forget the English language or the good old English customs and laws.
In the wilderness they would not only enjoy entire religious freedom,
but they could build up a settlement which would be certainly their
own.


64. The Pilgrims, with Captain Myles Standish, sail for England and
then for America; they reach Cape Cod, and choose a governor
there.--In 1620 a company of Pilgrims sailed for England on their
way to America. Captain Myles Standish, an English soldier, who had
fought in Holland, joined them. He did not belong to the Pilgrim
church, but he had become a great friend to those who did.

About a hundred of these people sailed from Plymouth,[5] England,
for the New World, in the ship _Mayflower_. Many of those who went
were children and young people. The Pilgrims had a long, rough
passage across the Atlantic. Toward the last of November (1620) they
saw land. It was Cape Cod, that narrow strip of sand, more than sixty
miles long, which looks like an arm bent at the elbow, with a hand
like a half-shut fist.

[Illustration: Map of Cape Cod and part of New England.]

Finding that it would be difficult to go further, the Pilgrims
decided to land and explore the cape; so the _Mayflower_ entered Cape
Cod Harbor, inside the half-shut fist, and then came to anchor.

Before they landed, the Pilgrims held a meeting in the cabin, and
drew up an agreement in writing for the government of the settlement.
They signed the agreement, and then chose John Carver for governor.