sty blade doubtless
stayed with him, and that it is directly traceable in his descendants'
hands, back to his time; but an equally positive claim is made for
similar honors for another sword said to have also belonged to the
Captain, now in the keeping of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

The Peregrine White cradle "is strongly indorsed as of the MAY-FLOWER,
from the facts that it is, indubitably, of a very early Dutch pattern and
manufacture; that Mrs. White was anticipating the early need of a cradle
when leaving Holland; and that the descent of this one as an heirloom in
her (second) family is so fairly traced."

The pewter and the silver flask of Winslow not only bear very early
"Hallmarks," but also the arms of his family, which it is not likely he
would have had engraved on what he may have bought after notably becoming
the defender of the simplicity and democracy of the "Pilgrim Republic."
Long traceable use in his family strengthens belief in the supposition
that these articles came with the Pilgrims, and were then very probably
heirlooms. One of Governor Bradford's books (Pastor John Robinson's
"Justification of Separation"), published in 1610, and containing the
Governor's autograph, bears almost 'prima facie' evidence of having come
with him in the MAY-FLOWER, but of course might, like the above-named
relics, have come in some later ship.

In this connection it is of interest to note what freight the MAY-FLOWER
carried for the intellectual needs of the Pilgrims. Of Bibles, as the
"book of books," we may be sure--even without the evidence of the
inventories of the early dead--there was no lack, and there is reason to
believe that they existed in several tongues, viz. in English, Dutch, and
possibly French (the Walloon contribution from the Huguenots), while
there is little doubt that, alike as publishers and as "students of the
Word," Brewster, Bradford, and Winslow, at least, were possessed of, and
more or less familiar with, both the Latin and Greek Testaments. It is
altogether probable, however, that Governor Bradford's well attested
study of "the oracles of God in the original" Hebrew, and his possession
of the essential Hebrew Bible, grammar, and lexicon, were of a later day.
Some few copies of the earliest hymnals ("psalme-bookes")--then very
limited in number--there is evidence that the Holland voyagers had with
them in the singing of their parting hymns at Leyden and Delfshaven, as
mentioned b