"By their fruits ye shall know them. Not by the graceful foliage which dallies with the summer breeze; not by the flower which fades with the perfume which it scatters on the gale; but by the golden, perfect fruit, in which the mysterious life of the plant is garnered up, which the genial earth and kindling sun have ripened into the refreshment and food of man, and which, even when it perisheth, leaves behind it the germs of continued and multiplied existence." EVERETT'S Remarks at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1845. "This rock has become an object of veneration in the United States. I have seen bits of it carefully preserved in several towns of the Union. Does not this sufficiently show that all human power and greatness is in the soul of man? Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant, and the stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation; its very dust is shared as a relic. And what has become of the gateways of a thousand palaces? Who cares for them?" DE TOCQUEVILLE. "We have an advantage over all nations in being able to trace our history from the beginning. We have no fabulous age, but it has more romance than any which has ever been written." SALTONSTALL. Plymouth, in honor of their venerated ancestors, Robert Cushman, the right hand of the Plymouth forefathers, and Elder Thomas Cushman, his son, who for about forty-three years acceptably served the church of the Pilgrims as Ruling Elder. On the following day the persons, assembled from almost every State in the Union, visited the grave of their ancestor, the Elder, and before parting resolved to erect an enduring monument over the remains of this venerable man. This object was subsequently consummated; and on the 16th of September, 1858, in commemoration of the sailing of the May-Flower from Plymouth, in England, for the new home in New England, the monument was consecrated with becoming exercises and ceremonies. The Cushman monument stands in a conspicuous position within the ancient cemetery of the Plymouth fathers, upon Burying Hill, within sight of the hospitable harbor where the May-Flower lay safely moored in the inclement winter of 1620;" and also, of the far famed solitary rock of that sandy shore whereon the forefathers first set foot on the memorable twenty-first of December, and almost beneath the drippings of the first Christian sanctuary in New England. The monument is a massive and tasteful structure, built of smoothly hewn Quincy granite, of the finest and most durable quality, and is highly creditable to the skill and faithfulness of Messrs. C. R. & C. Mitchell, the contractors. Its form is that of an obelisk with plainly chamfered edges, having a Grecian base standing upon an ornamented pedesta., also chamfered to its base, and containing sunken panels; the pedestal rests upon two square plinths, and the whole structure upon blocks of hevn granite occupying the whole space enclosed by a quadrangular fence, constructed with large stone posts and substantial iron rails. The whole height of the monument, including the stone blocks upon which it stands, is about twenty-seven and one-half feet; the base of the pedestal is about five feet square, and of the lowest plinth about eight feet. The space within the railing is about twelve feet square. The tablets, which contain the inscriptions in raised letters, occupy the four panels of the pedestal, and measure about thirty-six by twenty-two inches. They are of metallic bronze, and were cast at the foundry of Messrs. Henry N. Hooper & Co., in Boston. IN BURYING HILL CEMETERY, PLYMOUTH, MASS. ERECTED A. D. 1858. On the 15th of August, 1855, the descendants of the Cushman ancestors and their relatives, met together at On the brow of one of the highest eminences in the old | his associates in the great enterprise. In another direction town of Plymouth rest the mortal parts of many of the Pilgrim Forefathers, - too many of them, alas, without even a humble gravestone to mark the spot of their sepulture. The turf, in gently rising mounds, indicates what tradition alone besides, in the absence of all written testimony, makes more certain, that there the fathers are sleeping from their labors. When the modern pilgrim finds his way to Plymouth, and, with filial veneration, directs his steps to the sacred spot where rest the fathers of New England, he is peculiarly struck with the remarkable objects which are presented to his view. When he has ascended the high hill, and looks around upon the innumerable gravestones which affection has placed as the last tributes to the memory of departed parents, relatives and friends, he seeks in vain for any ancient memorial to mark the graves of the MayFlower pilgrims of 1620. In vain he inquires for the graves of those who came in the Fortune in 1621, in vain for those of the Ann and Little James, in 1623. In vain he asks, in vain he seeks. Of all these, Thomas Cushman alone of the Fortune, and Thomas Clark alone of the Ann, are remembered by tablets. Their graves alone were surely designated by gravestones on Burying Hill. One of the old coiners, Phineas Pratt, was similarly remembered in the old burial-ground in Charlestown. Uncertain tradition, however, has attempted to point out the burial places of a few others, and modern memorials have been erected to their memory. In an elevated position in one part of this field of the dead, may be seen the shaft erected in memory of William Bradford, not only, emphatically the Governor of the Plymouth Colony, but the faithful chronicler of the Pilgrims, is the large slab commemorating the life and services of the venerable John Howland; and still, in another portion of the field, the monument which the filial regard of the Cushman family has raised over the grave of their pious ancestor, the excellent Elder. These, indeed, are modern erections, but not the less honorable. The site upon Burying Hill on which the Cushman monument stands has hallowed family associations, and is not in itself entirely devoid of interesting recollections of a more general character. It is the identical spot selected for the burial place of Elder Cushman by his bereaved friends and religious associates; and beneath the turf which has grown for ages, and whose verdure has only now and then been disturbed, as a new tenant has been admitted to the community of the dead, to mingle ashes with those of the venerated sire, rest the remains of the earliest of this Pilgrim family, the Cushmans. Around the Elder's humble grave were buried many of the church, who, from their feelings of attachment, desired to be near him in death, as they had been with him in life;-among these were the officers of the church, with whom he had for so many years ministered; but his pastor was not permitted to be with him in his long sleep, but is quietly reposing in the distant regions of the sunny South. From this spot the turf has now been removed, but the sacred remains are still there. The turf has given place to more enduring granite. Close beside the green hillock subsequently selected as the grave lot of the venerable Elder, the fathers in earlier days built their humble sanctuary-small, indeed, but then the only one in New England, and that one their own, and untrammelled by the yoke of antichristian bondage. They 1 did not place it obscurely, shaded and hidden from sight, the north, where the Pilgrims, after their arrival in their as if afraid or ashamed that their house of God should be new home, first passed the Christian Sabbath in prayer, seen, but upon the hill top, a guide for the wayfarer, a to the fields of Duxbury and the green elevation there, mark for all, the first object to attract and welcome the which bears the name of the redoubtable Captain Standish, eye of the Pilgrim outcast, seeking shelter and repose in to the lands of Kingston, where piously dwelt good Elthe land where the most abject and lowly might worship der Cushman and his devoted Mary, beside their neverGod according to the dictates of their own conscience, un failing spring of living water, and where they terminated controlled by the dogmas of an established church and the their earthly pilgrimage, and to the meanderings of intolerance of a blasting hierarchy. Here, still earlier, Jones's River, and Rocky Nook, and Plain Dealing; and stood the scanty fortification of the peaceful little band of more westerly, to the chain of undulating hills, upon the Pilgrims, a simple platform, with slender roof and un-chief of which is laid the foundation of the national pretending battlements, hewn from native forests. Slight monument to the Pilgrim Fathers, and to the fresh waters as was the structure, it served well to protect them from of Billington Sea, and the numerous crystal lakes of the the sudden inroads of savage beasts, and as a defense townships. More southerly will be seen the Town Brook against the hostile attacks of the more wily and barbarous and Pilgrims' Spring, where the Pilgrims first quenched Indian foe. It served another and a holier purpose- -it their burning thirst; and Watson's Hill, where first apwas the place of prayer, the place of worship- the first peared human friendship, in the person of the almost civirudiments of the first building of the first church of the lized Massasoit. Further to the east, following the circuit, Pilgrim Fathers. the villages of Wellingly and Eel River, and the far-famed beach, and the warning and inviting Manumet are seen. All these the stranger sees; and he may also see, almost at his feet, the famous Leyden Street, where were the first dwellings of the Pilgrims, and the Middle Street, and the North Street, lying parallel to each other, and at rightangles with and between the Main Street and the Water Street at the Water side, where were the first allotments of land- and he may see Forefathers' Rock, the place of landing, and Cole's Hill, where were laid to rest, during the first winter, half of the precious freight of the MayFlower. Well may we say to him, as he stands beside the graves of the Fathers, While standing within this ancient cemetery, the stranger is forcibly struck with the appearance of the large number of monumental tablets and burial mounds which he notices on all sides, compared with the smaller number of buildings in the village at its base, that the dwellings of the dead far outnumber the dwellings of the living. The immediate scene presents a vast assemblage of the past and a more limited population of the present-the quiet remains of other days above, and busy and bustling life of to-day below. Here is where the forefathers lie with their children of more than two centuries, gathered together in family clusters, awaiting the call of the last great day. And where could they lie more appropriately than in the chosen land of their American pilgrimage? Extending the eye beyond the hill at his feet, and beyond the village and a few sparsely scattered houses adjacent, the stranger will witness the placid and hospitable waters, formed into a safe and quiet harbor, by the almost surrounding headlands and projecting beaches. His attention will be drawn to the Gurnet, at the eastward, with its twin beacons, and to Saquish, noted for affording food for the almost famished voyagers ;- -to Clark's Island, on Stranger! As from this sacred spot, hallowed by the remembrance of the truc-hearted, who sleep beneath its turf, you cast your eyes around and view scenes unsurpassed in interest and beauty,- while you behold flourishing towns and villages abounding in industry, prosperity, and happiness, where once all was dreary, inhospitable, and desolate,-think of the self-sacrificing forefathers, learn to emulate their virtues, and firmly resolve to transmit unimpaired, to the latest posterity, the glorious lessons of their noble examples. PEREGRINE WHITE'S APPLE-TREE. Peregrine White was born on board the May-Flower, in Cape Cod Harbor, at the time of the exploration of the coast, made for the purpose of fixing upon a proper location for a settlement. In consideration of his being "the first of the English born in these parts," he petitioned to be allowed a portion of land, and was allotted two hundred acres in what is now the town of Marshfield, where he lived to the almost patriarchal age of eighty-three. The tree planted by his hand, of which a cut is here given, must have been one of the first, if not the very first, of its kind in that vicinity, and still produces fruit. It stands on a part of the farm which was owned by the late Daniel Webster. FULLER CRADLE. The cradle, of which a representation is given above, was originally the family cradle of Dr. Samuel Fuller, one of those who came over in the "May-Flower," and one of the signers of the Social Compact. His wife was left behind, but came over afterwards in the "Anne." Fuller was a deacon of the church, and no less remarkable for his piety than for his skill in his profession. He was sent by the Governor to the assistance of Weston's company, and afterwards to Boston, to the colonists, who came over with Winthrop. He died of an epidemic disease in 1633. A tradition exists, that this cradle was on board the "MayFlower," and used to rock Peregrine White, the first New Englander. It was made, like most old-fashioned furni ture, to be handed down from generation to generation, and seems to have well fulfilled the intention. THE FIRST SABBATH IN NEW HAVEN. BY REV. LEONARD BACON, D. D. Eight years after the settlement of Plymouth, the colony | wealth in a metropolis, and to the refinements of a court; of Massachusetts Bay was commenced by Endicott and his company, at Salem; and, in 1630, Boston and the surrounding towns were occupied by the illustrious Winthrop and the hundreds of emigrants who followed him. In 1635, the first beginnings were made on the Connecticut River, at Hartford and at Saybrook; and in 1638, on the 25th of April, that being the Lord's Day, there was heard upon this spot the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord;" and under the open sky, bright with the promise of a new era of light and liberty, a Christian congregation, led by a devoted, learned, and eloquent minister of Christ, raised their hearts to God in prayer, and mingled their voices in praise. 66 How easily may the imagination, acquainted with these localities and with the characters and circumstances of the men who were present on that occasion, run back over two centuries that are past, and bring up the picture of that first Sabbath! Look out upon the smooth harbor of Quinnipiack. It lies embosomed in a wilderness. Two or three small vessels lie anchored in the distance. Here, along the margin of a creek, are a few tents, and some two or three rude huts, with the boxes and luggage that were landed yesterday piled up around them; and here and there a little column of smoke, going up in the still morning air, shows that the inmates are in motion. Yet all is quiet. Though the sun is up, there is no appearance of labor or business; for it is the Sabbath. By and by, the stillness is broken by the beating of a drum; and from the tents and from the vessels a congregation comes gathering around a spreading oak. The aged and the honored are seated near the minister; the younger, and those of an inferior condition, find their places farther back; for the defence of all, there are men in armor, each with his heavy, unwieldy gun, and one and another with a smoking match-lock. What a congregation is this, to be gathered in the wilds of New England! Here are men and women who have been accustomed to the luxuries of here are ministers who have disputed in the universities, and preached under gothic arches in London. These men, and women have come into a wilderness, to face new dangers, to encounter new temptations. They look to God, and words of solemn prayer go up, responding to the murmurs of the woods and of the waves. They look to God, whose mercy and faithfulness have brought them to their land of promise; and, for the first time since the creation, the echoes of these hills and waters are awakened by the voice of praise. The word of God is opened; and then faith and hope are strengthened for the conflicts before them, by contemplating the conflict and the victory of Him who, in all things the example of his people, was once, like them, "led forth by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil."* from Matthew iv. 1, -on the "temptation in the wilderness." Mr. Davenport's sermon on the first sabbath after the landing was A MONUMENT is an expression to future generations of the love and reverence which the existing race of men cherish for the excellent characters and acts of those who have lived before them. We should strive to express our desire that their memories may live in the costliness and grandeur of the monuments we raise to them. On this account, let no reasonable expense be spared in rearing a memorial of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.-Rev. Dr. Blagden. "No New Englander who is willing to indulge his native feelings can stand upon the rock where our ancesshore, without experiencing emotions very different from those which are excited by any common object of the same nature. No New Englander could be willing to have that rock buried and forgotten. Let him reason as much, as coldly and ingeniously as he pleases, he will from those excited by other places of equal or greater still regard that spot with emotions wholly different importance." tors set the first foot after their arrival on the American DR. DWIGHT, Pres. Yale Coll. |