[Illustration: BREWSTER'S CHAIR. Now in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.]

VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER.--Led by Brewster, Bradford, and Standish, a party
of Pilgrims sailed from Holland in July, 1620, in the ship _Speedwell_;
were joined in England by a party from London in the _Mayflower_; and in
August both vessels put to sea. But the _Speedwell_ proved unseaworthy,
and all put back to Plymouth in England, where some gave up the voyage.
One hundred and two held fast to their purpose, and in September set sail
in the _Mayflower_. The voyage was long and stormy, and November came
before they sighted a sandy coast far to the northeastward of the
Delaware. For a while they strove hard to go southward; but adverse winds
drove them back, and they dropped anchor in Cape Cod Bay. [3]

THE LANDING.--The land here was within the territory of the Plymouth
Company. The Pilgrims, however, decided to stay and get leave to settle,
but this decision displeased some of them. A meeting, therefore, was held
in the ship's cabin (November 21, 1620), and the "Mayflower compact,"
binding all who signed it to obey such government as might be established,
was drawn up and signed by forty-one of the sixty-five men on the vessel.

This done, the work of choosing a site for their homes began, and for
several weeks little parties explored the coast before one of them entered
a harbor and selected a spot which John Smith had named Plymouth. [4] To
this harbor the _Mayflower_ was brought, and while the men were busy
putting up rude cabins, the women and children remained on the ship.

THE FIRST WINTER was a dreadful one. The Pilgrims lived in crowded
quarters, and the effects of the voyage and the severity of the winter
sent half of them to their graves before spring. But the rest never
faltered, and when the _Mayflower_ returned to England in April, not