five-and-twenty miles away, looked out anxiously for the return of the men in the shallop. For one of these thus returning the welcome back was dashed with tears. William Bradford learnt to his sorrow that while he had been away his wife-the Dorothy May, of Wisbech, he had married at Amsterdam seven years before-had fallen overboard and was drowned. So chequered with chance and change at every step was the Pilgrims' course. So had the strong man to bow himself, and still go forward. Within a day or two more the Mayflower herself was in the harbour of Plymouth Bay, battered and beaten by storm and tempest, but her work gallantly accomplished, and her people safe in the possession of freedom in their New England home.

VIII.

PLYMOUTH PLANTATION.

THESE wanderers from the Old World to the New had found settlement at last, but under such stern conditions as to prove that William Brewster was right when he said, 'It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home again.' When they left Leyden, they hoped to reach their destination in time to be able to erect needful dwellings before winter set in. But the delays occasioned by the condition and return of the Speedwell, and by Atlantic storms, had had the effect of throwing them homeless on the bleak New England coast in the very depth of winter. Their houses had yet to be built at the very time that shelter was needed most.

It is not the manner of brave men, however, to waste time in vain regrets. The first thing to be determined was the best position for the settlement, a point which they felt should be decided by the whole body of emigrants. On Monday, December 28 (N.S.), therefore, the men of the company proceeded by way of the woods to reconnoitre the region round Plymouth previously approved by the exploring party. For further satisfaction they also next. day journeyed some miles to the north, in the direction of what is now known as Kingston, after which it was agreed to seek Divine guidance and decide the matter by vote. 'The conclusion by most voices was to set on the mainland on the first place,' that is, at Plymouth, as first recommended by the pioneers.

P

This important point being settled, some twenty of the party began that same afternoon to build barricades, resolving to spend the night on shore. The others were to return to the vessel, coming back next morning with food for their companions, and to join them in their building operations. But that night one of the wildest of tempests burst in fury over sea and land. It needed all the three anchors of the Mayflower to enable her to stand the strain of the storm; and the unfortunate shore party, without a roof to shelter them, had to spend that long and weary night in torrents of rain, drenched to the skin. Moreover, the storm still continuing, it was far on in the next day before the shallop was able to bring them food from the ship.

But the storm abating at length, the work of building began in earnest, all who were able going ashore to fell and carry timber, returning at night to the vessel to sleep, and leaving a guard of about twenty men on shore. These remained over the Sunday, in the course of which they were alarmed by an outcry of unseen Indians, against whom, therefore, it behoved them to be on their guard. According to Old Style, Monday was Christmas Day, but, as their journal reports, 'no man rested all that day.' Working with a will, they proceeded to erect a common house some twenty feet square, intended for general use till all had houses of their own, and to serve as a place of meeting afterwards. In four days the timber work was up and the roof half thatched, when the scare of the Sunday led them to erect a platform on the hill, on which to plant cannon from the ship, in case of a further surprise from the Indians. They then divided the whole company into nineteen families, assigning the single men to the different households, so as to require for the present as few houses as possible. It was arranged that each family should build its own house, having a plot of land three rods

long and half a rod broad for each of its members, the homesteads to be staked out after the choice of position had been determined by lot. These houses were to be built so as to form a single street parallel with the stream, now known as the Townbrook, and with land for each family on each side. This street, since 1823 called Leyden Street, still leads up from Plymouth Rock and from the beach to the hill beyond.

It was well that the building went on apace, for before many days were past there was sore need of houses in which to shelter the sick and the dying. The stern severity and exposure of that winter time, joined to hard toil and poor fare, after close and unhealthy crowding on ship-board began seriously to tell on the condition of the community. In January and February they died sometimes at the rate of two or thrce a day. It seemed as if the whole colony would be swept away, for at one time there were only six or seven at all able to attend upon the sick and discharge the necessary offices of life. Bradford, who was one of those laid prostrate, speaks especially with grateful affection of William Brewster and Miles Standish, as those who, in the general calamity, never succumbed, and who were unceasing in their loving care for the stricken in their sick and low condition. 'What,' says he, 'I have said of these, I may say of many others who died in the general visitation, and others yet living, that, whilst they had health, yea, or any strength continuing, they were not wanting to any that had need of them.' The first house finished had to be used as a hospital for the sick, and by the end of February thirty-one of these had died, the mortality still continuing. The eminence above the beach, now known as Coles Hill, was set apart for the burial-place of the dead, the graves being levelled and grassed over, lest the Indians should discover how few and weak the settlers. were becoming. Of the hundred who, less than three

months before, had reached the shores of New England, only about fifty survived. It seemed, indeed, as if this heroic enterprise of theirs would turn out, after all, to be only one failure more; but happily, about the middle of March, the turning-point was reached, and the mortality began to abate. There is something pathetic in the entry in their journal which tells us that at this time the sun began to be warm about noon, and that the birds sang in the woods most pleasantly. It is but a gleam, but it shows that with the return of spring there was a return of life and hope to weary hearts, now that their long winter was over and gone.

Strangers in a strange land, the diminished settlers were naturally haunted by vague anxieties as to the sort of neighbours they might have. Wolves had been heard howling in the woods at night and had been seen prowling by day; but wolves were not so much to be dreaded as Indians intent on surprise and massacre. The shower of arrows from their bows at the place named First Encounter was not reassuring, and there were not wanting signs of them here at Plymouth. In a hunting excursion the captain found a dead deer, from which they had cut off the horns; a week later one of the colonists saw twelve Indians pass by his hiding-place, as if making for the plantation; tools left in the wood by Standish and Cooke had been carried off, and two Indians had been seen on the hill on the other side of the Townbrook, who suddenly disappeared when Standish and Hopkins tried to come to parley with them. It was clear the utmost precaution must be exercised; it was agreed therefore that in addition to the civil government a military organisation should be

established, to be under the command of Miles Standish, and that the five cannon brought ashore from the Mayflower should be so placed on the Fort Hill platform as to command the approaches to the village on every side.

After-events, however, soon showed that their fears were