by Rod Gragg
The Pilgrims chose to make the long, perilous voyage across the Atlantic despite the sensational accounts of deep-ocean travel that circulated in the early seventeenth century. One popular illustration of the day depicted Atlantic travelers assaulted by flying fish.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
“They committed themselves to the will of God”
Some European explorers to America returned with wildly fanciful reports of prancing unicorns, prowling tigers, and three-headed snakes. At the time of the Mayflower’s voyage, this Dutch artwork depicted an Indian chieftain ruling from an ornate chariot pulled by unicorns.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
The Floridians have pieces of unicorn horns which they wear about their necks, whereof the Frenchmen obtained many pieces. Of those unicorns they have many: for that they do affirm it to be a beast with one horn, which coming to the river to drink, puts the same into the water before he drink. Of this unicorn horn there are of our company, that having gotten the same of the Frenchmen brought home thereof to show. It is therefore to be presupposed that there are more commodities as well as that, which for want of time, and people sufficient to inhabit the same, can not yet come to light: but I trust God will reveal the same before it be long, to the great profit of them that shall take it in hand.
“It is thought that there are lions and tigers as well as unicorns”
Of beasts in this country besides deer, foxes, hares, polecats, conies, and leopards, I am not able certainly to say: but it is thought that there are lions and tigers as well as unicorns; lions especially. If it be true that is said, of the enmity between them and the unicorns; for there is no beast but hath his enemy, as the coney, the polecat, a sheep, the wolf, the elephant, the rhinoceros; and so of other beasts the like: insomuch, that whereas the one is, the other can not be missing.
One popular work of art circulating in Europe in 1620 purported to depict the inhabitants that the Pilgrims would likely encounter in America: exotically costumed Indians, giant snails, huge birds, ferocious mammals—and mermaid-like humanoids.
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Seeing I have made mention of the beasts of this country, it shall not be from my purpose to speak also of the venomous beasts, as crocodiles, whereof there is great abundance, adders of great bigness, whereof our men killed some of a yard and half long. Also I heard a miracle of one of these adders, upon one a falcon seizing, the said adder did clasp her tail about her; which the French captain seeing, came to the rescue of the falcon, and took her, slaying the adder. This falcon being wild, he did reclaim her, and kept her for the space of two months, at which time for very want of meat he was forced to cast her off. On these adders the Frenchmen did feed, to no little admiration of us, and affirmed the same to be a delicate meat. The captain of the Frenchmen saw also a serpent with three heads and four feet, of the bigness of a great spaniel, which for want of a harquebus he did not attempt to slay. Of fish also they have in the river, pike, roche, salmon, trout, and divers other small fishes, and of great fish, some of the length of a man and longer, being of bigness accordingly, having a snout much like a sword of a yard long. . . .6
Perhaps the Pilgrims’ greatest fear was what might befall them at the hands of the New World’s indigenous peoples—the American Indians. The Pilgrims’ concerns were fueled by early seventeenth-century works of art such as this one, which depicted Native Americans as bloody-thirsty, cannibalistic headhunters.
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“Readier to Fill Their Sides Full of Arrows”
Among the Pilgrims’ Concerns—Fear of Native Americans
“The place they had thoughts on was . . . vast and unpeopled,” William Bradford would later observe, recalling the original concerns the Pilgrims had expressed in Holland when considering relocating to America. Even then, the prospect of facing the American wilderness “caused many fears and doubts,” he admitted. The most fearful among them presumably remained in Holland or England, but Bradford conceded that fear of the wilderness and the dangers it contained was “neither unreasonable nor unprobable.” Even the drinking water in America was believed it be harmful. In reality, the freshwater streams in America were far healthier than the water sources in England. There, water quality was so questionable that the beverage commonly consumed by English families, including Puritans and Separatists, was beer or ale. The water in America was just one worry for the Pilgrims: they had also been led to fear indigenous foods—and even the air itself. “The change of air, diet and drinking of water would affect their bodies with sore sicknesses and grievous disease,” it was commonly believed.
“The captain . . . saw also a serpent with three heads and four feet”
Perhaps most feared of all were the native peoples of America—the American Indians. As reported by William Bradford, Native Americans were believed to be “cruel, barbarous and most treacherous, being most furious in their rage and merciless where they overcome; not to be content only to kill and take away life, but delighting to torment men in the most bloody manner. . . .” When they landed in America, Bradford believed, the first Indians they encountered would be “readier to fill their sides full of arrows” than to greet them peaceably.
Fear of America’s Indian tribes was fueled by graphic and sometimes sensationalist reports from early explorers and colonists who had battled Native Americans in the New World. One of the most widely read accounts in England during the Pilgrims’ day was The Fourth Voyage Made to Virginia in the Yere 1587. It featured excerpts from the journal of John White, who was governor of the first English colony in North America—the unsuccessful, short-lived Roanoke settlement on the coast of North Carolina. White recounted how his assistant, George Howe, and several other English colonists were killed by Indians:
Algonquin Indians perform a ceremonial dance in a late sixteenth-century artwork by Englishman John White. While his art depicted Native Americans much more accurately than most European artists, even White’s accounts were enough to stoke the Pilgrims’ fear of Indians.
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We also understood from the men of Croatoan, that our man Master Howe was slain by the remnant of [Chief] Wingino’s men dwelling then at Dasamonguepeuk, with whom Wanchese kept company, and also we understood by them of Croatoan, how that the 15 Englishmen left at Roanoke the year before by Sir Richard Grenville were suddenly set upon by 30 of the men of Secota, Aquascogoc, and Dasamonguepeuk in the manner following. They conveyed themselves secretly behind the trees near the houses where our men carelessly lived. And having perceived that of those fifteen they could see but eleven, only two of those Savages appeared to the 11 Englishmen calling to them by friendly signs, that but two of their chief men should come unarmed to speak with those two savages, who seemed also to be unarmed. Wherefore two of the leaders of our Englishmen went gladly to them. While one of those savages traitorously embraced one of our men, the other with his sword of wood, which he had secretly hidden under his mantel, struck him on the head and slew him.
“The other . . . struck him on the head and slew him”
Presently the other eight and twenty savages showed themselves. The other Englishman, perceiving this, fled to his company, whom the savages pursued with their bows and arrows so fast that the Englishmen were forced to take the house, wherein all their victuals and weapons were. But the savages forthwith set the same on fire. Our men were forced to take up such weapons as came first to hand, and without order to run forth among the savages, with whom they skirmished above an hour. In this skirmish another of our men was shot in the mouth with an arrow. He died, and also one of the savages was shot into the side by one of our men . . . whereof he died. The place where they fought was of great advantage to the savages, by means of the thick trees, behind which the savages, through their nimbleness, defended themselves. They so offended our men with their arrows that our men, being some of them hurt, retired fighting to the waterside where their boat lay, with which they fled towar
ds Hatorask. . . .7
“The Difficulties Were Many, but Not Invincible”
The Pilgrims Overcome Their Fears to Face the Unknown
As they endured their ordeal in the Atlantic, the Pilgrims understood that the life which awaited them in America included dangers and challenges aplenty, even if the most sensational accounts of the New World were exaggerated. “And surely,” Bradford would write, “it could not be thought but the very hearing of these things could not but move the very bowels of men to grate within them and make the weak to quake and tremble.” They had chosen to go forward anyway, despite their fears. For they had come to believe—in Bradford’s words—“that all great and honorable actions are accompanied by great difficulties and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.” As the Mayflower neared the coast of America in November of 1620, its weary passengers faced the future with courage and faith. With extraordinary eloquence, William Bradford would later describe the Pilgrim heart:
Despite the grave dangers they faced, the Pilgrims courageously chose to cross the treacherous Atlantic in a quest for freedom. “Yea, though they should lose their lives in this action. . .,” observed William Bradford, “their endeavors would be honorable.”
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
“Another of our men was shot in the mouth with an arrow”
It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate. The difficulties were many, but not invincible. . . . It might be many of the things feared might never befall them; others by provident care and the use of good means might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne or overcome. True it was that such attempts were not to be made and undertaken without good grounds and reason, not rashly or lightly as many have done for curiosity or hope of gain, etc. But their condition was not ordinary, their ends were good and honorable, their calling lawful and urgent; and therefore they might expect the blessing of God in the proceeding. Yea, though they should lose their lives in this action, yet might they have comfort in the same and their endeavors would be honorable.8
“Their ends were good and honorable”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“They Fell upon Their Knees and Blessed the God of Heaven”
Behind them, the sun rose over the Atlantic horizon. Before them to the west, beneath a clear dawn sky, lay America. It was Thursday, November 9, 1620. After sixty-five days and 2,812 nautical miles at sea, the Pilgrims had reached their new home. Joyfully, they stared across the coastal waters and the distant, rolling surf at a pale line of high sand banks and, farther to the west, a bumpy line of forested hills. Unlike the English coastline they had left behind, there were no whitewashed cottages, no lighthouses, no stone fortifications. Instead, as far as they could see to the north and south there was a tree line of virgin forest that rose just beyond the Atlantic beach. It was “wooded to the brink of the sea,” they noted, and they were reassured to see what they considered to be “so goodly a land.”1
After sixty-five days at sea, the Mayflower finally came into sight of what the Pilgrims called “so goodly a land”—America.
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“They Fell upon Their Knees and Blessed the God of Heaven”
The Pilgrims Reach America
Although overjoyed to have finally reached America, they all soon realized that they were not in Virginia. Their proposed destination was the mouth of the Hudson River on the northern border of the Virginia Colony—at the site of modern New York City. Instead of making landfall at the Hudson, they had arrived offshore what would become the state of Massachusetts—almost two hundred and fifty miles off course. Did Master Jones simply miss his mark? After all, this was his first voyage to America. Or did he intentionally make for the New England shore, planning to sail southward when he reached the mainland? No one aboard the Mayflower ever explained exactly what happened, and the reasons for the Pilgrims’ landfall in New England would be debated for centuries to come. Although Master Jones had never taken a ship to America, his pilots had been to the New World before—which was presumably one reason why Master Jones had hired them—and Second Mate Robert Coppin had been to the Mayflower’s present landfall before. It was known to Europe’s long-distance fishing fleets as Cape Cod, so named for the seemingly endless schools of codfish that were found in its offshore waters.
Realizing they had landed far north of their destination, the Pilgrims directed the Mayflower to sail southward—until they encountered treacherous seas. Then they turned back and hove to for the night off the coast of New England.
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Lying offshore the northern end of Cape Cod, Master Jones discussed options with the Pilgrim leaders—presumably with Governor Martin, John Carver, William Brewster, and William Bradford. They directed Jones to sail south for their intended destination on the northern fringe of the Virginia Colony—“to find some place about Hudson’s River for their habitation,” as Bradford put it. That was where they had been legally granted permission to establish a colony backed by the Merchant Adventurers. Accordingly, the Mayflower was steered southward, and they sailed toward the mouth of the Hudson River for half a day, keeping the coastland in sight on their starboard side. It was cold along the coast of New England in November, but it was a sunny, clear day and with good winds behind them, they smoothly sailed along at a favorable speed.
Then they hit shallow water—dangerous shoals and crashing waves. The wind dropped, and the Mayflower stood in danger of running aground or wrecking on the shoals—especially if forced to remain in treacherous waters at night. After two months crossing the storm-tossed Atlantic, is this how their long-planned voyage to America would end—shipwrecked off the coast of the wilderness, alone, and with no one to rescue them? Onward they cruised through the rolling breakers and shallow waters, waiting any moment for disaster. Then the wind shifted and picked up—offering the Mayflower an avenue of escape back to the north. Master Jones took it, and turned the ship back in the direction in which they had come. A sense of relief surged through the Mayflower’s passengers and crew. By dusk, the Mayflower had cleared the shoals. Master Jones turned the ship into the wind and hove to for the night, suspending progress until dawn. Jones called for the Pilgrim leaders, and they made a historic decision: they would head north and establish their colony on the coast of New England.
On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower anchored in the sheltered waters of Cape Cod Bay. Upon finally reaching America, the Pilgrims “fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven.”
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The next day they set sail on a northward course, this time passing the long, empty southern stretch of Cape Cod on their port side, as they headed back to where they had first sighted land. By dark on November 10, they had passed their original landfall and were nearing the northern end of Cape Cod, which—on a chart—curled back toward the mainland like a giant, beckoning finger. Master Jones again hove to for the night. At daylight the next day, November 11, 1620, the Mayflower entered Cape Cod Bay, and anchored in cold, calm waters off what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts. “Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land,” William Bradford would recall, “they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean. . . .”
Amid their joy and relief that their dangerous voyage was over, and best hopes of what awaited them ashore, they were also keenly aware of the stark reality immediately facing them: it was now time to enter the great unknown American wilderness and make it their home. Their situation reminded William Bradford of the biblical account of Moses viewing the Promised Land from atop Mount Pisgah—and also the story in the New Testament book of Acts which recounted how the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked in a strange new land:
“They had now no friends to welcome them”
Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their pr
eparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them, or inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in scriptures, a mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise.
And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to such an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men? And what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Nether could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah to view from this wilderness, a more goodly country, to feed their hopes; for whichever way they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage view.
On this nineteenth-century map of New England, Cape Cod extends from the coast of modern Massachusetts like a giant beckoning finger. The Mayflower eventually anchored in the sheltered waters of Cape Cod Bay.
SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
