little bird," probably John Alden, constant companion of Standish,
had sung truly in Priscilla's ear of a second exploring party about to
leave the Mayflower in quest of a favorable site for the town and colony
the Pilgrims had come forth to found.

To this step they were urged not only by their own wishes, but by the
importunities of Captain Jones, who having obeyed his Dutch employers
and brought his passengers to a point well removed from the Virginian or
Manhattan shores whereon they intended to land, was now only desirous to
put them ashore almost anywhere, and make sail for England while the
winter storms held off and his provisions lasted. His own interest,
therefore, made him zealous in the Pilgrims' service, and so heartily
had he offered his men, boats, and provisions for the expedition that
the Pilgrims had made him its leader, some of them still believing in
his honesty and friendliness, and some others feeling that the surest
way to effect their plans was to induce the surly commander to make them
his own. The event proved their shrewdness, for Jones accepted the
appointment with great satisfaction, and told off ten of his best seamen
to add to the four-and-twenty sound men who were nearly all that the
Pilgrims could muster, since, thanks to the secret councils of Rose
Standish and her associates, all sick or weakly candidates were weeded
out from the volunteers, and the Tilley brothers, William Molines,
James Chilton, William White, and several others were kindly bidden to
remain on board and nurse their strength for the next expedition.

About noon the tide serving, the four-and-thirty adventurers, divided
between the ship's long-boat and their own pinnace, took the sea in
teeth of a freezing northeasterly gale, and under low-lying clouds whose
gray bosoms teemed with snow and sleet.

Thomas English, a mariner engaged as master of the shallop, held the
helm, while as many willing hands as could grasp the oars pulled lustily
in the direction of what is now called the Pamet River, a stream
discovered some days previously by a foot expedition under charge of
Standish, and considered as a possible seat for their colony. The
crowded state of the boats and the head wind rendered the sails useless,
and oars proved inefficient to propel so large a boat as the pinnace,
while the sea, rapidly rising with the rising wind, broke so dangerously
over the quarter that English refused to proceed, and it was hastily
res