Nearly three hundred years ago, a great many of the people in England
were very unhappy because their king would not let them pray to God as
they liked. The king said they must use the same prayers that he did;
and if they would not do this, they were often thrown into prison, or
perhaps driven away from home.

"Let us go away from this country," said the unhappy Englishmen to
each other; and so they left their homes, and went far off to a
country called Holland. It was about this time that they began to call
themselves "Pilgrims." Pilgrims, you know, are people who are always
traveling to find something they love, or to find a land where they
can be happier; and these English men and women were journeying, they
said, "from place to place, toward heaven, their dearest country."

In Holland, the Pilgrims were quiet and happy for a while, but they
were very poor; and when the children began to grow up, they were not
like English children, but talked Dutch, like the little ones of
Holland, and some grew naughty and did not want to go to church any
more.

"This will never do," said the Pilgrim fathers and mothers; so after
much talking and thinking and writing they made up their minds to come
here to America. They hired two vessels, called the Mayflower and the
Speedwell, to take them across the sea; but the Speedwell was not a
strong ship, and the captain had to take her home again before she had
gone very far.

The Mayflower went back, too. Part of the Speedwell's passengers were
given to her, and then she started alone across the great ocean.