n suggested is also exact, viz. thirty (30) to the SPEEDWELL
and ninety (90) to the MAY-FLOWER, it is clear that there must have been
more than twelve (the number usually named) who went from the consort to
the larger ship, when the pinnace was abandoned. We know that at least
Robert Cushman and his family (wife and son), who were on the MAY-FLOWER,
were among the number who returned to London upon the SPEEDWELL (and the
language of Thomas Blossom in his letter to Governor Bradford, else where
quoted, indicates that he and his son were also there), so that if the
ship's number was ninety (90), and three or more were withdrawn, it would
require fifteen (15) or more to make the number up to one hundred and two
(102), the number of passengers we know the MAY-FLOWER had when she took
her final departure. It is not likely we shall ever be able to determine
exactly the names or number of those transferred to the MAY-FLOWER from
the consort, or the number or names of all those who went back to London
from either vessel. Several of the former and a few of the latter are
known, but we must (except for some fortunate discovery) rest content
with a very accurate knowledge of the passenger list of the MAY-FLOWER
when she left Plymouth (England), and of the changes which occurred in it
afterward; and a partial knowledge of the ship's own complement of
officers and men.

Goodwin says: "The returning ones were probably of those who joined in
England, and had not yet acquired the Pilgrim spirit." Unhappily this
view is not sustained by the relations of those of the number who are
known. Robert Cushman and his family (3 persons), Thomas Blossom and his
son (2 persons), and William Ring (1 person), a total of six, or just one
third of the putative eighteen who went back, all belonged to the Leyden
congregation, and were far from lacking "the Pilgrim spirit." Cushman
was both ill and heart-sore from fatigue, disappointment, and bad
treatment; Ring was very ill, according to Cushman's Dartmouth letter;
but the motives governing Blossom and his son do not appear, unless the
comparatively early death of the son--after which his father went to New
England--furnishes a clue thereto. Bradford says: "Those that went back
were, for the most part, such as were willing to do so, either out of
some discontent, or fear they conceived of the ill success of the Voyage,
seeing so many crosses befallen and the year time so far spent. But
others, in