n was some point south of the Hudson River, within the
Virginia patent; but foul weather prevented any accurate calculation,
and November 9, 1620, the emigrants found themselves in the
neighborhood of Cape Cod. They tacked and sailed southward, but ran
into "dangerous shoals and roaring breakers," which compelled them to
turn back and seek shelter in the harbor now called Provincetown. The
anxiety of the sailors to be rid of the emigrants prevented any
further attempt southward, and forced them to make their permanent
habitation near this accidental lodgment.

As the patent under which they sailed had no force in the territory of
the Plymouth Company, they united themselves by the so-called
"Mayflower compact," November 11, 1620, into a "civill body politic,"
and promised "submission and obedience to all such ordinances as the
general good of the colony might require from time to time." Under the
patent John Carver had been chosen governor, and he was now confirmed
in that office under the new authority, which followed pretty nearly
the terms of the old.[16]

For five weeks they stayed in the ship, while Captain Miles Standish
with a small company explored the country. In the third expedition,
after an attack from the Indians and much suffering from snow and
sleet, Standish's men reached a landing nearly opposite to the point
of Cape Cod, which they sounded and "found fit for shipping." There
"divers cornfields" and an excellent stream of fresh water encouraged
settlement, and they landed, December 11 (Old Style), 1620, near a
large bowlder, since known as Plymouth Rock.

By the end of the week the Mayflower had brought over her company of
emigrants--seventy-three males and twenty-nine females--and December
25, 1620, they began to erect the first house "for the common use to
receive them and their goods." The Indian name of the place was
Patuxet, but the emigrants called it New Plymouth "after Plymouth, in
old England, the last town they left in their native country";[17] and
it was a curious coincidence that the spot had already received from
John Smith the name of Plymouth. Later the town was called simply
Plymouth, while the colony took the name of New Plymouth.

[Footnote 1: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 699; Bradford, _Plimoth
Plantation_, 117.]

[Footnote 2: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 699-701, 731-742, 745.]

[Footnote 3: Gorges, _Description of New England_ (Mass. Hist. Soc.,
_Collections_, 3d series, V