bodies... became decreped in their early youth, the vigour of nature being consumed in the very budd, as it were.

"But that which was . . . of all sorrows most heavie to be borne, - many of their children, by these occasions and the greate licentiousnes in that countrie, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away . . . into extravagante and dangerous courses, tending to dissolutenes and the danger of their souls."

Winslow (another Pilgrim historian) puts emphasis on a fourth reason, — a patriotic desire to establish themselves under the English flag, - one of their chief griefs in Holland being that their children intermarried with the Dutch and were drawn away from their English tongue and manners.

Of these four motives, the religious one was beyond doubt the weightiest. In Holland, there was no growth for their Society. It would die out, as the older members The repassed off the scene; and with it would die their ligious principles. But, if they established themselves motive in a New World, "a greate hope and inward zeall they had of laying some good foundation for the propagating and advancing the gospell of the kingdome of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so greate a work."

From the London Company the Pilgrims secured a grant of land and a charter; and, by entering into partnership with another group of London merchants, they The grant secured the necessary money. For many months, from the says Bradford, this opening business was "de- London Company layed by many rubbs; for the Virginia Counsell was so disturbed with factions as no bussines could goe forward." But when Sandys and the Puritan faction got control in that Company, the matter was quickly arranged,

the more quickly, perhaps, because Brewster, one of the Pilgrim leaders, had been a trusted steward of a manor belonging to the Sandys family.

The seventy "merchant adventurers" who furnished funds, subscribed stock in £10 shares. Captain John

Partnership

Smith says that by 1623 they had advanced more than $200,000 in modern values. Each emigrant was counted as holding one share for "adventuring" himself. with London That is, the emigrant and the capital that brought merchants him to America went into equal partnership. Each emigrant who furnished money or supplies was given more shares upon the same terms as the merchants. For seven years all wealth produced was to go into a common stock, but from that stock the colonists were to have "meate, drink, apparell, and all provissions." The partnership was then to be dissolved, each colonist and each merchant taking from the common property according to his shares of stock.

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The arrangement was clumsy, because it involved a system of labor in common; but it was generous toward the settlers. Penniless immigrants to Virginia became "servants," as separate, helpless individuals, to work for seven years under overseers and at the end of the time to receive merely their freedom and some wild land. The penniless Pilgrims were servants" for a time, in a sense; but only as one large body, and to a company of which they themselves were part and their persons were controlled, and their labors directed, by officers chosen by themselves from their own number. The settlers, it is true, felt aggrieved that the merchants did not grant them also for themselves one third of their time, together with the houses they might build and the land they might improve. But it is clear now that under such an arrangement the merchants would have lost their whole venture. As it was, they made no profit.

The May

Two heart-breaking years dragged along in these negotiations with the Virginia Company and the London merchants; and the season of 1620 was far flower wasted when (September 16) the Mayflower at last set sail. Most of the congregation stayed at Leyden to await the outcome of this first expedition, and only 102 of the more robust embarked for the venture.

They meant to settle "in the northern part of Virginia,” somewhere south of the Hudson. But the little vessel was tossed by the autumn storms until the captain lost his

THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT

53

reckoning; and they made land, after ten weeks, on the bleak shore of New England, already in the clutch of winter (November 21). The tempestuous season, and Settlement the dangerous shoals off Cape Cod, made it un- at Plymouth wise to continue the voyage. For some weeks they explored the coast in small boats, and finally decided to make their home at Plymouth; but it was not till the fourth day of January (New Style) that they "beganne to erecte the first

Any name of God Amen we whose names are underwriten the loyall subjects of our dread foueraigne Lord King fames, by yo grace of God, of great britaine, franc, & Ireland king defonder of & faith, or.

Haueing underfaken, for y glorie of god, and aduancements of christian, and honour of our king & countrid, a voyage to plant & first Colonie my Northerne parts of Virginia. Dod by these presents solemnly & mutualy in y presence of god, and one of another, Covenant, & Combine out felues togeather into a Ciuill body politick, fory Loher ordering, e preferuation & furtherance of ends aforesaid; and by vertue hear of to ɛnaite, Constitute, and frame shuch just & equal Lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meele & conuenient for generall good of y Colonie: wnto which we promifo all due submission and obedience. In wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names" at Cap = Codd.11. of Nouember, inyo year of fraigne of our soueraiyous Lord king James of England, france, & yveland & eighteen and of scolland & fifthe fourth fen. Dom. 1620]

witnes

THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT. From the original manuscript of Bradford's Plimouth Plantation.

house, for commone use, to receive them and their goods." Meantime, they had adopted the Mayflower Compact. The charter from the Virginia Company had provided that they should be governed by officers of their own The choosing. That grant, however, had no force Mayflower outside Virginia; and "some of the strangers 1 Compact among them let fall mutinous speeches," threatening "to

1 Part of the expedition had joined it in England, without previous connection with the Leyden congregation. They had also a few "servants."

use their own libertie." To prevent such anarchy, the Pilgrims, before landing, drew up and signed a "Compact,' believing "that shuch an acte by them done. . . might be as firme as any patent."

This famous agreement has sometimes been called, carelessly, a written constitution of an independent state. This it is not. It does not hint at independence, but expresses lavish allegiance to the English crown. And it is not a constitution though it does resemble a preamble to one it does not determine what officers there should be, or how or when they should be chosen, or what powers they should have. The signers declare their intention (in the absence of established authority) to maintain order by upholding the will of the majority of their own company. And herein lies the peculiar distinction of this document. It is the first of a long series of similar agreements in America, in regions where settlement has for a time outrun government, - first, on the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, then in the woods of Kentucky and Tennessee, then on the prairies of Illinois and Iowa, and very recently in Western mining Rare among other peoples, this characteristic and saving American genius for finding a basis for law and order in the supremacy of the common will dates from these early, humble English settlers at Plymouth.

A prelude to many

such agreements in America

camps.

The way in which the new government was put in action is told by Bradford in few words:

"Then [as soon as the compact had been signed, while still in the Mayflower cabin] they choose, or rather confirmed, Mr. John Carver their Gouvernor for that year. [Carver had probably been made governor before, under authority of the charter; such action would now need to be "confirmed."] And after they had provided a place for their goods . . . and begunne some small cottages, as time would admitte, they mette and consulted of lawes and orders."

Expectations of quick-won wealth in America still dazzled men's minds. In 1624 Captain John Smith wrote:

"I

DISAPPOINTMENTS AND HARDSHIPS

55

promise no Mines of gold; yet, . . . New England hath yeelded already, by generall computation, £100,000 at least in the fisheries. Therefore, honourable country- Expectations men let not the meanness of the word fish dis- of wealth taste you, for it will afford as good gold as the Mines of Guiana, or Potassie, with less hazard and charge, and more certainty." Individual traders, too, had sometimes made sudden fortunes in the fur trade. Accordingly, the Pilgrims expected to give most of their energies to these sources of magic riches. Pastor Robinson wrote, as late as June 14, 1620: "Let this spetially be borne in minde, that the greatest parte of the collonie is like to be imployed constantly, not upon dressing ther perticuler lands, and building houses, but upon fishing, trading, etc."

Such delusions faded quickly before stern facts. DisappointThe first months, in particular, were a time of cruel ments and hardship. Says Bradford,

hardships

"Now, summer being done, all things stand upon them with a wetherbeaten face; and the whole countrie, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hiew. . . . In 2 or 3 months time, halfe their company dyed . . . wanting houses and other comforts; [and of the rest] in the time of most distres, ther was but 6 or 7 sound persons" to care for all the sick and dying. Of the eighteen married women who landed in January, May found living only four. The settlement escaped the tomahawk that first terrible winter only because a plague (probably the smallpox, caught from some trading vessel) had destroyed the Indians in the neighborhood. But when Spring came and the Mayflower sailed for England, not one person of the steadfast colony went with her. In Holland they had carefully pondered the dangers that might assail them, and had highly concluded "that all grate and honorable actions must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courages."

For many years more the settlement had a stern struggle for bare life. For the fur trade, of course, the inexperienced Pilgrims were wholly unfit; and, in any case, to set up a