liked the rough surface and poor harbor. The next morning (December 9th) they went to the deposit of corn found by the first party and removed the remainder, as well as a neighboring store, together with some beans. They now had about ten bushels of seed, a quantity ample for their spring planting. The ground was covered with snow, so that but for their first discovery while the ground was bare, they would not now have found the corn at all. The earth was also frozen, so that they had to chop into it a foot with their swords before they could dig. Their side-arms must have been pretty substantial weapons to withstand this usage. Jones, who had become homesick, now returned to the ship with fifteen of the men and the corn. The next day he sent back the shallop with a new crew. The eighteen who bivouacked a second night at the Pamet began the day (December 10th) by following a deer-path, supposing it a trail which would lead to the Indian dwellings, and returning to the river made an astonishing discovery. They found a large mound covered with boards, and to ascertain its character carefully dug into it. First appeared a bow between two mats; next came a finely carved and painted board, three fourths of a yard long, having upon it three prongs like the points of a crown or the tines of a trident.1 With the bow there were bowls, trays, dishes, and trinkets. Last came a large and a small bundle. The first contained a great quantity of fine, pungent red powder, in which were the bones of a man, with the skull still clothed with fine yellow hair. By his side was a knife, a pack-needle, and a few iron articles, all bound up in a pair of cloth breeches and a sailor's canvas cassock. The small package had the bones of a child, packed in the same pungent but not offensive powder. The child's limbs were bound around with bracelets and strings of fine white beads, while alongside were many curious little 1 Was not this part of a " fleur-de-lys"? Roger Ludlow, of Dorchester, while digging his cellar (1631), found at a foot from the surface two French coins of 1596. Were these brought by the sailor rescued at the bay by Dermer? Thomas Morton's account of a French ship and crew destroyed at Boston Bay was doubtless an inaccurate version of the Cape Cod affair. 1620.] CAPE COD.—THE SECOND EXPLORATION. 79 matters and a small bow. Some few small things were taken as samples for the information of those on ship-board; but, unlike explorers and investigators of the present day, the party carefully replaced nearly all of them, and neatly recovered the grave. This tomb was the subject of much wonder. The hair showed the man not to have been an Indian. Some thought him to have been a European who had been buried by the natives with especial honor, while others thought he might have been slain and buried in this way as a triumph over him. Dr. Dexter has advanced the idea that the body was that of some Norse explorer. It does not appear that the Pilgrims ever afterwards troubled themselves about the matter. They, however, learned facts which solved various puzzles besetting them at this time. About 1616 a French fishing-ship was wrecked on Cape Cod. Her inmates reached the shore, bringing their provisions and many other matters. The natives remembered the atrocious act of Captain Thomas Hunt, who in 1614 had kidnapped seven of their number and twenty natives from the mainland, carrying them to Europe as slaves. Knowing no difference in white men as to such matters, they pursued the poor French mariners with untiring hostility, waylaying and slaying them at every turn. Soon only three whites survived. These were captured, and were sent from tribe to tribe to be made subjects of amusement or contempt. The poor fellows were treated worse than slaves for a time; but at length one was allowed to marry into the tribe. He became a father, but did not long live to enjoy his new dignitics, nor did his child survive. In the summer of 1619 Captain Dermer rescued the two survivors, finding one at Middleboro' (Namasket), and the other at Massachusetts Bay. This story accounts for the ship's kettle, the hut of planks, the attempt at a European fortification, the honored grave containing a body of European appearance with nautical relics, and the child buried in the same place. (The subsequent discovery of a ship's bucket is explainable in the same manner.) On returning to the shallop the explorers found that the newly arrived sailors had ferreted out two Indian dwellings. Bradford with seven others thereupon proceeded to examine them. The wigwams had been recently occupied. Each was made of long saplings bent over in an arch and crossing, both ends being stuck in the earth. The structure was thus rounded on the top, and formed a circle on the ground. It was snugly covered with mats on the outside, and lined with neater and finer mats. A little place for a fire was in the centre, the smoke finding its way out at the top by a large hole, easily closed by a mat if desired. Though the door was only three feet high, there was sufficient height within for a man to stand upright, and for several to lie about the fire. These houses were well provided with wooden bowls, trays, and dishes, earthen pots, small baskets made of crabshells, and a great variety of big and little woven baskets. There was also a ship's bucket, without a bail, but retaining its iron ears. There were three deer's heads, one not long dead, and in a neighboring hollow tree was some venison, which was even too gamey" for the English stomach of that day. There were also fragments of fish, baskets of parched acorns, sedge and rushes for mat-making, silk-grass, tobacco-seed, and seeds of unknown kinds. A few specimens were selected from the knick-knacks, with the understanding that when the shallop returned, a variety of goods should be left in these wigwams, both in payment for what had been taken, and for the purpose of establishing peace and traffic. Late on December 10th (Thursday), the explorers were once more in the "Mayflower," making their report. During their absence a son had been born to Mr. and Mrs. William White, and in token of the pilgrimage then in progress, the little stranger was named Peregrine. He was destined to outlive every member of the company into which he was born; and after a youth unduly gay for his day and generation, even in the next century, long after Plymouth Colony had been merged in Massachusetts, a fine, hearty-looking veteran of Marshfield used to be pointed out with great 1620.] CAPE COD.-THE SECOND EXPLORATION. 81 respect as Captain Peregrine White, the first English child born in New England.1 The Pamet region offered a fine harbor for boats at least; it had corn-land obviously good, fish and great whales abounded along the shore, suggesting a profitable situation for oil, bone, and dried fish, it seemed healthful, and the promontory between the rivers was easy to defend. Sickness was increasing, and a pestilence was feared unless the company should soon debark. Therefore some insisted that a settlement be at once begun. It was answered that a shipharbor must be found, and if a colony were now planted, its position would eventually be changed to a better place yet to be discovered. The headland in the Pamet had no supply of water, and furnishing that even in time of peace would be severe labor. In 1616 Captain John Smith, in connection with his map of New England, had overmuch praised the harbor of Agawam (now Ipswich),2 and many of the people, attracted by his description, were for an expedition to that point. Others opposed going so far. Coppin, one of the two pilots, said that across the bay was a fine harbor at the mouth of a large river, called 'Thievish Harbor' because when he was there a native stole a harping-iron from his ship; he advised an expedition to that point. 1 In 1632 Peregrine White went to Marshfield with his stepfather's family; in 1636 he volunteered for the Pequod war; 1642 he was "ancient-bearer" (or ensign) of the "train-band; " 1648 he married Sarah, daughter of William Bassett, and was fined for the premature opening of his family record (she died 1711). He was very attentive to his mother, visiting her daily in her later years. He made these visits on a black horse, and wore a coat with buttons the size of a silver dollar. He was "vigorous and of a comely aspect to the last." In 1665, at the request of the King's Commissioners, the General Court gave two hundred acres of land to him, as the first white native of New England. His estate is still in the family, being now held by J. A. White. It is two and a half miles north of the Webster place (Marshfield). He joined the Church in his seventy-eighth year, and died at Marshfield 1704, aged eighty-four. His descendants are many and honorable. One of them (George W. French, of Bridgewater) has the veteran's spy-glass, - an instrument much shattered, but still containing fine lenses. (The inventory of Lieutenant Samuel Nash, of Duxbury, 1684, mentions a "perspective glass." Such glasses were invented 1609, only eleven years before Peregrine's birth, by Galileo, who was taking refuge in Holland while the Pilgrims were there.) 8 Harpoon. 2 Smith writes it "Augoam." Every fair day the dwellers at Provincetown see a beautiful blue mount in their western horizon. This is the height of Manomet, on the south side of Plymouth Harbor. It rises three hundred and ninety-six feet, and is a famous landmark for navigators from all parts of the bay. Coppin's vaguely remembered harbor may have been Boston, Ipswich, Newburyport, or Portsmouth; but he conjectured that it might be near this constantly seen headland. It was therefore decided that a new expedition should follow the shore, looking for an eligible harbor, and if not sooner finding one, should examine that supposed to be near Manomet, but should not push beyond. Tuesday, December 15th, weather prevented the start; and the "Mayflower" with her company had that day a narrow escape from disaster and probable destruction. At London some of the Adventurers, for secret purposes, had foisted into the ship a profane, ruffianly fellow named John Billington, with his wife and two sons, John Jr., and Francis. The attention of the leaders was absorbed until the ship was at sea; then, when Billington's intrusion became understood, it was too late to return him. On the day named, one of these mischievous boys went into the stateroom of his parents in their absence; finding a loaded gun, he fired it in the little apartment, where was a small cask half full of loose powder, while close by, and within four feet of the stateroom, was the cabin fire, around which the people were gathered on account of the cold. Had an explosion taken place, the loss of life must have been great, the ship might have been so shattered as to sink, and if not, would hardly have escaped taking fire. But their journal well says, "By God's mercy, no harm was done." THE THIRD EXPLORATION. Next day, December 16th, the weather was still severe; but progress was possible, and every moment must be improved. The mortality had begun. On the 14th died Edward Thompson, a youth in the employ of William White, and |