six of the ship's crew. In the afternoon of the third day of their voyage a sudden storm of snow and rain came on them, the sea grew dangerously rough, and their rudder broke. Afterward it was all that two men could do to steer with oars. To add to their troubles the mast snapped off, and the sail went overboard.

They narrowly escaped being wrecked, but at last, when the short winter day had come to an end and darkness was about them, they found refuge in Plymouth Bay and anchored under shelter of an island. They went on shore and with considerable difficulty started a fire. It was midnight before they could settle down with any comfort. The next day was spent in drying their clothing and goods, fixing their guns, resting, and giving God "thanks for their many deliverances." On the day following they kept "their Christian Sabbath."

Monday, the twenty-first, they resumed their voyaging and crossed the bay to the mainland. There they observed a great boulder, partly on the shore and partly in the water, at the foot of a steep sandy hill. It was the only rock on the wild shore for a long distance, and it offered the voyagers a very welcome landing place, for they would be able to step out on it from their big clumsy boat without wading through the icy shallows. The coast here is sandy and without cliffs, and the presence of this solitary rock seems something of a mystery. Geologists say it was brought thither from the far north in the ice epoch by a mighty glacier.

E

The landing of the Pilgrims on this rock is one of our treasured legends, and yet no rock is mentioned in any of the early accounts of what occurred at Plymouth. Over a century had passed when a man ninety-four years old, who lived in the neighboring farm country, related that when he was a boy his father had told him the Pilgrims landed on the rock.

At one time it served as a stepping stone at the door of a Plymouth warehouse. In 1774 an endeavor was made to remove it to the Town Square, but in trying to pry it out of the ground it was split. The upper portion was put on a sledge, and there was much huzzahing as twenty oxen dragged it up to the Square. There it was deposited at the foot of a liberty-pole on which flew a flag inscribed "Liberty or Death." Not until nearly a hundred years later was it taken back to be rejoined to the rest of the boulder.

The boulder is now under an ornamental canopy of stone, and is protected from the ravages of relic hunters by iron gratings. But there are gates which are unlocked for visitors to allow access to the rock. Nearly every one wants to touch it, and now and then a woman will bend down and kiss it or make a child do so.

The exploring party that landed from the Mayflower's shallop found springs of excellent water, and a clear brook which was broad enough at its mouth to afford a harbor for their boats. Nearly all the local Indians had recently died of an epidemic, and there were deserted fields on the high ground where they had raised corn.

The explorers returned to the Mayflower and recommended this spot for a settlement, and the little vessel sailed over to Plymouth Bay. For a time most of the Pilgrims continued to dwell on her, and not until January 31 did they all disembark. April had come before the Mayflower sailed back to England.

The first undertaking of the Pilgrims when, in midwinter, they started their settlement, was to build a large cabin for their common shelter. They finished it in about three weeks. It had hewn log walls and was twenty feet square. Twice, before the winter was over, the thatched roof caught on fire from sparks out of the chimney and was burned, leaving only the frame timbers, but

each time the thatch was

soon renewed.

By spring seven separate family log huts

were com

pleted.

They

were very small The pond which Francis Billington mistook for a great sea and rude, and

were all alike. Oiled paper served instead of glass in the little window openings.

Soon after the Pilgrims landed, Francis Billington climbed to the top of a tree and discovered a broad pond about two miles from the settlement. He mis

took it for a great sea, and it has been called Billington Sea ever since.

While John Goodman and Peter Brown were cutting coarse grass and flags for thatch one winter day, they saw a deer and pursued it with the result that they got lost. They had no food, and all night they walked back and forth under a tree to keep from freezing. The weather was very cold; and they were in great fear of wolves which they heard howling. It was late the next afternoon when they found their way back to the settlement.

Several times during the first month the settlers saw in the distance smoke and fires which could have been made only by Indians, and on three occasions some of the natives themselves were seen. In April, while a council was being held, an Indian named Squanto walked in and accosted the gathering in English. He was chief of a tribe living in Maine, where he had met many English fishermen, and one of their captains had carried him off across the ocean. Another captain brought him back and left him on Cape Cod. The Pilgrims were suffering for lack of food, and when Squanto saw their plight he went to catch eels for them, and he showed them where to fish. Through him a treaty of peace was made with Massasoit, the Indian sagamore of that region.

There was much sickness among the settlers, and half the little band died the first winter. So fearful of the Indians were the survivors that in the spring

they mournfully sowed a field of grain over the spot where the dead had been buried to prevent the savages from discovering the weakness of the settlement by counting the graves.

The corn which

they had found at

various times and

places had been carefully kept for seed, and the Indian, Squanto, taught them to plant it when the new oak leaves were the size of a mouse's ear, and to place three herring in each hill with the seed for fertilizer. This Indian helped them and lived with them the rest of his life.

In May the first wedding in the Pilgrim band took place when Edward Winslow married Susannah White. He had lost his wife in March, and she had lost her husband in February.

One of the notable men of the colony was Miles