands, who visited Plymouth in 1627. It stood
on rising ground, separated from the sea by some twenty
yards of sand. The buildings were laid out like a Eoman
city in miniature. Two streets crossing one another
formed the town, and at their meeting stood the
governor's house. Before it was an open space, guarded
by four cannon, one to command each of the ways
which there met. On an eminence behind the town, but
within its precincts, stood the little meeting-house, which^
248 PURITANISM
besides serving the purpose of worship, was also a public
storehouse, a powder magazine, and a fort all in one,
protected with battlements and six cannon ā a combina-
tion of law and gospel, which not only served the
convenience, but w^as essential to the safety of the little
community. Each house was a substantial log-hut,
standing in its own enclosed patch of ground. Eound
the whole ran a palisade, the tun, which, as a distin-
guishing feature, so often gave its name to the Teutonic
settlements. Of the four entrances three were guarded
by gates, the fourth being sufficiently protected by the
fort or by the sea. Along the stream to the south was