USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 5
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Any congregation of believers freely associating together constitute a sepa- rate Church, having the liberty to choose its own pastor, or bishop, appoint their own officers, and perform all the functions of self-government, with an absolute independence of all foreign control, whether ecclesiastical or civil.
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The Puritan shaped his character and conscience by the Bible as he understood it, according to his best judgment and endeavor ; that he did not understand it otherwise, makes him no better or worse. When the whole truth is told, neither party was harmless. The age was shadowed by grave errors. Bigotry and superstition were creeping up from the darkness of the past. The practical Christ-life was not enthroned. They accepted the law of " an eye for an eye," but neglected the gospel of " But I say unto you, love your enemies." Though they prayed all night, and fasted all day, they had not charity that was kind. The iron mace of intol- erance fell shivering the Sermon on the Mount. Of zeal and sacrifice there was no lack, nor of open contempt for innox- ious forms.
" One sin committed by a bishop would have been worth more to Puritanism than all the law and the prophets." Neale says, " Both parties made an ill use of the sword of the magistrate for the uniformity of public worship when they could grasp the power in their own hands."
They endorsed and lived the Westminster declaration, that " the first duty of man is to fear God and keep his command ments, to hate the devil and all his works." The devil and all his works meant the Bishops and the Established Church of England.
Old Izaak Walton, in his Life of Richard Hooker, refers to an ingenious Italian who, while visiting England, wrote scoff- ingly to his own country : "That the common people of England were wiser than the wisest of his nation ; for here the very women and shopkeepers were able to judge of pre- destination, and to determine what laws were fit to be mad- concerning Church government.
THE PILGRIMS OR SEPARATISTS.
The Puritan movement had been gaining ground many years, when, in 1602, a few families in and near the borders of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, a poor peo- ple, regarding the rule of bishops as unscriptural, ceremo-
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nious, and as relics of idolatry, united together, independently of the Church, in a closer and stronger brotherhood, or churchhood, to secure more religious liberty.
They made a covenant "to shake off kingly oppression and bondage, and be the Lord's free people ; to walk in all the ways of the Lord, and do all his will, according to their best judgment and endeavor, cost them what it might." This is the first distinct movement of the Pilgrims, some- times called the Church of Scrooby. The Rev. John Wad- dington, of England, says, "The Pilgrim movement, when traced to its various tributary springs so long concealed, will be found richly to repay the utmost amount of care and dili- gence."
In 1602 they made a Church covenant. Mark the corol- lary. In 1776, their children, our fathers, made another cov- enant, called the Declaration of Independence, in which they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honors, which was repeating, "Cost them what it might." The covenant was the beginning, the declaration a great step forward in the grand march. We are not of that number who believe the march ended.
As the Lord's free people, they met with their faithful minister till 1606. Being so widely scattered, they now be- came two distinct churches, for their better convenience. Mr. John Smith became pastor of one, and Mr. John Robin- son and Mr. Richard Clifton of the other. Mr. William Brewster, afterwards a Ruling Elder, also belonged to this Church. Being still persecuted, and seeing no prospect for protection, and regarding religion more than home and friends, they determined to flee from their own country. Their flight from England moved the spirit of Milton in their behalf.
The history of the removal of these few score of peaceable and industrious families from England, their betrayals, their arrests, their imprisonments, their trials before arrogant magistrates, their fines, their homeless wanderings, the sep- aration of husbands and wives and children, the abuses and sufferings of delicate women and tender children, is a slander
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upon the great Magna Charta. Rev. Mr. Bart? . an English writer, referring to the same, says :
The trials and persecutions and abuses that befell them in x ju aceful attempt to leave their own country for Amsterdam. are a burning shine, and if not a matter of fact, would be regarded impossible. It should be no reproach to the Pilgrims themselves, that living in an age of sectarian animosity, sharpened by bitter persecution, they should have been not altogether untinctured by the narrow spirit around them.
THE LAST MEETING AT PLYMOUTH.
The experience of the Pilgrims in Holland, why they did not remain, their conference with King James, and persever- ance in the face of obstacles ; their preparations and depar- ture, cannot be repeated in this connection.
Bradford says, referring to their trials, " That the children of the Pilgrims might see what difficulties their fathers wrestled in going through these things in their first begin- nings, and how God brought them along, notwithstanding all their weaknesses and infirmities ; and they hoped by this set- tlement, the honor of God, of their king and country would be advanced, without injury to the native inhabitants."
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Edward Winslow tells how they parted at Leyden ; the feast, and songs, and prayers, and tears. And again at Delft Haven, "and there they feasted us again, and after prayer, performed by our pastor, where a flood of tears were poured out, they accompanied us to the ship, but were not able to speak to one another for the abundance of sorrow to part."
There is in Pilgrim Hall, a picture by Lucy, of this last interview. The Mayflower sailed alone on the sixth of Sep- tember from Plymouth.
After a boisterous passage of sixty-three days, on the morn- ing of November 9th, the Mayflower made Cape Cod. It was the intention of the Pilgrims to settle south of Cape Cod. By some it is stated they intended to settle on the Hudson ; that Robert Coppin, the pilot, was bribed by the Dutch, not to land near their plantation. I have seen no evidence of Coppin's treachery.
The history of the Pilgrims from the time of sighting Cape Cod till after their settlement in Plymouth, is vividly told in Mourt's Relation, a reprint of the original journal of William Bradford. "Printed by John Bellamie, and are to be sold at his shop at the two greyhounds, in Cornhill, neere the Royal Exchange, London, 1622."
That part of the journal that covers the thirty-four days' experience on Cape Cod, and the graphic account of the two expeditions of discovery to Truro in search of a settlement can scarcely be too carefully studied.
The Mayflower rocks in the harbor's lee, Within the sandy Race ; The howling winds and angry waves Have yielded in the chase.
The sight of land was welcome enough to those who looked out from the little ship for the first time, upon the New World. No wonder Bradford says, "They were much com- forted, especially seeing so goodly a land, and wooded to the brink of the sea." These bold heights crowned with forests to their banks, were in strong contrast with the bold chalk- cliffs of England, and the flat shores of Holland.
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As they made their course south-southwest, to run down the Cape, they were evidently not far off from the Highland which Bart Gosnold described, eighteen years before, as "a mighty headland."
The night wind proving contrary, their vessel partially dis- abled by beating so late about the Atlantic, their passengers and crew worn out with anxiety and privations, they put back, and the next morning, the eleventh of November, 1620, anchored in " the Bay of Cape Cod." (Provincetown Harbor.)
Bradford describes Cape Cod as "a good harbor and pleasant bay, circled round, except at the entrance, which is about four miles over from land to land, compassed about from sea to sea with oaks, pines, juniper, sassafras and other sweet woods; it is a harbor where a thousand ships may safely ride. There we relieved ourselves with wood and water and refreshed our people while our shallop was fitting to coast the bay in search of an habitation. There was the greatest store of fowl we ever saw. And every day we saw whole flocks playing hard by us, of which in that place, if we had instruments and means to take them, we might have made a very rich return which to our great grief we wanted.
"Our master and his mate, and others experienced in fishing, professed we might have made three or four thousand pounds worth of oil. For cod we assayed, but found none : there is good store, no doubt, in their season. The bay is so round and circling, that before we could come to anchor we went round all the points of the compass."
As the Mayflower approaches the wel- come harbor, and is swinging around all these points of the compass, watched by anxious, cager eyes, step with Bradford upon the high poop deck, and behold Cape Cod of 1620.
THE MAYFLOWER ENTERING CAPE COD HARBOR.
Having rounded Race Point, then as now mingling sky,
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beach and ocean, a bend in the coast, wooded to the water- line, offers a sheltering cover. Stretching again seaward a long arm studded thick with trees is reached. The shore now changes from south-southeast eight points to east-north- cast. Following this low shore several miles to a sharp
RACE POINT. 1878.
sandy point, the great harbor of Cape Cod, its quiet waters picturing a perfect haven of rest and safety, opens full to view.
The sheltering cove we passed is now known as Herring Cove ; the long arm seaward is Wood End, and the sharp sand point is Long Point.
Two hundred and fifty years has graced these three points with lighthouses, and some few dismantled earthworks tell of defenses ; but every tree and shrub and fleck of soil and spear of grass, has long since disappeared, leaving nothing but white sand and scattering tufts of struggling beach grass. Alaric and his northern hosts could not more effectively have stamped out every blade of grass.
As the Mayflower heads toward the harbor, you behold steep banks, oak, pine and cypress crowning all the heights. Following the circling shore eastward, the banks break, and recede, terminating in high irregular hills clad in sombre pine. Still following the shore across a low beach, a well- wooded headland covered with an unbroken forest, stretches to the south far as the eye can reach. The headland, well- rounded, is High Head ; the unbroken forests then so com- manding in the eyes of the Pilgrims, are now the bare table- lands of Truro.
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Beneath my shade, the red man slipping, Himself a shadow, stole away : A paler shadow follows him !
The irregular hills are now the northern limits of Truro, and to-day form the most perfect sahara in the world. The Rev. B. F. DeCosta writes :
This neck is from three to four miles in length, and of great elevation, being composed of pure white sand. Seventy years ago it was studded with stumps of trees which had been choked by the upward march of the drift, but every vestige of these long since disappeared. This elongated hill forms one of the most impressive objects in nature. Viewed at early dawn, when the fog from the Atlantic purpling in the rising sun, bathes the vast sand-drift in a soft amethystine light, the sight is one capable of exciting the deepest admiration. Such must be this sight to all impressible minds, whether viewed in the purpling light of morning, in the bright effulgence of the sun's meridian splendor, or at evening, when the naked waste gloams fitfully in the weird supernatural twilight. Then the solitary and belated tourist, as the solemn voice of the surf salutes his ear, will start; and as the dim forms darkle around him, the air seems to grow thick and tangible, and he becomes half-conscious of the presence of some great all- pervading spirit.
That first day on board the Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor, preparatory to landing, they set their hands to the following agreement :
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal sub- jects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, Ireland, King, defender of the faith, etc.
Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furthermore of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony : unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. Cape Cod, eleventh of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King James of Eng- land, France and Ireland 18, and of Scotland 54, Anno Domini, 1620.
They had no thought of storied fame ; They only watched with hearts aflame For the call of duty when it came.
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Here follow forty-one names, which with their wives, chil- dren and servants make the one hundred. Distinct from the crew, there were a few other servants that did not sign the paper. Our old text-books used to say one hundred and one embarked. William Butten, the servant of Samuel Fuller, died on the passage.
It is an evidence of national significance, and popular enthronement, that the signing of this instrument on board the crippled little bark as she lay riding at anchor like a lone bird painted against a winter's sky, has been seized by the artist and produced in the Nation's Capitol as a grand historic subject.
The signing of the compact was on the same day of anchor- ing, before a landing was made. They then chose Mr. John Carver Governor. "Here they fell down upon their knees, and blessed the Lord the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and perilous ocean."
It is true they had safely crossed the ocean, but no home welcomed them to its comforts, no friends offered kind greet- ing. They were strangers and pilgrims indeed. Home and friends were cut off by three thousand miles of wintry ocean. A desolate wilderness, savage tribes and a bleak winter, with sickness, and discomforts, and dangers on every side, greeted them.
Here then was planted the seed of government by the people, and since that November day of 1620, civil and relig- ious liberty has been a mighty force in balancing and harmon- izing Church and State.
In the whole period from the sixth to the tenth century, there were not in the whole of Europe, more than three or four men who dared to think for them- selves, and even they were obliged to veil their meaning in obscure and mystical language .- Buckle.
Here were more than twoscore men publishing to the universe in language neither obscure nor mystical, a new principle in human government.
Here for the first time in the world's history the philosophical fiction of a. social compact was realized in practice .- Dr. Alexander Young.
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This brief, comprehensive, and simple instrument established a most important principle, which is the foundation of all the democratic institutions in America, and is the basis of the Republic .- Baylies.
The great battle was fought for no single generation, for no single land. The destinies of the human race were staked on the same cast, with the freedom of the English people. There were first proclaimed those mighty principles which have since worked their way into the depths of the American forests, which have roused Greece from the slavery and degradation of two thou- sand years, and which from one end of Europe to the other, have kindled an unquenchable fire in the hearts of the oppressed, and loosed the knees of the oppressors with an unwonted fear. - Macaulay.
Of the many heroic emigrations from our Island Home, which have covered the face of the world with powerful colonies, and carried our language and liter- ature to the remotest bounds of the earth, no one is perhaps more singular and even romantic than that of a band of sectarians driven forth in the reign of James First, on whom the veneration of the American posterity has bestowed the title of
THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
'They came of an excellent stock ; the soundest if not the noblest of English blood flowed in their veins. Their leaders were men of conduct and education. - Bartlett.
All idea of wealth or pleasure was out of the question. The greater part viewed the emigration as taking up the cross and founding their hopes of wealth to the gifts of the spirit, and their ambition to the desire of a kingdom beyond the grave. A set of men more conscientious in their doings, or simpler in their homes never founded commonwealth .- Lord Brougham.
An act that has rendered Cape Cod more memorable than Runymede and the cabin of the Mayflower the proudest hall of ancient charter or modern con- stitution .- R. C. Winthrop.
Most of the Pilgrims had received a good education. Many of them were familiar with Latin and Greek, and as classical scholars, had few rivals even in modern times. When King James said "he would harry the Puritans out of the land, or else do worse," and Archbishop Laud with his Court of High Commissioners, drove the dissenting ministers from their pulpits, they transferred a share of the learning and piety of England to the wilderness of New England; but it was God's way of making that wilderness to bud and blossom as the rose.
The Pilgrims were not prophets, only as consecrated
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Christians with great spiritual and natural gifts and graces and grand faith and heroic courage are always prophets.
So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low. " 'Thou must," Then man replies, " I can."
From sublime heights they gaze down the valley, and their sun gilds the coming centuries. Speculatively, it has been said they built better than they knew. Given advanced, conscientious convictions, high-spirited daring, zeal, faith, and patience, with education and deep experience, what should be the outcome ? The Pilgrim character has suffered from indiscriminate praise and censure. For this reason we have studiously sought to present their history from no partisan standpoint. While an unprejudiced study of their lives has revealed men with human frailties, and the faults of their age, yet making the most of their faults and infirmities, judged to-day by their merits, they stand preëminently among the good and great of earth. Genius and learning, poetry and art, the pulpit and the platform, have yielded their choicest gifts, till the Mayflower and the Rock of Plymouth are radiant and immortal.
These self-exiled men, for conscience' sake, were our fore- fathers. How, more than border slogan or blast of bugle- horn, that word has stirred our hearts from boyhood ! If we have been prone to magnify their virtues and exalt their heroism through the prejudices of early education, there we stand for judgment, because they were our fathers.
From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven, Over the lit seas' august way, In the rustling night-air came the answer : Wouldst thou be as these are ? live as they
- Matthew Arnold.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PILGRIMS IN TRURO.
The first Boat. Where they landed. Description. Travellers' Veracity. Criticism. American Forests. New England Plantation. Mr. Higginson of Salem. Old England. The Shallop. Captain Miles Standish. A Tableau. The Rendezvous. East Harbor. First Water in America. 1620-1878. The Signal. On to the " Supposed River." The Pond. The cleared Land, or Indian Cornfields. Great Hollow. The first Indian Grave. Strawberries. Cornhill. The Coast Survey The first Indian Corn. Corn vs Grapes. Anglo-Saxon Argument. Corn Planting. Captain Dermer. The River. Tom's Hill. Savages. Providence. A Deer-trap. Stephen Hopkins. Second Discovery. Master Jones. Iron Men. Early Graves. Up the River. Lodging under the Pines. The Main Chance and Seed Corn. Pilgrim Pluck. Indian Trails. Arbitrary Lines. Indian Grave. Speculations. Wigwams. Conference. Pro and Con. Truro Water. Robert Coffin. A narrow Escape. Peregrine White. Bereavements. Providential Names. Young Billing. ton. Third Discovery. Freezing Cold. Grampus Bay. The first Encounter. Perilous Voyage. Good News. Webster on Plymouth Rock.
T HE first boat that landed contained fifteen or sixteen men. Mr. Bradford complains that they could not come nearer the shore than three quarters of a mile, on account of shoal water, and were obliged to wade in the freezing cold, which caused many to get colds and coughs. Good authority as Drs. Freeman and Young, think that the boat landed on Long Point. I can conceive of no possible importance where the boat landed ; but from the description given by Mr. Bradford, and familiarity with the location, I think it reasonably certain they landed at the extreme west of the present town, and explored towards Shang Painter till they saw the ocean on the other side, which they call "the further side of the sea." The great swamp then in front of High Pole Hill, and the steep banks eastward, would not have
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encouraged a landing in that direction. This is the descrip- tion :
They found it to be a small neck of land; on this side where we lay (in the harbour) is the bay, and the further side (across the land that makes the har- bour) the sea; the ground or earth, sand-hills much like the Downes in Hol- land, but much better; the crust of earth a spits (spade) depth, excellent black earth ; all wooded with oaks, pines, sassafras, juniper, birch, holly, vines, some ash, walnut ; the wood for the most part open and without underwood, fit either to go or ride in. At night our people returned, but found not any person, nor habitation, and loaded their boat with juniper, which smelled very strong and sweet, and of which we burnt the most part of the time we lay there.
This "juniper," was the red cedar or savin, which all the early writers argue to have been plentiful, now scarce. We shall consider these forest productions in another chapter
Old Francis Higginson, the first Salem minister, when writing to his friends in London about New England, said : " The idle proverb is, that travellers may lie by authority. But shall such a man as I lie ? "
There is a world of light thrown on the reports of travel- lers of that early day, by this proverb. The honest old divine felt the necessity of protecting his own veracity. : "May I not incur his wrath," says Heroditus, after telling a naughty story of some Olympian god.
The descriptions of the Pilgrims have been severely criti- cised. Travellers equally truthful, suffer by contrast. Critics disagree. A wide margin lies between the best and the worst that may be said of a picture, a poem, or a continent.
The religious zeal of the Pilgrims kindled their imagina- tion. As good a man as Mr. Bradford, with great hopes and saintly courage, having turned his back upon unrighteous Europe, and fortified for the worst that lay before him, rea- sonably enough felt the inspiration of the vastness and free- ness of the New World. No wonder the free soil and free forests of Cape Cod seemed rich and magnificent. All authorities confirm Mr. Bradford's description, that the Cape was well wooded, and mostly open; or, as he says, " fit to go or ride in." This was caused by the annual fires of the Indi- ans, which consumed all brush and underwood, leaving the
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forests free for running and hunting. The grandeur, extent and freedom of the American forests were a never-ceasing source of satisfaction and delight to the English. They had associated forests and trees with the crown and the well- kept parks of the nobility. Bundles of fagots were doled out, as were also the coals, for so many sixpences. Abundance of fuel to the common people, was a luxury as unknown as abundance of money.
In the "New England Plantation, or the Commodities and Discommodities of that Country," by Rev. Mr. Higginson, 1629, before referred to, we catch this spirit. This cheery old Puritan with his English prejudices sticking like burrs, sets our feet on the shores of New England, with the early plant- ers. We sympathize in their hopes and fears, in their toils and prayers. We learn much of Old England life, and New England struggle. We nestle into their sayings and doings, and are more English than we know. He says, "Though it be somewhat cold in winter, we have plenty of fire ; nay, all Europe is not able to afford to make so great fires as New England. A poor servant here, that is, to possess but fifty acres of land, may afford to give more wood for timber, and fire as good as the world yields, than many noblemen in Eng- land can afford to do."
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