The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-11-17
When DID the Pilgrim Fathers Land at
Plymouth.

Up to the Doth it had been all uncer.
tainty; and in the records there is no.
where the least allusion to any place
having been selected, or to any partic-
ular spot having been visited, by that
party in the shallop. History and ira
dition seem to be in entire accord. Some
other date, then, than the 2lst must be
be looked for as the date of the landing.
That memorable day was not this We'd
nesday, the 30th, when possession was
taken of Plymouth, and twenty OF the
people remained there. "The next
morning" says the careful journalist,
"being Thursday the 21st 3lst N. 5. OF
December, it was stormie d welt, that
wee could not goe ashore" But this is
qualification only of the proceeding
statement in the same sentence OF the
resolution of the night before IRE
solving in the morning to come all
ashore & to build houses" That "wee
could not goe ashore" does not mean that
nobody did so. but that the purpose OF a
general landing was frustrated by the
bad weather; for before noon OF this
day, as we are told before the paragraph
is finished, ''the Shallop went off with
much adoe with provision" from the
ship. On Friday even this was impos-
sible; but on Saturday the storm abated,
and then $50 many of us as could went
on shore, felled and carried tymber to
provide themselves stuffe for building"
So many as could, but not the whole.
This careful and reiterated distinction
between the whole and Il part can hardly
have been without a purpose; but
whether it was or not, we get at the ex-
act fact-the appointment OF time for
the disem barkation of the whole COM
pany, and its delay from day to day by
the storm. The event which tradition
perpetuates, the journalist, whether he
meant to or not, carefully distinguishes
the landing of all the Pilgrim Fathers,
not part of them, upon Plymouth
Rock.
Turn once more to Mounts Relation:
"Monday the %. day. we went on shore,
some to fell tymber, some to saw, some
to riue rive |, & some to carry; as no
man rested all that day" Here 1--WE"
means the whole company; all on that
DAY landed upon the Rock; all, for the
first time, took part in the building OF
the new home; mo man rested all that
day." Turn them to Bradford's History.
He relates succintly tho sailing from
Provincetown harbor, and the arrival in
Plymouth bay. "And afterwards he
continues, they "tooke better view OF
We place, and resolved wher to
pitch their dwelling: and ye % day be-
gan to erecte we first house for comone
use to receive them and their goods. "
It was "they," the whole body OF the
colonists, who "resolved where to pitch
their dwellings," after coming from
Provincetown harbor; not pioneer
party who visited the bay before. And
surely Bradford knew, for he was one OF
that party i'll the shallop. Indeed, it is
probably Bradford who wrote the Rela
ton as we'll as the History.
This, then, was the day which, thirty
or forty wears afterward. the boy Faunce
heard the old men talk about as the day
they landed from the Mayhower upon
Plymouth Rock; it was the distinction
of being the first to leap ashore on this
day, when for the first time the women
seem to have left the ship at Plymouth,
that is given by tradition to Mary Chill
ton and John Alden-the 25th OF Decem'
Der, 1920, which in New Style falls upon
the 4th of January, 162l.-l November
Atlantic.