Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock

Painting by A. Gisbert]

"Land-ho!" This welcome cry was not heard until two months had elapsed,
and the sandy cliffs of Cape Cod were the first points which greeted the
eyes of the exiles. Yet the appearance of these cliffs "much comforted
them, and caused them to rejoice together, and praise God, that had
given them once again to see land." Their destination, however, was to
"the mouth of the Hudson," and now they were much farther to the north,
and within the bounds of the New England Company. They therefore "tacked
to stand to the southward," but "becoming entangled among roaring
shoals, and the wind shrieking upon them withal, they resolved to bear
up again for the Cape," and the next day, "by God's providence, they got
into Cape harbor," where, falling upon their knees, they "blessed the
Lord, the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious
ocean, and delivered them from all perils and miseries, therein, again
to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."

Morton, in his memorial, asserts that the Mayflower put in at this cape,
"partly by reason of a storm by which she was forced in, but more
especially by the fraudulency and contrivance of the aforesaid Mr.
Jones, the master of the ship; for their intention and his engagement
was to Hudson's river; but some of the Dutch having notice of their
intention, and having thoughts about the same time of erecting a
plantation there likewise, they fraudulently hired the said Jones, by
delays, while they were in England, and now under the pretence of the
sholes, etc., to disappoint them in their going thither. Of this plot
betwixt the Dutch and Mr. Jones I have had _late and certain
intelligence_." The explicitness of this assertion has caused charge of
treachery--brought by no one but Morton--to be repeated by almost every
historian down to the present period; and it is only within a few years
that its correctness has been questioned by writers whose judgment is
entitled to respect. But notwithstanding the plausibility of the
arguments urged to disprove this charge, and even the explicit assertion
that it is a "Parthian calumny," and a "sheer falsehood," we must
frankly own that, in our estimation, the veracity of Morton yet remains
unimpeached. Facts prove that the Dutch were contemplating permanent
settlement of New Netherland, and the early Pilgrim writers assert that
overtures were made to t