ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING


"So they left ye goodly and pleasante citie, which had been ther
resting-place near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, &
looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to ye
heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits."

--_Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantations. Chap. VII._

December weather in New England, even at its best, is a test of
physical endurance. With warm clothes and sheltering homes today, we
find compensations for the cold winds and storms in the exhilarating
winter sports and the good cheer of the holiday season.

The passengers of _The Mayflower_ anchored in Plymouth harbor,
three hundred years ago, lacked compensations of sports or fireside
warmth. One hundred and two in number when they sailed,--of whom
twenty-nine were women,--they had been crowded for ten weeks into a
vessel that was intended to carry about half the number of
passengers. In low spaces between decks, with some fine weather when
the open hatchways allowed air to enter and more stormy days when they
were shut in amid discomforts of all kinds, they had come at last
within sight of the place where, contrary to their plans, they were
destined to make their settlement.

At Plymouth, England, their last port in September, they had "been
kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there
dwelling," [Footnote: Relation or Journal of a Plantation Settled at