descent from this magnificent pile was to the humble mud and straw enclosure of his meeting-shed. His fervid and fearless genius made of that little lecture room a focus whence radiated the glowing beams of spiritual freedom. Indeed, the rapid growth of the whole region attests the power and purity of the seed first sown, and irresistibly proves the virtuous zeal and energy with which he and his associates worked at the foundation of an empire. -I touch on this without going further, and only as explanatory why Ishmut relinquished its Indian name, preferring yours, and why the citizens of that now opulent and refined metropolis naturally press forward, as soon as permitted, with the tributes of a just and honorable gratitude." An elegant brass tablet is affixed to the wall beneath the eastern arch, bearing a Latin inscription from the classical pen of the Hon. Edward Everett.

THE PILGRIMS OF THE MAY-FLOWER.

The fact that a large portion of the pilgrims were young men and women, with their children, and young people unmarried, should not be overlooked. A number of them were under twenty, and few only had more than reached the meridian of life. Ardent, full of hope, they led the way, the forlorn-hope that storms the fortress, and perishes in the attempt. They opened the gates to this broad and rich domain. They saw the land of promise, but fell as their feet touched its borders, or ere any of them had long been permitted to enjoy those civil and religious institutions of which they planted the seed, while over their neglected dust a crowding population has gone up to take possession of every valley and hill-top.

the inestimable

Have these men and women, that thus periled all, and thus fell in the very flower of their life, no claim on our grateful remembrance? Have they no claim on the young men and young women of this day? Is it not fitting that some monumental pile should be placed where they landed, where, too, they fell, and where their dust still reposes, In the opinion of not a few persons, they were a set of -a structure worthy of such men-of such women, and stern, bigoted, and intolerant men, who fled from persecu- of such sacrifices, and on which shall be inscribed their tion in their native land to become the persecutors of others names? Is it not fitting that the young men and young weaker than themselves. But nothing can be farther from women of this age should place their names within this the truth. The pilgrims of the May-Flower were a com- structure, that coming generations may know who willingpany of men and gentle women, with their children,- -aly contributed to this end, in grateful remembrance of the large portion of them young men and women, between the sacrifices and sufferings, and to commemorate the early twenty and thirty years of age when they left England for death of those Pilgrims of the May-Flower?" Holland, where they remained some twelve years, and then embarked for the New World. In number about one hun-mouth to feel much interest in this monument enterprise?" Does any one say, "I am too far removed from Plydred, they left Delfthaven, August 1, 1620, and, after seve- But are you removed beyond the benefitsral delays on the coast of England, they reached that of privileges, civil and religious, which are daily flowing and New England (then known as Northern Virginia), near spreading wider and wider through the land, from the the beginning of winter. The work of exploring the coast principles upon which the Pilgrims founded their Comfor a suitable landing place was attended with peril, from monwealth? What has distance to do with the question? the climate and the Indians, and occupied many days. A company sent out for this purpose in an open boat found themselves in a storm of snow and rain, the sea rough, their rudder gone, their mast broken in three parts, overtaken by one of the darkest of December nights, under the lee of a small island in Plymouth harbor. Here the Sabbath found them, but they were not the men to pursue their explorations on that day. They rested, and for the first time the silence of the New England wilderness was broken by the voice of Christian worship and a Christian Sabbath. At length the landing was effected on the 21st of December, 1620. That EVENT is the parent of all the other events in our national history, which we commemorate by monumental structures or by annual festivities. In cherishing and honoring the children, then, let us not be unmindful of so worthy a parent.

It is not merely for the people of Plymouth, of Massasachusetts, of New England, but of the Nation, without distinction of sect or party, to be interested in this great work, and to aid in bringing it to its completion. Wherever intelligent Faith, with her open Bible, and pointing heavenward; wherever Morality, Education, Law, and Liberty are recognized and cherished in this land, there should be found liberal contributors to the erection of a structure which shall be an honor to the Pilgrims, an honor to the contributors, and an honor to the age and nation.

us now these twelve years, and yet we never had any suit or accusa-
tion against any of them."- Bradford, vol. 3, p. 20.
refer the reader to an able article in the "Congregational Quarterly "for
April, 1859, from which we make a single extract:-
Individuals among the early settlers may have trespassed upon the
rights of the Indians, and done them wrong, but "The fact that the first
attempts in modern times to evangelize the heathen were made by the
Pilgrims on the natives of New England; that the first missionary
organization in Protestant Christendom - the Society for Propagating
the Gospel among the Indians in North America,' was formed solely
War, these missionary labors had resulted in the translation of the entire
to aid these attempts; that, previously to the breaking out of Philip's
Bible into the Indian tongue; the gathering of six Indian churches out
of thirty-six villages of 'praying Indians,' and the actual employment
of nearly fifty teachers and catechists, English and Indian, in the reli-
giors and educational training of those children of the forest, at an
annual expense of between seven and eight hundred pounds sterling, -
these authentic and world-known facts might indeed be set in tri-
umphant array against the rumors of wrong and outrage inflicted on
these poor heathen by the very men who were so laboriously and suc-

On the question, "Did the Pilgrims wrong the Indians?" we would

Having landed, the work of preparing some means of shelter was at once commenced. The privations and sufferings of almost shelterless women and children, without sufficient food, — and even what they had, injured by the long voyage, · scanty clothing, colds and sickness from exposure, of these things we can but faintly conceive in our luxuriously-furnished dwellings, by our comfortable fire-sides, and in our expensive garments. As a result of their privations and exposure, within the first four months after the landing, forty-four of their number had passed away, and their graves were carefully concealed and leveled, and sown with grain, that the keen-eyed and hos-cessfully employed in converting them. tile Indian might not learn their decreasing number and consequent weakness. And before the first anniversary of their landing six others had increased the number of the dead, thus leaving but half the orignal number; and nearly all of those self-sacrificing men and women had gone from the scene of their privations aud sufferings before that period of persecution on which some persons persist in fixing their minds.*

There are at least two sorts of people to whom the world owe most of their misconceptions in this matter; and it so happens that they are persons with whom historical facts have little or no weight. One is the sentimentalist, whose interest in the children of the forest,' and their feather-cinctured chief,' is merely a poetic fancy or fervor, which cannot endure the idea of turning an Indian hunting-ground into a corninto a steamboat [and a squalid wigwam into a refined and Christian field, a stone-mortar and pestle into a grist-mill, and a birch-bark canoe dwelling.] Another is the ultra-philanthropist, whose humanity is of a texture to be less shocked at seeing a neighbor murdered, than at seeing the murderer hung; and who must, therefore, from principle and conscience and consistency, condemn the man-especially the Christian man who shoots down a savage, when he might avoid the necessity by permitting himself to be tomahawked first. Historical facts, whatlong as it still remains an admitted fact that the white man has actually supplanted the red."

James Otis used the following language to Governor Barnard, in 1767. "The Indians had perfect confidence in our Fathers, and applied to them in all their difficulties. Nothing has been omitted which justice or humanity required. We glory in their conduct; we boast of it as unexampled."

*It may be proper to cite, in this connection, a small portion of the testimony at hand in regard to the character of the Pilgrims,-re-ever their bearing, can have no influence on either of these classes, so marking in the first place, however, that we are not to judge men of their day by present light and present standards. We live in a more tolerant age, and cannot but feel that many, at least, of the faults of that period, were faults of the times, rather than of the men, whatever may have been the particular religious communion in which they were found. Cheerfully do we allow the force of this remark to apply to those whom history records as the persecutors of the early Puritans, and of the Pilgrims immediately preceding their departure from their native land. May equal liberality of sentiment be entertained toward the Pilgrims and the early Fathers of New England, though we feel that there is but little, if any occasion, for apology in their behalf. "While, therefore, it would doubtless be unwise to claim for them an exemption from the common infirmities of our nature, the opposite extreme, which withholds a just recognition of their high achievements, is liable to far greater condemnation."

The testimony of the Dutch magistrates as to the character of the Pilgrims at their embarkation for America, is," They have lived among

To the above may be added the following from John Quincy Adams, on the New England Confederacy:-"The whole territory of New England was thus purchased, for valuable consideration, by the newcomers, and the Indian title was extinguished by compact, fulfilling the law of justice between man and man. The most eminent writer on the law of nations, of modern times (Vattel), has paid a worthy tribute of respect to our forefathers, for their rigid observance, in this respect, of the natural right of the indigenous natives of the country. It is from the example of the New England Puritans that he draws the preceptive rule, and he awards to them merited honors for having established it."

THE BREAKWATER AT PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND.

Plymouth, Massachusetts, was so named first by Capt. | quainted with English history, and imbued with sympathy John Smith, perhaps because of a fancied resemblance in situation to Plymouth, England; and this name was confirmed by the Pilgrim Fathers, on account of the kindness which they received at that port before leaving their native land. If in Smith's time the two harbors bore any resemblance to each other, this resemblance must be still greater at the present time. Those of our readers who have visited our Plymouth will recollect the long beach which stretches as a barrier between the harbor and the ocean, and around the point of which vessels are obliged to pass to enter the harbor. Formerly the harbor of Plymouth, England, was exposed to the sea, in the same way as the harbor of the Massachusetts Plymouth would be were this beach broken away. In order to render the harbor a secure anchorage in case of storm, the government of Great Britain, at the cost of about five millions of dollars, have erected a stone breakwater across the mouth of the harbor, leaving a channel between the shores at either end, thus making an immense artificial beach, corresponding exactly in position with the beach which protects the Plymouth of the Forefathers from the fury of the ocean. The following remarks, and description of the breakwater and its lighthouse, are condensed from an account of a visit to the breakwater, by a writer in an English periodical; and show with what affectionate veneration the Pilgrims of the May-Flower are remembered in their na tive land

·1

"Plymouth Sound will surely carry back any one ac

for the heroes of religious freedom, to the time of James I., and bring before his imagination that quaint-looking old vessel which once harbored there, -now the well-known May-Flower, -bearing in its bosom the Pilgrim Fathers, destined by Providence to be the founders of the American Commonwealth, - - a vessel more than worthy of being coupled with the Grecian ayos, and one which the Plymouth corporation might well be pleased to quarter in their armorial bearings. We can fancy the brave-spirited men on board that memorable ship talking over the state of their oppressed country, where conscientious people of their way of thinking could no longer find a home. The tyranny that threatened so many of their fellow-countrymen would seem to them like that very sea which was rolling yonder with tempestuous fury into the unsheltered sound. One of hopeful spirit might have said, 'The Lord in whom we trust will one day raise up a barrier against such injustice, and guard our children from the storms which emperil us.' We think we hear a rejoinder from one of little faith to the effect: 'It may be so, my brother; but my hope lays far behind thine. Nothing is impossible to God; but to me it seemeth as strange that men like us should ever have peace and liberty in this land of bondage, - that a bulwark should ever appear strong enough to guard us against the tempests of tyranny, -as it would be for a rock to rise out of these waters, and defend this town and harbor from the fury of the southern gale!'

"While this fancied conversation falls on the ear, it is

not a little interesting to turn and find uprising from the sea limit of this famous sound a real wall of rock, stretching like a reef the distance of a mile, and offering an effectual front of resistance to the mightiest billows."

When the May-Flower, bearing our Forefathers, anchored in Plymouth Harbor, and for more than a century and a half afterwards, - Plymouth Sound was one of the most dangerous places upon the English coast. Lord Howe used to remark that "Torbay was likely one day to prove the grave of the British navy." Plymouth Sound was more dangerous than Torbay. It was exposed in the southwestern gale to a tremendous swell; and the water being shallow the vessel was dashed on the hard ground and went to pieces. The Plymouth churchyards and burialgrounds are full of the memories of agonizing incidents of shipwrecks; and all the more dreadful that they occurred within the sight of home and friends. It is said that on an average ten English ships were lost here every year.

The experience gained from these storms enabled the engineers to perfect their work. The spaces between the great blocks of stone were filled in with rubble, and the angles of the slopes decreased in order to present less direct resistance to the waves.

In 1841 the lighthouse at the western end was commenced, and finished in November, 1843. The height is fifty-nine feet; and the structure forms, as may be seen by the cut, a not inelegant tower. It is divided into five floors, and the entrance is approached by a narrow staircase from the breakwater, somewhat like a ship's ladder. About fifteen thousand cubic feet of granite were used in its construction.

THE PILGRIMS' FIRST SABBATH ON SHORE.
BY REV. J S. CLARK, D. D.

Why has no painter immortalized his name by transferring to canvass this Sabbath scene [on Clark's Island], the first ever witnessed on the shores of New Englaud? As an illustration of the true Pilgrim spirit, nothing can exceed it. We see them now, in imagination, grouped in devout posture around a forest fire, while "Deacon Carver," the newly elected governor, reads from his pocket Bible an appropriate chapter, and "lines" a favorite psalm, which gives vent to full-hearted and high-sounding praise. We hear the fervent prayers and earnest prophesyings of Bradford and Winslow, who, though yet young, are much experieneed in these exercises. We behold the solemnity that rests even on the sailor's countenance, as, silently musing on perils recently passed, he participates in the service, while not a rising cloud, nor breaking wave, nor frightened sea-gull escapes his ever watchful eye.

But why are they there, under the open canopy of heaven, on that raw December day? Because it was just there that the Sabbath overtook them, while searching to find a place of settlement for themselves and their little ones, whom they left four days ago at the end of Cape Cod, on board the May-Flower, in charge of a captain who begins to talk of setting them all ashore on the sand, unless they find a place soon.* But how is it that, under such a pressing necessity they can spare the time for so much psalm-singing, and prayer, and prophesying? Do they not know that works of "necessity and mercy" are lawful on that day? Yes, but they do not believe that their present necessities are sufficient to justify a suspense of the Sabbath law in the sight of God. They are even more scrupulous than that; rather than approach the Lord's Day under such bodily exhaustion as will unfit them for religious worship (an essential part of their Sabbath observance), they would spend the whole of Saturday in recov ering tired nature from extra fatigue, and in preparing for the Sabbath, -as they actually did!

In 1788, a plan was submitted to the government for rendering the sound a secure place of anchorage, but it was not till 1806 that any active measures were taken to carry it into effect. In 1811, after the rejection of various other projects, the plan of the present breakwater, proposed by Messrs. Rennie and Whidbey, was adopted. In form, it is a long, straight dike or mole, expanded somewhat at the ends. The whole length is five thousand one hundred feet; the breadth of the top, forty-five feet; the breadth at the bottom, four hundred and ten feet; the inner slope is one hundred and ten feet, and the outer, one hundred and five. Notwithstanding the size of the blocks of which this immense artificial reef is composed, it was twice, during its construction, broken through by the waves. In 1824, in the month of November, occurred the most terrific storm which had been known for several generations. The water in the sound rose eight feet above its England, and printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the highest mark; and such was the terrific force of the waves that nearly one-half of the breakwater then finished was displaced. Nearly two hundred thousand tons of stone were lifted up and moved from their position. Yet it is probable that even in its then extremely imperfect state it saved the lower portion of the town from ruin, by breaking the force of the waves.

Here we have the Pilgrim Sabbath, not as discussed in a learned treatise; not as explained in a catechism; not as enforced in a sermon, but as actually kept, and that, too, under circumstances which exclude all suspicion of any sham observance any mere pretence of religious strictness.

In Bradford's Journal, lately discovered in the Fallhane library, account is given thus, immediately after the record of their perilous escape to Clark's Island on that stormy Friday night. "But though this had been a day and night of much trouble and danger unto them, yet God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshing (as usually he doth to his children), for the next day was a fair sunshining day, and they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces and rest themselves, and give God

thanks for his mercies in their manifold deliverances. And this being the last day of the week, they prepared to keep the Sabbath.

prise; the men were to gather at the appointed rendezvous in small parties, while the women and children, with their goods, were to be conveyed thither in a small vessel. On reaching the spot, the ship had not yet come up, and the women and children suffering with sea-sickness were landed. The ship did not make its appearance until the next day, when, the bark in which they landed having been left ashore by the tide, the captain was obliged to take the party off in his boat.

King James had determined to "harry the Puritans | Grimsby. Every precaution was taken to prevent surand Separatists out of the land," and the whole machinery of despotism was put in motion for this purpose. The Court of High Commission, an eclesiastical tribunal empowered to detect heretics, punish absentees from the established church, and to reform all heresies and schisms, possessed power not only to fine and imprison at pleasure, but could compel the civil power to hunt up and drag before them the miserable victims of bigotry and intolerance. "An act," says Hoyt, "was passed in 1593, for punishing all who refused to come to church, or were present at any conventicle or unauthorized meeting. The punishment was imprisonment until the convicted agreed to conform, and made declaration of his conformity; and if that was not done in three months, he was to quit the realm, or go into perpetual banishment. In case he did not depart within the time limited, or returned without license, he was to suffer death." Thus pressed and persecuted, the church to which Brewster and Bradford belonged resolved to take refuge in Holland.

Their first attempt to sail from Boston, in Lincolnshire, was defeated by the treachery of the master of the vessel, who, having received them and their goods on board his ship, delivered them up to the officers, by whom they were rifled of all their money and valuables of every description. Fortunately the magistrates of Boston sympathized with their sufferings, and, after a month's imprisonment, they were sent back to their homes.

But this failure, although so disastrous, did not restrain them from a new effort to accomplish their purpose. The year after, they agreed with a Dutch skipper at Hull to take them to Zealand, supposing there would be less risk in so doing than in again employing one of their own countrymen.

In order to avoid the risk of embarking at a large sea port, they bargained with him to take them on board at a lonely common on the flat coast between Hull and

Scarcely, however, had the first boat-load, consisting mostly of men, been taken aboard the ship, when the party on the shore were surrounded by a band of of horse and footmen, armed with guns, bills, &c., and made prisoners before the eyes of their husbands, fathers, and relatives, in the ship, who were utterly without means of helping them, and, to crown their distresses, the Dutchman, fearing to be implicated in the consequences, hastily weighed anchor, hoisted sail, and was soon a mere speck on the horizon.

The agony of those on board was intense, but still more deplorable was the case of the fugitives on shore, most of them women and children, with but a few men who had remained, to protect them.

"The women," says Bradford, "being thus apprehended, were hurried from one place to another, and from one Justice to another, until in the end they knew not what to do with them, for to imprison so many women and innocent children, for no other cause than that they would go with their husbands, seemed to be unreasonable, and all would cry out at them; and to send them home was as difficult, for they alleged (as the truth was) that they had no homes to go to, for they had sold or otherwise disposed of their lands and living." Thus they endured a world of misery, until their persecutors being wearied out, they were suffered to escape and join their relatives in Holland.