The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1922-11-30
mile and a half long! This pond is called
Rillinpton's Sea to this daY.

BllllngtonS Sea to this day.
Inspired perhaps by his younger brothers
escapade, John in his turn went exploring
and succeeded in getting lost for five
days; he was captured by the Indians and
was brought back to the colony by a
frightened expedition sent to recover him.
But we must return now to the May
flower. After eighty-three weary days out
of sight of land the MayAower sighted
Cape Cod. The smell of juniper, balsam
and pine must have been sweet indeed to
the Pilgrims nostrils. They reached
Provincetown Harbor In November, 1920,
one hundred and thirty-three days after
they left Delfthaven, and in all that time
they had not had any washing done. That
in itself must have been cross to those
self-respecting, tidy Pilgrim mothers. AL
most the first thing they did, after the first
Sabbath in the New World, was to insti
tute the Monday wash day, on November
g. The men had discovered spring of
fresh water on the beach, and their one
thought was to be clean again. The May
flower lay a bowshot from the shore on
account of the shallow harbor, and they had
to wade through all that icy water to the
beach. Nevertheless, those devoted fore
mothers made up the huge bundles Of
clothes and plunged in for the chilly trip.
We can see them filling the huge kettles
with the icy spring water Fires were built
of the fragrant juniper that then grew all
over the Cape. Perhaps the children helped
in gathering driftwood and brush for the
fires, while the men went foraging farther
for shelfsh. Then we can see the lines of
linen hung out to dry on the BURBERRY
bushes, or strung from tree to tree while
the women prayed for sunshine to Tighten
their task. But it continued cold, rainy
and depressing. No wonder that fourteen
of the nineteen young wives died in that
first winter and were buried under the hills
of corn to hide the loss from the Indians
AT Provincetown the Pilgrims formed
the famous compact" for free common
wealth that was the beginning of our con-
stitutional government. But the sandy
peninsula was no place to tarry, even in
the winter of 1920, which luckily for our
forefathers was unusually mild. "They
saw" Bradford says, "only hideous and
desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts
and wild men, and what more they could
only guess. The whole country full of
woods and thickets represented wild and
savage hei7v (whatever that may beg. IF
they looked behind them, there was the
mighty ocean, which they had passed and
which was now main bar and gulf to
separate them from all the civil part of the
world"
The first exploring party soon set off I'M
der valiant Capt. Standish to find better
place for a home. Almost Immediately
they fell in with the red men who were
to be their neighbors The Pilgrims them
selves, it is good to know, were always
friendly tactful and generous with the
1HuldllS. Dut Tie HTSl tIdIlSltut VlSltOIS
to Cape Cod had been of different sort.
In 1914 Capt. John Smith first stopped at
the sandy peninsula. Later his rascally
Capt. Hunt kidnapped and sold into slavery
twenty-seven of the first citizens of Cape
Cod. Smith repudiated the deed with hor-
ror, but it had been done, though without
his knowledge, and the Pilgrims suffered
for it.
1t was near what is now Eastman that
Standish met the Indians in the "frst en-
counter" and drove them away. On this
adventure the Pilgrims found baskets Of
corn that the Indians had hidden and took
them back to the Mayhower. Probably il
was this corn that saved the lives of the
half-famished band in the terrible year
that ensued. This forced borrowing
troubled the consciences of Standish and
his company, and they determined to pay
hack the Indians at the first OppOrtunity