1620.)

THE AGREEMENT.

63

limits of the Virginia Company, the Pilgrims would lose such rights as they might claim to derive from their patent, and would be outside of all established authority. They indeed recognized James I. as their sovereign, but he ignored them. The moment they landed north of 41° north latitude, they would become waifs and estrays, save that they would still be a voluntary church. The leaders were equal to the emergency. If England had no government for them, they would make one for themselves. If none had any claim to especial privileges, all should stand equal, and be bound by such laws of equal bearing as the majority should adopt. If the world would not provide them with a civil organization, they would present the world with a new system, of a simplicity and excellence hitherto unknown. Not that they fully comprehended the logic of their own ideas, but that in this unforeseen emergency they instinctively laid hold on great principles hitherto unrevealed to the nations of the earth. The Swiss republic was an aristocracy of birth, the Dutch republic an aristocracy of wealth. Our English yeomen and artisans could not have founded the one or the other; but the twelve leaders who were distinguished among their fellows by the then significant title of "master" would have been commended by the best English and Continental sentiment of their day if they had claimed official and social superiority. Their nobility showed itself in anticipating the day when "just and equal laws," adopted and administered by the people, should govern great nations.

The adult males of the company were summoned to the "Mayflower's" cabin, the necessities of the case explained, and the following document was drawn up and signed by all the men of the company, as follows (those in italics had the title of "Master," or "Mr."):

IN YE NAME OF GOD, AMEN! We whose names are under-writen, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for ye glorie of God and advance

mente of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of ye ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just and equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye 11. of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne lord, KING JAMES, of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and of Scotland ye fiftie-fourth. An°. Dom. 1620.1

Thus in a few minutes was this little unorganized group of adventurers converted into a commonwealth. The first act of the citizens of the new-made State was to confirm John Carver as governor till their next New Year's Day (March 25th). It is probable that this business was not ended until

1 Bradford gives no list of signers; this is adapted from Morton. 2 Total, 41.

8 Bradford says that after making this compact, "they chose, or rather confirmed, John Carver their governor for that year" (p. 93); and in “Mourt" he relates that on the 23d of the next March, Carver was chosen "our governor for this year." Many learned and skilful writers have endeavored to show that the

1620.]

ARRIVAL AT PROVINCETOWN.

65

the ship had reached her anchorage, and that Provincetown may justly claim to be the birthplace of that "free and equal" government which now spans the continent.1

Of this compact John Quincy Adams remarked, in 1802:

"This is perhaps the only instance in human history of that positive, original social compact which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government. Here was a unanimous and personal assent by all the individuals of the community to the association, by which they became a nation. . . . The settlers of all the former European colonies had contented themselves with the powers conferred upon them by their respective charters, without looking beyond the seal of the royal parchment for the measure of their rights and the rule of their duties. The founders of Plymouth had been impelled by the peculiarities of their situation to examine the subject with deeper and more comprehensive research."

While this important matter was in progress, the "Mayflower" had doubled the Cape, and headed for a time toward the cast along Long Point, finally luffing to an anchorage a furlong within this Point and about a mile from the site of Provincetown.

The voyage between Plymouth, England, and Cape Cod lasted sixty-seven days. But the company had been ninetynine days on the passage from Southampton, and the greater

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word "confirmed" was not the one intended, and either that one of these elections did not happen, or the second was the confirmatory one. The two statements are not only consistent, but are easily explained. At Southampton there was appointed a 'governor," with one or more assistants, for each ship. For the "Speedwell" were selected Martin and Cushman, two of the agents who had attended to fitting-out the expedition. What more sure than that for governor in the other ship should be taken the remaining agent, especially as he was deacon of the emigrating church, the confidential friend of Robinson, and one of the foremost members? On the voyage he was the only governor, and it was quite a matter of course that upon the adoption of a new frame of government he should be "confirmed " for the rest of that year, and that on March 23d, he should be elected for the ensuing year, which began on March 25th.

1 This was the birthplace of popular constitutional liberty. - Bancroft's U. S., i. 310.

It was here that the government based on the will of the governed was first established on the American coast. - North American Rev., 1., 336.

portion had passed one hundred and thirty-three days in cramped-up quarters on shipboard since they had given that parting salute to their friends in the harbor of Delfthaven. A month longer of this life must be endured, amid the rigors of a New England winter, and some ten weeks drag away before all the women and children can be provided for on shore. Yet not all of them, even then; for there be many patient waiters who will be taken from the ship by the grim ferry-man and conveyed to a landing which mortal feet can never tread.

CHAPTER VII.

Landing on Cape Cod. - Soil and Vegetation. The Shallop. - Two Cape Explorations. - Peregrine White. - A Third Coasting Exploration, extending to Plymouth, which is examined. — Clark's Island. The Rock.

THER

HERE is a tradition that the "Mayflower" was driven into her harbor by a storm; but she seems to have had pleasant weather, for immediately after anchoring, sixteen well-armed men went on shore to explore, and others to procure fire-wood. The explorers climbed the hills and ascertained the shape of that portion of the Cape. They reported that the land consisted of hills of sand, which reminded them of the dunes of Holland, except that these were better, because covered with fine black earth, a "spit" deep, in which grew forests of oak, pine, sassafras, juniper, birch, and holly, with some ash and walnut, while grape-vines abounded. The woods were like a grove or park, being so free from underbrush that a person might ride a horse in any direction. They afterwards found that this was due to the savages, who burned the country over every spring and fall to destroy the undergrowth, which hindered their hunting.

The other party had been attracted by the wood they called juniper. This was really the red cedar, which resembles its cousin, the European savin, from which are gathered the medicinal berries called juniper. The red cedar, like the famed sandalwood, "sheds its perfume on the axe that slays it," and is very fragrant while burning. It at once became the favorite fuel. (The salt-boilers have long since exterminated the trees and made "Wood End" a misnomer, and the

1 The "camphire" of Solomon's Song (i. 14 and iv. 13), which some confound with the " camphor," but which is the sweet-smelling cypress, reminds one of the "juniper" of our fathers.