children: and strikingly grand must have been that act of worship. The
manly voices of the sturdy Pilgrims rose in deep and solemn unison,
followed by those of the women and children, and resounded along the
silent coast, while the heavy urges of the receding tide kept up a
hoarse and monotonous accompaniment. Then arose a hymn of
thanksgiving--and the rocks and the neighboring hills re-echoed the
exulting strain, that seemed to drown the voices of the wind and the
waves, and to rise unmixed to heaven. It was the triumph of faith--the
holy and heartfelt expression of undying trust and confidence in God!
Surely, at that time, the Pilgrims were meet objects for the admiring
gaze of men and angels! But they were not always so.

It was on the shore of Cape Cod Bay that the new settlers had landed,
in the inlet now called New Plymouth Harbor: but this was not the place
of their original destination. They had intended to steer for the
mouth of Hudson's River, and to have fixed their habitation in that
less exposed and inhospitable district. But the Dutch had already
conceived the project, which they afterwards accomplished, of settling
in that part of the new continent; and it is supposed that the captain
of the Mayflower was bribed by them to convey the English emigrants
further to the north; so that the first American land which they beheld
was Cape Cod. They found that the place where they had landed was
beyond the precincts of the territory which had been granted to them;
and even beyond that of the Company from which they derived their right
of colonization; and after exploring hastily the neighboring coast, and
finding it dreary and unpromising, they again embarked, and insisted on
the captain's conveying them to the district which they had first
desired to reach. They sailed to the south, and many days were lost in
endeavoring to find a more convenient spot for their settlement: but it
was in vain. The shoals and the breakers with which the coast was
lined, presented obstacles that were insurmountable at that advanced,
and unusually inclement, season; and, weary and disheartened, they
returned to the place of their first landing. There they fixed their
abode, and there they founded the infant city of New Plymouth. It was a
desolate situation, and one that subjected the new settlers to many
trials and privations; for the nearest English settlements then
established were upwards of five hundred miles distant. Winte