troubles on the voyage [of the MAY-FLOWER] out; and of many of the deaths
at Plymouth in New England in the course of the following Spring; for
they overmasted the vessel, and by so doing strained her hull while
sailing." To this straining, Arber wholly ascribes the "leakiness" of
the SPEEDWELL and the delay in the final departure of the MAYFLOWER, to
which last he attributes the disastrous results he specifies. It would
seem that the historian, unduly elated at what he thought the discovery
of another "turning-point of modern history," endeavors to establish it
by such assertions and such partial references to Bradford as would
support the imaginary "find." Briefly stated, this alleged discovery,
which he so zealously announces, is that if the SPEEDWELL had not been
overmasted, both she and the MAY-FLOWER would have arrived early in the
fall at the mouth of the Hudson River, and the whole course of New
England history would have been entirely different. Ergo, the
"overmasting" of the SPEEDWELL was a "pivotal point in modern history."
With the idea apparently of giving eclat to this announcement and of
attracting attention to it, he surprisingly charges the responsibility
for the "overmasting" and its alleged dire results upon the leaders of
the Leyden church, "who were," he repeatedly asserts, "alone
responsible." As a matter of fact, however, Bradford expressly states
(in the same paragraph as that upon which Professor Arber must wholly
base his sweeping assertions) that the "overmasting" was but "partly"
responsible for the SPEEDWELL'S leakiness, and directly shows that the
"stratagem" of her master and crew, "afterwards," he adds, "known, and by
some confessed," was the chief cause of her leakiness.

Cushman also shows, by his letter,--written after the ships had put back
into Dartmouth,--a part of which Professor Arber uses, but the most
important part suppresses, that what he evidently considers the principal
leak was caused by a very "loose board" (plank), which was clearly not