| Chapter VII
Setting sail towards a little-known land
The Mayflower starts across the ocean, but 'to most
of these essentially plain farm folk, their real transport
was more their faith in God than their vessel.'
Prayer--an appeal for
God's guidance--came first into the minds of the Pilgrims
upon receipt of the news that their migration to the New World
was finally to get under way.
"They had a solemn meeting and a day of humiliation [fasting],
to seek the Lord for his direction," said Bradford. Their
pastor, Rev. Robinson, preached a sermon recounting the biblical
story of how "David asked counsel of the Lord." The clergyman
then spoke comforting words, "strengthening them against their
fears and perplexities; and encouraging them in their resolutions."
Even if the Pilgrims were all ready to go together, however,
they lacked the "means to have transported them." They decided
that if a majority were to have their affairs in order, and
thus be able to leave, Rev. Robinson would accompany them
as their pastor; if not, they desired that Brewster should
go as their elder.
Those going would "be an absolute church of themselves, as
well as those that stayed: seeing, in such a dangerous voyage
and a removal to such a distance, it might come to pass they
should, for the body of them, never meet again in this world."
Still, all would continue as members of the faith, whether
in Holland or the New World, "without any further dismission
(dismissal) or testimonial."
Winslow told of two other major decisions made by the congregation
at this time: "They that went should freely offer themselves"
and "the youngest and strongest part" should go first.
Another day of solemn humiliation was held when notice came
from Delftshaven--a port near Rotterdam on the River Maas
that was a little more than 20 miles to the southwest by canal--that
the Speedwell with its new masts and sails, was ready.
Rev. Robinson, the beloved pastor, preached his final sermon
for the departing Pilgrims. He read a lesson from the Bible
that to seek God was "a right way for us and for our children.
He spent a good part of the day very profitable and suitable
to their present condition," said Bradford, and there were
fervent prayers "mixed with abundance of tears."
Winslow later recalled some of the clergyman's words: "Whether
the Lord had appointed it or not, he charged us before God
and His blessed angels, to follow him no further than he followed
Christ."
The broad-minded pastor exhorted them that "if God should
reveal anything to us by any other instrument of His, to be
as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth
of his (Rev. Robinson's) ministry; for he was very confident
the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of
His holy word.
"Another thing he commended to us, was that we should use
all means to avoid and shake off the name of Brownist, being
a mere nickname and brand to make religion odious...and to
that end, said he, I should be glad if some godly minister
would go over with you before my coming."
The clergyman, who would be frustrated from ever going to
the New World, told them, "Be not loath to take another pastor
or teacher...for that flock that hath two shepherds is not
endangered but secured by it." The Pilgrims would hope for
years that Rev. Robinson would rejoin them, but in vain. Meanwhile,
his robe as teacher would be filled by Elder Brewster.
Next day most of this close-knit fellowship made the canal
passage together, moving through Delft, the Dutch capital
and burial place of the martyred champion of religious freedom,
William the Silent, and on to Delftshaven.
In a final remark on their departure from Leyden, Bradford
gave them the name by which they would generations later become
known to history:
"They know they were Pilgrims," he said, "and they
looked not much back on the pleasant city that had sheltered
them, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest
country, and quieted their spirits." Their final
hours with their friends--for most would never again see one
another on earth--were poignantly described by Bradford:
"When they came to the place (Delftshaven), they found the
ship and all things ready; and such of their friends as could
not come (to the New World) with them, followed after them;
and sundry also came from Amsterdam to see them shipped, and
to take their leave of them.
"That night was spent with little sleep by the most; but with
friendly entertainment, and Christian discourse, and other
real expressions of true Christian love.
"The next day, the wind being fair, they went aboard and their
friends with them; when truly doleful was the sight of that
sad and mournful parting. To see what sighs and sobs and prayers
did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye,
and pithy speeches pierced each heart: that sundry of the
Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectator, could
not refrain from tears.
"But the tide, which stays for no man, calling them away that
were thus loath to depart: there reverend Pastor, falling
down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks,
commended them, with most fervent prayer, to the Lord and
his blessing. And then, with mutual embraces and many tears,
they took their leaves one of another; which proved to be
the last leave to many of them."
A martial touch--for all ships, in fear of pirates, traveled
armed in those days--was recalled by Winslow:
"We gave them a volley of small shot (musket fire) and of
three pieces of ordnance. And so lifting up our hands to each
other; and our hearts for each other to the Lord our God,
we departed--and found His presence with us, in the midst
of our manifold straits that He carried us through."
It was Saturday, July 22, 1620. The Speedwell went past the
Hook of Holland" at the mouth of the Maas, and across the
North Sea to the English Channel. They had a "prosperous wind"
and in a short time the small ship entered the great harbor
of Southampton, where the Pilgrims found the Mayflower from
London already berthed, and the Strangers who would make up
the rest of their company.
There was "a joyful welcome and mutual congratulations," said
Bradord, "with other friendly entertainments..."
There were familiar faces: Carver and Cushman, so long away
on months of negotiation and preparation; and most of all
there was their elder, Brewster--though he was constrained
to some disguise until distance should give him a feeling
of security from sudden arrest.
This was the first meeting of the Pilgrims and the Strangers--men,
women and children recruited mostly in and about London, East
Anglia and the southeastern section of England.
For most of the Strangers, though they would become known
as Pilgrim forefathers, the attractions offered by the adventurers
were chiefly economic--a chance to own land, and to escape
the poverty being spread in England by inflation and by farmers
being forced from their land for the more profitable raising
of sheep.
If all the hired hands and servants were excluded, the Strangers
would come close to outnumbering the Pilgrims.
One of the Strangers was Capt. Myles Standish--in his mid
30s, a short man with a florid countenance, a man who had
served with the English volunteers fighting in Holland to
aid the Dutch, and who would become the Pilgrims' celebrated
military right arm in the New World. Two other Strangers would
become assistant governors: Stephen Hopkins, who had already
made one trip to the New World and had been shipwrecked in
Bermuda; and Richard Warren, a London merchant.
The Strangers brought problems, too--in the form of the profane
John Billington of London, whom the Pilgrims would have to
hang a decade later for murder; and of two of Hopkins young
servants, who would fight a duel.
There were five hired hands: a cooper and four sailors. The
cooper, a 21-year-old blond man from East Anglia, was John
Alden. Alden would settle in the New World and marry the daughter
of a Stranger, Priscilla Mullins, who would utter the legendary
words to her hesitant lover, "Why don't you speak for yourself,
John?"
The lean purse of the Pilgrims and the tightfisted behavior
of the adventurers underscored money problems at Southampton.
These were compounded by differences that arose among the
three men who had obtained the provisions--at three different
places, a fact that had evoked the disapproval of Thomas Weston.
Especially disturbing to Cushman, who played the impossible
role of diplomat, was the attitude of Christopher Martin,
named a purchasing agent to represent the Strangers, had been
chosen treasurer by the adventurers.
A stubborn man, Martin purchased freely, without consulting
the Pilgrim agents, and drove the Pilgrims' financing into
a muddle that years of effort would fail to clarify or correct.
Cushman said that nearly 700 pounds had been spent at Southampton,
"upon what I know not." Martin, Cushman protested, "saith,
he neither can, nor will, give any account of it. And if he
is called upon for accounts, he crieth out of unthankfulness
for his pains and care, that we are suspicious of him: and
flings away...Who will go and lay out money so rashly and
lavishly as he did, and never know how he comes by it?"
Ominously the Speedwell, which had shown some sailing quirks
on the passage from Holland, cut into the Pilgrims' skimpy
funds. It had to be "twice trimmed at Southampton."
The worst moments at Southampton, though, came with the arrival
of Thomas Weston, and with his efforts to get the emigrants
to agree to the altered terms demanded by some of the adventurers
in the seven-year contract. On this, the irascible Martin
felt like the people from Leyden: The adventureres, Martin
told Cushman, "were bloodsuckers!" (Martin must have meant
this for all the others, for he had ventured 50 pounds himself.)
CAPT. JOHN SMITH,
IN HIS GENERALL HISTORIE wrote that the adventurers were about
70 in number--"some gentlemen, some merchants, some handycrafts
men, some adventuring great sums, some small, as their estates
and affection served." They were a voluntary combination,
not a corporation, and "dwelt mostly about London."
The adventurers well knew, Smith said, that establishing a
plantation could not be done "without charge, loss and crosses."
Many would "adventure no more," because the general stock
had already cost 7000 pounds.
Weston, clearly not an entirely free agent, was "much offended
when the Pilgrims told him that he knew right well the original
terms, and that their agents had been enjoined when they left
Leyden not to agree to any new terms "without the consent
of the rest that were behind." And when they told him that
the enterprise needed "well near 100 pounds" to clear Southampton,
Weston told them that he would not dispense another penny.
He promptly headed back to London, telling the Pilgrims angrily
that they could now "stand on their own legs."
After a discussion, the conscientious Pilgrims wrote a letter
to the merchants and adventurers making a new offer.
They expressed their sorrow that "any difference at all be
conceived between us." They said that the possibility of owning
their own houses and lands "was one special motive, amongst
many others, to provoke us to go," and that they had never
given Cushman assent to make the change designating such property
part of the company's stock. Still, they offered, "that if
large profits should not arise within the seven years, that
we will continue together longer with you, if the Lord give
a blessing."
They understood, they said, that three-fourths of the adventurers
were not insisting on the harsher terms; and as for their
own plight:
"We are in such strait at present as we are forced to sell
away 60 pounds worth of our provisions, to clear the haven
(the port); and withal put ourselves upon great extremities;
scarce having any butter, no oil, not a sole to mend a shoe,
nor every man a sword to his side; wanting (lacking) many
muskets, much armor, etc. And yet we are willing to expose
ourselves to such eminent dangers as are like to ensue, and
trust to the good Providence of God..."
Capt. Smith, a tireless promoter of plantations in New England,
later put in perspective what the Pilgrims were about to do.
Since his explorations of New England in 1614, Smith wrote,
the region's fame had grown so "that 30, 40 or 50 sail went
yearly only to trade and fish.
"But nothing would be done for a plantation till about some
100 of your Brownists of England, Amsterdam and Leyden, went
to New Plymouth: whose humorous ignorances caused them, for
more than a year, to endure a wonderful deal of misery with
an infinite patience; saying my book and maps were much better
cheap to teach them than myself."
Smith had offered his services to the Pilgrims and had been
turned down. After all, they did not think they were headed
for New England; and Weston and Cushman had already hired
pilots who had been to America. Anyway, they did indeed have
Smith's book and maps.
Departure this time included no farewells from friends.
A governor, with two or three assistants, was chosen for both
of the vessels "to order the people...and to see to the disposing
of provisions and such like affairs." All this was agreeable
to the skippers of the ships. Martin was chosen for the Mayflower,
Cushman for the Speedwell.
About the only ceremony was a calling together of all the
company to hear a letter that had arrived from Rev. Robinson.
He wished he could be with them. He had final words of advice,
especially that, since they were about to govern their own
affairs, they choose people who "do entirely love and will
promote the common good...yielding unto them all due honor
and obedience in their lawful administrations..."
The two vessels sailed Aug. 5--belatedly, but not
yet disastrously late if all would soon go well. [1st try]
But they had not gone far before Master Reynolds found the
Speedwell so leaky that "he durst not put further
to sea till she was mended." He signaled Christopher Jones
of the Mayflower, and came aboard the larger vessel
to confer, and they decided to put into the port of Dartmouth
for repairs. Reynolds had abundant grounds for concern.
Cushman, feeling ill, was deeply disturbed about trying to
justify his actions accepting the oppressive seven-year contract,
and further upset by Martin's high-handed treatment of the
Pilgrims and sailors aboard the Mayflower. He wrote
of his troubles to a friend in London, and also told about
the Speedwell's shocking condition:
"She is as open and leaky as a sieve; and there was a board
two feet long, a man might have pulled off with his fingers,
where the water came in as at a mole hole...If we had stayed
at sea but three or four hours more she would have sunk right
down."
Earlier, the need to trim Speedwell twice at Southampton
had consumed an extra week of fair weather. "Now we lie here
waiting for her in as fair a wind as can blow...Our victuals
will be half eaten up, I think, before we go from the coast
of England, and if our voyage last long, we shall not have
a mouth's victuals when we come in the country."
Bradford said that the Speedwell was "thoroughly
searched from stem to stern, some leaks were found and mended,
and now it was conceived by the workmen and all, that she
was sufficient, and they might proceed without either fear
or danger." They set out again on Aug. 23 "with good
hopes." [2nd try.]
But all was not well. By the time they were more than 100
leagues (roughly 300 miles) at sea--well into the Atlantic
and far beyond Land's End--Master Reynolds again signaled
for a conference. Frantic pumping could "barely keep up with
the leaks" in the Speedwell. Reynolds said he must
"bear up or sink at sea." So they turned back and put into
the nearest big port. Plymouth Harbor, where they were certain
to obtain expert help.
This harbor, in the western part of England and the English
Channel, had long been famous in England's wars, seafaring
and worldwide exploration. The governor of both the fort and
port was a man of ancient English lineage, Sir Fernando Gorges,
one of the foremost champions of plantations in the New World.
Gorges, now in his mid-50s, was a soldier--knighted by the
earl of Essex on the battlefield--and a courtier with considerable
influence with King James. At the very moment the Pilgrims
arrived in the port, Gorges had pending before the Privy Council
his request for a new charter to convert the old Virginia
Company of Plymouth into the Council for New England.
No one would be happier than Gorges at the sight of these
two vessels entering his harbor--vessels intending to voyage
to the New World to begin a plantation. This was something
Gorges had been trying to achieve since the beginning of the
century, when a returning explorer, George Wymouth, presented
him with some Indians--an event that aroused Gorges' hopes
of using the Indians as interpreters and guides in founding
colonies.
Gorges, who would become know as the "Father of Maine" though
he would not personally ever set foot in America, had steadfastly
persisted in his efforts despite repeated and costly failures.
Right now, he was being forwarded reports from the explorer-trader-agent,
Capt. Thomas Dermer, whom he had sent to the Plymouth area
marked on Capt. Smith's map--the identical area where these
Pilgrims would by chance [where God is involved, rabbi's say
the word coincidence (or chance) is not a Kosher
word] establish New England's first permanent English plantation.
The Pilgrims were well-received by Gorges' people and by the
townspeople while Speedwell was examined once again.
The finding, though, was not good.
"No special leak could be found," said Bradford, "but it was
judged to be the general weakness of the ship, and that she
would not prove sufficient for the voyage. Upon which it was
resolved to dismiss her and part of the company, and proceed
with the other ship. The which, though it was grievous and
caused great discouragement, was put in execution."
Provisions and supplies had to be transferred from the Speedwell's
hold to the Mayflower. The worst wrench was that the number
of passengers had to be reduced by 20. Still, Bradford observed,
"those that went back were for the most part such as were
willing to do so, either out of some discontent or fear they
conceived of the ill success of the voyage..."
Among them was Cushman, still ill, and feeling the unmerited
harassment that he was bearing "like a bundle of lead...crushing
my heart." Bradford in his journals quoted Cushman, in a letter
to a friend in London, as seeing "the dangers of this voyage
[as]...no less deadly...If ever we make a plantation, God
works a miracle!" Such, said Bradford, were Cushman's fears
at Dartmouth; and, he added, "They must needs be much stronger
now..."
This was severe on Cushman. Bradford was equally severe on
Master Reynolds. Bradford agreed that overmasting--putting
excessively large masts into the reconditioned Speedwell--had
naturally opened its seams when the ship was under heavy sail.
But he suspected that Reynolds had done this deliberately
when supplies seemed to be falling low, so that he and the
crew, signed on for a year, could get out of their contract.
In after years, Bradford noted, once the Speedwell was refitted
she "made many voyages...to the great profit of her owner..."
Overall, the Speedwell venture had turned out ruinously
in loss of time; and this loss, protracting the Pilgrims'
passage into the raging autumnal storms of the Atlantic, would
contribute to exacting a dreadful toll in lives of the brave
men and women and children--and tragically as well in those
of the crew.
Already it was some 45 days since they had left Holland--sufficient
time to have completed a normal crossing of the Atlantic--and
the Pilgrims only now saw the sails raised and the vessel
about to depart from Plymouth Harbor.
It was Sept. 6. [3rd try, final departure.]
They had, said Bradford, "a prosperous wind which continued
divers days together" as their passage resumed. Many, though,
were shortly "afflicted with seasickness."
Soon they again passed Land's End and the Isles of Scilly.
They were beyond the English Channel. Ahead of them--the only
thing between them and the New World--was the Atlantic Ocean,
a vast, awesome expanse.
To most of those essentially plain farm folks, their real
transport was more their faith in God than their vessel.
And of this faraway land they hoped to reach, their future
home, what was known to these Pilgrims in the year 1620? What
had been discovered?
IN HIS DIARIES, BRADFORD TOLD OF EXPLORATIONS
in future New England, in particular mentioning explorers
Bartholomew Gosnold, who in 1602 christened Cape Cod--where
the Pilgrims would make their first New World landfall--and
Thomas Dermer, who visited the future Plymouth at Gorges'
behest "but four months" before the Pilgrims would arrive
there. [If this wasn't a Providential setup, I'll eat my hat!]
One explorer, 23-year-old Martin Pring, began voyaging to
America in 1603. He made landfall in present Maine, then came
down the coast to future Plymouth, which the Patuxet Indians
called Accomack. Unlike the Pilgrims, he found no dearth of
Indians. They came, he said in a later account, "sometimes
10, 20, 40 or threescore, and at one time 120 at once..."
By the time the next major English explorer, Capt. Smith,
came to the same harbor in 1614, England had its first colony
in North America, struggling and suffering Jamestown. Smith
had been part of that colony, serving as its governor and,
later, as its historian.
Now, however, he was on an expedition of two ships, financed
by four London merchants, with orders "to take whales and
make trials of a mine of gold and copper." They chased, but
could catch no whales. There were no mines, either, so they
turned to fish and furs. While thirty-seven of his crew fished
off Maine's Monhegan Island, Smith and eight or nine of his
sailors ranged the coast, trading for beaver, marten and otter
skins.
On his famous exploration of the coast from the Penobscot
River in Maine to the tip of Cape Cod, Smith found the Indians
were friendly in general: and even after a scrap at future
Plymouth, all again "became friends." In his search he found,
he said: "Not one Christian in all the land."
Smith's records have told us of "a vile act" that occurred
after he started back to England. The captain of the other
ship in the expedition, Thomas Hunt, tried slaving on his
own. He took seven Nauset Indians and twenty Patuxets, the
latter at future Plymouth, and sold them as slaves in Spain.
(Monks at Malaga later purchased the Indians their freedom.)
Although he was blacklisted from future employment in England,
Hunt's slaving brought retaliatory misery to later seafarers
coming to the New England coast. For the Pilgrims six years
later, it would bring difficulty and anxiety.
Ironically, though, Hunt's despicable behavior preserved
the life of an Indian vital to the Pilgrims, Squanto, later
described by Bradford as "a special instrument sent by God"
to help the new inhabitants. Squanto, also known as Tisquantum,
was among the Patuxets kidnaped by Hunt--and thus was saved
from the plague that would destroy all other members of his
tribe.
[The Divine setup continues, full force now.] In 1617 Capt.
Dermer, who had been on several voyages to the New World,
was in Newfoundland as Gorges' agent when he encountered Squanto,
who was trying to get back to his kin at Accomack (Plymouth).
Dermer at once saw an opportunity to help colonization. With
consenting Squanto, he headed back across the Atlantic to
Plymouth, England, to consult Gorges. [Had Squanto made it
back to Accomack at this time, he probably would have died
with the rest of his tribe in that plague.]
As Bradford would at a later date, Gorges saw Squanto as help
from Heaven. "It pleased God so to work for our encouragement
again," said Gorges, "as he sent into our hands Tisquantum...formerly
betrayed by this unworthy Hunt." Thus, said Gorges, "there
was hope conceived to work a peace between us and his friends,
they being the principal inhabitants of that coast..."
Gorges accordingly dispatched Dermer in 1619, along with Squanto,
to join others of Gorges' ships in New England. While most
of his men and boys fished off Monhegan Island, Dermer set
off on May 19 in a five-ton pinnace to explore the coast.
He took five or six crewmen with him, and Squanto as his guide.
"I passed alongst the coast where I found some ancient plantations,
not long since populous, now utterly void; in other places
a remnant remains, but not free of sickness. Their disease:
the plague, for we might perceive the sores of some that had
escaped, who described the spots of such as usually die,"
Dermer wrote to England.
Smith, telling of Dermer's experience and of the reports had
received--presumably from some of Dermer's crew--saw the effect
of the mysterious plague as an advantage to prospective planters.
"God," said Smith, "had laid this country open to us, and
slain most part of the inhabitants by cruel wars and a mortal
disease; for where I had seen 100 or 200 people there is scarce
10 to be found.
For Squanto, there were to be no kin to give him a homecoming.
When he and Dermer arrived at the seat of the Patuxet tribe,
where the Pilgrims would finally find asylum, they found "all
dead." Their cleared land, untended lands at the head of Plymouth
Harbor, as Smith suggested, awaited newcomers.
Of this place Dermer--who after wintering in Southern Virginia
made a second trip to future Plymouth just a few weeks before
Pilgrims left Delftshaven--wrote to Gorges: "I would
that the first plantation might here be seated."
Below: A map of sailing routes
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