from England and Holland were buried on Plymouth hillside during the
winter and spring. They were: Rose Standish; Elizabeth, wife of Edward
Winslow; Mary, wife of Isaac Allerton; Sarah, wife of Francis Eaton;
Katherine, wife of Governor John Carver; Alice, wife of John Rigdale;
Ann, wife of Edward Fuller; Bridget and Ann Tilley, wives of John and
Edward; Alice, wife of John Mullins or Molines; Mrs. James Chilton;
Mrs. Christopher Martin; Mrs. Thomas Tinker; possibly Mrs. John
Turner, and Ellen More, the orphan ward of Edward Winslow. Nearly
twice as many men as women died during those fateful months of
1621. Can we "imagine" the courage required by the few women who
remained after this devastation, as the wolves were heard howling in
the night, the food supplies were fast disappearing, and the houses of
shelter were delayed in completion by "frost and much foul weather,"
and by the very few men in physical condition to rive timber or to
thatch roofs? The common house, twenty foot square, was crowded with
the sick, among them Carver and Bradford, who were obliged "to rise in
good speed" when the roof caught on fire, and their loaded muskets in
rows beside the beds threatened an explosion. [Footnote: Mourt's
Relation.]

Although the women's strength of body and soul must have been sapped
yet their fidelity stood well the test; when _The Mayflower_ was
to return to England in April and the captain offered free passage to
the women as well as to any men who wished to go, if the women "would
cook and nurse such of the crew as were ill," not a man or a woman
accepted the offer. Intrepid in bravery and faith, the women did their
part in making this lonely, impoverished settlement into a home. This
required adjustments of many kinds. Few in number, the women
represented distinctive classes of society in birth and education. In
Leyden, for seven years, they had chosen their friends and there they