The Pilgrims of New England | Page 2

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. Winter having set in with
more than common severity, they felt that no more time could be
wasted in seeking for a better spot, on which to build their first
American habitations. Sickness also had begun to show itself among
the little band of men, women, and children who were all
unaccustomed to the hardships and confinement of a long voyage; and
it was necessary to disembark with all possible speed, and erect huts to
shelter them from the daily increasing inclemency of the weather. For
this purpose, the forests of oak, pine, juniper, and sassafras, that had
grown undisturbed for centuries along the coast, furnished them with
abundant materials; and the woods soon echoed to the unaccustomed

sound of the hatchet and the saw, at which all the men, of every rank
and condition, labored unremittingly, while the women and children
gathered up the great muscles, and other shell-fish, which abounded on
the shore, and collected dry wood for firing.
But before we follow the settlers in the detail of their sufferings and
trials, and of their ultimate success and prosperity, it will be needful to
go back a few years, and consider the motives that led these brave men
to expose themselves and their families to such severe hardships, and to
abandon their home and their kindred. A brief glance at their previous
history will suffice for this purpose.
It is well known that the Puritans were greatly dissatisfied with the state
of the Church in England at the time when James the First ascended the
throne of this country. From him they hoped for protection and
encouragement; but in this expectation they were grievously
disappointed. The conference at Hampton Court proved how little
sympathy he entertained for their party; and the convocation which was
held soon after utterly all their hopes. Already a considerable number
of these dissenters had joined themselves into what they called a
_'Church Estate,_ pledged to walk in God's ways,' and to renounce the
evil passions of the world. They had protested against