I will only give a synopsis of the immediate events for the Pilgrims after they landed in Cape Cod Bay in November, 1620. Others have written more detailed accounts. One is a modern source: Nathaniel Philbrook, Mayflower (2006), which is a fairly good read. Another is a much older account by an eyewitness, William Bradford who was the second governor of the Plymouth Colony: History of Plymouth Plantation, which can be read online.
The Mayflower Compact was written (most likely by Mr. William Brewster, their spiritual leader, as John Robinson never did make it to the New World), and signed on the Mayflower. Some of the men set out exploring Cape Cod Bay in a smaller boat called a shallop, while the Mayflower was still anchored in what is now known as Provincetown Harbor. They hugged the shoreline, and discovered mounds of earth near the shore. When they examined these mounds, they found out that within them were huge amounts of harvested corn. They did what any starving people would do, they took the corn back with them to the ship.
The Pilgrims in the shallop also encountered some of the natives, who were not very congenial to say the least, and the Pilgrims had to use their muskets to scare them off. The Indians were quite familiar with ships filled with white people, and their previous encounters with slavers made them very suspicious of these white strangers even daring to raid them of their winter store of food. What was God's providence to the Pilgrims, was viewed as theft by the Indians. Later on, the Pilgrims did repay the corn they took to this particular group of Indians.
Having decided to stay the course, the Pilgrims found a place to settle directly west on the Bay at the place we now know as Plymouth, MA. Even though the harbor there was not the best for larger ships, it would do. This was in December of 1620, at the start of a cold, damp and snow-filled North American winter. I am sure they all longed for the milder climates of England and Holland.
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| A reproduction of a Pilgrim storage building |
Since the Mayflower needed to return to England in the upcoming Spring, the Pilgrims had to build houses for shelter quickly. This is what probably killed many of them, having to work hard and long in the cold, ice and snow, building houses. The only type of dwelling made out of wood they were familiar with, was the frame house. So that is what they built, or, at least, sorry excuses for frame houses. Their houses were more like clapboard dwellings. It took them several weeks to just build one house, since each and every board had to be tediously sawed out of the logs from the trees they cut down. If only they had known how to build the log cabin, but this skill was learned much later from the German and Swedish pioneers who came to the New World. Two or three skilled woodcutters could throw together a large and sturdy, two-storey log house in a couple of days. The poor Pilgrim suffered for lack of knowledge.
They were always on the watch for Indians, having had such a negative first encounter with them across the Bay. They tried to bury their dead secretly in the night, so that if any Indians were watching, they would not realize how weak and how few in numbers the Pilgrims were becoming. Since so many died in the first year, half of the 102 passengers, I am sure some wondered if even enough of the living would be left to bury all of the dead. Every person among the passengers was affected by loss that winter. At the very least, one would have lost several good friends. Most lost close family members. Being cold, hungry and in dire grief, was not a good introduction to the New World. They did survive though, otherwise, there would be no story to tell.
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