"So," says Bradford, " after a long waiting, and large expenses, though he kept not day with them, yet he came at length and took them in the night. And when he had them and their goods aboard, he betrayed them; having beforehand complotted with the searchers and other officers so to do; who took them and put them into open boats, and there rifled and ransacked them, searching them to their very shirts for money; yea, even the women, further than became modesty; and then carried them back into the town, and made them a spectacle and a wonderment to the people who came flocking on all sides to behold them."* Stripped of their money, books and goods, they were brought before the magistrates and committed to prison; when, after being detained a month, the greater part were dismissed; but seven of the principal men were kept in prison to the next assizes. Among those who were set free, was Bradford, then a young man of 18 years; who, after many perils by land and sea, found his way to Holland. Brewster was among the number of those detained in prison.

The next year (1608), a large number agreed with the master of a Dutch ship to take them in between Grimsby and Hull, "where was a large common a good way distant from any town." The women and children and goods were sent to the place in a small bark, while the men were to make the best of their way by land. The bark arriving a day too soon, and the sea being rough, the women prevailed with the seamen to put in at a small creek, where at low water they were aground. "The next morning the ship came; the captain sent his boats to bring off the men whom he saw walking on the shore. But after the first boat-full was got aboard, and he was ready to go for more, the master espied a great company both horse and foot, with bills, and guns, and other weapons, for the country was raised to take them." "The Dutchman seeing that," says Bradford, "swore his country's oath, and having the wind fair, weighed anchor, hoisted sails, and away." "But the poor men which were got on board, were in great distress for their wives and children, which they saw thus to be taken; and even left destitute of their helps; and themselves also not having a cloth to shift them with more than they had on their backs, and scarce a penny about them; all they had being on board the bark. It drew tears from their eyes, and anything they had, they would have given to be on shore again." Bradford might well attest this, for he was among those on board the ship. A storm arose. For seven days they saw neither sun, moon, nor stars. They were driven to the coast of Norway. The mariners themselves gave up hopes of life, and once with shrieks and cries gave over all as if the ship had been * Bradford, in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims.

*

foundered in the sea. But when the men's help wholly failed," says Bradford," the Lord's power and mercy appeared for their recovery; for the ship rose again, and gave the mariners courage again to manage her; and if modesty should suffer me," says Bradford, "I might declare with what fervent prayers they cried unto the Lord in their great distress, especially some of them, even without any distraction, when the water ran into their very ears and mouths, and the mariners cried out, We sink,-they cried, Yet, Lord, thou canst save; yet, Lord, thou canst save."

That ship bore the destinies of New England. It was not the will of God that she should perish. The storm abated; they arrived at their haven.

But that pitiful group of their companions left on the shore, and on that bark :-the men seeing the troops surrounding them made their escape; all save some who offered themselves to remain, to do what could be done for the women and children. "But it was pitiful," says Bradford, "to see the heavy case of these poor women in this distress; what weeping and crying on every side; some for their husbands that were carried away in the ship; others not knowing what should become of their little ones: others melted in tears, seeing their poor ones hanging about them, crying for fear and quaking with cold."

The women were apprehended, and hurried with their children from place to place, from one magistrate to another. To imprison women and innocent children for no crime than that of going with their husbands and fathers, seemed hard. They had no houses to which the magistrates might send them: their houses and livings being sold. They were, however, made to suffer for some time, till at length their persecutors, not knowing what to do with them, suffered them to go at large.

These were the mothers of New England. This was the beginning of their pilgrimage. It was with more comfort and hope, twelve years after this, that they greeted the wintry coasts and unbroken forests of the New England shore.

Under such perils and difficulties, did the Pilgrim Fathers commence their wanderings. Another summer, and the husbands and wives and children, were gathered together in Holland, where they could worship God in peace.

XI.

THE VOYAGE TO AMERICA.

Question of Removal. Meeting for Deliberation. Guiana. Application to the King. The Arrangements. Farewell Meeting. Parting at DelftHaven. The Departure. The Mayflower upon the Ocean. The Compact. Provincetown Harbor. Landing at Plymouth.

THE Pilgrims, now arrived in the Low Countries, found themselves strangers and homeless in a strange land. The language, the customs, the dress, the employments of the people,-all were strange. The scanty resources of the Pilgrims having been much diminished by disadvantageous sales, by the plunderings of their persecutors, and by the expenses of their embarkation and voyage, they found immediate need of their best foresight and endeavor, to sustain themselves and their children. "For," says Bradford, " though they saw fair and beautiful cities flowing with abundance of all sorts of wealth and riches, yet it was not long before they saw the grim and grizzled face of poverty coming on them like an armed man, with whom they must encounter, and from whom they could not flee."

But even then, religion and Heaven were uppermost in their minds. These were the difficulties which they had looked in the face from the beginning; and when the trial came they were neither disappointed nor dismayed.

Finding their brethren of the Churches, of Johnson, Ainsworth, and Smith, who had come out before them, now fallen into unhappy disputes at Amsterdam, where the Pilgrim Church came first to sojourn; they thought it best to remove before they were any way engaged in these dissensions. They removed to Leyden, "a fair and beautiful city," says Bradford, "and a sweet situation; but wanting in that traffic by sea which Amsterdam enjoyed, it was not so beneficial for their outward means of living and estates." "Being now here pitched, they fell to such trades and employments as they best could; valuing peace and their spiritual comfort above any

*

riches whatsoever; and at length they came to raise a competent and comfortable living, with hard and continual labor."

Bradford, the future Governor of Plymouth Colony, bound himself apprentice to a silk-dyer. Brewster became a teacher, and afterwards a printer; giving to the world such books as the press was not allowed to strike off in England. "Being thus settled," says Bradford, "they continued many years in a comfortable condition, enjoying much sweet and delightful society." "And many came unto them from divers parts of England, so as they grew a great congregation."* The number of communicants in the Church appears to have been about 300. "Never," said the magistrates of the city, after these people had continued among them for ten years, "Never did we have any suit or accusation against any of them." "Such was the humble zeal and fervent love of this people towards God and his ways," says Bradford," that they seemed to come surprisingly near the primitive pattern of the first Churches." They lived together in love and peace all their days, without any considerable differences, or any disturbances that grew thereby, but such as was easily healed in love; and so they continued, until by mutual consent they removed into New England."

66

It was in the year 1617 that the Pilgrims began to discuss the question of removing to America. The thought originated with Robinson and Brewster; who, after mature deliberation, imparted their thoughts to other members of the congregation.† Bradford and Winslow, who both participated in these deliberations, have set down the reasons which weighed for this removal. The country was hard; many had spent their estates and had been forced to return to England. Most of them were in adult life, and some far advanced in years when they were driven from home by persecution; and now" old age began to come on some of them." 66 Many of their children," says Bradford, "that were of the best dispositions and gracious inclinations, having learned to bear the yoke in their youth, and willing to bear part of their parents' burden, were oftentimes so oppressed with their heavy labors, that although their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed down under the weight of the same, and became decrepit in their very youth." But the prevalent licentiousness of the youth around them, the numerous temptations and evil examples of the place, were sources of great apprehension to the Pilgrims. "Some became soldiers; others took upon them far voyages by sea, and others some worse courses tending to dissoluteness and danger of their souls." The Sabbath was almost universally profaned in Holland. This was a great grief to the Pilgrims, and a snare to their children. They were loth that *Bradford in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims.

† Winslow.

their posterity should live under any other government than that of England. "Lastly," says Gov. Bradford, " (and that was not least) a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundations, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ in these remote parts of the world," though they should be as stepping-stones unto others for performing so great a work." Well were these reasons for removal weighed. Well were the dangers considered. The Pilgrims were now in mature life, when the rashness of enterprise, if not enterprise itself, begins to decline. They had had experience of hardships; and if persecution may be supposed to kindle up a resolute enthusiasm, they had now been settled in quietness for eight years. It was sober judgment, religious principle, and prudent forecast, laying plans for the building up of Christ's kingdom unfettered and free in the wilderness of the New World. Advanced in years as the Pilgrims were, they could not expect to enjoy the comforts of life, or to behold anything beyond the first beginnings of a new settlement, alone and unsupported on a distant wilderness shore. They lived FOR CHRIST AND FOR THEIR POSTerity.

The project of a removal to America was made public for the scanning of all. Some, full of hope, dwelt upon the brighter aspects of the enterprise. Others, as caution or despondency prompted, thought of the hazards and dangers of the scheme. They dwelt upon the casualties of the seas; for, at that time, a voyage across the Atlantic was not like a voyage of the present day. They alleged the weak bodies of the men and women, worn out with age and labor; the miseries of a wilderness; the danger of famine and nakedness; the changing of their diet and water, as likely to infect their bodies with weakness or disease; the well known treachery and ferocity of the savages; their "delight to flay men alive with the shells of fishes, cutting off the limbs by piece-meal, and broiling them on the coals, and causing men to eat the collops of their flesh in their sight while they lived." "And surely," says Bradford, "it could not be thought but the hearing of these things could not but move the bowels of men to grate within them and tremble." In reply, the more courageous answered, That all great and honorable actions were always accompanied with difficulties. It was granted that the dangers were great, but not desperate, and the difficulties many, but not invincible. "All, through the help of God, by fortitude, might either be borne or overcome." Besides, it was alleged, their condition was not ordinary; they were now only in exile, and in poor condition; as great miseries might befall them in their present residence; the twelve years' truce were now out, and nothing was to be heard but the beating of drums and preparing