stayed, though the faith which inspired them was stanch, and the voices
which chanted them musical and sweet, could not restrain the tears that
flowed at the severing of ties which had been welded by exile, hardship,
and persecution for conscience' sake; nor were the two "feasts" which
comforted the bellies of the departing ones able to console their hearts.
It is different with trips across the Atlantic nowadays: and different,
likewise, are the motives which prompt them.

The "Speedwell" turned back at Plymouth, England, and the "Mayflower"
went on alone, with her company of one hundred and two, including women,
some of whom were soon to be mothers. The Atlantic, though a good friend
of theirs, was rough and boisterous in its manners, and tossed them on
their way rudely; in that little cabin harrowing discomfort must have been
undergone, and Christian forbearance sorely tried. The pitching and
tossing lasted more than two months, from the 6th of September till the
7th of December, when they sighted--not the Bay of New York, as they had
intended, but the snow-covered sand mounds of Cape Cod. It was at best an
inhospitable coast, and the time of their visit could not have been worse
chosen.

But indeed they were to be tested to the utmost; their experiences during
that winter would have discouraged oak and iron; but it had no such effect
upon these English men and women of flesh and blood. The New England
winter climate has its reputation still; but these people were not fit for
the encounter. They had been living in the moist mildness of Holland for
thirteen years, and for more than sixty days had been penned in that
stifling "Mayflower" cabin, seasick, bruised and sleepless. It sleeted,
snowed, rained and froze, and they could find no place to get ashore on;
their pinnace got stove, and the icy waves wet them to the marrow.
Standish and some others made explorations on land; but found nothing