Amador ledger., 1909-11-05
Three Hundred
Years Ago.

This year Of important centenaries is
also the beginning Of series Of tercen-
tenaries Of most unsual interest
In the year 1909 eliminated that move
ment Of the Pilgrim Fathers which took
them to Holland, and later brought them
to America. Gov. William Bradford
has told the story:
"By joynte consente they resolved
to goe into ye -Counteries, wher
they heard was freedome of Religion for
all men and lived at Amsterdam. "
These words, cast in bronze, have
been erected this summer in the English
Reformed Church in Amsterdam, where
many of the exiles worshiped. The tab
let is the gift of people in Chicago, who
match in this manner similar gift on
the part of the people of Boston to the
city of Leyden. Thousands of AnTgTi-
cans will read these tablets, which will
have their abiding influence as tokens of
goodwill. Each of the
tablets bears at the top the words, "One
in Christ "
From now until 1920, every year will
bring to the attention. Of the public the
history of those brave men and women
and their deeds There will be fire.
quent occasion for the rereading Of
quaint and valuable narra-
tive, and 0s reminding ourselves Of the
contribution made to America history,
and the history of the world, by the men
and women who left their homes in
England foTa soJourn i'm Holland, and
who, after twelve years i'm that country
left Holland Tor America. A paragraph
from Bradford's story, with its antique
spelling, will remind us Oft the happen
Jugs of the year l6O8,9:
Being thus constraineB to leave their.
native soye and countries, their lands &
ivings, and all their friends < familiar
acquaintance, ii was much and thought
by many. But to goe into
countrie they knew not (but by hearsay)
wher they must earne new language
and get their livings THEY knew not
how, it being deare place, < subjecte
10 ye miseries at war;, itt was thought
by many an adventure almost desperate,
4 case intolerable, & a miSsrie worse
han death. Especially seeing they were
1ot acquainted with trads rnGr traffioue
,by which ye countrie doth subsiste)
out had only beHn used to a plane coun-
rie life, & ye inocente trade of husban-
Try. But these things did not dismay
hem (though tteydid sometimes trouble
hem) for their desires were sett on We
ways of God, & to injoye his ordnan-
,es; but they rested on his providence,
< knew whom they had believed. +"
Later he recOrds that "Tl1ey hear a
strange & uncouth language, and beheld
Je differente maners < customs of We
oeople, all so farre differing from vt of
heir plaine cDuntrie Villages wherin
hey were bred d. had SO longe lived, as
It seemed they were come into a new
world. ~
1t was we'll for the world they were
lot permanently content to live in Hol-
and. Their fear lest their children
forget their mother tongue, and also
heir distinctive habits of life and wor-
ship, drove them overseas to America.
But while we are preparing to CONNIE
norate with expositions and celebrations
in church, and state their arrival in
in 1920, we may we'll be glad
hat the world has not forgotten the ter
centenary of their arrival on the hosp-
able shores of Holland, where "was
freedom of religion for all men.
Irnnure blOOd rims vntI dOwn-uaI-Ac