of that branch known as the Pilgrims, who left England for Holland in 1607
and 1608, and who, after remaining there for nearly twelve years, had the
initiative to be the first of their band to come to the New World, and to
settle at Plymouth in 1620.

For more than thirty years he was governor of the Plymouth colony, and he
managed its affairs with the discretion of a Washington and the zeal of a
Cromwell. His _History_ tells the story of the Pilgrim Fathers from the
time of the formation of their two congregations in England, until 1647.

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF FIRST PARAGRAPH OF BRADFORD'S "HISTORY OF
PLYMOUTH PLANTATION"]

In 1897 the United States for the first time came into possession of the
manuscript of this famous _History of Plymouth Plantation_, which had in
some mysterious manner been taken from Boston in colonial times and had
found its way into the library of the Lord Bishop of London. Few of the
English seem to have read it. Even its custodian miscalled it The Log of
the Mayflower, although after the ship finally cleared from England, only
five incidents of the voyage are briefly mentioned: the death of a young
seaman who cursed the Pilgrims on the voyage and made sport of their
misery; the cracking of one of the main beams of the ship; the washing
overboard in a storm of a good young man who was providentially saved; the
death of a servant; and the sight of Cape Cod. On petition, the Lord Bishop
of London generously gave this manuscript of 270 pages to the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts. In a speech at the time of its formal reception, Senator
Hoar eloquently summed up the subject matter of the volume as follows:--

"I do not think many Americans will gaze upon it without a little
trembling of the lips and a little gathering of mist in the eyes, as they