The Women Who Came in the Mayflower | Page 2

waiting until shelter could be raised on shore, after the weeks of
confinement, must have challenged their physical and spiritual
fortitude.
There must have been exciting days for the women on shipboard and in
landing. There must have been hours of distress for the older and the
delight in adventure which is an unchanging trait of the young of every
race. Wild winds carried away some clothes and cooking-dishes from
the ship; there was a birth and a death, and occasional illness, besides
the dire seasickness. John Howland, "the lustie young man," fell

overboard but he caught hold of the topsail halyard which hung
extended and so held on "though he was sundry fathoms under water,"
until he was pulled up by a rope and rescued by a boat-hook. [Footnote:
Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; ch. 9.]
Recent research [Footnote: "The Mayflower," by H. G. Marsden; Eng.
Historical Review, Oct., 1904; The Mayflower Descendant, Jan., 1916]
has argued that the captain of The Mayflower was probably not Thomas
Jones, with reputation for severity, but a Master Christopher Jones of
kindlier temper. The former captain was in Virginia, in September,
1620, according to this account. With the most generous treatment
which the captain and crew could give to the women, they must have
been sorely tried. There were sick to be nursed, children to be cared for,
including some lively boys who played with powder and nearly caused
an explosion at Cape Cod; nourishment must be found for all from a
store of provisions that had been much reduced by the delays and
necessary sales to satisfy their "merchant adventurers" before they left
England. They slept on damp bedding and wore musty clothes; they
lacked exercise and water for drink or cleanliness. Joyful for them must
have been the day recorded by Winslow and Bradford, [Footnote:
Relation or Journal, etc. (1622).]--"On Monday the thirteenth of
November our people went on shore to refresh themselves and our
women to wash, as they had great need."
During the anxious days when the abler men were searching on land for
a site for the settlement, first on Cape Cod and later at Plymouth, there
were events of excitement on the ship left in the harbor. Peregrine
White was born and his father's servant, Edward Thompson, died.
Dorothy May Bradford, the girl-wife of the later Governor of the
colony, was drowned during his absence. There were murmurings and
threats against the leaders by some of the crew and others who were
impatient at the long voyage, scant comforts and uncertain future.
Possibly some of the complaints came from women, but in the hearts of
most of them, although no women signed their names, was the
resolution that inspired the men who signed that compact in the cabin
of The Mayflower,--"to promise all due submission and obedience."
They had pledged their "great hope and inward zeal of laying good

foundation for ye propagating and advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom
of Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though they should be
but as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so great a work";
with such spirit they had been impelled to leave Holland and such faith
sustained them on their long journey.
Many of the women who were pioneers at Plymouth had suffered
severe hardships in previous years. They could sustain their own hearts
and encourage the younger ones by remembrance of the passage from
England to Holland, twelve years before, when they were searched
most cruelly, even deprived of their clothes and belongings by the
ship's master at Boston. Later they were abandoned by the Dutchman at
Hull, to wait for fourteen days of frightful storm while their husbands
and protectors were carried far away in a ship towards the coast of
Norway, "their little ones hanging about them and quaking with cold."
[Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; ch. 2.]
There were women with frail bodies, like Rose Standish and Katherine
Carver, but there were strong physiques and dauntless hearts sustained
to great old age, matrons like Susanna White and Elizabeth Hopkins
and young women like Priscilla Mullins, Mary Chilton, Elizabeth
Tilley and Constance Hopkins. In our imaginations today, few women
correspond to the clinging, fainting figures portrayed by some of the
painters of "The Departure" or "The Landing of the Pilgrims." We may
more readily believe that most of the women were upright and alert,
peering anxiously but courageously into the future. Writing in 1910,
John Masefield said: [Footnote: Introduction to Chronicles of the
Pilgrim Fathers (Everyman's Library).] "A generation fond of pleasure,
disinclined towards serious thought, and shrinking from hardship, even
if it may be swiftly reached, will find it difficult to imagine the temper,
courage and manliness of the emigrants who made the first Christian
settlement of New England."