landed at Cape Cod (i.e.
on November 3) King James had signed the patent of the Council for
New England, giving them full authority over all territory north of
the forty-first parallel of north latitude, as successors to the
Second Virginia Company. If the intention to land south of the
forty-first parallel had been persisted in, there would, of course,
have been no occasion for the Compact, as the patent to John Pierce
(in their interest) from the London Virginia Company would have been
in force. The Compact became a necessity, therefore, only when they
turned northward to make settlement above 41 deg. north latitude.
Hence it is plain that as no opportunity for "faction"--and so no
occasion for any "Association and Agreement"--existed till the
MAY-FLOWER turned northward, late in the afternoon of Friday,
November to, the Compact was not drawn and presented for signature
until the morning of Saturday, November 11. Bradford's language,
"This day, before we came into harbour," leaves no room for doubt
that it was rather hurriedly drafted--and also signed--before noon
of the 11th. That they had time on this winter Saturday--hardly
three weeks from the shortest day in the year--to reach and
encircle the harbor; secure anchorage; get out boats; arm, equip,
and land two companies of men; make a considerable march into the
land; cut firewood; and get all aboard again before dark, indicates
that they must have made the harbor not far from noon. These facts
serve also to correct another error of traditional Pilgrim history,
which has been commonly current, and into which Davis falls
(Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 60), viz. that the Compact was
signed "in the harbor of Cape Cod." It is noticeable that the
instrument itself simply says, "Cape Cod," not "Cape Cod harbour,"
as later they were wont to say. The leaders clearly did not mean
to get to port till there was a form of law and authority.]

for settlement on territory under the
protection of the patent granted in their
interest to John Pierce, by the London
Virginia Company.

[The patent granted John Pierce, one of the Merchant Adventurers,
by the London Virginia Company in the interest of the