Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/212

Rh to Dreft Harbour, where we were to go on board, and there we were entertained anew. And after our minister had prayed with us, and floods of tears had been shed, they accompanied us on board. But we were in no condition to talk one with another of the exceeding great grief of parting. From our vessel, however, we gave them a salutation; and then extending our hands to each other, and lifting up our hearts for each other to the Lord our God, and so set sail.”

A prosperous wind quickly conveyed the Pilgrims to the English shore; and then the smallest of the vessels, the “Speedwell,” was compelled to lie-to for repairs. But scarcely had they again left the English coast with sails unfurled for the Atlantic, when the captain of the “Speedwell” and his company lost courage in the prospect of the greatness of the undertaking and all its perils, and desired to return to England. The people of the “Mayflower” agreed that “it was very grievous and discouraging.” And now the little band of resolute men and women, several of the latter far advanced in pregnancy, persevered in their undertaking, and with their children and their household stuff, an entire floating village, they sailed onward in the “Mayflower” across the great sea towards the New World, and at the most rigorous season of the year. After a stormy voyage of sixty-three days, the Pilgrims beheld the shores of the New World, and in two more days the “Mayflower” cast anchor in the harbour of Cape Cod, on the coast of Massachussets.

Yet, before they land, and whilst the “Mayflower” yet rests upon the waves of the deep, they assemble to deliberate on some constituted form of government; and, drawing up the following compact, they formed them selves into a voluntary body-politic.

“In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign