ex-plōr-ers, persons who search for | op-er-a-tions, doings; measures. new lands. pa-geants, shows. mis-for-tunes, ill successes; troubles.re-proach-es, blame; censures.

1 Virgin'ia. One of the United | north of South America, flowing into States of America; south of Chesapeake the Atlantic. Bay.

2 Spenser, Edmund, one of England's greatest poets, author of The Faerie Queene; born 1553; died 1598. 3 The Orino'co. A river in the

4 Guiä/na.-In the north of South America; now three colonies - one British, one Dutch, and one French. 5 Trinidad'. - An island off the north-east coast of South America.

4.-THE FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

1. In the reign of James the First, when persecution was raging against the Puritans, some pious farmers left the Humber to find shelter in Holland. Settling there, they began to work for their bread at different trades, one becoming a printer, another a dyer of silk; and all behaved with such quietness and honesty, as to win the good opinion of the magistrates. But they still felt like exiles, and longed for a home; and at last they resolved to go to America.

2. When they had got the consent of the Virginian Company, and had arranged with some London merchants about the raising of money to carry on the fisheries in those distant seas, they prepared two ships for the voyage. These, bearing the names of two pretty English flowers-the Mayflower and the Speedwell-were intended to carry the white blossom of a pure religious faith across the Atlantic, and to plant it on the American continent.

3. At Delfshaven1 the Pilgrim Fathers 'embarked on their 'perilous voyage. They had fasted

and prayed; then they had sung psalms and had shed many natural tears at a farewell feast given in their pastor's house; and now the ropes were loosed, and, with the firing of their three little cannon and all the muskets they possessed, the faithful band sailed out of the harbour.

4. They called at Southampton, to see some of their English friends. After leaving that port, the smaller ship, the Speedwell, began to leak, and 'finally at Plymouth she gave up the voyage. Then the Mayflower sailed alone, with one hundred persons on board-grave men, mothers,

1620

A.D.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS LEAVING PLYMOUTH.

children, and even babies-and for sixty-three days was tossed on the waves of the Atlantic, until the crew found themselves under the shelter of Cape

Cod.2 One of their number had died during the voyage.

5. In the cabin of their weather-beaten ship forty-one men signed a paper, binding themselves to obey and submit to all laws and rules that seemed to be for the benefit of the colony. And then they began to think of landing. It was almost winter, and some of them had to wade ashore through the freezing shallows. Then they found their little boat to be so frail, that it took seventeen days to make it water-tight. Through snow and wind a hardy band of them rowed ashore; and, as they 'pulled through the dark waves, the spray dashed upon their coats, and, being frozen in a moment, made the cloth as stiff as iron.

6. Their first exploring trip was very 'miserable. The men, plodding over snowy hills and wading through icy rivers, were tired almost to death; and, except a little maize, they found nothing to give them the smallest encouragement.

7. One morning, just after prayers, when they had renewed their search for a good harbour, a wild war-whoop was heard, and a shower of arrows came whizzing in among them. Then they took to their boat again, and were almost wrecked. Their rudder broke, and they had to steer with oars. Then the mast broke, and the sail fell overboard. But, just as they were beginning to despair, the tide drove the boat through the surf, and they found themselves safe in a harbour.

8. It was not long before the Mayflower came to anchor in this place of refuge, which they named

3

Plymouth Bay, in grateful recognition of the kindness shown to them in the last English sea-port at which they had called.

9. The toil of building wooden houses threw many of the men into bad health: disease of the lungs struck several of them down. John Carver, who had been appointed Governor before they left the cabin of the ship, soon sank and died; and Bradford succeeded to the post.

10. At last the warm winds of spring began to blow, and the birds to sing, which 'revived hope in their hearts; but even the sweet summer—and it is a very fair season there was saddened with graves. In the autumn came some new 'emigrants, who brought no food with them; and so through all the next winter there was scarcely half enough for the colonists.

11. Fishermen gave them a little help, and some ships sold them provisions at a high rate. At one time they had only one pint of Indian corn, being an allowance of just three kernels a-piece; and that with a lobster and a cup of water formed the material of their feasts. They did not taste beef for four years after their landing. Yet amid all their privations and sorrows, that faith in God which had carried them across the ocean 'remained unshaken.

12. The best scholar and soldier of the band was Miles Standish, who directed the defence of their little fortress. For a long time after the shower of arrows already mentioned, they saw nothing of the Indians, except the smoke from some distant

'wigwams, and perhaps a few dark figures moving on the skirts of the wood. One day a red man, with a cap of coloured feathers and a dress of deerskin, came into the camp and said, "Welcome, Englishmen!" He gave them to understand that they were quite free to keep the land they had settled on, because the Indian tribe which had formerly owned it had been swept away by a 'pestilence.

13. Then a treaty was made with the Indians, and a trade in furs began. At first one of the chiefs had intentions of war, and sent, as a sign of his 'defiance, a bundle of arrows rolled in the skin of a rattlesnake; but the red man grew very peaceful and friendly when Governor Bradford stuffed the skin with gunpowder and bullets and sent it back to him, as a slight hint of the reception he might expect if he went to war.

14. In spite of all that foes, famine, and fever could do, the colony lived and prospered, though at first somewhat slowly; and by-and-by the little colony formed by the Pilgrims of the Mayflower grew into a great State.5