shoal now called Brown's Island,' was the wonderful natural breakwater known as Plymouth Beach, then clothed with trees and vines which have long since been vandalized.

Within the Beach, half-way between the Rock and the excellent anchorage called the "Cow-Yard," the " Mayflower" came to rest. Her bulwarks had been rent, her timbers sprung, and her hull battered; but with her work nobly performed and her name made immortal, she now reposed peacefully at the goal. Freedom's ark had reached its Ararat.2

1 Not far outside Beach Point begins the shoal called Brown's Island, which extends seaward beyond the Gurnet. For some three miles the water at low

5.

**

4.

1.

Champlain gives Saquish as an island, omitting "Brown's " as such. The latter never was a true island. Bradford himself speaks of it as "ye flats that lye without, caled Brown's Ilands," and Secretary Morton mentions it as "a flat." The evidence is very clear that the two islands found by the Pilgrims were Clark's and Saquish, and that those "old inhabitants" who have seen stumps on Brown's Island saw nothing more than mental or actual driftwood; for the shoal is probably larger than it ever was before. This subject has received so much attention here partly for the vindication of Dr. Young, whose similar conclusion (Chron. Pil., p. 161) has been disputed.

A PORTION OF CHAMPLAIN'S SKETCH (1605) [SHOWING THE MOUTH OF PLYMOUTH HARBOR].

1. The Gurnet; 2. Saquish; 3. Clark's Island; 4. Brown's Island, a shoal (where Champlain's ship grounded); 5. Plymouth Beach.

2 Plymouth Beach, which is three miles long on its east shore, stretches before the town at about a mile's distance. It is a very interesting formation, and of the highest value to the harbor. Mourt says the "Mayflower" "lay a mile and almost a half off." From the Rock to the point of the beach is one and three quarter miles (by channel), and to the Cow-Yard anchorage is two and a half miles. So the ship must have lain considerably within Beach Point. At the vicinity indicated there is now from fourteen to twenty-four feet depth at low water, ample for the "Mayflower," almost in ballast.

-

1620.]

CHOOSING A SITE.

99

The next day, being Sunday, was devoted to worship and rest; yet curious eyes must have been peering over that ship's rail during much of the day.

Monday, December 28th, the position of the settlement was to be decided by the whole company. Accordingly, the men landed at some point near their ship, and proceeded by way of the woods. They took note that with an occasional oak there were the pine, walnut, beech, ash, birch, hazel, holly, poplar (which they called "asp," from aspen), wildcherry, wild-plum, and a profusion of grape-vines; they also found the highly prized sassafras.1 Coming to the open land, they discovered abundant strawberry plants,2 with yarrow, sorrel, carvel, brooklime, liverwort, watercress and wild leeks, onions, flax, and hemp,5 of fair quality. There were (naturally) good beds of sand and gravel, and also fine pottery clay, which would wash like soap. The old Patuxet cornfields were ready for cultivation, and had a rich black soil, "a spit deep," like that at the Cape. Along the shore were wild-fowl of many kinds, with cod, skate, herring, and what the Pilgrims called a " turbot" (probably a flounder, or young halibut); there were also the largest and best of muscles and clams, with traces of crabs and lobsters. A whole day was spent at this point, though a score of miles of harbor shore remained to be visited. Evidently the leaders were holding their comrades there, and trying to demonstrate the fitness

1 The chestnut and elm are not mentioned as found at Plymouth; but Winslow discovered great chestnut-trees in the Taunton region six months later, and now elms of over a century's growth shade Leyden Street.

2 Roger Williams says that in the Providence territory were enough wild strawberries within a few miles to fill a ship. "Wood's Prospect " states that at Massachusetts Bay this fruit was found two inches in circumference, and one could gather half a bushel in a forenoon.

Chervil, Anthriscus Cerefolium.

4 Probaby the Allium Canadense.

The Apocynum Cannabinum. Captain John Smith mentions "a kind or two of 'flax,' wherewith they make nets, lines, and ropes both small and great, very strong for their quantities." Morton says "there is hemp, that naturally groweth, finer than our hemp of England."

Historian John Oldmixon (1673-1742) makes a glorious blunder when he states that "the Harbour [Plymouth] was a Bay larger than Cape Cod, and two fine Islands, Rhode Island and Elizabeth Island, in it!" (Chron. Pil., 164.)

of the place. Of course this first site examined would be that which had been approved on December 21st by Governor Carver, Captain Standish, and Masters Bradford, Winslow, Warren, and Hopkins; for the decision of such men would have received the first and fullest consideration. In fact, the Pilgrims' journal says that at this place, so closely inspected, were four or five small brooks of very sweet fresh water, that all ran into the sea." As has been shown, this group brooks identifies the region as that about Plymouth Rock, for not more than three such streams can be found elsewhere in the entire circuit of that inland bay, and these are widely detached. The visits of the 21st and the 28th were both to the same place, and that place the present Plymouth.

of

Tuesday, December 29th, as some wished to look farther, the party went to" discover " at Kingston, where they sailed three miles up a river and found they had only gained half a mile. With unthought-of humor and still more unintentional satire, they named this crooked stream Jones River for their captain, whose knavery was unsuspected and whose good-will was much desired. Some, who wished to settle at Kingston, were overruled because of the forest, which could not be cleared in time for planting; furthermore, the site was not naturally defensible. Clark's Island was advocated as a safe position; but that was rejected because thickly wooded and poorly watered. Here again is seen what a place required to be "fit for situation."

was

Wednesday, December 30th, it was agreed to seek Divine guidance, and after re-examining two localities, to settle the matter by vote. The result, Bradford says, - - in Mourt, the "conclusion by most voices to set on the main land, on THE FIRST PLACE." This last expression seems to mean that the settlement was on the first place which had been under consideration throughout. No one of information doubts that the place now selected was at Plymouth Rock.

Their home having been selected, some twenty of the more

1 We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer. - Mourt.

1620-1.]

THE DATE OF LANDING.

ΙΟΙ

enthusiastic, that very afternoon, built a barricade and determined to begin sleeping on shore. The others left them there, agreeing to bring food in the morning, and prepare with them for building. It would seem that the weather had been pleasant ever since the first landing of the shallop at Clark's Island. The enumeration of herbs and soils by the explorers shows that the ground was bare, and probably not even frozen.1 A very disagreeable change was at hand. That night there arose a tempest of great severity.

The shore party, having had no time to prepare a roof, were drenched through, and were forced to sit in the pouring rain all the long winter night.

Thursday, December 31st, the shallop was unable to reach the shore with food until near noon, and she then could not make her way back to the ship. The latter was obliged to keep three anchors down, so tremendous was the wind. In the midst of the storm one of the Pilgrims, named Richard Britteridge, died on board; but no messages of life or death could pass between ship and shore.

Thus ended the last day of December, as time is now reckoned, and with it, on the wings of the tempest, passed away the notable year of 1620. But to our ancestors, with their

old style" calendar, that day was only " December 21st; "and as their new year began on March 25th, their first day of January was no more to them than the first day of any especially unattractive month.2 So what to us would be full of interest

1 Lossing (Pict. Field-Book of the Revolution) theatrically invents eighteen inches of snow to accompany the landing. The critical observations of the explorers as to soil, herbs, roots, the washing qualities of the clay, etc., made a week later (December 28th, N. s.), indicate not only bare but unfrozen ground. Mourt makes no mention of snow at Plymouth village that entire winter. After the storm on the day of the First Encounter (December 18th), the only reference to snow at any place is that which Brown and Goodman encountered some eight miles away from Plymouth January 22d (N. S.). Snow is commonly very light at Plymouth, and few persons keep sleighs.

2 At the Conquest the English year began at Christmas. January 1st was not the legal New Year's Day until 1752; but the public had partially recognized it for generations before. Sewall mentions that in 1700-1 January 1st (0. S.) was ushered in by four trumpeters on Boston Common, in honor of the new year. (See note on page xvi, Preface.)

as New Year's Day, was to them only the 22d of December, and the year of 1620 was but three quarters finished. It made small difference to them just then. They were not holiday-keepers at any time; and with the tremendous responsibilities which taxed their energies to the utmost, their only surcease of labor could be on the holy day when they gathered weekly to seek further strength from that Source which they had ever found so bountiful. Thus the landing of the Pilgrim explorers was on December 21st, N. S., and the permanent landing was on December 20th, O. s., or December 30th, N. S.; yet the affluence of historical error which attends Pilgrim history has not spared even these simple dates.