The Dolores star., 1921-11-18
s4GRU UExyE3 (Bowsheo-s)

remain English they could not return to England
without risking contamination by contact with
Puritans and AngIicahs.
The wilderness of America with all its terrors
seemed to offer them the essential conditions.
They early decided not TO 90 to jamestown. be-
cause the Episcopal church was already established
there They tried to get definite concessions from
the established church their own government
ana worship, and then abandoned such attempts
flhay, In June. 1919, they got patent from the
virginia company. They concealed their real pur-
pose and got the patent In the name OF John Win
COD They hoped to snil without revealing who
they were and what they purposed. Later they
abandoned this patent for another granted by the
virginia company to John Perce and associates
Under this instrument their anonymity was COM
plete.
Ihey then negotiated a seven-year contract with
Thomas Weston and group of London merchants
afterward known the Adventures. The con-
tract, as first arranged. covered the financing Of
the enterprise and planned to set up a trading
post. The question then wss-how many would
20 across the sea, and who?
1t was decided that II a majority voted to 60
Robinson should lead them; II the majority voted
not to go. Brewster should lead those who went
The majority voted not to 20, and Robinson never
saw the New world
On September I6. 1920. the Mayfower left
Plymouth on her Immortal voyage. In mid ocean
they nearly turned back because OF some structural
weaknesses In the ship. Land sighted on the
nineteenth of November. The sailors said it was
Cape Cod; they turned south, as they were
under Virginia patent and must land In territory
controlled by the Virginia company. They quick.
ly into the shoals and breakers that lie about
the cape, and then turned northward.
In doing this they abandoned their patent en-
tlrely. The famous compact signed In the MAY.
flowers cabin before they landed was drawn up
not as a kind of earlier Declaration of Indepen.
dence. as orators time out of mind have said, but
because some of the men denied that Bradford had
any authority over them after the patent had been
abandoned. The instrument intended to
be n declaration that all stood on equal footing
The critical period of the Plymouth colony was
from 1920 to 1927. In those years Its found.
ers achieved the success and rendered the unique
service that have nightly influenced the subse-
quent development of the world.
These not the first religious zealots who
landed In the New World for the Huguenots had
preceded them; nor was Plymouth the first col
ony, for many settlements had been made earlier; !;
but they first interpreted America to Europe The
thing that impressed Europe not the high
ideals Of the Pilgrims, not their religious devotion;
the fact that counted was their economic success
1t Is not easy for us to understand what It
in those days to demonstrate to the Old
World that men could live, could even prosper In
the New World, without aid from over the sea
No one had previously done 1t believed 1t
could be done The men and women of Plymouth
came to the New World to make homes to stick
even though they died In the struggle. They stuck
and they died. In the first year than one
half their number died. In the next six years out
Of population of hundred and ninety.nipe
only six died.
The great Puritan migration which began In
1827-which directly created Massachusetts. and
had an almost immeasurable influence In founding
New England-was the direct result not of the
Pilgrims religious beliefs but Of the economic sue.
cess achieved at Plymouth.
Six. possibly more. Of the guarantors Of the Bay
colony had been members Of the Adventures who
purchased the Mayfower and backed the origtna,
enterprise. They knew the whole story intimately
and profited by the experience.