er vessel, after a trial on the
Atlantic, was found incompetent to the voyage, and was abandoned. The
more timid were allowed to disembark at old Plymouth. One hundred and
one resolute souls again set sail in the Mayflower, for the unknown
wilderness, with all its countless dangers and miseries. No common
worldly interest could have sustained their souls. The first
adventurers embarked for Virginia, without women or children; but the
Puritans made preparation for a permanent residence. Providence,
against their design, guided their little vessel to the desolate
shores of the most barren part of Massachusetts. On the 9th of
November, it was safely moored in the harbor of Cape Cod. On the 11th,
the colonists solemnly bound themselves into a body politic, and chose
John Carver for their governor. On the 11th of December, (O. S.,)
after protracted perils and sufferings, this little company landed on
Plymouth Rock. Before the opening spring, more than half the colony
had perished from privation, fatigue, and suffering, among whom was
the governor himself. In the autumn, their numbers were recruited; but
all the miseries of famine remained. They lived together as a
community; but, for three or four months together, they had no corn
whatever. In the spring of 1623, each family planted for itself, and
land was assigned to each person in perpetual fee. The needy and
defenceless colonists were fortunately preserved from the hostility of
the natives, since a famine had swept away the more dangerous of their
savage neighbors; nor did hostilities commence for several years. God
protected the Pilgrims, in their weakness, from the murderous
tomahawk, and from the perils of the wilderness. They suffered, but
they existed. Their numbers slowly increased, but they were all
Puritans,--were just the men to colonize the land, and lay the
foundation of a great empire. From the beginning, a strict democracy
existed, and all enjoyed ample exemption from the trammels of
arbitrary power. No king took cognizance of their existence, or
imposed upon them a despotic governor. They appointed their own
rulers, and those rulers governed in the fear of God. Township
independence existed from the first; and this is the nursery and the
genius of American institutions. The Plymouth colony was a
self-constituted democracy; but it was composed of Englishmen, who
loved their native land, and, while they sought unrestrained freedom,
did not disdain dependence