The Pilgrims of New England | Page 5

much present inconvenience, for, not
being able to procure another vessel to convey the remainder of the
passengers who had embarked in the Speedwell, they were all obliged
to be crowded into the Mayflower, which sailed again on the sixth of
September, 1620, with considerably upwards of a hundred men, women,
and children on her narrow decks, in addition to her own crew of
seamen.
After a very tedious and tempestuous voyage, they came in sight of the
American shores on the eighth of November; and, as we have already
seen, they landed three days afterwards in Cape Cod Bay, and
eventually founded the city of New Plymouth at the place of their
disembarkation. A portion of the granite rock on which the Pilgrim
Fathers first set foot has since been removed from the coast, and placed
in front of' ‘The Pilgrim's Hall,' enclosed in an iron railing; and the
anniversary of their landing, afterwards called Forefather's-day, has
ever since been observed by their descendants as a day of solemn
festivity, in remembrance of the mercy of Providence, which led them
safely through so many difficulties and dangers; and permitted them to
find a new home, and a new country, and to bring their enterprise to
such a prosperous issue.
It is with the first period of their establishment on the uncultivated

shores of North America that our story commences; and it is connected
with the sufferings and privations which were so patiently endured, and
the difficulties which were so resolutely overcome, by these devoted
men, before they had taken root in their new settlement, or gathered
around themselves and their families the comforts which they had
abandoned in their own land for conscience sake. Many trials awaited
them ere prosperity became their portion, and ere they could feel either
rest or security in the wild regions where they had sought a refuge: and
these trials will be brought more distinctly to our minds, if we view
them in connection with some of the individuals of the expedition, and
follow the fortunes of one family more particularly. This family we will
call by the name of Maitland, and endeavor in their somewhat
imaginary history, to describe the mode of life, and some of the joys
and sorrows--the difficulties and successes--of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Owing to the many delays which the emigrants had experienced, a
severe winter had set in before they landed, and had fixed a spot for
their permanent abode; and they found themselves exposed to the
inclemency of a North climate, with no other shelter than a few tents,
besides that which the vessel continued to afford. In haste they felled
the trees of the neighboring forests; and in haste they constructed the
village of log huts which was to be their present abode, and which,
ultimately, grew into the flourishing and wealthy city of New Plymouth.
In the erection of this hamlet, no head was so fertile in plans and
expedients, and no arms were so strong to execute them, as those of
Rodolph Maitland, the head of the family in whom we are specially
interested. He was a younger member of a very respectable family in
the North of England, and had passed his youth and early manhood in
the service of his country as a soldier. This profession, however,
became distasteful to him when the religious dissensions which
troubled the land called on him, at times, to obey his commander in
carrying out schemes of oppression which were contrary both to his
feelings and his principles. His marriage with Helen Seatown, the
daughter of a nonconforming minister, increased his repugnance to
bearing arms, which might be turned against the party to which he was
now so closely connected; and he threw up his commission, and soon
afterwards accompanied his father-in-law to Holland, and joined the
congregation of the respected Robinson at Leyden.

Here he continued to reside until the resolution to emigrate was formed
by the Puritan refugees, when he was among the first to embrace the
proposition of the pastor, and to lend all the aid which his comparative
wealth, and the influence of his connections in England, enabled him to
offer in furtherance of the enterprise. His father-in- law had died soon
after his arrival at Leyden; but his amiable and devoted wife was most
willing to follow him in his voluntary exile, and to take her children to
the New World, where she hoped to bring them up in the same
principles of pure evangelical religion which she had learnt from her
own parents, and which were dearer to her than home or friends or
aught on earth besides.
At the time when the Pilgrims reached America, the Maitland’s family
consisted of two sons, Henrich and Ludovico; the elder of whom was
sixteen years