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History of Plymouth Plantation
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General SummaryWILLIAM BRADFORD was born at Austerfield, Yorkshire, probably in 1590 n/a. He joined the Puritan sect of Separatists, who had a church in the neighboring village of Scrooby, and went with the other members of the Scrooby congregation to Holland. Little is known of his life there. He seems to have been a diligent student, for we are told that he mastered many languages and even studied Hebrew in order to "see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in their native beauty." Bradford became an active advocate of the proposed emigration to America, sailed in the Mayflower with the other Pilgrims, and was one of the forty-one signers of the famous compact on shipboard at Cape Cod. In 1621 he succeeded John Carver as governor of Plymouth and held this office (with the exception of five years) until shortly before his death in 1657. To his faithful and judicious administration must be ascribed much of the prosperity of the Pilgrim commonwealth. The History of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford’s chief literary work, comes down to 1646. The manuscript of it disappeared from Boston at the time of the Revolutionary War. It was afterward discovered in London and in 1897 was returned to the state of Massachusetts.
Historical SummaryThe Pilgrims were Separatists from the Anglican Church. Early in the seventeenth century some of them established churches at Scrooby (Nottinghamshire) and Gainsborough (Lincolnshire), and in 1608 the Scrooby congregation fled to Amsterdam to avoid persecution. In 1609 they removed to Leiden and made that place their home. After living here about twelve years the decision was reached to emigrate to "some of those vast and unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation," and for this purpose they obtained from the London Company a patent to colonize within the limits of Virginia. The Pilgrims sailed from Delftshaven on the Maas late in July, 1620, and from Southampton on August 5, in two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The former, after two trials, was pronounced unseaworthy, and the Mayflower then sailed alone from Plymouth on September 6, with one hundred and two persons on board. They reached Provincetown Harbor on November 11, after "long beating at sea." The Pilgrims had intended to settle farther south, within the jurisdiction of the London Company, but stress of weather forced them to make their landing at Cape Cod.
CHAPTER XI
The Pilgrim Fathers1
58. The Pilgrims at Cape Cod2
Here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half
amazed at this poor people’s present condition; and so I think
will the reader too, when he well considers the same. Being thus
passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation
(as may be remembered by that which went before),
they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain
or refresh their weather-beaten bodies, nor houses or much less
towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in Scripture1
as 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 search 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.
Neither 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 which way soever 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 hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty
ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and
gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. If
it be said they had a ship to succor them, it is true; but what
heard they daily from the master and company but that with
speed they should look out a place with their shallop, where
they would be at some near distance; for the season was such
as he would not stir from thence till a safe harbor was discovered
by them where they would be, and he might go without danger;
and that victuals consumed apace, but he must and would
keep sufficient for themselves and their return. Yea, it was
muttered by some, that if they got not a place in time, they
would turn them and their goods ashore and leave them. Let it
also be considered what weak hopes of supply and succor they
left behind them, that might bear up their minds in this sad
condition and trials they were under; and they could not but
be very small. . . . What could now sustain them but the
spirit of God and his grace?
1 Bradford’s , 1606–1646, edited by W. T. Davis.
New York, 1908. Charles Scribner’s Sons.
2 Bradford’s , pp. 95–97.
1 Acts, xxviii.
Contents:
Chicago: W. T. Davis., ed., "The Pilgrims at Cape Cod," History of Plymouth Plantation in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 104–105. Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=1FN65DSMWJGQY66.
MLA: . "The Pilgrims at Cape Cod." History of Plymouth Plantation, edited by W. T. Davis., in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, pp. 104–105. Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=1FN65DSMWJGQY66.
Harvard: (ed.), 'The Pilgrims at Cape Cod' in History of Plymouth Plantation. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.104–105. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=1FN65DSMWJGQY66.
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